{"collection":"scripture-revelation","full_text_available":true,"graph_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/api/page/gutenberg_62148/graph","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/v2/page/gutenberg_62148","id":"gutenberg_62148","license":"Public Domain (US)","rights_basis":"gutenberg_metadata_copyright_false","source":"gutenberg","source_url":"https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/62148","summary":null,"tags":["Bible -- Commentaries","Bible. Epistles of Paul -- Commentaries","Category: Religion/Spirituality"],"text":"+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - This book uses SMALL CAPS occasionally throughout. You might need\n   to experiment with browsers and fonts to find a combination that\n   shows SMALL CAPS correctly.\n\n - The text of the series shifts among font sizes and between one and\n   two column presentations, in an effort to maximize the amount of\n   text that can appear on the printed page. This transcription will\n   dispense with that formatting because costs are so much lower in\n   the digital world.\n\n - This book is a collection of men's opinions on six epistles of\n   Apostle Paul: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, First\n   Thessalonians, and Second Thessalonians, in the Bible, the\n   inspired Word of God. The book was printed toward the end of the\n   19th century. Some of the comments might be considered culturally\n   insensitive today.\n\n\n\n+THE PREACHER'S+\n\n+COMPLETE HOMILETIC+\n\n+COMMENTARY+\n\n+ON THE BOOKS OF THE BIBLE+\n\n+WITH CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES,\nINDEXES, ETC., BY VARIOUS AUTHORS+\n\n+THE OLD TESTAMENT\n_Volumes 1-21_+\n\n+THE NEW TESTAMENT\n_Volumes 22-32_+\n\nVOLUME 29\n\n\n\n+The Preacher's Complete Homiletic+\n\nCOMMENTARY\n\nON THE EPISTLES OF ST. PAUL THE APOSTLE\n\n+Galatians, Ephesians,\nPhilippians, Colossians,+\n_AND_\n+I.-II. Thessalonians+\n\n_By the_ REV. GEORGE BARLOW\n\n_Author of the Commentaries on Kings, Psalms (CXXI.--CXXX.),\nLamentations, Ezekiel, Timothy, Titus, and Philemon_\n\n[LOGO]\n\nPRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA\nFUNK & WAGNALLS COMPANY\nNEW YORK\n\n\n\n\nTHE\n\n+PREACHER'S HOMILETICAL COMMENTARY.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n+GALATIANS.+\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Character of the Galatians.+--These people were of Celtic descent.\nThey were the relics of a Gaulish invasion which swept over\nSouth-eastern Europe in the early part of the third century before\nChrist and poured into Asia Minor. Here the Celtic tribes maintained\nthemselves in independence under their native princes, until a\nhundred years later they were subdued by the Romans. Their country\nnow formed a province of the empire. They had retained much of their\nancient language and manners; at the same time, they readily acquired\nGreek culture, and were superior to their neighbours in intelligence.\nJews had settled among them in considerable numbers and had prepared\nthe way of the Gospel; it was through their influence that the\nJudaistic agitation took so strong a hold of the Galatian Churches.\nThe epistle implies that its readers generally were acquainted with\nthe Old Testament and with Hebrew history, and that they took a\nlively interest in the affairs of the Churches of Jerusalem and\nAntioch. None of the New Testament Churches possesses a more strongly\nmarked character. They exhibit the well-known traits of the Celtic\nnature. They were generous, impulsive, vehement in feeling and\nlanguage; but vain, fickle, and quarrelsome. C\u00e6sar wrote: \"The\ninfirmity of the Gauls is that they are fickle in their resolves,\nfond of change, and not to be trusted\"; and by Thierry they are\ncharacterised thus: \"Frank, impetuous, impressible, eminently\nintelligent, but at the same time extremely changeable, inconstant,\nfond of show, perpetually quarrelling, the fruit of excessive\nvanity.\" Eight of the fifteen works of the flesh enumerated in chap.\nv. 20, 21 are sins of _strife._ They could hardly be restrained from\n\"biting and devouring one another\" (ch. v. 15). Like their kinsmen at\nthis time in the west of Europe, they were prone to revellings and\ndrunkenness. They had probably a natural bent towards a scenic and\nritualistic type of religion, which made the spirituality of the\nGospel pall upon their taste and gave to the teaching of the\nJudaisers its fatal bewitchment.\n\n+The authorship of the epistle.+--That it was written by St. Paul has\nnever been seriously doubted. His authorship is upheld by the\nunanimous testimony of the ancient Church. Allusions and indirect\ncitations are found in the writings of the apostolic\nFathers--Clement, Ignatius, Polycarp, and Justin Martyr, or whoever\nwrote the _Oratio ad Gr\u00e6cos. The internal evidence of Pauline\nauthorship is conclusive by allusions to the history and by the\nself-portrayal of the writer's character. No forger ever made an\nimitation in which were so many secret threads of similarity, which\nbore such a stamp of originality, or in which the character, the\npassion, the mode of thought and reasoning, were so naturally\nrepresented. The apostle's mental characteristics are indelibly\nimpressed on the letter.\n\n+The time of writing the epistle.+--Lightfoot, in disagreement from\nmost earlier interpreters, maintained that this epistle was written\nbetween 2 Corinthians and Romans--that is, during the latter part of\nPaul's journey in Macedonia, or the earlier part of his sojourn at\nCorinth, towards the close of the year 57 or 58 A.D. Dr. Beet comes\nto the same conclusion. There is nothing in the letter itself to fix\ndefinitely either the place or time of its composition. From chap.\ni. 9, iv. 13, v. 3 we gather that St. Paul had now been in Galatia\ntwice; the epistle was therefore subsequent to the journey which he\ntook across Asia Minor in setting out on his third missionary tour\n(Acts xviii. 22--xix. 1). All students are agreed that it belongs to\nthe period of the legalist controversy and to the second group of the\nepistles. On every account one is inclined to refer the letter to the\nlast rather than to an earlier period of the third missionary tour.\nComparison with the other epistles of the group raises this\nprobability almost to a certainty and enables us to fix the date and\noccasion of this letter with confidence.\n\n+The purpose and analysis of the epistle.+--It is intensely\npolemical. It is a controversial pamphlet rather than an ordinary\nletter. The matter of dispute is twofold: 1. Paul's apostleship; and\n2. The nature of the Gospel and the sufficiency of faith in Christ\nfor full salvation. This gives the order of the first two and main\nparts of the epistle. A third section is added of a moral and\nhortatory nature. The contents of the epistle may be thus analysed:--\n\nI. INTRODUCTORY ADDRESS.--1. The apostolic salutation (ch. i. 1-5).\n2. The Galatians' defection (ch. i. 6-10).\n\nII. PERSONAL APOLOGIA: AN AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL RETROSPECT.--The apostle's\nteaching derived from God and not man, as proved by the circumstances\nof: 1. His education (ch. i. 13, 14). 2. His conversion (ch. i.\n15-17). 3. His intercourse with the other apostles (ch. i. 18-24, ii.\n1-10). 4. His conduct in the controversy with Peter at Antioch (ch.\nii. 11-14). The subject of which controversy was the supersession of\nthe law by Christ (ch. ii. 15-21).\n\nIII. DOGMATIC APOLOGIA: INFERIORITY OF JUDAISM, OR LEGAL\nCHRISTIANITY, TO THE DOCTRINE OF FAITH.--1. The Galatians bewitched\ninto retrogression from a spiritual system into a carnal system (ch.\niii. 1-5). 2. Abraham himself a witness to the efficacy of faith (ch.\niii. 6-9). 3. Faith in Christ alone removes the curse which the law\nentails (ch. iii. 10-14). 4. The validity of the promise unaffected\nby the law (ch. iii. 15-18). 5. Special p\u00e6dagogic function of the law\n(ch. iii. 19-29). 6. The law a state of tutelage (ch. iv. 1-7).\n7. Meanness and barrenness of mere ritualism (ch. iv. 8-11). 8. The\npast zeal of the Galatians contrasted with their present coldness\n(ch. iv. 12-20). 9. The allegory of Isaac and Ishmael (ch. iv. 21-31).\n\nIV. HORTATORY APPLICATION OF THE FOREGOING.--1. Christian liberty\nexcludes Judaism (ch. v. 1-6). 2. The Judaising intruders (ch. v.\n7-12). 3. Liberty not licence, but love (ch. v. 13-15). 4. The works\nof the flesh and of the Spirit (ch. v. 16-26). 5. The duty of\nsympathy (vi. 1-5). 6. The duty of liberality (ch. vi. 6-10).\n\nV. AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13).\n2. The apostle's motive (ch. vi. 14, 15). 3. His parting benediction and\nclaim to be freed from further annoyance (ch. vi. 16-18). (_Findlay_ and\n_Sanday._)\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Paul, an apostle.+--He puts his own name and apostleship\nprominent, because his apostolic commission needs to be vindicated\nagainst deniers of it. +Not of,+ or from, +men, but by,+ or from,\n+Jesus Christ and God the Father.+ The Divine source of his\napostleship is emphatically stated, as also the infallible authority\nfor the Gospel he taught.\n\nVer. 6. +I marvel that ye are so soon removed.+--So quickly removed;\nnot so soon after your conversion, or soon after I left you, but so\nsoon after the temptation came; so readily and with such little\npersuasion (cf. ch. v. 7-9). It is the fickleness of the Galatians\nthe apostle deplores. An early backsliding, such as the contrary view\nassumes, would not have been matter of so great wonder as if it had\ntaken place later.\n\nVers. 8, 9. +Any other gospel.+--The apostle is here asserting the\noneness, the integrity of his Gospel. It will not brook a rival. It\nwill not suffer any foreign admixture. +Let him be\naccursed.+--Devoted to the punishment his audacity merits. In its\nspiritual application the word denotes the state of one who is\nalienated from God by sin.\n\nVer. 11. +Not after man.+--Not according to man; not influenced by\nmere human considerations, as it would be if it were of human origin.\n\nVer. 12. +But by the revelation of Jesus Christ.+--Probably this took\nplace during the three years, in part of which the apostle sojourned\nin Arabia (vers. 17, 18), in the vicinity of the scene of the giving\nof the law; a fit place for such a revelation of the Gospel of grace\nwhich supersedes the ceremonial law. Though he had received no\ninstruction from the apostles, but from the Holy Ghost, yet when he\nmet them his Gospel exactly agreed with theirs.\n\nVer. 14. +Exceedingly zealous of the traditions of my fathers.+--St.\nPaul seems to have belonged to the extreme party of the Pharisees\n(Acts xxii. 3, xxiii. 7, xxvi. 5; Phil. iii. 5, 6), whose pride it\nwas to call themselves \"zealots of the law, zealots of God.\" A\nportion of these extreme partisans, forming into a separate sect\nunder Judas of Galilee, took the name of zealots _par excellence,_\nand distinguished themselves by their furious opposition to the\nRomans.\n\nVer. 16. +To reveal His Son in me that I might preach Him.+--The\nrevealing of His Son by me to the Gentiles was impossible, unless He\nhad first revealed His Son  in me; at first on my conversion, but\nespecially at the subsequent revelation from Jesus Christ (ver. 12),\nwhereby I learnt the Gospel's independence of the Mosaic law.\n\nVer. 24. +They glorified God in me.+--He does not say, adds\nChrysostom, they marvelled at me, they praised me, they were struck\nwith admiration of me, but he attributes all to grace. They glorified\nGod in me. How different, he implies to the Galatians, their spirit\nfrom yours.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.\n\n_Apostolic Credentials._\n\n+I. That apostolic credentials claim distinctively Divine\nauthority.+--\"Paul, an apostle, not of men, neither by man, but by\nJesus Christ and God the Father\" (ver. 1). It must have been a\npainful moment when Paul first became aware that spurious teachers\nquestioned the validity of his apostolic call, and a still more\npainful disappointment when he discovered his Galatian converts so\nreadily gave credence to those who maligned him. His fears were\nroused, not so much for his personal reputation as for the injury to\nthe religious life of his converts if they cherished suspicions as to\nthe Divine character of the truth they had been taught. The mischief\nmust be dealt with at once. He boldly and emphatically declared that\nhis commission was direct from God and bore the same Divine stamp as\nthat of the other apostles, whose authority even the false teachers\nhad not the temerity to deny. It has been ever the _r\u00f4le_ of the\nsubtle adversary of man to strive to eliminate the Divine element\nfrom the truth and drag it down to a common human level. Truth then\nloses its stability, begins to move in a flux of confused human\nopinions, and the soul is plunged into bewilderment and doubt.\nWhatever tends to vitiate the truth brings peril to the peace and\nupward progress of the soul. The power of the teacher increases with\nan ever-deepening conviction of the Divine authority of his message.\n\n+II. That apostolic credentials recognise the oneness of the\nChristian brotherhood.+--\"And all the brethren which are with me\"\n(ver. 2). Here is the indication that St. Paul was not unduly\nsolicitous about his personal reputation. While insisting upon the\nunquestioned Divine source of his apostleship, he does not arrogate a\nhaughty superiority over his brethren. He is one with them in Christ,\nin the belief of and fidelity to the truth, in the arduous labours of\npioneer work, in building up and consolidating the Church, and unites\nthem with himself in his Christian greeting. It is the sublime aim of\nthe Gospel to promote universal brotherhood by bringing men into\nspiritual union with Christ, the Elder Brother. Christ is the\nunifying force of redeemed humanity. Ecclesiastical ranks are largely\nhuman expedients, necessary for maintaining order and discipline. The\ngreat Head of the Church has promulgated the unchallengeable law of\nreligious equality: \"One is your Master, even Christ, and all ye are\nbrethren\" (Matt. xxiii. 8).\n\n+III. That apostolic credentials justify the use of a sublime and\ncomprehensive greeting.+--\"Grace be to you and peace,\" etc. (ver. 3).\nA greeting like this from some lips would be fulsome, or at the best\nmere exaggerated politeness. But coming from one who was in constant\ncommunion with the Source of the blessings desired, and from which\nSource he had received his call to the apostleship, it is at once\ndignified, large-hearted, and genuine. _Grace_ and _peace_ are\ninclusive of the best blessings Heaven can bestow or man receive.\nThey are Divine in their origin and nature--\"from God the Father and\nour Lord Jesus Christ.\" Grace is the spontaneous outflow of Divine\nlove in the redemption of the race and is the more precious because\nunmerited; and peace is the conscious experience of that grace in the\nbelieving soul--peace from outward dissension and inward fret, peace\nof conscience, peace with God and man. The blessings the apostle\ndesires God is ever eager to bestow. \"Filling up our time with and\nfor God is the way,\" said David Brainerd, \"to rise up and lie down in\npeace. I longed that my life might be filled up with fervency and\nactivity in the things of God. Oh, the peace, composure, and God-like\nserenity of such a frame! Heaven must differ from this only in\ndegree, not in kind.\"\n\n+IV. That apostolic credentials are evident in the clear statement of\nthe great principles of the Gospel salvation.+--\"Who gave Himself for\nour sins, that He might deliver us,\" etc. (vers. 4, 5). In these\nwords, we have a suggestive epitome of the whole Gospel. Man is\ndelivered from sin and from the present evil age by the\nself-sacrifice of Jesus; and this method is \"according to the will of\nGod,\" and brings unceasing glory to His name. This is the Gospel in a\nnutshell and involves all the grand principles of redemption the\napostle was commissioned to declare, and which he develops more\nclearly in the course of this epistle. Deliverance is Divinely\nprovided, irrespective of human effort or merit. The Galatians in\nseeking to return to legal bondage ignored the root principles of the\nGospel and imperilled their salvation. The apostle vindicated the\ncredentials of his high office by faithful remonstrance and plain\nauthoritative statement of the truth Divinely revealed to him. It is\na mark of high intellectual power to make the greatest truths clear\nto the humblest mind. Christian teaching has all the more weight when\nassociated with irreproachable moral character.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _God should be gratefully recognised as the Giver of\nall good._ 2. _The special endowments of one are for the benefit of\nall._ 3. _It is a solemn responsibility to be entrusted with the\npreaching of the Gospel._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _The Power of the Gospel._--1. Free grace doth often light\nupon the most unworthy, not only by giving salvation to themselves,\nbut making them instrumental for the kingdom of Christ, and bringing\nabout the salvation of others. 2. Faithful and called ministers of\nChrist are to be so far from cowardly ceding, or heartless fainting\nunder the bold, bitter, and unjust aspersions of those who question\ntheir calling, and thereby weaken their authority and render the\ntruth of their doctrine doubtsome, that they ought the more to avow\ntheir calling against all who question it. 3. The office of an\napostle had this peculiar to itself, that the designation was not\nmediately by the election and suffrages of men, as in the calling of\nordinary office-bearers, but immediately from God, so that the\nfunction of the apostles ceased with them and did not pass by\nsuccession to a pope or any other. 4. The false apostles, that they\nmight shake the truth preached by Paul and establish their own\ncontrary error, alleged that he was no lawful apostle. This Paul\nrefutes by showing he was called by Christ after He was raised from\nthe dead and had taken possession of His kingdom, so that his calling\nhad at least no less dignity and glory in it than if he had been\ncalled by Christ when He was on earth.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 2. _The Church a Witness._--1. The more they are whom God maketh\nuse of to hold out the beauty of truth that we may embrace and follow\nit, or the deformity and danger of error that we may fly from and\nhate it, we are the more to take heed how we reject or embrace what\nis pressed upon us, as there will be the more to bear witness of our\nguilt and subscribe to the equity of God's judgment if we obey not.\n2. We are not so to stumble at the many sinful failings which may be\nin Churches, as to unchurch them, by denying them to be a Church, or\nto separate from them, if their error be not contrary to fundamental\ntruths, or if they err from human frailty, and not obstinately and\navowedly.--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Christian Salutation._--1. God's gracious favour and\ngoodwill is to be sought by us in the first place, whether for\nourselves or others, that being a discriminating mercy betwixt the\ngodly and the wicked. 2. Peace is to be sought after grace, and not\nto be expected before it. Peace without grace is no peace. There can\nbe no peace with God or His creatures, nor sanctified prosperity,\nexcept through Jesus Christ we lay hold on God's favour and grace.\n3. Grace and peace we cannot acquire by our own industry or pains.\nThey come from God, are to be sought from Him, and His blessing is\nmore to be depended on than our own wisdom or diligence. 4. They to\nwhom grace and peace belong are such as acknowledge Christ to be\ntheir Lord to command and rule them, and yield subjection to Him in\ntheir heart and life.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_Grace and Peace._\n\nI. +Grace+ is not any gift in man but is God's and in God. It\nsignifies His gracious favour and goodwill, whereby He is well\npleased with us in Christ.\n\nII. +Peace+ is a gift not in God, but in us. 1. Peace of\nconscience--a quietness and tranquillity of mind arising from a sense\nof reconciliation with God. 2. Peace with the creatures--with angels,\nwith the godly, with our enemies. 3. Prosperity and good success.\n\nIII. Whereas Paul begins his prayer with grace we learn that +grace\nin God is the cause of all good things in us.+\n\nIV. The chief things to be sought after are +the favour of God in\nChrist and the peace of a good conscience.+\n\nV. As grace and peace are joined we learn that +peace without grace\nis no peace.+--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 4, 5. _The Unselfishness of Jesus._\n\n  +I. Prompting self-surrender.+--\"Who gave Himself.\"\n\n +II. His self-surrender was an unmerited and unlooked-for\n      expiation.+--\"For our sins.\"\n\n+III. Creates the hope and possibility of immediate\n      salvation.+--\"That He might deliver us from this present evil\n      world.\"\n\n +IV. Was a suggestive revelation of the Divine\n      character.+--\"According to the will of God and our Father.\"\n\n  +V. Should evoke the spirit of grateful praise.+--\"To whom be glory\n      for ever and ever. Amen.\"\n\n\nVer. 4. _Christ our Sacrifice._\n\nI. Whereas Christ is the giver of Himself it follows that +His death\nand sacrifice were voluntary.+\n\nII. Therefore, +all merit and satisfaction for sin are reduced to the\nperson of Christ,+ and there are no human satisfactions for sin, nor\nmeritorious works done by us.\n\nIII. +Christ our sacrifice works love in us.+--We must in mind and\nmeditation come to the cross of Christ. 1. The consideration of His\nendless pains for our sins must breed in us a godly sorrow. If He\nsorrowed for them, much more must we. 2. This knowledge is the\nbeginning of amendment of life. 3. Is the foundation of comfort in\nthem that truly turn to Christ.\n\nIV. +Christ gave Himself that He might deliver us from this evil\nworld.+--1. We must be grieved at the wickedness of the world. 2. We\nmust not fashion ourselves to the wicked lives of the men of this\nworld. 3. Seeing we are taken out of this world, our dwelling must be\nin heaven.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Gift of Christ._\n\nI. +The gift.+--\"He gave Himself.\" Regard Christ: 1. As the object of\nevery prophecy. 2. The substance of every type and shadow. 3. The\nsubject of every promise. 4. He was qualified for the work of\nredemption. Divine, human, spotless.\n\nII. +Christ's marvellous act.+--\"He gave Himself for our sins.\" 1. To\nwhat He gave Himself. To all the privations and sorrows of human\nlife, to obscurity and indigence, to scorn and infamy, to pain and\nanguish, to an ignominious and painful death. 2. The purpose for\nwhich He gave Himself. To deliver us from sin's curse, defilement,\ndominion, and from the effects of sin in this world and in eternity.\n\nIII. +The design of Christ's offering.+--\"That He might deliver us\nfrom the present evil world.\" From its evil practices, its spirit,\nfrom attachment to it, and from the condemnation to which it will be\nsubjected.\n\nIV. +Christ's offering was according to the will of God.+--1. It was\nthe will of God we should be saved. 2. Christ was the appointed\nagent. 3. The sacrifice of Christ was voluntary.--_Helps._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-9.\n\n_The One Gospel._\n\n+I. Is an introduction into the grace of Christ.+--\"I marvel that ye\nare so soon removed from Him that called you into the grace of\nChrist\" (ver. 6). The one true Gospel is the emphatic call of God to\nman to participate and revel in the grace of Christ as the element\nand the only means by which his salvation can be secured. The grace\nof Christ, with its persuasive gentleness and vast redemptive\nresources, is in vivid contrast to the grim formalism and impossible\ndemands of the yoke of bondage into which the Galatians were being so\nfoolishly seduced. There is only one Gospel that can introduce the\nsoul into the midst of saving influences and bring it into contact\nwith the living Christ. This one fact differentiates the Gospel from\nall mere human methods and gives it a unique character as the only\nremedial agency in dealing with human sin and sorrow.\n\n+II. The perversion of the one Gospel is not a gospel.+--\"Unto\nanother gospel which is not another\" (vers. 6, 7).\n\n1. _It is a caricature of the true Gospel._--\"And would pervert the\ngospel of Christ\" (ver. 7). The perversion is not in the one Gospel,\nwhich is impossible of perversion (for truth is an incorruptible\nunity), but in the mind of the false teacher. He distorts and\nmisrepresents the true Gospel by importing into it his own corrupt\nphilosophy, as the wolf did with Baron Munchausen's horse. Beginning\nat the tail, it ate its way into the body of the horse, until the\nbaron drove the wolf home harnessed in the skin of the horse. The\nGospel has suffered more from the subtle infusion of human errors\nthan from the open opposition of its most violent enemies.\n\n2. _It occasions distractions of mind._--\"There be some that trouble\nyou\" (ver. 7). A perverted gospel works the greatest havoc among\nyoung converts. They are assailed before they reach the stage of\nmatured stability. Their half-formed conceptions of truth are\nconfused with specious ideas, attractive by their novelty, and\nmischief is wrought which in many cases is a lifelong injury. The\nspirit that aims at polluting a young beginner in the way of\nrighteousness is worse than reckless; it is diabolical.\n\n+III. The propagator of a perverted gospel incurs an awful\nmalediction.+--\"But though we, or an angel from heaven, preach any\nother gospel, . . . let him be accursed\" (vers. 8, 9). Let him be\ndevoted to destruction, as one hateful to God and an enemy of the\ntruth. The word denotes the condition of one alienated from God by\npersistent sin. He not only rejects the truth himself, but\ndeliberately plots the ruin of others. He reaps the fruit of his own\nsowing. It is impossible to do wrong without suffering. The greater\nthe wrong-doing, the more signal is the consequent punishment. All\nperversions of truth are fruitful in moral disasters. It is a mad,\nsuicidal act for man to fight against God.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _There can be but one true and infallible Gospel._\n2. _The best human method for moral reformation is but a caricature\nof the true._ 3. _The false teacher will not escape punishment._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Remonstrance with Revolters against the Gospel._\n\nI. +The apostle reproves with meekness and tenderness of heart.+\n\nII. +He frames his reproof with great wariness and\ncircumspection.+--He says not, ye of yourselves do remove to another\ngospel, but ye are removed. He blames them but in part and lays the\nprincipal blame on others.\n\nIII. +The revolt was a departure from the calling to the grace of\nChrist.+--1. They were soon carried away. This shows the lightness\nand inconstancy of man's nature, especially in religion. The\nmultitude of people are like wax and are fit to take the stamp and\nimpression of any religion; and it is the law of the land that makes\nthe most embrace the Gospel, and not conscience. 2. That we may\nconstantly persevere in the profession of the true faith we must\nreceive the Gospel simply for itself. 3. We must be renewed in the\nspirit of our minds and suffer no by-corners in our hearts. 4. We\nmust not only be hearers but doers of the Word in the principal\nduties to be practised.\n\nIV. The Galatians revolt to +another gospel, compounded of Christ and\nthe works of the law.+--Here we see the curious niceness and\ndaintiness of man's nature that cannot be content with the good\nthings of God unless they be framed to our minds. If they please us\nfor a time, they do not please us long, but we must have new things.\nThe apostle shows that, though it be another gospel in the estimation\nof the false teachers, is not another, but a subversion of the Gospel\nof Christ. There is but one Gospel, one in number, and no more. There\nis but one way of salvation by Christ, whereby all are to be saved\nfrom the beginning of the world to the end.\n\nV. +The apostle charges the authors of this revolt with two\ncrimes.+--1. They trouble the Galatians, not only because they make\ndivisions, but because they trouble their consciences settled in the\nGospel of Christ. 2. They overthrow the Gospel of Christ. They did\nnot reach a doctrine flat contrary. They maintained the Gospel in\nword and put an addition to it of their own out of the law--salvation\nby works. They perverted and turned upside-down the Gospel of\nChrist.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Perversion of Truth--_\n\n  +I. Supplants the Gospel with a valueless imitation.+--\"Another\n      gospel which is not another.\"\n\n +II. Is contrary to the Divine purpose.+--\"From Him that called you\n      into the grace of Christ.\"\n\n+III. Creates a gulf between the soul and God.+--\"I marvel that ye\n      are so soon removed from Him.\"\n\n +IV. Unsettles the faith of new converts.+--\"There be some that\n      trouble you and would pervert the gospel of Christ.\"\n\n\nVer. 6. _Disappointed Hopes in Christian Work._--1. It is the duty of\nChristian ministers, not only to hold out the pure truth of the\nGospel, but to defend it by convicting gainsayers and reproving\nsolidly those who are carried away with contrary errors. 2. Ministers\nin all their reproofs are to use much wariness and circumspection,\nnot omitting any circumstance which may justly extenuate the sin or\nfurnish ground of hope of amendment. Hereby the bitter portion of a\nmedicinal reproof is much sweetened, and the guilty patient allured\nto the more thorough receiving of it. 3. The most quick-sighted may\nbe deceived and disappointed in their expectation of good things from\nsome eminent professors, and so may readily fall short of their hope.\n4. As the dangerous consequences which follow upon error ought to be\npresented unto people that they may fly from it, so there are some\nerrors in doctrine which do no less separate from God than profanity\nof life doth, of which errors this is one--the maintaining of\njustification by works. 5. It is ordinary for seducers to usher in\ntheir errors by some excellent designations as of new lights, a more\npure gospel way, and what not, as here they designate their error by\nthe name of another gospel.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 7. _The Inviolable Unity of the Gospel._--1. There is but one\nGospel, one in number and no more, and but one way to salvation,\nwhich is by faith. 2. The effect of error is to trouble the Church's\npeace; peace among themselves, the patrons of error being zealous of\nnothing so much as to gain many followers, to attain which they\nscruple not to make woeful rents and deplorable schisms; inward peace\nof conscience, while some are perplexed and anxious what to choose\nand refuse until they question all truth, and others to embrace error\nfor truth and so ground their peace on an unsure foundation. 3. The\ndoctrine which maintains that justification is partly by Christ and\npartly by the merit of good works is a perverting and total\noverturning of the Gospel, in so far as it contradicts the main scope\nof the Gospel, which is to exalt Christ as our complete Saviour,\nMediator, and Ransom, and not in part only.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 8. _The Inviolability of Christianity._\n\nI. +The import and construction of the Gospel cannot be vague and\nindeterminate.+--The character of the Gospel was alleged to be its\ntruth. This was, to the sophists of that era, a strange and novel\npretension. To require faith to a testimony only so far as\nconformable to fact, only so far as supported by evidence, appeared\nto them a startling affectation. In the fixed character we recognise\nthe true perfection of the Gospel. It is the same through all ages,\nnot changing to every touch and varying beneath every eye but\nunfolding the same features and producing the same effects. Unless\nthere was this invariableness in the Christian system, if a fixed\ndetermination of its purport is impossible, we should be at a loss in\nwhich manner to follow the conduct and imbibe the spirit of the early\nChristians. Those lights and examples of the Church would only\nensnare us into a mien and attitude ridiculous as profane. It would\nbe the dwarf attempting to bare a giant's arm, a wayfaring man\naspiring to a prophet's vision. The truth as it is in Jesus is\ncontained in that Word which is the truth itself; there it is laid up\nas in a casket and hallowed as in a shrine. No change can pass upon\nit. It bears the character of its first perfection. Like the manna\nand the rod in the recess of the Ark, it is the incorruptible bread\nof heaven, it is the ever-living instrument of might, without an\naltered form or superseded virtue.\n\nII. +Its Divine origin and authority cannot be controverted.+--The\nhistory of Saul of Tarsus has often been cited with happy success in\nconfirmation of Christianity. 1. What must have been the strength and\nsatisfaction of conviction entertained by the writer! The conviction\nhas to do with facts. It pertains to no favourite theory, no abstract\nscience, but occurrences which he had proved by sensible observation\nand perfect consciousness. Wonders had teemed around him; but his own\ntransformation was the most signal wonder of all. Nothing without him\ncould equal what he discerned within. 2. As we estimate the measure\nand force of his convictions, inquire what weight and credibility\nshould be allowed them. Put his conduct to any rack, his design to\nany analysis, and then determine whether we are not safe where he is\nundaunted, whether we may not decide for that on which he perils all,\nwhether the anathema which he dares pronounce does not throw around\nus the safeguard of a Divine benediction.\n\nIII. +Its efficacy cannot be denied.+--It was not called into\noperation until numberless expedients of man had been frustrated.\nPhilosophy, rhetoric, art, were joined to superstitions, radicated\ninto all habits and vices of mankind. The very ruins which survive\nthe fall of polytheism--the frieze with its mythological tale, the\ncolumn yet soaring with inimitable majesty, the statue breathing an\nair of divinity--recall the fascinations which it once might boast\nand of the auxiliaries it could command. Yet these were but the\ndecorations of selfishness most indecently avowed, of licentiousness\nmost brutally incontinent, of war the most wantonly bloody, of\nslavery the most barbarously oppressive. And Christianity subverted\nthese foundations of iniquity; and yet so all-penetrating is its\nenergy, that it did not so much smite them as that they sank away\nbefore it. It reaches the human will and renews the human heart. And\na thousand blessings which may at first appear derived from an\nindependent source are really poured forth from this.\n\nIV. +The authority and force of the present dispensation of Divine\ntruth cannot be superseded.+--It is final. In it He hath spoken whose\nvoice shall be heard no more until it \"shake not the earth only but\nalso heaven.\" No other sensible manifestation can be given, the\ndoctrine is not to be simplified, the ritual is not to be defined to\nany further extent, nothing more will be vouchsafed to augment its\nblessings or ratify its credentials. We possess the true light, the\nperfect gift, the brightest illumination, the costliest boon. Such a\ndispensation constituted to be co-existent with all future time, must\nresist every view which would impress a new form or foist a strange\nnature upon it.\n\nV. +No circumstance or agency can endanger the existence and\nstability of the Christian revelation.+--When the security of the\nGospel is to be most confidently predicted and most strongly\nascertained, supernatural power is restrained--a curse encloses it\nround about, a \"flaming sword turning every way guards this tree of\nlife.\" It shall endure coevally with man. Feeble are our present\nthoughts, confused our perceptions; we see everything as from behind\na cloud and in a disproportion. Our convictions are more like\nconjectures and our speculations dreams. But we shall soon emerge\nfrom this state of crude fancies and immature ideas. Worthy\nsentiments and feelings will fill up our souls. Each view shall be as\na ray of light striking its object, and each song the very echo of\nits theme. Then shall we adequately understand why apostles kindled\ninto indignation and shook with horror at the idea of \"another\ngospel,\" and why even angels themselves must have been accursed had\nit been possible for them to have divulged it.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\n_A Supernatural Revelation._--There can be no doubt whatever as a\nmatter of historic fact, that the apostle Paul claimed to have\nreceived direct revelation from heaven. He is so certain of that\nrevelation that he warns the Galatians against being enticed by any\napparent evidence to doubt it. It would be impossible to express a\nstronger, a more deliberate, and a more solemn conviction that he had\nreceived a supernatural communication of the will of God.--_Dr. Wace,\nBampton Lectures._\n\n\n_The Best Authority to be obeyed._--A dispute having arisen on some\nquestion of ecclesiastical discipline and ritual, King Oswi summoned\nin 664 a great council at Whitby. The one set of disputants appealed\nto the authority of Columba, the other to that of St. Peter. \"You\nown,\" cried the puzzled king to Colman, \"that Christ gave to Peter\nthe keys of the kingdom of heaven: has He given such power to\nColumba?\" The bishop could but answer, \"No.\" \"Then I will obey the\nporter of heaven,\" said Oswi, \"lest when I reach its gates he who has\nthe keys in his keeping turn his back on me, and there be none to\nopen.\"\n\n\n_Latitudinarianism._--Referring to Erasmus's temporising policy in\nthe Reformation, Froude says: \"The question of questions is, what all\nthis latitudinarian philosophising, this cultivated epicurean\ngracefulness, would have come to if left to itself, or rather, what\nwas the effect which it was inevitably producing? If you wish to\nremove an old building without bringing it in ruin about your ears,\nyou must begin at the top, remove the stones gradually downwards, and\ntouch the foundation last. But latitudinarianism loosens the\nelementary principles of theology. It destroys the premises on which\nthe system rests. It would beg the question to say that this would in\nitself have been undesirable; but the practical effect of it, as the\nworld then stood, would have been only to make the educated into\ninfidels, and to leave the multitude to a convenient but debasing\nsuperstition.\"\n\n\nVer. 9. _The True Gospel to be preached and believed._\n\nI. The repetition of these words by Paul +signify that he had not\nspoken rashly but advisedly,+ whatsoever he had said before.\n\nII. +That the point delivered is an infallible truth of God.+\n\nIII. +That we may observe and remember what he had said as the\nfoundation of our religion+--that the doctrine of the apostles is the\nonly infallible truth of God, against which we may not listen to\nFathers, Councils, or to the very angels of God.\n\nIV. They are accursed +who teach otherwise than the Galatians had\nreceived.+--As Paul preached the Gospel of Christ, so the Galatians\nreceived it. The great fault of our times is that whereas the Gospel\nis preached it is not accordingly received. Many have no care to know\nit; and they who know it give not unto it the assent of faith, but\nonly hold it in opinion.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-12.\n\n_The Superhuman Origin of the Gospel._\n\n+I. The Gospel is not constructed on human principles.+--\"But I\ncertify you, brethren, that the gospel which was preached of me is\nnot after man\" (ver. 11). Its character is such as the human mind\nwould never have conceived. When it was first proclaimed it was the\npuzzle of the religious and the ridicule of the learned--\"unto the\nJews a stumbling-block, and unto the Greeks foolishness.\" It is\nwholly opposed to the drift of human tendencies. Its supreme aim is\nto effect a complete transformation of human nature. Not to destroy\nthat nature, but to renew, elevate, and sublimate it. By its\nprinciple of self-sacrificing love, its insistence of the essential\noneness of the race, its methods in dealing with the world's evils,\nits lofty morality, and its uncompromising claims of superiority the\nGospel transcends all the efforts of human ingenuity. Augustine, the\nfather of Western theology in the fifth century, divided the human\nrace into two classes--the one who lived according to man and the\nother who lived according to God. The Gospel is the only revelation\nthat teaches man how to live according to God.\n\n+II. The Gospel does not pander to human tastes.+--\"For do I now\npersuade men, or God? or do I seek to please men? for if I yet\npleased men, I should not be the servant of Christ\" (ver. 10). The\nadversaries of the apostle insinuated that he was a trimmer,\nobserving the law among the Jews and yet persuading the Gentiles to\nrenounce it; becoming all things to all men that he might form a\nparty of his own. Such an insinuation was based on an utter\nmisconception of the Gospel. So far from flattering, Paul preached a\nGospel that humbled men, demanding repentance and reform. It often\ncame in collision with popular tastes and opinions; and though the\napostle was a man of broad views and sympathies, he was ever the\nfaithful and uncompromising servant of Christ. Public opinion may be\nhugely mistaken, and there is danger of over-estimating its\nimportance. It is the lofty function of the preacher to create a\nhealthy public opinion and Christianise it, and he can do this only\nby a scrupulous and constant representation of the mind of Christ,\nhis Divine Master. The wise Phocion was so sensible how dangerous it\nwas to be touched with what the multitude approved that upon a\ngeneral acclamation made when he was making an oration he turned to\nan intelligent friend and asked in a surprised manner, \"What slip\nhave I made?\" George Macdonald once said, \"When one has learned to\nseek the honour that cometh from God only, he will take the\nwithholding of the honour that cometh by man very lightly indeed.\"\n\n+III. The Gospel has a distinctly superhuman origin.+--\"For I neither\nreceived it of man, neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of\nJesus Christ\" (ver. 12). Paul's reception of the Gospel was not only\na revelation of Christ _to_ him, but at the same time a revelation of\nChrist _in_ him. The human vehicle was spiritually prepared for the\nreception and understanding of the Divine message; and this moral\ntransformation not only convinced him of the superhuman character of\nthe Gospel, but also empowered him with authority to declare it. The\nGospel carries with it the self-evidencing force of its Divine origin\nin its effect upon both preacher and hearer. It is still an enigma to\nthe mere intellectual student; only as it is received into the inmost\nsoul, by the aid of the Holy Spirit, is its true nature apprehended\nand enjoyed.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Man everywhere is in dire need of the Gospel._\n2. _The human mind is incapable of constructing a saving Gospel._\n3. _The Gospel is inefficacious till it is received as a Divine gift._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _Fidelity in the Ministry._\n\nI. +The proper nature of the ministry is not the word or doctrine of\nman but of God.+--Ministers are taught to handle their doctrine with\nmodesty and humility, without ostentation, with reverence, and with a\nconsideration of the majesty of God, whose doctrine it is they utter.\n\nII. +The dispensing of the Word must not be for the pleasing of men\nbut God.+--Ministers must not apply and fashion their doctrine to the\naffections, humours, and dispositions of men, but keep a good\nconscience and do their office.\n\nIII. +If we seek to please men we cannot be the servants of God.+--He\nthat would be a faithful minister of the Gospel must deny the pride\nof his heart, be emptied of ambition, and set himself wholly to seek\nthe glory of God in his calling.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Servant of Christ._\n\n+I. There is nothing dishonourable in the idea of a servant\nabsolutely considered.+--On the contrary, there may be much in it\nthat is noble and venerable. Nothing can be more contemptible than an\naffectation of independence which resents or is ashamed of a\nservant's name. And many who despise servants should be told that\nthey themselves are so worthless that nobody would think of honouring\nthem with hiring them for service. It was Christ's honour that His\nFather so employed Him for the work of our salvation, and said,\n\"Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen\": and the highest honour of\nthe preachers of the Gospel is that they are the ministers, that is,\nthe servants, both of Christ and His Church. There are cases, no\ndoubt, in which servitude is degrading. The master may be infamous;\nthough even then the servant's condition is not dishonourable unless\nhe be employed in infamous work. Many servants have wrought out most\nhonourable names for themselves in doing good work under bad masters.\nMatthew Henry has said well that there is nothing mean but sin, and\nwith such meanness and dishonour is every man affected who is not a\nservant of Christ. There is for us all the choice of only two\nconditions; there is not a third and neutral one. The alternative is\na servant of the Son of God or a slave of sin. It may not be of sin\nin its most hideous forms, in the form in which it tyrannises over\nthe drunkard, the lewd man, or the ambitious, but even in its milder\nand less-offensive form, when it may reign only with the power which\nit exercises over the worshipper of wealth or of human applause;\nstill, it is a degrading vassalage. Let no worldly man, then, affect\nto pity or scorn the disciple of the Gospel as being one whom\nsuperstition enslaves, though it were admitted to be a slavery; he\nhimself labours under one infinitely more oppressive and degrading.\nWhose appears the greater liberty and the least oppression, he who is\ngoverned by the salutary laws of the Gospel, or he who is the sport\nand victim of his own ignorance and passions, or of the opinion of\nthe world, to which, at the expense of the violation of his own\nconscience, he feels himself compelled ignominiously to submit? The\nquestion needs not an answer. There is everything honourable in the\none service, everything dishonourable in the other. Only that man is\ntruly a free man who is a servant of Christ.\n\n+II. The servant of Christ.+--Others profess that they are servants\nof God; the Christian replies that he is a servant of Christ. There\nis perhaps nothing by which his faith is more distinctly\ncharacterised than this. \"Is he not, then, a servant of God?\" some\none may ask, either in the spirit of a scorning objector or in that\nof an astonished inquirer who is as yet ignorant of the beautiful\nmystery of Christian salvation. When others profess that they are the\nservants of God, and when the Christian replies that he is a servant\nof Christ, does it signify that he is not a servant of the eternal\nFather? Such is the question; and our reply is, that in serving\nChrist he approves himself not only the best servant of God, but the\nonly one whose service is genuine. In serving Christ he serves God,\nbecause God has so appointed and ordained. He has ordained that we be\nthe servants of His Son; and if we serve not His Son, then we resist\nHis ordination, so that we serve neither His Son nor Himself.\n\n+III. The Christian is Christ's servant, not by hire, but by\npurchase.+--This is a circumstance which claims our most thoughtful\nconsideration. In the case of a servant who is hired there is a\nlimitation of the master's right, by the terms of the agreement, in\nrespect to the kind and amount of labour to be exacted. There is also\na definite term, at the expiry of which the right of service ceases,\nand the remuneration of the service is exigible by law. There is a\nvast difference in the case of a purchased servant, or, as otherwise\nexpressed, a slave. He is his master's property, to be treated\nentirely according to his master's discretion. There is no limitation\neither to the amount or nature of the work which he may exact. The\nperiod of service is for life, and no remuneration can be claimed for\nthe labour, howsoever heavy and protracted. Our servant-condition in\nrelation to Christ is of this character: He does not hire us but has\npurchased us--purchased us by His blood, and made us His property, to\nbe used according to His sovereign will. But this is far from being\nall. Our gracious Master often sinks, as it were, the consideration\nof His past services--His humiliation, His privation, His wounds and\nagony by which He saved us from punishment and woe--and reasons and\ndeals with us as if we were hired servants and could merit something\nat His hand, animating us in our work by exhibiting to our hope that\ncrown of glory which He will confer on all who are faithful unto\ndeath. Blessed servitude--the servitude of the Christian! Servitude\nof peace! Servitude of honour! Servitude of liberty! Servitude of\nvictory and everlasting glory! 1. The Christian, as a servant,\n_submits his mind to the authority of Christ_--submits it to Him in\nrespect of his opinions; at the utterance of His Word renounces its\nown judgments and prejudices, and turns away from the teaching of the\nworld's philosophy and priesthood in scorn, saying, \"You have no part\nin me. Christ is the Lord of my conscience; I will listen to Him.\"\n2. As the servant of Christ, the Christian _subjects his body to His\ncontrol and regulation_ in the gratifying of its appetites, and in\nproviding for its comfort and adornment; his lips in what they speak;\nhis hands in what they do; his ears in what they listen to; his eyes\nin what they read and look at; and his feet in all their journeying\nand movements. 3. As the servant of Christ, he _regulates his family\naccording to his Master's mind and law._ 4. As a servant of Christ,\nhe _conducts his business according to Christ's law,_ with the\nstrictest honesty, and for Christ's end, distributing his profits in\na proportion--I shall say a large proportion; nay, I shall say a very\nlarge proportion--to the maintenance and education of his family, and\nsome provision of an inheritance for them, and even a considerable\nproportion for the gratification of his own tastes. Is not that a\nlarge allowance for a slave? But oh, some of you! you seize on\nall--wickedly appropriate all to yourselves, or part, and that with a\ngrudge, a murmur, and a scowl, with but the smallest fraction to the\nMaster's poor and the Master's Church! Slaves indeed! Slaves of\nAvarice and his daughter, Cruelty! 5. As a servant of Christ, _the\ncountry of the Christian is Christ's,_ to be regulated, so far as his\ninfluence and vote may extend, by Christ's rule, for Christ's\nends.--_W. Anderson, LL.D._\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _The Gospel and the Call to preach it._\n\nI. It is necessary that men should be assured and certified that +the\ndoctrine of the Gospel and the Scripture is not of man but of\nGod.+--That the Scripture is the Word of God there are two\ntestimonies. 1. One is the evidence of God's Spirit imprinted and\nexpressed in the Scriptures, and this is an excellence of the Word of\nGod above all words and writings of men and angels. 2. The second\ntestimony is from the prophets and apostles, who were ambassadors of\nGod extraordinarily to represent His authority unto His Church, and\nthe penmen of the Holy Ghost to set down the true and proper Word of\nGod.\n\nII. It is necessary that men should be assured in their consciences\nthat +the calling and authority of their teachers are of God.+--To\ncall men to the ministry and dispensation of the Gospel belongs to\nChrist, who alone giveth the power, the will, the deed; and the\nChurch can do no more than testify, publish, and declare whom God\ncalleth.\n\nIII. +The Gospel which Paul preached was not human+--he did not\nreceive it, neither was he taught it by man; and preached it not by\nhuman but by Divine authority. 1. Christ is the great prophet and\ndoctor of the Church. His office is: (1) To manifest and reveal the\nwill of the Father touching the redemption of mankind. (2) To\ninstitute the ministry of the Word and to call and send ministers.\n(3) To teach the heart within by illuminating the mind and by working\na faith of the doctrine taught. 2. There are two ways whereby Christ\nteaches those who are to be teachers. (1) By immediate revelation.\n(2) By ordinary instruction in schools by the means and ministry of\nmen.\n\nIV. +They who are to be teachers must first be taught,+ and they must\nteach that which they have first learned themselves. They are first\nto be taught, and that by men where revelation is wanting. This is\nthe foundation of the schools of the prophets. All men should pray\nthat God would prosper and bless all schools of learning where this\nkind of teaching is in use.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Gospel a Divine Revelation._\n\n  +I. It is not constructed by human ingenuity.+--\"The gospel which\n      was preached of me is not after man\" (ver. 11).\n\n +II. It derives no authority from man.+--\"For I neither received it\n      of man\" (ver. 12).\n\n+III. It is not acquired by mere mental culture.+--\"Neither was I\n      taught it.\"\n\n +IV. It is a direct and special revelation from heaven.+--\"But by\n      the revelation of Jesus Christ.\"\n\n\n_Apostolic Assurance of the Supernatural Character of the\nGospel._--1. It is the custom of the adversaries of the truth, when\nthey have nothing to say in reason against the doctrine itself, to\ncast reproach on those who preach it, and to question their call and\nauthority to preach, that so they may indirectly at least reflect\nupon the doctrine. 2. As none may take upon him to dispense the Word\nof God publicly unto others without a call from God, so there are\nseveral sorts of callings: one of men and ordinary when God calls by\nthe voices and consent of men; another of God and extraordinary, the\ncall of the Church not intervening. 3. It is required of an apostle\nto have the infallible knowledge of the truth of the Gospel and this\nnot wholly by the help of human means, as we learn at schools and by\nprivate study, but mainly by immediate inspiration from the Spirit of\nGod. Paul shows that the Gospel was not taught him of man; and this\nhe saith, not to depress human learning, but that he may obviate the\ncalumny of his adversaries who alleged he had the knowledge of the\nGospel by ordinary instruction from men only, and so was no\napostle.--_Ferguson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.\n\n_A Zealous Ritualist--_\n\n+I. Is conspicuous for his adherence to religious formalities.+--\"For\nye have heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion\"\n(ver. 13)--_of my manner of life formerly in Judaism._ Saul of Tarsus\nwas a full-blown ritualist, and a master-leader in the art, setting\nthe pattern to all his contemporaries. He did not play at forms and\nceremonies. Their observance was to him a matter of life and death.\nAn intense nature like his could do nothing by halves. The\nlistlessness and pictorial parade of modern ritualism he would have\ndenounced with withering scorn. Religious formality has for some\nminds an irresistible fascination. It appeals to the instinct of\nworship which is latent in all, and to the love of \u00e6stheticism which\nis shared by most in varying degrees. The votary deludes himself into\nthe belief that signs and symbols represent certain great truths; but\nthe truths soon fade away into the background, and he is in turn\ndeluded in regarding the outward ceremonies as everything. Formality\nis the tendency of the mind to rest in the mere externals of religion\nto the neglect of the inner life of religion itself. It is the folly\nof valuing a tree for its bark instead of its goodly timber, of\nchoosing a book for its ornate binding irrespective of its literary\ngenius, of admiring the finished architecture of a building\nregardless of its accommodation or the character of its inmates.\n\"There are two ways of destroying Christianity,\" says D'Aubign\u00e9; \"one\nis to deny it, the other is to displace it.\" Formality seeks to\ndisplace it. Ritualism may be of use in the infantile stage, either\nof the world or the individual. It is a reversion to the petrifaction\nof ancient crudities. A robust and growing spiritual manhood is\nsuperior to its aids.\n\n+II. Violently opposes the representatives of genuine piety.+--\"How\nthat beyond measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it\"\n(ver. 13). Animated by extravagant zeal for the religion of his\nforefathers, the bigoted Pharisee became the deadliest enemy of the\nChurch of Christ in its infant days. Indifferent to personal peril or\nto the feelings of the oppressed, he prosecuted his work of\ndestruction with savage energy. He was a type of the Jewish fanatics\nwho afterwards thirsted and plotted for his life, and the forerunner\nof the cruel zealots of the Inquisition and the Star Chamber in later\ntimes. The curse of ritualism is excessive intolerance. Blinded and\npuffed up with its unwarrantable assumptions, it loses sight of the\nessential elements of true religion. It sees nothing good in any\nother system but its own, and employs all methods that it dare, to\ncompel universal conformity. It admits no rival. It alone is right;\neverything else is wrong, and all kinds of means are justifiable in\ncrushing the heresy that presumes to deny its supreme claims. \"Christ\nand Ritualism,\" says Horatius Bonar, \"are opposed to each other, as\nlight is to darkness. The cross and the crucifix cannot agree. Either\nritualism will banish Christ or Christ will banish ritualism.\"\n\n+III. Is distinguished by his ardent study and defence of traditional\nreligionism.+--\"And profited in the Jews' religion above many my\nequals in my mine own nation, being more exceedingly zealous of the\ntraditions of my fathers\" (ver. 14). The apostle had studied the\nMosaic law under the ablest tutors of his day. He knew Judaism by\nheart and won a distinguished reputation for learning and for his\nstrict adherence to the minutest details of traditional legalism. He\nwas one of the ablest champions of the Mosaic system. The zealous\nritualist spends his days and nights in studying, not the Word of\nGod, but the sayings of men and the rules of the Church handed down\nby the traditions of past generations. Divine revelation is ignored,\nand human authority unduly exalted. His studies are misdirected, and\nhis zeal misspent. He is wasting his energy in defending a lifeless\norganism. No man can honestly and prayerfully study God's Word and\ncatch its meaning, and remain a mere ritualist.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Ritualism is the worship of external forms._ 2. _It\nbreeds a spirit of intolerance and persecution._ 3. _It supplants\ntrue religion._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13, 14. _Mistaken Zeal--_\n\n  +I. May create a reputation for religious devotion.+--\"Ye have\n      heard of my conversation in time past in the Jews' religion\"\n      (ver. 13).\n\n +II. Breeds the spirit of violent persecution.+--\"How that beyond\n      measure I persecuted the Church of God, and wasted it\" (ver.\n      13).\n\n+III. Makes one ambitious for superiority.+--\"Profited . . . above\n      many my equals, . . . being more exceedingly zealous of the\n      traditions of my fathers\" (ver. 14).\n\n +IV. Is neither good nor wise.+\n\n  +V. Stores up a retrospect of bitter and humiliating regret.+\n\n\n_Review of a Misspent Life._--1. A sincere convert will not shun to\nmake confession of his wicked life, not omitting anything which may\ntend to a just aggravation of it, not in a boasting manner, but that\nthe freedom of God's grace may be commended. 2. That the Scriptures\nwere indited by the Spirit of God, and the penmen not actuated with\nhuman policy, appears from this, with other evidences in the\nScripture itself, that they concealed not their own faults, but\nblazed them to the world when the glory of God did so require.\n3. Though the Church of God, as to the inward estate, cannot be\nutterly wasted, neither can the outward state be so far decayed as to\ncease to be, yet the Lord may so far give way to the rage of\npersecutors that the outward face and beauty of the Church may be\ntotally marred, the members partly killed, partly scattered, the\npublic ordinances suppressed, and the public assemblies interrupted.\n4. The life and way of some engaged in a false religion may be so\nblameless and, according to the dictates of their deluded conscience,\nso strict, as that it may be a copy unto those who profess the true\nreligion and a reproof for their palpable negligence. 5. As our\naffections of love, joy, hatred, anger, and grief are by nature so\ncorrupt that even the choicest of them, if not brought in subjection\nto the Word by the Spirit, will lay forth themselves upon forbidden\nand unlawful objects, so our zeal and fervency of spirit will bend\nitself more toward the maintenance of error than of truth. Error is\nthe birth of our own invention; so is not truth.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_True and False Zeal._\n\n+I. Zeal is a certain fervency of spirit arising out of a mixture of\nlove and anger,+ causing men earnestly to maintain the worship of God\nand all things pertaining thereto, and moving them to grief and anger\nwhen God is in any way dishonoured.\n\n+II. Paul was zealous for the outward observance of the law+ and for\nPharisaical unwritten traditions.\n\n+III. He himself condemns his zeal because it was against the Word,+\nand tended to maintain unwritten traditions, and justification by the\nworks of the law, out of Christ. What Paul did in his religion we are\nto do in the profession of the Gospel. 1. We are to addict and set\nourselves earnestly to maintain the truth of the Gospel. 2. We are to\nbe angry in ourselves and grieved when God is dishonoured and His\nWord disobeyed. 3. We are not to give liberty to the best of our\nnatural affections as to zeal, but mortify and rule them by the\nWord.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-19.\n\n_The Imperative Claims of a Divine Commission--_\n\n+I. Are independent of personal merit.+--\"But when it pleased God,\nwho separated me from my mother's womb, and called me by His grace\"\n(ver. 15). From the beginning the apostle was Divinely destined to\nfulfil his high vocation. His Hebrew birth and Hellenistic culture\ncombined to prepare him for his future work. When he developed into a\nhot persecutor of the Christian faith he seemed far away from his\nlife-mission. But a change took place, and it soon became apparent\nthat, not on the ground of any merit of his own, but because it\npleased God, the training from his birth was the best possible\npreparation for his lofty calling. We cannot see far into the future\nor forecast the issue of our own plans or of those we form for others.\n\n     \"There is a Divinity that shapes our ends,\n      Rough hew them as we may.\"\n\nThe Divine element in our lives becomes more evident as we faithfully\ndo the duty imposed on us. Joseph recognised this when he declared to\nhis brethren, \"It was not you that sent me hither, but God\" (Gen.\nxlv. 8).\n\n+II. Are based on an unmistakably Divine revelation.+--\"To reveal His\nSon in me, that I might preach Him among the heathen\" (ver. 16). The\ndazzling appearance of Christ before his eyes, and the summons of His\nvoice addressed to Saul's bodily ears, formed the special mode in\nwhich it pleased God to call him to the apostleship. But there was\nalso the inward revelation of Christ to his heart by the Holy Ghost.\nIt was this which wrought in him the great spiritual change and\ninspired him to be a witness for Christ to the Gentiles. His Judaic\nprejudices were swept away, and he became the champion of a universal\nGospel. The same revelation that made Paul a Christian made him the\napostle of mankind. The true preacher carries within his own\nspiritually renovated nature evidence and authority of his Divine\ncommission.\n\n     \"This is what makes him the crowd-drawing preacher,\n      There's a background of God to each hard-working feature;\n      Every word that he speaks has been fierily furnaced\n      In a blast of a life which has struggled in earnest.\"\n\n+III. Are superior to the functions of human counsel.+--\"I conferred\nnot with flesh and blood: neither went I up to Jerusalem to them\nwhich were apostles before me\" (vers. 16, 17). The counsel of the\nwise and good is valuable, and ordinarily should be diligently sought\nand thoughtfully pondered. But when God calls, the commission is\nbeyond either the advice or the opposition of men. Paul had reached a\nstate into which no human authority could lift him, and from which it\ncould not dislodge him. He might legitimately confer with others as\nto methods of work, but his call to work was imposed upon him by a\npower to which all human counsellors and ecclesiastical magnates must\nsubmit. Channing once said: \"The teacher to whom are committed the\ninfinite realities of the spiritual world, the sanctions of eternity,\nthe powers of the life to come, has instruments to work with which\nturn to feebleness all other means of influence.\"\n\n+IV. Stimulate to active service.+--\"But I went into Arabia, and\nreturned again unto Damascus\" (ver. 17). Immediately after his\nconversion the history tells us, \"Straightway he preached Christ in\nthe synagogues\" (Acts ix. 20). In Arabia, a country of the Gentiles,\nhe doubtless preached the Gospel, as he did before and after at\nDamascus, and thus demonstrated the independence of his apostolic\ncommission. A call to preach demands immediate response and impels to\nearnest and faithful endeavour. It is said that Whitefield's zealous\nspirit exhausted all its energies in preaching, and his full\ndedication to God was honoured by unbounded success. The effect\nproduced by his sermons was indescribable, arising in a great degree\nfrom the most perfect forgetfulness of self during the solemn moment\nof declaring the salvation that is in Christ Jesus. His evident\nsincerity impressed every hearer and is said to have forcibly struck\nLord Chesterfield when he heard him at Lady Huntingdon's. The\npreacher, as the ambassador for Christ, is eager to declare His\nmessage, and anxious it should be understood and obeyed.\n\n+V. Are recognised by the highest ecclesiastical authority.+--\"Then\nafter three years I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and . . .\nJames the Lord's brother\" (vers. 18, 19). The claims of Paul to the\napostleship, evidenced by such supernatural signs and such solid\nChristian work and patient suffering, were at length acknowledged by\nthe chief leaders of the mother Church in Jerusalem. Good work\nadvertises itself, and sooner or later compels recognition. What an\neventful meeting of the first Gospel pioneers, and how momentous the\ninfluence of such an interview and consultation! Though the call of\nGod is unacknowledged, ridiculed, and opposed, its duties must be\nfaithfully discharged. The day of ample reward will come.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _God only can make the true preacher._ 2. _A call to\npreach involves suffering and toil._ 3. _The fruit of diligent and\nfaithful work will certainly appear._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15-17. _The Conversion and Vocation of St. Paul._\n\n+I. The causes of St. Paul's conversion.+--1. The good pleasure of\nGod. 2. His separation from the womb, which is an act of God's\ncounsel whereby He sets men apart to be members of Christ and to be\nHis servants in this or that office. 3. His vocation by grace--the\naccomplishment of both the former in the time which God had appointed.\n\n+II. The manner of his vocation.+--\"To reveal His Son in me.\" 1. By\npreparation. God humbled and subdued the pride and stubbornness of\nhis heart and made him tractable and teachable. 2. By instruction.\n(1) Propounding unto him the commandment of the Gospel, to repent and\nbelieve in Christ. (2) Offering to him the promise of remission of\nsins and life everlasting when he believed. 3. By a real and lively\nteaching when God made Paul in his heart answer the calling.\nMinisters of Christ must learn Christ as Paul learned Him.\n\n+III. The end of Paul's conversion.+--To preach Christ among the\nGentiles. 1. Christ is the substance or subject-matter of the whole\nBible. 2. To preach Christ is: (1) To teach the doctrine of the\nincarnation of Christ, and His offices as King, Prophet, and Priest.\n(2) That faith is an instrument to apprehend and apply Christ. (3) To\ncertify and reveal to every hearer that it is the will of God to save\nhim by Christ if he will receive Him. (4) That he is to apply Christ\nwith His benefits to himself in particular. 3. To preach to the\nGentiles: (1) Because the prophecies of the calling of the Gentiles\nmust be fulfilled. (2) Because the division between the Jews and\nGentiles is abolished.\n\n+IV. Paul's obedience to the calling of God+ (vers. 16,\n17).--1. God's Word, preached or written, does not depend on the\nauthority of any man--no, not on the authority of the apostles\nthemselves. 2. There is no consultation or deliberation to be used at\nany time touching the holding or not holding of our religion. 3. Our\nobedience to God must be without consultation. We must first try what\nis the will of God, and then absolutely put it into execution,\nleaving the issue to God. 4. Paul goes into Arabia and Damascus, and\nbecomes a teacher to his professed enemies.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 15, 16. _Conversion as illustrated by that of St. Paul._--In\nthe case of St. Paul there are many circumstances not paralleled in\nthe general experience of Christians; but in its essential features,\nin the views with which it was accompanied and the effects it\nproduced, it was exactly the same as every one must experience before\nhe can enter into the kingdom of God.\n\n+I. Its causes.+--1. Paul was chosen by God before his birth to be a\nvessel of honour. \"It pleased God, who separated me from my mother's\nwomb.\" Are not all genuine Christians addressed as \"elect of God\" or\nchosen of God, through sanctification of the Spirit, unto obedience\nand the sprinkling of the blood of Jesus Christ? Why should not the\nreal Christian give scope to those emotions of gratitude which such\nreflections will inspire? 2. The more immediate cause was the call of\nDivine grace. \"And called me by His grace.\" There is a general call\nin the Gospel addressed to all men indiscriminately. There is, in\nevery instance of real conversion, another and inward call, by which\nthe Spirit applies the general truth of the Gospel to the heart. By\nthis interior call Christ apprehends, lays hold on the soul, stops it\nin its impenitent progress, and causes it to hear His voice.\n\n+II. The means by which conversion is effected.+--\"To reveal His Son\nin me.\" The principal method which the Spirit adopts in subduing the\nheart of a sinner is a spiritual discovery of Christ. There is an\noutward revelation of Christ--in the Scriptures; and an internal, of\nwhich the understanding and the heart are the seat. 1. The Spirit\nreveals the greatness and dignity of Christ. 2. The transcendent\nbeauty and glory of Christ. 3. The suitableness, fulness, and\nsufficiency of Christ to supply all our wants and relieve all our\nmiseries.\n\n+III. The effect of conversion on St. Paul.+--\"Immediately I\nconferred not with flesh and blood.\" He set himself without\nhesitation or demur to discharge the duties of his heavenly vocation.\n1. His compliance with the will of Christ was immediate. 2. Universal\nand impartial. 3. Constant and persevering.--_Robert Hall._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Qualification of the True Minister_--\n\n  +I. Begins in an unmistakable revelation of Christ to his own\n      soul.+--\"To reveal His Son in me.\"\n\n +II. Urges him to declare the Gospel to the most needy.+--\"That I\n      might preach Him among the heathen.\"\n\n+III. Raises him above the necessity of mere human\n      authority.+--\"Immediately I conferred not with flesh and\n      blood.\"\n\n\nVer. 17. _The Divine Call to the Apostleship._--1. That extraordinary\nway whereby the Lord made known His mind to the penmen of Scripture\nwas so infallible in itself and so evident to those to whom it came\nto be no delusion that they were above all doubt and needed not to\nadvise with the best of men in order to their confirmation about the\nreality of it. 2. The Lord maketh sometimes the first piece of public\nservice as hazardous, uncouth, and unsuccessful as any wherein He\nemploys them afterwards, that His ministers may be taught to depend\nmore on God's blessing than on human probabilities, and that they may\ngive proof of their obedience. Thus it was with Moses (Exod. ii. 10),\nand Jeremiah (Jer. i. 19). 3. The apostles were not fixed to any\ncertain charge, as ordinary ministers are. Their charge was the whole\nworld. They went from place to place as the necessities of people\nrequired, or as God by His providence and Spirit\ndirected.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 18. _Requirement of a Preparation for Work._--\"I went into\nArabia, and returned again unto Damascus.\" 1. Affording opportunity\nfor thought and self-testing. 2. Gives leisure for study and forming\nplans for future service. 3. Is often the prelude of a busy and\nprosperous career.\n\n\nVers. 18, 19. _The Divine Call acknowledged._--1. That nothing of\nPeter's supposed supremacy over Paul and the rest of the apostles can\nbe gathered from this place appears from this, that Paul went first\nto his work before he came to Peter, and that his business with Peter\nwas not to receive ordination from him or to evidence his subjection\nto him, but from respect and reverence to give him a friendly visit.\n2. It ought to be the endeavour of Christ's ministers to entertain\nlove and familiarity one with another, as also to make their doing so\nevident to others, it being most unseemly for those who preach the\nGospel of peace to others to live in discord among themselves. 3. As\nministers may and ought to meet sometimes together, to evidence and\nentertain mutual love and concord, and because of that mutual\ninspection which they ought to have one of another, so their meeting\nought neither to be so frequent nor of so long continuance that their\nflocks suffer prejudice.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-24.\n\n_God glorified in His Servant_--\n\n+I. By the undoubted truthfulness of his statements.+--\"Now the\nthings which I write unto you, behold, before God, I lie not\" (ver.\n20). The assertions of the apostle flatly contradicted the\nallegations of his enemies. They insinuated that Paul was but a\nmessenger of the authorities of the Church at Jerusalem, and that all\nhe knew of the Gospel had been learned from the twelve. So far from\nthis being the case it is evident that for several years he had been\npreaching the Gospel, and had not seen any of the twelve, except\nPeter and James, and that only for a fortnight at Jerusalem about\nthree years after his conversion. \"In the present case,\" remarks\nProfessor Jowett, \"it is a matter of life and death to the apostle to\nprove his independence from the twelve.\" Having said all he can to\nsubstantiate his point, he concludes by a solemn appeal to God as to\nhis veracity: \"Behold, before God, I lie not.\" The apostle never\nmakes an appeal like this lightly, but only in support of a vital\ntruth he is specially anxious to enforce (Rom. ix. 1; 2 Cor. i. 17,\n18, 23; 1 Thess. ii. 5).\n\n     \"When fiction rises pleasing to the eye;\n      Men will believe, because they love the lie;\n      But truth herself, if clouded with a frown,\n      Must have some solemn proof to pass her down.\"--_Churchill._\n\nThe vigorous and faithful maintenance of the truth brings glory to\nGod.\n\n+II. By his evangelistic activity.+--\"Afterwards I came into the\nregions of Syria and Cilicia\" (ver. 21). During this tour very\nprobably the Churches were founded, referred to in Acts xv. 23, 41.\n\"A man's work,\" says George Macdonald, \"does not fall upon him by\nchance, but it is given him to do; and everything well done belongs\nto God's kingdom, and everything ill done to the kingdom of\ndarkness.\" God is the sublime end of all human activity, and our\npowers can never be more nobly employed than in expounding His will,\nunfolding His gracious character, advancing the interests of His\nkingdom, and striving to promote His glory among the children of men.\nMan is never so great, so luminous, so grand as when he is doing work\nfor God with the light and help of God; and all such work is a\nrevelation of the character and purposes of God open to the eyes of\nall who will see.\n\n+III. By the reputation of his changed life.+--\"And was unknown by\nface unto the Churches: . . . they had heard only, That he which\npersecuted us in times past now preached the faith which once he\ndestroyed\" (vers. 22, 23). The conversion of Saul of Tarsus was one\nof the most striking events in the early history of the Church. It\nwas a marvel to all who had known his previous life. It was an\nunanswerable testimony to the power of the Gospel, and an argument\nthat has been used in all ages to illustrate the possibility of the\nsalvation of the worst of sinners. It is said the Duke of Burgundy\nwas born terrible. He would indulge in such paroxysms of rage that\nthose who were standing by would tremble for his life. He was\nhard-hearted, passionate, incapable of bearing the least opposition\nto his wishes, fond of gambling, violent hunting, the gratifications\nof the table, abandoned to his pleasures, barbarous, and born to\ncruelty. With this was united a genius of the most extraordinary\nkind; quickness of humour, depth and justice of thought, versatility\nand acuteness of mind. The prodigy was, that in a short space of time\nthe grace of God made him a new man. He became a prince, affable,\ngentle, moderate, patient, modest, humble, austere only to himself,\nattentive to his duties, and sensible of their extent. If we could\nlay a hand on the fly-wheel of the Scotch express, running fifty or\nsixty miles an hour, and stop it, we should perform an astounding\nmiracle. But this is what God does in His miracles of conversion. He\nlaid His mighty hand on the fly-wheel of Paul's life, and not only\nstopped its mad career, but turned it right round in the opposite\ndirection. The persecutor becomes a preacher.\n\n+IV. By the recognition of His Divine call.+--\"And they glorified God\nin me\" (ver. 24). The attempt to disparage the authority of Paul was\nthe work of a few malcontents, who sought to ruin his influence in\norder to extend their own. The Churches of Jerusalem and Judea,\nthough many of them had not seen the apostle, acknowledged and\npraised God for the Divine work done in him and by him. A few false\nteachers may work much mischief, but they cannot overturn the work of\nGod, nor prevent its full recognition. The faithful servant may\nsafely leave his reputation in the hands of God. It lifts humanity,\nespecially Christianised humanity, into special dignity, when it is\ndiscovered that God is glorified in man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel elevates man by transforming him._ 2. _The\nconscientious worker has God on his side._ 3. _God is glorified by\nobedient toil._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 20. _Self-conscious Truth._--1. The choicest servants of Christ\nmay be looked upon as liars and unworthy to be trusted, even by those\nto whom they are sent, and yet they must not give over to preach as\nknowing that the Word spoken by them doth still get credit from some,\nand will beget trust to itself from others, and for the rest it will\nseal up their condemnation and make them inexcusable. 2. It is not\nunlawful for Christians to take an oath, providing it be with these\nconditions: (1) That the thing we swear be truth. (2) That there be\nweighty reasons for taking an oath. (3) That we swear only by the\nname of God, and not by the creatures, seeing none but God can bear\nwitness to the secrets of the heart.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 21-24. _The Self-evidencing Proof of a Divinely commissioned\nMessenger._--1. Seen in disinterested labours and travels (vers. 21,\n22). 2. Seen in a remarkable change of character and conduct (ver.\n23). 3. Seen in that the glory of his work is ascribed to God (ver.\n24).\n\n\n_Practical Proofs of Apostleship._\n\nI. +Paul went from Jerusalem into Syria and Cilicia.+--1. Because he\nwas ordained specially to be the apostle of the Gentiles. 2. Because\nCilicia was his own country, and his love to his country was great.\nIf any apostle above the rest be the pastor and universal bishop of\nthe Church over the whole world, it is Paul and not Peter.\n\nII. +Paul was known to the Christian Jews only by hearsay,+ because\nit is the office of an apostle not to build on the foundation of\nanother or to succeed any man in his labour, but to plant and found\nthe Church of the New Testament.\n\nIII. Seeing the intent of the devil and wicked men is to destroy\nthe faith, +we must have a special care of our faith.+--1. We must\nlook that our faith be a true faith. 2. We must keep and lock up our\nfaith in some safe and sure place--in the storehouse or treasury of a\ngood conscience. 3. Our care must be to increase in faith that our\nhearts may be rooted and grounded in the love of God.\n\nIV. +Our duty is to sanctify and glorify the name of God in every\nwork of His.+--Neglect in glorifying and praising God is a great\nsin.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 24. _God glorified in Good Men._--We are taught to honour God in\nman and man in God. We are taught to avoid, on the one hand, all\ncreature idolatry, and, on the other, that cynical severity, or\nungrateful indifference to the Author of all good in man, which\nundervalues or neglects the excellencies which ought to be held up to\nadmiration that they may be imitated by ourselves and others. Each of\nthese extremes robs God of His just revenue of grateful praise. In\nwhat does creature idolatry consist but in honouring and trusting in\nthe natural and acquired excellencies of creatures to the exclusion\nof God? But is there then no wisdom, no might, no excellence, in man?\nAs it were absurd to deny this, it would be affectation to pretend to\noverlook it. Admire and deny not this wisdom, acknowledge this\nefficiency, and affect not to lower its estimate; only glorify God\nwho worketh all in all. If He has chosen any of them to be more\neminently His instruments for the furtherance of His purposes of\nmercy to mankind, He does it by virtue of His sovereignty. If He\ncontinues their useful lives, whilst you have their light rejoice in\nthe light and glorify Him from whom it comes as its original and\nsource; and when He chooses to quench these stars of His right hand\nin the darkness of death, still glorify Him. As to us, this is to\nremind us of our dependence on Him, who appointed their orbit and\ninvested them with their different degrees of glory; and as to them,\nthough their lustre fades from these visible skies, it is that it may\nbe rekindled in superior glory in the kingdom of their\nFather.--_R. Watson._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Then fourteen years after.+--From Paul's conversion\ninclusive. +I went again to Jerusalem.+--The same visit referred to\nin Acts xv., when the council of the apostles and Church decided that\nGentile Christians need not be circumcised.\n\nVer. 2. +I went up by revelation.+--Quite consistent with the fact\nthat he was sent as a deputy from the Church at Antioch (Acts xv. 2).\nThe revelation suggested to him that this deputation was the wisest\ncourse. +Communicated privately to them which were of\nreputation.+--It was necessary that the Jerusalem apostles should\nknow beforehand that the Gospel Paul preached to the Gentiles was the\nsame as theirs, and had received Divine confirmation in the results\nit wrought on the Gentile converts.\n\nVer. 3. +Neither Titus+ [not even Titus], +being a Greek, was\ncompelled to be circumcised.+--The apostles, constrained by the\nfirmness of Paul and Barnabas, did not compel or insist on his being\ncircumcised. Thus they virtually sanctioned Paul's course among the\nGentiles, and admitted his independence as an apostle. To have\ninsisted on _Jewish_ usages for _Gentile_ converts would have been to\nmake them essential parts of Christianity.\n\nVer. 4. +False brethren unawares+ [in an underhand manner] +brought\nin privily to spy out.+--As foes in the guise of friends, wishing to\ndestroy and rob us of our liberty--from the yoke of the ceremonial\nlaw.\n\nVer. 5. +To whom we gave place by subjection not for an hour.+--We\nwould willingly have yielded for love, if no principle was at issue,\nbut not in the way of subjection. Truth precise, unaccommodating,\nabandons nothing that belongs to itself, admits nothing that is\ninconsistent with it (_Bengel_).\n\nVer. 6. +They in conference added nothing to me.+--As I did not by\nconference impart to them aught at my conversion, so they now did not\nimpart aught additional to me above what I already knew. Another\nevidence of the independence of his apostleship.\n\nVer. 9. +They gave to me and Barnabas the right hands of\nfellowship.+--Recognising me as a colleague in the apostleship, and\nthat the Gospel I preached to the Gentiles by special revelation was\nthe same as theirs.\n\nVer. 10. +Remember the poor.+--Of the Jewish Christians in Judea then\ndistressed. Paul's past care for their poor prompted this request.\nHis subsequent zeal in the same cause was the answer to their appeal\n(Acts. xi. 29, 30; Rom. xv. 26, 27; 1 Cor. xvi. 3; 2 Cor. ix. 1; Acts\nxxiv. 17).\n\nVer. 11. +When Peter was come to Antioch I withstood him to the\nface.+--The strongest proof of the independence of his apostleship in\nrelation to the other apostles, and an unanswerable argument against\nthe Romish dogma of the supremacy of St. Peter.\n\nVer. 13. +The other Jews dissembled likewise with him.+--The question\nwas not whether Gentiles were admissible to the Christian covenant\nwithout becoming circumcised, but whether the Gentile Christians were\nto be admitted to social intercourse with the Jewish Christians\nwithout conforming to the Jewish institution. It was not a question\nof liberty and of bearing with others' infirmities, but one affecting\nthe essence of the Gospel, whether the Gentiles are to be virtually\ncompelled to live as do the Jews in order to be justified.\n\nVer. 14. +Walked not uprightly according to the truth of the\nGospel.+--Which teaches that justification by legal works and\nobservances is inconsistent with redemption by Christ. Paul alone\nhere maintained the truth against Judaism, as afterwards against\nheathenism (2 Tim. iv. 16, 17).\n\nVer. 17. +Is therefore Christ the minister of sin?+--Thus to be\njustified by Christ it was necessary to sink to the level of\nGentiles--to become sinners, in fact. But are we not thus making\nChrist a minister of sin? Away with the profane thought! No; the\nguilt is not in abandoning the law, but in seeking it again when\nabandoned. Thus, and thus alone, we convict ourselves of\ntransgression (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 19. +I through the law am dead to the law.+--By believing union\nto Christ in His death we, being considered dead with Him, are\nsevered from the law's past power over us.\n\nVer. 21. +If righteousness came by the law, then Christ is dead in\nvain.+--Died needlessly, without just cause. Christ's having died\nshows that the law has no power to justify us, for if the law can\njustify or make us righteous, the death of Christ is superfluous.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-9.\n\n_Confirmatory Proofs of a Divine Call--_\n\n+I. Seen in a prudent consultation with the acknowledged leaders of\nthe church+ (vers. 1, 2).--The men of reputation referred to in these\nverses are not so called by way of irony, but because of their\nrecognised authority in the mother Church. Paul was not summoned to\nJerusalem, but Divinely directed to take the journey. Neither his\nteaching nor his office was called in question, nor did he fear the\nmost searching inquiry into his commission. Conscious of his Divine\ncall, he claimed equality of status with the rest of the apostles and\nexplained to them and to the Church the principles and methods of the\nGospel he preached. He had nothing to fear, whatever might be the\njudgment of the Church leaders in Jerusalem. He expected from them\nnothing but sympathy and encouragement in his work, and he hailed\nwith joy the opportunity of sharing the counsel of men as interested\nas himself in the success of the Gospel. With his God-given\nconvictions and views, it was impossible for him to meet the apostles\non any other ground than that of perfect equality.\n\n+II. Seen in a prompt and stern refusal to compromise principle+\n(vers. 3-5).--The object of Paul's visit to Jerusalem was to discuss\na vital principle of the Gospel--the right of the Gentiles to the\nprivileges of the Gospel without observing the works of the Jewish\nlaw. A misunderstanding at that critical moment might have imperilled\nthe liberty of the Gospel. The presence of Barnabas and Titus was\nsignificant--the one a pure Jew, a man of gentle disposition and\ngenerous impulse; and the other a Gentile convert, representing the\nworld of the uncircumcised. It is to the credit of the Church leaders\nat Jerusalem that, with their strong Jewish prejudices, they admitted\nthat the legal rite of circumcision must not be imposed on Gentile\nconverts. They were so convinced that this was the will of God, and\nthat He had already sanctioned this an essential feature of the\nGospel, that they dared do no other. An attempt was made, not by the\napostles, but by certain \"false brethren,\" to insist that Titus\nshould be circumcised; but this was promptly and stoutly opposed. A\nconcession on this point would have been fatal to the universality of\nthe Gospel--the whole Gentile world would have been trammelled with\nthe bondage of legal ceremonies. It was then that the great battle of\nChristian liberty was fought and won. The victory was another\ntestimony of the validity and power of the Divine commission with\nwhich Paul was entrusted.\n\n+III. Seen in the inability of the wisest leaders to add anything to\nthe Divine authority.+--\"But of these who seemed to be somewhat . . .\nin conference added nothing to me\" (ver. 6). When Paul was called to\nthe apostleship he \"conferred not with flesh and blood\"; now he\naffirms that flesh and blood did not confer anything on him. In\nconference and debate with the chiefs of the Church he showed himself\ntheir equal, and on the great essentials of the Gospel he was in\nperfect agreement with them. Though Paul is too modest to say it, so\nfar from his learning anything from them, they were more likely to\nlearn something from him, especially as to the wider scope of the\nGospel. \"In doctrine Paul holds the primacy in the band of the\napostles. While all were inspired by the Spirit of Christ, the\nGentile apostle was in many ways a more richly furnished man than any\nof the rest. The Paulinism of Peter's first epistle goes to show that\nthe debt was on the other side. Their earlier privileges and\npriceless store of recollections of all that Jesus did and taught\nwere matched on Paul's side by a penetrating logic, a breadth and\nforce of intellect applied to the facts of revelation, and a burning\nintensity of spirit which in their combination was unique. The\nPauline teaching, as it appears in the New Testament, bears in the\nhighest degree the marks of original genius, the stamp of a mind\nwhose inspiration is its own\" (_Findlay_).\n\n+IV. Seen in winning the recognition of a special mission and of\nequality in the apostleship.+--\"They saw that the gospel of the\nuncircumcision was committed unto me, . . . and perceived the grace\nthat was given unto me,\" etc. (vers. 7-9). Paul won the confidence\nand admiration of his fellow-apostles. They listened with candour and\never-deepening interest to his explanations, and, whatever might have\nbeen their prejudices, they frankly acknowledged his Divine\ncommission. What a memorable day was that when James, Peter, John,\nand Paul met face to face! \"Amongst them they have virtually made the\nNew Testament and the Christian Church. They represent the four sides\nof the one foundation of the City of God. Of the evangelists, Matthew\nholds affinity with James; Mark with Peter; and Luke with Paul. James\nclings to the past and embodies the transition from Mosaism to\nChristianity. Peter is the man of the present, quick in thought and\naction, eager, buoyant, susceptible. Paul holds the future in his\ngrasp and schools the unborn nations. John gathers present, past, and\nfuture into one, lifting us into the region of eternal life and love.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--_A Divine call._--1. _Confers the necessary\nqualifications to carry out its mission._ 2. _Demands courage and\nfidelity._ 3. _Compels public recognition._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _Truth its Own Evidence._--1. Though the minister of\nJesus Christ is not to depend upon the approbation of others for\nconfirmation of his doctrine, as if he were uncertain before their\ntestimony is added, yet he is not to be so self-willed as to\nmisregard what others judge or think, but ought to demit himself so\nfar as to give a friendly account of the doctrine, that mistakes\narising from misinformation may be removed and the joint consent of\nothers to the truth obtained. 2. As there are always some in the\nChurch of God who have deservedly more reputation than others, so\nChristian prudence will teach a man to be so far from striving\nagainst such that he will endeavour, by giving due respect to them,\nto receive approbation from such, that he may be in a better capacity\nto do good to others. 3. Nothing marreth the success of the Gospel\nmore than difference of judgments and strifes and debates among\neminent preachers, many resolving to believe nothing till preachers\nagree among themselves, and many stumbling-blocks are cast before\npeople by the venting of passions, jealousies, animosities, and\nrevenge. Paul endeavoured to get the consent of the other apostles to\nthe doctrines preached by him, lest by the calumnies of his\nadversaries his preaching should be useless.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 3-5. _The Power of Truth._\n\n  +I. Superior to ceremonial observances+ (ver. 3).\n\n +II. Detects and exposes the wiliest tactics of false teachers+\n      (ver. 4).\n\n+III. Is uncompromising in its attitude towards the subtlest errors+\n      (ver. 5).\n\n\nVers. 4, 5. _False Brethren and their Treatment._\n\n+I. The Church of God on earth, even at the best, hath wicked men and\nhypocrites in it.+\n\n+II. They who teach Christ, joining some other thing with Him in the\ncause of salvation, are said to creep in,+ because in appearance they\nmaintain Christ; yet because they add something to Christ, they\nneither enter nor continue in the true Church with any good warrant\nfrom God.\n\n+III. No man can set down the precise time when errors had their\nbeginning,+ for the authors thereof enter in secretly, not observed\nof men.\n\n+IV. The false brethren urged circumcision to bring the converts+\n+into bondage.+--They that be of a corporation stand for their\nliberties. What a shame it is that men should love bondage and\nneglect the spiritual liberty which they have by Christ.\n\n+V. The false brethren urged the apostles to use circumcision but\nonce;+ but they would not yield so much as once, because their act\nwould have tended to the prejudice of Christian liberty in all\nplaces. Julian, sitting in a chair of state, gave gold to his\nsoldiers one by one, commanding them to cast frankincense so much as\na grain into the fire that lay upon a heathenish altar. Christian\nsoldiers refused to do it, and they which had not refused afterwards\nrecalled their act and willingly suffered death. We are not to yield\nthe least part of the truth of the Gospel. This truth is more\nprecious than the whole world beside. There is no halting between two\nreligions.\n\n+VI. The apostles gave no place by way of subjection.+--They\nwillingly suffered their doctrine to be tried, yet they were not\nbound to subjection. We are to give place by meek and patient bearing\nof that which we cannot mend, but we are not to give place by\nsubjection.\n\n+VII. If circumcision be made a necessary cause of salvation, the\ntruth of the Gospel does not continue,+ and falsehood comes in the\nroom.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 4. _A Spy._--Captain Turner Ashby was a young officer in the\nConfederate army, the idol of the troops for his general bravery, but\nespecially for his cleverness in gathering information of the enemy.\nOn one occasion he dressed himself in a farmer's suit of homespun\nthat he borrowed and hired a plough-horse to personate a rustic\nhorse-doctor. With his saddlebags full of some remedy for spavin or\nringbone, he went to Chambersburg, and returned in the night with an\nimmense amount of information. His career was one full of romantic\nepisode.\n\n\nVer. 5. _Fidelity to Truth._--1. Though much may be done for\ncomposing Church differences by using meekness and forbearance\ntowards those who oppose themselves, yet we are not for peace' sake\nto quit the least part of truth. Thus Paul, who for lawful ceding\nbecame all things to all men, would not give place by way of\nsubjection, so as to yield the cause to the adversaries; neither\nwould he do anything, in its own nature indifferent, that would be an\nevidence of yielding. 2. A minister, when called to confess and avow\ntruth, hath not only his own peace with God and keeping of a good\nconscience to look to, but also the condition of his flock, who will\nbe shaken or confirmed in the truth by his faint or bold and faithful\nconfession. 3. It is not enough that people have the name of the\nGospel among them or some truths mixed with errors; but all, and\nespecially ministers, should endeavour to have the Gospel in purity\nand integrity, free from any mixture of contrary errors.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Truth not to be yielded._--Shortly after James I. came to the\nthrone of England he set up a claim to all the small estates in\nCumberland and Westmorland, on the plea that the _Statesmen_ were\nmerely the tenants of the Crown. The Statesmen met, to the number of\ntwo thousand, at Ratten Heath, between Kendal and Staveley, where\nthey came to the resolution that \"they had won their lands by the\nsword and were able to hold them by the same.\" After that meeting no\nfurther claim was made to their estates on the part of the Crown.\n\n\nVers. 6-9. _Recognition of a Special Mission._\n\n  +I. By men of reputation who confessed their inability to augment\n      its authority+ (ver. 6).\n\n +II. Acknowledging that the commission was distinctly Divine+ (vers.\n      7, 8).\n\n+III. Confirmed by cordially admitting the messenger into the\n      fellowship of highest service+ (ver. 9).\n\n\nVers. 8, 9. _Divine Blessing the Highest Sanction of Ministerial\nAuthority._--1. It is not the pains of ministers, or any virtue in\nthe Word preached, from whence success flows, but from the effectual\nworking of the Spirit. Paul ascribed the success both of his own and\nPeter's ministry to this. 2. Whom God doth call to any employment,\nand chiefly whom He calls to the ministry, He fitteth with gifts and\nabilities suitable thereto. James, Cephas, and John did not\nacknowledge Paul to be an apostle called by God, but on perceiving\nthat grace and gifts, ordinary and extraordinary, were bestowed upon\nhim. 3. We ought not to withhold our approbation, especially when it\nis craved, from that which by evident signs and reasons we perceive\nto be approved of God, though the giving of our approbation may\ndisoblige those who pretend much friendship towards us.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Efficacy of the Christian Ministry._\n\n  +I. That grace or power to regenerate is not included in the Word\n      preached,+ as virtue to heal in a medicine. To regenerate is\n      the proper work of God.\n\n +II. That grace is not inseparably annexed and tied to the Word\n      preached,+ for to some it is the savour of death unto death.\n\n+III. The preaching of the Word is an external instrument of faith+\n      and regeneration, and the proper effect of it is to declare or\n      signify.\n\n  IV. The apostles at Jerusalem +acknowledged Paul to be an apostle\n      because he had the gifts of an apostle,+ and because his\n      ministry was powerful among the Gentiles.\n\n   V. As all minsters in their places are pillars, they are hereby\n      admonished +to be constant in the truth against all enemies\n      whatsoever.+\n\n  VI. As ministers are pillars, we are taught +to cleave to them and\n      their ministry+ at all times--in life and death.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 10.\n\n_Christianity and Poverty._\n\n+I. Christianity has ever been the friend of the poor.+--1. _The poor\nwho are made so by accepting Christianity._ Accepting Christ often\nmeans the loss of friends, of status, of fortune. The discovery of\nthis result among the first Christians might have much to do in the\nformation of a common fund. There are many Jews and heathen to-day\nwho are convinced of the truth of Christianity but hesitate to make a\npublic avowal of their belief because of the apparent impossibility\nof gaining a livelihood and the certainty of social ostracism.\nChristian missionaries are not in a position to guarantee their\nsupport, nor do they wish to encourage, a system that might easily\ndegenerate into wholesale bribery. There are converts who run all\nrisks and deliberately accept Christ and poverty. All such the\nChristian Church, often at great sacrifice, does its best to befriend.\n\n2. _The poor who are made so by unavoidable calamity._--Judea was\ndevastated by famine in the reign of Claudius C\u00e6sar, and the apostles\npromptly organised relief for the sufferers in the Jewish Churches\n(Acts xi. 27-30). Christianity has ever been ready to help the\ndistressed and unfortunate. The hospitals, alms-houses, and other\nbenevolent institutions that abound are substantial monuments of the\npractical benevolence of the Christian Church. Christianity is the\nbest friend of the people.\n\n+II. Christianity inculcates a zealous and unselfish charity.+--\"Only\nthey would that we should remember the poor; the same I also was\nforward [zealous] to do.\" Paul had already rendered noble service in\nthis direction, and was prompted by the Spirit of the Gospel to\ncontinue to do so. He was zealous in good works, though he stoutly\ndenied any merit in them to justify the sinner. His first concern was\nto help the _Jewish_ poor, though many of them impugned his apostolic\nauthority and strove to ruin his influence. As champion of the\nGentiles he employed the wealth of his converts in supplying the\nneeds of his famishing Jewish brethren. Christian charity is superior\nto the jealousies of sects and parties, and even to personal insult\nand wrong. Behind the hand of the generous alms-giver is the heart of\nlove.\n\n+III. Christianity elevates and enriches the poor.+--It enjoins\ntemperance, industry, honesty, and perseverance--the practice of\nwhich has raised many from poverty to wealth. The man who has\nprospered should never forget the claims of the poor. It is said that\na certain man dreamed that the Saviour appeared to him and upbraided\nhim with giving so little to His cause. The man replied, \"I can't\nafford it.\" \"Very well,\" said the Saviour; \"let it be so. But do you\nremember, that when that business panic happened, how you prayed to\nMe to keep you out of difficulties? and I heard your prayer and tided\nyou over the trouble. And do you remember also, when your little\nchild was sick, how you prayed that her life might be spared, and\nagain I heard your prayer and restored her? But now let it be an\nunderstanding between us that henceforth when you are in trouble I do\nnothing for you, seeing you can't afford to help Me.\" The man's\nconscience was touched, and he exclaimed, \"Lord, take what I have; it\nis Thine.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity is the source of the highest\nphilanthropy._ 2. _Is the unfailing hope and comfort of the poor._\n3. _Has achieved its greatest triumphs among the poor._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _Remember the Poor._\n\nI. +The Church of Jerusalem was in extreme poverty.+--1. Because the\npoorer sort received the Gospel. 2. Because the richer were deprived\nof their riches for their profession of the name of Christ.\n\nII. It is the office of pastors and teachers, not only to preach and\ndispense the Word, but also +to have care of the poor.+\n\nIII. +Satisfaction, recompense, and restitution are the way to life+\nby the appointment of God.--1. He must restore who is the cause of\nany wrong or loss to others and all that are accessory.\n2. Restitution is to be made to him that is wronged and bears the\nloss if he be known and alive; if he be dead, to his heirs; if all be\ndead, to the poor. 3. The things to be restored are those which are\nof us unjustly received or detained, either known to us or unknown.\n4. As to the order of restitution, things certain must first be\nrestored, and things uncertain after.\n\nIV. It is not enough for us to give good words and wish well, but we\nmust in our places and calling +do our endeavour that relief may be\nsealed to our poor.+--1. The charge was great to maintain the altar\nof the Lord in the Old Testament; the poor come in the room of the\naltar. 2. The poor represent the person of Christ. 3. Compassion in\nus is a pledge or an impression of the mercy that is in God towards\nus, and by it we may know or feel in ourselves that mercy belongs\nunto us. The observing of the commandment of relief is the enriching\nof us all.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Christian Duty to the Poor._--1. It is frequently the lot of those\nwho are rich in grace to be poor in the things of the present life,\nand driven into such straits as to be forced to live upon some\ncharitable supply from others, God seeing it convenient hereby to\nwean them from worldly contentments that heaven may be more longed\nafter and more sweet when it comes. 2. Though those who are our own\npoor, within the bounds where we live, are chiefly to be relieved by\nus, yet in cases of extremity the poor who live remote from us are\nalso to be supplied. 3. Ministers ought to press upon the people, not\nonly duties which are easy and cost them nought, but also those that\nare burdensome and expensive, especially that they would willingly\ngive of those things they enjoy for the supply of others who\nwant.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Poor Representative of Christ._--One evening at supper, when one\nof the boys had said the grace, \"Come, Lord Jesus, be our Guest, and\nbless what Thou hast provided,\" a little fellow looked up and said,\n\"Do tell me why the Lord Jesus never comes. We ask Him every day to\nsit with us, and He never comes!\" \"Dear child, only believe, and you\nmay be sure He will come, for He does not despise our invitation.\" \"I\nshall set a seat,\" said the little fellow, and just then there was a\nknock at the door. A poor frozen apprentice entered, begging a\nnight's lodging. He was made welcome, the chair stood empty for him,\nevery child wanted him to have his plate, and one was lamenting that\nhis bed was too small for the stranger, who was quite touched by such\nuncommon attentions. The little one had been thinking hard all the\ntime. \"Jesus could not come, and so He sent this poor man in His\nplace: is that it?\" \"Yes, dear child; that is just it. Every piece of\nbread and every drink of water that we give to the poor, or the sick,\nor the prisoners for Jesus' sake, we give to Him.\"--_Memoir of John\nFalk._\n\n\n_Remembrance of the Poor recommended._\n\n+I. The nature of the assertion.+--1. Remember the work of the poor.\n2. The deprivations of the poor. 3. Our remembrance of the poor\nshould be founded on a personal acquaintance with their\ncircumstances. \"Indeed, sir,\" said a person of large property, \"I am\na very compassionate man; but to tell you the truth, I do not know\nany person in want.\" He kept aloof from the poor.\n\n+II. Obligations to comply with the recommendation.+--1. The dictates\nof humanity require it. 2. The demands of duty. 3. The rights of\njustice. 4. The claims of interest.\n\n+III. Answer objections.+--Such as: 1. My circumstances are\nimpoverished and I have nothing to spare. 2. Charity must begin at\nhome. 3. I have a right to do what I will with my own. 4. The poor do\nnot deserve to be remembered.--_Beta._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-21.\n\n_A Fearless Defence of Fundamental Truth--_\n\n+I. Does not hesitate to impeach a distinguished Church dignitary of\ninconsistency.+--\"But when Peter was come to Antioch, I withstood him\nto the face, because he was to be blamed,\" etc. (vers. 11-14). Peter\nhad been accustomed to mingle with the Gentile converts on the ground\nof perfect social equality. Influenced by the fierce bigots of\nlegalism, who insinuated that the circumcised occupied a superior\nstatus to the uncircumcised, he withdrew from the social circle of\nthe Gentiles and confined himself to that of his Jewish brethren. The\npliability of his impulsive nature led him into this as into other\nmistakes. To create a social distinction between Jew and Gentile was\nto undermine the Gospel. Paul saw at a glance the threatened peril,\nand it needed all his tact and courage to confront it. Though it\nmeant a public impeachment of the sincerity and consistency of one of\nthe most venerated apostles, the champion of the Gentiles did not\nhesitate. Alone, even Barnabas having for the time being deserted\nhim, he stood up boldly for the truth of the Gospel.\n\n+II. Is the opportunity for an authoritative restatement of the truth\nimperilled+ (vers. 15-18).--In these verses the apostle again sets\nforth the fundamental doctrine of justification by faith, without the\nworks of the law. The Judaisers contended that to renounce legal\nrighteousness was in effect to promote sin--to make Christ the\nminister of sin (ver. 17). Paul retorts the charge on those who made\nit and showed that they promote sin who set up legal righteousness\nagain (ver. 18). The reproach of the Judaisers was in reality the\nsame that is urged against evangelical doctrine still--that it is\n_immoral,_ placing the virtuous and vicious in the common category of\nsinners (_Findlay_). \"The complaint was this,\" says Calvin,--\"Has\nChrist therefore come to take away from us the righteousness of the\nlaw, to make us polluted who were holy? Nay, Paul says--he repels the\nblasphemy with detestation. For Christ did not introduce sin but\nrevealed it. He did not rob them of righteousness, but of the false\nshow thereof.\"\n\n+III. Is made more impressive by showing the effect of the truth on\npersonal experience+ (vers. 19-21).--In these words the apostle\nindicates that his own deliverance from the law was effected by being\ndead to the law--being crucified with Christ; and that his own\nspiritual life was originated and sustained by a living faith in a\nloving and self-sacrificing Christ. \"Legalism is fatal to the\nspiritual life in man. Whilst it clouds the Divine character, it\ndwarfs and petrifies the human. What becomes of the sublime mystery\nof the life hid with Christ in God, if its existence is made\ncontingent on circumcision and ritual performance? To men who put\nmeat and drink on a level with righteousness and peace and joy in the\nHoly Ghost, or in their intercourse with fellow-Christians set points\nof ceremony above justice, mercy, and faith, the very idea of a\nspiritual kingdom of God is wanting. The religion of Jesus and of\nPaul regenerates the heart, and from that centre regulates and\nhallows the whole ongoing of life. Legalism guards the mouth, the\nhands, the senses, and imagines that through these it can drill the\nman into the Divine order. The latter theory makes religion a\nmechanical system; the former conceives it as an inward, organic\nlife.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The leaven of error is not easily suppressed._\n2. _True religion has never lacked a race of brave defenders._\n3. _Experimental religion is the best guarantee of its permanence._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 11-13. _Christian Consistency_--\n\n  +I. May be spoilt by yielding to an unworthy fear+ (ver. 12).\n\n +II. Should be strictly maintained for the sake of others+ (ver. 13).\n\n+III. Should be defended with intrepid courage+ (ver. 11).\n\n\nVer. 11. _An Astute Defender of the Faith._\n\n+I. Here we have an example of true virtue,+ in St. Paul resisting\nevil to the utmost of his power. In like manner must every one of us\nresist evil, first in himself and then in them that appertain to him.\n\n+II. An example of boldness and liberty in reproving sin.+--1. This\nliberty in reproving is not the fruit of a bold and rash disposition,\nbut is the fruit of God's Spirit, and is so to be acknowledged.\n2. This liberty is to be ordered by a sound mind whereby we are able\nto give a good account of our reproofs, both for the matter and\nmanner of them. 3. Our admonitions must be seasoned and tempered with\nlove.\n\n+III. An example of an ingenuous and honest mind.+--When Paul sees\nPeter he reproves him to the face. Contrary to this is the common\npractice in backbiting, whispering, and tale-bearing, whereby it\ncomes to pass that when a man is in fault every man knows it save he\nwho is in fault. We see that excellent men, even the chief apostles,\nare subject to err and be deceived.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 12, 13. _The Power of Example._--1. So weak and inconstant are\nthe best of men that, being left to themselves, the least blast of\ntemptation will make them break off the course of doing well in the\nvery midst, and without respect either to conscience or credit,\nopenly desert it. 2. To separate from a true Church and break off\ncommunion with its members cannot be attempted without sin, not\nthough we eschew the offence and stumbling of many. 3. Of so great\nforce is the bad example of men, eminent, gracious, and learned, that\nnot only the weak and infirm, but even those who are strong and\nrichly endowed with both grace and parts, will sometimes be corrupted\nby it. It is usual for us unawares to esteem such as more than men\nand being once so far engaged in our esteem of them we do not so\nnarrowly examine their actions as we do those of other men. 4. An\ninundation of evil examples, though held forth by private Christians,\nis so impetuous and of such force to carry others along with it, that\neven the very best of men can hardly stand against it.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_An Erring Apostle._\n\n+I. Peter's sin was simulation.+--Among the Gentiles at Antioch he\nused Christian liberty in eating things forbidden by the ceremonial\nlaw; yet after the coming of certain Jews from Jerusalem, he\nseparates himself from the Gentiles, and plays the Jew among the\nJews. This act of Peter was not a sin in itself, but the\ncircumstances made it a sin. 1. He not only abstained from meats\nforbidden by the ceremonial law but withdrew himself from the\nGentiles and kept company apart with the Jews. 2. He abstained not\namong the Jews at Jerusalem, but at Antioch among the Gentiles, where\na little before he had openly done the contrary, using his Christian\nliberty. 3. He used this abstinence when certain Jews came from\nJerusalem to search out the liberty of the Gentiles. 4. While Peter\nseeks to avoid the small offence of some Jews, he incurs a greater\noffence of all the Gentiles. 5. This act of Peter tended to the\noverthrowing of Paul's ministry and the suppressing of the truth of\nthe Gospel.\n\n+II. The cause of Peter's sin was fear of offending the Jews.+--It\nwas a sin because he feared man more than God. It was a sin, not of\nmalice, but infirmity. A sin of infirmity is when there is a purpose\nin the heart not to sin, and yet for all this the sin is committed,\nby reason the will is over-carried by temptation, or by violence of\naffection as by fear, anger, lust.\n\n+III. The effect of Peter's sin.+--He drew the Jews and Barnabas to\nthe like dissimulation. Here we see the contagion of an evil example.\n1. Ministers of the Word must join with good doctrine the example of\na good life. 2. Practice in the ministry is a part of the teaching.\n3. All superiors are warned to go before their inferiors by good\nexample. 4. The consent of many together is not a note of truth.\nPeter, Barnabas, and the Jews, all together are deceived; Paul alone\nhas the truth. Ponormitane said, \"A layman bringing Scripture is to\nbe preferred before a whole council.\" Paphnutius alone had the truth,\nand the whole council of Nice inclined to error.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 14-16. _Justification by Faith, not by Works._--1. Though\nprivate sins, which have not broken forth to a public scandal, are to\nbe rebuked in private, public sins are to receive public rebukes,\nthat public scandal may be removed, and others scared from taking\nencouragement to do the like (ver. 14). 2. Though the binding power\nof the ceremonial law was abrogated at Christ's death, and the\npractice in some things left as a thing lawful and in itself\nindifferent, yet the observance, even for that time, was dispensed\nwith more for the Jews' sake, and was more tolerable in them who were\nborn and educated under that yoke, than in the Gentiles, to whom that\nlaw was never given, and so were to observe it, or any part of it,\nonly in case of scandalising the weak Jews by their neglecting of it\n(ver. 14). 3. Though every man by nature is a child of wrath and\nenemy to God, yet those born within the visible Church have a right\nto Church privileges and to enjoy the external means of grace and\nsalvation (ver. 15). 4. The doctrine of justification by faith and\nnot by works was early opposed, and no doctrine so much opposed,\nbecause no truth is more necessary to be kept pure, as if it be kept\npure several other truths are kept pure also, and if it fall other\ntruths fall with it (ver. 16).--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 16. _Justification by Faith._\n\n+I. Man is justified by the mere mercy of God.+--And there is\nexcluded by justification all merit of congruity, all meritorious\nworks of preparation wrought by us, all co-operation of man's will\nwith God's grace in the effecting of our justification.\n\n+II. Man is justified by the mere merit of Christ.+--That is, by the\nmeritorious obedience which He wrought in Himself, and not by\nanything wrought by Him in us.\n\n+III. A sinner is justified by mere faith.+--That is, nothing within\nus concurs as a cause of our justification but faith, and nothing\napprehends Christ's obedience for our justification but faith. This\nwill more easily appear if we compare faith, hope, and love. Faith is\nlike a hand that opens itself to receive a gift, and so is neither\nlove nor hope. Love is also a hand, but yet a hand that gives out,\ncommunicates, and distributes. For as faith receives Christ into our\nhearts, so love opens the heart and pours our praise and thanks to\nGod and all manner of goodness to men. Hope is no hand, but an eye\nthat wistfully looks and waits for the good things faith believes.\nTherefore, it is the only property of faith to clasp and lay hold of\nChrist and His benefits.\n\n+IV. The practice of them that are justified is to believe.+--To put\ntheir trust in Christ. 1. Faith and practice must reign in the heart\nand have all at command. We must not go by sense, feeling, reason,\nbut shut our eyes and let faith keep our hearts close to the promise\nof God. Faith must overrule and command nature and the strongest\naffections thereof. 2. When we know not what to do by reason of the\ngreatness of our distress, we must fix our hearts on Christ with\nseparation, as he that climbs up a ladder or some steep place: the\nhigher he goes the faster he holds.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 17, 18. _False Methods of Salvation_--\n\n  +I. To seek justification in any other way than through\n      Christ.+--\"If, while we seek to be justified by Christ, we\n      ourselves are found sinners\" (ver. 17).\n\n +II. Reflect unjustly on the character of the only Saviour.+--\"Is\n      therefore Christ the minister of sin? God forbid\" (ver. 17).\n\n+III. Aggravate our sin by restoring in practice what we have\n      abandoned in theory.+--\"For if I build again the things which\n      I destroyed, I make myself a transgressor\" (ver. 18).\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Christian Dead to the Law._\n\n+I. The state in which the apostle describes himself to be.+--\"I am\ndead to the law.\" Not the moral law of God. Every rational creature\nin the universe is under its dominion, the believer as well as\nothers. He must escape from existence before he can escape from the\nlaw of God. The apostle means he is dead to it as a covenant between\nGod and himself. There still stands the law before him in all its\nprimitive authority, purity, and majesty; he honours it and strives\nto obey it, and often rejoices in the thought that the time will come\nwhen he shall have his soul in a state of perfect conformity to it,\nbut this is all. Its life-giving, death-bringing powers are utterly\nat an end, and he knows they are at an end. He is dead to all hope\nfrom the law, dead to all expectation of heaven or of salvation from\nit. He builds no more hope on his obedience to it than as though the\nlaw had ceased to exist, and no more fear has he of condemnation from\nit. The believer, dead to the legal covenant, rests from it. The\nconnection between him and it is over, and with it are over the\nfeelings within him, the painful, perturbing, apprehensive, slavish\nfeelings arising out of it.\n\n+II. The means whereby the apostle has been brought into the state he\ndescribes.+--\"I through the law am dead to the law.\" Suppose a man\nanxious to pass from one country to another, from a dangerous and\nwretched country to a safe and happy one. Directly in his road stands\na mountain which he cannot pass over, and which he at first imagines\nhe can without much difficulty climb. He tries, but scarcely has he\nbegun to breast it when a precipice stops him. He descends and tries\nagain in another direction. There another precipice or some other\nobstacle arrests his course; and still ever as he begins his ascent\nhe is baffled, and the little way he contrives to mount serves only\nto show him more and more of the prodigious height of the mountain,\nand its stern, rugged, impassable character. At last, wearied and\nworn, heart-sick with labour and disappointment, and thoroughly\nconvinced that no efforts of his can carry him over, he lies down at\nthe mountain's foot in utter despair, longing still to be on the\nother side, but making not another movement to get there. Now ask him\nas he lies exhausted on the ground what has occasioned his torpor and\ndespair; he will say that mountain itself: its situation between him\nand the land of his desires, and its inaccessible heights and\nmagnitude. So stands the law of God between the Christian and the\nland he longs for. The impossibility of making our way to God by\nmeans of the law arises from the extent of its requirements, and the\nunbending, inexorable character of its denunciations. We can do\nnothing but die to it, sink down before this broad, high, terrific\nmountain in utter despair. While through the law the believer dies to\nall hope from the law, through the cross of Christ he also dies to\nall apprehension from it.\n\n+III. The design of this deadness to the law in the Christian's\nsoul.+--\"That I might live unto God.\" This living unto God dethrones\nself, discovers to the man the base, degrading idol to which he has\nbeen bowing down, makes him ashamed of the worship he has paid it,\nand places on the throne of his heart his Saviour and his God. His\nrenunciation of his self-righteousness has gradually brought on other\nrenunciations of self. The law driving him to Christ has been the\nmeans of driving him out of self altogether. It has brought him into\nthe sphere of the Gospel and among those soul-stirring principles,\nfeelings, and aspirations connected with the Gospel. There is no\ngreater mistake than to imagine that the Gospel has destroyed the law\nor loosened in any degree its hold on men. The Gospel rests on the\nlaw. But for the law and its unbending, unchangeable, external\ncharacter the Gospel had not existed, for it would not have been\nneeded. Dead to the law and alive unto God are two things that go\ntogether; the one springs out of the other. The more completely we\ndie to the law as a covenant, the more fully, freely, and happily\nshall we live unto God.--_C. Bradley._\n\n\n_Dead to the Law by the Law._\n\n+I. The person justified is dead to the law.+--Here the law is\ncompared to a hard and cruel master, and we to slaves or bondmen, who\nso long as they are alive are under the dominion and at the command\nof their masters; yet when they are dead they are free from that\nbondage, and their masters have no more to do with them. To be dead\nto the law is to be free from the dominion of the law. 1. In respect\nof the accusing and damnatory sentence of the law. 2. In respect of\nthe power of the law. 3. In respect of the rigour of the law,\nexacting most perfect obedience for our justification. 4. In respect\nof the obligation of the conscience to the observance of ceremonies.\n\n+II. The justified person is dead to the law by the law.+--By the law\nof Moses I am dead to the law of Moses. The law accuses, terrifies,\nand condemns us, and therefore occasions us to flee unto Christ who\nis the cause that we die unto the law. As the needle goes down and\ndraws in the thread which sews the cloth, so the law goes before and\nmakes a way that grace may follow after and take place in the heart.\n\n+III. The end of our death to the law is that we may live to\nGod.+--We live to God wisely in respect of ourselves, godly in\nrespect go God, justly in respect to men. That we may live godly we\nmust: 1. Bring ourselves into the presence of the invisible God and\nset all we do in His sight and presence. 2. We must take knowledge of\nthe will of God in all things. 3. In all we do and suffer we must\ndepend on God for success and deliverance. 4. In all things we must\ngive thanks and praise to God.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 20. _The Believer crucified with Christ, and Christ living in\nthe Believer._\n\n+I. The believer is conformed to the death of Christ.+--1. The nature\nof this crucifixion. It is figurative, not literal; yet real, and not\nchimerical. It not only signifies suffering and dying to sin, but\nalso to effect this by the efficacy of Christ's cross. 2. The objects\nto which the Christian is crucified, and the principles which thereby\nexpire: (1) The law considered as a means of justification. (2) The\nworld--its applause, treasures, gratification. (3) Self. 3. The\nsufferings which accompany this crucifixion. Severe conviction and\nmortification. The complete surrender of heart is attended with many\npangs. The continuance of the struggle is grievous.\n\n+II. The believer participates in the life of Christ.+--1. The\nprinciple of the life--Christ living in the soul. 2. The evidences of\nthis life--holy tempers, spiritual conversation, benevolent actions.\n3. The instrument by which this life is introduced and maintained in\nthe soul--faith.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _This subject furnishes a test to try the reality of\nour religion and the measure of our attainments._ 2. _Exposes the\ndelusion of Pharisees, hypocrites, and antinomians._ 3. _Exhibits the\ndignity, felicity, and exalted hopes of the real believer.--Delta._\n\n\n_The Religious Life of the Apostle_--\n\n  +I. Was characterised from the beginning by promptitude of action.+\n\n +II. Was marked by a constant solicitude for his own personal\n      salvation.+\n\n+III. Was eminent for its spirit of devotion.+\n\n +IV. Was one of high fellowship with the Divine.+\n\n  +V. Had its foundation and power in a living faith in Christ.+\n\n\n_Truths to live on._--Some one has said, \"Give me a great truth that\nI may live on it.\" And the preacher may well say, \"Give me a great\ntruth that I may preach it.\" There are many great truths in this\nverse. And yet how simply are they put! The first great truth taught\nin this verse is the _oneness_ between Christ and those who believe\nin Him. What St. Paul means is this, that having died with Christ on\nthe cross, he has in Christ paid the penalty of sin, and it is no\nlonger his old self that lives and rules, but Christ lives in him.\nAnd is not this the Christ I want? Not only a Christ to copy, not a\nChrist outside me, but a Christ living and reigning within. The\nbeliever lives by faith, and faith lives on the promises, for faith\nis a loving trust. The presence or absence of faith rules the whole\ndestiny of every man. The man who believes will live one way. The\nunbeliever will live in another way. If you have this simple trust in\nChrist, you may appropriate the last clause of the verse, \"He loved\nme, and gave Himself for me.\" When did that love begin? Never. When\nwill that love end? Never.\n\n     \"Every human tie may perish,\n        Friend to friend ungrateful prove,\n      Mothers cease their own to cherish,\n        Heaven and earth at last remove;\n             But no changes\n        Can attend the Saviour's love.\"\n\nFor those Christ loves He will undertake altogether. He gives them\nHis peace, His joy, His smile, His arm, His hand, His home. For _He\ngave Himself._ There are all treasures in Him. Strength for every\nneed, wisdom for every question, comfort for every sorrow, healing\nfor every wound, provision for every day. \"For _me,_\" so\ninsignificant, unworthy, so bad; for me, whose iniquities have\ndarkened the blue heavens; for me, a slave of sin.\n\n     \"Why was I made to hear Thy voice\n        And enter while there's room,\n      While thousands made a wretched choice,\n        And rather starve than come?\n      'Twas the same love that spread the feast,\n        That gently forced me in,\n      Else I had still refused to taste,\n        And perished in my sin.\"\n\n--_F. Harper, M.A._\n\n\n_The Love of the Son of God to Men._\n\n+I. The existence of this amazing affection.+--Let not the\nstrangeness of the love stagger us into doubt or disbelief, but let\nus receive and rest in the revealed fact. Viewed from the side of the\nDivine, it is affection from a superior towards those vastly\ninferior. Viewed from the side of the human beings beloved, it is an\naffection altogether undeserved. The contrast between His dignity and\nour demerit is the background on which His love stands out\nconspicuously.\n\n+II. The proof of affection He gave.+--Not left to assertion or\nspeculation, but proved by a public act. What he _did_ expresses what\nHe felt. He showed it openly by self-denial and self-surrender. He\ngave not His substance or possessions, not another being, but to\nprocure our salvation and express His love He delivered up His own\nperson.\n\n+III. The personality or individuality of the affection.+--He died\nfor all and for each. His love to each human being might be inferred\nfrom that to the whole race, but it is affirmed directly. Each singly\nhad a distinct place in His loving death. Each was a unit before Him,\nand had a personal interest in His affection.--_W. Smiley, B.A._\n\n\n_The Life of Faith._\n\n+I. The life which the apostle lived in the flesh.+--1. _His whole\nlife was a life of religious decision._ He made his choice and never\nfaltered in it. He saw what he had to do, and he began to do it at\nonce. He allowed no parley with the enemy. Nor was this resolution\nfleeting; it continued through life.\n\n2. _His life was marked by a solemn regard and care for his own\npersonal salvation._--There are two sources of religious danger of\nwhich we are not always sufficiently aware--zeal for doctrinal truth,\nand active employment in promoting the spread of truth. How possible\nit is that, through the treachery of our hearts, even these may be\nallowed insensibly to sap the very foundations of that solemn fear,\nas to our own selves, which ought to influence us! Remember that\ntruth is not the substance of salvation but its instrument. Water\nothers, but neglect not your own vineyard.\n\n3. _His life was truly a life of devotion._--His was a life of\nprayer. Philosophy asks for a reason for the efficacy of prayer, and\nwaiting for an answer, never prays at all. Religion hears that God\nwill be inquired of by us, thankfully bends the knee, touches the\ngolden sceptre, and bears away the blessing. We always want; we must\nalways pray. And wish we for a model of high aspiration in prayer?\nLet the apostle elevate and expand our languid desires.\n\n4. _His life was one of heavenly-mindedness._--He lived indeed in the\nflesh, but his life was in heaven. Heavenly-mindedness is the result\nof three things--an assurance of present acceptance with God,\nhabitual intercourse with Him through His Son, and the extinction of\nthe worldly spirit. Our fears and aversions result from principles\ndirectly opposite.\n\n5. _His life was one of cheerful submission to providential\nappointments._--His was no life of envied ease. In every city bonds\nand afflictions awaited him. These dispensations operated on a tender\nand delicate mind, for in him were united great energy and great\ntenderness. Yet this man, hunted like a beast of prey, always\npreserves and exhibits a contented cheerfulness. There was no sorrow\nfor himself, none allowed to others for him. The principle itself\nreason could not furnish; but when furnished it is seen to be most\nreasonable.\n\n6. _His life was one of laborious usefulness._--He lived not to\nhimself, but to Christ Jesus his Lord, in the promotion of His will\nin the moral benefit and eternal salvation of men. This was the life\nhe lived in the flesh, even to spread the light and influence of the\nGospel to all.\n\n+II. The principle and source of his life.+--1. _It is Christian\nfaith._ Its object, the Son of God. It receives His words as true,\nand regards Him as an atoning sacrifice. \"He gave Himself for me.\"\n\n2. _In its nature it is confiding and appropriating._--How does faith\nconnect itself with the results stated? (1) It regenerates as well as\njustifies. (2) It produces vital union with Christ. (3) It is\nhabitual in its exercise. (4) It is realising. It gives a spiritual\napprehension of invisible and eternal realities.--_R. Watson._\n\n\n_Self-abolished and Replaced._--Caroline Herschel, the sister of the\ngreat astronomer, was through all her life the most attached servant\nof her brother. She called herself \"a mere tool, which my brother had\nthe trouble of sharpening.\" She learned the details of observing with\nsuch success that she independently discovered eight comets. Her\ndevotion was most complete. Wherever her brother was concerned she\nabolished self and replaced her nature with his. Having no taste for\nastronomy, her work at first was distasteful to her; but she\nconquered this and lived to help his work and fame.\n\n\nVer. 21. _The Perils of False Teaching._\n\n  +I. It seeks to base personal righteousness on an effete\n      legalism.+--\"If righteousness come by the law.\"\n\n +II. It defeats the gracious purposes of God.+--\"I do not\n      frustrate the grace of God.\"\n\n+III. It renders the sacrifice of Christ nugatory.+--\"Then Christ is\n      dead in vain.\"\n\n\n_Frustrating Divine Grace._--1. The joining of works with faith in\nthe manner of justification is a total excluding of God's free grace\nand favour from any hand in the work. Grace admits of no partner. If\ngrace does not all, it does nothing; if anything be added, that\naddition makes grace to be no grace. 2. That the apostle doth exclude\nin this dispute from having any influence in justification the works,\nnot only of the ceremonial but also of the moral law, appears from\nthis--that he opposes the merit of Christ's death to all merit of our\nown, whether by obedience to the one law or the other. 3. If there\nhad been any other way possible by which the salvation of sinners\ncould have been brought about but by the death of Christ, then Christ\nwould not have died. To suppose Christ died in vain or without cause\nis an absurdity. If justification could have been attained by works\nor any other means, then His death had been in vain, and it were an\nabsurd thing to suppose He would have died in that case.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_Justification by Works makes Void the Grace of God._\n\nI. +Grace must stand wholly and entirely in itself.+--God's grace\ncannot stand with man's merit. Grace is not grace unless it be freely\ngiven every way. Grace and works of grace in the causing of\njustification can no more stand together than fire and water.\n\nII. The apostle answers the objection +that if a sinner is justified\nonly by faith in Christ then we abolish the grace of God.+--He shows\nthat if we be justified by our own fulfilment of the law then Christ\ndied in vain to fulfil the law for us.\n\nIII. +We have here a notable ground of true religion.+--That the\ndeath of Christ is made void if anything be joined with it in the\nwork of our justification as a means to satisfy God's justice and to\nmerit the favour of God. Therefore the doctrine of justification by\nworks is a manifest error.--_Perkins._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Who hath bewitched you?+--Fascinated you, as if overlooked\nby the evil eye, so that your brain is confused. The Galatians were\nreputed to possess acute intellects: the apostle marvelled the more\nat their defection. +That you should not obey the truth.+--Omitted in\nR.V. +Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set forth,\ncrucified.+--In preaching, a vivid portraiture of Christ crucified\nhas been set before you as if depicted in graphic characters\nimpossible to mistake.\n\nVer. 3. +Having begun in the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the\nflesh?+--What monstrous folly is this! Will you so violate the Divine\norder of progress? The flesh may be easily mistaken for the Spirit,\neven by those who have made progress, unless they continue to\nmaintain a pure faith (_Bengel_).\n\nVer. 4. +Have ye suffered so many things in vain?+--Since ye might\nhave avoided them by professing Judaism. Will ye lose the reward\npromised for all suffering?\n\nVer. 5. +He that worketh miracles among you.+--In you, at your\nconversion and since.\n\nVer. 6. +Even as Abraham believed God.+--Where justification is there\nthe Spirit is, so that if the former comes by faith the latter must\nalso.\n\nVer. 8. +Preached before the Gospel unto Abraham.+--Thus the Gospel\nin its essential germ is older than the law, though the full\ndevelopment of the former is subsequent to the latter. The promise to\nAbraham was in anticipation of the Gospel, not only as announcing the\nMessiah, but also as involving the doctrine of righteousness by faith.\n\nVer. 10. +As many as are of the works of the law are under the\ncurse.+--This the Scripture itself declares. It utters an anathema\nagainst all who fail to fulfil every single ordinance contained in\nthe book of the law (Deut. xxvii. 26).\n\nVer. 13. +Christ hath redeemed us from the curse.+--Bought us off\nfrom our bondage and from the curse under which all lie who trust to\nthe law. The ransom price He paid was His own precious blood (1 Pet.\ni. 18, 19). +Cursed is every one that hangeth on a tree.+--Christ's\nbearing the particular curse of hanging on the tree is a sample of\nthe general curse which He representatively bore. Not that the Jews\nput to death malefactors by hanging, but after having put them to\ndeath otherwise, in order to brand them with peculiar ignominy, they\nhung the bodies on a tree, and such malefactors were accursed by the\nlaw. The Jews in contempt called Him _the hanged one._ Hung between\nheaven and earth as though unworthy of either.\n\nVer. 17. +The covenant, that was confirmed before of God in Christ,\nthe law cannot disannul.+--From the recognised inviolability of a\nhuman covenant (ver. 15), the apostle argues the impossibility of\nviolating the Divine covenant. The law cannot set aside the promise.\n\nVer. 19. +Wherefore then serveth the law?+--As it is of no avail for\njustification, is it either useless or contrary to the covenant of\nGod? +It was added because of transgressions.+--To bring out into\nclearer view the transgression of the law; to make men more fully\nconscious of their sins, by being perceived as transgression of the\nlaw, and so make them long for the promised Saviour. +It was ordained\nby angels in the hand of a Mediator.+--As instrumental enactors of\nthe law. In the giving of the law the angels were representatives of\nGod; Moses, as mediator, represented the people.\n\nVer. 20. +Now a Mediator is not a mediator of one, but God is\none.+--The very idea of mediation supposes two persons at least,\nbetween whom the mediation is carried on. The law then is of the\nnature of a contract between two parties--God on the one hand, and\nthe Jewish people on the other. It is only valid so long as both\nparties fulfil the terms of the contract. It is therefore contingent\nand not absolute. Unlike the law, the promise is absolute and\nunconditional. It depends on the sole decree of God. There are not\ntwo contracting parties. There is nothing of the nature of a\nstipulation. The Giver is everything, the recipient nothing\n(_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 22. +The Scripture hath concluded all under sin.+--The written\nletter was needed so as permanently to convict man of disobedience to\nGod's command. He is shut up under condemnation as in a prison.\n\nVer. 24. +The law was our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ.+--As\na tutor, checking our sinful propensities, making the consciousness\nof the sinful principle more vivid, and showing the need of\nforgiveness and freedom from the bondage of sin.\n\nVer. 26. +Ye are all the children of God.+--No longer children\nrequiring a tutor, but sons emancipated and walking at liberty.\n\nVer. 28. +Ye are all one in Christ Jesus.+--No class privileged above\nanother, as the Jews under the law had been above the Gentiles.\nDifference of sex makes no difference in Christian privileges. But\nunder the law the male sex had great privileges.\n\nVer. 29. +If ye be Christ's, then are ye Abraham's seed and\nheirs.+--Christ is Abraham's seed, and all who are baptised into\nChrist, put on Christ (ver. 27), and are one in Christ (ver. 28), are\nchildren entitled to the inheritance of promise.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.\n\n_The Deceptive Glamour of Error_--\n\n+I. Diverts the gaze of the soul from the most suggestive\ntruth.+--\"Before whose eyes Jesus Christ hath been evidently set\nforth, crucified\" (ver. 1). The cross of Christ was the great theme\nof Paul's preaching. He depicted it in such vivid colours and dwelt\non every detail of the story with such intense earnestness and loving\nemphasis, that the Galatians were arrested, excited, charmed. They\nwere smitten with a sense of sin. They seemed to be actors in the\nscene, as if their own hands had driven in the nails that pierced the\nsacred Victim. They were bowed with shame and humiliation, and in an\nagony of repentance they cast themselves before the Crucified and\ntook Him for their Christ and King. While they looked to Jesus they\nwere secure, but when they listened to the deceptive voice of error,\ntheir gaze was diverted, and the deep significance of the cross\nbecame obscured. Then backsliding began. Like mariners losing sight\nof their guiding star, they drifted into strange waters. The cross is\nthe central force of Christianity; when it fades from view\nChristianity declines. \"As the sun draws the vapours of the sea, and\nthen paints a rainbow on them, so Christ draws men and then glorifies\nthem. His attraction is like that of the sun. It is magnetic too,\nlike that of the magnet to the pole. It is not simply the Christ that\nis the magnet; it is the crucified Christ. It is not Christ without\nthe cross, nor the cross without Christ; it is both of them together.\"\n\n+II. Confuses the mind as to the nature and value of spiritual\nagencies.+--1. _Concerning the method of their first\nreception._--\"Received ye the Spirit by the works of the law, or by\nthe hearing of faith?\" (ver. 2). Making it appear that spiritual\nblessings were acquired by outward observance rather than by inward\ncontemplation and faith. Confusing the true method of moral\nregeneration, it arrests all growth and advancement in the spiritual\nlife. It throws back the soul on the weary round of toilsome and\nhopeless human effort.\n\n2. _Concerning the purpose for which they were given._--\"Having begun\nin the Spirit, are ye now made perfect by the flesh?\" (ver. 3). It\nwas a reversal of the Divine order. Having begun in the Spirit, so\nthey must continue, or they would be undone. It was absurd to look\nfor perfection in the flesh, especially when they had discovered its\nhelplessness and misery. Pharisaic ordinances could do nothing to\nconsummate the work of faith and love; Moses could not lead them\nhigher than Christ; circumcision could never effect what the Holy\nGhost failed to do. Spiritual results can be brought about only by\nspiritual agencies.\n\n3. _Rendering suffering on behalf of the truth meaningless._--\"Have\nye suffered so many things in vain?\" (ver. 4). The Galatians on their\nconversion were exposed to the fiercest persecution from the Jews and\nfrom their own countrymen incited by the Jews. No one could come out\nof heathen society and espouse the cause of Christ in those days, nor\ncan he do so to-day, without making himself a mark for ridicule and\nviolence, without the rupture of family and public ties, and many\npainful sacrifices. But if the truth may be so easily abandoned, all\nearly struggles against opposition and all the educative influence\nand promised reward of suffering must go for nothing. It is\ndisappointing and disastrous when a youthful zeal for religion\ndegenerates in maturer life into apathy and worldliness, when the\ngreat principles of right and liberty, for which our fathers fought\nand suffered, are treated by their descendants with supine\nindifference.\n\n+III. Creates misconceptions as to the Divine method of ministering\nspiritual blessing.+--\"He that ministereth to you the Spirit, and\nworketh miracles, doeth he it by the works of the law, or by the\nhearing of faith?\" (ver. 5). One of the most subtle effects of error\nis to suspend the mind in a state of hesitation and doubt. It is a\ndangerous mood. Confidence in the truth is shaken, and for the moment\nthe soul has nothing stable on which to lay hold. It is the\nopportunity for the enemy, and damage is done which even a subsequent\nreturn to the truth does not wholly efface. Paul saw the peril of his\nconverts, and he suggests this test--the Spirit of God had put His\nseal on the apostle's preaching and on the faith of his hearers. Did\nany such manifestation accompany the preaching of the legalists? He\ntakes his stand on the indubitable evidence of the work of the\nSpirit. It is the only safe ground for the champion of experimental\nChristianity (1 Cor. ii. 14, 15).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Every error is the distortion of some truth._ 2. _The\ncross is the central truth of Christianity._ 3. _The highest truths\nare spiritually discerned._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _Faithful Reproof._--1. The minister when he is called to\ninsist upon the clearing up of truth, whether positively by showing\nwhat is revealed in Scripture or controversially by refuting errors,\nshould mix his discourse with exhortation and reproof, to excite and\nquicken the affections of his hearers. 2. False teachers, who by fair\nwords deceive the simple, are spiritual sorcerers, and error is\nspiritual witchcraft. As sorcerers by deluding the senses make people\napprehend that they see what they see not, so false teachers, by\ncasting a mist of seeming reason before the understanding, delude it,\nand make the deluded person to believe that to be truth which is not.\n3. Though Christ and His sufferings are to be vividly represented and\npictured by the plain and powerful preaching of the Gospel, yet it\ndoes not follow they are to be artificially painted with colours on\nstone or timber for religious use. The graven image is a teacher of\nlies (Hab. ii. 18).--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Folly of Disobedience._\n\n+I. We are wise in matters of the world, but in matters concerning\nthe kingdom of heaven the most of us are fools,+ besotted and\nbewitched with worldly cares and pleasures, without sense in matters\nof religion; like a piece of wax without form, fit to take the form\nand print of any religion.\n\n+II. The truth here mentioned is the heavenly doctrine of the\nGospel,+ so called because it is absolute truth without error, and\nbecause it is a most worthy truth--the truth according to godliness.\n\n+III. The office of the minister is to set forth Christ\ncrucified.+--1. The ministry of the Word must be plain, perspicuous,\nand evident, as if the doctrine were pictured and painted out before\nthe eyes of men. 2. It must be powerful and lively in operation, and\nas it were crucifying Christ within us and causing us to feel the\nvirtue of His passion. The Word preached must pierce into the heart\nlike a two-edged sword. 3. The effectual and powerful preaching of\nthe Word stands in three things: (1) True and proper interpretation\nof the Scripture. (2) Savoury and wholesome doctrine gathered out of\nthe Scriptures truly expounded. (3) The application of the said\ndoctrine, either to the information of the judgment or the\nreformation of the life.\n\n+IV. The duty of all believers is to behold Christ crucified.+--And\nwe must behold Him by the eye of faith, which makes us both see Him\nand feel Him, as it were, crucified in us. 1. By beholding Christ\ncrucified we see our misery and wickedness. 2. This sight brings us\ntrue and lively comfort. 3. This sight of Christ makes a wonderful\nchange in us. The chameleon takes the colours of the things it sees\nand that are near to it; and the believing heart takes to it the\ndisposition and mind that was in Christ--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Attractiveness of Worth._--In the Paris Salon some few years ago\nthere was a bust of the painter Baudry by Paul Dubois, one of the\ngreatest modern sculptors. Mr. Edmund Gosse was sitting to\ncontemplate this bust when an American gentleman strolled by, caught\nsight of it, and after hovering round it for some time came and sat\nby his side and watched it. Presently he turned to Mr. Gosse\ninquiring if he could tell him whose it was, and whether it was\nthought much of, adding with a charming modesty, \"I don't know\nanything about art; but I found that I could not get past that head.\"\nWould that we could so set forth Christ that His Word might be\nfulfilled, \"I, if I be lifted up, will draw all men unto me\"! (John\nxii. 32).\n\n\nVers. 2-5. _Searching Questions._--1. As to the mode of receiving the\nSpirit (ver. 2). 2. As to the folly of expecting advancement by\nsubstituting an inferior for a superior force (ver. 3). 3. As to the\nuselessness of suffering (ver. 4). 4. As to the exercise of spiritual\nand miraculous power (ver. 5).\n\n\nVer. 4. _Suffering for the Truth._--1. They may suffer many things\nfor truth who afterwards fall from it. As the example of others,\nparticular interest and general applause will make even hypocrites\nsuffer much, so continued suffering will make even the godly faint\nfor a time. The best, being left to themselves, in an hour of\ntemptation, will turn their back upon truth, so that no profession,\nno experience or remembrance of the joy and sweetness found in the\nway of truth, nor their former sufferings for it, will make them\nadhere to it. 2. Whatever have been the sufferings for truth, they\nare all in vain, lost and to no purpose, if the party make defection\nfrom and turn his back upon the truth. 3. Though those who have\nsuffered much for the truth should afterwards fall from it, we are to\nkeep charity towards them, hoping God will give them repentance and\nreclaim them. All our sharpness towards them ought to be wisely\ntempered, by expressing the charitable thoughts we have of\nthem.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Uses of Suffering._--1. They serve for trial of men, that it may\nappear what is hidden in their hearts. 2. They serve for the\ncorrection of things amiss in us. 3. They serve as documents and\nwarnings to others, especially in public persons. 4. They are marks\nof adoption if we be content to obey God in them. 5. They are the\ntrodden and beaten way to the kingdom of heaven.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 5. _Miracles confirmatory of the Truth._--1. The Lord\naccompanied the first preaching of the Gospel with the working of\nmiracles that the truth of the doctrine might be confirmed, which\nbeing once sufficiently done, there is no further use for miracles.\n2. So strong and prevalent is the spirit of error, and so weak the\nbest in themselves to resist it, that for love to error they will\nquit truth, though confirmed and sealed by the saving fruits of God's\nSpirit in their hearts.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-9.\n\n_The Abrahamic Gospel_--\n\n+I. Recognised the principle that righteousness is only by\nfaith.+--\"Abraham believed God, and it was accounted to him for\nrighteousness\" (ver. 6). The promise to Abraham contained the germ of\nthe Gospel and was the only Gospel known to pre-Christian times.\nThough dimly apprehending its vast import, Abraham trusted in God's\nMessianic promise, and his unfaltering faith, often severely tried,\nwas in the judgment of the gracious God imputed to him as rectitude.\n\"In this mode of salvation there was after all nothing new. The\nrighteousness of faith is more ancient than legalism. It is as old as\nAbraham. In the hoary patriarchal days as now, in the time of promise\nas of fulfilment, faith is the root of religion; grace invites,\nrighteousness waits upon the hearing of faith.\"\n\n+II. Was universal in its spiritual provisions.+--\"The Scripture,\nforeseeing that God would justify the heathen through faith, preached\nbefore the gospel unto Abraham, saying, In thee shall all nations be\nblessed\" (ver. 8). Twice is Abraham designated \"the friend of God.\"\nThe Arabs still call him _the friend._ His image has impressed itself\nwith singular force on the Oriental mind. He is the noblest figure of\nthe Old Testament, surpassing Isaac in force, Jacob in purity, and\nboth in dignity of character. His religion exhibits a heroic strength\nand firmness, but at the same time a large-hearted, genial humanity,\nan elevation and serenity of mind, to which the temper of those who\nboasted themselves his children was utterly opposed. Father of the\nJewish race, Abraham was no Jew. He stands before us in the morning\nlight of revelation a simple, noble, archaic type of man, true father\nof many nations. And his faith was the secret of the greatness which\nhas commanded for him the reverence of four thousand years. His trust\nin God made him worthy to receive so immense a trust for the future\nof mankind (_Findlay_).\n\n+III. Shares its privilege and blessing with all who believe.+--\"They\nwhich are of faith, the same are the children of . . . are blessed\nwith faithful Abraham\" (vers. 7, 9). With Abraham's faith the\nGentiles inherit his blessing. They were not simply blessed _in_ him,\nthrough his faith which received and handed down the blessing but\nblessed _with_ him. Their righteousness rests on the same principle\nas his. Reading the story of Abraham, we witness the bright dawn of\nfaith, its springtime of promise and of hope. These morning hours\npassed away; and the sacred history shuts us in to the hard school of\nMosaism, with its isolation, its mechanical routine and ritual\ndrapery, its yoke of legal exaction ever growing more burdensome. Of\nall this the Church of Christ was to know nothing. It was called to\nenter into the labours of the legal centuries without the need of\nsharing their burdens. In the \"Father of the Faithful\" and the\n\"Friend of God\" Gentile believers were to see their exemplar, to find\nthe warrant for that sufficiency and freedom of faith of which the\nnatural children of Abraham unjustly strove to rob them (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel has an honourable antiquity._\n2. _Righteousness is the practical side of true religion._ 3. _Faith\nis the way to righteousness._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6-9. _Righteousness through Faith._\n\n  +I. The Divine method of blessing in past ages+ (ver. 6).\n\n +II. Modern believers are spiritual successors of the most eminent\n      examples of faith in ancient times+ (ver. 7).\n\n+III. The unchanging Gospel taught in Holy Scripture+ (ver. 8).\n\n +VI. Ensures the enjoyment of promised blessings+ (ver. 9).\n\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Imitators of Abraham's Faith._\n\n+I. We must have knowledge of the main and principal promise touching\nthe blessing of God in Christ,+ and all other promises depending on\nthe principal; and we must know the scope and tenor of them that we\nbe not deceived.\n\n+II. We must with Abraham believe the truth and power of God+ in the\naccomplishment of the said promises, or in the working of our\nvocation, justification, sanctification, glorification.\n\n+III. We must by faith obey God+ in all things, shutting our eyes and\nsuffering ourselves to be led blindfold, as it were, by the Word of\nGod. Thus did Abraham in all things, even in actions against nature.\nBut this practice is rare among us. For there are three things which\nprevail among us--the love of worldly honour, the love of pleasure,\nand the love of riches; and where these bear sway there faith takes\nno place.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 8, 9. _All Nations blessed in Abraham._--1. The covenant of\ngrace with Abraham extended not only to his carnal seed, but to all\nbelievers, even among the Gentiles. 2. The blessings promised to\nAbraham were not only temporal, but heavenly and spiritual: the\ntemporal were often inculcated on the ancient Church, not as if they\nwere all or the main blessings of the covenant, but as they were\nshadows of things heavenly. 3. The promise to Abraham contained the\nsum of the Gospel--the glad tidings of all spiritual blessings, and\nthat the Gentiles should have access, in the days of the Gospel, to\nthese blessings. The Gospel is therefore no new doctrine, but the\nsame in substance with that taught to Abraham and to the Church under\nthe Old Testament. 4. Eminent privileges bestowed on particular\npersons do not exempt them from walking to heaven in the common\npathway with others. Abraham, the father of believers, in whom all\nnations were blessed, enjoyed the blessing, not because of his own\nmerit, but freely and by faith as well as others.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Abrahamic Gospel intended for All._\n\n+I. The nation of the Jews shall be called and converted to the\nparticipation of this blessing.+--When and how, God knows; but it\nshall be done before the end of the world. If all nations be called,\nthen the Jews.\n\n+II. That which was foretold to Abraham is verified in our\neyes.+--This nation and many other nations are at this day blessed in\nthe seed of Abraham. 1. Give to God thanks and praise that we are\nborn in these days. 2. We must amend and turn to God that we may now\nbe partakers of the promised blessing. 3. We must bless all, do good\nto all, and hurt to none.\n\n+III. All men who are of Abraham's faith shall be partakers of the\nsame blessing with him.+--God respects not the greatness of our faith\nso much as the truth of it.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-14.\n\n_The Conflict between the Law and Faith._\n\n+I. The law condemns the least violation of its enactments.+--\"Cursed\nis every one that continueth not in all things . . . in the law to do\nthem\" (ver. 10). The law is a unity; to violate a part is to violate\nthe whole. It is like a perfect bell, every stroke resounds through\nevery atom of the metal. If the bell is fractured in the least\ndegree, the dissonance is evident in every part. Law is so\nall-pervasive and so perfect that to break one law is to be guilty of\nall. It is intolerant of all imperfection and makes no provision to\nprevent or repair imperfection except by a rigid obedience to every\nstatute. If obedience could be perfect from this moment onwards, the\npast disobedience would not be condoned; we should be still liable to\nits penalties, still be under the curse. To pledge ourselves to\nunsinning obedience is to pledge ourselves to the impossible. All our\nefforts to obey law--to conform our life to the law of righteousness,\nthe purity and beauty of which we perceive even while in a state of\nlawless unnature--are futile. It is like running alongside a parallel\npathway into which we are perpetually trying to turn ourselves, but\nall in vain. We cannot escape the condemnation of the disobedient.\n\n+II. The law cannot justify man.+--\"But that no man is justified by\nthe law in the sight of God, it is evident: for, The just shall live\nby faith\" (ver. 11). The law reveals our sin and our utter\nhelplessness to rid ourselves of its misery. The law forces out the\ndisease that is spreading under the skin. Such is its task. But\nhealing it does not bring. \"The law,\" says Luther, \"is that which\nlays down what man is to do; the Gospel reveals whence man is to\nobtain help. When I place myself in the hands of the physician, one\nbranch of art says where the disease lies, another what course to\ntake to get quit of it. So here. The law discovers our disease, the\nGospel supplies the remedy.\" We become aware in critical moments that\nour evil desires are more powerful than the prohibition of law and\nare in truth first stirred up thoroughly by the prohibition. And this\ndisposition of our heart is the decisive point for the question,\n\"Whether then the holy law, the holy, just and good commandment makes\nus holy, just, and good men?\" The answer to this is, and remains a\nmost decided, \"No.\"\n\n+III. The law ignores faith.+--\"The law is not of faith: but, The man\nthat doeth them shall live in them\" (ver. 12). Its dictum is _do,_\nnot _believe_; it takes no account of faith. To grant righteousness\nto faith is to deny it to legal works. The two ways have different\nstarting-points, as they lead to opposite goals. From faith one\nmarches through God's righteousness to blessing; from works, through\nself-righteousness, to the curse. In short, the legalist tries to\nmake God believe in him. Abraham and Paul are content to believe in\nGod. Paul puts the calm, grand image of Father Abraham before us for\nour pattern, in contrast with the narrow, painful, bitter spirit of\nJewish legalism, inwardly self-condemned.\n\n+IV. The law, the great barrier to man's justification, is done away\nin Christ.+--\"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law\"\n(ver. 13). Christ brought us out of the curse of the law by Himself\nvoluntarily undergoing its penalty and submitting to the utmost\nindignity it imposed--hanging on a tree. It was this crowning scandal\nthat shocked the Jewish pride and made the cross an offence to them.\nOnce crucified, the name of Jesus would surely perish from the lips\nof men; no Jew would hereafter dare to profess faith in Him. This was\nGod's method of rescue; and all the terrors and penalties of law\ndisappear, being absorbed in the cross of Christ. His redemption was\noffered to the Jew first. But not to the Jew alone, nor as a Jew. The\ntime of release had come for all men. Abraham's blessing, long\nwithheld, was now to be imparted, as it had been promised, to all the\ntribes of the earth. In the removal of the legal curse, God comes\nnear to men as in the ancient days. In Christ Jesus crucified, risen,\nreigning, a new world comes into being, which restores and surpasses\nthe promise of the old.\n\n+V. Faith ends the conflict of the law by imparting to man a superior\nspiritual force.+--\"That we might receive the promise of the Spirit\nthrough faith\" (ver. 14). Faith is a spiritual faculty, and its\nexercise is made possible by the operation of the Holy Spirit. The\nlaw of works is superseded by the higher law of the Spirit. It is in\nthe human soul that law has its widest sweep and accomplishes its\nhighest results. The soul can never rise higher in its experience and\nefforts than the law by which it is governed. The law of sin has\ndebased and limited the soul, and only as it is united by faith to\nChrist and responds to the lofty calls of His law will it break away\nfrom the corruption and restraints of the law of sin and rise to the\nhighest perfection of holiness. \"In every law,\" says F. W. Robertson,\n\"there is a spirit, in every maxim a principle; and the law and the\nmaxim are laid down for the sake of conserving the spirit and the\nprinciple which they enshrine. Man is severed from submission to the\nmaxim because he has got allegiance to the principle. He is free from\nthe rule and the law because he has got the spirit written in his\nheart.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _It is hopeless to attain righteousness by law._\n2. _Faith in Christ is the only and universal way of obedience._\n3. _The law is disarmed by obeying it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 10-12. _The Inexorability of Law._\n\n  +I. The law renders no help in fulfilling its requirements but\n      curses the incompetent+ (ver. 10).\n\n +II. The law, though strictly observed, is powerless to justify+\n      (ver. 11).\n\n+III. The law does not admit of faith; it offers life only to the\n      doer+ (ver. 12).\n\n\nVer. 11. _Man is justified by Faith alone._--One day wishing to\nobtain an indulgence promised by the Pope to all who should ascend on\ntheir knees what is called Pilate's Staircase, the poor Saxon monk,\nLuther, was humbly creeping up those steps when he thought he heard a\nvoice of thunder crying from the bottom of his heart, as at\nWittenberg and Bologna, \"The just shall live by faith!\" He rises in\namazement, he shudders at himself, he is ashamed of seeing to what a\ndepth superstition had plunged him. He flies from the scene of his\nfolly. It was in these words God then said, \"Let there be light, and\nthere was light\" (Gen. i. 3).--_D'Aubign\u00e9._\n\n\nVer. 12. _The Difference between the Law and the Gospel._\n\n+I. The law promises life to him who performs perfect obedience,+ and\nthat for his works. The Gospel promises life to him who doeth nothing\nin the cause of his salvation, but only believes in Christ; and it\npromises salvation to him who believeth, yet not for his faith or for\nany works else, but for the merit of Christ. The law then requires\ndoing to salvation, and the Gospel believing and nothing else.\n\n+II. The law does not teach true repentance,+ neither is it any cause\nof it, but only an occasion. The Gospel only prescribes repentance\nand the practice of it, yet only as it is a fruit of our faith and as\nit is the way to salvation.\n\n+III. The law requires faith in God,+ which is to put our affiance in\nhim. The Gospel requires faith in Christ, the Mediator God-man; and\nthis faith the law never knew.\n\n+IV. The promises of the Gospel are not made to the work, but to the\nworker;+ and to the worker not for his work, but for Christ's sake,\naccording to His work.\n\n+V. The Gospel considers not faith as a virtue or work, but as an\ninstrument,+ or hand, to apprehend Christ. Faith does not cause or\nprocure our salvation, but as the beggar's hand it receives it, being\nwholly wrought and given of God.\n\n+VI. This distinction of the law and the Gospel must be observed\ncarefully,+ as the two have been often confounded. It has been\nerroneously stated that the law of Moses, written in tables of stone,\nis the law; the same law of Moses, written in the hearts of men by\nthe Holy Ghost, is the Gospel. But I say again that the law written\nin our hearts is still the law of Moses. This oversight in mistaking\nthe distinction of the law and the Gospel is and has been the ruin of\nthe Gospel.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 13, 14. _Redemption and its Issues._\n\n  +I. Redemption was effected by Christ enduring the penalty of\n      violated law+ (ver. 13).\n\n +II. Redemption by Christ has brought blessing to all\n      nations.+--\"That the blessing of Abraham might come on the\n      Gentiles through Jesus Christ\" (ver. 14).\n\n+III. The spiritual results of redemption are realised only by\n      faith.+--\"That we might receive the promise of the Spirit\n      through faith\" (ver. 14).\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Curse and Sentence of the Law_ lies on record against\nsinners, it puts in its demand against our acquittance, and lays an\nobligation upon us unto punishment. God will not reject nor destroy\nHis law. Unless it be answered, there is no acceptance for sinners.\nChrist answered the curse of the law when He was made a curse for us,\nand so became, as to the obedience of the law, the end of the law for\nrighteousness to them that believe. And as to the penalty that it\nthreatened, He bore it, removed it, and took it out of the way. So\nhath He made way for forgiveness through the very heart of the law;\nit hath not one word to speak against the pardon of those who\nbelieve.--_John Owen._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.\n\n_The Divine Covenant of Promise_--\n\n+I. Is less susceptible of violation than any human\ncovenant.+--\"Though it be but a man's covenant, yet if it be\nconfirmed [approved], no man disannulleth, or addeth thereto\" (ver.\n15). Common equity demands that a contract made between man and man\nis thoroughly binding and should be rigidly observed; and the civil\nlaw lends all its force to maintain the integrity of its clauses. How\nmuch more certain it is that the Divine covenant shall be faithfully\nupheld. If it is likely that a human covenant will not be interfered\nwith, it is less likely the Divine covenant will be changed. Yet even\na human covenant may fail; the Divine covenant never. It is based on\nthe Divine Word which cannot fail, and its validity is pledged by the\nincorruptibility of the Divine character (Mal. iii. 6).\n\n+II. Is explicit in defining the channel of its fulfilment.+--\"Now to\nAbraham and his seed were the promises made; . . . to thy seed, which\nis Christ\" (ver. 16). The promise is in the plural because the same\npromise was often repeated (Gen. xii. 3, 7, xv. 5, 18, xvii. 7,\nxxii. 18), and because it involved many things--earthly blessings to\nthe literal children of Abraham in Canaan, and spiritual and heavenly\nblessings to his spiritual children; and both promised to Christ--the\nSeed and representative Head of the literal and spiritual Israel\nalike. Therefore the promise that in him \"all families of the earth\nshall be blessed\" joins in this one Seed--Christ--Jew and Gentile, as\nfellow-heirs on the same terms of acceptability--by grace through\nfaith; not to some by promise, to others by the law, but to all\nalike, circumcised and uncircumcised, constituting but one seed in\nChrist. The law, on the other hand, contemplates the Jews and\nGentiles as distinct seeds. God makes a covenant, but it is one of\npromise; whereas the law is a covenant of works. God makes His\ncovenant of promise with the one Seed--Christ--and embraces others\nonly as they are identified with and represented by Him (_Fausset_).\n\n+III. Cannot be set aside by the law which was a subsequent\nrevelation.+--\"The covenant, . . . the law, which was four hundred\nand thirty years after, cannot disannul\" (ver. 17). The promise to\nAbraham was a prior settlement, and must take precedence, not only in\ntime but also in authority, of the Mosaic law. It was a bold stroke\nof the apostle to thus shatter the supremacy of Mosaism; but the\nappeal to antiquity was an argument the most prejudiced Jew was bound\nto respect. \"The law of Moses has its rights; it must be taken into\naccount as well as the promise to Abraham. True; but it has no power\nto cancel or restrict the promise, older by four centuries and a\nhalf. The later must be adjusted to the earlier dispensation, the law\ninterpreted by the promise. God has not made two testaments--the one\nsolemnly committed to the faith and hope of mankind, only to be\nretracted and substituted by something of a different stamp. He could\nnot thus stultify Himself. And we must not apply the Mosaic\nenactments, addressed to a single people, in such a way as to\nneutralise the original provisions made for the race at large. Our\nhuman instincts of good faith, our reverence for public compacts and\nestablished rights, forbid our allowing the law of Moses to trench\nupon the inheritance assured to mankind in the covenant of Abraham\"\n(_Findlay_).\n\n+IV. Imposed no conditions of legal obedience.+--\"If the inheritance\nbe of the law, it is no more of promise; but God gave it to Abraham\nby promise\" (ver. 18). The law is a system of conditions--so much\nadvantage to be gained by so much work done. This is all very well as\na general principle. But the promise of God is based on a very\ndifferent ground. It is an act of free, sovereign grace, engaging to\nconfer certain blessings without demanding anything more from the\nrecipient than faith, which is just the will to receive. The law\nimposes obligations man is incompetent to meet. The promise offers\nblessings all men need and all may accept. It simply asks the\nacceptance of the blessings by a submissive and trustful heart. The\ndemands of the law are met and the provisions of the covenant of\npromise enjoyed by an act of faith.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _God has a sovereign right to give or withhold\nblessing._ 2. _The Divine covenant of promise is incapable of\nviolation._ 3. _Faith in God is the simplest and sublimest method of\nobedience._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15-18. _The Promise a Covenant confirmed._\n\n+I. The promises made to Abraham are first made to Christ, and then\nin Christ to all that believe in Him.+--1. Learn the difference of\nthe promises of the law and the Gospel. The promises of the law are\ndirected and made to the person of every man particularly; the\npromises of the Gospel are first directed and made to Christ, and\nthen by consequent to them that are by faith ingrafted into Christ.\n2. We learn to acknowledge the communion that is between Christ and\nus. Christ died upon the cross, not as a private person, but as a\npublic person representing His people. All died in Him, and with Him;\nin the same manner they must rise with Him to life. 3. Here is\ncomfort against the consideration of our unworthiness. There is\ndignity and worthiness sufficient in Him. Our salvation stands in\nthis, not that we know and apprehend him, but that He knows and\napprehends us first of all.\n\n+II. The promise made to Abraham was a covenant confirmed by\noath.+--Abraham in the first making and in the confirmation thereof\nmust be considered as a public person representing all the faithful.\nHere we see God's goodness. We are bound simply to believe His bare\nWord; yet in regard of our weakness He ratifies His promise by oath,\nthat there might be no occasion of unbelief. What can we more require\nof him?\n\n+III. If the promise might be disannulled, the law could not do\nit.+--1. The promise, or covenant, was made with Abraham, and\ncontinued by God four hundred and thirty years before the law was\ngiven. 2. If the law abolish the promise, then the inheritance must\ncome by the law. But that cannot be. If the inheritance of eternal\nlife be by the law, it is no more by the promise. But it is by the\npromise, because God gave it unto Abraham freely by promise;\ntherefore, it comes not by the law. This giving was no private but a\npublic donation. That which was given to Abraham was in him given to\nall that should believe as he did.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 15-17. _Divine and Human Covenants._\n\n  I. A covenant, as between man and man, is honourably binding (ver.\n     15).\n\n II. The Divine covenant made to Abraham ensures the fulfilment of\n     promises to all who believe as Abraham did (ver. 16).\n\nIII. The law cannot abrogate the Divine covenant of promise (ver. 17).\n\n\nVer 18. _Law and Promise._--1. So subtle is the spirit of error that\nit will seem to cede somewhat to truth, intending to prejudice the\ntruth more than if it had ceded nothing. The opposers of\njustification by faith did sometimes give faith some place in\njustification and pleaded for a joint influence of works and faith,\nof law and promise. 2. The state of grace here and glory hereafter is\nthe inheritance of the Lord's people, of which the land of Canaan was\na type. There are only two ways of attaining a right to this\ninheritance--one by law, the other by promise. 3. There can be no\nmixture of these two, so that a right to heaven should be obtained\npartly by the merit of works and partly by faith in the promise. The\nonly way of attaining it is by God's free gift, without the merit of\nworks.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19, 20.\n\n_The Inferiority of the Law._\n\n+I. It did not justify but condemn the sinner by revealing his\nsin.+--\"It was added because of transgressions\" (ver. 19). Law has no\nremedial efficacy. It reveals and emphasises the fact of sin. It has\nno terror while it is obeyed. When it is violated then it thunders,\nand with pitiless severity terrifies the conscience and inflicts\nunsparing punishment. There is no strain of mercy in its voice, or in\nthe inflexibility of its methods. It surrenders the condemned to an\nanguish from which it offers no means of escape. It is said that,\nafter the murder of Darnley, some of the wretches who were concerned\nin it were found wandering about the streets of Edinburgh crying\npenitently and lamentably for vengeance on those who had caused them\nto shed innocent blood.\n\n+II. It was temporary in its operation.+--\"Till the seed should come\nto whom the promise was made\" (ver. 19). The work of the law was\npreparatory and educative. Centuries rolled away and the promised\nSeed was long in coming, and it seemed as if the world must remain\nfor ever under the tutelage of the law. All the time the law was\ndoing its work. God was long in fulfilling His promise because man\nwas so slow to learn. When Christ, the promised Seed, appeared, the\nlaw was superseded. Its work was done. The preparatory gave place to\nthe permanent; the reign of law was displaced by the reign of grace.\nThe claims of the law were discharged once for all.\n\n+III. Its revelation was through intermediaries.+--\"It was ordained\nby angels in the hand of a Mediator\" (ver. 19). In the Jewish\nestimation the administration of the law by angels enhanced its\nsplendour, and the pomp and ceremony with which Moses made known the\nwill and character of Jehovah added to the impressiveness and\nsuperiority of the law. In the Christian view these very methods were\nevidences of defect and inferiority. The revelations of God by the\nlaw were veiled and intermediate; the revelation by Grace is direct\nand immediate. Under the law God was a distant and obscured\npersonality, and the people unfit to enter His sacred presence; by\nthe Gospel God is brought near to man and permitted to bask in the\nradiance of His revealed glory, without the intervention of a human\nmediator. The law, with its elaborate ceremonial and multiplied\nexactions, is a barrier between the soul and God.\n\n+IV. It was contingent, not absolute, in its primal terms.+--\"Now a\nMediator is not a mediator of one, but God is one\" (ver. 20). Where a\nmediator is necessary unity is wanting--not simply in a numerical but\nin a moral sense, as a matter of feeling and of aim. There are\nseparate interests, discordant views, to be consulted. This was true\nof Mosaism. It was not the absolute religion. The theocratic\nlegislation of the Pentateuch is lacking in the unity and consistency\nof a perfect revelation. Its disclosures of God were refracted in a\nmanifest degree by the atmosphere through which they passed. In the\npromise God spoke immediately and for Himself. The man of Abraham's\nfaith sees God in His unity. The legalist gets his religion at\nsecond-hand, mixed with undivine elements. He projects on the Divine\nimage confusing shadows of human imperfection (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The law is powerless to remove the sin it exposes._\n2. _The law had the defect of all preparatory dispensations._ 3. _The\nlaw imposes conditions it does not help to fulfil._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 19, 20. _The Law is for Transgressors._\n\n+I. We are taught to examine and search our hearts by the law of\nGod.+--1. When any sin is forbidden in any commandment of the law,\nunder it all sins of the same kind are forbidden, all causes of them\nand all occasions. 2. A commandment negative includes the\naffirmative, and binds us not only to abstain from evil, but also to\ndo the contrary good. 3. Every commandment must be understood with a\ncurse annexed to it, though the curse be not expressed. 4. We must\nespecially examine ourselves by the first and last commandments. The\nfirst forbids the first motions of our hearts against God, and the\nlast forbids the first motions of our hearts against our neighbour.\n\n+II. The law of God to be reverenced.+--1. Because it was ordained or\ndelivered by angels. 2. We are to fear to break the least\ncommandment, because the angels observe the keepers and breakers of\nit, and are ready to witness against them that offend. 3. If thou\noffend and break the law, repent with speed, for that is the desired\njoy of angels. 4. If thou sin and repent not, look for shame and\nconfusion before God and His angels.\n\n+III. God, the Author and Source of law, is one.+--1. He is\nunchangeable. 2. His unchangeableness the foundation of our comfort.\n3. We should be unchangeable in faith, hope, love, good counsels,\nhonest promises, and in the maintenance of true religion.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Use of the Law._\n\n  +I. It is a standard to measure our defects.+\n\n +II. It is a sword to pierce our conscience.+\n\n+III. It is a seal to certify that we are in the way of\n      grace.+--_Tholuck._\n\n\n_No Trust in Legal Prescriptions._--St. Paul, with the sledge-hammer\nforce of his direct and impassioned dialectics, shattered all\npossibility of trusting in legal prescriptions, and demonstrated that\nthe law was no longer obligatory on Gentiles. He had shown that the\ndistinction between clean and unclean meats was to the enlightened\nconscience a matter of indifference, that circumcision was nothing\nbetter than a physical mutilation, that ceremonialism was a yoke with\nwhich the free, converted Gentile had nothing to do, that we are\nsaved by faith and not by works, that the law was a dispensation of\nwrath and menace introduced for the sake of transgressions, that so\nfar from being, as all the Rabbis asserted, the one thing on account\nof which the universe had been created, the Mosaic code only\npossessed a transitory, subordinate, and intermediate character,\ncoming in, as it were in a secondary way, between the promise of\nAbraham and the fulfilment of that promise in the Gospel of\nChrist.--_Dean Farrar._\n\n\n_The Use of the Law under the Gospel._\n\n+I. The law never was intended to supersede the Gospel as a means of\nlife.+\n\n+II. The most perfect edition of the Gospel, so far from having\nabolished the least tittle of the moral law, has established it.+\n\n+III. The use of the law.+--1. To constitute probation. 2. The law is\nour schoolmaster to bring us to Christ. 3. The law serves to give\nbeauty and symmetry to the hidden man of the heart. 4. To vindicate\nthe conduct of our Judge in dooming the impenitent to eternal death.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Since the law as a covenant has been superseded by a\ncovenant better adapted to our guilty and helpless circumstances, let\nus make a proper use of the mercy, acquaint ourselves with its\ndemands, and abound in the holiness it enjoins._ 2. _Mark those who\nset aside the law, shun their company, and pray for their\nrepentance._--_Iota._\n\n\nVer. 20. _The Unity of God and His Purpose regarding Man._--1. The\ncovenant with Adam in his innocency was immediate, no mediator\nintervening to make them one; there was no disagreement betwixt them\nbecause of sin. 2. No man can attain heaven, or reap any advantage,\nexcept he be perfectly holy. God made no covenant of works with men\non Mount Sinai, nor could they have reaped benefit from such a\ncovenant as they were a sinful people, standing in need of a midsman\nbetwixt God and them. 3. The Lord in all His dispensations is always\none and like to Himself without shadow of turning. If any plead a\nright to heaven by the merit of their works, God will abate nothing\nof what He did once prescribe and require of man in the covenant of\nworks.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_An Effectual Mediator._--Edward III., after defeating Philip of\nFrance at Cre\u00e7y, laid siege to Calais, which, after an obstinate\nresistance of a year, was taken. He offered to spare the lives of the\ninhabitants on the condition that six of their principal citizens\nshould be delivered up to him, with halters around their necks, to be\nimmediately executed. When these terms were announced the rulers of\nthe town came together, and the question was proposed, \"Who will\noffer himself as an atonement for the city? Who will imitate Christ\nwho gave Himself for the salvation of men?\" The number was soon made\nup. On reaching the English camp they were received by the soldiers\nof Edward with every mark of commiseration. They appeared before the\nking. \"Are these the principal inhabitants of Calais?\" he inquired\nsternly. \"Of France, my lord,\" they replied. \"Lead them to\nexecution.\" At this moment the queen arrived. She was informed of the\npunishment about to be inflicted on the six victims. She hastened to\nthe king and pleaded for their pardon. At first he sternly refused,\nbut her earnestness conquered, and the king yielded. When we submit\nour hearts as captives to the Father, and feel that we are condemned\nand lost, we have an effectual Mediator who stays the hand of justice.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21-25.\n\n_The True Use of the Law_--\n\n+I. Was not intended to bestow spiritual life.+--\"If there had been a\nlaw given which could have given life, verily righteousness should\nhave been by the law\" (ver. 21). The law was not against the\npromises. It was a Divine method in dealing with man, and one Divine\nmethod never conflicts with another. It was intended to mediate\nbetween the promise and its fulfilment. It is not the enemy but the\nminister of grace. It did not profess to bestow spiritual life; but\nin its sacrifices and oblations pointed to the coming Christ who is\n\"the end of the law for righteousness to every one that believeth\"\n(Rom. x. 4).\n\n+II. Was to reveal the universal domination of sin.+--\"The Scripture\nhath concluded all under sin\" (ver. 22). The Bible from the beginning\nand throughout its course, in its unvarying teaching, makes the world\none vast prison-house with the law for gaoler, and mankind held fast\nin chains of sin, condemned and waiting for the punishment of death.\nIts perpetual refrain is, \"All have sinned and come short of the\nglory of God.\" Its impeachment covers the whole realm of human life,\nthought, and desire. \"Every human life,\" says Martensen, \"that has\nnot yet become a partaker of redemption is a life under the law, in\nopposition to the life under grace. The law hovers over his life as\nan unfulfilled requirement; and, in the depth of his own being,\nremains as an indismissible but unsatisfied and unexpiated claim on\nhim, which characterises such a human existence as sinful and\nguilt-laden.\"\n\n+III. Was to teach the absolute necessity of faith in order to escape\nits condemnation.+--\"But before faith came, we were kept under the\nlaw, shut up unto the faith which should afterwards be revealed\"\n(ver. 23). The law was all the while standing guard over its\nsubjects, watching and checking every attempt to escape, but\nintending to hand them over in due time to the charge of faith. The\nlaw posts its ordinances, like so many sentinels, round the\nprisoner's cell. The cordon is complete. He tries again and again to\nbreak out; the iron circle will not yield. But deliverance will yet\nbe his. The day of faith approaches. It dawned long ago in Abraham's\npromise. Even now its light shines into his dungeon, and he hears the\nword of Jesus, \"Thy sins are forgiven thee; go in peace.\" Law, the\nstern gaoler, has after all been a good friend if it has reserved him\nfor this. It prevents the sinner escaping to a futile and illusive\nfreedom (_Findlay_).\n\n+IV. Was to act as a moral tutor to train us to the maturity and\nhigher freedom of a personal faith in Christ.+--\"Wherefore the law\nwas our schoolmaster to bring us unto Christ,\" etc. (vers. 24, 25).\nThe schoolmaster, or pedagogue, among the Greeks meant a faithful\nservant entrusted with the care of the boy from childhood, to keep\nhim from evil, physical and moral, and accompany him to his\namusements and studies. \"If then the law is a pedagogue,\" says\nChrysostom, \"it is not hostile to grace, but its fellow-worker; but\nshould it continue to hold us fast when grace has come, then it would\nbe hostile.\" Judaism was an education for Christianity. It trained\nthe childhood of the race. It humbled and distressed the soul with\nthe consciousness of sin. It revealed the utter inadequacy of all its\nprovisions to justify. It brought the despairing soul to Christ and\nshowed that the true way to righteousness was by personal faith in\nHim.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Law is the revealer of sin._ 2. _Law demands\nuniversal righteousness._ 3. _Law is a training for faith._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 21, 22. _The Law not contrary to\nthe Divine Promise._--1. It is the way of some to make one Scripture\ncontradict another, yet their bold allegations will be found always\nfalse, and truth to be every most consonant and never contrary to\nitself. 2. So exact and full is the righteousness required in order\nto life, and so far short do all mankind come of it, that no works of\nour own, done in obedience to the law, can amount to that\nrighteousness. 3. Though all men by nature be under sin, it is a\nmatter of no small difficulty to convince any man of it. The work of\nthe law, accusing, convincing, or condemning the sinner, is compared\nto the work of a judge detaining a malefactor in prison which is not\neffectuated but with force and violence. 4. The law by its\nthreatenings prepares and necessitates the soul to embrace salvation\nby faith in the Christ revealed in the promise.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 22. _The Great Prison; or, All concluded under Sin._--1. Satan\ndoes indeed draw and drive men into sin--this is the accursed work of\nhis restless, Sabbath-less life; and when he has got them there he\nbinds them fast and will not let them flee from his toils. He builds\na high wall of sin all round them so that they shall not look over it\ninto the goodly land beyond, and here he shuts them up together,\nsinner with sinner, a never-ending ghastly multitude, that they may\nencourage and pamper each other in wickedness, and that no example,\nno voice of holiness, may ever reach and startle them. But God never\ndrove, never drew, any man into sin. He is calling us to come out\nfrom the deadly land, from the loathsome, plague-breathing dungeon.\nSo, when the Scripture concludes, or shuts all men up together under\nsin, it is not by driving them into sin, but for the sake of calling\nthem out of it. 2. With all the light of the Scripture shining around\nus, with the law of God ever sounding in our ears, and the life of\nChrist set continually before us, how prone are we to forget our\nsinfulness, to turn away from the thought of it, to fancy we are as\ngood as we need be, and that, though we might certainly be better,\nyet it does not matter much! How apt are we still to forget that we\nare concluded under sin, to forget that we are shut up in a prison!\nAlthough the souls of so many millions are lying around us, bloated\nwith the poison of sin, how tardily do we acknowledge that the poison\nby which they perished must also be deadly to us! 3. Suppose you were\nto be carried before an earthly court of justice, and that one\nsweeping accusation were to be brought against you; suppose you were\nfound guilty, and the excuse you set up were the complete proof of\nyour guilt,--what would follow? The judge would straightway pass\nsentence upon you, and you would be condemned to suffer punishment\naccording to the measure of your offence. And must we not expect that\nthe course of things should be the very same when you are carried\nbefore a heavenly court of justice? 4. When a man's eyes are opened\nto see the prison in which he is shut up, to see and feel the chains\nthat are fast bound round his soul and have eaten into it; when he\nhas learnt to see and know that the pleasures, whatever they may, of\nsin are only, like the flesh-pots of Egypt, intoxicating drugs, given\nto him to deprive him of all sense of his captivity,--then will he\nlong for a deliverer, rejoice on hearing of his approach, hail him\nwhen he comes in view, and follow him whithersoever he may lead. As\nunbelief is the one great universal sin, in which all mankind are\nconcluded, as it is only from having let slip our faith in God that\nwe have yielded our hearts to the temptations of the world and given\nourselves up to its idolatries, so it is only through faith that we\ncan be brought back to God--that we can receive the promise given to\nthose who believe.--_J. C. Hare._\n\n\nVer. 23. _\"Shut up unto the faith.\" The Reasonableness of\nFaith._--The mode of conception is military. The law is made to act\nthe part of a sentry, guarding every avenue but one, and that one\nleads those, who are compelled to take it, to the faith of the\nGospel. Out of the leading varieties of taste and sentiment which\nobtain in the present age we may collect something which may be\nturned into an instrument of conviction for reclaiming men from their\ndelusions and shutting them up to the faith.\n\n+I. There is the school of natural religion.+--It is founded on the\ncompetency of the human mind to know God by the exercise of its own\nfaculties, to clothe Him in the attributes of its own demonstration,\nto serve Him by a worship and a law of its own discovery, and to\nassign to Him a mode of procedure in the administration of this vast\nuniverse upon the strength and plausibility of its own theories. They\nrecognise the judicial government of God over moral and accountable\ncreatures. They hold there is a law. One step more, and they are\nfairly shut up to the faith. That law has been violated.\n\n+II. There is the school of classical morality.+--It differs from the\nformer school in one leading particular. It does not carry in its\nspeculations so distinct and positive a reference to the Supreme\nBeing. Our duties to God are viewed as a species of moral\naccomplishment, the effect of which is to exalt and embellish the\nindividual. We ask them to look at man as he is and compare him with\nman as they would have him to be. If they find that he falls\nmiserably short of their ideal standard of excellence, what is this\nbut making a principle of their own the instrument of shutting them\nup unto the faith of the Gospel, or at least shutting them up into\none of the most peculiar of its doctrines, the depravity of our\nnature, or the dismal ravage which the power of sin has made upon the\nmoral constitution of the species? This depravity the Gospel proposes\nto do away.\n\n+III. There is the school of fine feeling and poetical\nsentiment.+--It differs from the school of morality in this--the one\nmakes virtue its idol because of its rectitude, the other makes\nvirtue its idol because of its beauty, and the process of reasoning\nby which they are shut up unto the faith is the same in both. However\nmuch we may love perfection and aspire after it, yet there is some\nwant, some disease, in the constitution of man which prevents his\nattainment of it, that there is a feebleness of principle about him,\nthat the energy of his practice does not correspond to the fair\npromises of his fancy, and however much he may delight in an ideal\nscene of virtue and moral excellence, there is some lurking malignity\nin his constitution which, without the operation of that mighty power\nrevealed to us in the Gospel, makes it vain to wish and hopeless to\naspire after it.--_Dr. Thomas Chalmers._\n\n\nVers. 24, 25. _The Law our Schoolmaster._--There was a time when God\nput His world under a schoolmaster; then it would have been\npreposterous to apply faith. There is a time when a larger spirit has\ncome, and then it would be going back to use law.\n\n+I. The uses of restraint in the heart's education.+--1. _The first\nuse of law is to restrain from open violence._ It is necessary for\nthose who feel the inclination to evil, and so long as the\ninclination remains so far must a man be under law. Imagine a\ngovernor amidst a population of convicts trusting to high principle.\nImagine a parent having no fixed hours, no law in his household, no\npunishment for evil. There is a morbid feeling against punishment;\nbut it is God's method.\n\n2. _The second use of restraint is to show the inward force of\nevil._--A steam-engine at work in a manufactory is so quiet and\ngentle that a child might put it back. But interpose a bar of iron\nmany inches thick, and it cuts through as if it were so much leather.\nIntroduce a human limb--it whirls round, and the form of man is in\none moment a bleeding, mangled, shapeless mass. It is restraint that\nmanifests this unsuspected power. In the same way law discovers the\nstrength of evil in our hearts.\n\n3. _The third use is to form habits of obedience._--In that\nprofession which is specially one of obedience--the military\nprofession--you cannot mistake the imparted type of character.\nImmediate, prompt obedience, no questioning \"why?\" Hence comes their\ndecision of character. Hence, too, their happiness. Would you have\nyour child, happy, decided, manly? Teach him to obey. It is an error\nto teach a child to act on reason, or to expect reasons why a command\nis given. Better it is that he should obey a mistaken order than be\ntaught to see that it is mistaken. A parent must be the master in his\nown house.\n\n4. _The fourth use is to form habits of faith._--As Judaism was a\nsystem calculated to nurture habits of obedience, so was it one which\nnourished the temper of faith. All education begins with faith. The\nchild does not know the use of the alphabet, but he trusts. The boy\nbeginning mathematics takes on trust what he sees no use in. The\nchild has to take parental wisdom for granted. Happy the child that\ngoes on believing that nothing is wiser, better, greater, than his\nfather! Blessed spirit of confiding trust which is to be transferred\nto God.\n\n+II. The time when restraint may be laid aside.+--1. _When\nself-command is obtained._ Some of us surely there are who have got\nbeyond childish meanness: we could not be mean; restraint is no\nlonger needed; we are beyond the schoolmaster. Some of us there are\nwho have no inclination to intemperance; childish excess in eating\nand drinking exists no longer. Some of us there are who no longer\nlove indolence. We have advanced beyond it. The law may be taken\naway, for we are free from law. True Christian liberty is\nthis--self-command, to have been brought to Christ, to do right and\nlove right, without a law of compulsion to school into doing it.\n\n2. _When the state of justification by faith has been\nattained._--There are two states of justification--by the law and by\nfaith. Justification by the law implies a scrupulous and accurate\nperformance of minute acts of obedience in every particular;\njustification by faith is acceptance with God, not because a man is\nperfect, but because he does all in a trusting, large, generous\nspirit, actuated by a desire to please God. In Christianity there are\nfew or no definite laws--all men are left to themselves.\n\n3. _Restraint must be laid aside when the time of faith has come,\nwhether faith itself have come or not._--It is so in academical\neducation. We may have attained the full intellectual comprehension\nof the Gospel, but religious goodness has not kept pace with it, and\nthe man wakes to conviction that the Gospel is a name and the powers\nof the world to come are not in him. You cannot put him to school\nagain. Fear will not produce goodness. Forms will not give reverence.\nSystem will not confer freedom. Therefore the work of childhood and\nyouth must be done while we are young, when the education is not too\nlate.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 24. _The Law preparing for Christ._\n\n+I. The law led men to Christ by foreshadowing Him.+--This was true\nof the ceremonial part of it. The ceremonies meant more than the\ngeneral duty of offering to God praise and sacrifice, since this\nmight have been secured by much simpler rites. What was the meaning\nof the solemn and touching observance of the Jewish Day of Atonement?\nWe know that what passed in that old earthly sanctuary was from first\nto last a shadow of the majestic self-oblation of the true High\nPriest of Christendom, Jesus Christ our Lord and Saviour. Each\nceremony was felt to have some meaning beyond the time then present,\nand so it fostered an expectant habit of mind; and as the ages passed\nthese expectations thus created converged more and more towards a\ncoming Messiah, and in a subordinate but real way the ceremonial law\ndid its part in leading the nation to the school of Christ.\n\n+II. By creating in man's conscience a sense of want which Christ\nalone could relieve.+--This was the work of the moral law, of every\nmoral precept in the books of Moses, but especially of those most\nsacred and authoritative precepts which we know as the Ten\nCommandments. So far from furnishing man with a real righteousness,\nso far from making him such as he should be, correspondent to the\ntrue ideal of his nature, the law only inflicted on every conscience\nthat was not fatally benumbed a depressing and overwhelming\nconviction that righteousness, at least in the way of legal\nobedience, was a thing impossible. And this conviction of itself\nprepared men for a righteousness which should be not the product of\nhuman efforts, but a gift from heaven--a righteousness to be attained\nby the adhesion of faith to the perfect moral Being, Jesus Christ, so\nthat the believer's life becomes incorporate with His.\n\n+III. By putting men under a discipline which trained them for\nChrist.+--What is the Divine plan for training, whether men or\nnations? Is it not this--to begin with rule and to end with\nprinciple, to begin with law and to end with faith, to begin with\nMoses and to end with Christ? God began with rule. He gave the Mosaic\nlaw, and the moral parts of that law being also laws of God's own\nessential nature could not possibly be abrogated; but as rules of\nlife the Ten Commandments were only a preparation for something\nbeyond them. In the Christian revelation God says, \"Believe on the\nLord Jesus Christ.\" When you have done this, and He on His part has\nby His Spirit infused into you His Divine life so that you are one\nwith Him, you will not depend any longer mainly upon rules of\nconduct. Justification by faith is so far from being moral anarchy\nthat it is the absorption of rule into the higher life of principle.\nIn the experience of the soul faith corresponds to the empire of\nprinciple in the growth of individual character and in the\ndevelopment of national life, while the law answers to that\nelementary stage in which outward rules are not yet absorbed into\nprinciple.--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n\n_The Law a Schoolmaster._\n\n+I. The Jewish religion brought men to Christ by the light, the\nconstraining force, of prophecy.+--First, a human deliverance of some\nkind, then a personal Saviour, is announced. He was exactly what\nprophecy had foretold. He Himself appealed to prophecy as warranting\nHis claims.\n\n+II. By that ceremonial law which formed so important a part of\nit.+--The Jewish ceremonial pointed to Christ and His redemptive work\nfrom first to last. The epistle to the Hebrews was written to show\nthis--that the ceremonial law was far from being a final and complete\nrule of life and worship, did but prefigure blessings that were to\nfollow it, that it was a tutor to lead men to the school of Christ.\n\n+III. By creating a sense of moral need that Christ alone could\nsatisfy.+--The moral law--God's essential, indestructible moral\nnature in its relation to human life, thrown for practical purposes\ninto the form of commandments--is essentially, necessarily beyond\ncriticism; but when given to sinful man it does, but without grace,\ndiscover a want which it cannot satisfy. It enhanced the acting sense\nof unpardoned sin before a holy God. It convinced man of his moral\nweakness, as well as of his guilt, of his inability without the\nstrengthening grace of Christ ever to obey it.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _We see a test of all religious privileges or gifts:\nDo they or do they not lead souls to Christ?_ 2. _Observe the\nreligious use of all law--to teach man to know his weakness and to\nthrow himself on a higher power for pardon and strength._ 3. _We see\nthe exceeding preciousness of Christ's Gospel--the matchless value of\nthat faith which lives in the heart of the Church of God.--H. P.\nLiddon._\n\n\n_The Progress of Revelation._\n\n+I. The law was our schoolmaster as giving precepts in which\nprinciples were involved but not expressly taught.+\n\n+II. As teaching inadequate and not perfect duties+--a part instead\nof the whole, which was to develop into the whole. Examples--the\ninstitution of the Temple worship; the observance of the Sabbath; the\nthird commandment.\n\n+Lessons:+--1. _Revelation is education._ 2. _Revelation is\nprogressive._ 3. _The training of the character in God's revelation\nhas always preceded the illumination of the intellect.--F. W.\nRobertson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 26-29.\n\n_The Dignity of Sonship with God_--\n\n+I. Enjoyed by all who believe in Christ.+--\"For ye are all children\nof God by faith in Christ Jesus\" (ver. 26). Faith in Christ\nemancipates the soul from the trammels and inferior status of the\ntutorial training and lifts it to the higher and more perfect\nrelationship of a free son of God. The believer is no longer a pupil,\nsubject to the surveillance and restrictions of the pedagogue; but a\nson, enjoying immediate and constant intercourse with the Father and\nall the privileges and dignities of a wider freedom. The higher\nrelation excludes the lower; an advance has been made that leaves the\nold life for ever behind. The life now entered upon is a life of\nfaith, which is a superior and totally different order of things from\nthe suppressive domination of the law.\n\n+II. It is to be invested with the character of Christ.+--\"For as\nmany as have been baptised into Christ have put on Christ\" (ver. 27).\nFor if Christ is Son of God, and thou hast put on Him, having the Son\nin thyself and being made like to Him, thou wast brought into one\nkindred and one form of being with Him (_Chrysostom_). To be baptised\ninto Christ is not the mere mechanical observance of the rite of\nbaptism; the rite is the recognition and public avowal of the\nexercise of faith in Christ. In the Pauline vocabulary baptised is\nsynonymous with believing. Faith invests the soul with Christ, and\njoyfully appropriates the estate and endowments of the filial\nrelationship. Baptism by its very form--the normal and most\nexpressive form of primitive baptism, the descent into and rising\nfrom the symbolic waters--pictured the soul's death with Christ, its\nburial and its resurrection in Him, its separation from the life of\nsin, and entrance upon the new career of a regenerated child of God\n(Rom. vi. 3-14).\n\n+III. Implies such a complete union with Christ as to abolish all\nsecondary distinctions.+--\"For there is neither Jew nor Greek, bond\nnor free, male nor female; for ye are all one in Christ Jesus\" (ver.\n28). All distinctions of nationality, social status, and\nsex--necessary as they may be in the worldly life--disappear in the\nblending of human souls in the loftier relationship of sons of God.\nThe Gospel is universal in its range and provisions and raises all\nwho believe in Christ to a higher level than man could ever reach\nunder the Mosaic regimen. To add circumcision to faith would be not\nto rise but to sink from the state of sons to that of serfs. Christ\nis the central bond of unity to the whole human race; faith in Him is\nthe realisation by the individual of the honours and raptures of that\nunity.\n\n+IV. Is to be entitled to the inheritance of joint heirship with\nChrist.+--\"If ye be Christ's, then are ye . . . heirs according to\nthe promise\" (ver. 29). In Christ the lineal descent from David\nbecomes extinct. He died without posterity. But He lives and reigns\nover a vaster territory than David ever knew; and all who are of His\nspiritual seed, Jew or Gentile, share with Him the splendours of the\ninheritance provided by the Father. Here the soul reaches its supreme\nglory and joy. In Worcester Cathedral there is a slab with just one\ndoleful word on it as a record of the dead buried beneath. That word\nis _Miserrimus._ No name, no date; nothing more of the dead than just\nthis one word to say he who lay there was or is _most miserable._\nSurely, he had missed the way home to the Father's house and the\nFather's love, else why this sad record? But in the Catacombs at Rome\nthere is one stone recently found inscribed with the single word\n_Felicissima._ No name, no date again, but a word to express that the\ndead Christian sister was _most happy._ Most happy; why? Because she\nhad found the Father's house and love, and that peace which the\nstorms of life, the persecutions of a hostile world, and the light\nafflictions of time could neither give nor take away.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Faith confers higher privileges than the law._\n2. _Faith in Christ admits the soul into sonship with God._ 3. _The\nsons of God share in the fulness of the Christly inheritance._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 26-29. _Baptism._\n\n+I. The doctrine of Rome.+--Christ's merits are instrumentally\napplied by baptism; original sin is removed by a change of nature; a\nnew character is imparted to the soul; a germinal principle or seed\nof life is miraculously given; and all this in virtue, not of any\ncondition in the recipient, nor of any condition except that of the\ndue performance of the rite. The objections to this doctrine are:\n1. _It assures baptism to be not the testimony to a fact, but the\nfact itself._ Baptism proclaims the child of God; the Romanist says\nit creates him. 2. _It is materialism of the grossest kind._ 3. _It\nmakes Christian life a struggle for something that is lost, instead\nof a progress to something that lies before._\n\n+II. The doctrine of modern Calvinism.+--Baptism admits all into the\nvisible Church, but into the invisible Church only a special few. The\nreal benefit of baptism only belongs to the elect. With respect to\nothers, to predicate of them regeneration in the highest sense is at\nbest an ecclesiastical fiction, said in the judgment of charity. You\nare not God's child until you become such consciously. On this we\nremark: 1. _This judgment of charity ends at the baptismal font._\n2. _This view is identical with the Roman one in this respect--that\nit creates the fact instead of testifying to it._ 3. _Is pernicious\nin its results in the matter of education._\n\n+III. The doctrine of the Bible.+--Man is God's child, and the sin of\nthe man consists in perpetually living as if it were false. To be a\nson of God is one thing; to know that you are and call Him Father is\nanother. Baptism authoritatively reveals and pledges to the\nindividual that which is true of the race. 1. _This view prevents\nexclusiveness and spiritual pride._ 2. _Protests against the notion\nof our being separate units in the Divine life._ 3. _Sanctifies\nmaterialism.--F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 26. _The Children of God._\n\n  +I. We are all children.+\n\n +II. We are all children of God.+\n\n+III. We are all children of God through faith.+\n\n +IV. We are all children of God in Christ Jesus.+--_Dr. Beet._\n\n\n_God's Children._\n\n  +I. If thou be God's child, surely He will provide all things\n      necessary for soul and body.+--Our care must be to do the duty\n      that belongs to us; when this is done our care is ended. They\n      who drown themselves in worldly cares live like fatherless\n      children.\n\n +II. In that we are children we have liberty to come into the\n      presence of God.+\n\n+III. Nothing shall hurt those who are the children of God.+\n\n +IV. Walk worthy of your profession and calling.+--Be not vassals of\n      sin and Satan; carry yourselves as King's sons.\n\n  +V. Our care must be to resemble Christ.+\n\n +VI. We must have a desire and love to the Word of God+ that we may\n      grow by it.\n\n+VII. We must have afflictions, if we be God's children,+ for He\n      corrects all His children.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 27, 28. _The Christly Character_--\n\n  +I. Acquired by a spiritual union with Christ.+--\"Baptised into\n      Christ.\"\n\n +II. Is a complete investiture with Christ.+--\"Have put on Christ.\"\n\n+III. Is a union with Christ that absorbs all conventional\n      distinctions+ (ver. 28).\n\n\nVer. 27. _Profession without Hypocrisy._--Hypocrisy is professing\nwithout practising. Men profess without feeling and doing or are\nhypocrites in nothing so much as in their prayers. Let a man set his\nheart upon learning to pray and strive to learn, and no failures he\nmay continue to make in his manner of praying are sufficient to cast\nhim from God's favour. Let him but be in earnest, striving to master\nhis thoughts and to be serious, and all the guilt of his incidental\nfailings will be washed away in his Lord's blood. We profess to be\nsaints, to be guided by the highest principles, and to be ruled by\nthe Spirit of God. We have long ago promised to believe and obey. It\nis true we cannot do these things aright--nay, even with God's help\nwe fall short of duty. Nevertheless, we must not cease to profess.\nThere is nothing so distressing to a true Christian as to have to\nprove himself such to others, both as being conscious of his own\nnumberless failings and from his dislike of display. Christ has\nanticipated the difficulties of his modesty. He does not allow such a\none to speak for himself; He speaks for him. Let us endeavour to\nenter more and more fully into the meaning of our own prayers and\nprofessions; let us humble ourselves for the very little we do and\nthe poor advance we make; let us avoid unnecessary display of\nreligion. Thus we shall, through God's grace, form within us the\nglorious mind of Christ.--_Newman._\n\n\n_Teachings of Baptism_--\n\nI. +Our baptism must put us in mind that we are admitted and received\ninto the family of God.+\n\nII. +Our baptism in the name of the Trinity must teach us to know and\nacknowledge God aright.+\n\nIII. +Our baptism must be unto us a storehouse of comfort in time of\nneed.+\n\nIV. +Baptism is a putting on of Christ.+--Alluding to the custom of\nthose who were baptised in the apostle's days putting off their\ngarments when they were baptised, and putting on new garments after\nbaptism. 1. In that we are to put on Christ we are reminded of our\nmoral nakedness. 2. To have a special care of the trimming and\ngarnishing of our souls. 3. Though we be clothed with Christ in\nbaptism, we must further desire to be clothed upon--clad with\nimmortality.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 28. _All are One in Christ._\n\n  +I. People of all nations, all conditions, and all sexes.+\n\n  II. They who are of great birth and high condition must be put in\n      mind not to be high-minded, nor despise them of low degree,\n      +for all are one in Christ.+\n\n+III. All believers must be of one heart and mind.+\n\n +IV. We learn not to hate any man, but do good to all.+--Men turn\n      their swords and spears into mattocks and scythes, because they\n      are one with Christ by the bond of one Spirit.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 29. _The Promise of Grace._--The specific form of the whole\nGospel is promise, which God gives in the Word and causes to be\npreached. The last period of the world is the reign of grace. Grace\nreigns in the world only as promise. Grace has nothing to do with law\nand requisition of law; therefore, the word of that grace can be no\nother than a word of promise. The promise of life in Christ Jesus is\nthe word of the new covenant. The difference between the Gospel of\nthe old covenant and that of the new rests alone on the\ntranscendently greater glory of its promise.--_Harless._\n\n\n_Heirs according to the Promise._\n\n  +I. The basest person, if he believes in Christ, is in the place of\n      Abraham,+ and succeeds him in the inheritance of the kingdom of\n      heaven.\n\n +II. Believers must be content in this world with any estate God may\n      lay upon them,+ for they are heirs with Abraham of heaven and\n      earth.\n\n+III. They that believe in Christ must moderate their worldly cares+\n      and not live as drudges of the world, for they are heirs of God,\n      and are entitled to all good things promised in the covenant.\n\n +IV. Our special care must be for heaven.+--The city of God is thy\n      portion, or child's part.--_Perkins._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER IV.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1 +The heir, as long as he is a child.+--An infant, one under\nage. +Differeth nothing from a servant.+--A slave. He is not at his\nown disposal. He could not perform any act but through his legal\nrepresentative.\n\nVer. 2. +Under tutors and governors.+--Controllers of his person and\nproperty.\n\nVer. 3. +Under the elements of the world.+--The rudimentary religious\nteaching of a nonreligious character. The elementary lessons of\noutward things.\n\nVer. 4. +God sent forth His Son.+--Sent forth out of heaven from\nHimself. Implies the pre-existence of the Son. +Made of a\nwoman.+--Made to be born of a woman. Indicating a special\ninterposition of God in His birth as man. +Made under the law.+--By\nHis Father's appointment and His own free will, subject to the law,\nto keep it all, ceremonial and moral, for us, as the Representative\nMan, and to suffer and exhaust the full penalty of our violation of\nit.\n\nVer. 5. +The adoption of sons.+--Receive as something destined or\ndue. Herein God makes of sons of men sons of God, inasmuch as God\nmade of the Son of God the Son of man (_Augustine_).\n\nVer. 6. +Abba, Father.+--_Abba_ is the Chaldee for father. The early\nuse of it illustrates what Paul has been saying (ch. iii. 28) of the\nunity resulting from the Gospel; for Abba, Father, unites Hebrew and\nGreek on one lip, making the petitioner at once a Jew and a Gentile.\n\nVer. 9. +How turn ye again+ [anew]?--Making a new beginning in\nreligion, lapsing from Christianity just in as far as they embrace\nlegalism. +To the weak and beggarly elements.+--Weak is contrasted\nwith power as to effects, and beggarly with affluence in respect of\ngifts. The disparaging expression is applied; not to the ritualistic\nexternalism of heathen religions, but rather to that God-given system\nof ritualistic ordinances which had served the Church in her infancy.\nThat which was appropriate food for a babe or sick man is feeble and\npoor for a grown man in full health.\n\nVer. 12. +Be as I am, for I am as ye are.+--Paul had become as a\nGentile, though he was once a passionate Jew. Their natural leanings\ntowards Judaism they ought to sacrifice as well as he.\n\nVer. 13. +Ye know how through infirmity of flesh I preached.+--The\nweakness may have been general debility, resulting from great\nanxieties and toils. It has been supposed that Paul was feeble-eyed,\nor blear-eyed (Acts xxii. 6), and that this special weakness had been\naggravated at the time now in question.\n\nVer. 17. +They zealously affect you, but not well.+--They keenly\ncourt you, but not honourably. +They would exclude you+--from\neverything and every one whose influence would tend to bring the\nGalatians back to loyalty to the Gospel.\n\nVer. 20. +I desire to be present with you, and to change my\nvoice.+--To speak not with the stern tones of warning, but with\ntender entreaties. +I stand in doubt of you.+--I am sorely perplexed,\nnonplussed, bewildered, as if not knowing how to proceed.\n\nVer. 24. +Which things are an allegory.+--Under the things spoken\nof--the two sons, with their contrast of parentage and\nposition--there lies a spiritual meaning.\n\nVer. 25. +Jerusalem which now is, and is in bondage with her\nchildren.+--Judaism as rejecting the light and liberty of the new\ndispensation.\n\nVer. 26. +But Jerusalem which is above is free.+--Is the spiritual\nreality which, veiled under the old dispensation, is comparatively\nunveiled in the dispensation of grace, and destined to be fully and\nfinally manifested in the reign of glory. Christians are very\ndifferent in standing to slave-born slaves.\n\nVer. 27. +The desolate hath many more children than she which hath an\nhusband.+--The special purpose of the quotation appears to be to show\nthat the idea of a countless Church, including Gentiles as well as\nJews, springing out of spiritual nothingness, was apprehended under\nthe Old Testament as destined for realisation under the New.\n\nVer. 30. +Cast out the bondwoman and her son.+--Even house-room to\nJudaism is not matter of right, but only by sufferance, and that so\nlong and so far as it leaves the Gospel undisturbed in full\npossession.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-7.\n\n_The Nonage of the Pre-Christian World._\n\n+I. Mankind in pre-Christian times was like the heir in his\nminority.+--1. _In a state of temporary servitude, though having\ngreat expectations._ \"The heir differeth nothing from a servant,\nthough he be lord of all; but is under tutors and governors\" (vers.\n1, 2). Under the Old Testament the bond-servant had this in common\nwith a son, that he was a recognised member of the family; and the\nson had this in common with the slave, that he was in servitude, but\nwith this difference, the servitude of the son was evanescent, that\nof the slave was permanent. The heirship is by right of birth, but\npossession and enjoyment can be reached only by passing through\nservitude and attaining majority. The minor is in the hands of\nguardians who care for his person and mental training, and of\nstewards who manage his estate. So the world, though possessing the\npromise of great blessing, was held for ages in the servitude of the\nlaw.\n\n2. _Subject to the restraint of external ordinances._--\"Were in\nbondage under the elements of the world\" (ver. 3). The commandments\nand ordinances imposed by the law belonged to an early and elementary\nperiod. In their infantile externalism they stand contrasted with the\nanalogous things of the new dispensation, in which the believer is a\ngrown man who casts away childish things. The Mosaic system watched\nover and guarded the infancy of the world. It exacted a rigid\nobedience to its mandates, and in doing so trained mankind to see and\nfeel the need and appreciate the rich heritage of the covenant of\ngrace. Mosaism rendered invaluable service to Christianity. It\nsafe-guarded the writings that contained promises of future blessings\nand educated the race throughout the period of its nonage.\n\n+II. The matured sonship of mankind is accomplished through\nredemption.+--1. _The Redeemer is Divinely provided and of the\nhighest dignity._ \"God sent forth His Son\" (ver. 4). The mystical\nGermans speak of Christ as the ideal Son of man, the foretype of\nhumanity; and there is a sense in which mankind was created in Christ\nJesus, who is \"the image of God, the first born of every creature.\"\nBut the apostle refers here to a loftier dignity belonging to Christ.\nHe came in the character of God's Son, bringing His sonship with Him.\nThe Word, who became flesh, was with God, and was God, in the\nbeginning. The Divine Son of God was sent forth into the world by the\nall-loving Father to be the Redeemer of mankind and to put an end to\nthe world's servitude.\n\n2. _The Redeemer assumes the nature and condition of those He\nredeems._--\"Made of a woman, made under the law, to redeem them that\nwere under the law\" (vers. 4, 5). Christ was born of woman as other\nmen are, and, like them, was at first a weak and dependent babe. His\nchild-life has for ever beautified and consecrated child-nature. He\nwas born under law--not the law as a mere Jew, which would have\nlimited His redeeming work to the Jewish nation, but under law in its\nwidest application. He submitted not only to the general moral\ndemands of the Divine law for men, but to all the duties and\nproprieties incident to His position as a man, even to those ritual\nordinances which His coming was to abolish. The purpose of His being\nsent was \"to redeem them that were under the law\"--to buy them out of\ntheir bondage. He voluntarily entered into the condition of the\nenslaved that He might emancipate them.\n\n3. _The sonship acquired through redemption is not by merit or legal\nright, but by adoption._--\"That we might receive the adoption of\nsons\" (ver. 5). The sonship is by grace, not of nature. Man lost his\nsonship by sin; by grace he gets it back again. Adoption we do not\nget back; we simply receive it. It is an act of God's free grace.\n\n+III. The attainment of sonship is a conscious reality.+--1. _Made\nevident by the Spirit of God witnessing in us and crying to Him as to\na Father._ \"Because ye are sons, God hath sent forth the Spirit of\nHis Son into your hearts, crying, Abba, Father\" (ver. 6). God sent\nforth His Son into the world of men: He sent forth the Spirit of His\nSon into their individual hearts. The filial consciousness was born\nwithin them, supernaturally inspired. When they believed in Christ,\nwhen they saw in Him the Son of God, their Redeemer, they were\nstirred with a new ecstatic impulse; a Divine glow of love and joy\nkindled in their breasts; a voice not their own spoke to their\nspirit; their soul leaped forth upon their lips, crying to God\n\"Father, Father!\" They were children of God and knew it.\n\n2. _Confirmed by the heirship that results from the Divine\nadoption._--\"If a son, then an heir of God through Christ\" (ver. 7).\nThe nonage, the period of servitude and subjection, is passed. It\ngives place to the unrivalled privilege of a maturer spiritual\nmanhood, and the heirship to an inheritance of indescribable and\nimperishable blessedness.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The law held the world in bondage._ 2. _The Gospel is\na message of liberty by redemption._ 3. _Redemption by Christ confers\ndistinguished privileges._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 4, 5. _Christ's Mission for the Adoption of Sons in the Fulness\nof Time._\n\n+I. The mission of Jesus Christ and the manner in which He manifested\nHimself.+--\"God sent forth His Son.\" These words present the great\nfact of Christ's mission from the Father and His appearance in the\nworld. To denote the inexpressible dignity of Jesus, as being one\nwith the Father in His most essential prerogatives and perfections,\nHe is here styled, \"His Son.\" He was \"made of a woman.\" The\ncircumstances of His incarnation placed Him at an immeasurable\ndistance from all other parts of the human race. He was the immediate\nproduction of God, by His Divine power He was conceived of the Holy\nGhost, and thereby completely exempted from the taint of original\nsin. He was the holy thing born of a virgin. He was by constitution\nplaced in the same state as our first parents. He underwent a similar\nbut severer trial and maintained His innocence against all the\nassaults of Satan. He was \"_made_ under the law\"; whereas all other\ncreatures are under it by the very terms of their existence, by the\ncondition of their nature. He was made under the _ceremonial_ law,\nunder the _moral_ law, under the _mediatorial_ law.\n\n+II. The design of Christ's mission.+--\"To redeem.\" He came not\nmerely to exemplify a rule of life, but to satisfy its violation; not\nto explain the statutes of heaven, but to pay the penalty arising\nfrom the curse announced against their transgression. He came\nessentially to change the moral situation of mankind. Christ has\nadded to our original brightness; He has not only redeemed us from\nthe first transgression, but accumulated blessings which man, even in\ninnocence, could never have obtained.\n\n+III. The fitness of the season at which Christ was\nmanifested.+--\"The fulness of time.\" 1. It was the period foretold by\nthe prophets. Hence the general expectation of His coming. 2. It was\na period of advancement in politics, legislation, science, and arts,\nand manners; an age of scepticism. 3. It was a period of toleration.\nThe epoch will arrive when this world shall be thought of as nothing\nbut as it furnished a stage for the manifestation of the Son of\nGod.--_Robert Hall._\n\n\nVer. 4. _The Fulness of the Time._--Christ comes when a course of\npreparation, conducted through previous ages, was at last complete.\nHe was not the creation of His own or any preceding age. What is true\nof all other great men, who are no more than great men, is not true\nof Him. They receive from their age as much as they give it; they\nembody and reflect its spirit. Christ really owed nothing to the time\nor the country which welcomed His advent.\n\n+I. The world was prepared politically for Christ's work.+--There was\na common language--the Greek; a common government--the Roman.\n\n+II. There was a preparation in the convictions of mankind.+--The\nepoch of religious experiments had been closed in an epoch of despair.\n\n+III. There was a preparation in the moral experience of\nmankind.+--The dreadful picture of the pagan world which St. Paul\ndraws at the close of the first chapter of his epistle to the Romans\nis not a darker picture than that of pagan writers--of moralists like\nSeneca, of satirists like Juvenal, of historians like Tacitus; and\nyet enough survived of moral truth in the human conscience to condemn\naverage pagan practice. It led them to yearn for a deliverer,\nalthough their aspirations were indefinite enough. This widespread\ncorruption, this longing for better things, marked the close of the\nepoch of moral experiments.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The earthly life of Christ stood in a totally\ndifferent relation towards moral truth from that of every other man._\n2. _It was a life at harmony with itself and a revelation of higher\ntruth._ 3. _His incarnation delivers us from false views of the world\nand of life, from base and desponding views of our human nature, and\nfrom bondage.--H. P. Liddon._\n\n\n_Christ Obedient to the Law._\n\n+I. This obedience was not a matter of course,+ following upon His\nincarnation. He might have lived and died, had it been consistent\nwith His high purpose, in sinless purity, without expressly\nundertaking as He did openly to fulfil the law. It was a voluntary\nact, becoming and fit for the great work He had in hand.\n\n+II. This obedience was not only an integral but a necessary part of\nHis work of redemption.+--Had this not been so, redemption would have\nbeen incomplete. Not only God's unwritten law in the conscience, but\nGod's written law in the tables of stone, must be completely\nsatisfied. It being shown, by both Gentile and Jew, that neither by\nnature nor by revealed light was man capable of pleasing God, all men\nwere left simply and solely dependent on His free and unmerited\ngrace. All cases of guilt must be covered, all situations of\ndisobedience taken up and borne and carried triumphantly out into\nperfection and accordance with the Father's will, by the Son of God\nin our flesh.\n\n+III. This obedience for man was to be not only complete,+ so that\nChrist should stand in the root of our nature as the accepted man,\n+but was to be our pattern,+ that as He was holy so we might be holy\nalso.\n\n+IV. This obedience arose from the requirements of His office\nconnected with the law.+--He was the end of the law. It all pointed\nto Him. Its types and ceremonies all found fulfilment in His person\nand work. All has been fulfilled. All looked forward to One that was\nto come--to one who has come, and in His own person has superseded\nthat law by exhausting its requirements, has glorified that law by\nfilling out and animating with spiritual life its waste and barren\nplaces. So that God has not changed, nor has His purpose wavered, nor\nare His people resting on other than their old foundation.--_Dean\nAlford._\n\n\nVer. 5. _Under the Law_--\n\n+I. As the rule of life.+--Thus angels are under the law. Adam was\nbefore his fall, and the saints in heaven are so now. None yield more\nsubjection to the law than they, and this subjection is their liberty.\n\n+II. As a grievous yoke which none can bear.+--1. It bound the Church\nof the Old Testament to the observance of many and costly ceremonies.\n2. It binds every offender to everlasting death. 3. It is a yoke as\nit increases sin and is the strength of it. The wicked nature of man\nis the more to do a thing the more he is forbidden.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Adoption._\n\n+I. In what adoption consists.+--1. The points of resemblance between\nnatural and spiritual adoption. (1) We cease to have our former name\nand are designated after the name of God. (2) We change our abode.\nOnce in the world, now in the Church and family of God. (3) We change\nour costume. Conform to the family dress: garments of salvation.\n2. The points of difference between natural and spiritual adoption.\n(1) Natural adoption was to supply a family defect. God had hosts of\nchildren. (2) Natural adoption was only of sons. No distinction in\nGod's adoption. (3) In natural adoption there was only a change of\ncondition. God makes His children partakers of His own nature. (4) In\nnatural adoption only one was adopted, but God adopts multitudes.\n(5) In natural adoption only temporal advantages were derived, but in\nspiritual the blessings are eternal.\n\n+II. Signs of adoption.+--1. Internal signs. Described in ch. iv. 6;\nRom. viii. 14-16. 2. External signs. (1) Language; (2) Profession;\n(3) Obedience.\n\n+III. Privileges of adoption.+--1. Deliverance from the miseries of\nour natural state. 2. Investiture into all the benefits of Christ's\nfamily. 3. A title to the celestial inheritance.\n\n+Learn+--1. _The importance of the blessing._ 2. _Seek the good of\nGod's family._ 3. _Invite strangers to become sons and heirs of\nGod.--Sketches._\n\n\n_Adoption and its Claims._--Among the American Indians when a captive\nwas saved to be adopted in the place of some chieftain who had\nfallen, his allegiance and his identity were looked upon as changed.\nIf he left a wife and children behind him, they were to be forgotten\nand blotted from memory. He stood in the place of the dead warrior,\nassumed his responsibilities, he was supposed to cherish those whom\nhe had cherished and hate those whom he had hated; in fact, he was\nsupposed to stand in the same relation of consanguinity to the\ntribe.--_Bancroft._\n\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Evidences of Sonship._\n\n+I. The presence of the Spirit in the heart.+--1. The beginning of\nour new birth is in the heart, when a new light is put into the mind,\na new and heavenly disposition into the will and affection. 2. The\nprincipal part of our renovation is in the heart were the Spirit\nabides. 3. The beginning and principal part of God's worship is in\nthe heart. 4. Keep watch and ward about thy heart, that it may be a\nfit place of entertainment for the Spirit, who is an Ambassador sent\nfrom God to thee.\n\n+II. The work of the Spirit.+--1. Bestowing conviction that the\nScriptures are the Word of God. 2. Submission to God and a desire to\nobey Him. 3. The testimony of the Spirit--a Divine manner of\nreasoning framed in the mind--that we are God's children. 4. Peace of\nconscience, joy, and affiance in God.\n\n+III. The desires of the heart directed towards God.+--1. Our cries\nare to be directed to God with reverence. 2. With submission to His\nwill. 3. With importunity and constancy.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Character and Privileges of the Children of God._\n\n+I. The distinguishing characteristic of the children of\nGod.+--1. _It is a spirit of filial confidence as opposed to servile\nfear._ No unpardoned sinner has a sufficient ground of confidence in\nGod. Till assured that God loves him, he knows not how God may treat\nhim at any particular time. But we cannot believe that God loves us\nand at the same time doubt His mercy. He that heartily reposes on\nGod's favour cannot dread His vengeance.\n\n2. _This filial spirit is one of holy love as opposed to the bondage\nof sin._--The love of God is a powerful element well calculated to\nchange the whole of our inner man. It gives a new bias to our wayward\naffections and a healthful vigour to every good desire.\n\n3. _The filial spirit is one of ready obedience as opposed to the\ngloomy spirit of servitude._--The service of a slave is unwilling,\nextorted, unsatisfactory; the obedience of a child is ready, loving,\nenergetic. Love is self-denying, soul-absorbing, devoted.\n\n+II. Some of the distinguishing privileges of the children of\nGod.+--1. _The child of God has a part in the Father's love and\ncare._ 2. _Has a filial resemblance to the heavenly Father._\n3. _Children of God have the privileges of family communion and\nfellowship._ 4. _Have a share in the family provisions._ 5. _Have a\ntitle to the future inheritance.--Robert M. Macbrair._\n\n\nVer. 7. _God's Offspring._--1. This is the state of all poor heathen,\nwhether in England or foreign countries: they are children, ignorant\nand unable to take care of themselves, because they do not know what\nthey are. Paul tells them they are God's offspring, though they know\nit not. He does not mean that we are not God's children till we find\nout that we are God's children. You were God's heirs all along,\nalthough you differed nothing from slaves; for as long as you were in\nheathen ignorance and foolishness God had to treat you as His slaves,\nnot as His children. They thought that God did not love them, that\nthey must buy His favours. They thought religion meant a plan for\nmaking God love them. 2. Then appeared the love of God in Jesus\nChrist, who told men of their heavenly Father. He preached to them\nthe good news of the kingdom of God, that God had not forgotten them,\ndid not hate them, would freely forgive them all that was past; and\nwhy? Because He was their Father and loved them so that He spared not\nHis only begotten Son. And now God looks at us in the light of Jesus\nChrist. He does not wish us to remain merely His child, under tutors\nand governors, forced to do what is right outwardly and whether it\nlikes or not. God wishes each of us to become His son, His grown-up\nand reasonable son. 3. It is a fearful thing to despise the mercies\nof the living God, and when you are called to be His sons to fall\nback under the terrors of His law in slavish fear and a guilty\nconscience and remorse which cannot repent. He has told you to call\nHim your Father; and if you speak to Him in any other way, you insult\nHim and trample underfoot the riches of His grace. You are not God's\nslaves, but His sons, heirs of God and joint-heirs of Christ. What an\ninheritance of glory and bliss that must be which the Lord Jesus\nChrist Himself is to inherit with us--an inheritance of all that is\nwise, loving, noble, holy, peaceful, all that can make us happy and\nlike God Himself.--_C. Kingsley._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 8-11.\n\n_Legalism a Relapse._\n\n+I. Legalism is no advance on heathenism.+--\"When ye knew not God, ye\ndid service unto them which by nature are no gods\" (ver. 8). Paganism\nwas an elaborate system of formalism. The instinct of worship led men\nto sacrifice to imaginary deities--gods which were no gods. Ignorant\nof the true God, they multiplied deities of their own. The Galatian\npagans created a strange Pantheon. There were the old weird Celtic\ndeities before whom our British forefathers trembled. On this\nancestral faith had been superimposed the frantic rites of the\nPhrygian mother Cebele, with her mutilated priests, and the more\ngenial and humanistic cultus of the Greek Olympian gods. The\noppressive rites of legalism were little better than the heathen\nritual. Religion degenerated into a meaningless formality. Dickens\ndescribes how in Genoa he once witnessed a great feast on the hill\nbehind the house, when the people alternately danced under tents in\nthe open air and rushed to say a prayer or two in an adjoining church\nbright with red and gold and blue and silver--so many minutes of\ndancing and of praying in regular turns of each.\n\n+II. Legalism to converted heathen, is a disastrous relapse.+--\"After\nye have known God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly\nelements? . . . Ye observe days and months and times and years\"\n(vers. 9, 10). The heathen in their blindness and ignorance might be\nexcused, and ritualism, even to the Jews before the coming of the\nMessiah, might be well enough; but for Christians, who had received\nampler knowledge and been illumined by the Holy Spirit, to return to\nthe weak and beggarly elements, was irrational, monstrous! Having\ntasted the sweets of liberty, what folly to submit again to slavery!\nhaving reached spiritual manhood, how childish to degenerate!\nLegalism destroys the life of religion and leaves only a mass of\npetrified forms. In his _Stones of Venice,_ Ruskin says: \"There is no\nreligion in any work of Titian's; there is not even the smallest\nevidence of religious temper or sympathies either in himself or those\nfor whom he painted. His larger sacred themes are merely for the\nexhibition of pictorial rhetoric--composition and colour. His minor\nworks are generally made subordinate to the purposes of portraiture.\nThe Madonna in the Frari church is a mere lay figure, introduced to\nform a link of connection between the portraits of various members of\nthe Pesaro family who surround her. Bellini was brought up in faith;\nTitian in formalism. Between the years of their births the vital\nreligion of Venice had expired.\"\n\n+III. A relapse to legalism is an occasion of alarm to the earnest\nChristian teacher.+--\"I am afraid of you, lest I have bestowed upon\nyou labour in vain\" (ver. 11). The apostle knew something of the\nfickleness of the Galatians and of the weakness of human nature but\nwas hardly prepared for such a collapse of the work which he had\nbuilt up with so much anxiety and care. He saw, more clearly than\nthey, the peril of his converts, and the prospect of their further\ndefection filled him with alarm and grief. It meant the loss of\nadvantages gained, of precious blessing enjoyed, of peace, of\ncharacter, of influence for good. It is a painful moment when the\nanxious Christian worker has to mourn over failure in any degree.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Legalism suppresses all religious growth._ 2. _Is a\nconstant danger to the holiest._ 3. _Shows the necessity for earnest\nvigilance and prayer._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 8-11. _The Dilemma of Turncoats._\n\n+I. Their first condition was one of ignorance.+--1. _Ignorance of\nGod._ (1) The light of nature is imperfect, because we know by it\nonly some few and general things of God. (2) It is weak, because it\nserves only to cut off excuse, and is not sufficient to direct us in\nthe worship of God. (3) It is a great and grievous sin.\n\n2. _Idolatry._--(1) When that which is not God is placed and\nworshipped in the room of the true God. (2) When men acknowledge the\ntrue God, but do not conceive Him as He will be conceived, and as He\nhas revealed Himself. (3) What a man loves most, cares for most, and\ndelights in most, that is his god. Where the heart is, there is thy\ngod.\n\n+II. Their changed condition is the knowledge of God in\nChrist.+--1. This is a special knowledge whereby we must acknowledge\nGod to be our God in Christ. 2. This knowledge must be not confused,\nbut distinct. (1) We must acknowledge God in respect of His presence\nin all places. (2) In respect of His particular providence over us.\n(3) In respect of His will in all things to be done and suffered.\n3. This knowledge must be an effectual and lively knowledge, working\nin us new affections, and inclinations.\n\n+III. Their revolt is an abandonment of salvation.+--It is an\nexchange of knowledge for ignorance, of the substance for the shadow,\nof reality for emptiness--a return to weak and beggarly elements. It\nis the substitution of ceremonies for genuine worship.\n\n+IV. The conduct of turn-coats is an occasion of ministerial\ndisappointment and alarm+ (ver. 11).--Work that is in vain in respect\nof men is not so before God.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 8, 9. _Ignorance of God a Spiritual Bondage._--1. However\nnature's light may serve to make known there is a God and that He\nought to be served, it is nothing else but ignorance, as it leaves us\ndestitute of the knowledge of God in Christ, without which there is\nno salvation. 2. Men are naturally inclined to feign some\nrepresentation of the Godhead by things which incur in the outward\nsenses, from which they easily advance to give Divine worship unto\nthose images and representations. 3. Though the Levitical ceremonies\nwere once to be religiously observed as a part of Divine worship\nleading to Christ, yet when the false teachers did urge them as a\npart of necessary commanded worship, or as a part of their\nrighteousness before God, the apostle is bold to give them the name\nof \"weak and beggarly elements.\" 4. People may advance very far in\nthe way of Christianity, and yet make a foul retreat afterwards in\nthe course of defection and apostasy.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 9, 10. _God's Sabbatic Law antedated the Mosaic Law._--And\nwhatever of legal bondage has been linked with the observance of the\nJewish Sabbath was eliminated together with the change to the first\nday of the week. This at once removes the Lord's Day from the\ncategory of days, and also of weak and beggarly elements. The mode of\nobservance is learned from the Lord's words, \"The Sabbath was made\nfor man, and not man for the Sabbath,\" which at the same time imply,\nwhen rightly understood, the perpetual necessity for a\nSabbath.--_Lange._\n\n\nVer. 11. _Ministerial Anxiety_--1. Prompts to earnest efforts in\nimparting the highest spiritual truths. 2. Looks for corresponding\nresults in consistency of character and conduct. 3. Is grieved with\nthe least indications of religious failure.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12-20.\n\n_The Pleadings of an Anxious Teacher with his Pupils in Peril._\n\n+I. He reminds them of the enthusiastic attachment of former\ndays.+--1. _Urges them to exercise the same freedom as he himself\nclaimed._ \"Be as I am; for I am as ye are\" (ver. 12). Though himself\na Jew, Paul had assumed no airs of superiority, and did not separate\nhimself from his Gentile brethren; he became as one of them. He asks\nthem to exercise a similar liberty; and lest they should fear he\nwould have a grudge against them because of their relapse, he hastens\nto assure them, \"Ye have not injured [wronged] me at all\" (ver. 12).\n\n2. _Recalls their extravagant expression of admiration on their first\nreception of his teaching._--\"Ye know how through infirmity I\npreached at the first. My temptation ye despised not; but received me\nas an angel of God. . . . Ye would have plucked out your own eyes,\nand have given them to me\" (vers. 13, 14, 15). His physical weakness,\nwhich might have moved the contempt of others, elicited the sympathy\nof the warm-hearted Galatians. They listened with eagerness and\nwonder to the Gospel he preached. The man, with his humiliating\ninfirmity, was lost in the charm of his message. They were thankful\nthat, though his sickness was the reason of his being detained among\nthem, it was the opportunity of their hearing the Gospel. Had he been\nan angel from heaven, or Jesus Christ Himself, they could not have\nwelcomed him more rapturously. They would have made any sacrifice to\nassure him of their regard and affection.\n\n3. _Shows he was not less their friend because he rebuked them._--\"Am\nI therefore become your enemy, because I tell you the truth?\" (ver.\n16). And now they rush, with Gallic-like fickleness, to the opposite\nextreme. Because he attacks the new fancies with which they have\nbecome enamoured, and probes them with some wholesome and unwelcome\ntruths, they imagine he has become their enemy. Not so; he is but\nusing the privilege of a true and faithful friend.\n\n+II. He warns them against the seductive tactics of false\nteachers.+--1. _Their zealous flattery was full of danger._ \"They\nzealously affect you, but not well; they would exclude you\" (ver.\n17). They are courting you, these present suitors for your regard,\ndishonourably; they want to shut us out and have you to themselves,\nthat you may pay court to them. They pretend to be zealous for your\ninterests; but it is their own they seek. They would exclude you from\nall opportunities of salvation--yea, from Christ Himself. The\nflatterer should be always suspected. The turning away from sound\ndoctrine goes hand in hand with a predilection for such teachers as\ntickle the ear, while they teach only such things as correspond to\nthe sinful inclinations of the hearers.\n\n2. _Though genuine zeal is commendable._--\"It is good to be zealously\naffected always in a good thing\" (ver. 18). Christian zeal must be\nseen not only to correspond and to be adapted to the intellect but\nmust also be in harmony with the highest and profoundest sentiments\nof our nature. It must not be exhibited in the dry, pedantic\ndivisions of a scholastic theology; nor must it be set forth and\ntricked out in the light drapery of an artificial rhetoric, in\nprettiness of style, in measured sentences, with an insipid\nfloridness, and in the form of elegantly feeble essays. No; it must\ncome from the soul in the language of earnest conviction and strong\nfeeling.\n\n+III. He pleads with the tender solicitude of a spiritual\nparent.+--\"My little children, of whom I travail in birth\nagain, . . . I desire to be present with you, and to change my voice;\nfor I stand in doubt of you\" (vers. 19, 20). As a mother, fearful of\nlosing the affection of her children for whom she has suffered so\nmuch, the apostle appeals to his converts in tones of pathetic\npersuasion. His heart is wrung with anguish as he sees the peril of\nhis spiritual children, and he breaks out into tender and impassioned\nentreaty. And yet he is perplexed by the attitude they have taken,\nand as if uncertain of the result of his earnest expostulations. The\npreacher has to learn to be patient as well as zealous.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Strong emotions and warm affections are no guarantee\nfor the permanence of religious life._ 2. _How prone are those who\nhave put themselves in the wrong to fix the blame on others._ 3. _Men\nof the Galatian type are the natural prey of self-seeking agitators._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 12. _Christian Brotherhood._--Here is: 1. A loving\ncompellation--\"Brethren.\" 2. A submissive address by way of\ncomprecation--\"I beseech you.\" 3. A request most reasonable--\"Be ye\nas I am; for I am as ye are.\" 4. A wise and prudent preoccupation or\nprevention which removes all obstructions and forestalls those\njealousies, those surmises and groundless suspicions, which are the\nbane of charity and the greatest enemies to peace. \"Ye have not\ninjured me at all.\"\n\n+I. Nature herself hath made all men brethren.+--1. _This may serve\nto condemn all those who look upon men under other consideration than\nas men_ or view them in any other shape than as brethren. And the\nvery name of man and of brother should be an amulet for all mankind\nagainst the venom of iniquity and injustice.\n\n2. _By this light of nature we may condemn ourselves when any\nbitterness towards our brother riseth in our hearts,_ and allay or\nrather root it out as inhuman and unnatural. None can dishonour us\nmore than ourselves do, when one man hath trodden down another as the\nclay in the streets, when we think ourselves great men by making our\nbrethren little, when we contemn and despise, hate and persecute them.\n\n+II. Brethren as Christians professing the same faith.+--There is\nsuch a brotherhood that neither error nor sin nor injury can break\nand dissolve it.\n\n1. _Men may err and yet be brethren._--We may be divided in opinion\nand yet united in charity. Consider the difficulty of finding out\ntruth in all things and avoiding error, that our brother may err\nrather from want of light than out of malice and wilfully and\nconceive it possible we may err as foully as others.\n\n2. _Men may sin and yet be brethren._--Charity, because she may err,\nnay, because she must err, looks upon every Christian as a brother.\nIf he err, she is a guide to him; if he sin, she is a physician; if\nhe fall, she strives to lift him up, being a light to the blind and a\nstaff to the weak.\n\n3. _Men may injure each other and yet be brethren._--Socrates, being\novercome in judgment, professed he had no reason to be angry with his\nenemies unless it were for this, that they conceived and believed\nthey had hurt him. Indeed, no injury can be done by a brother to a\nbrother. The injury is properly done to God, who reserves all power\nof revenge to Himself. \"If a brother strike us,\" said Chrysostom,\n\"kiss his hand; if he would destroy us, our revenge should be to save\nhim.\" Nazianzen said to the young man who was suborned to kill him,\n\"Christ forgive thee, who hath also forgiven me, and died to save me.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Brotherly love is pleasant and delightful._\n2. _Profitable and advantageous._ 3. _So necessary that it had been\nbetter for us never to have been than not to love the\nbrethren.--A. Farindon._\n\n\nVers. 13-15. _Love for the Preacher_--\n\n  +I. Notwithstanding the physical infirmity of the messenger+ (ver.\n      13).\n\n +II. Generates the loftiest esteem for his character and abilities+\n      (ver. 14).\n\n+III. Is often expressed in exaggerated terms+ (ver. 15).\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Authority of the Messenger of God._\n\n  +I. He is to be heard even as Christ Himself,+ because in preaching\n      he is the mouth of God.\n\n  II. Here we see the goodness of God, +who does not speak to us in\n      His majesty, but appoints men in His stead,+ who are His\n      ambassadors.\n\n+III. There must be fidelity in teachers.+--They stand in the stead\n      of Christ, and must deliver only that which they know to be the\n      will of Christ.\n\n +IV. They must have especial care of holiness of life.+\n\n  +V. The people are to hear their teachers with reverence,+ as if\n      they would hear the angels or Christ Himself.\n\n +VI. The comfort of the ministry is as sure+ as if an angel came\n      down from heaven, or Christ Himself, to comfort us.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Right Mode of giving and receiving Reproof._--Should it\nbe esteemed the part of a friend faithfully to tell men the truth?\nand should the suppression of truth and the substitution of its\nopposite be held to mark the character of an enemy? How often has the\namicable state of feeling been broken up by telling the truth, even\nwhen done in a proper spirit and manner!\n\n+I. What would you wish your friend to be?+--1. Sincere. 2. That he\nshould take a very general interest in my welfare and be desirous to\npromote it. 3. A person of clear, sound, discriminating judgment, and\nwith a decided preference in all things. 4. That he should not be a\nman full of self-complacency, a self-idolater, but observant and\nsevere towards his own errors and defects. 5. A man who would include\nme expressly in his petitions, praying that I may be delivered from\nthose evils which he perceives in me, and God far more clearly.\n6. Such that, as the last result of my communications with him, a\ngreat deal of what may be defective and wrong in me shall have been\ndisciplined away.\n\n+II. Why do we regard a friend as an enemy because he tells us the\ntruth?+--1. Because plain truth, by whatever voice, must say many\nthings that are displeasing. 2. Because there is a want of the real\nearnest desire to be in all things set right. 3. Because there is\npride, reacting against a fellow-mortal and fellow-sinner. 4. Because\nthere is not seldom a real difference of judgment on the matters in\nquestion. 5. Because there is an unfavourable opinion or surmise as\nto the motives of the teller of truth.\n\n+III. How should reproof be administered?+--1. Those who do this\nshould well exercise themselves to understand what they speak of.\n2. It should be the instructor's aim that the authority may be\nconveyed in the truth itself, and not seem to be assumed by him as\nthe speaker of it. 3. He should watch to select favourable times and\noccasions.\n\n+IV. How should reproof be received?+--1. By cultivating a\ndisposition of mind which earnestly desires the truth, in whatever\nmanner it may come to us. 2. There have been instances in which a\nfriend, silent when he should have spoken, has himself afterwards\nreceived the reproof for not having done so from the person whom he\ndeclined to admonish. 3. If there be those so painfully and irritably\nsusceptible as to be unwilling to hear corrective truth from others,\nhow strong is the obligation that they should look so much the more\nseverely to themselves.--_John Foster._\n\n\nVer. 18. _Zeal._\n\n+I. Various kinds of zeal.+--1. There is a zeal of God which is not\naccording to knowledge. 2. There is a mistaken zeal for the glory of\nGod. (1) When that is opposed which is right, under a false notion of\nits being contrary to the glory of God. (2) When ways and methods\nimproper are taken to defend and promote the glory of God. (3) There\nis a superstitious zeal, such as was in Baal's worshippers, who cut\nthemselves with knives and lancets; particularly in the Athenians,\nwho were wholly given to idolatry; and the Jews, who were zealous of\nthe traditions of the fathers. (4) There is a persecuting zeal, under\na pretence of the glory of God. (5) There is a hypocritical zeal for\nGod, as in the Pharisees, who make a show of great zeal for piety, by\ntheir long prayers, when they only sought to destroy widows' houses\nby that means. (6) There is a contentious zeal, which often gives\ngreat trouble to Christian communities. (7) True zeal is no other\nthan a fervent, ardent love to God and Christ, and a warm concern for\ntheir honour and glory.\n\n+II. The objects of zeal.+--1. The object of it is God. The worship\nof God, who must be known, or He cannot be worshipped aright. 2. The\ncause of Christ is another object of zeal. The Gospel of Christ;\ngreat reason there is to be zealous for that, since it is the Gospel\nof the grace of God. 3. The ordinances of Christ, which every true\nChristian should be zealous for, that they be kept as they were first\ndelivered, without any innovation or corruption. 4. The discipline of\nChrist's house should be the object of our zeal. 5. True zeal is\nconcerned in all the duties of religion and shows itself in them.\n\n+III. Motives exciting to the exercise of true zeal.+--1. The example\nof Christ. 2. True zeal answers a principal end of the redemption of\nChrist. 3. It is good, the apostle says, to be zealously affected in\nand for that which is good. 4. A lukewarm temper, which is the\nopposite to zeal, seems not consistent with true religion, which has\nalways life and heat in it. 5. The zeal of persons shown in a false\nway should stimulate the professors of the true religion to show at\nleast an equal zeal.--_Pulpit Assistant._\n\n\n_Christian Zeal_--\n\n  +I. Implies unwavering steadfastness of purpose.+\n\n +II. Universal and hearty obedience to God's commands+ in all things,\n      small as well as great.\n\n+III. Supreme devotion of heart and life to Christ.+\n\n +IV. Should be exercised in a good thing.+--True zeal seeks\n      benevolent ends by lawful means, else it is fanaticism. It\n      seeks practical ends by wise means, else it is enthusiasm.\n      Zeal should be shown in active and useful devotion to the\n      cause of religion, rather than in excitement and warm\n      devotional exercise.\n\n  +V. Should be uniform, not periodical.+--It should not depend upon\n      the fluctuations of feeling, but should act upon principle.\n      Periodical fervours are deceitful, dangerous, injurious,\n      dishonourable to religion. They are commonly a proof of\n      superficial piety, or of none at all.--_Stephen Olin._\n\n\n_Godly Zeal and its Counterfeits._\n\n+I. Let us distinguish between mere natural zeal and spiritual\nardour.+--1. There is a zeal of _sympathy_ which is awakened by the\nzeal of others with whom we associate. It is only that of the soldier\nwho, though himself a coward, is urged on to battle by the example of\nthose around him. 2. There is _constitutional_ zeal, a warmth, an\nardour, which enters into all we say or do, which pervades all our\nactions and animates all our services. This is not strictly religious\nbut animal excitement and is no more allied to our soul-life than our\narms or our feet. 3. There is a zeal which is merely _sentimental._\nIt throws a romantic glamour over our objects; but its exercises are\ntoo occasional, too random, to produce much effect. 4. There is a\nzeal of _affectation_ like that of Jehu (2 Kings x. 16). This is\nreligious foppery and hypocritical vanity. 5. _Christian_ zeal is a\nfair demonstration of what is felt within. It seeks not the eye of\nman but acts under the conviction of God's omniscience.\n\n+II. Consider the objects to which Christian zeal should be\ndirected.+--This \"good thing\" may be taken as including all true\nreligion, and embracing: 1. The promotion of God's glory. 2. The\nextension of Christ's kingdom. 3. The salvation of men. 4. The\nconversion of the world.\n\n+III. The good that results from the exercise of Christian zeal to\nthe persons that possess it.+--1. It renders them more Christ-like.\n2. It furthers the Divine designs in the most effective way. 3. We\nbecome worthy followers of the great heroes of faith in the past\nages.--_The Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\n_True Christian Zeal._\n\n+I. The Christian convert is zealously affected in a good\nthing.+--1. _All the teachings of Christianity are good._ They\nenlighten, guide, and sanctify. They are peculiar, harmonious,\ninfallible, Divine. Their morality is sublime, their spirit heavenly,\ntheir effect glorious.\n\n2. _The influence of Christianity is good._--It has created the sweet\ncharities of national and domestic life, sanctified advancing\ncivilisation, softened the fierceness of war, stimulated science,\npromoted justice and liberty. Sceptics have admitted this.\n\n3. _All that Christianity accomplishes for man is good._--It saves\nhim from sin, from the stings of guilt, from the eternal consequences\nof wrong-doing.\n\n+II. The zeal of the Christian convert is to be steady and\ncontinuous.+--There should be no diminution nor fluctuation in our\nzeal. 1. _Because no reason can be assigned why we should not be as\nzealous at any after-hour as at the hour of our conversion._\n2. _Because it is only by steady and continuous zeal that a proper\nmeasure of Christian influence can be exerted._ 3. _Because only by\nsteady and continuous zeal can Christian character be matured._\n4. _Because only thus can success in Christian enterprises be\nattained._ 5. _Because steady and continuous zeal will alone bring\nDivine approval._\n\n+III. The zeal of the Christian convert is not to be unduly\ninfluenced by the presence of others.+--While Paul was with the\nChurches in Galatia they were zealous, but after his departure their\nzeal ceased. To lose our zeal because we have lost the influence of\nanother is to show: 1. _That we never possessed true Christian\nmotives._ 2. _That our supposed attachment to Christ and His cause\nwas delusive._ 3. _That our zeal had merely been an effort to please\nmen, not God.--The Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Christmas of the Soul._--The apostle refers to the\nspiritual birth. The soul then rises into a consciousness of its\ninfinite importance; its thoughts, sympathies, and purposes become\nChrist-like, and Christ is manifested in the life. The soul-birth\nwere impossible if Christ had not been born in Bethlehem. That was an\nera in the world's history, this in the individual life; that was\nbrought about by the Holy Spirit, this is effected by the same Divine\nAgent; that was followed by the antagonism of the world, this is\nsucceeded by the opposition of evil, both within and without; that\nwas the manifestation of God in the flesh, this is the renewing of\nman's nature in the image of God; that came to pass without man's\nchoice, this requires man's seeking. Has this spiritual birth taken\nplace in you? If so, you have a right to the enjoyment of a happy\nChristmas. Keep the feast as a new man in Christ Jesus.--_Homiletic\nMonthly._\n\n\nVer. 20. _A Preacher's Perplexity_--\n\n  +I. Occasioned by the defection of his converts.+--\"I stand in\n      doubt of you.\"\n\n +II. As to what method he should adopt to restore them.+--\"And to\n      change my voice.\"\n\n+III. Increased by the difficulty of effecting a personal\n      interview.+--\"I desire to be present with you now.\"\n\n\n_\"I stand in doubt of you.\" Doubtful Christians._\n\n+I. Persons whose religion is liable to suspicion.+--1. Those who\nhave long attended the means of grace, and are very defective in\nknowledge. 2. Who profess much knowledge and are puffed up with it.\n3. Who contend for doctrinal religion rather than for that which is\npractical and experimental. 4. Who waver in their attachment to the\nfundamental principles of the Gospel. 5. Who neglect the ordinances\nof God's house. 6. Who neglect devotional exercises. 7. Who\nco-operate not with the Church to advance the kingdom of Christ in\nthe world.\n\n+II. The improvement to be made of the subject.+--1. Should lead to\nself-examination. 2. Shows the loss and danger of persons so\ncharacterised. 3. Should lead to repentance and faith. 4. While\nexercising a godly jealousy over others, let Christians watch with\ngreater jealousy over themselves.--_Helps._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21-31.\n\n_The History of Hagar and Sarah allegorical of the Law and the Gospel._\n\n+I. The two women represented two different covenants.+--1. _Hagar\nrepresented Sinai, typical of the law with its slavish exactions and\nterrible threatenings_ (vers. 22, 25). Sinai spoke of bondage and\nterror. It was a true symbol of the working of the law of Moses,\nexhibited in the present condition of Judaism. And round the base of\nSinai Hagar's wild sons had found their dwelling. Jerusalem was no\nlonger the mother of freemen. Her sons chafed under the Roman yoke.\nThey were loaded with self-inflicted burdens. The spirit of the\nnation was that of rebellious, discontented slaves. They were\nIshmaelite sons of Abraham, with none of the nobleness, the\nreverence, the calm and elevated faith of their father. In the\nJudaism of the apostle's day the Sinaitic dispensation, uncontrolled\nby the higher patriarchal and prophetic faith, had worked out its\nnatural result. It gendered to bondage. A system of repression and\nroutine, it had produced men punctual in tithes of mint and anise,\nbut without justice, mercy, or faith; vaunting their liberty while\nthey were servants of corruption. The Pharisee was the typical\nproduct of law apart from grace. Under the garb of a freeman he\ncarried the soul of a slave.\n\n2. _Sarah represented Jerusalem, typical of the Gospel with its\nhigher freedom and larger spiritual fruitfulness_ (vers.\n26-28).--Paul has escaped from the prison of legalism, from the\nconfines of Sinai; he has left behind the perishing earthly\nJerusalem, and with it the bitterness and gloom of his Pharisaic\ndays. He is a citizen of the heavenly Zion, breathing the air of a\nDivine freedom. The yoke is broken from the neck of the Church of\nGod; the desolation is gone from her heart. Robbed of all outward\nmeans, mocked and thrust out as she is by Israel after the flesh, her\nrejection is a release, an emancipation. Conscious of the spirit of\nsonship and freedom, looking out on the boundless conquests lying\nbefore her in the Gentile world, the Church of the new covenant\nglories in her tribulations. In Paul is fulfilled the joy of prophet\nand psalmist, who sang in former days of gloom concerning Israel's\nenlargement and world-wide victories (_Findlay_).\n\n+II. The antagonism of their descendants represented the violent and\nincessant opposition of the law to the Gospel.+--\"As he that was born\nafter the flesh persecuted him that was born after the Spirit, even\nso it is now. . . . Cast out the bondwoman and her son\" (vers. 29,\n30). Sooner or later the slave-boy was bound to go. He has no proper\nbirthright, no permanent footing in the house. One day he exceeds his\nlicence, he makes himself intolerable; he must be gone. The\nIsraelitish people showed more than Ishmael's jealousy toward the\ninfant Church of the Spirit. No weapon of violence or calumny was too\nbase to be used against it. Year by year they became more hardened\nagainst spiritual truth, more malignant towards Christianity, and\nmore furious and fanatical in their hatred towards their civil\nrulers. Ishmael was in the way of Isaac's safety and prosperity\n(_Ibid._).\n\n+III. The Gospel bestows a richer inheritance than the law.+--\"The\nson of the bondwoman shall not be heir with the son of the\nfreewoman. . . . We are children of the free\" (vers. 30, 31). The two\nsystems were irreconcilable. The law and the Gospel cannot coexist\nand inherit together; the law must disappear before the Gospel. The\nhigher absorbs the lower. The Church of the future, the spiritual\nseed of Abraham gathered out of all nations, has no part in legalism.\nIt embraces blessings of which Mosaism had no conception--\"an\ninheritance incorruptible, and undefiled, and that fadeth not away\"\n(1 Pet. i. 4).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The law and the Gospel differ fundamentally._ 2. _The\nlaw imposes intolerable burdens._ 3. _The Gospel abrogates the law by\nproviding a higher spiritual obedience._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 21-31. _Legal Bondage and Spiritual Freedom contrasted_--\n\n  +I. In their inception and development+ (vers. 21-27).\n\n +II. In their ceaseless antagonism+ (ver. 29).\n\n+III. In their inevitable results+ (vers. 28, 30, 31).\n\n\nVer. 21. _A Lesson from the Law_--\n\n  +I. Addressed to those eager for its subjection.+--\"Ye that desire\n      to be under the law.\"\n\n +II. Is suggestive of solemn warning.+\n\n+III. Should be seriously pondered.+--\"Tell me, do ye not hear the\n      law?\"\n\n\nVer. 26. _Jerusalem Above._\n\n+I. The Church of Christ as she exists in the present\nworld.+--\"Jerusalem, above and free.\"\n\n1. _Above; that is, seen in connection with God and the scenes of the\nheavenly world._--(1) Her Head is from above. (2) If we take the\nChurch as a whole, though she is in part on earth, the greater number\nof her members are in heaven. (3) Our Jerusalem is above because her\nmembers all fix their affections there and thither then as the great\nend of their profession.\n\n2. _Jerusalem above is free, and so are her children._--From the\nbondage of seeking salvation by works of law, from the guilt of sin,\nfrom its dominion.\n\n+II. The filial sentiment with which we ought to regard the Church of\nChrist.+--She is \"the mother of us all.\" The general idea is, that if\nwe are indeed spiritual, under God, we owe all to the Church. To her\nGod has committed the preservation of His truth. In stormy times she\nhas sheltered her lamps in the recesses of the sanctuary, and in\nhappier times has placed them on high to guide and save. The Spirit\nof God is in the Church. To her you owe your hallowed fellowships. In\nthe Church it is that God manifests Himself.\n\n+III. The animating anticipations we are thus taught to form of the\nChurch as glorified.+--Turn to the description given in Revelation\nxxi. 1. _Mark the wall great and high_--denoting the perfect,\nimpregnable security of those who dwell there. 2. _At the gates are\nangels_--still ushering in the heirs of salvation and disdaining not\nto be porters to this glorious city. 3. _Mark the foundations,_\ngarnished with all manner of precious stones--implying permanency.\n4. _Mark the circumstance that in the twelve foundations are\ninscribed the names of the twelve apostles_--the whole being the\nresult of their doctrine. 5. _The whole city is a temple all filled\nwith the presence and glory of God._ No holiest of all is there where\nevery part is most holy. All are filled, sanctified, beatified, by\nthe fully manifested presence of God. He is all in all; all things in\nand to all.--_Richard Watson._\n\n\n_Jerusalem a Type of the Universal Church._\n\n+I. God chose Jerusalem above all other places to dwell in.+ The\nChurch catholic is the company chosen to be the particular people of\nGod.\n\n+II. Jerusalem is a city compact in itself by reason of the bond of\nlove and order among the citizens.+ In like sort the members of the\nChurch catholic are linked together by the bond of one Spirit.\n\n+III. In Jerusalem was the sanctuary, a place of God's presence,+\nwhere the promise if the seed of the woman was preserved till the\ncoming of the Messiah. Now the Church catholic is in the room of the\nsanctuary, in it we must seek the presence of God and the Word of\nlife.\n\n+IV. In Jerusalem was the throne of David.+ In the Church catholic is\nthe throne or sceptre of Christ.\n\n+V. The commendation of a city, as Jerusalem, is the subjection and\nobedience of the citizens.+ In the Church catholic all believers are\ncitizens, and they yield voluntary obedience and subjection to Christ\ntheir King.\n\n+VI. As in Jerusalem the names of the citizens were enrolled in a\nregister,+ so the names of all the members of the Church catholic are\nenrolled in the Book of Life.\n\n+VII. The Church catholic is said to be above:+ 1. In respect to her\nbeginning. 2. Because she dwells by faith in heaven with\nChrist.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 28. _Believers Children of Promise._\n\n+I. The character.+--1. Believers are the children of promise by\nregeneration. 2. By spiritual nourishment. 3. In respect of\neducation. 4. With respect to assimilation, likeness, and conformity.\n\n+II. State the comparison.+--1. Isaac was the child of Abraham, not\nby natural power. Believers are children of Abraham by virtue of\npromise. 2. Isaac was the fruit of prayer, as well as the child of\nthe promise. 3. Isaac's birth was the joy of his parents. Even so\nwith reference to believers. 4. Isaac was born not after the flesh,\nbut by the promise; not of the bondwoman, but of the free. So,\nbelievers are not under the law. 5. Isaac was no sooner born but he\nwas mocked by Ishmael; so, it is now. 6. Isaac was the heir by\npromise, though thus persecuted. Even so believers.\n\n+III. How the promise hath such virtue for begetting children to\nGod.+--1. As it is the discovery of Divine love. 2. The object of\nfaith. 3. The ground of hope. 4. The seed of regeneration. 5. The\ncommunication of grace. 6. The chariot of the Spirit.\n\n+Inferences.+--1. _If believers are children of promise, then\nboasting is excluded._ 2. _Then salvation is free._ 3. _The happiness\nand dignity of believers--they are the children of God.--Pulpit\nAssistant._\n\n\nVer. 29. _On Persecution._\n\n+I. That no privilege of the Church can exempt her from\npersecution.+--1. _From the consideration of the quality of the\npersons here upon the stage, the one persecuting, the other\nsuffering._ (1) The persecuting--\"born after the flesh.\" Like\nHannibal, they can part with anything but war and contention; they\ncan be without their native country, but not without an enemy. These\nwhet the sword, these make the furnace of persecution seven times\nhotter than it would be. The flesh is the treasury whence these winds\nblow that rage and beat down all before them. (2) The\nsuffering--\"born after the Spirit.\" Having no security, no policy, no\neloquence, no strength, but that which lieth in his innocency and\ntruth, which he carrieth about as a cure, but it is looked upon as a\npersecution by those who will not be healed. \"For he must appear,\"\nsaid Seneca, \"as a fool that he may be wise, as weak that he may be\nstrong, as base and vile that he may be more honourable.\" If thou be\nan Isaac, thou shalt find an Ishmael.\n\n2. _From the nature and constitution of the Church which in this\nworld is ever militant._--Persecution is the honour, the prosperity,\nthe flourishing condition of the Church. When her branches were\nlopped off she spread the more, when her members were dispersed there\nwere more gathered to her, when they were driven about the world they\ncarried that sweet-smelling savour about them which drew in\nmultitudes to follow them.\n\n3. _From the providence and wisdom of God who put this enmity between\nthese two seeds._--God's method is best. That is method and order\nwith Him which we take to be confusion, and that which we call\npersecution is His art, His way of making saints. In Abraham's family\nIshmael mocketh and persecuteth Isaac, in the world the synagogue\npersecuteth the Church, and in the Church one Christian persecuteth\nanother. It was so, it is so, and it will be so to the end of the\nworld.\n\n+II. The lessons of persecution.+--1. _The persecution of the Church\nshould not create surprise._ 2. _Not to regard the Church and the\nworld as alike._ 3. _Build ourselves up in faith so as to be prepared\nfor the fiery trial._ 4. _Love the truth you profess._ 5. _Be renewed\nin spirit.--A. Farindon._\n\n\nVer. 30. _Cast out the Bondwoman and her Son._--To cast out is an act\nof violence, and the true Church evermore hath the suffering part.\nHow shall the Church cast out those of her own house and family?\n1. By the vehemency of our prayers that God would either melt their\nhearts or shorten their hands, either bring them into the right way,\nor strike off their chariot wheels. 2. By our patience and\nlongsuffering. 3. By our innocency of life and sincerity of\nconversation. 4. By casting our burden upon the Lord.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_The Fate of Unbelievers._\n\n+I. All hypocrites, mockers of the grace of God, shall be cast forth\nof God's family,+ though for a time they bear a sway therein. This is\nthe sentence of God. Let us therefore repent of our mocking and\nbecome lovers of the grace of God.\n\n+II. The persecution of the people of God shall not be perpetual,+\nfor the persecuting bondwoman and her son must be cast out.\n\n+III. All justiciary people and persons that look to be saved and\njustified before God by the law,+ either in whole or in part, are\ncast out of the Church of God, and have no part in the kingdom of\nheaven. The casting out of Hagar and Ishmael is a figure of the\nrejection of all such.--_Perkins._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER V.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Stand fast in.+--Stand up to, make your stand for. +The\nliberty wherewith Christ has made you free.+--As Christ has given you\nthis liberty you are bound to stand fast in it. +Be not\nentangled.+--Implicated in a way which involves violence to true\nspontaneous life. +The yoke of bondage.+--Contrasted with the yoke of\nChrist, which is compatible with the fullest spiritual freedom.\n\nVer. 2. +If ye be circumcised.+--Not simply as a national rite, but\nas a symbol of Judaism and legalism in general; as necessary to\njustification. +Christ shall profit you nothing.+--The Gospel of\ngrace is at an end. He who is circumcised is so fearing the law, and\nhe who fears disbelieves the power of grace, and he who disbelieves\ncan profit nothing by that grace which he disbelieves (_Chrysostom_).\n\nVer. 5 +Wait for the hope of righteousness.+--Righteousness, in the\nsense of justification, is already attained, but the consummation of\nit in future perfection is the object of hope to be waited for.\n\nVer. 6. +Faith which worketh by love.+--Effectually worketh, exhibits\nits energy by love, and love is the fulfilling of the law.\n\nVer. 9. +A little leaven.+--Of false doctrine, a small amount of evil\ninfluence.\n\nVer. 10. +He that troubleth you.+--The leaven traced to personal\nagency; whoever plays the troubler. +Shall bear his judgment.+--Due\nand inevitable condemnation from God.\n\nVer. 11. +Then is the offence of the cross ceased.+--The offence, the\nstumbling-block, to the Jew which roused his anger was not the shame\nof Messiah crucified, but the proclamation of free salvation to all,\nexclusive of the righteousness of human works.\n\nVer. 12. +I would they were cut off which trouble\nyou.+--Self-mutilated, an imprecation more strongly expressed in\nchap. i. 8, 9. Christian teachers used language in addressing\nChristians in the then heathen world that would be regarded as\nintolerable in modern Christendom, purified and exalted by Christ\nthrough their teachings.\n\nVer. 13. +Use not liberty for an occasion to the flesh.+--Do not give\nthe flesh the handle or pretext for its indulgence, which it eagerly\nseeks for. +By love serve one another.+--If ye must be in bondage, be\nservants to one another in love.\n\nVer. 15. +If ye bite and devour one another, . . .\nconsumed.+--Figures taken from the rage of beasts of prey. The\n_biting_ of controversy naturally runs into the devouring of\ncontroversial mood waxing fierce with indulgence. And the\ncontroversialists, each snapping at and gnawing his antagonist,\nforget the tendency is to _consume_ the Christian cause. Strength of\nsoul, health of body, character, and resources, are all consumed by\nbroils.\n\nVer. 18. +If ye be led by the Spirit, ye are not under the\nlaw.+--Under no irksome restraint. To him who loves, law is not\nirksome bondage but delightful direction. Active spiritual life is a\nsafeguard against lawless affection.\n\nVer. 19. +The works of the flesh.+--1. _Sensual vices_--\"adultery\n[omitted in the oldest MSS.], fornication, uncleanness,\nlasciviousness.\" 2. _Theological vices_--\"idolatry, witchcraft.\"\n3. _Malevolent vices_--\"hatred, variance, emulations, wrath, strife,\nseditions, heresies, envyings, murders.\" 4. _Vices of\nexcess_--\"drunkenness, revellings.\"\n\nVer. 22. +The fruit of the Spirit.+--The singular _fruit,_ as\ncompared with the plural _works,_ suggests that the effect of the\nSpirit's inworking is one harmonious whole, while carnality tends to\nmultitudinousness, distraction, chaos. We are not to look for a\nrigorous logical classification in either catalogue. Generally, the\nfruit of the Spirit may be arranged as: I. _Inward graces_--\"love,\njoy, peace.\" II. _Graces towards man_--\"longsuffering, gentleness,\ngoodness, faith.\" III. _A more generic form of inward\ngraces_--\"meekness, temperance.\"\n\nVer. 23. +Against such there is no law.+--So far from being against\nlove, law commands it.\n\nVer. 24. +Have crucified the flesh.+--Not human nature, but depraved\nhuman nature. +With the affections and lusts.+--Affections refer to\nthe general frame of mind; the lusts to special proclivities or\nhabits.\n\nVer. 26. +Not to be desirous of vainglory, provoking+ [challenging],\n+envying one another.+--Vaingloriousness provokes contention;\ncontention produces envy.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1.\n\n_Christian Liberty_--\n\n+I. Should be valued considering how it was obtained.+--\"The liberty\nwherewith Christ hath made us free.\" It is a liberty purchased at a\ngreat cost. Christ, the Son of God, became incarnated, suffered in a\ndegree unparalleled and incomprehensible, and died the shameful and\nignoble death of the crucified to win back the liberty man had\nforfeited by voluntary sin. The redemption of man was hopeless from\nhimself, and but for the intervention of a competent Redeemer he was\ninvolved in utter and irretrievable bondage. Civil liberty, though\nthe inalienable right of every man, has been secured as the result of\ngreat struggle and suffering. \"With a great sum,\" said the Roman\ncaptain to Paul, \"obtained I this freedom;\" and many since his day\nhave had to pay dearly for the common rights of citizenship. But\nChristian liberty should be valued as the choicest privilege,\nremembering it was purchased by the suffering Christ, and that it has\nbeen defended through the ages by a noble army of martyrs.\n\n+II. Should remind us of the oppression from which it\ndelivers.+--\"And be not entangled again with the yoke of bondage.\"\nThe Galatians had been bondmen, enslaved by the worship of false and\nvile deities. If they rush into the snare of the legalists, they will\nbe bondmen again, and their bondage will be the more oppressive now\nthey have tasted the joys of freedom. Disobedience involves us in\nmany entanglements. It is among the most potent of the energies of\nsin that leads astray by blinding and blinds by leading astray; that\nthe soul, like the strong champion of Israel, must have its eyes put\nout, when it would be bound with fetters of brass and condemned to\ngrind in the prisonhouse (Judg. xvi. 21). Redemption from the slavery\nof sin should fill the heart with gratitude. A wealthy and kind\nEnglishman once bought a poor Negro for twenty pieces of gold. He\npresented him with a sum of money that he might buy a piece of land\nand furnish himself a home. \"Am I really free? May I go whither I\nwill?\" cried the Negro in the joy of his heart. \"Well, let me be your\nslave, massa; you have redeemed me, and I owe all to you.\" The\ngentleman took him into his service, and he never had a more faithful\nservant. How much more eagerly should we do homage and service to the\ndivine Master, who Himself has made us free!\n\n+III. Should be rigorously maintained.+--\"Stand fast therefore.\" The\nprice of freedom is incessant vigilance; once gained it is a prize\nnever to be lost, and no effort or sacrifice should be grudged in its\ndefence. \"As far as I am a Christian,\" said Channing, \"I am free. My\nreligion lays on me not one chain. It does not hem me round with a\nmechanical ritual, does not enjoin forms, attitudes, and hours of\nprayer, does not descend to details of dress and food, does not put\non me one outward badge. It teaches us to do good but leaves us to\ndevise for ourselves the means by which we may best serve mankind.\"\nThe spirit of Christian liberty is eternal. Jerusalem and Rome may\nstrive to imprison it. They might as well seek to bind the winds of\nheaven. Its seat is the throne of Christ. It lives by the breath of\nHis Spirit. Not to be courageous and faithful in its defence is\ndisloyalty to Christ and treachery to our fellow-men.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the true Emancipator of men._ 2. _Christian\nliberty does not violate but honours the law of love._ 3. _Liberty is\nbest preserved by being consistently exercised._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 1. _Freedom from Bondage._--1. Every man by nature is a\nbondslave, being under the bondage of sin. The Jews were under\nbondage to the ceremonial law, involving great trouble, pain in the\nflesh, and great expense. 2. Jesus Christ by His obedience and death\nhas purchased freedom and liberty to His Church--liberty not to do\nevil, nor from the yoke of new obedience, nor from the cross, nor\nfrom that obedience and reverence which inferiors owe to superiors;\nbut from the dominion of sin, the tyranny of Satan, the curse and\nirritating power of the law, and from subjecting our consciences to\nthe rites, doctrines, ceremonies, and laws of men in the matter of\nworship. 3. Though civil liberty be much desired, so ignorant are we\nof the worth of freedom from spiritual bondage that we can hardly be\nexcited to seek after it, or made to stand to it when attained, but\nare in daily hazard of preferring our former bondage to our present\nliberty.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_Bondage and Liberty._\n\n+I. We are in bondage under sin.+\n\n+II. We are subject to punishment.+--Implying: 1. Bondage under\nSatan, who keeps unrepentant sinners in his snare. 2. Bondage under\nan evil conscience, which sits in the heart as accuser and judge, and\nlies like a wild beast at a man's door ready to pluck out his throat.\n3. Bondage under the wrath of God and fear of eternal death.\n\n+III. We are in bondage to the ceremonial law.+--To feel this bondage\nis a step out of it; not to feel it is to be plunged into it.\n\n+IV. We have spiritual liberty by the grace of God.+--1. Christian\nliberty is a deliverance from misery. (1) From the curse of the law\nfor the breach thereof. (2) From the obligation of the law whereby it\nbinds us to perfect righteousness in our own persons. (3) From the\nobservance of the ceremonial law of Moses. (4) From the tyranny and\ndominion of sin. 2. Christian liberty is freedom in good things.\n(1) In the voluntary service of God. (2) In the free use of all the\ncreatures of God. (3) Liberty to come to God and in prayer to be\nheard. (4) To enter heaven.\n\n+V. Christ is the great Liberator.+--He procured this liberty: 1. By\nthe merit of His death. The price paid--His precious blood--shows the\nexcellence of the blessing, and that it should be esteemed. 2. By the\nefficacy of His Spirit--assuring us of our adoption and abating the\nstrength and power of sin.\n\n+VI. We are to hold fast our liberty in the day of trial.+--1. We\nmust labour that religion be not only in mind and memory but rooted\nin the heart. 2. We must join with our religion the soundness of a\ngood conscience. 3. We must pray for all things needful.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2-6.\n\n_Christianity Superior to External Rites._\n\n+I. External rites demand universal obedience.+--\"Every man that is\ncircumcised is a debtor to do the whole law\" (ver. 3). The Galatians\nwere in a state of dangerous suspense. They were on the brink of a\ngreat peril. Another step and they would be down the precipice. That\nstep was circumcision. Seeing the imminence of the danger the apostle\nbecomes more earnest and emphatic in his remonstrance. He warns them\nthat circumcision, though a matter of indifference as an external\nrite, would in their case involve an obligation to keep the whole\nlaw. This he has shown is an impossibility. They would submit\nthemselves to a yoke they were unable to bear, and from whose galling\ntyranny they would be unable to extricate themselves. Knowing this,\nsurely they would not be so foolish as, deliberately and with open\neyes, to commit such an act of moral suicide. There must be a strange\ninfatuation in ritualistic observances that tempts man to undertake\nobligations he is powerless to perform, utterly heedless of the most\nexplicit and faithful warnings.\n\n+II. Dependence on external rites is an open rejection of\nChrist.+--\"Christ shall profit you nothing; . . . is become of no\neffect unto you; ye are fallen from grace\" (vers. 2, 4). Here the\nresult of a defection from the Gospel is placed in the most alarming\naspect and should give pause to the wildest fanatic. It is the\nforfeiture of all Christian privileges, it is a complete rejection of\nChrist, it is a loss of all the blessings won by faith, it is a fall\ninto the gulf of despair and ruin. It cannot be too plainly\nunderstood, nor too frequently iterated, that excessive devotion to\nexternal rites means the decline and extinction of true religion.\nRitualism supplants Jesus Christ. \"It is evident that the disciples\nof the Church of Rome wish to lead us from confession and absolution\nto the doctrine of transubstantiation, thence to the worship of\nimages, and thence to all the abuses which at the end of the\nfifteenth century and at the beginning of the sixteenth excited the\nanger and scorn of Luther, Calvin, Zwinglius, and others. The primary\nfaith of the Reformers is in the words of Christ. The primary faith\nof the ritualists is in Aristotle. If the British nation is wise, it\nwill not allow the Roman Church with its infallible head, or the\nritualists with their mimic ornaments, or those who are deaf to the\nteachings of Socrates and Cicero, of Bacon and Newton, to deprive\nthem of the inestimable blessings of the Gospel.\"\n\n+III. Christianity as a spiritual force is superior to external\nrites.+--1. _It bases the hope of righteousness on faith._ \"For we\nthrough the Spirit wait for the hope of righteousness by faith\" (ver.\n5). Look on this picture and on that. Yonder are the Galatians, all\nin tumult about the legalistic proposals, debating which of the\nHebrew feasts they shall celebrate and with what rites, absorbed in\nthe details of Mosaic ceremony, all but persuaded to be circumcised\nand to settle their scruples out of hand by a blind submission to the\nlaw. And here on the other side is Paul with the Church of the\nSpirit, walking in the righteousness of faith and the communion of\nthe Holy Spirit, joyfully awaiting the Saviour's final coming and the\nhope that is laid up in heaven. How vexed, how burdened, how narrow\nand puerile is the one condition; how large, lofty, and secure the\nother! Faith has its great ventures; it has also its seasons of\nendurance, its moods of quiet expectancy, its unweariable patience.\nIt can wait as well as work (_Findlay_).\n\n2. _Faith is a spiritual exercise revealing itself in active\nlove._--\"Faith worketh by love\" (ver. 6). In ver. 5 we have the\n_statics_ of the religion of Christ; in ver. 6 its _dynamics._ Love\nis the working energy of faith. \"Love gives faith hands and feet;\nhope lends it wings. Love is the fire at its heart, the life-blood\ncoursing in its veins; hope the light that gleams and dances in its\neyes.\" In the presence of an active spiritual Christianity, animated\nby love to Christ and to men, ritualism diminishes into\ninsignificance. \"In Jesus Christ neither circumcision availeth\nanything nor uncircumcision\" (ver. 6). The Jew is no better or worse\na Christian because he is circumcised; the Gentile no worse or better\nbecause he is not. Love, which is the fulfilling of the law, is the\nessence of Christianity, and gives it the superiority over all\nexternal rites.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Externalism in religion imposes intolerable burdens._\n2. _To prefer external rites is an insult to Christ._ 3. _The\nsuperiority of Christianity is its spiritual character._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 2-4. _Christianity nullified by Legalism._\n\n  +I. To accept legalism is to reject Christ+ (vers. 2, 4).\n\n +II. Legalism demands universal obedience to its enactments+ (ver.\n      3).\n\n+III. Legalism is a disastrous abandonment of Christianity.+--\"Ye are\n      fallen from grace\" (ver. 4).\n\n\nVers. 5, 6. _Righteousness attained by Active Faith._--1. No personal\nrighteousness entitles us to the blessed hope of the heavenly\ninheritance, but only the righteousness of Christ apprehended by\nfaith. It is only the efficacious teaching of God's spirit which can\nsufficiently instruct us in the knowledge of this righteousness and\nmake us with security and confidence venture our hope of heaven upon\nit. 2. To impose the tie of a command on anything as a necessary part\nof Divine worship wherein the Word has left us free, or to subject\nourselves to such command, is a receding from and betrayal of\nChristian liberty. 3. The sum of a Christian's task is faith; but it\nis always accompanied with the grace of love. Though faith and love\nare conjoined, faith, in the order of nature, has the\nprecedency.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 6. _Religion is Faith working by Love._\n\n+I. External and bodily privileges are of no use and moment in the\nkingdom of Christ.+--1. We are not to esteem men's religion by their\nriches and external dignities. 2. We are to moderate our affections\nin respect of all outward things, neither sorrowing too much for them\nnor joying too much in them.\n\n+II. Faith is of great use and acceptance in the kingdom of\nChrist.+--1. We must labour to conceive faith aright in our hearts,\nby the use of the right means--the Word, prayer, and sacraments, and\nin and by the exercises of spiritual invocation and repentance.\n2. Faith in Christ must reign and bear sway in our hearts and have\ncommand over reason, will, affection, lust. 3. It is to be bewailed\nthat the common faith of our day is but a ceremonial faith.\n\n+III. True faith works by love.+--Faith is the cause of love, and\nlove is the fruit of faith.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-12.\n\n_Disturber of the Faith--_\n\n+I. Checks the prosperous career of the most ardent Christian.+--\"Ye\ndid run well; who did hinder you that ye should not obey the truth?\"\n(ver. 7). The Galatians were charmed with the truth as it fell from\nthe lips of the apostle; it was to them a new revelation; they\neagerly embraced it, it changed their lives, and they strove to\nconform their conduct to its high moral teachings. The apostle was\ndelighted with the result and commended their Christian enthusiasm.\nThey were running finely. But the intrusion of false teaching changed\nall this. Their progress was arrested, their faith was disturbed,\nthey wavered in their allegiance, and were in danger of losing all\nthe advantages they had gained. The influence of false doctrine is\nalways baneful, especially so to new beginners, in whom the\nprinciples of truth have not become firmly rooted. The loss of truth,\nlike inability to believe, may be traced back to an unhealthy\ncorruption of the mind. The great danger of unsound doctrine lies in\nthis, that, like a cancer, it rankles because it finds in the\ndiseased condition of the religious life ever fresh nourishment.\n\n+II. Is opposed to the Divine method of justification.+--\"This\npersuasion cometh not of Him that calleth you\" (ver. 8). The\ndisturber of the Galatians taught a human method of salvation--a\nsalvation by the works of the law. This was diametrically opposed to\nthe Divine calling, which is an invitation to the whole race to seek\nsalvation by faith. The persuasion to which the Galatians were\nyielding was certainly not of God. It was a surrender to the enemy.\nAll error is a wild fighting against God, an attempt to undermine the\nfoundations that God has fixed for man's safety and happiness.\n\n+III. Suggests errors that are contagious in their evil\ninfluence.+--\"A little leaven, leaveneth the whole lump\" (ver. 9). A\nproverbial expression the meaning of which is at once obvious. A\nsmall infusion of false doctrine, or the evil influence of one bad\nperson, corrupts the purity of the Gospel. It is a fact well known in\nthe history of science and philosophy that men, gifted by nature with\nsingular intelligence, have broached the grossest errors and even\nsought to undermine the grand primitive truths on which human virtue,\ndignity, and hope depend. The mind that is always open to search into\nerror is itself in error, or at least unstable (1 Cor. xv. 33;\nEccles. ix. 18).\n\n+IV. Shall not escape chastisement whatever his rank or\npretensions.+--1. _Either by direct Divine judgment._ \"He that\ntroubleth you shall bear his judgment, whosoever he be\" (ver. 10).\nThe reference here may be to some one prominent among the seducers,\nor to any one who plays the troubler. God will not only defend His\nown truth but will certainly punish the man who from wicked motives\nseeks to corrupt the truth or to impair the faith of those who have\nembraced it. The seducer not only deceives himself but shall suffer\njudgment for his self-deception and the injury he has done to others.\n\n2. _Or by excision from the Church._--\"I would they were even cut off\nwhich trouble you\" (ver. 12). An extravagant expression, as if the\napostle said, \"Would that the Judaising troublers would mutilate\nthemselves,\" as was the custom with certain heathen priests in some\nof their religious rites. The phrase indicates the angry contempt of\nthe apostle for the legalistic policy, and that the troublers richly\ndeserved to be excluded from the Church and all its privileges. The\npatience of the Gentile champion was exhausted and found relief for\nthe moment in mocking invective.\n\n+V. Does not destroy the hope and faith of the true teacher.+--1. _He\nretains confidence in the fidelity of those who have been temporarily\ndisturbed._ \"I have confidence in you through the Lord, that ye will\nbe none otherwise minded\" (ver. 10). Notwithstanding the insidious\nleaven, the apostle cherishes the assurance that his converts will\nafter all prove leal and true at heart. He has faithfully chided them\nfor their defection, but his anger is directed, not towards them, but\ntowards those who have injured them. He is persuaded the Galatians\nwill, with God's help, resume the interrupted race they were running\nso well.\n\n2. _His sufferings testify that his own teaching is unchanged._--\"If\nI preach circumcision, why do I yet suffer persecution? Then is the\noffence of the cross ceased\" (ver. 11). The rancour and hostility of\nthe legalists would have been disarmed, if Paul advocated their\ndoctrine, and the scandalous \"offence of the cross\"--so intolerable\nto the Jewish pride--would have been done away. But the cross was the\ngrand vital theme of all his teaching, that in which he most ardently\ngloried, and for which he was prepared to endure all possible\nsuffering. The value of truth to a man is what he is willing to\nsuffer for it.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The man who perverts the truth is an enemy to his\nkind._ 2. _The false teacher ensures his own condemnation._ 3. _Truth\nbecomes more precious the more we suffer for it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 7-10. _How Perfection is attained._--Everything in the universe\ncomes to its perfection by drill and marching--the seed, the insect,\nthe animal, the man, the spiritual man. God created man at the lowest\npoint, and put him in a world where almost nothing would be done for\nhim, and almost everything should tempt him to do for\nhimself.--_Beecher._\n\n\nVer. 7. _The Christian Life a Race._\n\n+I. Christians are runners in the race of God.+--1. They must make\nhaste without delay to keep the commandments of God. It is a great\nfault for youth and others to defer amendment till old age, or till\nthe last and deadly sickness. That is the time to end our running,\nand not to begin. 2. We are to increase and profit in all good\nduties. We in this age do otherwise. Either we stand at a stay or go\nback. There are two causes for this: (1) Blindness of mind. (2) Our\nunbelief in the article of life everlasting. 3. We must neither look\nto the right nor the left hand, or to things behind, but press\nforward to the prize of eternal life. 4. We must not be moved with\nthe speeches of men which are given of us, for or against. They are\nlookers on and must have their speeches. Our care must be not to heed\nthem but look to our course.\n\n+II. Christians must not only be runners, but run well.+--This is\ndone by believing and obeying, having faith and a good conscience.\nThese are the two feet by which we run. We have one good foot--our\nreligion--which is sound and good; but we halt on the other foot. Our\ncare to keep conscience is not suitable to our religion. Three things\ncause a lameness in this foot: the lust of the eye--covetousness, the\nlust of the flesh, and the pride of life.\n\n+III. Christians must run the race from the beginning to the\nend.+--1. We must cherish a love and fervent desire of eternal life,\nand by this means be drawn through all miseries and overpass them to\nthe end. 2. We must maintain a constant and daily purpose of not\nsinning.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Bad Companions._--\"Bad company,\" wrote Augustine, \"is like a nail\ndriven into a post, which, after the first or second blow, may be\ndrawn out with very little difficulty; but being once driven up to\nthe head, the pincers cannot take hold to draw it out, which can only\nbe done by the destruction of the wood.\" Of course, it is useless to\ndefine bad company. Men and women, boys and girls, feel instinctively\nwhen they have fallen in with dangerous associates; if they choose to\nremain amongst them they are lost. So in the high tides, barks of\nlight draught will float over Goodwin quicksands; in summer at low\ntide the venturous boys and young people will play cricket thereon:\nbut neither can remain long in the neighbourhood. The time comes when\nthe sands are covered with but a thin surface of water, and beneath\nis the shifting, loose, wet earth, more dangerous and treacherous\nthan springtide ice; and then it is that to touch is to be drawn in,\nand to be drawn in is death. So is it with bad company.--_The Gentle\nLife._\n\n\n_Cowardly Retreat._--General Grant relates that just as he was hoping\nto hear a report of a brilliant movement and victory of General\nSigel, he received an announcement from General Halleck to this\neffect: \"Sigel is in full retreat on Strasburg; he will do nothing\nbut run; never did anything else.\" The enemy had intercepted him,\nhandled him roughly, and he fled.\n\n\nVers. 8-10. _The Disintegrating Force of Error._--1. Whatever\npersuasion cometh not of God and is not grounded on the Word of\ntruth, is not to be valued, but looked upon as a delusion (ver. 8).\n2. The Church of Christ, and every particular member thereof, ought\ncarefully to resist the first beginnings of sin, for the least of\nerrors and the smallest number of seduced persons are here compared\nto leaven, a little quantity of which secretly insinuates itself and\ninsensibly conveys its sourness to the whole lump (ver. 9). 3. The\nminister is not to despair of the recovery of those who oppose\nthemselves, but ought in charity to hope the best of all men, so long\nas they are curable; and to show how dangerous their error was by\ndenouncing God's judgment against their prime seducers (ver. 10).\n4. So just is God, He will suffer no impenitent transgressor, however\nsubtle, to escape His search, or to pass free from the dint of His\navenging stroke, whoever he be for parts, power, or\nestimation.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 9. _Reform of Bad Manners._\n\n+I. We must resist and withstand every particular sin.+--One sin is\nable to defile the whole life of man. One fly is sufficient to mar a\nwhole box of sweet ointment. One offence in our first parents brought\ncorruption on them and all mankind; yea, on heaven and earth.\n\n+II. We must endeavour to the utmost to cut off every bad example in\nthe societies of men.+--One bad example is sufficient to corrupt a\nwhole family, a town, a country. A wicked example, being suffered,\nspreads abroad and does much hurt.\n\n+III. We are to withstand and cut off the first beginnings and\noccasions of sin.+--We say of arrant thieves they began to practise\ntheir wickedness in pins and points. For this cause, idleness,\nexcessive eating, drinking and swilling, riot, and vanity in apparel\nare to be suppressed in every society as the breeder of many\nvices.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 11. _The Perversion of Apostolic Preaching._--There are two\nattempts or resolves in constant operation as to the cross. One is\nman's, to accommodate to human liking and taste; the second is God's,\nto raise human liking and taste to it.\n\n+I. The aim of man.+--The following may be named as the principal\nexceptions taken to the cross by those who rejected it:--\n\n1. _It was an improbable medium of revelation._--Man can talk loudly\nhow God should manifest Himself. Shall the cross be the oracle by\nwhich He will speak His deepest counsels to our race?\n\n2. _It was a stigma on this religion which set it in disadvantageous\ncontrast with every other._--It was unheard of that the vilest of all\ndeaths should give its absolute character to religion, and that this\nreligion of the cross should triumph over all.\n\n3. _It was a violent disappointment of a general hope._--There was a\ndesire of all nations. And was all that the earliest lay rehearsed,\nall that the highest wisdom enounced, only to be wrought out in the\nshameful cross?\n\n4. _It was a humiliating test._--Ambition, selfishness, insincerity,\nlicentiousness, ferocity, pride, felt that it was encircled with an\natmosphere in which they were instantly interrupted and condemned.\nMan is desirous of doing this away as a wrongful and unnecessary\nimpression. He would make the offence of the cross to cease: (1) By\nfixing it upon some extrinsic authority. (2) By torturing it into\ncoalition with foreign principles. (3) By transforming the character\nof its religious instructions. (4) By applying it to inappropriate\nuses. (5) By excluding its proper connections.\n\n+II. The procedure of God.+--1. _It is necessary, if we would receive\nthe proper influence of the cross, that we be prepared to hail it as\na distinct revelation._ Science and the original ethics of our nature\ndo not fall within the distinct province of what a revelation\nintends. Its strict purpose, its proper idea, is to make known that\nwhich is not known, and which could not be otherwise known. Not more\ndirectly did the elemental light proceed from God who called it out\nof darkness than did the making known to man of redemption by the\nblood of the cross.\n\n2. _When we rightly appreciate the cross, we recognize it as the\ninstrument of redemption._--This was the mode of death indicated by\nprophecy. The cross stands for that death; but it is an idle,\nunworthy superstition that this mode of death wrought the stupendous\nend. It is only an accessory. We must look further into the mystery.\n\"He His own self bore our sin in His own body on the tree.\" It is\nthat awful identity, that mysterious action, which expiates, and not\nthe rood.\n\n3. _When our mind approves this method of salvation, it finds in the\ncross the principle of sanctification._--A new element of thought, a\nnew complexion of motive, enter the soul when the Holy Spirit shows\nto it the things of Christ. We are new creatures. We reverse all our\nsins and desires. We are called unto holiness. (1) Mark the\n_process._ We had hitherto abided in death. But now we are quickened\nwith Him. (2) Mark the _necessity._ Until we be brought nigh to it,\nuntil we take hold of it, the doctrine of the crucified Saviour is an\nunintelligible and uninteresting thing. (3) Mark the _effect._ There\nis a suddenly, though a most intelligently, developed charm. It is\nthe infinite of attraction. All concentrates on it. It absorbs the\ntenderness and the majesty of the universe. It is full of glory. Our\nheart has now yielded to it, is drawn, is held, coheres, coalesces,\nis itself impregnated by the sacred effluence. The offence of the\ncross has ceased.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\nVer. 12. _Church Censure._--The spirit of error may so far prevail\namong a people that discipline can hardly attain its end--the shaming\nof the person censured, and the preservation of the Church from being\nleavened. In which case the servants of God should proceed with slow\npace, and in all lenity and wisdom, and should rather doctrinally\ndeclare the censures deserved than actually inflict the censure\nitself.\n\n\n_Judgment on the Troubles of the Church._\n\n  +I. God watches over His Church with a special providence.+\n\n +II. The doctrine of the apostles is of infallible certainty+\n      because the oppugners of it are plagued with the just judgment\n      of God.\n\n+III. Our duty is to pray for the good estate of the Church of God,+\n      and for the kingdoms where the Church is planted.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-18.\n\n_Love the Highest Law of Christian Liberty._\n\n+I. Love preserves liberty from degenerating into licence.+--\"Only\nuse not liberty for an occasion to the flesh\" (ver. 13). Christian\nliberty is a great boon, but it also a solemn responsibility. It is\nhard to win and is worth the most gigantic struggle; but the moment\nit is abused it is lost. Men clamour for liberty when they mean\nlicence--licence to indulge their unholy passions unchecked by the\nrestraints of law. Christian liberty is not the liberty of the flesh,\nbut of the Spirit, and love is the master-principle that governs and\ndefines all its exercises.\n\n     \"He is the freeman whom the truth makes free,\n      And all are slaves besides.\"\n\nWe know no truth, no privilege, no power, no blessing, no right,\nwhich is not abused. But is liberty to be denied to men because they\noften turn it into licentiousness? There are two freedoms--the false,\nwhere a man is free to do what he likes; the true, where a man is\nfree to do what he ought. Love is the safeguard of the highest\nliberty.\n\n+II. Love is obedience to the highest law.+--\"For all the law is\nfulfilled in one word, even in this, Thou shalt love thy neighbour as\nthyself\" (ver. 14). \"By love serve one another\" (ver. 13). We may be\nas orthodox as Athanasius and as scrupulous as Jerome, we may be\ndaily and ostentatiously building to God seven altars and offering a\nbullock and a ram on every altar, and yet be as sounding brass and as\na clanging cymbal, if our life shows only the leaves of profession\nwithout the golden fruit of action. If love shows not itself by deeds\nof love, then let us not deceive ourselves. God is not mocked; our\nChristianity is heathenism, and our religion a delusion and a sham.\nLove makes obedience delightful, esteems it bondage to be prevented,\nliberty to be allowed to serve.\n\n     \"Serene will be our days and bright,\n        And happy will our nature be,\n      When love is an unerring light,\n        And joy its own security.\"--_Wordsworth._\n\n+III. Love prevents the mutual destructiveness of a contentious\nspirit.+--\"But if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye\nbe not consumed one of another\" (ver. 15). The condition of the\nGalatians at this time was very different from the ideal Paul set\nbefore them. The quick, warm temperament of the Gauls was roused by\nthe Judaistic controversy, and their natural combativeness was\nexcited. It was easy to pick a quarrel with them at any time, and\nthey were eloquent in vituperation and invective. The \"biting\"\ndescribes the wounding and exasperating effect of the manner in which\ntheir contentions were carried on; \"devour\" warns them of its\ndestructiveness. If this state of things continued, the Churches of\nGalatia would cease to exist. Their liberty would end in complete\ndisintegration. Love is the remedy propounded for all ills--the love\nof Christ, leading to the love of each other. Love not only cures\nquarrels but prevents them.\n\n+IV. Love by obeying the law of the Spirit gains the victory in the\nfeud between the flesh and the Spirit.+--\"Walk in the Spirit, and ye\nshall not fulfil the lust of the flesh: . . . these are contrary the\none to the other\" (vers. 16, 17). The flesh and the Spirit are\nrivals, and by their natures must be opposed to and strive with each\nother. The strong man is dispossessed by a stronger than he--the\nSpirit. The master must rule the slave. \"This soul of mine must rule\nthis body of mine,\" said John Foster, \"or quit it.\" The life of a\nChristian is lived in a higher sphere and governed by a higher\nlaw--walking in the Spirit. Christianity says, \"Be a man, not a\nbrute. Not do as many fleshly things as you can but do as many\nspiritual things as you can.\" All prohibitions are negative. You\ncan't kill an appetite by starvation. You may kill the flesh by\nliving in the higher region of the Spirit; not merely by ceasing to\nlive in sin, but by loving Christ. The more we live the spiritual\nlife, the more sin becomes impossible. Conquest over the sensual is\ngained, not by repression, but by the freer, purer life of love.\n\n+V. Love emancipates from the trammels of the law.+--\"If ye be led by\nthe Spirit, ye are not under the law\" (ver. 18). The Spirit of love\ndoes not abolish the law, but renders it harmless by fulfilling all\nits requirements, without being compelled to it by its stern\ncommands. Law does not help the soul to obey its behests, but it has\nnothing to say, nothing to threaten, when those behests are obeyed.\nTo be under the law is to be under sin; but yielding to the influence\nof the Spirit, and living according to His law, the soul is free from\nsin and from the condemnation of the law. Freedom from sin, and\nfreedom from the trammels of the Mosaic law--these two liberties are\nvirtually one. Love is the great emancipator from all moral tyrannies.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Love is in harmony with the holiest law._ 2. _Love\nsilences all contention._ 3. _Love honours law by obeying it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13, 14. _The Service of Love_--\n\n  +I. Is the noblest exercise of Christian liberty+ (ver. 13).\n\n +II. Preserves Christian liberty from degenerating into selfish\n      indulgence+ (ver. 13).\n\n+III. Is the fulfilment of the highest law+ (ver. 14).\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Abuse of Christian Liberty._\n\n+I. To use it as an occasion of fleshly and carnal liberty.+--When\nmen make more things indifferent than God ever made. Thus, all abuses\nof meat, drink, apparel, rioting, gaming, dicing, and carding are\nexcused by the names of things indifferent.\n\n+II. Our liberty is abused by an immoderate use of the gifts of\nGod.+--1. Many gentlemen and others offend when they turn recreation\ninto an occupation. 2. When men exceed in eating and drinking.\n3. They offend who, being mean persons and living by trades, yet for\ndiet and apparel are as great gentlemen and gentlewomen.\n\n+III. Liberty is abused when the blessings of God are made\ninstruments and flags and banners to display our riot, vanity,\nostentation, and pride.+--It is the fashion of men to take unto\nthemselves a toleration of sinning. Some presume on the patience of\nGod, others on the election of grace, and others on the mercy of God.\nA certain dweller in Cambridge made away with himself. In his bosom\nwas found a writing to this effect: that God did show mercy on great\nand desperate sinners, and therefore he hoped for mercy though he\nhanged himself. Of this mind are many ignorant persons, who persevere\nin their sins, yet persuade themselves of mercy.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_The Right Use of Christian Liberty._\n\n+I. We ourselves must be renewed and sanctified.+--The person must\nfirst please God before the action can please Him.\n\n+II. Besides the lawful use of the creatures we must have a spiritual\nand holy use of them.+--1. The creatures of God must be sanctified by\nthe Word and prayer. 2. We must be circumspect lest we sin in the use\nof the creatures. In these days there is no feasting or rejoicing\nunless all memory of God be buried, for that is said to breed\nmelancholy. 3. We must use the gifts of God with thanksgiving. 4. We\nmust suffer ourselves to be limited and moderate in the use of our\nliberty. 5. Our liberty must be used for right ends--the glory of\nGod, the preservation of nature, and the good of our neighbour.\n\n+III. We must give no occasion of sinning by means of Christian\nliberty.+--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Law fulfilled in Love to Others._\n\n+I. The end of man's life is to serve God in serving others.+\n\n+II. True godliness is to love and serve God in serving man.+--To\nlive out of all society of men, though it be in prayer and fasting in\nmonkish fashion, is no state of perfection, but mere superstition.\nThat is true and perfect love of God that is showed in duties of love\nand in the edification of our neighbour. It is not enough for thee to\nbe holy in church; thou mayest be a saint in church and a devil at\nhome.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_Regard for a Neighbour's Rights._--Speaking of the early American\nprairie settlements a modern historian says: \"Theft was almost\nunknown. The pioneers brought with them the same rigid notions of\nhonesty which they had previously maintained. A man in Mancoupin\ncounty left his waggon loaded with corn stuck in the prairie mud for\ntwo weeks near a frequented road. When he returned he found some of\nhis corn gone, but there was money enough tied in the sacks to pay\nfor what was taken.\"\n\n\nVer. 15. _Church Quarrels._--1. When schism in a Church is not only\nmaintained on the one hand with passion, strife, reproaches, and real\ninjuries, but also impugned on the other hand, not so much with the\nsword of the Spirit as with the same fleshly means, then is it the\nforerunner and procuring cause of desolation and ruin to both parties\nand to the whole Church. 2. As it is a matter of great difficulty to\nmake men of credit and parts, being once engaged in contentious\ndebates, to foresee the consequence of their doing so further than\nthe hoped-for victory against the contrary party, so it were no small\nwisdom, before folk meddle with strife, seriously to consider what\nwoeful effects may follow to the Church of God.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Positiveness of the Divine Life._\n\n+I. There are two ways of dealing with every vice.+--One is to set to\nwork directly to destroy the vice; that is the negative way. The\nother is to bring in as overwhelmingly as possible the opposite\nvirtue, and so to crowd and stifle and drown out the vice; that is\nthe positive way. Everywhere the negative and positive methods of\ntreatment stand over against each other, and men choose between them.\nA Church is full of errors and foolish practices. It is possible to\nattack those follies outright, showing conclusively how foolish they\nare; or it is possible, and it is surely better, to wake up the true\nspiritual life in that Church which shall itself shed those follies\nand cast them out, or at least rob them of their worst harmfulness.\nThe application of the same principle is seen in matters of taste,\nmatters of reform, and in matters of opinion.\n\n+II. In St. Paul and in all the New Testament there is nothing more\nbeautiful than the clear, open, broad way in which the positive\nculture of human character is adopted and employed.+--We can conceive\nof a God standing over His moral creatures, and, whenever they did\nanything wrong, putting a heavy hand on the malignant manifestation\nand stifling it, and so at last bringing them to a tight, narrow,\ntimid goodness--the God of repression. The God of the New Testament\nis not that. We can conceive of another God who shall lavish and pour\nupon His children the chances and temptations to be good; in every\nway shall make them see the beauty of goodness; shall so make life\nidentical with goodness that every moment spent in wickedness shall\nseem a waste, almost a death; shall so open His Fatherhood and make\nit real to them that the spontaneousness of the Father's holiness is\nre-echoed in the child; not the God of restraint, but the God whose\nsymbols are the sun, the light, the friend, the fire--everything that\nis stimulating, everything that fosters, encourages, and helps. When\nwe read in the New Testament, lo, that is the God whose story is\nwritten there, the God whose glory we see in the face of Jesus\nChrist. The distinction is everywhere. Not merely by trying not to\nsin, but by entering further and further into the new life in which,\nwhen it is completed, sin becomes impossible; not by merely weeding\nout wickedness, but by a new and supernatural cultivation of\nholiness, does the saint of the New Testament walk on the\never-ascending pathway of growing Christliness and come at last\nperfectly to Christ.\n\n+III. This character of the New Testament must be at bottom in\nconformity with human nature.+--The Bible and its Christianity are\nnot in contradiction against the nature of the man they try to save.\nThey are at war with his corruptions, and, in his own interest, they\nare for ever labouring to assert and re-establish his true self.\nMan's heart is always rebelling against repression as a continuous\nand regular thing. There is a great human sense that not suppression,\nbut expression is the true life. It is the self-indulgence of the\nhighest and not the self-surrender of the lowest that is the great\nend of the Gospel. The self-sacrifice of the Christian is always an\necho of the self-sacrifice of Christ. Nothing can be more unlike the\nrepressive theories of virtue in their methods and results than the\nway in which Christ lived His positive life, full of force and\nsalvation. The way to get out of self-love is to love God. \"Walk in\nthe Spirit, and ye shall not fulfil the lust of the\nflesh.\"--_Phillips Brooks._\n\n\n_The Flesh and the Spirit._\n\nI. When St. Paul talks of man's flesh +he means by it man's body,\nman's heart and brain, and all his bodily appetites and powers+--what\nwe call a man's constitution, the animal part of man. Man is an\nanimal with an immortal spirit in it, and this spirit can feel more\nthan pleasure and pain; it can feel trust, hope, peace, love, purity,\nnobleness, independence, and, above all, it can feel right and wrong.\nThere is the infinite difference between an animal and man, between\nour flesh and our spirit; an animal has no sense of right and wrong.\n\n+II. There has been many a man in this life, who had every fleshly\nenjoyment which this world can give, and yet whose spirit was in hell\nall the while, and who knew it;+ hating and despising himself for a\nmean, selfish villain, while all the world round was bowing down to\nhim and envying him as the luckiest of men. A man's flesh can take no\npleasure in spiritual things, while man's spirit of itself can take\nno pleasure in fleshly things. Wickedness, like righteousness, is a\nspiritual thing. If a man sins, his body is not in fault; it is his\nspirit, his weak, perverse will, which will sooner listen to what his\nflesh tells him is pleasant than to what God tells him is right. This\nis the secret of the battle of life.\n\n+III. Because you are all fallen creatures there must go on in you\nthis sore lifelong battle between your spirit and your flesh+--your\nspirit trying to be master and guide, and your flesh rebelling and\ntrying to conquer your spirit and make you a mere animal, like a fox\nin cunning, a peacock in vanity, or a hog in greedy sloth. It is your\nsin and your shame if your spirit does not conquer your flesh, for\nGod has promised to help your spirit. Ask Him, and His Spirit will\nfill you with pure, noble hopes, with calm, clear thoughts, and with\ndeep, unselfish love to God and man; and instead of being the\nmiserable slave of your own passions, and of the opinions of your\nneighbours, you will find that where the Spirit of the Lord is there\nis liberty, true freedom, not only from your neighbours' sins, but,\nwhat is far better, freedom from your own.--_C. Kingsley._\n\n\n_Walking in the Spirit._\n\n+I. The Spirit is a Divine nature, quality, or condition whereby we\nare made conformable to Christ.+--1. _It is a rich and liberal grace\nof God._ It contains the seeds of all virtues. 2. _Its largeness._\nThe Spirit is in all the powers of them who are regenerate in mind,\nconscience, will, affections, and in the sensual appetite. 3. _Its\nsincerity._ The grace of God is without falsehood or guile. 4. _Its\nexcellency._ The spirit of grace in Christians is more excellent than\nthe grace of creation, in respect of the beginning thereof, and in\nrespect of constancy. 5. _Its liveliness,_ whereby the Spirit is\neffectual in operation. (1) The Spirit works in and by the Word of\nGod. (2) Works by degrees, to make us feel our need of Christ, and to\nkindle in us a desire for reconciliation with God. (3) Works to write\nthe law in our hearts.\n\n+II. Walking in the Spirit is to order our lives according to the\ndirection and motion of the Spirit.+--1. _The Spirit renews our\nnature._ (1) Makes us put a further beginning to our actions than\nnature can, causing us to do them in faith. (2) To do our actions in\na new manner, in obedience to the Word. (3) Makes us put on a new end\nto our actions--to intend and desire to honour God. 2. _We must\nbecome spiritual men._ Must do things lawful in a spiritual manner.\n3. _We must not judge any man's estate before God by any one or some\nfew actions,_ good or bad, but by his walking, by the course of his\nlife.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 17. _The Strife of the Flesh and Spirit._\n\n+I. Man, under the influence of corruption, is called flesh.+--He may\nbe said to be a spiritual being because he is possessed of an\nimmortal spirit; but the term flesh seems to be awfully appropriate,\nbecause he is wholly and exclusively under the dominion of matter. In\nthe text it implies the evil principle that inhabits the bosom of\nman. It is the mighty autocrat of humanity in the wreck of the Fall.\nSin is such a mighty monster that none can bind him in fetters of\niron and imprison him but God Himself. In the operation of weaving,\ndifferent materials cross each other in the warp and woof in order to\nmake one whole, and this is the case with the family of heaven here\nbelow. Sin and grace are perpetually crossing each other.\n\n+II. The spiritual offspring which is born of God is called the new\nman.+--It is the junior offspring, the junior disposition, the\noffspring of the second Adam. Corruption has its root only in\nhumanity. Not so with grace. This springs alone from God. The new man\nlives in Him; his head is above the skies, his feet lower than hell;\nand the reason why he is destined to be conqueror is that he fights\nin and under the inspiration of Heaven.\n\n+III. These two principles are in a state of ceaseless warfare, ever\nopposed to each other.+--They are like two armies, sometimes\nencamped, at others engaged in terrible conflict; but, whether\napparently engaged or not, each seeks the destruction of the other\nperpetually. They are and must be ever opposed, till one fall; one\nmust perish and the other live eternally. Where there is no conflict\nthere can be no grace.\n\n+IV. Consider the wisdom and valour evinced by this new\nprinciple.+--It is illumined by the Spirit and by the truth of God.\nThe sun does not give me an eye. God alone can confer this organ; yet\nit is equally true my eye must attain its full vigour in the light of\nthe sun: so the external means are necessary to teach us what God is,\nand to develop all the principles of the new man, to clothe it with\nthe panoply of Deity, and to lead it on from battle to battle, and\nfrom victory to victory, till the last battle is eventually fought,\nthe last victory won, and the fruits of triumph enjoyed for\never.--_William Howels._\n\n\nVer. 18. _The Leading of the Spirit._--1. The new man performs the\noffice of guide to the godly in all actions truly spiritual. (1) As\nit is ruled by the Word, which is the external light and lantern to\ndirect our steps. (2) The work of grace itself is the internal light\nwhereby the regenerate man spiritually understands the things of God.\n(3) The same work of grace being actuated by the continual supply of\nexciting grace from the Spirit is a strengthening guide to all\nspiritual actions. 2. The natural man is so much a slave to his\nsinful lusts that the things appointed by God to curb and make them\nweaker are so far from bringing this about that his lusts are thereby\nenraged and made more violent. The rigidity of the law, which tends\nto restrain sin, is turned by the unregenerate man into an occasion\nfor fulfilling his lusts.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_The Guidance of the Spirit._\n\n+I. Preservation,+ whereby the Holy Ghost maintains the gift of\nregeneration in them that are regenerate.\n\n+II. Co-operation,+ whereby the will of God, as the first cause,\nworks together with the regenerate will of man, as the second cause.\nWithout this co-operation, man's will brings forth no good action; no\nmore than the tree which is apt to bring forth fruit yields fruit\nindeed till it have the co-operation of the sun, and that in the\nproper season of the year.\n\n+III. Direction,+ whereby the Spirit of God ordereth and establisheth\nthe mind, will, and affections in good duties.\n\n+IV. Excitation,+ whereby the Spirit stirs and still moves the will\nand mind after they are regenerate, because the grace of God is\nhindered and oppressed by the flesh.\n\n+V. Privilege of believers not to be subject to the ceremonial\nlaw.+--\"Ye are not under the law.\" Not under the law respecting its\ncurse and condemnation, though we are all under law, as it is the\nrule of good life.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-21.\n\n_The Works of the Flesh_--\n\n+I. Are offensively obtrusive.+--\"Now the works of the flesh are\nmanifest\" (ver. 19). Sin, though at first committed in secret, will\nby-and-by work to the surface and advertise itself with shameless\npublicity. The rulers of the civilised world in the first century of\nthe Christian era, such as Tiberius, Caligula, Nero, Domitian, are\nthe execration of history as monsters of vice and cruelty. Their\nenormities would have been impossible if the people they governed had\nnot been equally corrupt. It is the nature of evil to develop a\nterrible energy the more it is indulged, and its works are apparent\nin every possible form of wickedness. \"Every man blameth the devil\nfor his sins; but the great devil, the house-devil of every man that\neateth and lieth in every man's bosom, is that idol which killeth\nall--himself.\"\n\n+II. Furnish a revolting catalogue.+--The sins enumerated may be\ngrouped into four classes:--\n\n1. _Sensual passions._--\"Adultery [omitted in the oldest MSS.],\nfornication, uncleanness, lasciviousness\" (ver. 19). _Fornication_\nwas practically universal. Few were found, even among severe\nmoralists, to condemn it. It is a prostitution of the physical nature\nwhich Jesus Christ wore and still wears, which He claims for the\ntemple of His Spirit, and will raise from the dead to share His\nimmortality. _Uncleanness_ is the general quality of licentiousness,\nand includes whatever is contaminating in word or look, in gesture or\nin dress, in thought or sentiment. _Lasciviousness_ is uncleanness\nopen and shameless. It is the final loathsome analysis of the works\nof the flesh.\n\n2. _Unlawful dealing in things spiritual._--\"Idolatry, witchcraft\n[sorcery],\" (ver. 20). _Idolatry_ and sensuality have always been\nclosely related. Some of the most popular pagan systems were\npurveyors of lust and lent to it the sanctions of religion. When man\nloses the true conception of God he becomes degraded. _Sorcery_ is\nclosely allied to idolatry. A low, naturalistic notion of the Divine\nlends itself to immoral purposes. Men try to operate upon it by\nmaterial causes, and to make it a partner in evil. Magical charms are\nmade the instruments of unholy indulgence.\n\n3. _Violations of brotherly love._--\"Hatred [enmities], variance\n[strife], emulations [jealousies], wrath [ragings], strife\n[factions], seditions [divisions], heresies [keen controversial\npartisanship], envyings, murders\" (vers. 20, 21). A horrible progeny\nof evils having their source in a fruitful hotbed of unreasoning\nhatred, each vice preying upon and feeding the other. Settled rancour\nis the worst form of contentiousness. It nurses its revenge, waiting,\nlike Shylock, for the time when it shall \"feed fat its ancient\ngrudge.\"\n\n4. _Intemperate excesses._--\"Drunkenness, revellings, and such like\"\n(ver. 21). These are the vices of a barbarous people. Our Teutonic\nand Celtic forefathers were alike prone to this kind of excess. The\nGreeks were a comparatively sober people. The Romans were more\nnotorious for gluttony than for hard drinking. The practice of\nseeking pleasure in intoxication is a remnant of savagery which\nexists to a shameful extent in our own country. With Europe turned\ninto one vast camp, and its nations groaning audibly under the weight\nof their armaments, with hordes of degrading women infesting the\nstreets of its cities, with discontent and social hatred smouldering\nthroughout its industrial populations, we have small reason to boast\nof the triumphs of modern civilisation. Better circumstances do not\nmake better men (_Findlay_).\n\n+III. Exclude the sinner from the kingdom of God.+--\"They which do\nsuch things shall not inherit the kingdom of God\" (ver. 21). How poor\nlife seems outside that kingdom! How beautiful and glorious inside\nits gates! If I tried to tell you how Christ brings us there, I\nshould repeat to you once more the old familiar story. He comes and\nlives and dies and rises again for us. He touches us with gratitude.\nHe sets before our softened lives His life. He makes us see the\nbeauty of holiness and the strength of the spiritual life in Him. He\ntransfers His life to us through the open channel of faith, and so we\ncome to live as He lives, by every word that proceedeth out of the\nmouth of God. How old the story is, but how endlessly fresh and true\nto him whose own career it describes (_Phillips Brooks_). Exclusion\nfrom the kingdom of God is man's own act; it is self-exclusion. He\n_will not_ enter in; he loves darkness rather than light.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sin is an active principle whose works are\nperniciously evident._ 2. _Sin is the primal cause of every possible\nvice._ 3. _Sin persisted in involves moral ruin._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 19-21. _Biblical Account of Sin._--A mournful catalogue of\nwords, based on a great variety of images, is employed in Scripture\nto describe the state of sinfulness which man inherits from his\nbirth. Sometimes it is set forth as the _missing of a mark or aim_;\nsometimes as the _transgressing of a line_--the word occurs seven\ntimes in the New Testament and is twice applied to Adam's Fall (Rom.\nv. 14; 1 Tim. ii. 14); sometimes as _disobedience to a voice, i.e._\nto hear carelessly, to take no need of--the word occurs three times\n(Rom. v. 19; 2 Cor. x. 6; Heb. ii. 2); sometimes as _ignorance of\nwhat we ought to have done_ (Heb. ix. 7); sometimes as _a defect or\ndiscomfiture_--to be worsted, because, as Gerhard says, \"A sinner\nyields to, is worsted by, the temptations of the flesh and of Satan\";\nsometimes as _a debt_ (Matt. vi. 12); sometimes as _disobedience to\nlaw_--the word occurs fourteen times in the New Testament and is\ngenerally translated by \"iniquity.\" The last figure employed in the\nmost general definition of sin given in the New Testament--_sin is\nthe transgression of the law_ (1 John iii. 4).--_Trench and Maclear._\n\n\n_The Works of the Flesh._\n\n+I. Sins against chastity.+--Adultery, fornication, uncleanness,\nwantonness. 1. We must stock up the root of these things, mortify the\npassion of concupiscence. 2. All occasions of these sins must be cut\noff, two especially, idleness and the pampering of the body. 3. All\nsigns of these vices must be avoided, any speech or action that may\ngive suspicion of incontinent disposition, as light talk, wanton\nbehaviour, curiousness and excess in trimming of the body, suspected\ncompany.\n\n+II. Sins against religion.+--Idolatry, witchcraft, heresies.\n\n+III. Sins against charity.+--Enmity, debate, emulations, anger,\ncontention, seditions.\n\n+IV. Sins against temperance.+--Drunkenness, gluttony. 1. We may use\nmeat and drink not only for necessity, but also for delight. 2. That\nmeasure of meat and drink which in our experience makes us fit both\nin body and mind for the service of God and the duties of our calling\nis convenient and lawful. To be given to drinking and to love to sit\nby the cup, when there is no drunkenness, is a sin. Drunkenness:\n(1) Destroys the body. (2) Hurts the mind. (3) Vile imaginations and\naffections that are in men when they are drunk remain in them when\nthey are sober, so being sober they are drunk in\naffection.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 22-26.\n\n_The Fruit of the Spirit_--\n\n+I. Is evident in manifold Christian virtues.+--1. _Virtues\ndescribing a general state of heart._ \"The fruit of the Spirit is\nlove, joy, peace\" (ver. 22). _Love_ is foremost of the group of\nChristian graces, and gives a nameless charm to all the rest, for\nthere is an element of love in all true goodness. Love derives its\npower from being in the first place, love to God. When the soul\ncentres its affection in God through Christ all its outgoings are\ninfluenced and regulated accordingly. _Joy_ is the product of love. A\nphilosophy or religion which has no room for the joy and pleasure of\nman is as little conversant with the wants of man as with the will of\nGod. \"Joy in the Lord quickens and elevates, while it cleanses all\nother emotions. It gives a new glow to life. It sheds a Diviner\nmeaning, a brighter aspect, over the common face of earth and sky.\nJoy is the beaming countenance, the elastic step, the singing voice,\nof Christian goodness.\" _Peace_ is the holy calm breathed into the\nsoul by a pardoning God. It is the gift of Christ, giving rest to the\nsoul in the midst of external agitations. \"It is a settled quiet of\nthe heart, a deep, brooding mystery that 'passeth all understanding,'\nthe stillness of eternity entering the spirit, the Sabbath of God. It\nis the calm, unruffled brow, the poised and even temper which\nChristian goodness wears.\"\n\n2. _Virtues exercised in the Christian's intercourse with his\nneighbour._--\"Longsuffering, gentleness, goodness.\" Charity suffereth\nlong. The heart at peace with God has patience with men.\n_Longsuffering_ is the patient magnanimity of Christian goodness, the\nbroad shoulders on which it \"beareth all things.\" _Gentleness_ (or\nkindness, as the word is more frequently and better rendered)\nresembles longsuffering in finding its chief objects in the evil and\nunthankful. But while the latter is passive and self-contained,\nkindness is an active, busy virtue. It is the thoughtful insight, the\ndelicate tact, the gentle ministering hand of charity. Linked with\nkindness comes _goodness,_ which is its other self, differing from it\nas only twin sisters may, each fairer for the beauty of the other.\nGoodness is perhaps more affluent, more catholic in its bounty;\nkindness more delicate and discriminating. Goodness is the honest,\ngenerous face, the open hand of charity (_Findlay_).\n\n3. _Virtues indicating the principles which regulate the Christian's\nlife._--\"Faith [honesty, trustworthiness], meekness, temperance\"\n(vers. 22, 23). The _faith_ that unites man to God in turn joins man\nto his fellows. Faith in the divine Fatherhood becomes trust in the\nhuman brotherhood. He who doubts every one is even more deceived than\nthe man who blindly confides in every one. Trustfulness is the warm,\nfirm clasp of friendship, the generous and loyal homage which\ngoodness ever pays to goodness. _Meekness_ is the other side of\nfaith. It is not tameness and want of spirit; it comports with the\nhighest courage and activity and is a qualification for public\nleadership. It is the content and quiet mien, the willing\nself-effacement, that is the mark of Christ-like goodness.\n_Temperance,_ or self-control, is the third of Plato's cardinal\nvirtues. Temperance is a practised mastery of self. It covers the\nwhole range of moral discipline and concerns every sense and passion\nof our nature. It is the guarded step, the sober, measured walk in\nwhich Christian goodness keeps the way of life, and makes straight\npaths for stumbling and straying feet (_Ibid._).\n\n+II. Violates no law.+--\"Against such there is no law\" (ver. 23;\ncomp. ver. 18). The fruit of the Spirit is love; and the law, so far\nfrom being against love, commands it (ver. 14). The practice of love\nand all its works is the fulfilling of the law and disarms it of all\nterror. The expression, \"Against such there is no law,\" so far from\nbeing more than superfluous, as Hoffman asserts, is intended to make\nevident how it is that, by virtue of this, their moral frame, those\nwho are led by the Spirit are not subject to the Mosaic law. For\nwhosoever is so constituted that a law is not against him, over such\na one the law has no power.\n\n+III. Indicates the reality of a great spiritual change.+--1. _The\nold self-hood is crucified._ \"They that are Christ's have crucified\nthe flesh\" (ver. 24). This well expresses how sin must, little by\nlittle, be disabled and slain, for the crucified man did not die at\nonce. He was first made fast with nails to the cross, and then kept\nthere, till through hunger and thirst and loss of blood he became\nweaker and weaker, and finally died. We are to be executioners,\ndealing cruelly with the body of sin which caused the acting of all\ncruelties on the body of Christ.\n\n2. _A new law now regulates the life._--\"If we live in the Spirit,\nlet us also walk in the Spirit\" (ver. 25). The life is governed, not\nby the law of the flesh, but of the Spirit. The electrician can\ndemagnetise and remagnetise a bar of iron, but the biologist cannot\ndevitalise a plant or an animal and revivify it again. Spiritual life\nis not a visit from a force, but a resident tenant in the soul. The\nSpirit who created the life within sustains it and directs all its\noutgoings.\n\n3. _Everything provocative of strife and envy is carefully\navoided._--\"Let us not be desirous of vainglory, provoking one\nanother, envying one another\" (ver. 26). Vaingloriousness was a\nweakness of the Galatic temperament; and is not unknown in modern\nChristian life. Superiority, or fancied superiority, in talents or\nstatus is apt to proudly display itself. It is indeed a pitiable\nexhibition when even spiritual gifts are made matter of ostentation,\nexciting the jealousy of inferior brethren, and creating discontent\nand envy. The cultivation of the fruit of the Spirit is the best\nremedy against all bitterness and strife.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The fruit of the Spirit a suggestive contrast to the\nworks of the flesh._ 2. _Consistency of life is the test of genuine\nreligion._ 3. _The operations of the Spirit are in harmony with the\nhighest law._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 22, 23. _The Fruit of the Spirit._\n\n+I. Love.+--1. The love of God. (1) Shown in a desire of fellowship\nwith God. (2) To love the Word of God above all earthly treasure, and\nto tread our own will underfoot. (3) The love of them that love God\nand Christ. 2. The love of our neighbour. This is love indeed, to\nshow love and to do good to them that wrong and abuse us.\n\n+II. Joy.+--1. To rejoice in the true acknowledgment of God. 2. To\nrejoice in the work of our regeneration. 3. To rejoice in the hope of\neternal glory.\n\n+III. Peace.+--To maintain peace and concord: 1. Neither take offence\nnor give offence. 2. Seek to edify one another; either do good or\ntake good.\n\n+IV. Longsuffering.+--To moderate our anger and desire of revenge\nwhen many and great wrongs are done us. Set and sow this plant in the\nfurrows of your heart, and consider: 1. The goodness of God, who\nforgives more to us than we can forgive. 2. It is the duty of love to\nsuffer and forbear. 3. It is a point of injustice to revenge\nourselves, for then we take to ourselves the honour of God, and\nagainst all equity--we are the parties and judge and witness and all.\n4. We are often ignorant of the mind of men in their actions, and of\nthe true circumstances thereof, and so may easily be deceived.\n\n+V. Gentleness.+--Right courtesy is with an honest heart to bless\nwhen we are wronged.\n\n+VI. Goodness.+--The virtue whereby we communicate to others good\nthings, for their good and benefit.\n\n+VII. Faith.+--Faith towards man, which means: 1. To speak the truth\nfrom the heart. 2. To be faithful and just in the keeping of our\nhonest promise and word. This faith a rare virtue in these days. The\ncommon fashion of them that live by bargaining is to use glorying,\nfacing, soothing, lying, dissembling, and all manner of shifts. They\nthat deal with chapmen shall hardly know what is truth, they have so\nmany words and so many shifts.\n\n+VIII. Meekness.+--The same in effect with longsuffering. The\ndifference is that meekness is more general, and longsuffering the\nhighest degree of meekness.\n\n+IX. Temperance.+--The moderation of lust and appetite in the use of\nthe gifts and creatures of God. 1. We must use moderation in meats\nand drinks. That measure of meat and drink which serves to refresh\nnature and make us fit for the service of God and man is allowed us\nof God and no more. 2. We must use moderation in the getting of\ngoods. 3. In the spending of our goods--contrary to the fashion of\nmany who spend their substance in feasting and company, and keep\ntheir wives and children bare at home. 4. In our apparel. To apparel\nourselves according to our sex, according to the received fashion of\nour country, according to our place and degree, and according to our\nability.\n\n+X. Against such virtues there is no law.+--1. No law to condemn.\n2. No law to compel obedience. Spiritual men freely obey God, as if\nthere were no law; they are a voluntary and free people, serving God\nwithout restraint.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 22. _Love an Attendant of Regeneration._--1. Love is a delight\nin happiness. 2. Is universal. 3. Is just. 4. Is disinterested. 5. Is\nan active principle. 6. Is the only voluntary cause of happiness.\n7. Is the only equitable spirit towards God and our fellow-creatures.\n8. Is the only disposition which can be approved or loved by\nGod.--_Dr. Dwight._\n\n\n_The Powers of Love._--If these be the fruit of the Spirit, they\ncannot be mere matters of temperament. When philosophy gives an\naccount of the human soul it can find only constitutional\npropensities and voluntary acquisitions. When we interrogate\nChristianity, we are told besides of communicated sanctities, states\nof mind which inheritance cannot give or resolution command, which\nneed some touch of God to wake them up, which are above us and yet\nours, and seem to lie on the borderland of communion between the\nfinite and the infinite Spirit.\n\n+I. There is humane love,+ which constitutes the humblest and most\nfrequent form of unselfish feeling. It finds its objects among the\nmiserable and attaches itself to them in proportion to their woes. In\nhuman pity there is a strange combination of repulsion and\nattraction, which it is the paradox of philosophy to state, and the\nmercy of God to ordain; it cannot endure the sight of wretchedness,\nand yet can never leave it. But there is a work ordained for us which\nthis impulse will not suffice to do. Fastening itself on suffering\nalone, it sees nothing else. Yet beneath the smooth and glossy\nsurface of easy life there may hide itself many an inward disease\nwhich the mere glance of pity does not discern. Flourishing iniquity\nthat gives no seeming pain it lets alone; invisible corruption may\nspread without arrest.\n\n+II. There is imaginative or \u00e6sthetic love,+ which attaches itself to\nobjects in proportion as they are beautiful, kindles the enthusiasm\nof art, and completes itself in the worship of genius. Yet is this\naffection very barren until thrown into the midst of others to\nharmonise and glorify them. No reciprocal sympathy is requisite to\nthis sentiment; that which is admired as beautiful does not admire in\nreturn. And above all there is a direct tendency to turn with\nindifference or even merciless repugnance from what is unlovely.\n\n+III. There is moral love,+ which has reference to persons only, not\nto things, which attaches itself to them in proportion as they are\ngood, judges them by the standard of an internal law, and expresses\nitself in tones, not of tenderness as in pity, or of admiration as in\nthe trance of beauty, but of grave and earnest approval. Even this\nmoral love is not without imperfections. Its characteristic sentiment\nof approbation has always in it a certain patronising air not welcome\nto the mercy of a true heart, and more like the rigour of a Zeno than\nthe grace of Christ.\n\n+IV. There is a Divine love,+ directed first upon God Himself, and\nthence drawn into the likeness of His own love, and going forth upon\nother natures in proportion to their worth and claims. This is the\ncrowning and calming term of all prior affections, presupposing them,\nand lifting them up from clashing and unrest to harmony and peace.\nThe humane, the beautiful, the right, remain only scattered elements\nof good till they are gathered into the Divine and blended into one\nby the combining love of God.--_Dr. Martineau._\n\n\n_Love the Perfection of Character._--The fruit of the _true_ vine has\nbeen analysed, and in the best specimens nine ingredients are found.\nIn poor samples there is a deficiency of one or other of these\nelements. A dry and diminutive sort is lacking in peace and joy. A\ntart kind, which sets the teeth on edge, owes its austerity to its\nscanty infusion of gentleness, goodness, and meekness. There is a\nwatery, deliquescent sort which, for the want of longsuffering, is\nnot easily preserved; and there is a flat variety which, having no\nbody of faith or temperance, answers few useful purposes. Love is the\nessential principle which is in no case entirely absent, and by the\nglistening fulness and rich aroma which its plentiful presence\ncreates you can recognise the freshest and most generous clusters,\nwhilst the predominance of some other element gives to each its\ndistinguishing flavour, and marks the growth of Eshcol, Sibmah, or\nLebanon.--_Dr. James Hamilton._\n\n\n_The Power of Meekness and Affection._--Once in Holland a person of\nhigh rank invited Tersteegen to be his guest. This individual\nimagined himself to have attained to a state of peculiar inward peace\nand took occasion during dinner to criticise Tersteegen for being too\nactive, and for not sufficiently knowing the ground on which he\nwrought. Tersteegen attended meekly and silently to all that was\nsaid; and when dinner was over he offered up a fervent prayer in\nwhich he commended his host to the Lord in terms of such affection\nand compassion that this great and warm-tempered man was so much\nstruck and affected by it that his feelings overpowered him, and he\nfell upon the neck of his guest and begged his forgiveness.\n\n\n_Who are the Meek?_--A missionary to Jamaica was once questioning the\nlittle black boys on the meaning of Matt. v. 5, and asked, \"Who are\nthe meek?\" A boy answered, \"Those who give soft answers to rough\nquestions.\"\n\n\n_The Grace of Gentleness._\n\n+I. It is not a gift, but a grace.+--It is not a natural demeanour,\namiable and courteous, a soft, feminine compliance, but a grace of\nthe Spirit which takes into it the strength of the Divine. You may\nhave the instinct of delicacy, a natural tenderness and affability,\nyet not have this grace of the Spirit which impels you for Christ's\nsake to deal gently and save men. It is the underlying motive which\ndetermines whether grace or nature reigns. How is it when your ideas\nand methods of doing good are thwarted? Moses seems to have in\nZipporah what Socrates had in Xantippe, yet her abuse had no more\nabiding effect on him than the spray which angry waves toss against\nthe rock. Calvin hearing of Luther's ire said, \"Let him hate me and\ncall me a devil a thousand times; I will love him and call him a\nprecious servant of God.\"\n\n+II. The cultivation of this grace will cost you many a\nstruggle.+--You are to get the better of your temper on your knees.\nNo minstrel as in the case of Saul can do the work. We must forgive\nin our heart those who offend us.\n\n+III. The grace of gentleness is a queen with a train of\nvirtues.+--It ennobles our whole nature. An English nobleman could\nnot be bound to keep the peace, for it was supposed that peace always\nkept him. So we should suppose that every professed Christian would\nhave this grace; but if you should put your ear to the door of some\nChristian homes, it would be like listening to a volcano. If you did\nnot behold a sulphurous flame bursting out, you might hear a\ncontinual grumbling. A man said to me once, \"When I see Mr. So-and-so\nmy passion is bigger than myself, and I long to make him feel it.\"\nThe Spirit of Christ leads us to pray for those who despitefully use\nus. Only as His temper prevails in us shall we be able to illustrate\nthe beauty of Divine greatness.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_Constant Joy._--Father Taylor, the Boston sailor-preacher, when\ngoing out to make a call, said to his host on the doorstep, \"Laugh\ntill I get back.\"\n\n\nVer. 24. _Crucifying the Flesh._\n\n+I. What is meant by being Christ's.+--It is to accept of and have an\ninterest in Christ in His prophetic, kingly, and sacerdotal offices.\nBy His prophetic office we come to know His will; by His kingly\noffice, ruling and governing us, we come to yield obedience to that\nwill; and by His sacerdotal or priestly office we come to receive the\nfruit of that obedience in our justification.\n\n+II. What is meant by the flesh.+--The whole entire body of sin and\ncorruption; that inbred proneness in our nature to all evil,\nexpressed by concupiscence. 1. _It is called flesh because of its\nsituation and place, which is principally in the flesh._ 2. _Because\nof its close, inseparable nearness to the soul._ 3. _Because of its\ndearness to us._ Sin is our darling, our Delilah, the queen-regent of\nour affections; it fills all our thoughts, engrosses our desires, and\nchallenges the service of all our actions. This reveals: (1) The\ndeplorable state of fallen man. (2) The great difficulty of the duty\nof mortification. (3) The mean and sordid employment of every\nsinner--he serves the flesh.\n\n+III. What is imported by the crucifixion of the flesh.+--1. _The\ndeath of it._ He that will crucify his sin must pursue it to the very\ndeath. 2. _A violent death._ Sin never dies of age. The conquest need\nbe glorious, for it will be found by sharp experience that the combat\nwill be dangerous. 3. _A painful, bitter, and vexatious death._ 4. _A\nshameful and cursed death._\n\n+IV. The duty of crucifying the flesh.+--1. _A constant and\npertinacious denying it in all its cravings for satisfaction._\n2. _Encounter it by actions of the opposite virtue.--Robert South._\n\n\nVer. 25. _Life and Walk in the Spirit._--Life relates to what is\ninward, walk to what is outward.\n\n+I. To live in the Spirit.+--1. The Spirit begins the life of God in\nthe soul. 2. The Spirit gives new desires and changes all the motives\nof life. 3. The Spirit lives in us.\n\n+II. To walk in the Spirit.+--1. The walk will follow from the life,\nfor every kind of life is after its own kind and development.\n2. Every outward manifestation will correspond to the inward\nprinciple of life and will be marked by love to God and love to man.\n3. Reputation will correspond to character and conduct to life.\n\n+III. To be led by the Spirit.+--1. The Christian's life is a growth,\nhis walk a progress; but he is led and guided by the Spirit. 2. No\nnew revelation is made by the Spirit. He leads and guides by what is\nwritten in the Word.\n\n+IV. Learn our relations to the Spirit.+--1. We live under the\nSpirit's dispensation. 2. He is the Spirit of God, and so of life,\ntruth, and authority. 3. He is the Spirit of Christ, and so unites us\nto Him. 4. If we live by the Spirit, let conversation and conduct be\nanswerable thereunto.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_Walking in the Spirit--_\n\n+I. Is to savour the things of the Spirit.+--To subject a man's soul\nto the law of God in all the faculties and powers of the soul. The\nthings revealed in the law are the things of the Spirit, which Spirit\nmust at no hand be severed from the Word.\n\n+II. To walk in the path of righteousness without offence to God or\nman.+\n\n+III. To walk not stragglingly, but orderly by rule, by line and\nmeasure.+--To order ourselves according to the rule and line of the\nWord of God. The life of a man will discover to the world what he\nis.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 26. _Vaingloriousness._\n\n  +I. The exciting cause of many quarrels.+\n\n +II. A source of envy and disappointment.+\n\n+III. Unbecoming the dignity and aims of the Christian life.+\n\n\n_The Vice of Vainglory and its Cure._\n\n+I. Vainglory is a branch of pride,+ wherein men principally refer\nall their studies, counsels, endeavours, and gifts to the honouring\nand advancing of themselves. They who have received good gifts of God\nare often most vainglorious. Whereas all other vices feed upon that\nwhich is evil, this vice of vainglory feeds upon good things. A man\nwill sometimes be proud even because he is not proud.\n\n+II. The cure of vainglory.+--1. _Meditation._ (1) God resisteth all\nproud persons and gives grace to the humble, because the vainglorious\nman, seeking himself and not God, robs God of His honour. (2) It is\nthe work of the devil to puff up the mind with self-liking and\nconceit, that thereby he may work man's perdition. (3) There is no\nreligion in that heart that is wholly bent to seek the praise of men.\nThe man who desires to be talked of and admired by others gives\nnotice to the world that his heart is not sound in the sight of God.\n2. _Practice._ (1) Endeavour to acknowledge the great majesty of God,\nand our own baseness before Him. (2) We ought to ascribe all good\nthings we have or can do to God alone, and nothing to ourselves.\n(3) In all actions and duties of religion we must first endeavour to\napprove ourselves to God, and the next place is to be given to man.\n(4) When we are reviled we must rest content; when we are praised\ntake heed. Temptations on the right hand are far more dangerous than\nthose on the left. (5) Men who are ambitious, if they be crossed,\ngrow contentious; if they prosper, they are envied by others. Abhor\nand detest vainglory; seek to preserve and maintain love.--_Perkins._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER VI.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Overtaken in a fault.+--Be caught red-handed in any\ntransgression, the result of some sudden and overpowering gust of\nevil impulse. +Restore such an one.+--The same word used of a\ndislocated limb reduced to its place. Such is the tenderness with\nwhich we should treat a fallen member in restoring him to a better\nstate. +In the spirit of meekness.+--Meekness is that temper of\nspirit towards God whereby we accept His dealings without disputing;\nthen towards men whereby we endure meekly their provocations, and do\nnot withdraw ourselves from the burdens which their sins impose upon\nus (_Trench_).\n\nVer. 2. +Bear ye one another's burdens.+--The word is \"weights,\"\nsomething exceeding the strength of those under them. \"One another's\"\nis strongly emphatic. It is a powerful stroke, as with an axe in the\nhand of a giant, at censoriousness or vainglorious egotism. We are\nnot to think of _self,_ but of one another. To bear the burden of an\nerring brother is truly Christ-like. +And so fulfil the law of\nChrist.+--If you must needs observe a law, let it be the law of\nChrist.\n\nVer. 3. +He deceiveth himself.+--He is misled by the vapours of his\nown vanity, he is self-deceived.\n\nVer. 4. +Rejoicing in himself alone, and not in another.+--In that\nhis own work stands the test after severe examination, and not that\nhe is superior to another.\n\nVer. 6. +Communicate unto him that teacheth in all good things.+--Go\nshares with him in the good things of this life. While each bears his\nown burden he must think of others, especially in ministering out of\nhis earthly goods to the wants of his spiritual teacher (see 2 Cor.\nxi. 7, 11; Phil. iv. 10; 1 Thess. ii. 6, 9; 1 Tim. v. 17, 18).\n\nVer. 7. +God is not mocked.+--The verb means to sneer with the\nnostrils drawn up in contempt. Excuses for illiberality may seem\nvalid before men but are not so before God.\n\nVer. 8. +He that soweth to his flesh.+--Unto his own flesh, which is\ndevoted to selfishness. +Shall reap corruption.+--Destruction, which\nis not an arbitrary punishment of fleshly-mindedness, but is its\nnatural fruit; the corrupt flesh producing corruption, which is\nanother word for destruction. Corruption is the fault, and corruption\nthe punishment.\n\nVer. 9. +Let us not be weary: we shall reap, if we faint\nnot.+--\"Weary\" refers to the will; \"faint\" to relaxation of the\npowers. No one should faint, as in an earthly harvest sometimes\nhappens.\n\nVer. 11. +Ye see how large a letter I have written with mine own\nhand.+--At this point the apostle takes the pen from his amanuensis,\nand writes the concluding paragraph with his own hand. Owing to the\nweakness of his eyesight he wrote in large letters. He thus gives\nemphasis to the importance of the subjects discussed in the epistle.\n\nVer. 12. +Lest they should suffer persecution for the cross of\nChrist.+--They would escape the bitterness of the Jews against\nChristianity and the offence of the cross, by making the Mosaic law a\nnecessary preliminary.\n\nVer. 13. +For neither they themselves keep the law.+--So far are they\nfrom being sincere that they arbitrarily select circumcision out of\nthe whole law, as though observing it would stand instead of their\nnon-observance of the rest of the law. +That they may glory in your\nflesh.+--That they may vaunt your submission to the carnal rite, and\nso gain credit with the Jews for proselytising.\n\nVer. 14. +God forbid that I should glory, save in the cross.+--The\ngreat object of shame to them, and to all carnal men, is the great\nobject of glorying to me. +By whom the world is crucified unto\nme.+--By His cross, the worst of deaths, Christ has destroyed all\nkinds of death. Legal and fleshly ordinances are merely outward and\nelements of the world. To be crucified to the world is to be free\nfrom worldliness, and all that makes men slaves to creature\nfascinations.\n\nVer. 15. +But a new creature.+--All external distinctions are\nnothing. The cross is the only theme worthy of glorying in, as it\nbrings about a new spiritual creation.\n\nVer. 16. +As many as walk according to this rule.+--Of life: a\nstraight rule to detect crookedness. +Upon the Israel of God.+--Not\nthe Israel after the flesh, but the spiritual seed of Israel by faith.\n\nVer. 17. +I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus.+--The\nJudaising teachers gloried in the circumcision marks in the flesh of\ntheir followers; St. Paul in the scars or brands of suffering for\nChrist in his own body--the badge of an honourable servitude.\n\nVer. 18. +Brethren.+--After much rebuke and monition, he bids them\nfarewell with the loving expression of brotherhood as his last\nparting word, as if Greatheart had meant to say, \"After all, my last\nword is, I love you, I love you.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-5.\n\n_Mutual Sympathy in Burden-bearing._\n\n+I. That sympathy towards the erring is a test of\nspiritual-mindedness.+--1. _Shown in the tenderness with which the\nerring should be treated._ \"If a man be overtaken in a fault, ye\nwhich are spiritual restore such an one in the spirit of meekness\"\n(ver. 1). Worldly and self-seeking men are often severe on a\nneighbour's fault. They are more likely to aggravate than heal the\nwound, to push the weak man down when he tries to rise than to help\nhim to his feet. The spiritual, moved by genuine compassion, should\nregard it as their duty to set right a lapsed brother, to bring him\nback as soon and safely as may be to the fold of Christ. To reprove\nwithout pride or acrimony, to stoop to the fallen without the air of\ncondescension, requires the spirit of meekness in a singular degree.\n\n2. _Reflecting that the most virtuous may some day be in need of\nsimilar consideration._--\"Considering thyself, lest thou also be\ntempted\" (ver. 1). The disaster befalling one reveals the common\nperil; it is a signal for every member of the Church to take heed to\nhimself. The scrutiny which it calls for belongs to each man's\nprivate conscience. The faithfulness and integrity required in those\nwho approach the wrong-doer with a view to his recovery must be\nchastened by personal solicitude. The fall of a Christian brother\nshould be in any case the occasion of heart-searching and profound\nhumiliation. Feelings of indifference towards him, much more of\ncontempt, will prove the prelude of a worse overthrow for ourselves.\n\n+II. That sympathy in burden-bearing is in harmony with the highest\nlaw.+--\"Bear ye one another's burdens, and so fulfil the law of\nChrist\" (ver. 2). As much as to say, \"If ye will bear burdens, bear\none another's burden; if ye will observe law, observe the highest\nlaw--the law of love.\" There is nothing more Christ-like than to bear\nthe burden of a brother's trespass. Christ bore burdens which to us\nwould have been intolerable and overwhelming. The heaviest burden\nbecomes supportable when shared with loving sympathy. Kindness\ntowards the needy and helpless is work done to Christ. There is a\npoetic legend among the Anglian kings that Count Fulc the Good,\njourneying along Loire-side towards Tours, saw, just as the towers of\nSt. Martin's rose before him in the distance, a leper full of sores\nwho put by his offer of alms and desired to be borne to the sacred\ncity. Amidst the jibes of his courtiers, the good count lifted him in\nhis arms and carried him along bank and bridge. As they entered the\ntown the leper vanished from their sight, and men told how Fulc had\nborne an angel unawares! Mutual burden-bearing is the practical proof\nof the unity and solidarity of the Christian brotherhood.\n\n+III. That no man can afford to be independent of human\nsympathy.+--1. _Fancied superiority to sympathy is self-deception._\n\"If a man think himself to be something when he is nothing, he\ndeceiveth himself\" (ver. 3). Others will see how little his affected\neminence is worth. Some will humour his vanity, many will ridicule or\npity it, few will be deceived by it. Real knowledge is humble; it\nknows its nothingness. Socrates, when the oracle pronounced him the\nwisest man in Greece, at last discovered that the response was right,\ninasmuch as he alone was aware that he knew nothing, while other men\nwere confident of their knowledge. It is in humility and dependence,\nin self-forgetting, that true wisdom begins. Who are we, although the\nmost refined or highest in place, that we should despise plain,\nuncultured members of the Church, those who bear life's heavier\nburdens and amongst whom our Saviour spent His days on earth, and\ntreat them as unfit for our company, unworthy of fellowship with us\nin Christ? (_Findlay_). The most exalted and gifted is never lifted\nabove the need of fellow-sympathy.\n\n2. _A searching examination into our conduct will reveal how little\ncause there is for boasting a fancied superiority._--\"But let every\nman prove his own work, and then shall he have rejoicing in himself\nalone, and not in another\" (ver. 4). As if the apostle said: \"Let\neach man try his own work. Judge yourselves instead of judging one\nanother. Mind your own duty rather than your neighbours' faults. Do\nnot think of your worth or talents in comparison with theirs but see\nto it that your work is right.\" The question for each of us is not,\n\"What do others fail to do?\" but, \"What am I myself really doing?\nWhat will my life's work amount to when measured by that which God\nexpects from me?\" The petty comparisons which feed our vanity and our\nclass-prejudices are of no avail at the bar of God. If we study our\nbrother's work, it should be with a view of enabling him to do it\nbetter, or to learn to improve our own by his example; not in order\nto find excuses for ourselves in his shortcomings. If our work abide\nthe test, we shall have glorying in ourselves alone, not in regard to\nour neighbour. Not his flaws and failures, but my own honest work,\nwill be the ground of my satisfaction (_Ibid._).\n\n+IV. That individual responsibility is universal.+--\"For every man\nshall bear his own burden [load]\" (ver. 5). No man can rid himself of\nhis life-load; he must carry it up to the judgment-seat of Christ,\nwhere he will get his final discharge. Daniel Webster was present one\nday at a dinner-party given at Astor House by some New York friends,\nand in order to draw him out one of the company put to him the\nfollowing question, \"Will you please tell us, Mr. Webster, what was\nthe most important thought that ever occupied your mind?\" Mr. Webster\nmerely raised his head, and passing his hand slowly over his\nforehead, said, \"Is there any one here who doesn't know me?\" \"No,\nsir,\" was the reply; \"we all know you and are your friends.\" \"Then,\"\nsaid he, looking over the table, \"the most important thought that\never occupied my mind was that of my individual responsibility to\nGod\"; and he spoke on the subject for twenty minutes. The higher\nsense we have of our own responsibility the more considerate we are\nin judging others and the more we sympathise with them in their\nstruggles and trials. \u00c6sop says a man carries two bags over his\nshoulder, the one with his own sins hanging behind, that with his\nneighbour's sins in front.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sympathy is a Christ-like grace._ 2. _Sympathy for\nthe erring does not tolerate wrong._ 3. _Practical help is the test\nof genuine sympathy._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _The Sins of Others._\n\n+I. The follies and misconduct of others are the choice subjects of\nconversation in every stage of society; and if we take slander out of\nthese conversations, we rob them of their keenest fascination.+ I\nhave felt it, that fearful joy which the discovery of others' faults\nproduces; and then I found nothing at all extravagant in the\nstrongest expressions by which the Scriptures depict the depth of our\nfall and the depravity of our heart.\n\n+II. One of your brethren has lapsed: but you who condemn him, have\nyou never erred?+ Do you know his history? Did he know what you know\nyourself? The fall of a brother should call forth a painful\nself-examination and a sincere humiliation before God.\n\n+III. Real and profound compassion should be felt for the brother\nwhom sin has overtaken.+ But sympathy alone will not suffice. There\nis a sympathy which is mere weakness. Our mission lays upon us the\nduty of restoration. This is a delicate and sublime work, for it is\nthe work of God, but the work of God destined to be accomplished by\nman. Do the work of Jesus Christ in the spirit of Jesus Christ. You\nmust have for your fallen brethren a love without weakness and a\nholiness without pride. We cannot raise them _en masse,_ and by I\nknow not what a collective action which would exempt us from\nindividual love and sacrifice. All will be of no avail unless each of\nus, in the post where God has placed him, acts upon those around him,\nand brings them all individually under that influence of love which\nnothing can either equal or replace. Have you never asked yourself\nwith terror if you have not lost some soul? Do you know if, among all\nthose unfortunate beings whom God will cast from His presence at the\nlast day, more than one will not sorrowfully turn towards you and\nsay, \"It is thou, it is thou that has lost me\"?--_Eugene Bersier._\n\n\nVers. 1, 2. _Christian Reformation._\n\n+I. A thief is the man who uses, in order to keep up appearances,\nthat which does not justly belong to him,+ whether that appearance be\nkept up by actually robbing his neighbour's pocket, or by delaying\nthe payment of his just debts, or by stinting God and man of their\ndues in any way. Such a one has, for keeping up appearances, every\nadvantage up to a certain point, and that point is the moment of\ndetection. After that, all is changed. The detected thief is the most\nmiserable of men. Two ways only are open to him by which he can\nendure life or carry on hope. One if these is to declare war against\nsociety, and become an open instead of a secret offender; the other\nis to begin anew, and strive to build up a fresh reputation under\nmore favourable auspices, it may be by shrewder and deeper deceit, or\nit may be in the way of genuine repentance and amendment. It is hard\nto say whether of these two is the more difficult or hopeless.\n\n+II. Were we all true men, safe in our own consciences, fearless of\ndetection in any point ourselves, we should be ever ready to help up\nan erring brother or sister;+ but it is just because we are afraid of\nour own weak and unsound points that we are so reluctant ever to let\na tarnished character again brighten itself. It is hardly possible to\nover-estimate the vast conspiracy which is arranged against the\ndelinquent's effort to be reinstated in the favour of his fellow-men.\n\nIII. It would be by no means uninstructive to inquire +how far these\nfeelings have influenced us in our views and practice with regard to\nthe punishment of crime.+ The last thing we believe in is\nreformation. You may view this as a judicial consequence of guilt.\nTerrible as may be the fears of a conscience dreading detection, far\nmore difficulty, far more anguish, far bitterer self-reproach, is in\nstore for the penitent struggling to regain peace and the fair name\nwhich he has lost. He carries the past evermore, as it were, branded\non his brow, for men to see and avoid.\n\nIV. While we rejoice and are grateful to God for His mercy to us, +we\nshould at the same time tremble at our own unworthiness, and ever\nbear in mind our personal liability to fall into sin.+ In such a\nspirit should we set about the blessed work of restoration, ever\nlooking on the fallen as our brethren, going to meet them across the\ngulf which human Pharisaism has placed between them and us, the\nundetected; as common children of that God whose grace is able to\nraise them up again, bearing their burdens instead of disclaiming\nthem and letting them sink under their weight, and so fulfilling the\nlaw of Christ.--_Dean Alford._\n\n\n_The Restoration of the Erring._\n\n+I. The Christian view of other men's sins.+--1. _The apostle looks\nupon sin as if it might be sometimes the result of a surprise._\n2. _As that which has left a burden on the erring spirit._ (1) One\nburden laid on fault is that chain of entanglement which seems to\ndrag down to fresh sins. (2) The burden of the heart weighing on\nitself. (3) The burden of a secret, leading a man to tell the tale of\nhis crimes as under the personality of another, as in the old fable\nof him who breathed his weighty secret to the reeds; to get relief in\nprofuse and general acknowledgment of guilt; evidenced in the\ncommonness of the longing for confession. (4) The burden of an\nintuitive consciousness of the hidden sins of others' hearts.\n\n+II. The Christian power of restoration.+--1. _Restoration is\npossible._ 2. _By sympathy._ 3. _By forgiveness._ 4. _In the spirit\nof meekness._ 5. _The motive urging to attempt\nrestoration._--\"Considering thyself,\" etc.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\n_Brotherly Reproof._--1. A man must so reprove his brother as that it\nmay be most for the advancement of God's glory, best for winning him\nto God, and least to the defaming of him abroad. He must pray that\nGod would guide his tongue and move the other's heart. We may not\ntraduce him to others, either before or after our reproof. 2. Every\nreproof must be grounded on a certainty of knowledge of the fault\ncommitted. 3. It is very requisite the reprover be not tainted with\nthe like fault he reproves in another. 4. The vinegar of sharp\nreprehension must be allayed and tempered with the oil of gentle\nexhortation. The word \"restore\" signifies to set a bone that is\nbroken. We are to deal with a man who has fallen and by his fall\ndisjoined some member of the new man as the surgeon does with an arm\nor leg that is broken or out of joint--handle it tenderly and gently,\nso as to cause least pain. 5. Every reproof must be fitted to the\nquality and condition of him we reprove and to the nature of the\noffence. 6. Must be administered in fit time when we may do the most\ngood. 7. Secret sins known to thee or to a few must be reproved\nsecretly. 8. We must be careful to observe the order set down by our\nSaviour (Matt. xviii. 15).--_Perkins._\n\n\nVers. 2, 5. _Our Twofold Burdens._--1. The burden which every man\nmust bear for himself is the burden of his own sins, and from this\nburden no man can relieve him. 2. If a man be overtaken in a fault,\nwe are to bear his burden by trying to restore him. 3. We are to do\nthis in the spirit of meekness, bending patiently under the burden\nwhich his fault may cast on us. This spirit towards those who commit\nfaults is wholly at variance with the natural man's way of acting,\nspeaking, and thinking. We are to love our friends in spite of their\nfaults, to treat them kindly, cheerfully, graciously, in spite of the\npain they may give us. 4. Our Saviour has given us an example of what\nwe should wish and strive to be and do. The law of Christ is the law\nof love.--_J. C. Hare._\n\n\nVer. 2. _Bear One Another's Burdens._--The law of Christ was\nlovingkindness. His business was benevolence. If we would resemble\nHim,--\n\n1. _We must raise up the fallen._--This was hardly ever attempted\ntill Christ set the pattern. People went wrong, and the world let\nthem go; they broke the laws, and the magistrate punished; they\nbecame a scandal, and society cast them out--out of the synagogue,\nout of the city, out of the world. But with a moral tone infinitely\nhigher Christ taught a more excellent way.\n\n2. _We must bear the infirmities of the weak._--Very tiresome is a\ncontinual touchiness in a neighbour, or the perpetual recurrence of\nthe same faults in a pupil or child. But if by self-restraint and\nright treatment God should enable you to cure those faults, from how\nmuch shame and sorrow do you rescue them, from how much suffering\nyourself.\n\n3. _We must bear one another's trials._--With one is the burden of\npoverty; with another it is pain or failing strength, the extinction\nof a great hope, or the loss of some precious faculty. A little thing\nwill sometimes ease the pressure. In a country road you have seen the\nweary beast with foaming flank straining onward with the overladen\ncart and ready to give in, when the kindly waggoner called a halt,\nand propping up the shaft with a slim rod or stake from the hedgerow,\nhe patted and praised the willing creature, till after a little rest\nthey were ready to resume the rough track together. Many a time a\nsmall prop is quite sufficient.\n\n4. _By thus bearing others' burdens you will lighten your\nown._--Rogers the poet has preserved a story told him by a\nPiedmontese nobleman. \"I was weary of life, and after a melancholy\nday was hurrying along the street to the river, when I felt a sudden\ncheck. I turned and beheld a little boy who had caught the skirt of\nmy cloak in his anxiety to solicit my notice. His look and manner\nwere irresistible. Not less so was the lesson I learnt. 'There are\nsix of us, and we are dying for want of food.' 'Why should I not,'\nsaid I to myself, 'relieve this wretched family? I have the means,\nand it will not delay me many minutes.' The scene of misery he\nconducted me to I cannot describe. I threw them my purse, and their\nburst of gratitude overcame me. It filled my eyes; it went as a\ncordial to my heart. 'I will call again to-morrow,' I cried. Fool\nthat I was to think of leaving a world where such pleasure was to be\nhad, and so cheaply.\" There is many a load which only grows less by\ngiving a lift to another. A dim Gospel makes a cold Christian; a\ndistant Saviour makes a halting, hesitating disciple.--_Dr. James\nHamilton._\n\n\nVer. 2. _Christian Generosity._\n\n+I. The duty enjoined.+--1. It may apply to a weight of labour or\nbodily toil. 2. To a weight of personal affliction. 3. To a weight of\nprovidential losses and embarrassments. 4. To a weight of guilt.\n5. Of temptation. 6. Of infirmities.\n\n+II. The enforcing motive.+--1. The apostle's requirement is worthy\nof the character of Christ, as it is a law of equity. 2. It is\ncongenial with the Spirit of Christ. 3. It is agreeable to the\nexample of Christ. 4. It is deducible from the precepts of Christ.\n5. It has the approbation of Christ.--_Sketches._\n\n\n_Bearing One Another's Burdens._--The metaphor is taken from\ntravellers who used to ease one another by carrying one another's\nburdens, wholly or in part, so that they may more cheerfully and\nspeedily go on in their journey. As in architecture all stones are\nnot fit to be laid in every place of the building, but some below and\nothers above the wall, so that the whole building may be firm and\ncompact in itself; so, in the Church those who are strong must\nsupport the weak. The Italians have a proverb--_Hard with hard never\nmakes a good wall,_ by which is signified that stones cobbled up one\nupon another without mortar to combine them make but a tottering wall\nthat may be easily shaken; but if there be mortar betwixt them\nyielding to the hardness of the stones, it makes the whole like a\nsolid continued body, strong and stable, able to endure the shock of\nthe ram or the shot of the cannon. So that society, where all are as\nstiff as stones which will not yield a hair one to another, cannot be\nfirm and durable. But where men are of a yielding nature society is\ncompact, because one bears the infirmities of another. Therefore the\nstrong are to support the weak, and the weak the strong; as in the\narch of a building one stone bears mutually, though not equally, the\nburden of the rest; or as harts swimming over a great water do ease\none another in laying their heads one upon the back of another--the\nforemost, having none to support him, changing his place and resting\nhis head upon the hindermost. Thus in God's providence. Luther and\nMelancthon were happily joined together. Melancthon tempered the heat\nand zeal of Luther with his mildness, being as oil to his vinegar;\nand Luther, on the other side, did warm his coldness, being as fire\nto his frozenness.--_Ralph Cudworth._\n\n\n_Association (A Benefit Club Sermon)._--1. This plan of bearing one\nanother's burdens is not only good in benefit clubs--it is good in\nfamilies, in parishes, in nations, in the Church of God. What is\nthere bearing on this matter of prudence that makes one of the\ngreatest differences between a man and a brute beast? Many beasts\nhave forethought: the sleep-mouse hoards up acorns against the\nwinter, the fox will hide the game he cannot eat. The difference\nbetween man and beast is, that the beast has forethought only for\nhimself, but the man has forethought for others also. 2. Just the\nsame with nations. If the king and nobles give their whole minds to\nmaking good laws, and seeing justice done to all, and workmen fairly\npaid, and if the poor in their turn are loyal and ready to fight and\nwork for their king and their nobles, then will not that country be a\nhappy and a great country? 3. Just the same way with Christ's Church,\nthe company of true Christian men. If the people love and help each\nother, and obey their ministers and pray for them, and if the\nministers labour earnestly after the souls and bodies of their\npeople, and Christ in heaven helps both minister and people with His\nSpirit and His providence and protection, if all in the whole Church\nbear each other's burdens, then Christ's Church will stand, and the\ngates of hell will not prevail against it.--_Charles Kingsley._\n\n\n_Burden-bearing._\n\n+I. Different kinds of burdens.+--1. _Those that are necessary._\n2. _Those that are superfluous._ 3. _Those that are imaginary._\n\n+II. What shall we do with them?+--1. _Reduce their number to the\nlimits of necessity._ 2. _Some of these we are expected to carry\nourselves._ 3. _Some we may expect our friends to help us to carry._\n4. _We may take them all to the Lord that He may either remove them\nor sustain us under them._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _With grace burdens are removed or lightened._ 2. _In\nwhat way can we best help others with their burdens?_ \"Thou\nlightenest thy load by lightening his.\" 3. _Let our burdens be\nreduced to light running order._--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_Practical Christian Sympathy._\n\n+I. Consider the burdens you can bear for others.+--All have to bear\nburdens. Some man can only bear for himself. Others he can be helped\nto bear, such as the burden of carnal tendency, persecution, anxiety\nover loved ones, affliction that is not punishment.\n\n+II. Consider how we may bear the burdens of others.+--1. _We can\nbear them on our hearts in prayer._ 2. _We can lighten the burden by\nfriendly help._ 3. _We can by the strength of our sympathies come\nunder the burdens of others._\n\n+III. Bearing the burdens of others is the chief way by which we can\nfulfil the law of Christ.+--Nothing will give us such a resemblance\nto Him. He lives solely for others. He came voluntarily under the\nburden of man's miseries, sacrificing Himself for the race.\n\n+IV. Consider the importance of obeying this injunction.+--1. _For\nour own sakes._ 2. _For the good of others._ 3. _For the prosperity\nof the Church._--_The Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 5. _Burden-bearing._\n\n+I. There is the burden of personal responsibility.+--This comes out\nin the formation of character.\n\n+II. There is the burden of toil.+--Among the steep precipitous\nmountains of Thibet the traveller meets long processions of hungry,\nill-clad Chinamen, carrying enormous loads of tea. There they go,\nclimb, climbing day after day up the rough sides of the mountains,\neach with his great burden on his back, eyes fixed on the ground, all\nsilent, stepping slowly, and leaning on great iron-pointed sticks,\ntill the leader of the gang gives the signal for a halt, and, after\nstanding for a few minutes, the heavy load again falls on the back\nand head, the body is again bent towards the ground, and the caravan\nis once more in motion. You do not wonder that, with a task so\nmonotonous, these poor drudges should acquire a dreary, stupid look,\nlittle better than beasts of burden; and you feel sorry for those in\nwhose lives there is a large amount of the like irksome and\nexhausting routine. Yet there are many who, in order to earn their\ndaily bread, must go through a similar task.\n\n+III. There is the burden of sorrow.+--Sorrow dwells beneath a king's\nrobes as much as beneath a peasant's cloak; the star of the noble,\nthe warrior's corslet, the courtier's silken vesture, cannot shut it\nout. That rural home is such a picture of peace we cannot believe\nthat care or tears are there. That noble castle amidst ancient trees\nis surely lifted up in its calm grandeur above sighs and sadness.\nAlas! it is not so. Man is the tenant of both, and wherever man\ndwells sorrow is sure to be with him.\n\n+IV. There is one burden which it is wrong to bear.+--It is a sin and\na shame to you if you are still plodding along under the burden of\nunpardoned transgression. The load of guilt, the feeling that our sin\nis too great for the blood of Christ to expiate, or the grace of God\nto pardon--this burden it is wrong to bear.--_Dr. James Hamilton._\n\n\n_Bearing our Burdens Alone._\n\n+I. The loneliness of each one of us.+--One of the tendencies of\nthese bustling times it to make us forget that we are single beings,\ndetached souls. Each great star flung out like an atom of gold dust\ninto space may seem lost amid the hundreds of millions of mightier\nworlds that surround; and yet no; it rolls on, grave in itself,\ncareering in its own orbit, while its sister-stars sweep round on\nevery side. We stand cut off from one another. We are to stave up\nside by side our own destiny, we are to be alone with our burdens,\nnot lost in the forest of human lives.\n\n+II. Look at some of the forms of this burden.+--1. _There is the\nburden of being itself._ 2. _The burden of duty._ 3. _The burden of\nimperfection and sin._ 4. _The burden of sorrow._ 5. _The burden of\ndying alone._ 6. _If a man is lost, he is lost alone; if saved, he is\nsaved alone.--The Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_Every Man has his Own Burden._\n\nI. No man can pay a ransom for his brother, or redeem his soul from\ndeath, or satisfy the justice of God for his sin, seeing that every\n+man by the tenor of the law is to bear his own burden,+ and by the\nGospel none can be our surety but Christ.\n\nII. +We see the nature of sin that is a burden to the soul.+--It is\nheavier than the gravel of the earth and the sand of the sea.\n\nIII. We are not to wonder that +sin being so heavy a burden+ should\nbe made so light a matter by carnal men, for it is a spiritual burden.\n\nIV. +The more a man fears the burden of his sins+ the greater measure\nof grace and spiritual life he has, and the less he feels it the more\nhe is to suspect himself.\n\nV. The greatest part of the world are dead in their sins in that\n+they have no sense of feeling of this heavy burden.+\n\nVI. We are to take heed of every sin, for +there is no sin so small\nbut hath its weight.+--Many small sins will as easily condemn as a\nfew great. Like as sands, though small in quantity, yet being many in\nnumber, will as soon sink the ship as if it were laden with the\ngreatest burden.\n\nVII. Feeling the weight and burden of our sins, +we are to labour to\nbe disburdened;+ and this is done by repentance towards God and faith\nin our Lord Jesus Christ.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-10.\n\n_Moral Sowing and Reaping._\n\n+I. Beneficence by the taught towards the teacher is sowing good\nseed.+--\"Let him that is taught in the word communicate unto him that\nteacheth in all good things\" (ver. 6). The good things referred to,\nthough not confined to temporal good, do certainly mean that. While\nevery man must bear his own burden, he must also help to bear the\nburden of his brother. Especially must the taught go shares with his\nspiritual teacher in all things necessary. But beneficence shown\ntowards the minister in temporalities is the least, and with many the\neasiest, part of the duty. Teacher and taught should mutually\nco-operate with each other in Christian work, and share with each\nother in spiritual blessings. The true minister of the Gospel is more\nconcerned in eliciting the co-operation and sympathy of the members\nof his Church than in securing their temporal support. If he\nfaithfully ministers to them in spiritual things, they should be\neager to minister unto him of their worldly substance, and to aid him\nin promoting the work of God. Every good deed, done in the spirit of\nlove and self-sacrifice, is sowing good seed.\n\n+II. By the operation of unchanging Divine law the reaping will\ncorrespond to the kind of seed sown and the nature of the soil into\nwhich it is cast.+--\"Be not deceived; God is not mocked; for\nwhatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap. For he that soweth\nto his flesh,\" etc. (vers. 7, 8). Men may wrong each other, but they\ncannot cheat God. To expect God to sow His bounties upon them, and\nnot to let Him reap their gratitude and service, is mockery. But it\nis not God they deceive; they deceive themselves. For at last every\none shall reap as he sows. The use made of our seed-time determines\nexactly, and with a moral certainty greater even than that which\nrules in the natural field, what kind of fruitage our immortality\nwill render. Eternity for us will be the multiplied, consummate\noutcome of the good or evil of the present life. Hell is just sin\nripe--rotten ripe. Heaven is the fruitage of righteousness. \"He that\nsoweth to his own flesh reaps corruption\"--the moral decay and\ndissolution of the man's being. This is the natural retributive\neffect of his carnality. The selfish man gravitates downward into the\nsensual man; the sensual man downward into the bottomless pit. \"He\nthat soweth to the Spirit reaps life everlasting.\" The sequence is\ninevitable. Like breeds its like. Life springs of life, and death\neternal is the culmination of the soul's present death to God and\ngoodness. The future glory of the saints is at once a divine reward\nand a necessary development of their present faithfulness (_Findlay,\npassim_).\n\n+III. Sowing the seed of good deeds should be prosecuted with\nunwearied perseverance.+--1. _Because the harvest is sure to follow._\n\"Let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap,\nif we faint not\" (ver. 9). Here is encouragement for the wearied,\nbaffled worker. We have all our moments of despondency and\ndisappointment and are apt to imagine our labours are futile and all\nour painstaking useless. Not so. We are confounding the harvest with\nthe seed-time. \"In due season\"--in God's time, which is the best\ntime--\"we shall reap, if we faint not.\" Our heavenly harvest lies in\nevery earnest and faithful deed, as the oak with its centuries of\ngrowth and all its summer glory sleeps in the acorn-cup, as the\ngolden harvest slumbers in the seeds under their covering of wintry\nsnow.\n\n2. _Because the opportunity of doing good is ever present._--\"As we\nhave opportunity let us do good unto all men, especially unto them\nwho are of the household of faith\" (ver. 10). The whole of life is\nour opportunity, and every day brings its special work. Opportunity\nis never to seek; it is ever present. There is not a moment without a\nduty. While we are looking for a more convenient opportunity, we lose\nthe one that is nearest to us. As members of the household of faith\nthere is ever work enough to do--work that fits us to do good on a\nwider scale--\"unto all men.\" True zeal for the Church broadens rather\nthan narrows our charities. Household affection is the nursery, not\nthe rival, of love to our fatherland and to humanity.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Our present life is the seed-time of an eternal\nharvest._ 2. _The quality of the future harvest depends entirely on\nthe present sowing._ 3. _God Himself is the Lord of the moral\nharvest._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 6. _Pastors and People._\n\nI. It is the duty of the people +to give their pastors not only\ncountenance but maintenance.+\n\nII. It is the law of nations, and a conclusion grounded on common\nequity, that those who spend themselves, as a candle, to give light\nto others and for the common good of all, +should be maintained of\nthe common stock by all.+\n\nIII. Every calling is able to maintain them that live therein,\ntherefore we may not think that +the ministry, the highest calling,\nshould be so base or barren+ as that it cannot maintain them that\nattend thereupon.\n\nIV. Ministers are the Lord's soldiers, captains, and\nstandard-bearers, and therefore +are not to go a warfare at their own\ncost.+\n\nV. Ministers are to give themselves wholly to the building of the\nChurch and to the fighting of the Lord's battles. Therefore they are\nto have their pay +that they may attend upon their calling without\ndistraction.+\n\nVI. It is the ordinance of God +that they which preach the Gospel\nshould live of the Gospel.+--Ministers should be liberally provided\nfor, yet with moderation, that they draw not all men's wealth into\ntheir purses. He that would live of the Gospel must teach the Gospel.\nA benefit requires a duty, and diligence is that duty.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Ministerial Maintenance._--1. Seeing Christ's ministers are to\nbestow themselves wholly in the work of the ministry and not to be\nentangled with the affairs of this life, therefore the people of God,\namong whom they spend their strength, are bound by common equity to\ngive them worldly maintenance, that they may be neither diverted from\nnor discouraged in their work of watching over souls. 2. This\nmaintenance, though it should be moderate and such as may not through\nabundance occasion pride, luxury, and prodigality, yet should be\nliberal and creditable, such as may not only supply pinching\nnecessities, but also that they may have wherewith to supply the\nnecessities of the indigent, to educate their children so as they may\nsustain themselves and be profitable members both of Church and\ncommonwealth. 3. The Church's maintenance is only due unto such\nministers as have abilities to preach and are faithful and diligent\nlabourers in the Word. Those who are unfit or unwilling to preach\nshould be removed from their charge, and not suffered to eat up the\nChurch's maintenance, feeding themselves and starving the souls of\npeople committed to their charge.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 7-9. _Deceived Sowers to the Flesh._\n\n+I. The solemnity of the apostle's warning.+--He seems to intimate\nthat such is the audacious wickedness of the human heart, that it has\nwithin it so many latent mazes of iniquity, that they might be\nself-deceived either as to their apprehensions of that which was\nright before God, or as to their own actual condition in His sight;\nand he tells them God is not mocked by this pretended service, that\nto Him all hearts are open, and that in impartial and discriminating\narbitration He will render to every man according to his deeds. It is\nsad to be deceived in a friend, in our estimate of health, in our\ncomputation of property; but a mistake about the state of the soul--a\nveil folded about the heart so that it cannot see its own\nhelplessness and peril--this is a state of which thought shudders to\nconceive, and to describe whose portentousness language has no words\nthat are sufficiently appalling. There can be no peril more imminent\nthan yours. The headlong rider through the darkness before whom the\ndizzy precipice yawns; the heedless traveller for whom in the bosky\nwoodland the bandits lie in ambush, or upon whom from the jungle's\ndensity the tiger waits to spring; the man who, gazing faintly\nupward, meets the cruel eye and lifted hand and flashing steel of his\nremorseless enemy; they of whose condition you can only poorly image,\nwho in far dungeons and beneath the torture of a tyrant's cruelty\ngroan for a sight of friend or glimpse of day; all around whom perils\nthicken hopelessly, and to whom, with feet laden with the tidings of\nevil, the messengers of disaster come,--how they move your sympathy,\nhow you shudder as you dwell upon their danger, how you would fain\nstir yourselves into brave efforts for their rescue or their warning!\nBrethren, your own danger is more nearly encompassing and is more\ninfinitely terrible.\n\n+II. The import of the apostle's statement.+--We have largely the\nmaking or the marring of our own future--that in the thoughts we\nharbour, in the words we speak and in the silent deeds, which, beaded\non Time's string, are told by some recording angel as the story of\nour lives from year to year, we shape our character and therefore our\ndestiny for ever. There are three special sowers to the flesh--the\n_proud,_ the _covetous,_ the _ungodly._ They are all spiritual\nsins--sins of which human law takes no cognisance, and to which codes\nof earthly jurisprudence affix no scathing penalty. There is the\ngreater need, therefore, that these spiritual sins should be\ndisclosed in all their enormity and shown in their exceeding\nsinfulness and in their disastrous wages, in order that men may be\nleft without excuse if they persist wilfully to believe a\nlie.--_W. M. Punshon._\n\n\nVers. 7, 8. _The Double Harvest._\n\n+I. Our present life is a moral trial for another to come.+--On till\ndeath is our seed-sowing; after death is the sure and universal\nharvest. On till death is our moral trial; after death is the life of\njudicial retribution, alike for the just and the unjust.\n\n+II. Human life has one or the other of two great characters, and\nwill issue in one or the other of two great results.+--1. They sow to\nthe flesh who live under the influence of their natural inclinations\nand desires, pleasing only themselves and despising or neglecting the\nholy will of God. They live to the Spirit the whole current of whose\nbeing has been supernaturally reversed under the grace of the Gospel.\n2. The sowers to the Spirit live. And this true and proper life of\nman, in its maturity and full perfection, is the great and glorious\nreward which, by Divine appointment, shall eventually crown the\nlabours of the sowers to the Spirit. The sowers to the flesh sow seed\nwhich brings forth death. Even now their life is death in rudiment,\nand in the end, they must reap it in its full and external\ndevelopment. Degraded existence, miserable existence, everlastingly\ndegraded and miserable existence.\n\n+III. We are liable to delusions with respect to these great\nverities.+--All history and experience teem with illustrations of the\nspiritual spells and juggleries which men, prompted by the invisible\npotentate of evil, practise upon themselves, that so they may reduce\nto their convictions the sinfulness of sin, and may tone the booming\nof the great bell of Scripture menace down to the gentle whisper of\nan amiable reprimand.--_J. D. Geden._\n\n\n_On the Difference between sowing to the Flesh and to the Spirit._\n\n+I. The man who soweth to his flesh.+--It is to spend our lives in\ndoing these works of the flesh--to lay out our time, our thoughts,\nand our care in gratifying the vain, sensual, and selfish\ninclinations which the evil state of the heart naturally and\ncontinually puts forth. Broken health, loathsome diseases, ruined\nfortunes, disappointed wishes, soured tempers, infamy, and shame are\namong those things which usually come from walking after the flesh.\n\n+II. The man who soweth to the Spirit.+--It is to live under the\nguidance of God's Holy Spirit, and in every part of our conduct to\nbring forth the fruits of the Spirit. He enjoys even at present the\nfruit of his labour: inward peace and joy, and a hope full of\nimmortality.--_Edward Cooper._\n\n\n_The Principle of the Spiritual Harvest._\n\n+I. The principle is this, \"God is not mocked: for whatsoever a man\nsoweth, that shall he also reap.\"+--There are two kinds of good\npossible to men--one enjoyed by our animal being, the other felt and\nappreciated by our spirits. Reap _what_ you have sown. If you sow the\nwind, do not complain if your harvest is the whirlwind. If you sow to\nthe Spirit, be content with a spiritual reward, invisible, within,\nmore life and higher life.\n\n+II. The two branches of the application of this\nprinciple.+--1. Sowing to the flesh includes those who live in open\nriot. 2. Those who live in respectable worldliness. 3. Sowing to the\nSpirit, the harvest is life eternal. 4. The reward is not arbitrary\nbut natural. The thing reaped is the very thing sown, multiplied a\nhundredfold. You have sown a seed of life, you reap life\neverlasting.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 7. _Sowing and Reaping in their bearing on the Formation of\nIndividual Character._--There are three plots in which every man is\nperpetually engaged in sowing and reaping--in the plot of his\nthoughts, in the plot of his words, and in the plot of his deeds. And\nthere is a storehouse into which the harvests from these three plots\nare being secretly but unmistakably garnered--the storehouse of\nindividual character. The moral condition of the man to-day is the\ninevitable result of his thoughts, words, and deeds; his selfhood is\nrich or poor according to his sowing and reaping in these respective\nfields.\n\n+I. Whatever a man sows in thought that will he also reap in the\nformation, tone, and tendency of his intellectual and moral\nnature.+--1. _Vain thoughts._ If we indolently sport with vain and\nfoolish thoughts, they will inevitably produce a crop of the same\nkind. The mind will be garnished with flimsy and unprofitable\nfancies, inflated with a too conscious self-importance, and the\noutcome is heard in \"the loud laugh that proclaims the vacant mind,\"\nand seen in the pompous swagger of the intellectual fop (Prov.\nxiii. 16; Ps. xciv. 11).\n\n2. _Proud thoughts._--The man dominated by pride is the most pitiable\nof objects. His pride of birth will not bear investigation into three\ngenerations, his pride of social status is snubbed in a way that\nleaves a wound that never heals, his pride of wealth smitten down by\nan unexpected turn of the ever-revolving wheel of fortune, and his\npride of life withered by the passing breath of the great Destroyer.\nBut he reaps what he sowed. He sowed the dragon's teeth of proud and\nboastful thoughts, and the monster grew up and devoured him (Prov.\nxvi. 18).\n\n3. _Thoughts of sinful pleasure._--If we allow the mind to dream of\npleasures that are forbidden, the bloom of innocence is rubbed off\nnever to be again replaced, the conscience is outraged till its voice\nis muffled and but feebly heard, one vile thought indulged breeds\nanother that is viler still, and the moral atmosphere of the soul is\npoisoned. What he sows he reaps.\n\n4. _Good thoughts._--The mind that aims at the loftiest style of\nthought, declining to tolerate the presence of a debasing sentiment,\nthat keeps in check the wild and savage brood of evil thoughts ever\nseeking to overrun and defile the mind, that cultivates a chaste\nimagination and cherishes the exalted and unselfish charity that\n\"thinketh no evil\"--reaps the result in an accession of intellectual\nvigour, in the creation of a nobler standard by which to judge of men\nand things, in the unbounded raptures of a refined and fertile\nimagination, and in the increase of power for doing the highest kind\nof work for God and humanity.\n\n+II. Whatsoever a man sows in words that shall he also\nreap.+--1. _Bitter and rancorous words._ If a man studies how much of\nspiteful venom he can pack into a single sentence, how he can most\nskilfully whet and sharpen the edge of his words so as to make the\ndeepest wound and raise the most violent storm of irritation and\nill-feeling, unalterable as the course of nature the harvest is sure\nto come. \"Our unkind words come home to roost.\" The man offensive\nwith his tongue is the devil's bellows with which he blows up the\nsparks of contention and strife, and showers of the fiery embers are\nsure to fall back upon himself to scathe and destroy.\n\n2. _False words._--If we deliberately and maliciously concoct a lie,\nand utter the same with whispered humbleness and hypocritical\ncommiseration, as sure as there is justice in the heavens, the lie\nwill come back with terrific recompense upon the head of the\noriginator.\n\n3. _Kind and loving words._--If we speak in the kindest spirit of\nothers, especially in their absence, if we stand up for a friend\nunjustly maligned and defend him with dignity and faithfulness, if we\nstudy to avoid words which cannot but grieve and irritate, then as we\nhave sown so shall we reap--reap the tranquil satisfaction of\nconscious inoffensiveness, and, best of all, the Divine approval.\n\"Heaven in sunshine will requite the kind.\"\n\n+III. Whatsoever a man sows in deeds that shall he also\nreap.+--1. _Cruel deeds._ If we take a savage delight in torturing\nbeast or bird or insect, if we plot how we can inflict the most\nexquisite pain on our fellow-man, if we make sport of the anguish and\ndistress of others which we make no effort to relieve, we shall\ninevitably reap the harvest--reap it in the embruting and degradation\nof our finer sensibilities, reap it in the tempest of rebellion and\nretaliation which those we outraged will launch upon us.\n\n2. _Selfish deeds._--If we live for our own selfish gratification,\nindifferent to the rights and woes of others; if we surrender\nourselves to a covetous spirit, living poor that we may die rich--as\nwe sow we reap. The thing we lived to enjoy ceases to gratify, and\nour noblest sentiments are buried amid the rubbish of our own\nsordidness.\n\n3. _Generous and noble deeds._--If we aim at the elevation of\nourselves and others, if we seek to act on the highest level of\nrighteousness and truth, if we are diligent, unwearied, and\npersistent in well-doing, then in due season we shall reap the\nharvest--reap it in a heightened and expansive nobility of character,\nin an intensified influence and enlarged capacity for doing good, and\nin the eternal enrichment of the Divine plaudit, \"Well done.\"\n\n\n_Be not Deceived._--This phrase occurs several times as preface to\nwarning, seeming to indicate thus that the subject of the warning is\none about which we are specially liable to deception, and upon\nexamination we find that observation justifies the presumption. We\nare thus guarded against any deception as to the following important\npractical truths:--\n\n  +I. The contaminating influence of evil associations+ (1 Cor.\n      xv. 33).\n\n +II. The personal responsibility of each for his own sin+ (Jas.\n      i. 16).\n\n+III. Entrance into heaven conditioned on character+ (1 Cor.\n      vi. 9).\n\n +IV. Human destiny, once settled, irreversible+ (Gal.\n      vi. 7).--_British and Foreign Evangelical Review._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Sowing to the Spirit._\n\n+I. The natural man has no desire for immortality.+--He has not been\nseized with the earnest and real wish for a future life; but he is\nentirely bound by this world in all his thoughts, aims, and wishes:\nhe identifies life and existence altogether with this world, and life\nout of this world is a mere name to him. He is shut up within the\nwalls of the flesh and within the circle of its own present aims and\nprojects.\n\n+II. The spiritual man has a strong desire for immortality,+ and it\nis the beginning and foundation of the religious life he leads here.\nEvery field of action becomes unimportant and insignificant compared\nwith the simply doing good things, because in that simple exercise of\ngoodness lies the preparation for eternity.\n\n+III. The natural and spiritual man are divided from each other by\nthese distinctions+--one has the desire for everlasting life, the\nother has not. The success of the one perishes with the corruptible\nlife to which it belongs; the success of the other endures for all\nages in the world to come.--_J. B. Mozley._\n\n\n_The Law of Retribution._\n\nI. +We see the justice of God--His bounty and severity.+--His bounty\nin recompensing men above their deserts; His severity in punishing\nsinners according to their deserts.\n\nII. This doctrine, that we shall drink such as we brew, reap such as\nwe sow, and that men have degrees of felicity or misery answerable to\ntheir works, +will make us more careful to avoid sin.+\n\nIII. +It serves as a comfort against inequality;+ whereas the wicked\nflourish and the godly live in contempt, the time shall come when\nevery one shall reap even as he has sown.\n\nIV. +It crosses the conceit of those who promise to themselves an\nimpunity from sin and immunity from all the judgments of God,+\nnotwithstanding they go on in their bad practices.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 9. _Against Weariness in Well-doing._--1. There is the\nprevailing temper of our nature, the love of ease--horror of hard\nlabour. 2. The reluctance and aversion are greater when the labour is\nenjoined by extraneous authority--the imperative will of a foreign\npower. 3. In the service of God there is a good deal that does not\nseem for ourselves. 4. There is a principle of false humility--what\nsignifies the little I can do? 5. The complaint of deficient\nco-operation. 6. In the cause of God the object and effect of\nwell-doing are much less palpable than in some other provinces of\naction. 7. Yet the duty expressly prescribed is an absolute thing,\nindependently of what men can foresee of its results. 8. There is the\nconsciousness and pleasure of pleasing God. 9. What relief has man\ngained by yielding to the weariness? 10. Our grave accountableness is\nfor making a diligent, patient, persevering use of the means God has\nactually given us.--_J. Foster._\n\n\n_Apathy one of our Trials._--1. Because, as in everything else, so in\nour spiritual growth, we are inevitably disappointed in much of our\nexpectations. 2. The temptation to weariness is no sign at all that\nthe man so tempted is not a true servant of God, though this very\noften is the first thought that enters the mind. It is no sin to feel\nweary; the sin is to be weary--that is, to let the feeling have its\nway and rule our conduct. 3. We expect a kind of fulness of\nsatisfaction in God's service which we do not get nearly so soon as\nwe fancy that we shall. 4. You are quite mistaken to your belief that\nformer prayers and former resolutions have been in vain and have\nproduced no fruit because no fruit is visible. 5. In due season we\nshall find that it has been worth while to persevere in trying to\nserve Christ.--_Dr. Temple._\n\n\n_Well-doing._\n\n+I. Contrasted with fruitless profession.+--It is possible to have a\nclear notion of Christian truth and to talk well, and yet be idle and\nuseless.\n\n+II. Contrasted with mistaken standards.+--It is easy to do as others\nare doing; but are _they_ doing well? Practice must be guided by holy\nprecepts.\n\n+III. Contrasted with wrong motives.+--Many are careful to do what is\nliterally the right thing, but they do it with base motives. The\ncorrect motives are--love (2 Cor. v. 14), gratitude (Ps. cxvi. 12),\ncompassion (2 Cor. v. 11), desire to imitate Christ. All well-doing\nis humble and self-renouncing.--_The Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_\"Reap if we faint not.\"_--The image is agricultural.\n\n+I. Points of resemblance.+--1. The material harvest is of two\nkinds--weeds and golden grain. 2. The spiritual harvest is of two\nkinds--corruption and everlasting life. 3. A combination of agencies.\n(1) For the material harvest seed, soil, and elements work with the\nefforts of the farmer. (2) For the spiritual harvest the seed of the\nWord and the power of God must co-operate with man's agency. 4. As to\ndifficulties. (1) The season may be too wet, too dry, or too hot, or\nan army of insects may attack the growing grain. (2) The foes of the\nspiritual harvest are the world, the flesh, and the devil.\n\n+II. Points of contrast.+--1. The material harvest is annual, the\nspiritual eternal. 2. There are seasons so unfavourable that all the\nefforts of the farmer prove in vain; the spiritual harvest will never\nfail. 3. The drouth of one year may be made good by next year's\nabundance, but eternity cannot compensate for what was lost in time.\n\n+III. Encouragements.+--1. \"Our labour is not in vain in the Lord.\"\n2. \"In due season we shall reap, if we faint not.\" 3. The harvest\nwill be glorious and eternal.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\nVer. 10. _On doing Good._\n\n+I. It is our duty to do good.+--This duty is enforced both by the\nwords and example of Christ. Christianity not only requires its\nadherents to abstain from evil, but it demands their active service.\n\n+II. In doing good man attains to true nobility of character.+--The\ncharacters in history that exert the greatest fascination over us are\nnot those of eminent statesmen or scientists, but those who have been\ndistinguished for their philanthropy. We see in them a moral dignity\nthat is unique. What reversals in human estimates of character will\ntake place when the Divine standard of greatness is appealed to!\n\n+III. In doing good we find true happiness.+--God has so constituted\nus that the exercise of our malevolent passions is productive of\ninward dissatisfaction, while the exercise of benevolent affections\nis attended with the greatest joy. There is real luxury in doing\ngood.--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\n_The Opportunity of Beneficence._\n\n+I. What a precious thing is opportunity.+--People talk about making\ntime for this or that purpose. The time is really made for us, only\nwe are too idle or too careless to use it for the proper end.\nOpportunities of usefulness are of frequent occurrence; they are wont\nto come and go with rapidity. They must be seized as you would lay\nhold of a passing friend in the street.\n\n+II. The whole of life is an opportunity.+--There is such a thing as\na useful life, a true life, a noble life, though all lives must needs\ncontain a multitude of neglected opportunities. As a series of\nopportunities its record is woefully imperfect. As one opportunity it\nis not utterly unworthy of the example of Christ. Let us have a\nthread of right intention running through life. Let us have an active\npurpose of benevolence--a constant design of love. The continuous\nopportunity of life must be utilised, if the particular opportunities\nof life are to be turned to the best account.\n\n+III. The field of beneficence is very wide.+--Wherever men are found\nit is possible for us to do them good. We touch only a few persons,\nbut each of these is in contact with others. To do great things with\ngreat powers is easy enough; but things so done may be undone so. The\nglory of Christianity has always been that it does great things with\nsmall powers, or powers that men think small; and the results of its\nwork remain. Good work done by many hands is better than the extended\nphilanthropy of an individual; for what is this but the effort of one\nman to make amends for the neglect of a thousand?\n\n+IV. Though all men have a claim on our Christian benevolence some\nare entitled to a special share.+--A man does not become a better\ncitizen when he spurns his own family and neglects his duties at\nhome. On the contrary, the noblest philanthropist is the most\naffectionate of fathers and husbands, and he who loves most widely in\nthe world loves most intensely in his own house. So it will be with\nus in our Christian charity. We shall begin with those who are called\nby the common name and worship the common Lord, and from these we\nshall go on, with our energy not exhausted but rather refreshed, to\nthe great mass of mankind.--_Edward C. Lefroy._\n\n\n_Doing Good._\n\n+I. We must do good with that only which is our own.+--We may not cut\na large and liberal shive off another man's loaf; we may not steal\nfrom one to give to another, or deal unjustly with some that we may\nbe merciful to others.\n\n+II. We must do good with cheerfulness and alacrity.+--What more free\nthan gift; therefore we may not play the hucksters in doing good, for\nthat blemishes the excellency of the gift.\n\n+III. We must so do good as that we do not disable ourselves for ever\ndoing good.+--So begin to do good as that we may continue.\n\n+IV. We must do all the good we can within the compass of our\ncalling+ and hinder all the evil.\n\n+V. We must do good to all.+--1. From the grounds of love and\nbeneficence. 2. God is good and bountiful to all. 3. Do good to\nothers as we would they should do to us. 4. Our profession and the\nreward we look for require us to do this.\n\n+VI. There is no possibility of doing good to others after this\nlife.+--_Perkins._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-13.\n\n_Apostolic Exposure of False Teachers._\n\n+I. The apostle gives special emphasis to his warning by concluding\nhis epistle in his own handwriting.+--\"Ye see how large a letter I\nhave written unto you with mine own hand\" (ver. 11). The apostle\nusually dictated his epistle to an amanuensis, except the concluding\nsalutation, which he wrote himself by way of authentication. At this\npoint of the epistle to the Galatians he appears to have taken the\npen from the hand of the amanuensis, and with his own hand written\nthe concluding sentences in clear, bold characters, thus giving the\nutmost possible emphasis and solemnity to his words. They are a\npostscript, or epilogue, to the epistle, rehearsing with incisive\nbrevity the burden of all that it was in the apostle's heart to say\nto these troubled and shaken Galatians. He wishes to reimpress upon\nhis emotional readers the warnings he had already expressed against\nthe false teachers, to assure them of his intense regard for their\nwelfare, and to lay additional stress upon the peril of their\nhesitating attitude. The more apparent and imminent the danger, the\nlouder and more earnest is the warning expressed.\n\n+II. It is shown that the policy of the false teachers was to avoid\nthe suffering connected with the ignominy of the cross of\nChrist.+--\"They constrain you to be circumcised, only lest they\nshould suffer persecution for the cross of Christ.\" (ver. 12). The\nfalse teachers were really cowards, though this accusation they would\nbe the first indignantly to resent. They wanted to mix up the old\nfaith with the new, to entangle the new Christian converts with\nMosaic observances. If they succeeded in persuading the Gentile\nChristians to be circumcised, they would propitiate the anger of\ntheir Israelite kindred, and dispose them to regard the new doctrine\nmore favourably. They would, with heartless recklessness, rob the\nbeliever of all his privileges in Christ in order to make a shield\nfor themselves against the enmity of their kinsmen. Cowards at heart,\nthey were more afraid of persecution than eager to know and propagate\nthe truth. If a man will be a Christian, he cannot avoid the cross;\nand to attempt to avoid it will not release from suffering. It is a\ncraven fear indeed that refuses to espouse the truth because it may\nbring pain. \"No servant of Christ,\" says Augustine, \"is without\naffliction. If you expect to be free from persecution, you have not\nyet so much as begun to be a Christian.\"\n\n+III. The insincerity of the false teachers was apparent in their not\nkeeping the law themselves, but in boasting of the number of their\nconverts to its external observance.+--\"For neither they themselves\nwho are circumcised keep the law; but desire to have you circumcised,\nthat they may glory in your flesh\" (ver. 13). The Judaists were not\nonly cowardly, but insincere. It was not the glory of the law they\nwere concerned about, but their own success. If they had tried to\nconvert the heathen, however imperfect might be their creed, they\nwould have merited some respect; but, like some religious troublers\nto-day, they selected for their prey those who were already\nconverted. They practised their wiles on the inexperience of young\nbelievers, as they expected to gather from that class the greater\nnumber of proselytes of whom to make their boast. \"Their policy was\ndishonourable both in spirit and in aim. They were false to Christ in\nwhom they professed to believe, and to the law which they pretended\nto keep. They were facing both ways, studying the safest not the\ntruest course, anxious in truth to be friends at once with the world\nand Christ. Their conduct has found many imitators, in men who make\ngodliness a way of gain, whose religious course is dictated by\nconsiderations of worldly self-interest. Business patronage,\nprofessional advancement, a tempting family alliance, the _entr\u00e9e_\ninto some select and envied circle--such are the things for which\ncreeds are bartered, for which men put their souls and the souls of\ntheir children knowingly in peril.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The false teacher may be the occasion of much\nmischief and spiritual loss._ 2. _He succumbs in the presence of\nsuffering._ 3. _He is more anxious for public success than for the\nspread of the truth._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 12. _The Odium of the Cross of Christ._\n\n+I. The history of the cross.+--It is a history of sin on our part,\nand of suffering on the part of Christ. What a change has been\nproduced in the moral aspect of the universe by the preaching of the\ncross!\n\n+II. The odium connected with the cross.+--There is odium and\nsuffering connected with the cross still; in some shape we shall\nsuffer persecution for it. If we will lead a holy life, then\nsuffering, persecution, reproach, hatred and ill-will, sarcasm, wit,\nridicule, and obloquy will be cast upon us. It was said by one, when\nseveral were expelled from one of our universities, that \"if some are\nexpelled for having too much religion, it is high time to begin to\ninquire whether there are not some who have too little.\" If we speak\nof the reproach of the cross, what should that reproach be? Not that\nyou have too much religion, but that you have too little, and that\nmany of you have none at all.\n\n+III. As to those who suffer persecution for the cross,+ it is the\ngreatest possible honour to be laughed at, mocked, and insulted for\nthe sake of the Saviour. If the spirit of the martyrs influenced us,\nthere would be no shunning of persecution on account of the cross,\nbut suffering would be welcomed with joy.--_The Pulpit._\n\n\n_Christianity and Persecution._\n\n  +I. We should suspect ourselves+ that our hearts are not sound, nor\n      our practice sincere, +when all men speak well of us.+\n\n  II. We must not be discouraged +though there be never so many that\n      make opposition, or so mighty+ that raise persecution against\n      us.\n\n III. That we think it not strange +when we find affliction or meet\n      with persecution.+ The Gospel and persecution go hand in hand,\n      or follow one another inseparably.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 13. _Empty Boasting_--\n\n  +I. When professed teachers do not practise the virtues they\n      enforce on others.+\n\n +II. When zeal for the observance of outward rites disguises the\n      lack of personal godliness.+\n\n+III. When success is sought simply to be able to boast of success.+\n\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14, 15.\n\n_Glorying in the Cross_--\n\n+I. Because of the great truths it reveals.+--\"But God forbid that I\nshould glory, save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 14).\n\"The cross of our Lord Jesus Christ\" is a comprehensive phrase\nsignifying the whole redeeming work of Christ--the salvation effected\nfor the race by His crucifixion and death upon the cross. The problem\nhow God can forgive sin without any breach in His moral government,\nor dimming the lustre of His perfections, is solved in the cross. God\nis great in Sinai. The thunders precede Him, the lightnings attend\nHim, the earth trembles, the mountains fall in fragments. But there\nis a greater God than this. On Calvary, nailed to a cross, wounded,\nthirsting, dying, He cries, \"Father, forgive them; they know not what\nthey do!\" Great is the religion of power, but greater is the religion\nof love. Great is the religion of implacable justice, but greater is\nthe religion of pardoning mercy. The cross was the master-theme of\nthe apostle's preaching and the chief and exclusive subject of his\nglorying.\n\n+II. Because of its contrast to effete ceremonialism.+--\"For in\nChrist Jesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor\nuncircumcision\" (ver. 15). To the Jew circumcision was everything. By\nthe cross Judaism, as a means of salvation, is utterly abolished.\nUncircumcision includes all Gentile heathenism. Before the cross all\nheathen religions must perish. The Gentile cultus was never intended\nto supplant Jewish customs; both are excluded as unavailing in human\nsalvation. The devotees of form and ceremony are apt to develop into\nbigotry and pride; the foes of ritualism are in danger of making a\nreligion of their opposition; and both parties indulge in\nrecriminations that are foreign to the spirit of Christianity. \"Thus,\nI trample on the pride of Plato,\" said the cynic, as he trod on the\nphilosopher's sumptuous carpets; and Plato justly retorted, \"You do\nit with greater pride.\" Ceremonialism is effete, and is not worth\ncontending about. It is nothing; Christ is everything, and the cross\nthe only subject worthy of the Christian's boast.\n\n+III. Because of the moral change it effects.+--\"But a new\ncreature\"--a new creation (ver. 15). In the place of a dead\nceremonialism the Gospel plants a new moral creation. It creates a\nnew type of character. The faith of the cross claims to have produced\nnot a new style of ritual, not a new system of government, but new\nmen. The Christian is the \"new creature\" which it begets. The cross\nhas originated a new civilisation, and is a conspicuous symbol in the\nfinest works of art. Ruskin, describing the artistic glories of the\nChurch of St. Mark in Venice, says: \"Here are all the successions of\ncrowded imagery showing the passions and pleasures of human life\nsymbolised together, and the mystery of its redemption: for the maze\nof interwoven lines and changeful pictures lead always at last to the\ncross, lifted and carved in every place and upon every stone,\nsometimes with the serpent of eternity wrapped round it, sometimes\nwith doves beneath its arms and sweet herbage growing forth from its\nfeet; but conspicuous most of all on the great rood that crosses the\nchurch before the altar, raised in bright blazonry against the shadow\nof the apse. It is the cross that is first seen and always burning in\nthe centre of the temple, and every dome and hollow of its roof has\nthe figure of Christ in the utmost height of it, raised in power, or\nreturning in judgment.\" The true power of the cross is not artistic\nor literary or political, but moral. It is a spiritually transforming\nforce that penetrates and guides every form of human progress.\n\n+IV. Because of personal identification with its triumph over the\nworld.+--\"By whom the world is crucified unto me, and I unto the\nworld\" (ver. 14). As the world of feverish pleasure, of legal\nordinances, was conquered by the cross, so the faith of the apostle\nin the crucified One gave him the victory over the world, so that it\nlost all power to charm or intimidate. The world of evil is doomed,\nand the power of the cross is working out its ultimate defeat. I have\nseen a curious photograph of what purports to be a portrait of the\nSaviour in the days of His flesh, and which by a subtle manipulation\nof the artist has a double representation. When you first look upon\nthe picture you see the closed eyes of the Sufferer, and the face\nwears a pained and wearied expression; but as you gaze intently the\nclosed eyes seem to gently open and beam upon you with the light of\nloving recognition. So, as you gaze upon the cross of our Lord Jesus\nChrist it seems to you the symbol of suffering and defeat, but as you\nkeep your eyes steadily fixed upon it the cross gradually assumes the\nglory of a glittering crown, incorruptible, undefiled, and that\nfadeth not away (1 Pet. i. 4).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The cross is the suggestive summary of saving truth._\n2. _The cross is the potent instrument of the highest moral\nconquests._ 3. _The cross is the loftiest theme of the believer's\nglorying._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 14. _Christ Crucified._\n\n   I. By Christ crucified +we have reconciliation with God,+\n      remission of sins, and acceptance to eternal life.\n\n +II. We have the peace of God,+ peace with men, with ourselves,\n      with the creatures.\n\n+III. We recover the right and title which we had in creation+ to all\n      the creatures and blessings of God.\n\n +IV. All afflictions cease to be curses and punishments+ and become\n      either trials or corrections.\n\n  +V. Those who can truly glory in the cross are dead to the world\n      and the world to them.+\n\n  VI. We are taught +to carry ourselves in the world as crucified and\n      dead men,+ not to love, but to renounce and forsake\n      it.--_Perkins._\n\n\n_Glorying in the Cross of Christ._\n\n+I. We glory in the doctrine of the cross--the justification of\nguilty men through a propitiatory sacrifice--because of its\nantiquity.+--It was taught by patriarchs and prophets, the law of\nsacrifice was its grand hieroglyphical record, the first sacrifices\nwere its types, the first awakened sinner with his load of guilt fell\nupon this rock and was supported, and by the sacrifice of Christ\nshall the last sinner saved be raised to glory.\n\n+II. Because it forms an important part of the revelation of the New\nTestament.+\n\n+III. As affording the only sure ground of confidence to a penitent\nsinner.+\n\n+IV. Because of its moral effects.+--Not only in the superstitions\nand idolatries it has destroyed, the barbarous nations it has\ncivilised, the cruel customs it has abrogated, and the kindly\ninfluence it has shed upon the laws and manners of nations; but in\nits moral effect on individuals, producing the most ardent love to\nGod and kindling benevolence towards all--_Richard Watson._\n\n\n_The True Glory of the Christian._\n\n+I. The disposition of mind denoted by the expressions--\"The world is\ncrucified unto me; I am crucified to the world.\"+--1. The nature of\nit--a total rupture with the world. 2. The gradations of which it\nadmits. Deadness to avarice and pride--in respect to exertion and\nactual progress--in respect of hope and fervour. 3. The difficulty,\nthe bitterness, of making a sacrifice so painful.\n\n+II. In such a disposition true glory consists.+--Comparison between\nthe hero of this world and the Christian hero. The hero derives his\nglory from the greatness of the master he serves, from the dignity of\nthe persons who have preceded him in the same honourable career, from\nthe brilliancy of his achievements, from the acclamations his\nexploits excite. How much more the Christian hero!\n\n+III. The cross of Christ alone can inspire us with these\nsentiments.+--If we consider it in relation to the atrocious guilt of\nthose who despise it, in relation to the proofs there displayed of\nChrist's love, in the proofs it supplies of the doctrine of Christ,\nand in relation to the glory that shall follow.--_Saurin._\n\n\n_The Cross a Burden or a Glory._\n\n+I. There is the constant ordinary discipline of human life.+--Life\nwhen it is earnest contains more or less of suffering. There is a\nbattle of good and evil, and these special miseries are the bruises\nof the blows that fill the air, sometimes seeming to fall at random\nand perplexing our reason, because we cannot rise to such height of\nvision as to take in the whole field at once.\n\n+II. There is the wretchedness of feeling self-condemned.+--Law alone\nis a cross. Man needs another cross--not Simon's, but Paul's. He took\nit up, and it grew light in his hands. He welcomed it, and it glowed\nwith lustre, as if it were framed of the sunbeams of heaven.\n\n+III. The same spiritual contrast, the same principle of difference\nbetween compulsory and voluntary service, opens to us two\ninterpretations of the suffering of the Saviour Himself.+--Neither\nthe cross of Simon nor the cross of Paul was both literally and\nactually the cross of Christ. Its charm was that it was chosen. Its\npower was that it was free. The cross becomes glorious when the Son\nof God takes it up; there is goodness enough in Him to exalt it. It\nwas the symbol of that sacrifice where self was for ever crucified\nfor love.--_F. D. Huntington._\n\n\n_The Cross--_\n\n  +I. The sinner's refuge.+\n\n +II. The sinner's remedy.+\n\n+III. The sinner's life.+\n\n\n_The Glory of the Cross._\n\n  +I. The cross was the emblem of death.+\n\n +II. Christ was not only a dead Saviour, but a condemned Saviour.+\n\n+III. A disgraced Saviour,+ because the cross was a disgraceful kind\n      of punishment.\n\n +IV. Paul gloried in the cross because it is an exhibition of the\n      righteousness of God.+\n\n  +V. Because it proclaims His love.+\n\n +VI. The contemplation of Christ's cross helps us to conquer the\n      world.+--_Newman Hall._\n\n\n_Glorying in the Cross._\n\n+I. The subjects in which the apostle gloried.+--1. He might have\ngloried in his distinguished ancestry. 2. In his polished education.\n3. In the morality of his former life. 4. In his extraordinary call\nto the apostleship. 5. In his high ecclesiastical position. 6. He did\nnot glory in the literal cross. 7. Nor in the metaphorical cross.\n8. But in the metonymical cross (1 Cor. i. 17; Col. i. 20).\n\n+II. The characteristics of the apostle's glorying.+--1. His glorying\nwas not merely verbal, but practical. 2. Not sectarian, but Christian\nand catholic. 3. Not temporary, but permanent.\n\n+III. The reasons of the apostle's glorying.+--1. Here he saw a\ngrander display of the Divine character and perfections than\nelsewhere. 2. This was the scene of the most glorious victory ever\nwitnessed. 3. It was the centre of all God's dispensations. 4. The\ncross was the most powerful incentive to true morality. 5. Hence\nflowed all the blessings of the Gospel economy. 6. Here was made an\natonement equal to the needs of our fallen world.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Let us here see the purity of the moral law and the\nheinousness of sin._ 2. _Let the sinner come to the cross for pardon,\npurity, peace, and joy._--_W. Antliff._\n\n\n_Glorying in the Cross._\n\n+I. Paul's enthusiasm as expressed in the exclamation of the text.+\n\n+II. One main source of his zeal lay in the subject of his\nenthusiasm.+--1. The cross is a fit subject for glory as symbolising\n_an infinite, boundless truth._ 2. Because it is _an eternal fact._\n3. Because it is _the ground of man's justification and the symbol of\nhis redemption._\n\n+III. Look at the result--crucifixion to the world.+--The true\nsolution of the Christian's relationship to the world lies in the\nfact that it is a separation not in space but in\nspirit.--_J. Hutchinson, in \"Scottish Pulpit.\"_\n\n\nVer. 15. _Scriptural View of True Religion._\n\n+I. What true religion is not.+--1. It is not circumcision nor\nuncircumcision. 2. It is not an outward thing. (1) You are not\nreligious because you have been baptised. (2) Because you are called\na Christian, and have been born of Christian parents. (3) Because you\nfrequent the Church, attend the Lord's Supper, and are regular at\nyour devotions.\n\n+II. What true religion is.+--1. It is not an outward but an inward\nthing. It is not a new name, but a new nature. A _new creation_\ndescribes a great change in man. 2. The greatness of this change\nshows also the power by which it is wrought. Creation is a Divine\nwork. 3. The rite of circumcision taught the necessity of the change.\nThough it was a _seal_ of the righteousness of faith, it was also a\nsign of the inward renewal and purification of the heart. Baptism in\nthe Christian Church teaches the same truth. The texts of Scripture\nwhich set forth the evil nature of man set forth the necessity of\nthis great change.--_Edward Cooper._\n\n\n_The New Creature._--The new creature is the only thing acceptable to\nGod. It is the renovation of the whole man, both in the spirit of our\nminds and in the affections of our heart. Neither the substance nor\nthe faculties of the soul are lost by the Fall, but only the\nqualities of the faculties, as when an instrument is out of tune the\nfault is not in the substance of the instrument, nor in the sound,\nbut in the disproportion or jar in the sound: therefore, the\nqualities only are renewed by grace. These qualities are either in\nthe understanding or the will and affections. The quality in the\nunderstanding is knowledge; in the will and affections they are\nrighteousness and holiness, both which are in truth and sincerity.\nHoliness performs all the duties of piety, righteousness the duties\nof humanity, truth seasoning both the former with sincerity.--_Ralph\nCulworth._\n\n\n_The Necessity of a New Nature._--The raven perched on the rock where\nshe whets her bloody beak, and with greedy eye watches the\ndeath-struggles of an unhappy lamb, cannot tune her croaking voice to\nthe mellow music of a thrush; and since it is out of the abundance of\nthe heart that the mouth speaketh, how could a sinner take up the\nstrain and sing the song of saints?--_Guthrie._\n\n\n_The New Birth begins our True Life._--A stranger passing through a\nchurchyard saw these words written on a tombstone: \"Here lies an old\nman seven years old.\" He had been a true Christian only for that\nlength of time.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16-18.\n\n_A Dignified and Touching Farewell_--\n\n+I. Supplicates the best blessing on the truly righteous.+--\"As many\nas walk according to this rule, peace be on them, and mercy, and upon\nthe Israel of God\" (ver. 16). Jewish discipline and pagan culture are\nfor ever discredited by the new creation of moral virtue. The rule of\nthe renewed inward life supersedes the works of the condemned flesh.\nOn all who seek to regulate their lives according to this rule the\napostle invokes the peace and mercy of God. Peace is followed by the\nmercy which guards and restores it. Mercy heals backslidings and\nmultiplies pardons. She loves to bind up a broken heart or a rent and\ndistracted Church. For the betrayers of the cross he has stern\nindignation and alarms of judgment. Towards his children in the faith\nnothing but peace and mercy remains in his heart. As an evening calm\nshuts in a tempestuous day, so this blessing concludes the epistle so\nfull of strife and agitation. We catch in it once more the chime of\nthe old benediction, which through all storm and peril ever rings in\nears attuned to its note: \"Peace shall be upon Israel\" (Ps. cxxv. 5).\n\n+II. Pleads the brand of suffering for loyalty to Christ as\nconclusive proof of authority.+--\"From henceforth let no man trouble\nme: for I bear in my body the marks of the Lord Jesus\" (ver. 17). The\napostle has sufficiently vindicated his authority by facts and\narguments, and he would effectually silence all quibbles on this\nsubject by triumphantly pointing to the marks of suffering on his own\nbody received in his Master's service. These marks he carried\nwherever he went, like the standard-bearer of an army who proudly\nwears his scars. No man would have suffered as Paul did unless he was\nconvinced of the importance of the truth he had received and of his\nsupernatural call to declare the same. Suffering is the test of\ndevotion and fidelity. For a picture of the harassed, battered,\nfamished sufferer in the cause of Christ and His Gospel read 2 Cor.\niv. 8-10, xi. 23-28. Marks of suffering are more eloquent than words.\nThe highest eminence of moral perfection and influence cannot be\nreached without much suffering. It is a callous nature indeed that is\nnot touched with the sight of suffering heroically endured. The calm\nbravery of the early Christians under the most fiendish persecution\nwon many a convert to the truth.\n\n+III. Concludes with an affectionate benediction.+--\"Brethren, the\ngrace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit. Amen\" (ver. 18).\nPlacing the word \"brethren\" at the end of the sentence, as in the\nGreek, suggests that, after much rebuke and admonition, the apostle\nbids his readers farewell with the warm-hearted expression of\nbrotherhood. Notwithstanding fickleness on their part, his love\ntowards them remains unchanged. He prays that the grace of Christ,\nthe distinctive and comprehensive blessing of the new covenant, may\ncontinue to rest upon them and work its renewing and sanctifying\npower upon their spirit, the place where alone it can accomplish its\nmost signal triumphs. Forgiveness for their defection and confidence\nin their restoration to the highest Christian privileges and\nenjoyment, are the last thoughts of the anxious apostle. Between them\nand moral bankruptcy is the prayerful solicitude of a good man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _When argument is exhausted prayer is the last\nresource._ 2. _Prayer links Divine blessing with human entreaty._\n3. _Last words have about them a solemn and affecting efficacy._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 16. _The True Israel of God_--\n\n  +I. Are those who personally enjoy the inward righteousness that\n      comes through faith.+\n\n +II. Who live consistently with their spiritual profession and the\n      truth they have embraced.+\n\n+III. Enjoy the Divine benedictions of mercy and peace.+\n\n\nVer. 17. _Marks of the Lord Jesus._\n\n+I. The word picture here presented.+--1. _The figure_--slave-brands,\n\u03c3\u03c4\u1f31\u0263\u03bc\u0251\u03c4\u0251. 2. _The facts_--Paul's historic experiences (1 Cor.\niv. 9-15; 2 Cor. xi. 23-30). 3. _The challenge_--\"Let no man trouble\nme.\"\n\n+II. The suggestion the picture makes.+--1. He who follows the Lord\nJesus must expect some will try to trouble him. 2. He whose marks are\nmost conspicuous will be troubled the least. 3. He who has marks may\ntake comfort in knowing how much his Master paid for him. 4. He who\nis owned may remember that his Master owns and recognises the marks\nalso. 5. He that has no marks is either a better or a poorer\nChristian than the apostle Paul. 6. Satan outwits himself when he\ngives a believer more marks. 7. A sure day is coming when the marks\nwill be honourable, for the body of humiliation will be like the\nglorious body of Christ.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_Marked Men._\n\n+I. Ill-marked men.+--Think of the marks left on men by sickness,\nintemperance, impurity, crime, sin of any kind. Evil will always\nleave its mark.\n\n+II. Well-marked men.+--1. _Christian marks_--the marks of Christ.\nPaul was the slave of Christ. Some of his marks for Christ were\nliteral, as the _weals_ caused by the rods of the Roman C\u00e6sars, the\n_red lines_ caused by scourging in Jewish synagogues, the _scars_\ncaused by repeated stonings. The marks of the Christian are mainly\nspiritual--marked by trustfulness, gentleness, purity, unselfishness.\n\n2. _Distinct marks._--Marked that he may be recognised. If you have\nthe marks of Jesus, confess and obey Him.\n\n3. _Deep marks._--Branded on the body, not lines that can easily be\nremoved, but going down to the flesh. Our Christian life is often\nfeeble because it is not deep.\n\n4. _Personal marks._--The marks of Jesus of no avail unless you\npossess them. No man can really trouble you if you bear branded on\nyour body the marks of Jesus.--_Local Preacher's Treasury._\n\n\n_Suffering for Jesus._\n\nI. The scars of the saints for the maintenance of the truth +are the\nsufferings, wounds, and marks of Christ Himself,+ seeing they are the\nwounds of the members of that body whereof He is Head.\n\nII. +They convince the persecutors that they are the servants of\nChrist who suffer thus for righteousness' sake.+\n\nIII. +If men be constant in their profession--in faith and\nobedience--the marks of their suffering are banners of victory.+--No\nman ought to be ashamed of them, no more than soldiers of their\nwounds and scars, but rather in a holy manner to glory of them.\nConstantine the Great kissed the holes of the eyes of certain bishops\nwho had them put out for their constant profession of the faith of\nChrist, reverencing the virtue of the Holy Ghost which shined in\nthem. 1. By suffering bodily afflictions we are made conformable to\nChrist. 2. They teach us to have sympathy with the miseries of our\nbrethren. 3. Our patient enduring of affliction is an example to\nothers and a means of confirming them in the truth. 4. They serve to\nscour us from the rust of sin.--_Perkins._\n\n\nVer. 18. _Concluding Benediction._\n\n+I. The apostle invokes the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.+--1. Because He is the fountain of it. 2. Because He is the\nconduit or pipe by which it is conveyed to us.\n\n+II. Christ is called our Lord+--1. By right of creation. 2. Of\ninheritance. 3. Of redemption. 4. Of conquest. 5. Of contract and\nmarriage.\n\n+III. Observe the emphasis with which the apostle concludes the\nepistle.+--1. Opposing Christ, the Lord of the house, to Moses, who\nwas but a servant. 2. The grace of Christ to inherent justice and\nmerit of works. 3. The spirit in which he would have grace to be\nseated, to the flesh in which the false teachers gloried so much.\n4. Brotherly unity one with another--implied in the word\n\"brethren\"--to the proud and lordly carriage of the false\nteachers.--_Ibid._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - Page 1, Introduction, \"Character\" paragraph, add comma to \"time\n   they\"; remove comma from \"numbers, and\"; apply Reverential\n   Capitalisation (RC) to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 2, same paragraph, change \"v. 15\" reference to \"ch. v. 15\";\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Time of writing\" paragraph, remove\n   comma from \"certainty, and.\" \"Purpose and analysis\" paragraph,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Pages 2 and 3, table, change each reference to prefix \"ch.\"\n\n - Page 5, Notes for chapter i., verse 1, apply RC to \"Divine source\"\n   and \"the Gospel.\" Verse 6, change \"cf.\" to \"cf. ch.\" Verses 8 and\n   9, apply RC to \"his Gospel.\" Verse 12, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   and \"his Gospel.\" Verse 16, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Lesson \"Apostolic Credentials,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine authority.\"\n\n - Page 6, same lesson, point I, apply RC to \"Divine character\";\n   remove comma from \"God, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine stamp,\" \"Divine\n   element,\" and \"Divine authority.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine\n   source\" and \"the Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"are Divine\" and\n   \"Divine love\"; remove comma from \"race, and\"; add comma to \"Oh,\n   the.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Gospel salvation\"; add comma to\n   \"words we\"; apply RC to \"the whole Gospel\" and \"the Gospel\";\n   remove comma from \"nutshell, and\"; apply RC to \"Divinely provided\"\n   and \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 7, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Divinely revealed.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"The Power\"\n   note, remove comma from \"them, and.\" \"Grace and Peace\" note, point\n   I, remove comma from \"man, but.\"\n\n - Page 8, \"Unselfishness\" note, apply RC to \"Divine character.\"\n   \"Christ our Sacrifice\" note, point II, add comma to \"Therefore\n   all.\"\n\n - Page 9, lesson \"The One Gospel,\" point I, apply RC to \"one true\n   Gospel,\" \"one Gospel,\" and \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"methods, and.\" Point II, apply RC to \"one Gospel.\" Point II. 1,\n   apply RC to \"true Gospel,\" \"one Gospel,\" \"true Gospel,\" and \"the\n   Gospel.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"infallible Gospel.\"\n   \"Remonstrance\" note, point II, remove comma from \"part, and.\"\n   Point III, remove comma from \"wax, and\"; apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice).\n\n - Page 10, same note, same paragraph, apply RC to \"the Word.\" Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"one Gospel.\" Point V, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\" (four times); remove comma from \"word, and.\"\n   \"Perversion\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"Divine purpose.\" \"Disappointed Hopes\" note, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\"; add comma to \"sweetened and.\" \"Inviolable Unity\"\n   note, apply RC to \"one Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 11, same note, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n   \"Inviolability of Christianity\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (thrice); remove comma from \"eye, but\"; and apply RC to\n   \"that Word.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine origin\" and \"Divine\n   benediction.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine truth.\"\n\n - Page 12, same note, point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Best\n   Authority\" note, add a missing sentence-ending period after \"St.\n   Peter\"; add double quotes around the response \"No.\"\n\n - Page 13, \"True Gospel\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice). Lesson \"Superhuman Origin,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (thrice). Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice), \"a\n   Gospel,\" and \"Divine Master.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice) and \"Divine message\" (across page break).\n\n - Page 14, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice)\n   and \"Divine origin.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel,\" \"saving Gospel,\" \"the Gospel,\" and \"Divine gift.\"\n   \"Fidelity\" note, point I, add sentence-ending period after \"they\n   utter.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Word.\" Point III, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" \"Servant of Christ\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\"; remove comma from \"dishonourable, unless\" apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - The break between pages 14 and 15 is in the word \"compelled\":\n   com|pelled. In this and every subsequent case, the Transcriber\n   moved the whole word to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 15, same lesson, point III, remove comma from \"us, but\";\n   apply RC to \"He saved us\" and \"of His Word.\"\n\n - The break between pages 15 and 16 is in the word \"maintenance\":\n   mainte|nance.\n\n - Page 16, \"The Gospel and the Call,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" and \"the Word\" (thrice). Point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel,\" \"Divine authority,\"\n   and \"the Word.\" \"Apostolic Assurance\" note, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 17, same note, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice).\n\n - Page 18, lesson \"Zealous Ritualist,\" point III, remove comma from\n   \"heart, and\"; apply RC to \"the Word\" and \"God's Word.\" \"Review of\n   a Misspent Life,\" apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 19, \"True and False Zeal,\" point III, apply RC to \"the Word,\"\n   \"the Gospel\" (twice), \"His Word,\" and \"the Word.\" Lesson\n   \"Imperative Claims,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divinely destined\" and\n   remove comma from \"future, or.\" Poem, apply RC to \"Divinity.\"\n   After poem, apply RC to \"Divine element.\" Point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine revelation\"; remove comma from \"change, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"universal Gospel\" and \"Divine commission.\"\n\n - Page 20, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"; remove\n   commas from \"response, and\" and \"hearer, and.\" Point V, apply RC\n   to \"first Gospel pioneers.\" \"Conversion\" note, point II, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 21, same note, point IV, apply RC to \"God's Word.\"\n   \"Conversion as Illustrated\" note, point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine\n   grace\" and \"the Gospel\" (twice). \"Qualification\" note, point II,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Divine Call\" note, remove comma from\n   \"doubt, and.\"\n\n - Page 22, same note, change the scripture reference after\n   \"Jeremiah\" from \"i. 19\" to \"Jer. i. 19\" to avoid any confusion.\n   \"Divine call\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Lesson \"God\n   Glorified,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 23, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"Divine call\" and \"Divine work.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Self-conscious Truth\"\n   note, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 24, \"Self-evidencing Proof\" note, apply RC to \"Divinely\n   commissioned.\" \"God Glorified\" note, apply RC to \"if He continues.\"\n\n - Page 25, Notes for chapter ii., verse 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   and \"Divine confirmation.\" Verse 9, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Verse 13, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Verse 14, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 26, lesson \"Confirmatory Proofs,\" point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divinely directed\" and \"Divine call\"; remove comma from\n   \"apostles, and\"; apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice). Point II, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel\" (five times) and \"Divine commission.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Divine authority\" and \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 27, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Divine commission\"\n   and remove comma from \"past, and.\" Application (\"Lessons\") apply\n   RC to \"Divine call.\" \"Truth its Own Evidence\" note, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 28, same lesson, \"False Brethren\" note, point IV, remove\n   comma from \"bondage, and.\" Point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point VII, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"A spy\" note, remove comma\n   from \"borrowed, and.\" \"Fidelity\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice). \"Truth\" note, remove comma from \"sword, and.\"\n   \"Recognition\" note, point II, apply RC to \"distinctly Divine.\"\n\n - The break between pages 28 and 29 is in the word \"admitting\":\n   ad|mitting.\n\n - Page 29, same lesson, \"Divine Blessing\" note, apply RC to \"the\n   Word.\" \"Efficacy\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Word.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"the Word.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Word.\" Point\n   IV, remove comma from \"apostle, because.\" Lesson \"Christianity and\n   Poverty,\" point I 1, remove comma from \"Christianity, but.\"\n\n - Page 30, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Spirit of the\n   Gospel.\" \"Remember the Poor\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 31, lesson \"Fearless Defence,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 32, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   II, remove commas from \"it, and\" and \"sin, but.\" Point III, apply\n   RC to \"Divine character\" and \"Divine order\" and change \"brganic\n   life\" to \"organic life.\" \"Astute Defender\" note, point I, change\n   \"His power\" to \"his power,\" referring to Paul.\n\n - Page 33, same lesson, \"Power of Example,\" remove comma from \"men,\n   and.\" \"Erring Apostle\" note, point I 1, remove comma from \"law,\n   but.\" Point I 5, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point III 1, apply RC\n   to \"the Word.\"\n\n = Page 34, same lesson, \"Justification\" note, point III, add comma\n   to \"Therefore it.\" Point IV, final sentence, the Transcriber\n   inserted a colon after \"place.\"\n\n - Page 35, \"Christian Dead to the Law\" note, point III, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel\" (five times).\n\n - Page 36, \"Dead to the Law by the Law\" note, point II, add\n   sentence-ending period after \"law of Moses.\" Point III 1, remove\n   comma from \"God, and.\" \"Religious Life\" note, point IV, apply RC\n   to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 37, \"Love of the Son\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Divine.\" Point II, add the hyphen to \"self-denial.\" \"Life of\n   Faith\" note, point I 2, remove comma from \"salvation, but.\"\n\n - Page 38, \"Life of Faith\" note, point I 6, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Self-abolished\" note, remove comma from \"this, and.\"\n\n - Page 39, Notes for chapter iii., verse 3, apply RC to \"Divine\n   order.\" Verse 8, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice). Verse 17,\n   apply RC to \"Divine covenant.\"\n\n - The break between pages 39 and 40 is within an element that style\n   indicates should not be broken, \"transgressions.|--To.\" In this\n   and every subsequent case, the Transcriber moved the entire\n   element to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 40, lesson \"Deceptive Glamour,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"colours, and\"; add commas to \"error their\" and \"diverted and.\"\n\n - Page 41, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine order.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine method.\" \"Faithful Reproof\" note,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 42, \"Folly\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Word\" (thrice). \"Attractiveness\" note, apply\n   RC to \"His Word\"; add \"John xii. 32\" reference.\n\n - Page 43, same lesson, \"Uses of Suffering\" note, remove comma from\n   \"adoption, and.\" \"Miracles\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"Abrahamic Gospel,\" in point I, apply RC to and remove comma from\n   \"the Gospel, and\" and apply RC to \"only Gospel.\" Point III, remove\n   comma from \"blessing, but.\"\n\n - Page 44, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Righteousness through Faith\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine method\"; point III, apply RC to \"unchanging Gospel.\"\n   \"Imitators of Abraham's Faith\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the\n   Word.\" \"All Nations\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice).\n\n - Page 45, lesson \"The Conflict,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"imperfection, and.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice);\n   remove comma from \"law, and.\" At the end of the paragraph, add\n   double quotes around \"No.\"\n\n - Page 46, same lesson, \"The Inexorability\" note, point I, remove\n   comma from \"requirements, but.\" \"Justified\" note, add \"Gen. i. 3\"\n   reference. \"The Difference\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice). Each of points II and III, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"His work.\"\n\n - Page 47, same lesson, same note, point V, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point VI, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (four times). Lesson\n   \"Divine Covenant,\" point I, remove comma from \"binding, and\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine covenant\" (thrice); apply RC to \"the Divine\n   Word\" and \"Divine character.\"\n\n - Page 48, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC\n   to \"Divine covenant.\" \"Promise a Covenant\" note, point I, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 49, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to \"His bare\n   Word.\" Point III, add comma to \"therefore it.\" \"Divine and Human\n   Covenants\" note, each of points II and III, apply RC to \"Divine\n   covenant.\" \"Law and Promise\" note, remove comma from\n   \"justification, and.\"\n\n - Page 50, lesson \"Inferiority of the Law,\" point III, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from \"man, and.\" Point IV, apply RC to\n   \"Divine image.\"\n\n - Page 51, same lesson, \"No Trust\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Use of the Law\" note, each of points I and II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Unity\" note, point 3, remove comma from \"one, and.\"\n\n - Page 52, lesson \"True Use of the Law,\" point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine method\" (twice). Point IV, remove comma from \"Christ, and.\"\n\n - On page 53, same lesson, \"Great Prison\" note, change \"sabbathless\"\n   to \"Sabbath-less\"; remove comma from \"fast, and\"; add comma to \"So\n   when.\"\n\n - On page 54, same lesson, \"Shut up unto the faith\" note, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" Point II, remove comma from \"is, and\" and apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice). Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 55, same lesson, \"Law our Schoolmaster\" note, in point III 3,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 56, same lesson, \"Law preparing\" note, point I, capitalize\n   \"Day of Atonement.\" Each of points II and III, capitalize \"Ten\n   Commandments.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine plan\" and \"Divine\n   life.\"\n\n - Page 57, same lesson, \"Law a Schoolmaster\" note, application\n   (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"Christ's Gospel.\" Lesson \"Dignity of\n   Sonship,\" point I, remove comma from \"training, and\"; point III,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from \"provisions, and.\"\n\n - Page 58, same lesson, point IV, add comma to \"Surely he.\"\n   \"Baptism\" note, point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine life.\"\n\n - Page 59, same lesson, \"God's Children\" note, point VI, apply RC to\n   \"Word of God.\" \"Profession\" note, remove comma from \"doing, or\";\n   add comma to \"Nevertheless we.\"\n\n - Page 60, same lesson, \"Promise of Grace\" note, apply RC to \"whole\n   Gospel\" and \"the Word\"; add comma to \"therefore, the\"; apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" Notes for chapter iv., correct \"V r. 1\" to \"Ver. 1.\"\n   Verse 6, recognise \"Abba\" as Chaldee (Hebrew) and set it in\n   Italic; change \"iii. 28\" to \"ch. iii. 28\"; apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\"; and add the sentence-ending period to the second sentence.\n\n - Page 61, each of the notes for verses 17 and 30, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"Nonage,\" point I 2, remove comma from \"blessings,\n   and.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Divinely provided.\"\n\n - Page 62, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine Son.\" Point\n   II 2, apply RC to \"Divine law.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Divine\n   glow\" and remove comma from \"God, and.\" Point III 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine adoption.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Christ's Mission\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   power.\"\n\n - Page 63, same lesson, same note, same point, remove comma from\n   \"trial, and.\"\n\n - Page 64, same lesson, \"Adoption\" note, point I, remove comma from\n   \"name, and.\" Point II 1, change \"iv. 6\" to \"ch. iv. 6.\"\n\n - Page 65, same lesson, \"Evidences of Sonship\" note, point II 1,\n   apply RC to \"the Word of God.\" Point II 3, apply RC to \"Divine\n   manner.\" \"God's Offspring\" note, point 2, remove comma from\n   \"Father, and.\"\n\n - Page 66, lesson \"Legalism a Relapse,\" point II, remove comma from\n   \"religion, and.\" Point III, remove comma from \"nature, but.\"\n\n - Page 67, same lesson, \"Dilemma\" note, point I 2 (3), make \"his\n   god\" and \"thy god\" lowercase, because the focus has been taken\n   from God. \"Ignorance\" note, each of points 2 and 3, apply RC to\n   \"Divine worship.\"\n\n - Page 68, lesson \"Pleadings,\" point I 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice). Point II 2, remove comma from \"intellect, but.\"\n\n - Page 69, same lesson, \"Christian Brotherhood\" note, point I,\n   remove comma from \"men, or.\" Point II 1, remove comma from\n   \"wilfully, and.\"\n\n - Page 71, same lesson, \"Objects\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice). \"Godly Zeal\" note, point I 2, remove comma from\n   \"excitement, and.\"\n\n - Page 72, same lesson, same note, point I 5, remove comma from\n   \"man, but.\" Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine designs.\" \"True\"\n   note, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 5, apply RC to\n   \"Divine approval.\" \"Christmas\" note, apply RC to \"Divine Agent.\"\n\n - Page 73, same lesson, \"Doubt\" note, point I 2, remove comma from\n   \"knowledge, and\"; point I 4, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"History,\" point I 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine\n   freedom.\" In point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 74, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice)\n   and add \"1 Pet. i. 4\" reference. Application (\"Lessons\"), apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\" (twice). \"Jerusalem Above\" note, point III 2,\n   remove comma from \"salvation, and.\"\n\n - Page 75, same lesson, \"Jerusalem a Type\" note, point III, correct\n   \"Messias\" to \"Messiah\" and apply RC to \"the Word.\" \"Believers\"\n   note, point II 4, add comma to \"So believers\" and \"so it.\" Point\n   III 1, apply RC to \"Divine love.\"\n\n - Page 76, same lesson, \"Fate\" note, point I, remove comma from\n   \"mocking, and.\" Notes for chapter v., verse 2, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 77, lesson \"Christian Liberty,\" point I, correct\n   \"where.|with\" to \"wherewith.\"\n\n - Page 78, same lesson, in point II, capitalize \"Negro\" (twice).\n   Point III, remove comma from \"good, but.\"\n\n - Page 79, same lesson, \"Bondage and Liberty\" note, point V, remove\n   comma from \"adoption, and.\" Point VI, remove comma from \"memory,\n   but.\" Lesson \"Christianity Superior,\" point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\"; remove comma from \"aspect, and.\"\n\n - Page 80, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Righteousness attained\" note, apply RC to \"Divine worship\" and\n   \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 81, same lesson, \"Religion is Faith working\" note, point II,\n   apply RC to \"the Word.\" Lesson \"Disturber,\" point I, remove comma\n   from \"result, and.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine method\" and\n   \"Divine calling.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point IV 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine judgment\" and remove commas from \"truth, but\"\n   and \"himself, but.\"\n\n - Page 82, same lesson, point IV 2, add double quotes around \"Would\n   that the Judaising troubles would mutilate themselves\"; remove\n   comma from \"exhausted, and.\" \"Like a Race\" note, point I 4, remove\n   commas from \"on, and\" and \"them, but.\"\n\n - Page 83, same lesson, \"Bad Companions\" note, add comma to \"course\n   it.\" \"Disintegrating Force\" note, point 1, remove comma from \"God,\n   and\" and apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 84, same lesson, \"Perversion\" note, point II, add comma to\n   \"known and.\"\n\n - Page 85, same lesson, \"Judgment\" note, remove comma from\n   \"certainty, because.\" Lesson \"Love,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"win, and.\"\n\n - Page 86, same lesson, point III, remove comma from \"quarrels,\n   but.\" Point IV, remove comma from \"sphere, and\" add double quotes\n   around \"Be a man . . . as you can\"; remove comma from \"can, but.\"\n   \"Abuse\" note, point I, add comma to \"Thus all.\"\n\n - Page 87, same lesson, \"Right Use\" note, point II 1, apply RC to\n   \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 88, same lesson, \"Positiveness\" note, point III, add comma to\n   \"suppression but\" apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 89, same lesson, \"Walking in the Spirit\" note, point I, apply\n   RC to \"Divine nature.\" Each of points I 5 (1) and II 1 (2), apply\n   RC to \"the Word.\" \"The Strife\" note, point I, change \"imprison\n   Him\" to \"imprison him\" referring to sin. Point II, apply RC to \"in\n   Him.\"\n\n - Page 90, same lesson, \"Leading of the Spirit\" note, apply RC to\n   \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 91, lesson \"Works,\" point II 1, apply Italic formatting to\n   \"fornication\" in the second sentence for consistency. Point II 2,\n   apply Italic formatting to \"idolatry\" for consistency; remove\n   comma from \"lust, and\"; apply RC to \"the Divine.\" Point III, add\n   \"and rises again\" because man religious leaders have died, only\n   One has risen again. Use lowercase for \"him whose own career it\n   describes\" as referring to a saved person.\n\n - Page 92, same lesson, \"Biblical Account\" note, remove comma from\n   \"Testament, and\"; capitalize \"Adam's Fall\"; remove comma from\n   \"Testament, and.\" Lesson \"Fruit,\" point I 1, add comma to \"place\n   love\" and apply RC to \"Diviner meaning.\"\n\n - Page 93, same lesson, point I 3, remove commas from \"activity,\n   and\" and \"discipline, and.\"\n\n - Page 94, same lesson, \"Fruit\" note, point I 1 (2), apply RC to\n   \"the Word.\"\n\n - The break between pages 94 and 95 is in the word \"according\":\n   accord|ing.\n\n - Page 95, \"Powers\" note, add comma to \"Christianity we.\" Point I,\n   remove comma from \"miserable, and.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine\n   love\" and \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 96, \"Power of Meekness\" note, remove comma from \"peace, and.\"\n   \"Grace of Gentleness\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 97, same lesson, same note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine\n   greatness.\" \"Life and Walk\" note, point II 2, remove comma from\n   \"life, and.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Word.\" \"Walking in the\n   Spirit\" note, each of points I and III, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 98, notes for chapter vi., verse 7, remove comma from \"men,\n   but.\"\n\n - Page 100, lesson \"Mutual Sympathy,\" point II, add double quotes\n   around \"If ye will . . . law of love.\" In point III. 2, remove\n   comma from \"theirs, but\" add double quotes around \"What do others\n   fail to do\" and \"What am I . . . expects from me.\"\n\n - Page 101, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from \"you, and.\"\n\n - Page 103, same lesson, \"Bear One Another's Burdens\" note, in point\n   4, remove comma from \"turned, and\"; apply RC to \"dim Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 104, same lesson, \"Bearing One Another\" note, add comma to\n   \"so in.\"\n\n - Page 106, same lesson, \"Every Man\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"Moral Sowing,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divine law.\"\n\n - Page 107, same lesson, point III, remove comma from\n   \"disappointment, and.\" \"Pastors and People\" note, point VI, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 108, same lesson, same note, same point, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (two additional times). \"Ministerial Maintenance\" note,\n   point 3, remove comma from \"preach, and\" and apply RC to \"the\n   Word.\"\n\n - Page 109, same lesson, \"Double Harvest\" note, point II 1, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine appointment\" and\n   add comma to \"end they.\" Change second point \"II\" to point \"III.\"\n\n - Page 110, \"Sowing and Reaping\" note, point II 3, apply RC to\n   \"Divine approval.\"\n\n - Page 111, same note, point III 3, apply RC to \"Divine plaudit.\"\n\n - Page 112, same lesson, \"Reap if we faint not\" note, point I 3 (2),\n   apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 113, same lesson, \"Doing Good\" note, point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine stanbard.\" Point IV, remove comma from \"calling, and.\"\n\n - Page 115, lesson \"Apostolic Exposure,\" \"Christianity and\n   Persecution\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 116, lesson \"Glorying,\" point II, add comma to \"Thus I.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" The original third sentence\n   is \"The faith of the cross claims to have produced not a new style\n   of ritual, a new system of government, but new men.\" The\n   Transcriber inserted the word \"not\" after the first comma for\n   clarity.\n\n - Page 117, same lesson, point IV, add comma to \"So as\" and add\n   \"1 Pet. i. 4\" reference. \"Christ Crucified\" note, point IV, remove\n   comma from \"punishments, and.\"\n\n - Page 118, same lesson, \"Glorying in the Cross\" note, point III 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine character.\" Point III 5, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 119, same lesson, \"True Religion\" note, point II 2, apply RC\n   to \"Divine work.\" \"New Creature\" note, add comma to \"therefore\n   the.\" Lesson \"Dignified,\" point I, the Transcriber removed an\n   opening double quotes from \"Peace is followed by mercy\" because\n   there was neither a closing quotation mark nor an obvious\n   indication where a quotation ended.\n\n - Page 120, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"His Gospel.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine blessing.\"\n   \"True Israel\" note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine benedictions.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+THE+\n\n+EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS.+\n\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Readers to whom the epistle was sent.+--In the two most ancient\ncopies of the Scriptures which we possess--dating from the fourth\ncentury of our era--the words in our A.V. (ch. i. 1), _\"at Ephesus,\"_\nare missing; and Basil the Great, who lived in the fourth century,\nsays he had seen copies which, \"ancient\" even at that early date,\nspoke of the readers as _\"those who are, and the faithful in Christ\nJesus.\"_ When it is observed, however, that Basil still says in that\npassage the apostle is _\"writing to the Ephesians,\"_ in all honesty\nwe must admit another interpretation of his words to be possible.\n\nAdd to these early witnesses that Ephesus is not named in the text\nthe further fact that, though St. Paul had lived and laboured between\ntwo and three years in Ephesus, there is absolutely no mention of any\nname of those with whom he had been associated, and what on the\nassumption of the Ephesian destination of the epistle is stranger\nstill, no reference to the work, unless we may be allowed to regard\nthe \"sealing with the Holy Spirit of promise\" as a reminiscence of\nActs xix. 1-7.\n\nWe must not make too much, however, of this absence of personal\ngreetings. Tychicus can do, _viv\u00e2 voce,_ all that needs to be done in\nthat way. St. Paul had been \"received as an angel of God, or even as\nChrist Jesus,\" by Galatians, not one of whom is mentioned in the\nletter sent to the Galatians.\n\nCertain expressions in the body of the letter are strange if the\nEphesian Christians were the first readers of it. In ch. i. 15 the\napostle says, \"After I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus.\" One\nasks, \"Did not the faith which 'cometh by hearing' result from Paul's\npreaching in Ephesus? Then how can he speak of hearing of it?\" It may\nbe answered, \"Does not Paul say to Philemon, 'Thou owest unto me\nthine own self' (ver. 19), and yet says (ver. 5) that, _hearing_ of\nhis love and faith, he thanks God?\" Moreover, has any one quite\ndemonstrated the impossibility of this faith being the continuity of\nthat which began with the abjuration of magic in a costly offering of\nfifty thousand pieces of silver? (Acts xix. 17-20). \"Faith\" may take\nthe form of fidelity as easily as of credence.\n\nAgain, in ch. iii. 2 Paul, at the word \"Gentiles,\" enters into a\ndigression about his specific commission as their apostle. Just as to\nthe Galatian Church he expatiates on the special grace bestowed by\nGod and recognised by the \"pillars\" of the Church, so here he\nmagnifies his office, and his words here no more prove that he had\nnever seen his readers than the section of Galatians (Gal. ii. 6-9)\nproves that he did not know the Galatians. Even supposing they did,\nit surely would not be an astonishing thing that in the ever-shifting\npopulation of a seaport many may have joined the Church since St.\nPaul was in Ephesus. That this was the place to which St. Paul sent\nhis messenger with the letter before us cannot be demonstratively\nshown; but we feel something like conviction by considering:\n(_a_) that the preponderant evidence of the MSS. says \"Ephesus\";\n(_b_) that the versions are unanimous as an echo of the MSS.;\n(_c_) that the entire ancient Church has spoken of the epistle as \"to\nthe Ephesians,\" Marcion's voice being the only exception; (_d_) the\nimprobability of St. Paul writing _\"to the saints which are\"_ without\nadding the name of some place; (_e_) \"Ephesus\" more easily meets\ninternal difficulties than any other place. This, in substance, is\nBishop Ellicott's view. Still, we cannot regard it as impossible that\n\"Ephesus\" may comprise many Churches in the vicinity, and therefore\nregard the letter as really encyclical, even though it were proved\nthat St. Paul wrote \"to the saints at Ephesus.\"\n\n+Analysis of the Epistle.+\n\n    i.  1, 2. Salutation. Joy and well-being to those in Christ.\n\n        3-14. Hymn of praise to the Father, who worked out in Christ\n              His pre-temporal designs of beneficence, and gave pledge\n              of the yet more glorious consummation of His Divine will\n              in the bestowal of the Holy Ghost.\n\n       15-23. Thanksgiving of the apostle over their fidelity, and his\n              prayer for their complete illumination in the\n              incorporation of the Gentiles in the mystical body of\n              Christ, \"the Head.\"\n\n   ii.  1-10. The power that delivered Christ from bodily corruption\n              in the tomb saved His members out of the corruption of\n              fleshly lusts, thus silencing every human boast and\n              magnifying the Divine grace.\n\n       11-22. Wholesome reminder of their former distance from Christ\n              as contrasted with present union with Him, and union\n              with the Jews in Him, being led to the Father with them.\n\n  iii.  1-13. Paul's familiar statement of the origin of his\n              apostolate as specially commissioned--\"ambassador\n              extraordinary\" to the Gentiles.\n\n       14-19. Prayer that by \"power and faith and love\" they may grasp\n              \"the mystery,\" and become brimful of love Divine.\n\n      20, 21. Doxology to the doctrinal half of the epistle.\n\n   iv.  1-16. Exhortation to a practical observation of this doctrinal\n              unity by the thought that every member of Christ is\n              necessary in its full development to the perfection of\n              the body of which Christ is the Head.\n\n       17-24. Casting off the old and putting on the new man.\n\n   25--v. 21. Exhortation to conduct in harmony with the new nature.\n\nv. 22--vi. 9. Relative duties of wives and husbands, children and parents,\n              servants and masters.\n\n  vi.  10-18. The Christian panoply.\n\n      19, 20. Apostle's request for prayers.\n\n      21, 22. _Personalia._\n\n      23, 24. A twin doxology, reversing the order of the\n              salutation--\"Peace and grace.\"\n\n+Genuineness of the epistle.+--Dr. Ellicott sums up the matter\nbriefly by saying, \"There is no just ground on which to dispute the\ngenuineness.\" Arguments based on certain expressions in the body of\nthe letter have been speciously urged against its genuineness by\nDe Wette and others; and Holzmann has \"learnedly maintained that the\nepistle is only the expansion of a short letter to the Colossians by\nsome writer about the close of the first century\" (_Godet_).\n\n\"We have, on the other hand, subjective arguments, not unmixed with\narrogance, but devoid of sound historical basis; on the other hand,\nunusually convincing counter-investigations and the unvarying\ntestimony of the ancient Church.\" Adverse arguments have been\nanswered so satisfactorily and sometimes so crushingly as to leave no\nroom for doubt. Those who cannot read the epistle without being moved\nby the peculiar loftiness, by the grandeur of conception, by the\nprofound insight, by the eucharistic inspiration they recognise in\nit, will require strong evidence to persuade them that it was written\nby some other man who wished it to pass as St. Paul's.\n\n+The practical design of the epistle.+--The object is to set forth\nthe ground, course, aim, and end of the Church of the faithful in\nChrist. The Ephesians are a sample of the Church universal. The key\nto the epistle may be found in the opening sentence (ver. 3). Fixing\nhis eyes on the Lord Jesus Christ, the apostle opens his mind to the\nblessings which radiate forth from Him, and from the Father through\nHim, upon the whole world. The mind of God towards men unveiled in\nChrist, the relation of men towards God exhibited in Christ, the\npresent spiritual connection of men with Christ, the hopes of which\nChrist is the ground and assurance, the laws imposed by the life of\nChrist upon human life--these are the blessings for which he gives\nthanks. Christ embracing humanity in Himself is the subject of the\nepistle. St. Paul tells with strict faithfulness what he has read and\nseen in Christ; Christ fills the whole sphere of his mind.\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +To the saints.+--Dismiss the commonly accepted meaning. Not\nmen who by hard and rigorous methods have reached the heights where\nbut few abide, but those who, as the elect of God, are separated from\neverything unholy and kept for God's peculiar possession (1 Pet.\nii. 9). +And faithful.+--Sometimes the word may mean \"believers,\"\nsometimes \"trustworthy.\" \"The use of the adjective for the Christian\nbrotherhood cannot be assigned rigidly either to the one meaning or\nthe other. Its very comprehensiveness was in itself a valuable\nlesson\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 2. +Grace . . . and peace.+--The light-hearted Greek salutation\nwas, \"Rejoice\"; the more sober Hebrew--our Lord's own--was, \"Peace be\nto you.\" Here both unite.\n\nVer. 3. +Blessed be the God and Father.+--The Hebrew form for\n\"hallowing the Name\" was, \"The Holy One, blessed be He.\" The Prayer\nBook version of Psalm c. gives, \"Speak good of His name.\" +Who\nblessed us.+--When old Isaac pronounces the blessing uttered on Jacob\nunwittingly to be irreversible, he depends on God for the carrying\nout of his dying blessing: the Divine blessing _makes_ whilst\n_pronouncing_ blest. +In the heavenly places.+--Lit. \"in the\nheavenlies\"--so, as A.V. margin says, either places or _things._\nPerhaps the _local_ signification is best; \"relating to heaven and\nmeant to draw us thither\" (_Blomfield_).\n\nVer. 4. +Even as He chose us in Him.+--Whatever be the manifestation\nof the Divine goodness, it is _\"in Christ\"_ that it is made. \"This\nsentence traces back the state of grace and Christian piety to the\neternal and independent electing love of God\" (_Cremer_). There is\nalways the connotation of some not chosen. +Before the foundation of\nthe world.+--St. Paul, like Esaias, \"is very bold.\" His Master had\nonly said \"from,\" not \"before,\" the foundation (Matt. xxv. 34),\nreserving the \"before\" for the dim eternity in which He was the\nsharer, with the eternal Spirit, of the Father's love (John\nxvii. 24). +Without blemish+ (R.V.), or, in one word, \"immaculate.\" A\nsacrificial term generally; used by St. Peter (1 Pet. i. 19) to\ndescribe that \"Lamb of God who taketh away the sin of the world.\"\nThis word serves to guard \"holy,\" just before it; a separated (holy)\npeople must also be a spotless people.\n\nVer. 5. +Having predestinated us.+--By pointing as the R.V. margin\ndoes, we get Love Divine as the basis on which our foreordination\nrests. \"There is no respect of persons with God,\" and so _arri\u00e8re\npens\u00e9e_ in the invitation, \"All that labour and are heavy laden.\"\n+Unto adoption as sons.+--The end, as regards man. Perhaps St. John's\nword goes more deeply into the heart of the mystery, \"That we should\nbe called the _children_ of God\"--\"_born_ of God.\" +Through Jesus\nChrist.+--Mediator of this and every implied blessing. +According to\nthe good pleasure of His will.+--The word for \"good pleasure\"\ncharacterises the will as one whose intent is something good; the\nunhampered working of the will lies in the expression too. The\nmeasure of human privilege in the adoption is _according to_ the\nDivine Graciousness.\n\nVer. 6. +To the praise of the glory of His grace.+--The ultimate end,\n\"that God may be all in all.\" +Wherein He hath made us accepted in\nthe Beloved.+--The change in the R.V., considerable as it seems,\nturns on the rendering of one word, the meaning in the New Testament\nbeing \"to bestow favour.\" Compare Luke i. 28 and the A.V. marginal\nalternative \"much-graced.\" Chrysostom's beautiful interpretation must\nnot be lightly rejected, \"to make love-worthy\"--just as if one were\nto make a sick or famished man into a beautiful youth, so has God\nmade our soul beautiful and love-worthy for the angels and all saints\nand for Himself.\n\nVer. 7. +In whom we have redemption.+--Release in consideration of a\nransom paid--\"deliverance effected through the death of Christ from\nthe retributive wrath of a holy God and the merited penalty of sin\"\n(_Grimm_). +Through His blood.+--St. Paul quite agrees with the\nauthor of Hebrews (Heb. ix. 22) that apart from the pouring out of\nblood, the putting away of sin cannot be brought about. +The\nforgiveness of our trespasses.+--Another way of stating in what the\nredemption consists. Notice the \"forgiveness\" as compared with the\n\"passing over\" (Rom. iii. 25, R.V.). The one is the remission of\npunishment; the other the omission to punish sin that has been\nobserved, \"leaving it open in the future either entirely to _remit_\nor else adequately to punish them as may seem good to Him\" (_Trench_).\n\nVer. 8. +In all wisdom and prudence.+--\"Wisdom embraces the\ncollective activity of the mind as directed to Divine aims to be\nachieved by moral means. Prudence is the insight of practical reason\nregulating the dispositions\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 9. +The mystery of His will.+--\"Mystery\" is here to be taken not\nso much as a thing which baffles the intellect as the slow utterance\nof a long-kept secret, which \"the fulness of time\" brings to birth.\n\nVer. 10. +The fulness of times.+--The word for \"times\" denotes \"time\nas brings forth its several births.\" It is the \"flood\" in the \"tide\nof affairs.\" +To sum up all things.+--\"To bring together again for\nHimself all things and all beings (hitherto disunited by sin) into\none combined state of fellowship in Christ, the universal bond\"\n(_Grimm_). \"It is the mystery of God's will to gather all together\nfor Himself in Christ, to bring all to a unity, to put an end to the\nworld's discord wrought by sin, and to re-establish the original\nstate of mutual dependence in fellowship with God\" (_Cremer_). +The\nthings which are in heaven and which are on earth.+\n\n     \"The blood that did for us atone\n      Conferred on them some gift unknown.\"\n\nVer. 11. +In whom also we have obtained an inheritance.+--R.V. _\"were\nmade a heritage.\"_ \"The Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the\nlot of His inheritance,\" sang dying Moses (Deut. xxxii. 9). The\nverbal paradox between A.V. and R.V. is reconciled in fact. \"All are\nyours, and ye are Christ's\" (1 Cor. iii. 22, 23). \"Before the\n_Parousia_ an ideal possession, therefore a real one\" (_Meyer_).\n+After the counsel of His own will.+--\"The 'counsel' preceding the\nresolve, the 'will' urging on to action\" (_Cremer_).\n\nVer. 12. +That we should be to the praise.+--R.V. _\"to the end that\nwe should be.\"_ \"_Causa finalis_ of the predestination to the\nMessianic lot\" (_Meyer_). \"We\" in antithesis to \"you\" in ver. 13--We\nJewish--you Gentile Christians.\n\nVer. 13. +In whom ye also, etc.+--The word \"trusted,\" supplied by\nA.V., is dropped by R.V. It seems best to regard the words after \"ye\nalso\" as one of the frequent breaks in the flow of the apostle's\nlanguage, the second \"ye\" taking up the first. \"In whom ye were\nsealed.\" \"The order of conversion was: hearing, faith, baptism,\nreception of the Spirit\" (_Meyer_). +Ye were sealed.+--\"This sealing\nis the indubitable guarantee of the future Messianic salvation\nreceived in one's own consciousness\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 14. +Who is the earnest.+--The guarantee. The word represented\nby \"earnest\" was derived from the Ph\u0153nician merchants, and meant\nmoney which in purchases is given as a pledge that the full amount\nwill be subsequently paid (_Grimm_). The word is found in the Hebrew\nof Gen. xxxviii. 17, 18, and means \"pledge.\" F. W. Robertson makes a\ndistinction between \"pledge\" and \"earnest\"--the grapes of Eshcol were\nan \"earnest\" of Canaan. He who receives the Holy Spirit partakes the\npowers of the age to come (Heb. vi. 4, 5). +Until the\nredemption.+--The final consummation of the redemption effected by\nthe atonement of Christ. The \"until\" is faulty, the \"earnest\" being\n\"something towards\" the redemption. +Of the purchased\npossession.+--R.V. \"of God's own possession.\" \"The whole body of\nChristians, the true people of God acquired by God as His property by\nmeans of the redeeming work of Christ\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVers. 15, 16.--St. Paul is always ready to give a prompt\nacknowledgment of all that is best in his readers and to pray for\nsomething better. +Cease not to give thanks.+--My thanksgiving knows\nno end.\n\nVer. 17. +That the God of our Lord Jesus Christ.+--The connection or\nunity of the Father and the Son is the basis of the plea for those\nwho are in the Son. Christ said, \"I ascend unto My Father and your\nFather, to My God and your God\" (John xx. 17). +The Father of\nglory.+--Compare the phrases, \"the Father of mercies\" (2 Cor. i. 3),\n\"the Father of lights\" (Jas. i. 17), \"our Lord Jesus Christ, the\nglory\" (Jas. ii. 1). +The spirit of wisdom and revelation.+--The\nwisdom which is from above is the heritage of all the redeemed in\nChrist (1 John iv. 20); but this day-spring, which gladdens the eyes\nof the heart, grows to mid-day splendour by successive apocalypses.\n+In the knowledge.+--The word means a complete knowledge. It is a\nword characteristic of the four epistles of the first Roman captivity.\n\nVers. 18, 19. +The eyes of your understanding being enlightened . . .\nto us-ward who believe.+--Three pictures for heaven-illumined eyes:\n1. +The hope of His calling.+--Meyer says \"the hope\" is not here (nor\nanywhere) the _res sperata,_ \"the object on which hope fastens, but\nthe great and glorious hope which God gives\"--a statement too\nsweeping for other scholars, though _here_ they agree that it is the\n_faculty_ of hope \"which encourages and animates.\" 2. +The riches of\nthe glory of His inheritance in the saints.+--\"What a copious and\ngrand accumulation, mirroring, as it were, the weightiness of the\nthing itself!\" (_Meyer_). \"Riches of the glory\" must not be watered\ndown into \"glorious riches.\" 3. +The exceeding greatness of His power\nto us-ward.+--The amazing and wholly unexpected working of the same\nHand that wrought our first deliverance: the Power that smites the\noppressor with dismay opens the path through the sea (see Isa.\nxl. 10, 11). +According to the working of His mighty power.+--This\nmay be regarded as a specimen of the Divine power, the norm or\nstandard by which we may gain an idea of the \"exceeding greatness\" of\nit--that from the tomb of His humiliation Christ was raised by that\npower to an unrivalled dignity in God's throne. The R.V. gives\n_\"working of the strength of His might\"_: _\"working\"_--\"the active\nexertion of power\" (_Meyer_); _\"strength\"_--might _expressing itself_\nin overcoming resistance, ruling, etc.; _\"might\"--strength in itself_\nas inward power.\n\nVer. 20. +Set Him at His own right hand.+--_\"Dexter Dei ubique est.\"_\nWe cannot dogmatise about the relations to space which a glorified\nbody holds. The transcendent glory of God in that body links God to\nman, the humanity in the glory gives man his claim in God. \"The true\ncommentary on the phrase is Mark xvi. 19, 'He was received up into\nheaven, and sat on the right hand of God'\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 21. +Far above all principality, and power, and might, and\ndominion.+--R.V., \"Rule, and authority, and power, and dominion.\" \"To\nbe understood of the _good_ angels, since the apostle is not speaking\nof the victory of Christ over opposing powers, but of His exaltation\nabove the existing powers of heaven\" (_Meyer_). \"Powers and\ndominions, deities of heaven,\" as Milton calls them, ranged here,\nperhaps, in a descending order. +And every name that is named.+--\"God\nhath highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every\nname.\" \"Let any name be uttered, whatever it is, Christ is above it,\nis more exalted than that which the name affirms\" (_Meyer_). +Not\nonly in this world.+--\"This age.\" \"No other name under heaven given\namong men.\" +But also in that which is to come.+--There Zechariah's\nword will have its fullest application. \"The Lord shall be King over\nall the earth; _there shall be one Lord, and His name one._\"\n\nVer. 22. +And hath put all things under His feet.+--Compare 1 Cor.\nxv. 27.\n\n     \"Strong Son of God, immortal Love, . . .\n      Thou madest Death; and lo Thy foot\n      Is on the skull which Thou hast made.\"--_In Memoriam._\n\nVer. 23. +The fulness of Him that filleth all in all.+--\"The Church,\nviz., is _the Christ-filled, i.e._ that which is filled by Him in so\nfar as Christ penetrates the whole body and produces Christian life\"\n(_Meyer_). \"The brimmed receptacle of Him who filleth all things with\nall things\" (_Farrar_). \"Among the Gnostics the supersensible world\nis called the Pleroma, the fulness _or filled,_ in opposition to 'the\nempty,' the world of the senses\" (_Meyer_).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_Apostolic Salutation._\n\n+I. He declares the Divine source of his authority.+--\"Paul, an\napostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God\" (ver. 1). The faithful\nambassador scans his commission with the utmost care and is\nsolicitous to clearly understand the will of his Sovereign. If he\nexamines his own fitness for the office, it is only to be humbled\nunder a sense of unworthiness, and to express surprise that he should\nbe chosen to such a dignity and be entrusted with such powers. His\nsupreme ambition is to sink his own personal predilections in the\nearnest discharge of his duty. Paul does not dilate on his own mental\ncapabilities or spiritual endowments. He accepts his appointment to\nthe apostleship as coming directly from the hand of God and\nrecognises the Divine will as the source of righteousness and of all\npower to do good. This lofty conception of his call gave him\nunfaltering confidence in the truth he had to declare, inspired him\nwith an ever-glowing zeal, rendered him immovable in the midst of\ndefection and opposition, and willing to obliterate himself, so that\nthe Gospel committed to him might be triumphant. The true minister,\nin the onerous task of dealing with human doubt and sin, feels the\nneed of all the strength and prestige conferred by the conscious\npossession of Divine authority. He seeks not to advance his own\ninterests or impose his own theories, but to interpret the mind of\nGod to man and persuade to submission and obedience. The power that\nmakes for righteousness has its root in the Divine will.\n\n+II. He designates the sacred character of those he salutes.+--\"To\nthe saints which are at Ephesus, and to the faithful in Christ Jesus\"\n(ver. 1). The Ephesian saints were made so by their faith in Christ\nJesus. They were not saints because Paul called them so. Sanctity is\nnot the result of human volition, nor can it be created by a college\nof cardinals. \"Many saints have been canonised who ought to have been\ncannonaded.\" Sanctity is the gift of God and is bestowed on those who\nbelieve in Christ Jesus and maintain their allegiance by continued\nfaith in Him. They are holy so long as they are faithful. The saints\nof God! \"Think,\" says Farrar, \"of the long line of heroes of faith in\nthe olden times: of the patriarchs--Enoch the blameless, Noah the\nfaithful, Abraham the friend of God; of the sweet and meditative\nIsaac, the afflicted and wrestling Jacob; of Moses, the meekest of\nmen; of brave judges, glorious prophets, patriotic warriors, toiling\napostles; of the many martyrs who would rather die than lie; of the\nhermits who fled from the guilt and turmoil of life into the solitude\nof the wilderness; of the missionaries--St. Paul, Columban, Benedict,\nBoniface, Francis Xavier, Schwartz, Eliot, Henry Martyn, Coleridge,\nPatteson; of the reformers who cleared the world of lies, like\nSavonarola, Huss, Luther, Zwingli, Wesley, Whitefield; of wise\nrulers, like Alfred, Louis, Washington, and Garfield; of the writers\nof holy books, like Thomas-\u00e0-Kempis, Baxter, Bunyan, Samuel\nRutherford, Jeremy Taylor; of the slayers of monstrous abuses, like\nHoward and Wilberforce; of good bishops, like Hugo of Avalon,\nF\u00e9n\u00e9lon, and Berkeley; of good pastors, like Oberlin, Fletcher of\nMadeley, Adolphe Monod, and Felix Neff; of all true poets, whether\nsweet and holy, like George Herbert, Cowper, Keble, and Longfellow,\nor grand and mighty, like Dante and Milton. These are but few of the\nmany who have reflected the glory of their Master Christ, and who\nwalk with Him in white robes, for they are worthy.\"\n\n+III. He supplicates the bestowal of the highest blessings.+--\"Grace\nbe to you, and peace\" (ver. 3). Grace and peace have a Divine source.\n_Grace_ is the rich outflow of God's goodness, made available for man\nthrough the redeeming work of Christ. There is sometimes the thought\nthat grace implies God's passing by sin. But no, quite the contrary;\ngrace supposes sin to be so horribly bad a thing that God cannot\ntolerate it. Were it in the power of man, after being unrighteous and\nevil, to patch up his ways and mend himself so as to stand before\nGod, there would then be no need of grace. The very fact of the\nLord's being gracious shows sin to be so evil a thing that man, being\na sinner, is utterly ruined and hopeless, and nothing but free grace\ncan meet his case. This grace God is continually supplying. Grace,\nlike manna, will rot if kept overnight. \"Wind up thy soul,\" says\nGeorge Herbert, \"as thou dost thy watch at night.\" Leave no arrears\nfrom day to day. Give us this day's food; forgive us this day's sins.\n_Peace_ is first peace with God, with whom the soul was at enmity;\nthen peace of conscience, troubled on account of repeated sins, and\npeace with all men. All our best wishes for the welfare of others are\nincluded in the all-comprehensive blessings of grace and peace.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The will of God is the highest authority for\nChristian service._ 2. _The saintly character is the outgrowth of a\npractical faith._ 3. _Grace and peace describe the rich heritage of\nthe believer._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _Paul's Introduction to the Epistle._--The design of this\nepistle is more fully to instruct the Ephesians in the nature of that\nGospel they had received, to guard them against certain errors to\nwhich they were exposed from the influence and example of unbelieving\nJews and Gentiles, and to inculcate upon them the importance of a\nconversation becoming their faith and profession. It contains the\nsubstance of the Gospel.\n\n\n+I. Paul here calls himself an apostle of Jesus Christ.+--The word\n\"apostle\" signifies a messenger sent on some particular business.\nJesus Christ is called an Apostle because He was sent of God to\ninstruct and redeem mankind. Paul and others are called apostles\nbecause they were sent of Christ to teach the doctrines they had\nreceived from Him. To confirm this commission, as well as to give\ntheir ministry success, Christ, according to His promise, wrought\nwith them and established their words with signs following.\n\n1. _Paul was an apostle by the will of God._--He received not his\ncall or commission from man; nor was he, as Matthias was, chosen to\nhis apostleship by men; but he was called by Jesus Christ, who in\nperson appeared to him for this end that He might send him among the\nGentiles, and by God the Father, who revealed His Son in him, and\nchose him that he should know His will and be a witness of the truth\nunto all men.\n\n2. _He was called of God by revelation._--It was not a secret\nrevelation known only to himself, like the revelation on which\nenthusiasts and impostors ground their pretensions, but a revelation\nmade in the most open and public manner, attended with a voice from\nheaven and a light which outshone the sun at noonday, and exhibited\nin the midst of a number of people to whom he could appeal as\nwitnesses of the extraordinary scene. The great business of Paul and\nthe other apostles was to diffuse the knowledge of the Gospel and\nplant Churches in various parts of the world.\n\n+II. Paul directs this epistle to the saints and faithful.+--The\nphrases denote they had been called out of the world and separated\nfrom others that they might be a peculiar people unto God. The\nreligion we profess contains the highest motives to purity of heart\nand life. If, content with a verbal profession of and external\ncompliance with this religion, we regard iniquity in our hearts, we\nare guilty of the vilest prevarication, and our religion, instead of\nsaving us, will but plunge us the deeper into infamy and misery. That\nwhich is the visible ought to be the real character of Christians.\n\n+III. The apostle expresses his fervent desire that these Ephesians\nmay receive the glorious blessings offered in the\nGospel.+--1. _Grace._ Pardon is grace, for it is the remission of a\ndeserved punishment. Eternal life is grace, for it is a happiness of\nwhich we are utterly unworthy. The influences of the Divine Spirit\nare grace, for they are first granted without any good disposition on\nour part to invite them, they are continued even after repeated\noppositions, they prepare us for that world of glory for which we\nnever should qualify ourselves.\n\n2. _Peace._--By this we understand that peace of mind which arises\nfrom a persuasion of our interest in the favour of God. Our peace\nwith God is immediately connected with our faith in Christ. Our peace\nof mind is connected with our knowledge of the sincerity of our\nfaith. \"If our heart condemn us not, we have confidence toward God.\"\nThe way to enjoy peace is to increase in all holy dispositions and to\nabound in every good work. If the apostle wished grace and peace to\nChristians, surely they should feel some solicitude to enjoy\nthem.--_J. Lathrop, D.D._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-14.\n\n_Praise for the Work of the Trinity in the Gospel of Grace._\n\nThese verses are an outburst of descriptive eloquence that even the\nample resources of the Greek language seem too meagre to adequately\nexpress. The grandeur and variety of ideas, and the necessary\nvagueness of the phrases by which those ideas are conveyed in this\nparagraph, create a difficulty in putting the subject into a\npractical homiletic form. It may help us if we regard the passage as\nan outpouring of praise for the work of the Trinity in the Gospel of\ngrace, the part of each person in the Trinity being distinctly\nrecognised as contributing to the unity of the whole.\n\n+I. The Gospel of grace originated in the love of the\nFather.+--1. _He hath chosen us to holiness._ \"Blessed be the God and\nFather . . . who hath chosen us . . . that we should be holy and\nwithout blame before Him in love\" (vers. 3, 4). The love of God the\nFather gave Christ to the world, and in Him the human race is dowered\nwith \"all spiritual blessings in heavenly places.\" The blessings from\nheaven link us to heaven, and will by-and-by bring us to heaven,\nwhere those blessings will be enjoyed in unrestricted fulness. Before\ntime began, in the free play of His infinite love, God the Father,\nforeseeing the sin and misery that would come to pass, resolved to\nsave man, and to save him in His own way and for His own purpose. Man\nwas to be saved in Christ, and by believingly receiving Christ; and\nhis salvation was not to free him from moral obligation, but to plant\nin him principles of holiness by which he could live a blameless life\nbefore God. He chose for Himself that we might love Him and find our\nsatisfaction in the perpetual discovery of His great love to us. The\ntrue progression of the Christian life is a growth of the\never-widening knowledge of the love of God. Love is the essence and\nthe crown of holiness.\n\n2. _He hath ordained us to sonship._--\"Having predestinated us unto\nthe adoption of children by Christ Jesus Himself\" (ver. 5). The\nsonship is not by natural right of inheritance, but by adoption. It\nis an act of Divine grace, undeserved and unexpected. It is said\nthat, after the battle of Austerlitz, Napoleon adopted the children\nof the soldiers who had fallen. They were supported and educated by\nthe State, and, as belonging to the family of the emperor, were\nallowed to attach the name of Napoleon to their own. This was not the\nadoption of love, but as a recognition of service rendered by their\nfathers. None can adopt into the family of God but God Himself, and\nit is an act on His part of pure, unmerited love. He raises us to the\nhighest dignity, and endows us with unspeakable privileges, when He\nmakes us His children; and our lives should be in harmony with so\ndistinguished a relationship.\n\n3. _He hath accepted us in Christ._--\"Wherein He hath made us\naccepted in the Beloved\" (ver. 6). Christ, the beloved One, is the\nspecial object of the Father's love, and all who are united to Christ\nby faith become sharers in the love with which the Divine Father\nregards His Son. It is only in and through Christ that we are\nadmitted into the Divine family. God loves us in Christ, and the more\nso because we love Christ. We are accepted to a life of holiness and\na service of love. Christ is the pattern of our sonship and the means\nof our adoption. The love of God to the race finds an outlet through\nthe person and gracious intervention of His Son.\n\n+II. The Gospel of grace was wrought out by the sufferings of the\nSon.+--1. _In Him we have forgiveness of sins._ \"In whom we have\nredemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins\" (ver. 7). How\nlittle do we realise the greatness and blessedness of the pardon of\nsin! It may seem difficult to explain how the forgiveness of sins is\nconnected with the sufferings and death of Christ; but there is no\nfact in the New Testament writings more clearly revealed or more\nemphatically repeated than this. \"The death of Christ was an act of\nsubmission on behalf of mankind to the justice of the penalties of\nviolating the eternal law of righteousness--an act in which our own\nsubmission not only received a transcendent expression, but was\nreally and vitally included; it was an act which secured the\ndestruction of sin in all who, through faith, are restored to union\nwith Christ; it was an act in which there was a revelation of the\nrighteousness of God which must otherwise have been revealed in the\ninfliction of the penalty of sin on the human race. Instead of\ninflicting suffering God has elected to endure it, that those who\nrepent of sin may receive forgiveness, and may inherit eternal glory.\nIt was greater to endure suffering than to inflict it\" (_Dale_). The\nforgiveness is free, full, and complete.\n\n2. _In Him we have the revelation of the mystery of the Divine\nwill._--\"Wherein He hath abounded toward us in all wisdom and\nprudence; having made known to us the mystery of His will\" (vers. 8,\n9). The will of God is to advance the ultimate glorious destiny of\nthe whole creation. This sublime purpose was for ages an unrevealed\nmystery, unknown to the prophets, psalmists, and saints of earlier\ntimes. In the depths of the Divine counsels this purpose was to be\ncarried out by Christ, and it is revealed only through and in Him.\nThe believer in Christ discovers in Him, not only his own\nblessedness, but also the ultimate glory of all who are savingly\nunited to the great Redeemer. The abounding grace of God bestows\nwisdom to apprehend a larger knowledge of the ways and will of God,\nand prudence to practically apply that knowledge in the conduct of\nlife.\n\n3. _In Him we enjoy the unity and grandeur of the heavenly\ninheritance._--\"That in the dispensation of the fulness of times He\nmight gather together in one all things in Christ, . . . in whom also\nwe have obtained an inheritance, . . . that we should be to the\npraise of His glory\" (vers. 10-12). The fulness of times must refer\nto the Gospel age and the glorious ages to follow, in which the\naccomplishment of the Divine purpose will become more apparent. That\npurpose is to heal up the estrangement of man from God, and to\nrestore moral harmony to the universe, which has been disordered by\nthe introduction of sin. The great agent in the unifying and\nharmonising of all things is Christ, who is the centre and\ncircumference of all. The angels who never sinned, and the saints who\nare made such by redeeming mercy, will share together the inheritance\nof bliss provided by the suffering and triumphant Christ. \"One final\nglory will consist, not in the restoration of the solitary soul to\nsolitary communion with God, but in the fellowship of all the blessed\nwith the blessedness of the universe as well as with the blessedness\nof God.\"\n\n+III. The Gospel of grace is confirmed and realised by the operation\nof the Holy Spirit.+--1. _By Him we hear and understand the Word of\ntruth._ \"In whom ye also trusted, after that ye heard the word of\ntruth, the gospel of your salvation\" (ver. 13). The Gospel is\nemphatically the Word of truth; it is reliable history, not\nromance--a revelation of truths essential to salvation. It is the\nfunction of the Holy Spirit to illuminate the mind by the\ninstrumentality of the truth, to apply the Word to the conscience,\nand to regenerate the heart. He takes of the things of Christ and\nshows them unto us, and the vision leads on to a spiritual\ntransformation.\n\n2. _By Him we are sealed as an earnest of possessing the full\ninheritance of blessing._--\"Ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of\npromise, which is the earnest of our inheritance\" (vers. 13, 14). The\nwork of the Spirit broke down all class distinctions. The Jewish\nChristians discovered that the exclusive privileges of their race had\npassed away. All believers in Christ Jesus, whether Jew or Gentile,\nreceived the assurance of the Spirit that all the prerogatives and\nblessings of God's eternal kingdom were theirs. The seal of the\nSpirit is the Divine attestation to the believing soul of its\nadmission into the favour of God, and the guarantee of ultimately\nentering into the full possession and enjoyment of the heavenly\ninheritance.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel of grace is the harmonious work of the\nblessed Trinity._ 2. _The grace of the Gospel is realized by faith._\n3. _Praise for the gift of the Gospel should be continually offered\nto the Triune God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 3-6. _The Doctrine of Predestination._--Neither Calvinism nor\nArminianism has solved the problem presented in this chapter. Like\ndifficulties meet us in God's providential dealings--ay, in the\nworkings of His natural laws; for, as a brilliant author has said,\n\"Nature is a terrible Calvinist.\"--_Lange._\n\n\n_Election._--It is above logic and philosophy and even technical\ntheology, even as on many, and these, the most important subjects,\nthe heart is a better teacher than the head. In these matters I am so\nfearful that I dare not speak further--yea, almost none otherwise\nthan the text does, as it were, lead me by the hand.--_Ridley._\n\n\n_Mystery of election._--Those who are willing are always the elect;\nthose who will not are not elected. Many men are wrapped up in the\ndoctrines of election and predestination; but that is the height of\nimpertinence. They are truths belonging to God alone; and if you are\nperplexed by them, it is only because you trouble yourself about\nthings which do not concern you. You only need to know that God\nsustains you with all His might in the winning of your salvation if\nyou will only rightly use His help. Whoever doubts this is like a\ncrew of a boat working with all their might against the tide and yet\ngoing back hour after hour; then they notice that the tide turns,\nwhile at the same time the wind springs up and fills their sails. The\ncoxswain cries, \"Pull away, boys! wind and tide favour you!\" But they\nanswer, \"What can we do with the oars? don't the wind and tide take\naway our free agency?\"--_H. W. Beecher._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Spiritual Blessings._\n\n+I. They are accommodated to our spiritual wants and desires, they\ncome down from heaven, prepare us for heaven, and will be completed\nin our admission to heaven.+--The influences of the Spirit are\nheavenly gifts, the renovation of the heart by a Divine operation is\nwisdom from above, the renewed Christian is born from above and\nbecomes a spiritual man, the state of immortality Christ has\npurchased for believers is an inheritance reserved for them in\nheaven, in the resurrection they will be clothed with a house from\nheaven, with spiritual and heavenly bodies, and they will sit\ntogether in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.\n\n+II. The blessings granted to the Ephesians are tendered to us.+--He\noffers us the honours and felicities of adoption and the remission of\nall our sins through the atonement of His Son. He has proposed for\nour acceptance an inheritance incorruptible in the heavens. We have\nhappier advantages to become acquainted with the doctrines and\nprecepts of the Gospel than the primitive Christians could enjoy. If\nthey were bound to give thanks for their privileges, how criminal\nmust be ingratitude under ours! We must one day answer before God for\nall the spiritual blessings He has sent us.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 4-6. _The Nature, Source, and Purposes of Spiritual Blessings._\n\n+I. God chose and predestinated these Ephesian Christians before the\nfoundation of the world.+--We must not so conceive of God's election\nand the influence of His grace as to set aside our free agency and\nfinal accountableness; nor must we so explain away God's sovereignty\nand grace as to exalt man to a state of independence. Now, so far as\nthe grace of God in the salvation of sinners is absolute and\nunconditional, election or predestination is so, and no farther. If\nwe consider election as it respects the final bestowment of\nsalvation, it is plainly conditional. To imagine that God chooses\nsome to eternal life without regard to their faith and holiness is to\nsuppose that some are saved without these qualifications or saved\ncontrary to His purpose. God hath chosen us to salvation through\nsanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth.\n\n+II. Consider the spiritual qualifications to which the Ephesians\nwere chosen.+--\"To be holy and without blame before Him in love\"\n(ver. 4). Holiness consists in the conformity of the soul to the\nDivine nature and will and is opposed to all moral evil. Love is a\nmost essential part of the character of the saint. Charity out of a\npure heart is the end of the commandment. Without charity all our\npretensions to Gospel holiness are vain.\n\n+III. Consider the adoption to which believers are predestinated+\n(ver. 5).--Our sonship is not our native right, but the effect of\nGod's gracious adoption. 1. _It implies a state of freedom in\nopposition to bondage._ Believers are free as being delivered from\nthe bondage of sin, and as having near access to God and intimate\ncommunion with Him. Children are usually admitted to that familiar\nintercourse which is denied to servants. 2. _Adoption brings us under\nthe peculiar care of God's providence._ 3. _Includes a title to a\nglorious resurrection from the dead and to an eternal inheritance in\nthe heavens._ If believers are the children of God, then their temper\nmust be a childlike temper, a temper corresponding to their relation,\ncondition, and character.\n\n+IV. That all spiritual blessings are derived to us through Christ+\n(vers. 5, 6).\n\n+V. The reason of God's choosing believers in Christ and\npredestinating them to adoption is the good pleasure of His will+\n(ver. 5).--If we admit we are sinful, fallen creatures, unworthy of\nGod's favour and insufficient for our own redemption, then our\nsalvation must ultimately be resolved into God's good pleasure. There\nis no other source from which it can be derived. If death is our\ndesert, our deliverance must be by grace.\n\n+VI. The great purpose for which God has chosen and called us is the\npraise of the glory of His grace+ (ver. 6).--God has made this\ndisplay of His grace that unworthy creatures might apply to Him for\nsalvation. We are to praise the glory of God's grace by a cheerful\ncompliance with the precepts and thankful acceptance of the blessings\nof the Gospel, by a holy life, and by encouraging others to accept\nthat grace. Believers will, in a more perfect manner, show forth the\npraise of God's glorious grace in the future world.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 5, 6. _The Glory of Divine Grace_--\n\n  +I. Is the sublime outcome of the Divine will.+--\"According to His\n      will\" (ver. 5).\n\n +II. Is a signal display of joyous benevolence.+--\"According to the\n      good pleasure of His will\" (ver. 5).\n\n+III. Demands profound and grateful recognition.+--\"To the praise of\n      the glory of His grace\" (ver. 6).\n\n\nVer. 5. _The Adoption of Children by Jesus Christ._--Explain the\nnature of the privilege.\n\n+I. Its greatness.+--1. From the Being by whom it is conferred.\n2. From the price at which it was procured. 3. From the inheritance\nwhich it conveys. 4. From the manner in which it is bestowed. The new\nbirth.\n\n+II. Its benefits.+--1. The spirit of adoption. 2. Divine care and\nprotection. 3. Divine pity and compassion. 4. Overruling all trials\nfor spiritual good.\n\n+III. The evidences of its possession.+--1. The image of God. 2. The\nlove of God. 3. The love of the brethren.\n\n+IV. Its appropriate duties.+--The children of God ought--1. To walk\nworthy of their high vocation. 2. To be subject to their Father's\nwill both in doing and in suffering. 3. To be mindful of what they\nowe to their spiritual kindred. 4. To long for their heavenly\nhome.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 6. _The Adopting Love of God._\n\n+I. Our Lord Jesus Christ is the Beloved of the Father.+--From\neternity during the preparatory dispensation in the days of His\nflesh; now; for ever. An ineffable love.\n\n+II. The Father's love of believers is on account of the Lord Jesus\nChrist.+--He accepts them for the sake of Christ as united to Christ.\nAcceptance distinct from pardon.\n\n+III. The Father's acceptance of believers is an act of sovereign\ngrace.+--Irrespective of their merit. Neither the necessity of the\natonement nor the obligation of faith is inconsistent with acceptance\nby grace.\n\n+IV. The Father's acceptance of believers for the sake of Christ\npromotes His own glory.+--His glory is the end of all things. Implore\nall to seek acceptance with God through Christ.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVers. 7, 8. _Redemption through Christ._\n\n+I. The subjects of this redemption.+--Redemption, though offered\nwithout distinction to all who hear the Gospel, is actually bestowed\nonly on those who repent of their sins and believe on the Saviour.\n\n+II. The nature of this redemption.+--There is a twofold\nredemption--the redemption of the soul from the guilt of sin by\npardon, and the redemption of the body from the power of the grave by\nthe resurrection. The former of these is intended. But these two\nprivileges are connected. The remission of sin, which is a release\nfrom our obligation to punishment, is accompanied with a title to\neternal life.\n\n+III. The way and manner in which believers become partakers of this\nprivilege.+--Through the blood of Christ. The death of Christ is the\nground of our hope. Jesus Christ, through whose blood we obtain\nforgiveness, is the Beloved. This character of Christ shows the\nexcellence of His sacrifice and displays the grace of God in giving\nHim for us.\n\n+IV. Observe the foundation from which our redemption flows.+--\"The\nriches of His grace.\" Every blessing bestowed on sinners is by grace;\nbut the blessing of forgiveness is according to the riches, the\nexceeding, the unsearchable riches of grace.\n\n+V. In this dispensation of mercy God has abounded to us in all\nwisdom and prudence.+--The most glorious display of God's wisdom is\nin the work of our redemption. Here the perfections of God appear in\nthe brightest lustre and most beautiful harmony. In this dispensation\nthere is a door of hope opened to the most unworthy, believers have\nthe greatest possible security, and it holds forth the most awful\nterrors against sin and the most powerful motives to\nobedience.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 7. _Pardon an Act of Sovereign Grace._--This free and gracious\npleasure of God or purpose of His will to act towards sinners\naccording to His own abundant goodness is another thing that\ninfluences forgiveness. Pardon flows immediately from a sovereign act\nof free grace. This free purpose of God's will and grace for the\npardoning of sinners is that which is principally intended when we\nsay, \"There is forgiveness with Him\"; that is, He is pleased to\nforgive, and so to do is agreeable to His nature. Now the mystery of\nthis grace is deep; it is eternal, and therefore incomprehensible.\nFew there are whose hearts are raised to a contemplation of it. Men\nrest and content themselves in a general notion of mercy which will\nnot be advantageous to their souls. Freed they would be from\npunishment; but what it is to be forgiven they inquire not. So what\nthey know of it they come easily by, but will find in the issue it\nwill stand them in little stead. But these fountains of God's actings\nare revealed that they may be the fountains of our comforts.--_John\nOwen._\n\n\nVer. 8. _The Harmony of Christianity in its Personal Influence._\n\n+I. The wisdom and prudence of the Gospel are manifested by showing\nwith equal distinctness the Divine justice and mercy.+--Justice does\nnot arrest the hand of mercy; mercy does not restrain the hand of\njustice. They speak with a united voice, they command with a united\nauthority, they shine with a united glory. Neither excels. The one\ndoes not overbear the other. Their common splendour is like the\nneutral tint, the effulgent colourlessness of the undecomposed ray.\n\n+II. By exhibiting the incarnate Son as alike the object of love and\nadoration.+\n\n+III. By insisting most uniformly on Divine grace and human\nresponsibility.+\n\n+IV. By the proposal of the freest terms of acceptance and the\nenforcement of the most universal practice of obedience.+\n\n+V. By inspiring the most elevated joy in connection with the deepest\nself-abhorrence.+\n\n+VI. By displaying the different conduct pursued by the Deity towards\nsin and the sinner.+\n\n+VII. By combining the genuine humility of the Gospel with our\ndignity as creatures and our conscientiousness as saints.+\n\n+VIII. By causing all supernatural influence to operate through our\nrational powers and by intelligent means.+\n\n+IX. By resting our evidence of safety and spiritual welfare upon\npersonal virtues.+\n\n+X. By supplying the absence of enslaving fear with salutary caution.+\n\n+XI. The actual existence of our depraved nature and the work of\nsanctification in us pressing forward to its maturity tend to that\nregulated temperament of mind which we urge.+\n\n+XII. Certain views of personal conduct are so coupled in the Gospel\nwith the noblest views of grace that any improper warping of our\nminds is counteracted.+\n\n+XIII. While the distinctive blessings and honours of the Christian\nmight tend to elate him, he is affected by the most opposite motives.+\n\n+XIV. God abounds in this wisdom and prudence towards us by most\nstrongly abstracting us from the things of earth and yet giving us\nthe deepest interest in its relations and engagements.+--All the\ntruths of revelation are only parts of one system, but their effects\nupon the believing mind are common and interchangeable. There is no\nextraneous, no irreconcilable, no confusing element in Christianity.\nIt is of One; it is one. And if we be Christians, our experience will\nbe the counterpart of it. As it works out from apparent shocks and\ncollisions its perfect unity, so shall our experience be wrought in\nthe same way. In obeying from our hearts its form, whatever of its\ninfluence may seem to interfere with each other, they will all be\nfound to establish our heart; as the opposing currents often swell\nthe tide and more proudly waft the noble bark it carries, as the\ncounterbalancing forces of the firmament bear the star onward in its\nunquivering poise and undeviating revolution.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\nVers. 9-12. _The Mystery of the Gospel._\n\n+I. The sovereign grace of God in making known to us the mystery of\nHis will.+--1. _The Gospel is called the mystery of God's will, the\nmystery which from the beginning was hid in God, and the unsearchable\nriches of Christ._ Not that these phrases represent the Gospel as\nobscure and unintelligible, but that the Gospel scheme was\nundiscoverable by the efforts and researches of human reason and\ncould be made known to men only by the light of Divine revelation.\nThere are many things in the Gospel which are and will remain\nincomprehensible to human reason; but though we cannot fully\ncomprehend them, we may sufficiently understand them.\n\n2. _God has made known to us His will \"according to the good pleasure\nwhich He purposed in Himself.\"_--Though the reason of His\nadministration is not made known to us, yet all His purposes are\ndirected by consummate wisdom. He is Sovereign in the distribution of\nHis favours; His goodness to us is no wrong to the heathen.\n\n+II. The purpose of God in making known to us the mystery of His\nwill+ (ver. 10).--1. _The Gospel is called \"the dispensation of the\nfulness of times.\"_ It was introduced at the time exactly ordained in\nthe purpose, and expressly predicted in the Word of God, and in this\nsense may be called \"the dispensation of the fulness of times.\"\n\n2. _One end of this dispensation was that God \"might gather together\nin one all things in Christ\"_ (ver. 10).--To form one body in Christ,\nto collect one Church, one great kingdom under Him.\n\n3. _The Gospel is intended to unite in Christ all things both which\nare in heaven and which are in earth._--The Church of Christ consists\nof the whole family in heaven and earth. Here is a powerful argument\nfor Christian love and for Christian candour.\n\n+III. In Him we have obtained an inheritance that we should be to the\npraise of His glory who first trusted in Christ.+--The believing Jews\nwere the first who trusted in Christ. They, with the believing\nGentiles, were made heirs of God, not only to the privileges of His\nChurch on earth, but to an inheritance also in the heavens. As they\nhad first obtained an inheritance and first trusted in Christ, so\nthey should be first to the praise of God's glory.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 10. _Christ and Creation._--If the Divine purpose of salvation\nwas regulative for the creation of the world, then must salvation as\nwell as creation be grounded on the original Mediator. But that all\ncreation should be thus grounded in Him includes a twofold idea--that\nnot only were all things created by Him, but also for Him, who is to\nbring to completion both the saving purpose of God as also the whole\ndevelopment of the world which tends towards the realisation of the\npurpose of God. And because the world has not yet reached this goal,\nthen all things have progressively their existence in Him; and it\ncannot fail, because the goal of the world established in Him must be\nrealised. But how this goal of the world is conceived of, this verse\nshows, when it is mentioned as the final goal of the institution of\nGod's grace that all things may be gathered in Christ as in a centre.\nHe has been appointed to be this central point of the universe, as\nthe universe was created in Him; but here it is pointed out that He\nmust again become so, because a dislocation in the original\nconstitution of the world has taken place by sin, whose removal again\nthe dispensation of grace must have in view. The goal of the world is\nno longer regarded as the perfected kingdom of God, in which the\nabsolute, universal Lordship of God is realised, in contrast to the\nearthly, mediatorial Lordship of Christ, which the latter gives back\nto the Father, and that the exaltation of Christ is extended over\neverything which has a name both in this world and in the future. One\ncannot think of the goal of the world without Him in whom even\ncreation has its root.--_Weiss._\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _Christ the Inheritance of the Saints._--1. Christ the\nMediator is that person in whom believers have this heavenly\ninheritance, as they have all their other spiritual blessings leading\nto heaven in Him. Every believer hath already obtained this glorious\ninheritance, though not in complete personal possession. 2. As God is\nan absolute worker, sovereign Lord of all His actions, His will being\nHis only rule, so His will is always joined with and founded upon the\nlight of counsel and wisdom, and therefore He can will nothing but\nwhat is equitable and just. 3. It is no small privilege for any to be\ntrusters in Christ before others. It is a matter of their\ncommendation; it glorifies God in so far as their example and\nexperience may prove an encouraging motive to others. It carries\nseveral advantages; the sooner a man closes with Christ, the work\nwill be done more easily, he is the sooner freed from sin, the sooner\ncapacitated to do more service to God, and his concernments are the\nsooner out of hazard.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Gospel of your Salvation._\n\n+I. The import of the salvation proclaimed in the Gospel.+--It is\ndeliverance from all the evils that have been brought on us by the\nFall. 1. From ignorance, not of science, but of God. 2. From guilt,\nor the penalty which the law inflicts. 3. From the power of sin, of\nwhich we are slaves. 4. From the sorrows and calamities of life,\nwhich it does not remove, but alleviate and transform. 5. From the\npower and fear of death. 6. From everlasting perdition.\n\n+II. The persons to whom this view of the Gospel is specially\napplicable.+--1. To the unconverted. It teaches them what they are.\n2. To the awakened. It teaches them what they need. 3. To believers.\nIt awakens their gratitude, it reproves their lukewarmness, it\nstimulates their charity.\n\n+III. The reflections to which this view of the Gospel gives\nrise.+--How precious in our estimation should be--1. the Gospel,\n2. the Saviour, 3. the Saviour's work, 4. the Saviour's ordinances,\n5. the Saviour's servants and people, 6. the Saviour's second\ncoming.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Truth and Divinity of the Christian Religion._\n\n+I. It is reasonable to suppose that God should at some time or\nseason fully and clearly reveal unto men the truth concerning Himself\nand concerning them as He and they stand related to each other,\nconcerning His nature and will, and concerning our state and\nduty.+--Argued from 1. His goodness, 2. His wisdom, 3. His justice,\n4. His Divine majesty.\n\n+II. That no other revelation of that kind and importance has been\nmade, which can with good probability pretend to have thus proceeded\nfrom God, so as by Him to have been designed for a general,\nperpetual, complete instruction and obligation of\nmankind.+--1. _Paganism_ did not proceed from Divine revelation, but\nfrom human invention or diabolical suggestion. All the pagan\nreligions vanished, together with the countenance of secular\nauthority and power sustaining them. 2. _Mohammedanism_ an imposture.\n3. _Judaism_ was defective. (1) This revelation was not general--not\ndirected, nor intended to instruct and oblige mankind. (2) As this\nrevelation was particular, so was it also partial--as God did not by\nit speak His mind to all, so did He not therein speak out all His\nmind. (3) It was not designed for perpetual obligation and use.\n\n+Conclusion.+--No other religion, except Christianity, which has been\nor is in being, can reasonably pretend to have proceeded from God as\na universal, complete, and final declaration of His mind and will to\nmankind.--_Barrow._\n\n\nVers. 13, 14. _The Assurance of the Christian Inheritance._--By the\nfirst act of faith the whole tendencies of man's life are reversed.\nUntil then the present has been his world and the earth his place of\nrest; then, by the inspiration of the cross, a spiritual world draws\nupon his view, that everlasting region becomes his home, and life\nassumes the character of a pilgrimage. We need to have the deep\nassurance of the immortal kingdom in order to live an earnest life in\na world like this.\n\n+I. The nature of the assurance.+--The voices of promises in the\nChristian's soul--the longings, aspirations, hopes, rising from the\nSpirit of God within us--are more than promises; they are earnests,\n_i.e._ most certain assurances of the inheritance to come. This\ninheritance of spiritual life consists of three great elements--love,\npower, blessedness.\n\n+II. The necessity of the assurance.+--The inheritance is given, but\nnot reached. Between the gift and its attainment there lies a long\npath of conflict in which the old struggle between the flesh and the\nSpirit reveals itself in three forms: 1. Sense against the soul;\n2. The present against the future; 3. Steadfast work against the\nroving propensities of the heart.--_E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_The Holy Spirit and the Earnest of the Inheritance._\n\n+I. The character of the inheritance.+--The teaching of the passage\nis that heaven is likest the selectest moments of devotion that a\nChristian has on earth. Heaven is the perfecting of the life of the\nSpirit begun here, and the loftiest attainments of that life here are\nbut the beginnings and infantile movements of immature beings.\n\n+II. The grounds of certainty that we shall ultimately possess the\nfulness of the inheritance.+--The true ground of certainty lies in\nthis, that you have the Spirit in your heart, operating His own\nlikeness and moulding you, sealing you, after His own stamp and\nimage. 1. The very fact of such a relation between man and God is\nitself the great assurance of immortality and everlasting life.\n2. The characteristics that are produced by this Holy Spirit's\nindwelling, both in the perfectness and imperfection, are the great\nguarantee of the inheritance being ours. 3. The Holy Spirit in a\nman's heart makes him desire and believe in the\ninheritance.--_A. Maclaren._\n\n\n_The Faith of the Early Christians._\n\n+I. The object of their faith.+--The Word of truth and the Gospel of\nsalvation. It is the Word of truth. It contains all that truth which\nconcerns our present duty and our future glory. It comes attended\nwith demonstrations of its own Divinity. It is the Gospel of our\nsalvation. It discovers to us our ruined, helpless condition, the\nmercy of God to give us salvation, the way in which it is procured\nfor us, the terms on which we may become interested in it, the\nevidences by which our title to it must be ascertained, and the glory\nand happiness it comprehends.\n\n+II. The forwardness and yet the reasonableness of their\nfaith.+--They trusted in Christ after they heard the Word. They acted\nas honest and rational men: they did not trust before they heard it,\nnor refused to trust after they heard it. They did not take the\nGospel on the credit of other men without examination; nor did they\nreject it when they had an opportunity to examine it for themselves.\nTheir faith stood not in the wisdom of men, but in the power of God.\n\n+III. The happy consequence of their faith.+--They were \"sealed with\nthe Spirit of promise, which is the earnest of our inheritance.\" They\nbecame partakers of such a Divine influence as sanctified them to a\nmeetness for heaven, and thus evidenced their title to it.\n\n1. _The sealing of the Spirit._--Sealing literally signifies the\nimpression of the image or likeness of one thing upon another. A seal\nimpressed on wax leaves there its own image. Instruction is said to\nbe sealed when it is so impressed on the heart as to have an abiding\ninfluence. So, the sealing of believers is their receiving on their\nhearts the Divine image and character by the sanctifying power of the\nHoly Spirit. The Word of truth is here considered as the seal, the\nbelieving heart as the subject, the Holy Spirit as the agent or\nsealer, and the effect produced as a Divine likeness. By a like\nmetaphor Christians are represented as cast in the mould of the\nGospel. The same idea is conveyed by the metaphor of writing the Word\non the heart.\n\n2. _The earnest of the Spirit._--The Spirit, having sealed believers\nor sanctified them after God's image, becomes an earnest of their\ninheritance. The firstfruits were pledges of the ensuing harvest;\nearnest-money in a contract is a pledge of the fulfilment of it. So,\nthe graces and comforts of religion are to Christians the\nanticipations and foretastes of the happiness which awaits them in\nheaven. (1) The virtues of the Christian temper, which are the fruits\nof the Spirit, are to believers an earnest of their inheritance\nbecause they are in part a fulfilment of the promise which conveys\nthe inheritance. (2) They are an earnest as they are preparatives for\nit. (3) The sealing and sanctifying influence of the Spirit is\nespecially called an earnest of the inheritance because it is a part\nof the inheritance given beforehand. It is the earnest till the\nredemption of the purchased possession. When we actually possess the\ninheritance the earnest will be no longer needed.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _All the operations of the Spirit on the minds of men\nare of a holy nature and tendency._ 2. _We are strongly encouraged to\napply to God for the needful influences of His grace._ 3. _We can\nhave no conclusive evidence of a title to heaven without the\nexperience of a holy temper._ 4. _Christians are under indispensable\nobligations to universal holiness.--Lathrop._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.\n\n_Prayer for Higher Spiritual Knowledge_--\n\n+I. Thankfully acknowledges the grace already possessed+ (vers. 15,\n16).--The possession of some grace prompts the prayer for more. The\napostle recognises the faith of the Ephesians in the person and work\nof Christ and the love they displayed towards the saints. Knowing the\nsource of that grace and that the supply was unlimited, he thanks God\nand is encouraged to pray for its increase. How slow we are to see\nthe good in others and to thank God for any good found in ourselves!\nIngratitude dulls our sensibilities and chills the breath of prayer.\nIf we were more thankful, we should be more prayerful. The way to\nexcite gratitude is to interest ourselves in the highest welfare of\nothers.\n\n+II. Invokes the impartation of additional spiritual insight+ (vers.\n17, 18).--The apostle prays, not for temporal good or for prosperity\nin outward things, or even for the cessation of trouble or\npersecution, but for an accession of mental and spiritual blessings.\nHe prays for the opening of the eye of the mind that the vision of\nspiritual realities may be more clear and reliable, and that the soul\nmay be possessed with a fuller knowledge of Christ. The highest\nwisdom is gained by a more accurate conception of Him \"in whom are\nhid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\" Sin enters the heart\nthrough the avenue of the senses and passions, grace through a\nspiritually enlightened understanding. Pride, prejudice, and error\nare expelled from the mind not so much by the repression of evil\ntendencies as by the entrance and maintenance of superior moral\ntruths. The revelation of the Spirit in the Word will not suffice\nunless the light of the same Spirit shines through every faculty and\npower of the inquiring soul. \"Man's knowledge is not perfect within\nthe domain of creation, still less can he know the things of the\ninvisible world. Only by living in a sphere does he gather knowledge\nof what is found there: knowledge comes from experience of\noccurrences. Without a disposition of the heart the sense of the\nunderstanding is not enlarged and sharpened. Sensible, mental,\nspiritual knowledge refers to life spheres in which he who knows must\nmove. Only the believing, loving, longing one knows and grows in\nknowledge unto knowledge.\" We need, therefore, continually to pray\nfor the Spirit of wisdom--a keener spiritual insight.\n\n+III. Unveils the grandeur of the Divine inheritance in\nbelievers.+--\"That ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and\nwhat the riches of the glory of His inheritance in the saints\" (ver.\n18). The increase of spiritual knowledge is an ever-widening\nrevelation of the value and splendour of Divine blessings already\npossessed and in prospect of possession. Faith enjoys the inheritance\nnow, and hope anticipates an ampler revelation and richer experience\nof its unspeakable blessedness. The phrase \"the riches of the glory\nof His inheritance\" indicates how utterly inadequate human language\nis to describe its boundless spiritual wealth. It is an inheritance\nimplying union to Him who only hath immortality and is eternal. Rust\ncannot corrupt it, nor decay consume, nor death destroy. We have not\nonly an inheritance in Christ, but He has also an inheritance in us.\nHe finds more in us than we find ourselves, and we should never know\nit was there but for the revelation of Himself within us.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer and thanksgiving go together._ 2. _The soul\nneeds a daily revelation of truth._ 3. _The highest spiritual truths\nare made known to the soul that prays._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15-18. _Clearer Discernment in Divine Things desired._\n\n+I. The things for which the apostle commends the Ephesians.+--Their\nfaith in Jesus and love to the saints (ver. 15). 1. Faith is such a\nsensible, realising belief of the Gospel in its general truth and in\nits particular doctrines and precepts as gives it a practical\ninfluence on the heart and life; it looks up to God through Christ;\nit is made perfect by works. 2. Faith is accompanied with love.\nViewing and applying the examples and doctrines of the Gospel, it\npurifies the soul unto unfeigned love of the brethren. The Gospel\nrequires us to love all men, sinners as well as saints, enemies as\nwell as friends. If we love God for His moral perfections, we shall\nlove the saints as far as they appear to have these Divine qualities\nwrought into their temper. Our love is not to be confined to a party,\nto those who live in the same city and worship in the same sanctuary\nbut embraces all.\n\n+II. Paul expresses his great thankfulness to God for the success of\nthe Gospel.+--\"I cease not to give thanks\" (ver. 16). He rejoiced in\nthe honour which redounded to the crucified Jesus. He rejoiced to\nthink how many were rescued from the power of Satan, and in the\nconsequences which might ensue to others. If the prevalence of\nreligion is matter of thankfulness, we should spare no pains to give\nit success.\n\n+III. He prays for the future success of the Gospel+ (ver. 16).--The\nbest Christians have need to make continual improvement. Paul was no\nless constant in his prayers than in his labours for the spiritual\ninterest of mankind. He knew that the success of all his labours\ndepended on God's blessing; he therefore added to them his fervent\nprayers. When ministers and people strive together in their prayers,\nthere is reason to hope for God's blessing on both.\n\n+IV. He prayed for spiritual enlightenment+ (vers. 17, 18).--That\nthey may seek wisdom from God to understand the revelation He has\ngiven, and such an illumination of mind as to discern the nature and\nexcellence of the things contained in this revelation. Christians\nmust not content themselves with their present knowledge but aspire\nto all riches of the full assurance of understanding.\n\n+V. He prayed for power to appreciate Christian privileges+ (ver.\n18).--To know the hope of the Divine calling, the possibility and\nassurance of attaining the heavenly kingdom. To know what a rich and\nglorious inheritance God has prepared for and promised to the saints.\nThough we cannot comprehend its dimensions nor compute its value, yet\nwhen we consider the grace of the Being who conveys it, the riches of\nthe price which bought it, and the Divine preparation by which the\nheirs are formed to enjoy it, we must conceive it to be unspeakably\nglorious.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_The Apprehension of Spiritual Blessings._\n\n+I. Further spiritual blessings are to be apprehended by the saints,\ntherefore their condition is a relative one.+--The Ephesians had\nalready received spiritual blessings (vers. 11-15). How much more is\nhere. The possessed bears some proportion to what is to be received.\nWithout this relative view the estimate is vague and erroneous. The\nfurther gifts consist specially in the clearer sight and more certain\nand enlarged experience of what they already saw and possessed.\n\"Him,\" \"His calling,\" \"His inheritance,\" \"His mighty power\"--these\nwere to be theirs in a degree of exceeding greatness and glory.\n\n+II. Unless saints apprehend blessings now attainable, they live\nbelow their privilege.+--\"If thou knewest the gift of God, thou\nwouldst have asked of Him\" (1 John iv. 10). Without some knowledge\nthere is neither faith nor desire. With these unveilings the heart is\ndeeply moved with the sense of obligation to possess, it is attracted\nand filled with desire and animation. Otherwise, with an ignorant\nsatisfaction, the condition must remain relatively lean and\nimpoverished.\n\n+III. The spiritual apprehension of these blessings is the gift of\nGod.+--This is needed because of their Divine nature. As we cannot\nproperly see what the sun has called into life and beauty without his\nlight, so these blessings are truly seen only in the light of the Sun\nof Righteousness. Through the Redeemer the Spirit is given. He gives\nthe Spirit to enlighten both the object and the eye, to \"testify,\" to\n\"show,\" to \"glorify,\" to reveal, \"that we might know the things that\nare freely given to us of God.\" Thus, these blessings are seen, not\ndistantly and dimly, but in their nearness and unveiled glory, whilst\nHe creates in the heart corresponding sympathy, desire, and\nassurance. Nothing can compensate for this gift--no mere\nintelligence, no reflection upon past experience, no mere help from\nothers.\n\n+IV. This gift is bestowed in answer to prayer.+--This particular\nbestowment comes under the promise of the Spirit to believing prayer.\nThis is a gift. Gifts are asked for, not made ours in any other way.\nThis gift is awaiting and challenging prayer, importunate prayer.\nThat an ever-deepening desire for these spiritual gifts may be ours,\nlet us often ask--What truths are given to me, which, if the eyes of\nmy understanding were enlightened, would not exert the most positive\ninfluence over me, lifting me into the clearer light of God's\nrelations, thus empowering me to live above the standard of natural\nstrength, and so to fulfil His present designs? Think of the\nalternative.--_J. Holmes._\n\n\nVers. 15, 16. _True Religion self-revealing_--\n\n  +I. In its moral results.+--\"Faith and love\" (ver. 15).\n\n +II. Is evident to others.+--\"I heard of your faith\" (ver. 15).\n\n+III. Is the occasion of constant thanksgiving.+--\"Cease not to give\n      thanks for you\" (ver. 16).\n\n +IV. Calls forth a spirit of prayer.+--\"Making mention of you in my\n      prayers\" (ver. 16).\n\n\nVers. 17, 18. _Spiritual Enlightenment._--1. The wisdom which\nChristians are to seek is not that carnal wisdom which is enmity to\nGod, nor natural wisdom or knowledge of the hidden mysteries of\nnature, nor the wisdom of Divine mysteries, which is only a gift and\nfloweth from a common influence of the Spirit, but that whereof the\nSpirit of God by His special operation and influence is author and\nworker, and is more than a gift, even the grace of wisdom, which is\nnot acquired by our own industry, but cometh from above. 2. It is not\nsufficient for attaining this grace of wisdom that the truths be\nplainly revealed by the Spirit in Scripture. There must be the\nremoval of natural darkness from our understandings, that we may be\nenabled to take up that which is revealed, as in beholding colours by\nthe outward sense there must be not only an outward light to make the\nobject conspicuous, but also the faculty of seeing in the eye. A\nblind man cannot see at noonday, nor the sharpest-sighted at\nmidnight. 3. Though those excellent things which are not yet\npossessed, but only hoped for, are known in part, yet so excellent\nare they in themselves, and remote from our knowledge, and so much\nare we taken up with trifles and childish toys, that even believers\nwho have their thoughts most exercised about them are in a great part\nignorant of them. 4. As the things hoped for and really to be enjoyed\nin the other life are of the nature of an inheritance not purchased\nby us but freely bestowed upon us, so they are properly Christ's\ninheritance, who has proper right to it as the natural Son of God and\nby virtue of His own purchase; but the right we have is communicated\nto us through Him, in whom we have received the adoption of children\nand are made heirs and co-heirs with Christ. 5. It is a glorious\ninheritance, there being nothing there but what is glorious. The\nsight shall be glorious, for we shall see God as we are seen, the\nplace glorious, the company glorious, our souls and bodies shall be\nglorious, and our exercise glorious, giving glory to God for ever and\never.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-23.\n\n_The Church Complete in Christ._\n\n+I. The Church is the creation of Divine power+ (ver. 19).--The\nChurch does not consist in massive architecture or ornate\ndecorations, nor in ecclesiastical organisations and councils. It is\nnot the offspring of the most elaborately constructed creed. It is\nnot confined within the limits of the most expansive ecclesiastical\nepithet. It is a Divine, spiritual creation. It consists of souls\nredeemed by the sacrifice of Jesus, clinging to Him for pardon,\npeace, and righteousness, and created in Him, by \"the working of the\nmighty power\" of the Divine Spirit, for good works, and therefore\ncontinually striving to disseminate the good they have themselves\nreceived. The apostolic idea of the Church was coloured by the\nleading characteristic of the man. To St. Peter it was the Church as\ninfluenced by law--the confessing Church; to St. Paul it was the\nChurch influenced by the freedom of faith--the witnessing Church; to\nSt. John it was the Church as filled with the ideality of\nfaith--working and keeping joyful holiday, the adorned Bride (Rev.\nxix. 7, 8). The Church is a constant revelation of \"the exceeding\ngreatness of His power\" who first originated it and sustains its\never-widening growth.\n\n+II. The Divine power that creates the Church installs Christ as the\nsupreme authority.+--1. _This power raised Christ from the deepest\nhumiliation to the highest dignity_ (vers. 20, 21). It raised Him\nfrom the cross to the throne, from the domain of the dead to the life\nand everlasting glory of the heavenly world. \"God ascended with\njubilation, and the Lord with the sound of the trumpet. Certainly, if\nwhen He brought His only begotten Son into the world He said, 'Let\nall the angels worship Him' (Heb. i. 6); much more, now that He\nascends on high and hath led captivity captive, hath He given Him a\nname above all names, that at the name of Jesus all knees should bow.\nAnd if the holy angels did so carol at His birth in the very entrance\ninto that estate of humiliation and infirmity, with what triumph they\nreceive Him now returning from the perfect achievement of man's\nredemption! And if, when His type had vanquished Goliath and carried\nthe head into Jerusalem, the damsels came forth to meet him with\ndances and timbrels, how shall we think those angelic spirits triumph\nin meeting the great Conqueror of hell and death! How did they sing,\n'Lift up your heads, O ye gates; and be ye lift up, ye everlasting\ndoors; and the King of glory shall come in'!\" (Ps. xxiv. 7-10).\n\n2. _This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority_ (ver.\n22). On the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in\nall outward marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew\nmother as He lay in His lowly cradle, and the Augustus C\u00e6sar, whose\nedict brought Mary to Bethlehem, as he reposed in his imperial\npalace. And throughout the lifetime of the two there was but little\nto lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known and\nhonoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce\nheard of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The\nthrone of the C\u00e6sars, the throne of mere human authority and power,\nhas perished. But the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying,\nself-sacrificing love, will never perish; its sway over the\nconsciences and hearts of men, as the world grows older, becomes ever\nwider and stronger (_Hanna_). The rule of Christ will last till all\nenemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and\njoyous experience.\n\n     Transcriber's Note: Please search the Internet for videos\n     that explore the properties of elemental mercury\n     (\"quicksilver\") rather than performing the experiments\n     yourself.\n\n+III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the Divine fulness\nof Christ+ (ver. 23).--The Church to-day seems broken into fragments,\ntorn by divisions and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a\nglorious unity. Take a mass of quicksilver, let it fall on the floor,\nand it will split into a vast number of distinct globules; gather\nthem up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce into one\nbody as before. Thus, God's people below are sometimes divided into\nvarious parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the\nsame mystic body. But when taken up from the world and put together\nin heaven they will constitute one glorious, undivided Church for\never and ever. The completeness of the Church is not the aggregation\nof all the virtues of the saints blended in beauteous and harmonious\nunity, but the glory of the Divine fulness that pervades every part.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Church as a Divine creation is a revelation of\nChrist._ 2. _The Church is composed of those who are created anew in\nChrist Jesus._ 3. _Christ is everything to His Church._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 19-23. _The Dignity and Dominion of Christ._\n\n+I. The first step in Christ's exaltation was the resurrection from\nthe dead.+--This miracle is an incontestable evidence of the truth of\nthe Christian religion, and an evidence of the great doctrine of the\nresurrection of the body and a future life, and of the efficacy of\nChrist's blood to expiate the guilt of our sins. If we believe that\nJesus died and rose again, we must believe that the same mighty power\nwhich wrought in Him can also work in us to raise us from the dead.\n\n+II. The next step is His ascension to heaven and session at God's\nright hand+ (ver. 20). The right hand is the place of honour and\nrespect and denotes superior dignity. Christ sitting at God's right\nhand signifies He has ceased from His labours and sufferings and\nentered into a state of repose and joy, and imports authority and\npower. He is exalted not only as Ruler, but also as Intercessor.\n\n+III. The exaltation of Christ is supreme.+--His kingdom extends to\nall creatures in heaven, earth, and under the earth. The government\nof the natural world is in His hands, as well as the government of\nthe Church. He has dominion over devils. His last and most glorious\nact is the judgment of the world.\n\n+IV. The end for which Christ exercises His high and extensive\ndominion+ (vers. 22, 23).--All His government is managed in reference\nto the good of the Church. See how criminal and dangerous it is to\noppose the interest of the Church. If the Church is Christ's body,\nlet us honour it, study to preserve unity in it, labour for its\nedification and comfort. Let us honour and reverence our Head, and\nnever presumptuously lift up ourselves against the Church.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Power of God in Conversion._--1. The power God\nexercises in converting and carrying on the work of grace to glory is\nnot only great, but exceeds all power that might impede that work, so\nthat there is no power in the devil, the world, sin, or death which\nthis power does not overcome nor any impotency in believers which\nthis greatness of power will not help and strengthen. There is no\nmore pregnant proof of God's omnipotent power than in converting\nsinners from sin to holiness. 2. This mighty power of God extends to\nall times. It works in the first conversion of believers, preserves\nthem in a state of grace, actuating their graces that they may grow,\nand continues till their graces are perfected. 3. The experimental\nknowledge of God's way of working is to be carefully sought after, to\nmake us thankful for His gracious working in us, in order that our\nknowledge of God may be increased and our faith and hope in Him\nstrengthened.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 20. _The Future Life._\n\n+I. Our virtuous friends at death go to Jesus Christ.+--Here is one\ngreat fact in regard to futurity. The good on leaving us here meet\ntheir Saviour, and this view alone assures us of their unutterable\nhappiness. The joys of centuries will be crowded into that meeting.\nThis is not fiction. It is truth founded on the essential laws of the\nmind. Their intercourse with Jesus Christ will be of the most\naffectionate and ennobling character. They are brought to a new\ncomprehension of His mind and to a new reception of His Spirit. They\nwill become joint workers--active, efficient ministers--in\naccomplishing His great work of spreading virtue and happiness. They\nretain the deepest interest in this world. They love human nature as\nnever before, and human friends are prized as above all price.\n\n+II. Our virtuous friends go not to Jesus only, but to the great and\nblessed society which is gathered round Him.+--The redeemed from all\nregions of earth. They meet peculiar congratulations from friends who\nhad gone before them to that better world, and especially from all\nwho had in any way given aids to their virtue. If we have ever known\nthe enjoyments of friendship, of entire confidence, of co-operation\nin honourable and successful labours with those we love, we can\ncomprehend something of the felicity of a world where souls, refined\nfrom selfishness, open as the day, thirsting for new truth and\nvirtue, endowed with new power of enjoying the beauty and grandeur of\nthe universe, allied in the noblest works of benevolence, and\ncontinually discovering new mysteries of the Creator's power and\ngoodness, communicate themselves to one another with the freedom of\nperfect love. They enter on a state of action, life, and effort.\nStill more, they go to God. They see Him with a new light in all His\nworks. They see Him face to face, by immediate communion. These new\nrelations of the ascended spirit to the universal Father, how near,\nhow tender, how strong, how exalting! Heaven is a glorious reality.\nIts attraction should be felt perpetually. They who are safely\ngathered there say to us, \"Come and join us in our everlasting\nblessedness!\"--_Channing._\n\n\nVers. 21, 22. _The Supremacy of Jesus_--\n\n  +I. Acquired by His resurrection power.+\n\n +II. Places Him above the highest created intelligences and\n      potentates.+\n\n+III. Is expressed in a name that surpasses in dignity and greatness\n      that which has ever been or can be celebrated in earth or\n      heaven.+\n\n +IV. Gives Him absolute control over all worlds.+--\"And hath put all\n      things under His feet\" (ver. 22).\n\n\nVers. 22, 23. _Christ the Head of the Church._\n\n  +I. The Church depends on Him for life, guidance, activity, and\n      development.+--\"Which is His body\" (ver. 23).\n\n +II. He governs all things in the interest of His Church.+--\"And\n      gave Him to be the Head over all things to the Church\" (ver.\n      22).\n\n+III. The Church is a revelation of the greatness and glory of\n      Christ.+--\"The fulness of Him that filleth all in all\" (ver.\n      23).\n\n\nVer. 22. _The Headship of Christ._\n\n  +I. The extent of His headship.+--1. Over all worlds. 2. Over the\n      whole human race. 3. Over the Church.\n\n +II. The subserviency of its administration to the interests of His\n      Church.+--1. For the edification of His Church. 2. For its\n      defence. 3. For its increase.\n\n+III. Its grounds.+--1. His merit. 2. His qualifications. Whom do ye\n      serve?--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Headship of Christ._--The verse consists of two statements:--\n\n+I. That Christ is Head over all things.+--The Father hath given\nChrist to be Head over all things. 1. Originally involved in a\ncovenant or agreement between the Father and the Son. 2. Now a matter\nof history. 3. The path of Christ to the mediatorial throne capable\nof being traced. 4. He there laid deep the foundations. 5. The whole\nuniverse is under His sway--heaven, earth, hell, all worlds, all\nelements. 6. He is qualified for such dominion--Divine attributes,\nangelic spirits, believers, the devil and wicked men, the Holy Spirit.\n\n+II. That Christ is Head over all things, to the Church.+--Christ\nsits upon the throne in the same character in which He trod the earth\nand hung upon the cross. 1. It is as Mediator. 2. The same ends which\nHe contemplated. It was for the Church He clothed Himself in human\nform. 3. He gives a peculiar character to the entire Divine\ngovernment. He Christianises it. 4. He employs all His attributes,\nresources, creatures.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Redemption is a wide and extended plan, not so easily\naccomplished, not so limited._ 2. _All creatures and dominions should\ndo Christ homage._ 3. _The Church is secure from real danger._\n4. _Believers may well glory in Christ as their Head.--Stewart._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +And you did He quicken.+--The italics in A.V. and R.V. show\na broken construction of St. Paul's meaning, the verb being supplied\nfrom ver. 5, where the broken thread is taken up again. +Dead in\ntrespasses and sins.+--\"Dead through,\" etc. (R.V.). \"What did they\ndie of?\" it might be asked; and the apostle answers, \"Of trespasses\nand sins\" (so _Alford_). \"The word for trespasses is one of a\nmournfully numerous group of words\" (_Trench_). It has sometimes the\nmilder meaning of \"faults,\" \"mitigating circumstances\" being\nconsidered. It makes special reference \"to the subjective passivity\nand suffering of him who misses or falls short of the enjoined\ncommand\" (_Cremer_). Meyer denies any \"_real_ distinction between the\nwords for 'trespasses' and 'sins.' They denote the same thing as a\n'fall' and a 'missing.'\"\n\nVer. 2. \"Shadows,\" says Meyer, \"before the light which arises in ver.\n4.\" +Wherein in time past ye walked.+--It is a sombre picture--men\nwalking about \"to find themselves dishonourable graves\" in the\n\"valley of the shadow of death,\" knowing not whither they go because\nthe darkness--the gloom of spiritual death--\"hath blinded their eyes\"\n(1 John ii. 11). +According to the course of this world.+--Well\ntranslated by our modern \"zeit-geist,\" or \"spirit of the age.\" +The\nprince of the power of the air.+--However contemptuous St. Paul may\nbe of the creations of the Gnostic fancy, he never dreams of saying\nthere is nothing existent unless it can be seen and felt. The dark\nrealm and its ruler are not myths to the apostle.\n\nVer. 3. +Among whom also we all had our conversation.+--St. Paul does\nnot glorify himself at the expense of his readers' past life. True\nhis had not been a life swayed by animal delights (Acts xxvi. 5), but\nit had been marked by implacable enmity to the Son of God. +And were\nby nature children of wrath.+--\"For the wrath of God is revealed from\nheaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, . . .\nwhether it be Jewish or Gentile.\"\n\nVer. 4. +But God, who is rich in mercy.+--\"Unto all that call upon\nHim\" (Rom. x. 12). \"He hath shut all up into disobedience, that He\nmight have mercy upon all\" (Rom. xi. 32), +For His great love\nwherewith He loved us.+--\"A combination only used when the notion of\nthe verb is to be extended\" (_Winer_).\n\nVer. 5. +Even when we were dead in sins.+--The phrase which closes\nver. 3, difficult as it is, must receive an interpretation in harmony\nwith this statement. It is the very marrow of the Gospel that, \"while\nwe were yet sinners, Christ died for the ungodly.\" That the wrath of\nGod is real we know, but \"God is love.\" +By grace ye are\nsaved.+--\"Grace\" is as truly characteristic of St. Paul's writing as\nhis autograph signature; it, too, is the token (\"sign-manual\") in\nevery epistle (2 Thess. iii. 17, 18).\n\nVer. 6. +In heavenly places.+--As in ch. i. 3.\n\nVer. 7. +The exceeding riches of His grace.+--The wealth of mercy\nmentioned in ver. 4 more fully stated. Grace is condescension to an\ninferior or kindness to the undeserving. +In kindness toward\nus.+--\"Kindness\" here represents in the original \"a beautiful word,\nas it is the expression of a beautiful grace\" (_Trench_). It is that\n\"fruit of the Spirit\" (Gal. v. 22) called \"gentleness\" in the A.V.,\nbut which would be better named \"benignity.\"\n\nVer. 8. +For by grace are ye saved, through faith.+--\"'By grace'\nexpresses the motive, 'through faith' the subjective means\"\n(_Winer_). The emphasis is on \"by grace.\"\n\nVer. 9. +Not of works, lest any man should boast.+--The more\nbeautiful the works achieved the more natural it is for a man to feel\nhis works to be meritorious. One can understand that a man jealous\nfor the honour of God, like Calvin, should speak of the excellencies\nof those out of Christ as \"splendid vices,\" even though we prefer\nanother explanation of them.\n\nVer. 10. +For we are His workmanship.+--We get our word \"poem\" from\nthat which we here translate workmanship, lit., \"something made.\"\nEvery Christian belongs to those of whom God says, \"This people have\nI formed for Myself, that they should show forth My praise\" (Isa.\nxliii. 21). The archetype of all our goodness lies in the Divine\nthought, as the slow uprising of a stately cathedral is the\nembodiment of the conception of the architect's brain.\n\nVer. 11. +Wherefore remember, that ye, etc.+--All that follows in the\nverse serves to define the \"ye,\" the verb following in ver. 12 after\nthe repeated \"ye\"--\"ye were without Christ.\" \"Called\nUncircumcision . . . called the Circumcision.\" As much rancour lies\nin these words as generally is carried by terms of arrogance on the\npart of those only nominally religious, and the scornful epithets\nflung in return. They can be matched by our modern use of \"The world\"\nand \"Other-worldliness.\"\n\nVer. 12. +Without Christ.+--Not so much \"not in possession of Christ\"\nas \"outside Christ,\" or, as in R.V., \"separate from Christ.\" The true\ncommentary is John xv. 4, 5. The branch \"severed from\" the trunk by\nknife or storm bears no fruit thenceforth; disciples \"apart from\nChrist can do nothing.\" +Being aliens from the commonwealth.+--What\nmemories might start at this word! Did St. Paul think of the\nseparation from the Jewish synagogue in Ephesus or of the fanatical\noutburst created in Jerusalem when \"the Jews from Asia\" saw Trophimus\nthe Ephesian in company with the apostle? To such Jews the Gentiles\nwere nothing but _massa perditionis._ Like vers. 2, 3, this is a\nreminder of the dark past, the misery of which did not consist in a\nJewish taunt so much as in a life of heathenish vices. +Having no\nhope, and without God in the world.+--To be godless--not sure that\nthere is any God--this is to take the \"master-light of all our\nseeing\" from us; to live regardless of Him, or wishing there were no\nGod--\"that way madness lies.\" To be \"God-forsaken\" with a house full\nof idols--that is the irony of idolatrous heathenism.\n\nVer. 13. +Ye who sometimes were far off are made nigh.+--The Gentile\nmay sing his hymn in Jewish words: \"Doubtless Thou art our Father,\nthough Abraham be ignorant of us, and Israel acknowledge us not:\nThou, O Lord, art our Father, our Redeemer; from everlasting is Thy\nname.\" _\"Lo-ammi\"_ (\"not My people\") is no longer their name (Hos.\nii. 23; Rom. ix. 24, 25).\n\nVer. 14. +For He is our peace, who hath made both one.+--\"Not the\nPeacemaker merely, for indeed at His own great cost He procured\npeace, and is Himself the bond of union of both\" (Jew and Gentile).\n+The middle wall of partition.+--M. Ganneau, the discoverer of the\nMoabite Stone, found built into the wall of a ruined Moslem convent a\nstone, believed to be from the Temple, with this inscription: \"No\nstranger-born (non-Jew) may enter within the circuit of the barrier\nand enclosure that is around the sacred court; and whoever shall be\ncaught [intruding] there, upon himself be the blame of the death that\nwill consequently follow.\" Josephus describes this fence and its\nwarning inscription (_Wars of the Jews,_ Bk. V., ch. v., \u00a7 2). It is\nrather the spirit of exclusiveness which Christ threw down. The stone\nwall Titus threw down and made all a common field, afterwards.\n\nVer. 15. +Having abolished in His flesh the enmity.+--The enmity of\nJew and Gentile; the abolition of their enmity to God is mentioned\nlater. \"First be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and offer\nthy gift,\" for reconciliation to God. +The law of commandments\ncontained in ordinances.+--The slave whose duty it was to take the\nchild to his teacher might say, \"Don't do that.\" St. Paul does not\nregard the function of the law as more than that (Gal. iii. 23-25).\n+One new man.+--Trench, in an admirable section, distinguishes\nbetween the new in time (_recens_) and the new in quality (_novum_).\nThe word here means new in quality, \"as set over against that which\nhas seen service, the outworn.\" \"It is not an amalgam of Jew and\nGentile\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 16. +That He might reconcile both unto God.+--The word\n\"reconcile\" implies \"a _restitution_ to a state from which they had\nfallen, or which was potentially theirs, or for which they were\ndestined\" (_Lightfoot,_ Col. i. 20). +The cross having slain the\nenmity.+--Gentile authority and Jewish malevolence met in the\nsentence to that painful death; and both Gentile and Jew,\nacknowledging the Son of God, shall cease their strife, and love as\nbrethren.\n\nVer. 17. +Came and preached peace.+--By means of His messengers, as\nSt. Paul tells the Galatians that Christ was \"evidently set forth\ncrucified amongst them.\" +To you afar off, and to them that were\nnigh.+--Isaiah's phrase (Isa. lvii. 19). The Christ uplifted \"out of\nthe earth\" draws _all men_ to Him.\n\nVer. 18. +For through Him we both have access.+--St. Paul's way of\nproclaiming His Master's saying, \"I am the door; by Me if _any man_\nenter in he shall be saved\"; including the other equally precious, \"I\nam the way: no man cometh unto the Father but by Me.\" \"Access\" here\nmeans \"introduction.\"\n\nVer. 19. +So then.+--Inference of vers. 14-18. +Strangers and\nforeigners.+--By the latter word is meant those who temporarily abide\nin a place, but are without the privileges of it. There is a verb \"to\nparish\" in certain parts of England which shows how a word can\nentirely reverse its original meaning. It not only means \"to adjoin,\"\nbut \"to belong to.\" +Fellow-citizens with the saints.+--Enjoying all\ncivic liberties, and able to say, \"This is my own, my native land,\"\nwhen he finds \"Mount Zion and the city of the living God\" (cf. Heb.\nxi. 13, 14). +And of the household of God.+--The association grows\nmore intimate. The words might possibly mean \"domestics of God\" (Rev.\nxxii. 3, 4); but when we think of the \"Father's house\" we must\ninterpret \"of the family circle of God.\"\n\nVer. 20. +Being built upon the foundation.+--From the future of a\nhousehold St. Paul passes easily to the structure, based on \"the\nChurch's One Foundation.\" +The chief corner-stone.+--\"The historic\nChrist, to whom all Christian belief and life have reference, as\nnecessarily conditions through Himself the existence and endurance of\neach Christian commonwealth, as the existence and steadiness of a\nbuilding are dependent on the indispensable cornerstone, which\nupholds the whole structure\" (_Meyer_). The difference between our\npassage and 1 Cor. iii. 11 is one of figure only.\n\nVer. 21. +All the building.+--R.V. \"each several building.\"\n+Fitly-framed-together.+--One word in the original, found again only\nin ch. iv. 16 in this form.\n\nVer. 22. +For a habitation.+--The word so translated is found again\nonly in Rev. xviii. 2, a sharp contrast to this verse.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.\n\n_The Children of Wrath_--\n\n+I. Are spiritually dead.+--\"Who were dead in trespasses and sins\"\n(ver. 1). The only life of which they are conscious, and in which all\ntheir activities are displayed, is a life of sin. They have no\nconception of a higher life. They are capable of a higher life and\nknow it not. The spiritual, the higher form of life, is entombed and\nburied under a mass of sin. It is inert, dead, in process of\ncorruption. Dante refers to such as, \"These wretched ones who never\nwere alive; I ne'er forsooth could have believed it true, that death\nhad slain such myriads of mankind.\" Sin first benumbs, then\nparalyses, and finally slays our spiritual sensibilities. The soul\ndead to God shall not be insensible to the reality of the Divine\nwrath.\n\n+II. Are under the spell of an unseen evil power+ (ver. 2).--\"The\nchildren of disobedience\" are those who are withholding their\nallegiance from the Lord Jesus Christ, all those who are unconverted;\nnot mere gross sinners and open profligates, but such persons as are\nstrangers to the spiritual life, although they may have many\nexcellencies of nature and disposition. The apostle plainly asserts\nthat before he was brought to the knowledge of Christ he was under\nthe influence of the \"prince of the power of the air.\" This is a\nstartling statement. It is more startling still if we consider what\nsort of man Paul was before his conversion--how excellent, how\nearnest, how devoted to the external duties of a religious life. But\nstartling as it is, it is the apostle who makes it of himself; and\nthe inference is unavoidable, that all that mass of persons who are\nout of Christ and who are not partakers of His resurrection life, who\nhave given their hearts to the world and not to the Saviour, are just\nthe captives of Satan, and, without knowing it, are doing his lusts\nand accomplishing his will. The disease is not less deadly because it\neats out the life without inflicting pain. The pestilence is not the\nless awful because it comes without giving notice of its presence,\nborne on the balmy breezes of the bright, cloudless, summer eve. The\nvampire does not do its work the less effectually because it fans its\nvictim with its perfumed wings into an unconscious slumber whilst it\ndrains away his life-blood and leaves him a corpse. And Satan is not\nthe less real or the less destructive because he works his fatal work\nupon our souls without our even being conscious of his approach.\n\n+III. Are prompted to sin by the instincts of a depraved nature+\n(ver. 3).--There is the twofold province of a man's being, by the\nlower of which he is allied to the brute creation, and by the higher\nto the angels, both being under the dominion of sin. There is the\ncorrupt body of flesh, and in a higher sense there is the fleshly\nmind. Every unregenerate person lives more or less in one or the\nother of these provinces--either in the sphere of fleshly lusts or in\nthe sphere of the fleshly mind. Either he lives simply an animal\nlife, and is in consequence a fleshly man, whose life consists only\nin fulfilling the desires of his lower nature; or he lives in the\nhigher province of the mind, but it is nevertheless the mind in\ndarkness, in uncertainty, in doubt--mind and heart alike alienated\nfrom God through the unbelief which is in them. It would not do to\nargue from this that our passions are our sins. Sin is not in\nappetite but lies in the insubordination of appetite. There is need\nof a curbing and governing will, and our discipline consists in\nsubjugating the lower to the higher. A due balance between the two\nregions must be preserved, and it is when passion becomes master and\nthe lower invades the province of the higher, when the subordinate\nbecomes insubordinate, that appetite and passion become sin. The\nflesh is the great rival of the Spirit, for it asserts that dominion\nover a man which the Holy Spirit alone ought to occupy, and these two\nare constantly opposed to each other. The depravity within, working\nin the thoughts of the mind and the passions of the flesh, prompts to\na course of disobedience and sin.\n\n+IV. Are exposed to condemnation.+--\"And were by nature the children\nof wrath, even as others.\" \"The wrath of God is revealed from heaven\nagainst all unrighteousness and ungodliness of men.\" The apostle\nshows that even the Jews, who boasted of their birth from Abraham,\nwere by natural birth equally children of wrath, as the Gentiles whom\nthe Jews despised on account of their birth from idolaters. The\nphrase \"children of wrath\" is a Hebraism, meaning we are objects of\nGod's wrath from childhood, in our natural state, as being born in\nsin, which God hates. Wrath abides on all who disobey the Gospel in\nfaith and practice.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sin when it is finished bringeth forth death._\n2. _Your adversary the devil walketh about seeking whom he may\ndevour._ 3. _Because there is wrath, beware!_\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _A State of Sin a State of Death._\n\n+I. There are some respects in which the death of the soul does not\nresemble the death of the body.+--1. It does not involve the\nextinction of faculties and affections. The dead body moves not, nor\nfeels, nor acts. The dead soul still thinks and feels and wills.\n2. It does not exempt from responsibility. The dead soul is commanded\nto repent and believe and obey. 3. It is not incapable of restoration\non earth. The spiritually dead may become spiritually alive here.\n\n+II. There are some respects in which the death of the soul does\nresemble the death of the body.+--1. In its cause. Sin. 2. In its\nextent. All men without exception. 3. In its consequences. The dead\nare utterly insensible, they fulfil none of the functions or duties\nof the living, they can be reanimated only by Divine power. Address:\n(1) Those who are spiritually dead. (2) Those who have reason to\nbelieve that they are spiritually alive.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVers. 1-3. _The State of Men without the Gospel._\n\n+I. The moral state of wicked men resembles a state of natural death+\n(ver. 1).--From the metaphor used in the text we are not to conclude\nthat all sinners are alike, for though all are in a sense dead some\nare under a greater death than others. The metaphor is usually\napplied to sinners of the most vicious character. When we speak of\nhuman nature as totally depraved we mean only a total destitution of\nreal holiness, not the highest possible degree of vitiosity. In order\nto denominate one a sinner it is not necessary that he should be as\nbad as possible. Though natural death does not, yet spiritual death\ndoes, admit of degrees. Evil men wax worse and worse, add sin to sin,\nand treasure up wrath against the day of wrath.\n\n1. _Sinners may be said to be dead in respect of their\nstupidity._--We read of some who are past feeling, whose conscience\nis seared, who have eyes which see not, ears which hear not, and a\nheart which is waxed gross. Their hearts are like a mortified limb\nwhich feels no pain under the scarifying knife.\n\n2. _They are represented as wanting spiritual senses._--They savour\nthe things of the world, not the things which are of God. They indeed\nlove the effects of God's goodness to them, but they delight not in\nHis character as a holy, just, and faithful Being. They may feel a\nnatural pleasure in certain mechanical emotions of the passions\nexcited by objects presented to the sight, or by sounds which strike\nthe ear, as the artificial tears from the image of the Virgin Mary\nwill melt down an assembly of Catholics, or as a concert of musical\ninstruments will rapture the hearers; but they relish not the Word\nand ordinances of God, considered as means of holiness and as\ndesigned to convince them of their sins and bring them to repentance.\nIf the Word dispensed comes home to their conscience, they are\noffended. They lose the music of the pleasant song and talk against\nit by the walls and in the doors of their houses.\n\n3. _They resemble the dead in the want of vital warmth._--If they\nhave any fervour in religion, it is about the forms and externals of\nit, or about some favourite sentiments which they find adapted to\nsoothe their consciences, not about those things in which the power\nof religion consists. As death deforms the body, so sin destroys the\nbeauty of the soul. It darkens the reason, perverts the judgment, and\ndisorders the affections. To be carnally-minded is death.\n\n4. _They may be denominated dead as they are worthy of and exposed to\npunishment._--This is called death because it is the separation of\nthe soul from God and heaven, from happiness and hope, from all good\nand unto all evil. This is a death which awaits the impenitent.\n\n+II. There is in ungodly men a general disposition to follow the way\nof the world.+--\"According to the course of this world\" (ver. 2).\nThey, like dead carcases, swam down the stream of common custom, and\nwere carried away with the general current of vice and corruption.\n\n1. _Most men have a general idea that religion is of some\nimportance._--Few can wholly suppress it, or reason themselves out of\nit. But what religion is and wherein it consists they seldom inquire,\nand never examine with any degree of attention. Such opinions as\nflatter their ungodly lusts, or pacify their guilty consciences, they\nwarmly embrace. That scheme of doctrine which will make converts\nwithout exacting reformation, and give assurance without putting them\nto much trouble, they highly approve. The path which will lead men to\nheaven with little self-denial they readily pursue.\n\n2. _There are many who blindly follow the examples of the\nworld._--Whether such a practice is right or wrong they take little\npains to examine. It is enough that they see many who adopt it. They\nwould rather incur the censure of their own minds and the displeasure\nof their God than stand distinguished by a singularity in virtue.\n\n+III. They are under the influence of evil spirits.+--\"According to\nthe prince of the power of the air, the spirit that worketh in the\nchildren of disobedience\" (ver. 2). The number of evil spirits is\nvery great, but there is one distinguished from the rest, and called\nthe devil, Satan, the prince of the power of the air. The manner in\nwhich he works in the minds of men is by gaining access to their\npassions and lusts, which he inflames by suggesting evil thoughts or\nby painting images on the fancy. It was by the avarice of Judas and\nAnanias that he entered into them and filled their hearts.\n\n+IV. The wickedness of men consists not merely in their evil works,\nbut in the corrupt dispositions which prompt them to those\nworks.+--\"The lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh\nand of the mind\" (ver. 3). The lusts of the flesh are the vices of\nsensuality, as intemperance, uncleanness, debauchery, and excess of\nriot. The desires of the fleshly mind are the lusts which arise from\nthe corruption of the mind in its connection with flesh, as pride,\nmalice, envy, wrath, hatred, ambition, and covetousness. Though no\nman indulges every vice, yet every unregenerate man obeys the carnal\nmind.\n\n+V. The indulgence of carnal lusts and passions brings on men the\nwrath of God.+--\"The children of wrath\" (ver. 3). A mind sunk in\ncarnality is incapable of rational felicity; it is miserable in\nitself and from its own corruption and perverseness. If man subjects\nhis nature to the lusts and passions, the order of nature is\ninverted, the law of creation violated, and the Creator dishonoured\nand offended.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _If you have not abandoned yourselves to the grossest\nforms of vice, it is because you have been placed under superior\nlight and enjoyed a happier education than the heathen._ 2. _Though\nyou may not have indulged all the lusts and vices which others have\ndone, yet if you are children of disobedience you can no more be\nsaved without renovation of heart and repentance of sin than they\ncan.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 3. _The State of Nature._\n\nI. If by human nature you mean nature as seen in this man or that,\nthen +unquestionably nature is evil+--individual nature, personal\nnature, is contrary to God's will. But if by human nature you mean\nnature as God made it, as it has been once in one man of our species\nand only one, and as by God's grace it shall be again; if you mean\nnature as it is according to the idea of the Creator as shown in\nJesus Christ, as it is in the eyes of God imputed not as it is but as\nit shall be,--then that nature is a noble thing, a thing Divine; for\nthe life of the Redeemer Himself, what was it but the one true\nexhibition of our human nature?\n\n+II. Paul says that by nature we fulfil the desires of the flesh and\nof the mind.+--I pray you to observe that it is the second and not in\nthe first sense that he here speaks of nature. The desires of the\nflesh mean the appetites; those of the mind mean the passions: to\nfulfil the desires of the flesh is to live the life of the swine; to\nfulfil those of the mind is to live the life of the devil. But this\nis the partiality, not the entireness, of human nature. Where is the\nconscience, where the Spirit with which we have communion with God?\nTo live to the flesh and to the mind is not to live to the nature\nthat God gave us. We can no more call that living to our nature than\nwe can say that a watch going by the mere force of the main-spring\nwithout a regulator is fulfilling the nature of a watch. To fulfil\nthe desires of the flesh and of the mind is no more to fulfil the\nnature which God has given us than the soil fulfils its nature when\nit brings forth thorns and briars. St. Paul, in the epistle to the\nRomans, draws a distinction between himself and his false nature: \"It\nis not I, but sin that dwelleth in me.\" Sin is the dominion of a\nfalse nature; it is a usurped dominion.\n\nIII. The next thing that Paul tells us is +that by nature we are\nchildren of wrath.+--In the state of nature we are in the way to bear\nthe wrath of God. Yet God is not wrath; He is infinite love. The\neternal severity of His nature does not feel our passions, He remains\nfor ever calm; yet such is our nature that we must think of Him as\nwrath as well as love: to us love itself becomes wrath when we are in\na state of sin. God must hate sin and be forever sin's enemy. If we\nsin He must be against us: in sinning we identify ourselves with\nevil, therefore we must endure the consuming fire. So long as there\nis evil, so long will there be penalty. Sin, live according to the\nlusts of the flesh, and you will become the children of God's wrath;\nlive after the Spirit, the higher nature that is in you, and then the\nlaw hath hold on you no longer.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\n_The Worst of Evils._\n\n+I. By nature all are the children of wrath.+--1. Because we want\nthat original righteousness in which we were created, and which is\nrequired to the purity and perfection of our nature. 2. Because all\nthe parts and powers of our soul and body are depraved with original\ncorruption. Our understandings are so bad that they understand not\ntheir own badness, our wills which are the queens of our souls become\nthe vassals of sin, our memories like jet good only to draw straws\nand treasure up trifles of no moment, our consciences through errors\nin our understandings sometimes accusing us when we are innocent,\nsometimes acquitting us when we are guilty, our affections all\ndisaffected and out of order. 3. Some may expect that as the master\nof the feast said to him that wanted the wedding garment, \"Friend,\nhow camest thou in hither?\" so I should demand of original sin, \"Foe,\nand worst of foes, how camest thou in hither, and by what invisible\nleaks didst thou soak into our souls?\" But I desire, if it be\npossible, to present you this day a rose without prickles, to declare\nplain and positive doctrine without thorny disputes or curious\nspeculations, lest, as Abraham's ram was caught in the thicket, so I\nembroil you and myself in difficult controversies. Let us not busy\nour brains so much to know how original sin came into us, as labour\nin our heart to know how it should be got out of us. But the worst\nis, most men are sick of the _rickets_ in the soul, their heads swell\nto a vast proportion, puffed up with the emptiness of airy\nspeculations, whilst their legs and lower parts do waste and consume,\ntheir practical parts decay, none more lazy to serve God in their\nlives and conversations.\n\n     Transcriber's Note: Baptism is not a sacrament that confers\n     salvation. It is an ordinance that serves as a public\n     statement that salvation has already taken place. Parents\n     are to raise their children in the \"nurture and admonition\n     of the Lord\" (Eph. vi. 4).\n\n+II. Ye parents to children,+ see how, though against your wills, ye\nhave propagated this wrath-deserving on your children unto your\nchildren; you _are bound,_ both in honour and honesty, civility and\nChristianity, _to pluck them out of this pit._ 1. This you may do by\nembracing the speediest opportunity to fasten the sacrament of\nbaptism upon them. 2. Let them not want good prayers, which if\nsteeped in tears will grow the better, good precepts, good\nprecedents, and show thy child in thyself what he should follow, in\nothers what he should shun and avoid. 3. In the low countries, where\ntheir houses lie buried in the ground, the laying of the foundation\nis counted as much as the rest of the foundation; so half our badness\nlies secret and unseen, consisting in original corruption, whereof\ntoo few take notice. Witches, they say, say the Lord's Prayer\nbackward; but concupiscence, this witch in our soul, says all the\ncommandments backward, and makes us cross in our practice what God\ncommands in His precepts. Thus every day we sin, and sorrow after our\nsin, and sin after our sorrow. The wind of God's Spirit bloweth us\none way, and the tide of our corruption hurrieth us another. These\nthings he that seeth not in himself is sottish, blind; he that seeth\nand confesseth not is damnably proud; he that confesseth and\nbewaileth not is desperately profane; he that bewaileth and fighteth\nnot against it is unprofitably pensive; but he that in some weak\nmanner doeth all these is a saint in reversion here, and shall be one\nin possession hereafter.--_T. Fuller._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 4-9.\n\n_Salvation an Act of Divine Grace._\n\n+I. Springing from the benevolence of God+ (vers. 4, 7).--A good old\nsaint once said, \"There is nothing that affects me more profoundly,\nor more quickly melts my heart, than to reflect on the goodness of\nGod. It is so vast, so deep, so amazing, so unlike and beyond the\nmost perfect human disposition, that my soul is overwhelmed.\" The\napostle seems to have been similarly affected as he contemplated the\nDivine beneficence, as the phrases he here employs indicate. He calls\nit \"the great love wherewith He loved us.\" God is \"rich in mercy\"--in\nirrepressible, unmerited compassion (ver. 4). Language is too poor to\nexpress all he sees and feels, and he takes refuge in the ambiguous\nyet suggestive expression, \"The exceeding riches of His grace in His\nkindness toward us through Jesus Christ\" (ver. 7)--hinting at the\nsublime benignity of the Divine nature longing to express itself\nthrough the noblest medium possible. By his rebellion and deliberate\nsin man had forfeited all claim to the Divine favour, and his\nrestoration to that favour, impossible of attainment by any efforts\nof his own, was an act of sheer Divine goodness. Its spontaneity\nbreaks in as a sweet surprise upon the sinning race. The most vicious\nand abandoned are included in its gracious provisions, and all men\nare taught that their salvation, if accomplished at all, must be as\nan act of free and undeserved grace.\n\n+II. Salvation has its life and fellowship in Christ+ (vers. 5,\n6).--God has given us as unquestioned a resurrection from the death\nof sin as the body of Christ had from the grave, and the same Divine\npower achieved both the one and the other. The spiritual life of both\nJew and Gentile has its origin in Christ, and the axe is thus laid to\nthe very root of spiritual pride and all glorying in ourselves. We\nare raised by His resurrection power to sit in heavenly places in\nChrist Jesus. This we do already by our spiritual fellowship with\nHim, and by anticipation we share the blessedness which we shall more\nfully enjoy by our union with Him in the heavenly world. The\nspiritual resurrection of the soul must precede and will be the\ninviolable guarantee of the future glorious resurrection of the body.\nAs the great Head of the Church is already in the heavenlies, so\nultimately all the members that make up the body shall be gathered\nthere. We are already seated there _in_ Him as our Head, which is the\nground of our hope; and we shall be hereafter seated there _by_ Him,\nas the conferring cause, when hope shall be swallowed up in fruition.\nOur life and fellowship in Christ are susceptible of indefinite\nexpansion and enjoyment in the progressive evolutions of the future.\n\n+III. Faith, the instrument of salvation, is the gift of Divine\ngrace+ (ver. 8).--The question whether faith or salvation is the gift\nof God is decided by the majority of critics in favour of the former.\nThis agrees with the obvious argument of the apostle, that salvation\nis so absolutely an act of Divine grace that the power to realise it\nindividually is also a free gift. Grace, without any respect to human\nworthiness, confers the glorious gift. Faith, with an empty hand and\nwithout any pretence to personal desert, receives the heavenly\nblessing. Without the grace or power to believe, no man ever did or\ncan believe; but with that power the act of faith is a man's own. God\nnever believes for any man, no more than He repents for him. The\npenitent, through this grace enabling him, believes for himself; nor\ndoes he believe necessarily or impulsively when he has that power.\nThe power to believe may be present long before it is exercised, else\nwhy the solemn warnings which we meet everywhere in the Word of God\nand threatenings against those who do not believe? This is the true\nstate of the case: God gives the power, man uses the power thus\ngiven, and brings glory to God. Without the power no man can believe;\nwith it any man may.\n\n+IV. Salvation, being unmeritorious, excludes all human\nboasting.+--\"Not of works, lest any man should boast\" (ver. 9).\nNeither salvation nor the faith that brings it is the result of human\ningenuity and effort. The grand moral results brought about by saving\nfaith are so extraordinary, and so high above the plane of the\nloftiest and most gigantic human endeavours, that if man could\nproduce them by his own unaided powers he would have cause indeed for\nthe most extravagant boasting, and he would be in danger of\ngenerating a pride which in its uncontrollable excess would work for\nhis irretrievable ruin. The least shadow of a ground for pride is\nhowever excluded. God protects both Himself and man by the freeness\nand simplicity of the offer of salvation. It is the complaint of\nintellectual pride that the reception of the Gospel is impossible\nbecause it demands a humiliation and self-emptying that degrade and\nshackle intellectual freedom. Such an objection is a libel on the\nGospel. It humbles in order to exalt; it binds its claims upon us to\nlift us to a higher freedom. So completely is salvation a Divine act,\nthat the man who refuses to accept it on God's terms must perish.\nThere is no other way.\n\n+V. The glory of Divine grace in salvation will be increasingly\ndemonstrated in the future.+--\"That in the ages to come He might show\nthe exceeding riches of his grace\" (ver. 7). The most valuable\nfunction of history is not that which deals with the rise and fall of\nempires, the brutal ravages of war, the biographies of kings,\nstatesmen, and philosophers, but that which treats upon the social\nand moral condition of the people and the influence of religion in\nthe development of individual and national character. The true\nhistory of the world is the history of God's dealings with it. The\nages of the past have been a revelation of God; the ages to come will\nbe an enlargement of that revelation, and its most conspicuous\nfeature will be an ever-new development of the riches of Divine grace\nin the redemption of the human race. In all successive ages of the\nworld we are authorised to declare that sinners shall be saved only\nas they repent of their sins and believe on the Lord Jesus Christ.\n\n+Lessons.+--_Salvation_--1. _Is a revelation of what God does for\nman._ 2. _Is absolutely necessary for each._ 3. _Should be earnestly\nsought by all._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 4-7. _The Great Change effected in Man by the Gospel._\n\n+I. The happy change which the Gospel made in the Ephesians.+--A\nchange not peculiar to them, but common to all sincere believers.\n\n1. _God hath quickened us._--Made us alive with Christ. (1) True\nChristians are alive; they have spiritual senses and appetites.\n(2) Spiritual motions. (3) Spiritual pleasures. (4) Spiritual powers.\nThe spiritual life comes through Christ and is conformed to Him.\n\n2. _God hath raised us up together with Christ_ (ver. 6).--His\nresurrection is a proof and pattern of that of believers.\n\n3. _God hath made us to sit together in heavenly places in\nChrist._--His entrance into heaven is a proof of the final salvation\nof believers. He sits there for them, to take care of their\ninterests, and in due time will bring them to sit where He is.\n\n+II. Contemplate the mercy of God in this great change.+--\"God, who\nis rich in mercy\" (ver. 4). The mercies of God are rich in extent, in\nnumber, in respect of constancy, in variety, in value. \"The great\nlove wherewith He loved us.\" He first loved us. His love shines\nbrighter when we consider what a being He is. He is infinitely above\nus. He is self-sufficient. The Gospel gives us the most exalted\nconceptions of God's character.\n\n+III. The general purpose of God's particular mercy to the Ephesians+\n(ver. 7).--God's mercy in reclaiming one transgressor may operate to\nthe salvation of thousands in ages to come. The Gospel dispensation\nwas intended to serve some useful purposes among other intelligences.\nNot only God's gracious dispensation to fallen men, but also His\nrighteous severity toward irreclaimable offenders, is designed for\nextensive beneficial influence.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 4, 5. _The State of Grace._\n\n1. _Salvation originates in the love of God._\n\n2. _That it consists in emancipation from evil._--\"Quickened us\ntogether with Christ;\" that is, gave life. The love and mercy of God\nwere shown in this--not that He saved from penalty, but from sin.\nWhat we want is life, more life, spiritual life, to know in all\nthings the truth of God, and to speak it, to feel in all things the\nwill of God and do it.\n\n3. _The next word to explain is grace._--It stands opposed to nature\nand to law. Whenever nature means the dominion of our lower\nappetites, then nature stands opposed to grace. Grace stands opposed\nto law. All that law can do is to manifest sin, just as the dam\nthrown across the river shows its strength; law can arrest sometimes\nthe commission of sin, but never the inward principle. Therefore, God\nhas provided another remedy, \"Sin shall not have dominion over you,\"\nbecause ye are under grace.\n\n4. _Paul states salvation here as a fact._--\"By grace ye are saved.\"\nThere are two systems. The one begins with nature, the other with\ngrace: the one treats all Christians as if they were the children of\nthe devil, and tells them that they may perhaps become the children\nof God; the other declares that the incarnation of Christ is a fact,\na universal fact, proclaiming that all the world are called to be the\nchildren of the Most High. Let us believe in grace instead of\nbeginning with nature.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVers. 4-6. _The Believer exalted together with Jesus Christ._\n\n+I. The believer is assured he is raised up with Christ by the proofs\nwhich assure him of the exaltation of Christ.+--These proofs,\nirresistible as they are, do not produce impressions so lively as\nthey ought. 1. From the abuse of a distinction between mathematical\nevidence and moral evidence. 2. Because the mind is under the\ninfluence of a prejudice, unworthy of a real philosopher, that moral\nevidence changes its nature according to the nature of the things to\nwhich it is applied. 3. Because the necessary discrimination has not\nbeen employed in the selection of those proofs on which some have\npretended to establish it. 4. Because we are too deeply affected by\nour inability to resolve certain questions which the enemies of\nreligion are accustomed to put on some circumstances relative to that\nevent. 5. Because we suffer ourselves to be intimidated more than we\nought by the comparison instituted between them and certain popular\nrumours which have no better support than the caprice of the persons\nwho propagate them. 6. Because they are not sufficiently known.\n\n+II. The means supplied to satisfy the believer that he is fulfilling\nthe conditions under which he may promise himself that he shall\nbecome a partaker of Christ's exaltation.+--Though this knowledge be\ndifficult, it is by no means impossible of attainment. He employs two\nmethods principally to arrive at it: 1. He studies his own heart;\n2. He shrinks not from the inspection of the eyes of others.\n\n+III. The believer is raised up with Christ by the foretastes which\nhe enjoys on earth of his participation in the exaltation of\nChrist.+--This experience is realised by the believer. 1. When\nshutting the door of his closet and excluding the world from his\nheart, he is admitted to communion and fellowship with Deity in\nretirement and silence. 2. When Providence calls him to undergo some\nsevere trial. 3. When he has been enabled to make some noble and\ngenerous sacrifice. 4. When celebrating the sacred mysteries of\nredeeming love. 5. Finally, in the hour of conflict with the king of\nterrors.--_Saurin._\n\n\nVer. 5. _Justification by Faith._\n\nI. We hold +that we are justified by faith,+ that is, by believing,\nand that unless we are justified we cannot be saved. Of all men\nwhoever believed this, those who gave us the Church catechism\nbelieved it most strongly. Believing really what they taught, they\nbelieved that children were justified. For if a child is not\njustified in being a member of Christ, a child of God, and an\ninheritor of the kingdom of heaven, what is he justified in being?\nThey knew that the children could only keep in this just, right, and\nproper state by trusting in God and looking up to Him daily in faith\nand love and obedience.\n\nII. +These old reformers were practical men and took the practical\nway.+--They knew the old proverb, \"A man need not be a builder to\nlive in a house.\" At least they acted on it; and instead of trying to\nmake the children understand what faith was made up of, they tried to\nmake them live in faith itself. Instead of puzzling and fretting the\nchildren's minds with any of the controversies then going on between\nPapists and Protestants, or afterwards between Calvinists and\nArminians, they taught the children simply about God, who He was, and\nwhat He had done for them and all mankind, that so they might learn\nto love Him, look up to Him in faith, and trust utterly to Him, and\nso remain justified and right, saved and safe for ever. By doing\nwhich they showed that they knew more about faith and about God than\nif they had written books on books of doctrinal arguments.\n\nIII. +The Church catechism, where it is really and honestly taught,\ngives the children an honest, frank, sober, English temper of mind\nwhich no other training I have seen gives.+--I warn you frankly that\nif you expect to make the average of English children good children\non any other ground than the Church catechism takes, you will fail.\nIf it be not enough for your children to know all the articles of the\nApostles' Creed, and on the strength thereof to trust God utterly and\nso be justified and saved, then they must go elsewhere, for I have\nnothing more to offer them, and trust in God that I never shall\nhave.--_C. Kingsley._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Salvation by Faith._\n\n+I. What faith it is through which we are saved.+--1. It is not\nbarely the faith of a heathen. 2. Nor is it the faith of a devil,\nthough this goes much further than that of a heathen. 3. It is not\nbarely that the apostles had while Christ was yet upon earth. 4. In\ngeneral it is faith in Christ: Christ and God through Christ are the\nproper objects of it. 5. It is not only an assent to the whole Gospel\nof Christ, but also a full reliance on the blood of Christ, a trust\nin the merits of His life, death, and resurrection, a recumbency upon\nHim as our atonement and our life, as given for us and living in us,\nand in consequence hereof, a closing with Him and cleaving to Him as\nour wisdom, righteousness, sanctification, and redemption, or, in one\nword, our salvation.\n\n+II. What is the salvation which is through faith?+--1. It is a\npresent salvation. 2. A salvation from sin. 3. From the guilt of all\npast sin. 4. From fear. 5. From the power of sin. 6. A salvation\noften expressed in the word \"justification,\" which taken in the\nlargest sense implies a deliverance from guilt and punishment by the\natonement of Christ actually applied to the soul of the sinner now\nbelieving on Him, and a deliverance from the power of sin, through\nChrist formed in his heart.\n\n+III. The importance of the doctrine.+--Never was the maintaining\nthis doctrine more seasonable than it is at this day. Nothing but\nthis can effectually prevent the increase of the Romish delusion\namong us. It is endless to attack one by one all the errors of that\nChurch. But salvation by faith strikes at the root, and all fall at\nonce where this is established.--_Wesley._\n\n\nVers. 8, 9. _Our Salvation is of Grace._\n\n+I. Consider how we are saved through faith.+--1. Without faith we\ncannot be saved. 2. All who have faith will be saved.\n\n+II. What place and influence works have in our salvation.+--1. In\nwhat sense our salvation is not of works. (1) We are not saved by\nworks considered as a fulfilment of the original law of nature.\n(2) We are not saved by virtue of any works done before faith in\nChrist, for none of these are properly good. 2. There is a sense in\nwhich good works are of absolute necessity to salvation. (1) They are\nnecessary as being radically included in that faith by which we are\nsaved. (2) A temper disposing us to good works is a necessary\nqualification for heaven. (3) Works are necessary as evidences of our\nfaith in Christ and of our title to heaven. (4) Good works\nessentially belong to religion. (5) Works are necessary to adorn our\nprofessions and honour our religion before men. (6) By them we are to\nbe judged in the great day of the Lord.\n\n+III. The necessity of works does not diminish the grace of God in\nour salvation nor afford us any pretence for boasting.+--1. Humility\nessentially belongs to the Christian temper. 2. The mighty\npreparation God has made for our recovery teaches that the human race\nis of great importance in the scale of rational beings and in the\nscheme of God's universal government. 3. It infinitely concerns us to\ncomply with the proposals of the Gospel. 4. Let no man flatter\nhimself that he is in a state of salvation as long as he lives in the\nneglect of good works. 5. Let us be careful that we mistake not the\nnature of good works.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 8. _True Justifying Faith is not of Ourselves._--It is through\ngrace that we believe in the grace of God. God's grace and love, the\nsource; faith, the instrument; both His gift. The origin of our\ncoming to Christ is of God. Justifying faith, not human assent, but a\npowerful, vivifying thing which immediately works a change in the man\nand makes him a new creature and leads him to an entirely new and\naltered mode of life and conduct. Hence justifying faith is a Divine\nwork.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 10.\n\n_The Christian Life a Divine Creation._\n\n+I. The true Christian a specimen of the Divine handiwork.+--\"We are\nHis workmanship.\" So far is man from being the author of his own\nsalvation, or from procuring salvation for the sake of any works of\nhis own, that not only was his first creation as a man the work of\nGod, but his new spiritual creation is wholly the result of Divine\npower. Man, in the marvellous mechanism of his body, and in his\nunique mental and spiritual endowments, is the noblest work of God.\nHe is the lord and high priest of nature and has such dominion over\nit as to be able to combine and utilise its forces. But the creation\nof the new spiritual man in Christ Jesus is a far grander work, and a\nmore perfect and exalted specimen of the Divine handiwork. It is a\nnearer approach to a more perfect image of the Divine character and\nperfections. As the best work of the most gifted genius is a\nreflection of his loftiest powers, so the new spiritual creation is a\nfuller revelation of the infinite resources of the Divine Worker.\n\n+II. The Christian life is eminently practical.+--\"Created in Christ\nJesus for good works\" (R.V.). The apostle never calls the works of\nthe law good works. We are not saved by, but created unto, good\nworks. Works do not justify, but the justified man works, and thus\ndemonstrates the reality of his new creation. \"I should have thought\nmowers very idle people,\" said John Newton, \"but they work while they\nwhet the scythe. Now devotedness to God, whether it mows or whets the\nscythe, still goes on with the work. A Christian should never plead\nspirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a shoe-cleaner, he\nshould be the best in the parish.\"\n\n+III. The opportunities and motives for Christian usefulness are\nDivinely provided.+--\"Which God hath before ordained that we should\nwalk in them.\" Every man has his daily work of body or mind appointed\nhim. There is not a moment without a duty. Each one has a vineyard;\nlet him see that he till it, and not say, \"No man hath hired us.\"\n\"The situation,\" says Carlyle, \"that has not its duty, its ideal, was\nnever yet occupied by man. Yes, here in this poor, miserable,\nhampered, despicable Actual wherein thou even now standest, here or\nnowhere is thy ideal. Work it out therefrom, and working, believe,\nlive, and be free.\" There is no romance in a minister's proposing and\nhoping to forward a great moral revolution on the earth, for the\nreligion he is appointed to preach was intended and is adapted to\nwork deeply and widely and to change the face of society.\nChristianity was not ushered into the world with such a stupendous\npreparation, it was not foreshown through so many ages by enraptured\nprophets, it was not proclaimed so joyfully through the songs of\nangels, it was not preached by such holy lips and sealed by such\nprecious blood, to be only a pageant, a form, a sound, a show. Oh no!\nIt has come from heaven, with heaven's life and power--come to make\nall things new, to make the wilderness glad, and the desert blossom\nas the rose, to break the stony heart, to set free the guilt-burdened\nand earth-bound spirit, and to present it faultless before God's\nglory with exceeding joy.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity is not a creed, but a life._ 2. _The\nChristian life has a manifest Divine origin._ 3. _The Christian life\nmust be practically developed in harmony with the Divine mind._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 10. _Interruptions in our Work, and the Way to deal with\nThem._--In proportion to the seriousness with which a Christian does\nhis work will be his sensitiveness to interruptions, and this\nsensitiveness is apt to disturb his peace. The remedy is a closer\nstudy of the mind that was in Christ, as that mind transpires in His\nrecorded conduct. The point in the life of our Lord is the apparent\nwant of what may be called method or plan. His good works were not in\npursuance of some scheme laid down by Himself, but such as entered\ninto God's scheme for Him, such as the Father had prepared for Him to\nwalk in.\n\n+I. Notice His discourses both in their occasions and their\ncontexture.+--1. His discourses often take their rise from some\nobject which is thrown across His path in nature, from some\noccurrence which takes place under His eyes, or from some question\nwhich is put to Him. 2. The contexture of His discourses are not\nsystematic in the usual sense of the word. There is the intellectual\nmethod, and the method of a full mind and loving heart. The only plan\nobservable in our Lord's discourses is that of a loving heart pouring\nitself out as occasion serves for the edification of mankind.\n\n+II. Study the life of Christ.+--The absence of mere human plan, or\nrather strict faithfulness to the plan of God as hourly developed by\nthe movements of His providence, characterises the life of our Lord\neven more than His discourses. Illustrated from Matthew ix. God has a\nplan of life for each one of us, and occasions of doing or receiving\ngood are mapped out for each in His eternal counsels. Little\nincidents, as well as great crises of life, are under the control of\nGod's providence. Events have a voice for us if we will listen to it.\nLet us view our interruptions as part of God's plan for us. We may\nreceive good, even when we cannot do good. It is self-will which weds\nus to our own plans and makes us resent interference with them. In\nthe providence of God there seems to be entanglements, perplexities,\ninterruptions, confusions, contradictions, without end; but you may\nbe sure there is one ruling thought, one master-design, to which all\nthese are subordinate. Be not clamorous for another or more dignified\ncharacter than that which is allotted to you. Be it your sole aim to\nconspire with the Author, and to subserve His grand and wise\nconception. Thus shall you find peace in submitting yourself to the\nwisdom which is of God.--_E. M. Goulburn._\n\n\n_The New Spiritual Creation._--God has kindled in us a new spiritual\nlife by baptism and the influence of the Holy Spirit connected\ntherewith. He has laid the foundation of recreating us into His\nimage. He has made us other men in a far more essential sense than it\nwas once said to Saul--\"Thou shalt be turned into another man.\" What\nis the principal fruit and end of this new creation? A living hope.\nIts object is not only our future resurrection, but the whole\nplenitude of the salvation still to be revealed by Jesus Christ, even\nuntil the new heavens and the new earth shall appear. Birth implies\nlife; so is it with the hope of believers, which is the very opposite\nof the vain, lost, and powerless hope of the worldly-minded. It is\npowerful, and quickens the heart by comforting, strengthening, and\nencouraging it, by making it joyous and cheerful in God. Its\nquickening influence enters even into our physical life. Hope is not\nonly the fulfilment of the new life created in regeneration, but also\nthe innermost kernel of the same.--_Weiss._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.\n\n_The Forlorn State of the Gentile World._\n\n+I. Outcast.+--\"Gentiles, . . . called Uncircumcision by that which\nis called the Circumcision\" (ver. 11). The circumcised Jew regarded\nhimself as a special favourite of Heaven, and superior to all other\nmen. He hardly felt himself a member of the human family. He was\naccustomed to speak of himself as chosen of God, and as holy and\nclean; whilst the Gentiles were treated as sinners, dogs, polluted,\nunclean, outcast, and God-abandoned. Between Jew and Gentile there\nwas constant hatred and antagonism, as there is now between the\nChurch and the world. On the one hand, the old religion, with its\ntime-honoured teachings, its ancient traditions, the Church of the\nFathers, the guardian of revelation, the depositary of the faith, the\nstaunchness that tends to degenerate into bigotry--here is the Jew.\nOn the other hand, the intellectual searchings, the political\naspirations and mechanical contrivings--science, art, literature,\ncommerce, sociology, the liberty which threatens to luxuriate into\nlicence--here is the Gentile. Ever and again the old feud breaks out.\nEver and again there is a crack and a rent. The gulf widens, and\ndisruption is threatened. The majority is outside the circle of the\nChurch.\n\n+II. Christless.+--\"That at that time ye were without Christ.\" The\npromises of a coming Deliverer were made to the Jews, and they were\nslow to see that any other people had any right to the blessings of\nthe Messiah, or that it was their duty to instruct the world\nconcerning Him. They drew a hard line between the sons of Abraham and\nthe dogs of Greeks. They erected a middle wall of partition,\nthrusting out the Gentile into the outer court. Christ has broken\ndown the barrier. On the area thus cleared He has erected a larger,\nloftier, holier temple, a universal brotherhood which acknowledges no\npreferences and knows no distinctions. In Christ Jesus now there is\nneither Jew nor Greek, but Christ is all and in all--a vivid contrast\nto the Christlessness of a former age.\n\n+III. Hopeless.+--\"Being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and\nstrangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope\" (ver. 12).\nWhere there is no promise there is no hope. Cut off from any\nknowledge of the promises revealed to the Jews, the Gentiles were\nsinking into despair.\n\n+IV. Godless.+--\"Without God in the world.\" With numberless deities\nthe Gentiles had no God. They had everything else, but this one thing\nthey lacked--knowledge of God their Father; and without this all\ntheir magnificent gifts could not satisfy, could not save, them.\nCulture and civilisation, arts and commerce, institutions and laws,\nno nation can afford to undervalue these; but not only do all these\nthings soon fade, but the people themselves fall into corruption and\ndecay, if the Breath of Life is wanting. As with nations, so is it\nwith individuals. Man cannot with impunity ignore or deny the Father\nof earth and heaven.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Man left to himself inevitably degenerates._ 2. _When\nman abandons God his case is desperate._ 3. _The rescue of man from\nutter ruin is an act of Divine mercy._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 11, 12. _The Condition of the Ephesians before their Conversion\ndescriptive of the State of Sinners under the Gospel._\n\n+I. They were in time past Gentiles in the flesh.+--He admonishes\nthem not to forget the dismal state of heathenism out of which they\nhad been called, and often to reflect upon it, that they might ever\nmaintain a sense of their unworthiness and awaken thankful and\nadmiring apprehensions of that grace which had wrought in them so\nglorious a change.\n\n+II. Reminds them of the contempt with which they had been treated by\nthe Jews.+--The Jews, instead of improving the distinction of their\ncircumcision to gratitude and obedience, perverted it to pride,\nself-confidence, and contempt of mankind. They not only excluded\nother nations from the benefit of religious communion, but even\ndenied them the common offices of humanity. One of their greatest\nobjections to the Gospel was that it offered salvation to the\nGentiles.\n\n+III. They were without Christ.+--To the Jews were chiefly confined\nthe discoveries which God made of a Saviour to come. From them in\ntheir captivities and dispersions the Gentiles obtained the knowledge\nthey had of this glorious Person. This knowledge was imperfect, mixed\nwith error and uncertainty, and at best extended only to a few. The\nGentiles, contemplating the Messiah as a temporal prince, regarded\nHis appearing as a calamity rather than a blessing.\n\n+IV. They were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel.+--To the forms\nof worship instituted in the Mosaic law none was admitted but Jews\nand such as were proselyted to the Jewish religion. All uncircumcised\nheathens were excluded as aliens.\n\n+V. They were strangers from the covenants of promise.+--The\ndiscovery of the covenants of promise until the Saviour came was\nalmost wholly confined to the Jews. How unhappy was the condition of\nthe Gentile world in the dark, benighted ages which preceded the\nGospel!\n\n+VI. They had no clear hope of a future existence.+--Many of them\nscarcely believed or thought of a life beyond this. They had no\napprehension, hardly the idea of a restoration of the body. Those who\nbelieved in a future state had but obscure and some of them very\nabsurd conceptions of it. Still more ignorant were they of the\nqualifications necessary for happiness after death.\n\n+VII. They were atheists in a world in which God was manifest.+--The\nheathens generally had some apprehension of a Deity; but they were\nwithout a knowledge of the one true God and without a just idea of\nHis character. There are more atheists in the world than profess\nthemselves such. Many who profess to know God in works deny\nHim.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 12. _Hopeless and Godless._--The soul that has no God has no\nhope. The character of the God we love and worship will determine the\ncharacter of our hope. 1. The heathen religion was the _seeking_\nreligion. Their search arose out of a deeply felt want. They felt the\nneed of something they did not possess; and the finest intellects the\nworld has ever known bravely and anxiously devoted all their colossal\npowers to the task of fathoming the mysteries of life. The hope of\ndiscovery buoyed them up and urged them onwards; but their united\nendeavours brought them only to the borderland of the unseen and the\nunknown, where they caught but glimmerings of a truth that ever\nreceded into the great beyond. \"The world by wisdom knew not God,\"\nand therefore had no hope. 2. The Hebrew religion was the _hoping_\nreligion. Favoured with a revelation of the only true God, their hope\nexpanded with every advancing step of the progressive revelation.\nTheir hope was based on _faith,_ as all true hope must be--faith in\nthe promises of God. They had the promise of a _Deliverer_ whose\nwisdom should excel that of Moses and Solomon, and whose power should\nsurpass that of Joshua and of his heroic successors in the most\nbrilliant period of their military career; and, through the centuries\nof prosperity and decline, of scattering and captivity, and amid\nunparalleled sufferings which would have extinguished any other\nnation, hope fastened and fed upon the promises till the true Messiah\ncame, whom St. Paul justly described as \"the Hope of Israel, the Hope\nof the promise made of God unto our fathers.\" 3. The _Christian_\nreligion is the _complement_ and _perfection_ of all previously\nexisting systems; it is the grand realisation of what the heathen\nsought, and the Hebrew hoped for. It is in Jesus we have the\nclearest, fullest, and most authoritative revelation of God, and it\nis in Him, and in Him alone, that the loftiest hope of man finds its\nrestful and all-sufficient realisation. The apostle Paul refers to\nJesus specifically as our Hope--\"Our Lord Jesus Christ, which is our\nHope\" (1 Tim. i. 1). 4. In the light of this great and indubitable\ntruth the words of our text may be clearly and unmistakably\ninterpreted, and they assume a terrible significance. _To be without\nChrist is to be without God and without hope._ (1) Hope is not simply\n_expectation._ We expect many things we do not hope for. In the\nnatural course of things we expect difficulties, we expect opposition\nand misrepresentation--\"black wounding calumny the whitest virtue\nstrikes\"--we expect infirmities and disabilities of age; but we are\nnone of us so fond of trouble for trouble's sake as to hope for any\nof these things. (2) Hope is not simply _desire._ Our desires are as\nthick and plentiful as apple blossoms, few of which ever ripen into\nthe fruit they promise. We desire uninterrupted health, we desire\nwealth--the most dangerous and disappointing of all human wishes--we\ndesire pleasure, success in life, and the realisation of the most\nambitious dreams; but we have no reasonable ground for hoping that\nall our desires will ever be attained. (3) Hope is the _expectation\nof the desirable,_ and it must have a foundation on which the\nexpectation rests and an object to which the desire can rise. The\nfoundation of hope is Christ, and the object of hope is to live with\nHim in eternal glory. To be without hope and without God does not\nmean that hope and God do not exist. The world is full of both; they\nare among you, they surround you, the very air vibrates with the\never-active presence of these grand realities; but they are as though\nthey did not exist for you unless you know and feel they do exist\nwithin you. (4) Hope _presupposes faith_; they cannot exist apart.\nFaith discovers \"the only foundation which is laid, which is Christ\nJesus,\" fastens the soul to and settles it on this foundation, and\nfaith and hope rouse all the activities of the soul to build on this\nfoundation a superstructure which shall grow in solidity, in\nsymmetry, and in beauty, until it becomes a perfect marvel of moral\narchitecture, richly ornamented with the most delicate tracery and\nshimmering and flashing with the resplendent glory of God. (5) _Hope\nis the balloon of the soul,_ soaring majestically into the heavens,\nscanning scenes of beauty and grandeur never beheld by our\nearth-bound senses, and faithfully reporting to the soul the state of\naffairs in the skies; but it is a _captive balloon,_ and the\nconnecting cords are firmly held in the hand of faith. The loftiest\nflights and the swing of what might seem the most eccentric gyrations\nof hope are held in check by the friendly, the sympathetic, but\nunswerving grasp of faith. \"My dear Hope,\" Faith says, \"it is very\nnice for you to be up there, basking in the cloudless sunshine and\ndrinking in the melody of the ascending lark as it ripples up the\nheights; and I like you to be there. I could never get there myself;\nand you tell me of things I should never otherwise know, and they do\nme good. But, remember, I cannot let you go. We are linked together\nin the sacred bonds of a holy wedlock. We are necessary to each other\nand cannot do without each other. If you were to break away from me,\nyou would vanish like vapour into space, and I should be left forlorn\nand powerless.\" And Hope replies: \"I know it, my dear Faith. Divorce\nwould be fatal to us both, and our union is too sweet and precious\never to dream of separation. I live in these upper regions purely for\nyour sake. You know I have cheered you up many a time and will do so\nagain. My joy is to brighten your life of toil and conflict down\nthere. When the soul has done with you it will have done with me, and\nwhen my work is finished I shall be content to die.\" Thus, faith and\nhope are essentially united, and both are wedded together by the\nsoul's living union with Christ. (6) A false hope is really _no\nhope._ It rests on no solid foundation; it is not justified by sound\nreason. It is but the blue light of a frantic conjecture generated\namid the restless tumults of a soul in the last stages of despair. At\nthe best a false hope is but a beautiful dream spun from the gossamer\nthreads of a busy and excited fancy, a dream _of what we wish might\nbe,_ and, like all other dreams having no substantial basis, it\ndissolves into space under the first touch of reality. A false hope\nlures its victims on to destruction, as the flickering lights of the\nmarsh gases seduce the belated traveller into the dismal swamps from\nwhich there is no release.\n\n\n_A State of Sin a State of Ungodliness._--1. Men do not recognise the\nexistence of God. 2. They do not acknowledge His moral government.\n3. They do not seek His favour as their chief good. 4. They do not\ndelight in His communion. 5. They do not anticipate their final\nreckoning with Him. 6. They do not accept His own disclosures\nconcerning the attributes of His nature and the principles of His\nadministration.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_Man without God._--He is like a ship tossed about on a stormy sea\nwithout chart or compass. The ship drifts as the waves carry it. The\nnight is dark. The pilot knows not which way to steer. He may be\nclose to rocks and quicksands. Perhaps a flash of lightning falls on\na rock, or he hears the waves breaking over it. But how shall he\nescape, or how prepare to meet the danger? Shall he trust in\nprovidence? What providence has he to trust in? Poor man! He is\nwithout God. Shall he throw out an anchor? But he has no anchor. He\nwants the best and only safe anchor, hope--the anchor of the soul.\nSuch is the state of man when he is far off, without a God to trust\nin, without hope to comfort and support him. But give the man a true\nand lively faith in Christ, tell him of a merciful and loving Father\nwho careth for us and would have us cast all our care upon Him, show\nhim that hope which is firm to the end, and straightway you make a\nhappy man of him. You give him a course to steer, a chart and compass\nto guide him, an anchor which will enable him to withstand the\nbuffeting of every storm. You insure him against shipwreck, and you\nassure him of a blessed haven where at length he will arrive and be\nat rest.--_A. W. Hare._\n\n\n_Practical Atheism._--If it had been without friends, without\nshelter, without food, that would have made a gloomy sound; but\nwithout God! That there should be men who can survey the creation\nwith a scientific enlargement of intelligence and then say there is\nno God is one of the most hideous phenomena in the world.\n\n+I. The text is applicable to those who have no solemn recognition of\nGod's all-disposing government and providence+--who have no thought\nof the course of things but just as going on, going on some way or\nother, just as it can be; to whom it appears abandoned to a strife\nand competition of various mortal powers, or surrendered to something\nthey call general laws, and these blended with chance.\n\n+II. Is a description of all those who are forming or pursuing their\nscheme of life and happiness independent of Him.+--They do not\nconsult His counsel or will as to what that scheme should be in its\nends or means. His favour, His blessing are not absolutely\nindispensable. We can be happy leaving Him out of the account.\n\n+III. Is a description of those who have but a slight sense of\nuniversal accountableness to God as the supreme authority+--who have\nnot a conscience constantly looking and listening to Him and\ntestifying for Him. This insensibility of accountableness exists\nalmost entire--a stupefaction of conscience--in very many minds. In\nothers there is a disturbed yet inefficacious feeling. To be thus\nwith God is in the most emphatical sense to be without Him--without\nHim as a friend, approver, and patron. Each thought of Him tells the\nsoul who it is that it is without, and who it is that in a very\nfearful sense it never can be without.\n\n+IV. The description belongs to that state of mind in which there is\nno communion with Him+ maintained or even sought with cordial\naspiration. How lamentable to be thus without God! Consider it in one\nsingle view only, that of the _loneliness_ of a human soul in this\ndestitution.\n\n+V. A description of the state of mind in which there is no habitual\nanticipation of the great event of going at length into the presence\nof God;+ in which there is an absence of the thought of being with\nHim in another world, of being with Him in judgment, and whether to\nbe with Him for ever.\n\n+VI. A description of those who, professing to retain God in their\nthoughts, frame the religion in which they are to acknowledge Him\naccording to their own speculation and fancy.+--Will the Almighty\nacknowledge your feigned God for Himself, and admit your religion as\nequivalent to that which He has declared and defined? If He should\nnot, you are without God in the world. Let us implore Him not to\npermit our spirits to be detached from Him, abandoned, exposed, and\nlost; not to let them be trying to feed their immortal fires on\ntransitory sustenance, but to attract them, exalt them, and hold them\nin His communion for ever.--_John Foster._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-18.\n\n_Christ the Great Peacemaker._\n\n+I. His mission on earth was one of peace.+--\"And came and preached\npeace to you which were afar off, and to them that were nigh\" (ver.\n17). His advent was heralded by the angelic song, \"Peace on earth,\nand goodwill toward men.\" The world is racked with moral discord; He\nis constantly striving to introduce the music of a heavenly harmony.\nIt is distracted with war; He is propagating principles that will\nby-and-by make war impossible. The work of the peacemaker is\nChrist-like. Shenkyn, one of whose anomalies was that with all his\nburning passions he was a notorious peacemaker, and had means of\npouring oil upon troubled waters, once upon a time was deputed to try\nhis well-known skill upon a Church whose strife of tongues had become\nquite notorious. He reluctantly complied and attended a meeting which\nsoon proved to his satisfaction that the people were possessed by a\ndemon that could not easily be expelled. The peacemaker got up, staff\nin hand, paced the little chapel, and with his spirit deeply moved,\ncried out, \"Lord, is this Thy spouse?\" Faster and faster he walked,\nthumping his huge stick on the floor, and still crying out, \"Lord, is\nthis Thy spouse? Slay her!\" Then there came, as it were from another,\na response, \"No, I will not.\" \"Sell her, then!\" \"No, I will not.\"\n\"Deny her, then!\" Still the answer came, \"I will not.\" Then he lifted\nup his voice, saying, \"I have bought her with My precious blood; how\ncan I give her up? How can I forsake her?\" The strife had now ceased,\nand the people looked on with amazement, crying out for pardon.\n\n+II. He made peace between man and man.+--\"For He is our peace, who\nhath made both one; . . . to make in Himself of twain one new man, so\nmaking peace\" (vers. 14, 15). The hostility of Jew and Gentile was\nconquered; the new spiritual nature created in both formed a bond of\nbrotherhood and harmony. The Jew no longer despised the Gentile; the\nGentile no longer hated and persecuted the Jew. Where the Christian\nspirit predominates personal quarrels are speedily adjusted.\n\n+III. He made peace between man and God.+--\"That He might reconcile\nboth unto God in one body by the cross\" (ver. 16). The enmity of man\nagainst God is disarmed and conquered by the voluntary suffering of\nJesus in man's stead, and by Him thus opening up the way of\nreconciliation of man with God. God can now be just, and the\njustifier of him that believeth in Jesus. The violated law is now\natoned for, and the violator may obtain forgiveness and regain the\nforfeited favour of the offended God. There is peace only through\nforgiveness.\n\n+IV. His death removed the great barrier to peace.+--This paragraph\nis very rich and suggestive in the phrases used to explain this\nblessed result: \"Ye are made nigh by the blood of Christ\" (ver. 13).\n\"By the cross, having slain the enmity thereby\" (ver. 16). \"Hath\nbroken down the middle wall of partition, having abolished in His\nflesh the enmity\" (vers. 14, 15). It is not the calm, silent,\nfeatureless, helpless, forceless, _peace of death,_ but a living,\nactive, aggressive, ever-conquering peace. The death was the result\nof agonising struggle and intense suffering, and the peace purchased\nis a powerfully operating influence in the believing soul.\n\n     \"A peace is of the nature of a conquest;\n      For then both parties nobly are subdued,\n      And neither party loser.\"--_Shakespeare._\n\n+V. True peace is realised only in Christ.+--\"But now in Christ Jesus\nye who sometimes were far off are made nigh by the blood of Christ\"\n(ver. 13). \"For He is our peace\" (ver. 14). \"For through Him we both\nhave access by one Spirit unto the Father\" (ver. 18). \"Christ takes\nus by the hand, and leads us to the Father.\" Men seek peace in the\nexcitements of worldly pleasures, or in the pursuit of ambitious\naims, but in vain. They only stimulate the malady they seek to cure.\nChrist is the restful centre of the universe, and the sin-tossed soul\ngains peace only as it converges towards Him. The efforts of men to\nfind rest independent of Christ only reveal their need of Him, and it\nis a mercy when this revelation and consciousness of need does not\ncome too late.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sin is the instigator of quarrels and strife._\n2. _Only as sin is conquered does peace become possible._ 3. _Christ\nintroduces peace by abolishing sin._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13-18. _Nearness to God._\n\n  +I. They were brought into the Church of God and admitted to equal\n      privileges with His ancient people the Jews.+\n\n +II. They were brought near to God as they were admitted to enjoy\n      the Gospel, which is a dispensation of grace and peace.+\n\n+III. They were brought near to God by the renovation of their souls\n      after His image.+\n\n +IV. This nearness to God implies a state of peace with Him.+\n\n  +V. Another circumstance of the nearness is access to God in\n      prayer.+\n\n +VI. Another is the presence of His Holy Spirit.+--Let us be afraid\n      of everything that tends to draw us away from God, and love\n      everything which brings us nearer to Him. Let us seek Him with\n      our whole heart, persevere daily communion with Him, choose\n      His favour as our happiness, His service as our employment,\n      His Word as our guide, His ordinances as our refreshment, His\n      house as the gate of heaven, and heaven as our eternal\n      home.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 13. _Our State by Nature and by Grace._\n\n+I. Our state by nature.+--The distance from God here spoken of is\nnot a local distance, neither is it that which separates us from Him\nas an infinite Being. 1. It is legal. Banished by a righteous\nsentence and by a sense of guilt and unworthiness. 2. It is moral.\nEstrangement. Absence of sympathy. Want of harmony. 3. In both these\nrespects it is ever-widening. 4. It is miserable and dangerous.\n\n+II. Our state by grace.+--1. The legal barriers are removed by the\nblood of Christ shed on the cross. 2. The moral alienation is removed\nby the blood of Christ as applied to the believer by the Holy Spirit.\n3. The nearness to God thus effected is a valuable privilege. It\nincludes reconciliation, friendship, communion. Sinner, apply now to\nbe made nigh. Believer, remember thy obligations.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVers. 14, 15. _Death a Peacemaker._--The struggle between the\nNorthern and Southern States of America closed for ever at the\nfuneral of General Grant. The armies of rebellion surrendered twenty\nyears before; but the solemn and memorable pageant at the tomb of the\ngreat Union soldier, where the leading generals of the living Union\nand of the dead Confederacy stood shoulder to shoulder and mingled\ntheir tears in a common grief--this historical event marked the\nabsolute conclusion of sectional animosity in America.\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Power of the Gospel to dissolve the Enmity of the Human\nHeart against God._--1. The goodness of God destroys the enmity of\nthe human mind. When every other argument fails, this, if perceived\nby the eye of faith, finds its powerful and persuasive way through\nevery barrier of resistance. Try to approach the heart of man by the\ninstruments of terror and of authority, and it will disdainfully\nrepel you. There is not one of you skilled in the management of human\nnature who does not perceive that, though this may be a way of\nworking on the other principles of our constitution--of working on\nthe fears of man, or on his sense of interest--this is not the way of\ngaining by a single hair-breadth on the attachments of his heart.\nSuch a way may force, or it may terrify, but it never, never can\nendear; and after all the threatening array of such an influence as\nthis is brought to bear upon man, there is not one particle of\nservice it can extort from him but what is all rendered in the spirit\nof a painful and reluctant bondage. Now this is not the service which\nprepares for heaven. This is not the service which assimilates men to\nangels. This is not the obedience of those glorified spirits, whose\nevery affection harmonises with their every performance, and the very\nessence of whose piety consists of delight in God and the love they\nbear to Him. To bring up man to such an obedience as this, his heart\nbehoved to be approached in a particular way; and no such way is to\nbe found but within the limits of the Christian revelation. There\nalone you see God, without injury to His other attributes, plying the\nheart of man with the irresistible argument of kindness. There alone\ndo you see the great Lord of heaven and of earth, setting Himself\nforth to the most worthless and the most wandering of His\nchildren--putting forth His hand to the work of healing the breach\nwhich sin had made between them--telling them that His Word could not\nbe mocked, and his justice could not be defied and trampled on, and\nthat it was not possible for His perfections to receive the slightest\ntaint in the eyes of the creation He had thrown around them; but that\nall this was provided for, and not a single creature within the\ncompass of the universe He has formed could now say that forgiveness\nto man was degrading to the authority of God, and that by the very\nact of atonement, which poured a glory over all the high attributes\nof His character, His mercy might now burst forth without limit and\nwithout control upon a guilty world, and the broad flag of invitation\nbe unfurled in the sight of all its families. 2. Let the sinner,\nthen, look to God through the medium of such a revelation, and the\nsight which meets him there may well tame the obstinacy of that heart\nwhich had wrapped itself up in impenetrable hardness against the\nforce of every other consideration. Now that the storm of the\nAlmighty's wrath has been discharged upon Him who bore the burden of\nthe world's atonement, He has turned His throne of glory into a\nthrone of grace and cleared away from the pavilion of His residence\nall the darkness which encompassed it. The God who dwelleth there is\nGod in Christ; and the voice He sends from it to this dark and\nrebellious province of His mighty empire is a voice of the most\nbeseeching tenderness. Goodwill to men is the announcement with which\nHis messengers come fraught to a guilty world; and, since the moment\nin which it burst upon mortal ears from the peaceful canopy of\nheaven, may the ministers of salvation take it up, and go round with\nit among all the tribes and individuals of the species. Such is the\nreal aspect of God towards you. He cannot bear that His alienated\nchildren should be finally and everlastingly away from Him. He feels\nfor you all the longing of a parent bereaved of his offspring. To woo\nyou back again unto Himself He scatters among you the largest and the\nmost liberal assurances, and with a tone of imploring tenderness does\nHe say to one and all of you, \"Turn ye, turn ye; why will ye die?\"\n(Ezek. xxxiii. 11). He has no pleasure in your death. He does not\nwish to glorify Himself by the destruction of any one of you. \"Look\nto Me, all ye ends of the earth, and be saved\" (Isa. xlv. 22), is the\nwide and generous announcement by which He would recall, from the\noutermost limits of His sinful creation, the most worthless and\npolluted of those who have wandered away from Him. 3. Now give us a\nman who perceives, with the eye of his mind, the reality of all this,\nand you give us a man in possession of the principle of faith. Give\nus a man in possession of this faith; and his heart, shielded as it\nwere against the terrors of a menacing Deity, is softened and\nsubdued, and resigns its every affection at the moving spectacle of a\nbeseeching Deity; and thus it is, that faith manifests the attribute\nwhich the Bible assigns to it, of working by love. Give us a man in\npossession of this love; and, animated as he is with the living\nprinciple of that obedience, where the willing and delighted consent\nof the inner man goes along with the performance of the outer man,\nhis love manifests the attribute which the Bible assigns to it when\nit says, \"This is the love of God, that ye keep His commandments.\"\nAnd thus it is, amid the fruitfulness of every other expedient, when\npower threatened to crush the heart which it could not soften--when\nauthority lifted its voice, and laid on man an enactment of love\nwhich it could not carry--when terror shot its arrows, and they\ndropped ineffectual from that citadel of the human affections, which\nstood proof against the impression of every one of them--when wrath\nmustered up its appalling severities, and filled that bosom with\ndespair which it could not fill with the warmth of a confiding\nattachment--then the kindness of an inviting God was brought to bear\non the heart of man, and got an opening through all its mysterious\navenues. Goodness did what the nakedness of power could not do. It\nfound its way through all intricacies of the human constitution, and\nthere, depositing the right principle of repentance, did it establish\nthe alone effectual security for the right purposes and the right\nfruits of repentance.--_Dr. T. Chalmers._\n\n\nVer. 18. _The Privilege of Access to the Father._--In the Temple\nservice of the Jews all did not enjoy equal privileges. The court of\nthe Gentiles was outside that of the Jews and separated from it by \"a\nmarble screen or enclosure three cubits in height, beautifully\nornamented with carving, but bearing inscriptions, in Greek and Roman\ncharacters, forbidding any Gentile to pass within its boundary.\" Such\nrestricted access to God the new dispensation was designed to\nabolish. The middle wall of partition is now broken down, and through\nChrist we, both Jews and Gentiles--all mankind--have equal access by\none Spirit unto the Father. Observe:--\n\n+I. The privilege of access unto the Father.+--That God is the proper\nobject of worship is implied in our text, and more explicitly\ndeclared in other portions of the sacred writings. According to the\nnature of the blessings desired, prayer may be addressed to any of\nthe three Persons in the Godhead; but the Bible teaches that prayer\ngenerally is to be presented to the Father through Christ and by the\nHoly Spirit. And so appropriate are the offices of the Persons in the\nTrinity that we cannot speak otherwise. We cannot say that through\nthe Spirit and by the Father we have access to Christ, or through the\nFather and by Christ we have access to the Spirit. We must observe\nthe apostle's order--through Christ and by the Spirit we have access\nto the Father. Access unto the Father implies:--\n\n1. _His sympathy with us._--God is our Creator and Sovereign, but His\nauthority is not harsh or arbitrary. He does not even deal with us\naccording to the stern dictates of untempered justice. On the\ncontrary, in love and sympathy He has for our benefit made His throne\naccessible. He will listen to our penitential confessions, our vows\nof obedience, our statements of want. He has sympathy with us.\n\n2. _His ability to help us._--That access is permitted to us, taken\nin connection with God's perfections, prove this. He raises no hope\nto disappoint, does not encourage that He may repel, but permits\naccess that He may help and bless.\n\n3. _His permission to speak freely._--There is nothing contracted in\nGod's method of blessing. We are introduced to His presence not to\nstand dumb before Him, nor to speak under the influence of slavish\nfear. We have such liberty as those enjoy who are introduced to the\npresence of a prince by a distinguished favourite, or such freedom as\nchildren have in addressing a father. We are brought into the\npresence of our King by His Own Son; to our heavenly Father by\nChrist, our elder Brother. The results of this access to ourselves:\n1. It teaches dependence; 2. Excites gratitude; 3. Produces comfort;\n4. Promotes growth in grace.\n\n+II. The medium of access.+--Under the law the high priest was the\nmediator through whom the people drew near to God. He went into the\n\"holiest of all, once every year, not without blood, which he offered\nfor himself, and for the errors of the people\" (Heb. ix. 7). Under\nthe new covenant \"boldness to enter into the holiest\" is \"by the\nblood of Jesus\" (Heb. x. 19). But as the mediation of the Jewish high\npriest, though \"done away in Christ,\" was typical, it may serve to\nteach us how we are to come to God. He sprinkled the blood of the\nsin-offering on the mercy-seat and burnt incense within the veil\n(Lev. xvi.), thus symbolising the sacrifice and intercession of\nChrist.\n\n1. _We, then, have access to God through Christ as a\nsacrifice._--\"Without shedding of blood is no remission\" (Heb.\nix. 22). But, \"that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us,\"\nwe could never, as suppliants, have found acceptance with God.\n\n2. _Through Christ as an intercessor._--\"But this man,\" etc. (Heb.\nx. 12). A disciple in temptation cries for deliverance from evil, and\nChrist prays, \"Holy Father, keep through Thine own name those whom\nThou hast given Me\" (John xvii. 11). A dying saint asks for \"an\nentrance into the heavenly kingdom,\" and Christ pleads, \"Father, I\nwill that they also, whom Thou hast given Me, be with Me where I am\"\n(John xvii. 24). None need deem himself too unworthy to call on God\nwho comes to Him through Christ's sacrifice and intercession.\n\n+III. The assistance afforded by the Holy Spirit.+--As we have access\nunto the Father through Christ pleading _for_ us, so we have access\nunto the Father by the Spirit pleading _in_ us.\n\n1. _The Spirit kindles holy desire._--It is the work of the Spirit to\ndraw off the hearts of men from the world and raise them to God in\nprayer. As in playing on a musical instrument no string sounds\nuntouched, so without this influence of the Spirit man would never\nlook heavenward, or his heart fill with desire toward God.\n\n2. _Prompts to immediate application._--Blessings are often desired\nbut feebly. The Spirit rebukes this hesitancy, and urges on to\nimmediate application.\n\n3. _Aids in that application._--\"Without the Spirit we know not what\nwe should pray for\" (Rom. viii. 26). Our thoughts wander, our\naffections chill, the fervour of our importunity flags, unless the\nSpirit \"helpeth our infirmities.\"\n\n+Reflections.+--1. _Those who do not enjoy this privilege are highly\nculpable._ 2. _Those who do enjoy this privilege are indeed\nhappy.--The Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_Access to God, revealing the Trinity in Unity._\n\n+I. The end of human salvation is access to the Father.+--That is the\nfirst truth of our religion--that the source of all is meant to be\nthe end of all, that as we all come forth from a Divine Creator, so\nit is into Divinity that we are to return and to find our final rest\nand satisfaction, not in ourselves, not in one another, but in the\nomnipotence, the omniscience, the perfectness, and the love of God.\nNow we are very apt to take it for granted that, however we may\ndiffer in our definitions and our belief of the deity of the Son and\nof the Holy Spirit, we are all at once, there can be and there is no\nhesitation, about the deity of the Father. God is Divine. God is God.\nAnd no doubt we do all assent in words to such a belief; but when we\nthink what we mean by that word \"God\"; when we remember what we mean\nby \"Father,\" namely, the first source and the final satisfaction of a\ndependent nature; and then when we look around and see such\nmultitudes of people living as if there were no higher source for\ntheir being than accident and no higher satisfaction for their being\nthan selfishness, do we not feel that there is need of a continual\nand most earnest preaching by Word and act, from every pulpit of\ninfluence to which we can mount, of the Divinity of the Father. The\nDivinity of the Father needs assertion first of all. Let men once\nfeel it, and then nature and their own hearts will come in with their\nsweet and solemn confirmations of it. But nature and the human heart\ndo not teach it of themselves. The truest teaching of it must come\nfrom souls that are always going in and out before the Divine\nFatherhood themselves. By the sight of such souls, others must come\nto seek the satisfaction that comes only from a Divine end of\nlife--must come to crave access to the Father. So we believe, and so\nwe tempt other men to believe, in God the Father.\n\nII. And now pass to +the Divinity of the method.+--\"Through Jesus\nChrist.\" Man is separated from God. That fact, testified to by broken\nassociations, by alienated affections, by conflicting wills, stands\nwritten in the whole history of our race. And equally clear is it to\nhim who reads the Gospels, and enters into sympathy with their\nwonderful Person, that in Him, in Jesus of Nazareth, appeared the\nMediator by whom was to be the Atonement. His was the life and nature\nwhich, standing between the Godhood and the manhood, was to bridge\nthe gulf and make the firm, bright road over which blessing and\nprayer might pass and repass with confident, golden feet for ever.\nAnd then the question is--and when we ask it thus it becomes so much\nmore than a dry problem of theology; it is a question for live,\nanxious men to ask with faces full of eagerness--Out of which nature\ncame that Mediator? Out of which side of the chasm sprang the bridge\nleaping forth toward the other? Evidently on both sides that bridge\nis bedded deep and clings with a tenacity which shows how it belongs\nthere. He is both human and Divine. But from which side did the\nbridge spring? It is the most precious part of our belief that it was\nwith God that the activity began. It is the very soul of the Gospel,\nas I read it, that the Father's heart, sitting above us in His\nholiness, yearned for us as we lay down here in our sin. And when\nthere was no man to make an intercession, He sent His Son to tell us\nof His love, to live with us, to die for us, to lay His life like a\nstrong bridge out from the Divine side of existence, over which we\nmight walk fearfully but safely, but into the Divinity where we\nbelonged. Through Him we have access to the Father. As the end was\nDivine, so the method is Divine. As it is to God that we come, so it\nis God who brings us there. I can think nothing else without\ndishonouring the tireless, quenchless love of God.\n\n+III. The power of the act of man's salvation is the Holy\nSpirit.+--\"Through Christ Jesus we both have access by one Spirit\nunto the Father.\" What do we mean by the Holy Spirit being the power\nof salvation? I think we are often deluded and misled by carrying out\ntoo far some of the figurative forms in which the Bible and the\nreligious experience of men express the saving of the soul. For\ninstance, salvation is described as the lifting of the soul out of a\npit and putting it upon a pinnacle, or on a safe high platform of\ngrace. The figure is strong and clear. Nothing can overstate the\nutter dependence of the soul on God for its deliverance; but if we\nlet the figure leave in our minds an impression of the human soul as\na dead, passive thing, to be lifted from one place to the other like\na torpid log that makes no effort of its own either for co-operation\nor resistance, then the figure has misled us. The soul is a live\nthing. Everything that is done with it must be done and through its\nown essential life, If a soul is saved, it must be by the salvation,\nthe sanctification, of its essential life; if a soul is lost, it must\nbe by perdition of its life, by the degradation of its affections and\ndesires and hopes. Let there be nothing merely mechanical in the\nconception of the way God treats these souls of ours. He works upon\nthem in the vitality of thought, passion, and will that He put into\nthem. And so, when a soul comes to the Father through the Saviour,\nits whole essential vitality moves in the act. When this experience\nis reached, then see what Godhood the soul has come to recognise in\nthe world. First, there is the creative Deity from which it sprang,\nand to which it is struggling to return--\"the Divine End, God the\nFather.\" Then there is the incarnate Deity, which makes that return\npossible by the exhibition of God's love--the Divine Power of\nsalvation, God the Holy Spirit. To the Father, through the Son, by\nthe Spirit. This appears to be the truth of the Deity as it relates\nto us. I say again, \"as it relates to us.\" What it may be in itself;\nhow Father, Son, and Spirit meet in the perfect Godhood; what\ninfinite truth more there may, there must, be in that Godhood, no man\ncan dare to guess. But, to us, God is the end, the method, and the\npower of salvation; so He is Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. It is in\nthe perfect harmony of these sacred personalities that the precious\nunity of the Deity consists. I look at the theologies, and so often\nit seems as if the harmony of the Father, Son, and Spirit has been\nlost, both by those that own and those that disown the Trinity. One\ntheology makes the Father hard and cruel, longing as it were for\nman's punishment, extorting from the Son the last drops of life-blood\nwhich man's sin had incurred as penalty. Another theology makes the\nSon merely one of the multitude of sinning men, with somewhat bolder\naspirations laying hold on a forgiveness which God might give but\nwhich no mortal might assume. Still another theology can find no God\nin the human heart at all; merely a fermentation of human nature is\nthis desire after goodness, this reaching out towards Divinity. The\nend is not worthy of the method. I do not want to come to such a\nFather as some of the theologians have painted. Or the method is not\nworthy of the end. No man could come to the perfect God through such\na Jesus as some men have described. Or the power is too weak for\nboth; and all that Christ has done lies useless, and all the Father's\nwelcome waits in vain for the soul that has in it no Holy Ghost. But\nlet each be real and each be worthy of the others, and salvation is\ncomplete. But each cannot be worthy of the others unless each is\nperfect. But each cannot be perfect unless each is Divine; that is,\nour faith is in the Trinity--three Persons and one God.--_Philips\nBrooks._\n\n\n_The Christian Law of Prayer_--\n\n+I. To the Father.+--1. How honourable! Right of entry to an earthly\nsovereign. 2. How delightful! Our pleasures may be graduated\naccording to the part of our nature in which they have their rise.\nThe pleasures of devotion are the highest taste for devotion. 3. How\nprofitable! God is able to bestow all temporal and spiritual\nblessings. 4. How solemn! The intercourse of our spirit with the\nFather of our spirits. Heart to heart.\n\n+II. Through the Son.+--1. Through His atonement. Legal barriers to\nour access must be removed. Have been removed by the death of Christ\nas a satisfaction to Divine Justice. He has demolished the wall, He\nhas constructed a bridge across the chasm, He has laid down His own\nbody as the medium of approach. 2. Through His intercession. It\nperpetuates His sacrifice. The Jewish high priest entering the holy\nof holies on the Great Day of Atonement. Amyntas, mother of\nCoriolanus; Philippa after the siege of Calais.\n\n+III. By the Spirit.+--1. He teaches us what are our wants. For the\nmost part we are likely to be aware of our temporal wants. In\nspiritual things the greater our need the less our sense of need.\n2. He makes us willing to ask the supply of our wants. Aversion to\nbeg. Aversion to lay bare the symptoms of humiliating disease. 3. He\ngives us power to spread our wants before God. One person employed to\nwrite a letter or a petition for another. 4. He inspires us with\nconfidence to plead with importunity and faith. Confidence in the\nFather, in the Son, in the power of prayer.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-22.\n\n_The Church the Temple of God._\n\n+I. Enjoying special privileges.+--1. _A saintly citizenship._ \"No\nmore strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints\"\n(ver. 19). The apostle has spoken of the separation and enmity\nexisting between Jew and Gentile. The Jew, trained to believe in the\none invisible and only true God, who could not be imagined by any\nmaterial form, learned to look with hatred and contempt on the\noutcast, lawless Gentile, with his idol deities in every valley and\non every hill; and the intellectual Gentile looked with philosophic\npride on the stern land of the Hebrew and in philosophic scorn on his\nstrange, exclusive loneliness. They were not only at enmity with each\nother, but both were at enmity with God. Now the writer is showing\nthat by the provisions of the Gospel both Greek and Jew are united as\ncitizens of one Divine kingdom. They enjoy the same privileges and\nare in actual fellowship with prophets and apostles and all holy\nsouls in all ages and are sanctified subjects of a kingdom that can\nnever be moved.\n\n2. _A family life._--\"And of the household of God\" (ver. 19). The\nChurch is a family having one Father in God, one Brother in Christ,\none life in the Spirit, and one home in Heaven. As in earthly\nfamilies, there are diversities of character, tastes, gifts,\ntendencies, and manifestations, but all the members of the heavenly\nhousehold are bound together by the one common bond of love to God\nand to each other.\n\n+II. Resting on a sure foundation+ (ver. 20).--The materials\ncomposing the foundation of the Church are _living_ stones--teachers\nand confessors of the truth, \"apostles and prophets\"; but Christ, as\nthe one foundation, is the \"chief corner-stone.\" The foundation of\nthe Church is not so much in the witnesses of the truth as in the\ntruth itself, and in propagating which truth the first teachers and\nconfessors sacrificed their all. The truth which produced and\nsustained the martyrs is itself immovable. The apostles and\nprophets--teachers in the apostolic times--laid the first course in\nthe foundation of the Church and were careful to recognise and build\nonly one foundation, united and held together by the one\ncorner-stone--Christ Jesus. They fixed the pattern and standard of\nChristian doctrine and practice. The Christian Church is sure because\nthe foundation is deep and broad and can never be removed and\nreplaced by any human structure.\n\n+III. Ever rising to a higher perfection+ (ver. 21).--The image is\nthat of an extensive pile of buildings, such as the ancient temples\ncommonly were, in process of construction at different points over a\nwide 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 harmonised that the entire construction\npreserves the unity of the architect's design. Such an edifice was\nthe apostolic Church--one but of many parts--in the diverse gifts and\nmultiplied activities animated by one Spirit and directed towards one\nDivine purpose (_Findlay_). Since the Day of Pentecost, when three\nthousand living stones were laid on the foundation, the Church has\nbeen growing in symmetry, beauty, and vastness, and it is constantly\nadvancing towards perfection. The building, though apparently\ndisjoined and working in separate parts, is growing into a final\nunity.\n\n+IV. Made by the Spirit His glorious dwelling-place+ (ver. 22).--The\nHoly Spirit is the supreme Builder as He is the supreme Witness to\nJesus Christ (John xv. 26, 27). The words \"in the Spirit\" denote not\nthe mode of God's habitation--that is self-evident--but the agency\nengaged in building this new house of God. With one chief\ncorner-stone to rest upon, and one Spirit to inspire and control\nthem, the apostles and prophets laid their foundation, and the Church\nwas builded together for a habitation of God. Hence its unity. But\nfor this sovereign influence the primitive founders of Christianity,\nthe later Church leaders, would have fallen into fatal discord\n(_Findlay_). The Church is a spiritual organisation, pervaded and\nmade vital and progressive by the presence and operation of the\nSpirit of God. An organ is composed of several instruments--the\nchoir, the swell, the pedal, the great; and many stops--the diapason,\nthe flute, the trumpet; and yet it is one. And the Church of God is\none. One Spirit--one breath of wind turned on by one living\nHand--makes all the organ vocal.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Church is the depositary of great religious\nprivileges._ 2. _God dwells in the Church by dwelling in the heart of\nevery member of it._ 3. _The Church provides every facility for\nworship and service._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 19-22. _The Church of God a Spiritual Building._\n\n+I. The apostle represents the Church of God under the figure of a\ncity and a household.+--1. _A Church must resemble a family or city\nin respect of order and government;_ for without these a religious\nsociety can no more subsist than a civil community or a household.\n2. _In a city or household all the members have a mutual relation and\npartake in the common privileges;_ and though they are placed in\ndifferent stations and conditions, they must all contribute to the\ngeneral happiness. 3. _In a city and also in a family there is a\ncommon interest._ 4. _In a well-ordered city or household there will\nbe peace and unity;_ so there ought to be in a Christian Church.\n\n+II. The manner in which the Church is founded.+--The mediation of\nChrist is the foundation of our faith and hope. The apostles and\nprophets are a foundation only as they describe and exhibit to use\nthe doctrines and works, the atonement and intercession, of the\nRedeemer. In Him all the doctrines of the apostles and prophets meet\nand unite, as the stones in the foundation are fixed and bound\ntogether by the corner-stone.\n\n+III. The Church must be united with and framed into the\nfoundation.+--Thus it may stand secure. Christ is the chief\ncorner-stone in which all the building is framed. That only is true\nfaith in Christ which regards Him as the foundation of our present\nhope and final acceptance.\n\n+IV. As the Church must rest on the foundation, so the several parts\nof it must be framed and inserted into each other.+--As it is faith\nwhich fixes the saints on Christ the foundation, so it is love which\nbinds them together among themselves. If we would preserve the\nbeauty, strength, and dignity of the spiritual house, we must be\nwatchful to repair breaches as soon as they appear, and to remove\nthose materials which are become too corrupt to be repaired, lest\nthey communicate their own corruption to sounder parts.\n\n+V. The Church is to grow into a holy temple for God through the\nSpirit.+--We must not content ourselves with having built on the true\nfoundation, but must bring the structure to a more finished and\nbeautiful condition. The Church may grow and make increase both by\nthe progress of its present members in knowledge and holiness and by\nthe addition of new members who become fellow-workers in the\nspiritual building. God dwells in His Church, not only by His Word\nand ordinances, but also by the influence of His Spirit which He\naffords to assist His people in the duties of His worship and to open\ntheir hearts for the reception of His Word.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 19. _Christian Prayer a Witness of Christian Citizenship._\n\n+I. The foundation of the citizenship of the Christian.+--In access\nto the Father--in the power of approaching Him in full, free,\ntrustful prayer.\n\n1. _Christian prayer is the approach of the individual soul to God as\nits Father._--Until a man utterly believers in Christ he can never\npray aright. There are veils around the unbelieving spirit which\nhinder this free, confiding approach. The touch of God startles\nmemories, rouses ghosts of the past in the soul's secret chambers;\nthey flutter fearfully in the strange Divine light, and the man\nshudders and dare not pray. A man bathed in the life of God in prayer\nfeels he is no more a stranger and a foreigner, but has entered into\nGod's kingdom, for God is his Father.\n\n2. _That prayer of the individual soul must lead to the united\nworship of God's Church._--We cannot always pray alone. The men who\nstand most aloof from social worship are not the men who manifest the\nhighest spiritual life. Our highest prayers are our most universal. I\ndo not say we don't feel their individuality, we do--but in and\nthrough their universality.\n\n+II. The nature of Christian citizenship.+--1. _Prayer a witness to\nour fellowship with the Church of all time._ Realising the Fatherhood\nof God in the holy converse of prayer, we are nearer men. Our\nselfishness, our narrow, isolating peculiarities begin to fade. In\nour highest prayers we realise common wants.\n\n2. _Prayer a witness to our fellowship with the Church of\neternity._--All emotions of eternity catch the tone of prayer.\nSometimes in the evening, when the sounds of the world are still, and\nthe sense of eternity breaks in upon us, is not that feeling a\nprayer? We know that we are right, that in worship we have taken no\nearthly posture, but an attitude from higher regions.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Live as members of the kingdom._ 2. _Expect the signs\nof citizenship--the crown of thorns, the cross._ 3. _Live in hope of\nthe final ingathering.--E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_The Communion of Saints._\n\n+I. Society becomes possible only through religion.+--Men might be\ngregarious without it, but not social. Instinct which unites them in\ndetail prevents their wider combination. Intellect affords light to\nshow the elements of union, but no heat to give them crystalline\nform. Self-will is prevailingly a repulsive power, and often\ndisintegrates the most solid of human masses. Some sense of a Divine\nPresence, some consciousness of a higher law, some pressure of a\nsolemn necessity, will be found to have preceded the organization of\nevery human community, and to have gone out and perished before its\ndeath.\n\n+II. Worship exhibits its uniting principle under the simplest form,\nin the sympathies it diffuses among the members of the same religious\nassembly.+--There is, however, no necessary fellowship, as of saints,\nin the mere assembling of ourselves together; but only in the true\nand simple spirit of worship. Where a pure devotion really exists,\nthe fellowship it produces spreads far beyond the separate circle of\neach Christian assembly. Surely it is a glorious thing to call up,\nwhile we worship, the wide image of Christendom this day. Could we be\nlifted up above this sphere and look down as it rolls beneath this\nday's sun, and catch its murmurs as they rise, should we not behold\nland after land turned into a Christian shrine? In how many tongues,\nby what various voices, with what measureless intensity of love, is\nthe name of Christ breathed forth to-day!\n\n+III. But our worship here brings us into yet nobler\nconnections.+--It unites us by a chain of closest sympathy with past\ngenerations. In our helps to faith and devotion we avail ourselves of\nthe thought and piety of many extinct ages. Do not we, the living,\ntake up in adoration and prayer the thoughts of the dead and find\nthem Divinely true? What an impressive testimony is this to the\nsameness of our nature through every age and the immortal\nperseverance of its holier affections!\n\n+IV. And soon we too shall drop the note of earthly aspiration and\njoin that upper anthem of Diviner love.+--The communion of saints\nbrings us to their conflict first, their blessings afterwards. Those\nwho will not with much patience strive with the evil can have no dear\nfellowship with the good; we must weep their tears ere we can win\ntheir peace.--_Martineau._\n\n\n_Characteristics of Believers._\n\n+I. Believers are here described as having been strangers and\nforeigners.+--1. There are relative expressions, meaning that natural\nmen are strangers to the household of God and foreigners as respects\nthe city of Zion. 2. Consider the natural man with reference to the\ncity of Zion, and the truth of this representation will appear.\n(1) He is a stranger and foreigner--(_a_) By a sentence of exile\n(Gen. iii.). (_b_) By birth (Gen. v. 3; John iii. 6). (2) He is\nproved to be a stranger and foreigner--(_a_) By features (Gal.\nv. 19-21). (_b_) By manners (1 Pet. iv. 3). (_c_) By language. As\nsuch he is under another ruler (Eph. ii. 2), he is at war (Gal.\niv. 29). 3. Though \"strangers and foreigners\" in relation to Zion,\nyet men are naturalised in another country. 4. This does not imply\nliving beyond the pale of the visible Church. The Parable of the\nTares. An alien to the saints and a stranger to God may be in the\nvisible Church. 5. That there are \"strangers and foreigners\" in the\nChurch seems a calamity. (1) They are thereby deceived. (2) They\ninjure Christians. (3) They betray Christ.\n\n+II. Believers are described as being fellow-citizens with the\nsaints.+--1. They are citizens. (1) Their sentence of exile is\ncancelled (ver. 13). (2) They are naturalised by birth (John iii. 5).\n(3) They are reconciled to God and believers. (4) They are under\nZion's government. 2. They are \"fellow-citizens with the saints.\"\n(1) They have intercourse--holy. (2) They are united by mutual love.\n(3) They have reciprocal duties. (4) They have common rights and\nprivileges. (5) They have common honour and reputation. (6) They have\ncommon prosperity and adversity. (7) They have common enemies.\n(8) They have common defence and safety. (9) They have a common\nhistory. 3. As a congregation we are professedly a section of this\npeculiar and spiritual community. (1) Do we seek each other's\nwelfare? (2) Is our intercourse the communion of saints? (3) Are we\ncareful of each other's reputation? 4. Are we as a congregation\nisolating ourselves from each other? Are we \"fellow-citizens with the\nsaints\"? 5. The city is above.\n\n+III. Believers are here described as belonging to the household of\nGod.+--1. Believers as citizens are God's subjects. 2. As belonging\nto God's household they are His children. 3. As in God's\nhousehold--(1) They are like Him. (2) They are near to Him. (3) They\nsee His face. (4) They enjoy His fellowship. (5) They are provided\nfor by Him. (6) They are under His protection. (7) They serve Him.\n(8) They worship Him--His house is a temple. 4. These are very\ntangible privileges and belong to this present life. 5. Many may\nsuppose that they are \"fellow-citizens with the saints\" whose\nexperience does not prove that they are \"of the household of God.\"\n6. For this \"household\" God has \"a house not made with hands, eternal\nin the heavens.\"--_Stewart._\n\n\nVers. 20, 21. _The Church a Divine Edifice._--1. Though God Himself\nbe the principal Author and Builder of this spiritual edifice, yet He\nemploys His called ministers and servants as instruments, among whom\nHe made special use of the prophets and apostles for laying the\nfoundation in so far as they first did reveal and preach Jesus\nChrist, and commit to writings such truths concerning Him as are\nnecessary for salvation, while other ministers are employed in\npreaching Christ to build up the elect on the foundation laid by\nthem. 2. There is a sweet harmony and full agreement between the\ndoctrines and writings of the prophets and apostles in holding forth\nChrist for a foundation and rock of salvation, the latter having\ntaught and written nothing but what was prefigured in types and\nforetold in prophecies by the former. 3. As growth in grace is a\nprivilege which appertains to all parts of this spiritual building\nwho are yet on earth, so this growth of theirs flows from their union\nand communion with Christ; and the more their union is improved by\ndaily extracting renewed influence from Him, they cannot choose but\nthrive the better in spiritual growth.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 22. _The Church the Habitation of God._--1. Jesus Christ differs\nfrom the foundation of other buildings in this, that every particular\nbeliever is not only laid upon Him and supported by Him as in\nmaterial buildings, but they are also indented in Him, and hid, as it\nwere, in the clefts of the rock by saving faith. 2. As all believers,\nhowever far soever removed by distance, are yet more strictly tied\nand joined together, so by taking band with Christ the foundation,\nthey are fastened one to another as the stones of a building. 3. So\ninseparable is the union among the persons of the Trinity that the\npresence and indwelling of One is sufficient to prove the indwelling\nof all; for believers are a habitation to God the Father and Son,\nbecause the Spirit dwells in and sanctifies them.--_Ibid._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +The prisoner of Jesus Christ+ may be regarded as \"the\nprisoner whom the Lord has bound\" (so Winer and Meyer), or as \"a\nprisoner belonging to Christ,\" or again as \"the prisoner for Christ's\nsake.\" The indignity of an ambassador being \"thrown into irons\" is\nlost in the feeling of being, even though bound, the representative\nof such a Lord.\n\nVer. 2. +If ye have heard.+--We have the same form of expression at\nch. iv. 21--\"assuming that is, that ye heard\" (cf. Col. i. 23). +Of\nthe grace.+--The favour which God conferred on me in appointing me\nyour apostle. The Divine \"Taskmaster\" (to use Milton's expression)\nconfers honour upon us when He sets us to work. \"He is not served by\nmen's hands as though He needed anything\" (Acts xvii. 25).\n\nVer. 3. +How that by revelation.+--The familiar disavowal of any\nother source than the will of God (cf. Gal. i. 12).\n\nVer. 4. +Ye may understand my knowledge.+--You may, as the public\nreader proceeds to read my letter, discern my insights of the mystery.\n\nVer. 5. +Which in other ages.+--R.V. \"other generations.\" Might\npossibly refer to those dim ages of the past national history when\nthe Gentiles were thought of only as left to \"unconvenanted mercies.\"\nWe must note the word for \"other\"--it means a \"different kind.\" +Was\nnot made known . . . as it is now revealed.+--If any distinction is\nto be observed, we may say the \"revelation\" is one of the ways of\n\"making known\" (see ver. 3) the intuitional. +Unto His holy apostles\nand prophets.+--\"If all saints were holy _\u00e0 fortiori_ the apostles\"\n(_Bishop Alexander_).\n\nVer. 6. +Fellow-heirs . . . the same body . . . partakers.+--\"The\nA.V. loses a point of similarity in the three Gentile privileges by\nnot expressing the force of the Greek compounds by the same English\nword. Lit. 'heirs together,' 'incorporated together,' 'sharers\ntogether,' not heirs after, but together with, the Jews; not attached\nto the Hebrew body, but incorporated into it together with the\nelement that previously constituted it; not receivers of the promise\nafter others had been satisfied, but partakers of it together with\nthem\" (_Bishop Alexander_). \"Co-heirs, and concorporate, and\ncomparticipant. The strange English words may perhaps correspond to\nthe strange Greek words which St. Paul invented to express this newly\nrevealed mystery in the strongest form, as though no words could be\ntoo strong to express his conception of the reunion in Christ of\nthose who apart from Him are separate and divided\" (_Farrar_).\n\nVer. 7. +Whereof I was made a minister.+--A deacon, a runner of\nerrands. A lowly word, which reminds us of his own\nself-estimate--\"not worthy to be called an apostle\"--and prepares us\nfor the strange expression in ver. 8.\n\nVer. 8. +Less than the least of all saints.+--\"As though he said\n'leaster than all Christians'\" (_Bishop Alexander_). \"The greatest\nsinner, the greatest saint, are equidistant from the goal where the\nmind rests in satisfaction with itself. With the growth in goodness\ngrows the sense of sin. One law fulfilled shows a thousand neglected\"\n(_Mozley, quoted by Farrar_). +The unsearchable riches.+--\"The\nuntrackable wealth\" (_Farrar_), inexplicable by creaturely\nintelligences, unspeakable therefore by human tongues.\n\nVer. 9. +And to make all men see.+--He says to the Galatians (Gal.\niii. 1), \"Christ was placarded before you\"--so here he wants men to\nsee for themselves.\n\nVer. 10. +To the intent that now . . . might be known by the Church\nthe manifold wisdom of God.+--The Church as it expands from a \"little\nflock\" to a \"multitude which no man can number\" is to declare the\nmultiform wisdom of God, ever fertile in new modes of operation.\n\"Manifold\" represents a word used to describe a floral wreath as\nconsisting of \"variegated\" flowers.\n\nVer. 12. +In whom we have boldness.+--Originally meaning as regards\nspeech. In Christ the reconciled child of God has the right of\nspeaking to God without reserve. The same word is translated\n\"confidence\" in 1 John v. 14, A.V.: \"It is the free, joyful mood of\nthose reconciled to God\" (_Meyer_). +And access.+--As in ch. ii. 13.\n+With confidence.+--Hardly as equal to assurance--certainly never\nself-assurance, but in quiet leaning on the arm of Christ.\n\nVer. 13. +I desire that ye faint not at my tribulations.+--Compare\n2 Cor. iv. 1-16, where the same word is used. As an agonised\nsufferer, heroically suppressing every sign of pain, begs those who\nwait on him not to give way to grief; as Socrates, having quaffed the\npoison, rallies his friends, who have broken out into uncontrollable\nweeping, with the words, \"What are you doing my friends? What! such\nfine men as you are! Oh, where is virtue?\"; so (with a possible\nreminiscence of Acts xx. 36-38) St. Paul begs his readers not to lose\nheart.\n\nVer. 15. +The whole family.+--R.V. \"every family.\" The word for\n\"family\" is only found in the New Testament in St. Luke ii. 4 and\nActs iii. 25; in one translated \"lineage,\" in the other \"kindreds\" in\nA.V.; consistently as \"family\" by R.V. Chrysostom, and others who\nfollowed him, have surely a special claim to be heard. They translate\nit \"races.\" Bishop Alexander contends for the A.V. translation, _\"the\nwhole.\"_ He says, \"A special force and signification in the\nexpression make this translation necessary\" (cf. ch. ii. 19).\n\nVer. 16. +The riches of His glory.+--\"The whole glorious perfection\nof God.\" +To be strengthened with might.+--There may be a verbal\nconnection with the \"fainting\" of ver. 13, but the thought goes far\nout beyond that. +In the inner man.+--We are reminded again of the\ntext quoted above (2 Cor. iv. 16). A mode of expression derived from\nthe Platonic school, not necessarily presupposing any acquaintance\nwith that system of philosophy.\n\nVer. 17. +That Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith.+--The\ncondition of this, declared by Christ Himself, is that a man should\nkeep the word of Christ. +Being rooted and grounded.+--A double\nmetaphor--of a tree that has struck its roots deep into the crevices\nof the rock, and of a building with a foundation of bed-rock. \"Every\none that loveth is born of God and knoweth God\" (1 John iv. 7). Love\nconditions knowledge of things Divine (see ver. 18).\n\nVer. 18. +May be able.+--Perfectly able. +With all saints.+--The\nhighest and most precious knowledge Paul can desire only as a common\npossession of all Christians. +What is the breadth, and length, and\ndepth, and height.+--\"The deeply affected mind with its\npoetico-imaginative intuition looks upon the _metaphysical_ magnitude\nas a _physical, mathematical_ one. Every special attempt at\ninterpretation is unpsychological, and only gives scope to that\ncaprice which profanes by dissecting the outpouring of enthusiasm\"\n(_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 19. +And to know the love of Christ, which passeth\nknowledge.+--\"An _adequate_ knowledge of the love of Christ\ntranscends human capacity, but the _relative_ knowledge of the same\nopens up in a higher degree the more the heart is filled with the\nSpirit of Christ, and thereby is strengthened in loving. This\nknowledge is not _discursive,_ but based in the consciousness of\nexperience\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 20. +Now unto Him that is able to do exceedingly\nabundantly.+--After his prayer proper is ended the full heart of the\napostle swells out into a solemn doxology. The frequent and bold\ncompound expressions of St. Paul (_Farrar_ says twenty of the New\nTestament twenty-eight with \u1f51\u03c0\u03ad\u03c1 are St. Paul's) spring from the\nendeavours adequately to express his energetic thought. +According to\nthe pour that worketh in us.+--\"The measure of a man\" or \"of an\nangel\" is insufficient here. Things are not achieved by creaturely\nmensuration where God works (cf. ch. i. 19-23).\n\nVer. 21. +To Him be the glory.+--\"The honour due to His name.\" +By\nChrist Jesus.+--He that \"climbeth up some other way\" with his\noffering courts his own destruction. +Throughout all ages, world\nwithout end.+--R.V. \"Unto all generations, for ever and ever.\" A good\nspecimen of the \"exceeding abundantly above all that we . . .\nunderstand\" as regarded under the aspect of time. It carries our\nthoughts along the vista of the future, till time melts into eternity.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-6.\n\n_An Enlarged Gospel_--\n\n+I. Declaring the admission of the Gentiles on the same footing as\nthe Jews to its highest privileges+ (ver. 6).--It came as a surprise\nto the world of the apostle's day that the Gospel he preached offered\nits blessings on equal terms to Jew and Gentile. The Jew, accustomed\nto be the sole repository of Divine revelation, was staggered at the\ndiscovery that heaven extended its favours to the outcast, heathenish\nGentile; and the Gentile, proudly trusting to his own intellectual\nactivity in the search after truth, greeted with wonder the ampler\nand loftier revelations of the new evangel. It seemed too good to be\ntrue. A new era was dawning, and men were dazzled and bewildered with\nthe splendour of the vision. It is now authoritatively declared that,\non the simple conditions of penitence and faith, the Gentile world is\nincorporated into the body of Christ. So far from being excluded from\nthe Divine favour, the believing Gentiles are reckoned as\n\"fellow-heirs, and of the same body and partakers of the promise in\nChrist by the gospel\"; and the marvel is increased by the discovery\nthat this astounding privilege is no new thought in the Divine mind,\nbut was an essential part of the purpose concerning the race that had\nbeen developing in the slow march of the ages. The Hebrew Scriptures\nwith their records of extraordinary theophanies, the saintly\ncharacters of Old Testament times, the Messianic revelations and the\nwealth of spiritual blessing which the isolated Jew had selfishly\nappropriated to himself, are the heaven-given privileges of universal\nman.\n\n+II. Was wrapped in mystery for ages.+--\"Which in other ages was not\nmade known unto the sons of men\" (ver. 5). The mystery all centres in\nChrist. The revelation of Messiah as the hope and salvation of the\nrace was dimly and slowly unveiled in progressive stages. \"It is the\nglory of God to conceal a thing.\" Some of His grandest movements are\nveiled in mystery till the right moment comes, when the obscurity\nvanishes and the vastness and beauty of the completed work elicit our\nadmiration and praise. We are familiar with this process in the\nnatural world and in the progress of human history. The fruits of the\nearth do not reach maturity at a bound. Slowly and in secret the bud\nis rounded, then comes the delicately tinted blossom, and afterwards\nthe tempting, mellow fruit. The same may be said of the growth of\nhuman character. It reaches the higher grades of mental and moral\nexcellence by slow and silent stages, and advances in the ratio of\nthe fidelity and energy with which the man carries out the great plan\nof his life-career. So the revelation of the Gospel mystery has been\ngradual and progressive. The purpose itself is incapable of\nprogress--it has been fixed from eternity; but it has been made known\nto the world in portions suited to each succeeding period of its\nhistory. The law shadowed forth that purpose with more fulness than\nany previous dispensation, and the prophets went beyond the law,\noccupying a middle place between it and the Gospel, while the Gospel\nin its fuller revelation has gone as far beyond the prophets as they\nwent beyond the law. Thus we see that God \"who appears deliberate in\nall His operations\" has unfolded His great purpose to save the race\nby slow and successive stages. The mystery of yesterday is the sunlit\nepiphany of to-day.\n\n+III. Was specially revealed by the Spirit.+--\"How that by revelation\nHe made known unto me the mystery\" (ver. 3). \"As it is now revealed\nunto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit\" (ver. 5).\nNotwithstanding the gradual disclosure of the mystery of the Gospel,\nits full significance could not have been caught without supernatural\nhelp. Mere flux of time adds nothing to our knowledge; nor can the\nmost active intelligence decipher the spiritual meaning of truth. The\nSpirit of God, operating on the alert and awakened mind of the\napostle, revealed to him the glory and power of Christ--the hidden\nmystery of ages--and opened to him the far-reaching provisions of the\nenlarged Gospel of which Christ is the inexhaustible theme. There is\nstill much mystery in the Gospel that remains to be fathomed--the\nproblem of the atonement, the origin of sin, the future destiny and\neternal state of human souls, and the revelation of Christ and His\nChurch to present-day social and economic questions in their bearing\non human development and the future prosperity of the kingdom of God\non earth. We are in daily need of the light and teaching of the Holy\nSpirit.\n\n+IV. Was entrusted to man as a stewardship of Divine grace.+--\"The\ndispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward\" (ver.\n2). The mystery of the Gospel was revealed to Paul that he might\ndispense its benefits to others. Former generations had received\nlight from heaven; but not sufficiently appreciating it, or wishing\nto keep it within too narrow a sphere, it grew dim and went out.\nWhere it fell on prepared hearts it was used for the illumination and\nblessing of others. Paul was Divinely prepared for the revelation; he\nreceived it in trust for others; he saw the boundless provisions of\nthe Gospel, and became a powerful advocate for its universal claims.\nEvery minister is a steward of the mysteries of the kingdom of God,\nand it is his joy to minister to others whatever of insight into\ntruth and grace of experience the Divine Spirit may entrust to him.\nThe Gospel is an ever-enlarging Gospel to the soul lit up and\ninformed by the revealing Spirit.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel is an advance on all previous\nrevelations._ 2. _It is the grandest revelation of saving truth._\n3. _It can be known and enjoyed only by the Spirit._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1-21. _Riches of Christ._--Many make Christianity something\nlocal, temporary, and thus degrade it. Christ is inexhaustible for\nmind and heart; we find all in Him. Let us never make of this rich\nChrist a poor one. What Christ has instituted must be something\ntranscendent, and not so common that every intellect can discover\nit.--_Heubner._\n\n\nVers. 1-6. _The Calling of the Gentiles._\n\n+I. Paul calls himself a prisoner of Christ for the Gentiles.+--The\nliberality of his sentiments towards them and the boldness with which\nhe asserted their title to equal privileges with Jews were the\nprincipal reasons why the latter persecuted him with such violence,\nand caused him to be sent a prisoner to Rome. The spring of this\nbitter enmity in the Jews was their spiritual pride and worldly\naffection. Liberality of sentiment essentially belongs to true\nreligion. Bigotry, hatred, and envy among Christians debase their\ncharacter and scandalise their profession. We should entertain\nexalted thoughts of the Divine Goodness. Such thoughts enlarge the\nmind and liberalise the feelings.\n\n+II. The Gospel is called a dispensation of the grace of God.+--It is\na discovery of that method which the wisdom of God has chosen for\ndispensing His grace and mercy toward fallen men. It is called the\nGospel of God as it originated in His pleasure; and the Gospel of\nChrist as He is the immediate author of it, and His doctrines and\nworks, His life and death, His resurrection and ascension, and the\nblessings procured by Him are the subjects on which it principally\ntreats. The grace which the Gospel offers is pardon and glory. Under\nsuch a dispensation how inexcusable are the impenitent, and how\namazing will be the punishment of those who finally perish in their\nguilt!\n\n+III. This dispensation was committed to the apostle for the benefit\nof mankind.+--It was a trust committed to him by the will of God, not\na power arrogated by his own presumption. He did not rely on a\nsecret, internal call as what alone would warrant him to commence as\na preacher. He carefully conformed to the order which Christ has\ninstituted in His Church. He instructed Timothy and Titus to do\nlikewise. Ministers are not to found their warrant to preach on any\nimmediate revelation. If they should pretend to this, it would be no\nwarrant for them to assume it, unless they can by miracles prove to\nthe world the reality of the pretended revelation.\n\n+IV. The knowledge of the Gospel was communicated to Paul by\nrevelation.+--God did not, at the expense of inspiration, teach the\napostles those things which they knew or might know by other means.\nBut where actual knowledge and the means of obtaining it were\nwanting, there inspiration supplied the defect. It is not necessary\nfor us to know the nature of this inspiration, or the manner in which\nthe apostles were assured of its divinity. If we believe there is an\ninfinite and all-perfect Spirit, who pervades universal nature, we\nmust believe He can reveal His will to men by such an immediate\ninfluence as shall carry its own evidence and leave no possible doubt\nof its reality. If we deny the possibility of a certain inspiration\nfrom God, we deny that power to Him which we ourselves possess, for\nwe can speak to men in such a manner that they shall certainly know\nwe speak to them and perfectly understand our meaning.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 4, 6. _The Knowledge of Christ intended for All._--It is\nsignificant that the inscription on the cross was written in Hebrew,\nGreek, and Latin. 1. _Hebrew,_ the language of religion, of the\nrevelation concerning the one true God. 2. _Greek,_ the language of\nliterature, of arts and culture, the best medium in which to transmit\nthe literature of the New Testament, as Hebrew was for that of the\nOld. It might be designated as the _human_ language. 3. _Latin,_ the\nlanguage of the conquerors and masters of the world--also of the\nRoman Empire, as that kingdom of worldly aggrandisement and power,\nfalsehood and wrong, in opposition to the kingdom of God destined to\nuproot and replace it. The Roman soldiers stationed throughout Europe\nbecame useful factors in the spread of the Gospel. Note also the\nsynoptic gospels of 1. _Matthew_--Hebrew in thought and diction,\nwritten to convince Jews. 2. _Mark_--Latin in thought, and written\nfor the Roman mind. 3. _Luke_--Greek in thought and style, written\nfor Gentiles.\n\n\nVers. 4, 5. _God known in Christ._--After the death of Pascal there\nwas found in the lining of his coat a parchment which he never parted\nfrom, in order to keep in his memory a certain epoch in his life. It\ncontained these words: \"Certainty--joy--the God of Jesus Christ, not\nof the philosophers and savants. O that I may never be separated from\nHim!\" The explanation of this is, that on one memorable night, during\na holy watching, he had met, not merely the Machinist of the\nuniverse, the God who is but the substance or the law of the world,\nbut the God who wills and creates the happiness of His children.\n\n\nVers. 5, 6. _The Comprehensiveness of the Gospel._--1. God's purpose\nto call the Gentiles was not altogether unknown to the ancient\nChurch; but it was not so clearly revealed under the Old Testament as\nunder the New. 2. Though God might easily communicate the knowledge\nof Himself unto all immediately and without the help of second means,\nyet He hath chosen so to communicate His mind to some few only who\nhave, at His appointment, set down in sacred writ what they\nimmediately received, by which means the knowledge of God may, in an\nordinary way, be conveyed to others. 3. It is a great and glorious\nprivilege to be a part of that mystical body of which Christ is Head,\nbecause of the strict union such have with Christ and with all\nbelievers in Christ, and because of their interest in all the\nprivileges of that body and in the gifts and graces of every member\nof it.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-9.\n\n_An Exalted Ministerial Commission_--\n\n+I. To distribute the unbounded wealth of the Gospel.+--\"Unto\nme . . . is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable\nriches of Christ\" (ver. 8). In calling the Gospel \"the unsearchable\nriches of Christ\" the apostle signifies that Christ, the whole truth\nabout Him and centred in Him, is the theme of his preaching, and that\nin Christ he finds a mine of inexhaustible wealth, a treasure of\ntruth which cannot be told. He speaks as one who has\nsearched--searched so long, so far, as to have produced on his mind\nthe impression of unsearchableness. His whole style of writing in\nthis chapter is that of a man overwhelmed with a sense of the\ninfinite grace of God revealed in Christ. The expression\n\"unsearchable riches,\" while conveying the impression of infinitude\nas the words \"breadth,\" \"length,\" \"height,\" \"depth,\" suggests a\ndifferent idea--that of a mine of precious metal, rather than that of\na vast continent of great length and breadth with high mountains and\ndeep valleys spread over its surface. Paul speaks as a man digging in\na recently discovered gold-field, who finds particles of the precious\nmetal in such abundance that he cannot refrain from exclaiming ever\nand anon, \"What an inexhaustible supply of gold is here!\" He speaks\nfurther as one who feels it his special business to let all the world\nknow of this gold-field, and invite all to come and get a share of\nits wealth (_A. B. Bruce_).\n\n+II. To reveal to men the secret mind of God.+--1. _The Gospel was\nfor long hidden alone in God._ \"Which from the beginning of the world\nhath been hid in God\" (ver. 9). It was a mystery hid _in_ God, not\n_from_ God. The idea of the universality of the Gospel, though veiled\nfor ages by the limitations of the Divine dealings with the Jewish\npeople, was never absent from the mind of God. Down through the\nrolling years one eternal purpose runs, and now and then the most\ngifted of the Hebrew seers caught a glimpse of its ever-widening\nrange. This great secret of the ages was revealed to Paul in such\nclearness and fulness that he regarded it as the one purpose of his\nlife--his heaven-sent commission--to make it known to his fellow-men,\nof whatever nationality.\n\n2. _The purpose of the creation of all things by Christ was also a\npart of the Divine mystery._--\"Who created all things by Jesus\nChrist\" (ver. 9). The statement of this fact--thrown in by way of\nparenthesis--links the whole created things with the development of\nthe Divine purpose, and asserts the absolute sovereignty of Jesus\nover all worlds. In some way yet to be more fully explained as the\nDivine purpose ripens all created beings are to be advantaged by the\nsublime redemptive work unfolded in the Gospel. \"For He hath created\nall things, and by Him all things consist.\"\n\n3. _The mystery was revealed to one for the benefit of all._--\"And to\nmake all men see what is the fellowship [the stewardship] of the\nmystery\" (ver. 9). It was well for us and the race that the\nrevelation and commission were committed to one who by training and\ngifts was so well qualified to explain and propagate the grand Divine\nidea. The barriers of Jewish prejudice in Paul were swept away by the\nvastness and universality of the message. He saw it included his\nHebrew brethren--and to them the Gospel was first preached--but he\nsaw also it included all in its comprehensive sweep. Paul was not\nalone among the apostles in comprehending the breadth of the Gospel;\nbut he was foremost and most resolute and unbending in battling for\nthe right of the Gentiles to be admitted to all its blessed\nprivileges. He thought out the Gospel for himself, and he became the\nfearless and astute champion of the sinning race. What is accepted as\na commonplace to-day was not won without argument, suffering, and\nstruggle.\n\n+III. Bestowed as an act of Divine grace.+--1. _As an act of Divine\ngrace it was confirmed by the conscious possession of Divine power._\n\"Given unto me by the effectual working of His power\" (ver. 7). Paul\nhimself experienced the transforming power of the Gospel. He was\ndeeply convinced of its truth, he believed and embraced its\nprovisions, he accepted Christ as the living core of the Gospel, and\nhe was thrilled with the Divine power that wrought in him a great\nmoral change. He spoke not only with the force and authority of\nclearly apprehended truth, but with the unfaltering certitude of\npersonal experience. He was henceforth the willing agent of the\nDivine power working within him.\n\n2. _As an act of Divine grace his commission overwhelmed him with a\nsense of personal unworthiness._--\"Unto me, who am less than the\nleast of all saints, is this grace given\" (ver. 8). The immense\nfavour humbles him to the dust. That Saul, the Pharisee and the\npersecutor, the most unworthy and unlikely of men, should be the\nchosen vessel to bear Christ's riches to the Gentile world, how shall\nhe sufficiently give thanks for this! how express his wonder at the\nunfathomable wisdom and goodness that the choice displays in the mind\nof God! But we can see that this choice was precisely the fittest. A\nHebrew of the Hebrews, steeped in Jewish traditions and glorying in\nhis sacred ancestry, none knew better than the apostle Paul how rich\nwere the treasures stored in the house of Abraham that he had to make\nover to the Gentiles. A true son of that house, he was the fittest to\nlead in the aliens, to show them its precious things, and make them\nat home within its walls (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The minster of the Gospel has a solemn\nresponsibility._ 2. _Should be faithful and earnest in his work._\n3. _Should guard against temptations to pride._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 7. _A God-made Minister._--1. It is not sufficient warrant for\nany to meddle with the ministerial office that he hath competent\ngifts, except he have also ministerial power and authority conveyed\nto him, either immediately by God, as it was in the calling of the\napostles, or mediately according to that order which God has\nestablished in His Church, as in the calling of ordinary ministers.\n2. As it is required to make a man a minister that he be endued with\ncompetent abilities and gifts for that employment, so it is no less\nrequisite that God concur with him. God giveth not to all one and the\nsame gift, or in the same measure, but to some a greater, to others a\nless, as He hath more or less to do with them. 3. So great and many\nare the difficulties of ministers before they attain to freedom and\nboldness in exercising their ministerial gift that no less is\nrequired than the power of God, working effectually with a kind of\npith and energy. A minister will be always ready to acknowledge his\ngifts as from God and His powerful working in him, and not to his own\ndignity, diligence, or parts.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 8, 9. _The Apostle's View of his Ministry._\n\n+I. Consider what a humble opinion the apostle had of himself.+--\"Who\nam less than the least of all saints.\" In his abilities and gifts he\nwas not a whit behind the chiefest apostles, and in sufferings he was\nmore frequent and in labours more abundant than they all. But in\nrespect to worthiness he esteemed them his superiors; for they had\nnot, like him, persecuted the Church, and they were in Christ and\nbecame apostles before him. Good Christians in honour prefer one\nanother. True religion will produce self-abasing thoughts. The true\nconvert forgets not his former character. He reflects often on his\npast guilty life, that he may be more humble in himself, more\nthankful, more watchful, more diligent.\n\n+II. The apostle expresses his admiring apprehensions of God's grace\nin calling him to the ministry.+--To the same grace which had called\nhim he ascribes all his furniture for the ministry and all his\nsuccess. However contemptible some render themselves in the Gospel\nministry, the office itself is honourable.\n\n+III. The apostle's elevated sentiments concerning the Gospel.+--He\ncalls it \"the unsearchable riches of Christ.\" The blessings of the\nGospel, being purchased by the blood of Christ, are called His\nriches. They are called riches on account of their excellency,\nfulness, and variety. They are undiscoverable by human reason, and\nmade known only by revelation. They were but imperfectly made known\nin the prophetic revelation. They are of inestimable value.\n\n+IV. Consider the grand and enlarged conceptions the apostle\nentertained of the design and importance of his ministry+ (ver.\n9).--It was to open to mankind that mighty scheme which the wisdom of\nGod had formed, and which His goodness had for ages been carrying\ninto execution, for the redemption of our fallen race. His ministry\nwas designed for the benefit, not of men only, but of angels too\n(ver. 10).--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Christian Humility illustrated in the Character of Paul._\n\n+I. The apostle remembered his past sins.+--Wherever there is a\nquickened conscience, it will prompt the possessor to think of his\npast sins, and this even when he has reason to believe that they have\nbeen forgiven. The apostle continued to remember the natural and\ndeeply seated pride and self-righteousness which he had so long\ncherished. Allusion is made in every one of his public apologies and\nin a number of his epistles to the circumstance of his once having\nbeen an enemy of the cross of Christ and a persecutor. It is for the\nbenefit of the believer to remember his past sinfulness. The\nrecollection of his infirmities may enable him to guard against their\nrecurrence. Our sins, even when past and forgiven, are apt to leave a\nprejudicial influence behind. Our sins are like wounds, which even\nwhen cured and closed are apt to leave a scar behind. It is most meet\nand becoming, and in every respect for his own profit and the\nadvantage of the Church and world, that the sinner, and more\nparticularly the man whose former life has been known, should walk\nhumbly before God and his fellow-men all the days of his life. Nor\nlet it be forgotten that the remembrance of past sin is one of the\nmotives impelling the Christian to be \"zealously affected in every\ngood thing.\" The remembrance of the injury he had done to the Church\nstimulated him to make greater endeavours to benefit it. The\npersecution which he had inflicted on others made him more steadfast\nin bearing the sufferings to which he was now exposed. According to\nthe account handed down from the early Church, the apostle had to\nsuffer a violent death in the reign of Nero, when Christians were\ncovered with pitch and burned as torches, or clothed with the skins\nof wild beasts and dogs let loose upon them. We can conceive that as\nhe saw the terrible preparations for putting him to death, his memory\nwould go back thirty years, and he would remember how he himself had\nstood by and consented to the death of the holy martyr Stephen, and\nhe would feel himself thereby the more strengthened to endure what\nthe Lord was now pleased to lay upon him.\n\n+II. The apostle mourned over the sin yet cleaving to him.+--He had\nnot only a recollection of past sin, he had a sense of present sin.\nThis sense of indwelling sin is one of the elements that conduce to\nthe onward progress of the believer. Why is it that so many\nprofessing Christians, ay, and too many true Christians, are not\nadvancing in the spiritual life; are the same this week as they were\nthe previous week; the same this year as they were the last year; and\nto all appearance, and unless God arouse them, will be the same the\nnext week or next year as they are this? It is because they are\ncontented with themselves and with their condition, they have reached\na state of self-complacency, they have \"settled upon their lees,\" and\nthey do not wish to be disturbed by so much as an allusion to their\nsin. Very different was the temper of the apostle. Conscious of the\nsin that still adhered to him, he longed to have it completely\nexterminated, and sought the heavenly aid which might enable him to\nreach that after which he was always striving--\"unto a perfect man,\nunto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.\"\n\n+III. The apostle acknowledged God to be the Author of all the gifts\nand graces possessed by him.+--Paul on more than one occasion found\nit necessary to speak of his gifts. And when he follows this train of\nreflection, he arrests himself to explain that his faults are his\nown, and to ascribe the glory of his gifts to God. There may be\ncircumstances requiring us to speak of our attainments in the\nspiritual life; but there can be no excuse for our thinking of them\nor alluding to them in a spirit of complacency. Of all pride,\nspiritual pride is the most hateful, and the most lamentably\ninconsistent. How often does it happen that, when persons are\nsuddenly elevated to places of honour, they see nothing but their own\nmerits, their own talent, their own skill or good management?\nElevation of rank thus leads in too many cases to an increase of\npride and vanity. This is painfully illustrated in the history of\nSaul, the son of Kish. Setting out in search of his father's asses,\nhe received before he returned a kingdom for the discharge of the\noffices of which he had many qualifications. But his rise seems to\nhave fostered the morbid vanity of his mind; and when this was not\nfed by constant incense, when the Israelites cried: \"Saul hath slain\nhis thousands, and David his tens of thousands,\" it led to envy and\nrevenge, which goaded him on to deeds of utter infatuation. How\ndifferent with Saul of Tarsus! At every step of his elevation in the\nChurch he saw the finger of God, and was the more impressed with his\nown unworthiness.\n\n+IV. The apostle took a high standard of excellence: he took as his\nmodel the law of God and the character of Jesus.+--All actual\nexcellence, whether earthly or spiritual, has been attained by the\nmind keeping before it and dwelling upon the ideas of the great, the\ngood, the beautiful, the grand, the perfect. The tradesman and\nmechanic reach the highest eminence by never allowing themselves to\nrest till they can produce the most finished specimens of their\nparticular craft. The painter and sculptor travel to distant lands\nthat they may see and as it were fill their eye and mind with the\nsight of the most beautiful models of their arts. Poets have had\ntheir yet undiscovered genius awakened into life as they contemplated\nsome of the grandest of nature's scenes; or as they listened to the\nstrains of other poets the spirit of inspiration has descended upon\nthem, as the spirit of inspiration descended on Elisha while the\nminstrel played before him. The soldier's spirit has been aroused\neven more by the stirring sound of the war-trumpet than by the record\nof the courage and heroism of other warriors. The fervour of one\npatriot has been created as he listened to the burning words of\nanother patriot; and many a martyr's zeal has been kindled at the\nfuneral pile of other martyrs. In this way fathers have handed down\ntheir virtues to their children, and those who could leave their\noffspring no other have in their example left them the very richest\nlegacy; and the deeds of those who perform great achievements have\nlived far longer than those who do them, and have gone down from one\ngeneration to another. Now the believer has such a model set before\nhim in the character of Jesus, which as it were embodies the law and\nexhibits in it the most attractive and encouraging light. We may copy\nothers in some things; we should copy Christ in all.--_Dr. J. McCosh._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Paul's Humility._\n\n+I. In what it consisted.+--1. In the unreserved submission of his\nreason to the authority of revelation. He was a great thinker, and he\nwas a great scholar. 2. In the unwavering reliance of his heart on\nChrist for the salvation of his soul. Self-righteous by constitution\nand education. 3. In ascribing to God alone the glory of all that he\nwas and of all that he did. He could not but be conscious how far he\nstood above the ordinary in point of Christian excellence and\nsupernatural gifts and ministerial usefulness. He never took any part\nof the praise to himself: \"Yet not I, but the grace of God which was\nin me.\" 4. In cherishing a sense of his unworthiness and guilt:\n\"Sinners, of whom I am chief.\" 5. In forming a lowly estimate of his\nown comparative standing: \"Less than the least of all saints.\"\n\n+II. How it was cultivated.+--1. By frequent meditation on the\nholiness of God. 2. By looking away from self to Christ. 3. By\ngratitude to God and to Christ for an interest in the blessings of\nredemption. 4. By a due appreciation of the importance of humility.\nIt is ornamental, but it is also useful. It lies at the very root of\nall the graces of the Christian character.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_Humility a Growth._--The progress which St. Paul made in humility\nhas often been given by comparing three expressions in his epistles\nwith the supposed dates when they were written: \"Not meet to be\ncalled an apostle\" (1 Cor. xv. 9: A.D. 59); \"Less than the least of\nall saints\" (Eph. iii. 8: A.D. 64); \"Sinners, of whom I am chief\"\n(1 Tim. i. 15: A.D. 65).\n\n\n_The Unsearchable Riches of Christ._--The riches of Christ's Divinity\nare unsearchable, the riches of His condescension are unsearchable,\nthe riches of His tenderness are unsearchable, the riches of His\nredeeming love are unsearchable, the riches of his intersession are\nunsearchable, the riches of his faithfulness are unsearchable, and\nthe riches of his supporting grace are unsearchable. These riches\nwill never be expressed, even to all eternity. No! not by the noble\narmy of martyrs, nor the glorious company of the apostles, nor the\ngoodly fellowship of the prophets, nor the general assembly and\nChurch of the first-born, nor the innumerable company of angels, nor\nthe spirits of just men made perfect, nor by all the ransomed throng\nof heaven. It will form their most ecstatic employment in heaven.\nJoin, all ye happy throng--join, holy Abel and Enoch, upright Job,\nperfect Noah, souls of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, grand souls of\nMoses, Samuel, and Elijah, pardoned David and Manasseh, soul of\nIsaiah the prophet. Join, all ye whose souls are under the altar cry,\n\"How long, O Lord, wilt Thou not avenge our blood upon the earth?\"\nJoin, holy Stephen and Polycarp, holy Latimer, Ridley, Hooper,\nRowland Taylor, and Anne Askew. Join, brave Wicklif, gallant Luther,\nstern John Knox, sweet John Bunyan, and praying George Fox. Join,\npious Doddridge and tuneful Watts, noble George Whitefield, holy\nFletcher, exhaustless John Wesley, dauntless Rowland Hill, and grand\nthough lowly Robert Hall. Ye sweetest trebles of the eternal choir,\nye million million babes who died without actual sin, join all your\nnotes of praise! Pull out every stop of the grand organ of heaven,\nfrom the deep swell diapason to the lofty flute and cornet! Gabriel,\nstrike the loftiest note of thy harp of gold. And let all the host of\nheaven, angels and men, begin the grand anthem, \"Worthy is the Lamb.\"\nAnd let the eternal +Amen+ peal and roll and reverberate through all\nthe arches of heaven! But never through all eternity shall the\ngathered host be able fully to express _the unsearchable riches of\nChrist.--Thomas Cooper._\n\n\nVer. 9. _The Fellowship of the Mystery._\n\nI. It is +a mystery+ it should be so long hid; a mystery, because\nwhen it was plainly revealed it was not understood by those to whom\nit was manifested; a mystery, for God was pleased to raise up a\nspecial apostle to explain and reveal, to make an epiphany of this\ngreat truth--the will of God that all men should be saved, that His\nGospel should be universally known, should be open to all for\nacceptance.\n\nII. +Our share and fellowship in the work of the Gospel is to make\nall men see their interest in it,+ to make them understand its true\ncatholicity, to make all men see that it is from the first the will\nof God that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs. By the Church is to\nbe made known the manifold wisdom of God. Every member of the Church\nis to have his or her part in doing this work. We are all to take\npart in it by our lives, our conversation, our example, our good\nworks and words. By availing ourselves of opportunities we are to\nhelp to make known this manifold wisdom of God.\n\nIII. Think for a moment +what is the state of those men who do not\nknow what is their fellowship with this mystery.+--I am not speaking\nof the entirely ignorant. Even religious people do not half\nunderstand or appreciate the deep meaning of such words as these.\nChristianity means expansion, comprehension; it embraces all, and all\nmen must see in it what is the fellowship of the mystery that we have\nreceived and that has been made known to us. We must be a light that\ncannot be hid.--_Bishop Claughton._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-13.\n\n_The Manifold Wisdom of God_--\n\n+I. Seen in the development of a long-cherished plan.+--1. _This plan\nwas carried out by Christ._ \"According to the eternal purpose which\nHe purposed in Christ\" (ver. 11). The plan is here called the\n\"eternal purpose,\" and that purpose was the redemption of man, and\nthe personage selected for its accomplishment was the Lord Jesus\nChrist. This was the unchanging theme of \"the Gospel of which the\napostle was made a minister,\" this the Divinely freighted argosy of\n\"the unsearchable riches of Christ,\" the veiled and sacred repository\nof all heavenly mysteries. The plan is significantly called the\n\"manifold wisdom of God\"--as manifold as mysterious, for there is\nvariety in the mystery and mystery in every part of the variety. The\nwisdom is seen, not so much in one act as in the masterly combination\nof a multitude of acts, all marshalled and disposed with consummate\nskill to the attainment of one grand end; just as the light that\nfills and irradiates the valley, penetrating every nook and crevice\nand clothing every object with beauty, is produced, not by a solitary\nray, but by manifold rays poured from the central sun, and all\nuniting in one harmonious illumination. The crowning wisdom of the\nplan was in God appointing His only Son as the agent in carrying it\nout. He, the sinless One, must suffer for sin; the Innocent die for\nthe guilty, and by dying conquer sin. Only thus could the righteous\nclaims of the violated law be fully satisfied, the offence of the\nsinning one condoned, the authority of the Divine government\nmaintained, and the character of the Holy One vindicated to the whole\nuniverse.\n\n2. _That the plan has been accomplished is evident from the attitude\nassumed towards man and towards God by believers_ (ver. 13).--As\nregards the attitude of the believer towards man, he has now\n\"boldness\" in declaring the whole truth, and towards God he has\n\"access with confidence by the faith of Him\"--he has confidential\nfellowship with God. Both these experiences are the result of the\nredeeming plan, and would have been impossible without it.\n\n+II. Seen in the indifference to suffering its revelations\ninspire.+--\"I desire that ye faint not [do not lose heart] at my\ntribulations for you, which is your glory\" (ver. 13). Paul had no\nanxiety for himself. He almost playfully alludes to his imprisoned\nstate: \"The prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles\" (ver. 1). His\nsoul was too full of heavenly visions and of the practical bearing of\nthe Gospel on the destiny of the race to be harassed about his\npersonal suffering. When he thought about it at all it was to rejoice\nin the honour of being allowed to suffer for such a cause, and in the\nopportunities afforded of spreading the Gospel in quarters that might\notherwise have been closed to him. But the Church feared for their\nchampion's life, and was troubled about his prolonged sufferings and\nimprisonment. The apostle assures his friends there was more reason\nfor joyous boasting than for pity and dread. The sufferings and\nmisfortunes of the Church have been overruled in promoting her\nenlargement. The flames of the martyrs have illumined the truth, and\nthe captivity of its professors has prepared the throne of its\nuniversal empire. Personal religion has grown stronger by opposition\nand suffering, and the Church has multiplied by the very means which\nwere intended to destroy her.\n\n+III. Seen in making the Church of the redeemed the means of\ninstructing the heavenly intelligences+ (ver. 10).--These lofty\nbeings, with their vast knowledge and gigantic powers, learn\nsomething from the Divine treatment of sinful, rebellious men. They\ngain new light, fresher and more expansive views, regarding the\ncharacter and perfections of God; and perhaps the chief point on\nwhich their angelic knowledge will be increased is in the glorious\nrevelations the Gospel unfolds of the infinite love of God. The\nChurch on earth, with all its contradictions and imperfections,\npresents a magnificent picture of self-denial, devotion, and praise;\nbut this is only a faint representation of the splendour of the\nChurch above in its more completed state. The Church above is a\nsociety organised; the church below is a society organising. The\nheavenly intelligences are watching both processes, and their\nwondering adoration is being continually excited as they observe the\nbuilding up and ever-advancing completion of the redeemed community.\nIf there is one thing more than another that amazes \"the\nprincipalities and powers\"--amazes them more than the manifold wisdom\nof God unfolded to them by the Church--it must surely be the apathy\nand indifference of men on earth to their redemptive blessings!--that\nso much has been done to make man wise, and he remains willingly and\ncontentedly ignorant; that God has been so prodigal of His wealth,\nand man is so slow to appreciate and seize the proffered enrichment;\nthat God offers the abundant bread of eternal life, and man prefers\nto starve in lean and comfortless poverty, and grumbles against\nheaven that he is so poor; that salvation is pressed on his\nacceptance, and man persists in perishing; that \"heaven lies about\nhim in his infancy,\" and the celestial gate opens before him in every\nsubsequent stage of life, and yet man resists the alluring glory, and\nstumbles at last into the bottomless chasm of eternal darkness.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The wisdom of God is continually presenting new\nillustrations of its manifoldness._ 2. _The most signal display of\nDivine wisdom is seen in the redemption of the race._ 3. _The future\nhistory of the Church will reveal new features in the manifold wisdom\nof God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _The Manifold Wisdom of God_--\n\n+I. Seen in the gradual unfolding of His great purpose to save the\nhuman race.+--1. This process suited the revelation to men's nature\nand condition as finite and sinful beings. Had the revelation been\nmore rapid and brilliant it could not have been so readily\nappreciated, nor could men have dared to hope they had any share in\nit. It was adapted to the infantile state of the Church and the world\nwhen the mind is most powerfully affected by sensible objects.\n2. This method was a training for appreciating the fuller discoveries\nof the Divine will. It has been an education and discipline, has\nprovoked inquiry, and encouraged full submission to the will of God\nand faith in His wisdom and power.\n\n+II. Seen in the means He employed to carry out His saving\npurpose.+--1. By the gift of His Son. 2. As a subsidiary means, by\nthe institution of preaching, and by selecting men, and not angels,\nas instruments in spreading the knowledge of Gospel redemption.\n\n+III. Seen in using the Church of the redeemed as an object-lesson in\nteaching the heavenly intelligences.+--The Church teaches the angels:\n1. By its composition. 2. By its marvellous history. 3. By its\nglorious completion.\n\n+Learn.+--1. _The dignity and glory of the Church._ 2. _Let it be\nyour all-important concern to become a member of this spiritual\ncommunity._\n\n\nVers. 11-13. _Access to God._\n\n+I. We have access.+--The word signifies an approach to some object.\nHere it intends a near approach to God in worship, or such a state of\npeace with God as allows a freedom of intercourse. It is a familiar\nexpression suited to convey the idea of great condescension on God's\npart and high privilege on ours.\n\n+II. We have boldness of access.+ The word signifies a freedom of\nspeaking in opposition to that restraint which we feel when in the\npresence of one we dread and in whose goodness we can place no\nconfidence. It expresses the fulness of that liberty which under the\nGospel all Christians enjoy of drawing near to God, and that freedom\nof spirit with which we should come to God. The disposition of our\nhearts should correspond with the liberal and gracious dispensation\nunder which we are placed. We should come to God with a spirit of\nlove, in opposition to servile fear. This boldness imports frequency\nin our approaches to God. Slaves, under fear, stand at a distance.\nChildren, invited by the goodness of a father, come often into his\npresence.\n\n+III. We have access with confidence.+ This confidence is elsewhere\ncalled a better hope and the full assurance of faith. It is opposed\nto doubting and distrust. Confidence in prayer is a full reliance on\nGod; but this may be accompanied with a humble diffidence of\nourselves.\n\n+IV. All our hope of success in prayer must rest upon the mediation\nof Christ+ (ver. 12).--In His name we are to come before God; and in\nthe virtue of His atonement and intercession we may hope for\nacceptance.\n\n+V. Access to God a refuge in trouble+ (ver. 13).--Fearing lest his\nsufferings in the cause of the Gospel should dishearten his converts,\nthe apostle sets before them a view of their security under the\nprotection of Divine grace. Dangers were before them; but what had\nthey to fear who had boldness of access to God? It was one of the\nglories of their religion that he who preached it was not ashamed to\nsuffer for it.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _In the apostle Paul we have a noble example of\nbenevolence._ 2. _New converts should be assisted and encouraged._\n3. _Our best support under trouble is boldness of access to God._\n4. _Let the grace and condescension of God encourage us to come often\ninto His presence.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 12. _Access to God in Prayer._--Prayer is to be exercised with\nthe greatest caution and exactness, being the most solemn intercourse\nearth can have with heaven. The distance between God and us, so great\nby nature and yet greater by sin, makes it fearful to address Him;\nbut Christ has smoothed a way, and we are commanded to come with a\ngood heart, not only in respect of innocence, but also of confidence.\n\n+I. There is a certain boldness and confidence very well becoming our\nhumblest addresses to God.+--It is the very language of prayer to\ntreat God as our Father. The nature of this confidence is not so\neasily set forth by positive description as by the opposition it\nbears to its extremes. It is opposed: 1. To desperation and horror of\nconscience. 2. To doubtings and groundless scrupulosities. 3. To\nrashness and precipitation. 4. To impudence.\n\n+II. The foundation of this confidence is laid in the mediation of\nChrist.+\n\n+III. The reason why Christ's mediation ought to minister such\nconfidence to us.+--His incomparable fitness for the performance of\nthat work. Considering Him: 1. In respect to God, with whom He has to\nmediate. God sustains a double capacity of Father and Judge. Christ\nappears not only as an Advocate, but as a Surety, paying down the\nutmost justice can exact. 2. In reference to men for whom He\nmediates. He is a friend, brother, surety, lord or master. 3. In\nrespect to Himself. (1) He is perfectly acquainted with all our wants\nand necessities. (2) He is heartily sensible of and concerned about\nthem. (3) He is best able to express and set them before the Father.\n\n+IV. Whether there is any other ground that may rationally embolden\nus in our addresses to Him.+--If there is, it must be either:\n1. Something within us as the merit of our good actions. But this\ncannot be--(1) because none can merit but by doing something\nabsolutely by his own power for the advantage of him from whom he\nmerits; (2) because to merit is to do something over and above what\nis due. 2. Something without us. This must be the help and\nintercession either of angels or saints. Angels cannot mediate for\nus--(1) because it is impossible for them to know and perfectly\ndiscern the thoughts; (2) because no angel can know at once all the\nprayers that are even uttered in words throughout the world. These\narguments are still more forcible against the intercession of saints.\nThe invocation of saints supposed to arise: 1. From the solemn\nmeetings used by the primitive Christians at the saints' sepulchres,\nand there celebrating the memory of their martyrdom. 2. From those\nseeds of the Platonic philosophy that so much leavened many of the\nprimitive Christians. 3. From the people being bred in idolatry. But\nthe primitive fathers held no such thing; and the Council of Trent,\nthat pretended to determine the case, put the world off with an\nambiguity. Christ is the only true way.--_R. South._\n\n\nVer. 13. _Courage under Suffering._--1. Affliction and tribulation\nfor the Gospel is a trial not only to those under it, but to others\nwho look on, and are in no less hazard to be thereby brangled (made\nto disagree) in their confidence, blunted in their zeal, and rendered\nremiss in their forwardness, than the person himself who suffers.\n2. A faithful minister suffering for truth will not be so solicitous\nfor his own outward estate as for the Church and people of God, lest\nthey be turned aside, or made to faint by reason of his sufferings.\nThis may guard from discouragement when we consider the excellent\nworth of truth, and how those who suffer for it have not cast\nthemselves without necessity upon their sufferings, but were\nnecessitated to meet them in the way of their calling. 3. So\nhonourable is it to suffer for Christ and truth that not only the\npersons who suffer are honoured, but also all such as have interest\nin them, who should not faint, but rather glory in them and take\nencouragement from them.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14-21.\n\n_A Sublime and Comprehensive Prayer_--\n\n+I. For spiritual strengthening+ (ver. 16).--The first necessity of\nthe new convert is strength. The change from the former life is so\nnew and strange. The spiritual faculties are but recently called into\nexercise; and though they are thrilled with the vigour of youth, they\npossess the inherent weakness and are exposed to the temptations of\nyouth. Their newly acquired strength is at once their glory and their\ndanger--their glory in giving them the capacity and impulse for the\nhighest kind of work; their danger because they are tempted to rely\nupon their own conscious power rather than upon the grace of God\nwithin them, which is the source of their best strength. If that\nstrength is once undermined or eaten away, it can never be replaced.\nThe strength of youth, physical or spiritual, belongs only in the\nperiod of youth; if lost in youth, it can never be regained in\nmaturer life. Whatever strength we may gain in after-years will never\nbe what it might have been if ye had never lost the strength of our\nfirst love. The apostle here prays that his converts may be\ninvigorated with a manful courage, the moral strength to meet dangers\nand to battle with difficulties without quailing.\n\n     Transcriber's Note: The Transcriber is unsure what the\n     author means by \"faith . . . must be constantly exercised\n     to keep Him there\" in this next paragraph. Please remember\n     Christ's words in Hebrews xiii. 5: \"I will never leave thee\n     nor forsake thee.\"\n\n1. _This spiritual strengthening is achieved by the indwelling Christ\nwelcomed and retained in the heart by faith._--\"That Christ may dwell\nin your hearts by faith\" (ver. 17). The source of this strength is\nnot in us; we cannot evoke it by any voluntary effort of our own. It\nis a Divine power working in us (ver. 20). It is the Christ within us\nmaking Himself felt in our otherwise enfeebled powers. We are\ninvested with the strength of Christ by our faith in Christ; and\nincrease of strength comes with increase of faith. The faith that\nreceives Christ into the heart must be constantly exercised to keep\nHim there, and to derive inspiration and help from Him in attaining\nspiritual growth and in doing useful work.\n\n2. _This spiritual strengthening is cherished by an accession of\nChristian love._--\"That ye, being rooted and grounded in love\" (ver.\n17). The double metaphor gives emphasis to the idea--\"rooted,\" a\ntree; \"grounded\" a building. When Christ is planted and settled in\nour hearts, love is shed abroad there, and becomes the genial soil in\nwhich our graces grow, and the basis of all our thought and action.\nLove is strength, the most reliable, sustaining, and victorious kind\nof strength.\n\n+II. For a clearer comprehension of the immeasurable love of Christ+\n(vers. 18, 19).--Here the prayer rises in sublimity and\ncomprehensiveness. The apostle prays that we may know the\nunknowable--\"know the love of Christ, which passeth knowledge.\" There\nis nothing so fascinating as the love of Christ, ever leading us on\nby fresh revelations, and ever leaving the impression that there are\nunfathomable depths and inaccessible heights yet to be discovered.\n\"Oh that Christ would,\" exclaimed the saintly Rutherford, \"arrest and\ncomprise my love and my heart for all. I am a bankrupt who have no\nmore free goods in the world for Christ, save that it is both the\nwhole heritage I have, and all my moveables besides. Lord, give the\nthirsty man a drink. Oh to be over ears in the well! Oh to be\nswimming over head and ears in Christ's love! I would not have\nChrist's love entering in me, but I would enter into it, and be\nswallowed up of that love. But I see not myself here, for I fear I\nmake more of His love than of Himself, whereas He Himself is far\nbeyond and much better than His love. Oh, if I had my sinful arms\nfilled with that lovely one Christ! Blessed be my rich Lord Jesus,\nwho sendeth not away beggars from His house with an empty dish. He\nfilleth the vessel of such as will come and seek. We might beg\nourselves rich, if we were wise, if we would but hold out our\nwithered hands to Christ, and learn to seek, ask, and knock.\" The\nhighest conceptions of the love of Christ are realised by the soul\nthat prays.\n\n+III. For the attainment of the most complete endowment of the Divine\nfulness.+--\"That you might be filled with all the fulness of God\"\n(ver. 19). The prayer asks that man may gain the sum-total of God's\ngifts, be filled in every capacity of his nature with the whole\nplenitude (the \u03c0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1) of God. To reach this glorious result, we\nneed, indeed, special spiritual strengthening. New wine bursts old\nbottles; and a large and sudden inflow of Divine grace would be\ndisastrous to the soul unprepared to receive it. What is wanted is\nstrength--strength of the highest and purest kind. Muscular\nstrength--a magnificent healthy physique--is a great gift; but it is\none of our lowest endowments, and its abuse sinks us to a worse than\nbrutish sensuality. Intellectual strength is a still higher gift, and\nif rightly used will lift us into a loftier world of wonders, of\nbeauty, of purity and joy; but if abused will drag us down to the\nbase level of the vapouring, scoffing sceptic, whose attempts to\nglorify error are instigated by a savage but utterly powerless hatred\nof truth. Spiritual strength is the highest gift of all. It is the\nmotive-power that gives movement and direction to thought and action.\nWithout it man is the plaything and victim of unrestrained passions.\nA short time ago I inspected one of the finest ocean-going\nsteamships, a marvellous combination of strength and elegance.\nEverything seemed as perfect as engineering science could make it.\nBut there was something wanting; it was a fatal defect. The giant\nshaft and powerful screw, the triple expansion cylinders, the cranks,\npistons, and wheels were all there, but the noble vessel was useless,\nheaving helplessly on the rolling tide. The fires were out, and the\nactive driving-power was lacking. What steam is to that great\nfloating mass of complicated mechanism, giving it life, movement,\ndirection, purpose--that spiritual strength is to our mental and\nphysical organism. To receive the fulness of indwelling Deity the\nsoul must be strengthened with spiritual strength. We cannot pray too\nearnestly for this.\n\n+IV. Uttered with a reverential recognition of the great Giver of all\nblessing.+--1. _Beginning with the submissive awe of a humble\nsuppliant._ \"For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father,\" etc.\n(vers. 14, 15). The apostle is overwhelmed with the contemplation of\nthe rich blessings stored up for man in Christ Jesus, and prostrates\nhimself with lowly homage in the conscious presence of the great\nDonor of all spiritual good. Nothing humbles us more than a sight of\nthe blessings possible of attainment by the greatest sinner.\n\n2. _Ending with an outburst of triumphant praise_ (vers. 20,\n21).--Praise soars higher than prayer. Man's desires will never\novertake God's bounty. When the apostle desires that God's praise may\nresound in the Church \"throughout all ages,\" he no longer supposes\nthat the mystery of God may be finished speedily as men count years.\nThe history of mankind stretches before his gaze into its dim\nfuturity. The successive generations gather themselves into that\nconsummate age of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all\nthe ages are contained. With its completion time itself is no more.\nIts swelling current, laden with the tribute of all the worlds and\nall their histories, reaches the eternal ocean. The end comes; God is\nall in all. At this furthest horizon of thought, Christ and His own\nare seen together rendering to God unceasing glory (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer is the cry of conscious need._ 2. _Increases\nin importunity as it is strengthened by faith._ 3. _Finds its\nsublimest themes in the culture of the spiritual life._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 14, 15. _The Christian Church a Family._\n\n+I. The definition here given of the Christian Church.+--1. _A\nsociety founded upon natural affinities--\"a family.\"_ A family is\nbuilt on affinities which are natural, not artificial; it is not a\ncombination, but a society. In ancient times an association of\ninterest combined men in one guild or corporation for protecting the\ncommon persons in that corporation from oppression. In modern times\nidentity of political creed or opinion has bound men together in one\nleague in order to establish those political principles which\nappeared to them of importance. Similarity of taste has united men\ntogether in what is called an association, or a society, in order by\nthis means to attain more completely the ends of that science to\nwhich they had devoted themselves. But, as these have been raised\nartificially, so their end is, inevitably, dissolution. Society\npasses on, and guilds and corporations die; principles are\nestablished, and leagues become dissolved; tastes change, and then\nthe association or society breaks up and comes to nothing. It is upon\nanother principle altogether that that which we call a family, or\ntrue society, is formed. It is not built upon similarity of taste nor\nidentity of opinion, but upon affinities of nature. You do not choose\nwho shall be your brother; you cannot exclude your mother or your\nsister; it does not depend upon choice or arbitrary opinion at all,\nbut is founded upon the eternal nature of things. And precisely in\nthe same way is the Christian Church formed--upon natural affinity,\nand not upon artificial combination.\n\n2. _The Church of Christ is a whole made up of manifold\ndiversities._--We are told here it is \"the whole family,\" taking into\nit the great and good of ages past now in heaven, and also the\nstruggling, the humble, and the weak now existing upon earth. Here,\nagain, the analogy holds good between the Church and the family.\nNever more than in the family is the true entirety of our nature\nseen. Observe how all the diversities of human condition and\ncharacter manifest themselves in the family. First of all, there are\nthe two opposite pales of masculine and feminine, which contain\nwithin them the entire of our humanity; which together, not\nseparately, make up the whole of man. Then there are the diversities\nin the degrees and kinds of affection. For, when we speak of family\naffection, we must remember that it is made up of many diversities.\nThere is nothing more different than the love which the sister bears\ntowards the brother, compared with that which the brother bears\ntowards the sister. The affection which a man bears towards his\nfather is quite distinct from that which he feels towards his mother;\nit is something quite different towards his sister; totally diverse,\nagain, towards his brother. And then there are diversities of\ncharacter. First, the mature wisdom and stern integrity of the\nfather, then the exuberant tenderness of the mother. And then one is\nbrave and enthusiastic, another thoughtful, and another tender. One\nis remarkable for being full of rich humour; another is sad,\nmournful, even melancholy. Again, besides these, there are\ndiversities of condition in life. First, there is the heir,\nsustaining the name and honour of the family; then perchance the\nsoldier, in whose career all the anxiety and solicitude of the family\nis centred; then the man of business, to whom they look up, trusting\nhis advice, expecting his counsel; lastly, perhaps, there is the\ninvalid, from the very cradle trembling between life and death,\ndrawing out all the sympathies and anxieties of each member of the\nfamily, and so uniting them all more closely, from their having one\ncommon point of sympathy and solicitude. Now, you will observe that\nthese are not accidental, but absolutely essential to the idea of a\nfamily; for so far as any one of them is lost, so far the family is\nincomplete. And precisely in the same way all these diversities of\ncharacter and condition are necessary to constitute and complete the\nidea of a Christian Church.\n\n3. _The Church of Christ is a society which is for ever shifting its\nlocality and altering its forms._--It is the whole Church, \"the whole\nfamily in heaven and earth.\" So, then, those who were on earth and\nnow in heaven are members of the same family still. Those who had\ntheir home here, now have it there. The Church of Christ is a society\never altering and changing its external forms. \"The whole\nfamily\"--the Church of the patriarchs and of ages before them; and\nyet the same family. Remember, I pray you, the diversities of form\nthrough which, in so many ages and generations, this Church has\npassed. Consider the difference there was between the patriarchal\nChurch of the time of Abraham and Isaac and its condition under\nDavid; or the difference between the Church so existing and its state\nin the days of the apostles and the marvellous difference between\nthat and the same Church four of five centuries later; or, once\nagain, the difference between that, externally one, and the Church as\nit exists in the present day, broken into so many fragments. Yet,\ndiversified as these states may be, they are not more so than the\nvarious stages of a family.\n\n+II. Consider the name by which this Church is named.+--\"Our Lord\nJesus Christ,\" the apostle says, of whom \"the whole family in heaven\nand earth is named.\"\n\n1. _First, the recognition of a common Father._--That is the sacred\ntruth proclaimed by the Epiphany. God revealed in Christ--not the\nFather of the Jew only, but also of the Gentile. The Father of a\nwhole family. Not the partial Father, loving one alone--the\nelder--but the younger son besides, the outcast prodigal who had\nspent his living with harlots and sinners, but the child still, and\nthe child of a Father's love.\n\n2. _The recognition of a common humanity._--He from whom the Church\nis named took upon Him not the nature merely of the noble, of kings,\nor of the intellectual philosopher, but of the beggar, the slave, the\noutcast, the infidel, the sinner, and the nature of every one\nstruggling in various ways.\n\n3. _The Church of Christ proceeds out of and rests upon the belief\nin a common Sacrifice.--F. W. Robertson._\n\n\n_The Family in Heaven and Earth._--With the boldness of a true and\ninspired nature the apostle Paul speaks with incidental ease of one\nfamily distributed between heaven and earth. There is, it seems,\ndomesticity that cannot be absorbed by the interval between two\nspheres of being--a love that cannot be lost amidst the immensity,\nbut finds the surest track across the void--a home affinity that\npenetrates the skies, and enters as the morning or evening guest. And\nit is Jesus of Nazareth who has effected this; has entered under the\nsame household name, and formed into the same class, the dwellers\nabove and those beneath. Spirits there, and spirits here, are\ngathered by Him into one group; and where before was saddest exile,\nHe has made a blest fraternity.\n\nI. +Members of the same home cannot dwell together, without either\nthe memory or the expectation or some mutual and mortal\nfarewell.+--All we who dwell in this visible scene can think of\nkindred souls that have vanished from us into the invisible. These,\nin the first place, does Jesus keep dwelling near our hearts; making\nstill one family of those in heaven and those on earth. This He would\ndo, if by no other means, by the prospect He has opened, of actual\nrestoration. And since the grave can bury no affection now, but only\nthe mortal and familiar shape of their object, death has changed its\nwhole aspect and relation to us; and we may regard it, not with\npassionate hate, but with quiet reverence. It is a Divine message\nfrom above, not an invasion from the abyss beneath; not the fiendish\nhand of darkness thrust up to clutch our gladness enviously away, but\na rainbow gleam that descends through Jesus, without which we should\nnot know the various beauties that are woven into the pure light of\nlife. Once let the Christian promise be taken to the heart, and as we\nwalk through the solemn forest of our existence, every leaf of love\nthat falls, while it proclaims the winter near, lets in another patch\nof God's sunshine to paint the glade beneath our feet and give a\nglory to the grass. Tell me that I shall stand face to face with the\nsainted dead; and, whenever it may be, shall I not desire to be\nready, and to meet them with clear eye and spirit unabashed? Such and\nso much encouragement would Christianity give to the faithful\nconversation of all true affections, if it only assured us of some\ndistant and undefinable restoration. But it appears to me to assure\nus of much more than this; to discountenance the idea of any, even\nthe most temporary, extinction of life in the grave; and to sanction\nour faith in the absolute immortality of the mind. Rightly\nunderstood, it teaches not only that the departed will live, but that\nthey do live, and indeed have never died, but simply vanished and\npassed away.\n\nII. But it is not merely the members of the same literal home that\nChrist unites in one, whether in earth or heaven. +He makes the good\nof every age into a glorious family of the children of God;+ and\ninspires them with a fellow-feeling, whatever the department of\nservice which they fill. Keeping us ever in the mental presence of\nthe Divinest wisdom and in veneration of a perfect goodness, it\naccustoms us to the aspect of every grace that can adorn and\nconsecrate our nature; trains our perceptions instantly to recognise\nits influence or to feel its want. It looks with an eye of full and\nclear affection over the wide circle of human excellence. Such hope\ntends to give us a prompt and large congeniality with them; to\ncherish the healthful affections which are domestic in every place\nand obsolete in no time; to prepare us for entering any new scene,\nand joining any new society where goodness, truth, and beauty\ndwell.--_Martineau._\n\n\n_The Christian Brotherhood of Man._--The brotherhood of man has been\nthe dream of old philosophers, and its attainment the endeavour of\nmodern reformers. Man can only reach his highest life when he forms\npart of a society bound together by common sympathies and common\naims, for by a great law of our nature it is true that he who lives\nutterly apart from his fellows must lose all true nobleness in\nselfish degradation. There is no real progress for the individual but\nthrough social sympathy. There is no strong and enduring aspiration\nbut in the fellowship of aspiring souls. That conviction which men\nhave so strongly felt and so vainly endeavoured to realise is\nperpetually asserted in the Book of God.\n\n+I. The brotherhood of man in Christ.+--1. _The Christian brotherhood\nis a unity of spirit under a diversity of form._ Thus with the Church\nof the first century. At first it was one band of brotherhood; but as\nit grew and individual thought expanded and experience deepened there\narose infinite diversities. The more men think and the more they\ngrow, the more will they differ.\n\n2. _There are spiritual ties in action which in Christ bind man to\nman._--Paul's words imply a threefold unity. 1. The fellowship of\ndevotion to a common Father. 2. The fellowship with Christ our common\nBrother. 3. That fellowship is unbroken by the change of worlds.\n\n+II. Results of realising this fact of brotherhood.+--1. _Earnestness\nof life._ 2. _Power and grandeur of hope._--Some complain that their\nideas of heaven are vague and ineffective. Only realise the\nbrotherhood of man, and then the hope of the future will become a\npower in life.--_E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_The One Family._--1. Believers on earth and saints and angels in\nheaven spring from the same common parent. 2. Are governed by the\nsame general laws. 3. Share in the same pleasures and enjoyments.\n4. Have the same general temper, the same distinguishing complexion.\n5. Have one common interest. 6. Look to, rely upon, and are guided by\nthe same Head. 7. Are all objects of God's love. 8. At the last day\nwill meet in God's presence, be openly acknowledged as His children,\nand admitted to dwell in His house for ever.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _If we estimate the dignity of men from the families\nwith which they are connected, how honourable is the believer!_\n2. _We see our obligations to mutual condescension, peaceableness,\nand love._ 3. _Let those who are not of this family be solicitous to\nobtain a place in it.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 16-19. _Paul's Prayer for the Ephesians._\n\n+I. For spiritual strength.+--It was not bodily strength, civil\npower, or worldly distinction; it was the grace of fortitude and\npatience.\n\n+II. For an indwelling Christ.+--As we become united to Christ by\nfaith, so by faith He dwells in our hearts.\n\n+III. For establishment in love.+--True love is rooted in the heart.\nIt is a spiritual affection towards Christ. Its fruits are love to\nmen, imitation of Christ's example, obedience to His commands, zeal\nfor His honour, and diligence in His service.\n\n+IV. For increase of knowledge in the love of Christ.+--The love of\nChrist passeth all known examples of love. This love passeth our\ncomprehension in respect of its breadth or extent, its length, its\ndepth, as the benefits it has procured exceed all human estimate.\nThough the love of Christ passeth knowledge, there is a sense in\nwhich it is known to the saints. They have an experimental knowledge,\nan influential knowledge, an assimilating knowledge of the love of\nChrist.\n\n+V. For the fulness of God.+--That they may have such a supply of\nDivine influence as would cause them to abound in knowledge, faith,\nlove, and all virtues and good works.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Love of Christ._\n\n+I. The love of Christ passeth knowledge.+--1. _He Himself furnishes\nan illustrative instance_ when Paul says, \"For scarcely for a\nrighteous man will one die\"--a merely just and righteous man would be\nadmired; but he would not so take hold of the heart of another to\nproduce a willingness to die for him;--\"yet peradventure,\" in some\nrare case, \"for a good man,\" a man of benevolence, adorned with the\nsofter virtues and abounding in the distribution of his favours--for\nsuch a one \"some might even dare to die\"; some one, overcoming even\nthe love of life in the fulness of his gratitude, might venture to\ngive his own life to preserve that of such a one. But we were neither\njust nor good; we were sinners, and \"God commendeth His love toward\nus, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us.\" Passes it\nnot, then, all knowledge, all reasonable conception and probability,\nthat this fallen nature should be so sympathised with that these\nflagrant rebellions should excite, not an inexorable anger, but pity\nand love? And such love that our Saviour--looking not so much on man\nas offending, but as His creature, and as His creature still capable\nof restoration--should melt in compassion and die to effect his\nredemption; this is indeed love \"that passeth knowledge.\"\n\n2. _The manner in which this love is manifested carries the principle\nbeyond all conception and expression._--It was love to the death. It\nwas death for sinners, death in their stead; death, that the penal\nclaims of law, and that law the unchangeable, unrelaxable law of God,\nmight be fully satisfied. The redemption price was fixed by a\nspotless justice, and the love of Christ to the sinner was to be\ntested by the vastness of the claims to be made upon Him. But the\nwages of sin is death; and His love shrank not from the full and\nawful satisfaction required. It was death in our stead. Then it must\nbe attended with anxious forebodings. Of what mysteries have I\nsuggested the recollection to you? Can you comprehend them? That\nfeeling with which He spoke of the baptism of blood? That last\nmysterious agony? That complaint of being forsaken of God? You feel\nyou cannot. They transcend all your thought; and the love which made\nHim stoop to them is therefore love \"which passeth knowledge.\"\n\n3. The love of Christ passeth knowledge if we consider it _as\nillustrated by that care for us which signalises His administration._\n\n4. The subject is further _illustrated by the nature of the blessings\nwhich result to men from the love of Christ._--We usually estimate\nthe strength of love by the blessings it conveys or, at any rate,\nwould convey. And if the benefits be beyond all estimate, neither can\nwe measure the love.\n\n5. _The love of Christ passeth knowledge because it is the love of an\ninfinite nature._ Love rises with the other qualities and perfections\nof the being in whom it is found. Among animals the social\nattachments are slight, and the instinctive affection dies away when\nits purposes are answered. In man love arises with his intellect. In\nhim it is often only limited by his nature, and when rightly directed\nshall be eternal. Many that love on earth shall doubtless love for\never. Were Christ merely a man His love could not pass knowledge.\nWhat man has felt man can conceive. Love can be measured by the\nnature which exercises it. But this love passeth all knowledge but\nthat of the Divine nature, because itself is Divine. Christ is God,\nand he who would fully know His love must be able to span immensity\nand to grasp the Infinite Himself.\n\n+II. But while it is true that the love of Christ passeth all\nknowledge, it is equally true that it is to be known by us.+--To know\nthe love of Christ is: 1. _To recognise it in its various forms and\nexpressions in our constant meditations._ And where shall we turn and\nnot be met by this, to us, most important subject? How delightful an\noccupation, to track all the streams of mercy up to their source. We\nare surrounded by the proof of the love of Christ. Let us see to it\nthat the blinding veil be not on our heart, that our eyes be not\nholden that we should not know Him. We are called to know the love of\nChrist. Let us accustom ourselves to reflect upon it, to see it in\nits various forms and results; and then shall our meditation of Him\nbe sweet. 2. To know the love of Christ is _to perceive it in its\nadaptation to our own personal condition._ 3. To know the love of\nChrist is _to experience it in its practical results._ He offers you\npardon, and the offer is a proof and manifestation of His love; but\nproperly to know it pardon itself must be accepted and embraced. This\nis to know his love. Seek it, and you must find it. Rest without it,\nand you are but \"as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal.\" 4. To know\nthe love of Christ we must _put forth those efforts through which\nthat love is appointed to express itself in our daily experience._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The rejection of love, especially of redeeming love,\ninvolves the deepest guilt._ 2. _Remember that the grace is common to\nyou all.--R. Watson._\n\n\n_The Unknown and Known Love of Christ._\n\n+I. There are some respects in which the love of Christ passeth our\nknowledge.+--1. In its objects; so unworthy and degraded. 2. In its\nsufferings; love to the death. 3. In its care. 4. In its blessings.\n5. In its degree. It is the love of an infinite nature.\n\n+II. There are some respects in which the love of Christ may be\nknown.+--1. Our views of it may be clearer and more consistent.\n2. Our views of it may be more confidential and appropriating. 3. Our\nviews of it may be more impressive and more influential.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Transcendent Love of Christ._\n\n+I. This representation must be confirmed.+--1. This love is Divine.\n2. Consider the objects it embraced. 3. The means by which it\nmanifested itself. 4. The blessings it secured.\n\n+II. The perception the Christian may acquire of this love,\nnotwithstanding its Divine infinitude.+--1. It is the great\ninterpreting principle which he applies to all the tremendous facts\nof redemption. 2. The sacred element and incentive of all piety--the\ntheme of contemplation, the ground of confidence, the motive of\nobedience. 3. The impulse and model of all benevolence and zeal.\n\n+III. Conclusions from a review of the subject.+--1. It is only\nnatural to expect a transcendent character in Christianity. 2. No\nbetter test exists of what is genuine Christianity than the level of\nthe views which it exhibits concerning the person and work of Christ\nand the tone of the affections which it encourages towards Him.\n3. There is much of implicit as well as declarative evidence in\nsupport of the Saviour's supreme Divinity. 4. How necessary is it\nthat we should live habitually under the influence of this\ntranscendent love.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\nVers. 20, 21. _A Devout Doxology._\n\n+I. The acknowledgment the apostle makes of God's\nall-sufficiency.+--1. God often does for men those favours which they\nnever thought of asking for themselves. 2. God answers prayers in\nways we think not of. 3. The mercies God is pleased to grant often\nproduce consequences far beyond what we asked or thought. 4. The\nworth of the blessings we ask and God bestows infinitely exceeds all\nour thought.\n\n+II. The ascription of glory the apostle makes to this all-sufficient\nGod.+--1. God is glorified by the increase of his Church. 2. God is\nglorified in the Church when a devout regard is paid to the\nordinances He has instituted. 3. By the observance of good order in\nthe Church, and by the decent attendance of the members on their\nrespective duties. 4. That God may be glorified there must be peace\nand unity in the Church.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_God's Infinite Liberality._\n\n+I. The object of this doxology.+--The God of all grace. Whatever we\nthink we ask. No limit to our asking but our thinking. God gives\nbeyond our thinking. Here, take all this! Ah, poor thing, that\ntranscends thine asking and even thy thinking, but take it. If it\ntranscend all communicated power of mind, I say, \"I thank Thee, my\nGod, for it. I know it is exceeding good, but I cannot understand it.\nKeep it among Thy treasures. My blessedness rests not in my\nintellect, but in Thy favour. Remember Thou hast given it me. It may\ncome I shall be able to understand it better and appreciate it more.\"\nI shall never have asked too much, I shall never have thought too\nmuch, till I have asked beyond God's ability, till I have thought\nbeyond God's ability. That ability is not a bare abstraction of the\nomnipotence of God, but it is the omnipotence of God as working in\nthe Church and in the people of God. He is not omnipotent in heaven,\nand impotent in thee, or partially powerful in thee.\n\n+II. The doxology itself+ (ver. 21).--All should glorify God, but all\nwill not. In the Church alone will God get glory. It is as the name\nof Christ is glorified in us that we are glorified in Him. It is when\nthe glory that God reflects on the creature is by the creature\nascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it,\ntranscendently and infinitely glorious, it is then that the glory\nrests. When it is appropriated it is lost, but it is possessed when\nit is tossed back and fro between God and the creature. When the\ncreature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in\ngreater measure; but the humble creature, emulous of God's glory,\nsends it all back again to Him, and as it reciprocates so it\nincreases. God gives not to end by enriching us--that is an immediate\nend; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified. Be ashamed to\nget little--get all things. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying\nyou are rich, but by coming and getting. The more you get always give\nglory, and come and ask and receive.--_Dr. John Duncan._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER IV.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Walk worthy of the vocation.+--They had been called to life\nin the Spirit, and they must also \"walk in the Spirit.\"\n\nVer. 2. +With all lowliness.+--The Christian--\"born from above\"--is\nto exhibit a trait of character with the \"high-born\" Greek despised,\nand which Heine in modern times called \"a hound's virtue.\" \"The pride\nthat apes humility\" steals in under Chrysostom's description of this\n\"lowliness.\" He says, \"It is a making of ourselves small when we are\ngreat.\" +And meekness.+--\"A grace in advance of 'lowliness,' not as\nmore precious than it, but as presupposing it, and as being unable to\nexist without it\" (_Trench_). +With longsuffering.+--The exact\nopposite of our \"short-tempered\"--_e.g._ \"Is the Spirit of the Lord\nstraitened?\" means \"Has the Lord become irritable?\" (Mic. ii. 7). The\nword suggests to men by nature irascible that \"slowness to wrath\"\nrecommended by St. James. +Forbearing one another in love.+--The\nbrother who is tempted to anger is not to look down from the height\nof a lofty pride on those who try his patience, but in compassionate\nlove, remembering his own frailty, must \"suffer long and be kind.\"\n\nVer. 3. +Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Sprit in the bond of\npeace.+--It is no easy-going indifference that is inculcated; they\nwill have to \"exert themselves,\" \"give diligence\" (R.V.), before that\npeace obtains which is the harmonious and frictionless working of\neach part of the machine.\n\nVers. 4-6. +One body . . . and in you all.+--\"Seven elements of unity\nSt. Paul enumerates. . . . They form a chain stretching from the\nChurch on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in\nheaven\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 7. +But unto every one of us is given grace.+--The distributing\nSpirit (1 Cor. xii. 11) leaves no humblest member of the body of\nChrist without His endowment.\n\nVer. 8. +Wherefore He saith.+--What follows is a quotation of Ps.\nlxviii. 18 \"with free alteration\" (_Meyer_), adapting the return of\nthe hero-king to his own city to that most magnificent of all\ntriumphs--over Hades and Death--achieved by Him \"who was dead and is\nalive for evermore.\" \"Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath\npoured forth this\" abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largesse.\n\nVers. 9, 10. +Now that He ascended . . . that He might fill all\nthings.+--The exaltation, in His case, presupposed the humiliation.\nFrom the throne of the universe--\"the glory which He had with the\nFather\"--to the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of\nhumanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the\nthrone He relinquished. +The same also.+--Exalted, to be confidingly\nand adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped no less as \"the Son of\nman who is in heaven.\"\n\nVer. 11. +And He gave some to be, etc.+--\"Christ gave the persons,\nand the community gave to them the service\" (_Meyer_).\n+Apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists.+--We cannot accept the\norder as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the\n\"evangelist\" of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth \"sent\"\nby their Master to men in their need; as prophets they \"spoke out\"\nwhat He had taught them; as evangelists they were the messengers of\n_good_ tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists\n(Matt x. 5-7), \"going about heralding\" the kingdom and gathering men\ninto it. +Pastors and teachers.+--Shepherds and instructors of those\ngathered together by men of another order. These are the true\n\"bishops,\" whatever \"other name\" they bear (1 Pet. v. 1-4).\n\nVer. 12. +For the perfecting of the saints.+--\"Saints,\" whilst a\ntitle of the highest honour, is often expressive of the ideal rather\nthan the real life of those who bear it; the \"perfecting\" is the\nrendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour.\n+For the work of the ministry.+--R.V. \"_into_ the work.\" If the end\nof all Christ's gifts so far as \"the saints\" are concerned is their\nperfect equipment, so far as His messengers are concerned they go\nforth unto service first, honour afterwards. +For the edifying of the\nbody of Christ.+--Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an\nultimate reference to Christ. The double figure of a building and of\na body is familiar to our own speech, as when we speak of \"building\nup a strong frame.\"\n\nVer. 13. +Till we all come.+--Suggestive of standing opposite to\nsomething towards which we have been toiling. Can one think without a\ntremor of joy, of the moment when he will find himself in perfect\ncorrespondence with the Divine Archetype? +In the unity of the\nfaith.+--The world has seen many attempts to bring about uniformity\nof creed, after the manner of Procrustes, by stretching or chopping.\n\"The unity of the faith\" is a very different thing, and much to be\ndesired. +The knowledge of the Son of God.+--Lit. the complete\nknowledge. +Unto a full-grown man.+--As above intimated, a child does\nnot become a man by means of the rack. The significance of the word\n\"man\" here is as great as when we bid some one who has lost his\nself-respect to \"be a man.\"\n\nVer. 14. +That we henceforth be no more children.+--In what respects\nhis readers are not to be children the apostle makes plain, viz. in\nhelplessness and credulity. +Tossed to and fro.+--With no more power\nof resistance than a cork on the waves. +By the sleight of men and\ncunning craftiness.+--As some poor simpleton, who thinks himself\ncapable, falls a victim to card-sharpers, so unstable souls fall\nvictims to those who say with Falstaff, \"If the young dace be a bite\nfor the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap\nat him.\"\n\nVer. 15. +But speaking the truth in love.+--If it be possible to make\nthe medicine palatable without destroying its efficacy--to capsule\nthe bitter pill--its chances are so much the greater of doing good.\nThe A.V. margin gives \"being sincere,\" and the R.V. \"dealing truly,\"\nthe different renderings indicating the difficulty of finding an\nEnglish equivalent.\n\nVer. 16. +Fitly joined together and compacted.+--R.V. \"fitly framed\nand knit together.\" Bengel suggests that the first expression means\nthe _fitting_ together, and the second the _fastening_ together.\nMeyer, denying this, says the distinction is that the former\ncorresponds to the _figure,_ the latter to the _thing_ represented.\nThe grammar, like the physiology, of this verse is difficult. Are we\nto read, \"The whole body . . . maketh increase of the body\"?\nApparently we must, for the body \"_builds itself_ up in love.\"\n\nVer. 17. +That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.+--In\nthis and the two following verses we have again the lurid picture of\nch. ii. 2, 3: \"in the vanity of their mind.\"\n\n     \"The creature is their sole delight,\n      Their happiness the things of earth.\"\n\nVer. 18. +Having the understanding darkened.+--Remembering our Lord's\nsaying about the single eye and the fully illuminated body we might\nsay, \"If the understanding--by which all light should come--be\ndarkened 'how great is that darkness'!\" +Because of the\nblindness.+--R.V. \"hardness.\" The word describes the hard skin formed\nby constant rubbing, as the horny hand of a blacksmith.\n\nVer. 19. +Who being past feeling.+--Having lost the \"ache\" which\nshould always attend a violation of law. An ancient commentator uses\nthe now familiar word \"an\u00e6sthetes\" to explain the phrase. +Having\ngiven themselves over.+--\"Given\" represents a word which often\nconnotes an act of treason--and \"themselves\" is emphatic--\"the most\ntremendous sacrifice ever laid on the altar of sin\" (_Beet_). +To\nlasciviousness.+--\"St. Paul stamps upon it the burning word \u1f00\u03c3\u03ad\u03bb\u03b3\u03b5\u03b9\u03b1\nlike a brand on the harlot's brow\" (_Findlay_). +To work all\nuncleanness with greediness.+--R.V. margin, \"to make a trade of all\nuncleanness with covetousness.\" Their \"sins not accidental, but a\ntrade\"; and a trade at which they work with a \"desire of having more.\"\n\nVer. 20. +No not so.+--As differently as possible. The same mode of\nspeech which led St. Paul to say to the Galatians, \"Shall I praise\nyou? . . . I praise you not.\"--_i.e._ \"I blame you highly.\"\n\nVer. 21. +If so be that ye have heard Him.+--The emphasis is on\n\"Him\"--\"assuming, that is, that it is He, and no other.\"\n\nVer. 22. +That ye put off concerning the former conversation.+--It is\nno \"philosophy of clothes\" inculcated here. It is a deliverance from\n\"the body of death,\" like stripping oneself of his very integument.\n+Conversation.+--R.V. \"manner of life.\" +Which is corrupt.+--R.V.\nmuch more strikingly--\"waxeth corrupt.\" St. Paul's figure elsewhere\nis appropriate--\"like a gangrene eating into the flesh.\"\n\nVers. 23, 24. The stripping off being complete, and the innermost\ncore of the man being renewed, the investiture may begin. The \"habit\"\nlaid aside is never to be resumed, and the new robes, \"ever white,\"\nare not to be soiled. +Righteousness and true holiness.+--R.V.\n\"Righteousness and holiness of truth.\" See the \"dealing truly\" of\nver. 15, R.V. margin.\n\nVer. 25. +Putting away lying.+--Findlay holds to it that \"_the lie,\nthe falsehood,_ is objective and concrete; not _lying,_ or\n_falsehood_ as a subjective act, habit, or quality.\" +Members one of\nanother.+--Let there be \"no schism in the body.\"\n\nVer. 26. +Let not the sun go down on your wrath.+--The word for\n\"wrath\" is not the usual one. It almost seems as if the compound form\nhad reference to the matter \"alongside which\" wrath was evoked. If\n\"curfew\" could ring out the fires of wrath at sundown, we might\nwelcome the knell. Meyer quotes the Pythagorean custom of making up a\nquarrel by the parties \"shaking hands\" before sunset.\n\nVer. 28. +Let him that stole steal no more.+--Though we have not here\nthe word for \"brigand,\" we may think that the thieving had not always\nbeen without violence. +That he may have to give.+--Not the profits\nof wickedness, but \"the good\" results of his own labour, and may give\nit to the needy \"with cheerfulness\" (Rom. xii. 8), with a \"hilarity\"\nbeyond that of \"those who divide the spoil\" (Isa. ix. 3).\n\nVer. 29. +Let no corrupt communication.+--R.V. \"speech.\" Putrid\nspeech can never come forth from any but a bad person, \"for out of\nthe abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh.\" +But that which is\ngood to the use of edifying.+--The word in season \"fitly spoken\" has\nan \u00e6sthetic charm (Prov. xxv. 11), but it was more necessary to teach\nthese loquacious Asiatics the utilitarian end of having a human\ntongue. \"It is the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous--spoken\nfrom the pulpit or the easy-chair--the incontinence of tongue, the\nflux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable utterance that St. Paul\ndesires to arrest\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 30. +Grieve not.+--\"Do not make Him sorrow.\" A strong figure\nlike that which says that God was sorry that He had made man (Gen.\nvi. 6). +Whereby ye are sealed.+--Cf. ch. i. 13. \"In whom ye were\nsealed\" (R.V.)\n\nVer. 31. +Let all bitterness.+--_i.e._ \"of speech.\" \"Sarcasm I now\nsee to be, in general, the language of the devil,\" said one liberally\nendowed with it. The satirist Hipponax--a native of Ephesus--was\ncalled \"the bitter.\" Such a man as \"speaks poniards,\" and whose\n\"every word stabs,\" may be brilliant and a formidable opponent; he\nwill never be loved. +Wrath and anger.+--The former is the _fuming_\nanger, \"the intoxication of the soul,\" as St. Basil calls it; the\nlatter is the state after the paroxysm is over, cherishing hatred and\nplanning revenge. +Clamour and railing.+--\"Clamour\" is the loud\noutcry so familiar in an Eastern concourse of excited people (Acts\nxxiii. 9), like that hubbub in Ephesus when for two hours the\npopulace yelled, \"Great is Diana of the Ephesians\" (Acts xix. 28).\n\"Railing,\" blasphemy--speech that is calculated to do injury.\n+Malice.+--\"Badness.\" \"This last term is separated from the others as\ngeneric and inclusive\" (_Beet_).\n\nVer. 32. +Be ye kind.+--The word is found in Christ's invitation to\nthe weary--\"My yoke is easy.\" It is characteristic of the Father that\n\"He is _kind_ to the unthankful.\" The man who drinks wine that is new\nand harsh says, \"The old is _good_\" (mellow). +Tenderhearted.+--Soon\ntouched by the weakness of others. +Forgiving . . . as God . . .\nforgave you.+--The motive and measure of our forgiveness of injuries\nis the Divine forgiveness shown to \"all that debt\" of our wrong-doing\n(Matt. xviii. 32).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.\n\n_The Dignity of the Christian Life_--\n\n+I. Imposes the obligation to act in harmony with its lofty\naims.+--\"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called\" (ver.\n1). There is the practical, stimulative influence of a high ideal.\nThe Spirit within us has not only changed our nature and cleansed our\nspiritual vision, but He has lifted our horizon, formed within us\ndistinct outlines of the Christian ideal after which we are to\nlabour, and furnished us with the moral forces with which we are to\nattain the beauty and unity of a perfect spiritual character. We who\nare created in God's image and restored in Christ and made partakers\nof the Divine nature in Him, are bound by condition of our creation\nand redemption to endeavour to be like Him here that we may have the\nfruition of His glorious Godhead hereafter. The true Christian cannot\nstoop to any meanness either in thought or action. He is dignified\nwithout being proud.\n\n+II. Involves the practice of self-suppression.+--1. _In a just\nestimate of ourselves._ \"With all lowliness and meekness.\" In\nendeavouring to balance the value and use of our powers and\nfaculties, and in measuring the degree and volume of our influence,\nwe must observe humility--not a cringing cowardly spirit which would\ndeter us from the right for fear of doing wrong, but an elevated\nsense of right with courage to perform it, and with humility to\nacknowledge and confess when we are in the wrong. It does not mean\nthe craven surrender of our honest convictions and carefully formed\njudgment. We may efface ourselves, but not the truth within us. An\nItalian bishop being asked the secret of his habitual humility and\npatience replied, \"It consists in nothing more than in making good\nuse of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to\nheaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there.\nI then look back down to earth and call to mind the space I shall\nshortly occupy in it. I then look abroad into the world and observe\nwhat multitudes there are who in all respects have more cause to be\nunhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed,\nwhere all our cares must end, and how very little reason I have to\nrepine or complain.\"\n\n2. _In a loving forbearance towards each other._--\"With\nlongsuffering, forbearing one another in love\" (ver. 2). The meek man\nmay be severe with himself, and his constant habit of\nself-suppression may render him somewhat impatient with the\nunreasonable outbreaks of temper in others. Meekness must be balanced\nand moderated with patience, and both virtues exercised in the\nall-pervading element of love. Love softens every harshness, tones\ndown asperity, and welds together the Christian character in a firm\nbut not too rigid a unity. \"Bind thyself to thy brother,\" said\nChrysostom. \"Those who are bound together in love bear all burdens\nlightly. Bind thyself to him and him to thee. Both are in thy power;\nfor whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend.\"\n\n+III. Demands an earnest striving after a peaceful spiritual\nunity.+--\"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of\npeace\" (ver. 3). Peace--\"a silken cord binding into one the members\nof the Church; the encompassing element of the unity of the Spirit\"\n(_Beet_). The apostle repeatedly and solemnly inculcates unity and\npeace on all the Churches, warns them against contentions and\ndivisions, and kindles into righteous indignation against all those\ninsidious and false teachers who, under the pretence of advocating a\nhigher piety really disturb and rend the Church of Christ. On what an\nenormous scale are preparations made for war! We should not be less\ndiligent and elaborate in taking every precaution in promoting and\nmaintaining peace.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _True humility is always dignified._ 2. _Personal\nhappiness is not the highest aim of the Christian life._ 3. _The\nnoblest virtues of the Christian character are not attained without\nearnest endeavour._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1-3. _True Church Life._--1. The word \"walk\" is a very\nextensive signification. It includes all our inward and outward\nmotions, all our thoughts, words, and actions. It takes in, not only\neverything we do, but everything we either speak or think. 2. We are\ncalled to walk, first, \"with all lowliness,\" to have the mind in us\nwhich was also in Christ Jesus; not to think of ourselves more highly\nthan we ought to think; to be little, and poor, and mean, and vile in\nour own eyes; to know ourselves as also we are known by Him to whom\nall hearts are opened; to be deeply sensible of our own unworthiness.\nWho can be duly sensible how much remains in him of his natural\nenmity to God, or how far he is still alienated from God by the\nignorance that is in him? 3. Yea, suppose God has now thoroughly\ncleaned our heart, and scattered the last remains of sin; yet how can\nwe be sensible enough of our own helplessness, our utter inability to\nall good, unless we are every hour, yea, every moment, endued with\npower from on high? 4. When our inmost soul is thoroughly tinctured\ntherewith, it remains that we \"be clothed with humility.\" The word\nused by St. Peter seems to imply that we be covered with it as with a\nsurtout; that we be all humility, both within and without; tincturing\nall we think, speak, and do. Let all our actions spring from this\nfountain; let all our words breathe this spirit; that all men may\nknow we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him to be lowly in\nheart. 5. And being taught of Him who teacheth as never man taught,\nto be meek as well as lowly in heart. This implies not only a power\nover anger, but over all violent, turbulent passions. It implies the\nhaving all our passions in due proportion; none of them either too\nstrong or too weak, but all duly balanced with each other, all\nsubordinate to reason, and reason directed by the Spirit of God.\n6. Walk with all \"longsuffering.\" This is nearly related to meekness,\nbut implies something more. It carries on the victory already gained\nover all your turbulent passions, notwithstanding all the powers of\ndarkness, all the assaults of evil men or evil spirits. It is\npatiently triumphant over all opposition, and unmoved though all the\nwaves and storms thereof go over you. 7. The \"forbearing one another\nin love\" seems to mean, not only the not resenting anything, and the\nnot avenging yourselves; not only the not injuring, hurting, or\ngrieving each other, either by word or deed, but also the bearing one\nanother's burdens, yea, and lessening them by every means in our\npower. It implies the sympathising with them in their sorrows,\nafflictions, and infirmities; the bearing them up when, without our\nhelp, they would be liable to sink under their burdens. 8. Lastly,\nthe true members of the Church of Christ \"endeavour,\" with all\npossible diligence, with all care and pains, with unwearied patience,\nto \"keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace,\" to preserve\ninviolate the same spirit of lowliness and meekness, of\nlongsuffering, mutual forbearance, and love; and all these cemented\nand knit together by that sacred tie--the peace of God filling the\nheart. Thus only can we be and continue living members of that Church\nwhich is the body of Christ. 9. Does it not clearly appear from this\nwhole account why, in the ancient creed commonly called the\nApostles', we term it the universal or catholic Church, \"the holy\ncatholic Church\"? The Church is called holy, because it is holy,\nbecause every member thereof is holy, though in different degrees, as\nHe that called them is holy. How clear this is! If the Church, as to\nthe very essence of it, is a body of believers, no man that is not a\nChristian believer can be a member of it. If this whole body be\nanimated by one Spirit, and endued with one faith, and one hope of\ntheir calling, then he who has not that Spirit and faith and hope is\nno member of this body. It follows, that not only no common swearer,\nno Sabbath-breaker, no drunkard, no whoremonger, no thief, no liar,\nnone that lives in any outward sin, but none that is under the power\nof anger or pride, no lover of the world--in a word, none that is\ndead to God--can be a member of His Church.--_Wesley._\n\n\n_Brotherly Love in Action._\n\n+I. Walk in lowliness.+--Humble thoughts of ourselves, of our own\nknowledge, goodness, and importance are necessary to Christian peace\nand union. We shall not despise our brethren for their want of the\ninternal gifts or external advantages we enjoy. We shall not lean to\nour own understanding; but, conscious of our liability to err, we\nshall be attentive to instruction and reproof, open to conviction,\nready to retrace our errors and confess our faults.\n\n+II. Walk in meekness+--in a prudent restraint and government of the\npassions. We shall not be easily provoked, our resentments will not\nbe sudden, without cause or without bounds. If a variance happens, we\nshall stand ready to be reconciled. We shall be cautious not to give,\nand slow to take offence. In matters of religion our zeal will be\ntempered with charity.\n\n+III. To our meekness we must add longsuffering and\nforbearance.+--These terms express the patient and exalted exercise\nof meekness rather than virtues distinct from it. We are not only to\nbe meek, but longsuffering in our meekness; not only to restrain\nanger under ordinary offences, but to suppress malice and forbear\nrevenge under the most provoking injuries.\n\n+IV. We must endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of\npeace.+--Not unity of opinion--this is not possible, nor reasonable\nto be expected, in the present state of mankind; but unity of spirit,\nof heart and affection, disposing us to preserve the bond of peace\nand maintain all the duties of Christian fellowship, whatever\ndifferences of sentiment take place. To the same purpose are the\napostle's exhortations to all the Churches, and especially to those\nin which diversity of opinion concerning ceremonial usages threatened\ntheir external peace.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Peace the Bond of Unity._\n\n+I. There is a union of the visible Church and the members thereof\namong themselves, and this is twofold:+ the one necessary to the\nbeing of a Church and being of a Church member, so that a Church\ncannot be a Church nor a man a member without it, the tie of which is\nGod's covenant with the visible Church, and the Church's laying hold\nof it; the other necessary to the well-being of the Church, which is\nentertained by unity in judgment, in heart and affection, by\nconcurrences in purposes and actings.\n\n+II. Neither fair pretences for peace and union in the Church, nor\nseconded but contradicted by practice, nor yet careless endeavours\neasily broken by difficulties, will God accept as the duty required\nfor preserving or restoring unity.+--There is no less called for than\nthe utmost of our serious endeavours for that end, so that we not\nonly eschew what may give cause of rending, but also be not easily\nprovoked when it is given by others, and when a rent is made spare no\npains for having it removed, and weary not under small appearances of\nsuccess.\n\n+III. Whatever differences may fall out among the members of the\nChurch they are not to break the bond of peaceable walking+ one with\nanother by factious sidings, but ought to study unanimous and joint\npractice in those things wherein there is agreement; and where this\npeaceable deportment is, it tends to preserve what remains of\nspiritual unity and to regain what is already lost.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 4-6.\n\n_The Sevenfold Unity of the Church reflected in the Trinity of Divine\nPersons._\n\n+I. One Spirit+ (ver. 4), the animating Principle of the +one body+\n(ver. 4)--the Church; the Source of its life and ever-watchful\nGuardian of the Church's unity; the Inspirer of the +one hope,+ \"Even\nas ye are called in one hope of your calling\" (ver. 4). Where the\nSpirit of Christ dwells as a vitalising, formative principle, He\nfinds or makes for Himself a body. Let no man say, \"I have the spirit\nof religion, I can dispense with forms, I need no fellowship with\nmen, I prefer to walk with God.\" God will not walk with men who do\nnot care to walk with His people. The oneness of communion amongst\nthe people of Christ is governed by a unity of aim. The old pagan\nworld fell to pieces because it was without hope; the golden age was\nin the past. No society can endure that lives upon its memories, or\nthat contents itself with cherishing its privileges. Nothing holds\nmen together like work and hope. Christianity holds out a splendid\ncrown of life. It promises our complete restoration to the image of\nGod, the redemption of the body with the spirit from death, and our\nentrance upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven. The\nChristian hope supplies to men more truly and constantly than Nature\nin her 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\nThe hope of our calling is a hope for mankind, nay, for the entire\nuniverse. We labour for the regeneration of humanity. We look for the\nactual ingathering into one in Christ of all things in all worlds, as\nthey are already gathered in God's eternal plan. If it were merely a\npersonal salvation that we had to seek, Christian communion might\nappear to be an optional thing and the Church no more than a society\nfor mutual spiritual benefit. But seen in this larger light, Church\nmembership is of the essence of our calling (_Findlay_).\n\n+II. One Lord+ (ver. 5), or Master, whom we are called to serve. A\nconsentaneous and harmonious obedience to His mandates blends His\nservants into one compact unity. +One faith+ (ver. 5), one body of\ninviolable truth, one code of Divine commands, one Gospel of promise,\npresenting one object of faith. +One baptism+ (ver. 5), one gateway\nof entrance into the company of believers forming the one Church, one\ninitiatory rite common to all. Christians may differ as to the mode\nof baptism and the age at which it should be administered, but all\nagree it is an institution of Christ, a sign of spiritual renewal,\nand a pledge of the righteousness that comes by faith. Wherever the\nsacraments are duly observed, there the supremacy of Christ's rule is\nrecognised, and this rule is the basis on which future unity must be\nbuilt.\n\n+III. One God,+ the supreme and final unity, who is \"the Father of\nall,\" who is above all, and through all, and in you all (ver. 6).\n_Above all_--He reigns supreme over all His people (Rom. ix. 5).\n_Through all_--informing, inspiring, stimulating, and using them as\ninstruments to work out His purpose (Rom. xi. 36). _In all_--dwelling\nin and filling their hearts and the ever-widening circle of their\nexperience. \"The absolute sovereignty of the Divine Mind over the\nuniverse,\" said Channing, \"is the only foundation of hope for the\ntriumph of the human mind over matter, over physical influences, over\nimperfection and death.\" With what a grand simplicity the Christian\nconception of the one God and Father rose above the vulgar pantheon,\nthe swarm of motley deities--some gay and wanton, some dark and\ncruel, some of supposed beneficence, all infected with human passion\nand baseness--which filled the imagination of the Gr\u00e6co-Asiatic\npagans. What rest there was for the mind, what peace and freedom for\nthe spirit, in turning from such deities to the God and Father of our\nLord Jesus Christ! This was the very God whom the logic of Greek\nthought and the practical instincts of Roman law and empire blindly\nsought. Through ages He had revealed Himself to the people of Israel,\nwho were now dispersed amongst the nations to bear His light. At last\nHe declared His full name and purpose to the world through Jesus\nChrist. So the gods many and lords many have had their day. By His\nmanifestation the idols are utterly abolished. The proclamation of\none God and Father signifies the gathering of men into one family of\nGod. The one religion supplies the basis for one life in all the\nworld. God is _over all,_ gathering all worlds and beings under the\nshadow of His beneficent dominion. He is _through all_ and _in all_;\nan omnipresence of love, righteousness, and wisdom, actuating the\npowers of nature and of grace, inhabiting the Church and the heart of\nmen (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _In the moral as in the material world there is\ndiversity in unity and unity in diversity._ 2. _All phases of good\nfind their consummation in an imperishable unity._ 3. _To disturb the\nbalance of unity is a great evil._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 4-6. _The Unity of the Church._\n\n+I. There is one body.+--The Church is a body of which Christ is the\nHead, and believers are the members. Though Christians are formed\ninto distinct societies, they constitute but one body. They are\nunited to the Head by faith and to their fellow-members by love.\n\n+II. There is one Spirit.+--As all members of the natural body are\nanimated by one soul, so all the members of Christ's body are\nsanctified, strengthened, and led by the same Spirit. Since there is\none Spirit which dwells in all Christians, all contention,\nbitterness, and envy, all animosity, division, and separation in the\nChurch are offences against the Holy Spirit.\n\n+III. There is one hope of our calling.+--We are all called by the\nsame Word, our hope is grounded on the same promises, the object of\nour hope is the same immortal life.\n\n+IV. There is one Lord.+--Christ is Lord of all by the same right. He\nhas bought us with a high price, redeemed us by His own blood. There\nis no respect of persons with him. We are called to the same service,\nare under the same laws, and must appear at the same judgment.\n\n+V. There is one faith.+--The same Gospel is the rule of our faith,\nand this all Christians profess to receive. The faith of all true\nChristians is essentially the same. The object of it is the Word of\nGod, the nature of it is receiving the love of the truth, the effect\nof it is to purify the heart.\n\n+VI. There is one baptism.+--We are all baptised in the name of\nChrist, and He is not divided. May differ as to the age at which\npersons become the subjects of baptism and the manner of\nadministration, but regarding the design of it we are one. Baptism\nintended not to divide, but unite the whole Christian world.\n\n+VII. There is one God and Father.+--The Father of the whole\ncreation, but in a more eminent sense the Father of Christians. He is\nabove all. He reigns supreme. He is through all. His essence pervades\nour frame, His eyes search and try our souls, His influence preserves\nour spirits. He is in all. In all true Christians by His Spirit. They\nare the temple of God, and His Spirit dwelleth in them.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 4. _The Oneness of the Church._--1. All the members of the\nChurch being one body is a strong argument enforcing the duty of\nkeeping peace and unity; it being no less absurd for Christians to\nbite and devour one another than if the members of the selfsame\nnatural body should tear and destroy one another. 2. As those in\nnature are in a hopeless state, having no right to heaven and\nhappiness, so the Gospel doth open to the person called a large door\nof well-grounded hope, that, whatever be his misery here, he shall be\nperfectly blessed in the full enjoyment of God for ever hereafter.\n3. The joint aiming of the saints at one mark should make them of one\nmind and heart, seeing there is that in glory which will suffice all.\nTheir seeking of one thing need be no occasion of strife and\nemulation, but rather of unity, for why should they strive together\nwho not only are brethren but also heirs together of the grace of\nlife and shall one day reign together in glory?--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_One Body and One Spirit._\n\n+I. The unity or oneness of the Church as set forth by the unity or\noneness of the body.+--One life animates the whole. The parts\nmutually subserve one another, while the head thinks and the heart\nbeats for all. There is a certain harmony existing between all the\nmembers; they constitute a symmetry among themselves, so that one\ncould not be taken away without destroying the perfection of all the\nothers, more or less marring the grace and beauty of the whole frame.\nSo the Church is one--one mystical body--having one author, God; one\nHead, which is Christ; and one informing Spirit, the Holy Ghost; one\ncountry towards which all its members are travelling, heaven; one\ncode of instructions to guide them thither, the Word of God; one and\nthe same band of enemies seeking to bar their passage, the world, the\nflesh, and the devil. Despite all miserable divisions, wherever there\nis a man with true love to God and man, any true affiance on Christ,\nany true obedience to the Spirit and His leadings, _there_ exists a\nmember of this mystical body.\n\n+II. As in the human body there is unity, so there is also variety,\ndiversity, multiplicity.+--This is true of the Church of Christ. Its\ndifferent members have different functions and offices, and in\nperforming these the Church makes equable and harmonious growth.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _As members of the same body, let us not separate from\nbrethren in Christ._ 2. _If we are members one of another, many are\nthe debts as such we owe the one to the other._ (1) We owe one\nanother _truth._ (2) _Love_ one to another. (3) _Honour_ one to\nanother.--_R. C. Trench._\n\n\nVer. 5. _One Lord._\n\n+I. Christ is our Lord according to every notion and acceptation of\nthe word \"Lord.\"+--He is our Prince and Governor, we are His subjects\nand vassals; He is our Master, and we are His servants; He is our\nOwner, or the Possessor and Proprietary of us; He is our Preceptor or\nTeacher; that is, the Lord of our understanding, which is subject to\nthe belief of His dictates; and the Lord of our practice, which is to\nbe directed by His precepts. He is therefore also our Captain and\nLeader, whose orders we must observe, whose conduct we should follow,\nwhose pattern we are to regard and imitate in all things.\n\n+II. Christ is also our Lord according to every capacity or respect\nof nature or office that we can consider appertaining to\nHim.+--1. He is our Lord as by nature the Son of God, partaking of\nthe Divine essence and perfection. 2. He is our Lord as man, by the\nvoluntary appointment and free donation of God His Father; in regard\nto the excellency of His Person, and to the merit of His\nperformances. 3. He also, considered as God and man united in one\nPerson, is plainly our Lord. 4. If we are to consider Him as Jesus,\nour Saviour, that notion doth involve acts of dominion, and thence\nresulteth a title thereto. Nothing more becomes a Lord than to\nprotect and save; none better deserves the right and the name of a\nLord than a Saviour. 5. Likewise, if He be considered as the Christ,\nthat especially implieth Him anointed and consecrated to sovereign\ndominion, as King of the Church.\n\n+III. Survey the several grounds upon which dominion may be built,+\nand we shall see that upon all accounts He is our Lord.--1. An\nuncontrollable power and ability to govern is one certain ground of\ndominion. 2. To make, to preserve, to provide and dispense\nmaintenance, are also clear grounds of dominion. 3. He hath acquired\nus by free donation from God His Father. 4. He hath acquired us by\njust right of conquest, having subdued those enemies unto whom\n(partly by their fraud and violence, partly from our own will and\nconsent) we did live enslaved and addicted. 5. He hath also further\nacquired us to Himself by purchase, having by a great price bought\nus, ransomed us out of sad captivity, and redeemed us from grievous\npunishment due to us. 6. He likewise acquired a lordship over us by\ndesert, and as a reward from God, suitable to His performance of\nobedience and patience, highly satisfactory and acceptable to God.\n7. He hath acquired a good right and title to dominion over us as our\ncontinual most munificent benefactor. 8. Our Saviour Jesus is not\nonly our Lord by nature and by acquisition in so many ways (by\nvarious performances, deserts, and obligations put on us), but He is\nalso so by our own deeds, by most free and voluntary, most formal and\nsolemn, and therefore most obligatory acts of ours. (1) If we are\ntruly persuaded that Christ is our Lord and Master, we must then see\nourselves obliged humbly to submit unto and carefully to observe His\nwill, to attend unto and to obey His law, with all readiness and\ndiligence. (2) If Christ be our Lord, then are we not our own lords\nor our own men; we are not at liberty, or at our own disposal, as to\nour own persons or our actions. (3) If Christ be our Lord (absolutely\nand entirely such), then can we have no other lords whatever in\nopposition to Him, or in competition with Him, or otherwise any way\nthan in subordination and subserviency to Him. (4) If Christ be our\nLord, we are thereby disobliged, yea, we are indeed prohibited, from\npleasing or humouring men, so as to obey any command, to comply with\nany desire, or to follow any custom of theirs, which is repugnant to\nthe will or precept of Christ. (5) Finally, for our satisfaction and\nencouragement, we may consider that the service of Christ is rather\nindeed a great freedom than a service.--_Barrow._\n\n\nVer. 6. _God the Father._\n\n+I. God is the universal Father.+--1. God is the Father of all\nthings, or of us as creatures, as the efficient Cause and Creator of\nthem all. 2. The Father of intellectual beings. He is styled the\nFather of spirits; the angels, in way of excellency, are called the\nsons of God. 3. The Father in a more especial manner to mankind.\n4. The Father of all good men, with a relation being built upon\nhigher grounds; for as good they have another original from Him,\nvirtue springs in their hearts from a heavenly seed, that emendation\nand perfection of nature is produced by His grace enlightening and\nquickening them; they are images of Him, resembling Him in judgment\nand disposition of mind, in will and purpose, in action and\nbehaviour, which resemblances argue them to be sons of God and\nconstitute them such.\n\n+II. The uses of this truth.+--1. It may teach us what reverence,\nhonour, and observance are due from us to God, in equity and justice,\naccording to ingenuity and gratitude. 2. This consideration may\ninstruct and admonish us what we should be and how we should behave\nourselves, for if we be God's children it becometh us, and we are\nobliged in our disposition and demeanour to resemble, to imitate Him.\nIt is natural and proper for children to resemble their parents in\ntheir complexion and countenance, to imitate them in their actions\nand carriage. 3. This consideration may raise us to a just regard,\nesteem, and valuation of ourselves; may inspire noble thoughts and\nbreed generous inclinations in us; may withdraw us from mean, base,\nand unworthy designs or practices; may excite and encourage us to\nhandsome, brave, worthy resolutions and undertakings suitable to the\ndignity of our nature, the nobleness of our descent, the eminence of\nso high a relation, of so near an alliance to God. 4. This\nconsideration is a motive to humility, apt to depress vain conceit\nand confidence in ourselves. If we are God's children, so as to have\nreceived our beings, all our powers and abilities, all our goods and\nwealth, both internal and external, both natural and spiritual, from\nHis free disposal, so as be continually preserved and maintained by\nHis providence to depend for all our subsistence upon His care and\nbounty, what reason can we have to assume or ascribe anything to\nourselves? 5. This consideration shows us the reason we have to\nsubmit entirely to the providence of God with contentedness and\nacquiescence in every condition. 6. Obligeth us to be patient and\ncheerful in the sorest afflictions, as deeming them to come from a\npaternal hand, inflicted with great affection and compassion,\ndesigned for and tending to our good. 7. Shows the reason we have to\nobey those precepts which enjoin us to rely on God's providence.\n8. Serves to breed and cherish our faith, to raise our hope, to\nquicken our devotion. For whom shall we confide in if not in such a\nFather? From whom can we expect good if not from Him? To whom can we\nhave recourse so freely and cheerfully on any occasion if not to Him?\n9. Considering this point will direct and prompt us how to behave\nourselves towards all God's creatures according to their respective\nnatures and capacities. If God be the Father of all things, they are\nall thence in some sort our brethren, and so may claim from us a\nfraternal affection and demeanour answerable thereto.--_Barrow._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-12.\n\n_The Gifts of Christ to His Church_--\n\n+I. That each member of the Church possesses some gift from\nChrist.+--\"Unto every one of us is given grace according to the\nmeasure of the gift of Christ\" (ver. 7). All are not alike talented,\nbut each one has some gift of grace. Every gift is not from earth,\nbut from heaven; not from man, but from Christ. Look not down, then,\nas swine to the acorns they find lying there, and never once up to\nthe tree they come from. Look up; the very frame of our body bears\nthat way. It is nature's check to the body. \"Graces are what a man\n_is_; but enumerate his gifts and you will know what he _has._ He\n_is_ loving, he _has_ eloquence, or medical skill, or legal\nknowledge, or the gift of acquiring languages, or that of healing.\nYou have only to cut out his tongue, or to impair his memory, and the\ngift is gone. But you must destroy his very being, change him into\nanother man, obliterate his identity, before he ceases to be a loving\nman. Therefore you may contemplate the gift separate from the man;\nyou may admire it and despise him. But you cannot contemplate the\ngrace separate from the man\" (_F. W. Robertson_).\n\n     \"If facts allure thee, think how BACON shined,\n      The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.\"--_Pope._\n\nThe humblest member of the Church of Christ is not without his gift.\nThe grace of the Gospel elevates and sanctifies all his powers and\nopportunities, and turns them into noblest uses.\n\n+II. That the gifts of Christ to His Church are distributed with the\nlavish generosity of a conqueror returning from the field of victory+\n(vers. 8-10).--We have read of the profuse gifts of victorious\nwarriors:--of Gonsalvo, the great Spanish captain, whose unselfish\nprodigality was proverbial. \"Never stint your hand,\" he was\naccustomed to say: \"there is no way of enjoying one's property like\ngiving it away\";--of Alexander the Great, who on one occasion gave a\nblank draft to one of his generals with liberty to fill in any amount\nhe chose. When the treasurer, surprised at the enormous sum inserted,\nasked his imperial master if there was not some mistake, he answered:\n\"No; pay it, pay it; the man honours me by assuming the inexhaustible\nresources of my empire\";--of Belisarius, whose victories were always\nfollowed by liberal and extravagant largesses. \"By the union of\nliberality and justice,\" writes Gibbon, \"he acquired the love of his\nsoldiers, without alienating the affections of the people. The sick\nand wounded were relieved with medicines and money, and still more\nefficaciously by the healing visits and smiles of their commander.\nThe loss of a weapon or a horse was instantly repaired, and each deed\nof valour was rewarded by the rich and honourable gifts of a bracelet\nor a collar, which were rendered more precious by the judgment of\nBelisarius. He was endeared to the husbandmen by the peace and plenty\nwhich they enjoyed under the shadow of his standard. Instead of being\ninjured, the country was enriched by the march of the Roman armies;\nand such was the rigid discipline of their camp that not an apple was\ngathered from the tree, not a path could be traced in the fields of\ncorn. Victory by sea and land attended his armies. He subdued Africa,\nItaly, and the adjacent islands, led away captives the successors of\nGenseric and Theodoric, filled Constantinople with the spoils of\ntheir palaces, and in the space of six years recovered half the\nprovinces of the Western empire\";--and of Aurelian, whose triumphant\nentry into Rome after his victories in the East was the longest, most\nbrilliant, and imposing of any recorded in the annals of the empire,\nand was signalised by rich donations to the army and the people; the\nCapitol and every other temple glittered with the offerings of his\nostentatious piety, and the temple of the sun alone received above\nfifteen thousand pounds of gold. But who can measure the munificence\nof the ascended Saviour, the Divine Conqueror, who, as the fruit of\nHis unparalleled victory, has scattered His gifts among men, to\nenrich them for ever? He gives not grudgingly and sparingly, but\nafter the measure of His own great nature. He gives not for display\nbut for blessing, and His smallest gift out-values the most lavish\ndonation of the richest earthly benefactor.\n\n+III. That the gifts of Christ qualify man for special work in His\nChurch+ (ver. 11).--The \"apostles, prophets, evangelists\" linked\nChurch to Church and served the entire body; the \"pastors and\nteachers\" had charge of local and congregational affairs. The\napostles, with the prophets, were the founders of the Church. Their\ndistinctive functions ceased when the foundation was laid and the\ndeposit of revealed truth was complete. The evangelistic and pastoral\ncallings 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\nnew lands. Pastors and teachers follow in their train, tending the\ningathered sheep, and labouring to make each flock that they\nshepherd, and every single man, perfect in Christ Jesus.\n\n+IV. That the gifts of Christ furnish the full moral equipment of the\nmembers of His Church+ (ver. 12).--Christ's gifts of great and good\nmen in every age have been bestowed for a thoroughly practical\npurpose--\"the perfecting of the saints, the work of the ministry, the\nedifying of the body of Christ.\" No one man has all the gifts\nrequisite for the full development of the Church; but it is the\nprivilege and honour of each worker to use his special gift for the\ngeneral good. The combination of gifts, faithfully and diligently\nemployed, effects the desired end. The Church must be built up, and\nthis can be done only by the harmonious use of the gifts of Christ,\nnot by mere human expedients. \"We may have eloquent preaching,\ncrowded churches, magnificent music, and all the superficial\nappearance of a great religious movement, whilst the vaunted revival\nis only a poor galvanised thing, a corpse twitching with a strange\nmimicry of life, but possessed of none of its vital energy and\npower.\" Gifts are dangerous without the grace and wisdom to use them.\nMany a brilliant genius has gone down into oblivion by the reckless\nabuse of his gifts. Christ endows His people with gifts that they may\nuse them for the increase and upbuilding of His Church, and they must\nbe exercised in harmony with the rules and purposes of the Divine\nArchitect. \"Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that\nbuild it.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ's estimate of His Church is seen in the\nspiritual riches He has lavished upon it._ 2. _The gifts of each\nmember of the Church are for the benefit of all._ 3. _The gifts of\nChrist to His Church are the offerings of a boundless love._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 7. _The Gospel according to Mark._--The writers of the four\nGospels completed their work not for the sake of making a literary\nreputation for themselves, or of adding to the literary masterpieces\nof the world, but for the spiritual benefit of the Christian Church.\nChrist our Lord sitting in the heavens, seeing exactly what was\nwanted in the apostolic Churches, and in the Church of all time,\nseeing what was wanted in the evangelists themselves if they were to\nsupply the Church's wants, measured out His gifts to the evangelists.\nAccordingly, to each evangelist He gave that special gift which was\nneeded in order to do his particular work. What was the grace that\nwas given to St. Mark? It has been said that St. Mark's Gospel has no\nspecial character, that it is the least original of the four, that it\nis insipid, that it might have been dispensed with without loss to\nthe harmony of the evangelical narrative. Even St. Augustine has\nspoken of it as an epitome of St. Matthew; and his deservedly great\nauthority has obtained a currency of this opinion in the Western\nChurch. But in point of fact, although St. Mark has more in common\nwith St. Matthew than with any other evangelist, he is far from being\na mere epitomist of the first Gospel. He narrates at least three\nindependent incidents which St. Matthew does not notice. He has\ncharacteristics which are altogether his own.\n\n+I. St. Mark is remarkable for his great attention to subordinate\ndetails.+--He supplies many particulars which evangelists who write\nmore at length altogether omit. From him, for instance, we learn the\nname of Jairus, the ruler of the synagogue, and of Bartim\u00e6us, the\nblind man healed by our Lord. From him we learn how Simon of Cyrene\nwas related to well-known Christians of the next\ngeneration--Alexander and Rufus. He it is who tells us that the woman\nof Canaan whose petition our Lord so indulgently received was a\nSyrophenician, and that our Lord was popularly spoken of as the\ncarpenter. He is careful to point out more minutely than do others\nthe scenes in which our Lord took part on four occasions. He\ndescribes particularly our Lord's look. He notes the express\naffections of our Lord's human soul, His love for the rich young man,\nHis anger with the Pharisee, His pity for the leper, His groaning in\nspirit on two separate occasions. And here we have something more\nthan a literary peculiarity--than a style of writing which\ncorresponds to those pre-Raphaelite artists who render every leaf and\nevery blade of grass with scrupulous accuracy. I say that we are here\nface to face with a moral and spiritual excellence which forms part\nof the special grace given to St. Mark. Close attention to details in\nany workman means a recognition of the sacredness of fact. Where\ndetails are lost sight of, or blurred over, in the attempt to produce\na large, general, indistinct effect, there is always a risk of\nindifference to the realities of truth. The very least fact is\nsacred, whatever be its relative importance to other facts. But in a\nlife like that of our Lord, everything is necessarily glowing with\ninterest, however trivial it might appear to be in any other\nconnection. This care for details is thus the expression of a great\ngrace--reverence for truth, reverence for every fragment of truth\nthat touched the human life of the Son of God.\n\n+II. St. Mark is remarkable for the absence of a clearly discernible\npurpose in his Gospel,+ over and above that of furnishing a narrative\nof our Lord's conflict with sin and evil during His life as man upon\nthe earth. The three other evangelists have each of them a manifest\npurpose in writing of this kind. St. Matthew wishes to show to the\nJews that our Lord is the Messiah of the Jewish prophecy. St. Luke\nwould teach the Gentile Churches that He is the Redeemer whose saving\npower may be claimed through faith by the whole race of men. St. John\nis, throughout, bent upon showing that He speaks and acts while in\nthe flesh as the eternal Word or Son of God, who has been made flesh\nand was dwelling among us. And it has been said that St. Mark's\nnarrative is an expansion of those words of Peter--that Jesus of\nNazareth \"went about doing good, and healing all that were oppressed\nof the devil, for God was with Him.\" Probably this is true; but then\nthese words describe not a purpose beyond the narrative, but the\nsubstance of the narrative itself. St. Mark simply records a sacred\nlife as he had learned it from the lips of Peter, not for any purpose\nbeyond the narrative itself; but whatever it might prove beyond\nitself, it was to a believing Christian unspeakably precious.\n\n+III. A few words in conclusion.+--\"Unto every one of us is given\ngrace according to the measure of the gift of Christ.\" As no two\nhuman souls exactly resemble each other, so no two souls are endowed\nin an exactly similar way. And for the difference of endowment let us\nbe sure there is always a reason in the Divine Mind, for each soul in\nevery generation has its appointed work to do, without itself as\nwithin itself; and it is endowed with exactly the grace, whether of\nmind or heart, which will best enable it to do that particular work.\nSome may think that they have received little or nothing--some gift\nso small as to be scarcely appreciable. The probability is that they\nhave not yet considered what God has done for them. They have spent\ntheir time in thinking of what He has withheld, instead of thinking\nof what He has given; of what they might have been, instead of what\nthey are. Certainly the grace which our Lord gave to St. Paul when he\nwrote his great epistle to the Romans was immensely greater than that\nwhich He gave to Tertius, the poor amanuensis, who took it down from\nthe apostle's dictation, and who inserts a greeting from himself just\nat the end of the document. And yet Tertius, too, had his part in the\nwork--a humble but a very real part, according to the measure of the\ngift of Christ. He did not say, \"Because I am not the eye I am not of\nthe body.\" He made the most of the grace which was certainly his. And\nothers may think, rightly or wrongly, that unto them very great\ngraces have been given according to the gift of Christ, that they are\nthe hands or the eyes of the holy body, the men who do its work, or\nthe men who discern the truths which support its life. Well, if it be\nso, this is a reason, not for confident satisfaction, but for\nanxiety. Such gifts as these are edge tools; they may easily prove\nthe ruin of their possessors. For all such gifts an account must one\nday most assuredly be rendered; and if self has appropriated that\nwhich belongs to God or to His Church, it cannot but entail misery on\nthe possessor. If a man has wealth, or ability, or station; much more\nif he has cultivated intelligence and generous impulses; most of all\nif his heart has been fixed by the love of God, and the unseen is to\nhim a serious reality, and he has hopes and motives which really\ntranscend the frontiers of the world of sense, then, assuredly, his\nsafety lies in remembering that he is a trustee who will one day have\nto present his account at the great audit, when the eminence of his\ngifts will be the exact measure of his responsibility. Eighteen\ncenturies have passed since St. Mark went to reign somewhere beneath\nhis Master's throne whose life he had described; but he has left us\nthe result of his choicest gift--he has left us his Gospel. What has\nit--what have the four Gospels--hitherto done for each of us? It is\nrecorded that John Butler, an excellent Church of England layman of\nthe last generation, stated on his death-bed that on looking back on\nhis life the one thing he most regretted was that he had not given\nmore time to the careful study of the life of our Lord in the four\nevangelists. Probably he has not been alone in that regret; and if\nthe truth were told, many of us would have to confess that we spend\nmuch more thought and time upon the daily papers, which describe the\nfollies and errors of the world, than on the records of that Life\nwhich was given for the world's redemption. The festival of an\nevangelist ought to suggest a practical resolution that, so far as we\nare concerned, the grace which he received, according to the measure\nof the gift of Christ, shall not, please God, be lost. Ten minutes a\nday seriously spent on our knees, with the Gospel in our hands, will\ndo more to quicken faith, love, reverence, spiritual and moral\ninsight and power, than we can easily think.--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n\nVers. 9, 10. _The contrasted Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ._\n\n+I. The circumstances of the Saviour's depression from His original\nstate.+--We say that a person stoops, that he bends, that he sinks.\nMoral correspondencies to these actions are understood. They are\ncondescensions. Immanuel is the name of our Saviour when born into\nour world and dwelling in it--God with us. A local residence is thus\ndescribed. And we are informed of the degree which marks His coming\ndown from heaven, of the manner in which He came into the world--He\ndescended into the lower parts of the earth. What lowliness is this!\nSimilar terms are employed in other portions of the inspired volume;\nby collating them with those of the text we shall most satisfactorily\ndetermine its sense.\n\n1. _The incarnation of Christ may be thus expressed._--To what did He\nnot submit? By what was He not buffeted? What insult did not\ndisfigure His brow? What shade did not cloud His countenance? What\ndeep waters did not go over His soul? His was humanity in its\nseverest pressures and humblest forms.\n\n2. _This form of language may denote the death of Christ._--It is the\nordinary phrase of the Old Testament; \"They shall go into the lower\nparts of the earth: Thou hast laid me in the lowest pit, in darkness,\nin the deeps.\" Does it not seem strange that His soul should be\ncommended hence who had often bound death to His bidding and summoned\nfrom the grave its prey? He is brought low to the dust of death. The\nerect figure is prostrated. The instinctive life is arrested. That\nmysterious frame--related to the infinite and the Divine temple of\nall greatness, shrine of all sanctity--that \"Holy Thing\" sleeps in\ndeath.\n\n3. _This style may be intended to intimate that burial to which He\nyielded._--\"Lest I become like them that go down into the pit.\" \"So\nmust the Son of man be in the heart of the earth.\" He has made His\ngrave with the wicked, and with the rich in His death! He is put away\ninto darkness. He is held of death in its gloomy chambers. He is as a\nvictim and a prey. It is a prison-keep.\n\n4. _The separation of the Redeemer's body and spirit may be described\nin these words._--We mark in this departure of His soul the simple\nrequirement of death. It could not be retained. It descended into the\nlower parts of the earth. This is the reverse of resurrection and\nheavenward flight. It was humiliation. These are the gradations of\nHis descent. These are the \"lower parts of the earth\" to which He\ndeclined. This is His coming forth from the Father! This is His\ncoming down from heaven! This is His coming into the world! His\nmeasureless surrender of claims! His inconceivable renunciation of\nhonours! Stooping to inferior and still inferior levels of ignominy!\nPlunging to deeper and still deeper abysses of shame!\n\n+II. The glory of His subsequent exaltation.+--1. _It is in itself an\nabsolute expression of love._\n\n2. _It justifies an expectation of surpassing benefits._\n\n3. _The act regulates and secures its own efficiency._\n\n4. _This act is to be regarded as of incomparable worth and\nexcellence._--The mission of Christ contemplated the highest\nprinciples which can direct the Divine conduct. He came to vindicate\nthat character which to conceive aright is the happiness of all\ncreatures--to uphold and avenge that law which cannot be infringed\nwithout an utter loss of good and overthrow of order--to atone for\nsin whose slight and impunity would have been the allowance of\ninfinite mischiefs and evils--to bring in an everlasting\nrighteousness adequate to the justification of the most guilty, and\nof the most multiplied objects who needed it--leaving it for ever\nproved that no rule nor sanction of God's moral government can be\nviolated without a necessary and meet resentment! His ascension was a\nradiant triumph. Scarcely is it more descried than His resurrection.\nWe catch but a few notes of the resounding acclaim, we mark but a few\nfleeces of the glory-cloud, we recognise but a few attendants of the\nangel-train. With that laconic force which characterises holy writ,\nit is simply recorded, \"Who is gone into heaven.\"\n\n+III. The reciprocal influence of these respective facts.+--\"The\nsame\" was He who bowed Himself to these indignities and who seized\nthese rewards. And this identity is of the greatest value. Not only\ndo we hail Him in His reinstatement in original dignities, but in the\naugmentation of His glories. Deity was never so beheld before. There\nis a combination and a form of the Divine perfections entirely new.\nWe repine that He is not here. We forget that it is expedient that He\nshould go away. Heaven alone provides scope for His undertakings and\nchannel for His influences. There must He abide until the restitution\nof all things. But nothing of His sympathy or His grace do we\nforego.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\nVers. 9, 10. _The Ascension and its Results._\n\n+I. With respect to the new heavens and the new earth, what may we\nnot infer from the ascension of Christ in full integrity of His\nnature above all heavens with respect to the conversion and\ntransformation and ennobling of this material?+--The nature and\nhistory of His person revealed the relations clearly between heaven\nand earth, between God and man, between the material and the\nspiritual. We cannot for a moment look upon the transformation and\nexaltation of Christ's nature as an isolated fact dissociated from\nthe restitution and exaltation of all things spoken of in His Word.\nThe nature with which He rose from the dead and ascended into heaven\nwas the same nature in which He was crucified, though glorified and\nswallowed up of life. Must we not say, then, that the body which\nascended in relation to the body which was crucified and laid in the\ngrave may illustrate the relation of the present heavens and the new\nearth? And, in accordance with this idea, are there not every way\nmost wonderful changes and transformations of which the ascension of\nChrist's body seems to be the fulfilment and crown and also the\nfirstfruits? The flower from its imprisoned bud, the insect from its\ngrovelling form, light out of darkness, electricity from ponderable\nelements, the strange affinities of matter striving to break forth\nfrom their captivity, the unerring instincts of animal life held, as\nit were, in bondage--all seem to point with prophetic finger to a\nfuture deliverance and ennobled state and condition whilst meekly\nwaiting, but with earnest expectation, with the whole creation for\nthe deliverance and glorious liberty of the sons of God. The Gospel\ntherefore contains a Gospel for nature as well as for man--the\nprediction of the day when the strife of elements shall cease, when\nthe powers of darkness shall be swallowed up of life, when the lion\nshall lie down with the lamb, when the tares shall no longer grow\nwith the wheat, when creation, now so weary, shall lift up her head\nand rejoice in the redemption for which she now groans and travails.\n\n+II. If we cannot dissociate the history of Jesus from the history of\nthe earth, much less can it be dissociated from the history of\nmankind.+--He is humanity, root and crown. Humanity exists nowhere\nelse but in Him. No aggregate of men make humanity, nor can\npersonality be ascribed to humanity except in Him. Individual men may\nhave a personality, but humanity is only an idea except it exists in\nHim who is its root and crown; and it is in this sense that He is\nspoken of, and that He speaks of Himself as, the Son of man. In His\nascension, therefore, which carries as a necessary presupposition all\nthe facts of His history, mankind is delivered from its curse and\nfrom bondage. Identity of nature and reciprocity of choice now\nconstitute the most intimate union and most blessed fellowship of\nwhich we are conscious, and it is the fair offshoot, the true type of\nthat which is to be the highest, to which He is exalted above all\nheavens, from which height He has promised to gather together our\ncommon humanity. In such and for such a relation He is exalted to the\nthrone of universal dominion as the Bridegroom of mankind, to be the\nHead over all things to His Church, which is His body, the fulness of\nHim which filleth all in all.\n\n+III. What may we not learn from the fact of Christ's ascension+--not\nmerely with respect to the new heavens and the new earth, not merely\nwith respect to mankind and its history, but with respect to the\ngovernment and providence of earth? If all nature is gathered up and\nrepresented in human nature, and if all human nature is gathered up\nand represented in the Son of man, and if the Son of man resteth and\nsitteth upon the throne of universal dominion, then, my brethren, the\nconclusion is as direct as it is clear, that all things must be\nworking together in the interests of His kingdom and of His Church,\nthat all things have but one purpose and one end to which the whole\ncreation moves. We may say with Herbert:\n\n     \"For us the winds do blow,\n      The earth does rest, heavens, move, and fountains flow;\n      Nothing we see but means our good--\n        'Tis our delight or has our treasure.\n      The whole is either cupboard of our food\n        Or cabinet of pleasure.\"\n\nThese lines contain as deep a philosophy as they do good poetry. \"All\nthings unto our flesh are kind in their descent and being.\" As they\ndescend to us they bless our lower nature, but as we follow them in\ntheir ascent they bless our minds. And in history are there not\nchanges similar to and commensurate with those which we have seen in\nnature, and all subordinated to one end? Mighty nations and kingdoms\nhave arisen and passed away, and passed away, we might add, in the\ngreatness of their might. What strange development, as it has well\nbeen asked, is it that the power of the world should rise to a great\nheight of glory, and, not able to sustain it, pass away? Because they\nknew not God--because they were prejudicial to the interests of man.\nThe present state and prospects of the world are but the results of\nall its past history, of the action and reaction, the strife and\nceaseless conflict, which have been going on from the first--the\nstrife and ceaseless conflict between the spirit of man's revolt in\nall the forms of will-worship and idolatrous power, and the returning\nspirit of allegiance towards God and His kingdom of life and love. On\nthe one hand, therefore, we have a series of rapid and mighty\ndevelopments of the very power which destroyed them when at the very\nheight of their glory; on the other hand, we have the continuous and\nsilent growth and expansion of the same ideas--all-conquering ideas\nand all-conquering beliefs personally embodied from the first in men\nconfessing their allegiance to God.--_Dr. Pulsford._\n\n\nVer. 10. _The Humiliation and Exaltation of Christ._\n\n+I. Christ's humiliation.+--Implied in the words, \"He that\ndescended.\" These words bear the same sense with those of Ps.\ncxxxix. 15, and may be properly taken for Christ's incarnation and\nconception in the womb of the Virgin.--1. Because other expositions\nmay be shown to be unnatural, forced, or impertinent, and there is no\nother besides this assignable. 2. Since Paul here uses David's words\nit is most probable he used them in David's sense. 3. The words\ndescending and ascending are so put together in the text that they\nseem to intend a summary of Christ's whole transaction in man's\nredemption, begun in His conception and consummated in His ascension.\n\n+II. Christ's glorious advancement and exaltation.+--\"He ascended far\nabove all heavens\" to the most eminent place in dignity and glory in\nthe highest heaven.\n\n+III. The qualification and state of Christ's person in reference to\nboth conditions.+--He was the same, showing the unity of the two\nnatures in the same person.\n\n+IV. The end of Christ's ascension.+--\"That He might fill all\nthings.\" _All things_ may refer--1. To the Scripture prophecies and\npredictions. 2. To the Church as He might fill that with His gifts\nand graces. 3. To all things in the world. This latter interpretation\npreferred. He may be said to fill all things--1. By the omnipresence\nof His nature and universal diffusion of His Godhead. 2. By the\nuniversal rule and government of all things committed to Him as\nMediator upon His ascension.--_South._\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _The Work of the Ministry._\n\n+I. It is evident that public teachers in the Church are to be a\ndistinct order of men.+--Christ has given some pastors and teachers.\nNone has a right publicly to teach in the Church but those who are\ncalled, sent, authorised to the work in the Gospel way. All\nChristians are to exhort, reprove, and comfort one another as there\nis occasion; but public teaching in the Church belongs peculiarly to\nsome--to those who are given to be pastors and teachers.\n\n+II. Public teachers are here called Christ's gifts.+--\"He _gave_\nsome pastors and teachers.\" The first apostles were commissioned\nimmediately by Christ. They who were thus commissioned of Heaven to\npreach the Gospel were authorised to ordain others. Christ gave\npastors and teachers, not only to preach His Gospel, but to train up\nand prepare holy men for the same work.\n\n+III. Ministers are to be men endued with gifts suitable to the work\nto which they are called.+--As in the early days of the Gospel public\nteachers were called to extraordinary services, so they were endued\nwith extraordinary gifts; but these gifts were only for a season. As\nthe business of a minister is to teach men the things which Christ\nhas commanded in the Scriptures, so it is necessary he himself should\nbe fully instructed in them. In the early days, as there were\nevangelists who went forth to preach the Gospel where Christ had not\nbeen named, so there were pastors and teachers who had the immediate\ncare of Churches already established.\n\n+IV. The great object of the ministry is the building up of the\nChurch of Christ.+--The ministry is intended for the improvement of\nsaints, as well as for the conversion of sinners. The apostle\nmentions also the unity of the knowledge of Christ. We must not rest\nin attainments already made, but continually aspire to the character\nof a perfect man, to the measure of the stature of the fulness of\nChrist.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-16.\n\n_True Christian Manhood_--\n\n+I. Attained by the unity of an intelligent faith in\nChrist.+--1. _This faith must be based on knowledge._ \"Till we all\ncome in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of\nGod\" (ver. 13). A faith, so called, not based on knowledge is\nfanaticism. True faith is the result of conviction--a profound\nconsciousness of the truth. Many reach this stage. They have heard\nthe evidence, examined it, and are clearly persuaded of its truth;\nbut they never get beyond that. They are like the neap tide that\ncomes rolling in as if it would sweep everything before it; but when\nit arrives at a certain point, it stops, and with all the ocean at\nits back it never passes the mark where it is accustomed to pause. It\nis well to get to the neap-tide mark of conviction; but there is no\nsalvation till the soul is carried by the full spring tide of\nconviction into a voluntary and complete surrender to Christ. It is\nweak, it is cowardly, when convinced of the right, not to do it\npromptly and heartily. Faith acquires its full-rounded unity when it\nis exercised, not on any abstract truth, but on a Person who is the\nliving embodiment of all truth. The final object of faith is \"the Son\nof God,\" and any truth is valuable only as it helps us to Him. Christ\nhas Himself revealed the truth essential to be believed in order to\nsalvation: He is Himself that truth.\n\n2. _Perfect manhood is a complete Christ-likeness._--\"Unto a perfect\nman, unto the measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ\" (ver.\n13). Man is so great that he is perpetually striving after a loftier\nideal; nothing that has limits can satisfy him. \"It is because there\nis an infinite in him which with all his cunning he cannot quite bury\nunder the finite. Will the whole finance ministers and upholsterers\nand confectioners of modern Europe undertake in joint-stock company\nto make one shoeblack happy? They cannot accomplish it above an hour\nor two; for the shoeblack also has a soul quite other than his\nstomach, and would require, if you consider it for his permanent\nsatisfaction and saturation, simply this allotment, no more and no\nless--God's infinite universe altogether to himself, therein to enjoy\ninfinitely and fill every wish as fast as it arose. Try him with half\na universe of an omnipotence, he sets to quarrelling with the\nproprietor of the other half and declares himself the most maltreated\nof men\" (_Carlyle_). True manhood does not consist in the development\nof a fine physique, or a brilliant mentality, or in the pursuit of\nheroic ambitions. It lies in the nobleness of the soul at peace with\nGod, seeking in all things to please Him, and to possess and exhibit\nthe mind of Christ. The pagan hero is the warrior, the ruler, the\npoet, the philosopher; the Christian hero is the Christ-like man. The\nsupreme type of manhood is Christ-likeness. The ideal is conceived by\nfaith, and the actual is attained only by the exercise of the same\ngrace.\n\n+II. Superior to the childish vacillation induced by deceptive\nteaching+ (ver. 14).--The false teachers played with truth, as men\nplay with dice, with the reckless indifference of gamblers, and they\nand their victims were swayed to and fro, with ruin for the ultimate\ngoal. Like a rudderless ship they were tossed about at the caprice of\nevery current, with the inevitable result of wreckage among the rocks\nand quicksands. Professing a zeal for truth, they deceived themselves\nand others by ever changing their point of view, and craftily\navoiding the practical bearing of truth in the aims to change the\nheart and reform the life. The moment the application of truth\npressing upon the conscience made them uncomfortable, they tacked\nabout and sailed off under another issue. As the restless seaweed,\nwaving to and fro in the ever-changing tide, can never grow to the\ndignity of a tree, so those who were swayed by every changing phase\nof error can never grow up to the strength and stability of true\nChristian manhood. We can sympathise with the doubts and perplexities\nof an earnest seeker after truth; but our sympathy changes into\nimpatience when we discover that the seeker is more in search of\nnovelty than truth, of variety rather than certainty. To be for ever\nin doubt is to be in the fickle stage of mental and moral infancy. It\nis the worst phase of childishness.\n\n+III. It is a continual growth in the truth and love of Christ+\n(vers. 15, 16).--It is the high distinction of man that he is\nsusceptible of almost unlimited growth in mental and moral\nattainments. One of the greatest distances between animalism and man\nis seen in the unbridged gulf of _progress._ The animal remains where\nhe was, but man has been progressing in every department of life from\nthe very first. There is between them all the breadth of history. The\nanimal builds its nest as it ever did, the bee by the same marvellous\ninstinct constructs its geometrical cells now as at the first; but\nman is a genius--he creates. His first rude efforts in shaping his\ndwellings have gone on progressing and improving until we have the\narchitectural development of to-day. In every kind of art it is the\nsame--rude flint knives, lance heads, needles, were his first weapons\nand implements; to them succeeded bronze, and then iron--each marking\nstages in that history of progress up to the beautiful cutlery,\nstores, and arsenals of the present day. The animal roars or chatters\nto-day as it has done all along. It has made no progress towards\nintelligent speech--a Rubicon the animal will never cross. But man,\nwho began with one speech, and a very limited vocabulary of words,\nhas developed speech into the great languages of ancient and modern\nliterature. A wider gulf than this is hardly conceivable. But the\nmoral growth of man is more remarkable. The era of the Gospel is a\nrevelation of the power of love. With the ancients a mere sentiment,\nChristianity teaches that love is the essence of religion; and that\nnature is the manliest and noblest that advances in the knowledge of\nDivine truth and in the self-sacrificing love of Christ. The whole\nfabric of the Christian character is built up in the ever-increasing\nexercise of Christ-like love.\n\n+Lessons.+--_Christian manhood is_--1. _Acquired by an intelligent\nfaith in Christ._ 2. _Developed by an imitation of Christ._\n3. _Maintained and strengthened by constant fidelity to Christ._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13-16. _The Growth of the Church._\n\n+I. The goal of the Church's life+ (ver. 13).--The mark at which the\nChurch is to arrive is set forth in a two-fold way--_in its\ncollective and its individual aspects._ We must all unitedly attain\nthe oneness of the faith and the knowledge of the Son of God; and we\nmust attain, each of us, a perfect manhood, the measure of the\nstature of the fulness of Christ. All our defects are, at the bottom,\ndeficiencies of faith. We fail to apprehend and appropriate the\nfulness of God in Christ. The goal of the regenerate life is never\nabsolutely won; it is hid with Christ in God. But there is to be a\nconstant approximation to it, both in the individual believer and in\nthe body of Christ's people. And a time is coming when that goal will\nbe practically attained, so far as earthly conditions allow. The\nChurch after long strife will be reunited, after long trial will be\nperfected. Then this world will have had its use, and will give place\nto the new heavens and earth.\n\n+II. The malady which arrests its development+ (ver. 14).--The\nchildishness of so many Christian believers exposed them to the\nseductions of error, and ready to be driven this way and that by the\nevil 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. At every crisis in human\nthought there emerges some prevailing method of truth, or of error,\nthe resultant of current tendencies, which unites the suffrages of a\nlarge body of thinkers, and claims to embody the spirit of the age.\nSuch a method of error our own age has produced as the outcome of the\nanti-Christian speculation of modern times, in the doctrines current\nunder the names of Positivism, Secularism, or Agnosticism. Modern\nAgnosticism removes God farther from us, beyond the reach of thought,\nand leaves us with material nature as the one positive and accessible\nreality, as the basis of life and law. Faith and knowledge of the Son\nof God it banishes as dreams of our childhood. This materialistic\nphilosophy gathers to a head the unbelief of the century. It is the\nliving antagonist of Divine revelation.\n\n+III. The means and conditions of its growth+ (vers. 15, 16).--To the\ncraft of false teachers St. Paul would have his Churches oppose the\nweapons only of truth and love. Sincere believers, heartily devoted\nto Christ, will not fall into fatal error. A healthy life\ninstinctively repels disease. Next to the moral condition lies the\nspiritual condition of advancement--the full recognition of the\nsupremacy and sufficiency of Christ. He is the perfect ideal for\neach, the common source of life and progress for all. He is the Head\nof the Church and the heart of the world. Another practical condition\nof Church growth is organization--\"all the body fitly framed and knit\ntogether.\" A building or a machine is fitted together by the\nadjustment of its parts. A body needs, besides this mechanical\nconstruction, a pervasive life, a sympathetic force, knitting it\ntogether. And so it is in love that this body of the Church builds up\nitself. The perfect Christian and the perfect Church are taking shape\nat once. Each of them requires the other for its due realisation. The\nprimary condition of Church health and progress is that there shall\nbe an unobstructed flow of the life of grace from point to point\nthrough the tissues and substance of the entire frame.--_Findlay._\n\n\nVers. 13-15. _Christian Manhood._\n\n+I. Christian manhood is a growth.+--1. A growth having its inception\nin the simple fact of becoming a Christian. This is a decided advance\nupon the most moral and cultivated state otherwise attainable. It\ninvolves the quickening into a new life which is to grow. 2. A growth\nmarking a continual advancement till we all come in the unity--the\nrespect in which one grows--the union, conjunction of faith and of\nknowledge. 3. A growth resulting from culture under Divinely\nappointed agencies. The most splendid growth, other things being\nequal, is the result of the highest culture. The highest culture is\npossible only through the most rigid conformity to the laws of\ndevelopment and the appliance of the best agencies. 4. A growth the\nstandard of whose completeness is the fulness of Christ. The\nstature--the adultness, the full-grown manhood of Christ--is the\nstandard of growth, whose attainment is the Christian's noblest zeal.\n\n+II. The elements of Christian manhood.+--1. _Largeness_--in the\nChristian's views of truth, of man's need, of Christ's work, of\nschemes and plans for its greater furtherance.\n\n2. _Dignity._--That deep, inwrought sense of the true worth and\ngreatness of his nature, as a renewed man, and of his position as a\nchild of God and joint-heir with Christ. Christian ethics are the\nbest ethics; highest, purest, noblest, safest. He lives by these\nnaturally who has a well-developed Christian manhood.\n\n3. _Courageousness and strength._--Courage makes a man put forth his\nbest strength, while strength enables courage to achieve its best\ndeeds.\n\n+III. The outworking of Christian manhood.+--It gives:--\n\n1. _Steadfastness._--No more children. No more carried about--borne\nround and round as in the swiftly whirling eddy of the sea--by every\nwind of doctrine.\n\n2. _Sincerity._--\"Speaking the truth in love\" refers both to the\nsincerity of life and our relation to the truth.\n\n3. _A further growth._--As the full-grown tree, leaves and blossoms\nand bears; as fruit, after it is full-grown, mellows, matures,\nsweetens; ripening as wheat for the garner.--_J. M. Frost._\n\n\nVers. 14-16. _Christian Maturity._\n\n+I. The negative part of this description.+--1. _Christians must not\nremain children._--In humility, meekness, and teachableness, let them\nbe children; but in understanding, constancy, and fortitude they\nshould be men. Children have but little knowledge and a weak\njudgment. They believe hastily and act implicitly. They are governed\nby passion more than reason, by feeling more than judgment.\n\n2. _The apostle cautions that we be not tossed to and fro like a ship\nrolling on the waves._--The man without principle, knowledge, and\njudgment is at the mercy of every rude gust. He is driven in any\ndirection, as the wind happens to blow. He makes no port, but is\nevery moment in danger of shipwreck.\n\n3. _We must not be carried about with every wind of doctrine._--False\ndoctrines, like winds, are blustering and unsteady. They blow from no\ncertain point, but in all directions, and frequently shift their\ncourse. The light and chaffy Christian, the hypocritical and\nunprincipled professor, is easily carried about by divers and strange\ndoctrines. He shifts his course and changes his direction, as the\nwind of popular opinion happens to drive.\n\n4. _We are in danger from the cunning craftiness of men._--True\nministers use plainness of speech, and by manifestation of the truth\ncommend themselves to the consciences of men. Corrupt teachers use\nsleight and craft, that they may ensnare the simple, decoy the\nunsuspecting, and thus make proselytes to their party. They pretend\nto superior sanctity. They are watchful to take advantage of an\nunhappy circumstance in a Church. They unsettle men's minds from the\nestablished order of the Gospel, and prejudice them against the\nregular maintenance of the ministry, representing all order in\nChurches as tyranny and all stated provision for the ministry as\noppression. They promise men liberty, but are themselves the servants\nof corruption.\n\n+II. The positive part.+--1. _The mature Christian must speak the\ntruth in love._ Be sincere in love. We should acquire a good\ndoctrinal knowledge of the truth as it is in Jesus. We should be well\nestablished in the truth. We should see that our hearts are conformed\nto the truth. We must walk in the truth.\n\n2. _We must grow up in all things into Christ._--A partial religion\nis not that which the Gospel teaches. We must have respect to the\nwhole character of Christ, to the whole compass of duty, to every\nknown doctrine and precept of Scripture. All the graces of the Gospel\nunite in forming the Christian's temper. They all operate in harmony.\nHis religion is one continued, uniform, consistent work.\n\n+III. How Christian maturity is attained.+--From the growth of the\nhuman body the apostle borrows a similitude to illustrate the\nspiritual growth of the Christian Church. It is as absurd to expect\ngrowth in knowledge and holiness without the means instituted for the\nedifying of the body of Christ as it would be to expect the growth of\na natural body without supplies of food.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _There is no Christian growth where love is wanting._\n2. _Christians are bound to seek the peace in order to the\nedification of the Church.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Case of Deceivers and Deceived considered._\n\n+I. Consider the case of deceivers or seducers such as by their\nsleight and cunning craftiness lie in wait to deceive.+--The\nparticular motives by which men may be led to beguile others are\nreducible to three--pride, avarice, and voluptuousness: love of\nhonour, or profit, or pleasure. 1. There is often a great deal of\npride and vanity in starting old notions and broaching new doctrines.\nIt is pretending to be wiser than the rest of the world, and is\nthought to be an argument of uncommon sagacity. Upon this footing\nsome are perpetually in quest of new discoveries. Nothing pleases\nthem, if they have not the honour of inventing it or of receiving it\nin their times. When once a man has thus far given loose to his\nvanity and thinks himself significant enough to be head of a sect,\nthen he begins first to whisper out his choice discoveries to a few\nadmirers and confidants, who will be sure to flatter him in it; and\nnext to tell aloud to all the world how great a secret he had found\nout, with the inestimable value of it. And now at length comes in the\nuse of sleight and cunning craftiness and all imaginable artifices;\nfirst to find out proper agents to commend and cry up the conceit,\nnext to spread it in the most artful manner among the simple and\nleast suspecting, and after that to form interests and make parties;\nand so, if possible, to have a public sanction set to it or a\nmajority at least contending for it. Love of fame and glory is a very\nstrong passion, and operates marvellously in persons of a warm\ncomplexion. 2. Observe how avarice or love of profit may sometimes do\nthe same thing. There is a gain to be made in some junctures by\nperverting the truth and deceiving the populace. Men who are not\nworthy to teach in the Church, or who have been set aside for their\ninsufficiency or immorality, may bring up new doctrines and draw\ndisciples after them, for the sake of protection and maintenance or\nfor filthy lucre. With such the vending of false doctrines is a trade\nand preaching a merchandise. Thus has avarice been the mother of\nheresies and has brought many deceivers into the Church of Christ;\nbut they have contrived generally to give some plausible turn and\ncolour to their inventions through their \"sleight\" and \"cunning\ncraftiness,\" in order to deceive the hearts of the simple and to\nbeguile unwary and unstable souls. 3. One motive\nmore--voluptuousness, or love of pleasure. As religious restraints\nset not easy upon flesh and blood, but bear hard upon corrupt nature,\nso men of corrupt minds will be ever labouring to invent and publish\nsmooth and softening doctrines, such as may either qualify the\nstrictness of the Gospel rule or sap the belief of a future\nreckoning. Many ancient heretics had such views as these in the first\nbroaching of their heresies. Their design was to take off the awe and\ndread of a future judgment, and thereby to open a door to all\nlicentiousness of life and dissoluteness of manners.\n\n+II. Consider the case of the deceived who suffer themselves to be\n\"tossed to and fro with every wind of doctrine.\"+--They are supposed\nto be ignorantly, and in a manner blindly, led on by others,\notherwise they would be rather confederates and confidants in\nmanaging the deceit, and so would be more deceivers than deceived.\n1. Now as to those who are so ignorantly imposed upon. They are more\nor less to blame, according as their ignorance is more or less\nblamable; and that, again, will be more or less blamable, according\nas it is more or less affected or wilful. There are, I think, three\ncases which will take in all sorts of men who suffer themselves to be\ndeceived in things of this kind. The first is of those who have no\nopportunity, no moral possibility of informing themselves better; the\nsecond is of those who might inform themselves better, but do not;\nthe third of those who might also be better informed, but will not.\nIf they be \"like children tossed to and fro with every wind of\ndoctrine,\" yet if they are really children in understanding and are\noverborne by others in such a way as is morally irresistible\nconsidering their circumstances, then it seems to be their misfortune\nto be so imposed upon rather than their fault, and so is not\nimputable. 2. A second case is of those who may inform themselves\nbetter but neglect to do it. I suppose it to be merely neglect in\nthem, not design. Perhaps they have little or no leisure for\ninquiries; they are taken up with worldly cares and business. They\nhave a very great esteem and value for the man who so misleads them,\nand they know no better, but swallow everything he says without\nconsidering; or they are not aware of any ill consequences of the\ndoctrine, see or suspect no harm in it. They are much to blame in\nthis affair, because God has given them the faculty of reason, which\nought not to be thus left to lie dormant and useless. Men who can be\nsharp enough in secular affairs to prevent being imposed upon may and\nought to have some guard upon themselves with respect also to their\nspiritual concernments. 3. There is yet a third sort of men, worse\nthan the former, who suffer themselves to be deceived and might know\nbetter, but will not; that is to say, their ignorance is affected and\nwilful, they \"love darkness rather than light because their deeds are\nevil.\" These are such as readily run in with \"every wind of doctrine\"\nwhich hits their taste and chimes in with their favourite\ninclinations. They admit the doctrine because they like it, and they\neasily believe it true because they would have it so. It is with this\nkind of men that deceivers prevail most and make their harvest.\n\n+III. Some advices proper to prevent our falling in with\neither.+--The best preservative in this case is an honest and good\nheart, well disposed towards truth and godliness, having no by-ends\nto serve, no favourite lust or passion to indulge. If any man is but\nwilling to know and to do God's commandments, he will easily discern\nin most cases whether a doctrine be of God or whether it be of men.\nThe evidences of the true religion and of its main doctrines are so\nbright and strong when carefully attended to, that common sense and\nreason are sufficient to lead us, when there is no bias to mislead\nus. For several years last past rude and bold attacks have been made\nagainst the important doctrines of Christianity and against all\nrevealed religion, and this is what they are still carrying on with\nexquisite subtlety and craftiness many ways and with a great deal of\nfruitless pains and labour. For I may have leave to suppose that no\nman can in this case be deceived who has not first a desire to be so,\nand is not the dupe and bubble to his own lust and vices.--_Dr.\nWaterland._\n\n\nVer. 15. _Speaking the Truth in Love._--1. A different thing from the\nirritating candour of the professed friend. 2. Implies an\nexperimental knowledge of the truth and its spiritual mission. 3. Is\nthe most effectual way of winning a hearing and gaining adherents.\n4. A method conspicuously exemplified in the teaching of Christ.\n\n\n_Growth into Christ in Love and Truth._\n\n+I. The standard of Christian excellence--Christ's headship.+--1. The\nprominent notion suggested is His rank in the universe. He rules as\nGod in creation. But evidently the apostle does not mean this in the\ntext. We are to grow into Him as Head. Growth into Christ's Godhead\nis impossible. God-like we may, God we cannot even by truth and love,\nbecome. 2. He is the Head as being the Source of spiritual life. This\nis implied in metaphor. The highest life-powers--sensation, feeling,\nthought--come from the brain. To one who has read the history of\nthose times, there is an emphatic truth in Christ's being the life of\nthe world. The world was like a raft becalmed in the tropics--some of\nits freight dead and baking in the sun, some sucking as if for\nmoisture from dried casks, and some sadly, faintly looking for a\nsail. Christ's coming to the world was as life to the dead, imparting\nnew impulse to human heart and human nature. It was like rain and\nwind coming to that bark--once more it cuts the sea, guided by a\nliving hand. So also with each man who drinks Christ's Spirit. He\nbecomes a living character. Not sustained on dogmas or taken-up\nopinions, but alive with Christ. 3. He is Head as chief of the human\nrace. Never had the world seen, never again will it see, such a\ncharacter. Humanity found in Him a genial soil, and realised God's\nidea of what man was meant to be. He is chief. Nothing comes near Him.\n\n+II. Progress towards the standard of Christian excellence.+--\"We\ngrow up into Him in all things.\"\n\n1. _Growth in likeness to Him._--The human soul was formed for\ngrowth, and that growth is infinite. The acorn grows into the oak,\nthe child into the philosopher. And at death the soul is not\ndeclining; it is as vigorous as ever. Hence nothing but an infinite\nstandard will measure the growth of the soul of man.\n\n2. _Growth in comprehension of Him._--Christ is not comprehensible at\nfirst. Words cannot express the awe with which a man contemplates\nthat character when it is understood. This is the true heroic, this\nthe only God-like, this the real Divine. From all types of human\nexcellence I have made my choice for life and death--Christ.\n\n+III. The approved means of growth the mode of progress.+--\"Speaking\nthe truth in love.\" Truth and love--and these joined. To \"grow into\nChrist\" we must have both traits of character. Would you be like\nChrist? Cultivate love of beauty and tenderness. His soul was alive\nto beauty. He noted the rising and setting sun, the waving corn, the\nlily of the field. His was love which insult could not ruffle nor\nribaldry embitter, and which only grew sweeter and sweeter. Would you\nbe like Christ? Be true! He never swerved. He was a martyr to truth.\nWould He soften down truth for the young man whom He loved, or make\nit palatable? No; not for friendship, not for love, not for all the\nlovely things this world has to show. \"One thing thou lackest: sell\nall that thou hast, and distribute unto the poor, and thou shalt have\ntreasure in heaven: and come, follow Me\" (Mark x. 17-22; Luke\nxviii. 17-23). That was \"speaking the truth in love.\" There is no\ngood to be got out from Christ, except by being made like him. There\nis no pardon, no blessing, separate from inward improvement. Sanctity\nof character alone blesses. Each man is his own hell and his own\nheaven. God Himself cannot bless you unless He gives you His own\ncharacter.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Law of Mutual Dependence._\n\nI. This text admonishes us of +the manifold instruments and agencies\non whose concurrence and harmonious action the prosperity and the\nperfection of the Christian Church depend.+--It likens the Church to\nthat most complicated, admirable machine, the human body, which only\nproduces its proper results, the preservation and comfort of human\nlife, by the healthful tone and right performance of its various\npowers and functions. We live, and are at ease, in virtue of the\nsound condition and regular operation of all the multitude of parts\nand organs which compose our corporeal frame. Should the heart refuse\nto circulate the blood, and to diffuse through all the various\nchannels of inter-communication with the members of the body its\nlife-sustaining pulses, death ensues in a moment.\n\nII. +The same law of mutual dependence reigns in improved civilised\nsociety.+--In man, social as well as individual, the body politic and\nsocial must prosper, or its members suffer. The individual too cannot\nsuffer without inflicting, by so much, an injury on the community.\nThe ruler and the subject, the capitalist and the operative, the\nmerchant, the farmer, the scholar and the artisan, the manufacturer\nand the sailor, perform functions alike indispensable to the great\nresult aimed at or desired by all communities. They are mutually\ndependent, are indissolubly united in interest by ties not always\nvisible, but yet real and essential to the well-being of all parties.\n\nIII. I hasten to +apply my subject to the Church,+ where the text\nfinds illustration yet more pertinent and affecting. The Church is a\ncommunity, organised, with special ends to be accomplished, and\nendowed with special capabilities and adaptations, yet having many\npoints of resemblance to human society in general. All the members\nand all the officers of the Church are appointed and honoured of God\nto be co-workers with Himself, co-agents with the Holy Ghost, in the\nedification of the body of Christ. The pastor, not less in the study,\nwhen he gathers things new and old from holy books and common, than\nin the pulpit or in breaking the bread of the sacrament at the altar,\nor in the sick-chamber--all the subordinate lay ministries devoted to\ngodly counsel, to faithful admonition, or to the management and\nconversation of the material interests of the Church--the pious\nmother nurturing up her children in God's love--the sufferer on a bed\nof languishing, giving forth blessed examples of patience and\nresignation and faith--the teacher of the Sabbath school--they who,\nin the Spirit, lift up our joyous songs of praise in the\nsanctuary--all who pray in the closet or in the congregation, are,\nand should be deemed, essential parts of that good, great system\nthrough whose wondrous, harmonious working God is pleased to renew\nand sanctify souls and train them up to be heirs of glory. Who, in\nthis great co-partnership for honouring Christ, has any ground of\ncomplaint?--the foot, that it is not the head? the eye, that it is\ntoo feeble to do the functions of the brawny arm? the ears, that they\ncannot do the office of locomotion? Every part is indispensable. None\ncan say which is most important in God's plan; and achievements,\nascribed hastily to the eloquence of the preacher, often stand\ncredited in the record kept above to the prayer of faith.--_Dr. Olin._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 17-24.\n\n_A Thorough Moral Transformation_--\n\n+I. Contrasted with a former life of sin.+--1. _A state of\nself-induced mental darkness._ \"Having the understanding\ndarkened, . . . because of the blindness of their heart\" (ver. 18).\nInfidelity is more a moral than a mental obliquity. The mind is\ndarkened because the heart is bad. Men do not see the truth because\nthey do not want to see it. The light that would lead to\nrighteousness and to God is persistently shut out.\n\n2. _A state of moral insensibility that abandoned the soul to the\nreckless commission of all kinds of sin._--\"Who being past feeling\nhave given themselves over . . . to work all uncleanness with\ngreediness\" (ver. 19). Sin is made difficult to the beginner. The\nbarriers set up by a tender conscience, the warnings of nature, the\nteachings of providence, the light of revelation, the living examples\nof the good, have all to be broken down. Early transgressions are\narrested by the remorse they occasion; but gradually the safeguards\nare neglected and despised, until the habit is acquired of sinning\nfor the love of sin. A spirit of recklessness ensues, the reins are\nrelaxed and then thrown upon the neck of the passions, and the soul\nis abandoned to the indulgence of all kinds of iniquity.\n\n     \"We are not worst at once. The course of evil\n      Is of such slight source an infant's hand\n      Might close its breach with clay;\n      But let the stream get deeper, and we strive in vain\n      To stem the headlong torrent.\"\n\n3. _A state that rendered all mental activities worthless._--\"Walk\nnot as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of their mind\" (ver. 17).\nThe art of right thinking was lost. For the man that will not think,\nthink clearly and justly, the calamities and the raptures of life,\nthe blessing and the curse, have no meaning. They evoke neither\ngratitude nor fear. The beauties of nature, as they sparkle in the\nstars, or shine in the flowers, or gleam in the coloured radiance of\nthe firmament, are unheeded. The voice of God that speaks in the\nevents of daily life has no lesson for him. The senses, which are\nintended as the avenues of light and teaching to the soul, are dulled\nby inaction, clogged by supine indifference, and polluted and damaged\nby inveterate sin. When the reason is poisoned at its source, all its\ndeductions are aimless and worthless.\n\n+II. Effected by the personal knowledge of the truth in\nChrist.+--\"But ye have not so learned Christ, . . . as the truth is\nin Jesus\" (vers. 20, 21). The Gospel has introduced to the world the\nprinciples of a great moral change. It announces Christ as the light\nof the world--a light that shines through all the realms of human\nlife. The diseased reason is restored to health, the intellectual\nfaculties have now a theme worthy of their noblest exercise, and are\nmade stronger and more reliable by being employed on such a theme,\nand the moral nature is lifted into a purer region of thought and\nexperience. The world is to be transformed by the moral\ntransformation of the individual, and that transformation is effected\nonly by the truth and a personal faith in Christ.\n\n+III. Involves the renunciation of the corrupting elements of the\nformer life.+--\"That ye put off . . . the old man, which is corrupt\"\n(ver. 22). The inward change is evidenced by the outward life. The\nold man dies, being conquered by the new. Corruption and decay marked\nevery feature of the old Gentile life. It was gangrened with vice. It\nwas a life of fleshly pleasure, and could end in only one way--in\ndisappointment and misery. The new moral order inaugurated by the\nGospel of Christ effected a revolution in human affairs, and the\ncorrupting elements of the old order must be weeded out and put away.\nAn excellent man in London kept an institution near the Seven Dials\nat his own expense. He spent his nights in bringing the homeless boys\nfrom the streets into it. When they came in he photographed them, and\nthen they were washed, clothed, and educated. When he sent one out,\nhaving taught him a trade, he photographed him again. The change was\nmarvellous, and was a constant reminder of what had been done for\nhim. The change effected in us by the grace of God not only contrasts\nwith our former life, but should teach us to hate and put away its\ncorrupting sins.\n\n+IV. Evidenced in investing the soul with the new life Divinely\ncreated and constantly receiving progressive renewal by the Spirit+\n(vers. 23, 24).--It is a continual rejuvenation the apostle\ndescribes; the verb is present in tense, and the newness implied is\nthat of recency and youth, newness in point of age. But the new man\nto be put on is of a new kind and order. It is put on when the\nChristian way of life is adopted, when we enter personally into the\nnew humanity founded in Christ. Thus two distinct conceptions of the\nlife 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\nassumption of another nature, the investiture of the soul with the\nDivine character and form of its being. The inward reception of\nChrist's Spirit is attended by the outward assumption of His\ncharacter as our calling amongst men. The man of the coming times\nwill not be atheistic or agnostic; he will be devout; not practising\nthe world's ethics with the Christian's creed; he will be upright and\ngenerous, manly and God-like (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Religion is a complete renewal of the soul._ 2. _The\nsoul is renewed by the instrumentality of the truth._ 3. _The renewal\nof the soul is the renewal of the outward life._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 17-19. _The Gentile Life--a Warning._\n\n+I. The Gentiles walked in the vanity of their minds.+--The false\ndeities the Gentiles worshipped are called vanities. The prevalence\nof idolatry is a melancholy proof of the depravity of human nature.\nAtheism and idolatry proceed not from the want of sufficient evidence\nthat there is one eternal, all-perfect Being, but from that\ncorruption of heart which blinds the understanding and perverts the\njudgment.\n\n+II. The heathens were darkened in their understanding.+--Not in\nrespect of natural things, for in useful arts and liberal sciences\nmany of them greatly excelled; but in respect of moral truth and\nobligation. Their darkness was owing, not solely to the want of\nrevelation, but to the want of an honest and good heart. Religion\nconsists not merely in a knowledge of and assent to Divine truths,\nbut in such conformity of heart to their nature and design, and in\nsuch a view of their reality and importance as will bring the whole\nman under their government.\n\n+III. They were alienated from the life of God.+--They walked\naccording to the course of the world, not according to the will of\nGod. Their alienation was through ignorance. Particular wrong actions\nmay be excused on the ground of unavoidable ignorance. This ignorance\nhad its foundation in the obstinacy and perverseness of the mind.\nSuch a kind of ignorance, being in itself criminal, will not excuse\nthe sins which follow from it.\n\n+IV. They were become past feeling.+--This is elsewhere expressed by\na conscience seared with a hot iron. By a course of iniquity the\nsinner acquires strong habits of vice. As vicious habits gain\nstrength, fear, shame, and remorse abate. Repeated violations of\nconscience blunt its sensibility and break its power.\n\n+V. They gave themselves over to lasciviousness.+--If we break over\nthe restraints the Gospel lays upon is, and mock the terrors it holds\nup to our view, we not only discover a great vitiosity of mind, but\nrun to greater lengths in the practice of iniquity. As water, when it\nhas broken through its mounds, rushes on with more impetuous force\nthan the natural stream, so the corruptions of the human heart, when\nthey have borne down the restraints of religion, press forward with\nmore violent rapidity, and make more awful devastation in the soul\nthan where these restraints had never been known.\n\n+Reflections.+--1. _How extremely dangerous it is to continue in sin\nunder the Gospel._ 2. _You have need to guard against the beginnings\nof sin._ 3. _Christians must be watchful lest they be led away by the\ninfluence of corrupt example._ 4. _Religion lies much in the temper\nof the mind.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 17, 18. _The Life of God._\n\n+I. There is but one righteousness, the life of God; there is but one\nsin, and that is being alienated from the life of God.+--One man may\ncommit different sorts of sins from another--one may lie, another may\nsteal; one may be proud, another may be covetous; but all these\ndifferent sins come from the same root of sin, they are all flowers\noff the same plant. And St. Paul tells us what that one root of sin,\nwhat that same devil's plant, is, which produces all sin in Christian\nbrethren. It is that we are every one of us worse than we ought to\nbe, worse than we know how to be, and, strangest of all, worse that\nwe wish or like to be. Just as far as we are like the heathen of old,\nwe shall be worse than we know how to be. For we are all ready enough\nto turn heathens again, at any moment. They were alienated from the\nlife of God--that is, they became strangers to God's life; they\nforgot what God's life and character was like; or if they even did\nawake a moment, and recollect dimly what God was like, they hated\nthat thought. They hated to think that God was what He was, and shut\ntheir eyes and stopped their ears as fast as possible. And what\nhappened to them in the meantime? What was the fruit of their\nwilfully forgetting what God's life was? St. Paul tells us that they\nfell into the most horrible sins--sins too dreadful and shameful to\nbe spoken of; and that their common life, even when they did not run\ninto such fearful evils, was profligate, fierce, and miserable. And\nyet St. Paul tells us all the while they knew the judgment of God,\nthat those who do such things are worthy of death.\n\n+II. These men saw that man ought to be like God; they saw that God\nwas righteous and good; and they saw, therefore, that unrighteousness\nand sin must end in ruin and everlasting misery.+--So much God had\ntaught them, but not much more; but to St. Paul He had taught more.\nThose wise and righteous heathen could show their sinful neighbours\nthat sin was death, and that God was righteous; but they could not\ntell them how to rise out of the death of sin into God's life of\nrighteousness. They could preach the terrors of the law, but they did\nnot know the good news of the Gospel, and therefore they did not\nsucceed; they did not convert their neighbours to God. Then came St.\nPaul and preached to the very same people, and he did convert them to\nGod; for he had good news for them, of things which prophets and\nkings had desired to see, and had not seen themselves, and to hear,\nand had not heard them. And so God, and the life of God, was\nmanifested in the flesh and reasonable soul of a man; and from that\ntime there is no doubt what the life of God is, for the life of God\nis the life of Christ. There is no doubt now what God is like, for\nGod is like Jesus Christ.\n\n+III. Now what is the everlasting life of God, which the Lord Jesus\nChrist lived perfectly,+ and which He can and will make every one of\nus live, in proportion as we give up our hearts and wills to Him, and\nask Him to take charge of us and shape us and teach us? And God is\nperfect love, because He is perfect righteousness; for His love and\nHis justice are not two different things, two different parts of God,\nas some say, who fancy that God's justice had to be satisfied in one\nway and His love in another, and talk of God as if His justice fought\nagainst His love, and desired the death of a sinner, and then His\nlove fought against His justice, and desired to save a sinner. The\nold heathen did not like such a life, therefore they did not like to\nretain God in their knowledge. They knew that man ought to be like\nGod; and St. Paul says they ought to have known what God was\nlike--that He was love; for St. Paul told them He left not Himself\nwithout witness, in that He sent rain and fruitful seasons, filling\ntheir hearts with food and gladness. That was, in St. Paul's eyes,\nGod's plainest witness of Himself--the sign that God was love, making\nHis sun shine on the just and on the unjust, and good to the\nunthankful and the evil--in one word, perfect, because He is perfect\nlove. But they preferred to be selfish, covetous, envious,\nrevengeful, delighting to indulge themselves in filthy pleasures, to\noppress and defraud each other.\n\n+IV. God is love.+--As I told you just now, the heathen of old might\nhave known that, if they chose to open their eyes and see. But they\nwould not see. They were dark, cruel, and unloving, and therefore\nthey fancied that God was dark, cruel, and unloving also. They did\nnot love love, and therefore they did not love God, for God is love.\nAnd therefore they did not love each other, but lived in hatred and\nsuspicion and selfishness and darkness. They were but heathen. But if\neven they ought to have known that God was love, how much more we?\nFor we know of a deed of God's love, such as those poor heathen never\ndreamed of. And then, if we have God abiding with us, and filling us\nwith His eternal life, what more do we need for life, or death, or\neternity, or eternities of eternities? For we shall live in and with\nand by God, who can never die or change, an everlasting life of\nlove.--_C. Kingsley._\n\n\nVer. 19. _Past Feeling._--1. Though original sin has seized upon the\nwhole soul, yet the Lord has kept so much knowledge of Himself and of\nright and wrong in the understanding of men as they may know when\nthey sin, and so much of conscience as to accuse or excuse according\nto the nature of the fact, whereupon follows grief or joy in their\naffections. Wicked men may arrive at such a height of sin as to have\nno sense of sin, no grief, nor check, nor challenge from conscience\nfrom it. 2. A watchful conscience doing its duty is the strongest\nrestraint from sin; and where that is not, all other restraints will\nserve for little purpose. For a man to be given over to\nlasciviousness without check or challenge argues a great height of\nimpiety. 3. As upon senseless stupidity of conscience there follows\nan unsatiableness in sinning especially in the sin of uncleanness, so\nwhen a man comes to this, he is then arrived at the greatest height\nof sin unto which the heathens, destitute of the knowledge of God,\never attained.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 20-24. _Putting off the Old Nature and putting on the New._\n\n+I. The change here spoken of is radically seated in the\nmind.+--These terms do not import the creation of new powers and\nfaculties, but the introduction of new tempers and qualities. The\nrenovation enlightens the eyes of the understanding, and gives new\napprehensions of Divine things. It purifies the affections and\ndirects them to their proper objects. There are new purposes and\nresolutions.\n\n+II. He who is renewed puts off the old man.+--The new spirit is\nopposite to sin and strives against it. The Christian mortifies the\naffections and lusts of the flesh because he has found them\ndeceitful. He in deliberate and hearty purpose renounces all sin. He\nabstains from the appearance of evil.\n\n+III. He puts on the new man.+--As the former signifies a corrupt\ntemper and conversation, so the latter must intend a holy and\nvirtuous disposition and character. The new man is renewed in\nrighteousness and true holiness. He not only ceases to do evil, but\nlearns to do well.\n\n+IV. The pattern according to which the new man is formed is the\nimage of God.+--The likeness must be understood with limitations. The\nimage of God in us bears no resemblance to the perfections in the\nDivine nature, such as immensity, immutability, and independence.\nThere are some essential properties of the new man to which there is\nnothing analogous in the Deity. Reverence, obedience, trust, and\nresignation are excellencies in rational creatures; but cannot be\nascribed to the Creator. In those moral perfections in which the new\nman is made like God there is only a faint resemblance, not an\nequality. The new man resembles God in mercy and goodness, in\nholiness, in truth.\n\n+V. This great change is effected by the Gospel.+--It was the\nconsequence of their having learned Christ. The first production and\nimprovement of this change is the work of Divine grace, and the\nSpirit of God works on the soul by means of the Word. To this change\nthe use of means and the grace of God are both necessary.\n\n+VI. The change is great.+--Let none imagine he is a subject of this\nchange merely because he entertains some new sentiments, feels\ntransient emotions, or has renounced some of his former guilty\npractices. The real nature and essence of conversion is the same in\nall.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_Religious Affections are attended with a Change of Nature._\n\n+I. What is conversion?+--1. A change of nature. 2. A permanent\nchange. 3. A universal change. 4. A union of God's spirit with the\nfaculties of the soul. 5. Christ by His grace savingly lives in the\nsoul.\n\n+II. Its connection with sanctification.+--1. All the affections and\ndiscoveries subsequent to the first conversion are transforming.\n2. This transformation of nature is continuous until the end of life,\nwhen it is brought to perfection in glory.\n\n+III. Reflections.+--1. Allowance must be made for the natural\ntemper. 2. Affections which have no abiding effect are not spiritual\nand gracious. 3. In some way it will be evident, even to others, that\nthe true disciple has been with Jesus.--_Lewis O. Thompson._\n\n\nVer. 23. _The Christian Spirit, a New Spirit._\n\n+I. There are some changes in men which come not up to the renewed\nspirit, and yet are too often rested in.+--1. The assuming of a new\nname and profession is a very different thing from a saving change in\nthe temper of the mind. We may be of any profession, and yet be\nunrenewed. People value themselves upon wearing the Christian name,\ninstead of that of Pagan, or Jew, or Mahometan; or upon being styled\nPapists or Protestants; or upon their attaching themselves to one or\nanother noted party, into which these are subdivided, and upon such a\nnew appellation they are too ready to imagine that they are new men:\nwhereas we may go the round of all professions, and still have the\nold nature remaining in full force. 2. A bare restraint upon the\ncorrupt spirit and temper will not come up to this renovation, though\nthe one may sometimes be mistaken for the other. The light of nature\nmay possess conscience against many evils, or a sober education lay\nsuch a bridle upon the corrupt inclination as will keep it in for a\nseason, the fear of punishment or of shame and reproach may suppress\nthe outward criminal act, while the heart is full of ravening and\nwickedness. Therefore, though it is a plain sign of an unrenewed mind\nif a man live in any course of gross sin, yet it is not safe to\nconclude merely from restraints that a man is truly renewed. 3. A\npartial change in the temper itself will not amount to such a\nrenovation as makes a true Christian. Indeed, in one sense the change\nis but partial in any in this life; there will be remains of disorder\nin all the powers of the soul, so as to exclude a pretence to\nabsolute perfection. It is not enough to have the mind filled with\nsound knowledge and useful notions, nor barely to give a dead assent\nto the doctrines of the Gospel, unless we believe with the heart, and\nthe will and affections be brought under the power of those truths;\nand even here there may be some alteration, and yet a man not be\nrenewed. Nor is it sufficient that we should find ourselves disposed\nto some parts of goodness, while our hearts are utterly averse to\nothers which are equally plain. And therefore, though we should be of\na courteous, peaceable, and kind temper towards men; though we should\nbe inclined to practise justice, liberality, truth, and honesty in\nour transactions with them, and to temperance and chastity in our\npersonal conduct; though these are excellent branches of the\nChristian spirit; yet if there be not a right temper towards God\nalso, if the fear and love of God are not the ruling principles of\nthe soul, there is an essential defect in the Christian spirit.\n\n+II. A particular view of this renovation in some principal acts of\nthe mind.+--1. The mind comes to have different apprehensions of\nthings, such as it had not before. The new creation begins with\nlight, as the old is represented to do. Light bearing in, and the\nmind being fixed in attention, man discerns the great corruption of\nhis heart, and the badness of the principles and ends which governed\nhim in the appearances of goodness, upon which he valued himself\nbefore. And so the excellency and suitableness of Christ, in all His\noffices, and the necessity of real, inward holiness, appear in quite\nanother manner to his soul than hitherto. 2. The practical judgment\nis altered. This light, shining with clearness and strength into the\nmind, unsettles and changes the whole practical judgment by which a\nman suffered himself to be governed before in the matters of his\nsoul. He judges those truths of religion to be real which once had no\nmore force with him than doubtful conclusions, and accordingly he\ncannot satisfy himself any longer barely not to disbelieve them, but\ngives a firm and lively assent to them. 3. A new turn is given to the\nreasoning faculty, and a new use made of it. When the Word of God is\nmighty it casts down imaginations; so we render the original word\n(2 Cor. x. 5). It properly signifies \"reasonings.\" Not that the\nfaculty itself is altered, or that when men begin to be religious\nthey lay aside reasoning; then in truth they act with the highest\nreason; they reason most justly and most worthy of their natures. But\nnow the wrong bias, which was upon the reasoning faculty from old\nprejudices and headstrong inclinations, is in a good measure taken\noff; so that instead of its being pressed at all adventures into the\nservice of sin, it is employed a better way, and concludes with more\ntruth and impartiality. 4. There is an alteration in man's governing\naim, or chief end. This is like the centre, to which all inferior\naims and particular pursuits tend. The original end of a reasonable\ncreature must be to enjoy the favour of God as his supreme happiness,\nto be acceptable and pleasing to Him. By the disposition of depraved\nnature we are gone off from this centre, and have changed our bias,\nfrom God to created good, to the pleasing of the flesh, to the\ngratification of our own humour, or to the obtaining of some present\nsatisfaction, according to the prevailing dictate of fancy or\nappetite. This makes the greatest turn that can be in the spirit of\nthe mind; all must be out of course till this be set right. Now it is\nthe most essential part of the new nature to bring a sinner in this\nrespect to himself, that is, to bring him back to God. All the light\nhe receives, all the rectification of his judgment, is in order to\nthis; and when this is well settled, everything else, which was out\nof course before, will return to its right channel. 5. There is\nhereupon a new determination to such a course of acting as will most\neffectually secure this end. As long as this world is the chief good\nwhich a man has in view, he contrives the best ways he can think of\nto promote his particular ends in it. But when the favour of God\ncomes to have the principal share in his esteem, he carefully\nexamines and heartily consents to the prescribed terms of making that\nsure. Now he is desirous to be found in Christ upon any terms. 6. The\nexercise of the affections becomes very different. A change will\nappear in this respect, through the different turns of his condition\nas well as in the prevailing tenor of his practice. While a man is a\nstranger to God and blind to the interests of his soul, he is little\nconcerned how matters lie between God and him. But a sinner come to\nhimself is most tenderly concerned at anything that renders his\ninterests in God doubtful or brings his covenant-relation into\nquestion; and nothing sets the springs of godly sorrow flowing so\nmuch as the consciousness of guilt, or of any unworthy behaviour to\nGod.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Let us seriously examine our own minds, whether we\ncan discern such an alteration made in our spirit._ 2. _If we must\nanswer in the negative, or have just ground to fear it, yet let us\nnot despair of a change still, but apply ourselves speedily in the\nappointed way to seek after it._ 3. _Let the best retain a sense of\nthe imperfection of the new nature in them, and of their obligation\nstill to cultivate it, till it arrive at perfection.--Dr. Evans._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 25-32.\n\n_Christian Principles applied to Common Life._\n\nLet us put these principles into the form of concrete precepts.\n\n+I. Be truthful.+--\"Putting away lying, speak every man truth, . . .\nfor we are members one of another\" (ver. 25). Society is so clearly\nwelded together and interdependent that the evil effects of a\nfalsehood not only damage others but rebound ultimately towards the\nman who uttered it. A lie is a breach of promise; for whosoever\nseriously addresses his discourse to another tacitly promises to\nspeak the truth, because he knows the truth is expected. Truth never\nwas indebted to a lie. \"In the records of all human affairs,\" writes\nFroude, \"it cannot be too often insisted on that two kinds of truths\nrun for ever side by side, or rather crossing in and out with each\nother form the warp and woof of the coloured web we call history: the\none the literal and eternal truths corresponding to the eternal and\nas yet undiscovered laws of fact; the other the truths of feeling and\nthought, which embody themselves either in distorted pictures of\noutward things or in some entirely new creation--sometimes moulding\nand shaping history; sometimes taking the form of heroic biography,\ntradition, or popular legend.\"\n\n+II. Avoid sinful anger.+--\"Be ye angry, and sin not: . . . neither\ngive place to the devil\" (vers. 26, 27). Anger is not forbidden. A\nnature ardent for truth and justice burns with indignation against\ncruelty and wrong. But it is a dangerous passion even for the best of\nmen, and is apt to exceed the limits of prudence and affection. To\nnurse our wrath and brood over our imagined wrongs is to give place\nto the devil, who is ever near to blow up the dying embers of our\nanger. Plutarch tells us it was an ancient rule of the Pythagoreans\nthat, if at any time they happened to be provoked by anger to abusive\nlanguage, before the sun set they would take each other's hands, and\nembracing make up their quarrel. The Christian must not be behind the\npagan in placability and forgiveness.\n\n+III. Be honest.+--\"Let him that stole steal no more: but rather let\nhim labour\" (ver. 28). Laziness is a fruitful source of dishonesty,\nand is itself dishonest. There are sensitive natures to whom it is\nvery difficult to be dishonest. In Abraham Lincoln's youthful days he\nwas a storekeeper's clerk. Once, after he had sold a woman a little\nbill of goods and received the money, he found on looking over the\naccount again that she had given him six and a quarter cents too\nmuch. The money burned in his hands until he had locked the shop and\nstarted on a walk of several miles in the night to make restitution\nbefore he slept. On another occasion, after weighing and delivering a\npound of tea, he found a small weight upon the scales. He immediately\nweighed out the quantity of tea which he had innocently defrauded the\ncustomer, and went in search for her, his sensitive conscience not\npermitting any delay. The thief is not reformed and made an\nindustrious worker by simply showing him the advantages of honesty.\nThe apostle appeals to a higher motive--sympathy for the needy--\"That\nhe may have to give to him that needeth.\" Let the spirit of love and\nbrotherhood be aroused, and the indolent become diligent, the\npilferer honest.\n\n+IV. Be circumspect in speech.+--\"Let no corrupt communication\nproceed out of your mouth\" (ver. 29). The possession of a human\ntongue is an immense responsibility. Infinite good or mischief lies\nin its power. The apostle does not simply forbid injurious words; he\nputs an embargo on all that is not positively useful. Not that he\nrequires all Christian speech to be grave and serious. It is the mere\ntalk, whether frivolous or pompous--spoken from the pulpit or the\neasy-chair--the incontinence of tongue, the flux of senseless,\ngraceless, unprofitable utterance, that he desires to arrest\n(_Findlay_).\n\n+V. Grieve not the Holy Spirit+ (ver. 30).--Perhaps in nothing do we\ngrieve the Spirit more than by foolish and unprofitable speech, or by\nlistening willingly and without protest to idle gossip and\nuncharitable backbiting. His sealing of our hearts becomes fainter,\nand our spiritual life declines, as we become indiscreet and vain in\nspeech.\n\n+VI. Guard against a malicious disposition.+--\"Let all bitterness,\nwrath, anger, clamour, and evil speaking be put away, with all\nmalice\" (ver. 31). _Malice_ is badness of disposition, the aptness to\nenvy and hatred, which apart from any special occasion is always\nready to break out in bitterness and wrath. _Bitterness_ is malice\nsharpened to a point and directed against the exasperating object.\n_Wrath_ and _anger_ are synonymous, the former being the passionate\noutburst of resentment in rage, the latter the settled indignation of\nthe aggrieved soul. _Clamour_ and _railing_ give audible expression\nto these and their kindred tempers. Clamour is a loud self-assertion\nof the angry man who will make every one hear his grievance; while\nthe railer carries the war of the tongue into his enemy's camp and\nvents his displeasure in abuse and insult. Never to return evil for\nevil and railing for railing, but contrariwise blessing--this is one\nof the lessons most difficult to flesh and blood (_Findlay_).\n\n+VII. Cherish a forgiving spirit.+--\"Be ye kind, . . . forgiving one\nanother, even as God hath forgiven you\" (ver. 32). It is man-like to\nresent an injury; it is Christ-like to forgive it. It is a triumph of\nDivine grace when the man who has suffered the injury is the most\neager to effect a reconciliation. Dean Hook relates he was once asked\nto see a gentleman who had ill-treated him. Found him very thin and\nill. Told me that he was conscious that his feelings and conduct had\nnot been towards me what they ought to have been for years. I told\nhim that whenever there was a quarrel there were sure to be faults on\nboth sides, and that there must be no question as to the more or\nless, but the forgiveness must be mutual. I kissed his hand, and we\nwept and prayed together. O God, have mercy on him and me for Jesu's\nsake! I have had a taste of heaven where part of our joy will surely\nconsist in our reconciliations.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Religion governs the whole man._ 2. _True religion is\nintensely practical._ 3. _Religion gives a nameless charm to the\ncommonest duties._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 25. _Truth between Man and Man._\n\n+I. The duty of veracity here recommended.+--1. Truth is to be\nobserved in common conversation. People have more special need, in\nsome respects, to be admonished of their obligations inviolably to\nmaintain truth here; for many are more ready to allow themselves to\ntransgress in what they account trivial instances than upon solemn\noccasions; and yet by such beginnings way is made for the disregard\nof truth, in the most considerable matters, in process of time.\n2. Truth should be maintained in bearing testimony. A conscientious\nregard to truth will engage us to be very careful that we spread\nnothing to the lessening or reproach of our neighbour of which we\nhave not good assurance; that we publish not a defamation upon\nhearsay, nor take up, without sufficient grounds, \"a report against\nour neighbour.\" If we are called to give public testimony between man\nand man, a sincere respect to truth will engage us to a careful\nrecollection, before we give our testimony, as to what we can say\nupon the matter. It will dispose to lay aside affection on one hand\nand prejudice on the other, and impartially to relate the true state\nof things as far as we can bear witness to them, nakedly to represent\nfacts as they have come within our notice. 3. Truth must be exercised\nin our promises and engagements, and veracity requires two things in\nrelation to them: (1) That we really intend to perform them when they\nare made; (2) That we are careful of performance after they are made.\n\n+II. The reason the apostle gives for the inviolable maintenance of\ntruth: because we are members one of another.+--1. This argument is\napplicable to mankind in general. We are members one of another, as\nwe partake of the same human nature, and in that respect are upon a\nlevel. We are members of society in common, entitled to the same\nrights, claims, and expectations one from another as men, and are\nmutually helpful and subservient as the members of the body are to\neach other; and the principal link that holds us together is mutual\nconfidence, founded upon the hope of common fidelity. Now, lying\nmakes void and useless the great instrument of society, the faculty\nof speech or writing. The power of speech was given us by our\nCreator, and the art of writing, since found out, on purpose that we\nmight be able so to convey our sense to others, that they may discern\nit, where we pretend to express it, just as if they were so far privy\nto what passed in our minds. And unless truth be inviolably observed\nin everything, the bonds of human society cannot fail to be weakened.\n2. This argument may be particularly applicable to Christians. We are\nmembers one of another in a more distinguishing sense, as we belong\nto the body of Christ. And this lays additional engagements upon all\nthe visible members of that body to put away lying and to speak the\ntruth one to the other,--in conformity to the common Father, to whom\nwe belong, who is eminently styled \"a God of truth\"; in conformity to\nour head the Lord Jesus, there should be a strict observation of\ntruth among Christians; in conformity to the Spirit that animates us,\nwho is eminently described by this attribute, \"the Spirit of truth.\"\n\n+Inferences.+--1. This is one remarkable evidence how much\nChristianity is calculated for the benefit of mankind and the good of\nsociety at present, as well as for our everlasting welfare, in that\nit so strictly enjoins and enforces the exacted regard of truth.\n2. We see thence upon how good reason the Christian religion strictly\nforbids common swearing. 3. All that name the name of Christ are\nconcerned to see that they comply with the exhortation. 4. Christians\nshould do all they can to promote truth among others, both for the\nhonour of God, and the spiritual and eternal good of their\nneighbours, and the general interest of society.--_Jeremiah Seed._\n\n\n_The Sin of Falsehood._\n\n+I. There are cases in which one may speak that which is not true and\nyet not be chargeable with lying, for he may have no intention to\ndeceive.+\n\n+II. The grossest kind of lying, or speaking a known falsehood under\nthe awful solemnity of an oath.+--Men violate truth when they affix\nto words an arbitrary meaning or make in their own minds certain\nsecret reservations with a design to disguise facts and deceive the\nhearers. When we express doubtful matters in terms and with an air of\nassurance, we may materially injure as well as grossly deceive our\nneighbour. Men are guilty of malicious falsehood when they repeat\nwith romantic additions and fictitious embellishments the stories\nthey have heard of a neighbour that they may excite against him\nseverer ridicule or cast on his character a darker stain. Men may\nutter a falsehood by the tone of their voice, while their words are\nliterally true.\n\n+III. We are bound to speak truth in our common and familiar\nconversation.+--We must speak truth in our commerce with one another.\nIn giving public testimony we must be careful to say nothing but\ntruth, and conceal no part of the truth. We must adhere to truth when\nwe speak of men's actions or characters. We must observe truth in our\npromises.\n\n+IV. A regard to truth is a necessary part of the Christian\ncharacter.+--Deceitfulness is contrary, not only to the express\ncommands of the Gospel, but to the dictates of natural conscience.\n\n+V. The argument the apostle urges for the maintenance of\ntruth.+--\"We are members one of another.\" As men we are members one\nof another. As Christians we are children of the same God, the God of\ntruth; we are disciples of the same Lord, the faithful and true\nWitness. If we walk in guile and deceit, if we practise vile arts of\ndishonesty, we contradict our human and our Christian character. We\nsee the danger of profane language, as it leads to the grossest kind\nof falsehood, even to perjury in public testimony. We see how\ndangerous it is to practise those diversions which are attended with\ntemptations to fraud.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_College Life._ \"For we are members one of another.\"\n\n+I. It is for us who govern and teach to remember how great is our\nresponsibility in those respects.+--We are not merely instructors but\neducators of youth. The question of what books we use or what\nvehicles of teaching we employ sinks into insignificance compared\nwith the question what end it is we design in our teaching. Are we\nprepared to abdicate our higher functions of educators and to sink\ndown to the lower one of teachers? Must we not, if we are are true to\nour calling, strive to instil into you that manliness which springs\nfrom the fear of God, that truthfulness which is seen in the frank\nlook and unshrinking eye, that obedience which is rendered in no\nspirit of servility as unto the Lord and not as unto men, that\nself-mastery which is the foundation of all wisdom and all power? If\nthe soul is of more value than the body, if the life to come is of\nmore importance than the life that now is, if the knowledge of God\nand His Christ is infinitely more precious than all the knowledge of\nthis world and all the distinction to which it leads--then there can\nbe no question that education is infinitely before instruction, that\nprinciples are higher than knowledge, that knowledge is only of value\nin proportion as it is pervaded and sanctified by the Spirit of\nChrist. But precept without example is powerless. A man whose life is\npure and high may not open his lips, yet his very silence shall be\neloquent for God. Day by day a virtue is going out of him; day by day\nhe is giving strength to one who is wrestling with doubt or\ntemptation; day by day he is a beacon to those who are tossed on the\nwaves of irresolution and uncertainty. The teacher, if he is to\nproduce a powerful moral effect, if he is to mould character, if he\nis to leave an impress upon the minds and hearts of those whom he\nteaches, must be what he teaches, must live what he inculcates.\n\n+II. And now I would place before you your duties.+--1. Keep\ndistinctly before you the end and aim of your coming here--the\nministry of Christ's Church. 2. You are members of a community. You\nare all united to one another. You have all common pursuits, common\nends, common interests. You may all help greatly to make or to mar\nthe lives and characters of those with whom you are in such constant\nand daily intercourse. Let this consideration have its full weight\nwith you. Be but true to yourselves, and to the God who has called\nyou to the knowledge of Himself and His Son Jesus Christ, and by you\nthis college shall grow and prosper. If principles and aims such as\nthose I have endeavoured to indicate prevail in a college, there will\nbe a real and substantial harmony between those who govern and those\nwho are governed. Let us strive one and all, teachers and taught, to\nmake this our college a college of which none can be\nashamed.--_J. J. Stewart Perowne (preached on the forty-sixth\nanniversary of St. David's College, Lampeter)._\n\n\nVers. 26, 27. _Sinful Anger._\n\n+I. These words are not an injunction to be angry, but a caution not\nto sin when we are angry.+--As there is in our nature a principle of\nresentment against injury, so there is in us a virtuous temper, a\nholy displeasure against moral evil.\n\n+II. Anger is sinful when it rises without cause.+--Rash anger is\nsinful. Anger is sinful when it breaks out into indecent, reviling,\nand reproachful language; when it promotes to designs or acts of\nrevenge; when it settles into malice.\n\n+III. Neither give place to the devil.+--See that you subdue your\nlusts and rule your spirits. Arm yourselves with the sword of the\nSpirit, which is the Word of God. Take time to consider whether any\nmotive suggested in favour of sin is so powerful as the arguments the\nScriptures offer against it. Our greatest danger is from\nourselves.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 26. _Anger and Meekness._\n\n+I. In what cases our anger may be innocently indulged.+--1. On the\napproach of any injurious aggressor threatening our destruction, or\nusing any act of violence that may endanger our safety. 2. How far\nsoever the harsh gratings of anger may seem to be removed from the\nsoft motions of benevolence, yet these sometimes, as oil does to\nsteel, give an edge to our resentment; where it will be found not\nonly innocent and excusable, but even commendable and generous. As in\nthe natural system of the world there are some repelling qualities,\nwhich yet must conspire to aid the grand power of attraction; so even\nthose passions which, considered in a simple view, have but an\nunfriendly and unsociable aspect, are yet, in their general\ncomprehension, aiding and assisting to preserve inviolable the bonds\nof the great community. 3. Our anger is apt to kindle at the\napprehension of a slight or an affront, a contempt or reproach thrown\nupon us; on which occasions, if the apprehension be well grounded,\nour resentment, to a certain degree, must be allowed to be excusable,\nand so not sinful. Our tameness in these instances would be construed\ninto stupidity, and be treated as such by the pert and petulant.\n4. We may not only be angry without sinning in the instances alleged,\nas we sometimes may sin in not being angry. God, who designed human\nsociety, designed the good of it; and that good to be promoted by\nevery individual to the utmost of his power. Hereby there is tacitly\ncommitted to every man a kind of trust and guardianship of virtue\nwhose rights he is obliged to support and maintain in proportion to\nhis abilities; not only by example, by advice and exhortation, but\neven by reproof and resentment, suitable to the circumstances of the\noffender and the offence.\n\n+II. When our anger becomes intemperate and unlawful.+--1. When it\nbreaks out into outrageous actions; for then, like a boisterous wind,\nit quite puts out that light which should guide our feet in the way\nof peace; it dethrones our reason, and suspends its exercise. An\nextravagance of this kind is the more dangerous, and therefore the\nmore sinful, because, though the impulse of passion should meet with\nno opposition to inflame it--which, however, is generally the\ncase--yet, when it has worked the blood into so violent a ferment, it\nis apt of itself to redouble its force. And no one can tell what\nfury, wound up to the highest pitch, may produce. 2. Anger becomes\nunlawful when it vents itself in unseemly and reviling language. It\nwere to be wished that those who have such a peculiar delicacy of\nfeeling when they are affronted would abstain from all appearance of\nan affrontive and disrespectful behaviour to others; that they who\nare so quick to receive would be as slow to give an affront. On the\ncontrary it often happens that they only feel for themselves; they\nare not the least sensible of the indignities offered to others. How\nfrequently do those who are highly enraged pass a general and\nundistinguishing censure upon a man's character? 3. We are not always\nto judge of the sinfulness of anger from the open and undignified\nappearance of it, either in our words or actions; it may be concealed\nand treasured up in our thoughts, and yet retain as much malignity as\nwhen it immediately breaks out and discovers itself in contumelious\nlanguage or acts of violence. For by brooding in the mind it becomes\nthe parent of a very untoward issue, malice, and hatred. Malice is a\ncool and deliberate resentment; but sometimes more keen and\nmalevolent than that which is rash and precipitate. It is like a\nmassive stone, slowly raised, but threatening the greater danger to\nhim on whom it shall fall. Anger is yet sinful when encouraged in our\nthoughts to the degree of hatred.\n\n+III. Consider its opposite virtue, meekness.+--Meekness, is, as\nAristotle long ago defined it, a due mean between tameness and\nstupidity on the one hand, and rage and fury on the other. It is not\nabsolute freedom from passion, but such a command over it as to\nprevent our being transported beyond the bounds of humanity and good\nsense. It is this virtue which, if it does not give a man such a\nglaring and shining figure as some other good qualities, yet\nconstitutes the most lovely, beautiful, and agreeable character, and\ngains unenvied praise. 1. A meek man will have sense enough to know\nwhen he is injured, and spirit enough to resent it; but then he will\nconsider whether he can do more good by openly resenting the offence\nand punishing the offender than by overlooking it and passing it by.\n2. A man of meek temper will distinguish between a man's general\nstanding sentiments when he is perfectly calm and undisturbed and his\noccasional sentiments when his spirits are ruffled and overheated.\n3. A meek man will never be angry with a person for telling him what\nhe imagines to be a fault in him, provided it be done in a private\nmanner, and the advice be conveyed in the most palatable vehicle.\n4. A man of a meek spirit is glad to be reconciled to the person who\nhas offended or injured him, and therefore is ready to hearken to all\novertures of accommodation. A meek man will show such an inclination\nand readiness to forgive the offences of others as if he had\nperpetual need of the same indulgence, but will so carefully avoid\ngiving the least offence as if it might be thought he would forgive\nnobody.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. Let us endeavour to acquire a greatness of mind: by\nthis I do not mean arrogance, for that bespeaks a little mind--a mind\nthat can reflect on nothing within itself that looks great except\narrogance; but a true greatness of mind arises from a true judgment\nof things, and a noble ascendency of the soul inclining us to act\nabove what is barely our duty. It is rising to the sublime in virtue.\nThis will create a reverence for ourselves, and will set us as far\nabove the mean gratification of giving any real occasion of passion\nto others, as of being susceptible of it when an occasion may be\ngiven to us. 2. One of the ancients said that he had gained one\nadvantage from philosophy: that it had brought him to wonder at\nnothing. But it looks as if we, the generality of us, were strangers\nin the world; we are ever expressing our surprise and wonder at\neverything; and thus surprise prepares the way for passion. We wonder\nthat we should meet with such a behaviour, such a treatment, such an\naffront; whereas the greatest wonder is that we should wonder at it.\n3. Nothing can have so prevalent a power to still all the undue\nagitations of passion so apt to arise from the various connections we\nhave with the prejudices and passions of others, nothing so fit to\ninduce a smooth and easy flow of temper, as a frequent application to\nthe throne of grace, to beseech Him, who is the God of Peace, that\nHis peace may rule in our heats, that it may be the fixed and\npredominant principle there.--_Jeremiah Seed._\n\n\nVer. 28. _A Warning against Theft._\n\n+I. Here is a general prohibition of theft.+--This supposes distinct\nrights and separate properties. Stealing is taking and carrying away\nanother's goods in a secret manner and without his consent. The\nprohibition relates to every unfair, indirect, dishonest way by which\none may transfer to himself the property of another.\n\n+II. This prohibition of theft is a virtual injunction of\nlabour.+--If a man may not live at the expense of others, he must\nlive at his own; and if he has not the means of subsistence, he must\nlabour to acquire them. No man has a right to live on charity so long\nas he can live by labour. The obligation to labour is not confined to\nthe poor; it extends to all according to their several capacities.\n\n+III. Every man must choose for himself an honest calling, and must\nwork that which is good.+--A work in which a man makes gain by the\nexpense and enriches himself by the loss of others is theft\nembellished and refined. Gaming, when it is used as an art to get\nmoney, is criminal, because it is unprofitable, and what one gains by\nit another must lose.\n\n+IV. In all our labours we should have regard to the good of\nothers.+--The man who is poor should aim to mend his circumstances\nand to provide not only for his immediate support but for his future\nnecessities. The condition which subjects us to labour does not\nexempt us from obligations to beneficence. We must confine ourselves\nwithin our own proper sphere, for here we can do more good than\nelsewhere. In all our works, secular or spiritual, charity must\ndirect us. Love is an essential principle in religion, and as\nessential in one man as another.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_St. Paul's Exaltation of Labour._\n\n+I. St. Paul often recurs to the plain and quiet work of humble\nlife.+--He enforces not only the duty of it, but how high the duty\nranks; and if it is well done, how it raises those who do it. Having\nworked with his own hands, he appreciated the sterling test of honest\nattention to work. He knew what temptations there were to relax and\nto give in to the sense of tediousness day by day and hour by hour.\nSt. Paul, who honours the industry of a slave, will not allow it to\nbe dishonoured by the slave himself thinking himself superior to it,\nand discourages all high flights which set him at enmity with his\nwork and draw him away from the sterling Christian yoke of humble\nlabour to which he has been called in God's providence.\n\nII. At the same time the apostle +does not honour all industry;+ far\nfrom it. He always reprobates the covetous, money-getting spirit. He\nadmires industry, but it must be industry which is consecrated by the\nmotive; and the motive which he requires for it is that of duty--when\na man fulfils in the fear of God the task which is allotted to him.\nMen form their religious standard by two distinct tests: one the law\nof conscience and obedience to God, the other what is striking to\nman. St. Paul's standard is seen in his sympathy with the work of the\nruler of a household, with the work of a father or mother of a\nfamily, the work of hospitality and attention to strangers, the work\nof common trades and callings, the work even of the slave in doing\nhis assigned daily tasks.\n\nIII. We see the spirit of this great apostle--how +it embraced the\nwhole appointed lot of man,+ from his highest to his most humble\nfield of employment. He rejected nothing as mean or low that came by\nGod's appointment; all was good, all was excellent, all was\nappropriate that He had commanded. The heathen valued all labour by\nwhich men became eloquent or became able soldiers or statesmen; but\nthey had not the slightest respect for the ordinary work of mankind.\nThey thought this world made for the rich. How different is St.\nPaul's view! No work allotted to man is servile work in his eyes,\nbecause he has an insight into what faithful labour is--what strength\nof conscience it requires, what resistance to temptations and snares\nit demands. The Word of God consecrates the ordinary work of man--it\nconverts it into every one's trial, and as his special trial his\nspecial access to a reward also.--_J. B. Mozley._\n\n\nVer. 29. _The Government of the Tongue._\n\n    I. The apostle +cautions us against all loose and licentious\n       language.+\n\n  +II. Enticing language is forbidden.+\n\n +III. Corrupt communication includes all kinds of vain discourse;+\n       all such language as offends Christian sobriety, seriousness,\n       and gravity, savours of profaneness and impiety, or borders on\n       obscenity and lewdness.\n\n  +IV. Instruction is useful to edifying.+\n\n   +V. Reproof conducted with prudence is useful to edifying.+\n\n  +VI. Exhortation is good for the use of edifying.+\n\n +VII. Christians may edify one another by communicating things they\n       have experienced in the course of the religious life.+\n\n+VIII. Conversing on religious subjects in general is good for the\n       use of edifying.+--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 30. _The Benefit conferred by the Spirit on Believers._\n\n+I. That believers are sealed by the Spirit implies that they are\nrecognised and set apart and in a peculiar sense the Divine\nproperty.+--1. A seal is often a distinguishing mark or token by\nwhich a claim to property may be shown and established (Rev. iii. 2,\n3). 2. That believers are thus sealed proves that they are His in a\npeculiar manner. 3. The sense in which they are His is clearly\nbrought out (1 Cor. iii. 23). They are Christ's by gift, by purchase,\nby conquest, by surrender. Christ is God's, and His people in Him.\n4. They who are sealed are thus a peculiar people, separated to God's\nworship, service, and glory. 5. Have you recognised practically that\nyou are God's?\n\n+II. That believers are sealed implies that attempts will be made to\nalienate them from God's possession.+--1. A mark or token is affixed\nto that which is in danger of being taken away. 2. We are distinctly\ntaught that believers are exposed to efforts to separate them from\nGod (John x. 7-10, 27-29). 3. The activity of the wicked one seems in\na great measure directed to this point. 4. The doctrine of the\nperseverance of the saints does not lead him to indolence. 5. Your\nsafety is not merely to get into the place of safety, but to continue\nthere.\n\n+III. That believers are sealed implies that they have received the\nimpress of the Divine image.+--1. The sealing is the work of the\nSpirit, whose office it is to regenerate and sanctify. 2. The seal is\nthat which distinguishes the believer from the unbeliever, and the\ntrue distinguishing mark is regeneration. 3. We therefore conclude\nthat the seal has engraven on it the image of God, which it leaves.\n4. The confidence of no one should outrun his sanctification. 5. Can\nyou discern the outline of the image? There are counterfeits.\n\n+IV. That believers are sealed implies that, though associated and\nmixed up with others, they are not confounded with them.+--1. A\ndistinguishing mark is necessary when things which are again to be\nseparated and classified are mingled with each other. 2. The seal\nleads to recognition. Hence the believer is known by himself,\nfellow-believers, the world, the devil, angels, Christ, the Father.\n3. This recognition takes place in time, at the judgment, in eternity.\n\n+V. That believers are sealed implies that God will visit the earth\nwith distinguishing judgments.+--In proof and illustration (Exek.\nix.; Rev. vii., ix.). The Passover. The destruction of Jerusalem.\nNow. The judgment day. Are you prepared for such a season?\n\n+VI. That believers are sealed implies that they are in a state of\nreservation.+--A seal is a pledge, a signature. An engagement\npresently fulfilled needs no pledge.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_The Office of the Holy Spirit and the Danger of grieving Him._\n\n+I. His office is to seal us unto the day of redemption.+--That day\nin which the people of God will be put into complete possession of\nthe blessings purchased for them by Christ. To seal us to this day is\nto prepare us and to set us apart from it, to fix such a mark on us\nas in that day shall distinguish us from others and make it fully\nappear to whom we belong. When a man sets his seal to a paper, he\nthereby declares his approbation of it and acknowledges it to be his\nown deed. Those who bear the seal of the Spirit will be approved by\nChrist and acknowledged for His own in the day of resurrection. A\nseal stamps its own image on the wax. The Spirit stamps on the soul\nthe image of Himself. This seal is said to be the earnest of our\ninheritance. An earnest is a pledge of something to be bestowed and\nenjoyed hereafter--a part of it is already bestowed to assure us that\nin due time we shall receive the whole.\n\n+II. He is not to be grieved.+--1. Beware of doing anything which\nyour conscience, enlightened by the Word of God, forbids you to do.\n2. Beware of running into temptation. 3. Beware of indulging fleshly\nlusts. 4. Beware of practising deceit and falsehood. 5. Beware of\nprofaning the Lord's Day. 6. Beware of cherishing evil and malignant\ntempers.--_E. Cooper._\n\n\n_On Grieving the Holy Spirit._\n\n  +I. Our duty is to render to the Holy Spirit cheerful and universal\n      obedience.+\n\n +II. The Spirit is the great Sanctifier.+\n\n+III. We must co-operate diligently in the production of the fruits of\n      the Spirit.+\n\n +IV. Our danger is in quenching the Spirit.+--Our light grows dim,\n      and we gradually adopt evil habits. We neither see nor heed\n      spiritual dangers. Religious sensibilities are blunted. How far\n      any of us have gone in resisting the Spirit God alone knows.\n      Many who resist great light and strong impressions seem never\n      to feel again.--_Olin._\n\n\n_Grieving the Spirit._\n\n  +I. Indifference and carelessness in religion+ is opposition to the\n      grace of God.\n\n +II. Spiritual pride+ grieves the Divine Spirit.\n\n III. The Spirit is grieved +when we neglect the means appointed for\n      obtaining His influence.+\n\n +IV. Opposition+ to the strivings of the Spirit is another way in\n      which He is often grieved.\n\n   V. There are +particular sins+ which are opposite to the work of\n      the Spirit. Impurity, intemperance, dissipation, and all the\n      vices of sensuality. The indulgence of malignant passions\n      grieves the Spirit. Contentions among Christians are opposite\n      to the Spirit. Men grieve the Spirit when they ascribe to Him\n      those motions and actions which are contrary to His nature. If\n      they blindly follow every impulse of a heated imagination,\n      every suggestion of the common deceiver, every motion of their\n      own vanity and pride, they profane and blaspheme His sacred\n      name.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_Grieve not the Spirit._--But wherewith can we so grieve Him? Alas!\nthat one must rather ask, \"Wherein may he not?\" I fear that one of\nthe things which will most amaze us when we open our eyes upon\neternity will be the multitude of our own rudenesses to Divine grace,\nthat is, to God the Holy Ghost whose motions grace is. Oh, let not\nthat His seal upon you, the gift of His Spirit, mark you as a\ndeserter! O Holy Creator Spirit, come down once more into our souls\nin Thine own thrilling fire of life and light and heat, kindling our\nsenses with Thy light, our hearts with Thy love! wash away our\nstains, bedew our dryness, heal our wounds, bend our stubbornness,\nguide our wanderings, that Thou, being the inmate of our hearts, the\ninstructor of our reason, the strength of our will, we may see by Thy\nlight whom as yet we see not and know Him who passeth knowledge, and\nthrough God may love God now as wayfarers, and, in the day of perfect\nredemption, in the beatific vision of our God!--_E. B. Pusey._\n\n\n_The Sealing of the Spirit._--1. The seal is used in conveying and\nassuring to any person a title to his estate, in delivering which a\npart is put into the hands of the new proprietor. We are sealed as an\nassurance of our title to our inheritance until the redemption of the\npurchased possession. 2. In sealing any person, the contra-part of\nthe seal is impressed on that which is sealed. We are thus sealed by\nthe Spirit, stamped with the image of God. 3. Sealing is used for\npreservation. It is by this we are to be preserved until that day. By\ngrieving the Spirit we break this seal.--_E. Hare._\n\n\nVers. 31, 32. _Vices to be renounced and Virtues to be cherished._\n\n+I. Put away all bitterness.+--All such passions, behaviour, and\nlanguage as are disgusting and offensive to others, wound their\ntender feelings, and embitter their spirits. No temper is more\ninconsistent with the felicity of social life than peevishness.\n\n+II. Put away wrath and anger.+--The former signifies heat of temper,\nthe latter this heat wrought into a flame. Though anger, as a sense\nand feeling of the wrongs done us, is innocent and natural, all the\nirregular and excessive operations of it are sinful and dangerous.\n\n+III. Put away all malice.+--This is a degree of passion beyond\nsimple anger. It is a fixed, settled hatred, accompanied with a\ndisposition to revenge. It is anger resting in the bosom and studying\nto do mischief. Malice is a temper which every one condemns in\nothers, but few discern in themselves.\n\n+IV. Put away all clamour and evil speaking.+--Clamour is noisy,\ncomplaining, and contentious language in opposition to that which is\nsoft, gentle, and courteous. Never believe, much less propagate, an\nill report of your neighbour without good evidence of its truth.\nNever speak ill of a man when your speaking may probably do much\nhurt, but cannot possibly do any good.\n\n+V. Christians are to be kind one to another.+--Such kindness as\nrenders us useful. Kindness wishes well to all men, prays for their\nhappiness, and studies to promote their interest. It will reprove\nvice and lend its aid to promote knowledge and virtue.\n\n+VI. Christians should be tenderhearted.+--They should not be guided\nby a blind, instinctive pity; but by habitual goodness of heart,\ncultivated with reason, improved by religion, and operating with\ndiscretion. While they commiserate all who appear to be in\naffliction, they should regard among them the difference of\ncharacters and circumstances.\n\n+VII. We are to forgive one another.+--Forgiveness does not oblige us\ntamely to submit to every insult and silently bear every injury. To\nthose who have injured us we should maintain goodwill and exercise\nforbearance. God's forgiveness of our sins is urged as a motive to\nmutual forgiveness. \"Even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven\nyou.\" He who forgives not an offending brother will not be forgiven\nof his heavenly Father.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_Malice incompatible with the Christian Character._\n\nI. +That we may be convinced of the hatefulness of a malignant temper\nlook to the source whence it proceeds.+--From the bitterness of the\nfountain we may judge of the character of the water which it sends\nforth. From the corruptness of the tree we may estimate the character\nof the fruit. The author of malice is the devil.\n\nII. Let us after the same manner +proceed to appreciate the\nloveliness of the opposite quality,+ the quality of mercy and\nlovingkindness, by a reference to its Author. Malice is gratified by\nmurder. In God we live and move and have our being. Malice is\nenvious. God giveth us richly all things to enjoy. Malice is false\nand calumnious. God sent His Son into the world to give light to them\nthat sit in darkness. Malice is resentful and vindictive, impatient\nof offence, and intemperate in requiring satisfaction. God is love.\n\nIII. Let us turn for a +further motive to the character and conduct\nof the Son of God.+--He has given us an example of the most profound\nhumility, a temper in which malice has no portion, and which cannot\nexist independently of lovingkindness and tenderness of heart.\n\nIV. +To the example of our blessed Redeemer let us add His\ncommandments; and there arises another forcible motive to put away\nall malice and to be kind one to another.+--\"A new commandment I give\nunto you, that ye love one another.\"\n\nV. +If we would avoid a malicious and cultivate a charitable temper,\nwe must renounce the devil and all his works.+--We must triumph over\nthose passions which he plants and propagates in the heart of\nman.--_R. Mant._\n\n\nVer. 32. _Errors respecting Forgiveness of Sin._\n\n+I. That forgiveness of sin is unnecessary.+--Every sin is punished\non the spot. This natural punishment is felt as long as the sin is\nindulged, and it ceases as soon as the sin is abandoned. This error\nmay be exposed by a reference to the philosophy of human nature, to\nexperience, and to Scripture.\n\n+II. That forgiveness of sin is impossible.+--The consequences of\nevery sin stretch out into infinity, and they cannot be annihilated\nwithout a supernatural interposition; but it would derogate from the\nsupremacy of law to allow that a miracle is possible. The possibility\nof miracle is contrary neither to intuition nor to experience. A\nsupernatural Being is the Author of a supernatural system: creation,\nincarnation, the Bible, spiritual influence.\n\n+III. That forgiveness of sin might be dispensed without an\natonement.+--\"If a man suffer insult or injury from his fellow-man,\nhe ought to forgive him freely; why should not God?\" Because He is\nGod, and not man. He is the moral Governor of the universe, and must\nconsult for the majesty of His law and the interests of His\nresponsible creatures. Forgiveness without atonement would not\nsatisfy the conscience of the awakened sinner.\n\n+IV. That forgiveness of sin will not be bestowed till the day of\njudgment.+--Pardon through Christ is immediate. It is enjoyed as soon\nas we believe.\n\n+V. That forgiveness of sin as freely offered in the Gospel is\ninimical to morality.+--\"Pay a workman before he begins his work, and\nhe will be indolent; pay him when he has finished his work, and he\nwill be diligent.\" Not if he were an honest man, and no one is\nforgiven who is not sanctified. A sense of unpardoned guilt is the\ngreatest hindrance to obedience. A sense of redeeming love the most\npowerful incentive.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_Christian Forgiveness._\n\nI. +The reality of forgiveness, or the grace of a forgiving spirit in\nus, lies not so much in our ability to let go or to be persuaded to\nlet go the remembrance of our injuries, as in what we are able to\ndo,+ what volunteer sacrifices to make, what painstaking to undergo,\nthat we may get our adversary softened to want or gently accept our\nforgiveness.\n\nII. In all that you distinguish of a nobler and Diviner life, in\nChrist's bearing of His enemies and their sins, He is simply showing\n+what belongs in righteousness to every moral nature from the\nuncreated Lord down to the humblest created intelligence.+\nForgiveness, this same Christly forgiveness, belongs to all--to you,\nto me, to every lowest mortal that bears God's image.\n\nIII. +Christ wants you to be with Him in His own forgiveness.+ He\nwants such a feeling struggling in your bosom that you cannot bear to\nhave an adversary, cannot rest from your prayers and sacrifices and\nthe lifelong suit of your concern, till you have gained him away from\nhis wrong and brought him into peace. This in fact _is_ salvation: to\nbe with Christ in all the travail of His forgiveness. As Christ was\nsimply fulfilling the right in His blessed ways of forgiveness, so we\nmay conceive that He is simply fulfilling the eternal love. For what\nis right coincides with love, and love with what is right.\n\nIV. When a true Christian goes after his adversary in such a temper\nas he ought--tender, assiduous, proving himself in his love by the\nmost faithful sacrifices--+he is not like to stay by his enmity\nlong.+ As the heat of a warm day will make even a wilful man take off\nhis overcoat, so the silent melting of forgiveness at the heart will\ncompel it, even before it is aware, to let the grudges go. A really\ngood man may have enemies all his life long, even as Christ had, and\nthe real blame may be chargeable not against him, but against them.\n\nV. +Have then Christian brethren under Christ's own Gospel nothing\nbetter left than to take themselves out of sight of each other just\nto get rid of forgiveness,+ going to carry the rankling with them,\nlive in the bitterness, die in the grudges of their untamable\npassion? What is our Gospel but a reconciling power even for sin\nitself, and what is it good for, if it cannot reconcile? No, there is\na better way. Christ laid it on them by His own dear passion when He\ngave Himself for them, by His bloody sweat, His pierced hands, and\nopen side, to go about the matter of forgiving one another even as He\nwent about forgiving them.--_Bushnell._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER V.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Followers of God.+--R.V. _imitators._ St. Paul gathers up\nall duties into one expression, \"imitation of God,\" and urges them on\nhis readers by a reminder of their high birth laying them under\nobligation, and rendering their copying easier.\n\nVer. 2. +Walk in love.+--\"Love must fulfil all righteousness; it must\nsuffer law to mark out its path of obedience, or it remans an\neffusive, ineffectual sentiment, helpless to bless and save.\"\n\nVer. 3. +Let it not be once named.+--After the things themselves are\ndead let their names never be heard.\n\nVer. 4. +Nor jesting.+--\"Chastened insolence,\" as Aristotle's\ndescription of it has been happily rendered. \"Graceless grace\" [of\nstyle], as Chrysostom called it. It is the oozing out of the\nessential badness of a man for whom polish and a versatile nature\nhave done all they can.\n\nVers. 5, 6. +Because of these things cometh the wrath of God,\netc.+--Look down beneath the pleasing manners to the nature. If such\nterms as are used in ver. 5 describe the man, he is simply one of\nDisobedience's children, and all his versatility will not avert the\ndescending wrath of God.\n\nVer. 7. +Be not ye therefore partakers with them.+--Do not wish to\nshare the frivolity and impiety of their life, as you would shun the\nwrath that inevitably awaits it. How could they so partake and\ncontinue to be what ch. iii. 6 calls them?\n\nVer. 8. +Ye were . . . ye are . . . be.+--The lesson must be learnt,\nand therefore reiteration is necessary.\n\nVer. 9. +For the fruit of the Spirit is in all goodness and\nrighteousness and truth.+--Neither here nor at Gal. v. 22 does St.\nPaul intend a complete list of the fruits of the Spirit. St. John's\ntree of life bore \"_twelve_ manner of fruits\" (Rev. xxii. 2). All\nChristian morality lies in the good, the right, and the true.\n\nVer 10. +Proving what is acceptable unto the Lord.+--Each is to be an\nassayer--rejecting all base alloys. Nothing must be accepted because\nit looks like an angel of light--\"the spirits\" must be put to the\nproof (1 John iv. 1).\n\nVer. 11. +Rather reprove them.+--It may be with a voice as firm as\nthe Baptist's; it may be by gentle and yet unflinching \"showing up\"\nof certain proceedings (cf. St. John iii. 20). \"This chastening\nreproof is an _oral_ one,\" says Meyer.\n\nVer. 12. +It is a shame even to speak of.+--Though the only sign of\ntheir shame having touched them is that they seek the cover of\nsecrecy, and our own cheeks burn _as we speak_ of what _they do,_ we\nmust convict.\n\nVer. 13. +Made manifest by the light.+--Whatever the light falls upon\nis no longer of the darkness, but belongs to the light. Shame is one\nof the influences by which the light conquers a soul from darkness.\n\nVer. 14. +Wherefore He saith.+--What follows is \"a free paraphrase\nfrom the Old Testament formed by weaving together Messianic\npassages--belonging to such a hymn as might be sung at baptisms in\nthe Pauline Churches\" (_Findlay_). The thought is that of the change\nfrom darkness to light--a change produced by the opening of the eyes\nto the light shining in the face of Jesus Christ.\n\nVer. 15. +See then that ye walk circumspectly.+--R.V. \"Look then\ncarefully how ye walk.\" The way of life must be one of exactitude;\nand that it may be so the steps must not be haphazard, but carefully\ntaken.\n\nVer. 16. +Redeeming the time.+--R.V. margin, \"buying up the\nopportunity.\" Seizing the crucial moment as eagerly as men bid for a\ndesirable article at an auction sale. +Because the days are evil.+--A\nman in Paul's circumstances and with his consuming earnestness of\nspirit may be forgiven if he does not see everything rose-coloured.\n\nVer. 18. +Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.+--The word for\n\"excess\" is found again in Tit. i. 6 as \"riot,\" and in 1 Pet. iv. 4.\nIn all three texts the warning against intoxication is near the word.\nIn Luke xv. 13 we have the adverbial form--\"riotously.\"\n\nVer. 19. +Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.+--When the spirit is\nelevated so that ordinary prose conversation is inadequate to express\nthe feelings let it find vent in sacred music. St. James's advice to\nthe \"merry\" heart is, \"Sing psalms\" (James v. 13). The \"psalm\" is\nproperly a song with accompaniment of a stringed instrument; \"a\n'hymn' must always be more or less of a _Magnificat,_ a direct\naddress of praise and glory to God.\" \"Spiritual songs\" were \"such as\nwere composed by spiritual men and moved in the sphere of spiritual\nthings\" (_Trench_). No spiritual excitement, however highly wrought,\ncan be injurious that flows between the banks of thanksgiving and\nmutual submission in the fear of God.\n\nVer. 20. +Giving thanks always for all things.+--If one who speaks as\na philosopher merely can praise the \"sweet uses of adversity\" and\ndiscern the \"soul of goodness in things evil,\" how much more should\none believing Rom. viii. 28!\n\nVer. 21. +Submitting yourselves one to another.+--In another Church\nthe endeavour to take precedence of each other had produced what a\nstranger might have taken for a madhouse (1 Cor. xiv. 23). St. Paul's\nword for \"submitting\" means \"ranging yourselves beneath,\" and finds\nits illustration in the Lord's words, \"Go and sit down in the lowest\nplace\" (Luke xiv. 10).\n\nVer. 22. +Submit yourselves.+--Same word as in previous verse;\nneither here nor there does it involve any loss of self-respect. The\nwife's tribute to her husband's worth is submission--the grace of\nchildhood to _both parents_ equally is obedience.\n\nVer. 23. +Christ is the head of the Church.+--Defending her at His\nown peril (\"If ye seek Me, let these go their way,\" John xviii. 8);\nserving her in utmost forgetfulness of self (\"I am amongst you as he\nthat serveth,\" Luke xxii. 27); \"Giving Himself up for her,\" (ver. 25).\n\nVer. 25. +Husbands, love your wives.+--This will prevent the\nsubmission of the wife from ever becoming degrading--as submission to\na tyrant must be.\n\nVer. 26. +That He might sanctify and cleanse.+--There is no \"and\"\nbetween \"sanctify\" and \"cleanse\" in what St. Paul wrote. \"Sanctify\nit, having cleansed it\" (R.V.). \"I sanctify Myself, that they also\nmay be sanctified\" (John xvii. 19).\n\nVer. 27. +Spot or wrinkle.+--\"Spot,\" a visible blemish, used in the\nplural, figuratively, in 2 Pet. ii. 13, of men who disfigure\nChristian assemblies. \"Wrinkle\"--\"a wrinkled bride\" is an\nincongruity, just as the mourning which produces wrinkles is out of\nplace in the bridechamber (Matt. ix. 15).\n\nVer. 28. +As their own bodies.+--Not \"as _they love_ their own\nbodies\" merely, but \"as _being_ their own.\" See ver. 31, \"one flesh.\"\n\nVer. 31. +For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and\nshall be joined unto his wife.+--We must regard these words, not as a\ncontinuation of Adam's in Gen. ii. 23, but as the words of the\nnarrator, who regards what our first father said as a mystical hint\nof the origin of marriage.\n\nVer. 32. +This is a great mystery.+--The meaning of which is known\nonly to the initiated. Something having a significance beyond what\nappears on the surface. +But I speak.+--The \"I\" is emphatic: \"_I_\ngive _my_ interpretation.\" _My_ chief interest in this mystery is as\nit relates to Christ and to the Church.\n\nVer. 33. +Nevertheless.+--\"I pursue the matter no further\"; and\nthough this mystical turn is given to the words, still in actual life\nlet the husband love (ver. 25) and the wife show reverence (ver. 22).\nLet all the married among you apply the mystery to their own case, so\nthat the husband may love the wife and the wife fear the husband.\n\n\nMAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses 1, 2.\n\n_The Life of Love_--\n\n+I. Is an imitating of the Divine life.+--\"Be followers of God: . . .\nwalk in love\" (vers. 1, 2). Though God is infinitely beyond us, and\nlifted above all heights, we are to aspire towards Him. When we\ncontemplate His glorious perfections we are more deeply conscious of\nour limitations and sins, bend before Him in lowly awe, and seem to\ndespair of ever being able to approach to anything within ourselves,\nthat can be like Him. Nevertheless God is the pattern of all\nexcellence, and we can attain excellence ourselves only by imitating\nHim. The ideal character is ever above and beyond the seeker, growing\nmore beautiful, but seeming as distant as ever. The life of God is\nthe life of love--love is the essence of His nature and the crowning\nglory of all His perfections. The chief way in which He is imitable\nby us is in that direction: to love God is to be like Him. Our life,\nin all its impulses, outgoings, and accomplishments, must be suffused\nand penetrated with love. As the soul opens to the inflow of God's\nlove and is filled with it, it becomes like God. Loving God is\nallowing God to love us. The love of God is the most transcendent\nrevelation of the Gospel. In Paris, a little girl, seven years old,\nwas observed to read the New Testament continually. Being asked what\npleasure she found in doing so, she said, \"It makes me wise, and\nteaches how to love God.\" She had been reading the history of Martha\nand Mary. \"What is the one thing needful?\" asked her friend. \"It is\nthe love of God,\" she earnestly replied.\n\n+II. Is befitting the relation in which the believer is Divinely\nregarded.+--\"Followers of God, as dear children\" (ver. 1). God is our\nFather, and He loves us. That is enough; but how much is implied in\nthat, who can tell? To realise the Divine Fatherhood is to become\nacquainted with the love of God. When we discover we are dear to Him\nour hearts melt, our rebellion is conquered, we seek His forgiveness,\nwe revel in His favour, we exult in His service. When we discover He\nhas always loved us we are overwhelmed. A mother, whose daughter had\nbehaved badly and at length ran away from home, thought of a singular\nplan to find the wanderer and bring her back. She had her own\nportrait fixed on a large handbill and posted on the walls of the\ntown where she supposed her daughter was concealed. The portrait,\nwithout name, had these words painted underneath: \"I love thee\nalways.\" Crowds stopped before the strange handbill, trying to guess\nits meaning. Days elapsed, when a young girl at last passed by, and\nlifted her eyes to the singular placard. She understood: this was a\nmessage for her. Her mother loved her--pardoned her. Those words\ntransformed her. Never had she felt her sin and ingratitude so\ndeeply. She was unworthy of such love. She set out for home, and\ncrossing the threshold was soon in her mother's arms. \"My child!\"\ncried the mother, as she pressed her repentant daughter to her heart,\n\"I have never ceased to love thee!\"\n\n+III. Is a love of Christ-like sacrifice.+--\"As Christ also hath\nloved us, and hath given Himself for us\" (ver. 2). The offering of\nChrist as a sacrifice for the sins of men was acceptable to God, and\ncame up before Him as a sweet-smelling savour, because it was the\noffering and sacrifice of love. The life of love is the life of\nobedience; it is eager to serve, and it shrinks not from suffering.\nNothing can be love to God which does not shape itself into\nobedience. We remember the anecdote of the Roman commander who\nforbade an engagement with the enemy, and the first transgressor\nagainst whose prohibition was his own son. He accepted the challenge\nof the leader of the other host, met, slew, spoiled him, and then\nwith triumphant feeling carried the spoils to his father's tent. But\nthe Roman father refused to recognise the instinct which prompted\nthis as deserving of the name of love. Disobedience contradicted it\nand deserved death. Weak sentiment--what was it worth? It was the\ndictate of ambition and self-will overriding obedience and\ndiscipline; it was not love. A self-sacrificing life is prompted,\nsustained, and ennobled by love. The trials which love cheerfully\nundergoes in its ministry of love to others and in obedience to the\nwill of God are often transformed into blessings. There is a legend\nthat Nimrod took Abraham and cast him into a furnace of fire because\nhe would not worship idols; but God changed the coals into a bed of\nroses. So it will ever be. The obedience that leads to the furnace of\nfire will find in the end that it is a bed of roses. The life of\nloving sacrifice will issue in eternal blessedness.\n\n+Lessons.+--_The life of love is_--1. _The highest life._ 2. _The\nhappiest life._ 3. _The life most fruitful in usefulness to others._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _St. Paul's Doctrine of Christian Ethics._\n\n+I. The fundamental truth of the Fatherhood of God.+--Man's life has\nits law, for it has its source in the nature of the Eternal. Behind\nour race instincts and the laws imposed on us in the long struggle\nfor existence, behind those imperatives of practical reason involved\nin the structure of our intelligence, is the presence and active will\nof Almighty God our heavenly Father. Institutional 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. The command to be imitators of God makes\n_personality_ the sovereign element in life. If consciousness is a\nfinite and passing phenomenon, if God be but a name for the sum of\nthe impersonal laws that regulate the universe, for the \"stream of\ntendency\" in the worlds, _Father_ and _love_ are meaningless terms\napplied to the Supreme, and religion dissolves into an impalpable\nmist. Love, thought, will in us raise our being above the realm of\nthe impersonal; and these faculties point us upward to Him from whom\nthey came, the Father of the spirits of all flesh. It is not the loss\nof strength for human service nor the dying out of joy which unbelief\nentails that is its chief calamity. The sun in the soul's heaven is\nput out. The personal relationship to the Supreme which gave dignity\nand worth to our individual being, which imparted sacredness and\nenduring power to all other ties, is destroyed. The heart is\norphaned, the temple of the Spirit desolate. The mainspring of life\nis broken.\n\n+II. The solidarity of mankind in Christ+ furnishes the apostle with\na powerful lever for raising the ethical standard of his readers. The\nthought that we are \"members one of another\" forbids deceit. Self is\nso merged in the community that in dealing censure or forgiveness to\nan offending brother the Christian man feels as though he were\ndealing with himself--as though it were the hand that forgave the\nfoot for tripping, or the ear that pardoned some blunder of the eye.\nThe Christ loved and gave; for love that does not give, that prompts\nto no effort and puts itself to no sacrifice, is but a luxury of the\nheart--useless and even selfish. The Church is the centre of\nhumanity. The love born and nourished in the household of faith goes\nout into the world with a universal mission. The solidarity of moral\ninterests that is realised there embraces all the kindreds of the\nearth. The incarnation of Christ knits all flesh into one redeemed\nfamily. The continents and races of mankind are members one of\nanother, with Jesus Christ for Head.\n\n+III. Another ruling idea lying at the basis of Christian ethics is\nSt. Paul's conception of man's future destiny.+--There is disclosed a\nworld beyond the world, a life growing out of life, an eternal and\ninvisible kingdom of whose possession the Spirit that lives in\nChristian men is the earnest and firstfruits. Human reason had\nguessed and hope had dreamed of the soul's immortality. Christianity\ngives this hope certainty, and adds to it the assurance of the\nresurrection of the body. Man's entire nature is thus redeemed. Our\nbodily dress is one with the spirit that it unfolds. We shall lay it\naside only to resume it--transfigured, but with a form and impress\ncontinuous with its present being.\n\n+IV. The atonement of the cross stamps its own character and spirit\non 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\nfundamentals of revealed religion gather about the cross of Christ;\nthey lend to it their august significance, and gain from it new\nimport and impressiveness. The fact that Christ \"gave Himself for us\nan offering and a sacrifice to God\" throws an awful light upon the\nnature of human transgression. All that inspired men had taught, that\ngood men had believed and felt, and penitent men confessed in regard\nto the evil of human sin, is more than verified by the sacrifice\nwhich the Holy One of God has undergone in order to put it away. What\ntears of contrition, what cleansing fires of hate against our own\nsins, what scorn of their baseness, what stern resolves against them,\nare awakened by the sight of the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ! The\nsacrifice of Christ demands from us devotion to Christ Himself. Our\nfirst duty as Christians is to love Christ, to serve and follow\nChrist. There is no conflict between the claims of Christ and those\nof philanthropy, between the needs of His worship and the needs of\nthe destitute and suffering in our streets. Every new subject won to\nthe kingdom of Christ is another helper won for His poor. Every act\nof love rendered to Him deepens the channel of sympathy by which\nrelief and blessing come to sorrowful humanity.--_Findlay._\n\n\n_Christ's Sacrifice of Himself explained, and Man's Duty to offer\nSpiritual Sacrifice inferred and recommended._\n\n+I. Our Lord's unexampled sacrifice.+--1. _The Priest._ As a prophet\nor an apostle properly is an ambassador from God to treat with men,\nso a priest is an agent or solicitor in behalf of men to treat with\nGod.\n\n2. _The sacrifice._--Our Lord was both offering and sacrifice. Every\nsacrifice is an offering to God, but every offering to God is not a\nsacrifice. Perfect innocence and consummate virtue, both in doing and\nsuffering, were not only the flower and perfection but the very form\nand essence of our Lord's sacrifice. These were the sacrifice of\nsweet odour, acceptable to Him who alone could judge perfectly of the\ninfinite worth and merit of it.\n\n3. _The altar._--From the third century to this time the cross\nwhereon our Lord suffered has been called the altar. There is another\naltar, a spiritual altar--the eternal Spirit, the Divine nature of\nour Lord. The sacrifice of our Lord is an undoubted Scripture truth;\nbut as to a proper altar for that sacrifice, it is a more disputable\npoint, about which wise and good men may be allowed to judge as they\nsee cause.\n\n4. _The Divine Lawgiver._--To whom the sacrifice was made, and by\nwhom it was graciously accepted. God the Father is Lawgiver-in-chief,\nand to Him our Lord paid the price of our redemption. Thus the glory\nof God and the felicity of men are both served in this dispensation.\n\n+II. Our own sacrifice of ourselves.+--As Christ give Himself for us,\nso we ought to give up ourselves to God in all holy obedience, and\nparticularly in the offices of love towards our brethren, as these\nare the most acceptable sacrifices we can offer to God. We cannot do\ngreater honour to our Lord's sacrifice than by thus copying it in the\nbest manner we are able--a sacrifice of love to God and love to our\nneighbours.--_Waterland._\n\n\n_The Imitation of God._--No argument is so frequently urged as the\nexample of Christ to persuade us to mutual love, because none is so\nwell adapted to influence the mind of a Christian. God's approbation\nof Christian charity is expressed in the same terms as His acceptance\nof the sacrifice of Christ; for charity to our fellow-Christians,\nflowing from a sense of Christ's dying love, is a virtue of\ndistinguished excellence. As the death of Christ is called \"a\nsacrifice for a sweet-smelling savour,\" so Christian charity is\ncalled \"an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable,\nwell-pleasing to God.\" Let it be our care to follow Christ in His\ngoodness and love, and to learn of Him humility, condescension,\nmercy, and forgiveness. Religion is an imitation of the moral\ncharacter of God, brought down to human view and familiarised to\nhuman apprehension in the life of Christ. The sacrifice of Christ is\nof great use, not only as an atonement for guilt, but also as an\nexample of love.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 1, _The Duty and Object of a Christian's Imitation._\n\n+I. The duty enjoined.+--1. Remove the hindrances to imitation.\n(1) Spiritual pride and self-conceit. (2) This self-conceit works in\nus a prejudiced opinion, and makes us undervalue and detract from the\nworth of our brother. (3) Spiritual drowsiness. 2. Observe the rules\nof imitation. (1) We must not take our pattern upon trust; no, not\nSt. Paul himself. He brings it in indeed as a duty--\"Be ye followers\nof me\"; but he adds this direction, \"as I am of Christ\" (1 Cor.\nxi. 1). \"For in imitation, besides the persons, there is also to be\nconsidered,\" saith Quintilian, \"what it is we must imitate in the\npersons. We must no further follow them than they follow the rules of\nart.\" \"Some there were,\" said Seneca, \"who imitated nothing but that\nwhich was bad in the best.\" It is so in our Christian profession: we\nmust view, and try, and understand what we are to imitate. We must\nnot make use of all eyes, but of those only which look upon the Lord.\n(2) That we strive to imitate the best. Saith Pliny: \"It is great\nfolly not to propose always the best pattern\"; and saith Seneca,\n\"Choose a Cato,\" a prime, eminent man, by whose authority thy secret\nthoughts may be more holy, the very memory of whom may compose thy\nmanners; whom not only to see, but to think of, will be a help to the\nreformation of thy life. Dost thou live with any in whom the good\ngifts and graces of God are shining and resplendent, who are strict\nand exact, and so retain the precepts of God in memory that they\nforget them not in their works? Give men the instructive examples of\nthese good men: let them always be before my eyes; let them be a\nsecond rule by which I may correct my life and manners; let me not\nlose this help, which God hath granted me, of imitation.\n\n+II. The object of imitation.+--We must make God the rule of goodness\nin all our actions: we must be just, to observe the law; valiant, to\nkeep down our passions; temperate, to conform our wills to the rule\nof reason; and wise, to our salvation. But there is no virtue which\nmakes us more resemble God than this which the apostle here exhorts\nthe Ephesians to; and that is mercy. For although all virtues are in\nthe highest degree, nay, above all degrees, most perfect in Him; yet,\nin respect of His creatures, none is so resplendent as mercy. Mercy\nis the queen and empress of God's virtues; it is the bond and knot\nwhich unites heaven and earth, that by which we hold all our\ntitles--our title to be men, out title to the name of Christian, our\ntitle to the profession of Christianity, our title to earth, our\ntitle to heaven. 1. As God forgiveth us, so we must forgive our\nenemies. 2. As we must forgive, so God's mercy must be the motive: we\nmust do it \"out of a desire to imitate God.\" 3. We must conform our\nimitation to the Pattern. He with one act of mercy wipes out all\nscores; so must we. When He forgives our sins, He is said to cast\nthem behind Him, never to think of them, so to forget them as if they\nnever had been; so must we. He doth it too without respect of\npersons; and so we ought to do. We must forgive all, for ever; and so\nfar must we be from respect of persons that we must acknowledge no\ntitle but that of Christian.--_Farindon._\n\n\n_Likeness to God._\n\n+I. Likeness to God belongs to man's higher or spiritual nature.+--It\nhas its foundation in the original and essential capacities of the\nmind. In proportion as these are unfolded by right and vigorous\nexertion, it is extended and brightened. In proportion as these lie\ndormant it is obscured. Likeness to God is the supreme gift. He can\ncommunicate nothing so precious, glorious, blessed as Himself. To\nhold intellectual and moral affinity with the supreme Being, to\npartake His Spirit, to be His children by derivations of kindred\nexcellence, to bear a growing conformity to the perfection which we\nadore--this is a felicity which obscures and annihilates all other\ngood. It is only in proportion to this likeness that we can enjoy\neither God or the universe. To understand a great and good being we\nmust have the seeds of the same excellence.\n\n+II. That man has a kindred nature with God,+ and may bear most\nimportant and ennobling relations to Him, seems to me to be\nestablished by a striking proof. Whence do we derive our knowledge of\nthe attributes and perfections which constitute the supreme Being? I\nanswer, We derive them from our own souls. The Divine attributes are\nfirst developed in ourselves, and thence transferred to our Creator.\nThe idea of God, sublime and awful as it is, is the idea of our own\nspiritual nature, purified and enlarged to infinity. It is the\nresemblance of a parent to a child, the likeness of a kindred nature.\n\n+III. God is made known to us as a Father.+--And what is it to be a\nfather? It is to communicate one's own nature, to give life to\nkindred beings; and the highest function of a father is to educate\nthe mind of the child, and to impart to it what is noblest and\nhappiest in his own mind. God is our Father, not merely because He\ncreated us, or because He gives us enjoyment: for He created the\nflower and the insect, yet we call Him not their Father. This bond is\na spiritual one. This name belongs to God, because He frames spirits\nlike Himself, and delights to give them what is most glorious and\nblessed in His own nature. Accordingly Christianity is said with\nspecial propriety to reveal God as the Father, because it reveals Him\nas sending His Son to cleanse the mind from every stain, and to\nreplenish it for ever with the spirit and moral attributes of its\nAuthor.\n\n+IV. The promise of the Holy Spirit+ is among the most precious aids\nof influence which God imparts. It is a Divine assistance adapted to\nour moral freedom, an aid which silently mingles and conspires with\nall other helps and means of goodness, and by which we are\nstrengthened to understand and apply the resources derived from our\nmunificent Creator. This aid we cannot prize too much, or pray for\ntoo earnestly.--_Channing._\n\n\nVer. 2. \"And walk in love.\" _The Nature, Properties, and Acts of\nCharity._\n\n+I. The nature of charity.+--1. Loving our neighbour implies we value\nand esteem him. 2. Implies a sincere and earnest desire for his\nwelfare and good of all kinds in due proportion. 3. A complacence or\ndelightful satisfaction in the good of our neighbour. 4. Condolence\nand commiseration in the evils befalling him.\n\n+II. Properties of charity.+--1. Love appropriates its object in\napprehension and affection, embracing it, possessing and enjoying it\nas its own. 2. It desires reciprocal affection. 3. Disposes to please\nour neighbour, not only by inoffensive but by an obliging demeanour.\n4. Makes a man deny himself--despising all selfish regards--for the\nbenefit of his neighbour. 5. To be condescending and willing to\nperform the meanest offices needful or useful to his friend.\n\n+III. Acts of charity.+--1. To forbear anger on provocation. 2. To\nremit offences, suppressing revenge. 3. To maintain concord and\npeace. 4. To be candid in opinion and mild in censure. 5. Abstain\nfrom doing anything which may occasion our neighbour to commit sin,\nor disaffect him towards religion, or discourage him in the practice\nof duty.--_Barrow._\n\n\n_The Sacrifice of Christ._\n\n+I. A Divine person was absolutely necessary.+--1. _He who atones\nmust be in possession of infinite worth._ Nothing less than the glory\nof infinity and eternity can atone for transgression. The individual\nmust also be possessed of humanity for this obvious reason: that man\nhath transgressed, and man must atone. In the person of the Messiah\nwe behold everything God could possibly desire. A Divine person,\ncomprising Deity and humanity in Himself, atones for sin.\n\n2. _It was absolutely necessary that the individual who atoned should\nbe wholly at his own disposal._--Now, no finite being is at his own\ndisposal; no finite being can say, \"I will do as I please;\" but\nMessiah speaks of Himself in language that finite being could not\nadopt without insulting God. The doctrine of the Trinity is opposed;\nbut when we peruse Scripture we shall find the absolute necessity of\na plurality of persons. A Divine person to present a sacrifice; and\nif so, a Divine person to receive that sacrifice.\n\n+II. Christ's love in giving Himself.+--And here we behold the love\nof God in all its glory. Christ hath saved us, and given Himself for\nus. Here we behold the love of Christ; the love of a Divine person\nembracing God, embracing the law of God, and embracing the sinner in\nall his shame. Two of the attributes of this love never unfolded\ntheir glories before. The intenseness and the holiness of it were\nnever before manifested. Behold God as well as man, a Divine person\nsuffering for us. Here for once, and once only, behold the\nsovereignty of God in all its glory, in all its lowliness, connected\nwith the justice of God in all its terrors. Messiah is punished, that\nthe transgressor may live for ever.\n\n+III. God's pleasure in the sacrifice of His Son.+--1. _God is\ninfinitely delighted with His Son,_ as He is one in essence with Him.\nThe pious Baptist gives his disciples a volume of Divinity in a few\nwords. He traces everything to its source. \"The Father loveth the\nSon.\" Surely, then, we must anticipate God's pleasure in everything\nthe Saviour does. 2. _The resurrection and ascension of Christ_ prove\nGod's acceptance of the sacrifice. 3. _The success of the Gospel\nanother proof._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _See the evil and danger of unbelief._ 2. _All\nspiritual good comes from God; all spiritual evil flows from the\ncreature._ 3. _Learn the work of faith--to accept Christ.--Howels._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-14.\n\n_The Children of Darkness and of Light._\n\n+I. The children of darkness are known by their deeds+ (vers.\n3-5).--A loathsome and unsightly list! Sin marks its victims. Deeds\ndone in darkness do not escape detection and exposure. The revolting\nsins of the heathen reveal the depth of wickedness to which man may\nsink when he abandons God and is abandoned of God. Every single sin,\nvoluntarily indulged, weakens the power of self-control, and there is\nno deed of darkness a reckless sinner may not commit. Sensuality is a\ndevil-fish--a vampire of the sea--preying upon and devouring the best\npowers of mind and body.\n\n1. _Their deeds exclude them from the inheritance of the good._--They\nhave no \"inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God\" (ver. 5).\nThe children of darkness can have no company and no place with the\nchildren of light; the two cannot co-exist or blend together. The\nsinner excludes himself, and unfits himself for fellowship with the\ngood. Their purity is a constant reproof of his vileness; he shrinks\nfrom their society, and hates them because they are so good. We may\nwell be on our guard against sins that shut us out of the kingdom of\ngrace on earth, and out of heaven hereafter.\n\n2. _Their deeds expose them to the Divine wrath._--\"Because of these\nthings cometh the wrath of God upon the children of disobedience\"\n(ver. 6). The wrath of God is already upon them (Rom. i. 18), and\nshall remain so long as they are disobedient. Deeds such as theirs\ncarry their own punishment; but there is also the righteous vengeance\nof God to reckon with. For sin God can have nothing but wrath; but\nyet that is mercifully restrained to afford every opportunity for\nrepentance. The Roman magistrates, when they gave sentence upon any\none to be scourged, had a bundle of rods tied hard with many knots\nlaid before them. The reason was this: whilst the beadle was untying\nthe knots, which he was to do by order and not in any other or sudden\nway, the magistrates might see the deportment and carriage of the\ndelinquent, whether he was sorry for his fault and showed any hope of\namendment, that then they might recall his sentence or mitigate his\npunishment; otherwise he was corrected so much the more severely.\nThus God in the punishment of sinners. How patient is He! How loth to\nstrike! How slow to anger!\n\n+II. The children of light are Divinely illumined.+--1. _They were\nonce in darkness._ \"Ye were sometimes darkness\" (ver. 8). Their\npresent condition as children of the light should remind them by\ncontrast of their former state, and should excite their gratitude to\nGod for the change He had wrought in them. They were not to be\ndeceived by specious arguments (ver. 6) that they could return to\ntheir old sins and yet retain their new inheritance. To go back to\nthe old life is to go back to darkness.\n\n2. _Their possession of Divine light is evident._--\"But now are ye\nlight in the Lord. . . . For the fruit of the Spirit [_the fruit of\nlight_] is in all goodness and righteousness and truth\" (vers. 8, 9).\nTrue virtue is of the light and cannot be hid. Genuine religion\nmanifests itself in goodness of heart, in righteousness of life, and\nin truthfulness of character and speech--in a holy reality that is\nboth experienced and expressed. On Herder's grave at Weimar there was\nplaced by royal authority a cast-iron tablet with the words, \"Light,\nLove, Life.\" The life illumined by the Spirit is its own bright\nwitness.\n\n3. _Their conduct aims at discovering what is acceptable to\nGod._--\"Walk as children of the light, . . . proving what is\nacceptable unto the Lord\" (vers. 8, 10). Their outward life must be\nin harmony with the new nature they have received. They were adopted\nas children of the light, and they must think, speak, and act in the\nlight and with the light they had received. The light will show what\nit is that God approves; and striving in all things to please Him our\nlight will increase. We may sometimes be mistaken, but we shall get\nlight from our mistakes, as well as from our success, as to the will\nof God. Life is a trial, and our conduct will be the test as to how\nwe are using the light God has given us. The light we shed will be a\nhelp and guide to others. There is a kind of diamond which, if\nexposed for some minutes to the light of the sun and then taken into\na dark room, will emit light for some time. The marvellous property\nof retaining light and thereby becoming the source of light on a\nsmall scale shows how analogous to light its very nature must be.\nThose who touched the Saviour became sources of virtue to others. As\nMoses' face shown when he came from the mount, so converse with\nspiritual things makes Christians the light which shines in the dark\nplaces of the earth. \"Let your light so shine before men\" (Matt.\nv. 16).\n\n+III. The children of light cannot participate in deeds of\ndarkness.+--1. _They are to shun them._ \"Be not partakers with\nthem . . . Have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness\"\n(vers. 7, 11). We may not actually commit certain sins; but if we\ntolerate or encourage them, we are partakers with the transgressors.\nThe safest place is that which is farthest from evil. It is a\nperilous experiment to try how near we can approach and how far daily\nwith sin without committing ourselves. The easiest way to resist\ntemptation is to run away. It is beneath the dignity of the children\nof light to patronise or trifle with sin.\n\n2. _They were not even to speak of them._--\"It is a shame even to\nspeak of those things\" (ver. 12). There are some subjects about which\nsilence is not only the highest prudence but a sacred duty. The\nfoolish talking and jesting of ver. 4 belonged to the period when\nthey were the children of darkness. Sparkling humour refreshes; the\nribald jest pollutes. The best way to forget sayings that suggest\nevil is never to speak of them.\n\n3. _They are to expose them by bringing the light of truth to bear\nupon them._--\"But rather reprove them. . . . All things that are\nreproved are made manifest by the light,\" etc. (vers. 11, 13, 14).\nSilent absence or abstinence is not enough. Where sin is open to\nrebuke it should at all hazards be rebuked. On the other hand, St.\nPaul does not warrant Christians in prying into the hidden sins of\nthe world around them and playing the moral detective. Publicity is\nnot a remedy for all evils, but a great aggravation of some, and the\nsurest means of disseminating them. It is a shame--a disgrace to our\ncommon nature, and a grievous peril to the young and innocent--to\nfill the public prints with the nauseous details of crime, and to\ntaint the air with its putridities. The fruit of the light convicts\nthe unfruitful works of darkness. The light of the Gospel disclosed\nand then dispelled the darkness of the former time. So will it be\nwith the night of sin that is spread over the world. The light which\nshines upon sin-laden and sorrowful hearts shines on them to change\nthem into its own nature. The manifested is light; in other words, if\nmen can be made to see the true nature of their sin, they will\nforsake it. If the light can but penetrate their conscience, it will\nsave them. \"Wherefore He saith, Awake thou that sleepest.\" With this\nsong on her lips the Church went forth, clad in the armour of light,\nstrong in the joy of salvation; and darkness and the works of\ndarkness fled before her (_Findlay_).\n\n+Lessons.+--_The Children of darkness and of light differ_--1. _In\ntheir conduct._ 2. _In their spirit and aims._ 3. _In the way in\nwhich they are Divinely regarded._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 3-6. _Christian Sobriety inculcated._\n\n+I. The vices condemned.+--1. _Impurity._ Fornication is sometimes\nused in Scripture to comprehend the grosser forms of uncleanness, as\nincest, adultery, and prostitution; but in common speech it is\nappropriated to intimacy between unmarried persons. If acts of\nuncleanness are criminal, so are impure thoughts and desires. The\nGospel forbids filthy communication, which indicates a vicious\ndisposition and corrupts others. Christians must abstain from\neverything that tends to suggest wanton ideas, to excite impure\ndesire, and to strengthen the power of temptation.\n\n2. _Covetousness._--An immoderate desire of riches.\n\n3. _Foolish talking and jesting._--The Gospel is not so rigid and\naustere as to debar us from innocent pleasures and harmless\namusements. Jesting is not foolish when used to expose the absurdity\nof error and the folly of vice. The apostle condemns lewd and obscene\njesting, profane jesting, and reviling and defamatory jesting.\nEvil-speaking never wounds so deeply nor infuses in the wound such\nfatal poison as when it is sharpened by wit and urged home by\nridicule.\n\n+II. The arguments subjoined.+--1. Impurity, covetousness, and\nfoolish talking are unbecoming in saints. 2. Foolish talking and\njesting are not convenient, as the heathen imagined them to be, but\nare criminal in their nature and fatal in their tendency. 3. The\nindulgence of these sins is inconsistent with a title to heaven.\n4. These sins not only exclude from heaven, but bring upon the\nsinners the wrath of God.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 4. _Against Foolish Talking and jesting._\n\n+I. In what foolish talking and jesting may be\nallowed.+--1. Facetiousness is not unreasonable which ministers\nharmless delight to conversation. 2. When it exposes things base and\nevil. 3. When it is a defence against unjust reproach. 4. When it may\nbe used so as not to defile the mind of the speaker or do wrong to\nthe hearer.\n\n+II. In what should it be condemned.+--1. All profane jesting or\nspeaking loosely about holy things. 2. Abusive and scurrilous jesting\nwhich tends to damage our neighbour. 3. It is very culpable to be\nfacetious in obscene and smutty matters. 4. To affect to value this\nway of speaking in comparison to the serious and plain way of\nspeaking. 5. All vainglorious ostentation. 6. When it impairs the\nhabitual seriousness that becomes the Christian.--_Barrow._\n\n\nVer. 6. _The Dissipation of Large Cities._\n\n+I. The origin of a life of dissipation.+--Young men on their\nentrance into the business of the world have not been enough\nfortified against its seducing influences by their previous education\nat home. Ye parents who, in placing your children on some road to\ngainful employment, have placed them without a sigh in the midst of\ndepravity, so near and so surrounding that without a miracle they\nmust perish, you have done an act of idolatry to the god of this\nworld, you have commanded your household after you to worship him as\nthe great divinity of their lives, and you have caused your children\nto make their approaches to his presence, and in so doing to pass\nthrough the fire of such temptations as have destroyed them.\n\n+II. The progress of a life of dissipation.+--The vast majority of\nour young, on their way to manhood, are initiated into all the\npractices and describe the full career of dissipation. Those who have\nimbibed from their fathers the spirit of this world's morality are\nnot sensibly arrested in this career, either by the opposition of\ntheir friends or by the voice of their own conscience. Those who have\nimbibed an opposite spirit, and have brought it into competition with\nan evil world, and have at length yielded with many a sigh and many a\nstruggle, are troubled with the upbraidings of conscience. The\nyouthful votary of pleasure determines to be more guarded: but the\nentanglements of companionship have got hold of him, the inveteracy\nof habit tyrannises over all his purposes, the stated opportunity\nagain comes round, and the loud laugh of his partners chases all his\ndespondency away. The infatuation gathers upon him every month, a\nhardening process goes on, the deceitfulness of sin grows apace, and\nhe at length becomes one of the sturdiest and most unrelenting of her\nvotaries. He in his turn strengthens the conspiracy that is formed\nagainst the morals of a new generation, and all the ingenuous\ndelicacies of other days are obliterated. He contracts a temperament\nof knowing, hackneyed, unfeeling depravity, and thus the mischief is\ntransmitted from one year to another, and keeps up the guilty history\nof every place of crowded population.\n\n+III. The effects of a life of dissipation.+--We speak not at present\nof the coming death and of the coming judgment, but of the change\nwhich takes place on many a votary of licentiousness when he becomes\nwhat the world calls a reformed man. He bids adieu to the pursuits\nand profligacies of youth, not because he has repented them, but\nbecause he has outlived them. It is a common and easy transition to\npass from one kind of disobedience to another; but it is not so easy\nto give up that rebelliousness of heart which lies at the root of all\ndisobedience. The man has withdrawn from the scenes of dissipation,\nand has betaken himself to another way; but it is his own way. He may\nbid adieu to profligacy in his own person, but he lifts up the light\nof his countenance on the profligacy of others. He gives it the whole\nweight and authority of his connivance. Oh for an arm of strength to\ndemolish the firm and far-spread compact of iniquity, and for the\npower of some such piercing and prophetic voice as might convince our\nreformed men of the baleful influence they cast behind them on the\nmorals of the succeeding generation! What is the likeliest way of\nsetting up a barrier against this desolating torrent of corruption?\nThe mischief will never be combatted effectually by any expedient\nseparate from the growth and the transmission of personal\nChristianity throughout the land.--_T. Chalmers._\n\n\nVers. 7-12. _Fellowship in Wickedness and its Condemnation._\n\n+I. Illustrate this fellowship in wickedness.+--1. Not to oppose, in\nmany cases, is to embolden transgressors, and to be partakers with\nthem. 2. We have more direct fellowship with the wicked when we\nencourage them by our example. 3. They who incite and provoke others\nto evil works have fellowship with them. 4. They who explicitly\nconsent to and actually join with sinners in their evil works have\nfellowship with them. 5. To comfort and uphold sinners in their\nwickedness is to have fellowship with them. 6. There are some who\nrejoice in iniquity when they have lent no hand to accomplish it.\n\n+II. Apply the arguments the apostle urges against it.+--1. One\nargument is taken from the superior light which Christians enjoy.\n2. Another is taken from the grace of the Holy Spirit, of which\nbelievers are the subjects. 3. The works of darkness are unfruitful.\n4. This is a shameful fellowship. 5. If we have fellowship with\nsinners in their works, we must share with them in their\npunishment.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Light in Darkness._--I was in a darkened room that I might\nobserve the effect produced by the use of what is called luminous\npaint. A neat card on which the words \"Trust in the Lord\" were\nprinted rested upon the bookcase and shone out clearly in the\ndarkness. The effect startled me. How remarkable that if from any\ncause the light of sun or day failed to rest upon the card its\nluminousness gradually declined, but returned when the sun's action\ninfused fresh light! Truly we also, if hidden from the face of our\nLord, cease to shine. \"Are ye light in the Lord? walk as children of\nlight.\"--_H. Varley._\n\n\nVer. 9. _Fruit of the Spirit._--As oftentimes when walking in a wood\nnear sunset, though the sun himself be hid by the height and\nbushiness of the trees around, yet we know that he is still above the\nhorizon from seeing his beams in the open glades before us\nilluminating a thousand leaves, the several brightnesses of which are\nso many evidences of his presence. Thus it is with the Holy Spirit:\nHe works in secret, but His work is manifest in the lives of all true\nChristians. Lamps so heavenly must have been lit from on\nhigh.--_J. C. Hare._\n\n\nVer. 10. _The Rule of Christian Conduct._--1. We cannot conform\nourselves to what is acceptable to the Lord and walk as children of\nlight except we make serious search into the rule of duty revealed in\nthe Word and do our utmost to come up to that rule. We walk not\nacceptably when we do things rashly without deliberation, or\ndoubtingly after deliberation, nor when the thing done is in itself\nright, but we do it not from that ground, but to gratify ourselves.\n2. It is not sufficient to make this inquiry in order to some few and\nweighty actions, but in order to all, whether greater or less,\nwhether advantage or loss may follow our conforming to the rule.\n3. The finding out of what is acceptable to the Lord, especially in\nsome intricate cases, is not easily attained. There must be an\naccurate search, together with an exercising ourselves in those\nthings we already know to be acceptable, that so we may\nexperimentally know them to be such, and get our knowledge bettered\nin those things of which we are ignorant.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _Works of Darkness._--1. Though we are not in all cases\nto abstain from the fellowship of wicked men, but may converse with\nthem as we are bound by necessity, or by any civil, religious, or\nnatural bond, yet no tie of that kind can warrant us to partake with\nthem in their sins. 2. Though the command to reprove the sins of\nothers is an affirmative precept, and not binding at all times and in\nall cases, yet not reproving when occasion offers is a partaking with\nthem in their sins. 3. There should be such a holy bashfulness in\nChristians as to think shame to utter in speech, at least without\ndetestation, those things godless sinners are not ashamed to\npractise. Ministers in their public preachings should be modest and\nsparing in deciphering filthy sins, lest they teach others how to\ncommit the sin they reprove. 4. When men do not seek the veil of\nsecrecy to cover their sins, but glory in their shame, they are more\ncorrupt than the grossest of pagans.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 13, 14. _Slumbering Souls and their Awakening._\n\n+I. The character of the persons addressed.+--They are in a state of\nsleep. 1. If you allow yourselves in the practice of known\nwickedness, your conscience is asleep. 2. If you live in the\ncustomary neglect of self-examination, you are in a state of slumber.\n3. If you have never been in any degree affected with a sense of your\nguilt and your dependence on the mercy of God in Christ, you are\namong those who are asleep. 4. If you have no conflicts with sin and\ntemptation, you are in a state of slumber. 5. The prevalence of a\nsensual and carnal disposition is a sign of spiritual death.\n6. Stupidity under the warnings of God's Word and providence\nindicates such a state of soul as the Scripture compares to sleep.\n7. The soul in which the temper of the Gospel is formed hungers and\nthirsts after righteousness, desires spiritual growth, and reaches\nafter perfection.\n\n+II. The awakening call.+--1. This awakening must suppose and imply a\nconviction of your sin and a sense of your danger. 2. This awakening\nfrom sleep and arising from the dead imply a real repentance of sin\nand turning to God. 3. They who have awoke from their sleep and risen\nfrom the dead will experience the properties and maintain the\nexercises of a holy and spiritual life.\n\n+III. The encouragement to attend to the awakening call.+--\"Christ\nshall give thee light.\" 1. This may be understood as a promise of\npardon and eternal life on your repentance. 2. The words import God's\ngracious attention to awakened souls when they frame their doings to\nturn to Him.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Light of God._\n\n+I. Light comes from God.+--God is light, and He wishes to give light\nto His children. \"Whatsoever doth make manifest is light\"--that which\nis made manifest is light. There has been a steady progress in the\nmind of the Christian race, and this progress has been in the\ndirection of light. Has it not been so in our notions of God?--a\ngradual discovery that when God is manifested, behold, God is light,\nand in Him is no darkness at all--a gradual vindication of His\ncharacter from those dark and horrid notions of the Deity which were\nborrowed from the pagans and the Jewish rabbis--a gradual return to\nthe perfect good news of a good God which was preached by St. John\nand by St. Paul. The day shall come when all shall be light in the\nLord--when all mankind shall know God from the least unto the\ngreatest, and, lifting up free foreheads to Him who made them and\nredeemed them by His Son, shall in spirit and in truth worship the\nFather.\n\n+II. In the case of our fellow-men whatsoever is made manifest is\nlight.+--How easy it was to have dark thoughts about our fellow-men\nsimply because we did not know them,--easy to condemn the Negro to\nperpetual slavery, when we knew nothing of him but his black face; or\nto hang by hundreds the ragged street boys, while we disdained to\ninquire into the circumstances which had degraded them; or to treat\nmadmen as wild beasts, instead of taming them by wise and gentle\nsympathy. But with a closer knowledge of our fellow-creatures has\ncome toleration, pity, sympathy. Man, in proportion as he becomes\nmanifest to man, is seen, in spite of all defects and sins, to be\nhallowed with a light from God who made him.\n\n+III. It has been equally so in the case of the physical\nworld.+--Nature, being made manifest, is light. Science has taught\nmen to admire where they used to dread, to rule where they used to\nobey, to employ for harmless uses what they were once afraid to\ntouch, and where they once saw only fiends to see the orderly and\nbeneficent laws of the All-good and Almighty God. Everywhere, as the\nwork of nature is unfolded to our eyes, we see beauty, order, mutual\nuse, the offspring of perfect love as well as perfect wisdom. Let us\nteach these things to our children. Tell them to go to the light and\nsee their heavenly Father's works manifested, and know that they are,\nas He is, light.--_C. Kingsley._\n\n\nVer. 14. _Moral Stupidity._--How many scarcely think of God from day\nto day! It cannot therefore be uncharitable to consider the mass of\nthe people, compared with the wakefulness their infinite interests\nrequire, as sunk in a profound slumber. Unless this slumber is soon\nbroken they must sleep the sleep of eternal death.\n\n+I. Search for the cause of this stupidity.+--The proximate cause may\nbe comprehended in these two words--ignorance and unbelief. The\nremote cause is opposition to God and truth. Were not the heart\nopposed, no man with the Bible in his hand could remain ignorant of\ntruths which claim to have so important a bearing on his eternal\ndestiny. Fortified by sevenfold ignorance, men can no more be\nawakened to contemplate their condition with alarm than the pagans of\nthe wilderness. It is perfectly in character for them to slumber. But\nthere are men who are respectable for their knowledge of Christian\ntruth who yet are asleep. The cause with them is unbelief--the want\nof a realising sense. Their understanding assents to the awful\nverities of religion, but they do not realisingly believe them.\n\n+II. Apply some arguments to remove the evil.+--Consider that these\nawful truths are as much realities as though you were now overwhelmed\nwith a sense of their importance. Neither the ignorance nor the\nunbelief of man can change eternal truth. God is as holy, as awful in\nmajesty, He is as much your Creator, Preserver, and Master, He as\nmuch holds your destinies in His hands, as though you were now lying\nat His feet beseeching Him not to cast you down to hell. What would\nit avail if all the people should disbelieve that the sun will ever\nrise again, or that spring-time and harvest will ever return? Can the\nsoldier annihilate the enemy by marching up to the battery with his\neyes and ears closed? You have the same means with others: why should\nyou remain ignorant while they are informed? If your knowledge is\ncompetent and it is unbelief that excludes conviction, then call into\naction the powers of a rational soul and cast yourselves for help on\nGod. If you ever mean to awake, awake now. The longer you sleep the\nsounder you sleep. The longer you live without religion the less\nlikely that you will ever possess it. You are sleeping in the\npresence of an offended God. In His hands you lie, and if He but turn\nthem you slide to rise no more.--_E. D. Griffin._\n\n\n_The Call of the Gospel to Sinners._\n\n+I. The state in which the Gospel finds mankind.+--A state of sleep\nand of death.\n\n1. _It is a state of insensibility and unconcern with respect to the\nconcerns of another world._--Busied about trifles, men overlook the\ngreat concerns of eternity. Having their minds darkened, they see no\nworld but the present, they live as if they were to live here for\never. And if at any time this false peace is shaken, they try all\nmeans to prevent it from being destroyed, and to lull themselves\nagain to rest.\n\n2. _How indisposed and unwilling men are to set about the work of\ntrue religion._--Nothing but this religion of which men are so\nignorant, about which they care so little, against which they have\nconceived such a dislike, can in the end deliver them from\neverlasting shame, sorrow, and punishment. Here is their extreme\nmisery and danger. They are unconcerned about an object which of all\nothers ought to concern them most, and are set against the only\nremedy which can be of any real service to them. They are every\nmoment liable to fall into utter perdition; but they are not aware of\ntheir danger, and reject the only hand which is stretched out to save\nthem.\n\n+II. The duty the Gospel calls on them to discharge.+--To awake out\nof sleep and arise from the dead. 1. _Their duty is to consider their\nstate and danger._ 2. _To break off their sins by repentance._ 3. _To\nseek the knowledge and favour of God._\n\n+III. The encouragement the Gospel affords.+--1. _Christ will give\nthee knowledge._ He will enlighten thy darkened mind, He will teach\nthee by His good Spirit, and will effectually lead thee into all\nsaving truth.\n\n2. _Christ will give thee peace._--Whatever peace thou mayest have\narising from not knowing and not feeling that thou art a sinner and\ndaily exposed to the wrath of God, the peace which Christ offers thee\nis a peace which will arise from a consciousness that thy sins are\nforgiven, and that, although though art a sinner, thou art yet\nreconciled to God.\n\n3. _Christ will give thee holiness._--Holiness is our meetness for\nheaven. It is that state and disposition of heart which alone can fit\nus for seeing and serving God.--_E. Cooper._\n\n\n_A Summons to Spiritual Light._\n\n+I. A lamentable moral condition.+--_Sleep_ implies a state of\ninactivity and security. Men are busily employed about their worldly\nconcerns; but a lamentable supineness prevails with respect to\nspiritual things. The generality do not apprehend their souls to be\nin any danger--death, judgment, heaven, and hell do not seem worthy\ntheir notice. God's threatenings against them are denounced without\neffect--they are like Jonah, sleeping in the midst of a storm.\n_Death_ includes the ideas of impotence and corruption. An inanimate\nbody cannot perform any of the functions of life. It has within\nitself the seeds and the principles of corruption. The soul also,\ntill quickened from the dead, is in a state of impotence, it is\nincapable of spiritual action or discernment. Yet, notwithstanding\nthis state appears so desperate, we must address to every one that is\nunder it the command, \"Awake.\" Your inactivity and security involve\nyou in the deepest guilt; your corruption of heart and life provokes\nthe majesty of God. Nor is your impotence any excuse for your\ndisobedience. They who exert their feeble powers may expect Divine\nassistance. To convince us that none shall fail who use the appointed\nmeans God enforces His command with--\n\n+II. A promise.+--Sleep and death are states of intellectual\ndarkness: hence light is promised to those who obey the Divine\nmandate. Light in Scripture imparts knowledge (Isa. viii. 20),\nholiness (1 John i. 7), comfort (Ps. xcvii. 11), and glory (Col.\ni. 12). And all these blessings shall they receive from Christ, the\nfountain of light (Mal. iv. 2; John i. 9).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Let each one consider the command addressed to\nhimself--\"Awake thou.\"_ 2. _Let all our powers be called into\naction._ 3. _In exerting ourselves let us expect the promised\naid.--Theological Sketch Book._\n\n\n_The Gospel Call and Promise._\n\n+I. Many of mankind are in a state of deadly sleep.+--In sleep the\nanimal spirits retire to their source, the nerves are collapsed or\nembraced; and as the nerves are the medium of sensation and motion,\nthe whole system is in a state of insensibility and inactivity. How\nexactly resembling this is your spiritual state.\n\n1. _You are insensible._--Your eyes and ears are closed; and you have\nno proper sense of pleasure or of pain.\n\n2. _You are in a state of security._--You have no fear of evil, no\napprehension of danger, and consequently no concern for your safety.\n\n3. _You are in a state of inactivity._--You are not inquiring,\nlabouring, wrestling. When the body is locked in slumber, thought\nroves at random and produces gay dreams of fancied happiness. Thus\nmany are dreaming their lives away. (1) In this sleep many are as\nvoid of sense and motion as if they were actually dead. (2) In common\nsleep a person after due repose spontaneously awakes, renewed in\nvigour. But from this sleep, unless God should awake you, you will\nnever awake till the heavens be no more. (3) It is a sleep unto\ndeath. Like one who has taken a large quantity of opium, unless you\nare awakened by some external cause, you will insensibly sink into\nthe second death, the death which never dies.\n\n+II. God is using means to awaken them.+--While you are asleep,\nlight, however bright and clear, shines upon you in vain. Till\nwarning has waked attention, instruction and illumination will be\nlost upon you. 1. _God calls you to awake_ from your dreams of\nfancied happiness, and reflect upon the vanity of the objects by\nwhich you are deluded. 2. _Struggle to shake off the dull slumber_\nwhich weighs you down. 3. _Consider your misery and danger._\n4. _Rouse all that is within you to activity._ God calls you--(1) By\nthe language of His law. (2) By the severe dispensations of His\nprovidence. (3) By the strivings of His Spirit. (4) By the voice of\nthe Gospel.\n\n+III. God will give light to all who awake at His call.+--It is the\npeculiar property of light to make manifest (ver. 13). Christ will\ngive you light. 1. He shall make manifest to yourself your character\nand your situation. 2. You shall behold the light of life. 3. He\nshall reveal to you the God of pardoning love. 4. He shall chase the\ndarkness of sin from your soul, and you shall walk in the light of\nholiness. 5. He shall put an end to your mourning.\n\n+Learn.+--1. _The deceitfulness and destructive character of sin._\n2. _How fully God provides for your salvation._ 3. _Hear the voice of\nGod.--E. Hare._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.\n\n_Christian Wisdom_--\n\n+I. Cautiously regulates the outward life.+--\"See that ye walk\ncircumspectly, not as fools, but as wise\" (ver. 15). The Christian\nneeds not only spiritual fervour and enthusiasm, but also\nprudence--sanctified common sense. It is possible to do a right thing\nin a wrong way, or in such a way as to cause more mischief than\nbenefit. There is a severity of virtue that repels, and rouses\nresentment; and there is a parade of Christian liberty that shocks\nthe sensitive. The truth lies between two extremes, and Christian\nwisdom is seen in maintaining the truth and avoiding extremes. \"I\nwisdom dwell with prudence.\" Mr. Edward Everett Hale is generally\ncredited as the author of the following motto for Christian workers:\n\n     \"Look up, and not down;\n      Look out, and not in;\n      Look forward, and not back;\n            Lend a hand.\"\n\nSuccess in soul-winning is only given to skill, earnestness,\nsympathy, perseverance, tact. Men are saved, not in masses, but by\ncareful study and well-directed effort. It is said that such is the\neccentric flight of the snipe when they rise from the earth that it\ncompletely puzzles the sportsman, and some who are capital shots at\nother birds are utterly baffled here. Eccentricity seems to be their\nspecial quality, and this can only be mastered by incessant practice\nwith the gun. But the eccentricity of souls is beyond this, and he\nhad need be a very spiritual Nimrod--a mighty hunter before the\nLord--who would capture them for Christ. \"He that winneth souls is\nwise.\"\n\n+II. Teaches how to make the best use of present\nopportunity.+--1. _Observing the value of time amid the prevalence of\nevil._ \"Redeeming the time, because the days are evil\" (ver. 16).\nTime is a section cut out of the great circle of eternity, and\ndefines for us the limits in which the work of life must be done. It\nis a precious gift bestowed by the beneficent hand of God--a gift\ninvolving grave responsibility; and we must render a strict account\nof the use we make of every swing of the pendulum. It is doled out to\nus in minute fragments. One single year is made up of 31,536,000\nseconds. Every tick of the clock records the ever-lessening\nopportunities of life. Time is in perpetual motion. Like a strong,\never-flowing river, it is bearing away everything into the boundless\nocean of eternity. We never know the value of time till we know the\nvalue of the fragments into which it is broken up. To make the most\nof a single hour we must make the most of every minute of which it is\ncomposed. The most dangerous moments of a man's life are those when\ntime hangs heavily on his hands. He who has nothing to do but kill\ntime is in danger of being killed himself. It is a miracle of Divine\ngoodness if he is preserved from serious folly, or something worse;\nand such miracles rarely occur. The man who has learnt the value of\ntime can learn any lesson this world may have to teach him. Time is\nthe opportunity for the exercise of Christian wisdom, and should be\nthe more sedulously used \"when the days are evil\"--when evil is in\npower. Oh for wisdom to number our days, to grasp the meaning of\npresent opportunity! Here come the moments that can never be had\nagain; some few may yet be filled with imperishable good. Let us\napply our hearts--all our powers--unto wisdom.\n\n2. _Having the good sense to recognise the Divine will._--\"Wherefore\nbe ye not unwise, but understanding what the will of the Lord is\"\n(ver. 17). We must read and interpret the signs of the times in the\nlight of God's purpose. A close and deep study of the Divine mind\nwill reveal to us the significance of the passing opportunity, and\naid us in making the wisest use of it. Our biggest schemes are doomed\nto failure if they are not in accordance with the will of God. The\nnoblest tasks are reserved for those who have the keenest spiritual\ninsight and are most in harmony with the Divine purpose.\n\n+III. Avoids the folly and waste of intemperance.+--\"Be not drunk\nwith wine, wherein is excess\" (ver. 18). The Asian Christians were a\nsocial, light-hearted people, fond of convivial feasts. Wine was\ntheir danger; and even in the celebration of the Lord's Supper they\nran into excess, and degraded the holy ordinance. There were\ndoubtless converted drunkards among them; and the warning of the text\nwas specially needed. Intemperance is not only a folly and a waste;\nit is a degradation and a sin. It is the excessive indulgence of a\ncraving that at bottom may be in itself good, if wisely regulated--a\ncraving for an intenser life. \"One finds traces,\" says Monod, \"of the\nprimitive greatness of our nature even in its most deplorable errors.\nJust as impurity proceeds at the bottom from an abuse of the craving\nfor love, so drunkenness betrays a certain demand for ardour and\nenthusiasm which in itself is natural and even noble. Man loves to\nfeel himself alive; he would fain live twice his life at once; and he\nwould rather draw excitement from horrible things than have no\nexcitement at all.\" When the physicians told Theotimus that except he\nabstained from drunkenness and licentiousness he would lose his eyes,\nhis heart was so wedded to his sins that he answered, \"Then farewell,\nsweet light.\"\n\n+IV. Seeks to be under the complete control of the Divine\nSpirit.+--\"But be filled with the Spirit\" (ver. 18). The excitement\nof drunkenness must be supplanted by a holier and more elevating\nstimulus: the cup that intoxicates exchanged for the new wine of the\nSpirit. The general adoption of this principle will be the grandest\ntriumph of temperance. The cure of drunkenness will not be\naccomplished simply by the removal of temptation, unless a relish for\nhigher things is created and springs of holier pleasure are opened in\nthe hearts of men. A lower impulse is conquered and expelled by the\nintroduction of a higher. Anachonis, the philosopher, being asked by\nwhat means a man might best guard against the vice of drunkenness,\nanswered, \"By bearing constantly in his view the loathsome, indecent\nbehaviour of such as are intoxicated.\" Upon this principle was\nfounded the custom of the Laced\u00e6monians of exposing their drunken\nslaves to their children, who by that means conceived an early\naversion to a vice which makes men appear so monstrous and\nirrational. There is no excess in drinking copious draughts of the\nSpirit. Christian wisdom opens the soul to the ever-flowing tide of\nHis influence, and strives to be animated and filled with His\nall-controlling power.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Wisdom is the best use of knowledge._\n2. _Christianity opens the purest sources of knowledge._ 3. _\"Get\nwisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding\"_ (Prov. iv. 7).\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15-17. _Walking circumspectly._\n\n+I. The duty recommended.+--1. _Walk circumspectly that you may keep\nwithin the line of your duty._ Your course often lies in a medium\nbetween two extremes. If from this course you deviate, you step into\nthe territory of vice. Be circumspect that you may not mistake your\nduty. Be watchful that you may retain a sense of virtue and\nrectitude. Be attentive that you may conform to the Spirit of God's\ncommands.\n\n2. _Walk circumspectly that you may escape the snares in your\nway._--Often look forward to descry your dangers. Attend to your\nparticular situation and condition in life. Often review your past\nlife, and reflect on former temptations. Be circumspect that you may\ndetect your enemies when they approach you in disguise. Never neglect\nyour duty under pretence of shunning a temptation.\n\n3. _Walk circumspectly that you may wisely comport with the aspects\nof Providence._\n\n4. _Be circumspect that you may do every duty in its time and\nplace._--Attend on the daily worship of God in your families and\nclosets. Be kind and beneficent to the poor. Neglect not the care of\nyour body. Attend on the instituted ordinances of the Gospel.\n\n5. _Walk circumspectly that your good may not be evil spoken of._\n\n+II. The argument by which the apostle urges the duty.+--\"The days\nare evil.\" The argument was not peculiar to those early times, but is\npertinent to all times. 1. _The days are evil because the Christian\nfinds in himself much disorder and corruption._ 2. _The days are evil\nas he is exposed to various afflictions._ 3. _There are many\nadversaries._ 4. _Iniquity abounds.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 15. _The Wise Conduct of Life._--1. The more light and knowledge\na man receives from God he ought to take the more diligent heed that\nin all things he practises according to his light. 2. Those only are\nmost fit to reprove sin in others who walk most circumspectly and\nlive so as they cannot be justly blamed themselves. Even the\nrighteous walking of such is a forcible reproof of sin in others,\nthough they speak nothing. 3. As those are only truly wise in God's\naccount who labour to walk most exactly by the rule of God's Word, so\nwhere this sanctified wisdom is it will render itself evident by\nmaking the person endowed with it walk circumspectly. 4. The less\ncircumspect and exact men be in walking by the rule of God's Word the\ngreater fools they are in God's esteem.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 16. _Redeeming the Time._--To redeem time is to regain what is\nlost and to save what is left.\n\n  +I. Enter on your work speedily.+--Do you ask what is your work? It\n      is time you knew. Consult God's Word; that will tell you.\n\n +II. Attend to your work with diligence.+--A sense of past\n      slothfulness must excite you to severer industry. Be not only\n      fervent but steady in your work.\n\n+III. Guard against the things which rob you of your time.+--An\n      indolent habit is inconsistent with laudable actions. A\n      versatile humour is active, but wants patience. An excessive\n      fondness for company and amusement is the cause of much waste\n      of time.\n\n +IV. Do every work in its season.+--Youth is the most promising\n      season. The time of health is more favourable than a time of\n      sickness. There are seasons friendly to particular duties. In\n      doing works of charity observe opportunities.\n\n  +V. Wisely divide your time among your various duties.+--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_The Redemption of Time._\n\n+I. The subject of the exhortation.+--1. _Time sometime signifies the\nwhole duration assigned to the present world._\n\n2. _The period of human life._--The time we occupy in the present\nstate is that which God allots for our personal probation and trial.\nAll God's dispensations in respect to us refer to this period and\nhave their limits fixed by it.\n\n3. _Time means season or opportunity._--In this sense the apostle\nuses it here. We are to redeem all the opportunity God bestows on us\nfor getting and doing good, for acquainting ourselves with Him and\nbeing at peace.\n\n+II. The duty enjoined on us.+--\"Redeeming the time\"--the opportunity.\n\n1. _We redeem time by consideration._\n\n2. _When we turn everything we have to do, in the common concerns of\nlife, into a religious channel._\n\n3. _By living in a devotional spirit._--(1) This will cast out\neverything trifling, much more everything sinful, from our leisure\nhours. (2) Its preservation and exercise are perfectly compatible\nwith the affairs of life.\n\n4. The principal way by which time is to be redeemed is not merely by\nmaking efforts to promote our final blessedness, but _by actually\nsecuring our present salvation._\n\n+III. The motives by which the exhortation is enforced.+--\"Because\nthe days are evil.\"\n\n1. _The days are evil in a general sense._--This age, as well as the\nage of the apostles, is a wicked one.\n\n2. _Because they are days of distress._\n\n3. _The days are evil individually._--In the sense of affliction to a\nnumber of individuals.\n\n4. _It is an evil day that we are ever exposed to enemies and\ntemptations._\n\n5. _Every day opportunities of improvement are wasted is an evil day._\n\n6. _The time will come when, as to many unhappy spirits, the\nopportunity of salvation will be lost for ever.--R. Watson._\n\n\n_The Redemption of Time._--The more the days are beset by things that\ngrievously invade them, disturb them, waste them, the more careful\nand zealous should we be to save and improve all that we can. To this\nend--\n\n+I. It is of the highest importance that time should be a reality in\nour perception and estimate;+ that we should verify it as an actual\nsomething, like a substance to which we can attach a positive value,\nand see it as wasting or as improved as palpably as the contents of a\ngranary or as the precious metals. The unfortunate case with us is,\nthat time is apprehended but like air, or rather like empty space, so\nthat in wasting it we do not see that we are destroying or misusing a\nreality. Time is equivalent to what could be done or gained in it.\n\n+II. Keep established in the mind, and often present to view, certain\nimportant purposes or objects that absolutely must be attained.+--For\nexample: that there is some considerable discipline and improvement\nof the mind, some attainment of Divine knowledge, some measure of the\npractice of religious exercises, and there is the one thing needful\nin its whole comprehensive magnitude.\n\n+III. That time be regarded in an inseparable connection with\neternity is the grand principle for redeeming it;+ to feel solemnly\nthat it is really for eternity, and has all the importance of this\nsublime and awful relation. It might be a striking and alarming\nreflection suggested to a man who has wasted his time--now the time\nhas gone backward into the irrevocable past, but the effect of it,\nfrom the quality you have given it, is gone forward into eternity,\nand since you are going thither, how will you meet and feel the\neffect there?\n\n+IV. Nothing short of the redemption of the soul is the true and\neffectual redemption of time.+--And this object gives the supreme\nrule for the redeeming of time. How melancholy to have made so\nadmirable a use of time for all purposes but the supreme one!--_John\nFoster._\n\n\nVer. 17, 18. _Sensual and Spiritual Excitement._--There is the\nantithesis between drunkenness and spiritual fulness. The propriety\nof this opposition lies in the intensity of feeling produced in both\ncases. There is one intensity of feeling produced by stimulating the\nsenses, another by vivifying the spiritual life within. The one\ncommences with impulses from without, the other is guarded by forces\nfrom within. Here, then, is the similarity and here the dissimilarity\nwhich constitutes the propriety of the contrast. One is ruin, the\nother salvation. One degrades, the other exalts.\n\n+I. The effects are similar.+--On the day of Pentecost, when the\nfirst influences of the Spirit descended on the early Church, the\neffects resembled intoxication. It is this very resemblance which\ndeceives the drunkard; he is led on by his feelings as well as by his\nimagination. Another point of resemblance is the necessity of intense\nfeeling. We have fulness--it may be produced by outward stimulus or\nby an inpouring of the Spirit. The proper and natural outlet for this\nfeeling is the life of the Spirit. What is religion but fuller life?\n\n+II. The dissimilarity or contrast in St. Paul's idea.+--The one\nfulness begins from without, the other from within. The one proceeds\nfrom the flesh, and then influences the emotions; the other reverses\nthis order. Stimulants like wine inflame the senses, and through them\nset the imaginations and feelings on fire; and the law of our\nspiritual being is, that that which begins with the flesh sensualises\nthe spirit; whereas that which commences in the region of the spirit\nspiritualises the senses, in which it subsequently stirs emotion.\nThat which begins in the heart ennobles the whole animal being; but\nthat which begins in the inferior departments of our being is the\nmost entire degradation and sensualising of the soul. The other point\nof difference is one of effect. Fulness of the Spirit calms; fulness\nproduced by excitement satiates and exhausts. The crime of sense is\navenged by sense which wears with time--the terrific punishment\nattached to the habitual indulgence of the senses is that the\nincitements to enjoyment increase in proportion as the power of\nenjoyment fades. We want the Spirit of the life of Christ, simple,\nnatural, with power to calm and soothe the feelings which it rouses;\nthe fulness of the Spirit which can never intoxicate!--_F. W.\nRobertson._\n\n\n_Christian Mirth versus Drunken Mirth._--Carnal men seek the joys of\nlife in revelry, but Christians must seek them in a higher\ninspiration--that of the Holy Ghost, whose fulness is the source of\nthe blithest and most joyous life.\n\n  +I. The mirth begotten of wine is the mother of all kinds of\n      profligacy.+\n\n +II. The mirth begotten of wine destroys men body and soul.+\n\n+III. The fulness of the Holy Spirit produces a truly blithe and\n      merry life.+--In this life, with its many causes of\n      depression, men need exhilaration, and the text points us to\n      the only place where it is to be found without any\n      alloy.--_G. A. Bennetts, B.A._\n\n\n_What is your Heart filled with?_\n\n  +I. The heart of man must be full of something.+\n\n +II. Those who are full of wine cannot be filled with the Spirit.+\n\n+III. Those who are filled with the Spirit will not be full of wine.+\n\n +IV. The joy that is kindled by fulness of wine is degrading while\n      it lasts, and will soon expire.+\n\n  +V. The joy that is kindled by the fulness of the Spirit makes us\n      like the angels, and it will never end.+--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_The Vice of Drunkenness._\n\n+I. The nature and extent of the sin.+--The use of meat and drink is\nto support and comfort the body. Whatever is more than these is\nexcess. The highest degree of intemperance is such an indulgence as\nsuspends the exercise of the mental and bodily powers. If by the\nindulgence of your appetite you unfit your body for the service of\nyour mind, or your mind for the service of God, you waste your\nsubstance as to defraud your family of a maintenance or your\ncreditors of their dues, become enslaved to a sensual habit and\nfascinated to dissolute company, stupefy your conscience, extinguish\nthe sentiments of honour and banish the thoughts of futurity, you are\nchargeable with criminal excess.\n\n+II. The guilt and danger which attend the vice.+--1. _It is an\nungrateful abuse of God's bounty._ 2. _It divests the man of his\nnative dignity and sinks him below the brutal herds._ 3. _Is\ninjurious to the body as well as mind._ 4. _Consumes men's\nsubstance._ 5. _Wastes a man's conscience as well as his substance._\n6. _Intemperance generates other vices--impure lustings, angry\npassions, profane language, insolent manners, obstinacy of heart, and\ncontempt of reproof._ 7. _Has most lamentable effects on families._\n8. _The Scripture abounds in solemn warnings against this sin._\n9. _This sin must be renounced, or the end of it will be\ndeath.--Lathrop._\n\n\n_Being filled with the Spirit._--1. It supposes a sufficiency and\nfulness in the Spirit and His influences every way to fill our souls,\nto supply all our spiritual wants, and to help our infirmities. 2. It\nimparts an actual participation of His influences and fruits in a\nlarge and plentiful measure. (1) As men come to have every power and\nfaculty of their souls more subject to the Spirit's authority and\nunder the influence proper to it. (2) As they grow to experience His\noperations in all the several kinds of them. (3) As His agency comes\nto be more stated and constant in them. (4) As His grace becomes more\nmighty and operative in them, so as actually to produce its proper\nand genuine effects. (5) As they taste such a sweetness and delight\nin the measure of participation attained that they reach forward with\ngreater ardour toward perfection. 3. That every one should esteem the\nfulness of the Spirit a desirable thing. (1) It puts us into a fit\nposture of mind for daily communion with God. (2) Would settle our\nminds in the truest pleasure and peace. 4. That we should look upon\nit as an attainable good. (1) From the Spirit's own gracious\nbenignity and His declared inclination to fill our souls. (2) From\nthe purchase and intercession of Christ. (3) From the nature of the\nSpirit's work in consequence of redemption (4) From the Gospel being\ndescribed as the ministration of the Spirit. (5) From the\ndeclarations of God concerning the Spirit. (6) From the instances of\nHis grace already made in others. (7) From the beginnings of His\nsaving grace in themselves, good men may conclude the greatest\nheights attainable by them, if they be not wanting to\nthemselves.--_John Evans._\n\n\n_On being filled with the Spirit_--\n\n  +I. Implies that the Spirit has been largely given to the Church.+\n\n +II. That as God has given the Spirit largely so He has been\n      abundantly received.+\n\n+III. Is to be possessed by His graces in all their variety.+\n\n +IV. Is to be wholly guided by His influence and subject to His\n      control.+\n\n  +V. Is to be the instrument of fulfilling His mission on earth.+\n\n +VI. Is to have God as the only portion of the soul.+--1. The Spirit\n      is God on the earth. 2. To be filled with the Spirit is to be\n      fully occupied with God.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-21.\n\n_Spiritual Enjoyment_--\n\n+I. Expressed in heartfelt praise to God.+--\"Speaking . . . in\nspiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord\"\n(ver. 19). Men filled with wine seek their enjoyment in singing\nbacchanalian odes and songs; but the men of the Spirit find a higher\nand more satisfying joy in chanting psalms and hymns of praise to\nGod. The holiest excitement seeks expression in music and song. In\nthe praise meetings of the Ephesians we have the beginnings of\nChristian psalmody. The psalms of the Old Testament were sung,\naccompanied by musical instruments. \"Singing and making melody\" means\nsinging and playing, voice and instrument blending in joyous strains\nof praise. Then would follow hymns expressing the great ideas of the\nGospel. Regarding the early Christians Pliny wrote: \"They are wont on\na fixed day to meet before daylight--to avoid persecution--and to\nrecite a hymn among themselves by turns to Christ, as being God.\"\nThere might not be much artistic taste in the music, either of voice\nor instrument; but the sincerity of the heart was the true harmony.\nThe contrast of the verse is between the heathen and the Christian\npractice. Let your songs be not the drinking songs of heathen feasts,\nbut psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the\nlyre, but the melody of the heart. Is any merry, let him sing, not\nlight and frivolous songs, breathing questionable morality, but\npsalms. The glad heart is eager first to acknowledge God.\n\n+II. Largely consists in thanksgiving.+--\"Giving thanks always for\nall things unto God\" (ver. 20). God is the active Source of all\nblessings in creation, providence, and grace, and should be\nconstantly acknowledged in grateful adoration. The thankful heart is\nthe happiest; and it is the happy who sing. Thanksgiving is the\npredominating element in praise; and praise is the essence of true\nworship. Prayer is not the essence of worship, though it is an\nimportant help. Prayer becomes worship when it merges into praise.\nThe reading and exposition of God's Word are not worship. Preaching\naccomplishes one of its loftiest functions when it incites to praise.\nMusic is not worship but it may become a valuable accessory.\nChristianity has taken hold of music and consecrated and elevated it\nto the highest uses of worship. It has produced the greatest\nmusicians and the grandest music. All true music is the outward and\nmelodious expression of our dearest and most sacred thoughts and\nfeelings. The musical artist touches what is deepest and best in us.\nNature has no false notes. When we praise God aright, worship becomes\nan act of the highest intelligence, calling forth and exercising our\nnoblest powers. We are to sing with the Spirit, and we are to sing\nwith the understanding also. Worship is acceptable to God as it is\nthe joyous expression of the soul, brimming over with thankfulness\nand reverence. We are then brought under the spiritually transforming\npower of the Being we worship; the worshipper becomes like the object\nworshipped.\n\n+III. Soberly recognises the relation in which we stand to each other\nand to Christ.+--\"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of\nGod\" (ver. 21). _In the fear of Christ_--so read all the old MSS, and\nauthorities. The believer passes from under the bondage of the law to\nbe the servant of Christ, which through the instinct of love to Him\nis really to be the Lord's freeman, for he is under the law to\nChrist. Thus reverential fear of displeasing Him is the motive for\ndischarging our relative duties as Christians. The Church should be a\npattern and an example of harmony and peace, and this can only be by\nthe members submitting themselves one to another \"in the fear of\nChrist.\" The man with the most distinguished gifts must not be above\nsubmitting himself to the judgment and will of his fellow-members.\nPreacher, organist, choir, and congregation must vie with each other\nin harmonious rivalry in the service and worship of God.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Spiritual enjoyment is not dependent on fictitious\nexcitement._ 2. _Expresses itself in holiest song._ 3. _Is unselfish._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 19. _Singing in the Worship of God._\n\n+I. The singing of psalms is here enjoined as a sacred branch of\nsocial worship.+--We are to glorify God in our bodies and in our\nspirits. To Him we are to consecrate the use of all our powers. And\nthere is the same reason why the musical as any other faculty should\nbe employed in His service. Praise is the most excellent part of\nDivine worship.\n\n+II. The matter or subject of our singing.+--In psalms, hymns, and\nspiritual songs. By psalms is intended that collection of sacred\npoems which passes under this name and is one of the canonical books\nof Scripture. By hymns may be designed other poetical compositions of\nScripture as the songs of Moses, Hannah, Zechariah, Simeon, and\nothers. By spiritual songs may be meant those pious and devout songs\nwhich in that age were composed by prophets and holy men in the\nChurch under the immediate influence of the Spirit. The matter we\nsing should be accommodated to the occasion of the worship. If in the\ndays of David it was thought necessary that on extraordinary\noccasions a new song should be sung, surely now we may sing some new\nsongs on the glorious occasion of the Gospel.\n\n+III. We are to sing, making melody.+--The use of music in social\nworship is to assist and enliven the devotion of the heart. When\nmusic is performed with melody of sound, exactness of time, and\nharmony of voices, it greatly contributes to this end. Singing cannot\nbe performed to edification and comfort without skill. The singers in\nthe Jewish Temple were carefully instructed, and this branch of\nworship conducted with great order and solemnity.\n\n+IV. In singing we must make melody in our hearts to the\nLord.+--Singing as part of religious worship must be directed to God.\nWe sing in obedience to His command, with a sense of His presence,\nwith hearts disposed for His service, with affections corresponding\nto the matter of the psalm. The man who can hear holy anthems sung to\nthe universal Parent, with voices sweetly mingling and harmonising\ntogether, and not feel himself softened into benevolence and love and\nmoulded into condescension and peace, must have a soul rugged as the\nrocks and stubborn as an oak.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _If singing is an instituted part of Divine worship,\nall should take a share in it._ 2. _Every one according to his\nability is bound to promote the psalmody of the Church._ 3. _Psalmody\nas a branch of Divine worship should be regarded, not as a theatrical\nexhibition, but as a religious solemnity.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 20. _The Duty of Thanksgiving._\n\n+I. The duty to which we are exhorted.+--1. Implies a right\napprehension and considerate attention to benefits conferred.\n2. Requires a faithful retention of benefits in memory and frequent\nreflections on them. 3. A due esteem and valuation of benefits.\n4. That benefits be received with a willing mind, a hearty sense, a\nvehement affection. 5. Always attended with the esteem, veneration,\nand love of the benefactor.\n\n+II. The time allotted to the performance of the duty.+--\"Always.\"\n1. Hereby is required a frequent performance thereof. 2. Appointing\nand punctually observing convenient times for the purpose. 3. A\nvigilant attendance on the duty such as men bestow on their\nemployments. 4. Implies a ready disposition to give thanks ever\npermanent in us. 5. That we embrace every opportunity of actually\nexpressing our thankfulness.\n\n+III. The matter of this duty.+--\"For all things.\" 1. We are to give\nthanks not only for great but the least favours of God. 2. Not only\nfor new and present benefits, but for all we have formerly or may\nhereafter receive. 3. Not only for pleasant occurrences of\nprovidence, but also those which are adverse. 4. Not only for\ntemporal but for spiritual and eternal blessings.--_Barrow._\n\n\n_Thanksgiving._\n\n  +I. The duty here enjoined is to give thanks.+\n\n +II. Consider the character of that Being to whom our thanks must be\n      supremely directed.+--\"To God, even the Father.\"\n\n+III. We are required to give thanks always to God.+\n\n +IV. The matters for which we are to give thanks.+--\"For all things.\"\n\n  +V. Consider the medium of our access to God in this duty.+--\"In the\n      name of our Lord Jesus Christ.\"--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 21. _Mutual Submission._\n\n  +I. A degree of submission is due to superiors.+--Superiors in age,\n      in knowledge and wisdom, in authority. Honour a virtuous\n      character wherever you see it.\n\n +II. Mutual submission as it respects equals.+--All men have the same\n      immutable right to an equitable treatment from all with whom\n      they have intercourse. Mutual subjection ought to be seen in\n      families.\n\n+III. There is a submission due to those who on some accounts may be\n      deemed inferiors.+--Superiors owe respect to those below them.\n      They should be easy of access, gentle in language, and\n      condescending in deportment.\n\n +IV. This mutual submission ought to appear in Christian\n      Churches.+--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 22-33.\n\n_Duties of Wives and Husbands._\n\n+I. The duty of the wife is submission to her husband.+--\"Wives\nsubmit yourselves unto your own husbands.\"\n\n1. _A submission defined by religious obligation._--\"As unto the\nLord\" (ver. 22). This submission implies no inferiority. Husband and\nwife are equal before God, and each is separately responsible to Him.\nThe husband cannot love and serve God for the wife, nor the wife for\nthe husband; each stands related to Him as a distinct personality,\nwith distinct duties and responsibilities for each. God has the first\nclaim upon them both, and their relation and duties to each other\nmust be in harmony with that supreme claim. The submission demanded\nis not the subjection of an inferior to a superior, but the\nvoluntary, sympathetic obedience that can be gracefully and\nappropriately rendered only by an equal to an equal. \"It is here that\nChristianity, in contrast with paganism and notably with\nMahometanism, raises the weaker sex to honour. In soul and destiny it\ndeclares the woman to be man, endowed with all rights and powers\ninherent in humanity. It is one of the glories of our faith that it\nhas enfranchised our sisters, and raises them in spiritual calling to\nthe full level of their brothers and husbands.\"\n\n2. _A submission recognising the headship of the\nhusband._--(1) Analogous to the headship of Christ to His Church.\n\"For the husband is the head of the wife, even as Christ is the Head\nof the Church\" (ver. 23). (2) Unlike that headship inasmuch as Christ\nis not only the head but also the Saviour of the Church. \"And He is\nthe Saviour of the body\" (ver. 23). As the Saviour His headship is\nunrivalled and must be acknowledged by every member alike. The wife\nmust not think too much of her husband: there is One who is superior\nto him, and who must be all in all to them both.\n\n3. _A submission after the pattern of that of the Church to\nChrist._--\"As the Church is subject to Christ, so let the wives be to\ntheir own husbands in everything\" (ver. 24; cf. ver. 33). Religion\nsanctifies all relationships and makes duty a joy. As the wife obeys\nChrist in spiritual things, so she will obey her husband in all\nthings righteous. Mary, wife of Prince William of Orange and the\nheir-apparent to the English throne, was asked what her husband the\nprince should be if she became queen. She called in her husband and\npromised him he should always bear rule; and asked only that he would\nobey the command, \"Husbands, love your wives,\" as she should do that,\n\"Wives, be obedient to your husbands in all things.\"\n\n+II. The duty of the husband is to love his wife.+--1. _A love that\nseeks to promote the highest spiritual interests of the wife_ (vers.\n25-29). It must be a Christ-like, self-sacrificing, all-devoted love.\nIt is greatly within the power of the husband to help or hinder the\nspiritual life of the wife. The man is apt to become so self-absorbed\nand forgetful that he needs reminding of his duty to love and cherish\nthe one who should be dearer to him than any other. Assured of the\nreality and unselfishness of her husband's love, there is no\nsacrifice she will hesitate to make, nor will she spare any effort to\nattain the Christ-likeness of character to which he may wish to lead\nher. \"One with Christ. This is the ideal Christian state. We have a\nfaint reflection of this in that which should be flesh. They are to\nbe as nearly as possible one person. Their thoughts, their interests,\ntheir hopes, their aims are one. Marriage was given that it might be\na representation of the spiritual union between Christ and His\nChurch. The union of each separate soul with Christ is a fragment of\nHis union with the whole Church, and must partake of the same\ncharacter. He that is joined to the Lord is one spirit with Him.\"\n\n2. _A love arising from the intimacy and sacredness of the marriage\nbond_ (vers. 30-32).--Marriage is a union for life between one man\nand one woman; consequently bigamy, polygamy, and voluntary divorce\nare all inconsistent with its nature. It must be entered into freely\nand cordially by the parties, with the conviction that one is suited\nto the other, and to take the positions involved in the natural and\nscriptural view of the relation. \"Marriage,\" said Jeremy Taylor, \"is\na school and exercise of virtue. Here is the proper sense of piety\nand patience, of the duty of parents, and the charity of relatives;\nhere kindness is spread abroad and love is united and made firm as a\ncentre. Marriage is the nursery of heaven, hath in it the labours of\nlove and the delicacies of friendship, the blessing of society and\nthe union of hands and hearts. Like the useful bee, marriage builds a\nhouse, unites into societies and republics, exercises many virtues,\npromotes the interest of mankind, and is that state of good things to\nwhich God has designed the present constitution of the world.\"\n\n3. _A love strengthened by the observance of mutual duties_ (ver.\n33).--Love manifested begets love, and strengthens with exercise. The\nloving reverence of the wife follows on the frank and genuine love of\nthe husband. This was an epitaph in a churchyard inscribed by a\nhusband after sixty years of married life: \"She always made home\nhappy.\" The Christian conception of love and marriage began a new era\nin the world, and has exalted woman to her true place.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Marriage is not to be lightly entered into._ 2. _Is\ndignified as a symbol of the union between Christ and His Church._\n3. _Binds the contracting parties to fidelity in observing the most\nsacred vows._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 22-33. _Wives and Husbands._\n\n+I. There are duties which are common to both the correlates.+--The\nhusband and wife are in some respects equals. As they are one and\nhave one common interest they ought to act with an undivided concern\nfor the happiness of the family. They are alike bound to mutual\nfidelity and a chaste conversation. They are under equal obligations\nto study each other's peace and comfort.\n\n+II. There are some duties particularly incumbent on the\nwife.+--These the apostle expresses by the terms submission,\nreverence, obedience, and subjection. Since the Church is subject to\nChrist, the woman ought to be subject to her husband, who, by\nChrist's authority, is constituted her head. A family should resemble\na Church in union, peace, and subordination. The honour and interest\nof religion require that wives, by a cheerful subordination,\nco-operate with their husbands in all the important concerns of the\nhousehold, and in the nurture, education, and government of the\ndependent members.\n\n+III. There are duties particularly incumbent on the husband towards\nhis wife.+--These the apostle expresses by the word \"love,\" which\nhere stands opposed to sharpness and severity. One argument for this\nlove is the example of Christ in His love and devotion to the Church.\nAnother reason is, the intimacy of the relationship--\"Whoso loveth\nhis wife loveth himself.\" Where the spirit of religion reigns in\nboth, the union will be easy and their joint government in the family\nhave efficacy. The maintenance of family religion depends on nothing\nmore than the union of the heads. For how can they unite in prayers\nand praises who unite in nothing else.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 23-32. _Christ and His Bride._\n\n+I. Christ's love to the Church+ (vers. 25-27). We must value and\njoyfully assert our individual part in the redeeming love of the Son\nof God; but we must equally admit the sovereign rights of the Church\nin the Redeemer's passion. There is in some an absorption in the work\nof grace within their own hearts, an individualistic\nsalvation-seeking that like all selfishness defeats its end, for it\nnarrows and impoverishes the inner life thus sedulously cherished.\nThe Church does not exist simply for the benefit of individual souls;\nit is an eternal institution, with an affiance to Christ, a calling\nand destiny of its own; within that universal sphere our personal\ndestiny holds its particular place. The Christ is worthy and she must\nbe made worthy. From eternity He set His love upon her; on the cross\nHe won her back from her infidelity at the price of His blood.\nThrough the ages He has been wooing her to Himself, and schooling her\nin wise and manifold ways that she may be fit for her heavenly\ncalling. Through what cleansing fires, through what baptisms, even of\nblood, she has still to pass ere the consummation is reached, He only\nknows who loved her and gave Himself for her. He will spare to His\nChurch nothing, either of bounty or of trial, that her perfection\nneeds.\n\n+II. Christ's authority over the Church+ (vers. 23, 24).--The Church\nis no democracy, any more than she is an aristocracy or a sacerdotal\nabsolutism: she is a _Christocracy._ The people are not rulers in the\nhouse of God; they are the ruled, laity and ministers alike. We\nacknowledge this in theory; but our language and spirit would\noftentimes be other than they are, if we were penetrated with the\nsense of the continual presence and majesty of the Lord Jesus in our\nassemblies. The Church's protection from human tyranny, from schemes\nof ambition, from the intrusion of political methods and designs,\nlies in her sense of the splendour and reality of Christ's dominion\nand of her own eternal life in Him.\n\n+III. The mystery of the Church's origin in Christ+ (vers.\n30-32).--God chose us in Christ before the world's foundation. We are\ncreated in the Son of God's love antecedently to our redemption by\nHim. Christ recovers through the cross that which pertains inherently\nto Him, which belonged to Him by nature, and is as a part of Himself.\nThe derivation of Eve from the body of Adam, as that is affirmed in\nthe mysterious words of Genesis, is analogous to the derivation of\nthe Church from Christ. The latter relationship existed in the ideal,\nand as conceived in the purpose of God, prior to the appearance of\nthe human race. In St. Paul's theory, the origin of the woman in man,\nwhich forms the basis of marriage in Scripture, looked farther back\nto the origin of humanity in Christ Himself. In some mystical but\nreal sense marriage is a _reunion,_ the reincorporation of what had\nbeen sundered. Seeking his other self, the complement of his nature,\nthe man breaks the ties of birth and founds a new home. So the\ninspired author of the passage in Genesis (Gen. ii. 21-24) explains\nthe origin of marriage, and the instinct which draws the bridegroom\nto his bride. But our apostle sees within this declaration a deeper\ntruth, kept secret from the foundation of the world. When he speaks\nof this great mystery, he means thereby not marriage itself, but _the\nsaying of Adam about it._ This text was a standing problem to the\nJewish interpreters. \"But for my part,\" says the apostle, \"I refer it\nto Christ and to the Church.\" St. Paul, who has so often before drawn\nthe parallel between Adam and Christ, by the light of this analogy\nperceives a new and rich meaning in the old dark sentence. It helps\nhim to see how believers in Christ, forming collectively His body,\nare not only grafted into Him, but were derived from Him and formed\nin the very mould of His nature. In our union through grace and faith\nwith Christ crucified we realise again the original design of our\nbeing. Christ has purchased by His blood no new or foreign bride, but\nher who was His from eternity--the child who had wandered from the\nFather's house, the betrothed who had left her Lord and\nspouse.--_Findlay._\n\n\nVers. 25-33. _The Christian Law of Marriage_--\n\n  +I. Demands self-sacrificing love.+\n\n +II. Recognises the sacredness of the union between the contracting\n      parties.+\n\n+III. Is ennobled in being a type of the union between Christ and the\n      Church.+\n\n +IV. Involves mutual fidelity on the part of both husband and wife.+\n\n\nVers. 25-27. _Christ's Love for the Church._\n\n+I. Christ's love of His Church.+--It was--1. Ancient. 2. Self-moved.\n3. Active. 4. Effective.\n\n+II. Christ's sacrifice of Himself as an exhibition of His\nlove.+--1. Himself. His life. What a life! 2. As a sacrifice. The\nessence of it is vicarious suffering. 3. To all the suffering which\njustice demanded.\n\n+III. Christ's more immediate object in what He has\ndone.+--1. Sanctification. As essential as pardon. 2. By the agency\nof the Holy Spirit. Signified by the washing of water. 3. Through the\ninstrumentality of the Word.\n\n+IV. Christ's ultimate aim.+--1. To present His Church to Himself. A\nnuptial figure. 2. Free from all imperfections. 3. Adorned with all\nexcellencies. (1) Our obligations to Christ. (2) The real value of\nholiness. (3) The high destiny of believers.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Future Glory of the Church._\n\n+I. The future state of the Church.+--In describing the future\ncondition of the Church, the apostle has evidently in his mind two\nprevious states: her original state when lying dead in trespasses and\nsins, and her subsequent earthly state when separated from the mass\nof the ungodly and partially redeemed. We have the people of Christ\nbefore us in three distinct points of view:--\n\n1. _As wholly defiled._--Speaking of \"sanctifying and cleansing\" the\nChurch intimates her complete defilement.\n\n2. _As in some measure cleansed._--Though sanctified and cleansed, we\nread of spots still left on the Church.\n\n3. _As altogether pure._--Faultless in God's presence and estimation.\n\n+II. The causes to which this state is to be ascribed.+--1. _The love\nof Christ._ 2. _Love revealed in sacrifice_ as another step towards\nfinal purity. 3. _The work of the Holy Spirit_ (ver. 26). 4. _The\nWord of God_ (ver. 26). A right understanding of its testimony and a\nheartfelt belief in its truth.\n\n+III. The great end for which all these means of holiness are brought\ninto operation.+--\"That He might present it to Himself a glorious\nChurch\" (ver. 27). The likeness of God will be put on her, the image\nof God shine in her; that attribute of Divinity--holiness--which is\nthe perfection of Divinity will be her crown.--_C. Bradley._\n\n\n_The Divine Ideal of the Church._\n\n+I. We have an array of stupendous facts concerning the\nChurch.+--1. _The Divine prevision._ Before the eternal Son of God\ncould give Himself for the Church, He must have had it in His mind.\n2. _The Redeemer's actual love for the Church._ 3. _The Redeemer's\namazing self-sacrifice on behalf of the Church._ 4. _That the\nRedeemer has a very definite purpose concerning His Church._\n\n+II. The distinguishing marks or signs of the members of the\nChurch.+--They are personal and experimental. 1. _The casting out of\nnatural impurities._ Improvement is not enough. Nothing but a\nthorough re-creation can effect what is required. 2. _The instrument\nof this change is the truth._ 3. _This change, this introduction into\nthe Church, is a thing complete in itself, becomes historical, and\nought never to need repeating._ 4. _The way is open for the\nappearance of the other personal and experimental\nsign--sanctification_ (ver. 26). 5. _Christ's idea of the Church\ngiven in these verses is not abstract, impracticable, and untrue to\nthe possibilities of ordinary human nature._\n\n+III. Here we catch a glimpse of the future and eternal glory of the\nChurch.+--How stupendous an event it will be when, at the\nconsummation of all things, the whole Church will be presented to the\nLord Jesus! What can secure Church membership? Neither early\ntraining, nor baptism, nor the holding of an orthodox creed, nor\nassociating with a religious and devout assembly, nor the filling of\necclesiastical office, nor even intelligent approach to the table of\nthe Lord. Such things are means to an end. That end is true\nmembership in the Church of Christ. And that membership is attained\nand secured by Divine renewal of the heart, and by that conformity to\nthe mind of Christ which is expressive of the new life. The true\nunity of the Church of Christ is that spiritual oneness which has its\nexpression in identity of Christian life.--_W. Hudson._\n\n\nVer. 25. _A Noble Self-sacrifice._--Caius Gracchus, who was the idol\nof the Roman people, having carried his regard for the lower orders\nso far as to draw upon himself the resentment of the nobility, an\nopen rupture ensued; and the two extremities of Rome resembled two\ncamps--Opimius the consul on one side, and Gracchus and his friend\nFulvius on the other. A battle ensued in which the consul, meeting\nwith more vigorous resistance than he expected, proclaimed an amnesty\nfor all those who should lay down their arms, and at the same time\npromised to pay for the heads of Gracchus and Fulvius their weight in\ngold. This proclamation had the desired effect. The populace deserted\ntheir leaders. Fulvius was taken and beheaded, and Gracchus, at the\nadvice of his two friends, Licinius Crassus and Pomponius, determined\nto flee the city, and reached the bridge Sublicius, where his\nenemies, who pursued him close, would have overtaken and seized him\nif his two friends had not opposed their fury; but they saw the\ndanger he was in and determined to save his life at the expense of\ntheir own. They defended the bridge against all the consular troops\ntill Gracchus was out of their reach; but at length, being\noverpowered by numbers, and covered with wounds, they both expired on\nthe bridge they had so valiantly defended.--_Biblical Treasury._\n\n\nVer. 30. _Members of the Body of Christ._\n\n+I. The doctrine.+--The apostle is speaking of believers only; of\nbelievers as believing; of all believers. His language implies:--\n\n1. _Union._--Real, intimate, indissoluble.\n\n2. _Dependence._--Of the members on the heart. Of the members on the\nhead.\n\n3. _Sympathy._--Sincere, entire, uninterrupted. Value of human\nsympathy. Its rarity. Its necessary imperfection. The superiority of\nChrist's.\n\n+II. The duty.+--1. _Love._ A special affection arising out of a\nspecial relation.\n\n2. _Reverence._--There should be no unholy familiarity.\n\n3. _Obedience._--Responsive to His will as a part of\nHimself.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 33. _The Sanctity of Home Life._--The Christian home is the\ncorner-stone of modern civilisation--the best fruit Christianity has\nyielded the earth. The Anglo-Saxon home is the crowning glory of the\nrace. Contrast it with French home life, or the miserable home life\nin Utah! National self-preservation demands a vigorous uprooting of\nMormon polygamy and Western divorce lawlessness. That which is\npunished as a crime in the best and purest Christian lands must be\npunished as a crime wherever it is found. Garfield kissing his mother\nand his wife at his Inauguration was a sweet revelation of holy\nfamily life.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER VI.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Children, obey.+--Until the days of discretion arrive this\nis the grace of childhood. If through obedience the child errs, the\nresponsibility of that is with those who have commanded. It is only a\n\"surrendered soul\" that can sing:\n\n     \"I would be treated as a child,\n        And guided where I go.\"\n\nVer. 2. +Honour thy father and mother.+--As long as they are so.\n\nVer. 3. +That it may be well with thee.+--If ever \"that it may be\"\ncould mean \"and so it shall be,\" we should strenuously plead for that\nmeaning here. For it would be a pitiable thing indeed to find a man\nshowing filial piety as a profitable course.\n\nVer. 4. +Nurture and admonition.+--The former word is more general\nthan the latter, including everything that goes to the instruction of\nthe child. \"Admonition\" is reproof, either of word or punishment, or\nyet again, warning.\n\nVer. 5. +Servants, be obedient.+--R.V. margin, \"bond-servants.\" There\nwas One who had \"become obedient even unto death,\" having \"taken the\nform of a bond-servant\" (Phil. ii. 7). +With fear and\ntrembling.+--\"With that zeal which is ever keenly apprehensive of not\ndoing enough\" (_Meyer_). The same phrase is used of the way in which\nour personal salvation is to be worked out (Phil. ii. 12).\n\nVer. 6. +Not with eyeservice.+--A word used only by St. Paul. The\nthing it describes is easily recognised to-day.\n\nVer. 7. +With good will doing service.+--If a philosopher-slave like\nEpictetus could rise superior to his condition, surely Christianity\ncould do as much for the humblest believer.\n\nVer. 8. +Knowing that whatsoever good . . . bond or free.+\n\n         \"This is the famous stone\n          That turneth all to gold,\n     For that which God doth touch and own\n          Cannot for less be told\"--_George Herbert._\n\nVer. 9. +Do the same things unto them.+--The utmost application of\nthe \"golden rule.\" +Forbearing threatening+ \"may either mean abating\nor giving up.\"\n\nVer. 10. +Be strong in the Lord, and in the power of His might.+--In\nch. i. 19 the phrase \"power of His might\" is reversed. See note there.\n\nVer. 11. +The whole armour.+--\"The panoply.\" \"A complete suit of\narmour.\" +The wiles of the devil.+--A craftily designed plan of\nattack.\n\nVer. 12. +For we wrestle.+--We need not suppose a transference of the\nmetaphor. It may describe the hand-to-hand fight in which equally\nmatched opponents refuse to back an inch. +Not against flesh and\nblood.+--With \"vulnerable crests\" (_Macbeth_). When ghostly\ncombatants appear, unassailable, and with powers of injury against\nwhich we are helpless, we may well say:\n\n     \"Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves\n      Shall never tremble.\"\n\nVer. 13. +In the evil day.+--Compare ch. v. 16. A day of great peril.\n+And having done all, to stand.+--\"When the hurly-burly's done\" to\nfind oneself unvanquished.\n\nVer. 14. +Stand therefore.+--The words ring short and sharp as a\nbugle-call. +Loins girt about with truth.+--\"To speak of a\nwell-equipped warrior without a girdle is a _contradictio in\nadjecto,_ for it was just the girdle which produced the free bearing\nand movement and the necessary attitude of the warrior\" (_Meyer_).\n\"+Truth+ is a subjective conception corresponding with the eternal\nrealities\" (_Beet_). +Breastplate of righteousness.+--\"As the actual\nwarrior has protected the breast when he laced the corslet over his\nchest, so with you righteousness . . . renders your breast (heart and\nwill) inaccessible to the hostile influence of the demons\" (_Meyer_).\n\n     \"He is but naked though locked up in steel\n      Whose conscience with _injustice_ is corrupted.\"\n\nVer. 15. +Feet shod.+--Ensuring agility and a firm foothold.\n+Preparation of the gospel of peace.+--\"Preparation\" might perhaps\ngive way to \"preparedness.\" St. Paul does not mind a paradox. \"What\nhast thou to do with peace?\" said one soldier to another; but the\nherald was a soldier too.\n\nVer. 16. +Above all, taking the shield.+--Large enough to block the\nentrance to a doorway--being about four feet by two and a half. The\nlighter missiles were harmless against a roof of these shields\nover-lapped. They were of wood, thickly coated with leather. +Quench\nthe fiery darts.+--\"Arrows tipped with inflammable material, and shot\noff after having been kindled\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 17. +Take the helmet of salvation.+--For the large shield might\nleave the head exposed to the archer's aim. +The sword of the Spirit,\nwhich is the word of God.+--How effectual in fence and thrust it was\nin the hands of the Captain of our salvation, the \"world-ruler\" had\nexperienced.\n\nVer. 18. +Praying always with all prayer and supplication in the\nSpirit.+--Here we have the recognition of a directing Superior. The\ntrue soldier fights under the direction of his \u1f00\u03c1\u03c7\u03b7\u03b3\u03cc\u03c2. The \"sounds\nof strife\" are dying away in this verse.\n\nVer. 20. +An ambassador in bonds.+--R.V. \"in chains.\" Sustaining the\nhonour of Christ under personal indignity. +That I may speak\nboldly.+--It needed not only the apostle's own, but his readers'\nprayers to enable him to speak freely within stroke of the \"lion's\npaw\" (2 Tim. iv. 17).\n\nVer. 21. +Tychicus, a beloved brother and faithful minister.+--If all\nservants were \"brethren\" first, the troubles of our modern commercial\nlife would be few.\n\nVer. 23. +Peace, love and faith.+--A worthy triad, and the greatest\nof _these_ is love.\n\nVer. 24. +Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in\nsincerity.+--Paul's favourite word \"grace\" comes in as \"epilogue\"--as\nit was \"prologue\" (ch. i. 2). Sincerity means incorruptly--to love in\na spirit corruption cannot touch.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-4.\n\n_Duties of Children and Parents._\n\n+I. The duty of children to parents is to obey.+--1. _This obedience\nhas the Divine sanction._ \"In the Lord\" (ver. 1). Both the command\nand the obedience must be in harmony with the relation in which both\nparents and children stand towards God. The parent who has not\nhimself learnt to respect and obey the law of God is ill prepared for\nthe grave responsibilities of family government. Natural affection\nand the instincts of common sense will guide the parents in the\nordinary affairs of home-life, and the sense of dependence and\nrespect should induce instinctive obedience in the child. No parent\nhas any right to enforce an obedience which is not in harmony with\nthe supreme claims of God. The child who submits to the will of his\nparents is taught at the same time to obey the higher law of God. If\nhe defies parental authority and persists in disobedience, he is sure\nto be treated in the same way if he ever has children of his own. To\nbe able to govern we must first learn to obey.\n\n2. _This obedience is in harmony with natural order and the eternal\nprinciples of justice._--\"For this is right\" (ver. 1). Obedience is\nthe law of the universe, and without it everything would rush into\nanarchy and chaos. Law is so all-pervasive as to cover every\ndepartment and relationship of life, and its breach in any sphere\ncarries with it its own punishment. Disobedience is not only a wrong\nto the person who commits it, but it is an injustice to somebody\nelse. Obedience to parents in things lawful is no hardship. It is\nbecoming and commendable because it is right. It is the perversity of\nour nature, when it becomes difficult to do right. Disobedience is a\nwilful divergence from the straight line of rectitude, and is the\nessence of all sin.\n\n3. _This obedience ensures the Divine blessing_ (vers. 2, 3).--It is\nour duty to obey irrespective of any advantage to be secured. The\nloyal heart looks, not to the reward, but to the duty. It is no merit\nto do what it is our duty to do. Yet such is the condescension and\ngoodness of God that He attaches a special blessing to every act of\nunselfish obedience. Filial obedience should not be dilatory and\nreluctant, but prompt, cheerful, self-denying, and uniform. Obedience\nis the path of safety. A pointsman in Prussia was at the junction of\ntwo lines of railway, lever in hand, for a train that was signalled.\nThe engine was within a few seconds of reaching the embankment when\nthe man, turning his head, perceived his little boy playing between\nthe rails on which the train was running. He stuck to his lever, but\nshouted to the child, \"Lie down! lie down!\" The train passed, and the\nfather rushed forward to pick up what he feared would be the mangled\nbody of his child; but what was his joy to find the boy had at once\nobeyed his order, had lain down, and the train passed over him\nwithout injuring him. His prompt obedience saved his life. Dutiful\nchildren secure the blessing of God. Filial obedience practised in\nthe Christian home forms habits of promptitude, self-control, and\nself-respect which are important conditions of success and prosperity.\n\n+II. The duty of parents to children is to exercise\ndiscipline.+--1. _Not by enforcing commands that tend to irritate._\n\"Ye fathers, provoke not your children to wrath\" (ver. 4). Children\nare a sacred trust and solemn responsibility; not to be weakly\nfondled or foolishly spoilt, but to be wisely, kindly, and strictly\ndisciplined into obedience and duty. The Chinese have a proverb, when\na son is born into a family a bow and arrow are hung before the gate.\nIn Eastern books sons are spoken of as arrows of their fathers. \"As\narrows are in the hand of a mighty man, so are children of the youth\"\n(Ps. cxxvii. 4). As the bowman straightens and polishes his arrow,\ngiving it a sharp and solid point, and wings it with feathers, so\nparents must train and equip their children that they may go straight\nto the point of duty and hit the mark. The arrows that are not\nprepared and directed when in the hand may, when they are gone abroad\ninto the world, and all parental training is too late, prove arrows\nin the heart that will rankle with unspeakable pain. The training of\nchildren is also a training of the parent. Many a hint is\nunconsciously given as to \"training up a _parent_ in the way he\nshould go.\" While there should be firm discipline, there should not\nbe exasperating and tantalising severity. Rousing a child's anger is\nnot the best way of subduing it. A sullen submission gained, by\nprovoking and then crushing an angry opposition, is rendered with a\nsense of injustice and wrong that will breed future mischief. Monod\nsays: \"Correction and instruction should proceed from the Lord, and\nbe directed by the Spirit of the Lord in such a way that it is not so\nmuch the father who corrects his children and teaches them, as the\nLord through him.\" The father who chastises in wrath provokes the\nchild to wrath and rebellion.\n\n2. _But by judicious religious culture._--\"But bring them up in the\nnurture and admonition of the Lord\" (ver. 4). Children are the gifts\nof God to be trained for God. They are susceptible of genuine\nreligious experience, and are often nearer the truth than grown-up\npeople. Christ recognised the spiritual faculty in children, and gave\nthem a conspicuous place in His kingdom. When He wished to show the\ntype of true greatness, He did not point to stars or mountains or\nearthly dignities, but \"called a little child unto Him and, set him\nin the midst\" (Matt. xviii. 2-4). Children are capable of useful\nreligious service, and in many ways may be little missionaries for\nChrist. Dr. W. L. Breckenridge once said to his mother: \"Mother, I\nthink you ruled us with too rigid a rod in our boyhood. It would have\nbeen better had you used gentler methods.\" The old lady straightened\nup and said: \"Well, William, when you have raised up three as good\npreachers as I have then you can talk.\" The smaller magnets have\nproportionately much the greater power, and children have a\nremarkable spiritual force with which the Christian parent has to\ndeal.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Personal discipline should be in harmony with the law\nof God._ 2. _The rigour of parental discipline should be tempered\nwith love._ 3. _Respect and obedience to parents will be Divinely\nrewarded._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1-4. _The Mutual Duties of Children and Parents._\n\n+I. Children are to obey and honour their parents.+--1. _Children owe\nto their parents an inward affection and regard._ Their obedience\nshould flow from love, gratitude, and esteem. The love parents bear\nto their children entitles them to reciprocal affection. 2. _They are\nto honour their parents by external tokens of respect._ 3. _They are\nto obey the just commands of their parents._ 4. _They are to receive\nwith decent and humble regard the instructions, counsels, and\nreproofs of their parents._ 5. _They should remunerate the favours\nreceived from their parents._ 6. _They are encouraged in their\nobedience by the Divine promise._\n\n+II. The duties of parents to children.+--1. _To instruct their\nchildren in the doctrines and duties of religion._ 2. _To endeavour\nby arguments, exhortations, and reproofs to form their lives\naccording to those instructions._ 3. _To regulate the diversions of\ntheir children._ 4. _To maintain the worship of God in their houses._\n5. _To let their conversation be exemplary._ 6. _To train up their\nchildren with diligence in some honest business._ 7. _To commend\ntheir children to God and the word of His grace.--Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 1, 2. _Obedience._--The dutiful obedience of children is\ndeclared by God in the fifth commandment to be the foundation of all\nsocial happiness and of every social virtue.\n\n+I. The behaviour of a child to its parents is no such trifle as too\nmany perverse children and too many foolish parents are prone to\nfancy it.+--How often we hear mothers saying, \"It is only the poor\nchild's way; it is a little pettish and fractious at times, but it\nmeans no harm by it. To be sure it does not mind me quite so well as\nit ought to do; but children will be children.\" So the child goes on\nuncorrected, and grows up disobedient and undutiful--with habits and\ndispositions so evil that God has classed them with the very worst\ncrimes, with false swearing, theft, adultery, and ever murder. If\nundutifulness in children had been a mere trifle, would God have put\nit into this black list?\n\n+II. Observe the reasonableness and justice of the duty of children\nto obey their parents.+--The child is helpless and entirely dependent\non its parents' care and kindness. So strong and lasting is a\nmother's love that, while other animals drive their young away as\nsoon as they can feed themselves, the love of human parents descends\nand prolongs itself even to their offspring's offspring. Think of\ntheir fears, their wishes, their prayers for your souls' welfare.\nYour love to them should be dutiful love, showing itself in acts of\ngentleness, respect, and kindness, and in the strictest and readiest\nobedience. Children are bound to obey, not from constraint, nor from\nfear of blows, but readily, willingly, cheerfully. The obedience paid\nfor fear of stripes is the obedience of a mule, not of a son. What\ncan a child know save what its parents teach it? Its parents for a\ntime stand in the place of God to it; as such, it must believe them\nand obey them. You may be the better for their experience, you may\nprofit by their warnings, you may learn from their lessons.\n\n+III. Observe the use and benefit of obedience in forming the\ncharacter of the child.+--It is in the school of home, amid the\nlittle hardships, restraints, crosses, and disappointments which\nevery child must needs meet with, that the great lesson of obedience\nis best learnt. There is a root of self-will born in every man, and\nout of this root grow two evil and misshapen stems--pride and\ndisobedience. You may as well expect water to burn and fire to wet,\nyou may as well expect a barren common that has never been ploughed\nand sown to produce a crop of wheat, as that a child, which has gone\non year after year in pride, self-will, and disobedience to its\nparents, will readily or easily tear off its habits and its nature,\nto walk humbly and obediently before God. We must cultivate obedience\nin the child that it may outgrow, overtop, and stifle, or at least\nkeep under, the evil stem of disobedience. We must cultivate humility\nin him, that it may keep under the evil of pride. We must train and\naccustom him to habits of steady self-denial, which our Lord has\nrecommended to us as the best yokes for our headstrong and else\nunmanageable self-will. Thus the fifth commandment is a kind of\npractical school where the child, in obeying its parents, learns to\nobey all to whom it owes obedience.--_A. W. Hare._\n\n\nVer. 4. _A Father's Charge._\n\n+I. The duties parents owe to their children.+--1. _Children are weak\nand helpless and totally incapable of caring for themselves_--hence\narises the first duty which parents owe them, that of feeding and\nclothing them. 2. _Are ignorant and without understanding_--hence\nthey should not only be fed but taught. 3. _Are unruly, and therefore\nmust be governed._ 4. _Are prone to evil, and therefore must be\nrestrained._\n\n+II. The obligations parents are under to practise these\nduties.+--1. _They should do it for their own sakes._ 2. _For their\nchildren's sake._ 3. _For society's sake._ 4. _For God's sake._\n\n+Learn.+--1. _The practicability of a religious education._ 2. _How\nawful is the responsibility of parents--of fathers\nespecially.--Sketches._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-9.\n\n_The Duties of Servants and Masters._\n\n+I. The duty of the servant to the master is to obey.+--1. _This\nobedience is to be rendered with conscientious solicitude._ \"With\nfear and trembling, in singleness of your heart; . . . not with\neyeservice, as menpleasers\" (vers. 5, 6). There must be a _genuine\ncare for our work._ \"Be obedient, with fear and trembling.\" The fear\nenjoined is no dread of human displeasure, of the master's whip or\ntongue. It is the same fear and trembling with which we are bidden to\nwork out our own salvation (Phil. ii. 12). The inward work of the\nsoul's salvation and the outward work of the busy hands labouring in\nthe mine, or at the loom, or in the lowliest domestic duties--all\nalike are to be performed under a solemn responsibility to God and in\nthe presence of Christ, the Lord of nature and of men. No man,\nwhether he be a minister of state or a stable-groom, will dare to do\nheedless work who lives and acts in that august Presence. The sense\nof Christ's Lordship ensures _honesty in work._ \"Not with eyeservice,\nas menpleasers.\" It is the common fault and temptation of servants in\nall degrees to observe the master's eye, and to work busily or\nslackly as they are watched or not. Such workmen act as they do\nbecause they look to men and not to God. Their work is without\nconscience and self-respect. Let us all adopt St. Paul's maxim; it\nwill be an immense economy. What armies of overlookers and inspectors\nwe shall be able to dismiss when every servant works as well behind\nhis master's back as to his face, when every manufacturer and\nshopkeeper puts himself in the purchaser's place and deals as he\nwould have others deal with him (_Findlay_).\n\n2. _This obedience should be cheerful and hearty as rendered unto a\nhigher than an earthly master._--\"As unto Christ; . . . doing the\nwill of God from the heart; with good will doing service, as to the\nLord, and not to men\" (vers. 5-7). Obedience should be not only\ncareful and honest, but hearty. The heart is the source of our\ngreatest power. Nothing can be translated into an act that has not\nfirst been conceived and set in motion by the heart. As the stroke of\nthe piston sets in motion the most complicated machinery and produces\ncertain results, so the throb of the heart brings all our activities\ninto play and gives direction and character to our work. The worth of\nour work as a whole will be decided by the heartiness we throw into\nevery single duty. Workmanship counts for much. I have read of a\nchain, weighing two ounces, costing \u00a3170, being 163,000 times more\nthan the value of the original bit of iron from which it was made.\nThe work of the artist made all the difference; he put into it his\nbest self, his heart, his genius. So in the works of the divine\nCreator. The symmetry, the beauty, the perfect balance and shining\nmagnificence of the world are the result of the patient work and\nhearty enthusiasm with which the great Architect has put together and\nfinished the most minute parts of the planet.\n\n3. _Genuine obedience is always rewarded._--\"Whatsoever good thing\nany man doeth, the same shall he receive of the Lord\" (ver. 8). Even\nin this world conscientious work is not without reward. \"In all\nlabour there is profit. The diligent hand maketh rich.\" A stationer\nsettling a large account with a paper-manufacturer said: \"I owe all\nmy success in business to you; but let me ask you how a man of your\ncaution came to give credit so readily to a beginner of my slender\nmeans?\" \"Because,\" said the paper-maker, \"at whatever hour in the\nmourning I passed to my business, I always observed you at yours with\nyour coat off.\" Work gives character, and is the pathway to success\nand wealth. But in the world to come, when servant and master stand\nbefore the bar of Christ, reward will be equitably meted out\naccording to the work of each.\n\n+II. The duty of the master is to act towards his servant on the same\nprinciples as obedience to himself is regulated.+--\"And, ye masters,\ndo the same things unto them\" (ver. 9). The master is to put himself\nin the place of his servant, and act towards him as he would desire\nto be treated if their positions were reversed. It is a practical\napplication of the great rule, \"Whatsoever ye would that men should\ndo unto you, do ye even so to them\"--a rule we are in danger of\ninterpreting on one side only: our own side.\n\n1. _To avoid irritating severity._--\"Forbearing threatening\" (ver.\n9). The slave in early times was treated as scarcely human, and was\nruled by the fear of punishment. Christianity in the beginning did\nnot interfere with domestic slavery; but it introduced principles\nwhich, wherever adopted, utterly abolished slavery. The Christian\nmaster cannot act on the policy of cruelty, but treats his servants\nwith justice and kindness.\n\n2. _To remember that both are servants of a higher and impartial\nMaster._--\"Knowing that your Master also is in heaven; neither is\nthere respect of persons with Him\" (ver. 9). A party of friends\nsetting out together upon a journey soon find it to be the best for\nall sides that while they are upon the road one of the company should\nwait upon the rest, another ride forward to seek out lodging and\nentertainment, a third carry the portmanteau, a fourth take charge of\nthe horses, a fifth bear the purse, conduct, and direct the route;\nnot forgetting, however, that as they were equal and independent when\nthey set out, so they are all to return to a level again at their\njourney's end. The same regard and respect, the same forbearance,\nlenity, and reserve in using their service, the same mildness in\ndelivering commands, the same study to make their journey comfortable\nand pleasant which he whose lot it was to direct the rest would in\ncommon decency think himself bound to observe towards them, ought we\nto show to those who, in the casting of the parts of human society,\nhappen to be placed within our power or to depend upon us (_Paley_).\nMaster and man must give an account to Him who will judge every act\naccording to its merit.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Masters and servants are amenable to Divine law._\n2. _Neither master nor servant gains any advantage by tactics that\nviolate Divine law._ 3. _Where the Christian spirit predominates\ntrade disputes will soon be satisfactorily settled._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 5-9. _The Duties of Servants and Masters._\n\n+I. The duties of servants.+--1. _To be obedient to their masters._\nThis must be understood with the same limitation as all other\ncommands enjoining relative duties. We are to obey God rather than\nmen. Servants no further obey their masters according to the will of\nGod than they make His will the rule and measure of their obedience\nto their masters. 2. _Servants owe their masters reverence as well as\nobedience._ 3. _There is an honour, as well as fear, due to their\nmasters._ 4. _Cheerfulness in their obedience is recommended by the\napostle._ 5. _Diligence of faithfulness is another duty which they\nowe to their masters._ 6. _They are to be patient and submissive,_\nthough they meet with usage more severe than they think reasonable,\nnot breaking their own obligations, or deserting their master's\nservice for trivial causes, but bearing his smaller indiscretions\nwithout complaint, and in cases of real injury seeking relief in a\nprudent manner and by lawful means. 7. _In all their service they\nshould act with an aim to please God and to obtain His approbation._\n\n+II. The duties of masters to their servants.+--1. _Their government\nis to be mild and prudent, not passionate and severe._ 2. _With\nrespect to apprentices, the contract binds the master not only to\ngive them comfortable support, but to instruct them in his business\nand profession._ 3. _With respect to labourers, justice obliges us to\ngive them the stipulated wages when they have faithfully performed\nthe promised service._ 4. _With respect to all servants, equity\nrequires that we treat them with humanity and kindness,_ and\ncontribute all proper assistance to render them useful, virtuous, and\nhappy.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 6-8. _Christian Servitude._--1. To propose to ourselves the\npleasing of men as our great design is inconsistent with the work of\ngrace in the heart and with that subjection we owe to Christ. The\nmeanest service is service done to Christ, and will be accepted by\nHim as such. 2. So ingrate is man, and so slow to reward those from\nwhom he receives favour, that a man can never heartily do service to\nthe most of men, except he look to God, whom to serve in the meanest\nemployment is a reward in itself. 3. The Lord in dispensing rewards\nlooks not to the external beauty, splendour, or greatness of the\nwork, but to the honesty and sincerity of it.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 9. _Masters accountable to God._--1. There is no power among men\nso absolute--not that of kings and supreme rulers--but implies an\nobligation, through virtue of God's ordinance, on those invested with\nit to make conscience of duties towards their inferiors and subjects.\n2. As it is usual for powers on earth sinfully to oversee and not to\npunish the cruel and unjust dealings of masters towards servants, so\nthose sins most connived at by men are most severely taken notice of\nby God. 3. It is too ordinary for men in place and authority to carry\nthemselves as if they had none above them to be accountable to, or to\ndream that the Lord will not take such strict account of them as of\ntheir underlings and servants.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-12.\n\n_The Christian Warfare_--\n\n+I. Can be fought only with Divine help.+--\"Be strong in the Lord,\nand in the power of His might\" (ver. 10). The apostle has dwelt like\none enraptured on the sublime constitution and glorious destiny of\nthe Church; now he deals with the formidable foes with which the\nChurch will have to contend. He sees the evil forces gathering, and\nhears the clash of arms among the approaching enemies. He warns\nbelievers that unaided they will be powerless in the strife and must\nsuffer defeat. They are secure and will be victorious only as they\nmake the strength of God their own. The strength of the general, in\nother hosts, lies in his troops; he flies, as a great commander once\nsaid, upon their wings; if their feathers be clipped, their power\nbroken, he is lost. But in the Christian army the strength of every\nsaint lies in the Lord of hosts. God can overcome His enemies without\ntheir hands; but they cannot even defend themselves without His arm.\nMan is impotent without the strength of God. If the ship, launched,\nrigged, and with her sails spread, cannot stir till the wind fills\nthem, much less can the timber in the carpenter's yard hew and frame\nitself into a ship. Power to contend with the spiritual foes must\ncome from God.\n\n+II. Involves a fierce conflict with the powers of evil.+--1. _A\nconflict, not with men, but with unseen spiritual enemies._ \"We\nwrestle not against flesh and blood, but against principalities\"\n(ver. 12). The apostle brings out in bold relief the terrible foes\nthey are summoned to encounter. (1) _As to their position._ They are\nno subalterns, but foes of mighty rank, the nobility and chieftains\nof the spirit world. (2) _Their office._ Their domain is this\ndarkness in which they exercise imperial sway. (3) _Their essence._\nThey are not encumbered with an animal frame, but are spirits.\n(4) _Their character._ They are evil--their appetite for evil only\nexceeds their capacity for producing it (_Eadie_). The Church is\nengaged in a double conflict--of the flesh and of the spirit. We are\nassailed with the temptations of the world of sense, and with\nseductions of error that attack us in the world of the mind; and in\nboth spheres we have to contend with the subtle influences set in\nmotion by the rulers of the darkness of this world. Our foes invade\n\"the high places\" of our faith and hope, and would rob us of our\nheaven.\n\n2. _A conflict with unseen spiritual enemies led by an astute and\nsubtle commander._--\"That ye may be able to withstand against the\nwiles of the devil\" (ver. 11). The New Testament assumes the\npersonality of Satan. This belief runs counter to modern thought,\ngoverned as it is by the tendency to depersonalise existence. The\nconception of evil spirits given us in the Bible is treated as an\nobsolete superstition; and the name of the evil one with multitudes\nserves only to point a profane and careless jest. To Jesus Christ,\nSatan was no figure of speech, but a thinking and active being, of\nwhose presence and influence He saw tokens everywhere in this evil\nworld. Satan's empire is ruled with a settled policy, and his warfare\ncarried on with a system of strategy which takes advantage of every\nopening for attack. The manifold combinations of error, the various\narts of seduction and temptation, and ten thousand forms of the\ndeceit of unrighteousness constitute \"the wiles of the devil.\" Satan\nis no longer the God of this world since Christianity rose to its\nascendant. The manifestations of demonism are, at least in Christian\nlands, vastly less conspicuous than in the first age of the Church.\nBut they are more bold than wise who deny their existence, and who\nprofess to explain all occult phenomena and phrenetic moral\naberrations by physical causes (_Findlay_).\n\n+III. Is victorious only as the warrior is armed with the Divine\npanoply.+--\"Put on the whole armour of God\" (ver. 11). They who put\non Christ are well clothed; they are armed from head to foot, and are\nproof against the darts of the devil. The Christless man is\ndefenceless; his own understanding and gifts do not sufficiently arm\nhim. The soldier comes into the field with no arms but what his\ngeneral commands: it is not left to every one's fancy to bring what\nweapons he pleases; this would breed confusion. So the Christian\nsoldier must put on the armour God provides, and be completely\nclothed with it. To leave one part unguarded will bring disaster. In\none of the famous battles between the English and French, that which\nlost France the day was a shower of English arrows which so galled\nthe horses that they became unmanageable, put the whole army into\ndisorder, and trod down their own men. So if there be the least\nloophole in our armour the wily adversary will quickly discover it\nand shoot through his fiery darts which will effect confusion and\ndefeat.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian life is a conflict between good and\nevil._ 2. _God is always on the side of the good._ 3. _The Christian\nwarrior must fight with weapons Divinely provided._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 10-12. _A Call to Christian Fortitude._\n\n+I. Here is an exhortation to Christian fortitude.+--\"Be strong in\nthe Lord, and in the power of His might.\" It is not bodily but mental\nstrength which is here intended. True fortitude or courage is a\ntemper of mind by which we steadily follow the calls of duty, without\nbeing deterred by danger or diverted by difficulty. It is a virtue\nfounded in a regard to God and supported by faith in Him. It is cool\nand deliberate, not rash and impetuous; it is kind and compassionate,\nnot cruel and revengeful; it is steady and patient, not fickle and\ninconstant; it continues in well-doing, persuaded that its labour is\nnot in vain.\n\n+II. A warning against the enemies to be opposed.+--The apostle\nmentions two sorts of enemies.\n\n1. _The first he calls flesh and blood._--The motions of our animal\nnature. The phrase may further intend those sensible objects which\nare suited to gratify fleshly desires; or it may intend mankind, who\nare partakers of flesh and blood.\n\n2. _The other kind of enemies with whom we are to contend are evil\nspirits._--These spirits are enemies to mankind. Their number is\ngreat, and the terms used denote a subordination among them. They are\nnot divided against themselves, but act in concert under the\ndirection of one leading spirit, who is called the devil and Satan.\nThey have great power over such as submit to their dominion. Their\nchief influence is over the ignorant and superstitious. They most\nsuccessfully carry on their designs in the dark. When the Gospel\nbegan to shine, Satan began to fall. Among those who reject the\nGospel he recovers his full dominion.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _The Christian Warfare._\n\n+I. Consider the danger to which we are exposed.+--As in other cases\nso it is in this: our greatest danger lies in not feeling our danger,\nand so not being prepared to meet it.\n\n1. _View the enemy we have to contend with._--He is one who bears an\ninveterate hatred against us, and seeks nothing less than our\ndestruction or eternal overthrow. . . . He hates us as God's\ncreatures, but especially as those who have been rescued from his\npower and taken up arms against him; nothing now will satisfy him but\nour eternal ruin. . . . It is therefore a struggle of life for life;\nif we do not overcome him, he will overcome us. It is in vain to\nthink of being neuter, or making peace with him.\n\n2. _He is mightier than we are;_ and unless we have help from above,\nwe are no match for him. . . . We know but little of the power of\nwicked spirits, abstractly considered; but viewed as the god of this\nworld, Satan has all its temptations in alliance with him.\n\n3. _He is an artful enemy_. . . . We are told of the \"wiles of the\ndevil,\" hiding his designs, and falling upon us when we least expect\nit. We are in his net before we are aware, and when Providence seems\nto smile upon us (Deut. viii. 11-14). . . . He studies our\npropensities, and suits his temptations to them (Eph. iv. 14).\n\n4. _He is invisible_. . . . If he were \"flesh and blood,\" like\nourselves, we might beware; but his influence is like the mighty\npestilence, which walks in darkness. . . . When least suspected,\ndanger is nigh.\n\n5. _He is near us,_ as it were, within our gates. The safety of a\nnation menaced by an enemy often depends on his being kept at a\ndistance, by walls or seas, or fortresses of defence. But here it is\nsupposed that the enemy has entered into our borders, and that we\nhave no other resource left but to struggle as it were for life. . . .\n\n6. _What is still worse, he has a strong party within us._\n\n7. _On the issue of this warfare depend all our hopes._--If we\n\"stand\" not in this, our loss when defeated can never be retrieved.\n\n+II. The armour provided for us.+--1. _In general, this armour is the\ngrace of the Gospel believed and trusted in._ In common warfare it is\nusual for the commanders to persuade their enemies to think highly of\ntheir strength; but in this it is quite the reverse. We must go as\nIsrael was always taught to do, as having no might of our own, but\nderiving all our strength from the Lord.\n\n2. _It is described as a whole or perfect armour._--Sufficient to\ndefend us in every part. . . . \"Truth\" is the girdle to strengthen\nus; \"righteousness\" a breastplate; the \"gospel\" of peace as shoes, by\nwhich we shall be able to trample upon the lion and the adder, the\nyoung lion and the dragon; \"faith\" is a shield; \"salvation,\" or the\nhope of eternal life, a helmet. . . . All this armour is to be drawn\nfrom the truths of the everlasting Gospel.\n\n3. _The use to be made of it is,_ that we may be able to \"withstand,\"\nand to face the enemy. There is no armour for the back; he that\nfleeth is wholly defenceless, and must inevitably fall.\n\n+III. The necessity of putting on this armour.+--Armour is of no\navail, unless it is used. The application of the Gospel is that which\nproves our security.\n\n+IV. The inducement to put on this armour.+--\"That we may be able to\nstand against the wiles of the devil\" (ver. 11). Many neglecting this\narmour have been foiled in the day of battle.--_Theological Sketch\nBook._\n\n\nVer. 11. _The Wiles of the Devil._\n\n+I. Some of those artifices by which the devil entices men to\nsin.+--1. _He often presents to man the pleasing advantages of sin,\nwhile its judicial consequences are kept in the background._ Sin is\noften presented to man under the form of virtue or religion. The\nnames of sins are changed in order that their natures may seem\nchanged. Sin is thus recommended to the more tender conscience. The\nvileness and criminality of sin are often extenuated to man by\nplausible excuses. They need an apology--youth, old age, strong\ntemptation, a desire to please, to prevent loss of place, provision\nfor a family, etc. The inconsistencies of the acknowledged people of\nGod are often pleaded as an apology for sin. The falls of God's\npeople have been recorded for good; but the record has been perverted\nto evil. A legitimate use of the record is to prevent despair on the\npart of God's people who have fallen. But, by Satan, the beacon has\nbeen converted into a decoy.\n\n2. _The sinner is often freed from his difficulties in sinning by\nfalse views of God's character and of the design of Christ's\nwork._--God is regarded as a Being of mere mercy. Christ is thought\nof as saving from sin's consequences, rather than from sin itself.\nThe individual is often persuaded to expose himself to temptation,\nunder the impression that he will resist it.\n\n+II. Some of the artifices by which he entices men from the\nperformance of positive duty.+--1. _Many are restrained from duties\nby a consideration of their hardness in themselves_ (Matt. x. 34-39).\n2. _Many are persuaded to let duty alone, on account of the\nsacrifices which a performance of it involves._ 3. _Argument against\na full devotedness to the service of God may sometimes be drawn\nfrom the fewness and meanness of those who are engaged in it_ (John\nvii. 48). 4. _An argument against the necessity of duty is drawn from\nthe doctrines of grace_ (Rom. vi. 2, 3; Jas. ii. 17). 5. _The worth\nand value of all performances are taken away by the trust in them for\nrighteousness to which Satan prompts the heart.--Stewart._\n\n\nVer. 12. _The Invisible Enemies of Man._\n\n+I. Spiritual forces are much greater, much more efficient, much more\nformidable than any mere material forces.+--A strong will is a more\nformidable thing than the most highly developed muscle. An idea which\nappeals to the intelligence and heart of the multitude is likely to\ndo more work and to wield a greater sway in the end than any number\nof batteries and parks of artillery. It is in the encounter, not of\nbrute force with conscience and with thought, but in the encounter of\nideas with ideas, in the encounter of wills with wills, that the\ndestiny of the world is ultimately decided. St. Paul knew that the\nChurch had to contend with the thought and the reason of paganism\nmuch more truly than with its proconsuls and its legions; and as he\nwrote to the Ephesians, he did not mean merely human principalities\nand powers, since he contrasts the beings of whom he is speaking with\nmere flesh and blood.\n\n+II. Behind all that met the eye in daily life the apostle discovered\nanother world that did not meet the eye.+--He discerned other forms\nhovering, guiding, marshalling, arranging, inspiring that which met\nthe eye. \"Do not let us deceive ourselves,\" he cries, \"as if we had\nonly to encounter so many social or political forces, so many human\nminds and wills, so many human errors, human prejudices, human\ntraditions, human passions; our real enemies are not human, they lie\nin ambush behind the manifold activities of man; they are really\nsupersensuous. Two great departments of moral life among men are\nwatched over, each one of them beyond the sphere of human life, by\nbeings of greater power, greater intelligence, greater intensity of\npurpose than man in the world of spirits. These spiritual beings,\ngood and evil, act upon humanity as clearly, as certainly, and as\nconstantly as man himself acts upon the lower creatures around. It is\nnot any mere disposition, inseparable from the conditions of human\nthought, to personify, to externalise passion, which has peopled the\nimagination of Christendom with demons. It is within ourselves that\nwe meet now, as the first Christians met, the onset of the\nprincipalities and powers. It is in resisting them, in driving from\nus in the name of Christ the spirits of untruthfulness, of sloth, of\nanger, and of impure desire, that we really contribute our little\nshare to the issue of the great battle that rages still.\"\n\n+III. To love truth and righteousness is to hate their\ncontraries.+--Hatred of evil is distinct from any hatred of those who\ndo evil, and who are objects of sincere sorrow, and have claims on\nChristian charity. The easy tolerance of moral evil is one of the\nmost alarming features of our day. Only when the struggle with evil\nis a matter of personal experience do we hate it, and enter even\nremotely into the apostle's stern language about its agents and its\nchampions.--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n\n_The Enemies of Believers._\n\n+I. The enemies referred to are here described as\nnumerous.+--1. _They are here spoken of in the plural number,_ as\nthey are also in other passages: \"The angels which kept not their\nfirst estate.\" \"The devil and his angels.\" The names here employed\nare collective, and imply numbers. We read of a single person being\npossessed with many devils. 2. _Hence the whole world has been filled\nwith their worship and studded with their temples._ 3. _Hence the\nstrength of the temptations with which each one is tried._ 4. _Hence\nthe intensity of human wickedness._ 5. _Hence the need of\nwatchfulness._\n\n+II. The enemies here spoken of are represented as being in a kind\nof subordination the one to the other--there are\n\"principalities.\"+--1. _There may be remains among them of that\ndiversity of rank which originally existed._ 2. _It may be a\nsubmission called for by difference of intellectual and innate\npower._ 3. _It may be made conducive to the more successful waging of\nthe war in which they are engaged_--giving unity of aim, of plan, of\nco-operation. They leave no point neglected; turn all their strength\nto account. All unity is not of God.\n\n+III. The enemies here described are singly and as detached mighty\nfor evil.+--They are \"powers.\" 1. _Power intellectual._ 2. _Power\nphysical._ 3. _Power directed._ 4. _Collective power._\n\n+IV. The apostle characterises these adversaries as the rulers of the\ndarkness of this world.+--1. _Here a limitation of Satan's dominion\nis expressed._--\"Rulers of the darkness of this world\"--of the hiding\nand blinding errors which abound--of those deceived and misled.\n2. _It is as the prince of darkness that he contends,_ using\nfalsehood and the wicked as his instruments.\n\n+V. The enemies are spiritual in their nature.+--1. _They are\nintelligent and crafty._ 2. _Invisible._ 3. _Active and unwearied._\n\n+VI. They are wicked spirits.+--1. _They are in themselves wicked._\n2. _They would make others wicked._ 3. _They employ the most wicked\nmeans._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Watch._ 2. _Pray._ 3. _Resist._ 4. _Stand\nfast.--Stewart._\n\n\n_Evil Angels._\n\n+I. The nature and properties of evil angels.+--1. _Their original\nproperties were the same as those of the holy angels._ 2. _We do not\nknow either the occasion of their apostasy or what effect it\nimmediately produced upon them._ 3. _From the time they shook off\ntheir allegiance to God, they shook off all goodness, and contracted\nthose tempers which are most hateful to Him and most opposite to His\nnature._ 4. _In the prosecution of their infernal designs they are\ndiligent in the highest degree._ 5. _They do not wander at large, but\nare all united under one common head._\n\n     Transcriber's Note: With respect to point 5 below, the\n     Transcriber asserts that man is perfectly capable of doing\n     evil without any help. Please see Jer. xvii. 9 and James\n     i. 13-15.\n\n+II. The employment of evil angels.+--1. _They are, as far as God\npermits, the governors of the world._ 2. _Satan and all his angels\nare continually warring against us, and watching over every child of\nman._ 3. _By them the foolish hearts of those who know not God are\ndarkened._ 4. _They hinder every good word and work._ 5. _There is no\nevil done, spoke, or thought without the assistance of the devil._\n6. _Such is the malice of the wicked one that he will torment whom he\ncannot destroy._ In all these instances we say \"the devil,\" as if\nthere was only one, because these spirits, innumerable as they are,\nall act in concert, and because we know not whether one or more are\nconcerned in this or that work of darkness.--_Wesley._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13-17.\n\n_The Christian Warrior equipped._\n\n+I. He is clothed from head to foot with defensive armour.+--1. _The\ngirdle of truth._ \"Stand, therefore, having your loins girt about\nwith truth\" (ver. 14). The military girdle was the belt or cincture\nwith which the warrior braced himself round the waist, to tighten and\nkeep every part of his armour in its true place, that there might not\nbe anything loose and trailing about him to encumber his movements.\nEverything about him must be tense and firm, that he may be prepared\nto receive the attack of the enemy, however suddenly and powerfully\nmade, and to act with decision and concentrated energy. So the\nChristian warrior must be strengthened and sustained with the girdle\nof truth. The truth of the Gospel must be known and conscientiously\nembraced, so that we may detect the numerous foes that error is\nconstantly letting loose upon us, and be able to attack and conquer\nthem. To cast away our girdle is to incapacitate ourselves for the\ncombat, and to expose ourselves to wounds and defeat. Conscious\nintegrity inspires the spiritual warrior with confidence and bravery.\n\"Let this be my brazen wall, that no man can reproach me with a\ncrime, and that I am conscious of my own integrity.\" On the truth we\ntake our stand, and by the truth we stand. If we keep the truth, the\ntruth will keep us, and we shall not be \"tossed to and fro and\ncarried about with every wind of doctrine.\" \"The luxury of\nagnosticism, the languors of doubt, the vague sympathies and hesitant\neclecticism in which delicate and cultured minds are apt to indulge;\nthe lofty critical attitude as of some intellectual god sitting above\nthe strife of creeds, which others find congenial--these are\nconditions of mind unfit for the soldier of Christ Jesus. He must\nhave sure knowledge, definite and decided purposes--a soul girdled\nwith truth.\"\n\n2. _The breastplate of righteousness._--\"And having on the\nbreastplate of righteousness\" (ver. 14). The military breastplate or\ncuirass was the chief piece of defensive armour. It consisted of two\nparts or wings; one covered the whole region of the thorax and\nprotected the vital organs of the body, and the other covered the\nback as far down as the front part extended. As the breastplate\nguarded the vital functions contained within the region of the\nthorax, so righteousness--the life of God in the soul of man--defends\neverything on which the spiritual existence and triumph of the\nChristian warrior depend. Righteousness--conscious integrity of\ncharacter--is an impenetrable mail from which the missiles of the\nenemy fall pointless. Rectitude of life is an invulnerable defence\nagainst the most furious attacks of calumny and oppression: it is an\nimmovable rock that breaks up the dark billows of opposition into\nclouds of helpless spray.\n\n3. _The greaves, or feet-guards._--\"Your feet shod with the\npreparation of the gospel of peace\" (ver. 15). The military greaves\nor brazen boots covered the shin or front of the leg. A kind of\n_solen_ was often used which covered the sole and laced about the\ninstep, preventing the foot from being wounded by thorns or rugged\nways, and giving firmness and security to the foothold. Thus shod,\nthe warrior would take his stand with safety, or move with alertness\nover all sorts of ground. Being \"shod with the preparation of the\ngospel of peace\" indicates that the Christian soldier is ever ready\nto move with expedition and willingness in publishing the good\ntidings of peace. The Israelites were commanded to eat the passover\nwith their feet shod to show that they were ready for their journey.\nChrist commanded His messengers to be shod with sandals, that they\nmight be ready to go and proclaim the Gospel wherever they were sent.\nThe Christian warrior is on his way through a strange and hostile\ncountry, and should be every moment not only prepared to proceed, but\nbe every moment in actual progress, proclaiming peace on his way to\nthe land of eternal peace. Progress in truth is made by being firmly\nestablished in its principles; every advancing step is taken with\nconfidence and with the air of one who is assured of the ground on\nwhich he is treading. The Gospel of peace establishes peace between\nGod and man, and proclaims goodwill and peace to the universe. \"The\nobjection that the apostle is addressing the faithful at large who\nare 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,\nwhich enables him to walk firmly and with sure step in the way of\nfaith\" (_Von Hofman_). We preserve the truth by spreading it; and the\nbest defence against the enemies of the truth is to persuade them to\naccept the Gospel of peace. The Christian warrior is not a fighter,\nbut a peacemaker.\n\n4. _The shield of faith._--\"Above all, taking the shield of faith,\nwherewith ye shall be able to quench all the fiery darts of the\nwicked\" (ver. 16). The shield signified is not the small round\nbuckler or targe of the light-armed man, but the oblong, doorlike\nshield, measuring four feet by two and a half, and curved to the\nshape of the body, that the Greek hoplite and the Roman legionary\ncarried. Joined together, these large shields formed a wall, behind\nwhich a body of troops could hide themselves from the rain of the\nenemy's missiles. These military shields were made of wood, covered\non the outside with thick leather, which not only deadened the shock\nof the missile, but protected the frame of the shield from the\nfire-tipped darts used in the artillery of the ancients. So faith is\nthe shield of the Christian soldier, defending him from the fierce\nattacks of the foe, from within and without. By \"the fiery darts of\nthe wicked\" the apostle may allude to the darts called _falarica,_\nwhich were headed with lead, in or about which some combustible stuff\nwas placed that took fire in the passage of the arrow through the\nair, and often burnt up the enemies' ships and engines, or stuck in\nthe shields and set them on fire. The shield of faith cannot be\npierced or destroyed by the fiercest fires of hatred or malice. The\narrows of the wicked, flaming with cruelty, are caught on this\nshield, blunted, and extinguished.\n\n5. _The helmet of salvation._--\"And take the helmet of salvation\"\n(ver. 17). The helmet was the armour for the head, was of various\nforms, and embossed with a great variety of figures. On the top of\nthe helmet was the crest or ridge, adorned with several emblematic\nfigures, either for ornament or to strike terror. The apostle may\nrefer to a helmet which had an emblematic representation of\nhope--that the person who wore it should be safe, should be\nprosperous in all his engagements, and escape unhurt from battle. So\nthe hope of conquering every adversary, and surmounting every\ndifficulty by the salvation of the Gospel, is a helmet that protects\nthe head, and is of such impenetrable texture as the blow of the\nbattle-axe cannot cleave. The hope of continual safety and\nprotection, built on the promises of the Gospel, protects the\nunderstanding from being confused by the subtle attacks of Satan or\nthe sophisms of unbelief. Salvation guards the whole man, the head\nand heart, and is both helmet and shield.\n\n+II. He is armed with an all-potent offensive weapon.+--\"And the\nsword of the Spirit, which is the word of God\" (ver. 17). The\nmilitary swords were in various sizes, and in the earliest times were\nmade of brass. The swords of Homer's heroes were all of this metal.\nGreat dexterity was acquired in the use of the sword, and an expert\nswordsman was an antagonist greatly dreaded. The Word of God is the\noffensive weapon wielded by the Christian combatant. It is called the\nsword of the Spirit, because it comes from the Holy Spirit, and\nreceives its fulfilment in the soul through the operations of the\nSpirit, who alone can teach its potent use. Facility in quoting the\nWord in times of temptation and trial enables the spiritual warrior\nto cut in pieces the snares of the adversary. The shield of faith and\nthe sword of the Spirit are the principal armour of the soul. The\nenemies of the cross of Christ fall humiliated and defeated under the\npowerful strokes of the Spirit's sword. There are times when the\nChristian soldier must not only stand on the defensive, but must lead\nthe attack with unflinching bravery on the forces of evil. He is safe\nonly by slaying the enemy.\n\n+III. He is fully prepared to resist and conquer his terrible\nopponents.+--\"Wherefore take unto you the whole armour of God, that\nye may be able to withstand in the evil day, and having done all, to\nstand\" (ver. 13). _Stand_ is the spiritual battle-cry. Being armed,\ndefend your liberties, maintain your rights, discomfort your\nspiritual foes, hold your ground against them, never put off your\narmour, but be ever standing ready to repel any new attack. The\ndefence is necessary, for the evil day is at hand, is already\ndawning. The early Church had its evil day of persecution and\ndefection, and the Church of to-day is threatened by an evil day of\nsubtlest error. The unwary and supine will go down before the forces\nof evil, and only the brave and steadfast will survive.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian armour is invulnerable._ 2. _The\nChristian warrior must attack as well as defend._ 3. _The Christian\nwarrior can conquer only as he uses the armour provided._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13-17. _The Christian's Armour._--St. Paul lay in prison at\nRome, bound with a chain to the Roman trooper who watched him day and\nnight. He employed his prison hours in writing. It was very natural\nthat his language, like his thoughts, should be coloured here and\nthere by the objects around him; and we find that whilst writing this\ncircular epistle to the Ephesians his eye had actually been resting\non the soldier to whom he was chained. In the outfit of the Roman\nlegionary he saw the symbol of the supernatural dress which befits\nthe Christian. The ornamented girdle or _balteus,_ bound around the\nloins, to which the sword was commonly attached, seemed to the\napostle to recall the inward practical acknowledgment of truth, which\nis the first necessity in the Christian character. The metal\nbreastplate suggests the moral rectitude or righteousness which\nenables a man to confront the world. The strong military sandals\nspoke of the readiness to march in the cause of that Gospel whose sum\nand substance was not war, but spiritual even more than social peace.\nAnd then the large oblong, oval, wooden shield, clothed with hides,\ncovering well-nigh the whole body of the bearer, reminded him of\nChristian faith, upon which the temptations of the evil one, like the\nancient arrows, tipped as they often were with inflammable\nsubstances, would light harmlessly and lose their deadly point; and\nthen the soldier's helmet, pointing upwards to the skies, was a\nnatural figure of Christian hope directed towards a higher and better\nworld; and then he sword at his side, by which he won safety and\nvictory in the day of battle, and which you will observe is the one\naggressive weapon mentioned in this whole catalogue--what was it but\nthe emblem of that Word of God which wins such victories on the\nbattle-fields of conscience, because it pierces, even to the dividing\nasunder of soul and spirit and of the joints and marrow, and is a\ndiscerner of the thoughts and intents of the heart, and is the power\nof God to salvation to every one that believeth? Thus girded, thus\nclad, thus shod, thus guarded, thus covered, thus armed, the\nChristian might well meet his foes. He was indeed more than a match\nfor them, and might calmly await their onset.--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n\n_The Whole Armour of God._\n\n+I. Truth.+--\"Having your loins girt about with truth.\" By truth is\nintended sincerity in our Christian profession, or a firm belief of\nand full consent to the Gospel of Christ. A rational conviction of\nits truth, joined with a sense of its importance is our best security\nagainst apostasy in the evil day.\n\n+II. Righteousness.+--\"And having on the breastplate of\nrighteousness.\" A holy and inoffensive life will prevent many\ninjuries. It will command the reverence of bad and the compassion of\ngood men. It will obtain the protection of God's providence and the\nsupports of His grace. It will preserve peace and serenity of\nconscience under the reproaches of a malignant world.\n\n+III. Peace.+--\"Your feet shod with the preparation of the gospel of\npeace.\" This peaceable disposition is a preparation for the trials of\nan evil day, and an excellent defence against the asperities of our\nChristian path. This will go on before us to smooth the rough\npassages of life, or attend us to guard our feet against the sticks\nand traps which our enemies cast in our way. Possessed of this\ndisposition we shall give no offence and provoke no injuries by an\ninsolent, overbearing behaviour.\n\n+IV. Faith.+--\"Above all, taking the shield of faith.\" Faith is a\ngrace of universal influence. It is the basis of all Christian\ngraces. It is the ground-work of all religion in the heart. Faith is\na more effectual defence against the temptations of Satan and the\nworld than the shields of the mighty against the darts and spears of\ntheir enemies.\n\n+V. Hope.+--\"And take the helmet of salvation.\" The hope of\nsalvation. God brings salvation. We appropriate it by hope. We must\nfight the good fight of faith in hope that the Captain of salvation\nwill support us in the conflict and lead us to victory.\n\n+VI. Knowledge.+--\"The sword of the Spirit, which is the word of\nGod.\" The Divine Word is called the sword of the Spirit because it is\nrendered effectual by the Spirit in slaying the fleshly lusts and\nrepelling the outward temptations which war against the soul.\n\n+Reflections.+--1. _We see of what importance it is that we have the\npower of religion in our hearts._ 2. _It concerns us to live much in\nthe exercise of faith._ 3. _Let us exercise our courage according to\nthe various exigencies of the Christian life.--Lathrop._\n\n\n_The Duty of Believers in the Evil Day._\n\n+I. The time to which the exhortation refers--the evil day.+--1. _By\nthe evil day we are clearly to understand the season of temptation._\nWhen \"we wrestle.\"\n\n2. _The evil day may be understood of life itself._--\"Few and evil\nhave been the days of my pilgrimage.\" Man is tempted till his death.\n\n3. _The evil day may refer to seasons during which temptation is\npeculiarly strong._--With our first parents whilst they listened to\nSatan. With Christ in the wilderness--near death (John xiv. 30).\n\n4. _Of such seasons we have many examples in Scripture._--The lives\nof Noah, Abraham, Moses, Job, Lot, Samson, David, Asa, Hezekiah,\nPeter, Demas.\n\n5. _Such seasons each believer can mark in his history._--They are\ngenerally turning points. They are attended by every variety of\noutward circumstances, prosperity, adversity, society, solitude,\nhealth, sickness.\n\n6. _With the wicked such days are evil._--Days of suffering, of\ndanger, of backsliding, of apostasy, of dishonour to Christ, and\ntriumph to the world and to all the enemies of Christ.\n\n7. _This season of temptation is short._--A day. We should not grow\nweary.\n\n8. _Though it be short it is important._--The day of battle is\ngenerally most important in its results. So in spiritual warfare. The\ntemptation in Eden, etc.\n\n+II. The duty which falls to be performed in the evil day.+--1. _To\nwithstand._ (1) This has reference to Satan as an assailant. (2) It\nbinds us to resistance, _i.e.,_ to perform the duty from which Satan\ndissuades, to refuse the sin which he recommends, to hold fast that\nwhich we have, and to reject that which he offers in exchange (Rev.\niii. 2).\n\n2. _To proceed from the defensive to the offensive._--\"Having done\nall,\" or \"conquered all.\" (1) The believer, as \"the good soldier of\nChrist,\" is, like his Master, to be an assailant. (2) By attacking,\nSatan discovers himself; and the believer, having resisted, may gain\nan advantage. When his stronghold in the heart is found out, it may\nbe pulled down. Is it pride? (2 Cor. x. 4, 5). (3) Satan can be\ncontended against only by carrying on an offensive warfare--in the\nheart, in the world. The Romans could be conquered only in Italy.\n\n3. _That having resisted and conquered, we still stand._--(1) Though\nrepulsed, Satan is not slain, his resources are not exhausted, \"his\nwrath\" continues. (2) We must therefore \"stand\" after victory. Our\narmour must be kept on. We must be vigilant. We must be in an\nattitude for the fight.\n\n+III. The preparation necessary to the performance of the peculiar\nduties of the evil day.+--1. _The evil day is a day of war,_ and\nhence its duties and the kind of preparation called for.\n\n2. _There are three things to be noticed in the account of the\nbeliever's preparation._--(1) He must be armed--Divine grace. An\nunarmed soldier a contradiction; he is useless for duty, exposed to\ndeath. (2) _He must be completely armed._ For defence and for\noffence. (3) _His armour must be that \"of God.\"_ Human virtues will\nnot do. Human energies will not do.--_Stewart._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Girdle of Truth._\n\n+I. Honesty and truthfulness of character.+--Love of truth as being\nfrom God, hatred of lies as being from the devil--this is a primary\ncondition of being strong in the Lord. Nothing can be more injurious\nto the character of the Christian religion than the suspicion that it\nshuns examination, that its claims are in antagonism with\ndemonstrated truth. There is a kind of false liberalism concerning\nreligious truth. It is easy for a man to fancy his loins are girt\nabout with truth when the fact is they are girt about with\nindifference; and a person so armed may assume an attitude of\nimpartiality with regard to religious questions because he cares\nnothing concerning the issue; and sometimes it seems to be assumed\nthat a writer possesses a virtue, compensating for all vices, if he\nis apparently free from all bias either for or against revealed\ntruth. The true path is taken by him who, strong in his own faith and\nlove, fears no honest investigation, and shrinks from adopting in\nmatters of religion any tone of thought or line of argument which he\ncannot justify upon the broadest grounds of calm judgment and sober\nreason.\n\n+II. But the words of the apostle refer not only to truthfulness, but\nto truth itself, to that which we know to be true.+--It would be\nunworthy of an apostle if he should include under the title of truth,\nnecessary for the protection of a Christian champion, all human\nknowledge which is rightly so called. Do not consider that the\nprogress you make in human knowledge lies beside your path as\nChristians. As members of Christ, as His soldiers and servants, take\na nobler view of your work than that. Christ has taken the elements\nof this world and sanctified them for Himself; there is nothing\nreally secular but what is evil, and all that is not evil ought to be\nused on the side of truth.\n\n+III. The apostle has in mind that definite form of revealed truth\nwhich in Scripture is described as emphatically the truth.+--The\ngreat doctrine of godliness, the incarnation of the eternal Son, and\nall those truths which flow from this one mysterious spring. While\nthere is no antagonism between Scriptural and human knowledge, there\nis a wide difference between the sources from which they are derived\nthe evidences by which they are established, and the conditions of\ntheir being rightly apprehended. Whereas other knowledge is the slow\naccumulation of the experience of ages, and the result of the guesses\nand labours of gifted men, and is consequently an ever-growing and\nchanging body of truth, Christian truth admits of no change and no\ngrowth. It admits of application to new circumstances; it admits too\nof growth, between the limits of a mustard seed and a full-grown\ntree, in its subjective apprehension by each believing heart; but\nobjectively it knows neither diminution nor expansion, it is ever one\nand indivisible, because it resolves itself ultimately into the one\ngreat mysterious fact, the manifestation of God in human flesh. No\namount of argument would ever turn religious belief into religious\nlife, if the articles of the creed did not attest their Divinity by\nfilling up the void of the human heart and by their constraining\ninfluence on human conduct; and, on the other hand, no religion could\nmaintain its ground and command the assent of thinking men, unless\nits historical claims and its objective truth would stand the test of\nthe severest scrutiny. The truth of Christ rests upon both grounds;\nand because this is so we are bound to gird it about our loins as our\nonly sure support in our conflict with the spiritual wickedness of\nthis world, our support in the hour of death, our support in the day\nof judgment.--_Harvey Goodwin._\n\n\n_Truth the Girdle of the Christian._\n\n+I. The particular grace which is here mentioned--truth.+--1. _By\nthis exhortation we might understand that we must in all things act\naccording to truth or what is truth._ This implies the knowledge of\ntruth, the yielding up of ourselves to truth, so as to embody it.\n\n2. _By the truth we may understand sincerity._--Being in appearance\nwhat we are in reality, seeming to follow what we do follow,\nexpressing the real thoughts and feelings of the heart. This\nsincerity is displayed towards God, towards our fellow-men, and\ntowards ourselves.\n\n+II. The uses or purposes of truth in the Christian life: it is a\ngirdle.+--By comparing truth to a girdle the apostle suggests the\npurposes which it serves: 1. _The ancient girdle was meant to give\nfirmness and strength._ 2. _To fit for activity, by binding up the\nloose, flowing garments._ 3. _To the girdle arms were\nattached.--Stewart._\n\n\nVer. 15. _The Gospel of Peace._\n\n+I. The nature of this peace.+--1. _It is peace with God._--A mutual\nreconciliation following a mutual estrangement.\n\n2. _It is a peace with ourselves._--This includes both the silencing\nof the accusations of conscience and the restoration of the internal\nharmony of our nature.\n\n3. _It is peace with our fellow-men._--Between nations and classes,\nand families and individuals.\n\n4. _It is peace with our fellow-Christians._\n\n+II. The relation of the Gospel to this peace.+--1. _In the Gospel it\nis proclaimed._ 2. _In the Gospel its grounds are unfolded._ 3. _By\nthe belief of the Gospel it is conveyed.--G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 17. _The Bible the Sword of the Spirit._\n\n+I. The Bible is a sword.+--1. _Like a sword, it is of no use till it\nis unsheathed._ The Bible must not lie idle in the library or in the\nintellect. Must be used.\n\n2. _Like a sword, when it is unsheathed it cuts deeply._--Makes deep\ngashes in the heart and conscience.\n\n3. _Like a sword, it is a weapon of defence as well as of\noffence._--\"It is written.\"\n\n+II. The Bible is the sword of the Spirit.+--1. _Because He inspired\nit._ Those whom we call the sacred writers were its penmen; He alone\nwas its Author.\n\n2. _Because He interprets it._--Its Author is also its interpreter.\nWherever it is carried He is, and in answer to the prayer of faith He\nexpounds its true meaning as far as saving truth is concerned.\n\n3. _Because He wields it as the instrument of His victories._--Refer\nto some of the remarkable revivals, to individual conversions.\n\n+III. Our duty with regard to the Bible as the sword of the\nSpirit.+--1. _Take it and study it._ Sword exercise.\n\n2. _Take it and bind it to your heart._--Delight in it.\n\n3. _Take it and employ it vigorously till your life's end._--\"His\nsword was in His hand.\" \"There is none like it.\"--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 18-20.\n\n_The Programme of Prayer._\n\n+I. Prayer should be constant and varied in its methods.+--\"Praying\nalways with all prayer and supplication\" (ver. 18). The Christian\nwarrior is armed from head to foot with the girdle, the breastplate,\nthe greaves, the shield, the helmet, and the sword; no weapon of\ndefence or offence is wanting; it would seem as if nothing was needed\nto complete the equipment. The one essential now is the spirit and\ncourage to fight, to use the spiritual weapons with dexterity and\neffect; and the power to do this is secured by prayer. Prayer should\nbe constant; the soul should be ever in a praying mood; and\nsupplication, earnest entreaty, should be used in the special\nemergencies that occur in the battle of life. \"Praying always with\nall prayer\": all kinds and methods of prayer should be\nemployed--prayer in public aided by the sympathy and inspiration of\nnumbers, in private when alone with God, in the family, in the whirl\nof business, in the stress of battle, in the intervals of recreation,\nin the heart without a voice and with the voice from the heart. The\nearnest and needy soul will find its own way of keeping up a\nprayerful intercourse with God. \"Some there are,\" said Wesley, \"who\nuse only mental prayer or ejaculations, and think they are in a state\nof grace and use a way of worship far superior to any other; but such\nonly fancy themselves to be above what is really above them, it\nrequiring far more grace to be enabled to pour out a fervent and\ncontinued prayer than to offer up mental aspirations.\"\n\n     \"Warrior, that from battle won,\n      Breathest now at set of sun;\n      Woman, o'er the lowly slain,\n      Weeping on his burial plain!\n      Ye that triumph, ye that sigh,\n      Kindred by one holy tie:\n      Heaven's first star alike ye see--\n      Lift the heart and bend the knee.\"--_Hemans._\n\n+II. Prayer is prompted and sustained by the Divine\nSpirit.+--\"Praying . . . in the Spirit\" (ver. 18). The Spirit is the\nauthor and element of the believer's life in Christ. It is He who\ngives the grace and power to pray; He helps our infirmities, and\nintercedes for us and in us. Prayer is one of the highest exercises\nof the soul, and achieves its loftiest triumphs under the inspiration\nand help of the Spirit. He suggests topics for prayer, proper times\nand seasons, imparts urgency and perseverance in supplication, and He\nalone makes prayer effectual.\n\n+III. Prayer should be accompanied with persevering\nvigilance.+--\"Watching [keeping awake] thereunto with all\nperseverance and supplication\" (ver. 18). We must not only watch and\npray, but watch while we pray. Watch against wandering thoughts,\nagainst meaningless and insincere petitions, against the seductive\nsuggestions of the tempter, and against the tendency to trust in our\nprayers or in our earnestness rather than in God, whose help we\nsupplicate. \"With all perseverance\" means a sustained, unsleeping,\nand unresting vigilance. The word implies stretching out the neck and\nlooking about in order to discern an enemy at a distance. Without\nwatchfulness prayer and all the spiritual armour will be unavailing.\nThe best-appointed army, over-confident in its strength, has suffered\ninglorious defeat by neglecting to watch. The wakeful and earnest\nsuppliant must persist in prayer, undaunted by opposition and\nunwearied by delay.\n\n+IV. Prayer should be offered on behalf of the Church in\ngeneral.+--\"For all saints\" (ver. 18). Prayer that in its nature is\ngenerous and comprehensive is apt to become selfish and narrowed down\ninto despicable limits. The man prays best for himself who prays most\nearnestly for others. \"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\nknit together--a vast multitude of saints throughout the earth,\nunknown by face or name to our fellows, but one in the love of Christ\nand in our heavenly calling and all engaged in the same perilous\nconflict. All the saints were interested in the faith of the Asian\nbelievers; they were called with 'all the saints' to share in the\ncomprehension of the immense designs of God's kingdom. The dangers\nand temptations of the Church are equally far-reaching; they have a\ncommon 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,\nlet us realise in His presence our communion with all His children\"\n(_Findlay_).\n\n     \"The saints in prayer appear as one,\n        In word and deed and mind;\n      While with the Father and the Son\n        Sweet fellowship they find.\n\n     \"Nor prayer on earth is made alone--\n        The Holy Spirit pleads;\n      And Jesus on the eternal throne\n        For sinners intercedes.\"--_J. Montgomery._\n\n+V. Prayer should be definite and special in its petitions.+--1. _For\nthe preacher of the Gospel in unfavourable circumstances._ \"And for\nme . . . an ambassador in bonds\" (vers. 19, 20). An ambassador, being\nthe representative of his king, his person was in all civilised\ncountries held sacred, and it was regarded as the greatest indignity\nand breach of faith to imprison or injure him. Contrary to the rights\nof nations, this ambassador of the King of heaven was put in chains.\nEven Paul, with all his magnificent endowments, felt the need for the\nprayers of God's people and craved for them. The fortunes of the\nGospel were bound up with his life, and he was now suffering for his\ncourageous defence of the truth. It was of immense importance to the\nearly Church that he should be true and faithful in this crisis, and\nhe asks for the prayers of God's people that he may be sustained and\nthe Gospel victorious. Here was a definite and special theme for\nprayer. Occasions of great peril evoke the spirit of earnest\nsupplication. It is an aid to devotion to have some one specially\npray for.\n\n2. _For courage and facility in unfolding the mystery of the Gospel\nhe feels constrained to declare._--\"That utterance may be given unto\nme, that I may . . . make known the mystery of the gospel, . . . that\ntherein I may speak boldly, as I ought to speak [_as I must needs\nspeak_]\" (vers. 19, 20). The apostolic prisoner was more concerned\nabout his message than his own fate. He hailed the occasion of His\ndefence before the civil authorities as an opportunity for unfolding\nand enforcing the Gospel, for preaching which he was now in chains.\nHe feels the gravity of the crisis, and he is nervously anxious to do\njustice to his grand theme. Clear as was his insight and firm as was\nhis grasp of the leading truths of the Gospel, he invokes the prayers\nof the Ephesian saints that God may give him liberty and power in\ntheir exposition, and that he may win converts to the truth from the\nmidst of his enemies. The pulpit will become a greater power if the\npeople of God pray fervently and unitedly for the ambassadors of\nChrist. Prayer is more potent in winning souls than the logic and\neloquence of the preacher.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The topics for prayer are abundant and ever present._\n2. _Prayer nerves the soul with Divine power._ 3. _Earnest and\nbelieving prayer will prevail._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 18-20. _Praying with all Prayer._\n\n+I. The apostle supposes our obligation to prayer to be so plain that\nevery rational mind will see it, and so important that every pious\nheart will feel it.+--Our obligation to prayer naturally results from\nour weakness and dependence and God's all-sufficiency and goodness.\nDesires directed to Him are prayers. To clothe our desires in\nlanguage is not essential. God hears the desire of the humble. There\nis the same reason for daily prayer as for daily labour. Prayer is a\nmeans of enlivening our pious sentiments and exciting us to the\npractice of duty and thus preparing us for Divine favours.\n\n+II. Prayer is of several kinds.+--Social and secret, public and\ndomestic, stated and occasional; and consists of several\nparts--confession, supplication, intercession, and thanksgiving. The\napostle points out no part or kind of prayer in distinction from all\nothers, but exhorts in general to pray with all prayer.\n\n+III. The manner in which our prayers should be offered.+--The spirit\nand temper of the heart in our prayers is the main thing necessary to\nqualify them for God's acceptance. The first thing necessary in\nprayer is faith. Our desires must be good and reasonable. Attention\nof mind, collection of thought, and warmth of affection are\nqualifications required in prayer. Our prayers must be accompanied\nwith justice to men. Charity is an essential qualification in prayer.\nOur prayers must be joined with a sense of and sorrow for sin, and\nsubmission to the Divine will. We are to continue in prayer, and\nwatch thereunto with all perseverance.\n\n+IV. The apostle here teaches the duty of intercession for\nothers.+--If God is good to others as well as to us, there is the\nsame ground on which to offer our social intercessions as our\npersonal petitions. We are commanded to pray for all men, and\nespecially for all saints; this is to pray for the general virtue and\nhappiness of the human race in this and all succeeding ages.\nChristians ought to pray for their minister. There was something\nspecial in Paul's case--he was an ambassador in bonds.\n\n+V. The apostle points out the manner in which he aimed and all\nministers ought to preach the Gospel.+--The apostle desired to make\nknown the mystery of the Gospel, and to speak boldly. In a minster\nboldness is necessary; not that impudent boldness which assumes an\nunmerited superiority, but that pious fortitude that dares to utter\nthe important things of religion without reserve and without fear of\npersonal inconvenience. He must persevere in the faithful execution\nof his office, whatever discouragements may arise from the opposition\nof the world, the frowns of the great, the contempt of the proud, the\nwant of concurrence, or the smallness of his success.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 18. _Praying in the Spirit._\n\n+I. The time.+--\"Always.\" 1. _The frequent practice of prayer._\n2. _The constant cultivation of the spirit of prayer._\n\n+II. The manner.+--\"With all prayer and supplication.\" 1. _The prayer\nof the closet._ Secret. 2. _The prayer of the family._ Domestic.\n3. _The prayer of the social circle._ United. 4. _The prayer of the\nsanctuary._ Public.\n\n+III. The manner.+--\"With all prayer and supplication.\" 1. _There are\nthanksgivings to be rendered._ 2. _There are confessions to be made._\n3. _There are petitions to be offered._ 4. _There are intercessions\nto be presented._\n\n+IV. Spirituality.+--\"In the Spirit.\" 1. _With our own heart._ Not\nformal or mechanical. 2. _In dependence on the aid of the Holy Ghost._\n\n+V. The continuance.+--\"With all perseverance.\" 1. _In the general\nhabit._ Prayer never to be given up. 2. _In special objects._ No\nfainting in prayer.\n\n+VI. The intercession.+--\"And supplication for all saints.\" 1. _For\nthe whole Church._ 2. _For any part of the Church that is in danger\nof distress._ 3. _For our own section of the Church._ 4. _For our\nChristian friends.--G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Duty of Prayer._--Prayer is the communion of the soul with God,\nand the casting of itself upon Him for help and guidance.\n\n+I. God has implanted prayer as an instinct in the hearts of\nmen.+--In times of danger the soul instinctively cries out for God or\nsome unseen power to interpose and save.\n\n+II. God desires that men should pray regularly and\nconstantly.+--Blessings are promised in answer to prayer which the\nsoul can obtain in no other way.\n\n+III. God commands men to pray.+--To abound in prayer and to pray\nwithout weariness and fainting.\n\n+IV. God teaches how to pray and what to pray for.+--The Spirit helps\nour infirmities.\n\n+V. There is no religious life apart from prayer.+--The Bible saints\nwere men of prayer. At the very beginning of human history men began\nto call upon God. And in the visions of heaven which St. John has\nrecorded, when the Lamb had taken the book to open its seals, the\ntwenty-four elders fell down before Him, \"having every one of them\nharps and golden phials full of odours, which are the prayers of the\nsaints, and they sang a new song\" (Rev. v. 8, 9). Prayer leads to\npraise.\n\n+VI. How can we make the duty a privilege and the privilege a\npleasure?+--If Christ was comforted and strengthened by prayer, can\nwe as Christians live without it? Is not a prayerless Christian in\ndanger of being no Christian at all?--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\nVers. 19, 20. _A Picture of Moral Bravery._\n\n+I. An ambassador charged with a message of world-wide significance\nand importance.+--\"To make known the mystery of the gospel\" (ver. 19).\n\n+II. An ambassador, contrary to the law of nations, imprisoned\nbecause of his message.+--\"For which I am an ambassador in bonds\"\n(ver. 20).\n\n+III. An ambassador irresistibly constrained to declare the message\nfor which he suffers.+--\"That therein I may speak boldly as I ought\nto speak\" (ver. 20).\n\n+IV. An ambassador imploring, not the sanction of civil authorities,\nbut the prayers of God's people that he may be emboldened to\ndischarge his high commission.+--\"And for me, that utterance may be\ngiven unto me, that I may open my mouth boldly\" (ver. 19).\n\n\nVer. 19. _The Gospel a Mystery._\n\n+I. Because it is known only by Divine revelation.+--Such a secret it\nis that the wit of man could never have found out. As none but God\ncould lay the plot, so none but Himself could make it known.\n\n+II. Because when revealed its truths exceed the grasp of human\nunderstanding.+--They are to the eye of our reason as the sun to the\neye of our body, that dazzles and overpowers. They disdain to be\ndiscussed and tried by human reason that there are three subsistences\nin the Godhead and but one Divine essence. We believe, because they\nare revealed. God and man united in Christ's person is undeniably\ndemonstrable from the Gospel, but the cordage of our understanding is\ntoo short to fathom this great deep. \"Would'st thou see a reason,\"\nsaid Augustine, \"for all that God says? Look into thine own\nunderstanding, and thou wilt find a reason why thou seest not a\nreason.\"\n\n+III. The Gospel is a mystery in regard of the kind of knowledge the\nsaints themselves have of it.+--1. _Their knowledge is but in part,\nand imperfect._ The most of what they know is the least of what they\ndo not know. The Gospel is a rich piece of arras rolled up: this God\nhas been unfolding ever since the first promise was made to Adam,\nopening it every age wider than the other.\n\n2. _It is mysterious and dark._ Gospel truths are not known in their\nnative beauty and glory, but in shadows. Our apprehension of things\nare mainly compared with those under the law, but childish compared\nwith the knowledge of glorified saints.\n\n     Transcriber's Note: In this next paragraph, the word\n     \"faggot\" is used in its original literal meaning, a bundle\n     of sticks used to kindle a fire, or metaphorically,\n     execution by burning at the stake.\n\n+IV. The Gospel is a mystery in regard to the rare and strange\neffects it has upon the godly.+--It enables them to believe strange\nmysteries--to believe that which they understand not, and hope for\nthat which they do not see. It enables them to do as strange things\nas they believe--to live by another's spirit, to act from another's\nstrength, to live by another's will, and aim at another's glory. It\nmakes them so meek and gentle that a child may lead them to anything\ngood, yet so stout that fire and faggot shall not fright them into\nsin. They are taught that all things are theirs, yet they dare not\ntake a penny, a pin, from the wicked by force and rapine. They can\npray for life, and at the same time desire to die.--_Gurnall._\n\n\nVer. 20. _Boldness a Duty in a Minister._\n\n+I. The nature of the boldness desired.+--1. _To speak all he has in\ncommand from God to deliver._ 2. _To speak with liberty and freedom\nof spirit, without fear or bondage to any._ Speaking openly and\nplainly.\n\n+II. Boldness to be shown in preaching the Gospel.+--1. _In asserting\nthe truth of the Gospel._ 2. _In reproving sin and denouncing\njudgment against impenitent sinners._\n\n+III. The kind of boldness a minister should cultivate.+--1. _A\nconvincing boldness._ 2. _A meek boldness._ 3. _A zealous boldness._\n\n+IV. The means of procuring ministerial boldness.+--1. _A holy fear\nof God._ 2. _Castle thyself within the power and promise of God for\nassistance and protection._ 3. _Keep a clear conscience._\n4. _Consider that which thou most fearest is best prevented by\nfreedom and boldness in thy ministry._ 5. _Consider how bold Christ\nwas in His ministry._ What greater incentive to valour can the\nsoldier have than to see his general stand with undaunted courage\nwhere the bullets fly thickest! Such valiant captains do not breed\nwhite-livered soldiers. It is impossible we should be dastardly, if\ninstructed by Him and actuated by his Spirit.--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 20. _The Gospel Ambassador._\n\n+I. The dignity of his office.+--Seen: 1. _In the majesty of the\nPrince from whom he comes._ 2. _In the greatness of the Person whose\nplace he supplies._ 3. _In the excellency of the message he brings._\n\n+II. How the duty of his office should be discharged.+--1. _Stain not\nthe dignity of thy office by any base, unworthy practices._ 2. _Keep\nclose to thy instructions._ 3. _Think it not enough that thou\ndeliverest thy message from God, but show a zeal for thy Master whose\ncause thou negotiatest._ 4. _Let not any person or thing in the world\nbribe or scare thee from a faithful discharge of thy trust._ 5. _Be\nkind to and tenderly careful of thy fellow-subjects.--Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21, 22.\n\n_A Trusted Messenger_--\n\n+I. Commended for his acknowledged Christian character.+--\"Tychicus,\na beloved brother and faithful minister in the Lord\" (ver. 21). These\nare high and honourable designations, and indicate the genuine esteem\nin which he was held by the apostle. He had become endeared to Paul\nby the many valuable services he had rendered to him, and by the\nmarked fidelity of his ministerial work. He appears to have joined\nSt. Paul's staff, and remained with him from the time he accompanied\nhim to Jerusalem in the year 59. He was sent to Ephesus to relieve\nTimothy when Paul desired the presence of the latter at Rome. He was\nwell known to the Asian Church, and every way qualified to discharge\nthe mission with which he was entrusted. He was \"the beloved brother\"\nin his relation to the Church in general, and the \"faithful minister\nin the Lord\" in his special relation to the apostle. It is better to\nbe loved than to be simply popular. Genuine piety forms character,\nand commands the confidence and respect of all lovers of the truth.\n\n+II. Entrusted with personal details of special interest.+--\"Whom I\nhave sent unto you for the same purpose, that ye might know our\naffairs\" (ver. 22). There were probably some details about St. Paul's\nimprisonment that could be communicated better in person than by\nletter, and certain allusions in the letter that could be more fully\nexplained in a personal interview. Every item about Paul was of\nintense interest to the Asian Churches. Many of the members had been\nbrought to Christ through his instrumentality. They were alarmed as\nto his fate and as to the future of the Gospel. They were anxious to\nknow if there was any prospect of his release and of his return to\nhis missionary labours. Tychicus, enjoying the full confidence of the\napostle and the affection of the people, was just the man to give\nthem the information they so eagerly desired, and would be cordially\nwelcomed everywhere. The trusted messenger of a great and good man is\nregarded for the time being with the reverence and respect cherished\ntowards the man he represents and of those whose affairs he is\nempowered to speak.\n\n+III. Competent to minister encouragement.+--\"That he might comfort\nyour hearts\" (ver. 22). Tychicus was not only a newsman and\nletter-carrier, but also a minister of Christ. He knew how to present\nhis message so as to allay the fears of his hearers, to comfort their\nhearts, and to encourage their faith in the power and triumph of the\nGospel, notwithstanding the sufferings of its preachers. The Gospel\nis full of consolation, and it should be the constant aim of the\nminister to make it known and apply it to the circumstances of his\npeople. A diligent pastor in his visitations comes in contact with\nmuch suffering and sorrow, and has many opportunities of\nadministering the balm of Gospel comfort. Great tact and sympathy are\nnecessary, especially in visiting the sick. Referring to this, a\ngodly and experienced minister said, \"Tenderness is essential. Enter\nthe chamber gently. Tread noiselessly. Get near to the sufferer.\nSpeak as softly as may be. Remember his nerves; noise is often\ntorture. Sympathise with his weakness, restlessness, and pain. True\nyou are not come to minister to his body; but enter into his\nsufferings and symptoms. Ask what his doctor has said. Avoid a\nprofessional, official, conventional air. The case may be too grave\nfor cheerful words; but if otherwise, let your face carry a little\nsunshine into the sick-room. Avoid fussiness. Go with a brother's\nheart. Be brief--brief in your talk, brief in your readings, brief in\nyour prayers--your whole visit brief. Take up one point. A sick man's\nbrain is soon overtasked, his nerves soon jar, his strength soon\nfails. Let your good-by be 'God bless you.' Let your last look be one\nof tenderness and love. Whatever you are in the pulpit, Barnabas, not\nBoanerges, is your pattern by the sick-bed.\" It is the privilege and\nmission of every minister and believer to be a messenger of comfort\nand strength to those in trouble. We shall be remembered for our\nkindness when many of our sermons are forgotten.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The character of the good is self-evident._ 2. _A\ngood man should be trusted and honoured._ 3. _The value of a good man\nis recognised in times of stress and difficulty._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 21, 22. _Apostolical Care for the Church._\n\n+I. Paul was careful to keep up an intercourse and communion with\nthe Churches of Christ.+--There ought to be fellowship and\ncorrespondence among the Churches. They should all unite their\nendeavours for the common edification and comfort. The Church of\nChrist is one. We should seek the counsel of sister Churches under\nour difficulties, and be ready when requested to afford them our\ncounsel under theirs.\n\n+II. Paul was solicitous that the Christians among whom he had\npreached should know of his condition and doings.+--He was a\nprisoner, but suffered not his time to pass in restless impatience or\nuseless indolence. He received all who came to him and preached to\nthem the kingdom of God. He instructed his fellow-prisoners. He spent\nmuch of his time in prayer. Several of his epistles were written when\nhe was in bonds. Paul's example teaches us that we should do good in\nevery condition.\n\n+III. When Paul sends Tychicus he gives him written testimonials that\nhe might be received in the character of a minister.+--This\nprecaution was taken that the Churches might not be imposed upon by\nignorant pretenders or artful deceivers. The Church is a regular,\norganised community. We are to receive none as ambassadors of Christ\nbut those who come to us according to the order He has settled.\nMinisters ought to act in concert and unite their labours in building\nup the kingdom of Christ. Tychicus co-operated with Paul.\n\n+IV. Fidelity is an essential part of the ministerial\ncharacter.+--Paul calls Tychicus \"a faithful minister.\" Such a\nminister undertakes his work with pure intentions and abides in it\nwith constancy, even though he may meet with worldly discouragements.\nTychicus was sent to comfort the Ephesians under their grief for\nPaul's imprisonment, and to guard them against any discouraging\napprehensions. Ministers are to strengthen new converts and young\nprofessors to constancy and perseverance in religion by laying before\nthem the comforting and animating motives of the Gospel.--_Lathrop._\n\n\n_A Faithful Minister._--1. It concerns Christians to inform\nthemselves of the life and way of eminent men in the Church, and\nchiefly of those who have been sufferers for truth, that they may be\nincited to sympathise with them, to follow their example and bless\nthe Lord on their behalf. 2. It is in a singular manner required of a\nminister that he be faithful--diligent in his work, sincere in his\naims and endeavours, neither adding nor paring what God has committed\nunto him to speak. 3. We should labour so to inform ourselves of the\ncase and carriage of others and how it goes with the affairs of\nChrist's kingdom elsewhere as to draw spiritual edification thence.\n4. To know God's gracious providence towards his suffering servants,\ntogether with their undaunted courage under sufferings and the use\nGod makes of their sufferings to advance His truth, is sufficient\nground of comfort and encouragement to God's people.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 23, 24.\n\n_A Suggestive Benediction_--\n\n+I. Recognises the Divine source of all blessing.+--\"From God the\nFather and the Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 23). All our blessings are\nDivine, and flow from the inexhaustible fountain of the Divine\nbeneficence. \"God the Father,\" in the eternal counsels of His wisdom\nand love, \"and the Lord Jesus Christ,\" who through the eternal Spirit\noffered Himself as an atonement for human sin--the glorious Trinity\nof Persons in the Godhead--contribute from their combined\nperfections, the spiritual good that encircles every believing soul.\n\"The God of Christians,\" says Pascal, \"is not barely the Author of\ngeometrical truths, or of the order of the elements--this is the\nDivinity of the heathen; nor barely the providential Disposer of the\nlives and fortunes of men, so as to crown His worshippers with a\nhappy series of years--this is the portion of the Jews. But the God\nof Abraham and of Jacob, the God of Christians, is a God of love and\nof consolation; a God who fills the heart and the soul where He\nresides; a God who gives them a deep and inward feeling of their own\nmisery and of His infinite mercy, unites Himself to their spirit,\nreplenishes it with humility and joy, with affiance and love, and\nrenders them incapable of any end but Himself.\" The religious\ncharacter of the Lancashire people was illustrated by an incident\nthat happened towards the close of the cotton famine. The mills in\none village had been stopped for months, and the first waggon-load of\ncotton that arrived seemed to them like the olive branch that told of\nthe abating waters of the deluge. The waggon was met by the women,\nwho hysterically laughed and cried and hugged the cotton bales as if\nthey were dear old friends, and then ended by singing that grand old\nhymn, \"Praise God from whom all blessings flow.\"\n\n+II. Implores specific blessings upon Christian brethren.+--\"Peace be\nto the brethren, and love with faith\" (ver. 23). Where there is no\nlove there is no peace, and peace and love without faith, are\ncapricious and worthless. Love is the strength of the forbearance and\nself-suppression so essential to the maintenance of peace. As faith\ngrows and intensifies it opens up new channels in which love can\nflow. We are to contend for the faith, not that peace may be\ndisturbed, but that it may rest on a firmer and more permanent basis.\nWhat greater boon can we desiderate for our brethren than that they\nmay abound in \"peace and love with faith\"?\n\n+III. Greets with expansive generosity all genuine lovers of\nChrist.+--\"Grace be with all them that love our Lord Jesus Christ in\nsincerity. Amen\" (ver. 24). The overflow of Divine grace submerges\nthe barriers of sects and effaces the distinctions of a selfish and\npretentious bigotry. Sincere love to Christ opens the heart to the\nrichest endowments of grace, and blends all hearts that glow with a\nkindred affection. If we love Christ, we love one another, we love\nHis work, His Word, and are eager to obey Him in all things He\ncommands. We may not agree in a uniformity of creeds, but we reach a\nhigher union when our hearts are mingled in the capacious alembic of\na Christ-like love. The benediction of grace to all who love Jesus is\nanswered and confirmed by an appropriate _Amen._ \"Amen\" under the law\nwas answered to the curses, but not to the blessings (Deut.\nxxvii. 15-26). Every particular curse must have an \"Amen.\" But in the\nnext chapter, where the blessings follow, there is no \"Amen\" affixed\nto them (Deut. xxviii. 2-12). But it is otherwise in the Gospel. To\nthe blessings there is an \"Amen,\" but not to the curses. If any man\nlove not the Lord Jesus Christ (1 Cor. xvi. 22)--a fearful curse; but\nthere is no \"Amen\" to that. \"Grace be with all them that love the\nLord Jesus Christ in sincerity\": there is an \"Amen\" to that.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity is freighted with blessings for the\nrace._ 2. _It has special blessings for present need._ 3. _It points\nmen to God as the true source of all blessing._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 23. _Elements of Religious Comfort._--The apostle prays that,\nwith faith, there may be peace and love.\n\n+I. Faith captivates the soul into obedience to the Gospel+ by giving\nefficacy to its precepts, examples, and doctrines. Where faith\noperates, love will appear, and peace will follow.\n\n+II. Love produces peace.+--1. _Inward peace._ It extinguishes\nmalice, envy, hatred, wrath, revenge, every unfriendly passion.\n\n2. _Social peace._--Christians will be careful not to give offence,\neither by real injuries or unnecessary differences. They will be slow\nto take offence.\n\n+III. Love brings religious comfort.+--Love is comfortable in its\nimmediate feelings and in its pacific influence. It brings comfort to\nthe soul as it is an evidence of godly sincerity. If we would enjoy\nthe comfort, we must maintain the comfort of religion.--_Lathrop._\n\n\nVer. 24. _The Christian's Truest Test and Excellence._--Other things\nmay be required to complete the character of the Christian; but\nwithout love to Christ there can be no Christian at all. It is the\nMaster-spirit which must animate and enliven the whole combination;\nand in whomsoever this Spirit prevails we are entitled and enjoined\nto welcome that person as a disciple.\n\n+I. Consider the love of Christ as a duty we owe to\nHimself.+--1. _Bring to your remembrance His personal excellences._\n2. _Consider the great and glorious object of all He did and\nendured--the everlasting happiness of human souls._\n\n+II. Consider the love of Christ as a principle which works in\nourselves.+--1. _It does not destroy natural affections, but teaches\nus to fix them on proper objects and to give a right direction to\ntheir fullest energies._ 2. _A due sense of the Saviour's love makes\nus feel at once that He merits all our best affections in return._\n3. _It gives delight in meditating on the precepts and promises of\nGod's Word._ 4. _It helps in all the duties we owe to our\nfellow-creatures._ 5. _It animates the soul in the hour of death and\nthe prospect of eternity.--J. Brewster._\n\n\n_Loving Christ in Sincerity._\n\n+I. On what account Christ is entitled to our love.+--1. _He is a\nDivine person._ 2. _He was manifest in the flesh._ In the man Christ\nJesus appeared every virtuous quality which can dignify and adorn\nhuman nature. 3. _His mediatorial offices entitle Him to our love._\n4. _He is an object of our love because of His kindness to us._\n\n+II. An essential qualification of love to Christ is\nsincerity.+--1. _Our love to Christ must be real, not pretended._\n2. _Must be universal._ It must respect His whole character.\n3. _Sincere love to Christ is supreme._ It gives Him the preference\nto all earthly interest and connections. 4. _It is persevering._\n5. _It is active._\n\n+III. How sincere love to Christ will discover itself.+--1. _It will\nmake us careful to please Him._ 2. _Will be accompanied with\nhumility._ 3. _We shall be fond of imitating Him._ 4. _We shall\npromote His interest and oppose His enemies._ 5. _We shall do good to\nHis needy brethren and friends._\n\n+IV. The benediction connected with this temper.+--It is called\ngrace. It comprehends all the blessings the Gospel reveals and\npromises. 1. _Justification before God._ 2. _The presence of the\nDivine Spirit._ 3. _Free access to the throne of grace._ 4. _The gift\nof a happy immortality.--Lathrop._\n\n\n_Love to Christ._--What is it that constitutes Christ's claim to love\nand respect? What is it that is to be loved in Christ? Why are we to\nhold Him dear? There is but one ground for virtuous affection in the\nuniverse, but one object worthy of cherished and enduring love in\nheaven and in earth, and that is--moral goodness. My principle\napplies to all beings, to the Creator as well as to His creatures.\nThe claim of God to the love of His rational offspring rests on the\nrectitude and benevolence of His will. It is the moral beauty and\ngrandeur of His character to which alone we are bound to pay homage.\nThe only power which can and ought to be loved is a beneficent and\nrighteous power. The ground of love to Christ is, His spotless\npurity, His moral perfection, His unrivalled goodness. It is the\nspirit of His religion, which is the Spirit of God, dwelling in Him\nwithout measure. Of consequence, to love Christ is to love the\nperfection of virtue, of righteousness, of benevolence; and the great\nexcellence of this love is, that by cherishing it we imbibe, we\nstrengthen in our own souls the most illustrious virtue, and through\nJesus become like God. I call you to love Jesus that you may bring\nyourselves into contact and communion with perfect virtue, and may\nbecome what you love. I know no sincere, enduring good but the moral\nexcellence which shines forth in Jesus Christ.--_Channing._\n\n\n_The Apostolic Benediction._\n\n+I. The subjects of the benediction.+--\"All them that love our Lord\nJesus Christ in sincerity.\"\n\n1. _The object of their love._--\"The Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\n2. _The character of their love._--They love in sincerity. This\nproved by the effects it produces. (1) Love to God's Word. (2) Prompt\nobedience to Christ's precepts. (3) Brotherly love. (4) Zeal for\nGod's house.\n\n+II. The nature of the benediction.+--1. _The prayer embraces the\ncommunication of Divine grace._ 2. _All Christians need the grace of\nGod._ (1) In all trials peculiar to the age in which they live.\n(2) In time of temptation and spiritual darkness. (3) In the\ndischarge of Christian duties. (4) To sanctify, refine, and make them\nmeet for the inheritance of the saints in light.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Imitate the catholicity of the apostle._\n2. _Sectarian bigotry and hostility should cease._ 3. _How perilous\nthe state of those who love not Christ.--Pulpit Themes._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes.+\n\n - Page 123, Introduction, \"Readers\" paragraph, change \"i. 1\" to \"ch.\n   i. 1.\" \"Certain expressions\" paragraph, change \"i. 15\" to \"ch.\n   i. 15.\"\n\n - Page 124, \"Again\" paragraph, change \"in iii.\" to \"in ch. iii\" and\n   \"ii. 6-9\" to \"Gal. ii. 6-9,\" for concreteness. Analysis, chapter\n   i. 3-14, apply RC to \"Divine will.\" Chapter ii. 1-10, apply RC to\n   \"Divine grace.\" Chapter ii. 14-19, apply RC to \"love Divine.\"\n\n - Page 126, Notes for chapter i., verse 3, apply RC to \"Divine\n   blessing\"; remove comma from \"heaven, and.\" Verse 4, apply RC to\n   \"Divine goodness.\" Verse 5, apply RC to \"Love Divine\" and \"Divine\n   Graciousness.\" Verse 7, change \"ix. 22\" to \"Heb. ix. 22\" for\n   concreteness.\n\n - Page 127, verse 8, apply RC to \"Divine aims.\" Verse 11, add \"Deut.\n   xxxiii. 9\" reference.\n\n = Page 128, top of page, apply RC to \"Divine power.\" Verse 20, tag\n   Latin phrase as Latin and set it in Italic. Lesson \"Apostolic\n   Salutation,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine source\"; remove commas\n   from \"care, and\" and \"God, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine will,\" \"the\n   Gospel,\" \"Divine authority,\" and \"Divine will.\"\n\n - Page 129, same lesson, point II, remove comma from \"God, and\" and\n   apply RC to \"in Him.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine source.\"\n   \"Paul's Introduction\" note, apply RC to \"that Gospel\" and \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 130, same note, point I 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine Spirit.\"\n\n - Page 131, lesson \"Praise,\" introduction, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point I 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"; change \"in Him\" to \"in him,\"\n   referring to a new convert; remove comma from \"Him, and.\" Point\n   I 2, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\" Point I 3, apply RC to \"Divine\n   Father\" and \"Divine family.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 132, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine will\" and\n   \"Divine counsels.\" Point II 3, apply RC to \"Gospel age\" and\n   \"Divine purpose.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III 1, apply RC to \"the Word,\" \"the Gospel,\" and \"the Word\"\n   (twice). Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine attestation.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), each points 1, 2, and 3, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 133, same lesson, \"Mystery\" note, remove comma from\n   \"salvation, if.\" \"Spiritual Blessings\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine operation.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 134, same lesson, \"Nature, Source\" note, point II, apply RC\n   to \"Divine nature\"; remove comma from \"will, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Gospel holiness.\" Point VI, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Glory\"\n   note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine will.\"\n\n - Page 135, same lesson, \"Redemption\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" \"Harmony\" note, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine\n   justice.\"\n\n - Page 136, same lesson, same note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine\n   grace.\" Point VII, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point XII, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" \"Mystery\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (thrice); remove comma from \"reason, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Divine revelation\" and \"the Gospel.\" Point I 2, add comma to \"us\n   yet.\"\n\n - Page 137, same lesson, same note, point II 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" and \"the Word.\" Point II 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Christ\" note, apply RC to \"Divine purpose.\"\n\n - Page 138, same lesson, \"Gospel\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\"; change subpoint indicators from parenthesised\n   Arabic numerals to Arabic numerals with periods, for consistency.\n   \"Truth\" note, point I, change subpoint indicators from\n   parenthesised Arabic numerals to Arabic numerals with periods, for\n   consistency; point I 4, apply RC to \"Divine majesty.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"Divine revelation.\"\n\n - Page 139, same lesson, \"Faith\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Word,\" \"the Gospel,\" \"the Word,\" \"own Divinity,\" and \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"the Word\" and \"the Gospel.\" Point III 1,\n   add comma to \"So the\"; apply RC to \"the Word,\" \"Divine likeness,\"\n   \"the Gospel,\" and \"the Word.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine\n   influence.\" Point III 1, add comma to \"So the\"; apply RC to\n   \"Divine image,\" \"the Word,\" \"Divine likeness,\" \"the Gospel,\" and\n   \"the Word.\" Point III 2, add comma to \"So the.\"\n\n - Page 140, lesson \"Prayer,\" point II, apply RC to \"the Word\";\n   remove comma from \"suffice, unless.\" Point III, apply RC to\n   \"Divine inheritance\" and \"Divine blessings.\"\n\n - Page 141, same lesson, \"Clearer\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice) and \"Divine\n   qualities\"; remove comma from \"sanctuary, but.\" Point II, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point IV,\n   remove comma from \"knowledge, but.\" Point V, apply RC to \"Divine\n   calling\" and \"Divine preparation.\"\n\n - Page 142, same lesson, \"Apprehension\" note, point II, add \"1 John\n   iv. 10\" reference. Point III, apply RC to \"Divine nature\"; add\n   comma to \"Thus these.\" \"Spiritual enlightenment\" note, apply RC to\n   \"Divine mysteries.\"\n\n - Page 143, lesson \"Church Complete,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   power,\" \"a Divine,\" and \"Divine Spirit.\" Point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine power\"; change \"instals\" to \"installs\"; add \"Heb. i. 6\"\n   and \"Ps. xxiv. 7-10\" references.\n\n - Page 144, same lesson, point III, see in-line note about\n   \"quicksilver.\" Apply RC to \"Divine fulness\"; add comma to \"Thus\n   God\"; apply RC to \"Divine fulness.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point\n   I, apply RC to \"Divine creation.\" \"Dignity and Dominion\" note,\n   point II, remove comma from \"respect, and.\"\n\n - Page 145, same lesson, \"Future life\" note, end of point II, add\n   double quotes around what those already in heaven are said to say\n   to us.\n\n - Page 146, same lesson, \"Headship\" note, point I 6, apply RC to\n   \"Divine attributes.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Mediator.\" Point\n   II 3, apply RC to \"Divine government.\"\n\n - Page 147, notes on chapter ii., verse 5, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Verse 6, change \"i. 3\" to \"ch. i. 3.\" Verse 10, apply RC to\n   \"Divine thought.\" Verse 13, tag \"Lo-ammi\" as Hebrew and set it in\n   Italic type.\n\n - The break between pages 147 and 148 is in the word \"consequently\":\n   con|sequently.\n\n - Page 148, notes on verse 17, change \"lvii. 19\" to \"Isa. lvii. 19\"\n   for concreteness. Verse 21, change \"iv. 16\" to \"ch. iv. 16.\"\n   Lesson \"Children of Wrath,\" point I, remove comma from \"life,\n   and\"; apply RC to \"Divine wrath.\"\n\n - Page 149, same lesson, point III, remove comma from \"appetite,\n   but.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 150, same lesson, \"State of Sin\" note, point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine power.\" \"State of Men\" note, point I 2, apply RC to \"the\n   Word\" (twice); remove comma from \"song, and.\"\n\n - Page 151, same lesson, \"State of Nature\" note, point I, apply RC\n   to \"thing Divine.\"\n\n - Page 152, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Spirit.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Spirit.\" \"Worst\" note, point\n   I 1, add comma to \"created and.\" Point II, see in-line note on\n   baptism.\n\n - Page 153, lesson \"Salvation,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   beneficence,\" \"Divine nature,\" \"Divine favour\" and \"Divine\n   goodness.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine power\"; remove comma from\n   \"precede, and.\"\n\n - Page 154, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine grace\"\n   (twice) and \"the Word.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice)\n   and \"Divine act.\" Point V, apply RC to \"Divine grace\"; change\n   \"ever new\" to \"ever-new\"; apply RC to \"Divine grace.\" \"Great\n   Change\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 155, same lesson, same note, point I 1 (4), remove comma from\n   \"Christ, and.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point III,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel dispensation.\" \"State\" note, point 3, add\n   comma to \"Therefore God.\"\n\n - Page 157, same lesson, \"Salvation by Faith\" note, point I 5, apply\n   RC to \"whole Gospel.\" \"Our Salvation\" note, point III 3, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" \"True Justifying Faith\" note, remove comma from\n   \"creature, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine work.\"\n\n - Page 158, lesson \"Christian Life,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   handiwork\" and \"Divine power\"; remove comma from \"nature, and\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine handiwork,\" \"Divine character,\" and \"Divine\n   worker.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divinely provided.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine origin.\" Point 3, apply\n   RC to \"Divine mind.\"\n\n - Page 160, lesson \"Forlorn State,\" application (\"Lessons\"), point\n   3, apply RC to \"Divine mercy.\" \"Condition\" note, point II, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - The break between pages 160 and 161 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should be kept together \"Christ.--|To.\" The whole unit\n   was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 161, same lesson, same note, point V, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Helpless\" note, point 3, add comma to \"sought and.\"\n\n - Page 162, same lesson, same note, point 3 (5), remove comma from\n   \"other, and\"; add sentence-ending period after \"powerless\"; add\n   comma to \"Thus faith.\"\n\n - Page 164, lesson \"Peacemaker,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"complied, and.\"\n\n - Page 165, same lesson, poem between points IV and V, change\n   \"there\" to \"then\" and \"losers\" to \"loser\" after referring to\n   collection of Shakespeare. Point V, change \"#eads us\" to \"leads\n   us.\" \"Nearness\" note, point I, remove comma from \"God, and.\" Point\n   II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point VI, apply RC to \"His Word.\"\n\n - Page 166, same lesson, \"Power\" note, point 1, apply RC to \"His\n   Word.\"\n\n - Page 167, same lesson, same note, point 2, remove comma from\n   \"grace, and\"; add \"Ezek. xxxiii. 11\" and \"Isa. xlv. 22\"\n   references. Point 3, add comma to \"is that.\"\n\n - Page 168, same lesson, \"Privilege\" note, point I 3, apply RC to\n   \"His Own Son.\" Point II, remove comma from \"mercy-seat, and.\"\n\n - Page 169, same lesson, \"Access to God\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine Creator,\" \"into Divinity,\" \"God is Divine,\" \"by Word,\"\n   \"the Divinity\" (twice) and \"the Divine\"; add comma to \"souls\n   others\"; apply RC to \"a Divine end.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Divinity\" and \"the Gospels\"; add comma to \"firm bright\" and\n   \"confident golden\"; apply RC to \"and Divine\" and \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 170, same lesson, same note, apply RC to \"Divine side,\" \"the\n   Divinity,\" \"was Divine,\" and \"is Divine.\" Point III, add comma to\n   \"so when\"; apply RC to \"Divine End\" and \"Divine Power.\"\n\n - Page 171, same lesson, top of page, apply RC to \"is Divine.\"\n   \"Christian Law\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine Justice.\"\n   Lesson \"Church the Temple,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and\n   \"Divine kingdom\"; remove commas from \"privileges, and\" and \"ages,\n   and.\"\n\n - Page 172, same lesson, point II, remove commas from \"Church, and\"\n   and \"broad, and.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine purpose.\"\n\n - Page 173, same lesson, \"Spiritual Building\" note, point V, apply\n   RC to \"His Word\" (twice). \"Christian Prayer\" note, point I 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine light.\" Point II 2, add comma to \"still and.\"\n\n - Page 174, same lesson, \"Communion\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine Presence.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divinely true.\" Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"Diviner love.\"\n\n - The break between pages 174 and 175 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken: \"saints.--|1. They.\" The whole\n   unit was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 175, same lesson, \"Characteristics\" note, point III 4, remove\n   comma from \"privileges, and.\"\n\n - Page 176, notes for chapter iii., verse 2, change \"iv. 21\" to \"ch.\n   iv. 21\"; apply RC to \"Divine Taskmaster.\" Verse 9, change \"iii. 1\"\n   to \"Gal. iii. 1\" for concreteness. Verse 12, change \"ii. 13\" to\n   \"ch. ii. 13.\"\n\n - Page 177, notes for chapter iii., verse 15, change \"ii. 19\" to\n   \"ch. ii. 19.\" Verse 17, apply RC to \"things Divine.\" Verse 20,\n   change \"i. 19-23\" to \"ch. i. 19-23.\" Lesson \"Enlarged Gospel,\"\n   point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel,\" \"Divine revelation,\" \"Divine\n   favour,\" and \"Divine mind.\"\n\n - Page 178, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (thrice). Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel,\" \"enlarged Gospel,\"\n   and \"the Gospel.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine grace,\" \"the\n   Gospel,\" \"Divinely prepared,\" \"the Gospel,\" and \"Divine Spirit.\"\n\n - Page 179, same lesson, top of page, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and\n   \"ever-enlarging Gospel.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Calling\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   Goodness.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (four times). Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 180, \"Knowledge\" note, between lists, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"Exalted,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice).\n\n - Page 181, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice),\n   and \"Divine dealings.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine mystery,\"\n   \"Divine purpose\" (twice), and \"the Gospel.\" Point II 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divine idea\" and \"the Gospel\" (thrice). Point III, apply RC to\n   \"Divine grace.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Divine grace,\" \"Divine\n   power,\" \"the Gospel\" (twice) and \"Divine power\" (twice). Point\n   III 2, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\"\n\n - Page 182, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" \"Apostle's View\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 183, same lesson, \"Christian Humility\" note, point I, change\n   \"self-righteous ness\" to \"self-righteousness.\"\n\n - Page 184, same lesson, same note, top of page, change period after\n   \"management\" to a question mark.\n\n - Page 185, same lesson, \"Unsearchable Riches\" note, apply RC to\n   \"Christ's Divinity.\" \"Fellowship\" note, point I, apply RC to \"His\n   Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 186, lesson \"Manifold Wisdom,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel,\" \"Divinely freighted,\" and \"the Divine.\" Point II, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - The break between pages 186 and 187 is in the word \"knowledge\":\n   know|ledge.\n\n - Page 187, same lesson, point III, top of page, apply RC to \"Divine\n   treatment\" and \"the Gospel.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2,\n   apply RC to \"Divine wisdom.\" \"Manifold Wisdom\" note, point I 2,\n   apply RC to \"Divine will.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Gospel\n   redemption.\"\n\n - The break between pages 187 and 188 is in the word \"expression\":\n   expres|sion.\n\n - Page 188, same lesson, same note, point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine grace.\"\n   Change \"He who preached\" to \"he,\" referring to Paul. \"Access\"\n   note, point II, add sentence-ending period.\n\n - Page 189, same lesson, \"Courage\" note, point 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"Sublime,\" point I 1, see in-line note regarding\n   Christ's abiding presence.\n\n - Page 190, same lesson, point I 1, top of page, apply RC to \"Divine\n   power.\" Point II, change \"thirsty manna drink\" to \"thirsty man a\n   drink.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine fulness\" and \"Divine grace.\"\n\n - Page 192, \"Church a Family\" note, point II 1, apply RC to \"common\n   Father.\"\n\n - Page 193, \"Family\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine message.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divinest wisdom.\"\n\n - Page 195, \"Paul's Prayer\" note, point V, apply RC to \"Divine\n   influence.\" \"Love of Christ\" note, point I 1, change \"as He says\"\n   to \"as Paul says.\" Point I 5, apply RC to \"Divine nature\" and \"is\n   Divine.\"\n\n - Page 196, \"Transcendent\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"is Divine.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divine infinitude.\" Point III 3, apply RC\n   to \"supreme Divinity.\"\n\n - The break between pages 196 and 197 is in the word \"increase\":\n   in|crease.\n\n - Page 198, notes on chapter iv., verse 7, apply RC to \"His\n   endowment.\" Verse 13, apply RC to \"Divine Archetype.\"\n\n - Page 199, verse 17, change \"ii. 2, 3\" to \"ch. ii. 2, 3.\" Verse 19,\n   change right single quote after \"covetousness\" to right double\n   quote and \"sin's\" to \"sins.\" Verse 30, change \"i. 13\" to \"ch.\n   i. 13.\" Verse 31, change \"_I.e._\" to \"_i.e._\"\n\n - Page 200, verse 32, apply RC to \"Divine forgiveness.\" Lesson\n   \"Dignity,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine nature.\"\n\n - Page 203, lesson \"Sevenfold Unity,\" point I, add em-dash before\n   poem. Point II, apply RC to \"Divine commands\" and \"one Gospel\";\n   change \"initiatory right\" to \"initiatory rite.\"\n\n - Page 204, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine Mind.\"\n   \"Unity\" note, point III, apply RC to \"same Word.\" Point V, apply\n   RC to \"same Gospel\" and \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 205, \"Oneness\" note, point 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"One\n   Body\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 206, same note, point II 1, apply RC to \"Divine essence.\"\n\n - Page 208, lesson \"Gifts of Christ,\" point I, after poem, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine Conqueror.\"\n\n - Page 209, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Divine Architect.\"\n   \"Mark\" note, first paragraph, apply RC to \"four Gospels,\" \"Mark's\n   Gospel,\" \"first Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 210, same note, point II, apply RC to \"his Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Divine Mind.\"\n\n - Page 211, same note, apply RC to \"his Gospel\"; change \"three\n   gospels\" to \"four Gospels\"; apply RC to \"that Life\" and \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - The break between pages 211 and 212 is in the word \"summoned\":\n   sum|moned.\n\n - Page 212, \"Humiliation and Exaltation\" note, point I 2, apply RC\n   to \"Divine temple.\" Point II 4, apply RC to \"Divine conduct.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine perfections.\"\n\n - Page 213, \"Ascension\" note, point I, apply RC to \"His Word,\" \"the\n   Gospel,\" and \"a Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 214, \"Work\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 215, same note, same point, apply RC to \"His Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice). Lesson \"Manhood,\" point\n   I 1, apply RC to \"a Person.\" Point I 2, change \"in Him\" to \"him,\"\n   referring to a human.\n\n - Page 216, same lesson, point III, change \"ant\" to \"bee\" because\n   ant nests are not particularly geometrical; capitalise \"Rubicon\";\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine truth.\"\n\n - Page 217, \"Growth\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine revelation.\"\n\n - Page 218, \"Manhood\" note, point I 3, apply RC to \"Divinely\n   appointed.\" \"Maturity\" note, point I 4, apply RC to \"the Gospel\";\n   change \"repre senting\" to \"representing.\"\n\n - The break between pages 218 and 219 is in the word \"knowledge\":\n   know|ledge.\n\n - Page 219, same note, point II 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n   \"Deceivers\" note, point I 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 221, \"Growth\" note, point II, add right double quote at end\n   of sentence. Point II 2, apply RC to \"real Divine.\" Point III, add\n   \"Mark x. 17-22; Luke xviii. 17-23\" references.\n\n - Page 223, lesson \"Thorough,\" point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 224, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Divinely created\"\n   and \"Divine character.\" Change reference for \"Gentile Life\" note\n   from \"17, 19\" to \"17-19.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine truths.\"\n   Point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 225, same note, application (\"Reflections\"), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Life\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 226, \"Putting Off\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine things.\"\n\n - Page 227, same note, point IV, apply RC to \"Divine nature\" and\n   \"the Deity.\" Point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel,\" \"Divine grace,\"\n   and \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 228, \"Christian Spirit\" note, point I 3, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\"; change \"alternation\" to \"alteration.\" Point II 3, apply\n   RC to \"the Word.\" Point II 4, apply RC to \"to Him.\"\n\n - Page 230, lesson \"Christian Principles,\" point VII, apply RC to\n   \"Divine grace.\"\n\n - Page 231, \"Truth\" note, point I 1, remove Italic formatting from\n   first sentence for consistency with other subpoints.\n\n - Page 232, \"Falsehood\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - The break between pages 232 and 233 is in the word \"uncertainty\":\n   uncer|tainty.\n\n - Page 233, \"Sinful Anger\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n   \"Anger and Meekness\" note, point I 4, at the end of the page,\n   there is blank space after the word \"rights\" which the Transcriber\n   filled with \"he is\" before \"obliged\" on the next page, giving\n   \". . . whose rights [he is] obliged . . . .\"\n\n - The break between pages 234 and 235 is in the word \"bespeaks\":\n   be|speaks.\n\n - Page 236, \"Exaltation\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n   \"Benefit Conferred\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 237, same note, point III, apply RC to \"the Divine.\" \"Office\"\n   note, point II, apply RC to \"the Word.\" \"Grieving\" note, point II,\n   apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 238, \"Grieve not\" note, put double quotes around the\n   rhetorical question; apply RC to \"Divine grace.\" \"Vices\" note,\n   point IV, change \"Never believe, much less propagate an ill\n   report, of\" to \"Never believe, much less propagate, an ill report\n   of.\"\n\n - Page 239, \"Errors\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the Author.\"\n\n - Page 240, same note, point V, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Christian\n   Forgiveness,\" point II, apply RC to \"Diviner life.\" Point V, apply\n   RC to \"own Gospel\" and \"our Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 241, notes on chapter v., verse 7, change \"iii. 6\" to \"ch.\n   iii. 6.\" Verse 9, add \"Rev. xxii. 1\" reference. Verse 19, add\n   \"James v. 13\" reference; change the right double quote after\n   \"hymn\" to a right single quote.\n\n - Page 242, verse 23, add add \"John xviii. 8\", Luke xxii. 27, and\n   \"ver. 25\" references. Lesson \"Life,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   life\" and \"the Gospel.\" Change \"In Paris a little girl seven years\n   old was observed\" to \"In Paris, a little girl, seven years old,\n   was observed.\"\n\n - Page 243, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divinely regarded\"\n   and \"Divine Fatherhood.\"\n\n - Page 244, \"Doctrine\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 245, \"Sacrifice\" note, point I 3, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n   Point I 4, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 247, \"Likeness\" note, point II, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n   Point IV, apply RC to \"a Divine.\" \"Sacrifice\" note, point I 1,\n   apply RC to \"a Divine\" (twice) and \"in Himself.\" Point I 2, add\n   double quotes around \"I will do as I please.\"\n\n - Page 248, same note, same point, apply RC to \"a Divine\" (twice).\n   Point II, apply RC to \"a Divine\" (twice). Point III 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divinity.\" Point III 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"Children,\" point I 2, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 249, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divinely\n   illuminated.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine light.\" Point II 3,\n   add \"Matt. v. 16\" reference.\n\n - Page 250, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"Divinely regarded.\"\n   \"Sobriety\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point I 3,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 252, \"Rule\" note, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 253, \"Slumbering\" note, point I 6, apply RC to \"God's Word.\"\n   Point I 7, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Light of God\" note, point\n   II, capitalise \"the Negro.\"\n\n - Page 254, \"Call\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 255, same note, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Summons\" note, point I, apply RC\n   to \"Divine assistance\"; add an em-dash to the end of the paragraph\n   without punctuation. Point II, apply RC to \"Divine mandate.\"\n\n - The break between pages 255 and 256 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken: \"inactivity.--|You.\" The whole\n   unit was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 256, \"Gospel Call\" note, point II 4 (4), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 257, lesson \"Christian Wisdom,\" point II 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine goodness.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"the Divine\" (thrice).\n   Point IV, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 258, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, add\n   \"Prov. iv. 7\" reference. \"Walking\" note, point I 4, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" \"Wise Conduct\" note, each of points 3 and 4, apply\n   RC to \"God's Word.\"\n\n - Page 259, \"Redeeming\" note, point I, apply RC to \"God's Word.\"\n\n - Page 260, \"Redemption\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine\n   knowledge.\"\n\n - Page 261, \"Being Filled\" note, point 4 (4), apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 262, lesson \"Spiritual Enjoyment,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"God's Word.\"\n\n - Page 263, \"Singing\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine worship.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), each\n   of points 1 and 3, apply RC to \"Divine worship.\"\n\n - Page 266, \"Duties\" lesson, point II 3, add a colon after \"married\n   life.\"\n\n - Page 267, \"Christ\" note, point III, add \"Gen. ii. 21-24\" reference.\n\n - Page 268, \"Christ's Love\" note, point III 3, apply RC to \"the\n   Word.\" \"Future Glory\" note, point II 4, apply RC to \"the Word.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divinity\" (twice). \"Divine Ideal\" note,\n   point I 1, apply RC to \"the Divine.\" Point III, apply RC to\n   \"Divine renewal.\"\n\n - Page 270, notes on chapter vi., verse 10, change \"i. 19\" to \"ch.\n   i. 19.\" Verse 13, change \"v. 16\" to \"ch. v. 16.\"\n\n - Page 271, notes on verse 24, change \"i. 2\" to \"ch. i. 2.\" Lesson\n   \"Duties,\" each of points I 1 and I 3, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 272, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divinely rewarded.\"\n\n - Page 273, \"Mutual Duties\" note, point I 6, apply RC to \"Divine\n   promise.\"\n\n - Page 275, lesson \"Duties,\" point II 1, change \"it introduced\n   principles which, wherever, adopted utterly\" to \"it introduced\n   principles which, wherever adopted, utterly.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), each of points 1 and 2, apply RC to \"Divine law.\"\n\n - Page 276, lesson \"Christian Warfare,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   help.\"\n\n - Page 277, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine panoply.\"\n\n - Page 278, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\") point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divinely provided.\" \"Call\" note, point II 2, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice). \"Warfare\" note, point I 3, change \"Deut.\n   viii. 12\" to \"Deut. viii. 11-14.\"\n\n - Page 279, same note, point II 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   II 2, apply RC to \"everlasting Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 281, \"Evil Angels\" note, see inline note about human\n   depravity. \"Christian Warrior\" lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 282, same lesson, point I 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (four\n   times).\n\n - Page 283, same lesson, point I 5, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice). Point II, apply RC to \"the Word\" (twice).\n\n - Page 284, \"Christian's Armour\" note, apply RC to \"that Gospel\";\n   change \"even more tnan\" to \"even more than\"; apply RC to \"that\n   Word.\" \"Whole Armour\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 285, same note, point VI apply RC to \"the Divine Word.\"\n\n - Page 286, \"Duty\" note, point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\"\n   \"Girdle of Truth\" note, point III, apply RC to \"their Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 287, \"Gospel of Peace\" note, each of points II, II 1, II 2,\n   and II 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 288, lesson \"Programme of Prayer,\" point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine Spirit.\"\n\n - Page 289, same lesson, point V 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (thrice). Point V 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice).\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine power.\"\n\n - Page 290, \"Praying\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine favours.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine will.\" Point V, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 291, \"Duty of Prayer\" note, point V, add \"Rev. v. 8, 9\"\n   reference. \"Gospel a Mystery\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   revelation.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine essence\" and \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice); add a colon\n   after \"rolled up.\" Point IV, see inline note defining \"faggot\";\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 292, \"Boldness\" note, in each of points II and II 1, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 293, lesson \"Trusted Messenger,\" point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice) and \"Gospel\n   comfort.\"\n\n - Page 294, \"Apostolical Care\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"Benediction,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Divine,\"\n   \"are Divine,\" \"the Divine,\" and \"Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 295, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine grace,\" \"His\n   Word,\" and \"the Gospel.\" \"Elements\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 296, \"Truest Test\" note, introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Master-spirit\" and \"Spirit.\" Point II 3, apply RC to \"God's\n   Word.\" \"Loving Christ\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\n   person.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point IV 2, apply RC\n   to \"the Divine Spirit.\"\n\n - Page 297, \"Apostolic Benediction\" note, point I 2 (1), apply RC to\n   \"God's Word.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\"\n\n\n\n+THE+\n\n+EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.+\n\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Philippi and the Philippians.+--It was a moment fraught with very\nfar reaching issues when at Alexandria Troas St. Paul seemed to see,\nin a night-vision, a man standing on the beach over the head of the\n\u00c6gean Sea eagerly calling for help, as a herald might summon a\ngeneral to the relief of a hard-pressed garrison.\n\nThere may be cold psychological explanations of the vision which\nleave little scope for any Divine call to evangelise them of\nMacedonia; but the event proved the indication of the will of God in\nthe visionary call. In the prompt and undoubting obedience of St.\nPaul and his co-workers our own continent first received the glad\ntidings of great joy. Gliding out of the harbour of Troas, their\nlittle vessel ran before the wind as far as the island of\nSamothracia, and next day, rounding the island of Thasos, dropped\nanchor at Neapolis, the port of Philippi. But Philippi itself is\nstill three leagues distant, on the other side of a mountain range,\nover which the great highway between the two continents passes.\nFollowing this great road--the Via Egnatia--the colony founded by\nC\u00e6sar Augustus, and named Colonia Augusta Julia Philippensis, was the\nfirst city reached. The place had been recognised by Philip of\nMacedon as a gateway to be watched and strongly guarded, and when St.\nPaul visited it he found it bearing all the marks of a strong\nmilitary centre--a sort of ganglion in the great system of which Rome\nwas the brain. To remember this is to receive light on certain\nexpressions in the epistle; for even though \"not many mighty are\ncalled,\" they may serve to illustrate a service whose weapons are\n\"not carnal but spiritual.\"\n\nIf we follow the R.V. in Acts xvi. 13--we suppose there was a place\nof prayer--the inference is that the Jews were not numerous in\nPhilippi, and that it was only by a knowledge of the ancestral custom\nwhich led them to place their oratory by the water-side that St. Paul\ndiscovered the obscure company. Even when discovered there is no\nevidence of that virulent Judaism which so greatly embittered the\napostle's life and frustrated his missionary endeavours; and it may\nbe that its absence explains the cordial relations between the\nPhilippians and St. Paul.\n\nBishop Lightfoot notes the heterogeneous character of the first\nconverts at Philippi. As to race, an Asiatic, a Greek, and a Roman.\nAs to everyday life, the first is engaged in an important and\nlucrative branch of traffic; the second is employed to trade on the\ncredulity of the ignorant; the third is an under-official of the\ngovernment. As to religious training, one represents the speculative\nmystic temper of Oriental devotion; the second a low form of an\nartistic and imaginative religion; whilst the third represents a type\nof worship essentially political in tone.\n\nIt is noteworthy and prophetic that women should be so closely\nconnected with the introduction of the Gospel to Europe; and this may\naccount for the fact that in Philippi whole families were gathered\ninto the fold of the Church.\n\nThus humbly began the work of the evangelisation of a new continent,\namidst brutal bodily assaults and indignities heaped upon its\nheralds. Here commenced, some ten years before the date of our\nepistle, a friendship, unbroken through those years, with Timothy, a\nyouth of exemplary ability and piety.\n\n+Place and time of writing the epistle.+--Though C\u00e6sarea has found\nfavour with some scholars as the _place_ from which the epistle\noriginated, by far the greater number accept Rome. Indeed, we may\nalmost say we are shut up to this by ancient and modern opinions.\nEven though we may admit that the subscription of the epistle in the\nA.V., as in general, is not worthy of any special consideration as\nbeing authoritative, yet it agrees in this case with the preponderant\nopinion.\n\nIt is the most natural interpretation of the expression in ch.\niv. 32, \"they of C\u00e6sar's household,\" which is decisive of Rome. The\nphrase in ch. i. 13, \"throughout the whole pr\u00e6torian guard\" (R.V.),\nis not absolutely conclusive for Rome, for the word \"pr\u00e6torium\" is\nused of Herod's palace at C\u00e6sarea, and is \"the standing appellation\nfor the palaces of the chief governors of _provinces_\" (Meyer).\nStill, as Lightfoot argues, to apply it to C\u00e6sarea in this case does\nnot suit the context.\n\nAs to the _time_ of the writing, there is nothing like the same\nconsent of opinion. But the difference of opinion is limited to the\nconfinement of the apostle at Rome (on which see Acts xxviii. 30).\nThe discussion is as to whether it was early or late in that two\nyears' captivity that the letter was written.\n\nFor the later date the arguments are: 1. That it must have taken some\nconsiderable time before St. Paul's religion could be so widely known\nas this letter indicates it was. 2. That Luke and Aristarchus are not\nmentioned here, as in Colossians and Philemon, the inference being\nthat they had left the apostle. 3. That the communications between\nRome and Philippi would necessitate a considerable interval after St.\nPaul's arrival in Rome. 4. That the tone of the apostle agrees better\nwith a prolonged captivity.\n\nAmongst English scholars, Ellicott, Alford, and others favour the\nlater date. On the other side are Lightfoot and Beet.\n\n+Occasion and contents of the epistle.+--Godet remarks that, as\nPhilemon shows us the apostle's way of requesting a favour;\nPhilippians is a specimen of how he returned thanks. The Church which\nwas the \"crown and joy\" of the apostle had sent into his captivity a\ntoken of their loving remembrance by the hand of Epaphroditus. The\nmessenger had been overtaken by alarming illness, and after hearing\nthat his friends in Philippi were anxious about him, he was\ndespatched homewards bearing the apostle's expressions of\ngratitude--not so much for the money gift as the genuine attachment\nwhich prompted it.\n\nNo epistle is so truly a letter, of all we have from St. Paul's pen,\nas this to the Philippians. The arrangement is less formal; we miss\nthe chains of reasoning and quotation from the Old Testament. As\nMeyer says: \"Not one [of his epistles] is so eminently an epistle of\nthe feelings, an outburst of the moment, springing from the deepest\ninward need of loving fellowship amidst outward abandonment and\ntribulation; a model, withal, of the union of tender love and at\ntimes an almost elegiac impress of courageous resignation in the\nprospect of death, with high apostolic dignity and unbroken holy joy,\nhope, and victory over the world.\"\n\nA brief synopsis of the letter may be shown thus:--\n\n      i.   1-11. Greeting of, thanksgiving, and prayer for the\n                 Philippians.\n\n          12-26. Personal affairs of the apostle (so ch. ii. 19-30).\n\ni. 27--ii. 1-11. Exhortation to humility after the supreme Example.\n\n     ii.  12-18. _Omitted._\n\n    iii.   1-21. Warning against the vain work-righteousness of\n                 Judaism.\n\n     iv.    1-9. Exhortations to unity, to Christian joy, and\n                 Christian graces.\n\n          10-19. Renewed thanksgiving for the generosity shown.\n\n          20-23. Doxology and salutations.\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ.+--There is\nno necessity for Paul to mention his apostolate, inasmuch as the\nPhilippians had never even thought of calling it in question. \"Paul\nan apostle and Timothy a servant\" was a distinction too invidious for\nPaul to make. There is a fine aroma of courtesy in what is not said\nas well as in what is said here. +Bishops and deacons.+--\"It is\nincredible that St. Paul should recognise only the bishops and\ndeacons (if 'presbyters' were a different order from 'bishops'). It\nseems therefore to follow of necessity that the 'bishops' were\nidentical with the 'presbyters'\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 3. +I thank my God.+--The keynote of the whole epistle. As the\napostle's strains of praise had been heard by the prisoners in the\nPhilippian gaol, so now from another captivity the Church hears a\nsong of sweet contentment. \"_My_ God.\" The personal appropriation and\nthe quiet contentment of the apostle both speak in this emphatic\nphrase.\n\nVer. 4. +Always in every prayer of mine for you all.+--Notice the\ncomprehensive \"always,\" \"every,\" \"all,\" indicating special attachment\nto the Philippians. +With joy.+--The sum of the epistle is, \"I\nrejoice. . . . Rejoice ye.\" \"He recalls to our minds the runner who\nat the supreme moment of Grecian history brought to Athens the news\nof Marathon. Worn, panting, exhausted with the effort to be the\nherald of deliverance, he sank in death on the threshold of the first\nhouse which he reached with the tidings of victory, and sighed forth\nhis gallant soul in one great sob, almost in the very same words as\nthose used by the apostle, 'Rejoice ye; we rejoice'\" (_Farrar,_ after\nLightfoot).\n\nVer. 5. \"+Fellowship+ here denotes co-operation in the widest sense,\ntheir participation with the apostle, whether in sympathy or in\nsuffering, or in active labour, or in any other way. At the same\ntime, their almsgiving was a signal instance of this co-operation and\nseems to have been foremost in the apostle's mind\" (_Lightfoot_). +He\nwhich hath begun a good work in you will perform it.+--\"The\nobservation of the ebb and flow of the tide for so many days and\nmonths and ages together, as it has been observed by mankind, gives\nus a full assurance that it will ebb and flow again to-morrow\"\n(_Bishop Butler_). Another sort of assurance comes in here. It is an\noffence to every worthy thought of God that He should begin and not\nbe able to finish (Isa. xxvi. 12).\n\nVer. 7. +Meet for me to think this.+--\"To form this opinion.\" That\nthe apostle cherished a warm affection for these Philippians would\nhave been, if alone, a very flimsy foundation for hopes so\nsubstantial. Was not Judas cherished in a warmer heart than Paul's?\nBut their sympathy and active co-operation made such an opinion not a\npious hope, but a reasonable likelihood. +Defence and\nconfirmation.+--The \"defence\" (\u1f00\u03c0\u03bf\u03bb\u03b3\u03af\u03b1) is the clearing away of\nobjections--the preparation of the ground; the \"confirmation\" is the\npositive settlement on the ground so prepared. \"The two together will\nthus comprise all modes of preaching and extending the truth\"\n(_Lightfoot_). +Partakers of my grace.+--The _grace_ whether of\npreaching or of suffering for the Gospel. See ver. 29, where \"given\"\nrequires the addition \"as a favour.\" \"You are privileged . . . to\nsuffer.\"\n\nVer. 8. +God is my record.+--As in Rom. i. 9. When we feel language\ntoo weak to bear our impassioned feeling, it may be well to remember\nthe \"Yea, yea\" of the Master rather than copy this oath. +In the\nbowels of Jesus Christ.+--R.V. \"in the tender mercies.\" This is quite\nan Eastern form of expression. Among the Malays a term of endearment\nis \"my liver\"; we choose the heart as the seat of the affections. For\nthe figure, cf. Gal. ii. 20.\n\nVer. 9. +In knowledge and in all judgment.+--\"Perfect knowledge (as\nin Eph. i. 17, iv. 13) and universal discernment.\" \"The one deals\nwith general principles, the other is concerned with practical\napplications\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 10. +That ye may approve things that are excellent.+--St. Paul\nwould have his dear Philippians to be connoisseurs of whatever is\nmorally and spiritually excellent. +That ye may be sincere.+--Bearing\na close scrutiny, in the strongest light, or according to another\nderivation of the word, perhaps more true if less beautiful, made\npure by sifting. +And without offence.+--Might be either \"without\nstumbling,\" as Acts xxiv. 16, or \"not causing offence.\" Lightfoot\nprefers the former, Meyer the latter. Beet unites the two.\n\nVer. 11. +Fruits of righteousness.+--\"A harvest of righteousness.\"\n+Which are through Jesus Christ.+--A more precise definition of\n\"fruits.\"\n\nVer. 12. +The things which happened unto me.+--Precisely the same\nphrase as in Eph. vi. 21; is translated \"my affairs\" (so Col.\niv. 17). These circumstances were such as naturally would fill the\nfriends of the apostle with concern for him personally. As to the\neffect on the spread of the Gospel--ever St. Paul's chief\nsolicitude--they had been apprehensive. +Rather unto the\nfurtherance.+--Not to the _hindrance,_ as to your fears seemed\nlikely. It is the same triumphant note which rises, in a later\nimprisonment, above personal indignity and suffering. \"_I_ may be\nbound, but the message I bear is at liberty\" (2 Tim. ii. 9).\n\nVer. 13. +Bonds in Christ are manifest.+--R.V. \"bonds became manifest\nin Christ.\" It is not simply as a private prisoner that he is bound;\nit is a matter of public note that he is bound for Christ's sake. +In\nall the palace.+--R.V. text, \"throughout the whole pr\u00e6torian guard.\"\nR.V. margin, \"in the whole pr\u00e6torium.\" \"The best supported meaning of\n'pr\u00e6torium' is--_the soldiers_ composing the imperial regiments\"\n(_Lightfoot_). \"_The barracks_ of the imperial body-guard to whose\n'colonel' Paul was given in charge on his arrival in Rome (Acts\nxxviii. 16)\" (_Meyer_). \"As the soldiers would relieve guard in\nconstant succession, the pr\u00e6torians one by one were brought into\ncommunication with 'the prisoner of Jesus Christ'\" (_Lightfoot_). +In\nall other places.+--The italicised places of the A.V. text must be\ndropped; the margin is better. A loose way of saying \"to others\nbesides the military.\"\n\nVer. 14. +Confident by my bonds.+--The bonds might have been thought\nto be sufficient to intimidate the brethren; but the policy of\nstamping out has oftener resulted in spreading the Gospel.\n\nVer. 15. +Some indeed preach Christ even of envy and strife.+--Not\nsome of the brethren emboldened by the apostle's chain, perhaps,\nalthough one sees no reason why the Judaisers would not, with\nredoubled energy, spread their views when he whom they so violently\nopposed was for the time being silenced, as they imagined. _\"Of\nenvy.\"_ Lightfoot refers to the saying of the comic poet Philemon\nwith its play on the word, \"Thou teachest me many things ungrudgingly\nbecause of a grudge\" (on account of envy). This glaring inconsistency\nof preaching a Gospel of goodwill from such a motive as envy, the\nworst form of ill-will, must be closely observed here.\n\nVers. 16, 17.--These verses are transposed in R.V.; the order of the\nA.V. is against decisive testimony (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 16. +To add affliction to my bonds.+--\"To make my chains gall\nme,\" Lightfoot strikingly translates. One can almost imagine St. Paul\nstarting up, and straining at the wrist of the soldier to whom he was\nchained as he hears of the intrigues of a party whose one object it\nwas to impose an effete ritual on men called to liberty in Christ.\n\nVer. 17. +For the defence of the gospel.+--Many a man in the\napostle's place would have found himself absorbed by the question how\nbest to make a good defence of himself.\n\nVer. 18. +Whether in pretence, or in truth, Christ is preached.+--St.\nPaul evidently thinks the imperfect knowledge of Christ preferable to\nheathen ignorance of Him. The truth is mighty enough to take care of\nitself, without any hand that shakes with nervous apprehension to\nsteady its ark. St. Paul is beforehand with our method of keeping a\nsubject before the notice of the public. The policy of \"never\nmentioning\" was what St. Paul regarded as fatal.\n\nVer. 19. +This shall turn to my salvation.+--\"_Salvation_ in the\nhighest sense. These trials will develop the spiritual life in the\napostle, will be a pathway to the glories of heaven\" (_Lightfoot_).\nMeyer prefers to render \"will be _salutary_ for me,\" without any more\nprecise modal definition. +Supply of the Spirit of Jesus\nChrist.+--\"The Spirit of Jesus is both the giver and the gift\"\n(_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 20. +Earnest expectation.+--Same word again in Rom. viii. 19\n(not again in New Testament). \"It is the waiting expectation that\ncontinues on the strain till the goal is attained\" (_Meyer_). The\nintensive in the compound word implies abstraction from other things\nthrough intentness on one. +Put to shame.+--As a man might be who\nfelt his cause not worth pleading, or as one overawed by an august\npresence. +With all boldness,+ _i.e._ of speech. A man overpowered by\nshame loses the power of speech (see Matt. xxii. 12).\n\nVer. 21. +For me to live is Christ.+--The word of emphasis is _to\nme,_ whatever it may be to others. If this be not the finest specimen\nof a surrendered soul, one may seek long for that which excels it.\nThat life should be intolerable, nay inconceivable, except as the ego\nmerges into Christ's; this is the sanest and most blessed _unio\nmystica_ (Gal. ii. 20). +And to die is gain.+--It is the purely\npersonal view--\"to me\"--which the apostle has before him. \"The spirit\nthat denies\" says, that when all that a man hath has been bartered\nfor life, he will think himself gainer. \"More life and fuller\" is\nwhat St. Paul sees through the sombre corridor. It is not simply the\noblivious repose where \"the wicked cease from troubling\" that he\nyearns for. Nor is it a philosophical Nirv\u00e2na.\n\n     \"For who to dumb forgetfulness a prey\n      This pleasing, anxious being e'er resigned?\"\n\nVer. 22. +But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my labour+\n(see R.V.).--\"The grammar of the passage reflects the conflict of\nfeeling in the apostle's mind. He is tossed to and fro between the\ndesire to labour for Christ in life and the desire to be united with\nChrist by death. The abrupt and disjointed sentences express this\nhesitation\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 23. +I am in a strait betwixt two.+--I am laid hold of by two\nforces drawing in opposite directions. \"Desire\" draws me away from\nearth; your \"necessity\" would keep me in it. As in the old mythology\neverything bowed before Necessity (\u1f00\u03bd\u03ac\u03b3\u03ba\u03b7), so here the apostle's\ndesire is held in check by the needs of his converts. +To\ndepart.+--As a ship weighs anchor and glides out with set sails, or\nas a tent is struck by the Arabs as they noiselessly steal away. +To\nbe with Christ.+--St. Paul regards the soul, whilst in the body, as a\n\"settler\" in a land of which he is not a native, an \"emigrant\" from\nother shores. But he would rather emigrate from the land of his\nsojourn and settle with the Lord (2 Cor. v. 6, 8). \"We come from God\nwho is our home.\" \"As soon as I shall have taken the poison I shall\nstay no longer with you, but shall part from hence, and go to enjoy\nthe felicity of the blessed\" (_Socrates_ to Crito). +Which is far\nbetter.+--R.V. \"very far.\" How far from uncertainty is the eager\nestimate of the life with Christ! It is one thing to extol the\nsuperiority of the life away from the flesh in a Christian hymn,\nwhilst health is robust; it is quite a different matter to covet it\nwith the sword of martyrdom hanging over one's head.\n\nVer. 25. +I know that I shall abide.+--Not a prophetic inspiration,\nbut a personal conviction (Acts xx. 25).\n\nVer. 27. +Your conversation.+--R.V. \"manner of life.\" Margin, \"behave\nas citizens.\" Perform your duties as citizens. St. Paul in Philippi,\nby the assertion of his Roman citizenship, had brought the pr\u00e6tors to\ntheir knees (Acts xvi. 37, 38), and is addressing men who could fully\nappreciate the honour of the _jus Italicum_ conferred by C\u00e6sar\nAugustus on their city. He would have them be mindful of their place\nin the kingdom which \"cometh not with observation.\" +Whether I come\nand see you, or else be absent, I may hear.+--The question arises\nwhether St. Paul meant to say if he visited them, they themselves\nwould inform him of the condition of the Church; or whether he meant\nhe would see for himself if he went, and if not at least he would\nhear. As he is actually distant, the idea of hearing is uppermost,\nand so we have \"I may hear\" where we might have expected \"I shall\nlearn.\"\n\nVer. 28. +In nothing terrified.+--The phrase is a continuation of the\nidea of the amphitheatre in ver. 27 (\"striving together\"). We must,\nit seems, recognise a double metaphor--behaving in the arena, before\nantagonists and spectators, like a horse that takes fright and bolts.\nThe warning against such unworthy conduct might be rendered--\n\n     \"In the world's broad field of battle,\n        In the bivouac of life,\n      Be not like dumb driven cattle,\n        Be a hero in the strife.\"\n\n+Which is to them an evident token of perdition.+--When once they\nhave discovered that all their artifices have not the least power to\nalarm you, will not this be a clear indication that they fight on\nbehalf of a failing cause? +But to you of salvation, and that of\nGod.+--The Christian gladiator does not anxiously await the signal of\nlife or death from the fickle crowd. The great President of the\ncontest Himself has given him a sure token of deliverance\n(_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 29. +It is given in the behalf of Christ.+--God has granted you\nthe high privilege of suffering for Christ; this is the surest sign\nthat He looks upon you with favour (_Ibid._). The veterans in\nPhilippi would understand well enough that a position involving\npersonal danger might be a mark of favour from the prefect to the\nprivate soldier.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_Christian Greeting_--\n\n+I. Addressed to a fully organised Church.+--\"To all the saints in\nChrist Jesus which are at Philippi, with the bishops and deacons\"\n(ver. 1). Christianity, which began with the quiet meetings in the\nhumble Jewish proseucha, or oratory, by the river-side, had so far\nspread in Philippi as to settle down into a stable and permanent\nChurch organisation. This is the first instance in which bishops and\ndeacons are mentioned, and specially addressed in the apostolic\nsalutation. The former are sometimes called elders, presbyters,\nrulers, or presidents, and were empowered to take the oversight of\nthe whole Church, to instruct, exhort, and rule the members; the\nlatter were chosen to take care of the poor, and to manage the\nfinances of the Church. The bishops attended to the internal, the\ndeacons to the external affairs of the Christian community. The title\npresbyter implied the rank, the bishop the duties of the office. As\nthe apostles by their frequent absence were unable to take the\npersonal oversight of the Churches they founded, they appointed\nofficers in each Church. As the Churches multiplied, and the\nChurch-life developed, the organisation became more compact and\ncomplete. It is noticeable in this instance that the apostle\naddresses the whole Church more than its presiding ministers. It\nshould be ever remembered that the minister exists for the Church,\nnot the Church for the minister. The clergy are not the Church, but,\nunder God, the servants and religious guides of the people. The\nChristian Church is the glory and stability of a nation. When at\nBrussels Lord Chesterfield was invited by Voltaire to sup with him\nand Madame C----. The conversation happening to turn upon the affairs\nof England, \"I think, my lord,\" said Madame C----, \"that the\nParliament of England consists of five or six hundred of the\nbest-informed men of the kingdom.\" \"True, madame, they are generally\nsupposed to be so.\" \"What, then, can be the reason they tolerate so\ngreat an absurdity as the Christian religion?\" \"I suppose, madame,\"\nreplied his lordship, \"it is because they have not been able to\nsubstitute anything better in its stead; when they can, I do not\ndoubt but in their wisdom they will readily adopt it.\"\n\n+II. Valued as emanating from distinguished Christian\npioneers.+--\"Paul and Timothy, the servants of Jesus Christ\" (ver.\n1). The significance and worth of a salutation depend upon the\ncharacter and reputation of those from whom it comes. Paul was\nhonoured by the Philippians as their father in the Gospel, and as one\nwho had won a high distinction by his conspicuous abilities and\nlabours in other spheres; and Timothy was well known to them as a\ndevoted minister and fellow-helper of the apostle. Words coming from\nsuch a source would be gratefully welcomed and fondly cherished. Paul\ndoes not give prominence to his apostleship, as in the inscriptions\nto other epistles. The Philippians had already sufficient proof of\nhis apostolic authority and power. Paul and his colleagues were\nreverenced as \"the servants of Jesus Christ.\" They acknowledged\nsubjection, not to the man, but to Christ; they lived to advance His\ninterests and honour, and found their highest joy in His service,\nthough attended with hard toil, unreasoning persecution, and\nunparalleled suffering. The Baptist Missionary Society adopted for\nits motto a device found upon an ancient medal representing a bullock\nstanding between a plough and an altar, with the inscription \"Ready\nfor either, for toil or for sacrifice.\" The service of Christ is a\nlife of self-sacrifice; but that is the pathway of duty, of blessing,\nof reward, of glory.\n\n+III. Invokes the bestowment of great blessings.+--\"Grace be unto\nyou, and peace\" (ver. 2). Grace and peace are Divine gifts,\nproceeding from \"God the Father,\" as the original and active Source\nof all blessings, and from \"the Lord Jesus Christ\" who is now exalted\nto the right hand of the Divine majesty to bestow those blessings\nupon His people. Grace, the unmerited favour of God, is the\nexhaustless fountain of all other blessings, and includes the\never-flowing stream of the Holy Spirit's influences; peace, the\nresult of grace, is the tranquillity and joy of heart realised on\nreconciliation with God. The very form of this salutation implies the\nunion of Jew, Greek, and Gentile. The Greek salutation was \"joy,\"\nakin to the word for grace. The Roman was \"health,\" the intermediate\nterm between grace and peace. The Hebrew was \"peace,\" including both\ntemporal and spiritual prosperity. The great mission of the Gospel is\nto spread peace on earth, peace with men, following on peace with\nGod. The believer enjoys peace even in the midst of trial and\nsuffering. One of the martyrs, exposed to public derision in an iron\ncage, is reported to have said to a bystander, who expressed surprise\nat the cheerfulness he manifested, \"You can see these bars, but you\ncannot hear the music in my conscience.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Religion teaches the truest courtesy._ 2. _The\nunselfish heart wishes well to all._ 3. _That greeting is the most\ngenuine that recognises the claims of God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _The Apostolic Greeting._--1. Unity and concord amongst\nministers in giving joint testimony to the same truths and weight to\nwhat they preach. Preachers are in a special manner the servants of\nChrist as being wholly and perpetually dedicated to His service.\n2. As to make a man internally and spiritually holy it is necessary\nhe be in Christ by faith, so to make him externally holy requires a\nvisible and external union with Christ in professing truths relating\nto Him. 3. The dignity of a minister or of any Church officer does\nnot exempt him from the necessity of being taught, exhorted,\nreproved, and comforted. 4. God's grace is the fountain from which\npeace with God, with our own conscience, and all sanctified\nprosperity and peace among ourselves do flow. In seeking things from\nGod we look to Him, not as standing disaffected to us and at a\ndistance, but as our Father.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 1. _The Commencement of the Gospel at Philippi._\n\n+I. To secure the widest diffusion of the Gospel great centres should\nbe the first places chosen for the concentration of its forces.+\n\n+II. The Gospel of universal adaptation has a world-wide\nmission.+--The first three converts embraced different nationalities,\nemployments, social grades,--Lydia, the oriental trader, the Grecian\nfemale slave and soothsayer, the Roman keeper of the prison. Christ\nhas demolished all barriers to the exercise of Divine mercy.\n\n+III. The duty and privilege of Christian parents to consecrate their\nchildren and home to Christ+ (Acts xvi. 15, 33, 34, 40).\n\n+IV. Civic distinctions subordinated to Christ will further the\nGospel and adorn the Christian name.+--Paul's Roman citizenship\ngained his freedom and silenced his enemies. His chain connects the\nhistory of Rome and Philippi. The Christian's spirit can defy the\ninner prison to suppress its praise or prayer (Acts xvi. 25).\n\n\nVer. 2. _God our Father._--Christ aimed at raising men from the\nbondage of mere servants into the freedom of sons. He taught that God\nour Father was henceforth to be--\n\n  +I. The sole Model of perfection.+ (Matt. vi. 48).\n\n +II. The sole Rewarder of almsgiving.+ (Matt. vi. 4).\n\n+III The sole Hearer of prayer+ (Matt. vi. 6).\n\n +IV. The sole Observer of fastings+ (Matt. vi. 18).\n\n  +V. The sole Provider of daily wants+ (Matt. vi. 26-33).--_Lay\n      Preacher._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-8.\n\n_Eulogy of Christian Excellence_--\n\n+I. Prompted by pleasant memories of faithful co-operation in\nChristian work.+--\"I thank my God upon every remembrance of\nyou, . . . for your fellowship in the gospel from the first day until\nnow, . . . inasmuch as both in my bonds, and in the defence and\nconfirmation of the gospel, ye all are partakers of my grace\" (vers.\n3, 5, 7). The apostle remembers with joy the way in which the\nPhilippians first received the Gospel, the effect it produced upon\ntheir lives, the eagerness with which they entered into his plans for\nits wider propagation, the liberality, though not themselves a rich\npeople, they showed to their needy brethren in other Churches, the\naffectionate attachment they displayed towards himself, the help they\nafforded him when in imprisonment, and the many ways in which they\ncheerfully co-operated with him in the defence and establishment of\nthe truth. They had laboured, suffered, triumphed, and rejoiced\ntogether. The apostle's eulogy of their character was not flattery,\nbut sober and just commendation of tried and sterling excellencies.\nOur happiest memories--memories that become more vivid as life\nadvances--are of those days in which we laboured most earnestly in\nthe service of God.\n\n+II. Springs from a loving appreciation and tender Christian\nsolicitude.+--\"Even as it is meet for me to think thus of you all,\nbecause I have you in my heart. . . . For God is my record, how\ngreatly I long after you all in the bowels of Jesus Christ\" (vers. 7,\n8). There was something about the Philippians that captivated the\nheart of the apostle. He loved them because they loved his Master,\nand because they sought to spread the Gospel he preached. Love begets\nlove, and there is no power in uniting hearts like the love of\nChrist. The love of the apostle was manifested in a yearning desire\nfor their advancement in personal godliness. \"All real spiritual\nlove,\" says Alford, \"is but a portion of Christ's love which yearns\nin all who are united to Him.\" Christian love is not mere\nself-indulgence of a personal feeling; its unselfishness is evident\nin seeking to advance the highest spiritual interests of the person\nloved. It is something more than a refined and noble sentiment. The\nfinest feeling may be very superficial. Some friends were drinking\ntea one evening at the home of Mr. Mackenzie, the author of _The Man\nof Feeling,_ and waited for some time for his arrival. At length he\ncame in heated and excited, and exclaimed: \"What a glorious evening I\nhave had!\" They thought he spoke of the weather, which was singularly\nbeautiful; but he went on to detail the intense enjoyment he had had\nin witnessing a cock-fight. Mrs. Mackenzie listened some time in\nsilence; then, looking up in his face, she remarked in her gentle\nvoice, \"Oh, Harry, Harry, your feeling is all on paper!\"\n\n+III. Strengthened by the assurance of increasing Christian\ndevotion.+--\"Being confident of this very thing, that He which hath\nbegun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus\nChrist\" (ver. 6). Even man, fickle as he is, does not begin work at\nrandom and without purpose; some time or other he hopes to finish it.\nBut God, who begins the work of the new spiritual creation in the\nsoul, is constantly striving to finish it, until it shall be\npresented perfect at the day of Christ. The apostle had no doubt\nabout the Divine working, and he rejoiced in the evidence he had that\nhis converts were increasing in spiritual fervour and devotion.\nFaithfulness to God strengthens fidelity in every duty of life. On\nboard the flag-ship of a celebrated commander a complaint was made by\nthe captain against a number of the crew for disturbing the ship's\ncompany by frequent noises. The admiral ordered an inquiry to be\nmade. The accusation was that these men were Methodists, and that\nwhen their watch was below they were in the constant habit of reading\nthe Bible to each other aloud, of frequently joining in social prayer\nand singing of psalms and hymns. After the statement had been proved,\nthe admiral asked, \"What is the general conduct of these men on\ndeck--orderly or disobedient, cleanly or the contrary?\" \"Always\norderly, obedient, and cleanly,\" was the reply. \"When the watch is\ncalled, do they linger, or are they ready?\" \"Always ready at the\nfirst call.\" \"You have seen these men in battle, sir; do they stand\nto their guns or shrink?\" \"They are the most intrepid men in the\nship, my lord, and will die at their post.\" \"Let them alone, then,\"\nwas the decisive answer of this magnanimous commander; \"if Methodists\nare such men, I wish that all my crew were Methodists.\"\n\n+IV. Expressed in thanksgiving and joyous prayer.+--\"I thank my\nGod . . . always in every prayer of mine for you all, making request\nwith joy\" (vers. 3, 4). Joy is the characteristic feature in this\nepistle, as love is in that to the Ephesians. Love and joy are the\ntwo firstfruits of the Spirit. Joy gives especial animation to\nprayers. It marked the apostle's high opinion of them, that there was\nalmost everything in them to give him joy, and almost nothing to give\nhim pain (_Fausset_). The labour of prayer is sure, if persisted in,\nto merge into the joy of prayer. Prayer is a blessing to others as\nwell as to ourselves. The father of Sir Philip Sydney enjoined upon\nhis son, when he went to school, never to neglect thoughtful prayer.\nIt was golden advice, and doubtless his faithful obedience to the\nprecept helped to make Philip Sydney the peerless flower of\nknighthood, and the stainless man that he was--a man for whom, months\nafter his death, every gentleman in England wore mourning.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christian excellence is a reflection of the character\nof Christ._ 2. _Christian excellence is acquired by praying and\nworking._ 3. _Genuine Christianity is its own best eulogy._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 3. _Happy Memories._\n\n  +I. Those that are prompted by the Spirit of God.+\n\n +II. Those that recall the past joy of harvest.+\n\n+III. Those that still link us in association with distant but\n      kindred spirits.+\n\n +IV. Those that evoke perennial gratitude to God.+\n\n  +V. Those that enrich our own moral worth.+--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVers. 4, 5. _Fellowship in the Gospel._\n\n  +I. Christian ministers have a claim to maintenance from the\n      people.+\n\n +II. Fellowship is making another a fellow-partaker of what\n      belongs to us.+\n\n+III. The apostle Paul while claiming his privilege was cautious in\n      using it.+\n\n +IV. The voluntary system has advantages, but greater\n      disadvantages.+--_Archbishop Whately._\n\n\nVer. 4. \"Making request with joy.\" _Pure Joy_--\n\n  +I. Springs from Divine communications.+\n\n +II. Succeeds a previous sorrow.+\n\n+III. Is superior to human surroundings.+\n\n +IV. Is sustained by answered prayer.+--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 5. _True Gospel Fellowship._\n\n  +I. Lives which adorn it.+\n\n +II. Hearts which beat for it.+\n\n+III. Lips which testify for it.+\n\n +IV. Hands which work for it.+\n\n  +V. Gifts which extend it.+--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 6. _Grounds of Confidence in the Believer's Salvation._\n\n+I. That the Philippians persevered in the midst of great\ndifficulties, opposition, and persecution.+\n\n+II. That their persevering fellowship in the Gospel had been\ncharacterised by great purity and consistency of Christian life.+\n\n+III. That they gave evidences of zeal for the propagation of\nreligion and of liberality in contributing of their worldly substance\nto this end.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _This doctrine affords comfort and hope to struggling\nChristians._ 2. _The grounds of assurance forbid presumptuous\nconfidence and stimulate to watchfulness and effort.--Homiletic\nMonthly._\n\n\n_The Perseverance of the Saints._\n\n+I. I shall adduce some of the principal arguments in support of the\ndoctrine of the perseverance of the saints.+--1. The decree of\nelection. 2. The merit of Christ's sufferings and death. 3. The\nintercession of Christ. 4. The promises of God. 5. The constitution\nof the covenant of grace. 6. The statements of Scripture in regard to\nthe constant indwelling of the Holy Spirit in all believers.\n\n+II. I shall consider some of the most plausible objections which\nhave been urged against this doctrine.+--1. That some of the most\neminent saints have fallen into very grievous sins. They did not fall\ntotally and finally. 2. That many who were long regarded as true\nChristians do in point of fact finally apostatise. They never were\ntrue Christians. 3. That there are in Scripture many earnest\nexhortations to watchfulness, and many awful warnings against\napostasy. God works by means and motives. 4. That believers being\nassured of their ultimate recovery will be encouraged to sin. The\nperseverance of the saints is perseverance in holiness. (1) Has a\ngood work begun in you? (2) If so, remember that while the\nperseverance of the saints is promised as a privilege, it is also\nenjoined as a duty.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.\n\n_A Prayer for Christian Love_--\n\n+I. That it may be regulated by knowledge and discretion.+--\"And this\nI pray, that your love may abound . . . in knowledge and in all\njudgment\" (ver. 9).\n\n1. _So as to test what is best._--\"That ye may approve things that\nare excellent\" (ver. 10)--test things that differ. Two faculties of\nthe mind are to be brought into exercise--knowledge, the acquisitive\nfaculty; and judgment, the perceptive faculty. Love is not a wild,\nignorant enthusiasm, but the warm affection of a heart, guided by\nextensive and accurate knowledge, and by a clear, spiritual\nperception. From a number of good things we select and utilise the\nbest.\n\n2. _So as to maintain a blameless life._--\"That ye may be sincere and\nwithout offence till the day of Christ\" (ver. 10). Be so transparent\nin heart and life as neither to give or take offence, and when\nexamined in the light of the day of Christ to be adjudged blameless.\nTo live a useful and holy life we must both think and feel aright.\nLove will ever prompt us to the holiest conduct and to the best work.\n\"I once asked a distinguished artist,\" said Boree, \"what place he\ngave to labour in art. 'Labour is the beginning, the middle, and the\nend of art,' was the answer. I turned to another and inquired, 'What\ndo you consider as the great force in art?' 'Love,' was the reply. In\nthese two answers I found but one truth.\"\n\n+II. That it may stimulate the growth of a high Christian\ncharacter.+--1. _A high Christian character is the outcome of\nrighteous principles._ \"Being filled with the fruits--the fruit--of\nrighteousness.\" All Christian virtues are from the one common root of\nthe Spirit. It is He who plants them in the heart, fosters their\ngrowth, brings them to perfection, and fills the soul with them as\nthe trees are laden with ripened fruit. The apostle prays for more\nlove, because love impels us to act righteously in all things, even\nin the minor affairs of life. \"Just as the quality of life,\" says\nMaclaren, \"may be as perfect in the minutest animalcul\u00e6, of which\nthere may be millions in a cubic inch and generations may die in an\nhour--just as perfect in the smallest insect as in behemoth, biggest\nborn of earth, so righteousness may be as completely embodied, as\nperfectly set forth, as fully operative in the tiniest action that I\ncan do, as in the largest that an immortal spirit can be set to\nperform. The circle that is in a gnat's eye is as true as circle as\nthe one that holds within its sweep all the stars, and the sphere\nthat a dewdrop makes is as perfect a sphere as that of the world. All\nduties are the same which are done from the same motives; all actions\nwhich are not so done are all alike sins.\"\n\n2. _A High Christian character honours God._--\"Which are by Jesus\nChrist, unto the glory and praise of God\" (ver. 11). The\nrighteousness which exalts man honours God. It is a practical\nmanifestation of the grace communicated through Jesus Christ, and\nadorns the doctrine which is according to godliness. There are those\nwho live soberly and righteously in this present world; but what\nabout their duty to God? God is not in all their thoughts. That there\nhas been no acceptance into their lives of Christ--without which\nacceptance God is a stranger to us and we strangers to God, no\nconsecration to Christ, no referring to His will, no love to His\nperson, and no zeal for His glory--of all this they are perfectly\naware. And the thought of their heart is, that the omission is of no\ngreat consequence, and so long as they live soberly and righteously,\nit matters little or nothing whether they do or do not live godly.\nThe power lacking is that for which the apostle prays--the power of\nlove, whole-hearted love to Christ.\n\n+III. That it may be enjoyed in ever-increasing measure.+--\"And this\nI pray, that your love may abound yet more and more\" (ver. 9). Some\ntime ago the public mind was filled with uneasiness in expectation of\na high tide which was to visit our shores, and which it was feared\nwould work great mischief. As the time drew near, the anxiety\nincreased. At length the tide flowed in, rose to its highest point,\nand then retired, bearing with it the fears that had agitated the\npublic mind. Why this alarm? Because all know the unmanageable,\ndestructive power of water, when it once bursts its bounds. Love,\nunlike water, the more it abounds and overflows the greater the\nbenefits it bestows. There is no fear that we shall love God too\nmuch; it is our shame and loss that we love Him so little. Love\nchafes against all limitations.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Love is the essence of Christianity._ 2. _Love should\ngovern every part of the Christian life._ 3. _Love may be augmented\nby earnest prayer._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9, 10. _The Apostle's Prayer for Abounding Love_--\n\n+I. In its application to the affections.+--\"That your love may\nabound yet more and more\" (ver. 9).\n\n1. _Love to God._--(1) Because of the supreme excellence of His\ncharacter. (2) Because of His generous interposition in the work of\nhuman redemption. (3) Because of the benefits He is constantly\nbestowing.\n\n2. _Love to one another._--Love promotes brotherly unity--oneness of\nfeeling, of aim, of effort. Unity promotes strength. To strength in\nits combined action victory is given.\n\n3. _Love to the unsaved._--The law of Moses insisted, \"Thou shalt\nlove thy neighbour\"; to which the Pharisees made this addition, \"Thou\nshalt love thy neighbour, and hate thine enemy.\" Christ interprets\nthe law of love in the command, \"I say unto you, Love your enemies.\"\n\n+II. In its application to the intellect.+--\"In knowledge and in all\njudgment; that ye may approve things that are excellent\" (vers. 9,\n10). Knowledge, the faculty to acquire information; judgment, the\nfaculty to discern its value and use; the one leads to the sources of\ntruth and appropriates its stores, the other selects and uses what is\nacquired. These two faculties necessary--1. _In judging revealed\ntruth._ 2. _In judging Christian experience._ 3. _In selecting what\nis best in all truths._\n\n+III. In its application to the conduct.+--\"That ye may be sincere\nand without offence till the day of Christ\" (ver. 10).\n\n1. _An inward state._--Sincerity, transparency of character.\n\n2. _An outward walk._--Inoffensiveness of conduct. Not designedly\ngiving offence; sacrificing everything but principle rather than\ngrieve or mislead a weak brother.\n\n3. _Perseverance in an upright life._--\"Till the day of Christ.\" This\nis the scorner's day; the good are hated and despised; but the day of\nChrist is coming, and will rectify all wrongs. A day of blessing and\nhonour to the good, of confusion and punishment to the wicked; of\napproval to the one, of condemnation to the other.\n\n\nVer. 9. \"And this I pray.\" _Definiteness in Prayer_--\n\n  +I. Implies a deep consciousness of an intelligently apprehended\n      need.+\n\n +II. Becoming, when an intelligent being addresses the Divine\n      Intelligence.+\n\n+III. Essential from the very nature of prayer.+\n\n +IV. Affords a fixed ground from the exercise of faith.+\n\n  +V. Emboldens supplication.+\n\n +VI. Inspires hope of a definite response.+--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 10. \"That ye may approve things that are excellent.\" _Spiritual\nDiscrimination_--\n\n  +I. Demands the exercise of the most intelligent and sensitive\n      charity.+\n\n +II. Commands a wide field of effort--the bad, the good, the better,\n      the best--in character, life, doctrine, practice, enjoyment,\n      attainment.+\n\n+III. Implies the admission and use of a noble liberty of thought,\n      judgment, and action.+\n\n +IV. Involves a weighty and far-reaching responsibility.+\n\n  +V. Is essential to a pure and blameless life.+--_Ibid._\n\n\n\"That ye may be sincere.\" _The Value of Sincerity in Youth._\n\nThere is a false sincerity which is a compound of ignorance and\nobstinacy. The heathen may be devout and sincere in his idolatry, but\nhe is a heathen still. The Mahometan may be devout and sincere in his\nworship of the one God, but he rejects the Christ who is the source\nand substance of all true religion. The sceptic may be devout and\nearnest in his investigation of the facts of the universe; but he\nignores the great moral truths on which he stumbles in the course of\nhis inquiries, and refuses to accept and be influenced by them. There\nis no craze of the wildest fanatic that may not be adopted as an\narticle of faith, if apparent sincerity is to be the test of its\ngenuineness. The fact is, a man may be sincere, but grossly mistaken.\nA sincere heart is that through which the light of God shines,\nunimpeded by duplicity and sin, and is a condition of heart obtained\nonly by living much in the presence and light of God.\n\n+I. Be sincere in the search after truth.+--Truth must be sought for\nits own sake, and is revealed only to the humble and sincere seeker.\nIt is of supreme importance to you to find the truth. Truth has but\none direction and one goal--it terminates in the radiant presence of\na living personality. When you come into the presence of truth, you\ncome into the presence of God. Truth has a living embodiment in\nChrist Jesus. If you desire a solution of the perplexing riddles of\nlife, if you would understand the principles on which God governs the\nuniverse, if you wish to dissipate the doubts that becloud and harass\nthe mind, if you desire rest and peace of conscience, and to obtain\nstrength and inspiration to live a happy, useful, and noble\nlife--then seek the truth as it is in Jesus; and if you are really\nsincere, you shall not seek in vain.\n\n+II. Be sincere in your social intercourse with one another.+--1. _In\nyour friendships._ 2. _In your promises._\n\n+III. Be sincere in the service of God.+\n\n+IV. Be sincere in the cultivation of your own personal piety.+\n\n\n_Christian Rectitude_--\n\n+I. Consists in internal sincerity.+--1. _This involves a\nconcentratedness of heart upon one object._ 2. _A thoroughness of\nlife's uniformity to that one object._ 3. _An unostentatious but\nmanifest integrity._ 4. _The completeness of that manifestation\nshould be proportionate to the brightness of the testing light._\n\n+II. Consists in external blamelessness.+--1. _Without being found\nguilty of offence._ 2. _Without giving offence._ 3. _Without taking\noffence._\n\n+III. Consists in a present state of life, with a glorious future\ndestination.+--\"That ye may be without offence till the day of\nChrist.\" 1. _Then life shall be judged._ 2. _Life shall be made\nmanifest._ 3. _Rectitude of life shall be approved._ 4. _Rectitude of\nlife shall be rewarded.--Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 11. _Fruits of Righteousness._\n\n+I. The nature of righteousness.+--1. _Sometimes the term refers to\nthe Divine Being, and signifies the purity of His nature and the\nperfection of His works._ 2. _Here it signifies personal holiness._\n\n+II. The fruits of righteousness.+--1. _Christian righteousness is\nproductive of gracious fruits._ These fruits are internal in the\nheart, and external in the life.\n\n2. _The fruits of righteousness are abundant and\nprogressive._--\"Being filled with the fruits.\"\n\n+III. The Author of righteousness.+--\"Which are by Jesus Christ.\"\n1. _Righteousness is purchased by Christ as our Redeemer._ 2. _Is\nderived from Him as our Saviour._\n\n+IV. The results of righteousness.+--\"Unto the glory and praise of\nGod.\" 1. _Righteousness is to the glory and praise of God in the\nscheme of redemption._ 2. _In the subjects of redemption._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _This subject should stimulate our desires._\n2. _Promote our devotion._ 3. _Inspire us with praise.--Theological\nSketch Book._\n\n\n_Spiritual Attainment._\n\n+I. Righteousness of heart precedes righteousness of life.+\n\n+II. Righteousness of heart is self-disseminating.+--1. _Its fruit is\nliving._ 2. _Of harmonious unity._ 3. _Luxuriant._\n\n+III. Righteousness of heart is the only thing that can fill the\ncapacities of man.+\n\n+IV. Fulness of righteousness is all Divine.+--1. _In its source._\n2. _In its medium of communication._ \"By Jesus Christ.\" 3. _In its\nend._ \"Unto the glory and praise of God.\" Glory before men: praise\namong men.--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_Divine Culture._\n\n  +I. The field.+--The loving heart.\n\n +II. The seed.+--Righteousness.\n\n+III. The fruit.+--Abundant.\n\n +IV. The Husbandman.+--Jesus Christ.\n\n  +V. The end.+--The glory and praise of God.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12-18.\n\n_The Gospel Irrepressible_--\n\n+I. Notwithstanding the circumscribed opportunities of its\nagents.+--1. _Their sufferings for the Gospel call attention to its\nclaims._ \"The things which happened unto me have fallen out rather\ninto the furtherance of the gospel; so that my bonds in Christ are\nmanifest in all the palace, and in all other places\" (vers. 12, 13).\nIt might seem to the Philippians that the imprisonment of Paul would\nbe unfavourable to the Gospel and prevent its spread. He shows there\nwas no ground for that fear; but that the Gospel was becoming known\nin quarters which, but for his imprisonment, it was not likely to\ngain access. The palace referred to was the pr\u00e6torium, or barrack of\nthe pr\u00e6torian guards attached to the palace of Nero on the Palatine\nHill in Rome. The regular changes of guards was constantly furnishing\nnew auditors for the irrepressible preacher, and he did not fail to\nzealously improve his opportunities. Thus the Gospel, which the\nmalice and bigotry of the Jews sought to suppress, found its way into\nC\u00e6sar's household, and ultimately captured the Roman empire for\nChrist. The persecutions of the Gospel have been the best helpers of\nits success.\n\n2. _Their sufferings for the Gospel stimulate the zeal of its\npropagators._--\"Many of the brethren, . . . waxing confident by my\nbonds, are much more bold to speak the word without fear\" (ver. 14).\nThe fortitude of the apostle in suffering, and his unwearied efforts\nto preach the Gospel, increased the courage of his fellow-helpers in\nthe same good work. The sufferings of the Gospel pioneers contributed\nto the spread and triumph of the truth. The blood of Scotland's\nproto-martyr, the noble Patrick Hamilton, and the memory of his dying\nprayer, \"How long, O Lord, shall darkness cover this realm?\" fomented\nthe young Reformation life over a comparatively silent germinating\nperiod of more than twenty years. Knox, and with him Scotland,\nkindled at the pile of George Wishart. Andrew Melville caught the\nfalling mantle of Knox. When Richard Cameron fell at Aird's Moss--as\nif in answer to his own prayers as the action began, \"Lord, spare the\ngreen and take the ripe!\"--all the more strenuously strove Cargill,\ntill he too, in the following year, sealed the truth with his blood.\nAnd more followed, and yet more, through that last and worst decade\nof the pitiless storm known as, by emphasis, the _killing time._\nThrough those terrible years Peden dragged out a living death, and as\nhe thought of Cameron, now at rest, often exclaimed, \"Oh to be with\nRitchie!\" Young Renwick too caught up the torn flag, nobly saying,\n\"They are but standard-bearers who have fallen; the Master lives.\"\nThus one after another on blood-stained scaffold, or on blood-soaked\nfield, fell the precious seed-grain, to rise in harvests manifold,\ntill just at the darkest hour before the dawn of Renwick's martyrdom\nclosed the red roll in 1688--the year of the revolution--and the seed\nso long sown in tears was reaped in joy.\n\n+II. It is preached from a variety of motives.+--1. _Some preach the\nGospel from the love of controversy._ \"Some indeed preach Christ of\nenvy and strife . . . of contention, not sincerely, supposing to add\naffliction to my bonds\" (vers. 15, 16). The Judaising teachers,\ntaking advantage of the absence of the apostle, sought to propagate\ntheir erroneous theories of the Gospel, and to annoy the apostle by\ndepreciating his authority and his preaching. They aimed not so much\nat winning souls for Christ, as at exalting themselves, and gaining\ncredence to their corrupt opinions. They argued that Jesus of\nNazareth was the King of Israel, hoping thereby to exasperate the\nRoman government against Paul, who preached the same truth, though in\na different sense, and to cause increased pain to the apostle by\ninsisting upon the obligation of obedience to the law in order to\nsalvation. Yet in opposing the Gospel they stated some of its leading\ntruths, if only to refute them. Controversy is often a waste of\nstrength. They are small, insignificant beings who quarrel oftenest.\nThere's a magnificent breed of cattle in the Vale of Clwyd, the most\nbeautiful vale in Wales. They have scarcely any horns but abundance\nof meat; yet if you ascend the hills on every side, there on the\nheights you find a breed which grows scarcely anything but horns, and\nfrom morning to night all you hear is the constant din of clashing\nweapons. So there are many Christians who live on the heights, the\ncold and barren heights of controversy. Everything they eat grows\ninto horns, the strength of which they are constantly testing.\n\n2. _Some preach the Gospel from the highest regard for its lofty\nmessage._--\"Some also of goodwill . . . of love, knowing that I am\nset [appointed of God] for the defence of the gospel\" (vers. 15, 17).\nAn intense love of the Gospel and of the Christ of the Gospel is the\nbest preparation for preaching it. Preaching to be effectual must be\nvarious as nature. The sun warms at the same moment that it\nenlightens; and unless religious truth be addressed at once to the\nreason and to the affections, unless it kindles while it guides, it\nis a useless splendour, it leaves the heart barren, it produces no\nfruits of godliness. Preaching should help us to a higher life. A man\nonce heard an affecting sermon, and while highly commending it was\nasked what he remembered of it. \"Truly,\" he replied, \"I remember\nnothing at all; but it made me resolve to live better, and by God's\ngrace I will.\"\n\n+III. The propagation of the Gospel by any means is matter of fervent\njoy.+--\"What then? notwithstanding, . . . Christ is preached; and I\ntherein do rejoice, yea, and will rejoice\" (ver. 18). The false\nteachers gloated over Paul's misfortune, and thought to trouble him\nby their way of presenting the Gospel. But the proclamation of\nChrist, however done, roused attention, and could not but be of\nservice. The apostle rejoiced in the good result of their bad\nintentions. The success of the Gospel in any place and by any means,\nwhen that success is real, is always a cause of rejoicing to the good.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel has a message for all classes._ 2. _Its\nfaithful proclamation involves difficulty and suffering._ 3. _Its\ninterests are often promoted from mixed motives._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 12-14. _Christian Boldness._\n\n+I. Distinguish Christian boldness from its counterfeits, and set\nforth some of its leading attributes.+--There is a false and hurtful\nboldness arising from--1. _Ignorance._ 2. _A bad judgment._\n3. _Native rashness._ 4. _The pride of courage which scorns to fear\nthe face of man._ 5. _Mere natural resolution._ 6. _A wilful\nobstinacy._ 7. _A domineering spirit._ The boldness which God\napproves must be chiefly drawn from other sources and possess higher\nand more ethereal attributes. 1. _It must be bottomed on holy\nlove_--love to God and love to man. 2. _It must be humble._ 3. _Must\nbe delicate and regardful of all the rules of decorum._ 4. _Must be\nwise, discreet, and prudent._ 5. _Must be faithful._ 6. _Must be\ngrounded not merely on self-denial and submission to the will of God,\nbut on humble confidence in Him._\n\n+II. Some motives to rouse us to this holy and elevated frame and to\na corresponding course of conduct.+--1. _This Christian heroism is\nabsolutely necessary to clear up the evidences of our own piety._\n2. _Without rising up to this heroic and active zeal we cannot be\nfaithful to God and our generation._ 3. _Estimate the importance of\nthis duty by considering what would be the effect if all professing\nChristians were thus intrepid and faithful._ 4. _In many instances\nfear is altogether groundless, and is the mere suggestion of\nindolence._ 5. _For want of faithful admonition and entreaty many may\nhave perished.--E. D. Griffin._\n\n\nVer. 12. _The Development of Events in a Consecrated Life_--\n\n  +I. Is the work of an over-ruling Providence.+\n\n +II. Produces startling results, disappointing alike to the hopes of\n      the enemy and the fears of friends.+\n\n+III. Whatever may be its starting-point attains its end in the\n      furtherance of the Gospel.+\n\n +IV. Illustrates how moral principles when tried in suffering become\n      mightier forces in the world's evangelisation.+\n\n  +V. A pledge that fellowship of suffering with Christ shall be\n      followed by a fellowship of glory.+--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 13. _Moral Influence._\n\n  +I. Paul's moral influence exerted a mighty power under the most\n      disadvantageous circumstances+--in bonds.\n\n +II. With a very limited opportunity+--one soldier daily.\n\n+III. Upon a class of mind and heart not easily impressed+--the guard\n      which had charge of him.\n\n +IV. Throughout the city+--notwithstanding the restraints of his own\n      hired house.\n\n  +V. Reaching the further field by first fully cultivating the one\n      at hand.+--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Ministry of Paul's Bonds._\n\n  +I. It was loyal to his Roman citizenship+ (Acts xxvi. 31, 32).\n\n +II. Christ-like, it was silent amid provocation, self-sacrificing,\n      persuasive.+\n\n+III. It was fruitful in the furtherance of the Gospel.+--1. _By\n      preaching it under the shadow of Nero's palace._ 2. _By\n      intensifying the love of it and zeal for it in the hearts of\n      the brethren._\n\n +IV. It illustrates+ _how Christ can erect a pulpit for Himself in\n      the very camp of the enemy, and put a voice for His glory even\n      into chains.--Lay Preacher._\n\n\nVer. 15. _A Spurious Ministry._\n\n+I. The elements formative of it.+--1. _An imperfect apprehension of\nChrist's mission._ 2. _A total absence of Christ's spirit._\n3. _Thought and sympathy narrowed by early prejudice and preconceived\nideas._ 4. _Christ made subservient to the doctrines, ritual, and\nhistory of a system._\n\n+II. The results inseparable from it.+--1. _The cross degraded into a\nrallying point for party strife._ 2. _The basest spirit indulged\nunder the pretence of fulfilling a sacred office._\n(1) Envy--displeasure at another's good. (2) Strife--selfish rivalry\nwhich seeks to gain the good belonging to another. 3. _Christ\npreached merely to advance a party._ 4. _Zeal for propagating a creed\ngreater than to save a lost world.--Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Germ of a Spurious Ministry_--\n\n  +I. May exist in those who zealously preach Christ.+\n\n +II. Consists in a moral contradiction between the heart of the\n      preacher and the theme of his discourse--contentiousness\n      and Christ.+\n\n+III. Produces impurity of motive in Christian work+--\"not sincerely.\"\n\n +IV. Biases the judgment to expect results which are never\n      realised+--\"supposing.\"\n\n  +V. Inspires aims which are un-Christian+--\"to add affliction to my\n      bonds.\"\n\n\nVer. 17. _The Real and the Counterfeit in the Christian Ministry._\n\n+I. They correspond.+--1. _Both adopt the Christian name._ 2. _Both\nutter the same shibboleth._ 3. _Both active in preaching Christ._\n\n+II. They differ.+--1. _In heart._ Contention rules the one; love\nreigns in the other.\n\n2. _In spirit._--Envy and strife moves the one; goodwill actuates the\nother.\n\n3. _In source of strength._--Love of party animates the one; waxing\nconfident in the Lord emboldens the other.\n\n4. _In aim._--That of the one is to advance, it may be, a lifeless\nChurch; that of the other to propel the Gospel of Christ.\n\n5. _In the depth and accuracy of conviction._--The one \"supposing to\nadd affliction to my bonds\"; the other \"knowing that I am set for the\ndefence of the gospel.\"--_Lay Preacher._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-26.\n\n_The Noble Attitude of a Sufferer for the Truth._\n\n+I. The hostility of false brethren tends to the enlargement of the\ntruth, whatever may be the fate of the sufferer.+--1. _He is assured\nof personal blessing from the Spirit through prayer._ \"For I know\nthat this shall turn to my salvation through your prayer and the\nsupply of the Spirit of Jesus Christ\" (ver. 19). The apostle already\nsees how his troubles and suffering may develop his own spiritual\nlife and be a pathway to the glories of heaven. By the prayers of\nGod's people he looks for an abundant supply of the Spirit, by whose\nagency his salvation will be perfected. The enemies of the good man\ncannot rob him of his interest in Christ, and suffering only adds new\nlustre to every Christian grace. The Port Royalist exclaimed, \"Let us\nlabour and suffer; we have all eternity to rest in.\" Paul, who,\nfighting with wild beasts, was a spectacle to angels and men, could\nreckon that \"the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be\ncompared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.\"\n\n2. _The greatness of Christ is set forth by the courage given to the\nsufferer, though uncertain of what awaits him._--\"According to my\nearnest expectation and my hope, that in nothing I shall be ashamed,\nbut . . . Christ shall be magnified in my body, whether it be by\nlife, or by death\" (ver. 20). With the earnest expectation and hope\nof future glory, the apostle had no need to be ashamed of his work\nfor God or of God's work in him; but he regarded his sufferings, not\nas a setting forth of his own goodness, but of the glory of Jesus,\nwho gave him strength and fortitude to endure. It is in tribulation\nthat the grace of Christ is most conspicuous. The Redeemer was\nperfected through suffering; so are His followers.\n\n+II. The alternative of life or death presents a problem the sufferer\nis unable to solve.+--\"What I shall choose I wot not. For I am in a\nstrait betwixt two\" (vers. 22, 23).\n\n1. _Life has great attractions._--(1) Christ may be further exalted.\n\"For to me to live is Christ\" (ver. 21). Life is an opportunity for\nsetting forth Christ, and this is done by carefully copying His\nexample. \"As I stood beside one of the wonderful Aubusson\ntapestries,\" says Eugene Stock, \"I said to the gentleman in charge,\n'How is this done?' He showed me a small loom with a partly finished\nweb upon it, and said that the weaver stands behind his work, with\nhis materials by his side, and above him the picture he is to copy,\nexactly thread for thread and colour for colour. He cannot vary a\nthread or a shade without marring his picture.\" It is a glorious\nthing for us to have a perfect life for example by which to form our\nlives. And we cannot vary a hair-breadth from that example without\ninjuring our lives. (2) More results of Christian work may be\ngathered. \"But if I live in the flesh, this is the fruit of my\nlabour\" (ver. 22). The best use of life is to employ it in working\nfor God. Work done for Him will remain when the worker is forgotten.\nIn ministerial work we may garner the most precious fruits. (3) Help\nmay be afforded to others. \"Nevertheless to abide in the flesh is\nmore needful for you\" (ver. 24). Paul was the pioneer and founder of\nChristianity among the Gentiles, and the young Churches looked to him\nfor leadership and counsel. It seemed every way desirable that for\ntheir sakes his life should be continued. No one felt this more\nkeenly than himself, though he was assured that if that life was\nprematurely terminated the cause of the Gospel was safe in the hands\nof God.\n\n2. _Death admits to superior advantages._--\"To die is gain\" (ver.\n21). Even by his death Christ would be glorified, and the apostle\nadmitted not to shame or loss, as his enemies supposed, but to a\nstate of blessed reward.\n\n     \"Sorrow vanquished, labour ended,\n                         Jordan past.\"\n\n\"Why should I fear death?\" said Sir Henry Vane, as he awaited his\n\"execution; I find it rather shrinks from me than I from it.\"\n\n     \"Death wounds to heal; I sink, I rise, I reign;\n      Spring from my fetters, fasten in the skies,\n      Where blooming Eden withers in my sight,\n      Death gives us more than we in Eden lost.\"--_Young._\n\n+III. The undaunted sufferer is confident of continued opportunities\nof advancing the joy of believers in the truth.+--\"And having this\nconfidence, I know that I shall abide and continue with you all for\nyour furtherance and joy of faith, that your rejoicing may be more\nabundant\" (vers. 25, 26). This assurance was verified by the\napostle's return to Philippi on his release from his first captivity.\n\"Man is immortal till his work is done.\" Life is short, and every\nmoment of its duration should be spent for God and the good of\nothers. Shall we repine at our trials which are but for a moment? \"We\nare nearing home day by day,\" wrote General Gordon. \"No dark river,\nbut divided waters are before us, and then let the world take its\nportion. Dust it is, and dust we will leave it. It is a long, weary\njourney, but we are well on the way of it. The yearly milestones\nquickly slip by, and as our days so will our strength be. The sand is\nflowing out of the glass, day and night, night and day; shake it not.\nYou have a work to do here, to suffer even as Christ suffered.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The highest virtues are not gained without\nsuffering._ 2. _Suffering for the truth strengthens our attachment to\nit._ 3. _Suffering for the truth is often a means of spreading it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 20. _Christ the Christian's Life._\n\n  +I. Christ was the recognised Source of the apostle's life.+\n\n +II. Christ was the supreme Object of the apostle's contemplation.+\n\n+III. The glory of Christ was the great end of the apostle's\n      endeavours.+--_H. Simon._\n\n\nVer. 21. _The Christian's Life and Death._\n\n+I. The Christian's life.+--1. _It is a life in Christ._ (1) Begun in\nregeneration. (2) Realised by faith. (3) Sustained and increased by\nDivine knowledge.\n\n2. _It is a life for Christ._--(1) The example of Christ is its\nmodel. (2) The will of Christ is its laws. (3) The glory of Christ is\nits end.\n\n+II. The Christian's death.+--1. _The Christian's death is a gain by\nbeing deprived of something._ (1) Deprived of the sinful body.\n(2) Freed from temptation. (3) From his enemies. (4) From suffering.\n(5) From death.\n\n2. _The Christian's death is a gain by acquiring\nsomething._--(1) Accelerated liberty to worship God. (2) The ultimate\naddition of the glorified body with its exalted form and powers.\n(3) The blessed reunion and fellowship with departed friends. (4) The\npresence and companionship of Christ for ever.\n\n\n_Christian Life and Death._\n\n+I. The apostle's language exhibits the proper scope and character of\nall truly Christian life.+--The end and substance of the Christian\nlife is Christ.\n\n+II. What Christian death is and how it ought to be regarded.+--Death\nis not simply altered life. It is life elevated and ennobled. It is\ngain compared with life in the flesh. Death raises the saint to be\nwith Christ.\n\n+III. The text puts Christian life and death before us regarded as an\nalternative.+--Whether life be more or less desirable, less or more\ndesired, it should be spent under the strong and penetrating\nassurance that to die is gain. Be death ever so desirable, it is our\nown fault if the happiness of life does not more than counterbalance\nthe trial of it.--_J. D. Geden._\n\n\n\"For me to live is Christ.\" _Enthusiasm for Christ._\n\n+I. Enthusiasm for Christ in the home-life.+\n\n     \"The highest duties oft are found\n      Lying upon the lowest ground;\n      In hidden and unnoticed ways,\n      In household work on common days,\n      Whate'er is done for God alone\n      Thy God acceptable will own.\"\n\n+II. Enthusiasm for Christ in public life.+\n\n     \"Trust no future, howe'er pleasant,\n        Let the dead past bury its dead;\n      Act, act in the living present,\n        Heart within and God o'erhead.\"\n\n+III. Enthusiasm for Christ in Church-life.+\n\n                       \"Come, labour on,\n     No time for rest till glows the western sky,\n     While the long shadows o'er our pathway lie,\n     And a glad sound comes with the setting sun,\n                        Servants, well done!\"\n\n--_J. M. Forson._\n\n\n_The Christian's estimate of living and dying._\n\n+I. The Christian's estimate of living should be a life in\nChrist.+--1. _A life of which Christ is the Source._ 2. _A life of\nwhich Christ is the Sustainer._ 3. _A life of which Christ is the\nSphere._\n\n+II. The Christian's estimate of living should be a life for\nChrist.+--1. _A life spent in labouring for Him alone._ 2. _A life of\ncontinued suffering for Him._ 3. _A life of daring everything for\nHim._\n\n+III. The Christian's estimate of dying should be that it is\ngain.+--1. _Because death leads to closer and more uninterrupted\nunion with Christ._ 2. _Because death lands the true believer in\nabsolute security._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _In some sense the utterance of the apostle is true of\nevery Christian._ 2. _In its full sense it is only true of preeminent\nChristians._ 3. _The more it is true of any, the happier and more\nuseful Christians they are.--Homiletic Quarterly._\n\n\n_The Believer's Portion in both Worlds._\n\n+I. The believer's life.+--1. _Is originated by Christ._ 2. _Is\nsustained by Christ._ 3. _Is spent to the glory of Christ._\n\n+II. The believer's end.+--1. _The gain of sorrows escaped._ 2. _The\ngain of joys secured._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Improve life._ 2. _Prepare for death.--C. Clayton,\nM.A._\n\n\nVers. 23, 24. _Willing to wait, but ready to go._\n\n+I. The two desires.+--1. _To depart and be with Christ._ (1) The\nexodus from this life by dissolution of the body--\"to depart.\"\n(2) Christ's presence the immediate portion of His people, when their\nlife on earth is done--\"to be with Christ.\"\n\n2. _To abide in the flesh._--It is a natural and lawful desire. The\nlove of life--it is not necessary, it is not lawful to destroy it.\nLet it alone to the last. The way to deal with it is not to tear it\nviolently out, so as to have, or say that you have, no desire to\nremain; but to get, through the grace of the Spirit, such a blessed\nhope of Christ's presence as will gradually balance and at last\noverbalance the love of life, and make it at the appointed time come\neasily and gently away.\n\n+II. A Christian balanced evenly between these two desires.+--\"I am\nin a strait betwixt two.\" The desire to be with Christ does not make\nlife unhappy, because it is balanced by the pleasure of working for\nChrist in the world; the desire to work for Christ in the world does\nnot make the approach of dissolution painful, because it is balanced\nby the expectation of being soon, of being ever with the Lord.\n\n+III. Practical Lessons.+--1. _This one text is sufficient to destroy\nthe whole fabric of Romish prayer to departed saints._ 2. _The chief\nuse of a Christian in the world is to do good._ 3. _You cannot be\neffectively useful to those who are in need on earth unless you hold\nby faith and hope to Christ on high._ 4. _Living hope of going to be\nwith Christ is the only anodyne which has power to neutralise the\npain of parting with those dear to us.--W. Arnot._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 27-30.\n\n_Exhortation to Christian Bravery._\n\n+I. To act as becometh Christian citizens.+--\"Only let your\nconversation be as becometh the gospel of Christ\" (ver. 27). Whether\nthe apostle is able to visit them again or not, he exhorts the\nPhilippians to attend diligently to present duties, and act in all\nthings with the dignity and fidelity becoming members of the heavenly\ncommonwealth. The Christian finding himself living for a time in this\nworld as in a dark place, where other gods are worshipped, where men\nsell themselves for gain, where he is tempted to do as others do, and\nis asked to coquette with the world, to mind earthly things, should\nat once take his stand and say: \"I cannot; I am a citizen of heaven,\nmy affections are set on things above; I cannot come down to your\nlevel, I have come out from the world and may not touch the unclean\nthing; I have formed other tastes, have other pleasures; other rules\nregulate my conduct; I cannot live as you live, nor do as you do.\"\n\n1. _Be united in spiritual steadfastness._--\"That ye stand fast in\none spirit\" (ver. 27). The Spirit inspires the highest courage, and\nhelps all who partake of His influence to stand fast in their\nintegrity. \"For God hath given us not the spirit of fear, but of\npower and of love and of a sound mind.\"\n\n2. _Earnestly and unitedly maintain the faith._--\"With one mind\nstriving together for the faith of the gospel\" (ver. 27). With one\nsoul, penetrated by the same Spirit, unitedly strive to maintain the\nGospel in its purity, as it was committed unto them. Every true\nbeliever should be a valiant champion for the truth. Men who have no\nsettled faith are like those birds that frequent the Golden Horn, and\nare to be seen from Constantinople, of which it is said they are\nalways on the wing and never rest. No one ever saw them alight on the\nwater or on the land; they are for ever poised in mid-air. The\nnatives call them lost souls, seeking rest and finding none. To lose\nour hold of the Gospel is to be doomed to unrest and misery. To\nattempt to stand alone is to court defeat. Union is strength.\n\n3. _Remember the interest of your religious teachers in your\nendeavours._--\"That whether I come and see you, or else be absent, I\nmay hear of your affairs\" (ver. 27). That anxious minister is ever\ndeeply concerned in the welfare of his people. He rejoices in their\nfaithfulness and progress; he mourns over their laxity and defeat; he\nencourages them in their labours and struggles in the spread of the\ntruth. Our defection from the Gospel is not only a loss to ourselves,\nbut a disappointment and sorrow to others.\n\n+II. To act with fearlessness in the midst of oppression.+--\"And in\nnothing terrified by your adversaries\" (ver. 28). Opposition should\nnerve to more resolute resistance. The enemies of the good are the\nenemies of God, and the good man, with God on his side, need not fear\neither their numbers or their ferocity. One of their ancient kings\nsaid, \"The Laced\u00e6monians seldom inquire the number of their enemies,\nbut the place where they could be found.\" When a certain captain\nrushed in haste to his general and said, \"The enemy is coming in such\nvast numbers, it will be useless to resist,\" the general replied,\n\"Our duty is not to count our enemies, but to conquer them.\" And\nconquer them they did.\n\n1. _This fearlessness a proof of the inevitable punishment of their\nopponents._--\"Which is to them an evident token of perdition\" (ver.\n28). In contending hopelessly against you they are only rushing on to\ntheir own destruction. Your bravery in the contest, and their own\nconsciousness of the weakness of their own cause, will strike terror\ninto their hearts, so that they will be easily routed.\n\n2. _This fearlessness a proof of the salvation of the\nsteadfast._--\"But to you of salvation, and that of God\" (ver. 28).\nGod who gives courage to the steadfast and helps them in the\nconflict, ensures to them the victory. We are not saved because we\nare brave for God and truth, but the courageous soul will not fail of\nsalvation.\n\n+III. To accept suffering for the truth as a privilege and a\ndiscipline.+--1. _It is suffering for Christ._ \"For unto you it is\ngiven in the behalf of Christ, not only to believe on Him, but also\nto suffer for His sake\" (ver. 29). Suffering is no evidence of the\nDivine displeasure, but is often a signal proof of the Divine regard.\nThere is no virtue in the mere endurance of suffering, but in the\nChrist-like spirit with which it is borne. There lived in a village\nnear Burnley a girl who was persecuted in her own home because she\nwas a Christian. She struggled on bravely, seeking strength from God,\nand rejoicing that she was a partaker of Christ's sufferings. The\nstruggle was too much for her; but He willed it so, and at length her\nsufferings were ended. When they came to take off the clothes from\nher poor dead body, they found a piece of paper sewn inside her\ndress, and on it was written, \"He opened not His mouth.\"\n\n2. _It is suffering which the best of men have endured._--\"Having the\nsame conflict which ye saw in me, and now hear to be in me\" (ver.\n30). Suffering for the truth links us with Paul and his\ncontemporaries, and with the noble army of martyrs in all ages.\nChrist has taught us how to suffer, and for His sake we can bear pain\nand calumny without complaining and without retaliation. Mrs.\nSherwood relates that, pained at seeing Henry Martyn completely\nprostrate by his tormentor, Sabat, the apostate, she exclaimed, \"Why\nsubject yourself to all this? Rid yourself of this Sabat at once.\" He\nreplied, \"Not if his spirit was ten times more acrimonious and\nexasperating.\" Then smiling in his gentle, winning manner, he pointed\nupwards and whispered in low and earnest tones, \"For Him!\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian spirit inspires loftiest heroism._\n2. _To strive to be good excites the opposition of the wicked._\n3. _One true Christian hero is an encouragement to many._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 27. _Christian Consistency._\n\n+I. The apostle pleaded for a consistent Christian Church.+--1. _The\nChristian life must be characterised by truthfulness._ 2. _By love._\n3. _By purity._\n\n+II. The apostle pleaded for a united Christian Church.+--1. _This\nunion was necessary to resist their common adversaries._ 2. _To\ndevelop their Christian graces._ 3. _To establish the true faith._\n\n+III. The apostle pleaded for a zealous Christian Church.+--1. _This\nzeal demanded for a noble object._ \"The faith of the gospel.\" 2. _To\nbe exercised in a commendable manner._ \"Striving together.\"--_J. T.\nWoodhouse._\n\n\n_Evangelical Consistency._\n\n+I. What that conduct is which becomes the Gospel.+--1. _It must be\nthe genuine result of Gospel dispositions._ 2. _It must be maintained\nunder the influence of Gospel principles and in the use of Gospel\nordinances._ 3. _It must resemble Gospel patterns._ 4. _It must be\nconformable to Gospel precepts._\n\n+II. What obligations are we under to maintain this\nconduct.+--1. _God requires us to conduct ourselves according to the\nGospel._ 2. _Consistency requires it._ 3. _Our personal comfort\nrequires it._ 4. _Our connection with society requires it._ 5. _Our\nfinal salvation requires it._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _How excellent is the Christian religion._ 2. _How\nilliberal and unreasonable is the conduct of those who censure\nChristianity on account of the unworthy actions of its inconsistent\nprofessors.--R. Treffry._\n\n\n_The Effects of the Gospel upon those who receive it._\n\n+I. Illustrate the exhortation of the apostle.+--1. _The Gospel of\nChrist is a system which assumes and proceeds upon the invaluable\nvalue of the soul._ 2. _Which assumes and depicts the danger and\nguilt of the soul, and provides a plan for its immediate restoration\nto the Divine favour._ 3. _Is a system of peculiar and authoritative\ntruth._ 4. _Is a system of godliness._ 5. _Of morals._ 6. _Of\nuniversal charity._\n\n+II. The sources of the apostle's anxiety.+--1. _He desired the\nPhilippians thus to act from a regard of the honour of the Gospel and\nits Author._ 2. _Out of a regard for the Philippians themselves._\n3. _From a regard to the Gentiles._ 4. _From a regard to himself, his\nown peace and his own joy.--T. Binney._\n\n\nVers. 28, 29. _Conflict and Suffering._--1. Faith in Christ must go\nbefore suffering for Christ, so that to suffer for Him is of greater\nimportance, and in some respects more honourable, than simply to\nbelieve in Him. 2. Then are sufferings truly Christian and an\nevidence of salvation, when as the sufferer is first a believer, so\nhis sufferings are for Christ's sake--for His truth. 3. Christian\ncourage under suffering will not be kept up without conflict. 4. In\nsuffering for truth nothing befalls us but what is common to\nmen.--_Fergusson._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Consolation in Christ.+--_Exhortation_ would be better,\ninasmuch as consolation anticipates the comfort of the next phrase.\n+Comfort of love.+--Encouragement which love gives. +Fellowship of\nthe Spirit.+--\"Participation in the Spirit.\" _Meyer's_ remark is,\n\"This is to be explained of the Holy Spirit.\" _Beet_ intimates a\nwidening of the idea--\"brotherliness prompted by the Holy Spirit.\"\n+Bowels and mercies.+--On the former term see ch. i. 8. The word for\nmercies denotes the yearning of the heart, though, it may be, there\nis no ability to help.\n\nVer. 2. +Fulfil ye my joy.+--\"Fill up\" my cup of joy. See ch. i. 4.\n+Likeminded.+--\"General harmony, . . . identity of sentiment\"\n(_Meyer_). On this verse, with its accumulations, Chrysostom\nexclaims, \"Bless me! how often he says the same thing!\"\n\nVer. 3. +Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory.+--The verb\nis suppressed in the Greek, a construction more natural and more\nforcible than to connect the nothing with the preceding clause.\n\"Partisanship and pomposity.\" For the ruin of how many Churches are\nthis pair responsible! +In lowliness of mind.+--A rare flower,\nscattering its fragrance unseen. \"It was one great result of the life\nof Christ (on which St. Paul dwells here) to raise humility to its\nproper level; and, if not fresh coined for this purpose, the word\n(for 'lowliness of mind') now first became current through the\ninfluence of Christian ethics\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 5. +Let this mind be in you.+--The apostle's word reminds us\nthat he had already counselled his readers to be likeminded amongst\nthemselves. \"Each to each, and all to Christ,\" this verse seems to\nsay. What follows--to ver. 11--is the very marrow of the Gospel.\n\nVer. 6. +Who, being in the form of God.+--R.V. margin, \"being\noriginally.\" Form here implies not the external accidents, but the\nessential attributes. Similar to this, but not so decisive, are the\nexpressions used elsewhere of the Divinity of the Son (2 Cor. iv. 4;\nCol. i. 15; Heb. i. 3). Similar is the term \"The Word.\" +Thought it\nnot robbery.+--\"Did not deem His being on an equality with God a\nthing to be seized on--and retained as a prize\" (_Ellicott_). \"Yet\ndid not regard it as a prize, a treasure to be clutched and retained\nat all hazards\" (_Lightfoot_). This interpretation of the two eminent\nbishops is accepted by the R.V., the _Speaker's Commentary,_ and is\nthe common and indeed almost universal interpretation of the Greek\nFathers (_Lightfoot,_ flatly contradicted by _Beet_). _Meyer_\n(followed by _Beet_), _Cremer_ and _Hofmann_ contend for the active\nmeaning--\"robbing.\" +To be equal with God.+--The Jews considered\nChrist's peculiar claim of Sonship as a \"making Himself equal with\nGod\" (John v. 18).\n\nVer. 7. +But made Himself of no reputation.+--R.V. \"emptied Himself.\"\nThe emphasis is upon _Himself._ In contrast to the idea lying in\n\"robbery\"--that of emptying the treasures of some one else--it was\nHimself whom He made bare. +And took upon Him the form of a\nservant.+--By taking the form of a slave. Note the antitheses in\nthese verses (6, 7), \"being in the form of God,\" \"took the form of a\nservant,\" \"equality with God,\" \"emptied Himself.\" +And was made in\nthe likeness of men.+--Lit. \"becoming in similitude of men.\" The word\n\"likeness\" (A.V. margin, \"habit\") differs from \"form\" and \"fashion.\"\nThere is, of course, no support for the Docetic teaching that Christ\nwas only seemingly a man.\n\nVer. 8. +In fashion.+--The entire outwardly perceptible mode and\nform. Men saw in Christ a human form, bearing, language, action, mode\nof life, wants and their satisfaction, in general, the state and\nrelations of a human being so that He was recognised \"as a man\"\n(_Meyer_). \"Form\" in (vers. 6, 7) is that which is intrinsic and\nessential. \"Fashion\" is that which is outward and accidental. +Became\nobedient unto death.+--Does not mean that He humbled Himself so as to\nbecome a cringing slave to the King of Terrors; but that His\nobedience to God went to the uttermost limit--as far as death--even\nthe death of the cross. That is, the death of the accursed, the death\nreserved for malefactors. Jewish hatred still speaks of Christ as,\n\"The man who was hung.\"\n\nVer. 9. +Highly exalted.+--A word much stronger than those, _e.g.,_\nin the Acts, which describe the raising up of the murdered Lord of\nlife. We trace the descent step by step to the last rung of the\nladder; by one stupendous act (Rom. i. 4) God graced His Son with\nunique honour and dignity (Eph. i. 21).\n\nVer. 10. +That at the name of Jesus.+--Not at the mention of the name\nJesus, but _in_ the name of Jesus. For illustration of the phrase see\nChrist's own words, \"in My name\" (John xiv. 13, 14, etc.). +Every\nknee should bow.+--The outward symbol of an inward submission or\nrecognition of superiority. By what language could the apostle\nexpress the exaltation above creaturely needs if not by this? If used\nof a creature, it would be blasphemous. The jealous God does not\nallow bowing down in worship to any but Himself. As Pliny said,\n_Quasi Deo._\n\nVer. 11. +Should confess.+--\"Proclaim with thanksgiving\"\n(_Lightfoot_). It is the word which describes the frank admission [of\nwrong, Matt. iii. 6]. +That Jesus Christ is Lord.+--The emphasis is\non \"Lord.\" The specific Christian profession of faith is \"Jesus is\nLord\"; its opposite \"Anathema Jesus\" (1 Cor. xii. 3 and Rom. x. 9).\n\nVer. 12. +Ye have always obeyed.+--Obedience describes the attitude\nof the mind of these Philippians in presence of the commanding truths\nof the Gospel; \"Obedience\" or \"obedience of faith\" is found several\ntimes in the epistle to the Romans; and in 2 Cor. vii. 15 stands in\nclose connection with \"fear and trembling,\" as here. +Fear and\ntrembling.+--Such an apprehensive desire to be right with God as is\nfigured by bodily tremor.\n\nVer. 13. +For it is God which worketh in you.+--This sentence removes\nall merit from the most punctilious diligence, whilst it as\neffectually takes away the paralysing fear of failure to which\n\"workers together with God\" need never give place.\n\nVer. 14. +Do all things without murmurings.+--Without mutterings, as\nmen who in cowardice dare not speak plainly what they think. We must\nconsider the warning as against God on account of what He imposed on\nthem both to do and to suffer. +And disputings.+--The word goes much\ndeeper than the restricted meaning of \"disputings.\" It seems here to\nmean without first entering upon scrupulous considerings as to\nwhether you are under any obligation thereto, whether it is not too\ndifficult, whether prudent, and the like (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 15. +That ye may be blameless.+--Sons of God they are already;\nthey are now to become worthy sons. In the word \"blameless\" we have\nthe idea of a character in which no grace is defective (Heb. viii. 7\nis a good illustration. If the first covenant had been _faultless,_ a\nsecond would have been superfluous). +And harmless.+--Christ's own\ncounsel. \"Be harmless as doves.\" Lit. the word means unmixed,\nunadulterated, and figuratively, artless. Of sophistries and the deep\nthings of Satan he would rather they were in happy ignorance (Matt.\nx. 16; Rom. xvi. 19). +Without rebuke.+--Vulgate, _\"immaculatum.\"_\nThe word is originally a sacrificial term. It describes the victim in\nwhich the keen inquisitorial eye of the official inspector has found\nno fault. So (1 Pet. i. 19) of the Lamb of God, in the whiteness of\nspotless innocency.\n\nVer. 16. +Holding forth the word of life.+--\"If we are to look for\nany metaphor it would most naturally be that of offering food or\nwine\" (_Lightfoot_). Why it should be at all events wholly\nunconnected with the preceding image in \"lights in the world\" one\ndoes not quite see. There is nothing objectionable in the thought of\na star holding forth its beam to the mariner, or the benighted\nwayfarer, and it has the advantage of continuity of the metaphor in\nthe verse previous. +That I may rejoice in the day of Christ.+--As\ngood news of his convert's fidelity was like a new lease of life to\nthe worn apostle (1 Thess. iii. 8), so his sweetest hope was to be\nable to stand before his Lord with his children by his side. +Have\nnot run . . . laboured.+--Athletic terms familiar to St. Paul's\nreaders.\n\nVer. 17. +If I be offered upon the sacrifice.+--R.V. margin, \"poured\nout as a drink-offering.\" Whether the reference is the the cup of\nwine poured over the heathen sacrifice or the drink-offering of the\nJewish is doubted, and is of little consequence, since in either case\nhis meaning would be clear enough. +And service.+--Priestly function\n(Luke i. 23).\n\nVer. 20. +No man likeminded.+--A.V. margin, \"so dear unto me,\"\nevidently because the same word is used in Ps. lv. 13. \"Likeminded\"\nwith whom? \"With me,\" says Meyer, that is, \"having the same tender\nfeeling towards you as I have.\" +Who will naturally care.+--Not of\nnecessity, nor grudgingly.\n\nVer. 21. +All seek their own.+--Interpret how we will, this is a\nbitter sentence. We are apt to be severe on those who have other\nengagements when we feel our need of friends.\n\nVer. 22. +Ye know the proof.+--The character that shows itself under\nstrain or testing (Acts xvi. 1 and xvii. 14, xix. 22, xx. 3, 4). +As\na son with the father.+--R.V. \"as a child serveth.\" The older man and\nthe younger had slaved for the Gospel; as for some dear object of\ndesire a father and his son may be seen at work together.\n\nVer. 24. +I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come\nshortly.+--The apostle, in personal matters, is on the same footing\nwith the most obscure Christian. When his friends forsake him he must\nbear it with what fortitude he can. When darkness surrounds him he\nmust wait God's time--no prophecy lifts the veil.\n\nVer. 25. +Epaphroditus.+--Brother, work-mate, comrade-in-arms,\nChurch-messenger, and serving-man. What a designation! St. Paul\nthinks him worthy of all the honour (ver. 29) that the Church can\ngive, and he himself immortalises him by this unusual estimate of his\npersonal character and worth.\n\nVer. 26. +Was full of heaviness.+--The same word is used of our Lord\nwhen in Gethsemane--\"He began to be very heavy.\" Its etymology is an\nopen question, Grimm, following Buttmann, says it means \"the\nuncomfortable feeling of one who is not at home.\" If this, the almost\nuniversally accepted derivation be the correct one, it is a beautiful\nidyll we have presented to us. A convalescent, far from home, as his\nstrength returns feels the pangs of home-sickness strengthen and\neagerly returns to dispel the misgivings of those made anxious by\ntidings of his critical illness.\n\nVer. 27. +Nigh unto death.+--Or as we say colloquially, \"next door to\ndeath.\" +God had mercy on him.+--St. Paul speaks after the manner of\nmen, as we could not have dared to say anything else if Epaphroditus\nhad died. The cry of woe so often heard by Christ was \"have mercy.\"\n+Sorrow upon sorrow.+--\"He does not parade the apathy of the Stoics,\nas though he were iron and far removed from human affections\"\n(_Calvin_).\n\n     \"When sorrows come they come not single spies,\n      But in battalions.\"\n\nVer. 28. +The more carefully.+--R.V. \"diligently.\" \"With increased\neagerness\" (_Lightfoot_). How difficult it must have been for St.\nPaul to relinquish the company of so worthy a man we do not realise;\nbut he who gives up is worthy of the friend he gives up, for neither\nof them is consulting his own wishes. \"Love seeketh not her own.\"\nWhat a contrast to sordid Hedonism--old or new! +Ye may rejoice, and\nthat I may be the less sorrowful.+--A variation on the theme of the\nletter--the sum of which is, as Bengel says, \"I rejoice; rejoice ye.\"\nWhat an exquisitely chosen form of expression! \"A prior sorrow will\nstill remain unremoved,\" says Lightfoot; \"but if he cannot go so far\nas to say he will rejoice, the alleviation of the loss of such a\nfriend's society is the fact that they have him again.\"\n\nVer. 29. +Hold such in honour.+--Learn to know the value of\nsuch--\"grapple them to thy soul with hooks of steel.\"\n\nVer. 30. +For the work of Christ.+--What noble self-oblivion the\napostle manifests! He thinks more of the cause dear to his heart than\nof his own comfort or even life. +Not regarding his life.+--R.V.\n\"hazarding his life.\" There is the difference of a single letter in\nthe long word of the R.V. The word of the R.V. means \"having gambled\nwith his life.\" Just as to-day a visitor to Rome in the autumn must\nrun the risk of malarial fever, so Epaphroditus, for the work of\nChrist, had faced that, and other dangers as great, probably. The\nA.V. would mean \"as far as his life was concerned he followed an\nill-advised course of action.\" +To supply your lack of service toward\nme.+--Does not mean that they had been remiss in their attention.\nThey did not lack the will, but the opportunity.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-4.\n\n_Christian Unity an Occasion of Joy._\n\n+I. Christian unity is a striving after the Spirit of Christ.+--\"That\nye be likeminded\" (ver. 2).\n\n1. _Manifested in loving consolation to those in distress._--\"If\nthere be therefore any consolation in Christ, if any comfort of love\"\n(ver. 1). If the pagan expressed unity by those who dwelt in one\nvillage and drank of one fountain, how much more real is the union of\nthose who drink of the same Spirit and practise the lovingkindness of\nthe one Christ. A striking evidence of the unity of Christianity is\nseen in its sympathy everywhere for the poor, the sick, and the\nunfortunate. It is Christ-like to comfort and help the distressed.\n\n2. _Manifested in spiritual fellowship._--\"If any fellowship of the\nSpirit\" (ver. 1). Christians are one by their communion together,\nflowing from their joint participation in the same Spirit. The union\nof hearts is more real and stable than the external union expressed\nby creeds and contracts. The Spirit is the unifying power of\nChristendom.\n\n3. _Manifested in compassion for the suffering._--\"If any bowels and\nmercies\" (ver. 1). Christianity is a mission to the suffering. Before\nthe Christian era there were no hospitals and infirmaries, no care\nfor the afflicted poor. Unselfish benevolence was almost unknown.\nNothing is more remarkable than the spirit of tender compassion that\nChristianity has breathed into social and national life.\n\n+II. Christianity is opposed to a spirit of faction and empty\nboasting.+--\"Let nothing be done through strife or vainglory\" (ver.\n3). The message of the Gospel is one of peace and goodwill to all\nmen. It is foreign to its spirit to exalt the interests of party or\nof self; it seeks to promote a universal and all-pervasive charity.\nThe Germans have a legend connected with the terrific battle of\nChalons between the Visigoths and the Romans against Attila. The\nbloody work of the sword was done, the plain was strewn with heaps of\nthe slain; but for three nights following--so ran the story--the\nspirits of the slain hovered over the scene and continued the strife\nin the air. The like has been done again and again in the party\nstrifes and controversies of the Church. Unity is impossible where\ncontention and vanity have sway.\n\n+III. Christian unity is strengthened by the maintenance of a humble\nspirit.+--1. _In comparing oneself with others._ \"In lowliness of\nmind let each esteem other better than themselves\" (ver. 3). The man\nwho walks humbly with God, realising his complete dependence on Him,\nwill not unduly exalt himself, and will highly esteem others, as\nknowing that they are equally with himself dependent on God for their\nabilities. Instead of fixing your eyes on those points in which you\nmay excel, fix them on those in which your neighbour excels you: to\ndo this is true humility. The excellencies of others are better known\nthan their defects, and our own defects are better known to ourselves\nthan to others. A sense of personal short-coming will keep us humble.\nHumility is a special product of Christianity. The whole Roman\nlanguage, with all the improvements of the Augustan age, does not\nafford so much as a name for humility; nor was one found in all the\ncopious language of the Greeks, till it was made by the great apostle.\n\n2. _In considering other people's interests as well as your\nown._--\"Look not every man on his own things, but every man also on\nthe things of others\" (ver. 4). The truly humble are thoroughly\ndisinterested. The work of the meek and lowly Jesus is the loftiest\nexample of disinterestedness. He looked to the things of others\nrather than to His own. In unselfishly seeking the good of others we\npromote our own. When Augustine was asked, \"What is the first thing\nin religion?\" he answered, \"Humility.\" \"What is the second?\"\n\"Humility.\" \"And what is the third?\" \"Humility.\" Speaking of pride,\nAugustine truly said, \"That which first overcame man is the last\nthing he overcomes.\" Humility is a strong bond of Christian unity.\n\n+IV. Christian unity is an occasion of great joy.+--\"Fulfil ye my\njoy\" (ver. 2). The weak spot in the disposition of the Philippians\nwas a tendency to quarrelsomeness; hence he insists upon unity. They\nhad given him joy in the other Christian excellencies they possessed;\nhe asks them to complete his joy in cherishing the grace of unity.\n\"Behold,\" exclaimed the rejoicing Psalmist, as he contemplated the\nunion of the Jewish tribes, \"how good and how pleasant a thing it is\nfor brethren to dwell together in unity\" (Ps. cxxxiii. 1). The bundle\nof arrows cannot be broken while it remains a bundle. Tacitus, an\nancient Latin historian, says of the Germans, what sceptics and\nothers find true of Christians, \"Whilst fighting separately, all are\nconquered together.\" The strength of the Christian Church lies in its\nconsolidation.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christian unity is of supreme importance._ 2. _Is\nabsolutely necessary to represent the Spirit of Christ._ 3. _Is the\ncause of much joy to the anxious minister._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _Unity and Concord in the Church._--1. As unity and\nconcord is necessary in itself and at all times, so is it most\nnecessary in suffering times: the enjoyment of Christ's presence, the\nreaping of any spiritual advantage by the communion and love of the\nsaints, fellowship with God through the operation of the Spirit,\ndepend upon it. 2. The success of the Gospel will be matter of joy to\na public-spirited Christian, even in the midst of his own crosses and\nsufferings. 3. That unity and concord among the Churches may be solid\nand lasting, there should be unity of will and affections, of designs\nand endeavours, and in opinion and matters of judgment.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Humility an Antidote to Contention._--1. The lust of\nvainglory, whereby a man pursues more after the applause of men than\nto be approved of God, is the mother of contention and strife, and\nunfriendly to union and peace. 2. The grace of humility does not\nconsist in an affected strain of words and gestures, but, being\nseated in the heart, makes a man think meanly of himself and of\nanything that is his. 3. So conscious should we be of our own\ninfirmities, so modest in the esteem of our own graces and virtues,\nso prone to charity, that we ought to esteem any other, for what we\nknow of him, to be better than ourselves.--_Ibid._\n\n\nVer. 4. _Looking on the Things of Others._\n\n+I. One school in which we learn the lesson of unselfishness is the\nhome circle.+\n\n+II. Another way in which God teaches us the same lesson is through\nthe experience we gain in the intercourse of daily work.+--We divide\nmen into the selfish and the unselfish--those who work for self and\nthink of self, and those whose labours are for other men.\n\n+III. We are taught to consider other men by the perplexities and\nconfusion which arise when we think only of ourselves.+--The modern\nphilosophy is true so far when it says that man is nothing in\nhimself, but only a bundle of relations, the meeting-point of many\ninfluences. Those who fix their attention upon the meeting-point\nforget what makes the man. Probably there is no more confused or\nmiserable man than the self-analyst.--_A. R. MacEwen._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-8.\n\n_The Humiliation of Christ a Pattern of Supreme Unselfishness._\n\n+I. The humiliation of Christ was no violation of His Divine\nessence.+--\"Who, being in the form of God, thought it not robbery to\nbe equal with God\" (ver. 6). Thought it not a prey to be seized upon.\nAs He was in Himself truly and properly God, it could be no object of\ndesire or ambition to claim equality with God. Being God He could not\nundeify Himself. His Divinity remained with Him through the whole\ncourse of His self-imposed humiliation. It was this that constituted\nboth the mystery and the greatness of the humiliation.\n\n+II. The humiliation of Christ was a voluntary incarnation in human\nform.+--\"But made Himself of no reputation, and took upon Him the\nform of a servant, and was made in the likeness of men\" (ver. 7). He\nemptied Himself, not of His Divinity--that was impossible--but of the\noutward and self-manifesting glories of the Godhead. He took the form\nof a servant by being made in the likeness of man. He remained full\nof Divinity, yet He bore Himself as if He were empty. A native\npreacher among the Oneidas, addressing his fellow-converts, said:\n\"What are the views you form of the character of Jesus? You will\nanswer, perhaps, that He was a man of singular benevolence. You will\ntell me that He proved this to be His character by the nature of the\nmiracles He wrought. He created bread to feed thousands who were\nready to perish. He raised to life the son of a poor woman who was a\nwidow, and to whom his labours were necessary for her support in old\nage. Are these then your only views of the Saviour? I will tell you\nthey are lame. When Jesus came into the world He threw His blanket\naround Him, but the God was within.\"\n\n+III. The humiliation of Christ reached its climax in a career of\nobedience even unto death.+--\"He humbled Himself, and became obedient\nunto death, even the death of the cross\" (ver. 8). He fulfilled all\nthe demands of law and of God. He shrank not from death--death in its\nmost shameful and ignoble form, the death of the cross. He was\nnumbered with the transgressors--not an honourable death, but like\nthe degrading execution of criminals. He went to the realm of the\ndead and revolutionised it. Hitherto death had reigned supreme, an\nunbroken power. The prison-house of the dead was fast locked. None\nreturned. Now One comes there who has the keys of Hades and of death.\nHe opens the door and sets the captives free. \"Meekness in suffering,\nprayer for His murderers, a faithful resignation of His soul into the\nhands of His heavenly Father, the sun eclipsed, the heavens darkened,\nand earth trembling, the graves open, the rocks rent, the veil of the\nTemple torn--who could say less than this, 'Truly, this was the Son\nof God'? He suffers patiently; this is through the power of grace;\nmany good men have done so through His enabling. The frame of nature\nsuffers with Him; this is proper to the God of Nature, the Son of\nGod\" (_Bishop Hall_).\n\n+IV. The humiliation of Christ is an example of unselfishness to all\nHis followers.+--\"Let this mind be in you, which was also in Christ\nJesus\" (ver. 5). The apostle does not put forth himself as an\nexample, but Christ. Christ gave His all for us, and we should give\nour all to Him, and our best service for the good of others. No one\ncan follow Christ until he has first found Christ. Some try to\nimitate Christ before they have savingly found Him. To look at Christ\nas our Example only, and not as our Redeemer, is not to see Him as He\nis. Without faith in Christ as our Redeemer we cannot really follow\nHis example. Without the grace of Christ there can be no imitation of\nChrist. A little girl once presented to a celebrated statesman a\nsmall bouquet of ordinary flowers, the only one she could procure at\nthe season. He inquired why she gave him the bouquet. \"Because I love\nyou,\" the child answered. \"Do you bring any little gifts to Jesus?\"\nhe asked. \"Oh,\" said the child, \"I give myself to Him.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The unselfish are always humble._ 2. _The humble are\npatient in doing and suffering._ 3. _Humility is the pathway to\nexaltation._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 5-8. _The Incarnate Deity._\n\n  +I. That Christ did not seek to retain an appearance of Divine\n      glory and co-equality.+\n\n +II. He divested Himself actually of His appropriate and descriptive\n      ensigns of Divine nature and government.+\n\n+III. He entered upon a course of responsible subordination.+\n\n +IV. He united Himself to human nature by a perfect incarnation.+\n\n  +V. He stooped to the most extreme depression of state.+\n\n +VI. He reduced Himself to the necessity of death.+\n\n+VII. He yielded to death in a peculiar form.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _How admirable is the expedient of the Redeemer's\nincarnation!_ 2. _What a sublime example does the conduct of the\nSaviour afford.--R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\nVer. 5. _The Christian Temper the Same Mind which was in Christ._\n\n+I. Some things in which we cannot consider Christ as an\nexample.+--All those graces in us which suppose our guilt and fallen\nstate could not be exemplified to us by our Saviour.\n\n+II. Some things related of Christ we must not pretend to\nimitate.+--What He did under the character of Messiah was peculiar to\nHimself, and not designed to put us on doing likewise.\n\n+III. Why Christians should copy the mind and temper of\nChrist.+--1. _It was the design of God to set His Son before us as\nthe model of the Christian temper._ 2. _He was a pattern admirably\nfitted to be proposed to our imitation._ (1) He was an example in our\nown nature. (2) His circumstances and conduct in our nature adapted\nHis example to the most general use. (3) His example was perfect, so\nthat it has the force of a rule. 3. _The relations in which we stand\nto Christ and the concern we have with Him lay us under the strongest\nengagements to endeavour a resemblance._ He is our friend, our Lord\nand Master, our Head, our Judge, the model of our final happiness.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity in its main design is a practical\nthing._ 2. _We see the advantages we have by the Gospel beyond any\nother dispensation for true goodness._ 3. _How inexcusable must they\nbe who are not recovered to a God-like temper and conversation by\nthis most excellent dispensation!_ 4. _With what care and attention\nshould we study the life of Christ!--J. Evans, D.D._\n\n\n_Christ our Pattern._\n\n  +I. The mind of Christ was a pure mind.+\n\n +II. A self-sacrificing mind.+\n\n+III. A lowly mind.+\n\n +IV. A forbearing mind.+\n\n  +V. A constant mind.+\n\n +VI. A prayerful mind.+--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Christ the Redeemer._--This which the Son of God did and\nunderwent is the one fact of heaven and earth, with which none in\ncreation, none in history, none in your own personal being, can for a\nmoment be compared, but in the presence and in the light of which all\nthese ought to be contemplated and concluded--that it is the great\nobject of faith and practice. Of faith--for upon the personal and\nhearty reception of it as the foundation of your life before God,\nthat life itself, and all its prospects, depend; of practice--for\nhigh above all other examples, shining over and blessing while it\nsurpasses them, is this mighty example of the Son of God. Oh,\nbrethren, how the selfish man and the selfish woman and the selfish\nfamily ought to depart from such a theme as this, downcast for very\nshame, and abased at their unlikeness to the pattern which they\nprofess to be imitating! Oh that this question might be fixed and\nrankle like a dart in their bosoms, even till it will take no answer\nbut the surrender of the life to Him, and, by the daily grace of His\nSpirit, living as He lived!--_Alford._\n\n\nVer. 8. _Christ's Crucifixion._--\n\n  +I. As an historical fact.+--It is quite certain.\n\n +II. As displaying in its circumstances every variety of human\n      character.+\n\n+III. As accompanied by striking prodigies.+--The darkened sun, the\n      quaking earth, the cleft rocks, the rent veil, the opened\n      graves.\n\n +IV. As furnishing an illustrious example of the passive\n      virtues.+--Taught us how to suffer and to die.\n\n  +V. As being the brightest manifestation of self-denying and\n      self-devoting love.+\n\n +VI. As constituting the sole meritorious cause of human\n      salvation.+--Who is the sufferer? The Son of God. Why does He\n      suffer? As a prophet, as a martyr, as an example? Yes; but\n      chiefly as a sacrifice for sin.\n\n+VII. As producing the most wonderful moral transformations.+--On\n      individuals, on communities, and on Christendom.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.\n\n_The Exaltation of Christ_--\n\n+I. Was a Divine act.+--\"Wherefore God also hath highly exalted Him\"\n(ver. 9). As a recognition of the humiliation and obedience of\nChrist, God exalted Him to the throne of mediatorial sovereignty. As\nBengel puts it, \"Christ emptied Christ; God exalted Christ as man to\nequality with God\" (Compare Ps. viii. 5, 6, cx. 1, 7; Matt.\nxxviii. 18; Luke xxiv. 26; John v. 27, x. 17; Rom. xiv. 9; Eph.\ni. 20-22; Heb. ii. 9).\n\n+II. Was the acquisition of a name of pre-eminent dignity and\nsignificance.+--\"And given Him a name which is above every name, that\nat the name of Jesus\" (vers. 9, 10). Jesus is the same as Joshua, or\nJehoshua, only framed to the Greek pronunciation and termination.\nJoshua, who brought the hosts of Israel into the rest of Canaan, was\noriginally called Hoshea, but it was changed into Joshua or Jehoshua,\nby an addition of the first syllable in the Divine name Jehovah,\nperhaps to intimate that not Joshua of himself, but Jehovah by Him,\nwould complete the deliverance and rest of Israel. The name Jesus\nmeans Jehovah-Saviour, or Jehovah-Salvation, and Jesus is so called\nbecause He saves His people from their sins. The name cannot be given\nto any other being; it belongs solely and absolutely to the one\nJesus. \"Here we should probably look,\" says Lightfoot, \"to a common\nHebrew sense of name, not meaning a definite appellation, but\ndenoting office, rank, dignity. In this case the use of the name of\nGod in the Old Testament to denote the Divine Presence or the Divine\nMajesty, more especially as the object of adoration and praise, will\nsuggest the true meaning; since the context dwells on the honour and\nworship henceforth offered to Him on whom _the_ name has been\nconferred. To praise _the name,_ to bless _the name,_ to fear _the\nname_ of God, are frequent expressions in the Old Testament.\" The\nname of Jesus marks the pre-eminence of Jesus--it is the \"name above\nevery name.\" That name wields the mightiest power in the world\nto-day. A modern writer of reputation has said: \"There is a wave--I\nbelieve it is only a wave--passing over the cultivated thought of\nEurope at present, which will make short work of all belief in a God\nthat does not grip fast to Jesus Christ. As far as I can read the\nsigns of the times and the tendency of modern thinking, it is\nthis--either an absolute silence, a heaven stretching above us, blue\nand clear and cold, and far away and dumb; or else a Christ that\nspeaks--He or none. The theism that has shaken itself loose from Him\nwill be crushed, I am sure, in the encounter with the agnosticism and\nmaterialism of this day.\" The name of the exalted Jesus is the\nsalvation of the world in more senses than one.\n\n+III. Entitles Him to universal homage.+--\"Every knee shall bow . . .\nand that every tongue should confess that Jesus Christ is Lord\"\n(vers. 10, 11). Beings above, below, and on the earth shall\nacknowledge the supremacy and deity of Jesus, and unite in a\nuniversal and consentaneous act of praise and worship of His Divine\nmajesty. On the door of the old mosque in Damascus, once a Christian\nchurch, but now ranked among the holiest of Mahometan sanctuaries,\nare inscribed these remarkable words: \"Thy kingdom, O Christ, is an\neverlasting kingdom, and thy dominion endureth throughout all\ngenerations.\" For more than twelve hundred years the inscription has\nremained unimpaired by time and undisturbed by man. What is it\nwaiting for? Already a Christian Church has been founded in that\nancient city, and the Gospel is preached there every Sabbath. The\nworld's submission to Jesus is drawing near.\n\n+Lessons.+--_The name of Jesus_--1. _Is unique in its reputation._\n2. _In its moral influence among the nations._ 3. _In its saving\npower._ 4. _In the homage paid to it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9-11. _The Name of Jesus: its Exaltation and Power._\n\n+I. The Saviour's exaltation+ (ver. 9).--He was exalted by His\nresurrection from the dead, His ascension into heaven, and His\nglorious session at the right hand of God, whence He now discharges\nthe high functions of Prophet, Priest, and King.\n\n+II. The Saviour's name.+--\"That at the name of Jesus\" (ver. 10).\nJehovah, the Saviour.\n\n1. _The supreme eminence of the name._--\"A name which is above every\nname.\"\n\n2. _Pre-eminent because no other being could receive the title._\n\n3. _Pre-eminent because there is no other name that has the\nmysterious virtue of saving as this._\n\n+III. The power of the Saviour's name.+--1. _In saving the sinner._\n2. _In commanding the homage and worship of all, and in eliciting the\nuniversal acknowledgement of His deity_ (vers. 10, 11).\n\n+We learn a lesson of humility.+--1. _Because Christ humbled Himself\nfor us._ 2. _We should humble ourselves on account of past sins._\n3. _Humility leads to exaltation._\n\n\n_Christ Worthy of Universal Homage._--1. The Lord Christ, having\nabased Himself for our redemption, was exalted by the Father to the\nhighest pitch of glory. 2. The name which is above every name is said\nto be given to Christ, because His Divine majesty, before hid, was\nnow manifested and the human nature so highly honoured that that\nperson who is man is true God, and is to be acknowledged as such.\n3. However small a part of the world acknowledge Christ to be the\nLord, His glory will grow till all reasonable creatures in heaven,\nearth, and hell subject themselves to Him, and the giving of Divine\nhonour to Him does in no way impair the glory of God the\nFather.--_Fergusson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12, 13.\n\n_Salvation--God's Work and Man's Care._\n\n+I. Salvation is a personal blessing.+--\"Your own salvation\" (ver.\n12). If Christ died for all, then he died for me and I may be saved.\nIt matters little if others are being saved unless I am saved myself.\nIt is impossible to be genuinely interested in the salvation of\nothers unless we are saved ourselves. Salvation deals with the\nindividual; it gathers its trophies one by one. \"I have read of some\nseas,\" writes Bunyan, \"so pure and clear that a man may see the\nbottom, though they be forty feet deep. I know this river is a deep\nriver, but it is not said that we can see no bottom.\" The comparison\nimplies that a man with good eyes may see the bottom. So, then, we\nshall look down through these crystal streams and see what be at the\nbottom of all. The bottom of all is that we might be saved. \"These\nthings I say,\" saith Christ, \"that ye might be saved.\" What a good,\nsound bottom is here! This salvation admits man to a wealth of\nblessings impossible to estimate. Salvation should therefore be\nsought by every man earnestly, believingly, promptly.\n\n+II. Salvation needs constant personal care.+--\"Work out your own\nsalvation with fear and trembling\" (ver. 12).\n\n1. _The Christian worker is surrounded with spiritual perils._--The\napostle has referred to these perils in warning the Philippians\nagainst pride, selfishness, faction, and vain boasting (vers. 3, 4).\nTo secure his salvation the believer must not only work, but work\nwith circumspection, with vigilance, with fear and trembling. \"God\ndoes not give the flower and the fruit of salvation, but the seed,\nthe sunshine, and the rain. He does not give houses, nor yet beams\nand squared stones, but trees, rocks, and limestone, and says, 'Now\nbuild thyself a house.' Regard not God's work within thee as an\nanchor to hold thy bark firmly to the shore, but as a sail which\nshall carry it to its port. Fear thy depression and\nfaint-heartedness, but take courage at thy humility before God\"\n(_Lange_).\n\n2. _Personal care the more necessary when deprived of the oversight\nof a loved teacher._--\"Wherefore, my beloved, as ye have always\nobeyed, not as in my presence only, but now much more in my absence\"\n(ver. 12). The Philippians had shown a spirit of ready obedience both\nto the apostle and to God, and they are urged to increased diligence.\nThe apostle's \"absence did not make the obligation less imperative,\nbut it demanded more earnestness and vigilance from them in the\ndischarge of the duty. His voice and person were a guide and\nstimulant and excited them to assiduous labour, so that his presence\namong them wrought like a charm. And now that he was not with them,\nand they were left to themselves, they were so much the more to\ndouble their diligence and work out salvation with fear and\ntrembling--with distrust of themselves, earnest solicitude in every\nduty, humble reliance on Divine aid, with the abiding consciousness\nthat after all they come far short of meeting obligation\" (_Eadie_).\n\n+III. Salvation is a Divine work.+--1. _God is pleased to work in us\nto create a right disposition._--\"It is God that worketh in you to\nwill . . . of His good pleasure\" (ver. 13). The desire for salvation\nand the disposition and the to seek it come from God. As the sun\nwarms the earth and helps the flower to grow and bloom, so the Spirit\nof God warms the heart and calls for the growth and blossom of\nChristian graces. God does not take out mental and moral apparati and\nput in a new set, like the works of a clock; but He encourages us to\nuse the powers already within and breathes upon us the vitalising\ninfluence of His Spirit, so that we produce results in harmony with\nHis will.\n\n2. _God is pleased to work in us to confer the moral ability to\nwork._--\"God worketh in you . . . to do of His good pleasure\" (ver.\n13). Some men have ability to do great things, but have not the\ndisposition; others may have the disposition, but not the ability. In\nthe work of our salvation God gives both the disposition and the\npower. Because God works in us we may work; because He works in us we\nmust work out our own salvation. The means of salvation are within\nour reach; it is our part to use them. How does the miner get out of\nthe pit? There is a string at the bottom; he pulls it; a bell at the\ntop rings; a rope, worked by a steam-engine, is let down, and in this\nway he ascends to the top. A man gets down into the pit of trouble;\nhe cannot get up himself; he must ring the bell of prayer; God will\nhear it and send down the rope that is to lift him out. Man can do\nnothing without God, and God will do nothing without the willing\nco-operation of man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Salvation is possible for every man._ 2. _Salvation\nmay be secured by man yielding to the Divine influences working\nwithin him._ 3. _If man is not saved, it is his own fault._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 12, 13. _Divine and Human Co-operation in Man's Salvation._\n\n+I. The salvation to be wrought out.+--Salvation simply means\ndeliverance. It may be either temporal or spiritual, or both. The\nprocess of salvation is to be continuous.\n\n+II. In the work of our salvation Divine and human co-operation is\nnecessary.+--Illustrated in the products of nature, in works of art\nand skill. 1. _God works in us by the light of His truth._ 2. _By\nappealing to us with the influence of powerful motives._ 3. _Works in\nus by the influences of His Spirit._\n\n+III. Seek to ascertain to what extent we are indebted for our\npersonal salvation to God working in us.+--Our salvation from first\nto last is from God; that we are saved by grace, yet not so as to\ndestroy our own effort. He produces in us the will and power. We are\nto exercise the will and power by repenting, believing, and living a\nlife of holiness.\n\n+IV. Why we are to work out our own salvation with fear and\ntrembling.+--Because of the possibility of our unfaithfulness. May be\ntoo sure of salvation, and too doubtful.--_J. C. Symons._\n\n\n_The Active Exertion of Man in working out his Salvation harmonises\nwith the Free Grace of God as being the Sole Author of it._--There\nare two facts connected with the deliverance of the Israelites out of\nEgypt--their preservation in the wilderness, and their settlement in\nthe land of Canaan--to which I would solicit your attention.\n\n+I. That all was done for them by God, and is to be ascribed solely,\nfrom first to last, to His almighty power and grace.+--1. The means\nby which the establishment of the Israelites in the Promised Land was\neffected were evidently beyond the reach of human agency. 2. Even in\nthose particular cases in which the active exertions of the\nIsraelites were employed as the means of their deliverance or success\nthe whole is ascribed to God. (1) He gave them courage to fight\nagainst their enemies; (2) He gave them success by sending terror\ninto the hearts of their enemies.\n\n+II. That although God thus did everything for them, He did it in\nsuch a way as to bring every power of their minds and bodies into\nexercise, and to render their own activity absolutely necessary to\ntheir preservation and success.+--Illustrated in the passage of the\nRed Sea, and in the first battle of the Israelites with the\nAmalekites (Exod. xvii. 8).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _As the deliverance of the Israelites and their\nestablishment in Canaan was wholly of God, so the salvation of every\nsinner is to be ascribed solely and entirely to His mercy and power._\n2. _As God required the Israelites to be active, watchful, diligent,\nardent, and strenuous in their exertions to overcome difficulties and\nto defeat their enemies, so He requires His people to make their\ncalling and election sure, to work out their salvation with fear and\ntrembling._--Although God does all for us in the matter of our\nsalvation, yet He places us in situations where we must exert\nourselves or perish.--_Anonymous._\n\n\n_The Co-operation of Human and Divine Agency in our Salvation._\n\n+I. This co-operation of Divine and human energies has place in all\nthe most important facts and pursuits that make up the history of\nman.+--1. _It is true of the commencement of our being._ 2. _Our\ngrowth and education are the result of the same joint agency._\n3. _This fundamental law reigns over all the works of man._\n\n+II. What does God accomplish and what does He demand of us in the\njoint working out of our salvation?+--1 _God works in us by the light\nof His truth._ 2. _By the power of motives._ 3. _By the energy of His\nSpirit._\n\n+III. What is the intent and object of these Divine\noperations?+--1. _They are not designed to transform the character\nas, when after conversion, they are media of sanctification._\n2. _Human co-operation is the indispensable condition of progress._\n3. _Will and do._ These describe the duty of the unconverted\nman.--_S. Olin, D.D._\n\n\n_Man's Work and God's Work._\n\n  +I. This salvation is begun when we believe in Christ, but it\n      requires to be worked out.+\n\n +II. The fact that God works in us renders our working possible.+\n\n+III. The fact that God works in us should make us fear and\n      tremble.+--_R. Abercrombie, M.A._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14-18.\n\n_The Lustre of a Blameless Life_--\n\n+I. Suppresses all murmuring and doubt as unworthy of the children of\nGod.+--\"Do all things without murmurings and disputings: that ye may\nbe blameless and harmless, the sons of God without rebuke\" (vers. 14,\n15). As the sons of God, distinguished by so high and holy a calling,\nbelievers should be blameless and pure. Their spiritual integrity\nshould lift them above the cause of blame. To be pure and blameless\nthey must not yield to the spirit of dissatisfaction and doubt. \"No\nmatter what may tend to excite this spirit, it must not be indulged,\nwhether the temptation to it be the Divine command, the nature of the\nduty, the self-denial it involves, or the opposition occasionally\nencountered. There was neither grudge nor reluctance with Him whose\nexample is described in the preceding verses, no murmur at the depth\nof His condescension, or doubt as to the amount or severity of the\nsufferings which for others He so willingly endured\" (_Eadie_).\n\n+II. Sheds a guiding light in the midst of a dark world.+--\"In the\nmidst of a crooked and perverse nation, among whom ye shine as lights\nin the world; holding forth the word of life\" (vers. 15, 16). The\nPhilippians were to be a light and guide to their fellow-citizens, a\npeople made up of Jew and pagan, moved by tortuous and perverse\nimpulses. Nothing would please them: give them one argument, they cry\nfor another; tell them of the simplicity of the Gospel, they prefer\nyou should dwell on its mysteries; speak of its power, they ask you\nto expound its charity. The children of God are to society everywhere\nwhat the heavenly luminaries are to the world--they are to diffuse\nlight, and guide the way to a better life. The star which led the\nwise men to Christ, the pillar of fire which led the children of\nIsrael into Canaan, did not only shine, but went before them.\nBelievers shine by the light of the Word which they hold forth, and\nthat light is the guide to others. Virtue should shine in cities, not\nin solitudes. The Christian's duty is here among men; and the nearer\nhe draws to his fellow-men, so that his religion be real and true,\nthe more good he is likely to do them. On the north coast of Cornwall\nand Devon is a lighthouse, which first of all was placed high upon\nthe cliffs, where the mists and fogs often obscured and hid its\nbrightness from the passing mariner in hours of the sorest need. So\nthey took it down and built it afresh on the rock out at sea, amid\nthe waves of that dangerous coast, there to shine where it was most\nnecessary.\n\n+III. Supplies a prolific theme of ministerial joy.+--1. _A joy\ncomplete when his work is finally appraised._ \"That I may rejoice in\nthe day of Christ, that I have not run in vain, neither laboured in\nvain\" (ver. 16). The apostle had run with the eagerness of a racer in\nthe Isthmian games--the prizes he sought, the souls of men; he had\nlaboured with strenuous and persevering diligence--the wages he\nsought, the souls of men; and now looking by anticipation at the\nresults of his apostolic toil, in the light of the great day of\nChrist, his greatest joy will be that his efforts have not been in\nvain. His joy then will be, not in the number and wealth of the\nChurches he founded, but in the spiritual progress and advancement of\nthe members. The results of work for Christ are often in this world\nobscured and confused; but in the day of Christ all will be clear and\nthe work seen in all its beauty and dimensions. The joy of success is\noften checkered and interrupted in this life; but yonder the joy will\nbe complete and full. We shall share the joy of the conquering Christ.\n\n2. _A joy not diminished though life is prematurely\nsacrificed._--\"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and\nservice of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all\" (ver. 17).\nThe apostle's image is that of an altar, on which the faith of the\nPhilippians is laid by him as priest, while his own blood is being\npoured out as the usual drink-offering or libation. In the near\nprospect of martyrdom he has no gloomy anticipations. Death will not\nterminate his joy, but accelerate it, as it will admit him to realms\nwhere all is calm and joy and peace. Such is the triumph of the\nChristian spirit; it can rejoice in tribulation and in the very\npresence of death.\n\n3. _A joy in which his converts may share._--\"For the same cause also\ndo ye joy, and rejoice with me\" (ver. 18). So far from being\ndispirited by the prospect of his martyrdom, the apostle calls upon\nthem to share his joy on account of the success of the Gospel. How\noften in the changeful experiences of life are joy and sorrow mingled\ntogether. \"Joy lives in the midst of the sorrow; the sorrow springs\nfrom the same root as the gladness. The two do not clash against each\nother, or reduce the emotion to a neutral indifference, but they\nblend into one another, just as in the Arctic regions, deep down\nbeneath the cold snow with its white desolation and its barren death,\nyou shall find the budding of the early spring flowers and the fresh\ngreen grass; just as some kinds of fire burn below the water; just as\nin the midst of the barren and undrinkable sea there may be welling\nup some little fountain of fresh water that comes from a deeper depth\nthan the great ocean around it and pours its sweet streams along the\nsurface of the salt waste\" (_Maclaren_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _A blameless life is the product of the grace of God._\n2. _Is a rebuke to the wavering and inconsistent._ 3. _Evokes the\ncongratulations of the good in both worlds._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15, 16. _Christians Example to the World._--1. Divisions and\nstrife grieve the Spirit and darken those evidences of sonship which\nbelievers in a calm and peaceful temper of spirit used to see most\nclearly. 2. We stop the mouths of enemies when our conversation is\nsuch as may discover to others their failings, and point out that\ngood way wherein they ought to walk. 3. _Suitable_ practice joined\nwith profession puts such a majesty and splendour on truth that every\nChristian is to profane men as the sun and moon are in the firmament.\n4. The glory put on gracious souls at the day of judgment will add to\nthe glory and joy of faithful ministers.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Word of Life: a Living Ministry and a Living Church._\n\n+I. To apprehend the life of the Church we must apprehend the life of\nits Head.+\n\n+II. A living ministry.+--1. _Requires confidence in the office and\nwork itself._ 2. _Distinctness of purpose._ 3. _A quick and profound\nsense of the nature and dignity of the soul._ 4. _One that preaches\nmore than moral decency:_ preaches piety, regeneration, and faith.\n5. _Must not be afraid to assert what passes its own reason._\n\n+III. A living Church.+--1. _A safeguard against dogmatism._\n2. _Formalism._ 3. _Partisanship._ 4. _Is a body whose life is the\nlife of Christ in the soul.--F. D. Huntington, D.D._\n\n\nVers. 16-18. _The Joy of Ministerial Success_--\n\n+I. Sustained by the assurance of the final approval of his heavenly\nMaster.+--\"That I may rejoice in the day of Christ\" (ver. 16).\n\n+II. Cheerfully sacrifices life itself in the successful prosecution\nof his work.+--\"Yea, and if I be offered upon the sacrifice and\nservice of your faith, I joy, and rejoice with you all\" (ver. 17).\n\n+III. Shared by those who profit by his ministry.+--\"For the same\ncause also do ye joy, and rejoice with me\" (ver. 18).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-24.\n\n_A Projected Christian Mission_--\n\n+I. Prompted by anxiety to promote the spiritual welfare of the\nChurch.+--\"But I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timotheus shortly\nunto you, that I also may be of good comfort, when I know your state\"\n(ver. 19). We have already gathered, from our study of the epistle\nthus far, that the apostle was solicitous about the spiritual state\nof the Philippian Church; and this visit of Timothy was preparatory\nto his own coming to see them. He turns from the sadder side of his\nown likely martyrdom to the more hopeful prospect of once more being\nin their midst. The true minister of Christ can never forget his\npeople, whether present among them or absent; and his principal\nanxiety is to know that they are growing in grace and Christian\nusefulness. He seeks to keep in touch with them by letters or\npersonal messengers, and the theme of his communications will be\nbased on their mutual interest in the cause of Christ. His movements\nand wishes concerning them are all based on the will of Christ.\n\n+II. Committed to a trustworthy messenger.+--1. _A messenger in\ngenuine sympathy with the anxiety of the sender._ \"For I have no man\nlikeminded, who will naturally care for your state\" (ver. 20).\nTimothy is of such a nature, has a soul so like my own, that when he\ncomes among you he will manifest a true regard for your best\ninterests. This choice evangelist was a native of Lycaonia, in the\ncentre of Asia Minor. Faithfully and lovingly taught by his mother, a\npious Jewess, to long and look for the Messiah promised to the\nfathers, he was led, on Paul's first visit to these regions, to\nrecognise in Jesus of Nazareth the great Deliverer and to accept Him\nas his Saviour. On the apostle's second visit, four or five years\nafterwards, finding Timothy highly commended by the Christians of the\ndistrict, he took him as his companion, to give such aid in\nmissionary work as a young man could, and to be trained for full\nefficiency as a preacher of the cross. From that time onward we find\nhim in constant connection with the apostle, either as his companion\nor as carrying on some special ministerial work which Paul had\nentrusted to him. His close fellowship with the apostle gave him\nopportunities of becoming familiar with the great reading themes of\nthe Gospel, and with the high aims and motives with which his teacher\nwas constantly animated.\n\n2. _A messenger free from a self-seeking spirit._--\"For all seek\ntheir own, not the things which are Jesus Christ's\" (ver. 21). Among\nthe other members of the Church likely to be entrusted with such a\nmission there was no one like Timothy--so devoted, so whole-hearted,\nso unselfish. The early Church was not less free from imperfections\nthan the modern Church; the self-seeking spirit is as permanent as\nhuman nature. When a certain bishop was asked by an acquaintance what\nwas the best body of Divinity, he did not scruple to answer, \"That\nwhich can help a man to keep a coach and six horses.\"\n\n3. _A messenger whose fidelity has been tested._--\"But ye know the\nproof of him, that, as a son with the father, he hath served with me\nin the gospel\" (ver. 22). Paul does not say that Timothy served\nhim--though that was true--but served with him in the Gospel, showing\nfilial affection and willing obedience. The simplicity and\nunselfishness, the mellow Christian wisdom, the patience and\ngentleness of the apostle, fitted in with a charming meekness,\nunselfishness, and affectionateness in his young friend. The apostle\nwatched with joy the maturing grace of his beloved companion and\nfellow-labourer; and Timothy was thankful to God for giving him such\na friend. The courage and fidelity of the young evangelist had been\ntried in times of difficulty, and of this the apostle and the\nPhilippians had had many proofs. The Church was therefore ready to\nwelcome him with confidence and respect. The minister should be\nfaithful to the Gospel at all times. Oliver Millard, an earnest and\npopular preacher of the reign of Louis XI., attacked the vices of the\ncourt in his sermons, and did not spare the king himself, who, taking\noffence, sent the priest word that if he did not change his tone he\nwould have him thrown into the Seine. \"The king,\" replied Oliver, \"is\nthe master to do what he pleases; but tell him that I shall reach\nparadise by water sooner than he will by post-horses.\" This bold\nanswer at once amused and intimidated the king, for he let the\npreacher continue to preach as he pleased and what he pleased.\n\n+III. To be followed by a hoped-for personal visit.+--\"Him therefore\nI hope to send presently, so soon as I shall see how it will go with\nme. But I trust in the Lord that I also myself shall come shortly\"\n(vers. 23, 24). Until his own fate is determined, the apostle seems\ndesirous to keep Timothy with him; but as soon as he learned the\nissue, he would despatch his trusty messenger to Philippi, and\ncherished the hope of coming himself. Whatever the result may be,\nmartyrdom or liberty, the apostle calmly and firmly trusts in the\nLord.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The good are ever devising plans for the benefit of\nothers._ 2. _An earnest spirit inspires others to holy toil._ 3. _The\nbest virtues are strengthened by Christian work._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 19-24. _Ministerial Anxiety for the Welfare of the\nChurch._--1. The crosses and comforts of a Christian, endued with a\ntruly public spirit, depend not so much upon those things which\nconcern himself, as those which are of public concern to Jesus Christ\nand His Church. 2. A minister imitates the apostles in watching over\ntheir flock when the state of souls is the object of his care, and\nwhen the care arises, not from constraint, but from love to the party\ncared for. 3. Our own things and the things of Christ are often in\ntwo contrary balances. 4. The calling of the ministry is a service,\nand ministers are servants of Christ, for the Church, and not lords\nover their faith.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 21. _The Life of Christ the only True Idea of Self-devotion._--A\nrefined selfishness is one of the worst antagonists of the Church of\nChrist.\n\n  +I. It may consist with all the Church requires as a condition to\n      communion in her fullest privileges.+\n\n +II. But it extinguishes all that ever produced any great work in\n      Christ's service.+\n\n+III. The secret of that stupendous self-devotion which saints in all\n      ages have manifested is--they set up the life of Christ before\n      them.+\n\n +IV. The customs of life and all the current maxims and unwritten\n      laws of society maintain so tyrannous a hold even over good\n      minds that high and generous tempers are chilled into\n      inaction.+--_H. E. Manning._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 25-30.\n\n_A Devoted Christian Minister_--\n\n+I. A valued associate of good men.+--\"Epaphroditus, my brother, and\ncompanion in labour, and fellow-soldier, but your messenger, and he\nthat ministered to my wants\" (ver. 25). Epaphroditus had been sent by\nthe Philippian Church with a gift to Paul, and, pending the proposed\nvisit of himself or Timothy, he employs him as his messenger. The\ncommendation of Epaphroditus indicates the apostle's high estimate of\nthe character of the man--a Christian brother, a colleague in toil, a\nfellow-soldier in scenes of danger and conflict. The work of the\nChristian minister brings him into contact with the noblest spirits\nof the times.\n\n+II. Full of sympathy for the anxieties of his people.+--\"For he\nlonged after you all, and was full of heaviness, because that ye had\nheard that he had been sick\" (ver. 26). It may be that Epaphroditus\nwas the more anxious to return to his people lest the rumour of his\nsickness should have disastrous consequences on the state of his\nChurch, that some parties between whom he had mediated should take\nadvantage of his prostration and fall again into animosity, or it may\nbe that he might dispel the distress and sorrow of his people on his\nown account. This longing to see his people reveals a womanly\ntenderness that some men might call weakness. Paul did not so regard\nit. He knew the manly robustness of spirit, the decision, energy, and\ndevotedness that had made Epaphroditus his honoured companion in\nlabour and fellow-soldier; and to him the element of softness and\nsweetness brought out in the languor of the recovery exhibited a new\ncharm. \"The best men often show a union of opposite virtues; for\nexample, Epaphroditus. The finest delicacy of soul which, if alone,\nmight seem excessive and effeminate, allies itself to a manly\ncourage, which sets at naught life itself. The deepest love of the\nChurch does not exclude a most faithful attachment to its great\napostle, nor anxiety for the present moment forbid sympathy for a\ndistant community. One may reverence and acknowledge superior men,\nand yet give all the glory to God alone; may be anxious for his own\nsoul, and yet give himself to the welfare of the Church and the\ncommon service of its membership\" (_Lange_).\n\n+III. Exposed himself to great risk in the eager discharge of\nduty.+--\"For indeed he was sick nigh unto death: but God had mercy on\nhim; . . . I sent him therefore . . . that when ye see him again ye\nmay rejoice, and that I may be the less sorrowful\" (vers. 27, 28).\nThe sickness of Epaphroditus was probably brought on by the risks and\nexposures of his journey from Philippi to Rome. It was no easy task\nfor a Christian, one of a sect everywhere spoken against, hated and\noppressed, having no protection from either Jewish or Roman rule, to\nundertake such a mission, carrying aid to a man in prison, who was\nbitterly hated by many, and over whose approaching execution they\nwere gloating with a fiendish satisfaction. But Epaphroditus braved\nall the privations and sufferings of the perilous enterprise, and\nwould not hesitate to acknowledge publicly before the world that the\nprisoner he sought to help was his friend. Paul fully understood all\nthe perils of the adventure and that it had nearly cost a valuable\nlife; he thus specially acknowledges the mercy of God both to himself\nand the Philippians and the mitigation of their mutual sorrow in the\nrecovery of Epaphroditus. \"Life, especially the life of a faithful\nservant of Christ, possesses great value. For such a life we ought to\npray; and it is an act of God's grace when it is preserved to the\nChurch\" (_Heubner_). \"It is a fine thing,\" wrote Sailer, \"if you can\nsay a man lived and never lifted a stone against his neighbour; but\nit is a finer far if you can say also he took out of the path the\nstones that would have caught his neighbour's feet. So did Feneberg,\nand this his doing was his life.\"\n\n+IV. Highly commended for his character and work's sake.+--\"Receive\nhim therefore in the Lord with all gladness; and hold such in\nreputation: because for the work of Christ he was nigh unto death,\nnot regarding his life, to supply your lack of service towards me\"\n(vers. 29, 30). Words of highest eulogy, coming from such a source,\nand uttered under such circumstances. How tender, unreserved and\nunselfish are the apostle's commendations of Timothy and\nEpaphroditus, and how large and loving the heart from which they\ncame! Even with these friends, so dear and needful to him, the aged\nservant of Christ, worn with labour and suffering, is willing, for\nthe work of Christ, to part, and to be left alone. And this man was\nnotorious, a few years before, as Saul the persecutor. What wrought\nthe change? The glorious Gospel of the blessed God. The faithful,\nconscientious, self-denying minister of the Word cannot fail to win\nthe esteem and love of his people.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _A Christian minister has many opportunities of\nusefulness._ 2. _Should cultivate a generous and sympathetic nature._\n3. _Should be faithful in all things._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 25-28. _Anxieties of Ministerial Life._--1. Ministerial\nemployment is a painful, laborious work, and faithful ministers who\nare standard-bearers or sentinels, and march in the front, before the\nLord's people, have a peculiar battle of their own for truth and\npiety. 2. The Lord sometimes suffers His servants to fall into\ndesperate dangers, that His mercy may be the more seen in their\ndelivery. 3. Courage under sufferings for Christ, and rejoicing in\nGod, may consist with moderate sorrow and heaviness. 4. The weights\nand griefs of the godly do prove an occasion of rejoicing afterwards,\nso the grief which the Philippians had because of their pastor's\nsickness and apprehended death ended in joy when they saw him in\nhealth again.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVers. 29, 30. _Heroic Devotion to Christ_--\n\n  +I. Is wholly absorbed in the work of Christ.+\n\n +II. Risks life in serving the cause of God.+\n\n+III. Should be held in highest esteem.+\n\n +IV. Should be joyfully acknowledged in whomsoever manifested.+\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Finally.+--Lit. \"as to the rest.\" The apostle had intended\nto bring his letter to a close, but something of which we have no\ninformation leads him to warn his readers against Judaizers and their\nmethods. He resumes his farewell at ch. iv. 8, yet lingers there. +To\nwrite the same things.+--Whatever they may have been, they concerned\nthe security of his readers. His hand had so often written up in bold\nletters the _Cave canem_ to warn his unsuspecting children, that we\nmay be allowed to think that is what he means to do again.\n\nVer. 2. +Beware of dogs.+--Who would \"turn again and rend you.\" If\nthe term is a retort on \"Gentile dogs,\" and looks like \"railing for\nrailing,\" we may explain it by the directness of the metaphor. Dogs\nand Judaizers have this in common--that they tear flesh. The savage\ndelight of having inflicted a wound is shown in Gal. vi. 13. +Beware\nof the concision.+--A bitter play on the name by which the Jews\nthought themselves distinguished (Eph. ii. 11). St. Paul changes the\nprefix, and stigmatises them as \"the mutilation party.\" Lightfoot\ngives illustrations of this toying with words, _e.g.,_ in the\ncomplaint of an ambassador that he had been sent, not to Spain, but\nto Pain.\n\nVer. 3. +For we are the circumcision.+--How completely Paul had\nsloughed his Rabbinic literalism this verse clearly shows (Rom.\nii. 28, 29). +Which worship God in the Spirit.+--See our Lord's words\nto the woman of Samaria, prophetic of the day when worship shall be\nset free from its trammels and cerements (John iv. 23, 24).\n\nVer. 4. +Though I might also have confidence in the flesh.+--They\nwill never be able to say he \"speaks evil of that which he knows\nnot.\" \"If there is any profit in that direction,\" he might say, \"I\nwill set my foot as far as who goes farthest.\" An _argumentum ad\nhominem._\n\nVer. 5. +Circumcised the eighth day.+--Beginning with this he works\nhis way, though this and the following verses, to the climax of the\nstraitest sect. The items of this verse have to do with the birth and\neducation of the apostle.\n\nVer. 6. +Concerning zeal.+--\"An expression of intense irony,\ncondemning while he seems to exalt his former self\" (_Lightfoot_).\n+Righteousness which is in the law.+--Legal righteousness. Exact\nattention to all its manifold commands and prohibitions.\n\nVer. 7. +What things were gain.+--The various points in which I had\nconsidered myself fortunate, giving me an advantage over others.\n+Those I counted loss for Christ.+--The tense of the verb \"counted\"\ndenotes an action the result of which continues. It leaves no place\nfor after-regrets, like those of the woman who stopped to look back\non Sodom. St. Paul counts his Judaism, with its emoluments, well\nlost. \"Having found one pearl of great price, he went and sold all\nthat he had and bought it\" (Matt. xiii. 46).\n\nVer. 8. +Yea, doubtless, and I count, etc.+--A more explicit\nstatement of the abiding satisfaction with the chosen lot. \"I still\ndo count.\" +All things.+--Whatever they may be--not simply those\nnamed above. +For the excellency of the knowledge of Christ\nJesus.+--\"The eminent quality of a possession attained is the ground\nfor estimating other possessions according to their relation to that\none\" (_Meyer_). +For whom I have suffered the loss of all\nthings.+--The words \"gain\" and \"loss\" are the same in these verses\nas in our Lord's memorable saying \"What doth it profit a man if he\ngain the whole world and forfeit his life?\" [R.V., \"soul\" A.V.] (Mark\nviii. 36). +And do count them but dung.+--So R.V. text, \"refuse,\"\nmargin. If we accept the meaning \"that which is thrown to the dogs,\"\nwe have an apt interpretation, but we need to guard against\nattributing to the apostle subtleties of expression born in a\nlexicographer's brain.\n\nVer. 9. +Through the faith of Christ.+--Better without the article as\nR.V. Faith is the medium by which righteousness comes. +The\nrighteousness which is of God.+--Which originates from God as the\nfount of all righteousness. +By faith.+--R.V. margin, \"upon\"; that\nis, resting upon faith as its condition; above it was the medium.\n\nVer. 10. +The power of His resurrection.+--The wide-reaching and\nconquering force and efficacy which render death inert (2 Tim. 1. 10)\nand draw \"the sting of death\" (1 Cor. xv.). +And the fellowship of\nHis sufferings.+--The apostle has no desire to go by any other way to\nhis glory than that by which his Lord went--_per crucem ad lucem._\n+Being made conformable unto His death.+--R.V. \"becoming conformed.\"\nThe original is one word where we have three, \"being made\nconformable,\" taking that lowly guise which will agree with the\nbearing of Him who \"took the form of a servant.\" \"The agony of\nGethsemane, not less than the agony of Calvary, will be reproduced,\nhowever faintly, in the faithful servant of Christ\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 11. +If by any means I might attain.+--How little is there here\nof the spirit of those who profess themselves \"as sure of heaven as\nthough they were there.\" Meyer thinks the expression excludes moral\nsecurity, but not the _certitudo salutis_ in itself. +Unto the\nresurrection of the dead.+--By a very slight change \"from the dead\"\ninstead of \"of the dead\" the R.V. indicates rather too feebly the\nonly use of the term in the New Testament. \"From amongst\" would have\nbeen more likely to arrest attention. Whilst Meyer says the compound\nword for resurretion in no way differs from the ordinary one,\nLIghtfoot thinks the form of expression implies and the context\nrequires the meaning \"the final resurrection of the righteous to a\nnew and glorified life.\"\n\nVer. 12. +Not as though I had already attained.+--The word for\n\"attained\" may possibly refer to the turning-point in St. Paul's\nhistory, and so the phrase would mean, \"not as though by my\nconversion I did at once attain.\" This interpretation, which is\nBishop Lightfoot's, is challenged by Dr. Beet. It seems preferable,\non other than grammatical grounds, because the following phrase, if\nwe refer the former to conversion, is an advance of thought. +Either\nwere already perfect.+--Describing a present state which is the\nconsequence of past processes. He has not reached the condition where\nnothing else can be added. He is most blessed who, as he mounts ever\nhigher, sees perfection, like Abraham's mount of sacrifice, \"afar\noff.\"\n\nVer. 13. +Brethren, I count not myself to have apprehended.+--Some\nthink a reference to the opinion of others lies in the words; but St.\nPaul seems to be denying of himself what others asserted (in various\nways) of themselves. +But this one thing I do.+--Lit. \"but one\nthing\"; the words \"I do\" in A.V. and R.V. are a supplement. Meyer\nthinks it better to supply \"think.\" It does not seem necessary to\nsupply anything. \"One thing\" the apostle never loses sight of; all\nthe threads of life are gathered up into it. +Forgetting the things\nthat are behind.+--The thought of how much of the course had been\ncovered, and how it was done, sinks in the consideration of what has\nyet to be achieved. +And reaching forth.+--\"Like one of those eager\ncharioteers . . . of the Circus Maximus . . . leaning forward in his\nflying car, bending over the shaken rein and the goaded steed\"\n(_Farrar_). St. Paul usually employs the figure of the foot-race; and\nthe \"not looking back, which showed a right temper in a runner, would\nbe fatal to the charioteer\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 14. +I press toward the mark.+--\"I hasten towards the goal\"\nwhere the adjudicators stand. +For the prize of the high\ncalling.+--If the \"hollow wraith of dying fame\" could lead the\nathletes to put forth almost superhuman effort, how much more worthy\nwas \"the amaranthine crown of glory\" (1 Pet. v. 4).\n\nVer. 15. +As many as be perfect.+--No longer novices, but having been\ninitiated fully into the most secret mysteries of the faith--\"that\nChristian maturity in which one is no longer a babe in Christ.\" The\nreproachful irony which some detect hardly comports with the general\ntone of the letter.\n\nVer. 16. +Let us walk by the same rule.+--That which had been to them\nthe means of such distinct progress had thus approved itself as the\nsafe and prudent course to follow.\n\nVer. 17. +Followers together of me.+--He does not, as some ungracious\npastors do, show the steep road to perfection whilst himself staying\nat the wicket-gate. Like the Good Shepherd, he leadeth his sheep.\n\nVer. 18. +For many walk . . . the enemies of the cross of\nChrist.+--Christians in name only, whose loose interpretations of the\nperfect law of liberty make it possible to live an animal life. The\ncross of Christ, symbol of His self-renunciation, should be the place\nof execution for all fleshly desires of His followers; and, instead\nof that, these men over whom an apostle laments have made it an\nopportunity of sensual gratification. They say, \"We cannot help Him;\nHe does not heed our help; it is of little consequence how we live.\"\n\nVer. 19. +Whose end is destruction.+--Beet argues from this that\nUniversalism cannot be true. It must be admitted that St. Paul is\nspeaking of sins of the body, and perhaps is thinking of the ruinous\neffects of fleshly indulgence. +Whose god is their belly.+--Against\nthe dominion of appetite all the teachers of mankind are at one. All\nagree in repudiating the doctrine of the savage:\n\n     \"I bow to ne'er a god except myself\n      And to my Belly, first of deities.\"--_Seeley._\n\n\"The self-indulgence which wounds the tender conscience and turns\nliberty into licence is here condemned\" (_Lightfoot_). +Whose glory\nis in their shame.+--Their natures are so utterly perverted that they\ncount that which is their degradation as matter for pride. Like the\nman whom our Lord describes, such men not only \"fear not God, nor\nregard man,\" but can lightly vaunt the fact. +Who mind earthly\nthings.+--The peculiar form of expression is noteworthy. At these\nmen, \"of the earth, earthy,\" the apostle stands looking in amazement.\nHis expression reminds us of St. James: \"Let not that man think that\nhe shall receive anything of the Lord; a doubleminded man, unstable\nin all his ways\" (so the R.V.).\n\nVer. 20. +For our conversation is in heaven.+--\"Our\" is emphatic,\ncontrasting with the \"earthly things\" just named. \"Conversation\" is\nthat to which we most readily turn, as the needle trembles to the\npole. Our hearts are with our treasure, and that is far away from\nearthly things. \"They that say such things declare plainly that they\nseek a city;\" it is the soul's _\"Heimweh,\"_ the yearning for the\nhomeland. We must not understand the words to mean \"Our mode of\nspeech is like that in heaven,\" nor \"Our habit of life is heavenly.\"\nThe word for \"conversation\" means \"the commonwealth,\" \"the greater\nassembly and Church of the firstborn who are enrolled in heaven\"\n(Heb. xii. 23). +From whence also we look for the Saviour.+--From\nthat heaven, \"whither the Forerunner is for us entered,\" \"He shall\ncome in like manner.\" Meanwhile we stand in readiness to receive Him.\nThe word for \"look for\" (R.V. \"wait for\") graphically depicts the\nattitude of waiting.\n\nVer. 21. +Who shall change our vile body.+--R.V. much better, \"Who\nshall fashion anew the body of our humiliation.\" We are not to\nconsider the body as the cause of sin, as something outside the\nredemption wrought by Christ, \"the Saviour of the body.\" The\nfashioning anew will not lose any essential part of the body. As the\ncolours in a kaleidoscope change form at each movement, but are yet\nalways the same, so in the change of the body there will be\n\"transition but no absolute solution of continuity.\" The body of our\nhumiliation is the frail tenement in which the exile spirit sojourns\n(2 Cor. v. 1-8); it is the soon-wearied companion of an eager spirit\n(Matt. xxvi. 41); it \"returns to the dust as it was\" (Eccles.\nxii. 7). +That it may be fashioned like unto His glorious\nbody.+--R.V. \"that it may be conformed to the body of His glory,\" as\ncontrasted with the body of His humiliation (Phil. ii. 8), the body\nin which He tabernacled amongst us (John i. 14). +The power whereby\nHe is able to subdue all things.+--He has power, not only to raise\nand glorify the body, but to subdue and renovate all things.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1-3.\n\n_The False and the True in Religion._\n\n+I. The false in religion evident in the character of its\nadvocates.+--\"Beware of dogs, beware of evil workers, beware of the\nconcision\" (ver 2.). \"Dogs\" was an epithet expressive of great\ncontempt, and indicative of impurity and profanity. It was a term\napplied to the Judaizers, or, as Chrysostom calls them, \"base and\ncontemptible Jews, greedy of filthy lucre and fond of power, who,\ndesiring to draw away numbers of believers, preached at the same time\nboth Christianity and Judaism, corrupting the Gospel.\" They were\n\"evil workers\" causing much spiritual mischief. They were of \"the\nconcision\"--mere cutters or slashers of the flesh. \"The same men are\ndescribed in each clause as impure and profane, as working spiritual\nmischief, and as taken up with a puerile faith in flesh-cutting. In\nthis first clause you have their character, in the second their\nconduct, and in the third their destructive creed. Men who insisted\non circumcision as essential to salvation made the rite\nridiculous--Judaized ere they Christianised. To circumcise a Gentile\nwas not only to subject him to a rite which God never intended for\nhim, but it was to invest him with a false character. Circumcision to\nhim was a forgery, and he carried a lie in his person. Not a Jew, and\nyet marked as one, having the token without the lineage, a seal of\ndescent and not a drop of Abraham's blood in his veins. To hinge\nsalvation, especially in the case of a Gentile, on circumcision was\nsuch a spurious proselytism, such a total misappreciation of the\nJewish covenant, such a miserable subversion of the liberty of the\nGospel, such a perverse and superstitious reliance on a manual rite,\nthat its advocates might well be caricatured and branded as the\nconcision\" (_Eadie_). The false in religion stands exposed and\ncondemned by the character and methods of its propagators.\n\n+II. The true in religion has definite characteristics.+--1. _In the\nspirituality of its worship._ \"For we are the circumcision, which\nworship God in the Spirit\" (ver. 3). There is a great difference\nbetween the derisive use of the term \"concision\" and the use of the\ncircumcision in this verse. There is a Christian circumcision, which\nis a \"putting off the body of the sins of the flesh\"; and this is not\na manual but a spiritual act. All that the old circumcision typified\nthe Christian enjoys. \"The spiritual offspring of Abraham have nobler\ngifts by far than his natural seed--blessing not wrapped up in civil\nfranchise, or dependent upon time, or restricted to territory.\" The\nChristian has learnt that true religion consists, not in forms and\nceremonies and temporal privileges, but in a right state of heart\ntowards God, in a loftier worship, and a more intense spiritual life.\n\n2. _In making Christ the basis of confident exultation._--\"Finally,\nmy brethren, rejoice in the Lord . . . rejoice in Christ Jesus\"\n(vers. 1, 3). Christ, and Christ only, is the Christian's plea, and\nthe joyous theme of his unending song: Christ, the Divine,\nall-glorious Son of God. Theodosius, in the fourth century, at one\ntime so far favoured the Arians as to let them open their place of\nworship and labour to undermine the Divinity of Christ. Soon after\nthis he made his son Arcadius, a youth of sixteen, an equal partner\nwith him in his throne; and the noblemen and bishops were invited to\ncome on an appointed day to congratulate him. Among the number was\nAmphilocus, a famous old bishop who had bitterly suffered in the\nArian persecution. He made a very handsome address to the emperor,\nand was about to take his leave, when Theodosius exclaimed: \"What, do\nyou take no notice of my son? Do you not know that I have made him\npartner with me in the empire?\" Upon this the good old bishop went up\nto young Arcadius, and, putting his hand upon his head, said, \"The\nLord bless thee, my son.\" The emperor, roused into rage by this\napparent neglect, exclaimed: \"What, is this all the respect you pay\nto a prince that I have made of equal dignity with myself?\" Upon this\nthe bishop, with the grandeur of an angel and the zeal of an apostle,\nlooking the emperor full in the face, indignantly said: \"Sire, do you\nso highly resent my apparent neglect of your son because I do not\ngive him equal honours with yourself? And what must the eternal God\nthink of you who have given leave to have His co-equal and co-eternal\nSon degraded in His proper Divinity in every part of your empire?\"\n\n3. _In distrusting the supposed virtue of outward rites._--\"And have\nno confidence in the flesh\" (ver. 3). No confidence in the supposed\ngood conferred by externals. Birth and lineage, family, tribe, and\nnationality on the one hand, and the moral character determined by\nthem on the other, Paul reckons together as excellencies and gifts of\nthe same kind, and holds them in slight esteem compared with what he\nhas in Christ. The morality of men belongs to the province of the\nnatural life; it depends on birth, family, position, culture, time,\nand circumstances, and gives reason, as does every favour, for humble\nthankfulness, but not for proud boasting. Such, as contrasted with\nthe concision, is the circumcision; the children of believing Abraham\nand blessed with him; serving God by His Spirit in a higher and more\nelastic worship; glorying in Him who has won such privileges and\nblessings for them, and having no trust in any externals or\nformalities on which the Judaizer laid such stress as securing\nsalvation or as bringing it within an available reach (_Lange,\nEadie_).\n\n+III. Against the false in religion it is necessary to faithfully\nwarn.+--\"Beware . . . beware . . . beware!\" (ver. 2) Like three peals\nof a trumpet giving a certain blast do the three clauses sound, and\nthe repetition reveals the intense anxiety and earnestness of the\nalarmed apostle. It is the duty of the minister to warn his people of\nwhatever endangers their spiritual life and eternal welfare. News\ncame to a certain town, once and again, that the enemy was\napproaching; but he did not then approach. Hereupon in anger the\ninhabitants enacted a law that no man on pain of death should bring\nagain such rumours as the news of an enemy. Not long after the enemy\ncame indeed, and besieged, assaulted, and sacked the town, of the\nruins of which nothing remained but this proverbial epitaph--\"Here\nonce stood a town that was destroyed by silence.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Genuine religion is self-evident._ 2. _Falseness in\nthe garb of religion works serious mischief._ 3. _True religion\ndemands constant watchfulness._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _Safeguards against Error._--1. To rejoice in Christ--to be\nconstantly and with delight making recourse to Him--is a choice guard\nagainst any error contrary to the truths relating to Him. 2. Often\nrepeating and inculcating truths that are most for edification ought\nneither to be burdensome to a minister nor yet wearied of by the\npeople. 3. Temptations to error are covered over with such pious\npretences and lively baits that there is need of many guards and\nfrequent warnings.--_Fergusson._\n\n\nVer. 2. _Emphatic Warnings against False Teachers_--\n\n  +I. Because of their snarling methods and insatiable\n      greed.+--\"Beware of dogs.\"\n\n +II. Because of their wicked and destructive policy.+--\"Beware\n      of evil workers.\"\n\n+III. Because their zeal is wholly misdirected and\n      injurious.+--\"Beware of the concision.\"\n\n\nVer. 3. _Spiritual Circumcision_--\n\n  +I. Is an inward and conscious spiritual change.+--\"For we are the\n      circumcision.\"\n\n +II. While reverently using outward forms of worship is superior to\n      them.+--\"Which worship God in the Spirit.\"\n\n+III. Finds its joy in living union with Christ.+--\"And rejoice in\n      Christ Jesus.\"\n\n +IV. Repudiates all ordinances that divert from Christ.+--\"And have\n      no confidence in the flesh.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 4-8.\n\n_External Religionism incomparable with the True Knowledge of Christ._\n\n+I. The highest example of external religionism affords no ground for\nconfident boasting+ (vers. 4-6).--External religionism had its most\ncomplete embodiment in Paul. He was its most zealous devotee, its\nablest champion. These verses describe the best eulogy that can be\ngiven of the observer of external rites. By birth, lineage, training,\nability, consistency of character, and sincerity of aim, Paul was an\nideal Jew, a model all his countrymen might aspire to copy. If there\nwas ground for boasting, no one had a greater right than he. He\nneeded no Christ, no Saviour; he was well able to look after himself.\nBut one day the discovery came that all this glorying was vain;\ninstead of gaining salvation he was farther from it than ever, and in\ndanger of losing everything. Religious progress is often more\napparent than real. When Captain Parry and his party were in search\nof the North Pole, after travelling several days with sledges over a\nvast field of ice, on taking a careful observation of the pole-star,\nthe painful discovery was made that, while they were apparently\nadvancing towards the pole, the ice-field on which they were\ntravelling was drifting to the south, and bringing them nearer to the\nverge, not of the pole, but of destruction.\n\n+II. The supposed gains of external religionism are for Christ's sake\nesteemed as loss.+--\"But what things were gain to me, those I counted\nloss for Christ\" (ver. 7). Not losses, compared with the plural of\ngains; but all the supposed gains are treated as one great loss, and\nthis after the most careful scrutiny and calculation. \"I counted\nloss.\" The swelling sum of fancied virtues, painfully gathered and\nfondly and proudly contemplated, vanishes into nothing at one stroke\nof the discriminating pen. All that was prized as valuable, and as\nthe all of personal possession, is regarded as dross, because of\nChrist. They did not help him to win Christ, but to lose Him; the\nmore he gained in self-righteousness the more he lost of Christ. It\nwas not only profitless, but productive of positive loss.\n\n+III. The surpassing excellency of the knowledge of Christ renders\nexternal religionism utterly worthless.+--\"I count all things but\nloss for the excellency of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my\nLord; . . . and do count them but dung [refuse], that I may win\nChrist\" (ver. 8). The gains were: circumcision performed without any\ndeviation from legal time or method; membership in the house of\nIsrael, and connection with one of its most honoured tribes; descent\nfrom a long line of pure-blood ancestry; adherence to a sect whose\nprominent distinction was the observance of the old statutes; earnest\nand uncompromising hostility to a community accused of undermining\nthe authority of the Mosaic code, and a merit based on blameless\nobedience to the law. These once gloried and confided in were counted\nas a loss, for the sake of a superior gain in the excellency of the\nknowledge of Christ. He was no loser by the loss he had willingly\nmade, for the object of knowledge was the Divine Saviour. Is it not\nsuper-eminent knowledge to know Him as the Christ; to know Him as\nJesus, not because he wears our nature, but because we feel His human\nheart throbbing in unison with ours under trial and sorrow; to know\nHim as Lord, not simply because He wears a crown and wields a\nsceptre, but because we bow to His loving rule and gather the spoils\nof the victory which He has won and secured? The apostle made a just\ncalculation, for neither ritualism, nor Israelitism, nor Pharasaism,\nnor zealotism, nor legalism could bring him those blessing with which\nthe knowledge of Christ was connected; nay, until they were held as\nloss this gain of gains could not be acquired (_Eadie_). As with the\ntwo scales of a balance, writes Rieger, when one rises the other\nfalls, and what I add to one diminishes the relative weight of the\nother; so as one adds to himself he takes away from the pre-eminence\nwhich the knowledge of Christ should have. What he concedes to Christ\nmakes him willing to abase himself, to resign all confidence in His\nown works. Therefore the sharp expressions, \"to count as loss, as\ndung,\" become in experience not too severe; for to reject the grace\nof Christ, to regard the great plan of God in sending His Son as\nfruitless, were indeed far more terrible.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The highest kind and supreme end of all knowledge is\nthe knowledge of Christ._ 2. _True religion is the spiritual\nknowledge of Christ._ 3. _Religion without Christ is an empty form._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 4-7. _Formalism tested and found wanting_\n\n   +I. The best that formalism can do for man, in religious lineage,\n       reputation, zeal, and strictest outward observances, has been\n       experimentally exemplified+ (vers. 5, 6).\n\n +II. The most distinguished champion of formalism has confessed its\n      utter inadequacy to satisfy the soul+ (ver. 4).\n\n+III. The highest advantages of formalism are worthless compared with\n      Christ+ (ver. 7).\n\n\nVer. 8. _The Excellent Knowledge of Christ_--\n\n+I. Is extensive.+--Apprehends Him in all those notions and respects\nwherein the Gospel principally discovers Him.\n\n+II. Appropriating.+--Christ Jesus _my_ Lord.\n\n+III. Effectual.+--Has a powerful efficacy both upon heart and life,\nboth upon judgment, affection, and practice.\n\n+IV. Fiducial.+--It brings the soul to rest upon Christ and His\nrighteousness alone for pardon, acceptance, salvation.\n\n+V. Useful.+--He that has it studies to improve Christ, to make use\nof Him for those blessed and glorious purposes for which he knows\nChrist is given.\n\n+VI. Christ Himself is most excellent.+--1. There is nothing in Him\nbut what is excellent. 2. All excellencies in the creatures are\neminently to be found in Christ. 3. All these excellencies are in Him\nin a more excellent manner; perfectly, without any shadow of\nimperfection; infinitely, without any bounds or limits; eternally and\nunchangeably, they ebb not, they wane not, they are always there in\nthe full, they alter not, they decay not. 4. Not only all that are in\nthe creatures, but innumerable more excellencies than are in all the\ncreatures together, are in Christ alone.\n\n+VII. Those that have attained the excellent knowledge of Christ will\nnot think much to lose all things to gain Christ.+--1. All outward\nenjoyments and earthly possessions. 2. Personal righteousness as a\nmeans of justification.--_David Clarkson._\n\n\n_The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ._\n\n  +I. To know Christ in the Divinity of His person is excellent\n      knowledge.+\n\n +II. To know Christ in the glory of His redemption is excellent\n      knowledge.+\n\n+III. The comparative worthlessness of all else.+--1. _Wealth._\n      2. _Worldly honour._ 3. _Human learning._ 4. _Mere morality._\n\n\n_The Excellency of the Knowledge of Christ._\n\n  +I. Is pre-eminent excellence is to be found in its\n      certainty.+--Proved by--1. _Prophecy._ 2. _Miracles._\n      3. _Experience._\n\n +II. In its majesty and grandeur.+\n\n+III. It its suitableness and adaptation.+\n\n +IV. In its comprehensiveness.+\n\n  +V. The knowledge of Christ is sanctifying.+--_R. Watson._\n\n\n_Christ the Only Gain._\n\n  +I. To count Him gain.+\n\n +II. To covet and seek Him as gain.+\n\n+III. To appropriate Him as gain.+\n\n +IV. To enjoy Him as gain.+--_R. S. Candlish._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.\n\n_Features of the Believer's Life in Christ._\n\n+I. The believer's life has its home and stronghold in Christ.+--\"And\nbe found in Him\" (ver. 9). Once lost, now found: found by Christ;\nfound in Him by others. Once homeless, now safely sheltered. One day\nCharles Wesley was sitting by an open window looking over the bright\nand beautiful fields in summertime. Presently a little bird, flitting\nabout in the sunshine, attracted his attention. Just then a hawk came\nswooping down towards the little bird. The frightened thing was\ndarting here and there, trying to find some place of refuge. In the\nbright sunny air, in the leafy trees or green fields, there was no\nhiding-place from the fierce grasp of the hawk. But seeing the open\nwindow and a man sitting by it, the bird, in its extreme terror, flew\ntowards it, and with a beating heart and quivering wing found refuge\nin Wesley's bosom. He sheltered it from the threatening danger, and\nsaved it from a cruel death. Wesley was at that time suffering from\nsevere trials, and was feeling the need of a refuge as much as the\ntrembling bird that nestled safely in his bosom. So he took up his\npen and wrote the well-known hymn--\n\n     \"Jesu, Lover of my soul,\n      Let me to Thy bosom fly.\"\n\nTo be found in Christ means more than mere shelter, more than\nexternal fellowship. It means a union as close and vital and abiding\nas between the members of the body and the head; a union effected by\nthe Spirit, and being the very Spirit of Christ dwelling in us.\n\n+II. The believing life consists of righteousness, not self-acquired,\nbut Divinely inspired through faith.+--\"Not having mine own\nrighteousness, but that which is through the faith of Christ\" (ver.\n9). The apostle now touches upon a theme--justification by\nfaith--which he has argued out with a clearness and fulness\nunequalled by any other New Testament writer. The righteousness which\nwas his own was out of the law, or originated by the law, and was\nacquired by his own effort; but the righteousness which he finds in\nChrist is not his own, but God's, and is acquired, not by his merits\nor efforts, but by faith in Christ. \"This righteousness, Divine in\nits origin, awful in its medium, and fraught with such results, was\nthe essential element of Paul's religion, and the distinctive tenet\nof his theology.\" When a friend happening to say to the Rev. John\nBrown, of Haddington, \"I suppose you make not your labours for the\ngood of the Church the ground of your comfort,\" he, with uncommon\nearnestness, replied, \"No, no no! it is the finished righteousness of\nChrist which is the only foundation of my hope; I have no more\ndependence on my labours than on my sins. I rather reckon it a wonder\nof mercy that God took any of my labours of my hand. Righteousness\nbelongeth unto Him, but unto me shame and confusion of face.\"\n\n+III. The believer's life is the creation of Divine power.+--1. _It\nis a life communicated by the exercise of the Divine power that\nraised Christ from the dead._ \"That I may know Him, and the power of\nHis resurrection\" (ver. 10). The power exerted by Christ's\nresurrection is exerted in raising the Divine life in the believing\nsoul, and raising it to still higher developments of power and\nenjoyment. The aspirations of the soul after Christ are aspirations\nto know more and more the power of His resurrection.\n\n2. _It is a life that will be consummated by the ultimate\nresurrection of the body._--\"If by any means I might attain unto the\nresurrection of the dead\" (ver. 11). Towards this consummation the\napostle yearns with intense desire. All his hopes, all his soul\nlonged for, seem gathered up in this: perfect freedom for ever from\nsin and sorrow; knowledge of Christ up to the fullest measure of his\ncapacity of knowledge; perfect experimental acquaintance with the\npower of His resurrection, through perfect fellowship of life with\nHim; the ineffable and everlasting blessedness of being with Him and\nlike Him; to rise out of the ashes of the tomb and assume the\nglorious body of the resurrection. We can never forget a corridor in\nthe Vatican Museum, exhibiting on the one side epitaphs and emblems\nof departed heathens and their gods, and on the other side mementoes\nof departed Christians. Face to face they stand, engaged, as it were,\nin conflict, the two armies clinging to their respective standards;\nhope against despair--death swallowed up in victory. Opposite to\nlions seizing on horses, emblems of destruction, are charming\nsculptures of the Good Shepherd bearing home the lost lamb--a sign of\nsalvation.\n\n+IV. The believer's life is in sympathetic fellowship with the\nsuffering Christ+--\"And to know the fellowship of His sufferings\"\n(ver. 10). The sufferings of Christ are not ended--they are prolonged\nin the sufferings of His people--and of these the apostle desired to\nknow the fellowship. He longed so to suffer, for such fellowship gave\nhim assimilation to his Lord, as he drank of His cup and was baptised\nwith His baptism. It brought him into communion with Christ, purer,\ncloser, and tenderer than simple service for Him would have achieved.\nIt gave him such solace as Christ Himself enjoyed. To suffer together\ncreates a dearer fellow-feeling than to labour together. Christ\nindeed cannot be known unless there be this fellowship in His\nsufferings (_Eadie_). An intimate friend of Handel's called upon him\njust as he was in the middle of setting the words to music, \"He was\ndespised,\" and found the great composer sobbing with tears, so\ngreatly had this passage and the rest of the morning's work affected\nthe master.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The soul finds its highest life in Christ._ 2. _Life\nin Christ is secured by the co-operation of man's faith with Divine\npower._ 3. _To live in Christ is to share the fruits of His\nmysterious passion._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _Knowledge of the Power of Christ's Resurrection._\n\n  +I. To know Christ includes a clearly defined conception and\n      familiar acquaintance with the special characteristics and\n      unrivalled excellencies of His person.+\n\n +II. To know the power of His resurrection.+--1. _As it is a public\n      and universal vindication of the proper dignity of His person._\n      2. _As it seals the doom of human sin._ 3. _As it ensures the\n      destruction of pain and death, and provides for the perpetuation\n      of the believer in a state of immortal felicity._\n\n\n_The Power of Christ's Resurrection_--\n\n  +I. As a miracle attesting His Divine mission.+\n\n +II. As an evidence of His Divinity.+--Resurrection does not always\n      prove Divinity, but in these circumstances (Rom. i. 3, 4).\n\n+III. As an indication of the acceptance of His sacrifice.+\n\n +IV. As an incentive to the pursuit of holiness.+--Risen with Christ;\n      risen in Him, sharing His life.\n\n  +V. As an instrument of social amelioration.+--The Gospel has\n      civilised where it has not Christianised, has repressed and\n      refined where it has not renewed or regenerated.\n\n +VI. As a pledge and preassurance of the glorious resurrection of\n      His people.+--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Fellowship of Christ's Sufferings._\n\n  +I. We have fellowship with Christ in His sufferings in the pain\n      caused by coming in contact with sin.+\n\n +II. In having our motives misinterpreted and our conduct misjudged.+\n\n+III. In the purifying influence of suffering.+\n\n\nVer. 11. _The Resurrection of the Dead as an Object to aim at._\n\n+I. The object which Paul contemplated.+--1. _The resurrection as the\nproof of final escape from all evil._ 2. _The resurrection as the\noccasion of public recognition by the Saviour-Judge._ 3. _The\nresurrection as the pledge of eternal happiness in heaven._\n\n+II. His desire for that object.+--_It supplies_--1. _A high\nappreciation of its value._ 2. _A deep sense of its difficulty._\n3. _A persuasion that it may be attained in various degrees._ 4. _A\nsubmission to all the Divine arrangements in reference to\nit.--G. Brooks._\n\n\n_The Resurrection of the Just._\n\n+I. What is that entire satisfaction and climax for which we are to\nlong and labour?+\n\n+II. What are the scriptural representations of its accompaniments\nand consequences?+--1. _The power of recognising all those whom they\nhave known in holy fellowship on earth._ 2. _The resemblance of our\nnature to Christ._ 3. _High honour is destined for Christians._\n\n+III. What are the determinations by which it is to be won?+--1. _The\nrelation which the present happy spiritualism of deceased saints\nbears to the resurrection._ 2. _The representation of the\nintermediate state._ It is a relic and disadvantageous condition of\ndeath, though of death as far as possible mitigated. It shall be\noverthrown, not only as a state, but as a separate power, in the\ndestruction of death.--_R. W. Hamilton._\n\n\n_The Attainment of the Resurrection._\n\n+I. Paul's aim.+--\"The resurrection of the dead.\" 1. _The risen\nChrist is the pledge of a risen life for man._ 2. _The rising of\nChrist is a power to elevate life._ 3. _Hence arises the gradual\nattainment of the resurrection._\n\n+II. Paul's endeavour.+--\"If by any means.\" The necessity for this\nagonising endeavour arises from--1. _The difficulty of accomplishing\nit._ 2. _The glory of its attainment.--E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12-16.\n\n_The Highest Type of Christian Experience._\n\n+I. The highest type of Christian experience is Divinely outlined in\nChrist.+--\"That for which also I am apprehended of Christ Jesus\"\n(ver. 12). \"The prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus\"\n(ver. 14). The prize is not definitely described, but God through the\nGospel calls upon the soul to take hold of some great, dimly\nportrayed good, some rich spiritual blessing, some fulness and\nsplendour of character to be secured by a fuller knowledge of Christ.\nIf we say the prize is heaven or the kingdom of God, what is the\nheavenly kingdom but the fulness of Christ? Though not explained in\ndetail, the prize is sufficiently outlined in Christ, by the\nmaster-hand of the Divine Artist, as to make it an object of intense\nlonging and strenuous effort to possess. The soul yearns to attain a\nmoral and spiritual perfection found only in Christ, and which the\nunending development of the beauties of His character are constantly\ndisclosing in ever-growing splendour, and which closer union with Him\nalone can seize and appropriate.\n\n+II. The effort to attain the highest type of Christian experience is\nstimulated by conscious defect.+--\"Not as though I had already\nattained, either were already perfect: but I follow after, if that I\nmay apprehend\" (ver. 12). The more clearly the apostle saw his\nprivilege in Christ, the more conscious was he of his shortcomings.\nThere is no progress possible to the man who does not see and mourn\nover his defects. \"The soul of all improvement is the improvement of\nthe soul;\" and it is only a keen sense of need that stimulates the\nsoul to continuous and repeated efforts. The ideal is ever ahead of\nthe actual, revealing its defects and exciting to fresh and more\nearnest endeavours.\n\n+III. The highest type of Christian experience is attained only by\nstrenuous and continuous effort.+--\"But this one thing I do, . . . I\npress toward the mark\" (vers. 13, 14). The racer, fixing his eye upon\nthe goal, leans forward, and turning his back upon things behind,\npresses with all speed towards the prize he covets. If he turns\naside, he misses the mark and loses the garland. The great prizes of\nlife are gained only by persevering labour. However prodigious may be\nthe gifts of genius they can only be developed and brought to\nperfection by toil and study. Think of Michelangelo working for a\nweek without taking off his clothes, of Handel hollowing every key of\nhis harpsichord like a spoon by incessant practice, and of the\nsculptor polishing his statue with unwearied repetitions because he\nsaid, \"the image in my head is not yet in my hands.\" The prize of the\nChristian race--the crown of eternal life and blessedness--is worthy\nof the most laborious and self-denying efforts. When at times the\nheart grows weary in the struggle, a glimpse of the diadem of beauty\nobtained by faith revives the flagging energies.\n\n+IV. Those who do not see the obligation of striving after the\nhighest type of Christian experience shall be aided with Divine\nlight.+--\"If in anything ye be otherwise minded, God shall reveal\neven this unto you\" (ver. 15). The difference of view was not some\nwilful and wicked conception, or some wretched prejudice adhered to\nwith inveterate or malignant obstinacy. It was rather some truth not\nfully seen in all its bearings, some principle not so perceived as to\nbe carried out in all its details and consequences, some department\nof duty which they might apprehend rather than appreciate, or some\nstate of mind which they might admire in the apostle, but did not\nreally covet for themselves. The apostle throws his own teaching into\nthe shade, and ascribes the coming enlightenment to God (_Eadie_).\nThe man who is honestly in pursuit of the highest good, though led\naway for a time by erroneous views, shall not lack the light he\nsincerely seeks. The light which will help him most must be light\nfrom God.\n\n+V. All progress towards the highest Christian experience must be on\nthe lines of real progress already made.+--\"Whereto we have already\nattained, let us walk by the same rule, let us mind the same thing\"\n(ver. 16). Every victory over self and sin is a stepping-stone to\nfurther triumphs. The struggle of to-day will be the victory of\nto-morrow. Our most helpful lessons are gathered from our failures.\nOur present blessings were obtained through faith and labour; our\nnext must be gained in the same way. God will give more light to the\nman who rightfully uses what he has. \"When the morning bursts\nsuddenly on one awakened out of sleep, it dazzles and pains him; but\nto him who, on his journey, has blessed the dawn and walked by its\nglimmer, the solar radiance brings with it a gradual and cheering\ninfluence.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the sum and pattern of the highest good._\n2. _Progress in religious experience is a growing likeness to\nChrist._ 3. _The soul retains its highest enjoyment and power only in\nChrist._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 13. _The Happy Day and its Sequel._\n\n  +I. St. Paul did not forget the circumstances of his arrest by\n      Jesus.+\n\n +II. St. Paul's remembrance of his arrest led to a practical inquiry\n      as to its purpose.+\n\n+III. The purpose of his arrest by Christ Jesus is before and not\n      behind him, even in his old age.+\n\n +IV. What is the mark to which he presses onward?+--1. _A perfect\n      likeness to Christ._ 2. _A perfect service._ 3. _The reward\n      in heaven.--W. Hawkins._\n\n\nVers. 13, 14. _Pressing toward the Mark._\n\n+I. The apostle's sense of his own shortcomings.+--1. _It argued a\nhigh estimate of a Christian's duty._ Perfection is his aim, although\nnot his attainment.\n\n2. _It argued a humble estimate of himself._--Though the most eminent\nChristian on earth, he was fully conscious of his own imperfection.\n\n+II. The apostle's method of Christian progress.+--1. _The\nconcentration of his energies._ Many things he did, and he did them\nwholly. But he made them all subservient to his one idea, which thus\nunified them all. Decision of character.\n\n2. _Oblivion of the past._--A wonderful past was his, but he forgot\nit, except as it might supply a stimulus to his future advances--past\ntimes, past pleasures, past sins, past labours, past attainments. The\npast must have dwelt in his memory, but it did not satisfy him.\n\"Onward\" was his motto, and every day he began his race afresh.\n\n3. _Untiring activity._--He had the goal ever in his eye; he often\nmeasured the distance between him and the goal; he stretched every\nnerve to reach the goal. (1) Do we resemble Paul in his aim? (2) Do\nwe resemble Paul in his efforts?--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_Aim High_--\n\n  +I. In pursuit of moral excellence.+\n\n +II. Intellectual character.+\n\n+III. Active usefulness.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _God Himself has commanded it._ 2. _Society expects it\nof you._ 3. _The age in which you live demands it.--E. D. Griffin._\n\n\nVers. 15, 16. _The Temper to be cultivated by Christians of Different\nDenominations toward each other._\n\n+I. Those who adhere to this rule.+--1. _Seek and cultivate their\nsociety._ 2. _Use means to promote the mutual improvement of these\npersons and of ourselves._ 3. _Do all we can to render our mutual\nreciprocal union more perfect and our usefulness more extensive._\n\n+II. Those who differ from us in matters of great\nimportance.+--1. _Give consideration to the way in which their_\n_religious characters have been formed._ 2. _Pay regard to the\ndifficulties and misapprehensions which lie in the use of words._\n3. _Reflect what would probably have been the effects upon our minds\nhad we been placed in their circumstances._ 4. _Act towards them with\njustice and kindness._\n\n+III. Those who differ from us in matters of smaller\nmoment.+--1. _Show them sincere and honest respect and kindness._\n2. _Cultivate friendly intercourse with them as far as they are\ndisposed to reciprocate such intercourse._ 3. _Show that we esteem\nthe essential principle of the Gospel more than controversial\npreciseness and ecclesiastical form.--J. P. Smith._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 17-19.\n\n_Good and Bad Examples._\n\n+I. A good example should be attentively studied.+--\"Mark them which\nwalk so as ye have us for an ensample\" (ver. 17). We cannot imitate\nwhat we do not see and know. It will help us to be good if we\ncarefully watch and meditate on the conduct of the truly good. The\nbest example of uprightness and consistency is worthy of the most\npainstaking study. \"Wherever they found the life of the apostle\nimitated and displayed the Philippians were to mark it and make it\ntheir pattern. Any excellence which they thus discovered they might\nby God's grace attain to. It was not some distant spectacle they were\nto gaze at and admire, but an embodiment of earnest faith, walking on\nthe same platform with them., and speaking, acting, praying,\nsuffering, and weeping among them. What had been possible to others\nwas surely not impossible to them\" (_Eadie_). A Polish prince was\naccustomed to carry the picture of his father always in his bosom,\nand on particular occasions used to take it out and view it, saying,\n\"Let me do nothing unbecoming so excellent a father.\"\n\n+II. A good example should be faithfully imitated.+--\"Brethren, be\nfollowers together of me\" (ver. 17). Paul had studied profoundly the\ncharacter of Christ, and was earnestly striving to follow Him. He\ntherefore exhorts the Philippians to imitate him as he sought to\nimitate Christ; or rather, as Bengel puts it, he invites them to be\n\"fellow-imitators of Christ.\" To imitate Christ is not copying Him in\nevery particular. We cannot follow Him as Saviour, Mediator,\nRedeemer. What is meant is, that we are to do our work in the Spirit\nof Christ, as He would do it. He who follows Christ never misses the\nright way, and is always led on to victory. When in the Mexican war\nthe troops were wavering, a general rose in his stirrups and dashed\ninto the enemies' lines, shouting, \"Men, follow me!\" They, inspired\nby his courageous example, dashed on after him and gained the\nvictory. What men want to rally them for God is an example to lead\nthem.\n\n+III. A bad example is in antagonism to the highest truth.+--\"Many\nwalk, of whom I have told you, . . . they are the enemies of the\ncross of Christ\" (ver. 18). Professed friends, dubious in their\nattachment and promises, are enemies of Christ, and of the great\nmovement in human redemption represented by His cross. While\nprofessing to maintain the doctrines of the cross, by their wicked\nlives they are depreciating them.\n\n1. _A bad example is set by those who concentrate their chief thought\non the material._--\"Who mind earthly things\" (ver. 19). The world has\nmany attractions, but it has also many dangers. To be wholly absorbed\nin its pursuits weans the soul from God and holiness and heaven.\nGosse tells us, in his _Romance of Natural History,_ of certain\nanimals which inhabit the coral reefs. So long as they keep the\npassage to the surface clear they are safe; but, this neglected, the\nanimal finds the coral has grown around it and enclosed it in a\nliving tomb. And so it is with the life of the soul on earth. The\nworld is around us everywhere; the danger is when we allow it to grow\nbetween our souls and God.\n\n2. _A bad example is set by those who are supremely controlled by\ntheir sensual appetites._--\"Whose God is their belly\" (ver. 19). The\ndesires of the flesh invite to self-indulgence--to gluttony,\nrevelling, drunkenness; to gaudiness, extravagance, and immodesty of\ndress; to impurity of speech and conduct. A sensual man looks as if\nlust had drawn her foul fingers over his features and wiped out the\nman. The philosopher Antisthenes, who had a contempt for all sensual\nenjoyment, used to say, \"I would rather be mad than sensual.\"\n\n3. _A bad example is set by those who gloat in their\ndegradation._--\"Whose glory is in their shame\" (ver. 19). Man has\nreached the lowest depth of vice when he boasts in what is really his\nshame. The last rag of modesty is thrown aside. \"These enemies of the\ncross were not hypocrites, but open and avowed sensualists, conscious\nof no inconsistency, but rather justifying their vices, and thus\nperverting the Gospel formally for such detestable conduct.\"\n\n4. _The end of a bad example is ruin._--\"Whose end is destruction\"\n(ver. 19). Evil is the broad way that leadeth to destruction. Sin\nmust be inevitably punished; it works its own fate--\"sin when it is\nfinished bringeth forth death.\" Judge Buller, speaking to a young\ngentleman of sixteen, cautioned him against being led astray by the\nexample or persuasion of others, and said, \"If I had listened to the\nadvice of some of those who called themselves my friends, when I was\nyoung, instead of being a judge of the King's Bench, I should have\ndied long ago a prisoner in the King's prison.\"\n\n+IV. Professed members of the Church who set a bad example are the\noccasion of constant solicitude and sorrow to the truly good.+--\"For\nmany walk, of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even\nweeping\" (ver. 18). Even when denouncing the worst sins, the apostle\ndoes it, not with harshness and imperious superiority, but with the\ngreatest tenderness and grief. The anxious minister may well weep\nover the folly and delusion of half-hearted adherents, over their\nfalse and distorted conceptions of the Gospel, over the reproach\nbrought against the truth by their inconsistent and licentious lives,\nand over their lamentable end. The conduct of sinners is more a\nmatter of heart-breaking sorrow than of wrathful indignation.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Example is more potent than precept._ 2. _A bad\nexample should be carefully shunned._ 3. _A good example should be\ndiligently imitated._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 17. _Imitation of the Good_--\n\n  +I. Possible only where there is a sympathetic resemblance to and\n      admiration of the character sought to be copied.+--\"Brethren.\"\n\n +II. Is easier when joined with those who have similar aims.+--\"Be\n      followers together of me.\"\n\n+III. Is aided by careful observation and study.+--\"Mark them.\"\n\n +IV. Every good man is an example for others to imitate.+--\"So as ye\n      have us for an ensample.\"\n\n\nVers. 18, 19. _Enemies of the Cross_--\n\n  +I. Deny the efficacy and purpose of Christ's sufferings.+\n\n +II. Are incompetent to appreciate the spiritual significance of the\n      cross.+--\"Who mind earthly things.\"\n\n+III. Are the victims of sensuality.+--\"Whose god is their belly.\"\n\n +IV. Are degraded beyond all bounds of modesty.+--\"Whose glory is in\n      their shame.\"\n\n  +V. Will be inevitably punished.+--\"Whose end is destruction.\"\n\n +VI. Are the cause of much grief to those who must constantly expose\n      them.+--\"Of whom I have told you often, and now tell you even\n      weeping.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20, 21.\n\n_Christian Citizenship_--\n\n+I. Has its centre of life and privileges in heaven.+--\"For our\nconversation [citizenship] is in heaven\" (ver. 20). To show the\ncontrast between the earthly things which absorb the thought of the\nworldly, and the things of heaven, the apostle proceeds to indicate\nthat the life of the believer, even on earth, is associated with the\nprivileges and blessings of the heavenly commonwealth, of which he is\na member. In this world the Christian is but a stranger--living in\ntemporary exile. His city, his home, is in heaven. Longing to enter\ninto possession of all the privileges of the heavenly franchise,\nearthly things have no attraction for him, and he seeks to act in\nharmony with his high destiny.\n\n+II. Is assured of the deliverance of its members from the perils and\nhardships of earth.+--\"From whence also we look for the Saviour, the\nLord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 20). The apostle characterises Jesus as\nSaviour, or as expected in the character of Saviour, and thus\nsuggests an awful contrast, in point of destiny, between himself and\nthose like-minded with him, and the party reprobated by him in the\ntwo preceding verses. Their end is destruction, but ours is\nsalvation; to the one He descends as Judge, but to us as Saviour. If\nthere be such visible difference in present character, there is a\nmore awful contrast in ultimate destiny--the two poles of\nhumanity--everlasting punishment; eternal life (_Eadie_). The great\nDeliverer will emancipate us from the thraldom, suffering, and sorrow\nof the present world, and complete in its fulness the salvation which\nis now in process.\n\n+III. Has the confident hope of future dignity and\nblessedness.+--1. _The body of humiliation shall be transformed into\nthe likeness of Christ's glorified body._ \"Who shall change our vile\nbody, that it may fashioned like unto His glorious body\" (ver. 21).\nThe body of our humiliation connects us with the soil, out of which\nit was formed, and by the products of which it is supported, on which\nit walks, and into which it falls at death. It keeps us in constant\nphysical connection with earth, whatever be the progress of the\nspirit towards its high destiny--its commonwealth in heaven. It\nlimits intellectual power and development, impedes spiritual growth\nand enjoyment, and is soon fatigued with the soul's activity. In it\nare the seeds of disease and pain, from functional disorder and\norganic malady. It is an animal nature which, in spite of a careful\nand vigilant government, is prone to rebellious outbreaks. But this\nbody is reserved to a high destiny: it shall be like Christ's\nheavenly body. The brightness of heaven does not oppress Him, neither\nshall it dazzle us. Our humanity dies indeed, and is decomposed; but\nwhen He appears, it shall be raised and beautified. These bodies\nshall cease to be animal without ceasing to be human bodies, and they\nshall become spiritual bodies--etherealised vehicles for the pure\nspirit that shall be lodged within them (_Eadie, passim_).\n\n2. _This transformation shall be effected by the Divine power that\ncontrols the universe._--\"According to the working whereby He is able\neven to subdue all things unto Himself\" (ver. 21). While omniscience\nis the actual possession or exercise of all knowledge, omnipotence is\nuniversal ability, which may or may not yet have put forth all its\nenergies, for what is possible to it may not have been effected by\nit. But Christ shall put forth His power, as we know from other\nsources, and death itself shall be swallowed up in victory--that\nwhich has swallowed up all humanity shall be surrounded by a wider\nvortex and be itself engulfed. This body of our humiliation has some\nsurviving element, or some indissoluble link, which warrants the\nnotion and shall secure the consciousness of identity, in whatever\nthat identity may consist (_Eadie_). If man's art and device can\nproduce so pure and white a fabric as paper from filthy rags, what\nshall hinder God by His mighty power to raise the vile body from the\ngrave and refine and fashion it like unto the glorious body of\nChrist? \"Not a resurrection,\" says Neander, \"as a restoration merely\nof the same earthly body in the same earthly form; but a glorious\ntransformation, proceeding from the Divine, the all-subduing power of\nChrist; so that believers, free from all the defects of the earthly\nexistence, released from all its barriers, may reflect the full image\nof the heavenly Christ in their whole glorified personality, in the\nsoul pervaded by the Divine life and its now perfectly assimilated\nglorified organ.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian citizen is but a sojourner on earth._\n2. _His conduct on earth is regulated by a heavenly life._ 3. _He\nlooks for his highest honours and enjoyments in the future._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 20. _Christian Citizenship._\n\n+I. The heavenly citizenship of Christians.+--1. _The city to which\nthey belong_--heaven. 2. _When are true Christians made citizens of\nthis heavenly state?_ When they are pardoned. 3. _What are the\nprivileges connected with this state of relation to the heavenly\ncity?_ (1) _Freedom._ (2) _Admits to honourable employment and\noffice._ (3) _Fellowship and communion with the whole body of\nIsrael._ 4. _A right to the common property_--the inheritance of the\nsaints in light.\n\n+II. The conduct manifested by true Christians, and corresponding\nwith their privilege.+--1. _Holiness._ 2. _Boast of the institutions\nof the heavenly city._ 3. _Are bold and courageous._ 4. _It will be\nseen in our spirit._ 5. _Our affections are in heaven.--R. Watson._\n\n\nVer. 21. _The Resurrection of the Human Body._\n\n+I. We must be reminded of our sinful condition.+--1. _Our body is\ncalled a body of humiliation, because it, as well as the spirit, is\nthe seat of sin._ 2. _If we consider the immense labour necessary to\nprovide for its wants._ 3. _If we consider it as a clog to our\ndevotion._ 4. _It must be still further humbled by death._\n\n+II. The transformation of this humbled body.+--1. _There can be no\ndeformity._ 2. _The excessive care necessary for the support of the\nbody shall exist no more._ 3. _It shall be an assistant and no longer\na hindrance to the operations of the deathless spirit._\n\n+III. The means by which the transformation will be effected.+--The\npower of God answers all objections, removes all difficulties.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _It becomes us to aspire to as much of the glory of\nthe future state as can be attained._ 2. _This subject affords\nencouragement to us on the loss of our friends._ 3. _Ought to fortify\nour minds against the fear of death.--Ibid._\n\n\n_The Glorious Destiny of the Human Body._--If we are in Christ, He\nwill gather up what is left, He will transfigure it with the\nsplendour of a new life, He will change our body of humiliation that\nit may be fashioned like unto the body of His glory. Sown in the very\nextreme of physical weakness, it will be raised in a strictly\nsuperhuman power; sown a natural body controlled on every side by\nphysical law, it will be a true body still, but a body that belongs\nto the sphere of spirit. Most difficult indeed it is even to the\nimagination to understand how this poor body, our companion for so\nmany years--part of our very selves--is to be first wrenched from us\nat death and then restored to us if we will, transfigured by the\nmajestic glory of the Son of God. Little can we understand this\ninaccessibility to disease, the radiant beauty, the superiority to\nmaterial obstacles in moving through space, the spirituality, in\nshort, which awaits without destroying it.\n\n     \"Heavy and dull this frame of limbs and heart.\n      Whether slow creeping on cold earth, or borne\n      On lofty steed\n      Or loftier prow, we dart\n      O'er wave or field,\n      Yet breezes laugh to scorn\n      Our puny speed,\n      And birds, and clouds in heaven,\n      And fish like living shafts that pierce the main,\n      And stars that shoot through freezing air at even.\n      Who would not follow, might he break his chain?\n      And thou shalt break it soon.\n      The grovelling worm\n      Shall find his wings, and soar as fast and free\n      As his transfigured Lord, with lightning form\n      And snowy vest. Such grace He won for thee\n      When from the grave He sprang at dawn of morn,\n      And led, through bondless air, thy conquering road,\n      Leaving a glorious track where saints new-born\n      Might fearless follow to their blest abode.\"--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER IV.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Brethren beloved and longed for . . . beloved.+--By these\ncaressing titles, which, however, are not words of flattery but of\nsincere love, he works his way into their hearts. The \"beloved\"\nrepeated at the close of the verse is like the clinging embrace of\naffection. +My joy.+--The most delectable joy of St. John was to hear\nthat his children walked in truth. So St. Paul says of his Philippian\nconverts, as he had said of their neighbours of the Thessalonian\nChurch, that they are his joy. +And crown.+--\"The word must be\ncarefully distinguished from 'diadem.' It means a chaplet or wreath,\nand the idea it conveys may be either (1) victory, or (2) merriment,\nas the wreath was worn equally by the conqueror and by the\nholiday-maker\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 3. +And I entreat thee also, true yokefellow.+--It is doubtful\nwhom the apostle addresses. On the whole, however, it seems most\nprobable that Epaphroditus, the bearer of the epistle, is intended\n(so Lightfoot, following Hofmann). Meyer says: \"Laying aside\narbitrariness and seeing that the address is surrounded by proper\nnames, we can only find in the word for 'yokefellow' a proper\nname, . . . genuine Syzygus, _i.e._ thou who art in reality and\nsubstantially that which thy name expresses: '_fellow-in-yoke,_\nfellow-labourer.'\" +Whose names are in the book of life.+--St. Paul\nhad before said the polity of the Christians was a heavenly one. Here\nhe says there is a \"burgess list\" from which no name of a true\ncitizen is ever by accident omitted--though by any chance he might\nhave omitted to mention his co-workers in his epistle.\n\nVer. 4. +Rejoice in the Lord.+--R.V. margin, \"Farewell.\" The word is\nneither \"farewell\" alone, nor \"rejoice\" alone (_Lightfoot_). That the\nA.V. and R.V. texts are justified in so translating seems clear from\nthe \"always\" which follows.\n\nVer. 5. +Let your moderation be known.+--This moderation or\nforbearance is the very opposite of the spirit which will \"cavil on\nthe ninth part of a hair\" in the way of asserting personal rights.\n\nVer. 6. +Be careful for nothing.+--R.V. \"in nothing be anxious.\" The\nword suggests the idea of a poor distraught mind on which concerns\nhave fastened themselves, which drag, one in one direction, another\nin the opposite. Well says Bengel, \"Care and prayer are more opposed\nthan water and fire.\" In all things, prayer--in nothing, care. +By\nprayer.+--The general idea of an expression of dependence.\n+Supplication.+--The specific request--the word hinting too at the\nattitude of the petitioner, _e.g._ clasping the feet of the person\nfrom whom the favour is asked. +With thanksgiving.+--The preservative\nagainst any possible defiance which might otherwise find its way into\nthe tone of the prayer, or on the other hand against a despair which\ncreeps over those who think God \"bears long\" and forgets to answer.\n\nVer. 7. +And the peace of God, which passeth all\nunderstanding.+--If we say the peace of God is so profound that the\nhuman mind cannot comprehend it, no doubt that is an admissible\ninterpretation of these words; but it seems better far to say, the\npeace of God excels all that the mere reason of man can do. The \u03bd\u03bf\u1fe6\u03c2,\nthe highest faculty of man as such, intended to be the guide of life,\noftener brings anxiety than a calm heart. +Shall keep your+\n+hearts.+--As a watchman keeps a city. Lightfoot says we have a\nverbal paradox, for \"to keep\" is a warrior's duty; God's peace shall\nstand sentry, shall keep guard over your hearts. +And minds.+--R.V.\nmuch better, \"and thoughts,\" for it is not the mind which thinks, but\nthe products of thinking which the word indicates. The sentry\nquestions all suspicious characters (cf. Prov. iv. 23, and Matt.\nxv. 19).\n\nVer. 8. +Whatsoever things are true.+--The apostle recognises the\nability of the renewed mind to discern truth under any guise. \"Ye\nhave an unction from the Holy One and know all things\" (1 John\nii. 20). +Honest.+--A.V. margin, \"venerable.\" R.V. text,\n\"honourable.\" R.V. margin, \"reverend.\" This variety shows the\ndifficulty of finding an exact equivalent for the word of St. Paul,\nin which the sense of gravity and dignity, and of these as inviting\nreverence, is combined. +Just.+--Answering to that which is normally\nright (_Cremer_). +Pure.+--As there is no impurity like fleshly\nimpurity, defiling body and spirit, so the word \"pure\" expresses\nfreedom from these (_Trench_). It denotes chastity in every part of\nlife (_Calvin_). +Lovely.+--Christian morality as that which is\nethically beautiful is pre-eminently worthy to be loved. _\"Nihil est\namabilius virtute,\"_ says Cicero. +Of good report.+--R.V. margin,\n\"gracious.\" Lightfoot says _\"fair-speaking\"_ and so \"winning,\nattractive.\" Meyer says, \"that which, when named, sounds significant\nof happiness, _e.g._ brave, honest, honourable.\" +If there be any\nvirtue.+--The New Testament is frugal of the word which is in such\nconstant use in the heathen moralists. If they sought to make man\nself-confident, it seeks to shatter that confidence. The noblest\nmanliness is godliness. +Think on these things.+--They are things to\nbe reckoned with by every man sooner or later--occupy the thoughts\nwith them now.\n\nVer. 9. +Those things . . . do.+--Here speaks the same man, with a\nmind conscious of its own rectitude, who could say, \"I have lived in\nall good conscience before God unto this day.\" He had not only\n\"allured\" his Philippian converts \"to brighter worlds,\" but had \"led\nthe way.\" +The God of peace shall be with you.+--Note the phrase in\nconnection with \"the peace of God shall mount guard\" (ver. 7).\n\nVer. 10. +Hath flourished again.+--R.V. \"ye have revived your thought\nfor me.\" The active generosity of the Philippians towards St. Paul\nhad never died, any more than a tree does when it sheds its leaves\nand stands bare all through the winter. The winter of their\ndisability was past, and the return of the sun of prosperity made the\nkindly remembrance of the apostle sprout into a generous gift to him.\n\nVer. 11. +Not that I speak, etc.+--\"Do not mistake me; I am not moved\nthus by the good of my own need.\" The apostle does not leave it\npossible for one to say with the melancholy Jaques, \"When a man\nthanks me heartily, methinks I have given him a penny and he renders\nme the beggarly thanks.\" +I have learned . . . to be\ncontent.+--\"Self-sufficiency,\" said Socrates, \"is nature's wealth.\"\nSt. Paul is only self-sufficient so far as Christ dwells in him and\nassures him, \"My grace is sufficient for thee\" (cf. Heb. xiii. 5).\n\nVer. 12. +I know how to be abased.+--To be \"in reduced\ncircumstances.\" +I know how to abound.+--To be in affluence. By this\nit does not appear that St. Paul meant, \"I have chewed the bitter cud\nof penury, and tasted the sweets of prosperity.\" Many a man has had\nto do that--everything lies in how it is done. It is as much beneath\nthe Christian philosopher to make a wry face at the one, as to clap\nthe hands in childish glee at the other. +I am instructed,\netc.+--Lit. \"I have been initiated.\" The pass-word is in the\napostle's possession--no novice is he. +To be full and to be\nhungry.+--As if we said \"to pasture and to pine.\" It is the\npsalmist's \"green pastures and still waters. . . . The valley of the\nshadow of death\" (Ps. xxiii.).\n\nVer. 13. +I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth\nme.+--A fresh general statement of the self-sufficiency of ver. 11.\n\"In the grand brevity how marked is the assurance, and at the same\ntime humility\" (_Meyer_).\n\nVer. 15. +No Church communicated with me.+--The lofty independence of\nthe apostle had not unbent to any other Church as to this. There are\nmen from whom one could never receive a gift without sacrifice of\nself-respect. St. Paul was not the man to be patronised.\n\nVer. 18. +An odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice acceptable, well\npleasing to God.+--The last word transfers their deed to another\nsphere entirely. \"Ye did it unto _Me,_\" says Christ (Matt. xxv. 40).\n\nVer. 19. +My God shall supply all your need.+--Did I say, \"I am\nfilled\"? (ver. 18). I can make you no return, but my God will. He\nwill fulfil every need of yours. +According to His riches in\nglory.+--According to the abundant power and glorious omnipotence\nwhereby as Lord of heaven and earth He can bestow what He will.\n\nVer. 22. +The saints . . . of C\u00e6sar's household.+--This expression\ndoes not oblige us to think that any relatives of C\u00e6sar had embraced\nChristianity. It comprises all who in any way were connected with the\nimperial service.\n\nVer. 23. +Be with you all.+--The oldest MSS. read, \"Be with your\nspirit.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 1.\n\n_A Plea for Steadfastness_--\n\n+I. After the pattern of those worthy of imitation.+--\"So stand fast\nin the Lord.\" Having pointed out the dignity of Christian citizenship\nand the exalted conduct befitting those possessing its privileges,\nthe apostle exhorts them to steadfastness in imitating those who,\nthrough evil and good report and in the midst of opposition and\nsuffering, had bravely maintained their loyalty to Christ. \"_So_\nstand fast\"--be sincere and earnest in devotion to God, as they were;\nbe faithful and unflinching, as they were; triumph over the world,\nthe flesh, and the devil, as they did. \"Behold, we count them worthy\nwho endure;\" and the same distinction of character is attainable by\nevery follower of Christ, attainable by patient continuance in\nwell-doing. The ideal of a steadfast character is embodied in the\nLord, who was Himself a supreme example of unfaltering obedience and\nlove. Follow Him; being united to Him by faith, deriving continual\ninspiration and strength from His Spirit, stand fast in Him. Riding\nup to a regiment that was hard pressed at Waterloo, the Duke of\nWellington cried to the men, \"Stand fast, Ninety-fifth! What will\nthey say in England?\" History records how successfully the appeal was\nobeyed. Stand fast, Christians! What will they say in the heavenly\ncity to which you belong, and for whose interests you are fighting?\nWilliam of Orange said he learnt a word while crossing the English\nChannel which he would never forget. When in a great storm the\ncaptain was all night crying out to the man at the helm, \"Steady!\nsteady! steady!\"\n\n+II. Addressed to those who have given evidence of willingness to be\ninstructed.+--\"My joy and crown.\" The Philippians who had embraced\nthe Gospel he preached, and whose lives had been changed by its\npower, were the joy and crown of the devoted apostle. The crown was\nnot the diadem of royalty, but the garland of victory. He has in his\nmind the famous athletic games of the Greeks, which in the diligent\ntraining and the strenuous effort to gain the laurel coronet, and the\nintensity of joy felt by the victors, were a significant illustration\nof the Christian life, whether as regards the spiritual progress of\nthe believer himself, or his work for the salvation of others. He\nbelieved the Lord would place around his brow an imperishable garland\nof honour, of which each soul that had been quickened, comforted, and\nstrengthened by him would be a spray or leaf. In Nero's prison, aged,\nworn with trouble, manacled, uncertain of life, he rejoiced in being\na successful minister of Christ--a conqueror wreathed with amaranth.\nThe emperor in his palace was in heart weary and wretched; the\nprisoner was restful and happy, invested with a glory that should\nshine on undimmed, when the glitter of Nero's power and grandeur\nshould vanish as a dream. The satisfaction enjoyed by those who first\nled us to Christ and who have helped us in our spiritual struggles,\nis another reason for continued steadfastness and fidelity.\n\n+III. Urged with affectionate solicitude.+--\"My brethren deeply\nbeloved and longed for, . . . my dearly beloved.\" The terms employed\nare the outflow of a jubilant spirit, and are full of tender\nendearment and loving appreciation. Love delights to exaggerate; yet\nthere is no exaggeration here. The Philippians were to the apostle\n\"brethren beloved--dearly beloved\"--children of the same spiritual\nFather, members of the one family of God, united together in a happy\nChristian brotherhood. He recalls the first introduction of the\nGospel into Philippi, the preaching of the Word, the impression made,\nthe converts won, the formation of the Church, and its growth and\nprosperity, amid labours and suffering. Attachments were then formed\nthat deepened and strengthened with the years. Christian friendships\ncall forth the finest feelings of the soul, and form a strong bond of\nunion in the love of a common Saviour. Christ will have no forced\nselection of men, no soldiers by compulsion, no timorous slaves, but\nchildren, brethren, friends.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Steadfastness is a test of genuine devotedness._\n2. _Instability is a loss of advantages often won at great cost._\n3. _They who endure will finally conquer._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2, 3.\n\n_Glimpses of Life in the Early Church._\n\n+I. The early planting of the Gospel involved arduous and united\ntoil.+--\"Which laboured with me in the gospel\" (ver. 3). Prodigious\nas were the labours of Paul, he could never have accomplished the\nwork he did but for the willing co-operation of others. There is\ngreat art in evoking the sympathy and help of those who can help\nforward the work of God. Christian work finds scope for all kinds of\ntalents and agencies. Pioneer work is rough work and tests all our\npowers and resources. The difficulties of the work unite its\npropagators in heart and hand. There is little good done without\nstrenuous labour, though the results of our toil are not always\nimmediately apparent. Dr. Judson laboured diligently for six years in\nBurmah before he baptised a convert. At the end of three years he was\nasked what evidence he had of ultimate success. He replied, \"As much\nas there is a God who will fulfil all His promises.\" A hundred\nchurches and thousands of converts already answer his faith.\n\n+II. The names of Gospel pioneers are not forgotten.+--\"With Clement\nalso, and with other my fellow-labourers, whose names are in the book\nof life\" (ver. 3). Some of these names are recorded in the pages of\nhistory and handed down to our day; the rest, though unknown on\nearth, are registered in the imperishable pages of \"the book of\nlife.\" Clement, though unknown to fame and unidentified with any\nother of the same name mentioned in history, is referred to here as\nrecognising the apostle's cordial recollection of his valuable work.\nBut the unknown on earth are not forgotten in heaven. The work we do\nfor God will live for ever. When Columbus was homeward bound after\nhis brilliant discovery of a new world he was overtaken by a terrible\nstorm. In his indescribable agony that not only his life and that of\nhis crew, but his magnificent discovery must all go down and be lost\nin the abyss, and that, too, not far from land, he committed to the\ndeep hurried entries of that discovery sealed up in bottles, in the\nhope that some day they might reach land. We need not be unduly\nanxious about either our work or our fame; God will take care of both.\n\n+III. From the earliest times women have rendered valuable help in\nthe propagation of the Gospel.+--\"Euodias, Syntyche, . . . women\nwhich laboured with me in the gospel\" (vers. 2, 3). In the Temple\nworship the Jewish women were fenced off in a court by themselves.\nThe woman occupied an inferior religious position in Rabbinical\nteaching. It was a shock to public feeling to see a rabbi talking to\na female. Even the disciples were surprised that their Master should\nbe found conversing with a woman on the brink of the Samaritan well.\nJesus Christ broke down this middle wall of partition as He had\nbroken down the other. Here, again, He made both one. If in Christ\nthere is no distinction of Jew and Gentile, neither is there of male\nor female. Women were His faithful and constant attendants; women\nwere the favoured witnesses of His resurrection; women were among the\nmost helpful fellow-workers of the apostles. There was an organised\nministry of women deaconesses and widows in the Apostolic Church.\n\"What women those Christians have,\" exclaimed the heathen\nrhetorician, on learning about Anthusa, the mother of Chrysostom.\nAnthusa at the early age of twenty lost her husband, and\nthenceforward devoted herself wholly to the education of her son,\nrefusing all offers of further marriage. Her intelligence and piety\nmoulded the boy's character and shaped the destiny of the man, who in\nhis subsequent eminence never forgot what he owed to maternal\ninfluence. It is no exaggeration to say that we owe those rich\nhomilies of Chrysostom, of which interpreters of Scripture still make\ngreat use, to the mind and heart of Anthusa.\n\n+IV. We learn the apostolic method of reconciling two eminent women\nin serious disagreement.+--1. _He addresses to each an earnest and\npointed exhortation to unity._ \"I beseech Euodias, and beseech\nSyntyche, that they be of the same mind in the Lord\" (ver. 2). He\nrepeats the entreaty to show that he placed the like obligation on\neach of them. He does not exhort the one to be reconciled to the\nother, for they might have doubted who should take the initiative,\nand they might wonder, from the position of their names and\nconstruction of the sentence, to which of them the apostle attached\nthe more blame. But he exhorts them both, the one and the other, to\nthink the same thing--not only to come to a mutual understanding, but\nto preserve it. The cause of quarrel might be some unworthy question\nabout priority or privilege, even in the prosecution of the good\nwork--vainglory leading to strife. It does not seem to have been any\ndifference in creed or practice (_Eadie_).\n\n2. _He recognises their devoted and impartial labours._--\"Those women\nwhich laboured with me in the gospel\" (ver. 3). Their work does not\nappear to have been done from personal friendship, as is often the\ncase; they treated all and helped all alike. They were deeply\ninterested in the spread of the Gospel and the increase of the\nChurch, and toiled with such self-sacrificing devotion as to elicit\nthe special commendation of the apostle.\n\n3. _He entreated that help might be rendered them in the adjustment\nof their quarrel._--\"And I intreat thee also, true yokefellow, help\nthose women\" (ver. 3). A third party is appealed to, to interpose his\ngood offices--an evidence that Paul regarded the harmony of these two\nwomen a matter of no small importance. Mediation between two persons\nat variance is delicate and difficult work, but if judiciously done\nmay help to a reconciliation. Women were the first to receive the\nGospel at Philippi, and from the first used their influence and\nopportunities in commending it to their sex. The unseemly\nmisunderstanding between these two women whose labours had been so\nblessed made it the more necessary that something should be done to\nheal the breach.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Pioneer work has special hardships and temptations._\n2. _The best of women may quarrel._ 3. _It is the wise policy of the\nChristian statesman to compose and strive to prevent discord and\ndisunion._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 2. _Feminine Disagreement_--\n\n  +I. May occasion much mischief in a Church.+\n\n +II. All the more dangerous where the parties are eminent in gifts\n      and labours+ (ver. 3).\n\n+III. Reconciled when truly possessing one mind in Christ.+--\"Be of\n      the same mind in the Lord.\"\n\n +IV. The most earnest entreaty should be employed to rectify.+--\"I\n      beseech Euodias, and beseech Syntyche.\"\n\n\nVer. 3. _Names in the Book._\n\n+I. Some observations.+--1. _It is a great thing to have a name in\nthe New Testament._--Think of the roll-call in Rom. xvi. and Heb. xi.\n\n2. _It is a great thing now to have a name in the family Bible,_ for\nthat generally signifies Christian training and parental prayers.\n\n3. _It is a great thing to have a name upon the pages of a church\nregister._--How affecting are these old manuals, with their lists of\npious men and women, many of whom have passed into the skies.\n\n4. _It is the greatest thing of all to have a name in the Lamb's Book\nof Life._--Beyond all fame (Matt. xi. 11). Beyond all power (Luke\nx. 20).\n\n+II. Some questions.+--1. _In how many books is your name written\nnow?_ 2. _How can a human name be written securely in the Lamb's Book\nof Life?_ 3. _To backsliders: are you going to return to your name,\nor do you want it to come back to you?_ 4. _To Christian workers: how\nmany names have you helped to write in the Book of Life?_ 5. _Is\nthere any cheer in thinking how our names will sound when the books\nare opened in the white light of the throne?--Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 4.\n\n_Christian Joy_--\n\n+I. Is in the Lord.+--\"Rejoice in the Lord.\" The joy of the Christian\nis not in his own achievements, still less is it in himself or in his\nown experiences. A glance at ourselves and the imperfections of our\nwork for God fills us with shame and sadness. Pure, lasting joy is\nfound nowhere but \"in the Lord.\" When M\u00f6hler, the eminent Roman\nCatholic symbolist, asserted that \"in the neighbourhood of a man who,\nwithout any restriction, declared himself sure of his salvation, he\nshould be in a high degree uneasy, and that he could not repel the\nthought that there was something diabolical beneath this,\" he only\nafforded a deep glance into the comfortlessness of a heart which\nseeks the ultimate ground of its hope in self-righteousness, and in\nmaking assurance of salvation to depend on attainment in holiness\ninstead of in simple faith in Christ. The friends of Haller\ncongratulated him on the honour of having received a visit in his\nlast hours from the emperor Joseph II.; but the dying man simply\nanswered, \"Rejoice that your names are written in heaven.\" The more\nwe realise Christ, not as a dim abstraction or a mere historic\npersonage, but as a living and loving personal reality, the more\ntruly can we rejoice in Him.\n\n+II. Is constant.+--\"Always.\" Christian joy is not a capricious\nsentiment, a fitful rapture, but a steady, uniform, and continued\nemotion. The direction of the apostle to rejoice always sounds like a\nparadox. How can we continually rejoice when we are continually in\nthe midst of sin, suffering, and sorrow? Still, when we think of the\nchange Divine grace has wrought in us, when we think of the ample\nprovisions of the Gospel every moment available to us, when we\ncontemplate the bright prospects before us which even present\ndistresses cannot dim, and when we remember the infinite ability of\nour Lord to accomplish all He had promised us, our joy may well be\nperennial. Airay, the earliest English expositor of this epistle, has\nwell said: \"When Satan, that old dragon, casts out many flouds of\npersecutions against us; when wicked men cruelly, disdainfully, and\ndespitefully speake against us; when lying, slandering, and deceitful\nmouthes are opened upon us; when we are mocked and jested at and had\nin derision of all them that are about us; when we are afflicted,\ntormented, and made the world's wonder; when the sorrowes of death\ncompasse us and the flouds of wickednesse make us afraid, and the\npaines of hell come even unto our soule; what is it that holds up our\nheads that we sinke not, how is it that we stand either not shaken,\nor, if shaken, yet not cast downe? Is it not by our rejoycing which\nwe have in Christ Jesus?\"\n\n+III. Is recommended by experience.+--\"And again I say rejoice.\" Paul\nrecommended what he himself enjoyed. If he, in the midst of\ndisappointment, imprisonment, and suffering, would rejoice and did\nrejoice, so may others. It might be that, as he wrote these words, a\ntemporary depression crept over him, as he thought of himself as a\nprisoner in the immediate prospect of a cruel death. It was but a\npassing feeling. In a moment Divine grace triumphed, and with\nheightened elation and emphasis he repeated, \"And again I _will_ say,\nrejoice.\" We have already remarked that joy is the predominating\nfeature of this epistle, and to the last the apostle maintains the\nexalted strain.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Great joy is found in working for God._ 2. _Joy is\nfound not so much in the work as in the Lord._ 3. _It is the\nChristian's privilege to rejoice always._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 4. _Rejoicing in the Lord._\n\n+I. The text involves the fact that believers may and should\nrejoice.+--1. _The world holds that believers have no enjoyment._\n2. _There are believers who all but teach this;_ for--(1) they use\nnot the language of joy themselves; (2) they discourage it in others.\n3. _But that believers may and should rejoice is evident_\nfor--(1) joy is commanded as a duty; (2) it is mentioned as a fruit\nof the Holy Ghost; (3) it is a feature of the Christian, portrayed in\nthe Scriptures (Acts ii. 46, 47). 4. _The spiritually-minded, if not\nwarped by some defective system of doctrine, rejoice._ 5. _Joy is\nquite consistent with those states of mind which are thought to be\ninconsistent with it._ \"Sorrowful, yet always rejoicing.\" 6. _Joy is\nthe natural result of peace with God._\n\n+II. The text exhibits the nature of the joy peculiar to the\nbeliever.+--He rejoices \"in the Lord.\" 1. _The world rejoices in the\ncreature and shuts out God._ 2. _The believer rejoices only in God._\n3. _This joy has several elements._ (1) The believer rejoices that\nGod is--\"I am.\" (2) He rejoices that He is what He is. (3) He\nrejoices in the manifestations of His glory, which He has made in His\nWord, works, and ways. (4) He rejoices in his own relation to Him in\nChrist--\"boasting himself in God.\" (5) He rejoices in the hope of the\nglory of God. 4. _Every element of pure and elevated pleasure is\nfound in His joy._ 5. _It is fellowship with God Himself in His joy._\n\n+III. The text renders it binding upon the believer at all times to\nseek this privilege and to cherish this feeling+--\"always.\"--This\ncommand is reasonable, for: 1. _God is always the same._ 2. _The\nbeliever's relation to Him is unalterable._ 3. _The way to God is\nalways open._ 4. _The mind may always keep before it the views which\ncause joy_--by the indwelling Spirit.\n\n+IV. The manner in which the commandment of the text is pressed\nteaches us the importance of the duty it inculcates.+--Its importance\nis manifest, for: 1. _It is the mainspring of worship and obedience._\n2. _It prevents a return to sinful pleasures._ 3. _It renders us\nsuperior to temporal suffering_--fits for enduring for Jesus Christ.\n4. _It presents to the world_ (1) True religion. (2) Connected with\nenjoyment.\n\n+V. The manner in which the commandment of the text is expressed\nimplies that there are obstacles in the way of obedience.+--What are\nsome of the obstacles? 1. _A habit, natural and strong, of drawing\nour satisfaction from the creature._ 2. _Not keeping \"a conscience\nvoid of offence towards God and man.\"_ 3. _Not having the heart in a\nstate to have sympathy with God's character._ 4. _Not proportioning\naright the amount of attention given to self and Christ._ 5. _Not\nmaking sure of our interest in Christ.--Stewart._\n\n\n_Joy in the Lord_--\n\n  +I. Is intellectual.+\n\n +II. Moral.+\n\n+III. Spiritual.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Our power of rejoicing in the Lord is a fair test of\nour moral and spiritual condition._ 2. _Is a Christian's main support\nunder the trials of life._ 3. _Is one of the great motive forces of\nthe Christian life.--H. P. Liddon._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verse_ 5.\n\n_Christian Equity_--\n\n+I. Does not exact all the claims of legal justice.+--\"Let your\nmoderation [forbearance] be known.\" Human laws, however carefully\ndevised, may sometimes, if rigidly enforced, act unjustly and\ncruelly. We should guide ourselves at all times by the broad\nprinciples of equity in the sight of God. We should not urge our own\nrights to the uttermost, but be wiling to waive a part, and thus\nrectify the injustice of justice. \"The archetype of this grace is\nGod, who presses not the strictness of His law against us as we\ndeserve, though having exacted the fullest payment for us from our\nDivine Surety\" (_Fausset_). It is not gentleness as an innate\nfeeling, but as the result of self-restraint. It does not insist on\nwhat is its due, it does not stand on etiquette or right, but it\ndescends and complies. It is opposed to that rigour which never bends\nnor deviates, and which, as it gives the last farthing, uniformly\nexacts it. It is not facile pliability--a reed in a breeze--but that\ngenerous and indulgent feeling that knows what is its right, but\nrecedes from it; is conscious of what is merited, but does not\ncontend for strict proportion. It is that grace which was defective\nin one or other, or both, of the women who are charged by the apostle\nto be of one mind in the Lord. For, slow to take offence, it is swift\nto forgive it. Let a misunderstanding arise, and no false delicacy\nwill prevent it from taking the first step towards reconciliation or\nadjustment of opinion (_Eadie_).\n\n+II. Should be evident in dealing with all classes.+--\"Be known unto\nall men.\" We are to practise forbearance, not only towards our\nChristian brethren, but towards the world, even towards the enemies\nof the Gospel. It is a rebuke to the Christian spirit to be austere,\nunbending, and scrupulously exacting. If we are always rejoicing in\nthe Lord, we cannot cherish hard feelings towards any. The Christian\nshould be notorious for gentleness and forbearance; all with whom we\ncome in contact should be made to know it and feel it. We should be\nprepared for yielding up what may be our own rights, and to endure\nwrong rather than dishonour Christ, or give a false representation of\nthe heavenly life which He exemplified and recommended, and which is\nbecoming in all His professed followers. \"This gentleness manifests\nitself at one time as equanimity and patience under all\ncircumstances, among all men and in manifold experiences; at another\nas integrity in business relations; as justice, forbearance, and\ngoodness in exercising power; as impartiality and mercy in judging;\nas noble yielding, joyful giving, and patent enduring and forgiving\"\n(_Passavant_).\n\n+III. Should be practised as conscious of the near advent of\nChrist.+--\"The Lord is at hand.\" The early Church had a vivid sense\nof the immediateness of the second coming of Christ, and were taught\nto do and bear everything as in His sight. We lose much in spiritual\npower, and in the realisation of eternal things, when we consign that\nadvent to the remote and indistinct future. After all, the second\ncoming of Christ, and not our own death, is the goal on which our eye\nshould be fixed, as the period which will furnish us with the true\nand final value of our life-work. In the first ages it would have\nbeen deemed a kind of apostasy not have sighed after the day of the\nLord. The coming of the Lord is a motive to show moderation and\nclemency towards all men, even towards our enemies, for the great\nJudge is near, who will rectify all inequalities and redress all\nwrongs.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Equity is superior to legal enactments._ 2. _It is a\nsorry spectacle when Christians appeal to the civil courts to settle\ntheir differences._ 3. _The Christian spirit is the highest equity._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6, 7.\n\n_The Cure of Care._\n\n+I. That all anxious care is needless.+--\"Be careful for nothing\"\n(ver. 6). It is not forethought that is here condemned, but anxious,\ndistracting care. Care is a kill-joy and is the great enemy of\nChristian peace. The future is not ours; why be anxious about it? The\npast is done with, and regrets about it are unavailing. The future is\nprovided for, for God, the great Provider, is ahead of every step we\ntake towards that future. The ancient custom of distracting a\ncriminal by tying him to the wheels of two chariots which were then\ndriven in opposite directions well illustrates how cares may be\nallowed to distract the mind. We put ourselves on the rack when we\nought to cast our care on God, not in part, nor occasionally, but in\nall things and at all times. Care depreciates the value of all our\npast blessings and dims our vision of the blessings we now actually\npossess. After the great military victories of Marlborough in 1704,\nhe one day said: \"I have for these last ten days been so troubled by\nthe many disappointments I have had, that I think if it were possible\nto vex me so for a fortnight longer, it would make the end of me. In\nshort, I am weary of my life.\"\n\n+II. That all anxious care should be taken to God in thankful\nprayer.+--\"But in everything by prayer and supplication with\nthanksgiving, let your requests be made known unto God\" (ver. 6). The\nbest system of heathen philosophy regarded equability of mind,\nundisturbed alike by the troubles and allurements of the world, as\nthe most perfect state of the soul; but it did not provide any\nadequate motive for attaining this desirable equipoise. It could only\nstate the theory and insist on its importance; but refractory human\nnature had its own way, in spite of philosophy. The apostle supplies\nin these words a nobler and more workable philosophy. He not only\nexhorts us to tranquillity of mind but shows us how it may be\nattained and kept. In all kinds of anxieties and especially in the\nstruggles of religious doubt, prayer is the truest philosophy. Our\ndifficulties vanish when we take them to God.\n\n     \"By caring and by fretting,\n        By agony and fear,\n      There is of God no getting;\n        But prayer He will hear.\"\n\nWe should cast our care on God because He is our Father. A father's\noffice is to provide for his family. It is out of place for a child\nto be anxiously making provision for emergencies--asking where\nto-morrow's food and clothing are to come from, and how the bills are\nto be paid. We should rebuke such precocity, and send the child to\nschool or to play, and leave all such matters to the ordained\ncaretaker. The birds of the air are taken care of; so shall we be,\neven though our faith is small. \"Our prayers run along one road, and\nGod's answers by another, and by-and-by they meet. God answers all\ntrue prayer, either in kind or in kindness\" (_Judson_).\n\n+III. That the peace of God in the heart will effectually banish all\ncare.+--\"And the peace of God which passeth all understanding shall\nkeep your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus\" (ver. 7). The\nenemies of peace are: melancholy, to which the apostle opposed joy in\nthe Lord (ver. 4); want of self-restraint or intemperance of feeling\nor conduct, to which he opposes moderation (ver. 5); care and\nanxiety, or unthankfulness and unbelief, to which he opposes grateful\nand earnest prayer (ver. 6); the final result is peace (ver. 7). The\npeace that God gives \"passeth all understanding\"; it is deep,\nprecious, immeasurable. God alone fully understands the grandeur of\nHis own gift. It is an impenetrable shield to the believing soul; it\nguards the fortress in peace though the shafts of care are constantly\nhurled against it.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Our sins breed our cares._ 2. _God is ever willing to\ntake up the burden of our cares._ 3. _Only as we commit our cares to\nGod have we peace._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _The Remedy for Worldly Care._\n\nI. A caution or warning.+--\"Be careful for nothing.\"\n\n1. _This does not respect duty._--We must have a care for our Lord's\ninterests.\n\n2. _But having performed duty, we are not to be careful as to\nconsequences._--(1) Because unnecessary. Christ cares. (2) Because\nuseless. It cannot ward off the evil. The evil only in imagination.\nThe evil often a good. Itself the greatest evil.\n\n3. _Because positively sinful._--(1) It breaks a commandment. (2) It\nsets aside promises. (3) It undervalues experience. (4) It distrusts\nGod's wisdom and goodness. (5) It is rebellion against God's\narrangements. (6) It is an intrusion into God's province.\n\n4. _Because hurtful and injurious._--(1) It often deters from duty.\n(2) It destroys the comforts of duty.\n\n+II. Counsel or advice as to the manner in which the evil is to be\navoided.+--\"But in everything by prayer and supplication.\" 1. _The\ncorrection is not a needless and reckless indifference._ 2. _The\nemphatic word here is \"everything.\"_ This describes the range of\nprayer. This precept is generally neglected. 3. _The performance of\nthis duty would correct carefulness._ It places everything under\nGod's government, and leaves it there. It leads to a study of the\nDivine will in secular affairs. Our prospects and plans are thus\ntested. It gives to every event the character of an answer to\nprayer--evil as well as good. Prayer, _i.e._ direct entreaty or\npetition. Supplication, _i.e._ deprecation. Thanksgiving for all past\nand present.\n\n+III. A promise as to the results of following this counsel or\nadvice.+--\"And the peace of God, which passeth all understanding,\nshall keep your hearts and minds.\"\n\n1. _The mind and the heart are the seat of care._--The mind\ncalculates, imagines. The heart feels fear, grief, despair.\n\n2. _The mind and heart are made the seat of peace._--\"The peace of\nGod, which passeth all understanding, shall keep your hearts and\nminds through Jesus Christ.\" The peace which God has flows from\nunity, from omnipotence. This is the peace of God, because He gives\nit.\n\n3. _This peace comes through Jesus Christ._--He produces the unity.\nHe encircles with omnipotence.--_Stewart._\n\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Anxious Care._\n\n+I. The evil to be avoided.+--1. _Care is excessive when it is\ninconsistent with peace and quietness._ 2. _When it induces loss of\ntemper._ 3. _When it makes us distrustful of Providence._ 4. _When it\nhurries us into any improper course of conduct._ (1) Anxiety is\nuseless. (2) Is positively injurious. (3) Exerts a mischievous\ninfluence on others. (4) Is criminal.\n\n+II. The proper course to be pursued.+--1. _Prayer._\n2. _Supplication._ 3. _Thanksgiving._\n\n+III. The happiness to be enjoyed.+--\"The peace of God, which passeth\nunderstanding, shall keep your hearts and minds through Jesus\nChrist.\"--_Dr. Robt. Newton._\n\n\nVer. 6. _Subjects of Prayer._\n\n+I. For temporal blessings.+--1. _Our health._ Value of health.\nDependence on God. 2. _Our studies._ Not to supersede diligence.\nCommunicates a right impulse. Secures a right direction. 3. _Our\nundertakings._ Agricultural, commercial.\n\n+II. For spiritual blessings.+--1. _For pardon._ Of our daily sins in\nthought, word, and deed. Of all our sins. 2. _For holiness in heart\nand life._ Regeneration, faith, love, hope, meekness, zeal,\nresignation, obedience. 3. _For usefulness and happiness._\n\n+III. For the outpouring of the Holy Spirit.+--1. _On ourselves._\n2. _On our relatives and friends._ 3. _On the Church._ 4._On the\nworld._\n\n+IV. For the spread of the Gospel.+--1. _For the multiplication of\nthe necessary means._ 2. _For the removal of obstacles._ 3. _For the\nsuccess of labourers._ 4. _For the conversion of sinners.--G. Brooks._\n\n\n_True Prayer._\n\n+I. True prayer is specific as well as earnest.+--Nothing is too\nlittle to be made the subject of prayer. The very act of confidence\nis pleasing to God and tranquillising to the supplicant. God is not\nonly willing to hear the details, but He desires that we should tell\nHim.\n\n+II. True prayer consists of confession, supplication, and\nthanksgiving.+--We are to confess our sins, ask forgiveness, and do\nit with gratitude and thankfulness. God will not answer the requests\nof unthankful beggars. Without thanksgiving what we call prayer is\npresumption.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\nVer. 7. _The Peace of God keeping the Heart._\n\n+I. The nature of this defending principle.+--It has as its basis\nforgiving mercy.\n\n+II. Its author.+--\"The peace of God.\" It is called His peace,\nbecause that work of mercy on which it rests is His work, and He\nHimself communicates the peace.\n\n+III. Its property.+--\"Passeth all understanding.\" 1. _The\nunderstanding of such as are strangers to it._ 2. _They who enjoy it\nthe most cannot fully comprehend it._\n\n+IV. Its effects.+--\"Shall keep your hearts and minds.\" 1. _In\ntemptation it secures the heart by satisfying the heart._ 2. _It\nkeeps the heart in affliction._ 3. _It keeps the mind by settling the\njudgment, and keeping doubts and errors out of the mind._\n\n+V. Its source and the instrumentality by which it works.+--\"Through\nChrist Jesus.\"--_C. Bradley._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 8, 9.\n\n_The Science of Christian Ethics_--\n\n+I. Demands the study of every genuine virtue.+--\"Whatsoever things\nare true, honest, just, pure, lovely, of good report, . . . think on\nthese things\" (ver. 8). In regard to what is honourable, just, pure,\nlovely, and of good report, there is a true and a false standard, and\nfor this reason the apostle here places the true at the beginning,\nthat when the following exhortations are presented, this fact which\nour experience so often discloses may at once occur to the Christian,\nand he may be led to examine himself and see whether he also is\neverywhere seeking for the true (_Schleiermacher_). Genuine virtue\nhas its root in genuine religion. The modern school of ethics, which\nprofesses to teach morality as something apart from spiritual\nChristianity, is a return to the exploded theories of pagan\nmoralists, an attempt to dress up pre-Christian philosophy in a\nnineteenth-century garb. The morality that is lovely and of good\nreport is Christian morality--the practical, liveable ethics of the\nNew Testament. The ethical terms used in this verse are closely\nunited. The true, the becoming, the right, and the pure are elements\nof virtue or moral excellence, and when exhibited in practical life\nare lovely and worthy of all praise. The charm of the Christian\ncharacter is not the cultivation of one virtue that overshadows all\nthe rest, but the harmonious blending of all the virtues in the unity\nof the Christian life. Christian ethics should be earnestly studied,\nnot as matters of pure speculation, but because of their supreme\nimportance and utility in the moral conduct of every-day life.\n\n+II. Requires the translation of high moral principles into practical\nlife.+--\"Those things which ye have both learned, and received, and\nheard, and seen in me, do\" (ver. 9). It is one thing to ponder,\nadmire, and applaud morality; it is another thing to practise it. The\napostle not only taught Christian ethics, but practised them, and\ncould point to his own example as worthy of imitation; it was not,\n\"Do as I say,\" but \"Do as I do.\" Christian morality is of little\nvalue as a mere creed of ethics; its true power is seen in changing,\nelevating, and refining the life. We have all to lament there is such\na wide chasm between theory and practice. Theory may be learned in a\nbrief period; practice is the work of a lifetime. The theory of music\nmay be rapidly apprehended, but the mastery of any one instrument,\nsuch as the violin or organ, demands patient and incessant practice.\nIt means detail-work, plod, perseverance, genius. So is it with every\nvirtue of Christian ethics. Theory and practice should go together;\nthe one helps the other; practice more clearly defines theory, and\ntheory more fully apprehended stimulates practice. It is the practice\nof Christian morality that preaches to the world a Gospel that it\ncannot fail to understand and that is doing so much to renovate it.\nLord Bolingbroke, an avowed infidel, declared: \"No religion ever\nappeared in the world whose tendency was so much directed to promote\nthe peace and happiness of mankind as the Christian religion. The\nGospel of Christ is one continued lesson of the strictest morality,\nof justice, benevolence, and universal charity. Supposing\nChristianity to be a human invention, it is the most amiable and\nsuccessful invention that ever was imposed on mankind for their good.\"\n\n+III. Links practical morality with the promise of Divine\nblessing.+--\"And the God of peace shall be with you\" (ver. 9). The\nupright man--the man who is striving to shape and mould his life on\nthe ethics of the New Testament--shall not only enjoy peace, the\npeace of God, which passeth all understanding, but the God of peace\nshall be with him and in him. True religion, in healthy activity,\ngives, and can alone give, a restfulness of spirit such as the\ntroubles of life are impotent to disturb. The two vital elements of\ntrue religion are communion with God and the diligent cultivation of\npractical holiness--conformity to the will of God in all things. Pray\nand bring forth the fruits of the Spirit, and the God of peace shall\nbe with you, preserving you from unrest and harm. The peace of God is\nalso an active principle, gentle and noiseless in its activity, which\nwill help the soul to grow in ethical symmetry and beauty.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel is the foundation of the highest ethics._\n2. _No system of morality is trustworthy that does not lead to holy\npractice._ 3. _God helps the man who is honestly striving to live up\nto his light._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 8. _Mercantile Virtues without Christianity._\n\n+I. What a man of mercantile honour has.+--He has an attribute of\ncharacter which is in itself pure, lovely, honourable, and of good\nreport. He has a natural principle of integrity, and under its\nimpulse he may be carried forward to such fine exhibitions of himself\nas are worthy of all admiration. It is very noble when the simple\nutterance of his word carries as much security along with it, as if\nhe had accompanied that utterance by the signatures, the securities,\nand the legal obligations which are required of other men. All the\nglories of British policy and British valour are far eclipsed by the\nmoral splendour which British faith has thrown over the name and the\ncharacter of our nation. There is no denying the extended prevalence\nof a principle of integrity in the commercial world.\n\n+II. What a man of mercantile honour has not.+--He may not have one\nduteous feeling of reverence which points upward to God. He may not\nhave one wish or one anticipation which points forward to eternity.\nHe may not have any sense of dependence on the Being who sustains\nHim, and who gave him his very principle of honour as part of that\ninterior furniture which He has put into his bosom. He is a man of\nintegrity, and yet he is a man of ungodliness. This natural virtue,\nwhen disjoined from a sense of God, is of no religious estimation\nwhatever; nor will it lead to any religious blessing, either in time\nor in eternity.--_T. Chalmers._\n\n\nVer. 9. _Paul as an Example to Believers._\n\n+I. He was distinguished by his decision of character in all that\nrelates to religion.+--Constitutionally ardent; zealous as a\nPharisee. From the day of his conversion he never faltered,\nnotwithstanding his privations, his dangers, his sufferings. Be\ndecided.\n\n+II. By his care about the culture of the Divine life in his own\nsoul.+--The student may desire to know the truth rather than to feel\nits power. The preacher may be more solicitous about the power of the\ntruth over others than over himself. He never lost sight of the\ninterests of his own soul.\n\n+III. By his devotional habits.+--One would rather be the author of\nhis prayers than of his sermons. The difference between his prayers\nas a Pharisee and as a Christian. The subject, the spirit, the style\nof his prayers as a Christian. Be careful. Be not soon shaken in mind\nor troubled by speculations about the philosophy of prayer.\n\n+IV. By his spirituality and heavenly-mindedness.+--He did not show\nany interest in the class of worldly objects that might have been\nexpected to interest a man of his order of mind. He was absorbed in\n\"spiritual things.\" The second coming of Christ had a prominent place\nin his thoughts. \"That day.\" Cultivates a habitual superiority to the\nthings of time and sense. Seek the things that are above.\n\n+V. By his patient submission to the dispensations of Divine\nprovidence.+--Rare amount of suffering. Strong feeling, unmurmuring\nsubmission. Patient, meek, contented. All from Christian principle.\nBe resigned.\n\n+VI. By his laborious usefulness.+--Sketch his career. Be\nuseful.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-14.\n\n_The Joy of a Good Man in Extremity_--\n\n+I. Stimulated by the practical evidence of the growth in his\nconverts of Christian thoughtfulness.+--\"Your care of me hath\nflourished again; wherein ye were also careful, but ye lacked\nopportunity\" (ver. 10). The Philippians were a hospitable people, as\nwas shown both by Lydia and the gaoler, who insisted on the privilege\nof ministering to the wants of the apostles in the beginning of their\nministry at Philippi. The Church in that city had already sent a\nliberal contribution to the apostle to help him in the missionary\nwork; and he now rejoices over another practical evidence of their\ngenerous thoughtfulness in the timely help they had sent him by the\nhands of Epaphroditus. Paul and his mission were much in their\nthoughts, and they were often devising how they might minister to his\nwants and further the work of the Gospel. They were eager to help him\nmore frequently but lacked opportunity. They valued the Gospel so as\nto be willing to pay for it. It is a gratifying and unmistakable\nproof of religious growth when we are anxious to contribute of our\nmeans, according to our ability, for the spread of the Gospel.\nLiberality in money-giving is a crucial test of genuine godliness.\nWhen the commission of excise wrote Wesley, \"We cannot doubt you have\nplate for which you have hitherto neglected to make an entry,\" his\nlaconic reply was, \"I have two silver teaspoons at London, and two at\nBristol; this is all the plate which I have at present, and I shall\nnot buy any more at present while so many around me want bread.\" It\nis estimated that he gave away more than \u00a330,000.\n\n+II. Maintained by having mastered the secret of Christian\ncontentment.+--1. _A contentment gained by actual experience of the\nups and downs of life._ \"Not that I speak in respect of want: for I\nhave learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. I\nknow both how to be abased, and I know how to abound; everywhere and\nin all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both\nto abound and to suffer need\" (vers. 11, 12). The checkered and\neventful life of the apostle had taught him many lessons, and not the\nleast useful and important was the art of contentment. A man with his\nvaried experience is not easily inconvenienced by fluctuating\nfortunes. Contentment is gained, not by the abundance of what we\npossess, but by discovering how much we can do without. \"That which\nwe miscall poverty is indeed nature,\" writes Jeremy Taylor; \"and its\nproportions are the just measures of a man, and the best instruments\nof content. But when we create needs that God or nature never made,\nwe have erected to ourselves an infinite stock of trouble that can\nhave no period.\" Most desires are first aroused by comparison with\nothers. Sempronius complained of want of clothes and was much\ntroubled for a new suit, being ashamed to appear in the theatre with\nhis gown a little threadbare; but when he got it, and gave his old\nclothes to Codrus, the poor man was ravished with joy and went and\ngave God thanks for his new purchase; and Codrus was made richly fine\nand cheerfully warm by that which Sempronius was ashamed to wear; and\nyet their natural needs were both alike.\n\n2. _A contentment inspired by Divine strength._--\"I can do all things\nthrough Christ which strengtheneth me\" (ver. 13). The apostle's\ncontentment was not self-sufficiency, but self-sufficingness; and\nthis was acquired, not only by the experiences of life, but the help\nof Divine grace. He could conceive no circumstances in which that\ngrace was not sufficient. His contented mind he regarded as a gift of\nGod. \"I have learnt from Thee, O God,\" writes Augustine, \"to\ndistinguish between the gift and the fruit. The gift is the thing\nitself, which is given by one who supplies what is needed, as money\nor raiment; but the fruit is the good and well-ordered will of the\ngiver. It is a gift to receive a prophet and to give a cup of cold\nwater; but it is fruit to do those acts in the name of a prophet and\nin the name of a disciple. The raven brought a gift to Elias when it\nbrought him bread and flesh, but the widow fruit, because she fed him\nas a man of God.\"\n\n+III. Gratefully commends the generosity of those who alleviate his\nextremity.+--\"Notwithstanding ye have well done, that ye did\ncommunicate with my affliction\" (ver. 14). Though the apostle had\nlearned contentment in every situation, and his mind could\naccommodate itself to every change of circumstances; though he had\nfresh and inexhaustible sources of consolation within himself, and\nhad been so disciplined as to acquire the mastery over his external\ncondition and to achieve anything in Christ; yet he felt thankful for\nthe sympathy of the Philippian Church, and praised them for it. His\nhumanity was not absorbed in his apostleship, and his heart, though\nself-sufficed, was deeply moved by such tokens of affection. Though\nhe was contented, he yet felt there was affliction--loss of liberty,\njealous surveillance, inability to fulfil the great end of his\napostolic mission. This sympathy on the part of the Philippians with\nthe suffering representative of Christ and His cause is the very\ntrait of character which the Judge selects for eulogy at last (Matt.\nxxv. 35) (_Eadie_).\n\n+IV. Had a Divine source.+--\"But I rejoiced in the Lord greatly\"\n(ver. 10). He regarded the gift as coming from the Lord, and his joy\nin  its reception was from the same source. He rejoiced the more in\nthis practical evidence of the love and gratitude of his converts.\nEvery kindness shown to us by others when it is recognised as coming\nfrom God, will augment our joy in Him.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _God does not forget His servants in distress._ 2. _A\ncontented spirit is a fruit of Divine grace._ 3. _It is a joy to be\nremembered by those we love._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _Practical Christian Benevolence_--\n\n  +I. Is quick to see the needs of God's servants and of the cause in\n      which they faithfully labour.+\n\n +II. Eagerly watches every opportunity for supplying those needs.+\n\n+III. Is a matter of exalted joy to those who fully appreciate both\n      the supply and the motive that prompted it.+\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _Tendency of Christian Principles to produce True\nContentment._\n\n+I. Christianity takes away the natural causes of\ndiscontent.+--1. _Pride._ 2. _Self-preference._ 3. _Covetousness._\n\n+II. Christianity furnishes powerful motives for the exercise of a\ncontented mind.+--1. _The disciples of Christ are under the strongest\nobligations to walk in the footsteps of their Divine Master._\n2. _True Christians are firmly convinced that their lot is chosen for\nthem by their blessed Lord and Master._ 3. _It is chosen for them in\ninfinite love and mercy to their souls.--E. Cooper._\n\n\nVer. 11. _Contentment._\n\n+I. That a man be content with his own estate without coveting that\nwhich is another's.+\n\n+II. That a man be content with his present estate.+--1. _Because\nthat only is properly his own._ 2. _All looking beyond that disquiets\nthe mind._ 3. _The present is ever best._\n\n+III. That a man be content with any estate.+\n\n+IV. The art of contentment.+--1. _Is not learned from nature._\n2. _Or outward things._ 3. _But is taught us by God's Spirit._ 4. _By\nHis promises._ 5. _By the rod of discipline._ 6. _Proficiency in\ncontentment gained_--(1) By despising unjust gain. (2) By moderating\nworldly desires and care. (3) By carefully using and charitably\ndispensing what we have. (4) By bearing want and loss with\npatience.--_R. Sanderson._\n\n\n_Christian Contentment._\n\n+I. What it is.+--1. _That our desires of worldly good are low and\nmoderate._ 2. _That in all our views of bettering our worldly\ncondition we indulge not immoderate cares._ 3. _That whatever our\npresent condition be, we cheerfully submit to the providence of God\nin it._ 4. _That we are so easy with our own lot as not to envy\nothers who may be in more prosperous circumstances._ 5. _That we will\nnot use any unlawful means to better our present condition._ 6. _That\nwe make the best of our condition whatever it be._\n\n+II. How it may be learned.+--1. _Christianity sets in view the most\nsolid principles of contentment and the strongest motives to it._\n2. _Furnishes us with the brightest patterns of contentment to\nenforce its precepts and prevent our despair of attaining it._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The present state should be considered as a state of\nlearning._ 2. _More depends on our spirits than upon our outward\ncondition in order to contentment._ 3. _Labour to have our minds so\nformed that they may be content and tolerably easy in any state of\nlife._\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Source of the Christian's Power._\n\n+I. The extent of a Christian's ability.+--1. _He is able to\ndischarge every duty._ 2. _He is able to endure every trial._ 3. _He\nis able to brave every suffering._ 4. _He is able to overcome every\ntemptation._\n\n+II. The source of the Christian's ability.+--1. _Christ strengthens\nus by His teachings._ 2. _Christ strengthens us by His example._\n3. _Christ strengthens us by the moral influence of His death as a\nsacrifice for our sin._ 4. _Christ strengthens us by uniting us to\nHimself, and bestowing on us, in answer to the prayer of faith, the\ninfluences of the Holy Spirit._ Christ is the fountain of spiritual\nstrength.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-19.\n\n_A Generous Church_--\n\n+I. Spontaneously contributing to the earliest efforts in the\npropagation of the Gospel.+--1. _Its generosity conspicuous by its\nsolitary example._ \"No Church communicated with me as concerning\ngiving and receiving, but ye only\" (ver. 15). In the account between\nus, the giving was on your part, the receiving on mine. The\nPhilippians had followed Paul with their bounty when he left\nMacedonia and came to Corinth. We are not to wait for others in a\ngood work, saying, \"I will do when others do it.\" We must go forward\nthough alone (_Fausset_). Their liberality followed him on distant\nmissionary tours, and when no longer in their own province. One\nsingle example of generosity is an inspiration and a hint to others.\nAny Church will wither into narrowing dimensions when it confines its\nbenefactions to itself.\n\n2. _Its generosity was repeated._--\"For even in Thessalonica ye sent\nonce and again unto my necessity\" (ver. 16). Even in Thessalonica,\nstill in their own province and not far from Philippi, they more than\nonce contributed to his help, and thus rendered him less dependent on\nthose among whom he was breaking new ground. Help in time of need is\na pleasant memory; and the apostle delights in reminding the\nPhilippians of their timely and thoughtful generosity. Repeated\nkindnesses should increase our gratitude.\n\n+II. The gifts of a generous Church are appreciated as indicating\ngrowth in practical religion.+--\"Not because I desire a gift; but I\ndesire fruit that may abound to your account\" (ver. 17). It is not\nthe gift he covets, but that rich spiritual blessing which the gift\nsecures to its donors. The apostle wished them to reap the growing\nspiritual interest of their generous expenditure. Not for his own\nsake but theirs does he desire the gift. He knew that the state of\nmind which devised and contributed such a gift was blessed in itself,\nthat it must attract Divine blessing, for it indicated the depth and\namount of spiritual good which the apostle had done to them, and for\nwhich they thus expressed their gratitude; and it showed their\nsympathy with the cause of Christ, when they had sought to enable\ntheir spiritual founder in former days to give his whole time,\nwithout distraction or physical exhaustion, to the work of his\napostleship. This was a spiritual condition which could not but meet\nwith the Divine approbation and secure the Divine reward (_Eadie_).\n\n+III. The gifts of a generous Church are accepted as a sacrifice well\npleasing to God.+--\"Having received of Epaphroditus the things which\nwere sent from you, an odour of a sweet smell, a sacrifice\nacceptable, well-pleasing to God\" (ver. 18). It was a gift in which\nGod delighted, fragrant as the sweet-smelling incense which burned in\nthe censer. It was felt that God is supreme Benefactor and that all\npossessions are His gracious gift, that these have an end beyond the\nmere personal enjoyment of them, that they may and ought to be\nemployed in God's service, and that the spirit of such employment is\nthe entire dedication of these to Him. The money, while contributed\nto the apostle, was offered to God. They discharged a spiritual\nfunction in doing a secular act--\"the altar sanctified the gift\"\n(_Ibid._). Giving to the cause of Christ is worship, acceptable and\nwell-pleasing to God. It belongs to the same class of acts as the\npresentation of sacrifices under the old economy, which was the\ncentral act of worship. For the proper use of no talent is\nself-denial more needed than for that of money.\n\n+IV. The gifts of a generous Church will be recompensed with abundant\nspiritual blessing.+--\"But my God shall supply all your need\naccording to His riches in glory by Christ Jesus\" (ver. 19). The\nmoney we give to God's cause is well invested and will yield a rich\nreturn: spiritual blessing in return for material gifts; this is\nbeyond the power of arithmetic to compute. This was no rash and\nunwarrantable promise on the part of Paul. He knew something of the\nriches of the Divine generosity, and was justified in assuring his\nkind benefactors of God's perfect supply of every want of body and\nsoul, bestowed not grudgingly but with royal beneficence.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Gratitude for blessings received should prompt\ngenerosity._ 2. _Money is never more wisely employed than in\nforwarding the cause of God._ 3. _Our gifts to God are handsomely\nrewarded._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15, 16. _Christian Generosity_--\n\n  +I. Indicates a genuine interest in the work of God and love for\n      its ministers.+\n\n +II. Is especially valuable in prosecuting pioneer mission work.+\n\n+III. Should not be conspicuous by one solitary example, but be\n      continuous and commensurate with the pressing needs of the\n      work of God.+\n\n\nVers. 17, 18. _Liberality a Fruit of the Christian Life._\n\n  +I. It is not a gift, but the discharge of a just claim.+\n\n +II. Paul did not desire a gift only to benefit himself, because\n      he wanted nothing.+\n\n+III. Liberality is a fruit of the Christian life by discharging a\n      debt to which we stood engaged.+\n\n +IV. Liberality is an advantage in the exercise of our patience\n      before the day of trial come upon us.+\n\n  +V. As God will punish the neglect of this duty, so if we perform\n      it He will count Himself in debt to us.+--_Farindon._\n\n\nVer. 19. _Man's Need supplied from God's Riches._\n\n+I. Look at man's necessity.+\n\n+II. God's wealth.+--Its abundance; its excellence.\n\n+III. The supply the apostle anticipates for this necessity out of\nthis wealth.+\n\n+Learn.+--1. _Contentment with our present lot._ 2. _Confidence for\nthe future.--C. Bradley._\n\n\n_Our Need and our Supply._\n\n+I. Examine the scope of the promise.+--There is danger of fanaticism\nin the interpretation of truth. God promises to supply our need, but\nnot to gratify our wishes or whims. Some of us God sees cannot bear\nwealth, and so it is not given us; but as our day is so is our\nstrength.\n\n+II. The supply.+--The supply is not according to our deserts, but\naccording to the riches of His glory. The resources of the Trinity\nare drawn upon. His wealth is unbounded. He is not a cistern, but a\nfountain.\n\n+III. The Medium.+--This supply comes through Christ. We can claim it\nin no other name. But God ordains means and puts us under conditions.\nAs in agriculture, so here, we are to work in harmony with God's\nestablished methods if we would secure fruits.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-23.\n\n_Last Words._\n\n+I. A glowing ascription of praise to the Divine Giver of every\nblessing.+--\"Now unto God and our Father be glory for ever and ever.\nAmen\" (ver. 20). To God, even our Father, the kind and liberal\nSupplier of every want to every child, be eternal glory ascribed. The\nascription of praise is the language of spiritual instinct which\ncannot be repressed. Let the child realise its relation to the Father\nwho feeds it, clothes it, and keeps it in life, who enlightens and\nguides it, pardons and purifies it, strengthens and upholds it, and\nall this in Christ Jesus, and it cannot but in its glowing\nconsciousness cry out, \"Now to God and our Father be glory for ever.\"\nThe \"Amen\" is a fitting conclusion. As the lips shut themselves, the\nheart surveys again the facts and the grounds of praise, and adds,\n\"So be it\" (_Eadie_).\n\n+II. Christian salutations.+--\"Salute every saint in Christ Jesus.\nAll the saints salute you, chiefly those that are of C\u00e6sar's\nhousehold\" (vers. 21, 22). Salutations are tokens of personal\ninterest and living fellowship which should not be lightly esteemed.\nThe apostolic salutations teach that the Christian religion does not\nmake men unfriendly and stubborn, but courteous and friendly\n(_Lange_). The reference to the saints in C\u00e6sar's household may mean\neither kinsfolk of Nero or servants in the palace. It is improbable\nthat so many near relatives of the emperor should have yielded\nthemselves to Christ as to be designated by this phrase, and it is\nnot likely to suppose that a combination of these two classes would\nbe grouped under the one head. In all likelihood the reference is to\nservants holding more or less important positions in the imperial\nhousehold--some, no doubt, slaves; and it is a suggestive testimony\nto the unwearied diligence and influence of the apostle in using\nevery opportunity to make known the saving grace of the Gospel. To\nexplain to any the reason for his imprisonment was an occasion for\npreaching Christ. \"O Rome, Rome!\" exclaims Starke, \"how greatly hast\nthou changed! Formerly thou hadst true saints even in the household\nof a pagan and tyrannical emperor; but now hast thou false saints,\nespecially in and around the so-called chair of Peter and at the\ncourt of his supposed successor.\"\n\n+III. Final benediction.+--\"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be\nwith you all. Amen\" (ver. 23). The oldest MSS. read, \"Be with your\nspirit.\" It is important that the grace of God should be not only\naround us, but with us and in us. The benediction is a prayer that\nthe Divine favour may be conferred upon them, enriching the noblest\nelements of their nature with choicest blessings, making them to grow\nin spiritual wisdom, beauty, and felicity, that grace may ultimately\nmerge into glory.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Praise should be offered to God in all things._\n2. _The Christian spirit is full of kindly courtesy._ 3. _It is a\ncomprehensive prayer that invokes the blessing of Divine grace._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 20. _Eternal Praise should be offered unto God_--\n\n  +I. For mercies enjoyed in the past.+\n\n +II. For mercies which as our Father He holds for us and bestows on\n      us in the present.+\n\n+III. That the glory of His character may become increasingly\n      conspicuous in His works of creation, providence, and grace.+\n\n\nVers. 21, 22. _Christian Courtesy_--\n\n  +I. Elevates and sanctifies the amenities of social life.+\n\n +II. Awakens and strengthens mutual sympathy and help in the\n      Christian life.+\n\n+III. Should be exercised by Christians of all ranks and conditions.+\n\n\nVer. 23. _The Grace of our Lord Jesus Christ_--\n\n  +I. Is the sum of all we can need for ourselves or desire for others.+\n\n +II. Is a revelation of His own character and of His regard for us.+\n\n+III. May be sought with the utmost confidence and enjoyed in\n      ever-increasing measure.+\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - Page 299, Introduction, second paragraph, apply RC to \"Divine\n   call.\"\n\n - Page 300, second new paragraph, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Place\n   and time\" section, second paragraph, change \"iv. 32\" to \"ch.\n   iv. 32\" and \"i. 13\" to \"ch. i. 13.\" Fifth paragraph, add\n   sentence-ending period after \"later date.\"\n\n - Page 301, in the synopsis, change \"ii. 19-30\" to \"ch. ii. 19-30\";\n   add a row to indicate that no information is presented for chapter\n   ii. verses 12 through 18.\n\n - Page 302, notes on chapter i., verse 7, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Verse 10, add right double quotes after \"not causing offence.\"\n\n - Page 303, notes on verse 12, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Verse 13,\n   remove right double quotes after \"body-guard\"; correct \"colouel\"\n   to \"colonel\" and change double quotes to single quotes around it.\n   Verse 14, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Verse 15, apply RC to \"a\n   Gospel.\" Verse 19, add right double quote after \"for me.\"\n\n - Page 305, lesson \"Christian Greeting,\" point I, change question\n   mark after \"kingdom\" to period. Point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine gifts,\" \"the Divine\n   majesty,\" and \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 306, \"Commencement\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"Divine mercy.\" Point IV,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Lesson \"Eulogy,\" point I, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 307, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n\n - Page 308, \"Making Request\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine\n   communications.\" \"Grounds of Confidence\" note, point II, apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 311, lesson \"Prayer,\" \"Definiteness\" note, point II, apply RC\n   to \"Divine intelligence.\"\n\n - The break between pages 311 and 312 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken \"destination.--That.\" The entire\n   unit was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 312, \"Fruits\" note, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine Being.\"\n   \"Spiritual Attainment\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"all Divine.\"\n   \"Divine Culture\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"the Husbandman.\"\n   Lesson \"Gospel Irrepressible,\" point I 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (five times). Point I 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 313, same point, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice). Point\n   II 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice). Point II 2, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel\" (thrice).\n\n - Page 314, point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice).\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Development\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 315, \"Ministry of Bonds\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" \"Germ\" note, point V, change \"afflictions\" to\n   \"affliction.\" \"Real\" note, point II 4, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 316, lesson \"Noble Attitude,\" point II 1, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 317, \"Life and Death\" note, point I 1 (3), apply RC to\n   \"Divine knowledge.\"\n\n - Page 319, lesson \"Exhortation,\" point I 2, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice). Point I 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point III,\n   apply RC to \"the Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 320, \"Evangelical Consistency,\" each of points I, I 1, I 2\n   (twice), I 3, I 4, and II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" \"Effects\" note,\n   point I 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"the\n   Divine.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"its Author.\"\n\n - Page 321, notes on chapter ii., verse 1, change \"i. 8\" to \"ch.\n   i. 8.\" Verse 2, change \"i. 4\" to \"ch. i. 4.\" Verse 5, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" Verse 6, apply RC to \"the Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 322, verse 12, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Verse 15, tag\n   \"immaculatum\" as Latin and set it in Italic.\n\n - Page 323, verse 22, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Verse 29, change\n   \"#alue\" to \"value.\"\n\n - Page 324, lesson \"Christian Union,\" point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point III 2, add sentence ending period after \"(ver. 4).\"\n   Point IV, add \"Ps. cxxxiii. 1\" reference.\n\n - Page 325, \"Unity\" note, point 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Looking\" note, point III, change \"th#\" to \"the.\" Lesson\n   \"Humiliation,\" point I, apply RC to \"His Divine\" and \"Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 326, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divinity\" (twice).\n   \"Incarnate\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine glory.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"Divine nature.\"\n\n - Page 327, \"Christian Temper\" note, application (\"Lessons\"), point\n   2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point 3, apply RC to \"God-like.\"\n\n - Page 328, lesson \"Exaltation,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine act\";\n   add left parenthesis before \"ver. 9.\" Point II, apply RC to \"the\n   Divine\" (thrice). Point III, apply RC to \"Him\"; change quote from\n   \"and every tongue confess\" to \"and that every tongue should\n   confess\" to match KJV; apply RC to \"His Divine majesty.\"\n\n - Page 329, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   \"Worthy\" note, point 2, apply RC to \"His Divine majesty.\" Point 3,\n   apply RC to \"Divine honour.\"\n\n - Page 330, lesson \"Salvation,\" point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\n   aid.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine work.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine influences.\"\n\n - Page 331, \"Divine and Human\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   \"Active Exertion\" note, point I, capitalise \"Promised Land.\"\n   \"Co-operation\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 332, same note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine operations.\"\n   Lesson \"Lustre,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine command.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 333, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 334, lesson \"Projected,\" point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 335, same lesson, point II 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"\n   (twice).\n\n - Page 337, lesson \"Devoted,\" point IV, apply RC to \"glorious\n   Gospel\" and \"the Word.\" \"Anxieties\" note, insert point \"2\" at the\n   beginning of the second sentence.\n\n - Page 338, notes on chapter iii., verse 1, change \"iv. 8\" to \"ch.\n   iv. 8.\" Verse 8, insert \"[R.V., 'soul' A.V.].\"\n\n - Page 339, verse 14, change \"gaol\" to \"goal.\" Verse 17, apply RC to\n   \"Good Shepherd.\"\n\n - Page 340, lesson \"False and True,\" point I, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 341, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"the Divine\" and\n   \"the Divinity\"; change period after \"yourself\" to a question mark;\n   apply RC to \"Divinity.\"\n\n - Page 343, lesson \"External,\" point III, apply RC to \"the Divine.\"\n   \"Excellent\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 344, same note, renumber second point \"VI\" to \"VII.\" First\n   \"Excellency\" note, point I, apply RC to \"the Divinity.\" Lesson\n   \"Features,\" point II, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - Page 345, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Divine power\"; insert point \"1\" before first\n   sentence in Italic; point III 1, apply RC to \"Divine power\" and\n   \"Divine life.\" Point III 2, apply RC to \"Good Shepherd.\"\n\n - Page 346, \"Power\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine mission.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divinity\" (twice). Point V, apply RC to\n   \"the Gospel.\" \"Resurrection\" note, point II 4, apply RC to \"the\n   Divine.\"\n\n - Page 347, lesson \"Highest,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divinely\" \"the\n   Gospel,\" and \"the Divine.\" Point III, change \"Michael Angelo\" to\n   \"Michelangelo\"; add comma between \"he said\" and quotation. Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"Divine light.\"\n\n - Page 348, \"Pressing\" note, point II 3 (2), change period to\n   question mark.\n\n - Page 349, \"Temper\" note, point III 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 350, lesson \"Examples,\" point III 3, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 351, lesson \"Citizenship,\" point I, add sentence-ending\n   period to last sentence. Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine power.\"\n\n - Page 352, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"the Divine\"\n   (twice).\n\n - Page 353, notes on chapter iv., verse 3, change double quotes\n   around \"fellow-in-yoke, fellow labourer\" to single quotes and\n   add closing double quotes.\n\n - Page 354, notes on verse 8, identify the Cicero quotation as Latin\n   and set it in Italic. Verse 11, add em-dash after \"etc.\" Verse 12,\n   add em-dash after \"etc.\" and \"Ps. xxiii.\" reference. Verse 18, add\n   \"Matt. xxv. 40\" reference.\n\n - Page 355, lesson \"Plea,\" point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\";\n   change \"strengthened by Him\" to \"him,\" speaking of Paul. Point\n   III, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"the Word.\"\n\n - Page 356, lesson \"Glimpses,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 357, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   IV 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 358, lesson \"Joy,\" point II, apply RC to \"Divine grace\" and\n   \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 359, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\"\n   \"Rejoicing\" note, point I 2, add em-dash after \"for.\" Point\n   II 3 (3), apply RC to \"His Word.\"\n\n - Page 360, lesson \"Equity,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine Surety.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" and \"His professed followers.\"\n\n - Page 361, lesson \"Cure,\" point I, remove commas from \"kill-joy,\n   and\" and \"blessings, and.\" Point II, remove commas from \"mind,\n   but\" and \"anxieties, and.\"\n\n - Page 362, \"Remedy\" note, point II 3, apply RC to \"Divine will.\"\n\n - Page 363, \"Subjects\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Lesson \"Science,\" point I, change \"livable\" to \"liveable.\"\n\n - Page 364, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine blessing.\" Application (\"Lessons\"),\n   point 1, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - The break between pages 364 and 365 is in the word \"upward\":\n   up|ward.\n\n - Page 365, \"Paul\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine life.\" Point\n   V, apply RC to \"Divine providence.\" Lesson \"Joy,\" point I, apply\n   RC to \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from \"frequently, but\"; apply RC\n   to \"the Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 366, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine strength\"\n   and \"Divine grace.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine source.\"\n\n - Page 367, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC\n   to \"Divine grace.\" \"Tendency\" note, point II 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine Master.\"\n\n - Page 368, lesson \"Generous,\" point I, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divine blessing,\" \"Divine approbation,\" and\n   \"Divine reward.\"\n\n - Page 369, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from \"invested,\n   and\"; apply RC to \"Divine generosity.\" Lesson \"Last Words,\" point\n   I, apply RC to \"Divine Giver.\"\n\n - Page 370, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Divine favour.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point\n   3, apply RC to \"Divine grace.\"\n\n\n\n+THE+\n\n+EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Coloss\u00e6 and its people.+--In Asia Minor, a few days' journey to the\neast of Ephesus, is a district which for natural beauty, as described\nby many travellers, is hardly to be surpassed. At the foot of Mount\nCadmus--now known as Baba Dagh, or \"the Father of Mountains\"--near\nthe stream of the Lycus, a tributary of the M\u00e6ander, stood the town\nof Coloss\u00e6. Within a day's journey stood Hierapolis and Laodicea, the\nlatter the home of a Church in the later years where a poor,\nhalf-hearted religion was a constant offence to God. Owing to its\npolitical significance, it quite eclipsed Coloss\u00e6, as Hierapolis also\ndid, owing to its natural advantages as a health-resort or\nwatering-place. Though at one time Coloss\u00e6 was a flourishing town,\nwhere the vast forces of Xerxes or those of Cyrus could halt, in this\ncountry it was only with difficulty and some uncertainty that its\nexact site was discovered. Chronos (so called from the funnel-shaped\nholes into which the river drops) is its modern substitute, though\nfrom two to three miles south of the site of Coloss\u00e6.\n\nThe inhabitants of Coloss\u00e6 were largely of Phrygian derivation,\nhighly religious, if dread of the supernatural in every form\nconstitutes religion, but ready to yield themselves up to the wildest\norgies and the most degradingly sensual types of worship. But there\nwere also many Jews in the town, as we learn not only from the\nindications in this letter, but from other sources. It was not the\nonly occasion in history when travelled Jews had learnt to blend with\ntheir ancestral religion the philosophical or theosophical opinions\nof the neighbourhood where they had settled. The result was an\namalgam very hard to catalogue. The Hellenism of these Phrygian Jews\ndid as little for them as in later days it did for Heine, the German\nJew. So, because its results were pernicious, the uncompromising\nopponent of Pharisaic dead works and herald of one God set himself to\nmake known to the Colossians the sufficiency of Christian doctrine\nwithout admixture of heathen wisdom (ch. ii. 8, 9) or the\nadministration of Jewish rites (ch. ii. 11).\n\n+Occasion, aim, time, and place of composition.+--Epaphras, a member\nof the Colossian Church, and to whom the whole neighbourhood was\nindebted as the bringer of Gospel tidings, had given St. Paul an\naccount of the state of the Church to which he ministered, with\nintimations of the perils threatening it. This it was which led the\napostle to send Tychicus with this letter. The runaway slave Onesimus\naccompanied him, sent back to Philemon his master in Coloss\u00e6 by St.\nPaul.\n\nThe aim of the apostle in writing the letter was chiefly to warn the\nColossians against the specious errors of certain teachers who had\ntried to unite Christianity with Judaism, and these to theosophical\nnotions. The results of this blend could only be regarded with a\npitiful smile. It was pernicious, and, with all its semblance of\nhumility, immoral. Its main offence to the apostle was that it\ndishonoured his Lord, \"who is the image of the invisible God, the\nfirstborn of all creation.\"\n\nLightfoot thinks this letter, with those to Ephesus and Philemon, was\nsent by Tychicus \"towards the close of the apostle's captivity in\nRome, about the year 63.\" Meyer, who contends that it was sent, not\nfrom Rome, but from C\u00e6sarea, thinks 60 or 61 was the date. The\nancient tradition was that the letter emanated from a Roman prison,\nand the reasons given against this are too slender to set it aside in\nfavour of C\u00e6sarea.\n\n+Style of the epistle.+--\"The style of the epistle is somewhat\nlaboured. It lacks the spontaneity, the fire, the passion, the tender\nemotion which mark most of St. Paul's letters. The reason for this is\ntwofold. It is partly because he is addressing strangers, the members\nof Churches which he had not directly founded, and to whom his\nexpressions did not flow forth from the same full spring of intimate\naffection. It is still more because he is refuting errors with which\nhe was not familiar, and which he had not witnessed in their direct\nworkings. . . . When he was a little more familiar with the theme (in\nwriting Ephesians) he writes with more fervency and ease. . . . In\nthe close similarity between these two, and yet in the strongly\nmarked individuality of each, we have one of the most indisputable\nproofs of the genuineness of both. . . . If Colossians has less of\nthe attractive personal element and the winning pathos of other\nletters of St. Paul, it is still living, terse, solid, manly,\nvigorous; and brief though it be, it still, as Calvin says, contains\nthe nucleus of the Gospel\" (_Farrar_).\n\n+Outline of the epistle.+\n\nIntroduction. i. 1, 2, greeting. 3-8, thanksgiving. 9-14, prayer and\n              supplication with thanksgiving.\n\n    i. 15-23. Main theme of the epistle. Christ's personal supremacy\n              and the universal efficacy of His mediatorial work.\n\n       24-29. The apostle's personal explanation of his motive in\n              addressing them.\n\n   ii.   1-7. His interest in the highest welfare of Christians\n              unknown to him.\n\n        8-15. Warning against a philosophy born of earth, able only\n              to deal externally with outbursts of sin as contrasted\n              with the complete putting away of it by Christ's death\n              and resurrection.\n\n       16-23. A protest against the attempt to foist precepts and\n              prohibitions on those who in Christ have passed beyond\n              the stage of legalism.\n\n  iii.  1-17. The sufficiency, for conduct, of living consistently\n              with the life hid with Christ in God, which is fatal,\n              as it grows, to every form and manifestation of the old\n              and corrupt life.\n\n       18-22. Duties of wives (18), husbands (19), children (20),\n              fathers (21), servants (22).\n\n       23-25. Motives, incentives, and deterrents in service.\n\n  iv.      1. Duties of masters, and motive of conduct.\n\n        2-18. Sundry exhortations, commendations, and greetings. The\n              latter concludes with the apostle's autograph signature,\n              a touching reference to his \"bonds,\" and a benediction.\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ by the will of God.+--Here,\nas in the Ephesian epistle, St. Paul traces his apostolate to the\nwill of God. It does not seem as if any reason could be given why in\nthese two epistles he uses the phrase and omits it in the\nPhilippians. +Timotheus our brother.+--If Philemon, who was a\nColossian Christian, had met St. Paul at Ephesus, probably he had\nseen Timothy, too, and would no doubt say to the Church how the\napostle valued him (Phil. ii. 19).\n\nVer. 2. +To the saints and faithful brethren.+--We may observe that\nsuch a phrase is characteristic of St. Paul's later epistles; in the\nearlier it was \"to the Church.\" It seems better thus to translate\nthan to give the meaning \"to the holy and believing brethren\" (see on\nEph. i. 1). +Grace . . . and peace, from God our Father and the Lord\nJesus Christ.+--Not \"grace\" from the Father and \"peace\" from the Lord\nJesus Christ, as the usual benediction shows--\"The grace of our Lord\nJesus.\" \"Whatsoever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son\" (John\nv. 19).\n\nVer. 3. +We give thanks to God.+--The apostle here, as usual, gives\ncredit for all that is worthy in his readers, though the tidings from\nColoss\u00e6 had been disquieting.\n\nVer. 4. +Having heard of your faith.+--This last word might possibly\nmean \"fidelity,\" the steadiness of an unwavering loyalty. But it is\nbetter to take it as the act of personal trust. +Love to all the\nsaints.+--This was the distinguishing trait of all Christians--love\none for another (John xiii. 35). How often have we heard the irony,\n\"How these Christians love one another!\" We are not warranted in\nwithholding love until men are paragons of spiritual perfection--all\nin Christ are \"saints.\"\n\nVer. 5. +For the hope.+--This word completes the triad, though the\norder is changed, and hope here is the object--the thing hoped for.\n+Laid up for you in heaven.+--It is the same word in Luke xix. 20,\n\"laid up in a napkin\"; in 2 Tim. iv. 8, \"henceforth there is laid\nup\"; and in Heb. ix. 27, \"it is appointed unto [laid up for] men once\nto die.\" +The word of the truth of the gospel.+--Not to be\ninterpreted into \"the truly evangelic word.\" There is an imposing\nsound in the phrase meant to agree with the thing denoted.\n\nVer. 6. +In all the world.+--A hyperbolic expression, by which the\napostle at the world's centre, Rome, seems to say the messengers of\nthe Gospel, go forth to the utmost bounds of the empire. The faith\nyou have received is no local cult, nor is it an ephemeral\nexcitement. +And bringeth forth fruit.+--The R.V. adds to \"bearing\nfruit,\" \"and increasing.\" It is not a Gospel that is decadent, on\nwhich a few fruits may be found, but with too evident traces that\nsoon fruitfulness will be past.\n\nVer. 7. +As ye learned of Epaphras.+--Short for Epaphroditus, but not\nhe of Phil. ii. 25. He is one of the Colossians; beyond that and his\nprayerful zeal for them we know nothing of the only one whom St. Paul\ncalls \"a fellow-servant.\"\n\nVer. 9. +Do not cease to pray for you, and to desire.+--R.V. \"pray\nand make request.\" The general notion comes first, then, the\nparticulars; so in Mark xi. 24. In the Lord's Prayer there are\nseveral \"petitions\" or \"requests.\" +Knowledge.+--Here represents the\nadvanced knowledge of the initiated. \"Spiritual understanding\" is the\nuse in the realm of things spiritual of the faculty which, as\nemployed in physical research, makes the difference between the man\nof scientific method and the empiric. Compare the union of \"wisdom\"\nand \"spiritual understanding\" with our Lord's words, \"Thou hast hid\nthese things from the _wise_ and _prudent._\"\n\nVer. 10. +Walk worthy.+--\"The end of all knowledge, the apostle would\nsay, is conduct\" (_Lightfoot_). The previous verse taken with this\ngives the \"theory and practice\" of religion. +Unto all\npleasing.+--With the end ever before you of being approved by God.\nFor the same combination, see 1 Thess. iv. 1. +Being fruitful . . .\nand increasing.+--Like the Gospel itself (see ver. 6).\n\nVer. 11. +Strengthened with all might according to His glorious\npower.+--Lit. \"with all power made powerful,\" etc. The two words\nrepresenting \"might\" and \"power\" have become familiar in \"dynamite\"\nand the termination of \"auto-_crat_\"; the one indicating stored-up\nenergy; the other victorious or ruling force. +Patience and\nlongsuffering.+--the first word indicates the attitude of an\nunfainting mind when things go wrong; the second the quiet endurance\nunder irritation from others, the being \"not soon angry.\"\n\nVer. 12. +Made us meet.+--Duly qualified us, gave us competence. Just\nas a man needs to be a qualified practitioner of medicine or the law,\nso these Colossians are recognised as fit and proper persons for\nparticipation in the kingdom of light.\n\nVer. 13. +Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness.+--The\nmetaphor commenced in the previous verse is carried on here. The\nsettlement in the land flowing with milk and honey is preceded by\ndeliverance with a high hand from the house of bondage--the land of\nthick darkness. +And hath translated us.+--The same word by which the\nJewish historian describes the carrying over of the Israelites to\nAssyria by Tiglath-Pileser. The apostle regards the deliverance, so\nfar as the Deliverer is concerned, as a thing accomplished. +His dear\nSon.+--The A.V. margin has become the R.V. text, \"The Son of His\nlove.\" We do not again find this expression; but as there is \"no\ndarkness at all\" in God, who \"is love,\" so His Son, into whose\nkingdom we come, reveals the love of the Father.\n\nVer. 14. +In whom we have redemption.+--A release effected in\nconsideration of a ransom. See on the verse Eph. i. 7. The\nforgiveness of our sins--lit. \"the dismissal of our sins.\"\n\nVer. 15. +Who is the image of the invisible God.+--In 2 Cor. iv. 4\nSt. Paul had so named Christ. \"Beyond the very obvious notion of\n_likeness,_ the word for image involves the idea of _representation_\nand _manifestation_\" (_Lightfoot_). Man is said to be the image of\nGod (1 Cor. xi. 7), and to have been created in the image of God, as\nan image on a coin may represent C\u00e6sar, even though unrecognisable\nalmost. Christ is \"the very image\" (Heb. i. 3) of God, able to say,\n\"He that hath seen Me hath seen the Father.\" +Firstborn of every\ncreature.+--\"Not that He is included as part of the creation, but\nthat the relation of the whole creation to Him is determined by the\nfact that He is the 'firstborn of all creation' (R.V.), so that\nwithout Him creation could not be\" (_Cremer_). The main ideas\ninvolved in the word are (1) priority to all creation;\n(2) sovereignty over all creation (_Lightfoot_).\n\nVer. 16. +Thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers.+--That\nPaul believed in a heavenly hierarchy can scarcely be doubted; but\nthis letter shows that in Coloss\u00e6 it had become an elaborate\nsuperstition.\n\nVer. 18. +And He is the head of the body, the Church.+--As He held\npriority of all creation, so also His is the name above every name in\nthe new creation. +The firstborn from the dead.+--The cardinal point\nof the apostle's faith.\n\nVer. 19. +For it pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness\ndwell.+--The great question on this verse is--seeing that \"the\nFather\" has been added--what is the nominative to the word rendered\n\"it pleased\"? At least three are possible: (1) \"the Father,\" as A.V.,\nR.V., and many commentators; (2) \"all the fulness,\" etc.; and\n(3) \"the Son was pleased.\" Lightfoot urges that, as (2) would be an\nanachronism, and (3) a hopeless confusion of the theology, \"the\nFather was well pleased\" seems to be the best rendering.\n\nVer. 20. +To reconcile all things unto Himself.+--The word\n\"reconcile\" is meant to indicate the restoration of a lost\nfriendship; and re-establishment of peaceful relations. It is a good\nspecimen of the care with which St. Paul's advanced expressions are\nselected.\n\nVer. 21. +You, that were sometime alienated.+--Does not mean, of\ncourse, occasionally alienated, but as the R.V. gives it, \"being in\ntime past alienated\"--up to the time of the reconciliation _always_\nestranged. +Enemies in your mind by wicked works.+--The most\ninteresting question here is whether God is reconciled to the sinner\nor only the sinner to God. Is \"enemies\" to mean \"hostile\" or\n\"hateful\"? Lightfoot says, \"It is the mind of man, not the mind of\nGod, which must undergo a change that a reunion may be effected.\"\n\nVer. 22. +In the body of His flesh through death.+--When a teacher\nhas to be explicit it may seem to those familiar with the subject as\nif he were verbose or tautological. So here the body is no phantasm,\nbut fleshy and mortal. +To present you holy.+--They were professedly\nholy \"saints\" (ver. 2), and the final purpose of their reconciliation\nis reproachless saintship (on this word, and \"unblameable,\" see Eph.\ni. 4). +Unreproveable in His sight.+--It is a lofty eminence to which\nthe holy apostle invites us to look in this word. The light in which\nwe walk--fierce indeed towards sin--reveals no evil, so that the most\ncaptious critic has no objection (Tit. ii. 8).\n\nVer. 23. +Grounded and settled, and not moved away.+--In that land of\nvolcanic agency the readers would perceive only too readily the\ngraphic force of this metaphor. Where stone buildings tumbled over\nlike a house of cards, the figure of a faith, proof against all\nshocks, was effective (see Heb. xii. 28). +Every creature under\nheaven.+--The same rhetorical form of expression as in ver. 6,\naffirming the universal fitness of the Gospel as well as its wide\ndissemination. +Whereof I Paul am made a minister.+--Wonder that\nincreases and unceasing gratitude are in these words--that the\npersecutor should serve the faith he once destroyed.\n\nVer. 24. +Fill up that which is behind in the afflictions of\nChrist.+--R.V., \"and fill up on my part that which is lacking.\" How\nwe seem to hear through these words the cry of the head of the\nChurch, \"Why persecutest thou Me?\" And now the persecutor shares the\npain of Christ and those to whom it is granted as a favour to suffer\nfor His sake (Phil. i. 29).\n\nVers. 25-27. See notes on Eph. iii. 7 ff.\n\nVer. 28. +Whom we preach.+--What a glorious comprehensiveness there\nis in preaching Him in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead!\nHere is nothing narrow. +Warning every man.+--R.V. \"admonishing.\" It\nis a direction of the reflective faculty--a reproof administered with\nintent to amend the conduct. It corresponds to \"Repent ye!\" +And\nteaching every man.+--The positive side of which the warning is the\nnegative. It is not enough to tell a man he is wrong--the right must\nbe indicated; so the heralds of the Gospel followed up \"Repent ye\"\nwith \"Believe the Gospel.\" Note the repeated \"every man.\"\nExclusiveness which shuts the door in the face of any \"weak brother\nfor whom Christ died\" is utterly strange to the teaching of St. Paul.\n+That we may present every man perfect in Christ Jesus.+--St. Paul,\nand every true successor, labours for this end; and, as ver. 22\nshows, in so doing all are \"workers together with God.\" We have the\nidea of presentation elsewhere in St. Paul, as where he speaks of\npresenting his converts as a chaste virgin to Christ. The risk of\noffering a tainted animal for sacrifice is as nothing in comparison\nof offering a hypocrite as a trophy of the Gospel.\n\nVer. 29. +I also labour.+--The word implies strenuous effort. \"The\nracer who takes care to slack his speed whenever he is in danger of\nbreaking into a perspiration will not win the prize\" (_Maclaren_).\n+Striving.+--Lit. \"agonising,\" as in Luke xiii. 24. Like a stripped\ngymnast, every encumbrance cast off. The same word in 1 Tim. vi. 12.\n\"Fight the good fight.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.\n\n_Apostolic Salutation._\n\nIn this verse we have _a description of the office and character_ of\nthe persons from whom the salutation emanates.\n\n+I. An exalted and important office.+--\"Paul, an apostle of Jesus\nChrist.\" An apostle is one _sent._ Paul was commissioned to declare\nthe grandest truths--truths destined to illumine and upraise mankind.\nHis sphere was the world, his audience the generations of every age.\nThe work of the apostle lives to-day--its vigour is perennial. His\nwas no empty, unmeaning title. It involved incredible thought,\noverburdening care, incessant toil, unparalleled suffering. It was an\noffice created by the circumstances of the time. That period was the\nbeginning of a gigantic campaign against the consolidated errors and\nsins of ages. An ordinary officer can keep and govern a garrison; but\nit requires a gifted general to marshal and direct the militant host\nin the daring man\u0153uvres of war. In the Divine government of the world\nthe occasion calls forth the man.\n\n+II. The authority that designates and qualifies.+--\"By the will of\nGod.\" The will of God is the great originating and dynamic moral\nforce of the universe. That will raised Paul to the apostleship, and\ninvested him with all essential qualifications. The miraculous\nincidents of the journey to Damascus (Acts ix.) formed a crisis in\nhis career. The startling discovery as to the character of the Being\nhe had madly opposed evoked the utterance of a changed and willing\nheart: \"Lord, what wilt Thou have me to do?\" That was the sublime\nmoment of his _sending._ In undertaking the highest work for God, it\nis not enough that we possess learning, gifts, piety, unless with all\nthere be a consciously Divine commission. There are crises when we\ncan gain fresh inspiration for the exigencies of the work only by\nfalling back on the clearest call and appointment of the Divine will.\n\n+III. A familiar Christian relationship.+--\"Timotheus, our brother.\"\nPaul was the means of Timothy's conversion; and in another place he\ncalls him his \"own son in the faith.\" Here he recognises him on the\nmore equal footing of a brother. Christianity is a brotherhood. Not a\nlow, debasing communism that drags down all to its own common level,\nbut a holy confederacy in which men of all ranks, ages, and talents\nunite. The equality of Christian brotherhood is based on a moral and\nspiritual foundation. The minister whose reputation is won, and\nposition assured loses nothing by honouring his younger brethren.\n\n+IV. Union of sympathy and desire.+--\"Paul . . . _and_ Timothy.\" The\ngreatest intimacy existed between the two, notwithstanding the\ndisparity in rank and abilities. There were qualities in Timothy that\nelicited the admiration and love of the great apostle. They were\nconstant companions in travel; and Timothy was often a source of\ncomfort to Paul in captivity. They had a common sympathy in the\npropagation of the Gospel, and with the changing fortunes of the\nnewly founded Churches and joined in prayer for their welfare. The\nunion of Timothy with himself also strengthened the testimony of the\napostle regarding the supernatural character of the truths declared.\n\n+Lessons.+--_Christian salutation_--1. _Takes its value from the\ncharacter of the sender._ 2. _Should be pervaded with genuine\nsympathy._ 3. _Implies a mutual interest in the success of Christian\nwork._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 2.\n\n_Apostolic Estimate of Christian Character._\n\n+I. Suggestive phases of Christian character.+--\"Saints and faithful\nbrethren in Christ which are at Coloss\u00e6.\"\n\n1. _Saints._--This implies union with God and a personal\nparticipation in His righteousness. This is the root of the saintly\nlife. Faith in Christ is the point and means of junction.\nCanonisation cannot make a saint. Must be saintly experience to\nproduce saintly conduct. A holy reputation excites to action\nconsistent with itself. Nehemiah refused to hide from threatened\nassassination as an act beneath his well-known character for high\nintegrity and bravery (Neh. vi. 11).\n\n2. _Faithful brethren which are at Coloss\u00e6._--Implies union with each\nother. They embraced a common faith and held steadfastly together\namid the agitations of false teachers and the defections of the\nwavering. Christianity blends the strangest elements. It is a foe to\nall national enmities and prejudices. Paul, a Jew, Timothy, a\nGrecian, and the Colossians, a mixture of several races, are here\nunited in a holy and faithful brotherhood. \"Here the Gentile met the\nJew whom he had been accustomed to regard as an enemy of the human\nrace; the Romans met the lying Greek sophist, the Syrian slave, the\ngladiator born beside the Danube. In brotherhood they met, the\nnatural birth and kindred of each forgotten, the baptism alone\nremembered in which they had been born again to God and to each\nother\" (_Ecce Homo_).\n\n3. _The sublime origin of the Christian character._--\"_In_ Christ.\"\nCharacter is the development and crystallisation of a _life._ The\ncharacter of the blossom and fruit is decided by the vital energy in\nthe tree. Christ is the unfathomable fount of all spiritual life; the\nideal pattern and formative force of a perfect character. He is the\ncentre and bond of all true brotherhood.\n\n+II. The salutation supplicates the bestowment of highest Divine\nblessings.+--1. _Grace._ A term of vast significance, inclusive of\nall the blessings that can flow from the superabundant and free\nfavour of God. Grace is the source of all _temporal_ good--life,\nhealth, preservation, success, felicity; and of all _spiritual_\nbenefactions--pardon, soul-rest, guidance, strength, deliverance,\npurity, final triumph. The generosity of God is illimitable.\n\n2. _Peace._--Grace expresses the spirit and fulness in which Divine\nmanifestations come to us; peace the result they accomplish in us.\n_Peace with God._ Sin has thrown human nature into a state of discord\nand enmity. The reception of grace must ever precede the enjoyment of\npeace. The universal mistake is, in first seeking, through many\navenues, the happiness which peace with God alone can bring, instead\nof accepting humbly, penitently, believingly, the grace of God in\nChrist. _Peace with each other_--peace in the Church. How great a\nblessing is this! One turbulent spirit can ruffle the tranquillity of\nthousands.\n\n3. _The source of the blessings desired._--\"From God our Father and\nthe Lord Jesus Christ.\" The Father's love and the Son's work are the\nsole source and cause of every blessing to humanity, while the Holy\nSpirit is the agent of their communication. The Trinity is ever\nharmonious in acts of beneficence; the Divine fountain is\ninexhaustible.\n\n+Learn.+--1. _The broad, deep charity of the apostolic spirit._\n2. _The scope and temper of the prayers we should offer for the race._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-5.\n\n_The Causes of Ministerial Thanksgiving._\n\nIt is customary with the apostle to begin his epistles with the\nardent expression of thanksgiving. This showed the devout habit of\nhis mind, his constant and emphatic recognition of the grand source\nof good, and his deep interest in the spiritual condition of those to\nwhom he wrote.\n\n+I. Thanksgiving an essential element in prayer.+--\"We give\nthanks, . . . praying always for you\" (ver. 3). The participle marks\nthe thanksgiving as part of the prayer, and the adverb makes it\nprominent, indicating that when they _prayed for them they always\ngave thanks._ There is no true prayer without thanksgiving. Gratitude\nintensifies the soul's sense of dependence on God and prompts the cry\nfor the needed help; and, on the other hand, earnest prayer naturally\nglides into fervent thankfulness. As one sin is interlinked with and\nproduced by another, so the use of one grace begets another. The more\ntemporal things are used, the more they wear and waste; but spiritual\nthings are strengthened and increased with exercise. Every spiritual\ngrace has in it the seed of an endless reproductiveness. Underlying\nevery thanksgiving for others is a spirit of tender, disinterested\nlove. Moved by this passion, the apostle, from the midst of\nimprisonment and sorrow, could soar on the wings of gratitude and\nprayer to heaven. \"Thanksgiving will be the bliss of eternity.\"\n\n+II. The Being to whom all thanksgiving is due.+--\"To God, the Father\nof our Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 3). God is the Father of Jesus\nChrist, not only as God, by an eternal generation and communication\nof His whole essence unto Him in a method to us mysterious and\nineffable, but also as man by virtue of the personal union of the two\nnatures in Christ, and in a special sense exceeding every other way\nin which He is Father to man or angels. Thus, God and the Father of\nour Lord Jesus are one; the particle \"and\" being exegetic of the same\nthing, not copulative of something different. All our blessings have\ntheir source in the bosom of the Divine Father. Christ is the only\nrevealer of the Father, and the active agent in bestowing the\npaternal benefits on humanity. The paternal aspect of the Divine\ncharacter as unfolded by Jesus Christ is most fascinating and\nassuring; and the loving heart delights to trace its blessings up to\nthe Parent of all good and to render Him devout and grateful praise.\n\n+III. This thanksgiving was grounded on the reputation of their faith\nin the Author of Christianity.+--\"Since we heard of your faith in\nChrist\" (ver. 4).\n\n1. _Christ is the object and foundation of all true faith._--He is so\nas the Divinely consecrated Deliverer of the race. The grandeur of\nHis redeeming work and the dignity and glory of His character are\nsuggested by the titles here given to Him. Man must believe in\nChrist, not as an abstract truth, not as a poetic conception, not as\na dim impersonal force acting in the sphere of ideality, but as a\nDivine-human _person_--the anointed Saviour.\n\n2. _True faith is the root principle of the Christian life._--Without\nit neither love nor hope could exist. All the graces that strengthen\nand beautify the Christian character must grow out of faith.\n\n3. _True faith is ever manifest._--\"Since we heard.\" It is seen in\nthe changed disposition and conduct of the individual believer. It is\nmarked by the anxious Christian worker and becomes known to a wide\ncircle of both friends and foes. Epaphras rejoiced to bear tidings of\nthe fact; and the soul of the apostle, since he heard, glowed with\ngrateful praise. Happy the people whose highest reputation is their\nfaith in Jesus!\n\n+IV. This thanksgiving was grounded on their possession of an\nexpansive Christian love.+--\"And of the love which ye have to all the\nsaints\" (ver. 4). Love to Christ is necessarily involved, for love to\nthe saints is really a generous, unselfish affection for Christ's\nimage in them. Love is all-embracing. Peculiarities, defects,\ndifferences of opinion, distance, are no barriers to its penetrating\nardour. It is the unanswerable evidence of moral transformation\n(1 John iii. 14). It is the grandest triumph over the natural enmity\nof the human heart. It is the indissoluble bond of choicest\nfellowship.\n\n     \"While we walk with God in light,\n      God our hearts doth still unite;\n      Dearest fellowship we prove,\n      Fellowship in Jesu's love.\"\n\n+V. This thanksgiving was further grounded on their enjoyment of a\nwell-sustained hope.+--The grace of hope naturally springs out of and\nis properly associated with the preceding two. Not one member of the\nholy triad can be divorced from the other without irreparable damage;\nwithout, in fact, the loss of that which is the resultant of the\nthree--viz. active religious life. \"Faith rests on the past; love\nworks in the present; hope looks to the future. They may be regarded\nas the efficient, material, and final causes respectively of the\nspiritual life\" (_Lightfoot_).\n\n1. _The character of this hope._--\"The hope which is laid up for you\nin heaven\" (ver. 5). It is the prospect of future heavenly felicity.\nHope is put for the object hoped for--the hope of possessing a\nspiritual inheritance whose wealth never diminishes, whose splendours\nnever fade; the hope of seeing Christ in all His regal glory; of\nbeing like Him; of dwelling with Him for ever. A prospect like this\nlifts the soul above the meannesses, disappointments, and sufferings\nof the present limited life.\n\n2. _The security of this hope._--\"Laid up.\" This priceless\ninheritance is safely deposited as a precious jewel in God's secret\ncoffer. There no pilfering hands can touch it, no breath can tarnish,\nno rust corrode, no moth corrupt. Earthly treasures vanish, and\nsometimes, to God's people, nothing but the treasure of hope remains.\nThe saint's enduring riches are in the future, locked up in the\nheavenly casket. Where the treasure is there the heart should ever be.\n\n3. _The source and foundation of this hope._--\"Whereof ye heard\nbefore in the word of the truth of the gospel\" (ver. 5). The Gospel\nis based on unchangeable truth and is therefore worthy of universal\ncredence. It alone unfolds the mysteries and glories of the future.\nThe hope of heaven rests, not on the discoveries of human philosophy,\nbut on the revelations of the true Gospel. In vain do men seek it\nelsewhere. By the preaching of the Gospel this hope is made known to\nman. How dismal the outlook where hope is unknown!\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _We should thank God for others more on account of\ntheir spiritual than temporal welfare._ 2. _Learn what are the\nessential elements of the Christian character--faith, love, hope._\n3. _The proclamation of the Gospel should be welcomed, and its\nmessage pondered._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 3-5. _Good News and its Good Effects._\n\n+I. The good news, what it was.+--That certain at Coloss\u00e6 had not\nonly the Gospel, but had known the grace of God in truth, and were\nnow joined to Christ by faith and to His people by love.\n\n+II. What were the results.+--1. _Abundant thanksgiving to the God of\nredemption._ 2. _Constant prayer._ 3. _This epistle._\n\n+III. Application.+--1. _It is well that ministers should be informed\nof the success of the Gospel, both for their own encouragement and to\nsecure their sympathy, prayers, and counsel for the young converts._\n2. _Established Christians and especially ministers should assure\nyoung converts of the gratitude, joy, and sympathy they feel and the\nprayers they present on their behalf._ 3. _If our hearts are right,\nwe shall rejoice at the success of the Gospel.--Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\nVer. 5. _Hope a Stimulus to Christian Perseverance_--\n\n  +I. In gaining the heavenly reward.+\n\n +II. Because the heavenly reward is secure.+--\"Laid up for you.\"\n\n+III. Is based on truth already known.+--\"Whereof ye heard before in\n      the word of the truth of the Gospel.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-8.\n\n_The True Gospel universally the Same._\n\nWherever the Gospel comes it carries with it the ineffaceable impress\nof its Divine origin, and of its universal adaptability to the\ncondition of humanity. There are certain truths that are self-evident\nto the understanding and are not susceptible of proof. They are\naxiomatic and must be admitted as such before any satisfactory system\ncan be constructed upon them. Of this character are the fundamental\ntruths of the Gospel. Their authority is supreme, and their\nevidential force irresistible. But a truth may be universally\nself-evident, and not be universally adopted. It is at this point the\nguilt of the unbeliever is incurred. The Gospel comes to mankind with\never-accumulating evidences of its Divine truthfulness; but men\nresist it. This is the condemnation. \"He that believeth on the Son is\nnot condemned; but he that believeth not is condemned already\" (John\niii. 18). The false teachers, against whom the apostle warns the\nColossians, sought to spoil the Gospel by the intermixture of ideas\nfrom Jew and Gentile.\n\n+I. The true Gospel is universally the same in its adaptation and\nenterprise.+--\"Which is come unto you, as it is in all the world\"\n(ver. 6). The Gospel, though first proclaimed to the Jews, was not\nconfined to them. It reached, penetrated, and changed the Colossians.\nIn them all races were represented. Their conversion was typical of\nthe possibilities of the Gospel for all. The world's greatest\nblessings are not indigenous, are not even sought; they are sent from\nabove. There is not a human being the Gospel cannot benefit; it\nadapts itself to the wants of all. The Gospel started from Judea with\na world-wide mission and was eager to fulfil it. Its enterprise was\nirresistible. It soon spread throughout Asia, Europe, and Africa--the\nregions embracing the Roman empire, which was then virtually the\nwhole world. Its marvellous propagation proved its universal\nadaptability. The celebrated systems of philosophy among the Grecians\nlived only in the soil that produced them. Heresies are at best\nethnic; truth is essentially catholic. In less than a quarter of a\ncentury Christianity was diffused through the entire world. The\nsuccess of Mahometanism was of a different character and effected by\ndifferent means. It depended more on the scimitar than the Koran.\nAlexander, Sesostris, and others achieved similar conquests, and as\nrapidly, by the force of arms. The victories of the Gospel were won\nby moral weapons. It is the greatest privilege of any nation to\npossess the Gospel, and its most solemn duty to make it known to the\nworld.\n\n+II. The true Gospel is universally the same in its\nresults.+--\"Bringeth forth fruit, and _increaseth_\" (as the most\nvaluable MSS. read) \"as it doth also in you\" (ver. 6). The effects\nproduced on the Colossians by their reception of the Gospel were a\nsample of the results in other parts of the world. The fruit-bearing\ndenotes its inward and subjective influence on the soul and life; the\nincreasing refers to its outward and diffusive influence as it makes\nprogress in the world. The metaphor used by the apostle suggests that\nthe Gospel, as a tree, not only bears fruit, but grows, sending forth\nits roots more firmly and widely, and extending its branches in the\nair. Thus, it bears fruit and makes advancement (_Spence_). There are\nsome plants which exhaust themselves in bearing fruit and then\nwither. The Gospel is a plant whose seed is in itself, and its\nexternal growth keeps pace with its reproductive energy. We cannot\nmonopolise the benefits of the Gospel to ourselves; it is intended\nfor the world, and wherever it comes it brings forth fruit. It is\nintensely practical, and aims at results, corresponding with its\ncharacter, purpose, and power.\n\n+III. The true Gospel is universally the same in the manner of its\nreception.+--\"Since the day ye heard of it, and knew the grace of God\nin truth\" (ver. 6). Faith cometh by hearing, and hearing by the Word\nof God. The mode of receiving the Gospel is the same to all. It is\napprehended by the understanding, approved by the judgment, and\nembraced by the affections. It is not enough that it falls on the ear\nlike the strain of a seraphic melody, not enough that it enters the\nunderstanding as a clearly conceived, full-orbed truth, not enough\nthat it ripples through the sphere of the emotions as an unspeakable\necstasy, unless, aided by the Divine Spirit, it be cordially embraced\nby the heart and conscience as the whole truth--the only truth that\nsaves and regenerates. It is in the Gospel only that we \"hear of the\ngrace of God\"--the good news that He has provided redemption and\nrestoration for the race. Nature, with all her revelations of beauty,\nwisdom, and power, is dumb on this subject. Providence, with its vast\nrepertory of mingled mystery and bounty, unfolds it not. It is only\nby believing the Gospel that, like the Colossians, we can \"know the\ngrace of God in truth.\"\n\n+IV. The true Gospel is universally the same in the method of its\npropagation.+--1. _It is propagated by preaching._ \"As ye also\nlearned\" (ver. 7)--more correctly, \"Even as ye were instructed\" in\nthe truth mentioned in the preceding verse. It is believed Epaphras\nfirst preached the Gospel at Coloss\u00e6, and, under the direction of\nPaul, he was probably also evangelist to the neighbouring cities of\nHierapolis and Laodicea. Preaching is the Divinely instituted means\nof disseminating the Gospel. It cannot be superseded by any other\nagency. Its success has been marvellous.\n\n2. _It is propagated by men thoroughly qualified for the\nwork._--(1) _The apostle recognised Epaphras as a co-labourer with\nhimself._ \"Our dear fellow-servant\" (ver. 7). The preacher must\nlabour as belonging to Christ, as entirely dependent on Him, and as\ndeeply attached to Him. He is not a servant _of_ the Church; he is a\nservant _for_ the Church, in doctrine, supplication to God, and\nvaried endeavours among men. With all frankness, affection, and\nmodesty, the great apostle acknowledges Epaphras as \"a dear\nfellow-labourer.\" Envy and jealousy of the gifts and reputation of\nothers are pernicious and unjustifiable. (2) _The apostle recognised\nEpaphras as a faithful minister of Christ._ It was a great honour to\nbe a fellow-servant with Paul, but greater still to be a minister of\nChrist, the Lord of glory, the Head of the Church, the Monarch of men\nand angels; commissioned by Him to proclaim the most vital truths and\npromote the best interests of the people. Moreover, he is called a\n_faithful_ minister; the appellation of minister he had in common\nwith many others; the praise of faithfulness is confined to few. \"The\ngreat secret lies in these three things--Christ, immortal souls,\nself-humiliation\" (_Bishop Wilson_). (3) _The apostle recognised\nEpaphras as a man of deep spiritual insight._ \"Who also declared unto\nus your love in the Spirit\" (ver. 8). Love is the leading\ncharacteristic of the Gospel. It is announced as a message of God's\nlove to man, and its object is to produce love in every believing\nheart. Epaphras apprehended this prominent feature in the message\nitself, discerned its origin in the work of the Spirit, and rejoiced\nin declaring its exercise towards the apostle, towards God, and\ntowards all men.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The universality of the Gospel a strong evidence of\nits Divine authorship._ 2. _Though all the world were to reject the\nGospel it would still be true._ 3. _To whomsoever the Gospel comes\nthe imperative duty is to believe it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 6. _The Gospel manifests Itself._\n\n  +I. It spreads its good news in all possible places.+--\"Which is\n      come unto you, as it is in all the world.\"\n\n +II. Produces unmistakable spiritual results.+--\"And bringeth forth\n      fruit, as it doth also in you.\"\n\n+III. Is a revelation of Divine grace.+--\"The grace of God in truth.\"\n\n +IV. To be an evident blessing it must be heard and thoroughly\n      believed as the only truth.+--\"Since the day ye heard of and\n      knew.\"\n\n\nVers. 7, 8. _A Successful Preacher_--\n\n  +I. Is affectionately recognised as a faithful minister of Christ+\n      (ver. 7).\n\n +II. Attributes his success to the work of the Spirit+ (ver. 8).\n\n+III. Regards the exercise of love in his hearers as a prominent\n      feature of success+ (ver. 8).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.\n\n_A Comprehensive Apostolic Prayer._\n\n+I. It was a prayer expressive of deep spiritual interest.+--1. _It\nwas suggested by the report of their active Christian virtues._ \"For\nthis cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray\"\n(ver. 9). They had believed in Christ, they had shown a genuine love\nto the brethren, they hoped for the glory of the future, they brought\nforth the fruits of the Spirit. All this excites the grateful heart\nof the apostle to pray that they may enjoy yet higher spiritual\nblessings, may increase in knowledge and wisdom, and rise to the\nhighest standard of moral perfection. We best show our love to others\nby praying for them. Prayer is always needed, since the most\nexcellent Christian graces are imperfect, liable to decay, and may be\nabused.\n\n2. _It was constant and fervent._--\"Do not cease to pray for you and\nto desire\" (ver. 9). The apostle had unbounded faith in the efficacy\nof prayer. Many in these days limit the advantage of prayer to its\nreflex influence on the individual who prays--expanding the thoughts,\nspiritualising the mind, and sanctifying the heart; and maintain that\nit is powerless to affect God, whose purposes must advance by the\nirresistible operation of unchanging law, irrespective of human\nsupplication. Above this partial philosophy of the modern scientist\nwe have the authority and practice of an inspired apostle. If God did\nnot hear and answer prayer--answer it, not in violation of, but in\nharmony with, the highest law--then the frequent intercessions of the\napostle are reduced to a solemn mockery, are unjustifiable and\ninexplicable. The apostle prayed with the utmost assiduity--night and\nday, as opportunity permitted--and with the utmost ardency, desiring\nthat the blessings sought might be liberally and at once bestowed. As\nAugustine puts it, our desires being prayers, these are continual\nwhen our desires are continual.\n\n+II. It was a prayer for amplest knowledge.+--1. _The main subject of\nthe knowledge desired._ \"The knowledge of His will\" (ver. 9). Man\nthirsts for knowledge. He is eager to become acquainted with himself\nand the wonders around him. In his unwearied search after knowledge\nhe has conquered colossal difficulties; has penetrated the starry\nspaces with the telescope; revealed the smallest visual atom with the\nmicroscope; and, with the deep-sea dredge, has made us familiar with\nthe long-hidden treasures of the ocean. But the highest knowledge is\nthe knowledge of God--not simply of His nature, majesty, perfections,\nworks, but the knowledge of His _will._ So far as we are concerned,\nthat will comprehends all that God wishes us to be, believe, and do.\nWe must know His will in order to salvation, and as the supreme rule\nand guide of every action. Man may be ignorant of many things; but he\ncannot be ignorant of God's will and be saved. The knowledge of that\nwill is the first great urgent duty of life.\n\n2. _The measure in which the knowledge may be possessed._--\"Filled\nwith knowledge.\" The word \"knowledge\" is full and emphatic,\nindicating a living, comprehensive, complete knowledge of the Divine\nwill. They already possessed some knowledge of that will; and the\napostle prays that it may be deeper, clearer, and increasingly potent\nwithin them, that they may be _filled._ The soul is not only to\npossess this knowledge, but it is to possess the soul--informing,\nanimating, and impelling it onwards to higher attainments in the\nthings of God. Knowledge is a power for good only as it acquaints\nwith the Divine will, and as it pervades and actuates the whole\nspiritual being. We may seek great things from God. He gives largely,\naccording to His infinite bounty. There is no limit to our increase\nin Divine knowledge but our own capacity, diligence, and faith.\n\n3. _The practical form in which the knowledge should be\nexercised._--\"In all wisdom and spiritual understanding\" (ver. 9).\nThe word \"spiritual\" applies to both wisdom and understanding. The\nfalse teachers offered a _wisdom_ which they highly extolled, but it\nhad only a show of wisdom; it was an empty counterfeit, calling\nitself philosophy; the offspring of vanity, nurtured by the flesh; it\nwas unspiritual. The true Gospel is spiritual in its origin,\ncharacteristics, and effects. The wisdom and understanding it imparts\nare the work of the Holy Spirit. Without His presence and operation\nin the soul both the knowledge of the Divine will and advancement in\nit would be impossible. The two terms are similar in meaning, but\nthere is a distinction. _Wisdom_ refers to the God-given organ by\nwhich truth is selected and stored up; _understanding_ to the faculty\nby which truth is practically and prudently used; the one is\ncomprehensive and accumulative, the other discriminative and\npractical. True spiritual insight is the work of the Holy Spirit. No\namount of mental or moral culture, of human wisdom and sagacity, can\nsupply it. This was the power lacked by the Galatians when they were\nso soon seduced from the Gospel; and to prevent a similar result\namong the Colossians the apostle prays they may be filled with the\nknowledge of God's will in _all_ spiritual wisdom and understanding,\nthat they may discern between the false and the true, the carnal and\nspiritual, the human and the Divine.\n\n+III. It was a prayer for the loftiest Christian career.+--1. _The\nstandard of Christian conduct._ \"That ye might walk worthy of the\nLord\" (ver. 10). Life is a journey; death is the common goal and\nresting-place where all meet. Our conduct is the pathway on which we\ntravel. The _walk_ therefore describes the general course of life,\nthe actions, habits, and deportment of the man in his relations to\nGod and to the race. This walk is to \"be worthy of the Lord\"--worthy\nof His holy and dignified character; worthy of His law, of His\nkingdom, of His glory, of the high destiny He has designed for us.\nWhen a certain prince, on being captured, was asked how he should be\ntreated, his prompt reply was, \"As a king.\" We should ever remember\nthe high vocation wherewith we are called, and the exalted pattern\nafter which our behaviour should be modelled (Eph. iv. 1; 1 Thess.\nii. 12). Our life is to be worthy of the Lord--in its spirit, motive,\nactive outgoing, development, scope, and aim. For this purpose, we\nare filled with the knowledge of His will. The end of knowledge is\npractice; its value consists in what it enables us to do. He is not\nan architect who simply theorises about buildings, but he who has the\nart to erect them. To speak eloquently of war does not constitute a\ngeneral; he only deserves that distinction who can skilfully manage\nan army in the field, whether in attacking or defending.\n\n2. _The rule by which that standard is maintained._--\"Unto all\npleasing\" (ver. 10). We are to please the Lord in all things; to\nattempt and sanction nothing that will not be acceptable to Him. We\nare not to please ourselves--we are not to please others--as the\nultimate object of life. If our conduct please others--our parents,\nour friends, our country--it is well; but though all others are\ndispleased and estranged, we must strive in all things to please God.\nThis is the simplest as well as the highest and grandest rule of\nlife. Attention to this will settle many perplexing questions\nconcerning human duty. The will of God must be studied as our supreme\nrule, and to it all our throughs, words, and actions must be\nconformed. Thus, the life on earth becomes a preparation and\ndiscipline for heaven and blends the present with a future of\nimmortal blessedness. It is well with us when we obey the Lord (Jer.\nxlii. 6).\n\n3. _The productiveness of Christian consistency._--\"Being fruitful in\nevery good work\" (ver. 10). One result of a worthy walk is fertility\nin Christian activity. In order to fruitfulness there must be life.\nThe believer's life is hid with Christ in God, and the existence of\nthe hidden life is manifest in the fruits. Fruitfulness also involves\nculture. Neglect the vine, and instead of the pendent clusters of\nglossy, luscious fruit there will be barrenness and decay--withered\nbranches fit only for the consuming fire. God disciplines His people\nfor fruitful and abundant service by painful but loving exercises of\nHis providence (John xv. 2). It is not enough to bear one kind of\nfruit; there must be fertility \"in every good work.\" The Christian is\nin sympathy with every good enterprise that aims at the physical,\nsocial, or moral welfare of man, and will heartily contribute his\ninfluence and effort in its promotion.\n\n4. _Progress in Divine knowledge._--\"And increasing in the knowledge\nof God\" (ver. 10). The knowledge of God is the real instrument of\nenlargement, in soul and life, of the believer (_Alford_). We can\nreach no stage in Christian experience and practice in which\nadditional knowledge is unnecessary. Activity in goodness sharpens\nthe knowing faculty and adds to the stores of wisdom. On the other\nhand, increased knowledge reacts and stimulates the worker (John\nvii. 17; Matt. xxv. 29). _Divine_ knowledge is the great necessity of\nthe soul, and the real means of fruitfulness and growth in goodness.\nIt appeals to, elevates, and expands the whole man.\n\n+IV. It was a prayer for supernatural strength.+--1. _The\nappropriateness and fulness of the blessing desired._ \"Strengthened\nwith all might\" (ver. 11). Man is morally weak. Sin has enfeebled and\ndebased the soul; it has tyrannised over humanity for ages. \"When we\nwere yet without strength\" Christ came and introduced another force\nwhich counteracts sin and will ultimately effect its overthrow. All\nwho believe in Christ receive strength to struggle against and\nconquer sin. This imparted strength is especially necessary in\nrealising the blessings for which the apostle prays--complete\nknowledge of the Divine will; a life worthy of the Lord; spiritual\nfertility and advancement in heavenly wisdom. \"Strengthened with\n_all_ might.\" Our enemies are numerous, violent, and obstinate, and\nour infirmities are many. We therefore need strength of every kind.\nAs it is necessary to overcome _all_ our enemies, so it is necessary\nto be endued with _all_ might--might to endure the most furious\nassault, might to resist the most bewitching solicitation to evil.\n\n2. _The supernatural source of the blessing._--\"According to His\nglorious power\" (ver. 11)--or, more correctly, \"according to the\npower of His glory.\" Moral power is not native to the Christian; it\nhas its source in God. He imparts it to the believing heart. The\nmotive and measure of our strength is in the might of His glory.\nPower is an essential attribute of the Divine glory; it is manifested\nin the splendid works of creation, in the inscrutable ways of\nProvidence, and pre-eminently in the marvels of human redemption.\nGod's revelation of Himself to us, in whatever form, is the one\nsource of our highest strength. The power of His glory reveals itself\nmore and more to him who walks worthy of the Lord. Armed with this\nsupernatural energy, the weakest saint becomes invincible.\n\n3. _The great practical purpose contemplated by the blessing._--\"Unto\nall patience and longsuffering with joyfulness\" (ver. 11). _Patience_\nis the temper which does not easily succumb under trial;\n_longsuffering,_ or longmindedness, is the self-restraint which does\nnot hastily retaliate a wrong. Patience respects the weight of the\naffliction, longsuffering its duration. The former is exercised in\nrelation to God, in the endurance of trial, or in waiting for\npromised blessing; the latter in relation to man, in long-continued\nforbearance under irritating wrongs. The true strength of the\nbeliever consists, not so much in what he can do, as in what he can\nendure (Isa. xxx. 15). The quiet, uncomplaining sufferer is greater\nthan the most vigorous athlete. The characteristic of both patience\nand long-suffering is expressed in the phrase _\"with joyfulness.\"_ To\nsuffer with joyfulness is the great distinction and triumph of the\nChristian spirit. The endurance of the Stoic was often the effect of\npride or insensibility. But the Christian, though keenly sensitive to\npain, is enabled by the Holy Spirit to rejoice in the assurance of\nGod's presence, in the certain victory of His cause, and in the\nprospect of reward both here and hereafter.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _How sublime are the topics of genuine prayer._\n2. _Deep experimental acquaintance with the things of God is\nessential to a lofty and useful career._ 3. _Knowledge, wisdom,\nspiritual fertility, and strength are the gifts of God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9-11. _Paul's Prayer for the Colossians_--\n\n+I. For knowledge.+--Fulness of knowledge both extensively and\nintensively is the burden of his desire. \"In all wisdom\"--as a\npractical guide, not as mere theory. \"And spiritual\nunderstanding\"--the spirit of the believer receiving the Spirit of\nGod to lead him inwardly to understand, realise, and delight in the\nDivine will.\n\n+II. For fruitfulness.+---1. _A life worthy of the Christian as it is\nwell pleasing unto his Lord._ 2. _Good works of every kind._\n3. _Substantial growth._\n\n+III. For strength.+--In order to this fruitfulness all might is\nrequired of body, mind, and spirit, but especially that of the Spirit\nwithin. The measure--\"according to His glorious power\"; so as to\nsuffer patiently the constant trials of the Christian life and\nexercise all longsuffering towards persecutors and enemies of the\ntruth, and this with _joyfulness._ It is not what we can do, but what\nHe can do in us, and we through Him.--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\nVer. 11. _Divine Strength_--\n\n  +I. Is spiritual strength, the source and sustenance of all might.+\n\n +II. May be realised in increasing measure.+\n\n+III. Arms the soul with invincible power.+--Power to endure with\n      patience the trials of life; power to bear with the opposition\n      and cruelty of others.\n\n +IV. Enables the soul to rejoice in the midst of suffering.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 12.\n\n_Meetness for Saintly Inheritance._\n\nThe epistle has been hitherto occupied with prefatory observations.\nIn this verse the writer enters upon his principal theme relating to\nthe person and redemption of Jesus Christ. He offers _thanks to God\nthe Father as the primal source of that grace which constitutes the\nmeetness for the saintly heritage._ Observe:--\n\n+I. The opulent inheritance provided for the good.+--1. _It is a\npresent and prospective possession._ \"The inheritance of the saints\nin light.\" _Light_ is symbolic of knowledge, purity, and joy. The\nsaints even now are called out of darkness into God's kingdom of\nmarvellous light. \"They walk in the light as He is in the light.\"\nThey have a measure of knowledge, but it is dimmed by many earthly\nobscurities; of purity, but it is surrounded with imperfections; of\njoy, but it is moderated by life's sorrows. In the prospective\nheavenly inheritance, of which the earthly portion is a preparation\nand pledge, knowledge shall be unclouded and complete, purity\nunsullied, joy uninterrupted. \"The life for eternity is _already_\nbegun: we are at and from the very hour of our regeneration\nintroduced into the spiritual world--a world which, though mysterious\nand invisible, is as real as the world of sense around us: the\nChristian's life of heavenliness is the first stage of heaven itself!\nThere is a power now within the believer in the germ, of which his\ncelestial immortality shall be the proper fruit. The dawn of heaven\nhath already begun in all who are yet to rejoice in its noontide\nglory\" (_Archer Butler_).\n\n2. _It is a possession provided for the good._--\"The saints.\" Not for\nthe unholy, the impenitent, the unbelieving, the worldly. It is an\ninheritance where only the pure in heart can dwell. There is a world\nof significance in that pithy saying of an old Divine: \"Every one\nwill get to heaven who could live there.\" Only the saints who have\nmade the Lord their light and their salvation can bear the splendour\nof His presence.\n\n3. _It is a possession freely given._--The legal heir has no need to\nwork for his inheritance; he enters in possession by right of\nsuccession or testatorial bequest. The saint enters upon his\ninheritance of righteousness, not by natural descent or by any\nself-constituted right, but on the ground of a free, Divine gift. The\nbeliever has a _title_ to the inheritance; but it is not earned by\nhis own efforts: it is bestowed by Christ who won the inheritance by\nsuffering and dying. Thus, all idea of merit is excluded; we can do\nnothing to deserve such a heritage of blessing. The word\n\"inheritance\" really means \"the parcel of the lot\"--an expression\nborrowed from the Old Testament (Ps. xvi. 5). The promised Canaan\nsuggests an analogy between it and the higher hopes and wealthier\npossessions of the new dispensation. As each Israelite, through the\ngrace of God, obtained his allotment, so the Christian obtains his\nportion in the kingdom of God. The present and future possession of\nthe saints infinitely surpasses the earthly inheritance.\n\n+II. The special meetness necessary to a participation in the\ninheritance.+--\"Hath made us meet to be partakers.\"\n\n1. _This meetness is absolutely necessary._--Naturally we are unmeet.\nA monarch may raise the basest slave to a dukedom, but he cannot give\nhim fitness to discharge the duties of the exalted position; he may\nchange his state, but he cannot change his nature. To obtain a moral\nfitness for the saintly inheritance our nature must be changed.\n\"Except a man be born again, he cannot see the kingdom of God.\"\n\n2. _This meetness consists in the loving conformity of the human will\nto the Divine._--The future life of heaven is the object and pattern\nof our present heavenly life: \"there is the mighty model on which we\nare to reconstruct our nature; there dwells that central form of\nmoral and spiritual beauty of which our life is to be the\ntranscript.\" The celestial spirits find their highest glory and\nblessedness in the complete submission of their whole nature to God;\nin cheerful, willing, loving obedience to His will. The heavenly life\nis the test and standard of our life on earth--of every motive, word,\nand deed. The Church of Christ is a training school for a more\nexalted career. An ancient sage once said, \"Boys ought most to learn\nwhat most they shall need when they become men.\" So, men ought to\nlearn in this life what they shall need most as glorified beings in\nthe future. Only as our whole soul is conformed in loving obedience\nto the will of God are we \"meet to be partakers of the inheritance of\nthe saints in light.\" We are thus brought into sympathy with the good\nin all realms and fitted to participate in the most exalted\nfellowships of the future!\n\n3. _This meetness is a Divine work._--It is God \"the Father who hath\nmade us meet.\" He provides the inheritance; He gives the title to it;\nHe confers the moral fitness by which the soul enters into its\npossession and enjoyment. None but God, the fountain of holiness,\ngoodness, and power, could accomplish this work. \"He worketh in us to\nwill and to do.\" In the meetening process He hath dealt with us as a\nFATHER, instructing our ignorance, correcting and chastising our\nfaults, and comforting and strengthening us in trouble.\n\n+III. The great duty we owe to the generous donor of the\ninheritance.+--\"Giving thanks.\" Gratitude is the easiest and\ncommonest duty of a dependent creature; yet is the duty most\nfrequently and grossly neglected. Our hearts should ever glow with an\nunquenchable flame of grateful praise to the bountiful Author of all\nour blessings.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _We owe thanks to God as the Provider of the\ninheritance._ 2. _We owe thanks to God as the active Agent in\nproducing the special meetness to participate in the enjoyments of\nthe inheritance._ 3. _Our thanks to God should be expressed in active\nobedience to His will._ 4. _Our thanks to God should be joyful,\nfervent, and constant._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 12. _Qualification for Heaven._\n\n+I. The state contemplated.+--It is \"an inheritance\"; not a purchased\nproperty, but the common heritage of the children of God. \"Of the\nsaints,\" holy persons. \"In light,\" knowledge, holiness, happiness.\n\n+II. The meetness required.+--Adaptations in the natural world. In\nsocial arrangement. In regard to the heavenly state. A change of\nheart is necessary. Without it heaven would not be heaven to us. It\nmust be sought and obtained in the present world. It is here ascribed\nto the Father.\n\n+III. The thanks to be rendered.+--We thank our fellow-men for their\ngifts. We thank God for His other gifts. We should thank Him for\nmeetness for heaven. This thanksgiving prepares us for\nheaven.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_Meetness for the Inheritance of the Saints in Light._--Life for\neternity is already begun. The business and the beatitude of heaven\nmust consist in conformity of the will to the will of God: this is\nequally the law of earth.\n\n  +I. Faith is the realising power of this meetness.+\n\n +II. Hope is the consoling and fortifying power.+\n\n+III. Love is the uniting power, the consummation, and the perfection\n      of all.+--_A. Butler._\n\n\n_The Inheritance of the Saints._\n\n+I. An interesting view of the future world as it is inherited by\nbelievers.+--1. _The saints are in light in respect to the place._\n2. _As it respects purity._ 3. _In respect of the permanency of their\nfelicity._ 4. _As it respects knowledge._\n\n+II. The meetness which is wrought by God in the hearts of all who\nare raised to the enjoyment of this inheritance.+--1. _The relative\nmeetness is expressed by the word \"inheritance.\"_ It is assigned to\nheirs. 2. _The personal meetness is indicated by the term \"saints.\"_\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Give thanks to God for those who are made meet._\n2. _Give thanks to God if the work be begun in\nyourselves.--R. Watson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.\n\n_The Great Moral Translation._\n\nThese words amplify the truth unfolded in the preceding verse, and\ndescribe the great change that must take place in order to obtain a\nmeetness for the saintly inheritance--_the translation of the soul\nfrom the powerful dominion of darkness into the glorious kingdom of\nthe Son of God._\n\n+I. This translation involves our enfranchisement from a state of\ndark captivity.+--\"Who hath delivered us from the power of darkness\"\n(ver. 13).\n\n1. _The unrenewed are in a realm of moral darkness._--This was the\ncondition of the Colossians and of the whole Gentile world before the\ntimes of the Gospel. \"Darkness covered the earth, and gross darkness\nthe people.\" Darkness denotes _ignorance,_ moral blindness. Man is in\ndarkness about the great mysteries of being, the mystery of sin and\nsuffering, the deep significance of life, the distressing question of\nhuman duty, the destiny of the universe, the character and operations\nof God, and His relation to the race. It is possible to know much\n_about_ religion, to hold religious ideas at second-hand as a group\nof poetic conceptions--fancy pictures from the book of Revelation,\nlike the pictures of the poets from the book of Nature--and yet be\ntotally in the dark as to the religious experience of those ideas.\nMay be intellectually light, and spiritually dark. Darkness denotes\n_danger_ and _misery._ Like a traveller in a strange country\novertaken by the night, stumbling along in uncertainty and fear,\nuntil one fatal step--and he lies helpless in the rocky abyss, into\nthe bottom of which he falls.\n\n2. _In this realm of moral darkness the unrenewed are held in\ncaptivity._--They are slaves in the land of darkness, tyrannised over\nby an arbitrary and capricious ruler. Slavery distorts and defaces\nthe illustrious image in which man was originally created, darkens\nthe understanding, paralyses the intellect, and stunts the growth of\nintelligence; it robs him of his self-respect, poisons nature, and\nbrands him with unutterable infamy. The \"power of darkness\" is that\ntyranny which sin exercises over its captives, filling their minds\nwith deadly errors or brutish ignorance, their consciences with\nterror of indifference, and dragging them onwards under its dismal\nyoke into all the horrors of eternal darkness. The tyrant of this\ngloomy realm is Satan; and his domination is founded and conducted on\nimposture, error, ignorance, and cruelty. He is the arch-deceiver.\n\n3. _From this realm of moral darkness God graciously\nliberates._--\"Who hath delivered us.\" For the slaves of sin there is\nno help but in God. It is the nature of sin to incapacitate its\nvictim for making efforts after self-enfranchisement. He is unwilling\nto be free. To snap the fetters from a nation of slaves yearning for\nliberty is a great and noble act. Our deliverance is mightier than\nthat. The word \"deliver\" in the text means to snatch or rescue from\ndanger, even though the person seized may at first be unwilling to\nescape, as Lot from Sodom. God does not force the human will. The\nmethod of deliverance was devised and executed independent of our\nwill; its personal benefits cannot be enjoyed without our will.\n\n+II. This translation places us in a condition of highest moral\nfreedom and privilege.+--1. _We are transferred to a kingdom._ \"Hath\ntranslated us into the kingdom\" (ver. 13). _Power_ detains captives;\na kingdom fosters willing citizens. Tyranny has no law but the\ncapricious will of a despot; a kingdom implies good government, based\non universally recognised and authoritative law. \"The image is\npresented of the wholesale transportation of a conquered people, of\nwhich the history of Oriental monarchies furnishes many examples\"\n(Josephus, _Ant.,_ IX. xi.). They were translated from a bad to a\nbetter ruling power. So, the believer is moved from the realm and\npower of darkness and bondage to the kingdom of light and freedom.\nThe laws of this kingdom are prescribed by Christ, its honours and\nprivileges granted by Him, and its future history and triumphs will\never be identified with His own transcendent glory.\n\n2. _We are placed under the rule of a beneficent and glorious\nKing._--\"The kingdom of God's dear Son,\" more accurately \"the Son of\nHis love.\" As love is the essence of the Father, so is it also of the\nSon. The manifestation of the Son to the world is manifestation by\nHim of Divine love (1 John iv. 9). The kingdom into which believers\nare translated is founded on love; its entire government is carried\non under the same beneficent principle. The acts of suffering and\ndeath, by which Christ won His kingly dignity and power, were\nrevelations of love in its most heroic and self-sacrificing forms.\nWhen we believe in Christ, we are translated from the tyranny and\ndarkness of sin into the kingdom of which the Son of God--the Son\ninfinitely beloved of the Father--is King. As willing subjects, we\nshare with Him the Father's love, and are being prepared for more\nexalted service and sublimer experiences in the endless kingdom of\nthe future.\n\n+III. The Divine method by which translation is effected.+--It is\neffected by redemption.\n\n1. _The means of redemption._--\"Through His blood\" (ver. 14). The\nimage of a captive and enslaved people is still continued. But the\nmetaphor is changed from the victor who rescues the captive by force\nof arms to the philanthropist who releases him by the payment of a\nransom (_Lightfoot_). All men are under the condemnation of a\nviolated law and sink in the bondage of sin. There is no release but\nby paying a ransom; this is involved in the idea of redemption. The\nransom-price paid for the enfranchisement of enslaved humanity was\n\"not corruptible things, as silver and gold, but the precious blood\nof Christ.\" The _mode_ of redemption is to us a deep mystery; the\nreasons influencing the Divine Mind in its adoption we cannot fathom.\nBut the fact is plainly revealed (1 Pet. iii. 18, ii. 24; Gal.\niii. 13). This was God's method of translating from bondage to\nliberty.\n\n2. _The effect of redemption._--\"Even the forgiveness of sins\" (ver.\n14). The ransom-price is paid, and the slave is free. The first\nblessing of redemption is pardon. It is this the penitent soul most\nurgently needs; it does not exclude all other redemptive blessings\nbut opens and prepares the soul for their reception. Sin is the great\nobstacle between the soul and God; the monster sluice that shuts off\nthe flow of Divine blessing. Redemption lifts the sluice, and the\nstream of Divine goodness pours its tide of benediction into the\nenraptured soul. An earthly king may forgive the felon, but he cannot\ngive him a better disposition. God never forgives without at the same\ntime giving a new heart. Pardon involves every other blessing--peace,\npurity, glory; it is the pledge and foundation for the bestowal of\nall we can need in time or in eternity.\n\n3. _The Author of redemption._--\"In whom we have redemption\" (ver.\n14). Christ, the Son of God's love, by the sacrifice of Himself,\naccomplished our redemption; and it is only as we are _in_ Him by\nfaith that we actually partake of the freedom He purchased for us.\nHis blood is not merely the ransom paid for our deliverance, but He\nis Himself the personal, living source of redemption. The deliverance\nof humanity is not simply in the work of Christ, through what He did\nand suffered, but in Himself--\"the strong Son of God,\" the crucified,\nrisen, and living Saviour. It is not only a rescue from condemnation\nand punishment, but a deliverance from the power and bondage of evil.\nThe words \"in whom we have redemption\" teach much and imply more.\nThey describe a continuous gift enjoyed, a continuous process\nrealised by all who have been translated into the kingdom of the\nSaviour. In them the power of redemption is being carried on, so that\nthey die unto sin, and live unto God, and experience a growing\nmeetness for the inheritance of the saints in light (_Spence_).\nChrist only could be the Redeemer of men; He combined in one person\nthe Divine and human natures: He could therefore meet the demands of\nGod and the necessities of man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sin is a dark, enslaving power._ 2. _The kingdom of\nthe Redeemer is one of light and freedom._ 3. _Moral translation by\nredemption is a Divine work._ 4. _The forgiveness of sin can be\nobtained only by faith in the Son of God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 13. _From Darkness to Light._\n\n  +I. Man is naturally in a state of darkness, held captive by sin\n      and Satan.+\n\n +II. A kingdom of freedom and light is provided by the intervention\n      of the Son of God.+\n\n+III. The translation from darkness to light is a Divine act.+\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Great Blessing of Redemption_--\n\n  +I. Is the forgiveness of sins.+\n\n +II. The blessing of forgiveness is through the agency of Christ.+\n\n+III. Redemption is purchased at a great cost and\n      sacrifice.+--\"Through His blood.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_15-17.\n\n_The Relation of Christ to God and to all Created Things._\n\nHaving spoken of our redemption, the apostle, in terms of the highest\nsignificance and grandeur, dwells upon the dignity and absolute\nsupremacy of the Redeemer.\n\n+I. The relation of Christ to God.+--\"Who is the image of the\ninvisible God\" (ver. 15). God is an infinite and eternal Spirit,\nincomprehensible and invisible. \"No man hath seen God at any time;\"\nyet humanity yearns for some visible embodiment of Deity. Christ\nreflects and reveals the Father. \"He is the brightness of His glory,\nand the express image of His person.\" It is believed that the idea of\nthe _Logos_ underlies the whole of this passage, though the term is\nnot mentioned. The heretical teachers at Coloss\u00e6 had introduced a\nperverted view as to the nature of the _mediation_ between God and\ncreation, and the apostle aims to rectify it. The word \u03bb\u03cc\u03b3\u03bf\u03c2,\ndenoting both reason and speech, was a philosophical term adopted by\nAlexandrian Judaism to express the manifestation of the unseen\nGod--the absolute Being--in the creation and government of the world.\nIt included all modes by which God makes himself known to man. As His\n_reason,_ it denoted His purpose or design; as His _speech,_ it\nimplied His revelation. When Christian teachers adopted this term,\nthey exalted and fixed its meaning by attaching it to two precise and\ndefinite ideas--that the Word is a Divine person, and that the Word\nbecame incarnate in Jesus Christ (_Lightfoot_). Christ as the eternal\nWord is the perfect image, the visible representation, of the unseen\nGod. In addition to the idea of _similitude,_ which is capable of a\nwide and general use, the word \"image\" involves two others.\n\n1. _Representation._--It implies an archetype of which the image is a\ncopy. Man is said to be in the image of God; but there is a\ndifference between the image of God in man and the image of God in\nChrist. In Christ it is as C\u00e6sar's image in his son; in man it is as\nC\u00e6sar's image on his coin. In the God-man Christ Jesus we have a\nvisible, living, perfect, and reliable representation of the\ninvisible God.\n\n2. _Manifestation._--The general idea of the _Logos_ is the\nmanifestation of the hidden. \"No man hath seen God at any time; the\nonly begotten Son, which is in the bosom of the Father, He hath\ndeclared Him\" (John i. 18, compared with xiv. 9, 10, vi. 46). The\nincarnate Word, in His nature, attributes, and actions, is the true\n_epiphany_ of the unseen Deity, setting forth, like distinct rays of\none and the same glorious light, His infinite wisdom, mercy,\nrighteousness, and power. Our obligations to Christ for His wondrous\nrevelations are unspeakably great.\n\n+II. The relation of Christ to all created things.+--1. _Christ\nexisted prior to the creation._ He is \"the firstborn of every\ncreature\" (ver. 15). It is not said He was the first formed or first\ncreated of every creature, but the firstborn--the first begotten. It\nis plainly intimated that Christ, the Son of God's love, was begotten\nbefore any created thing existed. There is therefore no ground in\nthis passage for the Arians and Socinians to build up their theory of\nthe creatureship of Christ. In relation to all created things,\nintelligent or unintelligent, terrene or celestial, Christ was the\nfirstborn. In an ineffably mysterious sense _He_ was begotten; _they_\nwere created. The two ideas involved in the phrase are: (1) _Priority\nto all creation_--the absolute pre-existence of the Son. The term\n\"first begotten\" was frequently used among the Jews as a term of\nprecedence and dignity. As applied to the Son of God, it implies\npriority in rank in relation to all created things. Time is an\naccident of the _creature._ Therefore, the origin of the Son of God\nprecedes all time. (2) _Sovereignty over all creation._ God's\nfirstborn is the natural Ruler, the acknowledged Head of God's\nhousehold. He is \"Heir of all things.\" He is creation's supreme and\nabsolute Lord. He brought all creatures out of nothing, and by His\nown will graduated the degree of being each should possess; and it is\nfitting He should have unlimited empire over all. As if to prevent\nthe possibility of any misconception regarding the relation of Christ\nto the universe, and to show that He could not be a part of creation\nhowever exalted in degree, but was essentially distinct from it, the\napostle _sets forth the Son of God as the First Cause, the Active\nAgent, and the Grand End of all created things._\n\n2. _Christ is Himself the Creator of all things._--(1) _The\nconception of creation originated in Christ._ \"For by Him [or _in_\nHim] were all things created\" (ver. 16). He was the great First\nCause; the being, forms, limitations, energies of all things to be\nwere bound up in Him. It rested with Himself to create or not to\ncreate. It is thought by some the Platonic idea is here shadowed\nforth; that the archetypes, the original patterns of all things, were\nin Christ before they were created outwardly. This is simply a\nphilosophic speculation and is readily suggested by the universal\nmethod of the mind first forming a mental conception within itself of\nany object it desires to body-forth to the outward eye. It is in\nChrist we trace the great work of creation in its beginning,\nprogress, and end. (2) _The powers of creation were distributed by\nChrist._ \"All things that are in heaven, and that are in earth\" (ver.\n16). He created the heavens also; but those things which are in the\nheavens are rather named because the inhabitants are more noble than\ntheir dwellings. \"Visible,\" things that are evident to the outward\nsenses; and \"invisible,\" things that may be conceived by the\nunderstanding. \"With a view to meet some peculiar doctrine of the\nfalse teachers at Coloss\u00e6, who seem to have alleged that Christ was\nbut one of the heavenly powers, St. Paul breaks up the things\n_invisible,_ and distributes them by the words 'thrones,'\n'dominions,' 'principalities,' or 'powers.' It may be difficult, and\nindeed impossible, for us now fully to know what the terms severally\nconvey in connection with the several hierarchies of official glory.\nYet all these invisible beings, so illustrious as to be seated on\n_thrones,_ so great as to be styled _dominions,_ so elevated as to be\nconsidered _principalities,_ so mighty as to merit the designation of\n_powers,_ were created by the Son of God; and they all acknowledge\nHis supremacy and glory. The highest position in creation is\ninfinitely below Him, and there is neither majesty nor renown that\nequals His. All created beings occupying the loftiest thrones\nthroughout the vastness of immensity and amidst the mystery of life\ndo homage and service to Christ Jesus as the firstborn, the only\nbegotten Son of God\" (_Spence_). (3) _Christ is Himself the Great End\nof creation._ \"All things were created _for_ Him\" (ver. 16). As all\ncreation emanated from Him, so does it all converge again towards\nHim. \"The eternal Word is the goal of the universe, as He was the\nstarting-point. It must end in unity, as it proceeded from unity; and\nthe centre of this unity is Christ.\" The most elaborate and majestic\nmachinery of the universe and the most highly gifted intelligence\nalike exist only to serve the ultimate purpose of creation's Lord.\nAll created things gather their significance, dignity, and glory by\ntheir connection with Him. Christ must be more than a creature, as\nthe loftiest creature could not be the end of all created things. It\nis a narrow philosophy that teaches that all things were made for\nman. The grand end of all our endeavours should ever be the glory of\nChrist.\n\n3. _The unchanging eternity of Christ._--\"He is before all things\"\n(ver. 17). Not only is He before Moses and before Abraham, as He\ndeclared to the Jews (John viii.), but He is before all things. The\nwords refer not so much to His eminence in rank as to duration. The\nterms HE IS, in the Greek, are most emphatic, the one declaring His\n_personality,_ the other that His _pre-existence is absolute\nexistence._ Christ existed before any created thing--even before time\nitself; therefore, from eternity. Knowing the tendency of men to\nentertain inferior notions of the person of Christ, and of the\nredemption He has provided, the apostle multiplies conceptions to\nrepresent His Divine worth and excellency. He should be preferred\nbefore all.\n\n4. _The continued existence of creation depends on Christ._--\"And by\n[rather _in_] Him all things consist\" (ver. 17)--_hold together,\ncohere._ He is the principle of cohesion in the universe. He\nimpresses upon creation that unity and solidarity which makes it a\ncosmos instead of a chaos. Thus, to take one instance, the action of\ngravitation, which keeps in their places things fixed and regulates\nthe motion of things moving, is an expression of His mind\n(_Lightfoot_). The universe found its completion in Him and is\nsustained and preserved every moment by the continuous exercise of\nHis almighty power. All things hang on Christ; in Him they live and\nmove and have their being. If He withdrew His upholding hand,\neverything would run into confusion and ruin. \"Thou hidest Thy face,\nthey are troubled: Thou takest away their breath, they die, and\nreturn to their dust.\" In Him all things consist. He is the centre of\nlife, force, motion, and rest; round Him all things revolve. He\nimposes their limits, gives to them their law, strikes the keynote of\ntheir harmonies, blends and controls their diverse operations. He is\nthe All-perfect in the midst of imperfection, the Unchanged in the\nmidst of change. He is the Author of human redemption; became\nincarnate, suffered, died, and rose again, and now reigns with the\nFather in glory everlasting. He is worthy of our loftiest adoration,\nour humblest submission, our strongest confidence, our most ardent\nlove.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The supremacy of the Creator and Preserver of all\nthings is absolute and universal_ 2. _Human redemption is grounded on\nthe divinity of the Son of God._ 3. _Personal trust in the Redeemer\nbrings the soul into direct personal relation to the Father._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 15. _Christ a Revelation because He is the Equal of the Father_--\n\n+I. In His nature.+--The incarnation.\n\n+II. In His attributes.+\n\n+III. In His will.+--The character of Christ and His moral system.\n\n+IV. In His works.+--His miracles, His death as a sacrifice for sin,\nHis resurrection. 1. How ungrateful and unbelieving have we been!\n2. How zealous and devoted should we be!--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 16. _Christ the Author and the End of Creation._\n\n+I. The Author.+--1. _The extent._ \"All things.\" The universe,\nnatural and moral.\n\n2. _The variety._--\"Visible and invisible.\" The near and the distant,\nthe vast and the minute, the material and the spiritual.\n\n3. _The orders._--\"Whether they be.\" Scale of being. Gradations in\nall classes.\n\n+II. The end.+--1. _Heaven was created for Him._ As the place of His\nspecial residence and as the home of His people.\n\n2. _Angels were created for Him._--Messengers of His mercy,\nexecutioners of His vengeance.\n\n3. _Hell was created for Him._--The prison of His justice.\n\n4. _The earth was created for Him._--The scene of His incarnation and\natoning death. His mediatorial kingdom.\n\n5. _The human race was created for Him._--Man created, preserved,\nredeemed. (1) How exalted should be our ideas of Christ! (2) How\ncarefully should we learn to view everything in connection with\nChrist! 3. What ground for confidence, gratitude, and fear.--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 18.\n\n_The Relation of Christ to the Moral Creation._\n\nAfter showing that Christ holds the position of absolute priority and\nsovereignty over the whole universe, the apostle now proceeds to\npoint out His relation to the principal part of that whole--the\nChurch, as the symbol and embodiment of the new, moral creation. From\nthis verse we learn that _Christ is the supreme Head, and primal\nlife-giving Source of the Church, and as such is invested with\nuniversal pre-eminence._\n\n+I. Christ is the supreme Head of the Church--the new moral\ncreation.+--1. _The Church is the body of Christ._ \"The body, the\nChurch.\" Much controversy has prevailed as to what constitutes the\nChurch; and the more worldly the Church became, the more confused the\ndefinition, the more bitter the controversy. The New Testament idea\nof the Church is easily comprehended. It is the whole body of the\nfaithful in Christ Jesus, who are redeemed and regenerated by His\ngrace--the aggregate multitude of those in heaven and on earth who\nlove, adore, and serve the Son of God as their Redeemer and Lord. The\nword \u1f10\u03ba\u03ba\u03bb\u03b7\u03c3\u03af\u03b1 constitutes two leading ideas: the ordained _unity,_\nand the _calling_ or separating out from the world. Three grand\nfeatures ever distinguish the true Church--unbroken unity, essential\npurity, and genuine catholicity. (Cf. Eph. i. 22, 23, iv. 15, 16;\n1 Cor. xii. 12-27).\n\n2. _Christ is the Head of the Church._--\"And He is the Head of the\nbody, the Church.\" That the world might not be considered this body,\nthe word \"Church\" is added; and the materialistic conception of a\nChurch organism thus refuted. As the Head of the Church--(1) Christ\ninspires it with spiritual life and activity. (2) He impresses and\nmoulds its character. (3) He prescribes and enforces its laws. (4) He\ngoverns and controls its destinies. (5) He is the centre of its unity.\n\n+II. Christ is the originating, fontal Source of the organic life of\nthe Church.+--In respect to the state of grace, _He is the\nbeginning_; in respect to the state of glory, He is _the firstborn\nfrom the dead._ He gives to the Church its entity, form, history, and\nglory; except in and through Him, the Church could have no existence.\n\n1. _He is the Author of the moral creation._--\"The beginning.\" Christ\nhas been before described as the Author of the old material creation.\nHere He is announced as the beginning of the new spiritual creation.\nThe moral creation supplies the basis and constituent elements of the\nChurch. In the production, progress, and final triumph of the new\ncreation, He will redress all the wreck and ruin occasioned by the\nwrong-doing of the old creation. Of this new moral creation Christ is\nthe source, the principle, the beginning; the fountain of life,\npurity, goodness, and joy to the souls of men.\n\n2. _He is the Author of the moral creation as the Conqueror of\nDeath._--\"The firstborn from the dead.\" Sin introduced death into the\nold creation, and the insatiable monster still revels and riots amid\nthe corruptions he perpetually generates. The Son of God, in\nfulfilment of the Divine plan of redemption, became obedient unto\ndeath, even the death of the cross. He descended into Hades and\nplaced Himself among the dead. On the third day He rose again, \"the\nfirstfruits of them that slept.\" He was \"the firstborn from the\ndead\"; the first who had risen by His own power; the first who had\nrisen to die no more. By dying He conquered death for Himself and all\nHis followers. He can therefore give life to all that constitute that\nChurch of which He is fittingly the Head, assure them of a\nresurrection from the dead, of which His own was a pattern and\npledge, and of transcendent and unfading glory with Himself in the\nendless future.\n\n+III. The relation of Christ to the Church invests Him with absolute\npre-eminence.+--\"That in all things He might have the pre-eminence.\"\n\n1. _He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Father._--He is \"the\nimage of the invisible God\"; the Son of His love, joined by a bond to\nus mysterious and ineffable, and related in a sense in which no other\ncan be. He is the first and the last; the only Divine Son.\n\n2. _He is pre-eminent in the universe of created things._--He existed\n_before_ any being was created, and was Himself the omnipotent Author\nof all created things. The whole hierarchy of heaven obey and adore\nHim. He is alone in His complex nature as our Emmanuel. Mystery of\nmysteries; in Him Deity and humanity unite!\n\n3. _He is pre-eminent in His rule over the realm of the dead._--He\nentered the gloomy territory of the grave, wrestled with and\nvanquished the King of Terrors, rose triumphantly from the dismal\nbattle-field, and is now Lord both of the dead and of the living. \"I\nam He that liveth and was dead; and behold, I am alive for evermore;\nand have the keys of Hades and of death\" (Rev. i. 18).\n\n4. _He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Church._--The Church\nfrom beginning to end is purely His own creation. He sketched its\nfirst rough outline, projected its design, constructed its organism,\ninformed it with life, dowered it with spiritual riches; and He will\ncontinue to watch over and direct its future until He shall \"present\nit to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any\nsuch thing\"!\n\n5. _He is pre-eminent in the estimation and homage of a ransomed\nworld._--He is the central figure of all history; around Him all\nevents group themselves, and by Him are stamped with their true\ncharacter, significance, and worth. The dream of the ages, the\nteaching of figures and symbols, the shadows and forecastings of\ncoming events, are all dismissed in the effulgent presence of Him to\nwhom they all point, like so many quivering index-fingers. Christ has\nto-day the strongest hold upon the heart of humanity. His perplexed\nenemies admire while they reject Him; the ever-increasing multitude\nof His friends reverence and adore Him; and the era is rapidly\nadvancing when to Him a universe of worshippers shall bow the knee\nand acknowledge that \"in all things He has the pre-eminence.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The pre-eminence of Christ entitles Him to universal\nobedience._ 2. _The highest blessedness is found in union with the\nChurch of Christ._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 18. _The Church the Body of Christ._\n\n+I. As the body of Christ the Church is one with Him.+--1. _One in\ncovenant dealing with God._ 2. _One in respect of the principle of\nlife._ 3. _One in history._ 4. _How Christ may be served or\npersecuted._\n\n+II. As the body of Christ the Church is one in\nitself.+--1. _Identity of principle._ 2. _Substantial agreement in\nfaith._ 3. _A visible association through sympathy._\n\n+III. As the body of Christ the Church has many co-operating and\nmutually dependent members.+--1. _The members are as numerous as are\nbelievers or as are offices._ 2. _Their mutual dependence and\nco-operation illustrated in the work of spreading the Gospel._\n3. _Let each one know his own place and duties._\n\n+IV. As the body of Christ the Church must grow up to completeness\nand maturity.+--1. _Each believer is first a babe in Christ and\nadvances to the measure of the stature of a man in Christ._ 2. _As a\nwhole the Church is gradually augmented and increased_--from Abel\nonwards. 3. _To gather in and perfect the elect is the peculiar work\nof time._\n\n+V. As the body of Christ the Church must be restored to perfect\nsoundness and health.+--1. _Christ receives the Church--dead._\n2. _The first step towards perfect soundness is a resurrection._\n3. _Hence each believer is quickened with Christ in order to be\nhealed._ 4. _The bodies of the saints shall likewise be\nperfect._--The Physician. 5. _In heaven no one shall say, \"I am\nsick.\"_\n\n+VI. As the body of Christ the Church is the object of His\nunremitting care.+--1. _To provide for the wants of his body is man's\nunceasing care._ 2. _Christ has made ample provision._ 3. _He now\nministers to His Church's wants_--clothing, food, defence, habitation.\n\n+VII. As the body of Christ the Church is the instrument through\nwhich He accomplishes His purposes.+--1. _The body the instrument of\nthe heart or soul._ 2. _The Church the instrument of Christ._ 3. _The\nChurch but the instrument.--Stewart._\n\n\n_Christ the Firstborn from the Dead_--\n\n  +I. In the dignity of His person.+\n\n +II. Because He rose by His own power.+\n\n+III. Because He is the only one who rose never to die again.+\n\n +IV Because He has taken precedence of His people who all shall rise\n     from their graves to glory.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19, 20.\n\n_The Reconciling Work of the Great Mediator._\n\nAfter showing the grand pre-eminency of Christ in both the natural\nand moral creation, and thus declaring the inferior and subordinate\nposition of those angelic powers whose nature and office the false\nteachers in Coloss\u00e6 unduly extolled, the apostle here proceeds to\npoint out _the special fitness of the great Mediator for that lofty\nrelationship._ It is grounded on the fact that in Him all fulness\ndwells. Observe--\n\n+I. The unique qualification of the great Mediator.+--1. _In Him all\nfulness dwells._ The heretical teachers would reduce Christ to the\nlevel of an angelic mediator, a simple evolution from the Divine\nnature, and one of the links that bind the finite to the infinite.\nThey admitted there was the manifestation of Divine power and glory,\nbut that this was only occasional, and not inherent. The apostle, in\nrefuting this, asserts that the plenitude--the grand totality of\nDeity--resided in Christ, not as a transient guest, but as a\npermanent and abiding presence. \"All fulness.\" Well might the\nprofound and devout Bengel exclaim, \"Who can fathom the depth of this\nsubject?\" In the marvellous person of Jesus there is combined all the\nfulness of humanity as well as the fulness of Divinity--all the\nbeauty, dignity, and excellency that replenish heaven and earth, and\nadorn the nature of God and of men. It is a fulness that stands\nrelated to all the interests of the universe and can supply the moral\nnecessities of all. There is a fulness of wisdom to keep us from\nerror, fulness of grace to preserve from apostasy, fulness of joy to\nkeep us from despair, and fulness of power to protect from all evil.\nIt penetrates and fills the vast universe of intelligent beings and\ngirds it with a radiant circle of glory and felicity.\n\n2. _It is the good pleasure of the Father that this fulness should\nreside in the Son._--\"For it pleased the Father\" (ver. 19). It was\nthe will and purpose of God the Father that Christ, as the Mediator,\nshould, in order to accomplish the great work of reconciliation, be\nfilled with the plenitude of all Divine and human excellencies; that\nHe should be the grand, living, unfailing reservoir of blessing to\nthe whole intelligent universe. The Father is not only in harmony\nwith the reconciling work of the Son, but the whole merciful\narrangement was from the first suggested, planned, and appointed by\nHim. The moving cause and foundation of all saving grace through the\nSon is the good pleasure of the Father. It is not His good pleasure\nthat any other than Christ should be the Mediator of the universe. We\nshould never seek or acknowledge any other.\n\n+II. The reconciling work of the great Mediator.+--1. _The nature of\nthe reconciliation._ \"To reconcile unto Himself\" (ver. 20). The word\n\"reconcile\" imports to restore one to a state of amity and\nfriendship, to change the relations of two parties separated either\nby one-sided or mutual enmity. Sin places man at enmity with God, and\nexposes him to the Divine opposition and anger. The cross of Christ,\nby removing the cause of estrangement, opens the way of\nreconciliation; and the penitent, believing soul is thus restored to\nthe Divine favour and friendship. But the word \"reconcile\" does not\nalways presuppose the existence of open enmity; and, from the general\ndrift of the verse, the term should be interpreted in the most\nliberal sense, yet with the utmost caution and reverence.\n\n2. _The extent of the reconciliation._--\"To reconcile all things unto\nHimself, whether they be things in earth or things in heaven\" (ver.\n20). It was on the earth where the enmities first arose; therefore,\nit is put first. The humanity of Christ bringing all creatures around\nit unites them to God in a bond which never before existed--a bond\nwhich has its origin in the mystery of redemption. Thus all things in\nheaven and earth feel the effect of man's renovation. In Christ, the\ngreat Reconciler, meet and merge the discordant elements which sin\nhad introduced (see _Bengel_ and _Eadie_). The false teachers aimed\nat effecting a partial reconciliation between God and man, through\nthe interposition of angelic mediators. The apostle speaks of an\nabsolute and complete reconciliation of universal nature to God,\neffected through the mediation of the incarnate Word. Their mediators\nwere ineffective because they were neither human nor Divine. The true\nMediator must be both human and Divine. The whole universe of things\nmaterial, as well as spiritual, shall be restored to harmony with\nGod. How far this restoration of universal nature may be subjective,\nas involved in the changed perceptions of man thus brought into\nharmony with God, and how far it may have an objective and\nindependent existence, it were vain to speculate (_Lightfoot_). With\nregard to this reconciliation, we may safely say it includes, with\nmuch more that is too high for us to understand, the following\ntruths: (1) Sinful creatures on earth are reconciled to God in\nChrist. For the degenerate and guilty children of men there is a\nReconciler and a way of reconciliation, so that wrath is turned\naside, and friendship restored. (2) Sinful and sinless or unfallen\ncreatures are reconciled to each other and brought together again in\nChrist. Bengel says: \"It is certain that the angels, the friends of\nGod, were the enemies of men when they were in a state of hostility\nagainst God.\" The discord and disunion introduced into the moral\nuniverse by sin are overcome by the Lord Jesus. (3) Sinless and\nunfallen creatures are brought nearer to God in Christ, and, through\nHis reconciling work and His infinite fulness of grace, are confirmed\nfor ever in their loyalty and love. In Christ, the Redeemer and\nReconciler, they have views of the Divine nature, character, and\nglory they never had before, and which they can nowhere else obtain\n(_Spence_). It needed such a Mediator as Jesus, gifted with the\nhighest Divine and human powers, to restore the tone and harmony of a\ndiscordant universe, and tune every created spirit to the keynote of\nsweetest celestial music. The true melody of acceptable praise is\nlearned only in the ardent, loving adoration of the Son of God.\n\n+III. The means by which the reconciliation is effected.+--\"And\nhaving made peace through the blood of His cross\" (ver. 20). To make\npeace is the same thing as to reconcile; and the death of Christ--the\nshedding of His blood on the cross--was the method by which, in the\ninfinite wisdom of God, the peace-producing reconciliation is\nsecured. It was the voluntary self-sacrifice of Himself on the cross\nthat constituted Jesus the grand reconciling Mediator of the\nuniverse. \"All things are of God, who hath reconciled us to Himself\nby Jesus Christ\" (2 Cor. v. 18). Only by suffering could suffering be\nassuaged; only by dying could death itself be conquered. The cross is\ntherefore the symbol of peace, of power, of triumph. There the law\nwas fulfilled and magnified, the integrity of the Divine perfections\nvindicated, justice was satisfied, mercy found its most bounteous\noutlet, and love its crowning joy. The cross is the source of every\nblessing to the fallen; the centre round which a disordered universe\nagain revolves in beauteous order and rejoicing harmony; the\nloadstone that draws the trembling sinner to the needed and\nunutterable repose.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The great Mediator has every qualification for His\nstupendous work._ 2. _The reconciliation of a disorganised universe\nis beyond the power of any subordinate agent._ 3. _Rebellious man can\nbe restored to peace with God only as he yields himself up to the\ngreat Mediator._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 19. _The Fulness of Christ_--\n\n  +I. Endowed with all Divine and human excellencies.+\n\n +II. Necessary to accomplish His reconciling work.+\n\n+III. Was required and approved by God the Father.+\n\n\nVer. 20. _Christ the Reconciler_--\n\n  +I. Restored the friendship between God and man broken by sin.+\n\n +II. Accomplished His work by the voluntary sacrifice of His life.+\n\n+III. Introduces harmony into a disrupted universe.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 21, 22.\n\n_The Personal Blessings of Reconciliation._\n\nHaving shown the relation of Christ to God, to the whole creation,\nand to the Church, and His connection with all moral beings, the\nwriter now proceeds to point out the relation of Christ to individual\nman in delivering him from the fetters of sin and opening up the way\nof reconciliation with an outraged but loving Deity. In this passage\nwe have a description of _the attitude of sinful man towards God and\nthe method of his restoration._ We learn that:--\n\n+I. Sin has placed man in antagonism to God.+--1. _Man is estranged\nfrom God._ \"And you that were sometime alienated\" (ver. 21). Sin\nsevers the soul from God. The principle of cohesion--the\nconsciousness of rectitude which God implanted in man in his sinless\nstate--is weakened, and the sinner, breaking away from the centre of\nall goodness, drifts into an ever-widening and ever-darkening\nwilderness of alienation and evil. Sin places man at an infinite\ndistance from God, leads him to shun the Divine presence and\ndisregard the Divine overtures. A state of alienation is a state of\ndanger; it is a state of spiritual death; and yet it is painful to\nobserve how few in this state are conscious of their awful peril.\n\n2. _Man is hostile to God._--\"Enemies in your mind\" (ver. 21). The\nenmity follows from the estrangement, and both have their seat in the\nmind--\"in the original and inmost _force of the mind_ which draws\nafter it the other faculties.\" The mind of man opposes the mind of\nGod, sets up a rival kingdom, and organises an active rebellion\nagainst the Divine Ruler. \"The carnal mind is enmity against God\"\n(Rom. viii. 7). If the hostility is not always flagrantly open, it is\nin the mind; the fountain of all sin is there. To be a stranger to\nGod is to be an enemy of God: \"He that is not with Me is against Me.\"\nThe sinner is his own greatest enemy. It is a vain thing to fight\nagainst God; terrible will be the vengeance He will ere long wreak\nupon His enemies.\n\n3. _Man's estrangement and hostility are evident in his\nactions._--\"By wicked works\" (ver. 21). Man is stimulated by his\nsinful mind to perpetrate the most outrageous acts of rebellion\nagainst God, and to indulge in the most fiendish cruelty towards his\nfellow-man. But there are \"wicked works\" that may not figure in the\ncriminal columns of the newspapers, nor be detected by the most\nvigilant watcher. To cherish envy, hatred, malice, and all\nuncharitableness is equally heinous in the sight of God, and an\nunmistakable evidence of hostility towards Him. Sin conceived in the\nmind will, sooner or later, manifest itself in action.\n\n+II. Man is reconciled to God in Christ.+--1. _The distinguished\nblessing._ \"Yet now hath He reconciled\" (ver. 21). To effect this all\nthat is necessary is to persuade the sinner to cease his rebellion\nand submit to God. In Christ God is reconciled to the sinner; there\nis no need to persuade Him. He is love; the sinner is enmity. He is\nlight; the sinner is darkness. He is nigh unto the sinner, but the\nsinner is afar off. The great object is to destroy the sinner's\nenmity, that he may have Divine love; bring him from darkness into\nDivine light; bring him from his evil works nigh unto God, and\nreconciliation is the result (_Biblical Museum_). The amity existing\nbetween the soul and God, and which sin had interrupted, is now\nrestored. Dear as are the friendships of earth, none can equal\nfriendship with God.\n\n       \"The calls a worm His friend,\n        He calls Himself my God;\n     And He shall save me to the end\n           Through Jesu's blood.\"\n\nThe loftiest communion of the soul with God is renewed. In this the\nsoul finds its strength, consolation, life, rapture. How much does\nthat man lose whose heart is not reconciled to God?\n\n2. _The gracious medium of the blessing._--\"In the body of His flesh\nthrough death\" (ver. 22). The apostle here refers in the most\nexplicit terms to the sufferings and death of Jesus Christ and shows\nthat the great work of reconciliation was effected in His body, and\nthrough death, for that body was crucified and actually died. The\napostle perhaps aimed at correcting certain pseudo-spiritualistic\nnotions regarding the person of Christ, busily propagated by the\nfalse teachers; some of whom held that Christ was an angelic\nemanation which animated the man Jesus for a time and withdrew from\nHim before He suffered. While maintaining the proper deity and glory\nof Christ's nature, the apostle plainly indicates that the Divine\nmethod of reconciliation was by the incarnation and sacrificial death\nof Christ. He thus exalts the significance and value of the death of\nChrist. Reconciliation was not accomplished by the faultless example\nof Christ's life or the supernal wisdom of His teaching, but by His\ncrucifixion and death. The cross, with its unfathomable mystery, is\nto them that perish foolishness; but to them that believe it is still\nthe power and wisdom of God.\n\n+III. The Divine purpose in reconciliation is to promote man's\nhighest blessedness.+--The magnificence of the believer's future\ncareer will be in marked contrast with the obscurity and imperfection\nof the present; but even in this life he is lifted by the reconciling\ngrace of God to a high standard of moral excellence. The terms here\nemployed, while referring to the same spiritual state, delineate its\ndifferent aspects.\n\n1. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his moral\npurity._--\"To present you holy\" (ver. 22). This shows the condition\nof the soul in relation to God; it is freely offered to Him as a\nliving sacrifice; the inward consciousness is wholly consecrated to\nthe permanent indwelling of the Holy One; every thought, affection,\nand aspiration of the soul is hallowed; the whole man is enriched,\nennobled, and radiant with a holy character.\n\n2. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his personal\nblamelessness._--\"Unblameable\" (ver. 22). This aspect of character\nhas reference to one's self; it is the development in the outward\nlife of the purity and consecration of the heart; it is a sacrificial\nterm and means without blemish. The soul is inspired with a sense of\nintegrity, and of always acting for the best. When Socrates was\nasked, just before his trial, why he did not prepare himself for his\ndefence, he calmly answered, \"I have been doing nothing else all my\nlife.\" A noble, blameless life is its own defence.\n\n3. _The highest blessedness of man consists in his freedom from\ncensure._--\"Unreproveable in His sight\" (ver. 22). This feature of a\nholy character has reference to others. If man thus purified and\nblessed can bear the piercing glance of Him whose scrutiny no defect\ncan escape, his character is unchallengeable. To be accepted and\napproved of God places him beyond the accusations of man or demon;\nthe subtle insinuations of the Great Accuser are powerless to hurt.\n\"It is God that justifieth; who is he that condemneth?\" To be holy,\nunblameable, and unreproveable in the sight of God is to enjoy the\nhighest honour and completest bliss. This is the ultimate result of\nreconciliation in Christ.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sin is the great foe of God and man._ 2. _The death\nof Christ is the means of reconciling sinful man to God._ 3. _The aim\nof reconciliation is to produce an irreproachable character._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 21. _Reconciliation by Christ._\n\n+I. Estrangement.+--1. _The cause_--by wicked works. 2. _The\nresult_--not merely that God is angry, but we have become enemies to\nGod.\n\n+II. Reconciliation.+--1. _Christ has reconciled man to God._ 2. _He\nhath reconciled man to man._ 3. _He hath reconciled man to Himself._\n4. _He hath reconciled man to duty.--Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 22. _Holiness the Supreme End of Reconciliation._\n\n  +I. Holiness an inward state and an outward result.+--\"Holy,\n      unblameable and unreproveable.\"\n\n +II. Holiness alone can satisfy God.+--\"In His sight.\"\n\n+III. Holiness is the final completion of the soul.+--\"To present you.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 23.\n\n_The Condition of Man's Final Blessedness._\n\nThe ripest fruits can only be produced and gathered by careful and\nunremitting culture; so, the enjoyment of the final blessings of\nreconciliation is conditioned upon continued allegiance to the Gospel\nand the diligent practice of its precepts. We are taught in this\nverse that _the ultimate presentation to God of a perfectly holy and\nblameless character depends upon the believer's firm and persevering\nattachment to the Gospel._ Observe--\n\n+I. Man's final blessedness depends upon his unswerving continuance\nin the faith.+--The _faith_ is a comprehensive term; it is inclusive\nof all the great saving truths of the Gospel, and of man's many-sided\nrelation to them. There is implied:\n\n1. _A continuance in the doctrines of the faith._--What a man\nbelieves has a powerful influence in moulding his character. The\ntruths submitted to our faith shed light upon matters of transcendent\nimport and worth. The baffled and inquiring mind, straining with\npainful eagerness after light, finds its satisfaction and rest amid\nthe soothing radiance of revealed truth. \"In returning and rest shall\nye be saved\" (Isa. xxx. 15). Unbelief lures the soul from its restful\nconfidence, sets it adrift amidst the cross currents of bewilderment\nand doubt, and exposes it to moral shipwreck and irrevocable loss.\nThe soul's eternal safety is ensured, not by an infatuated devotion\nto mere _opinions_ about certain dogmas, but by an intelligent, firm,\nand constant faith in Divine verities.\n\n2. _A continuance in the profession of the faith._--The believer is a\nwitness for the truth; and it is an imperative duty to bear testimony\nfor Christ before the world (Rom. x. 9, 10). This is done when we\nunite in fellowship and service with the external Church of Christ on\nearth. The Church, as the representative of Christ, witnesses for Him\nin the life and conduct of its individual members. There is nothing\nbinding as to the special form this witness-bearing should take in\neach particular case; nor is any man compelled, for the sake of\nprofession, to wed himself to any particular branch of the Church\ncatholic. There may be reasons that render it justifiable, and even\nnecessary, for a man to sever himself from any given religious\ncommunity and join another; but on no conceivable ground can he be\nliberated from the duty of an open profession of his faith in Christ;\nhis future acceptability to God hinges on his fidelity in this duty\n(Matt. x. 32).\n\n3. _A continuance in the practice of the faith._--Faith supplies the\nmotive and rule of all right conduct. The test of all preceptive\nenactment and profession is in the life. The Christian character is\ndeveloped and perfected, not by believing or professing, but by\n_doing_ the will of God. The rewards of the future will be\ndistributed according to our deeds (Rom. ii. 6-10).\n\n4. _Continuance in the faith must be permanent._--\"Grounded and\nsettled.\" The edifice, to be durable, must be well founded, that it\nmay settle into a state of firmness and solidity; so faith, in order\nto survive the storms and temptations of this world, and participate\nin the promised good of the future, must be securely grounded and\nsettled in the truth. In order to permanency in the faith, the truth\nmust be--(1) _Apprehended intelligently._ (2) _Embraced cordially._\n(3) _Maintained courageously._\n\n+II. Man's final blessedness depends upon his unchanging adherence to\nthe Gospel hope.+--1. _The Gospel reveals a bright future._ It\ninspires the hope of the resurrection of the body, and of the\nglorification of it and the soul together in the eternal life of the\nfuture. Faith and hope are inseparably linked together; they mutually\nsuccour and sustain each other; they rise or fall together. Hope is\nthe unquestioning expectation of the fruition of those things which\nwe steadily believe. It is compared to an anchor, which, cast within\nthe veil, fastened and grounded in heaven, holds our vessel firm and\nsteady amid the agitations and storms of life's tempestuous sea. The\nGospel is the only source of genuine, deathless hope; all hopes\ngrounded elsewhere wither and perish.\n\n2. _The Gospel to be effectual must come in contact with the\nindividual mind._--\"Which ye have heard.\" Epaphras had declared to\nthem the Divine message. It had been brought to them; they had not\nsought it. Having heard and received the Gospel, to relinquish its\nblessings would be inexcusable and ungrateful. In some way, either by\ndirect preaching or otherwise, the Gospel must come to man. There is\nno power of moral reformation in the human heart itself; the\ngerminant principle of a better life must come from without; it is\nconveyed in the Gospel word.\n\n3. _The Gospel is adapted to universal man._--\"Which was preached to\nevery creature which is under heaven.\" Already it had spread into\nevery part of the then known world, and its power was felt in every\nprovince of the Roman empire. The fine prophetic instinct of the\napostle saw the universal tendency of the Gospel, and, in spirit,\nanticipated the fulfilment of its generous mission. His motive is to\nemphasise the universality of the unchangeable Gospel which is\noffered without reserve to all alike, and to appeal to its publicity\nand progress as the credential and guarantee of its truth. It is\nadapted to all men; it proclaims its message in all lands and is\ndestined to win the world to Christ. The faith and hope of the\nbeliever are based, not upon the uncertain declarations of false\nteachers, but upon that Gospel, which is unchangeable in its\ncharacter and universal in its appeal and adaptability to humanity; a\nstrong reason is thus furnished for personal steadfastness.\n\n4. _The Gospel invested the apostle with an office of high\nauthority._--\"Whereof I Paul am made a minister.\" Paul participated\nin the blessings of the Gospel; he had felt its transforming power,\nand from his personal experience of its preciousness could, with the\ngreater assurance and force, exhort the Colossians to continue in the\nfaith. But in addition to this the Gospel was committed to the\napostle as a sacred trust and for faithful ministration; and while\ndwelling on the broad charity of the Gospel as involving the offer of\ngrace to the Gentiles, he is impressed with the dignity and\nresponsibility of his office as he interjects, somewhat abruptly, but\nwith exquisite modesty, the words, \"Whereof I Paul am made a\nminister.\" It has been said of man that he is the priest and\ninterpreter of nature; that it is his function to observe and test\nphenomena and interpret the laws that govern the material world.\nAnother writer has said that \"man is the organ of revelation for the\nGodhead.\" God can find no adequate form of revelation for Himself in\nthe impersonal forces of nature; only through a being in His own\nimage can He unfold to the universe His adorable character. But the\nhighest office to which man can be elevated is to be a ministrant of\nGospel light and grace to his fellow-man.\n\n5. _There is an implied possibility of relinquishing our hold of the\nGospel hope._--\"Be not moved away from the hope of the Gospel.\" The\nwords do not necessarily imply doubt, but suggest the necessity for\nconstant circumspection, vigilance, and care. The multiplicity and\nfulness of our blessing may prove a snare to us; prosperity tempts us\nto relax watchfulness, and we are in danger of becoming a prey to the\nwiles of the wicked one. Our retention of the Gospel hope is rendered\nimmovable by constant waiting upon God in fervent prayer, by a\ngrowing acquaintance with the Word of promise, by continually\nanticipating in thought the bliss of the future.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel provides the surest basis for faith and\nhope._ 2. _Man's ultimate blessedness depends on his continued\nfidelity._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 24.\n\n_The Joy of Suffering for the Church._\n\nA stolid indifference to suffering and a heroic endurance of the same\nwere not unknown to the ancient pagans; but it is Christianity alone\nthat has taught us to rejoice in afflictions; it supplies an ecstasy\nof emotion that renders us oblivious for the time being of\nencompassing trials. The apostle, as he pondered over the mighty work\nof reconciliation, and as he caught a glimpse of the amazing extent\nof Divine mercy, could not but rejoice even in his sufferings. In\nthis verse he _expresses his joy that, in suffering for the Church,\nhe supplements that which was lacking in the afflictions of Christ._\nObserve--\n\n+I. The representative character of the apostle's\nsufferings.+--1. _The apostle represented the suffering Saviour._\n\"The afflictions of Christ.\" We are not to suppose that the\nsufferings of Christ were incomplete in themselves or in their value\nas constituting a sufficient atonement. The passion of Christ was the\none full, perfect, and sufficient sacrifice, oblation, and\nsatisfaction for the sins of the whole world. In this sense there\ncould be no deficiency in Christ's sufferings, for Christ's\nsufferings being different in kind from those of His servants, the\ntwo are incommensurable. Neither the apostle nor any other could\nrepresent the expiatory and sacrificial aspect of the Redeemer's\nsufferings. But while His personal sufferings are over, His\nafflictions in His people still continue. He so thoroughly identifies\nHimself with them that their trials, sorrows, persecutions, and\nafflictions become His own. The apostle represented the suffering\nSaviour in what he endured for Christ and the Church. Thus, he\ndeclared to the Corinthians, \"The sufferings of Christ abound in us.\"\nThe Church to-day is the representative of the suffering Saviour, and\nso completely is He identified with His people that He endures in\nthem the pangs of hunger and thirst, shares their sickness and\nimprisonment, and reckons every act of kindness done to them as done\nto Himself (Matt. xxv.).\n\n2. _The sufferings of the apostle supplemented what was lacking in\nthe afflictions of Christ._--\"And fill up that which is behind of the\nafflictions of Christ in my flesh.\" In harmony with the\nrepresentative character of the Church, we can understand how the\nafflictions of every saint and martyr do supplement the afflictions\nof Christ. Every age of the Church has its measure of suffering. The\nChurch is built up by repeated acts of self-denial in successive\nindividuals and successive generations. They continue the work which\nChrist began. They bear their part, and supplement what is deficient\nin the sufferings of Christ (2 Cor. i. 7; Phil. iii. 10). As an\napostle, Paul was a representative man, and his share in filling up\nwhat was wanting in these afflictions was considerable. In his own\nflesh he bore unexampled hardship, indignities, and distress. \"In\nlabours more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prison more\nfrequent, in deaths oft.\" The great Head of the Church was made\nperfect through suffering; so must the body be in all its relations\nand development. Through tribulation, more or less evident and\nintense, we must enter the kingdom. Suffering in itself has no virtue\nto elevate moral character; it is effective to this end only as it\ntends to fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ,\nonly as it is borne for Christ, and in the Spirit of Christ. The\ngreat Mediator suffered to effect our salvation; and His people, on\ntheir part, fill up the suffering needed for the perfection of their\nspiritual life and for the full display of the Divine glory.\n\n+II. The vicarious character of the apostle's sufferings.+--\"For His\nbody's sake, which is the Church.\" The greater part of the suffering\nof the believer in this world is vicarious--is endured on behalf of\nothers. It is thus we most nearly approach the spirit and example of\nChrist. St. Paul, as the pioneer missionary, the wise and edifying\ninstructor, the diligent and anxious overseer, occupied a prominent\nand important position among the Churches, and his sufferings on\ntheir behalf would benefit them in many ways.\n\n1. _The apostle's sufferings for the Church confirmed the faith of\nher converts._--Thousands are shy in embracing Christianity, because\nthey shrink from the suffering it seems to involve; thousands more\nretire from the Christian profession for the same reason. An example\nlike that of Paul's--a man profoundly sincere, intensely earnest,\ncalm and unmoved by the stoutest opposition, and triumphant amid\nacutest sufferings--encourages the timid and strengthens and confirms\nthe tempted and wavering.\n\n2. _The apostle's sufferings were for the consolation of the\nChurch._--Writing to the Corinthians, he says: \"Whether we be\nafflicted, it is for your consolation and salvation.\" Suffering makes\nus more capable of sympathising with others. \"Great hearts can only\nbe made by great troubles. The spade of trouble digs the reservoir of\ncomfort deeper and makes more room for the water of consolation.\" The\nrichest anointing of Divine comfort is bestowed in the moment of\nseverest suffering, and the consolation of one is the consolation of\nmany. When Mr. James Bainham, who suffered under the reign of Henry\nVIII., was in the midst of the flames which had half consumed his\narms and legs, he said aloud: \"Oh, ye Papists, ye look for miracles,\nand here now you may see a miracle; for in this fire I feel no more\npain than if I were in a bed of down, but it is to me a bed of roses!\"\n\n3. _The apostle's sufferings for the Church tended to promote her\nincrease._--The more the Egyptians afflicted the Hebrews the more\nthey multiplied and grew. The devil's way of extinguishing goodness\nis God's way of advancing it. The apostle could testify, in the midst\nof his sufferings, that \"the things which have happened to me have\nfallen out rather unto the furtherance of the gospel.\" Suffering\nseals the word spoken with a sacred and impressive significance. Many\na convert has been won to the truth by the irresistible example of a\nsuffering life.\n\n+III. The high-toned spirit of the apostle's sufferings.+--\"Who now\nrejoice in my suffering for you.\" Nature shrinks from suffering. It\nis altogether above nature to triumph in suffering. It is\nChristianity alone that lifts the spirit into the tranquil region of\npatient endurance and inspires us with joy in tribulation. It is not\na love of suffering for its own sake--not a mad, morbid craving for\nthe ghastly honours of a self-sought martyrdom; but there is a\nnameless charm about the truths of Christianity that exalts the mind,\nthrills the soul, and transmutes sorrow into joy. Paul was imprisoned\nat Rome, bound in a chain for the Gospel, when he wrote this epistle;\nbut as the thoughts suggested by his theme grew in full-orbed\nmagnificence before his mental vision--as he contemplated the lavish\nwealth of God's mercy in the call of the Gentiles who constituted the\ngreater portion of the world's population--and as he saw all the\nglory of being allowed to share, and even to supplement, the\nsufferings of Christ, he rose above the consideration of his own\npersonal trials, and in a sudden outburst of thanksgiving could\nexclaim, \"_Now_ I rejoice in my sufferings for you.\" Let us not\nrepine at our afflictions. Not only is our own soul chastened and\npurified; but every pang, every tear, every trial in our lot, is a\ncontribution to the filling up of that which is still behind in the\nafflictions of Christ. It baptises suffering with a new meaning, and\narrays it in a new dignity, when it is viewed as a grand means of\npromoting the perfection, the purity, and unfading glory of the whole\nChurch.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _It is an unspeakable honour to suffer for the Church\nof Christ._ 2. _The personal experience of the grace of Christ\nrenders suffering for Him a joy._ 3. _The glory of the future will\noutweigh all we have suffered for the Church below._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 25-27.\n\n_The Pre-eminent Honour and Sublime Theme of the Christian Ministry._\n\nThe highest dignity and most solemn responsibility are conferred on\nman when he is entrusted with the ministration of God's Word. It is\nthe infinite condescension of God that we have this treasure in\nearthen vessels. He who, in the exercise of His unchallengeable\nwisdom, calls man to this work, can alone inspire and endow him with\nthe necessary intellectual and moral fitness for the awful charge. In\nthese verses we learn that the apostle was appointed a minister of\nthe Church--a steward in God's household--charged to preach without\nreserve the whole Gospel of God, to dispense to the Gentiles the\nstores which His bountiful grace provided. Note:--\n\n+I. The Christian ministry is a Divine institution.+--1.  _The true\nminister is Divinely commissioned._ \"Whereof I am made a minister,\naccording to the dispensation of God which is given to me for you\"\n(ver. 25). The word \"dispensation\" involves the idea of stewardship.\nGod governs His Church, not as a tyrant, who rules what is not his\nown; not as a monarch, who knows not a thousandth part of his\nsubjects; but as a father, who knows, loves, and provides for his own\nchildren. The apostle was entrusted with a stewardship in God's\nhousehold; he was \"a steward of the mysteries of God.\" He received\nthe office from God. This invested it with the highest dignity; yet\nhe was the minister of the Church, and it was his joy to serve it,\nwhatever might be the labour, sacrifice, or suffering entailed. The\nChristian ministry is not a lordship, but a stewardship; the minister\nis solemnly commissioned of God to maintain, defend, and dispense the\ntruth that saves and edifies. There are moments when the minister can\nderive stimulus and courage for his work only by falling back upon\nthe irrefutable fact of his Divine call.\n\n2. _The true minster is charged with the most complete proclamation\nof the Divine Word._--\"To fulfil the word of God\" (ver. 25)--_to\npreach fully, to give its most complete development to._ The apostle\nhad declared the Gospel in all its depth and breadth of meaning, its\nwealth of blessing, and amplitude of revelation. He had proclaimed it\nin every direction, in harmony with his insight into its universal\nfitness and sufficiency. _Fulfil_ implies the figure of a measure to\nbe filled. The true minister is empowered to preach the Word of God\nin all the fulness of its internal import, and in accord with the\nuniversality of its outward purpose. Whether palatable or\nunpalatable, he must not shun to declare everywhere the whole counsel\nof God. The fulness there is in Christ and the urgent needs of\nhumanity alike demand this.\n\n+II. The Christian ministry deals with a theme of profound\nsignificance and ineffable worth.+--1. _It is designated a mystery._\n\"Even the mystery which hath been hid from ages and from generations\"\n(ver. 26). Mystery in the Scripture sense does not mean something\nactually incomprehensible, but something concealed or unknown until\nit please God to reveal it; something beyond the human mind to\ndiscover for itself, and which can only be attained by Divine aid.\nThe mystery comprehended two leading features--the Divine purpose in\nsaving man through a suffering and crucified Saviour, and the free\nadmission of the Gentiles on equal terms with the Jews to the\nprivileges of the covenant. Unlike the heathen mysteries, which were\nconfined to a narrow circle, the Christian mystery is freely\ncommunicated to all. The mystery was concealed _from the ages,_ which\nmay be referred to the angels; and _from the generations,_ which may\nbe referred to men. Though faintly shadowed in types and figures, the\ntruth would never have been discovered by man. In the revelation of\nthe mystery the apostle applauded the lavish wealth of the Divine\ngoodness. The Gospel is still a mystery to the unconverted.\n\n2. _It is a mystery unveiled to those who are morally fitted to\nunderstand it._--\"But now is made manifest to His saints\" (ver. 26).\nGod chose His own time for making known the mystery of the Gospel.\nLike all the Divine procedures, the development was gradual,\nincreasing in clearness and completeness as the fulness of time\napproached; that time embraced the advent of the incarnate Son of\nGod, His ascension and enthronement in heaven, and the descent of the\nrevealing Spirit. It is an axiom in optics that the eye only sees\nwhat it brings with it the power to see; and it is equally true in\nspiritual things that the soul comprehends the revelation of God only\nas it is prepared and fitted by the good Spirit. The holier the organ\nof Divine revelation, the clearer the vision. It was not to the\ndignitaries of imperial Rome or the ruling powers of Judea, but to\nhumble shepherds that the tidings of the Saviour's advent were first\nannounced; not to the aristocracy of Pharisaic or Sadducean\nintellect, but to the plain, unlettered, believing fishermen of\nGalilee that the full glory of salvation by Christ was disclosed.\nAugustine has said, \"Illiterate men rise and seize heaven, while we,\nwith all our learning, are rolling in the filth of sin.\"\n\n3. _The revelation of the mystery was an act of the Divine\nwill._--\"To whom God would make known\" (ver. 27). There was nothing\nimpelling Him to unfold this mystery but His own good pleasure. It\nwas His sovereign will to disclose to the humble and devout, rather\nthan to the proud and self-sufficient, the wondrous praise and glory\nof the Gospel. The most sincere seeker after holiness could not of\nhimself discover the mystery. But though made known in its richer\nspiritual developments only to the good, the good pleasure of God has\nput the knowledge of it within the reach of all.\n\n4. _The revelation of the mystery endowed humanity with a vast\ninheritance of moral wealth._--\"What is the riches of the glory of\nthis mystery\" (ver. 27). The terms employed seem inadequate to convey\nthe meaning intended. It is impossible fully to explain or illustrate\nthe sublime truths they indicate. The Gospel is a mystery full of\nglory--a glory unique, resplendent, unsurpassable; and this glory is\ndowered with riches, abundant, inexhaustible, and Divine. The riches\nof the glory appear in the manifestation of the nature and attributes\nof God which the mystery supplies, and also in the moral wealth that\nhas descended upon man. Here is the most lavish provision for the\nsalvation of sinful and perishing humanity--an inheritance of\nimperishable bliss. (1) _This inheritance enriched the most needy._\nIt was exhibited \"among the Gentiles\" (ver. 27). The Jews were the\nchildren of promise and possessed every religious privilege; the\nGentiles were the children of mercy, and never dared to dream of\nenjoying the blessings of the Gospel. In the revelation of the\nmystery to them, the dispensation of grace achieved its greatest\ntriumphs and displayed its transcendent glory. Here, too, was its\nwealth, for it overflowed all barriers of caste or race. Judaism was\n\"beggarly\" in comparison, since its treasures sufficed only for a\nfew. The glory of the Gospel was never so brilliant as in the moral\ntransformations it effected among the degraded Gentiles. (2) _This\ninheritance includes the hope inspired by the indwelling Christ._\n\"Which is Christ in you, the hope of glory\" (ver. 27). The mystery of\nthe Gospel begins and ends in Christ, and Christ is in every believer\nthe hope of glory. Only in Christ can we hope for the highest glory,\nand in Him we infallibly find all the blessedness we can enjoy in\nthis world or expect in the future. In Him we have here as seed what\nwe shall have in Him there as harvest. \"Even now we sit there in Him\nand shall sit with Him in the end.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian ministry involves solemn\nresponsibilities._ 2. _The transcendent theme of the Christian\nministry is Divinely revealed._ 3. _Personal experience of the grace\nof God endows man with the clearest insight into its mystery, and the\nmost satisfying possession of its spiritual riches._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 25-27. _The Glory of the Gospel_--\n\n  +I. A mystery once hidden, but now revealed+ (vers. 26, 27).\n\n +II. Enriches all nations with moral blessings.+\n\n+III. Is entrusted to Divinely authorised messengers to make known+\n      (vers. 25, 27).\n\n\nVer. 27. _Christ in you the Hope of Glory._\n\n+I. What it implies of present experience.+--1. _Generally--Christ\namong you._ 2. _Personally--Christ in you._\n\n+II. What is presages.+--\"The hope of glory.\"\n\n1. _Personal glory_--in the perfection of being where the servant is\nlike his Lord.\n\n2. _Relative glory_--sharing the throne with Jesus, and sharing in\nHis triumph and glory.--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 28, 29.\n\n_The Secret of Effective Preaching._\n\nMuch has been written concerning the inefficiency of the modern\npulpit; and it has been argued that the press is now the great and\nsuccessful rival of the preacher and must ere long render his office\nnugatory. This prediction might possibly be fulfilled if the\npreaching of the Gospel was simply a human institution and depended\nonly on man for its permanency. But when we remember that preaching\nis a Divine ordinance, and is adapted to reach and stir the heart as\nno other agency can, the preacher's function can never cease while\nhuman nature remains what it is, or while God honours His own\ninstitution with His blessing. Only as the pulpit is faithful to its\ngrand theme and lofty mission will it be effective. The deepest want\nof the age is Christ; and that preaching will be irresistibly potent\nthat most adequately represents Him. These verses reveal to us _the\nsecret of effective preaching._\n\n+I. In order to effectiveness in preaching Christ must be the\nchangeless theme.+--\"_Whom_ we preach\" (ver. 28).\n\n1. _Preach Christ as to the special characteristic and unrivalled\nexcellencies of His person._--The greatest men who ever lived,\nhowever brilliant and capacious their genius or stupendous their\nlabours, never made so profound and widespread an impression upon\nhumanity as Christ has done and is now doing. Their influence\noperated for only a limited period; His pervades all time--past,\npresent, and future; theirs was confined to a narrow locality, His is\ndiffused through the universe. The person of Christ is unique in\nthis--that it combines two natures, the Divine and the human. It was\nnecessary He should be both God and man in order to fully accomplish\nthe work He voluntarily undertook. As God, He met and satisfied all\nthe requirements of Deity; and as man--putting Himself in our\nplace--He realised and reached the extremities of our need, and thus\nfairly laying hold of us, gathering up and grasping the roots of our\ncorrupt nature, He raised from sin to holiness, from earth to heaven.\nHe is Emmanuel--God with us.\n\n2. _Preach Christ in His mediatorial character._--As the Prophet who\ntestified of the truth of God; as the Priest, who, by His one\noffering of Himself on the cross, has atoned for sin and made\nreconciliation possible; and as the King who has vanquished all our\nspiritual enemies and demands our absolute allegiance to His rule.\n\n3. _Preach Christ as the Saviour of every man, and as the only\nSaviour._--The threefold repetition of the phrase \"every man\" has a\nspecial significance, and emphasises the _universality_ of the\nGospel. This great truth, a truth which the apostle sacrificed his\nlife in establishing, had been endangered by the doctrine of a\nceremonial exclusiveness taught by the Judaizers in several places,\nand was now endangered by the doctrine of an intellectual\nexclusiveness taught by the Gnosticizers at Coloss\u00e6. Christ must be\nproclaimed as the Saviour of men of every class, community, and\ncountry. He is the only Saviour, for \"there is none other name under\nheaven given among men whereby we must be saved\" (Acts iv. 12). The\npreaching of Christ is no narrow theme but stands essentially related\nto all the noblest truths of the universe.\n\n+II. In order to effectiveness variety of method must be\nadopted.+--The declaration of the truth must be:--\n\n1. _Authoritative._--\"Whom we preach\" (ver. 28). The New Testament\nidea of preaching involves three elements--the announcement of joyful\ntidings; the proclamation of truth as by a herald, urgently and\nauthoritatively; and the conviction and persuasion of men to belief\nby means of arguments. The preacher is the ambassador of God, and the\nmessage must be delivered as coming from Him, in His name, and by His\nauthority.\n\n2. _Admonitory._--\"Warning every man\" (ver. 28). Sin has placed man\nin imminent peril, and its tendency is to deaden his sensibilities\nand render him oblivious of his danger. Hence, he must be roused to\nconcern and repentance by faithful remonstrance, by earnest\nexhortation, by solemn admonition, by impassioned appeal.\n\n3. _Instructive._--\"Teaching every man\" (ver. 28). Not only must the\nemotions be swayed, but the understanding enlightened. It is not\nenough to convince the unbeliever of his error, not enough to bring\nhome to the lover of sin the vileness and enormity of his\ntransgressions, but by clear and forcible exposition and persuasion\nthe fill of the individual offender must be seized, and with firm,\nyet loving pressure biassed to seek after the light, truth, and\npurity that once were shunned.\n\n4. _With shrewd insight as to its adaptability._--\"In all wisdom\"\n(ver. 28). The ancients spoke of a blind faith in their mysteries\nwhich belonged to the many, and of a higher knowledge that was\nconfined to the few. The apostle, while declaring that in the Gospel\nthe fullest wisdom was offered to all alike, without restriction,\nexercised discretion as to the method in which he presented it to the\nindividual. The style of his address at Athens would be different\nfrom that adopted at Jerusalem. This involves a study of character,\nand of what goes to make it--habits, customs, opinions, sympathies,\nand the general circumstances of life-culture.\n\n+III. In order to effectiveness man must be aided in realising the\nhighest ideal of the Christian character.+--\"That we may present\nevery man perfect in Christ Jesus\" (ver. 28).  The Gospel is a mirror\nin which is glassed the portrait of the character after which each\nbeliever is to model his own. That character is not simply a\ndevelopment of one's own natural manhood, so much as it is something\nadded to and thrown around that manhood, lifting it into dignity and\ntransfiguring it with a glorious beauty. The Gospel reveals the ideal\nof the Christian character after which the soul is continually to\naspire. That ideal, in all its loveliness and witchery, is projected\nbefore the soul's inmost vision in the Spirit and life of the man\nChrist Jesus. He who approximates nearest to the Christly character\nattains the highest moral perfection. It is the sublime mission of\nthe preacher not to gratify the intellect, charm the imagination, or\nexpand the mind by propagating the ideas of a transcendental\nphilosophy; but to strengthen the soul in the great contest with\nevil, to supply it with holiest motives, to promote its spiritual\nprogress, to present it \"perfect in Christ Jesus.\"\n\n+IV. In order to effectiveness there must be self-denying toil and\nthe vigorous forth-putting of Divinely inspired energy.+--\"Whereunto\nI also labour, striving according to His working which worketh in me\nmightily\" (ver. 29). All great ideas have cost the solitary and\nindividual thinker unspeakable labour, and not a little suffering in\nthe endeavour to elaborate and make them known and set them in their\ndue relation before the world. The world is ruled by ideas; but the\nrevolution they occasion is a slow and painful process. The apostle\nwas the custodian of a great idea--that the Gospel was intended for\nall and must be fully preached to all. The idea is familiar to us;\nbut it was new to that age and revolutionised the whole realm of\nhuman thought. If the apostle had been content to preach an exclusive\nGospel, he might have saved himself more than half the troubles of\nhis life. But he saw the magnitude of the issues at stake; he\nespoused the God-given truth with all the strength of his great\nnature; he confronted the colossal prejudices of the ages; he trained\nhimself in the discipline of self-denying toil; he suffered as only\nthe true martyr-soul can suffer; he strove with an agony of\nearnestness to make known the whole truth; and, aided by the mighty\nworking of the Divine power within him, he triumphed signally.\nPreaching is always effective when it is the consentaneous outworking\nof the Divinely imparted energy within the man. The preacher alone,\nhowever strenuous his efforts, is powerless; but inspired and\nstrengthened by the Divine Spirit, and acting in harmony with His\npromptness and help, he is mighty to prevail.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Every sermon should be full of Christ._ 2. _The\npreacher should be master of every method that will ensure success._\n3. _That sermon will be most effective that is prepared and preached\nunder the most direct influence of the Divine Spirit._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 28. _Apostolic Preaching._\n\n   +I. They preached Christ as the only foundation of a sinner's hope\n       of salvation.+\n\n +II. As the object of supreme love.+\n\n+III. As the source of our supplies.+\n\n +IV. As the model of our lives.+--_W. Antiff, D.D._\n\n\nVer. 29. _The Christian Ministry_--\n\n  +I. Involves strenuous labour and patient suffering.+\n\n +II. Is dependent on Divine help.+\n\n+III. Ascribes all its success to God.+\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +What great conflict.+--R.V. \"how greatly I strive.\" It is a\nrepetition of the thought of the previous verse expressed in terms of\nthe arena. +For them at Laodicea.+--About a dozen miles distant from\nColoss\u00e6.\n\nVer. 2. +The mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ.+--The\nR.V. has greatly simplified this perplexing phrase: \"The mystery of\nGod, even Christ.\" Of the eleven various readings extant (given by\nLightfoot) that of our A.V. is to all appearance the latest and worst.\n\nVer. 3. +In whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge.+--When we have \"laid our reasonings at His feet,\" He does\nnot stultify us. Neither pure reason nor practical reason is to \"fust\nin us unused,\" if they seek their answers in Him.\n\nVer. 4. +Should beguile you with enticing words.+--The word for\n\"beguile\" is only again found in the New Testament at Jas. i. 22. It\nmeans to lead into error by sophistical reasoning. Enticing words, or\npersuasive speech, plausible but false.\n\nVer. 5. +The stedfastness of your faith in Christ.+--Some think\n\"stedfastness\" (as well as \"order\" preceding) may have a military\nsignificance. If so, it would mean the compact firmness of the\nphalanx. Others say that meaning is not inherent, but derived from\nits context, which here does not suggest it. The word is used in the\nLXX. for firmament--a solid vault, as it was thought.\n\nVer. 7. +Rooted and built up.+--St. Paul passes over rapidly from one\nconception to another of quite a different kind. We cannot call it\nmixed metaphor. We commonly speak of a new town planted or a house\nplanted.\n\nVer. 8. +Beware lest any man spoil you.+--R.V. \"maketh spoil of you.\"\nThe word for \"spoil\" means \"to lead away as booty,\" as the Sabeans\nswooped down on the oxen and asses of Job and carried them away as\ntheir own property. +Through philosophy and vain deceit.+--We are\nreminded of the saying, \"It is the privilege of a philosopher to\ndepreciate philosophy.\" And then men say, \"How well he's read to\nreason against reading!\" St. Paul speaks here of philosophy \"falsely\nso called.\" The love of wisdom can never be a dangerous thing to men\nwhose Master said, \"Be wise as serpents\"; only it must be the \"wisdom\nwhich cometh from above.\" St. Paul's _alias_ for what they call\nphilosophy is \"empty fallacy,\" a hollow pretence; or what George\nHerbert might name \"nothing between two dishes.\" +After the tradition\nof men.+--Something passed over from one to another, as the deep\nsecrets of the esoteric religions were whispered into the ears of the\nperfect. That a matter has been believed always, everywhere, and by\nall is no guarantee of its truth, as Galileo knew.\n\nVer. 9. +In Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead\nbodily.+--There is no minimising the significance of this statement.\nIt is either true or it is the wildest raving of blasphemy.\n\"Dwelleth\"--has its settled abode. A change of prefix would give us\nthe word in Luke xxiv. 18. \"Dost thou alone _sojourn_?\" etc. Dualism\nseparates God from matter as far as possible; the Incarnation unites\nHim for ever with it. \"Great is the mystery.\" \"Godhead.\" Though twice\nbefore in our A.V. (Acts xvii. 29; Rom. i. 23), the word here differs\nfrom both.\n\nVer. 10. +And ye are complete in Him.+--These minor powers of whom\nyou have heard are all subordinate to Him in whom directly you have\nall you need. There is no need to go _vi\u00e2_ Philip and Andrew, Mary or\nMichael, when \"we would see Jesus.\"\n\nVer. 11. +In whom also ye are circumcised . . . by the circumcision\nof Christ.+--What to the Jew was a bodily act, at best symbolical and\nof no value otherwise, was to the Colossian disciple a spiritual\nrenovation, so complete as to render the old symbol of it inadequate.\n\nVer. 12. +Buried . . . risen.+--Referring to the definite acts when,\nas Christian converts, they went beneath the baptismal waters and\nemerged to live the faith thus publicly confessed. +Through the faith\nof the operation of God.+--An obscure phrase. The R.V. is clear:\n\"Through faith _in_ the working of God.\"\n\nVer. 14. +Blotting out the handwriting.+--\"Wiping out the old score,\"\nas we might say. All that bond which was valid against them Christ\nhad for ever rendered nugatory whilst they confided in His salvation.\n+Against us, which was contrary to us.+--We have here the author of\nthose hot protests against work-righteousness. The threatening aspect\nof the law is expressed in this reiteration. The law not only menaces\nwrong-doers; it proceeds against them with punishment. +Nailing it to\nHis cross.+--The bond is discharged and may be filed. We are reminded\nof St. Peter's equally bold expression: \"Who His own self bare our\nsins in His own body [_to,_ and] on the tree\" (1 Pet. ii. 24).\n\nVer. 15. +Having spoiled principalities.+--R.V. \"having put off from\nHimself.\" The authorities are divided between the A.V. and the R.V.\nThe English reader must not conclude that he has again the word and\nidea of ver. 8. The apostle says that Christ had flung off from\nHimself the powers of wickedness. As these Colossians needed no\nintercessions of good angels, so, on the other hand, they need fear\nnothing from the maleficent powers of darkness, now vanquished.\n\nVer. 16. +Let no man therefore judge you.+--They could not well\nprevent an adverse judgment being given on their disregard of what\nthe ritualists thought to be of supreme moment, but they could refuse\nto argue about such trifles.\n\nVer. 17. +Shadow . . . body.+--The relationship is indicated here of\nthe old ceremonial worship to the worship of the Spirit. To confound\nshadow and substance, or mistake the shadow for the substance, has\never been the fatal error of ritualism.\n\nVer. 18. +Let no man beguile you of your reward.+--R.V. \"let no man\nrob you of your prize.\" There seems to be implied some such thoughts\nas this: Do not allow these heretical teachers to lay down for you\nthe conditions on which the prize shall be yours; for when they\npronounce in your favour, \"the Lord, the righteous Judge,\" pronounces\nagainst you. +In a voluntary humility and worshipping of angels.+--In\nacts of self-imposed abasement in the presence of invisible beings.\nSt. John tells us of the rebuke administered by the angel before whom\nhe prostrated himself: \"See thou do it not: . . . worship God.\" But\nthere are men who would say, \"Nay, my Lord,\" and continue their\nforbidden worship. +Intruding into those things which he hath not\nseen.+--The change in the R.V. is considerable: \"dwelling in the\nthings which he hath seen.\" The apostle is apparently speaking\nironically of the boasted manifestations made to the Gnostic teachers.\n\nVer. 20. +Dead . . . from the rudiments of the world.+--Such as are\ngiven in ver. 21. +Subject to ordinances.+--Why do you consent to\nreceive these \"burdens grievous to be borne?\"\n\nVer. 21. +Touch not; taste not; handle not.+--\"These three\nprohibitions apply probably (1) to marriage, (2) to the use of\ncertain foods, (3) to contact with material objects\" (_Godet_). The\nrigour of the prohibitions is greatest in the last of the three. Note\nthe change in R.V.: \"handle not, nor _taste,_ nor TOUCH.\"\n\nVer. 23. +Neglecting of the body.+--A.V. margin, \"punishing or not\nsparing.\" R.V. text, \"severity to the body.\" No doubt the apostle\nfelt that on this subject he would need to tread cautiously, for he\nhimself had beaten his body into subjection (1 Cor. ix. 27). +Not in\nany honour to the satisfying of the flesh.+--The R.V. gives light on\nthis obscurity: \"not of any value against the indulgence of the\nflesh.\" This is the evidence which for ever disqualifies asceticism\nin its many forms. We can understand how a Lenten fast or a\nhair-shirt may make a man irritable. If they are of any value _in\nthemselves,_ monastic annals need revision and expurgation, and the\nChristian finds himself far outdone by the dervish.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-4.\n\n_Ministerial Anxiety._\n\nThe more clearly we apprehend truth in its many-sided aspects and in\nits complex and vital relations, the more grievous and calamitous\ndoes error appear. Error cannot come into collision with truth\nwithout creating confusion of ideas and much mental distraction, and\nas a consequence robbing the soul of the peace and solace it enjoyed.\nThe apostle saw the dangerous tendency of the doctrines advocated by\nthe false teachers against whom his epistle was directed, and he was\ndeeply concerned lest the pure and simple Gospel embraced by the new\nconverts should be contaminated. As one drop of ink pollutes the\nwhole vessel of water, as one stroke of the hammer diverts the rod\nfrom a straight line and spoils it throughout its whole length, so\none single error obscures and warps the holiest truth.\n\n+I. This anxiety was intense.+--\"For I would that ye knew what great\nconflict I have\" (ver. 1). In the closing words of the preceding\nchapter the apostle referred to his stern self-discipline in training\nhimself for his arduous and self-denying labours as an apostle; and\nin this verse he expands the same thought and would have the converts\nknow the magnitude of the struggle which his anxiety for their\nwelfare cost him. This conflict refers not only to his external\nlabours on behalf of the Churches, in journeys, perils, privations,\npersecutions, and imprisonments, but more especially to his fervent\nwrestling with God in prayer, like Jacob of old; his importunity,\nlike the widow with the unjust judge; his inward soul struggles in\nearnest intercession for their stability in the faith. The danger\nmust have been serious that produced in such a man so great an agony\nof anxiety: great souls are not affected by trifles. People little\nknow what their pastors pass through: when they think them the most\nat leisure, then are they the least so--the fervent conflict of\nprayer is going on in secret. A knowledge of the minister's anxiety\nis sometimes necessary to create a responsive sympathy, and to teach\nthe people the care and anxiety they should feel for their own\nsalvation.\n\n+II. This anxiety was disinterested.+--\"For you, and for them at\nLaodicea, and for as many as have not seen my face in the flesh\"\n(ver. 1). The solicitude of the apostle was not restricted to the\nColossians, as though they were more liable than others to defection\nfrom the truth but embraced the converts in the neighbouring city of\nLaodicea. In this populous and thriving city, celebrated at that time\nfor its immense commercial wealth and for the high intellectual\nattainments of its philosophers, the heretic leaven had begun to\nwork; and the subsequent history of the Church there showed that it\nspread only too surely and disastrously (Rev. iii. 14-18). The\napostle also extended his anxious regard to \"as many as had not seen\nhis face in the flesh.\" The bulk of our troubles in this life we\nendure on behalf of others. The Christian spirit, in its broad,\ncomprehensive charity, gives us a deep interest in all who have any\nconnection with Christ. Fervent prayer on behalf of others,\nnotwithstanding the sneers of some modern scientists, is efficacious,\nirrespective of locality or of actual personal intercourse. Prayers\noffered in private are often answered in a strange, unlooked-for\nmanner in public. God has a sovereign right to select the _mode_ in\nwhich He answers the prayers of the faithful. An old Divine has said:\n\"If we would reap openly in the conversion of souls and their steady\nwalk, we must plough in secret with prayers and tears.\" Our anxiety\nabout the welfare of others is a strong evidence of our possessing\nthe genuine love of the truth. It was a trenchant aphorism of\nColeridge that, \"He who begins by loving Christianity better than\ntruth, will proceed by loving his own sect or Church better than\nChristianity, and end in loving himself better than all.\"\n\n+III. This anxiety had special reference to the highest spiritual\nattainments of believers.+--1. _The apostle was solicitous for the\nconfirmation of their faith._ \"That their hearts might be comforted\"\n(ver. 2).--_i.e. encouraged, confirmed._ The apostle knew the subtle\npower of error in disintegrating the heart's confidence, producing\ntrouble, dejection, doubt, and perplexity. Hence, he was anxious so\nto present the truth as it is in Jesus, as to restore and cheer the\nbewildered mind and settle it on the firm basis of an intelligent and\ncordial faith. No man can reach the high attainments of the Christian\nlife whose heart is not at rest in God.\n\n2. _The apostle was solicitous for their union in love._--\"Being knit\ntogether in love\" (ver. 2). The heart can never enjoy solid comfort\ntill it is united in the love, as well as in the faith, of the truth.\nError divides as well as distresses; it snaps the bond of love,\nsplits the Christian Church into parties, rends what ought to be the\nseamless robe of Christ. Where there is discord in the understanding\nabout fundamental truths, there cannot be concord in the will and\naffections. The stability of believers depends upon their being knit\ntogether in a mutual love, as the timbers of a building are joined\nand compacted by a carpenter--such is the original signification of\nthe word--each part being fitted in with the rest, and all subserving\nthe firmness and safety of the whole. \"He that dwelleth in love,\ndwelleth in God, and God in him.\"\n\n3. _The apostle was solicitous they should be enriched with the\nunspeakable wealth of the Divine mystery._--(1) _The Divine mystery\nis explained in the unique person and endowments of Christ._ \"The\nmystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ, in whom are hid all\nthe treasures of wisdom and knowledge\" (vers. 2, 3). Christ embraced\nin His own person the Divine and human natures. As God, He is equal\nwith the Father, and possesses in Himself all the essentials of\nDeity; but as man He is dowered with moral treasures surpassing the\nendowments of the highest angel. The mystery is not so much Christ,\nas Christ containing in Himself \"all the treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge.\" There is in Christ an all-sufficiency for every possible\nwant of man--copious and inexhaustive riches of eternal and saving\nwisdom. These riches are hid in Christ as treasure in a\nfield--concealed from the gaze of mere passers-by, the careless,\nindolent, and proud; but revealed to and enjoyed by the humble,\ndiligent, and persevering seeker. \"He who is not content with Christ,\nbut goes out of Him to philosophy or tradition, forsakes the\ntreasures for the miserable beggary of human counterfeits.\" It is\nstill a mystery to the world how Christ can be the grand depositary\nof all wisdom; and the mystery is dispelled only as the soul becomes\nsavingly acquainted with Him. (2) _The believer is privileged to gain\nthe full knowledge of the Divine mystery._--\"To the acknowledgment of\nthe mystery\" (ver. 2). The word implies that the knowledge of God and\nof Christ is the perfection of knowledge. The ancient sage declared:\n\"If thou criest after knowledge, then shalt thou understand the fear\nof the Lord, and find the knowledge of God.\" And the apostle prayed\nfor the Ephesians that \"the God of our Lord Jesus Christ might give\nunto them the spirit of wisdom and revelation in the knowledge of\nHim.\" This knowledge is to be not a simple perception of the truths\ncontinued in the Divine mystery, but a full, firm, and distinct\nknowledge as the result of careful sifting, and the actual experience\nof their soul-transforming power. We know nothing to purpose until it\nis strongly grasped by the heart as well as by the understanding.\n(3) _A clear and profound understanding of the Divine mystery is the\ntrue enrichment of the mind._--\"Unto all riches of the full assurance\nof understanding\" (ver. 2). The vast store of moral riches here\nindicated is opposed to the poverty of the mind, which has only a few\nconfused, unconnected truths about the Gospel laid up in its\ntreasury. By _the full assurance of understanding_ is meant an\nunclouded perception and firm conviction of the truth revealed in the\nGospel. This is obtained only by diligent study and the inner\nillumination of the Spirit; the understanding is cleared up, the\njudgment settled, and the individual believer enabled to apprehend\neach part of the Gospel in its essential relation to the grand whole,\nand thus to grasp with a firm hold the salient features of the Divine\nmystery. In this assured knowledge of the greatest truths the mind of\nman finds it true enrichment; its abiding rest and felicity. \"Wisdom\nis more precious than rubies, and all the things thou canst desire\nare not to be compared unto her\" (Prov. viii. 11). Every other kind\nof knowledge, however rare and extensive, is in itself poor and\nunsatisfying.\n\n+IV. This anxiety prompted the apostle faithfully to warn the\nChurch.+--\"And this I say, lest any man should beguile you with\nenticing words\" (ver. 4). Error assumes the most seductive forms: it\ncharms with its eloquence, bewilders with its subtle reasoning,\nmisleads with its bold, assured statements of half-truths. The soul\nis fascinated as by the gaze of a basilisk, and morally poisoned by\nits breath. \"Men are easily persuaded to believe that which flatters\ntheir own vanity, and dilutes or modifies the Gospel, so as to\naccommodate it to their own degenerate tastes.\" It is needful to\nmaintain a vigilant outlook and be on our guard against every phase\nof false teaching. Some contend that words have little to do with\nreligion; that true religion is a sentiment in the soul independent\nof words. The apostle thought differently when he exhorted to hold\nfast \"the form of sound words\"; and in this verse he distinctly avers\nthat enticing words may beguile. He solemnly warns the Ephesians, who\nwere assailed with a similar class of errors: \"Let no man deceive you\nwith vain words; for because of these things cometh the wrath of God\nupon the children of disobedience\" (Eph. v. 6). The most effectual\nantidote to any heresy is the faithful, simple proclamation of the\ndoctrine of Christ, in whom are hid all the treasures of wisdom and\nknowledge. This is the clue that leads us out of all the mazes of\nerror.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The true minister is anxious to promote the highest\ngood of the people._ 2. _All truth finds its explanation and all\nerror its refutation in Christ, the Source of eternal wisdom._\n3. _False doctrine should be fearlessly and faithfully exposed._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 3.\n\n_The Hidden Treasures of Wisdom in Christ._\n\nWisdom does not consist in the possession of varied and extensive\nknowledge. The student may be deeply read in ancient and\nlong-forgotten lore, be versed in the entire circle of the arts,\nsciences, and philosophies, be intelligibly familiar with the best\nliterature of the day, be a walking encyclop\u00e6dia, a literary fountain\ngushing in a perennial stream of information, and yet be far from\nbeing a wise man. Wisdom is the practical application of knowledge,\nthe attainment of the highest moral results by the use of the best\nand simplest means. The cry of the human intellect in all ages has\nbeen, \"Where shall wisdom be found? and where is the place of\nunderstanding?\" The greatest souls have toiled painfully in search of\nthe coveted treasure but failed to discover it. Their mightiest\nendeavours have terminated in disappointment and despair. True wisdom\nis a Divine revelation. The world by wisdom knew not God; and one of\nthe profoundest philosophers of any age, and who approached as near\nthe threshold of the grand discovery as the unaided human mind was\nperhaps ever permitted to do, had to confess with a sigh, \"If ever\nman is destined to know the good and the true, it must be by a\nrevelation of the Deity.\" That wisdom which all need, and of which\nall are in quest, is found only in Christ. This verse declares that\n_Christ is the unfathomable depositary of the highest wisdom._\nObserve:--\n\n+I. That Christ is the inexhaustible Source of the truest\nwisdom.+--\"In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.\"\nThe false teachers at Coloss\u00e6, like certain pretentious philosophers\nof modern times, boasted of the vast range of their wisdom and\nknowledge. They discussed questions, some of which, strange to say,\nare reproduced and advocated to-day--questions on the nature of the\nworld, the eternity or non-eternity of matter, the chief good of man,\nthe orders and ranks of the angelic hierarchies and their relation to\nthe mediatorial work of Christ, the necessity of observing the\nceremonies and austerities of the law, and of the beauty and grandeur\nof the theories of Plato and Pythagoras, the ruling philosophers of\nthe time. But all this is simply \"the wisdom of this world and of the\nprinces of this world, which come to nought.\" It is only in Christ we\nfind all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge to furnish and enrich\nthe mind and to guide into the way of salvation. He is \"to us who are\nsaved the power of God and the wisdom of God.\" If, for the sake of\nillustration, we classify the principal sources of human knowledge\ninto poetry, history, philosophy, and theology, we may assert that\nonly in Christ does each department find its fullest explication, and\nfrom Him derive its significance and worth.\n\n1. _Christ is the loftiest ideal and purest inspiration of the\npoet._--Poetry occupies an important place in contributing to the sum\nof human knowledge, and to the culture, development, and happiness of\nman. It was the language of the world's infancy, as it is of the\ninfancy of man; the spontaneous outflow of the soul, on its first\nacquaintance with the marvels of the present life, expresses itself\nin strains of poetic music. It is true this great gift has been\nabused, and often made the instrument of debasing instead of\nelevating the mind. Hence Plato, in constructing his ideal republic,\nwould exclude the poets because of the evil tendency of some of their\nproductions, though he accords them all honour on account of their\nlearning and genius. The genuine poet pants after the noblest\nexpression of the beautiful and the good. Christ is the glorious\nideal and embodiment of the pure and beautiful; the poet drinks in\nhis most ravishing inspiration from Him and exhausts all the\nresources of his genius in attempting to portray the exquisite\nlineaments of His matchless character.\n\n2. _Christ is the grandest hero of the historian._--History furnishes\nus with the knowledge of man and his doings in all ages--in his\nindividual, social, and national aspects. It traces the development\nof the race from the first solitary man to the peopling of the world\nwith the varied nationalities which now swarm upon its surface. But\nthe history of the world and man would be a dark, unsolvable enigma\nif the name of Christ could be struck out. The story of redemption\nunites Christ with the destiny of man in all ages--past, present, and\nfuture; and \"no history of the world, political or moral, can be\neither just or accurate that does not find in Christ foretold to\ncome, or in Christ come and crucified, its centre and its key.\" The\nworld was created by Christ; it exists for Him; and, without\ninterfering with individual freedom, it may be said that He makes its\nhistory: His name and influence are traceable everywhere and are\neverywhere potent. The devout historian finds in Him the hero in whom\nall excellencies combine, and whose exploits he loves to chronicle.\n\n3. _Christ is prominent among the sublimest themes of the\nphilosopher._--A philosophy that does not recognise the Divine\nplunges its votaries into labyrinthine darkness; its legitimate\noffice is to conduct to God. Coleridge has well said: \"In wonder all\nphilosophy began; in wonder it ends; and admiration fills up the\ninterspace. But the first wonder is the offspring of ignorance; the\nlast is the parent of adoration.\" In every sphere where philosophy\npenetrates it is confronted with ineffaceable evidences of the power\nand presence of Christ. Among the splendid phenomena of the natural\ncreation--the forces that move, and the laws that control its vast\nmachinery--Christ is acknowledged as the creating and ruling spirit;\nand only as the material world is regarded as the theatre of\nredemption, and of moral conflict and discipline, does the\nphilosopher reach its highest meaning: in the realm of mind, the true\ndignity, preciousness, and immortal endowments of the soul are\nunderstood only as we apprehend that the life of the great Redeemer\nwas sacrificed to effect its ransom; and, in the sphere of morals, we\ndecipher the relation of man to man, and to society at large, learn\nthe duties and obligations we owe to each other and to God, discover\nthe standard of right actions, and are aided in explaining and\nharmonising the inequalities that exist, when we gain an insight into\nthe moral relation of Christ to the whole race.\n\n4. _Christ is the all-comprehensive subject of the theologian._--God\nis inscrutable to the unchristianised reason. \"Canst thou by\nsearching find out God? Canst thou find out the Almighty unto\nperfection? It is as high as heaven, what canst thou do? deeper than\nhell, what canst thou know?\" Men have sought God in all ages with\ntears, sacrifices, and sufferings indescribable; but in vain. Christ\nis the only way to the Father; in Himself He reveals and illustrates\nthe Godhead. All our saving and renewing knowledge of God, and of our\nmanifold relations to Him, we owe entirely to Christ. \"No man hath\nseen God at any time; the only begotten Son, which is in the bosom of\nthe Father, He hath declared Him.\" In the domain of theology \"Christ\nis all in all.\" But for Him the office of the theologian would be an\nimpossibility.\n\n+II. That the treasures of Divine wisdom are discoverable by the\nsincere and earnest seeker.+--They are _hid_; but not so hid as to be\nbeyond our reach. They are intended for discovery and appropriation.\nTheir brilliancy sparkles even in their hiding-place. They are like a\nmine, whose riches, though faintly indicated on the surface, are\nconcealed in the depths of the earth. The more diligently the mine is\nworked, the more precious and abundant the ore appears. So, in Christ\nthere are treasures of wisdom unseen by the superficial and careless\nobserver; but to the humble and believing student new and deeper\nveins are perpetually opening up, until, still pursuing his search,\nhe is dazzled by the splendour and inexhaustible fulness of wealth,\nsurpassing all finite comprehension, and filling him with admiration\nand awe.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Man universally covets wisdom._ 2. _The highest\nwisdom is treasured up in Christ for man._ 3. _If man finds it not,\nit is his own fault._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1-3. _Christian Unity._\n\n  +I. We cannot but lament the divisions and scandals of the professed\n      disciples of Jesus, which have more than anything else prevented\n      the universal diffusion of the Gospel.+\n\n +II. We should make it manifest, by acknowledging the truth in\n      whomsoever found, that we are not bigoted sectarians.+\n\n+III. As regards those with whom we are united in fellowship, let us\n      prove by our humble, modest, and kind disposition that we are\n      lovers of peace and concord.+\n\n +IV. Christian unity is promoted by mutual efforts to edify one\n      another in faith and love.+--_W. France._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Christ the Treasury of Wisdom and Knowledge._--The\nrevelation of Christ not merely teaches us a series of truths of\ninexpressible importance, and without it wholly unattainable, but it\nalso, as a great central discovery, harmonises all our beliefs,\nsacred and secular, binds them together as its own servants, gives\nthem a new interest, position, and colouring, and dignifies the\npursuit of them as a labour in the very cause of God Himself, begun\nand prosecuted with a view to His glory--for to know the beauty of\nthe temple is to know the glory of the Architect.--_Archer Butler._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.\n\n_Apostolic Praise of Order and Stability._\n\nIt is an impressive spectacle to see a well-armed body of troops\ndrawn up in compact military order, resisting with calm, unflinching\ncourage the terrible charge of the enemy. Every point of attack is\nstrongly guarded, every vacancy occurring in the exposed front line\nis instantly supplied, and the broad, deep phalanx remains\nimpenetrable and invincible. The enforced companionship of the\napostle with the soldiers of the pr\u00e6torian guard, in his imprisonment\nin Rome, where he would be a daily witness of their exercises, might\nsuggest some such metaphor as this to the mind. And as he foresaw the\nconfusion and ruin that would be introduced into the Colossian Church\nif the fatal errors of the false teachers were triumphant, in this\nverse he _expresses his joyous satisfaction in being assured of the\norderly array and firmly set stability which their faith in Christ\npresented against the assaults of the foe._ Note:--\n\n+I. The apostle commended the external order of the members of the\nChurch.+--\"Beholding your order.\" This is mentioned first, because it\nfirst meets the eye, though all external discipline and order must\nnecessarily spring out of and accompany a genuine faith. There is no\nform of ecclesiastical government that can claim an exclusively\nDivine sanction. The New Testament lays down broad, general\nprinciples; and the Christian Church has been left to shape itself\naccording to circumstances and in harmony with the indications of\nDivine Providence. True order depends, not upon the form of Church\npolity we adopt--whether prelacy, presbytery, or\ncongregationalism--as upon the consistency, fidelity, and union of\nthe individual members of the Church. Order that is not based on a\nvigorous Church-life, and regulated by it, is empty and powerless; it\nis like the ice of the Polar regions, which sometimes assumes forms\nof exquisite and wondrous beauty, but is cold, heartless, dead. The\nScriptural directions on this subject are brief but pregnant with\nmeaning: \"Let all things be done decently and in order\"; \"God is not\nthe Author of confusion, but of peace, as in all the Churches of the\nsaints\"; \"Let all things be done with charity\"; \"The rest will I set\nin order when I come\" (1 Cor. xiv. 40, xiv. 33, xvi. 14, xi. 34).\nWhile organisation that is not instinct with a moving, pervasive and\naggressive life is cumbersome, vapid, and useless; on the other hand,\nChristian steadfastness is imperilled where order is disregarded.\n\n+II. The apostle commended their stability in the faith.+--\"And the\nsteadfastness of your faith in Christ.\" These words describe the\ninternal condition of the Church; and the picture of a firm,\nconfident reliance on Christ which he beheld delighted the soul of\nthe anxious apostle. Order is the fence and guard, steadfastness the\nend in view, order is the garb and ornament, steadfastness the\nsubstance of the Christian character. Faith girds and strengthens the\nsoul with its unchanging and invincible verities; the shafts of error\nand profanity assail it in vain. When the Roman proconsul, from his\njudgment-seat, urged the holy Polycarp to save his life by cursing\nthe name of Jesus Christ, the venerable martyr calmly answered: \"For\neighty-six years I have served Him; He has never yet done me harm.\nHow can I blaspheme my King, who has saved me?\" Man is great and\nnoble, not by what he possesses, not by what he says, not by what he\ngives, not by what he does, but by what he _believes._ The most\nmagnanimous outward conduct may be, after all, a very imperfect\nrepresentation of the soul's deepest faith. What a man believes is\nnot therefore a matter of comparative indifference, but a question of\nsupreme importance; he must have a clear, definite creed. True a\ncreed is but the visible, expressive mould of the inward conception\nof the truth believed; but as the tendency of all life is to assume\nform and can be understood by us only as it does so, so faith, as a\nvital and irresistibly active principle, must inevitably shape itself\ninto some outward expression. Where there is no creed, there is no\nfaith; a creedless man believes in nothing, and he is himself that\nnothing. He has no more cohesion in him than the separate particles\nof sand in the hour-glass. All true faith takes its rise \"in Christ,\"\nand gathers its stability by continuing in Him.\n\n+III. The apostle cherished a deep, personal interest in their\nwelfare.+--1. _In spirit he was present with them._ \"For though I be\nabsent in the flesh, yet I am with you in the spirit.\" We have no\nsatisfactory evidence that the apostle had as yet personally visited\nColoss\u00e6. Epaphras, the faithful and anxious evangelist, sought him\nout in Rome, perhaps for the purpose of laying before him the state\nof Coloss\u00e6 and of the neighbouring Churches on the banks of the\nLycus. The apostle's interest in Coloss\u00e6 was further excited at this\ntime by meeting with Onesimus, a runaway slave, belonging to the\nhousehold of Philemon, a Colossian. The apostle was the means of\nbringing the runaway to repentance and to the enjoyment of the\nliberty of the spiritually free. These circumstances deepened St.\nPaul's concern in the affairs of the Colossian Christians; he grasped\nall the points of the situation, was keenly alive to the gravity of\nthe dangers with which they were threatened, and, as though he were\npersonally present in their midst, expressed his sincere sympathy\nwith them in their trials, and his profound satisfaction on hearing\nof their steady adherence to the truth. It is not necessary to be\nlocally near in order to hold spiritual intercourse; oceans may roll\nbetween individuals whose souls participate in the highest communion.\nThe soul is where it loves: thither it directs its affections,\nwishes, and hopes.\n\n2. _He rejoiced in their fidelity._--\"Joying and beholding.\" As\nthough an actual spectator of their order and steadfastness, his soul\nis filled with joy. The expression of his hearty interest in their\nstate, and his praise of their fidelity, prepared them to give heed\nto his cautions against the seductions of false teachers, and to his\nexhortations to perseverance. No disappointment is so poignant as\nthat arising from the failure of Christian toil, and no joy so\nexquisite as the joy of success. The spectacle of a Christian Church\npoised in beauteous order and strengthened with the might of an\nunfalteringly aggressive faith, is a subject of unspeakable joy to\nGod, to His angels, and to all true ministers.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Attention must be paid to the outward as well as the\ninward state of the Church._ 2. _While the Church preserves its order\nand stability it is invulnerable._ 3. _It is cause of rejoicing when\nthe Church faithfully maintains the conquests already won._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6, 7.\n\n_Suggestive Features of the Christian Life._\n\nThe Christian life is essentially progressive. The law that governs\nits existence involves perpetual, active increase; if it did not\ngrow, it would cease to live. Unlike the principle of growth in the\nnatural world, we cannot conceive a point in the religious life where\nit necessarily becomes stationary, and then begins to decline, on the\nother hand, every provision is made for its unceasing expansion in\nthe highest moral excellencies.\n\n+I. The Christian life begins in a personal reception of\nChrist.+--\"As ye have therefore received Christ Jesus the Lord\" (ver.\n6). Religion is not a self-development of innate human goodness, as\nmany in the present day believe and teach. The soul of man is\ninfected with the virulent poison of sin; no part has escaped the\ndestructive moral taint. The utmost exercise of the unsanctified\npowers of the soul can therefore tend only towards the development of\nits own inborn corruption. As the vinegar plant reproduces itself\nwith great rapidity and impregnates every branch and fibre with its\nown essential acid, so the evil reigning in man reproduces itself\nwith marvellous rapidity and permeates the whole soul with its\ndebasing poison. Religion is a receiving--the receiving of a gift,\nand that a Divine gift. It is the growth and development of the\nsupernatural in man. \"Christ in you the hope of glory.\"\n\n1. _Christ is received as_ THE CHRIST.--The Colossian heresy aimed at\nsubverting the true idea of the Christ, the _Anointed One,_\ncommissioned by the Father to effect the reconciliation of the world\nto Himself; it interposed a graduated series of angelic mediators,\nand thus thought to discredit the sole and absolute mediatorship of\nChrist. To receive the Son of God effectually is to receive Him in\nall that He claimed to be, and all that He came to do, as the Divine,\nspecially anointed Son, who alone and fully manifested the Father,\nand who is the only mediator between sinful man and God. It is of\nunspeakable importance to catch the true idea of the character and\noffice of Christ at the beginning of the Christian life.\n\n2. _Christ is received as Jesus the Lord._--Jesus is the name by\nwhich He was known among men, and points out how completely He has\nidentified Himself with humanity as the Saviour. \"It behoved Him to\nbe made like unto His brethren, that He might be a merciful and\nfaithful High Priest, to make reconciliation for the sins of the\npeople.\" He is also Lord, the supreme Governor in all spheres, in\nnature, providence, and grace. To receive Jesus aright, He must be\ntrusted as the Saviour, able to save to the uttermost, acknowledged\nas the Sovereign and universal Ruler, and homage and obedience\nrendered to His rightful authority. Our reception of Christ does not\nplace us beyond the reach of law but creates in us the capacity for\nrendering an intelligent and cheerful obedience to its holy\nrequirements.\n\n3. _Christ is received by an act of faith._--To receive Christ is to\nbelieve in Him; and faith in Christ is simply the reception of\nChrist: the only way of receiving Him into the soul is by faith. The\nsoul accepts, not only the testimony concerning Christ, whether\nfurnished by Himself or by His witnesses, but accepts Christ Himself.\nThe great, final object of faith that saves is Christ, and all\ntestimony is valuable only as it brings us to Him. The sin-tossed\nspirit finds rest and peace only as it reposes, not in an abstract\ntruth, but in a person--not in love as the law of the moral universe,\nbut in a person who is Himself love.\n\n+II. The Christian life is governed by the law of Christ.+--\"So walk\nye in Him\" (ver. 6). The word \"walk\" expresses the general conduct of\nman and the process of progression in the formation of individual\ncharacter. The will of Christ, as indicated in His character, words,\nspirit, and example, is the ruling principle in the life of the\nbeliever.\n\n1. _To walk in Christ implies a recognition of Him in all\nthings._--In everything that constitutes our daily life--business,\ndomestic relations, social engagements, friendships, pleasures,\ncares, and trials--we may trace the presence of Christ and recognise\nHis rule. Everywhere, on road, or rail, or sea--in all seasons of\ndistress or joy, of poverty or wealth, of disturbance or rest--we may\nbe conscious of the encompassing and regulating presence of Christ\nJesus the Lord.\n\n2. _To walk in Christ implies a complete consecration to Him._--He\nhas the supreme claim upon our devotion and service: \"We are not our\nown; we are bought with a price.\" Our life consists in serving Him:\n\"Whether we live, we live unto the Lord.\" The best of everything we\npossess should be cheerfully offered to Him. Carpeaux, the celebrated\nFrench sculptor, was kept in comparative retirement for some time\nbefore his death by a long and painful illness. One Sunday, as he was\nbeing drawn to church, he was accosted by a certain prince, who\nexclaimed, \"Carpeaux, I have good news for you! You have been\nadvanced in the Legion of Honour. Here is the _rosette d'officier._\"\nThe emaciated sculptor smiled and replied, \"Thank you, my dear\nfriend. It is the good God who shall first have the noble gift.\"\nSaying which, he approached the altar, put the _rosette_ in his\nbutton-hole, and reverentially knelt down to pray.\n\n3. _To walk in Christ implies a continual approximation to the\nhighest life in Him._--The Christian can rise no higher than to be\nmost like Christ. The highest ambition of the apostle was to be\n\"found in Him.\" Life in Him is a perpetual progress in personal\npurity and ever-deepening felicity. Our interest in the vast future\nis intensified by the Christ-inspired hope that we shall be for ever\nvirtually united to Him, that we shall delight in ever-changing\nvisions of His matchless glory, that we shall be like Him, and\nreflect and illustrate the splendour of His all-perfect character.\nEvery triumph over sin is a substantial advance towards this glorious\nfuture destiny.\n\n+III. The Christian life is supported and established by faith in\nfully declared truth.+--1. _There is the idea of stability._ The\nbeliever is rooted in Christ, as a tree planted in firm, immovable\nsoil; he is built up in Christ, as an edifice on a sure foundation;\nand in both senses, as a tree and as a building, he must be\nestablished in the truth which has been demonstrated to him as Divine\nand all-authoritative. It is not enough to preserve the appearance of\nan external walk in Christ; but the roots of our faith must be worked\ninto Him, and the superstructure of holiness rest on Him as the only\nfoundation laid in Zion. The soul thus firmly established will\nsurvive the heaviest storms of adversity and the most furious\nassaults of error.\n\n2. _There is the idea of progress._--Walking implies a continual\nadvance to a given destination; a tree is planted in order to grow;\nthe building, after the foundation is laid, rises to completion. The\nword \"built\" is in the present tense and describes a work in actual\nprocess. So the believer, having become attached to the only\nfoundation that is laid, which is Christ Jesus, is ever rising in\nconformity with the foundation and with the outlines of that grand\nspiritual edifice of which Christ is the pattern and glory. Faith is\nthe cement that fastens one part of the building to the other; but\nfaith as a living, active principle, also admits of increase. With\nrespect to every individual effort after a higher spiritual life,\naccording to our faith it is done unto us.\n\n+IV. The Christian life has its most appropriate outflow in\nthanksgiving.+--\"Abounding therein with thanksgiving\" (ver. 7). The\nend of all human conduct is thanksgiving. It should be expressed in\nevery word and appear in every action. Life should be a ceaseless,\never-abounding outflow of gratitude. We should never forget the\nmagnitude of the blessings we have received, the wealth of mercies\nnow offered to us, and the source whence they all issue. A thankful\nremembrance of past benefits cheers and strengthens the heart under\ndifficulties and disposes the bounteous Donor to confer further\nbenefits. There is nothing in which Christians are more deficient\nthan in a devout and heartily expressed gratitude. Gratitude expands\nour sympathies for the race. What a triumph of disinterested\nthankfulness was that of the invalid who, though confined to his\nroom, \"thanked God for the sunshine for others to enjoy\"! The spirit\nof Christian progress is one of unceasing thanksgiving.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian life is Divinely bestowed._ 2. _The\nChristian life is Divinely sustained._ 3. _The reality of the\nChristian life is evidenced by effusive and practical gratitude._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Retrospection the Basis of Progress._\n\n+I. The Christian consciousness in its apprehension of\nChrist.+--1. _There are two opposing theories prevalent on the person\nof Christ--the rationalistic and the revealed._ The one rules out His\nGodhead; the other is the basis of the Christian faith. 2. _Two\nsystems of theology, widely distinct from each other, are dependent\non these theories._ The one puts man at its centre, and is wholly\nhuman; the other enthrones God, and is essentially Divine. 3. _There\nis only one Christ, one faith, one salvation._ 4. _It is within the\none or the other of these two systems that we must posit our\ndecisions._\n\n+II. The Christian consciousness in its reception of\nChrist.+--1. _Faith receives the whole Christ._ 2. _Christ asks and\ngets the whole man._ 3. _The life of faith, as embodied in the\nmoralities of Christian living, is thus provided for and follows this\nconsecrating act._\n\n+III. The Christian consciousness in its subjection to\nChrist.+--1. _The sphere of the lordship of Christ is the human\nmind._ 2. _The claim of this lordship is absolute._ 3. _The mind is\nfree and unconstrained in its surrender to the authority of\nChrist.--John Burton._\n\n\nVer. 6. _Moral Imitation._\n\n  +I. The text assumes that man possesses the faculty of imitation.+\n\n +II. He requires an example to imitate and that example is Christ.+\n\n+III. A model must be seen to be imitated, so Christ has presented\n      Himself to us for that purpose.+--_W. Frazer._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 8.\n\n_The Marks of a False Philosophy._\n\nPhilosophy plays an important part in the investigation and discovery\nof truth. The use of the word arose out of the humility of\nPythagoras, who called himself a lover of wisdom. The noblest\nintellects of all ages have been devoted to the pursuit of the same\ncoveted prize. Philosophy represents the highest effort of the human\nintellect in its search after knowledge. It explores and tests\nphenomena in the realm of physics and of morals and discovers the\nsubtle laws by which those phenomena are governed. It elevates man to\nhis true rank in creation, and teaches that he must be estimated, not\nby his physical relation to the outward world, but by the sublime\nendowments of his mind, into which it is the special function of\nphilosophy to inquire. The philosophic mood never reaches its highest\ndevelopment till it is Christianised. The apostle does not stigmatise\nall philosophy as in vain; he knew the value of a true philosophy,\nand in his estimation the Christian religion was the embodiment of\nthe highest philosophy. But he warned the Colossians against a false\nphilosophy that was deceptive in its pretensions and deadly in its\ninfluence.\n\n+I. A false philosophy is known by its profitless speculations.+--The\nabsence of both preposition and article in the second clause shows\nthat \"vain deceit\" describes and qualifies philosophy. A celebrated\nRoman sophist summed up his deliberate judgment on the efforts of the\nlearned in the painful search after wisdom in these words: \"The human\nmind wanders in a diseased delirium, and it is therefore not\nsurprising that there is no possible folly which philosophers, at one\ntime or another, have propounded as a lesson of wisdom.\" When the\nmost highly cultured intellects have been gravely occupied with\ntricks of magic, the casting of nativities, the random guesses of\nsoothsaying, and the pretended marvels of a mystic astrology; when\nthe best of life has been spent in discussing transcendental\nquestions as to the eternity of matter, fate, the mortality of the\nsoul, the worship of angels, and their mature endowments and habits,\nand in definitional hair-splitting as to what constitutes the chief\ngood of man; when the truest and best discoveries of human reason are\nused to disparage Divine revelation and discredit the absolute\nauthority of saving truth--then philosophy falsifies its name,\nfrustrates its lofty mission, and degenerates into vain, empty,\nprofitless speculations. The student of the theories and\ncontradictions of certain philosophic schools may begin with\nextravagant expectations, only to end in chagrin and despondency. The\nerrors which assailed the Colossian Church were a mixture of the\nOriental system of Zoroaster with Judaism, and with the crude,\nhalf-comprehended truths of Christianity. It was a mongrel system of\nphilosophy, containing the germs of what afterwards developed into an\nadvanced Gnosticism and became the prolific source of many forms of\nheresy. Its abettors became \"vain in their imaginations, and their\nfoolish heart was darkened; professing themselves wise, they became\nfools\" (Rom. i. 21, 22).\n\n+II. A false philosophy is known by its purely human origin.+--\"After\nthe tradition of men.\"\n\n1. _The human mind is limited._--The stream can never rise higher\nthan its source; so the wisdom that comes from man is necessarily\nbounded by the range of his mental powers. The human mind cannot\npenetrate far into any subject without discovering there is a point\nbeyond which all is darkness and uncertainty. It is impossible for\nthe circumscribed and unaided mind of man to construct a philosophy\nthat shall be universally true and beneficial. Tillotson has said:\n\"Philosophy has given us several plausible rules for attaining peace\nand tranquillity of mind, but they fall very much short in bringing\nmen to it.\"\n\n2. _All human knowledge is imperfect._--\"If any man think that he\nknoweth anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.\" The\n_traditions_ of men are the accumulation of mere human theories\ntransmitted from age to age until they have assumed the pretensions\nof a philosophy, imposing a number of uninspired and unauthorised\nobservances and austerities. The imperfection of human knowledge is\nnot obliterated but aggravated by its antiquity. A philosophy that\nbuilds solely on man is baseless and full of danger.\n\n+III. A false philosophy is known by its undue exaltation of\nelementary principles.+--\"After the rudiments of the world.\" The\nsource of the false teaching against which the apostle warned was\nfound in human tradition, and its subject-matter was made up of \"the\nrudiments of the world\"--the most elementary instruction conveyed by\nexternal and material objects, suited only to man's infancy in the\nworld. The legal rights and ceremonies instituted by Moses are\nevidently referred to here; they were the first rough elements of an\nintroductory religion fit only for children--shadows at best of great\nand deeper truths to which they were intended to lead, and yet, by\nthe tendency of the soul to cling to the outward, gendering to\nbondage. \"Even so we, when we were children, were in bondage under\nthe elements [rudiments] of the world. But now, after that ye have\nknown God, how turn ye again to the weak and beggarly elements?\"\n(Gal. iv. 3-10). The apostle shows the Colossians that, in Christ,\nthey had been exalted into the sphere of the Spirit, and that it\nwould be a sad retrogression to plunge again into the midst of the\nsensuous and ceremonial. A true philosophy, while starting\nnecessarily with elementary principles, conducts its votaries into a\npathway of increasing knowledge and of spiritual exaltation and\nliberty. A false philosophy fetters the mind by exaggerating the\nimportance of first principles and insisting on their eternal\nobligation.\n\n+IV. A false philosophy is known by its Christlessness.+--\"And not\nafter Christ.\" Christ is neither the author nor the substance of its\nteaching; not the author, for its advocates rely on human traditions;\nnot the substance, for they ignore Christ by the substitution of\nexternal ceremonies and angelic mediators. Such a method of\nphilosophising may be after the Jewish fanatics, after the\nPythagoreans or Platonists, after Moses and his abrogated legalism;\nbut is it _not after Christ._ There is no affinity between Christ and\ntheir inventions; the substances cannot amalgamate. As it is\nimpossible, by any process, to convert a baser metal into gold, so it\nis impossible to elevate a vain philosophy into Christianity. All\ntrue saving knowledge must be after--_i.e._ according to--Christ. It\nis in Him alone the deepest wants of man's nature can be met and\nsatisfied. Any philosophy, though championed by the most brilliant\nintellects, that tends to lure the soul from Christ, that puts\nanything in the place of Him, or depreciates in any way our estimate\nof His glorious character, is false and full of peril.\n\n+V. A false philosophy is known by its destructive influence.+--\"Lest\nany man spoil you.\" The meaning of the word \"spoil\" is very full and\nsignificant: it is not simply to despoil--to strip off--but to carry\naway as spoil, just as the four kings, after the battle in the vale\nof Siddim, plundered the cities of Sodom and Gomorrah, and bore away\nas spoil the people and all their property and victuals (Gen.\nxiv. 12-16). The Colossians had been rescued from the bondage of\ndarkness and transferred to the kingdom of light; they were settled\nthere as free and happy citizens; and now there was danger lest they\nshould be tampered with by some crafty marauder, seized and carried\naway as booty, and fall into a worse state than their former slavery.\nThere are worse losses than loss of property, or even of children:\nman is never so grievously spoiled as when his soul is debased and\nrobbed by the errors of wicked seducers. Men who have contemptuously\ngiven up the Bible as a book of fables, lost their peace of mind,\nwrecked their moral character, and blasted their prospects for ever,\nbegan their downward career by embracing the apparently harmless\nideas of a false philosophy. \"The thief cometh not,\" saith Jesus,\n\"but to steal, to kill, and to destroy; I\"--the infallible Teacher,\nthe incorruptible Guardian, the inexhaustible Life-giver--\"am come\nthat they might have life, and that they might have it more\nabundantly\" (John x. 10).\n\n+VI. Against a false philosophy the Church must be faithfully\nwarned.+--\"Beware.\"\n\n1. _Because it is seductive in its pretensions._--It seeks to refine\nand elevate the plain Gospel by a show of lofty intellectualism; it\ndignifies some particular religious rite into an unjustifiable\nimportance; it elaborates a ritual marvellous for spectacular display\nand musical effect; it flatters the pride and ministers to the\ncorruption of the human heart; and, stealing through the avenue of\nthe charmed senses, gains an imperious mastery over the whole man.\n\n2. _Because it is baneful in its effect._--It not only misrepresents\nand distorts the truth, but injures the faculties of the soul by\nwhich truth is obtained and kept. It darkens the understanding,\npollutes the conscience, and weakens the will. It robs man of his\ndearest treasure, and offers in exchange a beggarly system of crude,\nunsatisfying speculations. The soul is goaded into a restless search\nafter rest and cursed with its non-attainment.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Human philosophy is essentially defective._ 2. _The\ntrue philosophy is the highest knowledge of Christ._ 3. _All\nphilosophy that weans the soul from Christ is false and should be\nshunned._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.\n\n_The Divine Fulness of Christ a Pledge of the Believer's Perfection._\n\nChristianity is the true philosophy. Here are its profoundest depths,\nits loftiest themes, its most substantial discoveries. The philosophy\nthat is not after Christ is vain and misleading. It was a false\nconception of the Colossian heresy that the Divine energy was\ndispersed among several spiritual agencies. The apostle boldly\ndeclares that in Christ dwells the whole \u03c0\u03bb\u03ae\u03c1\u03c9\u03bc\u03b1 the entire fulness\nof the Deity, and that it is in vain to seek for spiritual life in\ncommunion with inferior creatures.\n\n+I. The Divine fulness of Christ.+--1. _In Christ is the fulness of\nthe Deity._ \"For in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead\"\n(ver. 9). A small text, but a great subject. These words contain the\nsublimest truth in the narrowest compass. Fulness is a term used to\nsignify all that anything contains. Hence, we read of the fulness of\nthe earth, the fulness of the sea, and that the Church is Christ's\nbody, the fulness of Him that filleth all in all. In Christ inhere\nall the perfections, attributes, and qualities that essentially\nconstitute the Divine nature--power, wisdom, eternity,\nself-existence, omnipresence, truth, love, holiness. The deities of\nthe heathen never pretended to possess more than a few Divine\nattributes, some portion of Divinity. But Christ contains in Himself\nthe totality of Divine powers and excellencies.\n\n2. _The fulness of the Deity in Christ is present and\npermanent._--\"Dwelleth.\" The present tense is used. It is not as a\ntransient gleam or as a brilliant display to serve a temporary\npurpose, but as an ever-present and unchanging reality. Mystery of\nmysteries! the body that hungered and thirsted, that bled and died,\nthat rose and ascended on high, is still the temple of illimitable\nDeity! The manifestations of God through angels and prophets were\nbrief and partial. The Shekinah, or visible glory, that hovered over\nthe ark of the covenant was a symbol only of a present deity and\ndisappeared as mysteriously as it came. But in Christ, the\ntranscendent fulness of the Godhead finds its permanent home, never\nto depart, never to vanish.\n\n3. _The fulness of the Deity in Christ has a visible\nembodiment._--\"Bodily.\" In the person of Christ every moral\nperfection of the Godhead was enshrined and brought within the range\nof human vision. He presented and proved the fact of the Divine\nexistence. He embodied and declared the Divine spirituality. He\ndelineated the Divine disposition, and character in the days of His\nflesh. Gleams of the Divine nature occasionally broke forth. \"We\nbeheld His glory, the glory as of the only begotten Son of God\" (John\ni. 14). And now, from that subtle, glorified human form of our\nexalted Mediator, the splendour of the Deity rays forth, filling the\nuniverse with light and glory and joy. In Christ the Godhead is\nrevealed, not as a changing, shadowy phantasm, but as a positive,\nsubstantial reality.\n\n+II. The supreme authority of Christ.+--\"Which is the Head of all\nprincipality and power\" (ver. 10).\n\n1. _Angels are the principalities and powers of the universe._--They\nare called _spirits_ to express their nature, and _angels_ to\ndesignate their office as messengers sent by God. They are called\n_sons of God,_ to indicate their lofty relationship; _cherubim,_\nbecause of their composite nature, and because they are placed under\nthe presence of Jehovah, whose moving throne they appear to draw;\n_seraphim,_ because of their burning ardour in executing the commands\nof God; _stars of the morning,_ to set forth their brightness; _a\nflaming fire,_ because of the fierceness and celerity with which they\ncarry out the vengeance of Heaven; and they are called\n_principalities_ and _powers_ on account of their exalted rank and\nsuperior endowments.\n\n2. _Among the principalities and powers of the universe Christ has\nsupreme authority._--He is the Head of all angelic hierarchies. He\ncalled them into being. He endows them with vast intelligence. He\ndesignates their rank. He controls their beneficent ministries. He\nfills the circle of their bliss. To worship angels, or to seek their\nmediation in the affairs of the soul, is not only gross idolatry, but\nan insufferable insult to the fulness of the Deity in Christ.\n\n+III. The believer's fulness in Christ.+--\"And ye are complete in\nHim\" (ver. 10).\n\n1. _In Christ is the inspiration of the believer's life._--The soul\nfinds its true life by believing on the Son of God. \"He that hath the\nSon hath life\" (1 John v. 12). In ourselves we are like empty\nvessels; but in Christ we are filled up to the brim. As there is an\noriginal and Divine fulness of the Godhead in Christ, so there is a\nderived fulness communicated to us. Every advance in Christian\nexperience, every aspiration after a more exalted spiritual tone,\nevery yearning of the soul after clearer light, every struggle for\nvictory over self and sin, is prompted and accelerated by the\nimpetuous inflow of the Divine life.\n\n2. _In Christ is the perfect ideal of the believer's\ncharacter._--Christ has exalted human nature. He took not on Him the\nnature of angels, but the seed of Abraham. He has shown what human\nnature can become, and what it can do. In Him we have the illustrious\npattern after which our souls are to be fashioned and rounded off\ninto a full-orbed completeness. \"Christ is the mirror that glasses\nGod's image before us, and the Spirit is the plastic force within\nthat transfers and photographs that image; and so, beholding as in a\nglass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from\nglory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.\"\n\n3. _In Christ is the interminable bliss of the believer's\nfuture._--The present life is a training for the future. The more it\nis in harmony with the will of Christ the happier will it be. Every\nattempt, amid the multiform relations of life, to do our duty in a\nChristly spirit, is bringing us into closer sympathy with Christ, and\npreparing us for a joyous life with Him hereafter. The apostle\nexpressed the condition of the highest conceivable bliss to the\nbeliever in the words, \"And so shall we ever be with the Lord\"\n(1 Thess. iv. 17).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is essentially Divine._ 2. _There is an\nineffable fulness of salvation in Christ._ 3. _All secondary\nmediators between God and man are superfluous._ 4. _The soul is\ncomplete in Christ only as it believes in Him._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9, 10. _A Presentation of Two Great Truths._\n\n  +I. That all Christianity centres in Christ.+\n\n +II. That union to Christ makes the soul independent of\n      others.+--_Dykes._\n\n\nVer. 9. _The Fulness of Christ._\n\n  +I. Christ is full of the power of God.+\n\n +II. The love of God.+\n\n+III. The grace of God.+\n\n +IV. The faithfulness of God.+\n\n  +V. The purpose of God to punish sin.+--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\nVer. 10. _The Completing of the Soul._\n\n  +I. We are made complete in Christ by inspirations.+\n\n +II. We have ideas and ideals in Christ.+\n\n+III. We are set in a various scheme of relations that we may have a\n      training in virtues equally various and be perfected in them\n      and by means of them.+--_Bushnell._\n\n\n_The Believer Complete in Christ._\n\n+I. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He hath already\nperformed.+--1. _His obedience and atonement were precisely what God\nHimself had prescribed._ 2. _That He obeyed and atoned, we have the\nperfect evidence of observation and testimony._ He Himself declared,\n\"I have finished the work which Thou gavest Me to do.\" \"It is\nfinished.\" To this the Father and the Spirit have expressly borne\ntestimony: by signs and wonders; His resurrection; His ascension; the\ndescent of the Spirit; conversions; the glorification of His people.\n3. _Into His righteousness thus perfect the believer is admitted._\n\n+II. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is now\nperforming.+--1. _Interceding in heaven._ 2. _Ruling on earth,_ and\nthus giving grace and affording protection.\n\n+III. Complete in Him with respect to the work which He is hereafter\nto perform.+--1. _As the Resurrection._ 2. _As the Judge._ 3. _As the\nGlorifier._ 4. _As the Consummation and Communicator of eternal\nblessedness.--Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.\n\n_Christian Circumcision._\n\nThere were two principal errors lying at the root of the heresy that\nwas doing so much damage at Coloss\u00e6. One was the theological error of\nsubstituting inferior and created angelic mediators for the Divine\nHead Himself. The other was a practical error, in insisting upon\nritual and ascetic observances as the foundation of moral teaching.\nThus, their theological speculations and ethical code alike were at\nfault. Both errors flowed from a common source--the false conception\nthat evil resides in matter, a fruitful source of many fatal\nheresies. Some contended the Colossians could not be complete in\nChrist without submitting to the Jewish rite of circumcision; but the\napostle showed that they were the subjects of a superior circumcision.\n\n+I. Christian circumcision is inward and spiritual.+--\"Ye are\ncircumcised with the circumcision made without hands\" (ver. 11). The\nhand-wrought circumcision of the Jews was simply an outward and\nvisible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. This is abundantly\nclear in the language of the Old Testament: \"No stranger\nuncircumcised in heart, nor uncircumcised in flesh, shall enter into\nMy sanctuary.\" \"The Lord Thy God will circumcise thine heart, to love\nthe Lord thy God with all thine heart and all thy soul\" (Ezek.\nxliv. 9; Deut. xxx. 6). The argument of the apostle is that the\nColossians had secured all the spiritual results aimed at in the\nancient rite, and that by a better circumcision, even that made\nwithout hands, by the spiritual and almighty power of Christ, so that\nit was unnecessary for them or any other Gentiles to submit to the\nabrogated Hebraic ordinance. The true circumcision is that of the\nheart, in the spirit, and not in the letter (Rom. ii. 28, 29).\n\n+II. Christian circumcision is complete.+--\"In putting off the body\nof the sins of the flesh\" (ver. 11); or, as Bengel translates,\n_putting off the body of the sins_--that is to say, _the flesh._\nManual circumcision, according to the law of Moses, was the cutting\naway of only a small part of the flesh. But the true spiritual\ncircumcision consists in putting off, renouncing, and casting away\nwith disgust the _whole body_ of our corrupt nature--the entire\nfleshly principle. The whole bulk of sin is fitly compared to a\n_body,_ because of the weight of guilt there is in it (Rom. vii. 24),\nand the soul is completely compassed by it, as it is with our natural\nbody (Gen. vi. 5). When the heart is circumcised, the total mass of\nsin is put off, as the porter puts off his burden, the beggar his\nrages, the master his false servant, and the serpent its skin. Old\nthings pass away; all things become new.\n\n+III. Christian circumcision is Divine.+--\"By the circumcision of\nChrist\" (ver. 11). It is wrought, without hands, by the inward,\ninvisible power of the Divine Spirit of Christ. It supersedes the\nexternal form of the circumcision of the law and fulfils all its\nspiritual designs in a far more perfect manner than even the\nspiritually-minded Jew could adequately conceive. What can never be\neffected by the moral law, by external, ascetic ceremonies, or by\nphilosophic speculations, is accomplished by the circumcision of\nChrist. The whole body of sin is mortified, the soul is quickened and\nrenewed, and brought into the possession of the highest moral\nperfection.\n\n+IV. Christian circumcision is realised by the thorough\nidentification of the believer with Christ in His death and\nresurrection.+--\"Buried with Him, wherein also ye are risen with Him\"\n(ver. 12). Burial implies previous death; and to secure the true\ncircumcision we must be spiritually identified with Christ in His\ndeath, burial, and resurrection. It is the familiar teaching of the\nNew Testament that he who believes in Christ is said to die with Him,\nto be buried with Him, and to rise with Him (ver. 13; Rom. vi. 11;\nEph. ii. 5). A circumcised heart, a new nature, cannot be obtained by\nmere human effort, by stern resolutions, painful processes of\nself-mortification, or by the most advanced and rigorous mental\nculture. It is secured only by a complete, vital union and\nincorporation with Christ, and a sympathetic participation with Him\nin all He has done and suffered. With Christ the believer enters the\ngrave where the vast body of sin dies and is buried; and with Christ\nhe emerges into a new and heavenlier life that transforms the soul\ninto a Diviner beauty, and fills it with unutterable rapture and\nmelodious praise.\n\n+V. Christian circumcision is wrought in the soul by a spiritual\nbaptism.+--\"Buried with Him in baptism, wherein also ye are risen\nwith Him\" (ver. 12). Baptism by water, like legal circumcision, is an\noutward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace. But it\ndoes not appear that there is any allusion here to the ordinance of\nbaptism. The leading ideas and figures used in these two verses refer\nto spiritual realities: the death, burial, and resurrection, the\ncircumcision without hands, and the putting off of the body of the\nflesh, are all spiritual; and the baptism is evidently of the same\ncharacter. It is by the baptism of the Spirit--the quickening and\nrenewing power of the Holy Ghost--that the soul is so united to and\nidentified with Christ that the believer may be said to be buried and\nto rise with Him. It is possible to die with Christ and to rise with\nHim without being baptised with water; but it is impossible to do\neither without the baptism of the Holy Ghost. Spiritual baptism is\nthe grave of the old man and the birth of the new. As he sinks\nbeneath the baptismal waters, the believer buries there all his\ncorrupt affections and past sins; ans he emerges thence, he rises\nregenerate, quickened to new hopes and a new life.\n\n+VI. Christian circumcision is received by faith.+--\"Through the\nfaith of the operation of God, who hath raised Him from the dead\"\n(ver. 12). Faith is not a natural production of the human heart. It\nis a Divine gift and is bestowed on man by a Divine operation. Man\n_can_ believe because God has given him the power to believe. No\nunbeliever can receive the baptism that effects the spiritual\nresurrection. The faith specially referred to is to be fixed on the\npower of God as exerted and displayed in the resurrection of Christ\nfrom the tomb. The same power is employed in that mysterious\nbaptismal process by which the soul throws off its mass of moral\nvileness and rises into newness of life. Faith opens every gateway of\nthe soul, so that it gratefully welcomes and exults in the\ntransforming operations of the Divine energy.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _All external ordinances are powerless to change the\nheart._ 2. _The true circumcision is accomplished by the baptism of\nthe Holy Ghost._ 3. _To realise the renewing power of God faith is\nindispensable._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 11. _The True Circumcision._\n\n  +I. Is not an outward rite, but an inward change.+\n\n +II. Is an excision of the body of sin by our union with Christ, who\n      has conquered sin.+\n\n+III. Is not an external observance, but a spiritual experience and a\n      holy life.+\n\n\nVer. 12. _The True Baptism_--\n\n  +I. Is spiritual regeneration.+\n\n +II. Is being buried and raised again with Christ.+\n\n+III. Is secured by an active, realising faith in the power of God.+\n\n +IV. Renders circumcision and all outward rites valueless as means\n      of salvation.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.\n\n_The Transition from Death to Life._\n\nIn relation to man, the physical order is a descent from life to\ndeath, the spiritual order an ascent from death to life. The soul of\nman is held captive in the dark and dismal prison-house of sin, and\nthe Divine law--at once its judge and gaoler--has declared its\ncondemnation to death. The great Mediator offers Himself a ransom for\nhuman sin. He is accepted. The sentence of condemnation is cancelled,\nand spiritual liberty proclaimed.\n\n+I. That the natural condition of humanity is one of moral and\nspiritual death.+--1. _Man is in a condition of spiritual\ninsensibility._ \"You, being dead in your sins\" (ver. 13). The dead\nknow not anything. They are as unconscious as the dust in the midst\nof which they slumber. The sweetest sounds or the brightest scenes\nappeal in vain to the locked-up senses. This figure strikingly\ndepicts the moral condition of man. The soul may be keenly alive to\nthe relations and interests of the outer world, and at the same time\ndead to the grandest spiritual realities. He is insensible to the\ncharacter and claims of God, to the sublimest truths, to the most\nravishing prospects. With faculties to appreciate all that is lovely\nin nature and wonderful in art, he is insensible and unresponsive to\nthe highest moral beauty.\n\n2. _Man is in a condition of moral corruption._--\"And the\nuncircumcision of your flesh\" (ver. 13). Death unbinds the forces\nthat brace up the body in life and health and leaves it a prey to the\never-active power of corruption. The _flesh_ is the carnal\nprinciple--the old corrupt nature; and its uncircumcision indicates\nthat it has not been cut off, mortified, or conquered. It is the\nloathsome, putrid fruit of a nature spiritually dead--the outworkings\nof a wicked, unrenewed heart, through all the channels of unchecked\nappetites and passions--moral putrescence fattening on itself. No\ndescription of sin can surpass the revolting spectacle of its own\nself-registered results.\n\n3. _Man is in a condition of condemnation._--(1) The Divine\nordinances record an indictment against the transgressor. \"The\nhandwriting of ordinances that was against us\" (ver. 14). A\n_handwriting_ imports what any one writes with his own hand, and is\nusually applied to a note of hand, a bond, or obligation, as having\nthe signature of the debtor or contracting party. The primary\nreference in the terms used is to the Jews, who might be said to have\nsigned the contract when they bound themselves, by a curse, to\nobserve all the enactments of the law (Deut. xxvii. 14-26).\n_Ordinances,_ though referring primarily to the Mosaic ordinances,\nincludes all forms of positive decrees (ordinances) in which moral or\nsocial principles are embodied or religious duties defined. Man\neverywhere is under law, written or unwritten; and he is morally\nobligated to obey it. That law has been universally violated, and its\nordinances and sanctions are against us. We are involved in legal\ncondemnation; we owe to God what we can never pay. (2) The Divine\nordinances are hostile towards the transgressor. \"Which was contrary\nto us\" (ver. 14). We are often painfully reminded of our broken bond,\nas the debtor is often distressingly reminded of his undischarged\nobligation. Our peace is disturbed, our conscience troubled, our\nprospects darkened. The sense of condemnation pursues us in every\npart of life and haunts us with visions of terrible vengeance to come.\n\n+II. That the believer is raised into a condition of spiritual\nlife.+--1. _Spiritual life begins in the consciousness of liberty._\n\"Having forgiven you all trespasses\" (ver. 13). Sin enthrals the soul\nin an intolerable bondage and smites it with a deathly blow. There is\nno return to life until liberty is bestowed. Forgiveness confers that\nliberty. Pardon is the point at which spiritual life begins. The\nsense of liberty is the first glad thrill in the soul of a new and\nnobler life. The pardon is ample; it is all-comprehensive--having\nforgiven you _all_ trespasses. Every legal barrier is removed. All\nguilt is cancelled. Every stain is purged away. Every vestige of\ncorruption disappears. The Divine mercy triumphs in the prompt,\ngenerous, loving, full forgiveness of sins.\n\n2. _Spiritual life implies a freedom from all condemnation._--(1) The\nindictment recorded in the Divine ordinances is cancelled and\nabolished. \"Blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was\nagainst us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way,\nnailing it to His cross\" (ver. 14). Every assurance is given to the\ntrembling believer that his guilt is pardoned, and his condemnation\nremoved. The handwriting is blotted out--as it were, cross-strokes\nare drawn through it; and that all suspicion it may again become\nlegible, may be allayed, it is added, \"and took it out of the way\";\nit is entirely removed. But lest, haply, it should again be found and\nproduced, it is declared--it is destroyed, torn, nailed to the cross,\nand so made utterly useless ever to witness anything against the\nbeliever. \"Now we are delivered from the law, that being dead wherein\nwe were held\" (Rom. vii. 6). The handwriting against us is removed\nand destroyed by the sacrificial death of Christ on the cross. There\nwe behold the cancelled sentence torn and rent by the very nails that\npierced the sacred body of the world's Redeemer. (2) Freedom from\ncondemnation is effected by the cross. \"His cross.\" Much as the\ndoctrine of salvation through the vicarious sufferings of Christ may\nbe misunderstood and despised, it is the only method by which pardon\ncan be bestowed, condemnation removed, and spiritual life imparted.\n\"Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, being made a\ncurse for us.\"\n\n+III. That the transition of the soul from death to spiritual life is\na Divine work.+--\"You hath He quickened together with Him\" (ver. 13).\nGod only can raise the dead. He who first fashioned us in His own\nimage, who raised from the dead Jesus, the great Shepherd of the\nsheep, rescues man from the gloomy domain of spiritual death, and\ninspires him with a new and holier life. It is a life of blessed\nunion with the Divine. Its activities are spontaneous and Godward in\ntheir tendencies. It has the power of growth and endless development.\nIts aspirations are the purest and noblest. It is intensely\nindividual. It is the movement of the Divine in the sphere of the\nhuman, not defacing or destroying the human, but exalting and\nperfecting its worthiest traits.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _All men are dead in sin._ 2. _Law condemns but cannot\ndeliver._ 3. _Pardon of sin is the gateway of spiritual life._\n4. _Pardon is obtained only by looking to the cross._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 13. _Death and Spiritual Life._\n\n  +I. Man by sin is spiritually dead and disabled from exercising\n      spiritual acts.+\n\n +II. Man is quickened into spiritual life by virtue of the\n      resurrection of Christ.+\n\n+III. Spiritual life is obtainable only by the pardon of sin.+\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Handwriting of Ordinances._\n\n  +I. Describes our condemnation.+\n\n +II. Must be cancelled in order to pardon.+\n\n+III. Cancelled by the sufferings on the cross.+\n\n +IV. Is blotted out against us when we accept the Crucified.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.\n\n_The Triumph of the Cross._\n\nThe apostle has shown the worthlessness of the Jewish ceremonies and\nthe galling tyranny of their yoke. He has exposed the emptiness of\nthe philosophy that was of human fabrication, with its illusive\ntheories about angel mediators, its vast accretions of conflicting\ntraditions, and its intolerable impositions. He has declared that\nthey are all transfixed to the cross--torn, lacerated, illegible,\ncancelled--and exhibited there as a spectacle for the perpetual\nconsolation and assurance of the believer. And now the apostle,\nrising with the grandeur of his theme, compares the scene of the\ncross to the splendid triumph of a Roman general, in which the\ncaptives taken in battle were led in gorgeous procession through the\ncity as substantial trophies of the victor.\n\n+I. The triumph of the cross was over the powers of\nevil.+--\"Principalities and Powers.\"\n\n1. _The existence of evil is a painful fact._--We meet with it\neverywhere and in everything. It mars the beauty of external creation\nand loads it with a burden of unutterable woe. It flings its shadow\nover the brightest sky, transforms the music of life into a doleful\nmonotone, and translates the softest zephyrs into sighs. It\nimpregnates man's moral nature, deflects the purest principles,\nshatters the noblest powers, arrests the loftiest aspirations and\ndrags the soul down to the lowest hell.\n\n2. _Evil is embodied in invisible and potent personalities._--They\nare here called _principalities_ because of their excellency, their\ndeep penetration, vast knowledge, and exalted station. They are\ncalled _powers_ because of their ability, the mighty influence they\ncan wield, and the terrible havoc they can work. Their dominion\nextends over the whole realm of sin. They exist in vast numbers\n(2 Pet. iv. 2; Jude 6), but they are inspired and guided by one great\nmaster-spirit--the prince of the power of the air. They are animated\nand bound together by one spirit--a spirit of bitter hatred and\nsavage hostility towards God, and of contemptuous scorn for His\nauthority. They are eager to obey the slightest behest of their\nmalignant leader.\n\n     \"He spake: and to confirm his words outflew\n      Millions of flaming swords, drawn from the thighs,\n      Of mighty cherubim: the sudden blaze\n      Far round illumined hell: highly they raged\n      Against the Highest, and fierce with grasped arms\n      Clashed on their sounding shields the din of war,\n      Hurling defiance towards the vault of heaven.\"\n\nThese hosts of evil spirits are the great foes of man with which he\nhas incessantly to contend (Eph. vi. 12). The struggle would be\nhopeless had not Christ defeated them.\n\n+II. The triumph of the cross was achieved after severe\nconflict.+--\"Having spoiled.\"\n\n1. _The conflict was continuous._--It was fought from the earliest\nperiod between Satan and man, and the day was lost. The woeful issues\nof that conquest are with us to-day. The battle has been raging ever\nsince. The enmity existing between the serpent and the seed of the\nwoman is still active. The symbols and foreshadowings of the great\nstrife appeared on many occasions during the Mosaic period. But when\nChrist assumed our humanity and stepped upon the field as the great\nCaptain of our salvation, the conflict reached its climax.\n\n2. _The conflict was fierce._--Hosts of demons swarmed around the\nsolitary Warrior, and with incredible fury sought to gain a victory\nover the human nature he had assumed. Again and again, they rushed to\nthe attack; but each fresh assault ended with a new defeat. In the\nwilderness He was tempted by Satan; but the arch-tempter was\ncompelled to retire, baffled and conquered. Through the voice of His\nchief disciple the temptation was renewed, and He was urged to\ndecline His appointed sufferings and death (Matt. xvi. 23). But Satan\nwas again foiled.\n\n3. _The conflict was deadly._--Then came the final hour--the great\ncrisis when the power of darkness made itself felt, when the prince\nof this world threw his last fatal shaft and asserted his tyranny\n(Luke xxii. 53; John xii. 30). The closing act in the conflict began\nwith the agony of Gethsemane; it ended with the cross of Calvary. The\nSon of God expires on the accursed tree. But, lo! strange reversal of\nall human conflicts--the moment of apparent defeat is the moment of\nvictory! By dying Christ has conquered death and wrested from the\nenemy his most potent weapon of terror. The principalities and powers\nof evil, that clung around the humanity of Christ like a fatal Nessus\ntunic, were _spoiled_--torn off and cast aside for ever. Evil\nassailed the great Redeemer from without, but never penetrated Him as\nit does humanity. In the act of dying the crucified One stripped off\nand flung to the ground the great potentates of evil never more to be\nin the ascendant.\n\n+III. The triumph of the cross was signal and complete.+--1. _It was\nsignal._ \"He made a show of them openly.\" The overthrow of the\nprincipalities and powers of evil was boldly declared to the\nuniverse. They were declared to be liars, traitors, deceivers,\nusurpers, and murderers! It was not a private but a public victory,\nin which the universe was interested, and in which all men may well\nrejoice. The victory of mankind is involved in the victory of Christ.\nIn His cross we too are divested of the poisonous, clinging garments\nof temptation, sin, and death--we spoil, strip off, put away from us\nthe powers of evil, and are liberated from the dominion of the flesh.\n\n2. _It was complete._--\"Triumphing over them in it.\" Christ proved\nHimself on the cross the Conqueror of death and hell. Here the\nparadox of the Crucifixion is placed in the strongest light--triumph\nin helplessness, glory in shame, the vanquished become the conqueror.\nThe gloom of the convict's gibbet is transformed into the splendour\nof the victor's chariot. In the cross we see the greatest triumph of\nour Immanuel--the law fulfilled; God's moral government vindicated;\ndeath robbed of its prey; Satan, \"the prince of this world\" cast out;\nprincipalities and powers dragged in procession as captives; a show\nof them boldly made; the imprisoned world set free; and the final\nvictory over every enemy assured.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ has conquered the powers of evil._ 2. _To the\nbeliever ultimate victory is certain._ 3. _Keep up a brave heart in\nthe fiercest conflict._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16, 17.\n\n_The Ceremonial and the Real in Religion._\n\nAfter dealing with the speculative theories so busily propagated by\nthe false teachers at Coloss\u00e6, the apostle descends from the height\nof his lofty argument, and with incomparable force sweeps away the\nwhole group of errors which overrated an excessive ritualism and\ninsisted on a rigorous asceticism. The existence of the ceremonial in\nreligion is a confession of the imperfection of our nature; and the\nmore rudimentary the ceremonial, the lower it supposes our condition.\nThe ceremonial foreshadows the real and is intended to help in\nattaining it. In the nature of things, therefore, the ceremonial is\nbut temporary. When it puts man in possession of the real it\nvanishes. The shadow is absorbed in the substance. To compel man to\nfind salvation in the ceremonial, when he already possesses the real,\nis a retrogression and an injustice. The liberty of the Gospel places\nthe believer above the slavery of external ordinances and furnishes\nhim with a law--the law of a Christianised conscience--as to their\nuse or neglect.\n\n+I. That the ceremonial in religion can form no just basis for\nindividual condemnation.+--\"Let no man, therefore, judge you in\nmeat,\" etc. (ver. 16). The Mosaic law enforced certain injunctions\nconcerning eating and drinking. It gave minute directions as to the\nanimals that were to be eaten, making a distinction between the clean\nand the unclean. As to drinking, the priests were strictly forbidden\nthe use of wine on the eve of solemn public duty; and the vow of the\nNazarites required entire abstinence from the fruit of the vine. The\ntendency of the Jews was to multiply these distinctions and\nprohibitions, and to exalt them into undue importance. The reference\nto special days embraces the collective periodical feasts and sacred\nseasons of the Levitical ritual--the yearly, monthly, and weekly\ncelebrations. The term _holy day_ would include the festivals of the\nPassover, Pentecost, and Tabernacles respectively. The _new moon_\nalludes to the monthly celebrations mentioned (Num. x. 10,\nxxviii. 11). The _Sabbath days_ refer to the weekly solemnities and\nservices of the seventh day. The Jews assumed that the obligation of\nthese regulations was permanent, and their observance essential to\nthe salvation of the Christian believer. The Gospel teaches that the\nobservance or non-observance of these ceremonial rites is no just\nground for judging each other. We are not justified in condemning any\none for neglecting them, or to think any better of one who reverently\nobserves them. The essence of religion does not consist in the\noutward form, but in the inward spirit--not in the ceremonial, but in\nthe real. \"Which are a shadow of things to come; but the body is of\nChrist\" (ver. 17).\n\n+II. That the ceremonial in religion is typical of the real.+--\"Which\nare a shadow of things to come\" (ver. 17). Ceremonies have their\nplace in the culture of mankind, and in their legitimate sphere they\nare important. They are adapted to the infant stage in the\ndevelopment of the race. They sketch out the bold, rough outlines of\ntruths that are in a half-formed embryotic state. They are shadows\nprojected across the disc of our mental vision--of grand realities\nwhich are ever advancing into clearer view. They are typical of the\nexistence and certain manifestation of deeper and unchangeable\ntruths. They are predictive of things to come. The great yearly\nfestival of the Passover typified the forgiveness of sins by the\nshedding of the precious blood of Christ. The Pentecost, or feast of\nthe firstfruits, sets forth the sustenance and ample provision God\nhas made for the soul. The feast of Tabernacles was a significant\nreminder of God's providential guidance and fatherly care of human\nlife. The new moon, or first day of the month, with its usual\nservice, impressed on the minds of the people the truth that Jehovah,\nthe Ruler of the seasons, was the God of providence as well as of\ncreation. The weekly Sabbath, with its grateful rest, was expressly\ninstituted to commemorate the rest of God after the exercise of His\ncreative energy. Then the ordinary sacrifices were doubled, and the\nshewbread renewed, to indicate that God is the source and sustenance\nof our life. And so, the whole Mosaic law was a type and presage of\nthe Gospel. The spiritually enlightened look through the outward and\nvisible symbol to the great truth signified. The ceremonial is\nvaluable only as it conducts to the real.\n\n+III. That the ceremonial in religion is abolished and rendered\nnugatory by the real.+--\"But the body is of Christ\" (ver. 17). When\nthe substance appears, the shadow is swallowed up. As the shadows are\nto the body, so were the types and ceremonies of the law to Christ.\nThey were figures of evangelical blessings; but the truth, the\nreality, and abiding substance of them are found in the person, work,\nand salvation of Christ. All the grand truths prefigured by the\nancient Mosaic ritual are embodied in Christ. He gives the fullest\npersonal representation of Jehovah as the God of nature, providence,\nand redemption, at once the Author and the Ruler of the spiritual\nlife. In Christ, therefore, as the substance and Antitype, all shadow\nand symbol disappear. It is a dangerous infatuation to snatch at the\nshadow and cling to it when we may embrace and rest in the\nsufficiency of the substance. This is to restore the cancelled\nhandwriting and nullify the splendid triumph of the cross. In Christ\nthe ceremonial is effete, powerless, dead. He only is the changeless,\neternal, all-satisfying real.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Learn to exercise the spirit of Christian forbearance\nin external observances._ 2. _Be careful not to rest in the\nceremonial._ 3. _Christ alone can satisfy the deepest craving of the\nsoul._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 16, 17. _The Shadow and the Substance of the Sabbath._\n\n+I. The transient shadow which has passed away.+--The Sabbath as a\nsign between God and the Israelites, marking them off from all other\nnations by its observance--as a mere Jewish institution.\n\n+II. The permanent substance which cannot pass.+--\"The body is of\nChrist\"--the Spirit of Christ is the fulfilment of the law. To have\nthe Spirit of Christ is to have fulfilled the law. Apply this to\nSabbath observance.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 18, 19.\n\n_The Seductive Peril of a False Philosophy._\n\nThe apostle had warned the Colossians against the dangerous\nconsequences of attaching too much importance to the ceremonial in\nreligion, inasmuch as it was the substitution of the shadow for the\nsubstance. He now reveals the peril of being seduced by the\ntheological error that insisted on interposition of angel mediators,\nwhich was the preference of an inferior member to the Head. In this\nverse the writer distinctly warns the Colossian Christians against\nthe peril that threatened them and exposes the presumptuous\nspeculations of a false philosophy.\n\n+I. That the teachings of a false philosophy threaten to rob the\nbeliever of his most coveted reward.+--\"Let no man beguile you of\nyour reward\" (ver. 18). The Christian's career is a race; the present\nworld is the stadium, or racecourse; Christ is the umpire--the\ndispenser of rewards; eternal life is the victor's prize. The\nColossians were in a fair way for winning the prize; they had duly\nentered the lists; they were contending bravely; but the false\nteachers unhappily crossed their path, sought to impede their\nprogress, and to rob them of their reward. Error is subtle in its\ninfluence and pernicious in its effects. Many erroneous opinions may\npossibly be held without invalidating the salvation of the soul; but\nany error that in any degree depreciates our estimate of Christ and\ninterrupts the advance of our Christian life is a robbery. It may be\nsaid that the dangerous speculations of a false philosophy are\nconfined only to a few--the higher circle of thinkers. That is bad\nenough. But what is damaging the higher order of intellects will\nby-and-by reach the lower and work its mischief there. There is need\nfor uninterrupted vigilance.\n\n+II. That a false philosophy advocates the most presumptuous and\nperilous speculations.+--1. _It affects a spurious humility._ God is\nunknowable to the limited and uncertain powers of man; He is too high\nto be accessible, and too much absorbed in loftier matters to concern\nHimself about individual man. He can be approached only through\ninferior beings, and their assistance should be humbly sought. So it\nreasons. But this humility was voluntary, self-induced, and was in\nreality another form of high spiritual pride. Humility, when it\nbecomes self-conscious, ceases to have any value.\n\n2. _It invents a dangerous system of angelolatry._--\"Worshipping of\nangels\" (ver. 18). The Jews were fond of philosophising about the\ndignity, offices, and ranks of the angelic powers; and many held the\nopinion that they were messengers who presented our prayers to God.\nThe false teachers made the most of the authority they could derive\nfrom Jewish sources. They would tell how the law was given by the\ndisposition of angels--that angels conducted the Israelites through\nthe wilderness, and on various occasions appeared to patriarchs,\nprophets, and apostles. They would dwell on the weakness of man and\nhis distance from God and insist that homage should be paid to these\nangelic messengers as necessary mediators. Alas, how fatal has been\nthe influence through the centuries of this delusive angelolatry! The\napostle here condemns it, and thus sweeps away all ground for the\nChrist-dishonouring practices of invocation of saints and the worship\nof the Virgin.\n\n3. _It pretends to a knowledge of the mysterious._--\"Intruding into\nthose things which he hath not seen\" (ver. 18). Man is everywhere\ncircled with mystery. It is one of the saddest moments of life when\nhe first becomes conscious of the limitation of his own powers, and\nof his utter inability to fathom the mysteries which seem to invite\nhis inquiry while they baffle his attempt. Locke somewhere says, a\nworm in the drawer of a cabinet, shut up in its tiny enclosure, might\nas well pretend to guess at the construction of the vast universe, as\nmortal man ventures to speculate about the unseen world, except so\nfar as revealed for purposes of salvation. But fools will rush in\nwhere angels fear to tread. The boast of possessing a profound\nknowledge of the mysterious is one of the marks of a false philosophy.\n\n4. _It is inflated with an excessive pride._--\"Vainly puffed up by\nits fleshly mind\" (ver. 18). The carnal mind, which is enmity against\nGod, rises to a pitch of reckless daring in its inventions, and\nrevelling in its own creative genius, is vainly puffed up with a\nconceit of novelty and with a fancied superiority over the humbler\ndisciple. There is no state more dangerous than this or more\ndifficult to change. It is proof against every ordinary method of\nrecovery. The proud man lives \"half-way down the slope to hell.\" God\nonly can break the delusive snare, humble the soul, and revoke its\nthreatened doom.\n\n+III. That a false philosophy ignores the Divine source of all\nspiritual increase.+--1. _Christ is the great Head of the Church._ He\nis the centre of its unity, the primal source of its life, authority,\nand influence. He founded the Church, and gave it shape, symmetry,\nand durableness. He alone is supreme--the Alpha and Omega--the living\nand only Head. To ignore Him is to forfeit the substantial for the\nshadowy--the rock for the precarious footing of the crumbling shale.\n\n2. _The Church is vitally and essentially united to Christ._--\"From\nwhich all the body by joints and bands having nourishment ministered\nand knit together\" (ver. 19). As the members of the human frame are\njoined to the head, and derive life, motion, and sensation from it by\nmeans of arteries, veins, nerves, and other attachments, so the\nspiritual members of Christ are knit to Him by invisible joints and\nbands, and depend on Him for sustenance, character, and influence.\n\n3. _The vital union of the Church with Christ is the condition of\nspiritual increase._--\"Increaseth with the increase of God\" (ver.\n19). Christ is the Divine source of increase, and the Church can grow\nonly as it receives nourishment from Him. The growth corresponds with\nits nature--it is Divine; it increaseth with the increase of God.\nThere may be a morbid increase, as there may be an unnatural\nenlargement of some part of the human body; but it is only the\nexcessive inflation of a worldly splendour and ecclesiastical\npretension. Like Jonah's gourd, such a growth may disappear as\nrapidly as it came. The true increase is that which comes from God,\nof which He is the source, and active, sustaining influence, and\nwhich advances in harmony with His will and purpose. Such an increase\ncan be secured only by vital union with Christ.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _A false philosophy distorts the grandest truths._\n2. _A false philosophy substitutes for truth the most perilous\nspeculations._ 3. _Against the teachings of a false philosophy be\never on your guard._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 18. _Philosophic Vagaries_--\n\n  +I. Making pretence of superior knowledge.+\n\n +II. Affecting a spurious humility in worship.+\n\n+III. Inflated with pride.+\n\n +IV Dangerous to those sincerely seeking the truth.+\n\n\nVer. 19. _How a Church lives and grows._\n\n+I. The source of all the life of the body.+--Christ is the Head,\ntherefore the source from which all parts of the body partake of a\ncommon life. There are three symbols employed to represent the union\nof Christ with His Church--the vine, the body, and the marriage bond.\n\n+II. The various and harmonious action of all the parts.+--1. _From\nJesus comes all nourishment of the Divine life, even when we think\nthat we instruct or stimulate each other._ 2. _From Jesus comes the\noneness of the body._\n\n+III. The consequent increase of the whole.+--1. _The increase of\nlife in the Church, both as a community and in its separate elements,\ndepends on the harmonious activity of all the parts._ 2. _Is\ndependent of the activity of all, and sadly hampered when some are\nidle._ 3. _Depends on its vitality within and on the concurrent\nactivity of all its members._ 4. _Depends not only on the action of\nall its parts, but on their health and vitality._ 5. _There is an\nincrease which is not the increase of God._\n\n+IV. The personal hold of Jesus Christ which is the condition of all\nlife and growth.+--A firm, almost desperate clutch in which Love and\nNeed, like two hands, clasp Him and will not let Him go. Such\ntenacious grip implies the adhesive energy of the whole nature--the\nmind laying hold on truth, the heart clinging to love, the will\nsubmitting to authority.--_A. Maclaren._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20-23.\n\n_The Ceremonial in Religion Transitory and Unsatisfying._\n\nThe apostle returns again to the question of outward observances. He\nsaw the extreme danger with which the Colossians were threatened from\nthat source, and before turning to other matters in his epistle he\nlifts up a warning voice as for the last time.\n\n+I. That the ceremonial in religion is simply elementary.+--\"The\nrudiments of the world\" (ver. 20). The ceremonial in religion is the\nalphabetical stage, suited only to the world's infancy and to the\ncrudest condition in human development. It is the childish period\nwhich, with all its toys and pictures and gewgaws, is put away when\nspiritual manhood is attained. It is in its nature transitory and\nimperfect. It conveys knowledge but in part; and when that which is\nperfect is come, then that which is in part is done away.\n\n+II. The ceremonial in religion is unworthy the submission of the\nChristian believer.+--1. _The believer is liberated from the slavery\nof the ceremonial._ He is \"dead with Christ\" (ver. 20). As Christ by\nHis death cancelled the handwriting of ordinances that was against\nus, and vanquished Satan and all his hosts, so the believer, united\nwith Christ in His death, shares in the triumph of that death. He is\nfree; he rises into a new life, not under the tyranny of the old law,\nwith its demands and penalties, but in allegiance to Christ. He has\npassed into another sphere of existence. Worldly ordinances have\nceased to have any value for him, because his worldly life is ended.\nThey belong to the realm of the transitory and perishable; he has\nbeen translated into the realm of the free and the eternal.\n\n2. _To return to the ceremonial is to forfeit Christian\nliberty._--\"Why, as though living in the world, are ye subject to\nordinances?\" (ver. 20). It is to ignore all progress, to impugn the\nreality of the change wrought in the soul by spiritual baptism, to\nclose one's eyes to the altered state of things into which he has\nbeen introduced, and to submit again to the galling yoke of legal\nobservances and human traditions which never had Divine sanction and\nfrom which he had been emancipated. It is a denial of his\nChristianity to subject himself again to their tyranny--to return\nonce more to the dominion of the world. It is giving up the substance\nfor the shadow. It is a deliberate self-degradation to the most\nabject and pitiable slavery. It is supposed that many of the ascetic\npractices of the false teachers at Coloss\u00e6 were borrowed from the\nPythagoreans. Their philosophy was all on the side of prohibitions,\nabstinences, a forced celibacy, the unlawfulness of animal food, the\npossibility of attaining perfection by neglecting the body, under the\ndelusion that evil resided in matter.\n\n+III. The ceremonial in religion, in its main features, is\nuniversally the same.+--1. _It is the same in its dictatorial\nprohibitions._ \"Touch not; taste not; handle not\" (ver. 21). Such is\nthe arrogant language of a narrow, bigoted, and imperious\nsuperstition. It is an instruction to observe the gradual and\ninsidious manner in which it obtains the mastery over the human\nconscience. _Touch not:_ it prohibits even a light partaking of some\nmeat or drink. _Taste not:_ the prohibition is extended, so that it\nbecomes a crime even to taste, though refusing to eat. _Handle not:_\nto come in contact with the forbidden object, even in the handling,\nis a dreadful sacrilege. So is it ever with the clamorous demands of\na proud, assumptious ritualism. There is no end to the unauthorised\nprohibitions with which it seeks to bind the conscience.\n\n2. _It is the same in its undue exaltation of the external and\ntransitory._--\"Which all are to perish with the using\" (ver. 22). The\nvery eating and drinking of them destroys them. They are consumed in\nthe using; and in order to nourish us they themselves perish--a plain\nproof that all the benefit we receive from them respects only our\nphysical and mortal life. What folly is it to insist on a scrupulous\navoidance or observance of externals in order to salvation! You claim\nan affinity with the eternal, and it is unworthy of your glorious\ndestiny to be absorbed with the worship of the perishable.\n\n3. _It is the same in its human origin._--\"After the commandments and\ndoctrines of men\" (ver. 22). A commandment is a precept; a doctrine\nis the principle or truth on which it is based. The one furnishes a\ndirection, the other the reason on which the direction rests. The\nceremonial in religion is an accumulation of the commandments and\ndoctrines of men. Depending on human authority, it has no value in\nitself; and when it is made obligatory in order to human salvation,\nit is an impious insult to Christ and an intolerable servitude to\nman. The commandments of men, having no solid doctrines to rest upon,\nare transitory and illusory.\n\n+IV. The ceremonial in religion can never satisfy the many-sided\nwants of humanity.+--1. _It pretends to a wisdom it does not\npossess._ (1) In self-imposed methods of worship. \"Which things have,\nindeed, a show of wisdom in will-worship\" (ver. 23). It insists on\ncertain distinctions of meats and drinks; on abstinence from this or\nthat kind of food; on certain ritual observances as necessary in\norder to render due homage to God. The enthusiast for the ceremonial\nargues that he who only does what God positively demands does only\nwhat is common; but he who goes beyond, and submits to additional\nobservances, reaches a higher degree of saintliness. This is\nwill-worship, which has peculiar charms for the corrupt tendencies of\nour depraved nature. The works of supererogation it invents are\npleasanter than the holy, humble, adoring worship of God through the\nblood of the cross. (2) In the affectation of a spurious humility.\n\"In humility\" (ver. 23). It is a pretence of wisdom to renounce all\nworldly splendour and profess to live in poverty and seclusion. But\nat the root of this profession the most pernicious pride may lurk. A\nself-conscious and dramatically acted humility is the most degrading\nand detestable. (3) In an unjustifiable indifference to bodily wants.\n\"And neglecting of the body\" (ver. 23). The body is the temple of the\nHoly Ghost, and is to be honoured and cherished, and all its just\nwants satisfied, in order that its best powers may be employed in the\nservice of God. But the abuse of the body in starvation, painful\nmacerations, and squalid neglect is a folly and a sin.\n\n2. _It is of no value in preventing the indulgence of the\nflesh._--\"Not in any honour to the satisfying of the flesh\" (ver.\n23). The radical error of the ascetic lies in his belief that evil\nresides in matter. Not the body, but the soul, is the source of sin:\nthe body is depraved because the soul is depraved. Sin exists as a\nthought and conception of the heart before it exists as an act of the\nflesh. No amount of outward flagellation, or of abstinence from\nneedful food, will satisfy the natural wants of the body, or destroy\nits sinful tendencies. The attempt to be virtuous by afflicting the\nbody is like battering the outwork while the main citadel remains\nuntouched. The outward man can never satisfy the complicated needs of\nman's nature. First bring the soul into a right relation to God, and,\nwith the aid of Divine grace, it will control all the outgoings of\nthe flesh.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The ceremonial has its place in religion, and\ntherefore should not be despised._ 2. _The believer is raised above\nthe power of the ceremonial in religion, and therefore should not be\nsubject to it._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 20. _Principles above Rules; or, Wheat is better than\nBread._--Bread may feed us for the moment, but when once eaten it is\ngone for ever. Wheat on the contrary will bear seed, increase, and\nmultiply. Every rule is taken from a principle, as a loaf of bread is\nmade from wheat. It is right to enforce the principle rather than the\naction, because a good principle is sure of producing good actions.\nSeeming goodness is not better than religion; precept is not better\nthan principle.--_A. W. Hare._\n\n\nVers. 21-23. _Asceticism_--\n\n  +I. Multiplies unnecessary restriction.+\n\n +II. Is a species of self-worship.+\n\n+III. Is unjust to the body.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Seek those things that are above.+--Our Lord says that as He\nwas \"from above,\" so His disbelieving hearers were \"from beneath,\"\nwhich He interprets as \"of this world\" (John viii. 23, 24). The\napostle in like manner in the next verse opposes the \"things above\"\nto \"things on earth.\"\n\nVer. 3. +Your life is hid with Christ in God.+--You are much more\nlikely to have it kept pure by having it in Christ than by setting\nround it a hedge of \"Thou shalt\" and \"Thou shalt not.\"\n\nVer. 5. +Mortify therefore your members which are upon the\nearth.+--\"Quite so!\" the heretic teacher might say; \"this is just\nwhat we ourselves advise.\" \"Yes,\" rejoins the apostle; \"but let us\nknow what it is we are to slaughter.\" It is no hewing and hacking of\nthe body, but what is as much more difficult as it is noble--the\nexcision or eradication of evil thoughts (Matt. xv. 19, 20).\n+Inordinate affection, evil concupiscence.+--R.V. \"passion, evil\ndesire.\" The former of these seems to indicate the corrupt conditions\nfrom which the latter springs. +Covetousness, which is\nidolatry.+--\"Covetousness,\" or \"having more.\" There is many a man,\nbeside the clown in _Twelfth Night,_ who says, \"I would not have you\nto think my _desire of having_ is the sin of covetousness.\" The full\ndrag can afford to sacrifice (Hab. i. 16).\n\nVer. 8. +Anger, wrath.+--The former is the smouldering fire, the\nlatter the fierce out-leaping flame. +Malice, blasphemy.+--The former\nis the vicious disposition, the latter the manifestation of it in\nspeech that is meant to inflict injury. +Filthy communication+--One\nword in the original; R.V. gives it as \"shameful speaking.\" The word\ndoes not occur again in the New Testament. It means scurrilous or\nobscene speech. A glimpse of Eastern life helps us to understand the\nfrequent injunctions as to restraint of the tongue in the New\nTestament. Dr. Norman Macleod says: \"In vehemence of gesticulation,\nin genuine power of lip and lung to fill the air with a roar of\nincomprehensible exclamations, nothing on earth, so long as the body\nretains its present arrangement of muscles and nervous vitality, can\nsurpass the Egyptians and their language.\" But the same thing is\nwitnessed of other Eastern tongues.\n\nVer. 9. +Lie not one to another.+--\"Very elementary teaching,\" we\nshould be inclined to say. Whether there was any special tendency to\nthis vice in the Colossian converts we cannot know.\n\nVer. 12. +Bowels of mercies.+--R.V. \"a heart of compassion.\" A case\nof concrete for abstract. The physical effect of pity lies at the\nbottom of the phrase.\n\nVer. 13. +Forbearing one another, and forgiving one\nanother.+--Literally it would be, \"Bearing with one another, and\ndealing graciously with yourselves\"; for not only the verbs but the\npronouns also change with a delicate shade of meaning. Forbearance,\nlike a peace-making angel, passes to and fro between the incensed\nparties. +Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye.+--The pattern of\nall graciousness is Christ. See His parable (Matt. xviii. 33).\n\nVer. 14. +Above all these things put on charity.+--Reminding us of\nthe exalted place which the queenly virtue holds in St. Paul's triad.\nAs the outermost dress of an Oriental was perhaps that which was most\nserviceable, so whatever else is put on, \"above everything\" love must\nbe remembered. +Which is the bond of perfectness.+--\"That in which\nall the virtues are so bound together that perfection is the result\nand not one of them is wanting to that perfection\" (_Grimm_).\n\nVer. 15. +And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.+--R.V.\nmargin, \"arbitrate.\" We met the verb for \"rule\" in ch. ii. 18, but\nwith a prefix \"against.\" \"Let the peace of God be umpire,\" says the\napostle, in every case of uncertainty and hesitation. He who slept on\nGalilee's stormy waters had but to say, \"Peace! Be still!\" and there\nwas a great calm. He said, \"My peace I leave with you\"; and reckless\nof consequences the men who received it amazed the authorities by the\nboldness of their question, \"Whether it be right in the sight of God\nto hearken unto you more than unto God, judge ye\" (Acts iv. 19).\n\nVer. 16. +Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly.+--The word for\n\"dwell in\" is the same which assures the believer of an indwelling\npower which shall quicken the mortal body, and which describes the\nDivine act of grace. \"I will dwell in them.\" +In psalms and hymns and\nspiritual songs.+--See on Eph. v. 18, 19. The same composition may be\neither psalm, hymn, or spiritual song. The first may be a technical\nword, as in Luke xxiv. 44. It indicates a song accompanied by a\nstringed instrument. A hymn is a song in praise of some one, exalting\nthe character and attributes. The third term is the most\ncomprehensive, and to it, with good reason, St. Paul prefixes\n\"spiritual.\" Bacchanalian songs were common enough about Coloss\u00e6 with\ntheir noisy, unhallowed mirth. St. Paul, like St. James, would not\nobject to his readers being merry if the spiritual joys--\n\n                \"From out their hearts arise\n     And speak and sparkle in their eyes\n     And vibrate on their tongues.\"\n\nVer. 18. +As it is fit in the Lord.+--See Eph. v. 22. The feeling of\npropriety St. Paul emphasises here and limits it \"in the Lord.\"\n\nVer. 19. +Be not bitter against them.+--As love in its most degraded\nform might alternate with paroxysms of anger, St. Paul uses the\nnobler word for Christian love which casts out hatred as well as fear.\n\nVer. 20. +For this is well-pleasing.+--Eph. vi. 1: \"This is right.\"\nWhat in Ephesians is regarded as an equitable due from child to\nparent is here looked at in another light. The best commentary is\nLuke ii. 51, 52. The child Jesus was _subject_ to his parents and\nincreased _in favour with God._\n\nVer. 21. +Fathers, provoke not your children.+--The word for\n\"provoke\" is not the same as in Eph. vi. 4. There the word is \"do not\nexasperate.\" Here it is \"do not irritate.\" The difficulty of\ndiscriminating between them may perhaps show how near the original\nwords are in meaning. \"Irritation is the first consequence of being\ntoo exacting with children, and irritation leads to moroseness\"\n(_Lightfoot_). +Lest they be discouraged.+--Broken-spirited. It is a\nsad sight to see a man for whom the stress of life has been too much,\nbut to see a child cowed and dejected--the world has no sadder\nspectacle.\n\nVer. 23. +Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily.+--Eph. vi. 7, \"With good\nwill doing service.\" R.V. gives the distinction which is obliterated\nby \"do, do\" of A.V. \"Whatsoever ye do, work heartily\" (margin, \"from\nthe soul\").\n\nVer. 25. +He that doeth wrong.+--The participle of the original\npoints to the habitual practice of wrong-doing. +There is no respect\nof persons.+--In the Ephesian letter this consideration is urged upon\nthe masters as it is here upon the slaves. Both are amenable to the\nsame authority.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_The Higher Aspirations of the Soul._\n\nYou have seen the clouds gather in the sky and settle on the hills.\nThe thunder mutters, the rain falls, and the scene is one of storm,\nconfusion, and darkness. Suddenly the whole aspect of the heavens is\nchanged. A blaze of light springs up among the hills; the storm\nceases; the gloom is swept away; and the outlook is one of\ntranquillity, of triumph, and of splendour. Similar to this is the\nstriking change between the close of the last chapter of this epistle\nand the beginning of the present one. The grave warnings against the\nsombre errors of a false philosophy, and the supposed meritorious\ntorturings of the body, which occupy a considerable part of the\nsecond chapter, give place in the opening of the third chapter to a\nluminous and inspiring picture of the glorious privileges and lofty\ndestiny of the believing soul. These verses teach that, being raised\nby Christ into newness of life, the soul should aspire to the\nattainment of the highest blessings.\n\n+I. The distinguished relation in which the believing soul stands to\nChrist.+--\"Risen with Christ\" (ver. 1).\n\n1. _This relation implies the living union of the soul with\nChrist._--The apostle had spoken of the soul as dying with Christ, as\nburied with Him, as quickened with Him; and now he advances another\nstep, and declares that it is also raised with Him. The union between\nthe believer and Christ was so complete that he participates with\nChrist in all He has done. \"Therefore we are buried with Him by\nbaptism into death; that like as Christ was raised up from the dead\nby the glory of the Father, even so we also should walk in newness of\nlife\" (Rom. vi. 4). As the dead body of the man cast into the\nsepulchre of Elisha revived and stood up the moment it touched the\nbones of the prophet (2 Kings xiii. 21), so the soul, dead in\ntrespasses and sins, is quickened by believing contact with Christ,\nand rises into a higher and more glorious life.\n\n2. _This relation indicates the nature and tendencies of the\nsoul._--\"Risen with Christ: . . . set your affections on things\nabove, not on things on the earth\" (vers. 1, 2). The change involved\nin union with Christ affects man's whole nature. It affects not only\nhis practical conduct, but also his intellectual conceptions. He is\ntranslated from earth to heaven; and with this translation his point\nof view is altered, his standard of judgment wholly changed. His\naspirations spurn the earthly and transitory, and soar towards the\nheavenly and eternal. The flies that sport upon the summer stream,\nwhile they plunge their bodies in the water, are careful not to wet\ntheir wings, so that they may fly again into the sunny air. So, while\nwe are necessarily immersed in \"things on the earth,\" we should take\nheed that the wings of our soul are not so clogged as to retard our\nflight to heaven.\n\n+II. The sublime objects of the soul's higher aspirations.+--\"Things\nabove.\" (ver. 2).\n\n1. _Christ is above._--\"Where Christ sitteth on the right hand of\nGod\" (ver. 1). This indicates that Christ is exalted to the highest\ndignity. He is above all angelic powers, whatever their position or\nrank. The right hand of God also indicates the right hand of power.\nThence Christ wields all the authority and power of universal\ngovernment. \"Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour.\" He\nreigns on high in order to carry out to a glorious consummation the\nwork He accomplished on the cross. To Him all hearts turn for love\nand blessedness, as the flowers turn to the sun. The rudiments of the\nworld have no longer any power to satisfy. The soul ascends to\nheaven, for where the treasure is there will be the heart also; and\nthe flow of time is rapidly hurrying us on to the moment when we\nshall be--\n\n        \"Caught up to share\n     The triumph of our Lord.\"\n\n2. _The source of the greatest spiritual blessings is above._--When\nChrist ascended into the heavens He received gifts for men; and from\nHis lofty throne He delights to distribute those gifts to the needy\nsons of men. Thence we receive pardon, the conscious favour of God,\nholiness of character, comfort in every time of distress, and hope to\nlight the pathway of the future. Of all the blessings laid up for us\nabove, the highest and the best is that which in itself includes all\nothers--the gift of the Holy Ghost. All, all we want is there.\n\n3. _The heavenly home is above._--There is the abode of peace and\npurity; there temptation has no power, and suffering and sorrow can\nnever enter; there the Saviour reveals His glories and diffuses the\njoy of His radiant presence; there all the members of the Father's\nfamily assemble from every part of the globe, never more to separate.\nThe soul, burdened with the cares of life, and troubled with\nmultiplied disappointments, yearns for the rest of the heavenly home.\nThe things on the earth can never satisfy the wants of the soul; they\nare unsuited to it; they are beneath it; and, liberated from their\ntrammels by the resurrection power of the Christ, it seeks its true\nhappiness above the stars.\n\n+III. The paramount duty of the soul to aspire to the highest\ngood.+--Seek, set \"your affections on things above\" (ver. 1). A\nsimilar expression repeated for the emphasis. You are not only to\n_seek_ heaven, but also to _think_ heaven. The understanding must be\nengaged in duly estimating the value of heavenly things, the will in\npreferring them above all things earthly, the affections in embracing\nthem as the objects to be most evidently desired and loved; in fact,\nall the powers of the soul must be constantly exercised in the\nsearch. The soul, raised from the death of sin, is ever responding to\nthe attractive influence of its risen Lord. \"Being thus already\nrisen, every motion of grace is the struggle of the soul for the\nfinal consummation--the bird is caged, but the wings are free to\nflutter within their prison.\" The soul is now willing, cheerfully and\nfaithfully, to follow the call of duty, whatever it may entail.\n\n     \"Oft where she leads, thy blood must mark thy footsteps;\n      Oft where she leads, thy head must bear the storm,\n      And thy shrunk form endure heat, cold, and hunger;\n      But she will guide thee up to noble heights,\n      Which he who gains seems native of the sky;\n      While earthly things lie stretched beneath his feet,\n      Diminished, shrunk, and valueless.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The soul is endowed with vast powers and capable of\nthe highest destiny._ 2. _It is sad to witness thousands whose souls\nrise no higher than the things on the earth._ 3. _The soul can\nrealise its highest aspirations only as it is risen with Christ._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _Seeking the Things Above._\n\n+I. Contemplate the sublime object+--the state of future blessedness\nof believers. 1. _The perfection of character they exhibit._ 2. _The\nexercises in which they shall be engaged._ 3. _The happiness in which\nthey participate._ 4. _The friendships they share._\n\n+II. The conduct enjoined upon us.+--\"Seek those things.\" 1. _Implies\nbelief in their existence._ 2. _That attention is directed much\ntowards them._ 3. _Set our attachment upon them._ 4. _Use diligent\nand persevering exertions to obtain them._\n\n+III. Motives to this conduct.+--1. _A regard to consistency._\n2. _The reasonableness of the duty._ 3. _Present advantages._\n4. _Because they are the scene in which are displayed Christ's\npersonal presence and glory._\n\n\n_Risen with Christ._\n\n  +I. Christianity begins where everything else ends: it begins with\n      death.+\n\n +II. After dying to sin we are to begin to live in good earnest.+\n\n+III. The Christian toils, labours, and tasks his mind for the glory\n      of God and the good of others.+\n\n +IV. The true Christian seeks the things which are\n      above.+--1. _Holiness._ 2. _Love._ 3. _Peace._\n      4. _Truth.--A. W. Hare._\n\n\n_The New Life._\n\n+I. There is a great difference between the new life and the\nold.+--1. _In our feelings._ 2. _Principles._ 3. _Aims._\n4. _Methods._ 5. _Conduct._ 6. _Thoughts._ 7. _Company._\n8. _Influence._\n\n+II. This difference should lead us to think much of heaven and to\nseek after heavenly things.+--1. _To know all we can about heaven._\n2. _To prepare all we can for heaven._ 3. _To take all we can with us\nto heaven.--Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3, 4.\n\n_The Present Condition and Future Glory of Life in Christ._\n\nThe Christian life has a twofold aspect. Outwardly it is shorn of all\nsplendours, and to the eye of the world appears a life of weakness,\nignominy, and suffering; but inwardly it is radiant with Divine light\nand pervaded with a heavenly peace. The believer is often as a\nmonarch in the disguise of a beggar. The world knows nothing of the\nnew life of which he has become possessed, and the new life must know\nnothing of the world. Its aspirations are directed towards higher\nthings. The relish for earthly things is gone.\n\n+I. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ\ninvolves a new relation to outward things.+--\"For ye are dead\" (ver.\n3). There was a time when he not only lived in the world, but _to_\nthe world and _for_ the world. He was wholly captivated and absorbed\nin the pursuits and enjoyments of the carnal mind. But now, while\nstill in the world, he is dead to its charms and to its ordinances.\nAll the mainsprings of activity are changed. He is risen with Christ\nand shares the power of His resurrection life. Man lives where He\nloves, and, having experienced so complete a change, his affections\nare now fixed on things above, and his life is bound up in the love\nand service of Christ, who sitteth on the right hand of God. He is\ndead because he is crucified with Christ, and hath put off the old\nman--the old fleshly nature--with his deeds. This death involves a\nrenunciation of all the ceremonial observances against which the\napostle so faithfully warned in the preceding chapter--the Mosaic\nritual, the vain philosophy, the angelolatry, the pride of the\nfleshly mind, the traditions and commandments of men, and all the\npernicious doctrines of the false teachers. He is dead to the past\nand realising the beating of a new life within him, he enters upon a\nbrighter and loftier career.\n\n+II. That the present condition of the believer's life in Christ is\none of concealment from the outward world.+--1. _It is hid._ \"Your\nlife is hid\" (ver. 3). All life is hid. Its origin is a profound\nmystery. The botanist fails to discover it as he picks his plant into\nmicroscopic atoms. The scalpel of the anatomist has not pierced its\ndark domain and laid bare its hiding-place. Its presence is known\nonly by its effects. So is it with the new life of the soul. It is\nhid from the world. It has a glory and a power of its own; but the\nworld is incapable of appreciating either. It is not a life of vulgar\ndisplay and noisy demonstration. It is gentle, quiet, and retiring,\nsometimes obscured by a tempest of persecution and suffering. It is\nsometimes partially hidden to the believer himself when assailed by\ntemptations and oppressed by the weight of heavy chastisements. Yet\nthat hidden life is the power that shall shake and transform the\nworld.\n\n2. _It is hid with Christ._--\"Your life is hid with Christ\" (ver. 3).\nChrist Himself was hidden when on earth. To the undiscerning, He was\na root out of a dry ground, possessing neither form nor comeliness.\nEven now Christ is hidden to the worldly mind; and the believer's\nlife is hidden with Him, as a river, concealed for a time in a hidden\nchannel, flows on beneath and out of sight. This hiding of the\nbeliever's life with Christ indicates (1) _Dependence._ It is not hid\nwith the believer himself. He derives it from Christ, as the great\nfontal source of all life; and on Him he depends for its constant\nsupply and nourishment. The springs of this life abide when every\nother channel of supply is dry and its fount exhausted. We must wait\non Christ for daily supplies of living water. It indicates\n(2) _Security._ Our life is safer in Christ's keeping than it could\nbe in our own. Man was once entrusted with the gift of a glorious\nlife, and he lost it. But in the hands of Christ our life is out of\nall danger. It is secure amid the conflicts of time, the subtle\ntemptations of the world, and the wild rage of demons.\n\n3. _It is hid in the depths of the Godhead._--\"Your life is hid with\nChrist in God\" (ver. 3). A grand but unfathomable truth! It is not\n_lost_ in the abyss of Deity, as the mystic or pantheist would teach;\nbut it is so hid as to retain its own conscious individuality, while\nsharing in the boundless life of God. It is a gift from God, bestowed\nthrough Christ the great Mediator, created by the power and energy of\nthe Holy Ghost; so that the nature, manner, and destiny of the gift\nare hidden in God through the mediation of His Son. \"God hath given\nunto us eternal life, and this life is in His Son.\" The exercise of\nfaith brings the soul into living union with the glorious Trinity.\n\n+III. That the believer's life in Christ will, in the future, be\nmanifested in ineffable glory.+--1. _There will be a signal\nmanifestation of Christ in the future._ \"When Christ, who is our\nlife, shall appear\" (ver. 4). Christ is now invisible to His people\nand to the world. He withdrew from the scene of His suffering\nministry, entered the serene heights of heaven, and there,\nall-potent, is carrying on His high purposes of grace and salvation.\nBut by-and-by--not at the bidding of the impatient prophets, who dare\nto fix the Lord a time, and, in their too realistic interpretation of\nHis Word, consider His second coming as the grand and only specific\nfor the world's evils--in His own good time, to the joy of His people\nand the dismay of His foes, He will come in overwhelming glory.\n\n2. _The believer will share in the ineffable glory of that\nmanifestation._--\"Then shall ye also appear with Him in glory\" (ver.\n4). (1) This implies _public recognition._ The believer, obscure and\ndespised on earth, is acknowledged before the universe as related to\nChrist by the dearest ties and as deriving his life from Him. All the\nends of secrecy are answered. The hidden is revealed. The baffled,\npersecuted, unappreciated, afflicted people of God are for ever\nvindicated. (2) This also implies a _personal participation_ in the\nsplendour of Christ's triumph and in the bliss of His character.\n\"With Him in glory.\" Glory is a comprehensive term, and not easily\ndefined. But whether we regard it as expressive of external and\nvisible splendour, or as describing a condition of unutterable and\nendless felicity, in either sense, or both, the believer shares it\nwith his exultant Lord. Rapture of raptures! to see Jesus, to be with\nHim, and to live in the sunshine of His smile for ever!\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The believer's life in Christ is a hidden, but a real\nlife._ 2. _Bear patiently the trials of the present life._ 3. _The\nglory of the believer's future life will more than recompense him for\nthe troubles of the present._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 3. _Death and Life with Christ._\n\n+I. Ye are dead.+--1. _In your original state of unconcern and\nunbelief ye are dead._ 2. _By the Holy Ghost you are made to\nrecognise this death as real and to acquiesce in it as just._ 3. _You\ncontinue to be thus dead with Christ._\n\n+II. Your life is hid with Christ.+--1. _As partakers of His right to\nlive._ 2. _In respect of the new spirit of your life._ 3. _Your life\nbeing with Christ must be where He is._ In God as its source, its\ncentre, its pattern. 4. _This life with Christ is hid._ For security;\nin its intimacy; as separated from the world; is not to be always\nhidden (ver. 4).--_R. S. Candlish._\n\n\nVer. 4. _Christ our Life._\n\n+I. The vital principle recognised.+--\"Christ who is our life.\"\n1. _The life is spiritual in its nature._ 2. _Eternal in its\nduration._\n\n+II. The splendid spectacle predicted.+--\"Christ shall appear.\"\n\n1. _The manner._--In the glory of His Father, with His angels.\n\n2. _The purpose._--To judge the quick and the dead.\n\n+III. The glorious hope awakened.+--\"Then shall ye appear with Him in\nglory.\" 1. _The great hope of the Christian life is that one day we\nshall be with Christ._ 2. _That we shall participate in Christ's\nglory._ 3. _These words are full of comfort to those drawing near to\ndeath.--J. T. Woodhouse._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-9.\n\n_Mortification of the Sinful Principle in Man._\n\nPractice follows doctrine. The genuineness of a precept is tested by\nits adaptability to the practical working out of life's problem. The\napostle has laid down his doctrine clearly and emphatically, and now\nhe proceeds to enforce the use of the best methods for securing the\nhighest degree of personal holiness. These methods are in perfect\nharmony with the exalted experience into which the believer is\nintroduced when he is risen with Christ and participates in that\nglorious life which is hid with Christ in God.\n\n+I. That the sinful principle in man has an active outward\ndevelopment.+--1. _It is mundane in its tendencies._ \"Your members\nwhich are upon the earth\" (ver. 5). It is earthly, sensual, depraved.\nIt teaches the soul to grovel when it ought to soar. It is in\nsympathy with the whole mass of earthly things--riches, honour,\npleasure, fame--which stand opposed to the higher aspirations of the\nsoul, whose affection is fixed on things above.\n\n2. _It is manifested in acts of gross sensuality._--\"Fornication,\nuncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence\" (ver. 5). A\nrevolting catalogue, a loathsome index to the festering mass of\ncorruption within! A rake's progress has been portrayed by the genius\nof a Hogarth; but where is the pencil that can delineate the dark\nprogress of evil? For there is an order observed in its abhorrent\ndevelopment. The mischief begins in evil concupiscence; yielding to\nthe first unholy impulse, it goes on to lustful and inordinate\naffection; proceeds to uncleanness--pollutions which follow on the\ntwo preceding vices; and ends in fornication, both in its ordinary\nmeaning and in that of adultery. Possibly the apostle had reference\nto the rites of Bacchus and Cybele, which were wont to be celebrated\nwith many peculiar impurities in Phrygia, of which Coloss\u00e6, Laodicea,\nand Hierapolis were cities, and which so deeply depraved the morals\nof the people. The outgoings of evil are not less rampant and\nshocking in modern times. Evil is the same in principle everywhere.\n\n3. _It is recognised by a debasing idolatry._--\"And covetousness,\nwhich is idolatry\" (ver. 5). Covetousness is a sin that comes the\nearliest into the human heart and is the last and most difficult to\nbe driven out. It is an insatiable lust after material\npossessions--the greed of getting more for the sake of more, till\noften the brain is turned and the heart withered. The apostle brands\nit with the significant term \"idolatry.\" With the covetous man his\nidol is his gold, which, in his eyes, answereth all things; his soul\nis the shrine where the idol is set up; and the worship which he owes\nto God is transferred to mammon. Avarice is the seed of the most\nhateful and outrageous vices. The exhortation to mortify the flesh is\npressed home by reminding them of the certainty of the Divine wrath\nwhich would overtake the contumacious and disobedient.\n\n+II. That the active outgoings of the sinful principle in man call\nfor the infliction of Divine vengeance.+--The wrath of God is not a\nmalignant, unreasoning passion, like that with which we are familiar\namong men. Nor is it a strong figure of speech, into which the\nmaudlin philosophers of the day would fain resolve it. It is an awful\nreality. It is not merely a thing of the past, to the terrible havoc\nof which history bears faithful and suggestive testimony. It is the\nwrath to come and will be \"revealed from heaven against all\nungodliness and unrighteousness of men.\" It is not inconsistent with\ninfinite love, but is an impressive form in which the Divine\nrighteousness expresses itself against all disobedient and impenitent\nworkers of iniquity.\n\n+III. That the indulgence of the sinful principle in man is\ninconsistent with the new life he has in Christ.+--There was a time\nwhen the sins here enumerated formed the atmosphere in which the\nColossians lived, moved, and breathed; they represented the condition\nof their life and the character of their practice; they lived and\nwalked in sin. But that time was past. A great change had taken\nplace. They were surrounded by a purer atmosphere; they lived in\nanother world; they aspired to a nobler destiny. To return to the\nvices and idolatries of their former life was utterly inconsistent\nwith their exalted character; it was unworthy of the high and holy\nvocation wherewith they were called. It is salutary to be reminded\nnow and then of our former life of sin. It magnifies the grace of God\nin the great change He has wrought. It warns against the danger of\nbeing drawn into old habits and associations. It stimulates the\nheavenward tendencies of the new life.\n\n+IV. That the sinful principle in man is the source of the most\nmalignant passions.+--The former classification embraced sins which\nrelated more especially to self; this includes sins which have a\nbearing upon others.\n\n1. _There are sins of the heart and temper._--\"Anger, wrath, malice\"\n(ver. 8). There is an anger which is a righteous indignation against\nwrong, and which is so far justifiable and sinless. It is the anger\nwithout cause or beyond cause, and which degenerates into a bitter\nfeeling of revenge, that is here condemned. Wrath is the fierce\nebullition of anger, expressed with ungovernable passion; and is at\nall times unseemly and unlawful. Malice is anger long cherished,\nuntil it becomes a settled habit of mind. It involves hatred, secret\nenvy, desire of revenge and retaliation, and universal ill-will\ntowards others. It is altogether a diabolical passion. If anger\nexceeds its bounds, it becomes wrath; if wrath lies brooding in the\nbosom, it degenerates into malice.\n\n2. _There are sins of the tongue._--\"Blasphemy, filthy communication\nout of your mouth. Lie not one to another\" (vers. 8, 9). Blasphemy in\na lower sense includes all calumny, evil-speaking, railing,\nslandering, scoffing, ridiculing--all vile insinuations, whether\nagainst God or man. Filthy communication refers to all foul-mouthed\nabuse, indelicate illusions, details of vicious scenes, and whatever\nhurts the feelings and shocks the sense of propriety rather than\ninjures the character. Lying is also here condemned. Wherever this\nvice prevails society is rotten to the core. The almost total want of\ntruthfulness is one of the saddest features of the moral condition of\nheathendom. Lying basely violates the gift of speech, saps the\nfoundation of human intercourse, and overturns the first principles\nof morals. That which is spoken in ignorance, though untrue, is not a\nlie; but to equivocate, to speak so as to lead another to a false\nconclusion, is to lie as really as if the speaker deliberately stated\nwhat he knew was a falsehood. All these sins are directly opposed to\nthat ingenuous sincerity which is the leading characteristic of the\nnew life in Christ.\n\n+V. That the sinful principle in man, and all its outgoings, must be\nwholly renounced and resolutely mortified.+--\"But now ye also put off\nall these\" (ver. 8). \"Mortify, therefore, your members\" (ver. 5).\nThere is much force in the word \"therefore.\" Since ye are dead with\nChrist and are risen with Him, since ye possess a glorious life hid\nwith Christ in God, _therefore_ mortify--put to death the members of\nyour earthly and corrupt nature, and encourage the expansion of that\npure, beauteous, and exalted life which ye have received through the\nfaith of the operation of God. Not that we are to kill or mutilate\nthe members of the body that have been the instruments of sin, but to\ncrucify the interior vices of the mind and will. It is wholly a moral\nprocess; the incipient inclination to sin must be restrained,\ndeadened, crushed. In order to this there must be the total\nrenunciation of all sin. \"But now ye also put off all these.\" The\nverb is imperative and the exhortation emphatic. There must be not\nonly an abstinence from open vice--heathen morality insists on as\nmuch as this--but there must be the putting away of every secret evil\npassion--removing it out of sight as we would remove a dead body to\nburial. As the prince casts off the coarse garment in which he has\nbeen disguised and stands forth in an apparel befitting his rank and\ndignity, so the believer is to divest himself of the unsightly and\nfilthy garment of the old man and allow the new man to appear adorned\nwith heavenly magnificence and bright with the inextinguishable\nlustre of a Divine spiritual life.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The sinful principle in man is a great power._\n2. _The new spiritual life in the believer is in ceaseless antagonism\nwith the old._ 3. _The constant duty of the believer is to subdue and\ndestroy the sinful principle._ 4. _In fulfilling this duty all the\npowers of good are on his side._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 5. _Covetousness, which is Idolatry._\n\n+I. In its essence.+--It is putting the creature in the place of the\nCreator, and giving it the worship due to God alone.\n\n+II. In its practice.+--Body and soul are consecrated to the service\nof mammon.\n\n+III. In its punishment.+--Idolatry is a sin peculiarly obnoxious to\nGod--is not merely the breach of His law, but treason against His\ngovernment. God deprives the covetous of his idol at last, and sends\nhim treasureless into the unseen world, wrecked and ruined, to endure\nthe wrath to come.--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\nVer. 6. _The Wrath of God._--\n\n  +I. A reality to be dreaded.+\n\n +II. Is roused by the workings of iniquity.+\n\n+III. Will overtake the disobedient.+\n\n\nVers. 7-9. _The New Life_--\n\n  +I. Must break thoroughly away from the old life of sin.+\n\n +II. Is evident in temper and speech.+\n\n+III. Is the interpretation of all that is pure and true.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-11.\n\n_The New Spiritual Nature._\n\nIn the primitive Church it was customary for the new converts, after\nputting aside their heathenish vestments, to array themselves in\nwhite garments, that they might indicate, in the most public manner,\nthe great change which had taken place. It was perhaps in allusion to\nthis custom that the apostle bases his exhortation. A courtier would\nnot dare to insult his sovereign by appearing before him in squalid\nand tattered garments but would be specially studious to attire\nhimself in a dress every way suited to his rank and character. So,\nthe believer would not dishonour God and disgrace the religion he has\nembraced by exhibiting the vices and passions that characterised his\nformer unrenewed state but is the more solicitous to magnify the\ngrace of God in a life of outward consistency and purity. In the\nformer verses the writer has insisted on sanctification in its\nnegative aspect--the mortification of sin, the putting off the old\nman. In these words, he deals with sanctification on its positive\nside, and shows that it is the putting on the new spiritual nature,\nin which the believer is ever advancing to a higher knowledge.\nObserve:--\n\n+I. That the possession of the new spiritual nature implies a\ncomplete change of the whole man.+--\"Seeing that ye have put off the\nold man, with his deeds, and have put on the new man\" (vers. 9, 10).\nThe believer has a twofold moral personality. There is in him the old\nman--the sinful principle; and there is in him also the new--the\nGod-like, spiritual nature. Whatever we bring with us from the womb\nof our mother is the old man; whatever we receive by the grace of the\nHoly Spirit is the new. In the great spiritual transformation\nexperienced by every believer there is a twofold and coincident\noperation--the putting off of the old and the putting on of the new;\nthere is an act of renunciation and unclothing and an act of\nreception and investment. This change is complete; it pervades the\nwhole man, ruling every power, fashioning the character, and\ninspiring the entire life. This change is Divine in its origin and\noutworking. Man has no power of himself to effect the renewal of his\nnature. It is \"not of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man,\nbut of God.\" It is the triumph of Divine grace, and to God only all\npraise is due.\n\n+II. That the new spiritual nature is ever advancing to a higher\nknowledge.+--\"Which is renewed in knowledge\" (ver. 10), which is ever\nbeing renewed unto perfect knowledge (_Lightfoot_). The present tense\nis used, and it is indicated that the new spiritual nature does not\nreach perfection at once but is in a state of growth and development.\nThe realisation of the new life in man is bounded by the amount and\ncharacter of the knowledge he possesses, and by the clearness and\ntenacity with which that knowledge is apprehended and maintained. The\nexperience may be below the actual knowledge possessed but cannot be\nbeyond it. Whatever degree of holiness the soul attains, it is still\nsusceptible of advancement. The process of renewal is continually\ngoing on, as the statue grows, under the chisel of the sculptor, into\na more perfect form of beauty. The knowledge referred to is the true\nknowledge of Christ as opposed to the false knowledge of the\nheretical teachers. The process of renewal increases the capacity of\nthe believing soul to appreciate the knowledge of Divine and heavenly\nrealities, and the increase in the knowledge of the highest things\nreacts advantageously on the renewed nature. The higher we ascend in\nthe knowledge of God, the more like Him do we become.\n\n+III. That the new spiritual nature is refashioned after the most\nperfect model.+--\"After the image of Him that created him\" (ver. 10).\nMan was originally created in the image of God, that image consisting\nin a moral resemblance--\"in righteousness and true holiness.\" Christ\nis Himself \"the image of the invisible God,\" and conformity to Him is\nthe pattern of our renewal, the all-perfect standard towards which we\nare continually to approximate. The moral image which we lost in the\nfall of the first Adam is more than regained in the second Adam.\nRedemption places man on a higher platform than he would have\noccupied if he had remained the moral condition in which he was\noriginally created. It brings him nearer to God, gives him a broader\nand more sympathetic insight into the Divine character and purposes,\nand makes him more like God. In the spiritual region into which the\nbeliever in Christ is transferred all minor distinctions vanish. Not\nonly do they not exist, they cannot exist. It is a region to which\nthey are utterly unsuited and cannot therefore be recognised.\n\n+IV. That the new spiritual nature is superior to all earthly\ndistinctions.+--1. _It is superior to all national distinctions._\n\"Where there is neither Greek nor Jew\" (ver. 11). To the Jew the\nwhole world was divided into two classes: Jews and Gentiles--the\nprivileged and unprivileged portions of mankind; religious\nprerogative being taken as the line of demarcation. But such a narrow\ndistinction is antagonistic to the broad and generous spirit of the\nGospel. Let a man be but renewed in Christ Jesus, and it inquires not\nas to what country he belongs.\n\n2. _It is superior to all ritualistic distinctions._--\"Circumcision\nnor uncircumcision\" (ver. 11). It matters not whether a man is born\nin a Christian country and brought up in the midst of the greatest\necclesiastical privileges, or whether he is cradled in the darkest\npaganism; in either case a change of heart is absolutely necessary.\nNo branch of the universal Church can claim the exclusive right of\nadmitting souls into heaven; and it is intolerable impertinence to\ninsist upon the necessity of ceremonial observances in order to\nsalvation--as was the case with the false teachers of Coloss\u00e6, and as\nis the case with the pretentious ritualism of the day. \"In Christ\nJesus neither circumcision availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but\na new creature.\"\n\n3. _It is superior to all political distinctions._--\"Barbarian,\nScythian\" (ver. 11). Like the Jews, the Greeks divided mankind into\ntwo classes--Greeks and barbarians--civilisation and culture being\nnow the criterion of distinction. The Scythian was the lowest type of\nbarbarian. Christianity acknowledges no such distinction. Whether\ngathered from the most refined or most barbarous nation, all are one\nin Christ Jesus. The Gospel has broken down the narrow and arbitrary\nclassification of the race, maintained the right of all nations of\nthe world to be classed as one genus, and replaced the _barbarian_ by\nthe more humane and unifying title of _brother._ Max M\u00fcller writes:\n\"_Humanity_ is a word which you look for in vain in Plato or\nAristotle; the idea of mankind as one family, as the children of one\nGod, is an idea of Christian growth; and the science of mankind, and\nof the languages of mankind, is a science which, without\nChristianity, would never have sprung into life.\"\n\n4. _It is superior to all social distinctions._--\"Bond nor free\"\n(ver. 11). The diversities of condition which divide men in the\npresent world are unknown in the sphere of this spiritual renewal.\nThe grace which changed the heart of Philemon the master also renewed\nthe soul of Onesimus, his slave; and often the bondman is the first\nto enter into the liberty of the children of God. Here the rich and\npoor, the nobility and peasantry, meet together, and form one common\nbrotherhood.\n\n+V. That the new spiritual nature recognises Christ as\neverything.+--\"But Christ is all, and in all\" (ver. 11). All belongs\nto Him; He originated and sustains all, and He is in all. He is\neverything to the believer--the Source and Centre of his life, the\nIdeal after which he continually aspires, the Possession by which he\nwill be enriched for ever. The believer is a living, speaking, active\nexpression of the Christ within him. Christ, without the exclusion of\nany nation or sect, unites all; and so, through His indwelling in\nall, is Himself all.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christ is the Author, Pattern, and End of the new\nspiritual nature._ 2. _To put on the new spiritual nature it is\nessential to believe in Christ._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9-11. _Religion a Change of Life._\n\n  +I. Evident by putting off the old nature and its sins+ (ver. 9).\n\n +II. By putting on a new nature renewed after the Divine likeness+\n      (ver. 10).\n\n+III. Superior to all conventional distinctions+ (ver. 11).\n\n +IV. In which Christ is everything+ (ver. 11).\n\n\nVer. 11. _Christ All and in All._\n\n+I. Christ is all and in all in the realm of creation.+--The vast\nfabric of created things sprang into being at His word. Out of\nnothing He created all that is. The distance between being and\nno-being is so great that nothing short of infinite power can cause\nthat to be which never before existed. The heavens are \"the firmament\nof His power.\" He made the stars, kindled their brilliant fires,\nfixed their rank, regulated their motions, and appointed their\nmission. He formed the earth, robed it in vestments of ever-changing\nbeauty, and endowed it with unfailing productiveness. He fashioned\nman after the model of His own illustrious image, freighted him with\nfaculties of wondrous compass, indicated the possibilities of his\ncareer, and the character of his destiny. Christ is the grand centre\nof the magnificent systems by which He is encircled, and which He has\ngrouped around Himself by the exercise of His creative hand. On Him\ntheir continued existence every moment hangs.\n\n+II. Christ is all and in all in the sphere of providence.+--He\nsustains and governs all. Close as population follows on the heels of\nproduction, food never fails for man and beast. Study the sublime\nepic on the Divine preservation furnished by Psalm civ. and consider\nhow the history of human experience in all ages confirms the truth.\nChrist controls all the forces of nature. The sweep of the heavenly\nbodies, the surge and re-surge of the tide, the eccentric course and\nvelocity of the wind, the departure and return of the light, the roll\nof the dreaded thunder, the recurrent phases of the seasons, all are\nobedient to His nod. He is predominant among the spiritual agencies\nof the universe. He restricts the power of the great enemy of man. He\nrestrains the power of evil. He governs the complicated passions of\nhuman hearts and makes even the wrath of men to praise Him. He\nguards, guides, and delivers His Church. The greatness of His\nprovidential power is seen in His accomplishing the mightiest results\nby insignificant instrumentalities. He is conducting all things to a\nglorious consummation.\n\n+III. Christ is all and in all in the work of redemption.+--He\nsuffered to the death on behalf of the sinning race. He was a\nvoluntary victim. He was unique in His person--comprising in Himself\nthe Divine and human natures. As man, He met all the necessities of\nsinful and condemned humanity; as God, He answered all the\nrequirements of the Divine righteousness. While the greatest modern\nphilosophers are puzzling their minds with an endless variety of\nmethods for recovering man from his lapsed condition, we behold the\nproblem solved in the life, sufferings, and death of Christ. That was\na method of redemption that would never have occurred to a finite\nmind; and it is now beyond the range of the greatest human intellect\nto fathom. Christ, and Christ alone, could redeem. In that sphere He\nis all in all, or He is nothing. His work of redemption is an\nentrancing expression of the tenderest, deepest, most mysterious love.\n\n+IV. Christ is all and in all in the kingdom of glory.+--He is the\nHead of all principalities and powers in the heavenly places. They\ndepend on Him for life and purity, they obey His slightest word, they\nadore His infinite majesty, they delight in His hallowed fellowship.\nChrist is also Head over all things to the Church, which is His body;\nthe fulness of Him that filleth all in all. He is the central\nattraction and source of bliss in the realm of glory. The redeemed\ncast their crowns before Him and chant His praise in ceaseless\nanthems. If Christ were absent, heaven would lose its greatest charm.\n\n     \"I love to think of heaven; its cloudless light,\n      Its tearless joys, its recognitions and its fellowships\n      Of love and joy unending; but when my mind anticipates\n      The sight of God incarnate, wearing on His hands,\n      And feet, and side, marks of the wounds\n      Which He, for me, on Calvary endured,\n      All heaven beside is swallowed up in this;\n      And He who was my hope of heaven below,\n      Becomes the glory of my heaven above.\"\n\n+V. Christ is all and in all to the believing soul.+--He appears as\nthe great Emancipator; He delivers from the power of darkness, and\ntranslates the benighted but groping soul into the kingdom of light.\nHe gives rest to the weary and heavy laden. He comforts the mourner.\nHe defends and succours the tempted. He is the refuge in every time\nof distress. All the wants of the soul are anticipated and abundantly\nsupplied. He will conduct safely through all the changeful scenes of\nthis life; and finally invest the soul with the imperishable\nsplendours of an endless future. Christ is the great necessity and\nthe all-satisfying portion of the soul.\n\n+Lessons.+--1.  _Christ is supreme in all spheres._ 2. _Christ is the\ngreat need of the human soul._ 3. _Faith in Christ brings the soul\ninto a personal participation in the Divine fulness._\n\n_Christ is All and in All._\n\n  +I. The essential glories of Christ.--He possesses all things.+\n\n +II. Christ has purchased all blessings for us.+--All temporal and\n      all spiritual blessings.\n\n+III. All blessings are treasured up in Christ for the eternal use of\n      His Church.+\n\n +IV. He will keep His family in the possession of all good for\n      ever.+--_W. Howels._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12, 13.\n\n_Essentials of the Christian Character._\n\nIn the cultivation of a rare and valuable plant care must be taken to\nrid it of everything that would retard its growth, and to supply it\nwith whatever aids it in reaching the highest possibility of\nshapeliness and beauty. Not only must it be severely pruned and\ndivested of every noxious weed and destructive parasite, but it must\nbe diligently tended, and liberally provided with air, light, and\nmoisture. So is it in the training of the Christian character. It is\nnot enough that the old man--the sinful principle--is suppressed,\nmortified, deadened; all the graces of the new man--the new spiritual\nnature--must be assumed and sedulously cultivated. Religion is not a\ndry, sapless, dead negation, but a grand positive reality--an active,\never-growing life, pushing its way through every channel of man's\nnature, and fashioning his character after the loftiest pattern of\nmoral loveliness and purity. The change the Colossians had\nexperienced furnished the most forcible reason why they should\nadvance in spiritual development. Having risen with Christ, and\nhaving put off the old man, with his deeds, there is an unmistakable\nemphasis in the exhortation--_Put on, therefore,_ the characteristics\nof the new man.\n\n+I. That the Christian character is distinguished by a special\ndesignation.+--\"The elect of God, holy and beloved\" (ver. 12).\n\n1. _Distinguished as the object of the Divine choice._--\"The elect of\nGod\"--chosen by Him, as an act of undeserved, unmerited mercy, to the\nknowledge of Himself and His glorious salvation; called out of\ndarkness and translated into the kingdom of His dear Son. This\nelection is a condition of exalted privilege to which all rise who\naccept the message of God's mercy through Jesus Christ.\n\n2. _Distinguished by personal purity._--\"Holy.\" Here is the evidence\nand practical result of the Divine election. \"Chosen in Christ before\nthe foundation of the world, that they should be holy and without\nblame before Him in love\" (Eph. i. 4). The people of God are called\nto be holy--consecrated to His service; set apart from a common and\nwholly devoted to a sacred purpose. Holiness is the habitual\ncondition, aim, delight, and employment of the Christian's life.\n\n3. _Distinguished by the Divine affection._--\"Beloved.\" The believer\nis the object of God's special love, of the favour which He beareth\nunto His people. \"Behold, what manner of love the Father hath\nbestowed on us that we should be called the sons of God.\" The\nepithets here used have each the force of a motive. Since the\nbeliever is _elect, holy, beloved,_ let him act in harmony with his\nexalted character and calling. Lavater has said, \"The more honesty a\nman has, the less he affects the air of a saint.\"\n\n+II. That the Christian character is distinguished by a heartfelt\nsympathy.+--1. _This sympathy arises from a spirit of tender mercy._\n\"Bowels of mercies\" (ver. 12)--a phrase which expresses the effect on\nthe body of strong emotions of pity. It was said of Joseph that \"his\nbowels did yearn over his brethren, and he sought where to weep.\" The\nmiseries of our fellow-creatures, especially of those who are in a\nworse condition than ourselves, call for our compassion and help; and\na genuine pity is not only visible in the countenance and uttered by\nthe lips, but felt in the inmost heart, and prompts to generous\nactions.\n\n2. _This sympathy arises from a spirit of kindness._--\"Kindness\"\nrefers to the temper we should show towards those we meet in the\ndaily intercourse of life who are on an equality with ourselves. The\nChristian should be amiable, courteous, kind in speech and action,\neager to relieve others according to his means--the farthest remove\nfrom a crabbed, sullen, churlish disposition. A hard, cold, selfish,\nunfeeling heart is a characteristic of fallen, unrenewed man; _bowels\nof mercies_ and _kindness_ of the renewed one.\n\n+III. That the Christian character is distinguished by a genuine\nhumility.+--\"Humbleness of mind\" (ver. 12). These words describe the\nestimate that is to be formed of self. The believer is taught not to\noverrate nor unduly to depreciate himself. He is governed by the\napostolic rule, \"Let each esteem other better than themselves.\" The\nmore exalted his views of God, and the more he remembers his own\nunworthiness, weakness, ignorance, and sin, the more softly and lowly\ndoes he seek to walk. As in the garden that branch hangs down the\nlowest which is most heavily laden with fruit, so in the Church the\nripest saints are those who walk humbly with God. The humble man is\nthe most susceptible to compassion and genuine in its practical\nmanifestation. The proud man is too full of himself to feel for\nothers; he is always dissatisfied, always embroiling in quarrels the\nfamily, the Church, the social circle where he resides. The humblest\nman is the bravest man. He endures with composure the contempt and\narrogance of others.\n\n+IV. That the Christian character is distinguished by a gentle and\npatient spirit.+--\"Meekness, longsuffering\" (ver. 12).\n\n1. _The Christian spirit is gentle._--\"Meekness.\" This grace\nindicates what should be our conduct towards others in their\ntreatment of us. Meekness is evidenced in modesty of countenance,\ngentleness of manner, softness of voice, and mildness of language; it\nis opposed to rudeness or harshness. We see it exemplified in the way\nin which Gideon pacified the irascible men of Ephraim (Judg.\nviii. 2). It is slow to take, and scorns to give, offence.\n\n2. _The Christian spirit is patient._--\"Longsuffering,\" which is\nmeekness continued, though subjected to the fiercest provocations. It\nis opposed to resentment, revenge, wrath. Meekness exercises itself\nin matters of chagrin, impertinence, folly; longsuffering in those of\nviolent outrage, affront, injury. Meekness may be required by the\nmere _manner_ of others towards us; longsuffering is often necessary\nby their _conduct._ There is a difference between enduring long and\nlongsuffering. The genuine grace is accompanied, not only with\npatience, but with joyous activity and watchfulness. It is not like\nthe senseless rock which endures the full force of the storm unmoved\nand unresponsive, but like the nimble vessel that, while it bends to\nthe tempest, is at the same time diligently speeding on its mission.\n\n+V. That the Christian character is distinguished by a practical\nmanifestation of a spirit of mutual forbearance and\nforgiveness.+--1. _Mutual forbearance and forgiveness are to be\nexercised universally._ \"Forbearing one another and forgiving one\nanother, if any man have a quarrel against any\" (ver. 13). The word\n\"quarrel\" is better rendered _complaint._ It takes two to make a\nquarrel, and of these the Christian should never be one. Whatever\noccasion of offence may arise, whatever cause of complaint, in any\nman, under any circumstances, and however just the complaint may\nappear, forbearance is to be exercised; and even if the forbearance\nis abused and injury be added, we must forgive. It is never on one\nside only that the fault exists. It is one another, each in his turn,\nthat gives and receives forbearance. If this were more frequently\nobserved, how many unseemly discords and mischievous separations\nwould be prevented!\n\n2. _The exercise of forgiveness is enforced by the highest\nexample._--\"Even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye\" (ver. 13).\nThese words come as an impressive climax, enforcing the duty of\nforgiveness by the strongest motive. The more difficult the duty, the\nmore powerful should be the arguments urging its performance. The\nexample of Christ is supreme in its authority. What are the injuries\ncommitted by others against us compared with the number and enormity\nof our sins against God? Yet Christ forgave us all, freely, fully,\nunreservedly, and for ever. The heart that is not moved to\nforgiveness by such an example is hopelessly incorrigible.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The unity of Christian character is made up of many\nseparate essential graces._ 2. _The condition of things in this world\naffords ample scope for the exercise of every Christian grace._\n3. _To forgive is at once the most difficult and most Christ-like._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 12. _Christian Humility._\n\n+I. The nature of this holy temper.+--1. _A humble apprehension of\nour own knowledge._ The imperfection of our faculties, our\nfallibility of judgment, when we compare our knowledge with the\nattainments of others, and a persuasion of the small value of the\nmost exalted knowledge without practical influence. 2. _Of our own\ngoodness._ 3. _Of our independence and wants._ 4. _Of our own rank\nand station._\n\n+II. The obligations to cultivate a humble temper.+--1. _It is\nmentioned in Scripture with peculiar marks of distinction and\nhonour._ The most distinguished promises are made to it. It is a\nnecessary introduction to other graces and duties. 2. _It is a grace\nwhich adorns every other virtue and recommends religion to every\nbeholder._ 3. _Is recommended to us by the example of the Author and\nFinisher of our faith._ 4. _Is a grace that will go with us to\nheaven._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Those destitute of this grace have the rudiments of\nChristianity to learn._ 2. _We should look principally to the temper\nof our spirits to judge of our humility._ 3. _By it we judge of the\nimproving or declining state of our souls.--J. Evans, D.D._\n\n\nVer. 13. _Christian Forgiveness_--\n\n  +I. Is exercised where there is mutual forbearance.+\n\n +II. Is the noblest method of ending quarrels.+\n\n+III. Is a Christ-like disposition.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.\n\n_Love the Perfection of the Christian Character._\n\nLove is the commonest and most potent affection of the human heart.\nIt has been the inexhaustible theme of writers in all ages, in poetry\nand prose. It has been invested with the bewitching drapery of\nromance and exhibited as the instrumental cause of the darkest crimes\nand of the brightest virtues. The world never tires of learning of\nits adventures, trials, and victories. While it is ever commonplace,\nit is ever fresh. It is the perennial force in human life--the first\nto inspire, the longest to endure, the last to perish. But Christian\nlove--love to Jesus Christ, and to all others for His sake--is not a\nnative-born affection. It does not spring spontaneously from the\nhuman heart. It is a gift from God. It is the richest fruit of the\nnew spiritual nature implanted in the believer. It is first to be\nacquired and then diligently cultivated. The apostle has just\ndescribed the distinctive garments with which the believer is to be\nadorned--with a heart of tender compassion, with humility, with a\ngentle, patient, and forgiving spirit. But in addition to all this,\nand in order to complete the Christian character, he is to be clothed\nin a robe which is to cover every other garment and bind it to its\nplace--a robe whose purity and brightness shall shed a lustre over\nall the rest.\n\n+I. That love is the prime element in every other grace of the\nChristian character.+--It is the soul of every virtue and the\nguarantee of a genuine sincerity. Without love all other graces,\naccording to an old writer, are but _glittering sins._ There is a\ngreat power of affectionateness in the human heart, but no man\npossesses naturally the spiritual love of God and love of the race.\nIt is a fruit of the Holy Ghost and comes though that faith which\nworks by love. It is possible to assume all the essentials of the\nChristian character, enumerated in ver. 12, and previously commented\non; but without love they would be meaningless, cold, and dead. Mercy\nwould degenerate into weak sentimentality; kindness into foolish\nextravagance; humility into a mock self-depreciation--which is but\nanother form of the proudest egotism; and longsuffering into a dull,\ndogged stupidity. Love is the grand element in which all other graces\nmove and from which they derive their vitality and value. It is the\ngrace which alone redeems all other from the curse of selfishness,\nand is, itself, the most unselfish.\n\n+II. That love occupies the most exalted place in the Christian\ncharacter.+--\"Above all these things.\" Not simply in addition to, but\n_over and above_ all these, put on charity, as the outer garment that\ncovers and binds together all the rest. Other graces are local and\nlimited in their use; love is all-expansive and universal. A\nphilosopher, in a vein of pungent satire, has dilated on the\nphilosophy of clothes; and experience testifies how mightily the\nworld is influenced and instructed by outward appearances. As the\ndress frequently indicates the rank and importance of the wearer, so\nthe garment of love, worn without ostentation or pride, is the badge\nby which the Christian is known in the world (John xiii. 35). Love is\nthe presiding queen over all Christian graces, inspiring and\nharmonising their exercises, and developing them into a living and\nbeauteous unity of character. The apostle fixes the exalted rank of\nlove in 1 Cor. xiii. 13.\n\n+III. That love is the pledge of permanency in the Christian\ncharacter.+--\"Which is the bond of perfectness.\" As a girdle, or\ncincture, bound together with firmness and symmetry the loose flowing\nrobes generally worn by the ancients, so love is the power that\nunites and holds together all those graces and virtues which together\nmake up perfection. Love is the preservative force in the Christian\ncharacter. Without it knowledge would lose its enterprise, mercy and\nkindness become languid, humility faint, and longsuffering\nindifferent. Love binds all excellencies together in a bond which\ntime cannot injure, the enemy unloose, or death destroy. No church,\nor community of individuals, can exist long without the sustaining\npower of love. It is not a similarity in taste, intellectual\npursuits, in knowledge, or in creed, that can permanently unite human\nhearts, but the all-potent sympathy of Christian love. Charity never\nfaileth.\n\n+IV. That the perfection of the Christian character is seen in the\npractical manifestation of love.+--\"Put on charity.\"\n\n1. _Love is indispensable._--It is possible to possess many beautiful\ntraits of character--much that is humane and amiable--without being a\ncomplete Christian: to be very near perfection, and yet lack one\nthing. Without love all other graces are inconsistent, heartless,\nwayward, selfish. They are but as sounding brass and a tinkling\ncymbal. Charity is indispensable to give life, force, meaning, truth,\npermanence to the whole. It supplies the imperfections and defects of\nother graces and virtues.\n\n2. _Love is susceptible of individual cultivation._--It may be \"put\non.\" We may have more if we strive after it and faithfully use what\nis already possessed. It is a pressing, practical duty which all\nChristians are bound to attend to. And yet there is no grace which is\nmore constantly suppressed. What a power the Church would become, and\nhow marvellously would the character of the world be changed if love\nhad a freer scope and was universally exercised. The pretentious\ncoverings of sectarianism and bigotry would vanish, and the whole\nChurch of the redeemed be girt with the ample robe of a seamless\nunity. To win the love of others we must put it on ourselves.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The mere profession of Christianity is empty and\nvalueless._ 2. _Every grace of the Christian character must be\ndiligently exercised._ 3. _Above and through all other graces love\nmust operate._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.\n\n_The Rule of Divine Peace._\n\nWar in any form is unfriendly to the growth of piety. The soul is\ntossed on the waves of disquietude, and courage--the principal virtue\ncalled into exercise--is apt to acquire an unnatural and unhealthy\ndevelopment at the expense of all other graces. The whole structure\nof the Christian character is dislocated and thrown off its balance.\nPeace restores the soul to its true equipoise, fixes every power in\nits just relation to each other and to the whole, and encourages the\nharmonious cultivation of that love which is the bond of perfectness.\nLord Bacon has said: \"It is heaven upon earth to have a man's mind\nmove in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of\ntruth.\" In this verse we are taught that _the one supreme umpire in\nthe heart, by which all differences are to be settled, is the peace\nof God--the destined end of the Christian calling, in which is\nrealised the unity belonging to members of one body; and that this\nblessing is to be sought in a spirit of thankfulness._ Observe:--\n\n+I. That peace is a Divine blessing.+--\"The peace of God.\" Some of\nthe oldest manuscripts have read, \"The peace of _Christ_\"--a reading\nadopted by the ablest biblical critics. The verbal difference,\nhowever, is of no moment. The truth is the same: it is equally the\npeace of God and the peace of Christ--a Divine tranquillity filling\nthe soul with a calm that no mere worldly power can give or take\naway, and that the ocean-surges of trouble can never diminish or\ndisturb. Christ hath made peace through the blood of His cross and\nleft it as a sacred legacy to all His disciples through all time. In\nits essence it is the peace that Christ Himself enjoys--a sublime\ncalmness similar to that which pervades the Divine bosom. It is not\nlike the long, painful, oppressive stillness that is the precursor of\na storm, but a profound, pervasive, heavenly quiet that soothes while\nit invigorates the soul. It proceeds from God through Christ and is\nmaintained and nourished in the heart as a positive, gracious reality\nand priceless blessing.\n\n+II. That peace is a ruling power.+--\"Let the peace of God rule.\" The\nword \"rule\" is borrowed from the practice of the Greeks at their\ngreat national games and described the duty of the arbiter or umpire\npresiding, who held the prize in his hand while the contest proceeded\nin the stadium and conferred it on the victor at the close. Thereby\nhe exercised over the athletes a peculiar kind of rule. Impelled by a\nsight of the prize, they gave their whole being to the contest. So,\nin contending in the race of life, the peace of God, as containing\nall desirable blessings, is to exercise supreme authority and\nregulate all the concerns of the soul.\n\n1. _As a ruling power peace pervades and stimulates every other\ngrace._--It lifts the soul to God, and enables it to take hold of His\nstrength. It prepares for every holy duty and stimulates to every\nspiritual enterprise. The more the soul is permeated with Divine\npeace, the more desire and aptitude will there be for higher\nattainments in piety.\n\n2. _As a ruling power peace is a powerful defence._--It resists\nsuccessfully the attacks of evil from whatever source they come. The\nshafts of infidelity cannot pierce the invulnerable defence of a\nconscious peace with God; right feeling is superior to the subtlest\nlogic. Peace erects a formidable bulwark against temptation and is\nthe surest safeguard against every form of sin.\n\n3. _As a ruling power it concentrates and controls all the energies\nof the soul._--It calms the intellect, soothes the heart,\ntranquillises the conscience, and centralises all the powers of\nmanhood, that they may go forth and do valiant battle for the truth.\nAs by an unerring instinct it decides upon what is right and shuns\nthe wrong. The questions as to whether it is right to engage in\ncertain amusements, to visit certain places, or to join this or that\ncompany, will soon be settled when the peace of God rules in the\nheart. It is a regulating power in moral difficulties, and a potent\nhelp in all moral enterprises. The peace of God keeps the heart and\nmind through Jesus Christ (Phil. iv. 7).\n\n+III. That peace is a ruling power in man.+--\"In your hearts.\" The\nheart is the region where the ruling power is exercised and takes\neffect. It embraces the will and affections as distinguished from the\nintellect. It is the choosing faculty as distinguished from the\nknowing faculty. When the heart is drawn in one direction the whole\nman follows. There the moral disease begins, and there the remedy\nmust be applied. By sin the heart has become deceitful above all\nthings; in the regeneration the heart is made new. The rush of an\nevil heart's affections will not always yield to reason. When God, by\nHis Word and Spirit, comes to save, He saves by arresting and\nrenewing the heart. The psalmist recognised this when he cried,\n\"Create in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within\nme\" (Ps. li. 10). No man is conquered until his heart is conquered.\nIt is in this region the peace of God has powerful sway, and where it\naids in achieving the most brilliant moral conquests.\n\n+IV. That peace is essential to the unity of the Church.+--1. _The\nChurch is called to the enjoyment of peace._ \"To the which also ye\nare called.\" The burden of the Gospel message is _peace._ Its mission\nis to extinguish wars and enmities, and to pacify heaven and earth.\nThe Church is called to peace by the commands of Christ, by the\nteachings of His example when on earth, by the reiterated precepts of\nGod's Word, and by the necessities of the grand enterprise in which\nshe is engaged.\n\n2. _The enjoyment of peace is essential in preserving and promoting\nthe unity of the Church._--\"In one body.\" As ye were called as\nmembers of one body so let there be one Spirit animating that body.\nAmong the stellar systems, in social communities and states, as well\nas in the Christian Church, a common agreement is essential to unity.\nDivine peace preserves harmony, nourishes spiritual strength, and\npromotes union by drawing the souls, in which it is the ruling power,\nmore closely to God and to each other. There is to be the constant\nendeavour \"to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace\"\n(Eph. iv. 3).\n\n+V. That peace is to be cultivated in the spirit of\nthankfulness.+--\"And be ye thankful.\" These words are not to be\nrestricted in their application. Not only do they imply that the\nColossians were to act towards each other in a thankful and amiable\ntemper, but they teach in what spirit the peace of God should be\nuniversally sought and exercised. The duty of thankfulness was the\nconstant theme of the apostle: there are upwards of thirty references\nto it in his epistles. Here we are exhorted to consider it in special\nconnection with the enjoyment of peace. Only he who has been swung in\nthe dark whirl of unrest and doubt, who has witnessed the horrible\nriot of disunion and discord, can appreciate the blessing of peace\nand the gratitude it inspires. Cicero declared that gratitude was the\nmother of all other virtues. Certain it is that no man sins without\ningratitude. Thanksgiving has always been the principal element in\nall religion, whether instituted by Divine command, prompted by\nnatural reason, or propagated by general tradition. The pagan\nreligion consists in the praise of their gods and acknowledgments of\ntheir benefits; the Jewish, to a great extent, in eucharistic\noblations and solemn commemorations of providential favours; and the\nancient Christians were distinguished by singing hymns to Christ, and\nby mutual sacraments obliging themselves to abstain from all\nvillainy. Thanksgiving is a joyous exercise--the pleasantest of\nduties. Prayer reminds us of our wants and imperfections; confession\nenforces a painful remembrance of our sins; but gratitude includes\nnothing but the memory of exceeding goodness. It is a duty most\nacceptable to God and most profitable to man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _True peace is found only in Christ._ 2. _Peace is a\nmighty engine of spiritual power._ 3. _Gratitude should combine with\nevery blessing._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\n_Unity and Peace._\n\n+I. The unity of the Church of Christ.+--1. _Distinguish the unity\nof comprehensiveness from the unity of mere singularity._ 2. _It\nsubsists between things not similar or alike, but dissimilar or\nunlike._ 3. _It is made up of dissimilar members, without which\ndissimilarity there could be no unity._ 4. _It consists in submission\nto one single influence or spirit._ The Spirit of its God.\n\n+II. The individual peace resulting from this unity.+--1. _It is\nGod's peace._ 2. _A living peace._ 3. _The peace which comes from an\ninward power._ 4. _The peace of reception.--Robertson._\n\n\n_The Peace of God ruling in the Heart._\n\n+I. The region.+--\"In your hearts.\" When the heart is drawn in one\ndirection, the whole man follows. When God by His Word and Spirit\ncomes to save, He saves by arresting the heart and making it new.\n\n+II. The reign.+--\"Rule.\" Freedom from rule is not competent to man;\nthe only choice he has is a choice of masters.\n\n+III. The Ruler.+--\"The peace of God.\" 1. _It is God and no idol that\nshould rule in a human heart._ 2. _It is not the wrath but the peace\nof God that rules in a human heart._ It is the act of letting me go\nfree that binds my whole soul for ever.--_W. Arnot._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 16.\n\n_The Poetry of the Christian Life._\n\nIn the life of the individual and of nations the era of poetry comes\nfirst and is followed by the era of criticism. The impulse of a\nyouthful and enthusiastic passion and the boundless play of a\nprolific imagination produce certain artistic results; and then comes\nthe cool, reflective critic, with microscopic eye and mathematical\nrules, to measure and appraise the loved production. How soon the\nglowing efflorescence withers, and the expanding magnitude dwindles\nto the smallest practical limits. Genuine poetry is superior to all\ncriticism, outlives the most violent opposition, and is imperishable\nas humanity. Poetry is the language of the soul in its highest and\nholiest mood, when it is fired with a Divinely kindled rapture, when\nit strives to grasp the invisible and pants to express the grandest\ntruths of the universe. The Christian life has its poetry. It is of\nthe loftiest order, its theme the noblest, and its melody haunts the\nsoul for ever with strains of ravishing harmony. In this verse we\nlearn that _the poetry of the Christian life draws its inspiration\nfrom the Divine Word and ministers to the culture and enjoyment of\nthe Church._ Observe:--\n\n+I. That the poetry of the Christian life draws its deepest\ninspiration from the Divine Word.+--\"Let the word of Christ dwell in\nyou richly.\"\n\n1. _That the Divine Word is fitly called the Word of Christ._--It\ncontains the record of His personal teaching--the revelation of new\nand startling truths, and the resetting of old truths in such a light\nas to connect the old and new dispensations, and blend them in an\nunbroken homogeneousness. It unfolds the mystery of that redemption\nHe died to accomplish, and which forms so prominent a part of the\nteaching of this epistle. It is inspired by the Spirit of Christ, and\ngleams in every part with brilliant manifestations of His supernal\nglory. Christ is the all-pervading theme of the Scriptures--the key\nof the arch--the cornerstone of the foundation--the sun, illuminating\nwith light and salvation the whole Gospel system to its remotest\ncircumference.\n\n2. _The Divine Word to create a true poetic fervour must wholly\noccupy the soul._--\"Dwell in you richly.\" The Word of Christ is to be\nembraced as a whole, and due prominence given to every part of His\ncharacter and work. Not to exalt His humanity to the denial of His\nDivinity; not to be so enamoured with the moral beauty of His life as\nto overlook the significance and power of His death. The Word is to\ndwell in us so completely as to possess and enrich every faculty and\npower of our nature. Not simply to give it a place in the region of\nintellectual opinion or in judging of moral questions, but to let it\nhave a mighty sway over the affections of the heart--let it enter,\nsaturate, purify, and govern the whole mental, moral, and spiritual\nbeing. It is to occupy the soul as a constant and permanent\ninspiration; to _dwell_--not as a stranger to stand without, or to be\nsaluted at a distance, but to enter, to abide, and be treated as a\nloved and intimate guest. Let the Word of Christ be clearly\napprehended, diligently pondered, and firmly grasped, and it will\nfill the soul with heavenly visions and inflame it with the holiest\npoetic ardour.\n\n+II. That the poetry of the Christian life has made valuable literary\ncontributions to the psalmody of the Church.+--\"In psalms and hymns\nand spiritual songs.\" It is not easy to make arbitrary distinctions\nbetween these poetic effusions. The _psalm_ was a sacred poem on\nwhatever subject, and similar to the productions in the book of\nPsalms in the Old Testament; the _hymn_ specially celebrated the\npraises of the Almighty; and the _spiritual song,_ or ode, was more\nmixed in its matter and more artificial in its arrangement and\nreferred to personal effusions of a more general character. The gift\nof poesy was among the supernatural gifts of the Holy Spirit in the\nearly Church (1 Cor. xiv. 26). The first form of literature in all\ncountries is for the most part in song. A certain writer has said,\nthat if he were allowed to make the songs of a nation, he cared not\nwho made the laws. And in the Christian Church, from the earliest\nperiod, sacred psalmody has been a mighty power for edification and\ncomfort. The hymnology of the church is becoming increasingly rich in\nits poetic treasures.\n\n+III. That the poetry of the Christian life ministers to the mutual\nculture and happiness of the Church.+--1. _It is intellectual in its\ncharacter._ \"In all wisdom teaching one another.\" A more correct\npunctuation connects the clause \"in all wisdom\" with the words that\nfollow, not, as in our version, with the words that precede. To teach\nin all wisdom demands the highest intellectual exercise, especially\nwhen poetry is the medium of instruction and the Word of Christ the\ntheme. Without wisdom, poetry would sink into a maudlin sensuousness,\na mere verbal jingling, and intolerable monotony. Wisdom is necessary\nto compare and balance the different parts of Scripture truth, to\napply the Word on proper occasions to its proper ends and in harmony\nwith its spirit, and to adopt the best means for attaining the\nhighest results in mutual instruction. The profoundest feelings of\nour nature can only be expressed in poetry. The orator, as he reaches\nthe loftiest strains of eloquence, becomes poetical.\n\n2. _It is moral in its tendency._--\"And admonishing one another.\"\nThere is implied a deep concern for each other's moral condition and\nsafety. The poetry of the early Christians was moral in its exercise\nand tendency. No one can feel an interest in another's morality who\nis himself immoral. An eminent critic has said: \"The element in which\npoetry dwells is truth, and when imagination divorces itself from\nthat relation, it declines into the neighbourhood of empty fiction or\nthe dreams of lunacy.\" The poetry of the Christian life is based on\neternal truth, and it is to be judiciously used as an instrument of\nadmonition as well as of instruction. There is need for warning and\nbrotherly counsel to restore the wanderer, to raise him if he has\nfallen, to reprove him if he is wrong, to protect and admonish him if\nhe is in danger (Ps. cxli. 5).\n\n3. _It is joyous in its effects._--\"Singing with grace in your hearts\nto the Lord.\" Music and poetry are sometimes prostituted to the\nbasest purposes, ministering to the lowest passions, and inciting to\nthe vilest actions. But the poetry of the Christian life refines the\nsoul, raises it towards God, and fills it with the music of\nunspeakable delight. The proper sphere of music is the heavenly and\nthe spiritual.\n\n     \"Beyond the visible world she soars to seek,\n      For what delights the sense is false and weak;\n      Ideal form, the universal mould.\"\n\nAs the sea-shell conveys to the ear the faint music of the distant\nwaves, so the poetry of the Christian life indicates in some degree\nthe rapturous music that awaits on the heavenly shore. Coleridge\nsaid: \"Poetry has been to me its own exceeding great reward. It has\nsoothed my affliction, it has endeared solitude, and it has given me\nthe habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that\nsurrounds me.\" And Keats said: \"Let me have music dying and I seek no\nmore delight.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The highest poetry is found in the Divine Word._\n2. _To administer instruction and admonition through the medium of\nsong is at once modest and significant._ 3. _The Christian life\nshould be one sweet harmonious poem._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\n_The Word of Christ: its Characteristics as the Saviour's Book and the\nSinner's Book._\n\n  +I. It is simple.+\n\n +II. Significant.+\n\n+III. Saving.+\n\n +IV. Sanctifying.+\n\n  +V. Supporting.+\n\n +VI. Suited to all.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Let its truths and realities inhabit your\nconvictions._ 2. _Let its tone be infused into your temper._ 3. _Let\nthe Word of Christ dwell in you richly.--James Hamilton, D.D._\n\n\n_The Indwelling Word of Christ._\n\n+I. Let the Word of Christ dwell in you.+--1. _Implies a sense of the\npreciousness of Christ Himself._ 2. _The preciousness of Christ's\nwords, as well as of Christ Himself, is essential to its dwelling in\nyou._ 3. _The felt preciousness of real present and living\nintercourse between Christ and you will cause the Word, as His Word,\nto abide in you._\n\n+II. Dwell in you richly.+--1. _It may refer to quantity._ 2. _It may\nhave respect to quality._ 3. _The rich indwelling of the Word of\nChrist in you may be held to correspond to the riches of Him whose\nWord it is._ 4. _It is to dwell in you not only as rich receivers but\nas rich dispensers also._\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Make sure of the first condition of Christ's Word in\nyou--the preciousness of Christ Himself._ 2. _Make full proof of all\nsuitable helps for the indwelling of the Word of Christ in\nyou.--R. S. Candlish._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 17.\n\n_Suggestive Summary of the Law of Christian Duty._\n\nLabour, which was originally imposed on man as a curse, may minister\nvery largely to the increase of human happiness. The effort necessary\nto contend with and subdue the hostile forces of nature, and wrest\nfrom the earth the food essential to existence, strengthens and\nelevates the best powers of man. All men are prompted to labour by\nsome distinct principle or ruling passion: the savage by the cravings\nof physical hunger, the patriot by the love of his country, the\nphilosopher by an inextinguishable thirst for knowledge and delight\nin intellectual exercises. The ruling principle of action in the\nbeliever is that of supreme devotion to the Lord; he is to do\neverything in the name of the Lord Jesus. This exhortation embraces\neverything previously mentioned in the epistle, and every possible\nduty of the Christian life.\n\n+I. The guiding law of Christian duty.+--\"Do all in the name of the\nLord Jesus.\" The name of Christ suggests the predominating principle\nby which the whole course of life is to be regulated, the watchword\nin every enterprise, the battle-cry in every conflict, the rallying\ncentre in every disaster. In warfare, armies have been animated with\nthe enthusiasm of action by simply mentioning the name of a\nWellington, a Napoleon, a Garibaldi, a Von Moltke. But oh! how\nglorious and all potent is the name +Lord Jesus!+ It suggests the\nsublime dignity and redemptive achievements of Christ, and that He is\nthe great exemplar after which all who believe in Him are to be\nmorally fashioned.\n\n1. _In Christ is the purest motive to duty._--Motive originates and\ngoverns action, and makes it good or bad. The believer does\neverything for Christ's sake, out of love for Him and respect to His\nauthority. The tendency in all men is to live in themselves, to act\nin their own name and strength, and to carry out their own selfish\npurposes. Selfishness is one of the mightiest and most general\nmotives to action. It is only in Christ we find the holiest and\npurest motive; in Him love takes the place of selfishness. The love\nof Christ constraineth us (2 Cor. v. 14, 15).\n\n2. _In Christ is the noblest pattern of duty._--Not only do we see in\nHis character the most perfect representation of moral excellence,\nbut his whole career is an instructive example of devotion to duty.\nHe fulfilled the will of His Father: He was obedient unto death. He\nhas taught us how to live and how to die. One of the grandest\npictures of moral heroism is seen in the maintenance of an\nintelligent and faithful obedience in the midst of danger and\nthreatened death.\n\n3. _In Christ is the highest end of duty._--All things in the\nmaterial universe exist for Him, and in the moral realm He is the\ngoal towards which all actions tend. Everything should be done with\nreference to Christ. We can have no worthier ambition than to seek in\nall things His glory. Cf. Mark ix. 41; Matt. xviii. 5; John xiv. 14;\nand note how Christ lays it down as a universal principle that\neverything is to be done in His name. There is no higher name, for it\n\"is above every name\"; there is no loftier end, for \"He is before all\nthings.\"\n\n4. _In Christ is the final authority of Christian duty._--Many things\nhave been done in the name of Christ that never had His sanction and\nwere contrary to His authority. The most disastrous persecutions and\ncruellest tortures have been perpetrated in the name of Christ. These\nblasphemous outrages have been committed to strengthen the authority\nand hide the bloodthirsty rapacity of a corrupt and domineering\nChurch. No ecclesiastical hierarchy has a right to compel the blind,\nunreasoning submission of a free, intelligent agent. Above all\nJesuitical maxims and Papal decrees is the authority of Christ. His\nwill is supreme in all spheres, and that will is the guiding law of\nduty in the Christian life.\n\n+II. The universal obligation of Christian duty.+--\"Whatsoever ye do\nin word or deed.\"\n\n1. _There must be a recognition of Christ in everything._--In all our\nemployments, conversation, public acts of worship, in social and\nprivate prayer, in secular and domestic concerns, in all matters\nrelating to the place of our abode, in changing residences, in\nconnections we form for ourselves and our children. There is a\ncomprehensiveness in the obligation which is all-embracing. Not that\nwe are to parade our piety, to obtrude our religious notions upon\neverybody we meet, or to be ever unctuously repeating the name of\nChrist, irrespective of time or place. The merchant is not to provoke\nunseemly discussions on sacred subjects when he ought to be attending\nto the business of the counting-house; the clerk should not be\nreading his Bible when he ought to be posting his ledger; the\nservant-maid should not be praying when she ought to be cleaning her\nkitchen; nor ought the mother to be gadding about, or running to\nendless revival meetings, while her house is dirty and her husband\nand children neglected. It is not so much that everything is to be\ndone after one special outward form as that every duty is to be done\nin a religious spirit. Religion is not a series of formal acts, or a\nstring of set phrases; but it is a life, pervading all our\nactivities, and making every part of our career sublime. Recognise\nChrist in everything, and a new meaning will be thrown on passing\nevents; the commonplaces of life will be exalted into dignity, and\nthe future assume irresistible attractions.\n\n2. _There must be absolute dependence on Christ at all times._--We\ncannot say and do everything in the name of Christ unless we fully\nsurrender ourselves to Him. We are helpless and full of spiritual\ninfirmities, but the more conscious we are of our complete dependence\non Him the stronger are we in labour and in hope. In our successes,\nlest we be puffed up with vanity--in our perplexities, lest we are\ndiscouraged--in our grief, lest we sink despairing into the\nabyss--and in our transports of joy, lest we be exalted above\nmeasure--there must ever be a full, voluntary, and conscious reliance\non Jesus. Thus resting on Him and realising His life-giving power, we\ncan say with Paul, \"I can do all things through Christ which\nstrengtheneth me.\"\n\n3. _There must be supreme devotion to Christ._--All we have we owe to\nHim. He gave His all for us, and it is but a righteous return that we\nconsecrate to Him all that is highest and best in ourselves. We must\nlove Christ supremely, and then every faculty and power of our being\nwill render homage and service to Him. We shall be obedient to His\ncommands, we shall magnify His grace, we shall strive to walk worthy\nof His great name, and in all things seek to promote His glory. We\npledge ourselves to Him for ever, and no consideration should tempt\nus to relax our devotion. George III. was a man of firm mind, with\nwhom one had pleasure in acting. He was very slow in forming his\nopinion, very diligent in procuring every information on the subject;\nbut once convinced, he would act with unflinching firmness. His\nbeautiful speech about the Roman Catholic question shows his\ncharacter: \"I can give up my crown and retire from power, I can quit\nmy palace and live in a cottage, I can lay my head on a block and\nlose my life, but I can _not_ break my oath.\"\n\n+III. The unvarying spirit in which Christian duty is to be\ndone.+--\"Giving thanks to God and the Father by Him.\" They who do all\nthings in Christ's name will never want matter of thanksgiving to\nGod. The apostle has frequently referred to this duty of gratitude,\nand he evidently regarded it as a very important element of the\nChristian character. It was Christianity that first taught the duty\nof being thankful even in trial and suffering. We are to thank God\nfor the privilege of acting so that we may honour Him. A thankful\nspirit has a blessedness and a power of blessing which those only\nrealise who cherish it. All thanksgiving is to be offered to God the\nFather by Jesus Christ, as He is our only mediator, and it is through\nHim we obtain whatever good the Father bestows upon us. The giving of\nthanks to God is one of the highest duties of religious worship; and\nif this be done in the name of the Lord Jesus, then all subordinate\nduties must be done in the same manner.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The name of Christ is the greatest power in the\nuniverse._ 2. _All duty gathers its significance and blessedness from\nits relation to Christ._ 3. _A thankful spirit is happy in\nenterprise, brave in difficulties, and patient in reverses._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 17 (compared with 1 Cor. xi. 24). _The Lord's Supper the Sample\nof the Christian Life._\n\n  +I. All the objects around us are to be regarded by us as being\n      symbols and memorials of our Lord.+\n\n +II. Every act of our life is to be done from the same motive as\n      that holy communion.+\n\n+III. All life, like the communion of the Lord's Supper, may be and\n      ought to be a showing forth of Christ's death.+\n\n +IV. This communion is in itself one of the mightiest means for\n      making the whole of life like itself.+--_A. Maclaren._\n\n\n_Doing all in the Name of Christ._\n\n  +I. Doing it as His agent.+\n\n +II. We are not our own, but His.+\n\n+III. Whatever it is right to do is His work.+--_T. G. Crippen._\n\n\n_Christ in the Practical Life._\n\n  +I. Here we find a rule of life.+\n\n +II. Here we find a motive.+\n\n+III. Here we find our life redeemed.+--_Preacher's Magazine._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 18, 19.\n\n_Duties of Husbands and Wives._\n\nAfter the apostle has laid down the law of duty for the government of\nall Christians in the general conduct of life, he proceeds to show\nthe application of the same law to the domestic relationships.\nObedience to the law in the general is an excellent preparation for\nobserving it in the particular: the best Christian will make the best\nhusband or wife. The morality of Christianity is one of its brightest\nglories and most beneficent influences; it provides for the purity\nand happiness of domestic life, and where it rules all is peace,\nlove, and contentment. Where polygamy prevails, as in heathen and\nMahometan countries, the most lamentable domestic complications\noccur, and all is distraction and misery. The family is the source\nand pattern of society. If the family is corrupt and disorganised,\nsociety suffers. A holy, well-regulated household is a regenerative\nforce in society. It is in the home that the social principle finds\nits highest development. There the tenderest feelings are roused, the\ndeepest and most permanent impressions made, the foundation and first\nrough outlines of what we may become laid down and indicated, the\nfirst principle of good or evil imbibed, and the mightiest moral\nforces brought into play. Much, therefore, depends upon the\nunderstanding that exists between the husband and wife, and the way\nin which they discharge their mutual duties, as to what shall be the\ncharacter of the household government. The apostle, in enforcing\nthese relative duties, mentions the three classes which divide the\ndomestic circle--husbands and wives, parents and children, masters\nand servants. He begins with the inferior relation in each\nclass--wife, child, servant--perhaps because the difficulty of\nobedience is greater, because in disputes it is the duty of the\nhumbler party to submit, and because the discharge of duty by that\nparty is the surest method of securing it in the other.\n\n+I. The duty of the wife is submission to the husband.+--\"Wives,\nsubmit yourselves to your own husbands\" (ver. 18).\n\n1. _This implies dependence._--It is the Divine order that \"the\nhusband is the head of the wife.\" In point of nature, and of their\nrelation to God, they are both equal; but when brought into the\nmarried relation the husband has the first place, and the wife, as\nthe weaker vessel, and under a sense of dependence, is called to\nsubmit. When the order is reversed, and the wife takes the lead,\nmischief is sure to ensue. Not that woman is to be the slave and\ndrudge of her husband; but the relationship between the two ought to\nbe so adjusted by the power of religion that the wife is never rudely\nreminded of her state of dependence.\n\n2. _Implies respect._--It is difficult to respect some men, and still\nmore difficult to love where we cannot respect. But the apostolic\ninjunction is emphatic: \"Let the wife see that she reverence her\nhusband.\" Though the husband be a reckless, incapable ne'er-do-well,\nthe wife is to respect the position of her husband and show him\ndeference as the head of the family. Alas! how many a noble woman has\nhad her life embittered by a worthless husband, but who, with a\nheroism, truly sublime, and a love truly angelical, has bravely done\nher duty and striven to screen the faults of the man who caused her\nmisery.\n\n3. _Implies obedience in all things lawful._--St. Peter refers to\n\"the holy women in the old time, being in subjection unto their own\nhusbands, even as Sara obeyed Abraham, calling him lord\" (1 Pet.\niii. 5, 6). A true wife is wholly devoted to her husband. She will\ncare for his person, property, health, character, and reputation, as\nfor her own. In all things reasonable and lawful she will rejoice to\nmeet the requests of her husband and follow his counsel.\n\n+II. The submission of the wife to the husband is governed by\nreligious principle.+--\"As it is fit in the Lord\" (ver. 18). The\nwife is first to submit herself fully to Christ, and, from love to\nHim, to submit herself to her own husband, and to look upon her\nsubjection as service done to Christ. This will be a consolation and\nstrength to her in many an unkind word from a cruel, apathetic, and\nunappreciative husband. It would never do for two wills to be ruling\na family. There would be endless clashing and confusion. It is the\nDivine arrangement that the husband is the head of the house, and \"it\nis fit in the Lord\" that the wife should be in subjection. She is not\nto forget her responsibility to God in a slavish, unreasoning, and\nsinful obedience to her husband. Governed by a pure and lofty\nreligious principle, she may so fulfil her duty as to win, or at\nleast disarm, her unreasonable partner. A wise submission may\nsometimes work wonders. She stoops to conquer. An old writer has\nsaid: \"A wife is ordained for man, like a little Zoar--a city of\nrefuge to fly to in all his troubles.\"\n\n+III. The duty of the husband is to show affection towards the\nwife.+--1. _This affection is to be genuinely manifested._ \"Husbands,\nlove your wives\" (ver. 19). Obligation is not all on one side. The\nhusband is not less bound to discharge his duty to his wife than the\nwife to him. Love is the sum of the husband's duty, and that which\nwill regulate every other. Where love rules, the family circle\nbecomes a tranquil and cherished haven of rest, peace, harmony, and\njoy. Nor is it enough that this affection should be recognised as a\nmatter of course--let it be manifested. That woman is a strange,\nheartless shrew who is unaffected by the gentle evidences of a\ndevoted and manly love. The true wife needs, craves for and knows how\nto appreciate a genuine and evident affection. Let the husband show\nthe same tender and considerate regard to his wife as life advances\nand cares multiply as when he stood by her side at the altar, a\nlovely and confiding bride.\n\n2. _This affection is to be free from harshness._--\"And be not bitter\nagainst them\" (ver. 19). It is evidently implied that the love of a\nChristian heart may be marred by a sour and morose temper. It is\nungenerous and cruel to vent upon his wife and family the anger which\nthe man had not the courage to display before those who roused it\nwhen mixing among them in the world. Bitterness may be manifested as\nmuch by a cold, repulsive silence as by the most stinging words of\nsharp and angry reproof, or by the irritating actions of a wilful and\ntantalising conduct. It is a species of savage and fiendish brutality\nfor a husband to study how he can inflict the keenest torture on a\nloving and submissive nature. It sometimes requires the most\nassiduous art of the tenderest affection to repair the damage done by\na single word. Amid the perplexities and trials of married life many\noccasions will arise in which mutual patience and forbearance will\nneed to be exercised. Let love reign supreme and banish the first\nsymptoms of a harsh and churlish disposition.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Be careful whom you marry._ 2. _Beware of the first\nquarrel._ 3. _Bear with Christian resignation the life-consequences\nof an unfortunate choice._ 4. _Connubial bliss is attained only by\nthe faithful exercise of mutual duties._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 20, 21.\n\n_Duties of Parents and Children._\n\nIt is God who hath set the solitary in families. The domestic\nconstitution is the formal type of all governments. If discipline is\nneglected in the home, it is rarely that the loss is made up when the\nuntaught becomes a citizen of the world. Coleridge has well said: \"If\nyou bring up your children in a which puts them out of sympathy with\nthe religious feelings of the nation in which they life, the chances\nare that they will ultimately turn out ruffians or fanatics, and one\nas likely as the other.\" \"A wise son maketh a glad father; but a\nfoolish son is the heaviness of his mother\" (Prov. x. 1). Lord Bacon\nobserves that fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their\nsons, but the mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof. It is\ntherefore of vital importance that the reciprocal duties of parents\nand children should be faithfully and diligently observed. These\nverses indicate _the character of filial duty and of parental\nauthority._ Observe:--\n\n+I. That the duty of the child to the parent is to obey.+--1. _This\nobedience is universal._ \"Children, obey your parents in all things\"\n(ver. 20). The Old Testament law commands, \"Honour thy father and thy\nmother\"; and the most signal way in which a child can honour his\nparents is to obey them. Parents have learnt wisdom by experience;\nthey know the dangers that threaten their children, and are in a\nposition to offer wise and judicious counsel. Filial obedience should\nbe prompt, cheerful, self-denying, uniform; not dilatory and\nreluctant. It is universal in its obligation, and is binding, not\nonly in those commands that are pleasant to obey, but in those that\nare troublesome, and that seem unreasonable and perverse, so long as\nthey do not involve a violation of Divine law. It is a painful\nspectacle to see a child defy parental authority, and even exult in\nhis rebellion and in the distress it causes his father and mother.\nBut filial disobedience rarely reaches such a pitch of cruel\nretaliation without there having been some defect in the early\ntraining. The child who renders due reverence to his parents is sure\nto meet with the rich rewards of heaven in the enjoyment of temporal\nand spiritual blessing.\n\n2. _This obedience is qualified and limited by the Divine\napproval._--\"For this is well-pleasing unto God\" (ver. 20). It is\nonly when the commands of the parent are in harmony with the will of\nGod that the child is bound to obey, and a powerful motive to\npractise obedience is derived from the fact that it \"is well-pleasing\nunto the Lord.\" The parent has no authority to enforce obedience\nbeyond what has been given to him of God; and the exercise of that\nauthority must ever be in subjection to the higher authority of the\nDivine law. Obedience to parents in what is right is obedience to the\nLord. It is the way of safety and of happiness. A little boy, about\nseven years old, was on a visit to a lady who was very fond of him.\nOne day, at breakfast, there was some hot bread on the table, and it\nwas handed to him; but he would not take it. \"Do you not like hot\nbread?\" asked the lady. \"Yes,\" said the boy; \"I like it very much.\"\n\"Then, my dear, why do you not take some?\" \"Because,\" he said, \"my\nfather does not wish me to eat hot bread.\" \"But your father is a\ngreat way off,\" said the lady, \"and will not know whether you eat it\nor not. You may take it for once; there will be no harm in that.\"\n\"No, ma'am; I will not disobey my father and my mother. I must do\nwhat they have told me to do, although they are a great way off. I\nwould not touch it if I was sure nobody would see. I myself should\nknow it, and that would be enough to make me unhappy.\" A reckless\ndisobedience of parental authority will not go unpunished. The\nexample of Christ's subjection to his earthly parents exalts filial\nduty into a sublime and holy exercise.\n\n+II. That the duty of the parent to the child is to rule.+--1. _The\nparent is not to rule in a spirit of exasperating severity._\n\"Fathers, provoke not your children to anger\" (ver. 21). The\nobedience of the child will be very much influenced by the character\nof the parental government. Counsel, remonstrance, and even\nchastisement will be necessary in the successful training of\nchildren. But discipline is to be administered so wisely, lovingly,\nand firmly as not to irritate to rebellion, but to subdue and bend\ninto obedience. An excessive severity is as baneful as an excessive\nindulgence.\n\n     \"The voices of parents is the voice of God,\n      For to their children they are heaven's lieutenants;\n      Made fathers, not for common  uses merely,\n      But to steer\n      The wanton freight of youth through storms and dangers,\n      Which, with full sails, they bear upon and straighten\n      The mortal line of life they bend so often.\n      For these are we made fathers, and for these\n      May challenge duty on our children's part.\n      Obedience is the sacrifice of angels,\n      Whose form you carry.\"--_Shakespeare._\n\n2. _To rule in a spirit of exasperating severity tends only to\ndishearten._--\"Lest they be discouraged\" (ver. 21). If the child sees\nthat all his endeavours to please are in vain, and that he is\nrepulsed with sternness and cruel severity, he loses heart, and\nbecomes sullen or morose, or is stung into a state of desperate\nrevenge. To be perpetually fault-finding, and to gratify your angry\npassions in brutal, savage chastisement, will crush the spirit of any\nyouth, and perhaps transform him into a monster more terrible than\nyourself. Children are to be led, not driven; to be treated as\nreasonable beings, not forced like brute animals; to be encouraged by\ncommendation where it is merited, and the defects of their obedience\nkindly interpreted. A certain writer has significantly said: \"What if\nGod should place in your hand a diamond, and tell you to inscribe on\nit a sentence which should be read at the last day, and shown there\nas an index of your own thoughts and feelings? What care, what\ncaution, would you exercise in the selection! Now this is what God\nhas done. He has placed before you the immortal minds of your\nchildren, more imperishable than the diamond, on which you are about\nto inscribe every day and every hour, by your instruction, by your\nspirit, or by your example, something that will remain and be\nexhibited for or against you at the judgment day.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _To rule wisely we must first learn to obey._\n2. _Disobedience is the essence of all sin._ 3. _That government is\nthe most effective that tempers justice with mercy._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 22-25--_Ch._ iv. 1.\n\n_Duties of Masters and Servants._\n\nThe jealous conflict between capital and labour threatens the good\nunderstanding that was wont to exist between employer and employed\nwith a serious rupture. Such a rupture would benefit neither side and\nwould inflict incalculable disaster on both. There are economic laws,\nwhich regulate the employment of capital and labour, which no number\nof combinations and unions among masters and servants can ever set\naside. Though a temporary advantage may, in extraordinary times, be\nsnatched by either party, the law of supply and demand inevitably\ntends to balance and equalise all interests. It would be well,\ntherefore, for masters and servants to ponder the teaching of the New\nTestament regarding their reciprocal duties. It was Christianity that\nrescued the servant from a condition of abject civil slavery and\nplaced him in his just relation to his fellow-subjects in the\ncommonwealth. The farther men drift away from the Christian spirit in\nseeking to adjust the questions between capital and labour, the more\ndifficult and complicated they become. It is only as these questions\nare settled on a Christian basis, in harmony with the laws of a sound\npolitical economy, that party jealousies will subside, and the best\nunderstanding between masters and servants be established. Observe:--\n\n+I. That the duty of the servant is to obey his master in all things\nrelating to his state of servitude.+--\"Servants, obey in all things\nyour masters according to the flesh\" (ver. 22). There is nothing\ndegrading in service. It is the employment of angels. \"They serve Him\nday and night\" (Rev. vii. 15). It is ennobled by the example of\nChrist, who \"came not to be ministered unto, but to minister\" (Mark\nx. 45). To obey in all things is not always pleasant or easy; but the\nChristian servant will strive to accomplish the task. He consults the\nmaster's will, not his own; he does the master's way, not his own; he\nconsiders the master's time, not his own. His obedience is\nuniversally binding in everything relating to his state of servitude\nbut is restricted to that. His employer is his master only according\nto the flesh, has control over his bodily powers, and over the time\nin which he has engaged to labour; but he has not power over the\nspirit. The master cannot demand obedience in any matter forbidden of\nGod.\n\n+II. That the duty of the servant is to be done in a spirit of\nsincerity.+--1. _It is to be free from duplicity._ \"Not with\neye-service as men-pleasers; but in singleness of heart\" (ver. 22).\nThe servants of whom the apostle writes were slaves and treated\nmerely as chattels. There are supposed to have been sixty millions of\nslaves in the Roman empire. From the treatment they usually received,\nthey were greatly tempted to be merely eye-servants--diligent when\ntheir master was present, but indolent and reckless in his absence.\nChristianity has elevated man from slavery and provided him with the\nhighest motives to moral action. It teaches that service is to be\nrendered, not with a hypocritical deference and sham industriousness,\nbut with a single, undivided heart, doing the best at all times for\nthe master.\n\n2. _It is to be done in the fear of God._--\"Fearing God\" (ver.\n22)--the one Lord and Master, as contrasted with the master according\nto the flesh. The Christian servant has a conscience to satisfy and a\nheavenly Master to please. The fear of the Lord is the holiest\nmotive-power in all acceptable service. He who serves his earthly\nmaster as he seeks to serve God will take care that the Divine and\nhuman interests do not come into collision with each other.\n\n+III. That the duty of the servant is to be discharged from the\nloftiest religious principle.+--1. _In every duty God is to be\nrecognised._ \"And whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord,\nand not unto men\" (ver. 23). The Christian servant must look higher\nthan his earthly master; that is a service that may be rendered\nmechanically, and by men who make no pretence to be Christian. The\ntrue servant will give Christ the chief place in his service--will so\nact that his obedience shall honour Christ and be acceptable to Him.\nHis best efforts may fail to satisfy the exactions of an unreasonable\nmaster, and the faithful servant will find his consolation and\nrecompense in the fact that he aims to secure the Divine approval.\nThis will give a moral dignity to the most menial employment, and\nexalt the common drudgery of toil into a means of religious\nrefreshment and invigoration.\n\n2. _In every duty the best powers should be exercised._--\"Do it\nheartily\" (ver. 23). If the heart be engaged, it will put into\noperation the best powers of the whole man. No work is well done when\nthe heart is not in it. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing\nwell; and surely no power can move the springs of action so\ncompletely as the ever-present thought that, whatever we do, we \"do\nit as to the Lord, and not unto men.\" Our best efforts fall\nimmeasurably below the lofty ideal of Christian service; but it is no\nsmall commendation when the Divine Master can declare respecting the\nanxious and delighted worker, \"She hath done what she could\" (Mark\nxiv. 8). Acting on such a principle, the capacity for the highest\nkind of work is cultivated, the sphere of usefulness widened, and the\nmost coveted honours and enjoyments of the faithful servant secured.\n\n+IV. That faithful service will meet with a glorious\nreward.+--\"Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the reward of\nthe inheritance, for ye serve the Lord Christ\" (ver. 24). Under the\nsinister judgment passed by Satan on the devotion of Job there lurks\nan encouraging truth--man does not serve God for nought. Though there\nis nothing meritorious in the best actions of the busiest life, yet\nit has pleased God, in the exuberance of His condescending bounty, to\nprovide abundant recompense for all work done as unto Him. The reward\nof the inheritance is in generous disproportion to the service\nrendered; the service is marred and limited by the numberless\nimperfections of the human; the reward is amply freighted with the\noverflowing munificence and glittering splendours of the Divine. It\nis the inheritance of imperishable happiness--of incorruptible and\nunfading glory--of heaven--of God (1 Pet. i. 4). What an\nencouragement to work!\n\n+V. That every act of injustice will meet with impartial\nretribution.+--\"But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong\nwhich he hath done, and there is no respect of persons\" (ver. 25).\nSome regard the wrong-doer referred to in this verse as the servant\nwho defrauds the master of his service; others, as the master who\ndefrauds the servant of his just recompense. But the words announce a\ngeneral principle which is equally applicable to both. The\nphilosophers of Greece taught, and the laws of Rome assumed, that the\nslave was a chattel, and that as a chattel he had no rights. The New\nTestament places the relation of master and servant in a wholly new\nlight and shows that between both there is a reciprocity of duties\nand of penalties. The injustice done in the world, whether by master\nor by servant, shall be impartially redressed, and the injured one\nvindicated at the day of final retribution.\n\n+VI. That the duty of the master is to deal righteously towards his\nservants.+--1. _He is to act towards his servants according to the\nprinciples of justice and equity._ \"Masters, give unto your servants\nthat which is just and equal\" (ver. 1). If the masters here addressed\nwere exhorted to deal fairly and justly with those who were their\nslaves, not less fully is the modern master bound to act justly and\nequitably towards those who serve him. The position of master is one\nof great power and authority; it is, at the same time, one of solemn\nresponsibility. Capital has not only its cares and privileges, it has\nalso its duties, and these cannot be abused with impunity. The\ncommunistic doctrine of equality has no countenance here. If all were\nsocially and financially equal to-day, the inequality would be\nrestored to-morrow. The duty of the master is to give to his servants\nthat which is righteous and reciprocally fair. Treat them as human\nbeings, with human rights, and as rational and religious beings, who,\nlike yourselves, have an endless future to prepare for. Give them\nfair remuneration for work done. Be generous in prosperous times, and\nconsiderate when adversity comes. While acting commercially according\nto the laws of political economy, which no sane business man can\ndisregard, yield in all justness and fairness to the impulse of the\nhigher law of Christian charity and kindness. Interest yourselves in\nthe physical, moral, and religious welfare of your work-people. Good\nmasters make good servants.\n\n2. _He is to remember that he is responsible to a higher Master._\n\"Knowing that ye also have a Master in heaven\" (ver. 1). The master\nis not less bound than the servant to do his duty as unto the Lord.\nThey are both servants of the one great Lord and Master of all. \"One\nis your Master, even Christ, and all ye are brethren\" (Matt.\nxxiii. 8). Do not impose impossible tasks upon your servants. Avoid\nan overbearing tyranny, and \"forbear threatening.\" Exercise your\nauthority with humanity and gentleness. Use your wealth, reputation,\nand influence in promoting the best interest of your work-people, and\nin serving the Lord Christ. Remember that whatever you do to the\npoorest servant of your heavenly Master is reckoned and recompensed\nas done to Himself (Matt. xxv. 40).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Social distinctions afford opportunities for personal\ndiscipline._ 2. _Every rank in life has its special perils._ 3. _The\nlaw of duty is binding in all ranks._ 4. _The dust of both masters\nand servants will soon mingle in a common grave._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 23. _Do all for God._\n\n+I. The Christian's practical life comprises working, acting, and\nsuffering.+\n\n+II. Abide with God in your calling.+--Intention gives a moral\ncharacter to actions.\n\n+III. Motives to duty.+--1. _Mechanical activity._ 2. _Supernatural\nmotive._ \"Do it heartily as to the Lord.\" 3. _Our good intention\nshould be renewed at intervals._ 4. _Our lesser actions should be\nbrought under the control of Christian principle.--E. M. Goulburn._\n\n\n_A Hearty Christianity._\n\n+I. The highest end of all work is work done for God and to\nGod.+--1. _Not work done for self._ 2. _Not work done for society._\n\n+II. The highest kind of work of which we are capable is that which\nengages all the powers of our spiritual nature.+--\"Do it heartily.\"\n1. _The character of the work we do will be decided by the state of\nour heart._ 2. _By the predominating impulse of the heart._ 3. _The\ncharacter of our work as a whole will be influenced by the heartiness\nwe throw into every single duty._ \"Whatsoever ye do.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _A hearty Christianity is a happy Christianity._\n2. _Is not easily daunted by difficulties._ 3. _Is aggressive._\n\n\nVers. 23-25. _Piety in the Household._\n\n+I. We are serving the Lord.+--This will dignify the most\ninsignificant duty.\n\n+II. We should seek to be actuated by the highest possible\nmotive.+--Out of the heart, or influenced by the affections. The\nhighest motive will cover the lowest.\n\n+III. The Lord Himself will give us the highest reward.+--With Him is\nno respect of persons.--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER IV.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 2. +Watch in the same.+--\"Being wakeful.\" Here again the apostle\nchanges his language from that used in enjoining the same precepts in\nEphesians. Remaining sleepless (Eph. vi. 18) is the same thing as\nbeing wakeful.\n\nVer. 3. +A door of utterance.+--R.V. \"a door for the word.\" The Word\nof God cannot be bound, though its messenger may; but St. Paul can\nscarcely think its being glorified comes so quickly as it would if he\nhad liberty to preach it. \"An open door\" with \"many adversaries\" is\nmore to St. Paul's mind than the _custodia libera._ See Eph. vi. 19,\n20.\n\nVer. 5. +Walk in wisdom.+--Eph. v. 15. Walk circumspectly. R.V.\n\"carefully.\" It would appear from this as if the adverb in Eph. v. 15\nshould go with \"walk\" rather than with \"look,\" as in R.V. +Towards\nthem that are without.+--Who do not participate in the benefits of\nthe new kingdom. +Redeeming the time.+--As in Eph. v. 16. Seizing for\nyourselves, like bargains in the market, each opportunity (see R.V.\nmargin).\n\nVer. 6. +Let your speech be alway with grace.+--There is no excuse\nfor a Christian's conversation becoming rude and churlish. It may be\nnecessary to speak plainly and boldly at times--the way of doing even\nthat graciously ought to characterise Christians. +Seasoned with\nsalt.+--The pungent flavour of wit and facetiousness was called salt\nby the Greeks, often with a spice of indecency. \"Salt\" in the New\nTestament is the opposite of corruption.\n\nVer. 11. +A comfort to me.+--The word for \"comfort\" is only found in\nthis place in the New Testament. It is a medical term, and points to\nrelief given in suffering--then, by way of ministering to a mind\ndiseased or in trouble, is used of the speech which soothes and calms.\n\nVer. 12. +Always labouring fervently for you.+--R.V. \"always\nstriving.\" Lit. \"agonising.\" Like the mighty wrestler who held the\nAngel till daybreak, Epaphras intercedes for His Colossian brethren.\n+Complete in all the will of God.+--R.V. \"fully assured.\" \"From the\ntenor of the letter it appears that the Colossians needed a deeper\nChristian insight and more intelligent and well-grounded convictions\nrespecting the truth 'as in Jesus'\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 13. +Zeal . . . for them that are in Laodicea.+--Here then is\none who differs from the Laodicean spirit of St. John's time.\n\nVer. 17. +And say to Archippus, Take heed to the ministry.+--He is\nagain closely connected with Coloss\u00e6 in the epistle to Philemon. A\nmonition perhaps needed by Archippus. +In the Lord.+--The element in\nwhich every work of the Christian, and especially the Christian\nminister, is to be done.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2-4.\n\n_The Efficacy of Prayer._\n\nPrayer is a supreme necessity of the soul. It is the cry of conscious\nwant, an outlet for the pent-up feelings, and a mighty engine of\npower in all spiritual enterprises. It is the holiest exercise of the\nbeliever, his solace in trouble, his support in weakness, the solver\nof his doubts and perplexities, his safety in peril, his unfailing\nresource in adversity, his balance in prosperity, his weapon in every\nconflict. It is the key which opens the door of the heavenly\ntreasury, and places at his disposal the boundless wealth of the\nDivine beneficence. The efficacy of prayer does not terminate in the\nindividual petitioner but extends to others on whose behalf\nsupplication is made. God hears the cry of the believing suppliant,\nand in some way, not always explicable to us, but in harmony with His\nDivine perfections and the fitness of things, answers and blesses.\nThe apostle knew the value and power of prayer when earnestly and\nhumbly exercised, and, after giving directions concerning the\ndischarge of certain specific relative duties, he returns, in\nconcluding this epistle, to some general admonitions in which this\nimportant duty holds a foremost place. Prayer, says Thomas Aquinas,\nshould have three qualities: it should be assiduous, watchful, and\ngrateful. The perseverance with which prayer uninterruptedly draws\nitself through all events, internal and external, like a thread, or\nencircles them like a chain, is its vital power; the watchfulness,\nthe lively circumspection, the gratitude, are the quiet tone or firm\nbasis of the same.\n\n+I. That prayer to be efficacious must be earnest and\nunceasing.+--\"Continue in prayer\" (ver. 2). The heart must be in the\nduty and all the best powers of the man put forth. That in which we\nhave no interest will stir no feeling, will challenge no effort. To\nrepeat a verbal formulary is not prayer. Alas! how many thousand\nprayers go no farther than the sound they make and are as useless!\nGenuine prayer involves thought, diligent inquiry, passionate\nentreaty, unwearied perseverance. The highest blessings of the\nChristian life, the brightest visions of God, the deepest insight\ninto truth, the most enravishing ecstasies of the soul, are obtained\nonly by fervent and persistent wrestling. Prayer must be offered with\nclose-cleaving constancy, as the word \"continue\" implies, and with\ndaily frequency. Let prayer be the key of the morning and the bolt of\nthe evening.\n\n+II. That prayer to be efficacious must be joined with\nvigilance.+--\"And watch in the same\" (ver. 2). Long, prosy,\nspiritless prayers lull the soul into a dangerous slumber; and\nwithout incessant watchfulness all prayers are apt to become long,\nprosy, and spiritless. It is not necessary we should rob ourselves of\nneedful sleep in order to spend so many hours in formal devotion. The\nvigilance refers to the spirit and manner in which all prayer is to\nbe offered. There may be times when, under the pressures of some\ngreat solicitude, the soul is drawn out in prayer so as to preclude\nsleep; but at these times the quality of watchfulness is often in\nmost vigorous operation. Watch, as a sentinel suspecting the approach\nof an enemy; as a physician attending to all the symptoms of a\ndisease; as the keeper of a prison watching an insidious and\ntreacherous criminal. We have need to watch against the temptations\narising from worldly associations, from the sinfulness of our own\nhearts, and from the vile insinuations of the enemy, all which mar\nthe efficacy of our prayers. Chrysostom says, \"The devil knoweth how\ngreat a good prayer is.\" No wonder he should seek to distract the\nmind of the earnest suppliant. \"Prayer,\" said Bernard, \"is a virtue\nthat prevaileth against all temptations;\" but this is so only when a\nsleepless vigilance is exercised.\n\n+III. That prayer to be efficacious must be mingled with\ngratitude.+--\"With thanksgiving\" (ver. 2). The apostle has,\nthroughout the epistle, repeatedly enforced the duty of thankfulness.\nHe once more recurs to it in this place; and we cannot fail to note\nthe vast importance he attached to the exercise of this grace, and\nhow it ought to interpenetrate every Christian duty. We are ever more\nready to grumble than to give thanks. Such is the deceitfulness of\nsin, or the vanity and purblindness of the human heart, that the very\nregularity and abundance of the Divine mercies, instead of\nincreasing, are apt to restrict our gratitude. We take, as a matter\nof course, what ought to be received with humblest thankfulness. An\nold writer has well said, \"Need will make us beggars, but grace only\nthanksgivers. Gratitude opens the hand of God to give, and the heart\nof the suppliant to receive aright. Thankfulness for past mercies is\nan important condition of success in pleading for additional\nblessings.\"\n\n+IV. That prayer is efficacious in promoting an efficient declaration\nof the Gospel.+--1. _Prayer should be offered on behalf of Christian\nministers._ \"Withal praying also for us\" (ver. 3). The Colossians\nwere exhorted to pray, not only for Paul, his fellow-labourer\nTimothy, and their own evangelist Epaphras, but for all teachers of\nthe Gospel. The preacher is engaged in a work of vast magnitude,\nenvironed with colossal difficulties, and is himself ferociously\nassailed by great and peculiar perils. The earnest intercessions of a\ndevout and holy people are to him a safeguard and a tower of\nstrength. A once-popular minister gradually lost his influence and\ncongregation. The blame was laid entirely upon him. Some of his\nChurch officials went to talk with him on the subject. He replied: \"I\nam quite sensible to all you say, for I feel it to be true; and the\nreason of it is, I have lost my prayer-book.\" He explained: \"Once my\npreaching was acceptable, many were edified by it, and numbers were\nadded to the Church, which was then in a prosperous state. But we\nwere then a praying people. Prayer was restrained, and the present\ncondition of things followed. Let us return to the same means, and\nthe same results may be expected.\" They acted upon this suggestion,\nand in a short time the minister was as popular as he had ever been,\nand the Church was again in a flourishing state. The great apostle\nfelt the necessity of co-operative sympathy and prayer (Rom. xv. 30;\n2 Thess. iii. 1).\n\n2. _Prayer should be offered that the most prominent features of the\nGospel may be declared._--\"To speak the mystery of Christ, for which\nI am also in bonds\" (ver. 3). It has before been explained in this\nepistle that _the mystery of Christ_ is a grand summary of all the\nleading truths of the Gospel: the mystery of the incarnation of\nChrist, the mystery of His sufferings and death as a sacrifice for\nsin, the mystery of admitting the Gentiles on equal terms with the\nJews to all the privileges and blessings of the new covenant. It was\nthe apostle's intrepid advocacy of the rights of the despised\nGentile--maugre the fierce bigotry of his own countrymen, the\ndeep-seated prejudice of the times, and even the slavish indifference\nof the Gentiles themselves--which led to his imprisonment: \"for which\nI am also in bonds.\" The prayers of the good give the preacher\ncourage to declare all the counsel of God, whether it be palatable or\nnot, and to give special prominence to those truths which are of\npriceless importance to humanity.\n\n3. _Prayer should be offered, that opportunity may be afforded for\nthe free declaration of the Gospel._--\"That God would open unto us a\ndoor of utterance\" (ver. 3). The door had been closed and barred to\nthe apostle for four years by his imprisonment. He felt a holy\nimpatience to be free, that he might resume the loved labour of\nformer years, when \"from Jerusalem and round about into Illyricum he\nhad fully preached the Gospel of Christ.\" But he waited till the door\nwas opened by Divine providence; and this he knew was often done in\nanswer to believing prayer. So there are times, in all ages of the\nChurch, when the door of opportunity for disseminating the Gospel is\nshut by the opposition of the world, by the plottings of Satan, by\nthe prevalence of a rabid infidelity, or by the removal of eminent\nchampions for the truth; but, in response to the earnest\nintercessions of God's people, a great and effectual door is opened,\nand the Church advances to fresh conquests.\n\n4. _Prayer should be offered that the Gospel may be declared with\nfearless self-evidencing power._--\"That I may make it manifest, as I\nought to speak\" (ver. 4). There are some who preach the Gospel in a\ncold, lifeless, perfunctory manner, or with unmeaning feebleness and\nunmanly timidity. When the preacher sinks down into a condition so\nabject as this, he has lost sight of the true meaning of the Gospel,\nhe becomes the most pitiable object under the sun, and is exposed to\nthe scathing vengeance of heaven. To preach the Gospel with\nclearness, with intrepidity, and with irresistible persuasiveness,\nthat he \"may make it manifest, as he ought to speak,\" demands the\nbest energies of the soul, and, above all, the special endowments of\nthe Holy Ghost. A minister is mightily aided in preaching by the\nwrestling intercessions of a holy and sympathetic people.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer is an excellent training for efficiency in all\nother duties._ 2. _Prayer is a gigantic power in the propagation of\nthe Gospel._ 3. _The topics for prayer are vast in range and not far\nto seek._ 4. _When you can do nothing else you can pray._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 2. _True Devotion._\n\n+I. Explain the meaning of the text.+--It is:--\n\n1. _Not to be engaged without intermission in outward and formal acts\nof devotion._--This is inconsistent with our nature, with commanded\nduties, with the ends of prayer.\n\n2. _To be frequently engaged in formal acts of devotion._--(1) No\nexercise more hallowing and soothing to the soul. (2) None more\nprofitable as procuring blessings. (3) One to which those whose\nexample is recorded gave a prominent place--Job, David, Daniel, Paul,\nChrist. (4) Morning, evening, intervals, social.\n\n3. _To be persevering and importunate in asking particular\nblessings._--God does not always send sensibly the answer at once. A\ndeeper sense of want may be necessary. A trial of faith, patience,\nand submissiveness may be expedient. The proper season may not have\ncome. God's sovereignty must be owned. We ought to assure ourselves\nthat we pray according to God's will.\n\n+II. Enforce the exhortation.+--1. _Because you are commanded to do\nso._ 2. _Because Christ and the Spirit intercede for you._ There is\nno duty for which there is more ample assistance provided.\n3. _Because of the number and greatness of your wants._ It is by\nfaith that we know our wants. Hence the necessity. 4. _Because of the\nexhaustless provision that God has made for you._ God acts as God in\nthe provision and in the bestowal. 5. _Because of the number of\npromises not yet fulfilled._ To you individually, to the Church, to\nChrist. 6. _Because the season for prayer is speedily hastening\naway.--Stewart._\n\n\nVers. 3, 4. _Praying and Preaching._\n\n  +I. The sermon is powerful that is well prayed over+ (ver. 4).\n\n +II. A praying preacher uses every available opportunity to proclaim\n      the truth+ (ver. 3).\n\n+III. The theme of the preacher becomes more definite and effective\n      by prayer+ (ver. 3).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5, 6.\n\n_The Wise Conduct of Life._\n\nThe Christian lives a dual life: one in spiritual communion with\nheaven, under the eye of God; the other in daily contact with the\nouter world, exposed to its observation and criticism. The aspects of\nthe life patent to the world's gaze do not always correspond with the\nbest impulses of the life concealed; the actual falls short of the\nideal. The world forms its judgment of the Christian from what it\nsees of his outer life and makes no allowance for his unseen\nstruggles after moral perfection and his bitter penitence over\nconscious failures. Nor can we blame the world for this; the outer\nlife of the believer furnishes the only evidence on which the world\ncan form its estimate, and it is incapable of apprehending and taking\ninto account hidden spiritual causes. The living example of the\nbeliever presents the only ideas of Christianity that great numbers\nhave any means of possessing; he is a Christ to them, until they are\nbrought to a clearer knowledge of _the_ true and only Christ. With\nwhat wisdom and circumspection should the believer walk toward them\nthat are without!\n\n+I. That the conduct of life is to be regulated according to the\ndictates of the highest wisdom.+--1. _Religion is a life._ \"Walk\"\n(ver. 5). A walk implies motion, progression, continual approximation\nto destination. Our life is a walk; we are perpetually and actively\nadvancing towards our destiny. Religion is not a sentiment, not a\nround of bewitching ceremonies, not a succession of pleasurable\nemotions; it is a life. It pervades the whole soul, thrills every\nnerve, participates in every joy and sorrow, and moulds and inspires\nthe individual character.\n\n2. _Religion is a life shaped and controlled by the highest\nwisdom._--\"Walk in wisdom\" (ver. 5). Christian conduct is governed by\nthe Spirit of that wisdom which is from above, and under the\ninfluence of the knowledge which maketh wise unto salvation (Jas.\niii. 17). It is ruled, not by an erratic sentiment or by the wild\nimpulse of a senseless fanaticism, but by a sound understanding and a\nwise discretion. Its experience and hopes rest upon a basis of truth\ntranscending in certainty, wisdom, and majesty the most imposing\nspeculations of the human mind.\n\n3. _Religion is a life that should be instructive to the\nirreligious._--\"Toward them that are without\" (ver. 5)--without the\npale of the Church, the unbelievers. An upright, holy, consistent\nexample is often more eloquent than words, more practically effective\nthan the most elaborate code of moral maxims. The follies and glaring\ninconsistencies of professing Christians have often inflicted serious\ndamage upon the Church itself and turned religion into ridicule among\nthe thoughtless and irreligious outsiders. The world is to be largely\ntrained into correct views of truth and a just appreciation of the\nChristian spirit by the humble, saintly lives of those who have\nexperienced the transforming power of the Gospel. Be more anxious to\nlive religiously than to talk religiously.\n\n4. _Religion is a life that impels the soul to seize every\nopportunity for good doing._--\"Redeeming the time\" (ver. 5)--buying\nup the opportunity for yourselves. Opportunity is the flower of time,\nwhich blooms but for a moment and is gone forever. Evil is prevalent;\nit effects the great majority, it advances with ever accelerating\nmomentum; every opportunity for checking its career and destroying\nits power should be snatched with eagerness and used with promptitude\nand discretion. The wisdom that regulates the religious life will be\nthe safest guide as to the way in which the passing moment may be\nturned to the best advantage. The children of Issachar were commended\nas men that had understanding of the times, to know what Israel ought\nto do (1 Chron. xii. 32). Ill-timed and inconsiderate zeal will do\nmore harm than good.\n\n+II. That the conduct of life is to be regulated by judicious\nspeech.+--1. _Christian speech should be gracious._ \"Let your speech\nbe alway with grace\" (ver. 6). The mouth ought to be a treasury of\nbenediction, out of which no corrupt communication should issue, but\nthat which is good to the use of edifying, that it may minister grace\nunto the hearers. Truth is the soul of grace; and infinite pains\nshould be taken that every utterance of the tongue should at least be\ntrue. Idle gossip, slander, falsehood, should never fall from lips\ncircumcised by the grace of God. Beware of the promiscuous use of the\nhackneyed phrases of pious cant. It is not so much a set religious\nphraseology that is wanted, as that all our speech should be baptised\nwith the chrism of a religious spirit.\n\n2. _Christian speech should be piquant._--\"Seasoned with salt\" (ver.\n6). Salt is the emblem of what is quickening and preservative; and\nthe conversation seasoned with it will be pure, agreeable,\npointed--free from all taint and corrupting influence. The ancient\nteachers of rhetoric used to speak of \"Attic salt,\" with which they\nadvised their pupils to flavour their speeches, that they might\nsparkle with jests and witticisms. But it is not this kind of\ncondiment that the apostle recommends. Wit is a dangerous gift to\nmost men; but where it is joined with a well-balanced understanding,\nand sanctified by the grace of God, it may become a powerful weapon\nin the advocacy of truth and minister to the good of many. Speech, to\nbe beneficial, must be thoughtful, choice, sharp, clear, forceful.\n\n3. _Christian speech should be practical._--\"That ye may know how ye\nought to answer every man\" (ver. 6). It requires much practical\nwisdom to be able to speak well and wisely about religion to both\nobjectors and inquirers, and only the man accustomed to carefully\nweigh his words and guard his utterances can become an adept in this\nwork. Every Christian may cultivate the wisdom which governs the\ntongue and is bound to do so (1 Pet. iii. 15). Silence is sometimes\nthe most conclusive answer. It is the triumph of wisdom to know when\nto speak and when to hold our peace.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The power of a blameless life._ 2. _The value of a\nwell-chosen word._ 3. _The supreme control claimed by religion over\nactions and speech._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 5. _The Worth of Time._\n\n+I. Time ought to be improved because its value is\ninexpressible.+--1. _The worth of time may be argued from a survey of\nthe great and momentous business to which it must be\nappropriated_--to get ready for eternity. 2. _From the astonishing\nprice at which it has been purchased for us._ 3. _From the careful\nmanner in which it is allotted to mankind._\n\n+II. Because of the brevity of its duration.+\n\n+III. Because, short as our time is, much of it has already elapsed.+\n\n+IV. Because what remains to us is uncertain.+\n\n+V. Because nothing can ever compensate the loss of time.+\n\n+VI. God has made eternity to depend on the issues and results of\ntime.+--_Dr. Robt. Newton._\n\n\nVer. 6. _Christian Conversation._--The apostle recommends a seasoning\n\n  +I. Of piety.+\n\n +II. Of chastity.+\n\n+III. Of charity.+\n\n +IV. Of severity.+\n\n  +V. Of solidity.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Extravagant raillery poisons conversation._ 2. _A\nspirit of disputing is a vice of conversation._ 3. _Indiscreet\nquestions are a pest of conversation.--Saurin._\n\n\n_Christ's Truth in Relation to our Daily Conversation._\n\n  +I. The large space which words occupy in human life.+--1. _On\n      account of their number._ 2. _On account of their\n      consequences._\n\n +II. The importance of special self-examination in reference to our\n      words.+\n\n+III. Earnest listening to the Divine voices the cure for vain speech\n      and the source of gracious speech.+\n\n +IV. Our words are not to be all about religion but pervaded by the\n      spirit of religion.+\n\n  +V. Our conversation being thus seasoned, we shall know how we\n      ought to answer every man.+--_R. Abercrombie._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-11.\n\n_Side-lights on Church-life in the Early Times._\n\nA straw will indicate the direction of current; a bit of glass will\nreveal a star; a kick of the foot may discover a treasure that will\nenrich successive generations; a word, a look, an involuntary\nmovement will disclose the leading tendency of an individual\ncharacter; so on the crowded stage of life it is not always the\ngigantic and public scenes that are most suggestive and instructive,\nbut rather the trivial, undesigned incidents which are unnoticed by\nan ordinary observer. A reflective mind will pick up material for\nthought from the most unexpected and unpromising quarters. The\napostle has finished the grand argument of the epistle and shown the\nimportance of certain duties which grow out of the reception of the\ntruths enforced. In approaching the conclusion, he appears to be\nchiefly occupied with a mass of personal and miscellaneous matters.\nThe few remaining verses contain little else but a series of names,\nwith the briefest qualifying phrases attached. But here and there\nlight is thrown on truths which, though familiar, are all the more\nstrongly impressed on our minds because of their evident antiquity.\nIn these verses there are _side-lights thrown on Church-life in the\nearly times with reference to Christian sympathy, commendations,\ncourtesy, and co-operation._ We learn:--\n\n+I. The value of Christian sympathy.+--1. _As fostering mutual\ninterest in tidings concerning the work of God._ \"All my state shall\nTychicus declare unto you, . . . whom I have sent unto you for the\nsame purpose; . . . shall make known unto you all things which are\ndone here\" (vers. 7-9). The apostle, though in prison and separated\nby a long distance from the Colossians, does not abate anything of\nhis interest in their welfare. He had received tidings of their\ncondition as a Church; of their steadfastness, successes, and perils;\nand he was sure that intelligence from him would be eagerly welcomed\nby them. He therefore despatched Tychicus and Onesimus, who could\nfurnish more details concerning the apostle, the exemplary spirit in\nwhich he bore his sufferings, his profound anxiety on behalf of the\nChurches and the progress of the Gospel in Rome, than were contained\nin the epistle they carried. A heart, touched with a genuine\nChristian sympathy, rejoices in the extension of the work of God, in\nwhatever part of the world, and by whatever Christian agency. The\nmutual interchange of intelligence tends to excite the interest,\npromote the union, and stimulate the enterprise of the Churches.\n\n2. _As a source of encouragement and strength in the Christian\nlife._--\"That he might know your estate and comfort your heart\" (ver.\n8). Instead of \"that he might know your estate,\" another reading of\nthe original, adopted by Lightfoot and other eminent critics, has\n\"that ye might know our affairs.\" \"But,\" as Bishop Wordsworth\nremarks, \"the very purpose for which Paul sent Tychicus to the\nColossians was not, it would seem, in order that they might know how\nSt. Paul was faring, but that he might know whether they were\nstanding steadfast in the faith against the attempts of the false\nteachers.\" Whichever reading is adopted, the practical lesson is the\nsame; both express the reality, strength, and beauty of a mutual\nsympathy. The presence of Tychicus and Onesimus, the character of the\ntidings they brought, and the fervour of their exhortations, would\nencourage and reassure the Colossians amid the perplexities and\ndoubts occasioned by the false teachers. Mutual expression of\nsympathy and inter-community of intelligence will do much to comfort\nand edify the Churches.\n\n+II. The appropriateness of Christian commendation+ (ver. 7).--The\napostle speaks highly of his two messengers--not in terms of\nextravagant flattery, but in a way calculated to ensure their\nfavourable reception by the Colossians and a respectful attention to\ntheir message. Tychicus was a native of proconsular Asia, perhaps of\nEphesus. He was well known as an authorised delegate of St. Paul and\nis mentioned in other places as being with the apostle (Acts xx. 42;\n2 Tim. iv. 12; Tit. iii. 12). He is spoken of in this verse as \"a\nbeloved brother, a faithful minister, a fellow-servant in the Lord.\"\nThe great apostle, far from taking advantage of his exalted calling\nand inspiration, humbled himself before the least of his brethren,\nspoke in the highest terms of their faithful labours, and associated\nthem with his own. Onesimus, a Colossian, is commended as \"a faithful\nand beloved brother.\" It was the more needful he should be thus\ncommended, because if he was known to the Colossians at all it would\nbe as a worthless, runaway slave. Some time before, Onesimus had\nforsaken his master Philemon, and fled to Rome--the common sink of\nall nations--probably as a convenient hiding-place where he might\nescape detection among its crowds and make a livelihood as best he\ncould. In the metropolis--perhaps accidentally, perhaps through the\nintervention of Epaphras--he fell in with the apostle, his master's\nold friend. St. Paul becomes interested in his case, instructs him in\nthe Gospel, and is the instrument of his conversion; and now he is\ncommended to the Colossians, no more as a good-for-nothing slave, but\nas a brother; no more dishonest and faithless, but trustworthy; no\nmore an object of contempt, but love. The apostle sent him back to\nhis master Philemon, and it is generally thought, having been set at\nliberty by his owner, he became a faithful and laborious minister of\nChrist. Such is the transforming power of Divine grace in changing\nand renewing the heart, in obliterating all former distinctions and\ndegradations, and in elevating a poor slave to the dignity of \"a\nfaithful and beloved brother\" of the greatest of apostles. Christian\ncommendations are valuable according to the character of the persons\nfrom whom they issue, and as they are borne out in the subsequent\nconduct of the persons commended. Every care should be taken that the\ntestimonial of recommendation is strictly true. It is putting a man\nin a false position and doing him an injury to exaggerate his\nqualifications by excessive glory.\n\n+III. Suggestive examples of Christian courtesy.+--\"Aristarchus my\nfellow-prisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister's son to Barnabas,\n(touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive\nhim;) and Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision\"\n(vers. 10, 11). Aristarchus was a Jew, though a native of\nThessalonica. He was with Paul during the riot at Ephesus and was\nhurried with Gaius into the theatre by Demetrius and his craftsmen.\nHe accompanied the apostle from Greece to Jerusalem with the\ncollection for the saints. When Paul was imprisoned in Judea, he\nabode with him; and when he went into Italy, he also went and\nremained with him there during his confinement, till at length he\nbecame, it may be, obnoxious to the magistrates, and was cast into\nprison; or perhaps he became a voluntary prisoner, that he might\nshare the apostle's captivity. What a glimpse have we here of heroic\ndevotion, and of the irresistible charm there must have been in the\napostle in attaching men to himself! Marcus was the John Mark\nfrequently referred to in the Acts of the Apostles. He had been the\noccasion of a contention between Paul and Barnabas, which led to\ntheir separating from each other and following different scenes of\nlabour. Mark had, from cowardice or some other motive, \"departed from\nthem from Pamphylia, and went not with them out to the work\"; and\nwhen Barnabas, probably influenced by his affection as near kinsman,\nwished to take him with them, Paul resolutely refused thus to\ndistinguish a young and unstable disciple. But from the reference\nhere it appears that Mark had repented of his timid and selfish\nbehaviour and returned to a better spirit. Perhaps the displeasure of\nthe apostle weighed upon his mind, and, with Barnabas' prayers and\nexample, had brought him to a right view of his misconduct. He was\nnow restored to the apostle's confidence, and it appears Paul had\nalready given directions to the Colossians concerning Mark to welcome\nhim heartily if he paid them a visit--\"touching whom ye received\ncommandments: if he come to you, receive him.\" The third Hebrew\nconvert who united in sending salutations was Jesus, which was also\ncalled Justus--a common name or surname of Jews and proselytes,\ndenoting obedience and devotion to the law. Nothing definite is known\nof this person; but the apostle held him in such esteem as to join\nhis salutation with the rest. These three friends and companions of\nPaul were Jews--they were _of the circumcision_; and yet they send\ntheir salutations to a Church composed chiefly of Gentiles. The\nChristian spirit triumphed over their deep-rooted prejudices, and\ntheir greeting would be all the more valued as an expression of their\npersonal esteem, their brotherly affection, and their oneness in\nChrist. That courtesy is the most refined, graceful, gentle, and\nacceptable that springs from the Christian spirit.\n\n+IV. The solace of Christian co-operation.+--\"These only are my\nfellow-workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort\nunto me\" (ver. 11). The tendency of the Jewish convert was to lean to\nthe Mosaic ritual and insist on its necessity in realising the\nefficacy of the Gospel. Thus, they favoured the false philosophy of\nthe Jewish Platonists, and fell into the errors against which the\napostle so faithfully warns in this epistle. The action of the\nJudaizing teachers and their sympathisers was often a grief and\nhindrance to him. Of all the Jewish converts in Rome only three were\na comfort to him. They thoroughly embraced and advocated the free and\nunconditional admission of the Gentiles into the Church of Christ and\nwere devoted and zealous fellow-workers with him in extending the\nkingdom of God. It is an evidence of the unpopularity among the Jews\nof the Gospel as intended equally for the Gentiles, and of the\nformidable prejudices and difficulties with which the apostle had to\ncontend in that early time, that there were only three Hebrew\nconverts who were a comfort to him. And yet how consoling is the\nsympathy and co-operation of the faithful few! Sometimes the noblest\nmen are deserted by timid and time-serving professors and left to\ntoil on alone in peril and sadness. History records the triumphs of\nthose who have successfully braved the solitary struggle in some\ngreat crisis; but it is silent about the vanquished who, with broken\nhearts and shattered intellects, have sunk into unchronicled oblivion.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christian experience is the same in all ages._\n2. _True courtesy costs little and accomplishes much._ 3. _Genuine\nsympathy is best shown by an active and self-denying co-operation._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12, 13.\n\n_The Model Pastor._\n\nNothing is known of Epaphras beyond the few but significant notices\nwhich connect him with Coloss\u00e6, of which city he was a native. Acting\nunder the direction of St. Paul, probably when the apostle was\nresiding for three years at Ephesus, Epaphras was the honoured agent\nin introducing the Gospel into Coloss\u00e6 and the neighbouring cities of\nLaodicea and Hierapolis; and it is evident he regarded himself as\nresponsible for the spiritual well-being of all these places. The\ndangerous condition of the Colossian and neighbouring Churches at\nthis time filled the mind of Epaphras with a holy jealousy and alarm.\nA strange form of heresy had appeared among them--a mixture of Jewish\nformalism with the speculations of an Oriental philosophy--and was\nrapidly spreading. The distress of the faithful evangelist was\nextreme. He journeyed to Rome in order to lay this state of things\nbefore the apostle, and to seek his counsel and assistance. The\napostle bears testimony to his profound anxiety for the spiritual\ncondition of the newly founded Churches on the banks of the Lycus. He\nhad much toil for them and was ever fervently wrestling in prayer on\ntheir behalf, that they might stand fast and not lose the simplicity\nof their earlier faith but might advance to a more perfect knowledge\nof the Divine will. In the verses now under consideration we have\nEpaphras brought before us as _the model pastor._\n\n+I. The model pastor is distinguished by a suggestive\ndesignation.+--\"A servant of Christ\" (ver. 12). This title, which the\napostle uses several times for himself, is not elsewhere conferred on\nany other individual, except once on Timothy (Phil. i. 1), and\nprobably points to exceptional services in the cause of the Gospel on\nthe part of Epaphras (_Lightfoot_). A true pastor is not the servant\nof the Church to echo its decisions and do its bidding; but he is the\nservant _for_ the Church to influence its deliberations and\ndecisions, to mould its character and direct its enterprises. He is\n_a servant of Christ,_ receiving his commission from Him, ever\nanxious to ascertain His will, and ready to carry out that will at\nwhatever sacrifice. Such a service involves no loss of self-respect\nor manliness, no degradation, but is free, honourable, and rich in\nblessing.\n\n+II. The model pastor is incessant in zealous labour.+--\"For I bear\nhim record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in\nLaodicea and them in Hierapolis\" (ver. 13). The zeal of Epaphras\nurged him to extend his Christian labours beyond the limits of\nColoss\u00e6: he visited the adjoining cities, which were much larger in\npopulation and wealthier in commerce. Laodicea, rising from\nobscurity, had become, two or three generations before the apostle\nwrote, a populous and thriving city, and was then the metropolis of\nthe cities on the banks of the Lycus. Hierapolis was an important and\ngrowing city, and, in addition to its trade in dyed wools, had a\nreputation as a fashionable watering-place, where the seekers of\npleasure and of health resorted to partake of its waters which\npossessed valuable medicinal qualities. The rare virtues of the city\nhave been celebrated in song:\n\n     \"Hail, fairest soil in all broad Asia's realm;\n      Hail, golden city, nymph divine, bedeck'd\n      With flowing rills, thy jewels.\"\n\nInto the midst of these populations the fervent Epaphras introduced\nthe Gospel and spared no pains in his endeavour to establish and\nconfirm the believers. It was on their behalf he undertook the\njourney to Rome to confer with St. Paul as to their state; and the\napostle testifies to the unceasing exercise of his great and holy\nzeal for his distant but ever-remembered flock. When the heart is\ninterested and moved, labour is a delight; and it is the way in which\nthe heart is affected towards any work that gives to it significance\nand worth. Canon Liddon writes: \"Are we not very imperfectly alive to\nthe moral meaning of work and the moral fruits of work as work?\" The\ntrue pastor, with a heart overflowing with zeal for the glory of God\nand the good of men, cheerfully undertakes labour from which the\nordinary worker would timidly shrink.\n\n+III. The model pastor is intensely exercised in prayer for the\npeople of God.+--\"Always labouring fervently [wrestling, agonising]\nfor you in prayers\" (ver. 12). The faithful minister has not only to\nteach his flock--a task which involves vigilant observation,\nextensive reading, and anxious study--but he has also to plead\nearnestly at the throne of grace on their behalf. In times of\nspiritual dearth, disappointment, embarrassment, and distress, prayer\nis the all-efficacious resource. There are circumstances in which the\nminister can do nothing but pray. Difficulties that defied all other\nmeans have vanished before the irresistible power of persistent and\nbelieving intercession. Prayer attains what the most conclusive\nreasoning, the most eloquent appeal, the most diligent personal\nattention, sometimes fail to accomplish. It sets in silent but\nstupendous operation the mightiest spiritual agencies of the\nuniverse. It opens the fountain of Divine grace, and its streams flow\nin full-tide velocity through the hitherto arid wilderness of human\nhearts, and life, freshness, fertility, and beauty spring up in its\nreviving course. It is God only whose help is omnipotent, and on this\nhelp faithful prayer lays hold and uses it in effecting its wonderous\ntransformations.\n\n+IV. The model pastor is constantly solicitous that the people of God\nshould be firmly established in the highest good.+--\"That ye may\nstand perfect and complete in all the will of God\" (ver.\n12)--perfectly instructed and fully convinced in everything willed\n_by God._ The great aim of all ministerial anxiety is not only to\ninstruct his people in the full and accurate knowledge of the Divine\nwill, but to produce such a persuasion of the supreme majesty and\nauthority of that will to induce steadfast continuance in practical\nobedience. The will of God and the highest good of man are always in\nharmony. Whatever threatens to disturb the stability of the believer,\nor to retard his development towards the highest moral excellence,\nwhether it arises from his personal unwatchfulness and indifference\nor from the subtle attacks of error, is always a subject of keen\nsolicitude to the faithful pastor. He knows that if his converts fall\naway they are lost and the truth itself is disgraced. To be\nestablished in an unswerving obedience it is necessary to be _filled_\nwith the knowledge of God's will. This blessedness is the grand scope\nand crowning glory of the Christian life.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The office of pastor is fraught with endless\nanxieties, great responsibilities, and rare opportunities._ 2. _The\ntrue pastor finds his purest inspirations, his most potent spiritual\nweapon, and his grandest successes in prayer._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14-17.\n\n_Christian Greetings and Counsels._\n\nIt is sometimes asked, with an indiscriminate flippancy, \"What's in a\nname?\" There are some names which have no title to a lasting\nremembrance, and with reference to these the flippancy may be\njustified. But there are names whose reputation is imperishable, and\nwhich are written on the world's history in indelible characters. The\nname of Paul, the great apostle of the Gentiles, will be venerated by\nthe coming ages when the titles of the greatest sages and warriors\nshall have faded away in the darkness of oblivion; and, just as there\nare lesser lights in the firmament that share in the glory of the\ngreat luminary to which they are essentially related, so there are\nnames of lesser note grouped around that of the great apostle that\nare immortalised by their association with him. Besides, names as\nthey are quoted and used by St. Paul in this and other epistles often\nfurnish evidence of the authenticity of Scripture and undesigned\ncoincidences of the truth of the sacred history. In these verses\nthere are some names preserved to us which were lifted into\nprominence by the connection of the persons they represented with the\napostle, and by their own eminent piety and usefulness. They furnish\nanother illustration of the truth of the sacred saying, \"The memory\nof the just is blessed; but the name of the wicked shall rot\" (Prov.\nx. 7). We have here a series of kindly Christian greetings and\nimportant Christian counsels. Observe:--\n\n+I. The value of a Christian greeting is estimated by the moral\ncharacter of those from whom it emanates.+--\"Luke, the beloved\nphysician, and Demas, greet you\" (ver. 14). Two persons are here\nmentioned whose individual histories present a suggestive contrast;\nand it is observable, by the way in which their names are mentioned,\nthat the two men stood very differently in the apostle's estimation.\n\n1. _Luke is the beloved physician_--the very dear and attached friend\nof Paul. He was his constant companion in travel and stood faithfully\nby him in his greatest trials. He joined the apostle at Troas (Acts\nxvi. 10), accompanied him into Judea, remained with him during two\nyears of his imprisonment at Jerusalem and C\u00e6sarea, and was no doubt\npresent at his trial before Festus and Felix; he went with him into\nItaly when Paul was sent there as a prisoner, and during his second\nand final imprisonment in Rome; while others deserted him, Luke\ncontinued his staunch and faithful friend. In the last epistle\nprobably the apostle ever wrote is the simple but pathetic reference,\n\"Only Luke is with me.\" We can understand, therefore, the\naffectionate tenderness with which Luke is designated the beloved\nphysician. As St. Paul was not a robust man but was troubled with a\n\"thorn in the flesh,\" the presence of a medical friend must have been\nof immense service to him in his laborious missionary journeys and\nduring his long imprisonment. The physicians of ancient times had a\nvery questionable reputation for religiousness; but in these modern\ndays there is an increasing number of medical men who are no less\neminent for piety than for their professional skill, and many and\nimportant are the opportunities of such for doing good both to body\nand soul. The greetings of a man of superlative moral excellence is\ngratefully welcomed and respectfully treasured.\n\n2. _And Demas!_--How suggestive is the laconic allusion! There is no\nexplanation, no qualifying word of any special regard. Perhaps the\napostle was already beginning to suspect him, to mark the increasing\nworldliness of his spirit, and his growing indifference to Divine\nthings. About three years after this greeting was despatched to the\nColossians, we meet with the melancholy record: \"Demas hath forsaken\nme, having loved this present world\" (2 Tim. iv. 10). Alas! how\nseductive and how fatal are the allurements of the world! The highest\nand holiest are not invulnerable to its charms. The most promising\ncareer of usefulness and honour has often been blighted by its\ninfluence. Bitter indeed would be the disappointment of the apostle's\nheart to witness one, whom he had acknowledged and trusted as a\nfellow-worker in the Gospel, fall a victim to worldly avarice, and,\nlike Achan, covet the golden wedge and Babylonish garment of secular\nthings. There is a specially solemn significance in the warning of\nthe beloved disciple: \"Love not the world, neither the things that\nare in the world\" (1 John ii. 15).\n\n+II. Christian greeting recognises the universal brotherhood of the\nChurch.+--1. _We learn the early Christian churches were composed of\nbrethren._ \"Salute the brethren which are in Laodicea\" (ver. 15).\nThis recognition of a common brotherhood was a great advance upon the\neclecticism and sharp, prejudiced distinctions of the times. In the\ncircle of the Christian Church the Jew surrendered his Judaism, and\nthe Gentile his paganism, and became one in Christ; the slave and the\nfreeman enjoyed the same spiritual liberty, and the barbarian was no\nlonger dreaded as a monster, but hailed as a brother. The test of\nbrotherhood and union is an individual faith in the common Saviour,\nthe sharing of one common life in the Holy Spirit, and the assurance\nof possessing one common Father in God. It is only as we encourage\nthe brotherly spirit that we can ensure union and permanency in the\nChurches. About thirty years after this salutation was sent to the\nLaodiceans, the Church in that city had degenerated into a state of\nlukewarmness and sterility (Rev. iii. 15, 16). There is need for\nunited watchfulness and fidelity in order to continue, \"steadfast,\nimmovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord\" (1 Cor. xv. 58).\n\n2. _We learn further that a separate assembly of brethren constituted\na Church._--\"And Nymphas, and the Church which is in his house\" (ver.\n15). This was not the principal Church in Laodicea, nor was it simply\na meeting together of the family, but an assembly of worshippers.\nNymphas was probably a man of position and influence in the city and\nbeing also a man of piety, he afforded every opportunity for the\ngathering together of the brethren for Christian worship and\ncommunion. There is little said in the New Testament about Church\npolity, and there is no ecclesiastical organisation, whether\nEpiscopal, Presbyterian, or Congregational, that can claim exclusive\nDivine authority and sanction. Whether meeting in large numbers in\nthe stately cathedral, the modern tabernacle, or a few in the private\ndwelling-house, a company of believers assembled for worship and\nmutual edification constitutes a Church. Thus the true brotherhood of\nChristianity is maintained, irrespective of locality, of\necclesiastical structure, or of sacerdotal claims and pretensions.\n\n+III. The reading of the Holy Scriptures in the Church an important\nsubject of apostolic counsel.+--\"And when this epistle is read among\nyou, cause that it be read also in the Church of the Laodiceans, and\nthat ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea\" (ver. 16). The\nepistle from Laodicea refers to a letter that St. Paul had sent to\nthat city, and which was to be forwarded to Coloss\u00e6 for perusal. Some\nthink this was a letter specifically addressed to the Laodiceans, and\nwhich is now lost; but the best commentators now believe that the\nepistle to the Ephesians is meant, which was, in fact, a circular\nletter addressed to the principal Churches in proconsular Asia.\nTychicus was obliged to pass through Laodicea on his way to Coloss\u00e6\nand would leave a copy of the Ephesian epistle there before the\nColossian letter was delivered. Here we learn that one important\nmeans of edification was the reading of the inspired letters of the\napostle in the assemblies of the brethren. The public reading of the\nScriptures has been an invaluable method of instruction to the Church\nin all ages and places, and it is a provision with which the Church\nwill never be able to dispense. The Church which dares to prohibit\nthe general perusal of the Scriptures, or reads only small portions,\nand those mumbled in a language not understood by the people, has\nthrown off all regard for apostolic counsel and inflicts an\nunutterable injury upon humanity. Shut up the Bible, and the Churches\nwill instantly be invaded by the most enfeebling superstitions, the\ncivilisation of the nations will be put centuries behind, and the\nwidespread ignorance and moral and social degradation of the dark\nages will reappear.\n\n+IV. An example of apostolic counsel concerning fidelity in the\nChristian ministry.+--\"And say to Archippus, Take heed to the\nministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it\"\n(ver. 17). It is probable that Archippus was a youthful pastor\nrecently appointed to the Church at Laodicea. Already signs of a\nslackened zeal began to appear, which afterwards culminated in the\nstate of lukewarmness for which this Church was denounced (Rev.\niii. 19). The condition of preacher and people reacts upon each\nother; the Church takes its colour from and communicates its colour\nto its spiritual pastor. Hence the apostle, well knowing the perils\nsurrounding the inexperienced Archippus, sends to him this timely\nwarning to take heed of his ministry. He is reminded of:--\n\n1. _The direct authority of the ministry._--\"The ministry which thou\nhast received in the Lord.\" The commission to preach the Gospel can\ncome from no other than the Lord and can be properly received only by\none who is himself spiritually in the Lord; there must be not only\n_gifts,_ but also _grace._ The minister must be in direct and\nconstant communication with the Lord, depend on Him for help in doing\nhis duty, remember he is accountable to Him, and strive to seek His\nglory in preference to all personal considerations. In times of\ndifficulty and trial it will sustain the courage of the minister to\nfeel that his commission is Divine in its source and authority.\n\n2. _The implied dangers of the ministry._--\"Take heed.\" The special\ndangers that threatened the Colossian Church at that time have been\ndistinctly pointed out in the epistle. The ministry is ever\nencompassed with perils, arising from the seductive forms of error,\nthe flatteries and frowns of the world, the subtle workings of\nself-approbation, and the deceitfulness of sin. There is need for the\nexercise of a sleepless vigilance, a tireless zeal, and a faultless\ncircumspection.\n\n3. _The imperative personal demands of the ministry._--\"That thou\nfulfil it.\" The whole truth must be made known, and that with the\nutmost clearness, faithfulness, kindness, and completeness. Every\nenergy must be consecrated to the sacred work, and the aid of all the\npowers of heaven earnestly implored. No pains must be spared in\nprayer, study, and self-sacrifice to reach the highest efficiency and\nmake \"full proof\" of the ministry. Failure here is lamentable and\nirremediable.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Salutations are valuable when imbued with the\nChristian spirit._ 2. _The true appreciation of the Holy Scriptures\nis shown in their constant and studious perusal._ 3. _The Christian\nministry should be sustained by practical sympathy and intelligent\nco-operation._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES OF THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 14. \"Luke, the beloved physician.\" _Religion and the Medical\nProfession._\n\n  +I. The deference shown to medical science.+\n\n +II. Benevolence of the medical profession.+\n\n+III. Religious drawbacks in assaults from materialism.--Mind is one\n      thing, matter is another.+\n\n +IV. Religious responsibilities.--Vast power for good. Co-operation\n      with the minister.+\n\n  +V. The Great Physician.--Doctor and patient need Him\n      alike.+--_Homiletic Monthly._\n\n\nVer. 16. _The Public Reading of the Holy Scriptures an Important\nMeans of Church Edification._\n\n  +I. It is in harmony with the usage of the ancient Church.+\n\n +II. It is enforced by precept and example in the Scriptures\n      themselves.+\n\n+III. It familiarises the mind with the grandest truths.+\n\n +IV. It is a mighty agency in advocating and moulding national\n      character.+\n\n  +V. It keeps alive the enthusiasm of the Church for aggressive\n      enterprise.+\n\n +VI. It demands the most laborious study and practice to render\n      it effective.+\n\n\nVer. 17. _The Christian Ministry a Solemn and Responsible Trust._\n\n  +I. It is Divine in its bestowal.+--\"Received in the Lord.\"\n\n +II. It is personal in its responsibility.+--\"Which thou hast\n      received.\"\n\n+III. It involves the communication of good to others.+--\"Ministry.\"\n\n +IV. It has a special aspect of importance to the individual\n      minister.+--\"The ministry.\"\n\n\n\"That thou fulfil it.\" _The Christian Ministry demands Unswerving\nFidelity in accomplishing its Lofty Mission._\n\n  +I. Divine truth must be clearly apprehended and profoundly\n      realised.+\n\n +II. The whole truth must be declared.+\n\n+III. The declaration of the truth must be full and courageous.+\n\n\n\"Take heed.\" _The Christian Ministry is surrounded by Peculiar\nPerils._--A shrewd and ever-wakeful vigilance is needed--\n\n  +I. Against the stealthy encroachments of error.+\n\n +II. Against the pernicious influences of the world.+\n\n+III. Against the subtle temptations to unfaithfulness.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 18.\n\n_Words of Farewell._\n\nLast words have in them a nameless touch of pathos. They linger in\nthe memory as a loved familiar presence, they soothe life's sorrows,\nand exert upon the soul a strange and irresistible fascination. As\nthe years rush by, how rich in meaning do the words that have fallen\nfrom dying lips become, as when C\u00e6sar said sadly, \"And thou,\nBrutus!\"; or when John Quincy Adams said, \"This is the last of\nearth\"; or Mirabeau's frantic cry for music, after a life of discord;\nor George Washington's calm statement, \"It is well\"; or Wesley's\ntriumphant utterance, \"The best of all is, God is with us.\" And these\nclosing words of the high-souled apostle written from his Roman\nprison, in prospect of threatened death, carry with them a\nsignificance and tenderness which will be felt wherever this epistle\nis read. In these words we have a _personally inscribed salutation, a\ntouching reminder, and a brief benediction._\n\n+I. A personally inscribed salutation.+--\"The salutation by the hand\nof me Paul.\" The rest of the epistle was dictated by the apostle to\nan amanuensis, who, in this case, was probably Timothy. Paul adds his\nown personal salutation, not only as an expression of his anxious\nlove, but also as a mark of the authenticity of the document, and of\nhis unqualified approval of its contents. It would surely be a scene\nworthy of the pencil of genius to portray the noble prisoner, whose\nright hand was linked to the left of his military gaoler, tracing\nwith tremulous fingers the final words to those for whose sake he was\nin bonds! How would the hand-writing of such a man be prized and\nvenerated, and with what holy eagerness would his words be read and\npondered!\n\n+II. A touching reminder.+--\"Remember my bonds.\" The apostle was in\nprison, not for any offence against the laws of God or man, but for\nthe sake of the Gospel he loved to preach, and which had wrought so\nmarvellous a change in the lives of those to whom he wrote. His bonds\nbore irrefragable testimony to the truth he was called to proclaim,\nand to his unalterable determination to insist upon the rights and\nprivileges of the Gentiles, on whose behalf he suffered. He wished to\nbe remembered in prayer, that he might be sustained in his\nimprisonment, and that he might be speedily delivered from it, so\nthat he might preach the glorious news of spiritual liberty to the\nbenighted and fettered sons of men. \"Remember my bonds.\" These words\nseem to indicate that the illustrious prisoner was more concerned to\nexhibit a spirit and deportment betting the Gospel than to be\nreleased from his incarceration. The Church of Christ in all ages has\nhad abundant reason to remember with gratitude and praise the bonds\nof the great apostle, not only for the stimulating example of holy\npatience and dignified submission displayed under trying\ncircumstances, but for the unspeakably precious literary treasures\nthey enabled him to bequeath to the world. Bishop Wordsworth has well\nsaid: \"The fact that this epistle was written by Paul in this state\nof durance and restraint, and yet designed to minister comfort to\nothers, and that it has never ceased to cheer the Church of Christ,\nis certainly one which is worthy of everlasting remembrance.\" In the\nprayer for \"all prisoners and captives\" special reference should be\nmade to those who are now suffering for the truth. The offence of the\ncross has not yet ceased. We must practically remember the imprisoned\nwhen we supply their wants and assuage their sufferings.\n\n+III. A brief benediction.+--\"Grace be with you. Amen.\" The epistle\nbegins and ends with blessing; and between these two extremes lies a\nmagnificent body of truth which has dispensed blessings to thousands\nand is destined to bless thousands more. The benediction is short,\nbut it is instinct with fervent life and laden with the unutterable\nwealth of Divine beneficence. Grace is inclusive of all the good God\ncan bestow or man receive. Grace is what all need, what none can\nmerit, and what God alone can give. To possess the grace of God is to\nbe rich indeed; without it \"'Tis misery all, and woe.\" Grace kindles\nthe lamp of hope amidst the darkest experiences of life, supplies the\nclue which unravels the most tangled mysteries, presses the nectar of\nconsolation into the bitterest cup, implants in the soul its holiest\nmotives and opens up its noblest career, strengthens the dying saint\nwhen he traverses the lonely borderland of the unknown, and tunes and\nperpetuates the celestial harmonies of the everlasting song.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Praise God for a well-authenticated Bible._\n2. _Praise God for the teachings of a suffering life._ 3. _Praise God\nfor His boundless grace._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - Page 371, Introduction, second paragraph, change \"ii. 8, 9\" to\n   \"ch. ii. 8, 9\" and \"ii. 11\" to \"ch. ii. 11.\"\n\n - Page 372, Introduction, first \"Occasion\" paragraph, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" \"Style\" paragraph, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 374, notes on chapter i., verse 6, apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   (twice). Verse 9, add right double quote after \"prudent.\" Verse\n   10, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"; add left parenthesis before \"see\n   ver. 6.\"\n\n - Page 375, verse 22, change \"unblamable\" to \"unblameable\" and\n   \"unreprovable\" to \"unreproveable.\" Verse 23, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 376, verse 28, apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (thrice). Lesson\n   \"Salutation,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 377, same lesson, point III, add comma to \"won and.\" Point\n   IV, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from \"Churches, and.\"\n   Lesson \"Estimate,\" point I 2, remove comma from \"faith, and.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 378, same lesson, point II 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Lesson\n   \"Causes,\" point I, remove comma from \"God, and.\" Point II, add\n   comma to \"Thus God\"; apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice); remove comma\n   from \"good, and.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Divinely\" and\n   \"Divine-human.\"\n\n - Page 379, same lesson, point III 3, remove comma from \"worker,\n   and.\" Point V 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"truth, and\"; apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice). Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 380, \"Good News\" note, each of points I, III 1, and III 3,\n   apply RC to \"the Gospel.\" \"Hope\" note, point III, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel.\" Lesson \"True Gospel,\" introduction, apply RC to \"the\n   Gospel\" and \"Divine\"; remove commas from \"understanding, and\" and\n   \"axiomatic, and\"; apply RC to \"the Gospel\" (twice), \"Divine\" and\n   \"the Gospel.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (five times); remove\n   comma from \"mission, and.\"\n\n - Page 381, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice).\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (thrice); add comma to \"Thus it\";\n   apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Point III, apply RC to \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Word,\" \"Gospel,\" \"Divine Spirit,\" and \"Gospel\" (twice). Point IV,\n   apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point IV 1, apply RC to \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Divinely,\" and \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 382, same lesson, point IV 2 (3), apply RC to \"the Gospel.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and\n   \"Divine.\" Each of points 2 and 3, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" \"Gospel\"\n   note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 383, lesson \"Comprehensive,\" point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (thrice). Point II 3, apply RC to \"Gospel,\" \"Divine,\" \"Gospel,\"\n   and \"Divine.\"\n\n - The break between pages 383 and 384 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken \"Lord|--worthy.\" The whole unit\n   was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 384, same lesson, point III 1, add comma to \"purpose we.\"\n   Point III 2, add comma to \"Thus the\"; remove comma from \"heaven,\n   and.\" Point III 4, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point IV 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 385, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Providence.\" Point IV 3, apply RC to \"His cause.\" \"Paul's Prayer\"\n   note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III, remove comma from\n   \"life, and.\"\n\n - Page 386, lesson \"Meetness,\" point I 2, capitalise \"Divine,\"\n   referring to a churchman. Point I 3, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add\n   comma to \"Thus all.\"\n\n - Page 387, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add comma\n   to \"So men\"; remove comma from \"realms, and.\" Point II 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 388, \"Inheritance\" note, point II 1, add double quotes around\n   \"inheritance.\" Point II 2, add double quotes around \"saints.\"\n   Lesson \"Translation,\" point I 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 389, same lesson, point II 1, add comma to \"So the.\" Point\n   II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add comma to \"subjects we.\" Point III,\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III 1, remove comma from \"law, and\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III 2, remove comma from \"blessings,\n   but\"; apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 390, same lesson, point III 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Darkness\"\n   note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Great Blessing\" note\n   title, change \"Re demption\" to \"Redemption.\" Lesson \"Relation\"\n   title, change \"Greated\" to \"Created.\" Point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 391, same lesson, point II 1 (1), add comma to \"Therefore\n   the.\" Point II 1 (2), apply RC to \"First Cause,\" \"Active Agent,\"\n   and \"Grand End.\" Point II 2 (1), apply RC to \"First Cause\"; remove\n   comma from \"speculation, and.\"\n\n - Page 392, same lesson, point II 2 (2), change double quotes around\n   \"thrones,\" \"dominions,\" \"principalities,\" and \"powers\" to single\n   quotes within the Spence quotation.  Point II 2 (3), apply RC to\n   \"Great End.\" Point II 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 4, remove\n   comma from \"Him, and.\"\n\n - Page 394, lesson \"Relation,\" point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\";\n   remove comma from \"Hades, and.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 395, \"Church the Body\" note, point III 2, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Point IV 1, remove comma from \"Christ, and.\"\n\n - Page 396, lesson \"Reconciling,\" point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice) and \"Divinity\"; remove commas from \"universe, and\" and\n   \"beings, and.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 1, apply\n   RC to \"Divine\" (twice). Point II 2, add comma to \"therefore it.\"\n\n - Page 397, same note, same point, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n   Point II 2 (1), add comma to \"aside and.\" Point II 2 (2), remove\n   comma from \"other, and.\" Point II 2 (3), apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice). Point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 398, \"Fulness\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Lesson\n   \"Blessings,\" introduction, remove comma from \"sin, and\"; change\n   \"His restoration\" to \"his,\" referring to a sinful man. Point I 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice). Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 399, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n   Point II 2, remove comma from \"Christ, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III 2, change \"unblamable\"\n   to \"unblameable\"; remove comma from \"term, and.\" Point III 3,\n   change \"unreprovable\" to \"unreproveable\" and \"unblamable\" to\n   \"unblameable.\"\n\n - Page 400, same lesson, same point, change \"unreprovable\" to\n   \"unreproveable.\" \"Reconciliation\" note, point II 3, apply RC to\n   \"Himself.\" \"Holiness\" note, point I, change \"unblamable\" to\n   \"unblameable\" and \"unreprovable\" to \"unreproveable.\" Lesson\n   \"Condition,\" introduction, add comma to \"so the\"; apply RC to\n   \"Gospel\" (twice). Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point I 1, apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 401, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II 1,\n   apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Point II 2, apply RC to \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Divine,\" and \"Gospel\" (thrice). Point II 3, apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   (thrice); remove comma from \"lands, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point II 4, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (four times).\n\n - Page 402, same lesson, same point, remove comma from \"phenomena,\n   and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II 5, apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   (thrice) and \"Word.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"Joy,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   I 1, add comma to \"Thus he.\"\n\n - Page 403, same lesson, point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   II 2, remove comma from \"deeper, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 404, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"Honor,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Word\" and \"Gospel.\" Point I,\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divinely\"; change\n   the comma after \"own\" to a semi-colon, for consistency in\n   punctuating the series; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 2, apply RC\n   to \"Divine\" and \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 405, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"Word.\" Point II 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice) and \"Gospel.\" Point II 2, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel\" and \"Divine\" (twice). Point II 3, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   and \"Gospel.\" Point II 4, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 406, same lesson, point II 4 (1), apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   (twice). Point II 4 (2), apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"Him, and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divinely.\" \"Glory\" note, point III, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n   \"Christ in you\" note, correct point I to put the period after the\n   number. Lesson \"Preaching,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"preacher, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel\" and \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 407, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 3,\n   apply RC to \"Gospel\"; add \"Acts iv. 12\" reference; remove comma\n   from \"theme, but.\" Point II 2, add \"(ver. 28)\" for consistency;\n   add comma to \"Hence he.\" Point II 4, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 408, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice).\n   Point IV, apply RC to \"Divinely\" and \"Gospel\"; remove commas from\n   \"all, and\" and \"age, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel,\" \"Divine,\"\n   \"Divinely,\" and \"Divine.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\" \"Ministry\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 410, lesson \"Anxiety,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point I, remove comma from \"thought, and.\"\n\n - Page 411, same lesson, point II, remove comma from \"truth, but\";\n   capitalise \"Divine\" as referring to a churchman. Point III 1, add\n   comma to \"Hence he.\" Point III 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III 3 (1), apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 412, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III 3 (2), apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice). Point III 3 (3), apply RC\n   to \"Divine,\" \"Gospel\" (thrice), and \"Divine\"; add \"Prov. viii. 11\"\n   reference. Point IV, apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"outlook, and.\"\n\n - Page 413, same lesson, same point, add \"Eph. v. 6\" reference.\n   Lesson \"Hidden Treasures,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"treasure, but\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 414, same lesson, point I 1, remove comma from \"Him, and.\"\n   Point I 2, remove comma from \"everywhere, and.\" Point I 3, apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 415, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine\"; change\n   \"ar#\" to \"are\"; add comma to \"So in.\" \"Unity\" note, point I, apply\n   RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 416, lesson \"Apostolic Praise,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice); remove comma from \"brief, but\"; add \"1 Cor. xiv. 40,\n   xiv. 33, xvi. 14, xi. 34\" references. Point II, apply RC to\n   \"served Him\"; change exclamation point to question mark; remove\n   comma from \"form, and.\"\n\n - Page 417, point III 2, remove comma from \"order, and.\" Lesson\n   \"Suggestive,\" point I, remove comma from \"rapidity, and\" (twice);\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 418, same lesson, point I 2, remove comma from \"law, but.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 419, same lesson, point III 2, remove comma from \"tense,\n   and.\" Point IV, remove commas from \"word, and\" and \"difficulties,\n   and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), each of points 1 and 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divinely.\" \"Retrospection\" note, point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   \"Imitation\" note, point II, remove comma for \"imitate, and.\"\n\n - Page 420, lesson \"Marks,\" introduction, remove comma from \"morals,\n   and.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove comma from\n   \"Gnosticism, and\"; add \"Rom i. 21, 22\" reference.\n\n - Page 422, same lesson, point V, add \"John x. 10\" reference. Point\n   VI 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point VI 2, remove comma from \"rest,\n   and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, remove comma from \"false,\n   and.\" Lesson \"Divine Fulness,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 1, add comma to \"Hence we\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice), \"Divinity,\" and \"Divine.\" Point I 2,\n   remove comma from \"deity, and.\"\n\n - Page 423, same lesson, point I 3, remove comma from \"enshrined,\n   and\"; apply RC to \"Divine\" (four times); add \"John i. 14\"\n   reference. Point III 1, add \"1 John v. 12\" reference; apply RC to\n   \"Divine\" (twice). Point III 2, apply RC to \"the Spirit.\" Point\n   III 3, add \"1 Thess. iv. 17\" reference.\n\n - Page 424, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\" Lesson \"Circumcision,\" introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; add comma to \"Thus their.\"\n\n - Page 425, same lesson, point I, add \"Ezek. xliv. 9; Duet. xxx. 6\"\n   references. Point III, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice), remove comma\n   from \"law, and.\" Point IV, remove comma from \"dies, and\"; apply RC\n   to \"Diviner.\"\n\n - Page 426, same lesson, point VI, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove\n   comma from \"gift, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice). Lesson\n   \"Transition,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 427, same lesson, point I 2, remove comma from \"health, and.\"\n   Each of points I 3 (1) and I 3 (2), apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   I 3 (2), remove comma from \"life, and.\" Point II 1, remove comma\n   from \"bondage, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; add comma to \"pardoned and.\"\n\n - Page 428, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice).\n   Lesson \"Triumph,\" point I 1, remove comma from \"creation, and.\"\n   Point II 2, add comma to \"again they.\" Point II 3, remove comma\n   from \"death, and.\"\n\n - Page 430, lesson \"Ceremonial,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"real, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from \"ordinances,\n   and\"; capitalise \"Christianised.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 431, same lesson, point II, add comma to \"so the\"; apply RC\n   to \"Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Antitype\"; remove comma from\n   \"it, when.\"\n\n - Page 432, lesson \"Seductive,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"them, and.\" Point II 2, remove comma from \"God, and.\" Point II 3,\n   change \"mortal man venture\" to \"mortal man ventures.\"\n\n - Page 433, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III 3, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice). \"How a Church lives\" note,\n   point II 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 434, lesson \"Ceremonial,\" point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 436, same lesson, point IV 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 437, notes on chapter iii., verse 15, change \"ii. 18\" to \"ch.\n   ii. 18.\" Verse 16, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add an em-dash at the end\n   of the paragraph. Verse 18, remove comma from \"here, and.\" Verse\n   23, add double quotes around \"Whatsoever ye do, work heartily\" and\n   \"from the soul.\"\n\n - The page break between pages 439 and 440 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken: \"conduct.--1. |A.\" The entire unit\n   was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 438, lesson \"Aspirations,\" point II 1, change \"ver. 2\" to\n   \"ver. 1.\"\n\n - Page 439, same lesson, point II 2, add an em-dash at the end of\n   the paragraph.\n\n - Page 440, lesson \"Present Condition,\" introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Divine light.\" Point I, remove comma from \"past, and.\"\n\n - Page 441, same lesson, point II 2, add comma to \"undiscerning He.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"His Word.\"\n\n - Page 443, lesson \"Mortification,\" point I 3, remove comma from\n   \"heart, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; remove comma from \"come, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 444, same lesson, point V, remove commas from \"disguised,\n   and\" and \"man, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 445, lesson \"New Nature,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"garments, but\"; add comma to \"So the\"; remove comma from \"state,\n   but\"; add comma to \"words he.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice). Point II, remove commas from \"once, but\" and \"possessed,\n   but\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 446, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove\n   comma from \"unsuited, and.\" Point IV 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point IV 2, remove comma from \"country, and.\" Point IV 3, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel.\" Point V, apply RC to \"Source,\" \"Centre,\" \"Ideal,\" and\n   \"Possession\"; change \"He\" to \"he,\" referring to the believer.\n\n - Page 447, \"Religion\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   \"Christ\" note, point II, apply RC to \"Divine,\" remove commas from\n   \"civ., and\" and \"hearts, and.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice).\n\n - Page 448, same note, point IV, remove comma from \"Him, and.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 449, lesson \"Essentials,\" point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Son.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 3, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 451, lesson \"Love,\" introduction, remove commas from\n   \"romance, and\" and \"garment, and.\" Point I, remove comma from\n   \"Ghost, and.\"\n\n - Page 452, same lesson, point IV 2, remove comma from \"changed,\n   if.\" Lesson \"Rule,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 453, same lesson, same point, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove\n   comma from \"cross, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove comma from\n   \"Christ, and.\" Point II, remove commas from \"games, and\" and\n   \"stadium, and.\" Point II 1, remove comma from \"duty, and\"; apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 2, remove comma from \"temptation, and.\"\n   Point II 3, remove comma from \"right, and\"; apply RC to \"His\n   Word\"; add \"Ps. li. 10\" reference.\n\n - Page 454, same lesson, point IV 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and \"God's\n   Word.\" Point IV 2, remove comma from \"body, so\"; apply RC to\n   \"Spirit.\" Point V, change \"sin#\" to \"sins\" and \"#ll\" to \"all\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Peace\" note, point I, apply RC to \"His\n   Word.\"\n\n - Page 455, lesson \"Poetry,\" introduction, remove comma from \"first,\n   and\"; apply RC to \"Divinely\" and \"Divine Word.\" Point I, apply RC\n   to \"Divine Word.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine Word,\" \"Word,\"\n   and \"Gospel.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine Word,\" \"Word,\"\n   \"Divinity,\" and \"Word\" (twice).\n\n - Page 456, same lesson, point II, remove comma from \"arrangement,\n   and.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Word\" (twice). After the poem,\n   remove comma from \"dying, and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1,\n   apply RC to \"Divine Word.\"\n\n - Page 457, first note, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Word.\" Second note, add \"I.\" before first bold point and apply\n   RC to \"Word.\" Point I 3, apply RC to \"Word\" (twice). Point II 3,\n   apply RC to \"Word\" (twice). Application (\"Lessons\"), each of point\n   1 and 2, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 460, lesson \"Duties of Husbands,\" point I 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 461, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III 2, remove comma from \"supreme, and.\"\n\n - Page 462, lesson \"Duties of Parents,\" point I 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 463, point II 2, replace left single quote before \"Lest\" with\n   a left double quote. Lesson \"Duties of Masters,\" introduction,\n   remove comma from \"slavery, and.\"\n\n - Page 464, same lesson, point I, add \"Rev. vii. 15\" and \"Mark\n   x. 45\" references; remove comma from \"servitude, but.\" Point II 1,\n   remove commas from \"slaves, and\" and \"slavery, and.\" Point II 2,\n   add \"ver. 22\" reference; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III 1, add\n   \"heartily\" into the verse 23 quotation; apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; change \"He hath done what he\n   could\" to \"She hath done what she could\" to match KJV and add\n   \"Mark xiv. 8\" reference.\n\n - Page 465, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add \"1 Pet.\n   i. 4\" reference. Point V, remove comma from \"light, and.\" Point\n   VI 2, add \"Matt. xxiii. 8\" and \"Matt. xxv. 40\" references.\n\n - Page 466, critical notes for chapter iv., verse 3, apply RC to\n   \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 467, lesson \"Efficacy,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Divine\";\n   remove comma from \"petitioner, but\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   I, remove comma from \"make, and.\"\n\n - Page 468, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add double\n   quotes around the saying of an old writer (assumed to finish the\n   paragraph). Point IV, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point IV 1, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel\"; change \"once popular minister\" to \"once-popular\n   minister.\" Point IV 2, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - The break between pages 468 and 469 is in the word \"declaration\":\n   declara|tion.\n\n - Page 469, same lesson, point IV 3, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice),\n   \"Divine,\" and \"Gospel.\" Point IV 4, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (four\n   times). Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 470, lesson \"Wise,\" introduction, remove comma from \"life,\n   and.\" Point I 1, add \"ver. 5\" reference. Point I 2, apply RC to\n   \"Spirit.\" Point I 3, remove comma from \"itself, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 471, same lesson, point I 4, remove comma from \"eagerness,\n   and.\" Point II 3, remove comma from \"tongue, and.\" First note, add\n   sentence-ending period to point IV.\n\n - Page 472, \"Truth\" note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point IV,\n   remove comma from \"religion, but.\" Lesson \"Side-lights,\"\n   introduction, remove comma from \"epistle, and.\" Point I, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 473, same lesson, point II, remove commas from \"Paul, and\"\n   and \"crowds, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel\" and \"Divine.\" Point III,\n   remove comma from \"Ephesus, and.\"\n\n - Page 474, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from \"ritual, and\";\n   apply RC to \"Gospel\"; add comma to \"thus they\"; remove comma from\n   \"Christ, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"professors, and.\"\n\n - Page 475, lesson \"Model Pastor,\" introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel\"; remove commas from \"them, and\" and \"faith, but\"; apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II, after\n   poem, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 476, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point IV,\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 477, lesson \"Greetings,\" introduction, add \"Prov. x. 7\"\n   reference. Point I 1, remove commas from \"travel, and\" and \"man,\n   but.\" Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine\" and \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 478, same lesson, point II 1, add \"1 Cor. xv. 58\" reference.\n   Point II 2, remove comma from \"city, and\"; add comma to \"piety\n   he\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III, remove comma from \"Coloss\u00e6,\n   and.\"\n\n - Page 479, point IV 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"Lord, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Luke\" note, point V, apply RC\n   to \"Great Physician.\" \"Ministry\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 480, lesson \"Farewell,\" point I, change \"mo\" to \"me.\" Point\n   II, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 481, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n\n\n+THE FIRST EPISTLE+\n\n+TO THE THESSALONIANS.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Thessalonica and its Church.+--Most of the Churches of the New\nTestament belonged to cities which, if they have not dropped out of\nexistence altogether, are scarcely recognisable to-day. Thessalonica\nexists as a place of considerable commercial importance, with a\npopulation of 70,000, under the shortened form of \"Saloniki.\" It is\nsituated at the head of the Thermaic Gulf, so called from the ancient\nname of the town which rises like an amphitheatre above its blue\nwaters. _Therma_ is the name by which the town comes into history,\nthe _warm_ mineral springs of the neighbourhood originating the\nappropriate designation. Cassander, son-in-law of Philip of Macedon,\ngave to the city the name of his wife, \"Thessalonica.\" Its position\nbrought commerce both by sea and land, for, in addition to its\nnatural harbour, the Via Egnatia, like a great artery, drove its\nstream of traffic through the town. Trade brought riches, and riches\nluxurious living and licentiousness. But if sin abounded, so did the\ngrace which sent the heralds of deliverance from sin in the persons\nof St. Paul and Silas, fresh from their terrible beating and the\ndungeon of Philippi, and Timothy, the ever-valued friend of St. Paul.\nJews were in Thessalonica in greater force than in Philippi; and St.\nPaul, perhaps not with any great hope of success amongst the\nadherents of the religion in which he had been trained, but according\nto his constant rule, went first to the synagogue, hoping that, as\nelsewhere, devout souls not content with the materialism and atheism\nof their day might be amongst those who were drawn towards the faith\nof Israel. So at least it proved, and their acceptance of the message\nof the Gospel was the signal for the outbreak of Jewish hatred which\nset on the _canaille_ of the city with a cry of revolution and high\ntreason. Amidst such birth-throes the second Church in Europe came\ninto being. St. Paul's continuance in the city might only have\nprovoked murder, so, leaving the infant Church to one who would\n\"naturally care for\" it, he made his way to Ber\u0153a.\n\n+Occasion and design of the epistle.+--With eager impatience the\napostle would wait for the messenger with tidings of the Macedonian\nChurches. The writer of the Proverbs likened \"good news from a far\ncountry\" to \"cold waters to a thirsty soul\"; so St. Paul says to\nthese Thessalonians: \"Now when Timothy came from you unto us, and\nbrought us good tidings of your faith and charity, . . . we were\ncomforted over you in all our affliction and distress by your faith:\nfor _now we live,_ if ye stand fast in the Lord\" (1 Thess. iii. 6-8).\nTimothy had brought word of their fidelity; but he had also to inform\nthe apostle of the persecutions they had to endure, and also of the\ntroubled minds of some of the Christian brotherhood over the\ncondition of their dead, and their relationship to the Lord whom they\ndaily expected.\n\nSo St. Paul sends them word by this first letter of his earnest\nlonging to see them again, and of how he had often purposed to do so,\nbut had been thwarted. Perhaps there are references in the epistle to\nthe aspersions on the character of Paul; and in other ways the\nepistle is meant to do what Paul, now that his missionary field had\nbecome so extended, could not do in person.\n\n+Contents of the epistle.+\n\n    i.     1. Salutation.\n\n        2-10. Thanksgiving for reception and diffusion of the Gospel.\n\n   ii.  1-12. Appeal to their knowledge of what Paul's ministry had\n              been.\n\n       13-16. Thanksgiving for fidelity under the strain of Jewish\n              hostility.\n\n 17--iii. 13. Baffled purposes resulting in the despatch of Timothy,\n              and the outburst of joy for the good news with which he\n              returned.\n\n   iv.  1-12. Warning against lustful injustice, and exhortation to a\n              further development of brotherly love.\n\n   13--v. 11. The Second Advent in its relation to those who already\n              slept.\n\n       12-24. Ethics of Church-life and personal life.\n\n       25-28. Conclusion.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Paul, and Sylvanus, and Timotheus.+--As to Paul, it may be\nnoted that he does not mention his office. It was largely owing to\nthe aspersions of others that he came, later, to magnify his office.\nSylvanus is the \"fellow-helper\" and fellow-sufferer of the apostle,\nbetter known to New Testament readers by the shortened form of his\nname--Silas. That he was a Jew appears from Acts xv., but, like Paul,\nable to claim the privilege of Roman citizenship (Acts xvi.).\nTimotheus is the valuable and dear companion of St. Paul. Twelve or\nfourteen years later he is said to be still young (1 Tim. iv. 12).\nHe, too, is only partly a Jew (Acts xvi. 3). +Grace be unto you, and\npeace.+--The men who are by birth and training divided between Jew\nand Gentile, salute both. It is not less true of the Gospel than the\nlaw that it speaks the language of the children of men. All that\ngrace could mean to the Greek, or peace to the Hebrew, met in Him\nwhose title was written above the cross in Hebrew and Greek and Latin.\n\nVer. 3. +Work of faith, and labour of love, and patience of\nhope.+--The famous three sister-graces familiar to us from St. Paul's\nother letters. As Bengel says, they are _Summa Christianismi._ St.\nJames, one thinks, would have liked the expression, \"work of faith\"\n(Jas. ii. 14-26). But if faith works, love cannot be outdone (1 Cor.\nxiii. 13), and toils with strenuous endeavour; whilst hope--a faculty\nflighty enough with some--here patiently endures, \"pressing on and\n_bearing up._\"\n\nVer. 4. +Your election.+--God is said to pick out, not for any\ninherent qualities, certain persons for purposes of His own. The same\nidea is in the word \"saints,\" as those whom God has separated from a\ngodless world and made them dear to Himself.\n\nVer. 5. +Our gospel.+--The good news which we proclaimed; so when St.\nPaul in Rom. ii. 16 calls it \"_my_ gospel.\" +In word . . . in\npower.+--The antithesis is sometimes between the word or declaration\nand the reality; here perhaps we have an advance on that. Not only\nwas it a word the contents of which were really truth, but\nefficacious too. +In much assurance.+--R.V. margin, \"in much\nfulness.\" \"The _power_ is in the Gospel preached, the _fulfilment_ in\nthe hearers, and the _Holy Spirit_ above and within them inspires\nboth\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 6. +Followers of us and of the Lord.+--R.V. \"imitators.\" St.\nPaul begs his Corinthian readers to imitate him, _even as_ he\nimitates Christ. The same thought is implied here: We are walking\nafter Christ; walk after us, and you will follow Him. +With joy of\nthe Holy Ghost.+--Not only was the word preached \"in the Holy Ghost\"\n(ver. 5), but it was eagerly welcomed by hearts made ready by the\nHoly Ghost--as St. Paul said to the Corinthians, \"So we preach, so ye\nbelieved.\"\n\nVer. 7. +So that ye were ensamples.+--R.V. follows the singular. The\noriginal word is that from which we get our \"type.\" The image left on\na coin by stamping is a type. Children are said to be types of their\nparents. So these Thessalonians were clearly stamped as children of\nGod.\n\nVer. 8. +For from you sounded out the word of the Lord.+--The Word\ndid not originate amongst the Thessalonians. They had but taken up\nthe sound and sent it ringing on to others in the regions farther\nremoved. They had echoed out the Word, says St. Paul. +In every\nplace.+--Or as we may say, \"Everybody is talking about the matter.\"\n\nVer. 9. +What manner of entering in.+--In Acts xvii. we have an\naccount of how the Jews instigated men ever ready for a brawl to\nbring a charge of high treason--the most likely way of giving the\nquietus to the disturbers of ancient traditions, Paul and Silas. +To\nserve the living and true God.+--The Thessalonians had not been\ndelivered from the bondage of fear that they might lead lives\nirresponsible. \"Get a new master,\" then \"be a new man.\"\n\nVer. 10. +And to wait for His Son.+--The compound word for wait is\nonly found here in the New Testament. The idea may be compared with\nour Lord's figure of the bondservants waiting with lights and ready\nfor service on their lord's return (Luke xii. 35-40). +Jesus, which\ndelivered us from the wrath to come.+--R.V. \"delivereth.\" The wrath\nto come \"revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and\nunrighteousness of men\" (Rom. i. 18) is the penalty threatened\nagainst sin persisted in.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 1.\n\n_Phases of Apostolic Greeting._\n\nThere is an interest about this epistle as the first in the\nmagnificent series of inspired writings which bear the name of Paul.\nThis was \"the beginning of his strength, the excellency of dignity\nand power.\" The labours of the apostle and his co-helpers in the\nenterprising and populous city of Thessalonica, notwithstanding the\nangriest opposition, were crowned with success. The stern prejudice\nof the Jew was assailed and conquered, the subtle philosophising of\nthe Grecian tracked and exposed. The truth was eagerly embraced; and\nas sunbeams streaming through mist render it transparent, so did the\nlight of the Gospel bring out in clearness and beauty the character\nof the Thessalonian citizens, which had been hitherto shrouded in the\ndark shadows of superstition.\n\n+I. This greeting is harmonious in its outflow.+--Paul, though the\nonly apostle of the three, did not in this instance assume the title\nor display any superiority either of office or power. Silvanus and\nTimotheus had been owned of God, equally with himself, in planting\nthe Thessalonian Church, and were held in high esteem among the\nconverts. Each man had his distinctive individuality, varied talents,\nand special mode of working; but there was an emphatic unity of\npurpose in bringing about results. They rejoiced together in\nwitnessing the inception, confirmation, and prosperity of the Church,\nand when absent united in sending a fervent, harmonious greeting.\nThis harmony of feeling is traceable throughout both epistles in the\nprevalent use of the first-person plural. The association of Silvanus\nand Timotheus with the apostle in this greeting also indicated their\nperfect accord with him in the Divine character of the doctrines he\ndeclared. As men dowered with the miraculous faculty of spiritual\ndiscernment, they could testify that everything contained in the\nepistle was dictated by the Spirit of God and worthy of universal\nevidence. Not that the personal peculiarities of any man give\nadditional value to the doctrine. Truth is vaster than the\nindividual, whatever gifts he possesses or lacks. The water of life\nis as sweet and refreshing whether sipped from the rudest earthen\nvessel or from the goblet of richly embossed gold. What a suggestive\nlesson of confidence and unity was taught the Thessalonians by the\nharmonious example of their teachers!\n\n+II. This greeting recognises the Church's sublime origin.+--It is\naddressed \"unto the Church which is in God the Father and in the Lord\nJesus Christ.\"\n\n1. _The Church is Divinely founded._--The preposition \"in\" denotes\nthe most intimate union with God, and is of similar significance as\nin the comprehensive prayer of Jesus: \"As Thou, Father, art in Me,\nand I in Thee, that they also may be one _in_ Us\" (John xvii. 21).\nThe Church rests, not on any sacerdotal authority or human\norganisation, though many have laboured thus to narrow its limits and\ndefine its character; it depends for its origin, life, and perpetuity\non union with the Deity. It is based on the Divine love, fostered by\nthe Divine Spirit, shielded by Omnipotence, and illumined and adorned\nby the Divine glory. It exists for purely spiritual purposes, is the\ndepositary of he revealed Word, the channel of Divine communication\nto man, the sanctuary of salvation.\n\n2. _The Church is Divinely sustained._--Founded in God, it is every\nmoment sustained by Him. Thus the Church survives the mightiest\nopposition, the fret and wear of perpetual change. It is not wedded\nto any locality under heaven. Places once famous for the simplicity\nand power of their Church-life have become notoriously vile or sunk\ninto utter obscurity. Bethel, once bearing the hallowed name House of\nGod, under the idolatrous rule of Jeroboam became corrupted into\nBethhaven, House of Iniquity. Jerusalem, the praise of the whole\nearth, was once the chosen habitation of Jehovah; now it is a heap of\nruins, its temple and worship destroyed, and its people scattered,\nwithout king, prophet, or leader. The light that shown so full and\nclear from the seven celebrated Asiatic Churches grew dim and went\nout, and that region is now wrapped in the darkness of idolatry. And\nThessalonica, renowned as a pattern of Christian purity and zeal, now\nlanguishes under its modern name of Saloniki, a victim of Turkish\ndespotism, and professing a spurious religion the first founders of\nthe Church there, could they revisit the spot, would certainly\nrepudiate. But the true Church lives, grows, and triumphs.\n\n+III. This greeting supplicates the bestowal of the highest\nblessings.+--1. _Grace._ The source of all temporal good--life,\nhealth, sustenance, prosperity, enjoyment; and of all spiritual\nbenefits--pardon for the guilty, rest for the troubled spirit,\nguidance for the doubting and perplexed, strength for the feeble,\ndeliverance for the tempted, purity for the polluted, victory and\nfelicity for the faithful. The generosity of God knows no stint. A\ncertain monarch once threw open his parks and gardens to the public\nduring the summer months. The royal gardener finding it troublesome,\ncomplained to his Majesty that the visitors plucked the flowers.\n\"What,\" said the king-hearted king, \"are my people fond of flowers?\nThen plant some more!\" So, our heavenly King with lavish hand\nscatters on our daily path the flowers of blessing, and as fast as we\ncan gather them, in spite of the grudging, churlish world, more are\nsupplied.\n\n2. _Peace._--A blessing inclusive of all the happiness resulting from\na participation in the Divine favour. _Peace with God,_ with whom sin\nhas placed us in antagonism, and to whom we are reconciled in Christ\nJesus, who hath \"abolished in His flesh the enmity, so making peace\"\n(Eph. ii. 15). _Peace of conscience,_ a personal blessing conferred\non him who believes in Jesus. _Peace one with another_--peace in the\nChurch. In the concluding counsels of this epistle the writer\nimpressively insists, \"Be at peace among yourselves.\" The value of\nthis blessing to any Christian community cannot be exaggerated. A\nsingle false semitone converts the most exquisite music into discord.\n\n3. _The source of all the blessings desired._--\"From God our Father\nand the Lord Jesus Christ.\" The Jew in his most generous greeting\ncould only say, \"God be gracious unto you, and remember His\ncovenant\"; but the Christian \"honours the Son even as he honours the\nFather.\" The Father's love and the Son's work are the sole source and\ncause of every Christian blessing.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Learn the freeness and fulness of the Gospel._ It\ncontains and offers all the blessings that can enrich and ennoble\nman. It needs but the willing heart to make them his own. He may\ngather wisdom from the Eastern proverb, and in a higher sense than\nfirst intended, \"Hold all the skirts of thy mantle extended when\nheaven is raining gold.\"\n\n2. _Learn the spirit we should cultivate towards others._--A spirit\nof genuine Christian benevolence and sympathy. We can supplicate for\nothers no higher good than grace and peace.\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\n_Apostolic Introduction to the Epistle._\n\n+I. The persons sending are mentioned.+--\"Paul, Silvanus, and\nTimotheus.\" 1. _Paul is not here called an apostle, because his\napostleship was granted._ 2. _Silvanus and Timotheus had assisted in\nplanting and watering this Church._\n\n+II. The persons addressed are introduced and described.+--1. _The\nepistle was addressed to believers._ 2. _The Church is presented in\nan interesting point of view_ (John xvii. 20). The Father and the\nMediator are one in redemption; into this union the Church is\nreceived. 1. _The blessings desired are grace and peace._ Sovereign\nmercy and favour and reconciliation. 2. _These are mentioned in their\nproper order of time, of cause and effect._ 3. _These are traced to\ntheir proper source._ The Father--the Godhead; the Son--all\nfulness.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 2-4.\n\n_Ministerial Thanksgiving._\n\nGratitude for the healthy, flourishing state of the Thessalonian\nChurch is a marked feature in both epistles and is frequently\nexpressed. The apostle left the young converts in a critical\ncondition, and when he heard from Timothy a favourable account of\ntheir steadfastness and growth in grace, like a true minister of\nChrist he gave God thanks.\n\n+I. Ministerial thanksgiving is expansive in its character.+--\"We\ngive thanks always for you all\" (ver. 2). It is our duty, and\nacceptable to God, to be grateful for personal benefits; but it\ndisplays a broader, nobler generosity when we express thanksgiving on\nbehalf of others. It is Christ-like: _He_ thanked God the Father for\nrevealing the things of His kingdom unto babes. The apostle thanked\nGod:--\n\n1. _Because of their work of faith._--\"Remembering without ceasing\nyour work of faith\" (ver. 3). _Faith is itself a work._ It is the eye\nand hand of the soul, by which the sinner sees, and lays hold on\nChrist for salvation. Man meets with opposition in its exercise; he\nhas to fight against the faith-stifling power of sin in himself and\nin the world. _Faith is also the cause of work._ It is the propelling\nand sustaining motive in all Christian toil. \"Faith without works is\ndead\" (James ii. 26).\n\n2. _Because of their labour of love._--The strength of love is tested\nby its labour; we show our love to Christ by what we do for Him. Love\nintensifies every faculty, moves to benevolent exertion, and makes\neven drudgery an enjoyment. Love leads us to attempt work from which\nwe would once have shrunk in dismay.\n\n3. _Because of their patient hope._--Their hope of salvation in\nChrist was severely tried by affliction, persecutions, and numberless\ntemptations, but was not quenched. It is hard to hope on in the midst\nof discouragement. It was so with Joseph is prison, with David in the\nmountains of Judah, with the Jews in Chaldea. But the grace of\n_patience_ gives constancy and perseverance to our hope. The apostle\nrejoiced in the marked _sincerity_ of their faith, love, and hope,\nwhich he acknowledged to be \"in our Lord Jesus Christ, in the sight\nof God and our Father.\" These virtues are derived alone from Christ,\nand their exercise God witnesses and approves. Things are in reality\nwhat they are in God's sight. His estimate is infallible.\n\n4. _Because assured of their election._--\"Knowing, brethren beloved\nof God, your election\" (ver. 4). St. Paul here means only to show how\nhe, from the way in which the Spirit operated in him at a certain\nplace, drew a conclusion as to the disposition of the persons there.\nWhere it manifested itself powerfully, argued he, there must be\nelect; where the contrary was the case, he concluded the contrary\n(_Olshausen_). Election is the judgment of Divine grace, exempting in\nChrist from the common destruction of men those who accept their\ncalling by faith. Every one who is called is elected from the first\nmoment of his faith, and so long as he continues in his calling and\nfaith he continues to be elected; if at any time he loses calling and\nfaith he ceases to be elected (_Bengel_). Observe the _constancy_ of\nthis thanksgiving spirit--\"We give thanks _always_ for you all.\" As\nthey remembered without ceasing the genuine evidences of their\nconversion, so did they assiduously thank God. There is always\nsomething to thank God for if we will but see it.\n\n+II. Ministerial thanksgiving evokes a spirit of practical\ndevotion.+--\"Making mention of you in our prayers\" (ver. 2). The\ninterest in his converts of the successful worker is keenly aroused;\nhe is anxious the work should be permanent, and resorts to prayer as\nthe effectual means. Prayer for others benefits the suppliant. When\nthe Church prayed, not only was Peter liberated from prison, but the\nfaith of the members was emboldened. Gratitude is ever a powerful\nincentive to prayer. It penetrates the soul with a conscious\ndependence on God and prompts the cry for necessary help. There is no\ntrue prayer without thanksgiving.\n\n+III. Ministerial thanksgiving is rendered to the great Giver of all\ngood.+--\"We give thanks to God\" (ver. 2). God is the Author of true\nsuccess. In vain we labour where His blessing is withheld. Paul was\nnot equally successful in other places as in Thessalonica. In\nDamascus, where he first bore testimony for Christ, the governor\nunder King Aretas planned his capture, and he but narrowly escaped.\nAt Lystra the apostle was violently stoned and dragged out of the\ntown as one dead. But at Thessalonica, notwithstanding opposition,\nthe Gospel laid firm hold of the hearts of men, and believers were\nmultiplied. The highest kind of success in spiritual work must ever\ncome from above. Like Paul, we should be careful constantly to\nacknowledge and thank God as the active source of all prosperity.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _There is much in the work of the minister to test his\npatience and faith._ 2. _The true minister gratefully traces all\nsuccess directly to God._ 3. _A thankful spirit prompts the minister\nto increased Christian enterprise._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 2. _Thanksgiving and Prayer._\n\n+I. The apostle had the burden of all the Churches and their\nindividual members.+\n\n+II. The effect of the remembrance on himself.+--1. _He gives\nthanks._ They were the seals of his ministry, the recipients of the\ngrace of God, the earnest of a more abundant harvest.\n\n2. _He prays._--They had not fully attained. They were in danger.\nNone trusts less to human means than the most richly\nqualified.--_Stewart._\n\n\nVer. 3. _Grace and Good Works._\n\n+I. All inward graces ought to bloom into active\ngoodness.+--1. _Faith is to work._ 2. _Love is to labour._ 3. _Hope\nis to endure._\n\n+II. All active goodness must be rooted in some inward\ngrace.+--1. _The root of work is faith._ 2. _The spring of labour is\nin love._ 3. _We need to refresh ourselves by a perpetual onward\nglance, a confident anticipation of the coming triumph.--Local\nPreacher's Treasury._\n\n\nVer. 4. _Election of God._\n\n  +I. There is an eternal election.+\n\n +II. Which comes out in the election made in time.+\n\n+III. Let us rejoice in it, for apart from it none would be\n      saved.+--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.\n\n_The Gospel in Word and in Power._\n\nYou have passed through a bleak, barren moorland, where the soil\nseemed sown with stones and disfigured with stumps of trees, the only\nsigns of vegetable life were scattered patches of heather and\nflowerless lichen. After a while, you have again traversed the same\nregion, and observed fields of grain ripening for the harvest, and\nbudding saplings giving promise of the future forest. Whence the\ntransformation? The cultivator has been at work. Not less apparent\nwas the change effected in Thessalonica by the diligent toil and\nfaithful preaching of the apostles. We have here two prominent\nfeatures in the successful declaration of the Gospel.\n\n+I. The Gospel in word.+--\"Our gospel came unto you in word.\" In the\nhistory of the introduction of the Gospel into Thessalonica (Acts\nxvii.) we learn the leading themes of apostolic preaching.\n\"Paul . . . reasoned with them out of the Scriptures, opening and\nalleging, that Christ must needs have suffered, and risen again from\nthe dead; and that this Jesus, whom I preach unto you, is Christ\"\n(vers. 2, 3). It is worthy of note that the inspired apostle grounded\nhis discourse on the Holy Scriptures. Even _he_ did not feel himself\nfree from their sacred bonds. The apostle's preaching embraced three\nleading topics:--\n\n1. _He demonstrates that the preached Messiah was to be a suffering\nMessiah._--The mind of the Jewish people was so dazed with the\nsplendid prophecies of the regal magnificence and dominion of Jesus,\nthat they overlooked the painful steps by which alone He was to climb\nto this imperial greatness: the steps of suffering that bore\nmelancholy evidence of the load of anguish under which the world's\nRedeemer staggered--steps crimsoned with the blood of the sacred\nVictim. Out of their Scriptures he proved that the only Messiah\nreferred to there was to be a \"Man of sorrows\" (Isa. liii. 3).\n\n2. _He demonstrates that the Messiah who was thus to suffer and die\nwas to rise again._--This declared the Divine dignity of His person,\nand was the pledge of the future success and eternal stability of His\nredeeming work.\n\n3. _He insisted that the Jesus who thus suffered, died, and rose\nagain was none other than the identical Messiah promised in their\nScriptures._--The grand topic of apostolic preaching must be the\nstaple theme of the pulpit to-day--JESUS CHRIST: Christ suffering,\nChrist crucified, Christ risen, Christ regnant and triumphant. When\nJohn Huss was in prison at Constance for the Gospel's sake, he dreamt\nthat his chapel at Prague was broken into and all the pictures of\nChrist on the walls destroyed. But immediately he beheld several\npainters in the chapel, who drew a greater number of pictures, and\nmore exquisitely beautiful than those that had perished. While gazing\non these with rapture, the sanctuary suddenly filled with his beloved\ncongregation, and the painters, addressing them, said, \"Now, let the\nbishops and priests come and destroy _these_ pictures!\" The people\nshouted for joy. Huss heartily joined them, and amid the acclamation\nawoke. So modern unbelievers may try to expunge the pictures of\nChrist familiar to the mind for generations, and to some extent they\nmay succeed. But the Divine Artist, with graving-tool of Gospel Word,\nwill trace on the tablet of the soul an image more beautiful and\nenduring than that which has been destroyed; and by-and-by a universe\nof worshippers shall rejoice with thundering acclaim, while\nrecognising in each other the reproduction of the image of Him whose\nvisage was once marred more than any man's, but whose face now gleams\nwith celestial beauty and is radiant with the lustre of many crowns.\n\n+II. The Gospel in power.+--\"Not in word only, but also in power.\"\n\n1. _In the exercise of miraculous power._--The apostles were\nspecially invested with this power, and used it in substantiating the\ngreat facts of the Gospel.\n\n2. _In the Holy Ghost._--Not only in His miraculous manifestations\nnecessary in that age, but in the ordinary exercise of His power, as\ncontinued down to the present day--enlightening, convincing, renewing.\n\n3. _With much assurance._--Literally, with full assurance, and much\nof it. \u03a0\u03bb\u03b7\u03c1\u03bf\u03c6\u03bf\u03af\u03b1--full conviction--is from a word that means to _fill\nup,_ and is used to denote the hurrying ship on her career, with all\nher sails spread and filled with the wind. So the soul, filled with\nthe full conviction of truth, is urged to a course of conduct in\nharmony with that conviction.\n\n4. _An assurance enforced by high integrity of character._--\"As ye\nknow what manner of men we were among you, for your sake.\" Their\nearnest labours and upright lives showed they were men moved by\nprofound conviction--a blending of evidence that is not less potent\nin these days.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _To receive the Gospel in word only is\ndisastrous._--In a certain mountainous region under the tropics the\nstillness of night is sometimes broken by a loud, sharp report, like\nthe crack of a rifle. What causes this strange, alarming sound? It is\nthe splitting of rocks charged with the intense heat of the tropical\nsun. Day by day the sun throws down its red-hot rays of fire, and bit\nby bit the rock, as it cools, is riven and crumbles into ruin. So is\nit with the mere hearer of the Word. The Gospel pours upon him its\nlight and heat, and his heart, hardened with long and repeated\nresistance, becomes damaged by that which is intended to better it.\n\n2. _The Gospel must be received in power._--What is wanted is strong,\ndeep faith-compelling conviction--conviction of the awful truth and\nsaving power of the Gospel. To be a mighty force, man must have\nclear, solid, all-powerful convictions.\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 5. _The Manner in which the Gospel comes to the Believing Soul._\n\n+I. The first is negative.+--\"The Gospel came not in word only.\" This\ndescription embraces various classes of persons. 1. _Such as hear the\nGospel habitually without understanding it._ 2. _Such as partially\nunderstand the Gospel without feeling its sanctifying influence._\n3. _Such as are affected by it only for a limited time._\n\n+II. In contradistinction to such, the Gospel came to the believing\nThessalonians in power.+--1. _Power over the understanding._\n2. _Power over the conscience._ 3. _Power over the heart._ 4. _Power\nover the life._\n\n+III. In the Holy Ghost.+--Explains the former. 1. _The message was\nthat of the Spirit._ 2. _The apostles were filled with the Spirit._\n3. _Signs and miraculous proofs were furnished by the Spirit._ 4. _An\nentrance for the Word was procured by the Spirit._\n\n+IV. In much assurance.+--1. _Fulness of apprehension._ 2. _Fulness\nof belief_--the result. 3. _Fulness of consequent hope.--Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6-8.\n\n_The Practical Result of a True Reception of the Gospel._\n\nChristianity transforms man, fills the mind with pure and lofty\nthoughts, turns the current of his feelings into the right channel,\nmakes the soul luminous with ever-brightening hopes, and transfigures\nhis sin-stricken nature into a semblance of the dignity, beauty, and\nperfection of the Divine. Observe its influence on the mixed\npopulation of Thessalonica.\n\n+I. The true reception of the Gospel.+--\"Having received the word in\nmuch affliction, with joy of the Holy Ghost\" (ver. 6). The Word may\nfall on the ear like a sweet strain of music, and charm the soul with\ntemporary rapture, may enter the understanding as a clearly\napprehended truth, may captivate the affections, and travel through\nthe whole sphere of emotion on a thrill of ecstasy; but unless it be\nembraced by the heart and conscience, with the aid of the Holy\nSpirit, it is powerless in spiritual reformation. Two opposite, but\noften strangely blended, emotions--sorrow and joy--were exercised in\nthe reception of the Gospel by the Thessalonians.\n\n1. _They received the Word in sorrow._--\"In much affliction.\" Amid\nthe tumult and persecution of the citizens (Acts xvii. 5-9).\nPrincipally, sorrow on account of sin, and because of their prolonged\nrejection of Christ and obstinate disobedience.\n\n2. _They received the Word with joy._--\"With joy of the Holy Ghost.\"\nThey realised the joy of _conscious forgiveness and acceptance with\nGod._ The sinless angels, placed beyond the necessity of pardon, are\nincapable of experiencing this joy. It belongs exclusively to the\nbelieving penitent. _The joy of suffering for the truth._ Cyprian,\nwho suffered for the Gospel, used to say, \"It is not the pain but the\ncause that makes the martyr.\" That cause is the cause of truth.\nSuffering is limited, life itself is limited, but truth is eternal.\nTo suffer for that truth is a privilege and a joy. _The joy of\ntriumph,_ over error, sin, Satan, persecution. This joy is the\nspecial product of the Holy Ghost. These twin feelings--sorrow and\njoy--are typical of the ever-alternating experience of the believer\nthroughout his earthly career.\n\n+II. The practical result of the true reception of the\nGospel.+--1. _They became imitators of the highest patterns of\nexcellence._ \"Ye became followers of us and of the Lord\" (ver. 6).\nThe example of Christ is the absolute, all-perfect standard of moral\nexcellence. But this does not supersede the use of inferior models.\nThe planets have their season to guide and instruct us, as well as\nthe sun, and we can better bear the moderated light of their borrowed\nsplendour. The bravery of the common soldier, as well as the capacity\nand heroism of the most gifted officer, may stimulate a regiment to\ndeeds of valour. So the apostles, in their patient endurance of\nsuffering, their enterprising zeal and blameless integrity of life,\nbecame examples for their converts to imitate, while they pointed to\nthe great infallible Pattern after which the noblest life must ever\nbe moulded.\n\n2. _They became examples to others._--\"So that ye were ensamples to\nall that believe\" (ver. 7). _In the reality and power of their\nfaith._ They eagerly embraced the Word preached, believing it to be\nnot the word of men but of God. This gave a profound reality to their\nconceptions of the Gospel and a strong impulse to their active\nreligious life. _In their zealous propagation of the truth._ \"For\nfrom you sounded out the word of the Lord\" (ver. 8). Wherever they\ntravelled they proclaimed the Gospel. They imparted that which had\nenriched themselves, and which, in giving, left them still the\nricher. _The influence of their example was extensive in its range._\n\"Not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but also in every place your faith\nto Godward is spread abroad; so that we need not to speak anything\"\n(ver. 8). Macedonia and Achaia were two Roman provinces that\ncomprised the territory known as ancient Greece. Thessalonica. the\nmetropolis of Macedonia, was the chief station on the great Roman\nroad--the Via Egnatia--which connected Rome with the whole region\nnorth of the \u00c6gean Sea and was an important centre both for commerce\nand the spread of intelligence. Wherever the trade of the merchant\ncity extended, there the fame of the newly founded Church penetrated.\nGreat was the renown of their own Alexander, the Macedonian monarch,\nand brilliant his victories; but the reputation of the Thessalonian\nChristians was of a higher order, and their achievements more\nenduring.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Gospel that brings sorrow to the heart brings\nalso joy._ 2. _A genuine reception of the truth changes the man and\ncreates unquenchable aspirations after the highest good._ 3. _A\nliving example is more potent than the most elaborate code of\nprecepts._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _The Evidences and Effects of Revival._\n\n+I. Receivers.+--With faith, with joy, not without trial.\n\n+II. Followers.+--Apostolic piety. Christ-like spirit. Multiplication\nof Christ-like men.\n\n+III. Ensamples.+--Centres of Christian influence.\n\n+IV. Dispensers.+--Induced to diffuse the Gospel by their gratitude\nfor the special grace which had brought it to them with saving power,\nby their supreme attachment to its vital truths and their experience\nof the suitableness of these truths to their wants as sinners, by\ntheir commiseration for those who were yet in a state of nature, by\ntheir love to the Lord Jesus, by the express command of God, by the\nhope of reward.--_G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 8. _The Power of Example_--\n\n  +I. In a faithful declaration of the Gospel.+\n\n +II. In its far-reaching influence on others.+\n\n+III. Speaks for itself, rendering explanation unnecessary.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.\n\n_Conversion and its Evidence._\n\nA good work cannot be hid. Sooner or later it will manifest itself\nand become the general topic of a wide region. The successful worker\nmeets with the fruit of his labours at times and places unexpected.\nWherever the apostles went, the reputation of the newly founded\nChurch had preceded them, and the varied features of the great change\nthat had passed over the Thessalonians were eagerly discussed. We\nhave here a description of conversion and its evidence.\n\n+I. The conversion of the Thessalonians.+--\"For they themselves show\nof us what manner of entering in we had unto you, and how ye turned\nto God from idols\" (ver. 9). You have watched a vessel lying at\nanchor in a tidal river with her bowsprit pointing seaward. After a\nbrief interval you have observed the force of the incoming tide swing\nthe vessel completely round, so that her head points in an exactly\nopposite direction. Not less apparent was the change among the\nThessalonians when the flood-tide of Gospel blessing entered the\ncity. Conversion is a turning about--a change from sin to holiness,\nfrom unbelief to faith, from darkness to light, from Satan to God.\n\n1. _They turned from idols._--For generations the majority of the\nmembers of this Church, with their forefathers, had been idolaters,\n\"walking as other Gentiles walked in the vanity of their mind,\" etc.\n(Eph. iv. 17, 18, ii. 12). _Any creature, real or imaginary, invested\nwith Divine properties is an idol._ An angel, a saint, wealth, an\nidea, or any object to which we ascribe the omnipotence that belongs\nto God, becomes to us an idol--a false deity. _An idol is also the\ntrue God falsely conceived._ The Pantheist, mistaking the effect for\nthe cause, regards the vast fabric of created things as God, and\nNature, with her grand, silent motions, is the object of his\nidolatry. The sensualist, reluctant to believe in punishment for sin,\nexalts the boundlessness of Divine mercy, and ignores the other\nperfections, without which there could be no true God. Idolatry is a\nsin against which the most faithful warnings have been uttered in all\nages, and on account of which the most terrible judgments have been\ninflicted, yet it is the worship to which man is most prone.\n\n2. _They turned to God._--The _one_ God whom Paul preached as \"the\nGod that made the world and all things therein\"; the living God,\nhaving life in Himself, and \"giving to all life and breath and all\nthings\"; the _true_ God, having in Himself the truth and substance of\nessential Deity, in extreme contrast with an \"idol, which is nothing\nin the world.\" With shame and confusion of face as they thought of\nthe past, with penitential sorrow, with confidence and hope, they\nturned to God from idols.\n\n+II. The evidence of their conversion.+--Seen: 1. _In the object of\ntheir service._ They \"serve the living and true God,\" serve Him in\nfaithful obedience to every command, serve Him in the face of\nopposition and persecution--with every faculty of soul, body, and\nestate--in life, in suffering, in death. _This is a free, loving\nservice._ The idolater is enslaved by his own passions and the iron\nbands of custom. His worship is mechanical, without heart and without\nintelligence. The service acceptable to God is the full, spontaneous,\npure outflow of a loving and believing heart. _It is an ennobling\nservice._ Man becomes like what he worships; and as the object of his\nworship is often the creation of his own depraved mind, he is debased\nto the level of his own gross, polluted ideas. Idolatry is the\ncorrupt human heart feeding upon and propagating its own ever-growing\ncorruptions. The service of God lifts man to the loftiest moral\npinnacle and transfigures him with the resplendent qualities of the\nBeing he adores and serves. _It is a rewardable service._ It brings\nrest to the world-troubled spirit, fills with abiding happiness in\nthe present life, and provides endless felicity in the\nfuture--results idolatry can never produce.\n\n2. _Seen in the subject of their hope._--\"And to wait for His Son\"\n(ver. 10). (1) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as a Saviour._ \"Even\nJesus, who delivereth us from the coming wrath.\" Terrible will be the\nrevelation of that wrath to the impenitent and unbelieving. As soon\nas one wave of vengeance breaks another will follow, and behind that\nanother and another interminably, so that it will ever be _the wrath\nto come!_ From this Jesus delivers even now. (2) Their hope was fixed\non _Christ as risen._ \"Whom He raised from the dead.\" They waited for\nand trusted in no dead Saviour, but One who, by His resurrection from\nthe dead, was powerfully declared to be indeed the Son of God.\n(3) Their hope was fixed on _Christ as coming again._ \"To wait for\nHis Son from heaven.\" There is a confusing variety of opinions as to\nthe _character_ of Christ's second advent; as to the _certainty_ of\nit nothing is more plainly revealed. The exact period of the second\ncoming is veiled in obscurity and uncertainty; but it is an evidence\nof conversion to be ever waiting for and preparing for that coming as\nif there were a perpetual possibility of an immediate manifestation.\nThe uncertainty of the time has its use in fostering a spirit of\nearnest and reverential inquiry, of watchfulness, of hope, of\nfidelity.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Conversion is a radical change._ 2. _Conversion is a\nchange conscious to the individual and evident to others._ 3. _The\nGospel is the Divinely appointed agency in conversion._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9, 10. _The Change effected by the Gospel_--\n\n  +I. In religious belief.+\n\n +II. In corresponding conduct.+\n\n+III. In the hope cherished.+--1. _Of the second coming of Christ._\n      2. _Proved by His resurrection from the dead._ 3. _The object\n      of His second coming to deliver from wrath._ 4. _The spirit of\n      earnest but patient waiting induced._\n\n\nVer. 10. _The Christian waiting for his Deliverer_--\n\n  +I. Implies a firm belief in Christ's second coming.+\n\n +II. Habitually endeavouring to be prepared for His second coming.+\n\n+III. Earnestly desiring it.+\n\n +IV. Patiently waiting for it.+--_Bradley._\n\n\n_The Wrath to come._\n\n  +I. It is Divine wrath.+\n\n +II. Unmingled wrath.+--Judgment without mercy; justice without the\n      least mixture of goodness.\n\n+III. Provoked wrath.+\n\n +IV. Accumulated wrath.+--A wrath we have inflamed and increased by\n      every act of sin we have committed.\n\n  +V. Future wrath.+--The wrath to come; lasting as the holiness of\n      the Being who inflicts and the guilt of the sinners who endure\n      it.\n\n +VI. Deliverance from wrath.+--1. _Undeserved._ 2. _Complete._\n      3. _Eternal.--Ibid._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Our entrance in . . . was not in vain.+--The word for \"vain\"\nhere is the same as that in the first half of \"ceno-taph.\" The\nentrance into Thessalonica, we might say colloquially, \"had something\nin it.\"\n\nVer. 2. +Suffered before.+--Previously, that is, to our entrance to\nThessalonica. +And were shamefully entreated.+--The acute sense of\nsuffering in mind shows how far St. Paul was from Stoicism. It is\nthis same exquisite sensibility which makes possible the beautiful\ncourtesy with which, in his letters, we are so familiar. +With much\ncontention.+--All the watchfulness required by one in the arena and\nall the danger incident to a false movement characterised St. Paul's\nwork.\n\nVer. 3. +For our exhortation.+--The word reminds us of Christ's word,\n\"I will send you another Advocate\"--\"Paraclete.\" Our advocacy of the\nGospel of Christ was not born of error. +Was not of deceit, nor\nuncleanness, nor guile.+--Perhaps we might paraphrase thus: We were\nnot ourselves mistaken as to the subject-matter of our preaching, we\nused no \"dirty tricks\" in the way of its publication, we baited no\nhooks for unwilling souls.\n\nVer. 4. +As we were allowed of God.+--The original word means \"to\napprove after testing\"--or, as God knows without testing, as it is\napplied to Him it simply means--\"we were approved of God.\" +To be put\nin trust.+--R.V. \"to be intrusted.\" \"'To be put in trust with the\nGospel' is the highest conceivable responsibility; the sense of it is\nenough to exclude every base motive and deceitful practice\"\n(_Findlay_). +Not as pleasing men.+--The vice condemned in slaves is\nequally reprehensible if it should appear in the minister of the\nGospel. +But God, which trieth the hearts.+--\"Alloweth\" and \"trieth\"\nare different forms of the same verb. Like an assayer whose methods\nare perfect, God makes manifest what is in man's heart.\n\nVer. 5. +For neither at any time used we flattering words.+--\"His\nfriends well knew that he was not one to--\n\n     \"'Crook the pregnant hinges of the knee\n       Where thrift may follow fawning'\" (_Ibid._).\n\n+Nor a cloke of covetousness.+--The same thing perhaps as a mode of\nflattering speech. Fulsome flattering is either the mark of a mind\nhopelessly abject or the craft of a designing mind. Much fair speech\nand the flattering of the lips still lead fools by the nose (Prov.\nvii. 21) to where \"covetousness\" dwells.\n\nVer. 6. +Nor of men sought we glory, neither of you, nor yet of\nothers.+--\"The motive of ambition--'that last infirmity of noble\nminds'--rises above the selfishness just disclaimed; but it is just\nas warmly repudiated, for it is equally inconsistent with the\nsingle-mindedness of men devoted to the glory of God. Our Lord finds\nin superiority to human praise the mark of a sincere faith (John\nv. 44)\" (_Ibid._). +When we might have been burdensome.+--A.V.\nmargin, \"used authority.\" R.V. margin, \"claimed honour\"--literally in\nweight--an ambiguous phrase whose sense is interpreted by ver. 9\n(_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 7. +But we were gentle.+--R.V. margin says, \"Most ancient\nauthorities read babes.\" Origen and Augustine interpret this to mean,\n\"Like a nurse amongst her children, talking in baby language to the\nbabes\" (_Ibid._). +As a nurse cherisheth her children.+--The A.V. has\nomitted a necessary word of the original which R.V. supplies--\"her\n_own_ children.\" The word for \"cherisheth\" is used in Deut. xxii. 5\n(LXX.) of the mother-bird brooding over her nestlings (a figure made\nmemorable by our Lord's mournful words over Jerusalem). The word\noccurs again only in Eph. v. 29.\n\nVer. 8. + Being affectionately desirous.+--The one Greek word\ncorresponding to these three \"implies the fondness of a mother's\nlove--yearning over you\" (_Ibid._). +We were willing.+--R.V.\n\"well-pleased.\" Like Him of whom it is said, \"He gives liberally,\"\nwithout stint. +Our own souls.+--\"Our very selves,\" for the saving of\nwhich, says our Master, a man may well let the world slip. The\napostle keeps up the maternal figure.\n\nVer. 9. +Labour and travail.+--The same words occur together at\n2 Cor. xi. 27. The former is used some twenty times, the latter only\nthree in the New Testament. One marks the fatigue of the work, \"the\nlassitude or weariness which follows on this straining of all his\npowers to the utmost\" (_Trench_). The other gives prominence to the\nhardship or difficulty of the task. +That we might not burden any of\nyou+ (see ver. 6).--Any support that could have been given would have\nbeen a trifle indeed (1 Cor. ix. 11) as compared with the\nself-sacrifice of the apostolic toilers.\n\nVer. 10. +Ye are witnesses, and God also.+--A solemn reiteration (see\nver. 5). +Holily and justly and unblameably.+--\"The holy man has\nregard to the sanctities, the righteous man to the duties of life;\nbut duty is sacred and piety is duty. They cover the whole field of\nconduct regarded in turn from the religious and moral standpoint,\nwhile unblameably affixes the seal of approval both by God and man\"\n(_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 11. +Exhorted and comforted.+--As the former points to the\nstimulation in the apostolic addresses, so the latter to the soothing\nelement. The noun related to the latter verb is found in Phil. ii. 1,\nand is translated by R.V. _\"consolation.\"_ +As a father with his own\nchildren.+--The maternal tenderness is united with the discipline of\na true father.\n\nVer. 12. +Walk worthy of God.+--St. Paul's _\"Noblesse oblige.\"_\n\nVer. 13. +The word of God which ye heard of us.+--R.V. \"The word of\nthe message, even the word of God.\" The preposition \"_from_ us\" is\n\"properly used in relation to objects which come from the\n_neighbourhood_ of a person--out of his _sphere_\" (_Winer_); but the\nWord originates, not with Paul, but in God. +Which effectually\nworketh also.+--There is no original word corresponding to\n\"effectually\" here; but the word \"worketh\" of itself, unemphasised,\nis too weak. We might almost say \"becomes energetic.\"\n\nVer. 14. +Became followers.+--R.V. \"imitators.\" The usual meaning of\nimitators hardly seems to obtain in full strength here. We cannot\nthink the Thessalonians consciously copied the Judean Christians, to\ndo which they would have had the superfluous task of raising up\nopposition. The words seem to mean no more than, \"Ye came to\nresemble.\" +Of your own countrymen.+--Lit, \"fellow-tribesmen.\" One is\nreminded of Shylock's words--\n\n     \"Sufferance is the badge of all our _tribe._\"\n\nVer. 15. +Who both killed.+--The New Testament form of the verb is\nalways compound--as we should say, \"killed off.\" A tragic contrast to\nwhat might have been expected is set forth in our Lord's parable. \"It\nmay be they will _reverence_ My Son. . . . They cast Him out and\n_killed Him off_\" (Luke xx. 13-15). +Have persecuted us.+--A.V.\nmargin, \"chased us out.\" R.V. text, \"drave.\" How deeply humbling was\nthe thought to St. Paul, that he had at one time taken part in this\nhounding! The A.V. margin gives us a most vivid picture. +They please\nnot God.+--This expression is thought by some to be a _meiosis,_ a\nsoftening down of the hard reality by the negative form of the\nlanguage. Is not the best comment found in John xvi. 2, \"Whosoever\nkilleth you shall think that he offereth service unto God\"? The\nsophistry that makes \"killing no murder\" and sanctions an _auto da\nf\u00e9_ is something quite other than pleasing to God. +Are contrary to\nall men.+--\"The sense of God's displeasure often shows itself in\nsourness and ill temper towards one's fellows. Unbelief and cynicism\ngo together. The rancour of the Jews against other nations at this\ntime was notorious. . . . The quarrel between Judaism and the world,\nalas, still continues, as the _Judenhasse_ of Germany and Russia\ntestifies\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 16. +Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles.+--The very spirit\nof the dog in the manger! They would not even have left the\n\"uncovenanted mercies\" to the Gentiles. +To fill up their sins\nalway.+--The phrase signifies ripeness for judgment, and is used in\nGen. xv. 16 of the Amorites in Abraham's time--an ominous parallel\n(_Ibid._). +For the wrath.+--R.V., \"_but_ the wrath.\" As though he\nsaid, \"But the end comes at last; they have always been sowing this\nharvest, now it has to be reaped\" (_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 17. +Being taken from you.+--R.V. \"bereaved of you.\" St. Paul,\nabsent from Thessalonica, feels like a parent who has lost a child,\nand regards them as children who feel the loss of a parent (See John\nxiv. 18).\n\nVer. 18. +But Satan hindered us.+--Lit. \"beat us in.\" The figure is a\nmilitary one and indicates the obstruction of an enemy's progress by\nbreaking up the road (destroying bridges, etc.).\n\nVer. 19. +Crown of rejoicing.+--R.V. \"glorying.\" The victor's wreath.\nSt. Paul regards his steadfast converts as the proof of his\nsuccessful efforts.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching.   I. Boldness._\n\nOutsiders testified of the success of the Gospel, and the apostles\ncould confidently appeal to the converts in confirmation of the\nreport. \"For yourselves, brethren, know our entrance in unto you that\nit was not in vain\" (ver. 1). In the first twelve verses of this\nchapter Paul is describing the special features of their ministry,\nthe manner and spirit of their preaching; and what he denies is, not\nso much that their labours had been vain, fruitless, and without\nresult, as he denies that those labours were in themselves vain,\nfrivolous, empty of all human earnestness, and of Divine truth and\nforce. We trace in their ministerial endeavours four essential\nelements that are ever found in all successful preaching--boldness,\nsincerity, gentleness, moral consistency. Consider, first, their\n_boldness._\n\n+I. This boldness manifested in the earnest declaration of the\ntruth.+--\"We were bold in our God to speak unto you the gospel of God\nwith much contention\" (ver. 2). Bold in their conception of the\nDivine origin and vast scope of the Gospel, and its wondrous\nadaptation to the wants of universal man, they were not less bold in\nits faithful proclamation. Their deep conviction of the supreme\nspirit in Paul on other occasions, when his fearless words roused the\nire of Festus, shook the conscience of the thoughtless Felix, or\nswayed the heart of Agrippa towards a wise decision. We see it in\nElijah as he rebuked the sins of the wicked Ahab with withering\ninvectives or threw the baffled priests of Baal into maddening\nhysteria--himself the while unmoved and confident. We see it\nconspicuously in _Him,_ who came in the spirit and power of Elias,\nwhose burning words assailed every form of wrong, and who did not\nscruple to denounce the deluded leaders of a corrupt Church in the\nmost scathing terms--\"Ye serpents! ye generation of vipers! How can\nye escape the damnation of hell?\" (Matt. xxiii. 33). _\"With much\ncontention\"_--amid much conflict and danger. This kind of preaching\nprovoked opposition and involved them in great inward struggles. The\nfaithful messenger of God fears not the mote violent assault from\nwithout; but the thought of the fatal issues to those who obstinately\nreject and fight against the Gospel fills him with agonising concern.\n\n+II. This boldness no suffering could daunt.+--\"Even after that we\nhad suffered before, and were shamefully entreated, as ye know, at\nPhilippi\" (ver. 2). They had come fresh from a city where they had\nbeen cruelly outraged. Though Roman citizens, they had been publicly\nscourged and, to add to their degradation, were thrust into the inner\nprison, and their feet made fast in the stocks--treatment reserved\nfor the vilest felons. But so far from being dismayed, their\nsufferings only deepened their love for the Gospel and inflamed the\npassion to make it known. A German professor has lately made\nexperiments with chalcedony and other quartzose minerals, and he has\ndemonstrated that when such stones are ground on large and rapidly\nrevolving wheels they exhibit a brilliant phosphorescent glow\nthroughout their entire mass. So is it with the resolute worker. The\nmore he is ground under the strong wheel of suffering and\npersecution, the more intensely will his entire character glow with\nthe radiance of an unquenchable bravery.\n\n+III. This boldness was Divinely inspired.+--\"We were bold _in_ our\nGod\" (ver. 2). It was not the froth of a senseless presumption, not\nthe wild, aimless effort of a reckless bravado; but the calm, grand\nheroism of a profound faith in the Divine. They fell back completely\nupon God and drew their deepest inspiration and mightiest strength\nfrom Him. The prophet Jeremiah, in a moment of despondency, decided\nto \"speak no more in the name of the Lord\"; but when he could say,\n\"The Lord is with me as a mighty, terrible One,\" his courage\nreturned, and he obeyed implicitly the Divine mandate, \"Thou shalt go\nto all that I shall send thee, and whatsoever I command thee thou\nshalt speak\" (Jer. xx. 9-11; Jer. i. 7). Similarly commissioned, Paul\nonce exclaimed, \"I can do all things through Christ which\nstrengtheneth me\" (Phil. iv. 13). Endowed with the like spirit,\nLuther uttered his noble protest at the Diet of Worms--\"Here I stand:\nI cannot do otherwise: God help me!\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Boldness is absolutely indispensable in attacking,\nnot simply in the mass, but in detail, the crying evils of the age._\n2. _Boldness is acquired only by studious and prayerful familiarity\nwith God's message and with God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1, 2. _The Preaching of the Gospel not in Vain._\n\n+I. It is not in vain as respects the end and object of the Gospel\nitself.+--1. _Conversion._ 2. _Sanctification or edification._\n3. _Condemnation._\n\n+II. It was not in vain as respected the objects of the\napostle.+--1. _His commission was to preach the Gospel._ He did it.\n2. _To gather in souls._ He did so. 3. _His reward was the\napprobation of Christ and seals to his ministry._ He had both.\n\n+III. It was not in vain as respected the Thessalonians.+--They were\nturned from idolatry; their hearts glowed with new feelings; their\ncharacters shone with new graces.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-6.\n\n_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching.   II. Sincerity._\n\nThe devout Richard Baxter once said: \"The ministerial work must be\nmanaged purely for God and the salvation of the people, and not for\nany private ends of our own. This is our sincerity in it. A wrong end\nmakes all the work bad from us, however good in itself.\" In order to\nsuccess, it is necessary not only to display a fearless courage, but\nalso a spirit of unmistakable ingenuousness and sincerity. As the\nmountain tarn reflects the clear, chaste light of the stars as they\nkindle in the heavens, so the preacher reflects in his outward\nconduct the pure and lofty motives by which he is animated and\nsustained. We observe, in connection with the preaching of the Gospel\nat Thessalonica, sincerity in motive, in speech, in aim.\n\n+I. Sincerity in motive.+--\"For our exhortation was not of deceit,\nnor of uncleanness, nor in guile\" (ver. 3). The apostle disclaims the\nharbouring of evil intentions in relation to God, himself, and others.\n\n1. _In relation to God._--\"Not of deceit\"--not in error. Having\nreceived the truth from God and about God, he transmits it in all its\nintegrity, without error or imposture.\n\n2. _In relation to himself._--\"Nor of uncleanness.\" Pure in his own\naffection and purpose, he preached a Gospel that was pure in itself,\nin its tendency, and in its experienced results.\n\n3. _In relation to others._--\"Not in guile.\" He sought not to\npropagate the Gospel by any fraudulent wiles or false\nrepresentations. He descended not to hypocrisy to catch men.\n\"Hypocrites,\" says St. Bernard, \"desire to seem not to be good; not\nto seem, but to be evil: they care not to follow or practise virtue,\nbut to colour vice by putting upon it the painted complexion of\nvirtue.\" The life of the man whose motives are thus sincere will be\ntransparent as the light. A certain king of Castile, who had been\nonly too familiar with the duplicity of mankind, once somewhat\narrogantly said, \"When God made man He left one capital defect: He\nought to have set a window in his breast.\" The sincere man opens a\nwindow in his own breast by the whole tenor of His words and actions,\nso that his innermost thoughts are apparent.\n\n+II. Sincerity in speech.+--1. _The preacher speaks under a solemn\nsense of responsibility._ \"But as we were allowed of God to be put in\ntrust with the gospel, even so we speak\" (ver. 4). To their charge,\nas men tested and approved of God, was committed the precious\ntreasure of the Gospel; and keenly conscious of the unutterable\nriches with which they were entrusted, they were deeply solicitous to\ndistribute the same in all faithfulness and sincerity. Every gift we\nreceive from Heaven has its corresponding responsibility.\n\n2. _The preacher seeks chiefly the Divine approval._--\"Not as\npleasing men, but God, which trieth our hearts\" (ver. 4). There is\nmuch in the Gospel distasteful to the natural man--its humiliating\nexposure of our depravity and helplessness, its holiness, its\nmysteries, the unbending severity of its law, and the absolute\ncharacter of its claims. The temptation is sometimes great to temper\nand modify the truth to carnal prejudice, and sacrifice faithfulness\nto popularity. But the apostles risked everything so that they\nsecured the Divine approval. \"As of sincerity, as of God, in the\nsight of God speak we in Christ\" (2 Cor. ii. 17).\n\n3. _The preacher must practise neither adulation nor\ndeception._--\"For neither at any time used we flattering words, as ye\nknow, nor a cloke of covetousness, God is witness\" (ver. 5).\n\"Flattery,\" says Plutarch, \"has been the ruin of many states.\" But\nalas! who can tell the souls it has for ever undone? Truth is too\nsedate and solid to indulge in meaningless flattery. It is only the\nvain and self-conceited who can be deceived by adulation.\n\n+III. Sincerity in aim.+--\"Nor of men sought we glory, neither of\nyou, nor yet of others, when we might have been burdensome as the\napostles of Christ\" (ver. 6). The sincere aim of the apostles was\nseen:--\n\n1. _In the generous suppression of the authority with which they were\ninvested._--\"When we might have  been burdensome as the apostles of\nChrist.\" Whether we understand this authority as exercised in\nforegoing for the time being their legitimate claim of maintenance by\nthe Church, or as restraining the exhibition of the dignity and power\nof their apostleship--which latter view is generally admitted to be\nthe true exegesis--it was equally honourable to the pure and\ndisinterested character of their highest aim.\n\n2. _In the absence of all selfish ambition._--\"Nor of men sought we\nglory.\" They could conscientiously aver, \"We seek not yours, but\nyou.\" \"I love a serious preacher,\" says F\u00e9n\u00e9lon, \"who speaks for my\nsake and not for his own; who seeks my salvation and not his own\nglory.\" It is said of one of the ancient fathers that he wept at the\napplause frequently given to his discourses. \"Would to God,\" said he,\n\"they had rather gone away silent and thoughtful!\" It is a sorry and\npainfully disappointing end to preach for mere ephemeral human\npraise. Such a man may sink into the grave with the touching lament\nof Grotius, \"Alas! I have lost my life in doing nothing with great\nlabour!\"--though in his case it was an unduly despondent estimate of\nhis life-work. When Christ is to be exalted, the preacher must be\nwilling to be unnoticed.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Sincerity in proclaiming the truth can be acquired\nonly by personal experience of its power._ 2. _Sincerity is deepened\nby a conscious Divine commission._ 3. _Sincerity is unmistakably\nevidenced in word and deed._ 4. _Sincerity is satisfied only in\naiming at the highest results in preaching._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 3-6. _Apostolic Preaching characterised by Transparent Truth._\n\n+I. The doctrine was opposed to every form of impurity+ (ver.\n3).--1. _It was itself pure._ 2. _It received no tinge of impurity\nfrom the apostle's mind._ 3. _Its results were pure._\n\n+II. The preaching was free from insincerity and selfishness+ (ver.\n4).--1. _They avoided flattery._ Love of favour (ver. 5). 2. _They\navoided covetousness._ Aggrandisement (ver. 5). 3. _They avoided\nvainglory._ Love of applause (ver. 6). Three rocks on which thousands\nhave been shipwrecked.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7, 8.\n\n_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching.   III. Gentleness._\n\nThere is a power in gentleness to subdue the wildest, mightiest\nopposition, and to triumph over the most gigantic difficulties. The\ngentle rays of the sun melt the ponderous iceberg more speedily than\nthe rolling billows of an angry ocean; the silent action of the\natmosphere wastes the rock which remains immovable under the strokes\nof the heaviest weapon; a look from Moses vanquished the\ncalf-idolatry of the Israelites which the fluent eloquence of Aaron\nhad been powerless to resist; a calm, quiet word from Jesus paralysed\nwith fear the band of soldiers who came to arrest Him in Gethsemane.\nTrue gentleness is never weak. It is the tough, indestructible\nmaterial out of which is formed the hero and the martyr. This quality\nwas conspicuous in the preachers at Thessalonica.\n\n+I. It was the gentleness of patient endurance.+--1. _It enabled them\nto bear the insult and outrage of their enemies._ Their preaching\nroused violent opposition. They retaliated by praying for their\npersecutors. Against physical force they fought with moral weapons;\nand this attitude and policy had a powerful influence on their\nenraged adversaries. The modern preacher can adopt no better method.\nThe offence of the cross has not yet ceased. It stirs up all the\nenmity of the carnal mind. \"And the servant of the Lord must not\nstrive, but be gentle unto all men, apt to teach, patient, in\nmeekness instructing those that oppose themselves\" (2 Tim. ii. 24,\n25). The power of a man is seen, not so much in what he can do, as in\nwhat he can endure. It is only the Christian spirit that unites the\nutmost gentleness with the utmost strength.\n\n2. _It enabled them to bear with the weakness and imperfections of\ntheir converts._--\"As a nurse cherisheth her children\" (ver. 7).--as\na nursing mother cherisheth her own children. They watched over them\nwith the tenderest assiduity, instructed them with the most\ndisinterested solicitude, accommodated and assimilated themselves to\ntheir infant standpoint with all the devotion of a fond, painstaking\nparent. In order to successful teaching, in spiritual as in secular\nsubjects, we must study the child-nature--take into account the\ninfluence of environment, early prejudices, differing capacities and\ntemperaments, and the direction of characteristic tendencies. See\nthis illustrated in the Divine treatment of the Israelites under\nMoses and the great Jewish leaders, and in the training of the twelve\nby the great Teacher.\n\n+II. It was the gentleness of self-sacrificing love.+--\"So being\naffectionately desirous of you, we were willing to have imparted unto\nyou, not the gospel of God only, but also our own souls, because ye\nwere dear unto us\" (ver. 8).\n\n1. _This gentleness arose from a genuine love of human\nsouls._--\"Because ye were dear unto us.\" Love is the great\nmaster-power of the preacher. After this he strives and toils with\never-increasing earnestness as the years speed on; and it is the\ngrace that comes latest and slowest into the soul. No amount of\nscholastic attainment, of able and profound exposition, of brilliant\nand stirring eloquence, can atone for the absence of a deep,\nimpassioned, sympathetic love of human souls. The fables of the\nancients tell us of Amphion, who, with the music of his lyre, drew\nafter him the huge stones with which to build the walls of Thebes,\nand of Orpheus, who, by his skill on the harp, could stay the course\nof rivers and tame the wildest animals. These are but exaggerated\nexamples of the wondrous charm of the soul-compelling music of love.\n\"I have always been afraid,\" said a devoted young minister, now no\nmore, \"of driving my people away from the Saviour. I would rather err\non the side of drawing them.\" The seraphic John Fletcher once said,\n\"Love, continual, universal ardent love, is the soul of all the\nlabour of a minister.\"\n\n2. _The intensity of their love awoke a spirit of voluntary\nself-sacrifice._--\"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were\nwilling to have imparted unto you, not the gospel of God only, but\nalso our own souls.\" To accomplish the salvation of their hearers\nthey were willing to surrender life itself. This was the temper of\nthe Divine Preacher who \"came not to be ministered unto, but to\nminister, and to give His life\" (Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45). A similar\nspirit imbued the apostle when he assured the weeping elders of\nEphesus in that pathetic interview on the lonely shore--\"Neither\ncount I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course\nwith joy and the ministry which I have received of the Lord Jesus\"\n(Acts xx. 24). The love of science nerves the adventurous voyager to\nbrave the appalling dangers of the arctic ice, amid which so many\nhave found a crystal tomb; but a nobler love inspires the breast of\nthe humble worker, who cheerfully sacrifices all the world holds dear\nto rescue men from woe.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _That gentleness is a power not only in patient\nendurance, but also in enterprising action._ 2. _That gentleness is\nindispensable to effectiveness, either in warning or reproof. It\nsucceeds where a rigid austerity fails._ 3. _That gentleness is\nfostered and regulated by a deep, self-sacrificing love._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 7, 8. _Dealing with New Converts._\n\n+I. Divine principles have to unfold themselves in unfavourable\ncircumstances.+--1. _Moral influence from without._ 2. _Jewish\nmisrepresentation._ 3. _Persecution._\n\n+II. Must be treated with gentleness.+--1. _In the adaptation of\nteaching to suit their state._ 2. _In the manner and spirit of the\ninstruction given._\n\n+III. Must be treated with affectionate self-sacrificingness+ (ver.\n8).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9-12.\n\n_Essential Elements of Success in Preaching.   IV. Moral Consistency._\n\nThe writer, in dwelling on the manner and spirit of preaching, has\nshown the necessity of boldness, sincerity, and gentleness as\npowerful instrumentalities in achieving success. In these verses he\ninsists on the moral consistency of the individual life and conduct.\nAs the time indicated on the dial answers to the perfect mechanism of\nthe watch, so the personal example of the preacher must answer to the\nwords he utters. The most accomplished elocution, the most\nimpassioned and captivating utterance will be fruitless unless backed\nwith the strength of a complete, well-rounded, all-beautiful\nspiritual character. Paul and his co-helpers could fearlessly appeal\nto their hearers, and in all humility to God, in attestation of the\nmoral consistency of their private and public action.\n\n+I. Their moral consistency seem in the unselfish principle that\ngoverned them in their work.+--\"For ye remember, brethren, our\nlabours and travail: for labouring night and day, because we would\nnot be chargeable to any of you, we preached unto you the gospel of\nGod\" (ver. 9). The apostle invariably asserted the obligation of\nministerial maintenance by the Church. In another place he\nemphatically affirms that, not merely naked equity and the spirit of\nthe Mosaic law, but also a positive ordinance of Christ requires that\njust as \"they which ministered about holy things lived of the things\nof the temple, and they which waited at the altar were partakers with\nthe altar, even so they which preach the gospel shall live of the\ngospel\" (1 Cor. ix. 13, 14). In the special circumstances and early\nstage of the work at Thessalonica, the apostle waived this righteous\nclaim. It might be on account of the poverty of the majority of the\nconverts, or more probably on account of the charge of covetousness\ntheir enemies had diligently circulated. To crush all suspicion of\ninterested motives and self-seeking, those noble missionaries refused\n\"to be chargeable unto any one of them,\" depending for their support\nupon the occasional remittances of the liberal Philippians, and on\ntheir own manual labour. Thus did they evidence their supreme desire\nto be, not mercenary gain, but the proclamation of the Gospel of\nGod--an example which has its counterpart in the brave, devoted,\nself-denying labours of many a modern missionary.\n\n+II. Their moral consistency seen in the maintenance of a blameless\ndeportment.+--\"Ye are witnesses, and God also, how holily and justly\nand unblameably we behaved ourselves among you that believe\" (ver.\n10). A Roman prince of the celebrated house of Colonna, whose virtues\nhad sustained him alike in prosperous and adverse times, was once\ndriven into exile, and when reduced to extremity was asked, \"Where is\nnow your fortress?\" He laid his hand upon his heart, and answered,\n\"Here!\" A conscious sense of integrity threw a strength and majesty\naround him in the midst of poverty and suffering. It was an inward\nconsciousness of purity that prompted these Christian workers to\nappeal to those who were best acquainted with their walk and\nconversation. They behaved holily toward God, justly toward men, and\nunblameably in all things. \"Among them that believe.\" Believers could\nbest understand the secret of their whole life, its aims and motives,\nits tendencies and issues, and on them it would have an irresistible\nimpression. It is often the fate of the public teacher, while\nblameless, to be unmercifully blamed by those who are outside the\ncircle of his work. The world retains all its historic enmity to the\ntruth and is as venomous as ever in its expression.\n\n     \"No might, nor greatness in mortality\n      Can censure 'scape: back-wounding calumny\n      The whitest virtue strikes.\"\n\n+III. Their moral consistency seen in their persistent endeavours to\nstimulate their converts to the highest attainments.+--1. _This is\nevident in the lofty standard set up._ \"That ye walk worthy of God\"\n(ver. 12). How sublime and dignified the Christian character may\nbecome--to walk worthily of God!--in harmony with His nature, His\nlaw, with our profession of attachment to Him. To the production of\nthis grand result all their efforts were bent. \"As a father doth his\nchildren,\" so they \"exhorted\" with all earnestness, \"comforted\" with\nall loving sympathy, and \"charged\" with all fidelity and authority.\nThe preacher must be master of every art necessary to success.\n\n2. _This is evident in the sublime motive that should animate us in\nreaching the standard._--The Divine, heavenly calling. \"Who hath\ncalled you unto His kingdom and glory\" (ver. 12)--His own glorious\nkingdom. We are invited to enter this kingdom on earth and\nparticipate in its blessings; but the full splendours of that kingdom\nare reserved for the heavenly world. How brief and insignificant will\nthe sufferings and sorrows of the present appear, contrasted with the\nineffable bliss of the future state! \"Do you want anything?\" eagerly\nasked the loved ones who surrounded the dying couch of Melancthon.\n\"Nothing but heaven,\" was the gentle response, and he went smiling on\nhis way.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _In order to success in preaching moral consistency of\nlife must accompany and sustain the faithful declaration of the\ntruth._ 2. _That the greatest success is achieved when the highest\nexperience of the Christian life is constantly enforced by both\nprecept and example._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9-12. _The High Moral Feeling that should influence the\nPreacher._--Illustrated by Paul's work and conduct.\n\n+I. In preaching the Gospel.+\n\n+II. In labouring for his own support.+\n\n+III. In his behaviour.+--1. _Towards God._ \"Holily.\" 2. _Towards\nothers._ \"Justly.\" 3. _Unblameable._ Prudent and inoffensive. He\ncould appeal to man and God.--_Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.\n\n_The Correct Estimate of Gospel Truth._\n\nWe have before stated that the population of Thessalonica consisted\nof two diverse classes, Greek and Jew--the one representing the\nphilosophy of paganism, the other being the custodian of the sacred\ntruths of Revelation. Among the Hebrews Moses was recognised as the\ncentral human figure and head of their legal system, and his words\nwere profoundly venerated; and the Gentiles were not less devout and\nardent in their admiration of Plato and his far-seeing wisdom. The\ninfluence of these two systems was all-potent with the Thessalonians;\nit supplied thought, moulded character and life, and filled up the\nwidest circle of their hopes. The Gospel impinged upon these ancient\nand revered institutions, and they reeled beneath the shock. The\nbigoted followers of Moses and Plato were compelled to admit the\nhigher authority of the apostolic message. They formed a correct\nestimate of Gospel truth when they \"received it, not as the word of\nmen, but as it is in truth, the word of God.\"\n\n+I. The Gospel is superior to all human wisdom.+--It is \"not the word\nof men.\" 1. _Human wisdom is limited in its range._ The greatest mind\nis restricted in its knowledge, and imperfect in using what it knows.\nA celebrated Roman scholar once exclaimed with petulance and disgust:\n\"The human mind wanders in a diseased delirium, and it is therefore\nnot surprising that there is no possible folly which philosophers, at\none time or another, have not propounded as a lesson of wisdom.\"\n\n2. _Human wisdom is changeable._--Aristotle, the great father of\nnatural philosophy, summed up his impressions on this subject with\nhis usual hard, unyielding logic when ye said: \"There is no\ndifference between what men call knowledge and mere opinion;\ntherefore, as all opinion is uncertain, there can be no certainty in\nhuman knowledge.\"\n\n3. _Human wisdom is unsatisfying._--It is with a sigh of bitter\ndisappointment that one of the most profound thinkers of antiquity\nconcluded his long and deep inquiry into human affairs, and summed up\nthe result with these sad, melancholy words: \"Nothing can be known;\nnothing therefore can be learned; nothing can be certain; the senses\nare limited and delusive; intellect is weak; life is short!\"\n\n+II. The Gospel is essentially Divine.+--1. _It is authoritative._\nThere is an old proverb, \"When the lion roars, the beasts of the\nforest tremble.\" So when the Gospel speaks, unbelievers may well be\nfilled with fear. Milton thus describes Adam in his innocency\nadvancing to meet his celestial Visitor: He--\n\n          \"walks forth without more train\n     Accompanied than with His own complete\n     Perfections: in Himself was all His state.\"\n\nIn like manner God's Word comes to us clothed with the majesty and\nauthority of its own innate power. It bends the ear to attention, the\nmind to faith, the heart to reverence, the will and conscience to\nobedience.\n\n2. _It is immutable._--It is \"the word of the Lord that liveth and\nabideth for ever\" (1 Peter i. 23). (1) Its promises are sure; (2) its\nthreatenings will certainly be executed.\n\n3. _It is complete._--There is nothing to add, nothing to subtract.\nIt contains the fullest revelation of God, of man, of eternal\nissues--such as can never be found elsewhere.\n\n4. _It is worthy of universal credence._--\"If we receive the witness\nof men, the witness of God is greater.\" It is to the everlasting\ncommendation of the Thessalonians, and of millions since their day,\nthat when they heard the Word of God they \"received it, not at the\nword of men, but as it is in truth, the word of God.\"\n\n     This next paragraph includes the word \"niggardly,\" which is\n     a fine word, meaning \"stingy,\" \"grasping,\" or\n     \"parsimonious;\" but to someone who is not familiar with the\n     word or not paying complete attention, it can sound like a\n     racial slur. When teaching this material, please strongly\n     consider substituting a synonym.\n\n+III. The Gospel is efficacious in transforming character.+--\"Which\neffectually worketh also in you that believe.\" As the planet\nreceiving the light of the sun is transformed into an imitation sun,\nso the believing soul receiving the light of the Word is changed into\nthe image of that Word. Whatever the Divine Word prescribes, _that_\nit works in us. Does it prescribe repentance?--it works repentance;\nfaith?--it works faith; obedience?--it works obedience;\nknowledge?--it enlightens to know. Its transforming power, is\ncontinually demonstrated. It makes the niggardly generous, the\nprofane holy, the drunkard sober, the profligate chaste. Faith is the\nvital force that connects the soul with this converting power.\n\n+IV. The correct estimate of Gospel truth is matter of ceaseless\nthanksgiving to the preacher.+--\"For this cause also thank we God\nwithout ceasing.\" No disappointment is keener to the anxious preacher\nthan that of unproductive labour. Some of the choicest ministers of\nGod have to mourn over comparative failure. Think of the anguish of\nthe sympathetic Jeremiah when the Word of the Lord which he declared\nwas turned into daily reproach and derision; and to Ezekiel, when he\nwept over rebellious Israel! But the joy of success is irrepressible,\nand the full heart pours out its thanks to God. \"They joy before Thee\naccording to the joy in harvest, and as men rejoice when they divide\nthe spoil\" (Isa. ix. 3).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The word of man, while it may charm the\nunderstanding, is powerless to change the heart._ 2. _The correct\nestimate of Gospel truth is to regard it as the Word of God._ 3. _The\nWord of God is efficacious to the individual only as it is received\nbelievingly._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\n_The Efficacy of the Word of God and the Way of receiving it._\n\n+I. The description given of the Word.+--1. _The Word not of men, but\nof God._ 2. _Known by its effects._ (1) Producing conviction of sin.\n(2) Binding up the broken heart.\n\n+II. In what manner it should be received.+--1. _With attention and\nreverence._ 2. _With humility and teachableness._ 3. _As the\ninstrument for conversion and edification.--E. Cooper._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 14.\n\n_Suffering: the Test of Conversion._\n\nIt often happens that suffering reveals new features of individual\ncharacter and awakens powers that were before dormant. It takes a\ngreat deal to thoroughly rouse some people. We are told that Agrippa\nhad a dormouse that slumbered so profoundly that it would never wake\ntill cast into a cauldron of boiling lead. So, there are some natures\nwhich put forth all their powers only when in suffering and\nextremity. The piety of God's people has been most severely tested in\nthe midst of persecution and affliction. The faith of thousands has\nfailed in the hour of trial, while those who have borne the strain\nhave gained an accession of moral nerve and bravery. The\nThessalonians imitated the Churches in Judea in boldly facing the\nstorm of malignant opposition, and standing under it with calm,\nunconquerable firmness.\n\n+I. The suffering of the Thessalonians had a common origin.+--\"For ye\nalso have suffered like things of your own countrymen, even as they\nhave of the Jews.\" Just as the Jews who embraced Christianity met\nwith the maddest violence from their own unbelieving countrymen, so\nthe Gentiles found their fiercest foes among their fellow-countrymen,\nwho blindly clung to the worship of the gods. It is the unkindest cut\nof all that comes from the sword of our own people--people with whom\nwe have lived in amity and concord, but from whom conscience compels\nus to differ. Who can fathom the deep anguish of the Psalmist\nsounding in that sharp, bitter cry of startled surprise, \"For it was\nnot an enemy that reproached me, then I could have borne it; but it\nwas thou, a man, mine equal, my guide and mine acquaintance\"! (Ps.\nlv. 12, 13). It was a horrible discovery of nature engaged in a\nterrible suicidal war with itself! Nature grown monstrously unnatural\nand savagely retaliating on its own; natural love turned into\nunnatural enmity! What a revelation, too, is this of the desperate\nnature of all persecution! Its insensate malice rudely sunders all\nbonds of fatherland, friendship, and kindred. The close affinity\nbetween Cain and Abel does not arrest the murderer's hand; the tender\nties between Saul and David, woven with much reciprocal kindness and\naffection, avail not to curb the mad cruelty of the infuriate king.\nAh! how deep and changeless is the truth, \"All that will live godly\nin Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution\" (2 Tim. iii. 12). The\nsuffering that tests is still from the same source, \"A man's foes are\nthey of his own household\" (Matt. x. 36).\n\n+II. The suffering of the Thessalonians was borne with exemplary\nChristian fortitude.+--\"For ye, brethren, became followers of the\nChurches of God, which in Judea are in Christ Jesus.\" The same\nthought is expressed in the first chapter, where the apostle says,\n\"Ye became followers of us and of the Lord.\" For at the head of the\nlong line is Jesus, the Captain of salvation; and all whom He leads\nto glory walk in His steps, imitate His example, and so become\nfollowers one of another. It is not, however, suffering in itself\nthat purifies and exalts Christian character, so much as the spirit\nin which it is borne. The hardest point of obedience is to obey in\nsuffering. It was enough to cool the fiery ambition of the aspiring\ndisciples when Jesus said, \"Are ye able to drink of the cup that I\nshall drink of?\" (Matt. xx. 22). And yet the following of Christ in\nsuffering is the true test of discipleship. \"He that taketh not his\ncross and followeth me is not worthy of Me\" (Matt. x. 38). It is a\ngrand proof of the supernatural efficacy of Gospel truth that it\ninspires so intense a love of it as to make us willing to endure the\nmost exquisite suffering for its sake. The love of truth becomes\nsupreme. John Huss, lamenting the rupture of an old and valued\nfriendship, said: \"Paletz is my friend; truth is my friend; and both\nbeing my friends, it is my sacred duty to give the first honour to\ntruth.\" The soul, penetrated with this sublime devotion to truth,\nwill pass unscathed the fiery test of suffering. On the destruction\nby fire of the London Alexandra Palace a few years ago, it was found\nthat, while many specimens of old English porcelain exhibited there\nwere reduced to a black, shapeless mass, the true porcelain of\nBristol, though broken into fragments, still retained its whiteness,\nand even its most delicate shades of colour, uninjured by the fire.\nSo the truly good, though wounded and maimed, shall survive the\nfiercest trial, and retain intact all that specially distinguishes\nand beautifies the Christian character.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Our love of the Gospel is tested by what we suffer\nfor it._ 2. _The similarity of experience in all times and places is\na strong evidence of the truth of the Christian religion._\n3. _Suffering does not destroy, but builds up and perfects._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15, 16.\n\n_The Fury of the Old Religion against the New._\n\nIt is the natural order of things that the old must give place to the\nnew. The inexorable operation of the law of progress is seen in a\nthousand different forms. In the world of vegetation, the old life is\ncontinually yielding supremacy to the new. The leaves, buds, and\nblossoms of the tree, as they force their way to the light, fling\ntheir shadows on the grave where their predecessors lie decayed and\nburied--life blooming amid the ghastly emblems of death. And, in the\nworld of religious thought and opinion, while Divine truth remains in\nits essence unchangeably the same, old forms and old definitions are\never giving place to the new. The transition from the old to a new\norder of things in the progress of religion is not always\naccomplished without opposition. Age is naturally and increasingly\ntenacious; and the old religion looks on the new with suspicion, with\njealousy, with fear, with anger. The Jews had resisted the attempts\nof their own Divinely commissioned prophets to rouse the nation to a\npurer faith and more vigorous religious life; but their fury reached\nits climax in their blind, unreasonable, and fiendish opposition to\nChristianity. The text describes the fury of the old religion against\nthe new.\n\n+I. The fury of the Jews is seen in their inhuman treatment of the\ngreat leaders of religious thought.+--\"Who both killed the Lord Jesus\nand their own prophets, and have persecuted us\" (ver. 15).\n\n1. _They plotted against the life of the world's Redeemer;_ and in\nspite of insufficient evidence to convict, and the endeavours of the\nRoman procurator to release, they clamoured for the immediate\ncrucifixion of their innocent Victim, exclaiming in the wild\nintoxication of malignant passion, \"His blood be on us and on our\nchildren\" (Matt. xxvii. 25)--a self-invoked imprecation that fell on\nthem with terrible and desolating vengeance.\n\n2. _The sin of murder already darkly stained their race._--The best\nand noblest of their prophets were unoffending victims: Isaiah,\nJeremiah, Amos, Zechariah, met with violent deaths. The charge of the\nproto-martyr Stephen was unanswerable (Acts vii. 52).\n\n3. _The apostles were subjected to similar treatment._--\"And have\npersecuted us\"--have chased and driven us out. They drove them out of\nThessalonica, afterwards out of Ber\u0153a, and were at that moment\nengaged in instigating an insurrection to drive the apostle out of\nCorinth. The spirit of persecution is unchanged. Wherever the attempt\nis made to raise the Church from the grave of spiritual death and\nreanimate her creed and ritual with intenser reality and life, it is\nmet with a jealous, angry opposition. What a wretched, short-sighted\npolicy does persecution reveal! It is the idolised weapon of the\ntyrant and the coward, the sport of the brutal, the sanguinary\ncarnival of demons!\n\n+II. The fury of the Jews was displeasing to God.+--\"They please not\nGod\" (ver. 15). They fondly imagined they were the favourites of\nheaven, and that all others were excluded from the Divine\ncomplacency. They had the words of the law carefully committed to\nmemory and could quote them with the utmost facility to serve their\nown purpose. They would support their proud assumption of superiority\nand exclusiveness by quoting Deut. xiv. 2, wilfully shutting their\neyes to the vital difference between the holy intention of Jehovah\nand their miserably defective realisation of that intention. In their\nopposition to Christianity they thought they were doing God service;\nyet all the time they were displeasing to Him. How fatally blinding\nis sin, goading the soul to the commission of the most horrible\ncrimes under the sacred guise of virtue!\n\n+III. The fury of the Jews was hostile to man.+--1. _Their hostility\nwas directed against the world of mankind._ \"Are contrary to all men\"\n(ver. 15). The Jews of that period delighted in hatching all kinds of\n\"sedition, privy conspiracy, and rebellion.\" They were adversaries of\nall, the despisers of all. Tacitus, the Roman historian, brands them\nas \"the enemies of all men:\" and Apion, the Egyptian, according to\nthe admission of Josephus, calls them \"atheists and misanthropes--in\nfact, the most witless and dullest of barbarians.\"\n\n2. _Their hostility was embittered by a despicable religious\njealousy._--\"Forbidding us to speak to the Gentiles, that they might\nbe saved\" (ver. 16). Here the fury of the old religion against the\nnew reached its climax. It is the perfection of bigotry and cruelty\nto deny to our fellow-men the only means of salvation. Into what\nmonsters of barbarity will persecution turn men! Pharaoh persisted to\nsuch a degree of unreasonableness as to chastise the Hebrews for not\naccomplishing impossibilities! Julian, the apostate from\nChristianity, carried his vengeful spirit to his deathbed, and died\ncursing the Nazarene!\n\n+IV. The fury of the Jews hurried them into irretrievable\nruin.+--1. _Their wickedness was wilfully persistent._ \"To fill up\ntheir sins alway\" (ver. 16)--at all times, now as much as ever. So\nmuch so, the time is now come when the cup of their iniquity is\nfilled to the brim, and nothing can prevent the consequent\npunishment. The desire to sin grows with its commission. \"Sinners,\"\nsays St. Gregory, \"would live for ever that they might sin for\never\"--a powerful argument for the endlessness of future punishment.\nThe desire to sin is endless.\n\n2. _Their punishment was inevitable and complete._--\"For the wrath is\ncome upon them to the uttermost\" (ver. 16)--is even now upon them.\nThe process has begun; their fury to destroy others will accelerate\ntheir own destruction. Punishment fell upon the wicked, unbelieving,\nand resisting Jews, and utter destruction upon their national status\nand religious supremacy (_vide_ Josephus, _Wars,_ Books v., vi.).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _There is a fearful possibility of sinking into a\nlifeless formality, and blind, infatuate opposition to the good._\n2. _The rage of man against the truth defeats its own ends, and\nrecoils in vengeance on himself._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15, 16. _The Persecuting Jews_--\n\n  +I. Often misled by professed zeal for truth.+\n\n +II. Tortured and murdered the noblest men of their own race.+\n\n+III. Opposed the Gospel with violent and unreasoning severity.+\n\n +IV. Have themselves been persecuted by all the nations among whom\n      they sojourned.+\n\n  +V. Furnish an unanswerable argument for the truth of Christianity.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 17-20.\n\n_The Power of Satan, Great but Restricted._\n\nSt. Paul had a profound, unhesitating belief in the reality and\npersonal activity of Satan. An examination of the apostle's own\nwritings and discourses places this beyond doubt. We need refer to\nbut a few passages. Satan is \"the prince of the power of the air, the\nspirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience\" (Eph.\nii. 2); \"the god of this world, blinding the minds of them which\nbelieve not\" (2 Cor. iv. 4). To convert to the Christian religion is\nto bring men \"from the power of Satan unto God\" (Acts xxvi. 18). To\nrelapse is \"to turn aside after Satan\" (1 Tim. v. 15). To commit sin\nis to \"give place to the devil\" (Eph. iv. 27). If Paul suffered from\nsome grievous bodily ailment that checked him in his evangelical\nlabours, it was \"the angel of Satan to buffet him\" (2 Cor. xii. 17);\nand when he was prevented from paying a visit to the struggling\nChurch at Thessalonica, it was \"Satan that hindered him.\" Observe:--\n\n+I. The power of Satan forcing an unwilling separation.+--\"But we,\nbrethren, being taken from you for a short time in presence, not in\nheart\" (ver. 17).\n\n1. _The separation was painful, but temporary._--\"Being taken from\nyou\"--literally, being _orphaned of you._ This grief was like that of\na father bereft of his children, or children of their parents. Their\nemotions were expressed by Jacob--\"If I am bereaved of my children, I\nam bereaved\" (Gen. xliii. 14). They hoped speedily to return; and,\nafter the lapse of five years, their hopes were realised. Satan acted\nby means of wicked men (Acts xvii. 5-8, 13).\n\n2. _The separation did not lessen their spiritual attachment._--\"In\npresence, not in heart.\" Satan may deprive of the opportunity of\nsocial intercourse, but not of reciprocal Christian love. Augustine,\nreferring to different kinds of friendship, shows the pre-eminence of\nthe spiritual, where the link is grace and the Spirit of God:\n\"Natural affection want of presence diminisheth; mundane friendship,\nwhere profit makes the union, want of profit unlooseth; but spiritual\namity nothing dissolves, no, not that which dissolves all others,\nlack of society.\"\n\n+II. The power of Satan hindering an earnestly desired\nvisit.+--1. _Opposition intensified their desire to see their\nconverts._ \"Endeavoured the more abundantly to see your face with\ngreat desire\" (ver. 17). As lime is influenced by water, as a stream\ngrows more furious by the obstacles set against it, so genuine\naffection is increased in fervour by that which opposes it.\n\n2. _The opposition succeeded in baffling repeated attempts to carry\nout that desire._--\"Wherefore, we would have come unto you, even I\nPaul, once and again; but Satan hindered us\" (ver. 18). The apostle\nhalted at Ber\u0153a on his way to Athens, and probably attempted then to\nreturn to Thessalonica, but was thwarted in his design. Though no\nexpress reference is made in the history to the agency of Satan, Paul\nhad unmistakable evidence of its operation in many ways. _Satan\nhindered us_--perhaps by imprisonment, tempests at sea, or by keeping\nhim so fully occupied with incessant conflicts and ever-new\ntribulations of his own, as to leave him no leisure for carrying out\nhis plan. The verb signifies to cut a trench in the way of a pursuing\nenemy, so as to hinder his progress.\n\n+III. The power of Satan unable to rob the Christian worker of the\njoy and reward of success.+--Great as is the power of Satan, it is\nnot omnipotent. The Christian warrior can successfully withstand it\n(Eph. vi. 11-13); and he is assured that God will bruise Satan under\nhis feet (Rom. xvi. 20).\n\n1. _Success in soul-saving is productive of unutterable joy._--\"For\nwhat is our hope, or joy, or crown of rejoicing? Are not even ye?\"\n(ver. 19). The merchant rejoices over his gains, the warrior over his\nvictories, the artist over the achievements of genius; but there is\nno joy so sweet, so exquisite, so abiding, as the successful winner\nof souls.\n\n2. _The joy of success in soul-saving will be among the highest\nrewards of the future._--\"In the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at\nHis coming? For ye are our glory and joy\" (vers. 19, 20). The return\nof Christ to heaven, after the judgment, is here compared to the\nsolemnity of a triumph, in which the apostle is to appear crowned in\ntoken of victory over the false religions of the world, attended by\nhis converts; and because they are the cause of his being thus\ncrowned, they are, by a beautiful figure of speech, called his crown\nof rejoicing. Special honour is promised to the successful worker\n(Dan. xii. 3). (1) Joy enhanced by the recognitions in the future\nlife. \"Are not even ye in the presence of our Lord Jesus Christ at\nHis coming?\" If Paul knows his converts in the heavenly world, shall\nwe not know our loved ones who have gone before? (2) By the presence\nand approbation of the Lord Jesus for whom we have laboured. \"In Thy\npresence is fulness of joy; at Thy right hand there are pleasures for\nevermore\" (Ps. xvi. 11).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The power of Satan works through many agencies;\ntherefore, we have need of watchfulness._ 2. _The power of Satan is\nlimited; therefore, we need not be discouraged._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 18. _Satanic Hindrances_--\n\n  +I. Are veiled by subtle and specious pretexts.+\n\n +II. Work mischief in individuals and in Churches.+\n\n+III. May succeed in diverting for a time the best intentions of the\n      good.+\n\n +IV. Should be diligently and prayerfully watched.+\n\n  +V. Are frustrated by a superior power.+\n\n\nVers. 19, 20. _The Joy of a Minister in his Converts_--\n\n  +I. As they are living witnesses of the power of the Gospel.+\n\n +II. As they are the crowning reward of his labours.+\n\n+III. As he shares the joy of Christ in their salvation and final\n      glory.+\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +When we could no longer forbear.+--This latter word occurs\nin 1 Cor. xiii. 7 to describe the endurance of love.\n\nVer. 2. +Fellow-labourer+ is omitted from the R.V. text, which reads,\n\"our brother and God's minister in the gospel of Christ.\" +To\nestablish you.+--To fix firmly; as Christ said to Peter, \"_Stablish_\nthy brethren\" (Luke xxii. 32).\n\nVer. 3. +That no man should be moved.+--The word seems to imply\n\"moved to softness,\" as Professor Jowett intimates. It is used\nespecially of the motion of a dog's tail as it fawns on its master.\nSo the word passes over to the mental sphere (compare on St. James'\nfigure, James i. 6). \"That no man should amidst his calamities be\nallured by the flattering hope of a more pleasant life to abandon his\nduty\" (_Tittmann_).\n\nVer. 4. +We should suffer tribulation.+--In the verse previous the\nnoun from the same root as the one here translated \"suffer\ntribulation\" is given as \"afflictions.\" \"The actual persecution of\nthe Roman government was slight, but what may be termed social\npersecution and the illegal violence employed towards the first\ndisciples unceasing\" (_Jowett_).\n\nVer. 5. +When I could no longer forbear . . . sent to know.+--The\nwhole verse shows the tension of the apostle's mind.\n\nVer. 6. +And brought us good tidings.+--R.V. \"glad tidings.\" \"The one\nword for 'brought-glad-tidings' everywhere else in the New Testament\nsignifies _the_ glad tidings. . . . Hence the peculiar force of the\nword here. . . . It was a gospel sent to _him_ in return for his\ngospel brought to them\" (_Findlay_). +Ye have good remembrance of\nus.+--Kindly remembrance. The tempter had not been able to turn to\ngall the sweet thoughts of grateful appreciation of the apostle's\nwork.\n\nVer. 8. +For now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord.+--The man who\nlater could say, \"For to me to live is Christ\" (Phil. i. 21),\nprepares us for that saying by this. Life to him is desirable only as\nothers benefit by it.\n\nVer. 9. +For what thanks can we render to God again.+--In the R.V.\n\"again\" is joined with \"render,\" representing the one word of St.\nPaul. The same verb is found twice in Luke xiv. 14 as \"recompense.\"\nThe apostle feels what a poor requital any thanksgiving must be for\nthe mercy of the good news from Thessalonica (see 2 Thess. i. 6).\n\nVer. 11. +Direct our way unto you.+--Acts xvi. 6, 7 should be read.\nSatan might hinder (ch. ii. 18); if God \"makes straight\" the way,\nprogress will be easy.\n\nVer. 12. +The Lord make you abound in love.+--The Lord may here be\nthe Holy Spirit, as the three persons of the Trinity will be appealed\nto (cf. ver. 13, as in 2 Thess. iii. 5). So the Holy Ghost is called\nthe Lord (2 Cor. iii. 17). Love is the fruit of the Spirit (Gal.\nv. 22), and His office is to establish in holiness (ver. 13; 1 Pet.\ni. 2) (_Faussett_).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_A Difficult and Important Mission._\n\nPaul had been compelled to leave Thessalonica in consequence of the\nmalignant opposition of the Jews. They thirsted for his life, and it\nwould still be dangerous for him to visit the city. But Timothy might\nventure where it would be perilous for the apostle to appear. While\nthe wrath of the Jews raged against the Gospel as a whole, it\nculminated in its fury around the head of Paul, the ringleader and\nchampion of the movement. Fearing that his absence might be\nmisconstrued, and anxious to strengthen the faith of the infant\nChurch in the midst of trial, the apostle determines to send a\ntrusted messenger. It is a significant testimony to the sound\njudgment and prudence of Timothy, that he is selected for this\ndifficult and important mission.\n\n+I. This mission was the suggestion of an uncontrollable\nanxiety.+--\"Wherefore, when we could no longer forbear\" (ver. 1).\nThis anxiety sprang from the intensity of the apostle's love. It is a\nstriking feature of genuine, Christian love that, while it bears with\nuncomplaining patience any amount of external suffering, it is\nrestless with a holy impatience of delay in doing good to those it\nembraces. The devoted mother can endure anything but restraint in her\ndesire to promote the best welfare of her child. David was\nindifferent to the exposure and dangers of his wilderness-life; but\nhis soul panted after God with all the raging thirst of the hart in\nautumn for the cooling water-brook.\n\n+II. This mission involved great personal inconvenience.+--\"We\nthought it good to be left at Athens alone\" (ver. 1). The\nunselfishness of true love ever prefers another's good to its own.\nTimothy had travelled so constantly with Paul and had been so great a\ncomfort to him in his captivities and trials, that his absence was a\nkeenly felt loss. Specially was his sympathy and co-operation needed\nwhen the great Gentile missionary entered the region--\n\n     \"Where on the \u00c6gean shore a city stood,\n      Built nobly, pure the air and light the soil,\n      Athens, the eye of Greece, mother of arts\n      And eloquence.\"--_Milton._\n\n_\"At Athens alone.\"_ What a sublime historical picture is portrayed\nin these words! Christianity embodied in a single, lonely man,\nstanding in the midst of the populous metropolis of pagan culture and\nidolatry! Yet the power sustained in that solitary man broke up and\nscattered the huge fabric of heathenism. \"Solitude is one of the\nhighest enjoyments of which our nature is susceptible. Solitude is\nalso, when too long continued, capable of being made the most severe,\nindescribable, unendurable, source of anguish\" (_Deloraine_).\n\n+III. This mission was entrusted to a thoroughly qualified\nmessenger.+--The high character of Timothy and the relations existing\nbetween the two preachers are brought out in the epithets applied to\nhim. \"Timothy _our brother_\" (ver. 2). In other places Paul calls him\nhis \"own son in the faith,\" his \"dearly beloved son\" (1 Tim. i. 2;\n2 Tim. i. 2); but in speaking of him to the Churches he recognises\nhim on the equal footing of a _brother._ He was also a _minister of\nGod,_ solemnly set apart to this service by the voice of prophecy,\nand by the consecrating hands of the presbytery, and of Paul himself.\nAnd finally, he was Paul's _fellow-labourer in the Gospel of Christ,_\nnot only as all God's ministers are fellow-labourers, working the\nwork of the same Lord, but also on the ground of that special\nintimacy of personal intercourse and co-operation, to which he was\nfrom the first admitted by the apostle (_Lillie_). Thus, Timothy was\nthoroughly qualified--(1) _to carry out the apostle's wish concerning\nthe Thessalonians, and_ (2) _to sympathise with the Church's peculiar\ndifficulties and trials._ He was more than a mere courier. He was\nfaithful to Paul's instructions, and valuable to the Church in\nhimself.\n\n+IV. This mission was charged with a work of high importance and\nnecessity.+--\"To establish you, and to comfort you, concerning your\nfaith\" (ver. 2).\n\n1. _To establish_--to comfort, or set fast their faith by a fresh,\nauthoritative manifestation of the Gospel truth and its Divine\nevidences; and this would be done by private conversation and public\nministration.\n\n2. _To comfort._--The word means also, and especially here, to\n_exhort,_ though doubtless comfort would be mingled with the\nexhortation. The Thessalonians were exposed to the storm of\npersecution that was everywhere raging against the Gospel and its\nadherents, and they were exhorted to steadfastness, \"that no man\nshould be moved by these afflictions\" (ch. iii. 3). Paul and Barnabas\nhad a similar mission to the Churches in Lesser Asia (Acts xiv. 22).\nThere are none so strong in faith but need confirmation, none so\ncourageous but need comfort.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The establishment of believers is ever a subject of\nanxiety to the true minister._ 2. _The desire to promote the highest\nwelfare of the Church should ever be paramount._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 1. \"At Athens alone\" (cf. Acts xvii. 16, 17). _The Solitude of a\nGreat City_--\n\n  +I. Affords a painful opportunity to reflect on its moral\n      condition.+--\"He saw the city wholly given to idolatry.\"\n\n +II. Awakens profound concern in a great soul.+--\"His spirit was\n      stirred in him.\"\n\n+III. Rouses to immediate action in promoting the welfare of the\n      citizens.+--\"Therefore disputed he in the synagogue and in the\n      market daily.\"\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-5.\n\n_The Perils of Suffering._\n\nA storm among the Highlands of Scotland often effects great and rapid\nchanges. The huge mountain that slumbers harmlessly in the sunshine,\nwith such calm and sullen majesty, is transformed by the tempest into\na monster of fury. Its sides are suddenly sheeted with waterfalls,\nand the ferocious torrents work devastation among the glens and\nstraths that lie in their impetuous course. The trees and shrubs that\nare but slightly rooted are swept away, and only the firmly grounded\nsurvive. So it is, when the storm of persecution breaks upon the\nGospel and its adherents. The new converts, the roots of whose faith\nhave not penetrated so deeply into the soil of truth, are in danger\nof being disturbed and carried away. Their peril is matter of anxiety\nto the Christian worker. Hence the apostle sends Timothy, and writes\nthis epistle to the Thessalonians, to confirm and establish them in\nthe faith. He shows:--\n\n+I. That suffering is the inevitable lot of God's people.+--1. _That\nsuffering is a Divine ordinance._ \"For ye yourselves know that we are\nappointed thereunto\" (ver. 3). A strange way, one would think, of\nreconciling people to affliction, by telling them that they have\nnothing else to expect. It is a grand proof of the triumph of the\nGospel over the rebellious human heart that it prescribes such\nconditions and reconciles men to the acceptance of them; and it does\nso both by the grace which it imparts for the present and by the\nglorious hope it holds out for the future. It is laid down as a law\nof Christian progress \"that we must, through much tribulation, enter\ninto the kingdom of God\" (Acts xiv. 22). The very purity of the\nChurch, imperfect as it is, coming into contact with the sin and\nmisery prevalent in the world, produces suffering. \"Because ye are\nnot of the world, but I have chosen you out of the world, therefore\nthe world hateth you\" (John xv. 19). It is enough for us to know that\nour trials do not happen without the knowledge and consent and\npurpose and control of God, and that their extent and duration are\nregulated by His infinite, fatherly wisdom and love. The Divine\nappointment of suffering is designed for our highest discipline and\nculture--withdrawing our affections from the temporal and centring\nthem on eternal realities; exposing our hypocrisies and cleansing the\nmoral corruptions that have entered into our lives, like filth on\nstanding waters, and strengthening us to do the right, undismayed by\nthe bitterest afflictions. The greatest suffering often brings us\ninto the neighbourhood of the greatest blessing. \"Gold is cleaner\nafter it has been put into the fire: be thou gold, and the fiery\npersecution shall not hurt thee.\"\n\n2. _That suffering was the subject of frequent apostolic\nwarning._--\"For verily, when we were with you, we told you before\nthat we should suffer tribulation\" (ver. 4). It is intimated here\nthat it was not so much one single statement on some particular\noccasion as it was the constant and habitual tenor of the apostle's\nteaching that suffering was to be expected. Paul himself was an\nillustrious example of heroic fortitude in suffering for Christ's\nsake. \"The Holy Ghost,\" said he, \"witnesseth in every city, saying\nthat bonds and afflictions abide me\" (Acts xx. 23). It is both wise\nand kind to forewarn God's people of coming afflictions, that they be\nnot overtaken unexpectedly and unprepared. The predictions of the\napostle were verified: _\"Even as it came to pass, and ye know.\"_\nTheir first acquaintance with the Gospel was in the midst of\npersecution and trial. The violent opposition continued, but the\nwarnings and exhortations of the apostle were not in vain (2 Thess.\ni. 4).\n\n3. _That the suffering of God's people is a cause of ministerial\nanxiety._--\"For this cause, when I could no longer forbear, I sent to\nknow your faith\" (ver. 5). It has been pithily said, \"Calamity is\nman's true touchstone.\" The strongest have then become a prey to the\nmalice and subtlety of Satan. The faithful minister, knowing the\nperils of suffering and the awful consequences of apostasy, is\nanxiously concerned about the faith of his converts. \"There are three\nmodes of bearing the ills of life--by indifference, which is the most\ncommon; by philosophy, which is the most ostentatious; and by\nreligion, which is the most effectual\" (_Colton_).\n\n+II. That suffering exposes God's people to the disturbing forces of\nSatanic temptations.+--\"Lest by some means the tempter have tempted\nyou\" (ver. 5).\n\n1. _A suggestive designation of Satan._--\"The tempter.\" What\nunspeakable vileness, ruin, misery, and terror are suggested by that\nname! All human woe may be traced directly up to him. The greatest\nchampions of Christendom, such as Paul and Luther, had the most vivid\nsense of the personality, nearness, and unceasing counter-working of\nthis great adversary of God and man. There is need of sleepless\nvigilance and prayer.\n\n2. _The versatility of Satanic temptations._--\"Lest by some means.\"\nHe may descend suddenly, clothed with terror and burning with wrath,\nto surprise and terrify into sin. More frequently he appears in the\nseductive and more dangerous garb of an angel of light, the deceptive\nphantom of what he once was. Infinite are his methods; his aim is\none--to suggest doubts and impious references as to God's\nprovidential dealings of severity, and to produce apostasy from the\nfaith.\n\n+III. That the temptations of a suffering state imperil the work of\nGod's servants.+--\"And our labour be in vain\" (ver. 5). _In vain_ as\nregards the great end of their salvation; they would lapse into their\nformer heathenish state, and by apostasy lose their heavenly reward;\nand _in vain_ as regards the joy which the apostle anticipated from\ntheir ultimate salvation. It is true no work done for God is\nabsolutely in vain; the worker shall receive his just reward; but it\nmay be in vain with regard to the object to which his best efforts\nhave been directed. It is bitterly disappointing to see the work that\nhas cost so much, utterly frustrated by a momentary temptation of the\nwicked one. How different might have been the moral history of\nthousands if they had not yielded to the first fiery trial!\n\n     \"Of all the sad words of tongue or pen,\n      The saddest are these--_it might have been._\"\n\n+IV. That God's people may triumph over the greatest\nsuffering.+--\"That no man should be moved [drawn away by flattery or\nshaken] by these afflictions\" (ver. 3). While piety is tried, it is\nalso strengthened by suffering. The watchful and faithful soul may\nuse his troubles as aids to a richer experience and a firmer\nconsolidation of Christian character. \"Thus God schooleth and\nnurtureth His people, that so, through many tribulations, they may\nenter into their rest. Frankincense, when it is put into the fire,\ngiveth the greater perfume; spice, if it be pounded, smelleth the\nsweeter; the earth, when it is torn up by the plough, becometh more\nfruitful; the seed in the ground, after frost and snow and winter\nstorms, springeth up the ranker; the nigher the vine is pruned to the\nstock, the greater grape it yieldeth; the grape, when it is most\npressed and beaten, maketh the sweetest wine; fine gold is the better\nwhen it is cast into the fire; rough stones, with hewing, are squared\nand made fit for the building; cloth is rent and cut that it may make\na garment; linen that is thrown into the tub, washed, and beaten, is\nthe fairer\" (_Jewell_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _To live a godly life involves suffering._ 2. _A\nperiod of suffering is ever attended with powerful temptations._\n3. _The grace of God is sufficient to sustain and deliver His people\namid the perils of acutest suffering._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 3-5. _The Necessity and the Perils of Affliction._\n\n  +I. That afflictions are disturbing and distressing to the children\n      of God.+\n\n +II. That afflictions are appointed by God for His people's good.+\n\n+III. That Christians are forewarned to expect affliction.+\n\n +IV. That Satan uses affliction as a means of temptation.+\n\n  +V. That the faithful minister must labour and watch in order to\n      secure the steadfastness of believers under his\n      care.+--Herbert, the saintly poet of the seventeenth century,\n      exhorts the preacher to make the consolations of the Gospel\n      his main theme:\n\n          _\"Oh, let him speak of comfort, 'tis\n           Most wanted in this vale of tears.\"_\n\n      --_P. Mearns._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 6.\n\n_News that gladdens._\n\nWith what anxiety the father entrusts his son with a commission to\nvisit an estate in a distant land, and to investigate its affairs,\nwhich are threatened for the time being with impending dangers. He is\nin suspense until he receives intelligence of the safe arrival of his\nloved messenger, and that there is no reason for apprehension\nconcerning the estate itself. But when that son returns in person and\nassures him that everything is prosperous and hopeful, the father's\nsatisfaction is complete. \"As cold water to a thirsty soul, so is\ngood news from a far country\" (Prov. xv. 25). Such, in a higher\nsense, was the experience of Paul when he despatched Timothy to\ninquire into the condition of the suffering Thessalonian Church, and\nwhen he brought back the cheering report as to the fidelity and\naffection of its persecuted members.\n\n+I. The apostle was gladdened with good tidings of faith\nmaintained.+--\"Timothy came from you to us, and brought us good\ntidings of your faith.\"\n\n1. _Their faith in the great truths of the Gospel was\nmaintained._--The revelation of Divine truth is the basis of faith.\nThis truth as it affected their salvation had been clearly,\nearnestly, and successfully declared to them by the apostle and his\ncompanions. They comprehended its meaning, felt its force, embraced\nit in their understanding and heart, and were transformed by its\nagency. Amid the shock of persecution, and the insidious whisperings\nof false teachers, they held fast to \"the form of sound words\" they\nhad joyfully received.\n\n2. _Their faith as a principle of active spiritual life was\nmaintained._--True faith is not simply a belief, but a life; not\nmerely an assent of the mind to a grand truth or a group of\ncorrelated truths, but the impartation to the soul of a spiritual\nforce which starts it on a new career. It forms a new era in the\nexperience and history of the soul. It unites us to the living God,\nand expands to our view, however dimly, the vast outline of the life\nof God as the pattern of our own. Their faith, as the realisation of\na life springing from God and leading to God, was in sound and\nvigorous operation.\n\n+II. The apostle was gladdened with good tidings of love\nmanifested.+--\"Brought us good tidings of your charity.\" Love is the\nlegitimate fruit of a genuine faith, both in its inward experience\nand outward manifestation. Faith and love are indissolubly combined.\n\"And this is His commandment, that we should believe on the name of\nHis Son Jesus Christ and love one another, as He gave us commandment\"\n(1 John iii. 23). The first exercise of love is towards God; and\nthen, in ever widening and intensified outflow, towards all whom God\nloves. Such love is _impartial_ and _universal_--manifested towards\nall in whom we discern the image of God, whatever their country,\ncolour, rank, sect, or condition. Where faith and love reign there is\na living, healthy, and prosperous Church.\n\n+III. The apostle was gladdened with good tidings of continued\npersonal regard.+--1. _The apostle was fondly remembered._ \"And that\nye have good remembrance of us always.\" There are some scenes of\nnature, which, beheld but for a moment, never fade from the memory;\nthere are some faces we can never forget; and there are some\nindividuals, the influence of whose character remains with us as a\ncharm and inspiration through life. The Thessalonians had good reason\nto remember Paul. He was the first to proclaim to them the good news\nof salvation; and how great was their privilege to hear the Gospel\nfrom the lips of such a preacher! He counselled them in their\ndifficulties and sympathised with them in their sufferings. The\nminister who first led us to the cross will ever have the\npre-eminence in our affection and the choicest spot in our memory. A\nhigh appreciation of the Christian minister is one of the evidences\nof possessing genuine faith and love.\n\n2. _They were as solicitous as the apostle for a renewal of Christian\nfellowship._--\"Desiring greatly to see us, as we also to see you.\"\nThere is no bond at once so tender and so strong as that existing\nbetween the preacher and his converts. He must needs love the souls\nhe has been instrumental in saving and who are his glory and his joy.\nThe intercourse between such is of the purest and highest kind. Never\nwas there a more loving heart than that of the apostle Paul. The\nThessalonians warmly reciprocated that love and longed to renew the\nfellowship by which they had so richly profited.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _That Church has the best reputation where faith is\nmaintained, and love manifested._ 2. _The Christian minister is\ncheered by the affection and stability of his converts._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-10.\n\n_Steadfastness of Believers a Source of True Ministerial Satisfaction._\n\nThe scholar finds his happiness in intellectual exercises and\naccumulating stores of knowledge; the politician in the excitement of\ndebate and the triumph of great principles; the scientist in testing\nand harmonising the laws of nature; the merchant in his gains; and\nthe minister of God's Word in the increase of converts to the truth,\nand in their consistency, fidelity, and perseverance in the practice\nof godliness. The truly Christian heart rejoices in the success of\nthe Gospel in any part of the world, but more particularly in the\nlocality where personal labour has been expended. The effect upon\nPaul of the good tidings from Timothy, concerning the steadfastness\nof the believers in Thessalonica, is described in these verses.\nObserve:--\n\n+I. Their steadfastness was a source of genuine comfort.+--1. _The\napostle was comforted in the midst of intense personal suffering._\n\"Therefore, brethren, we were comforted in all our affliction and\ndistress\" (ver. 7). Paul was in Corinth when he received Timothy's\nreport. In that city the customary opposition of the Jews rose to an\nunwonted pitch of malignity, and even blasphemy, so much so that the\napostle resolved to abandon them to their fate--\"He shook his\nraiment, and said unto them, Your blood be upon your own heads; I am\nclean; from henceforth I will go unto the Gentiles\" (Acts xviii. 6).\nSo great was his anguish on behalf of his own countrymen, and so\nmanifold his cares, privations, and perils, that the Lord thought it\nneedful to encourage him with a vision, saying, \"Be not afraid: I am\nwith thee, and no man shall set on thee to hurt thee\" (_Ibid._, 9,\n10). The bitterness of his afflictions at this time was sweetened by\nhearing of the constancy of his Thessalonian converts. It revived,\nrefreshed, and strengthened him. The faithlessness and disobedience\nof the people are a grief to the true minister now; but at last the\nhorror will be theirs.\n\n2. _The apostle was comforted concerning their faith._--\"We were\ncomforted over you, by your faith\" (ver. 7). Timothy had been\ncommissioned to inquire into the state of their faith, and his report\nwas eminently satisfactory. He spoke not only of their faith as the\nprimary root of the Christian life, the basis of all stability and\nfruitfulness, but of its active outgoings in love to God and in\naffectionate remembrance of the apostle. The Church is in danger and\na cause of deep anxiety when the faith wavers.\n\n+II. Their steadfastness intensified the pleasure of living.+--\"For\nnow we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord\" (ver. 8). The apostle was\nperhaps more than usually despondent when Timothy arrived. The good\nnews thrilled his soul with new life. _For now,_ whatever else\nbefall--_now,_ in the face of Jewish fury and Gentile scorn--_now,_\namid infirmities, reproaches, necessities, persecutions, distresses,\nand deaths oft--_now we live, if ye stand fast in the Lord._ The\nrelation of the minister to his people is so close and vital that\nthey have in their power to make his life happy or supremely\nmiserable. There is a method of destroying life without its becoming\nutterly extinct. Ezekiel speaks of the false prophets whose lies made\nthe hearts of the righteous sad; and we read of Elijah, under the\njuniper tree, sighing for death because of the idolatry and\nwickedness of Judah. To lessen the cheerful flow of life, and depress\nthe spirits of the man of God, is a species of murder; to starve him\ninto submission by studied neglect and privation is diabolical. The\nministerial life and energy of even an apostle depended on the\nsympathy, faith, and steadfastness of the brethren (3 John 3, 4).\n\n+III. Their steadfastness was productive of grateful joy.+--1. _This\njoy was copious and sincere._--\"For the joy wherewith we joy before\nour God\" (ver. 9). The transitions of the emotions are rapid. From\nthe midst of the apostle's grief a fountain of joy breaks forth. This\njoy filled his soul even in the secret presence of God. It was a\npure, sincere, undissembled, overflowing joy, such as God could\napprove.\n\n2. _This joy arose from a disinterested love._--\"For your sakes\"\n(ver. 9). True love gives us an interest in the safety and happiness\nof others. He who possesses this never lacks joy; it flows not on his\nown behalf, it does on behalf of others. Bernard has said: \"Of all\nthe motions and affections of the soul, love is the only one we may\nreciprocate with God; to re-love Him is our happiness; woe if we\nanswer Him not in some measure of re-loving affection.\"\n\n3. _This joy was expressed in fervent thanksgiving._--\"What thanks\ncan we render to God again for you?\" (ver. 9). His gratitude was so\ngreat that he knew not how to give it adequate expression. The\ngrateful heart prizes blessings that may seem to others of small\nvalue. He rendered thanks to God, the Author and Preserver of their\nfaith. The heartiest thanksgiving seems cold and utterly insufficient\nwhen compared with the mercies of God.\n\n+IV. Their steadfastness excited an earnest longing for the\nopportunity of imparting additional good.+--1. _The apostle\nassiduously prayed for the opportunity of a personal interview._\n\"Night and day praying exceedingly that we might see your face\" (ver.\n10). The longer the absence, the more eagerly he desired to see them.\nThe good tidings of their constancy increased the desire. A love like\nhis could be satisfied only with personal spiritual intercourse. It\nwas not enough simply to write. Voice and manner have a pre-eminent\ncharm in the interchange of mind with mind. Reading, praying, and all\nother endeavours will be unavailing if we despise prophesying--the\noral declaration of the truth.\n\n2. _The apostle sought this interview to supply what was deficient in\ntheir faith._--\"And might perfect that which was lacking in your\nfaith\" (ver. 10). None so perfect in faith as not to be susceptible\nof improvement. Faith is based on knowledge; and as knowledge,\nespecially in the things of God, is capable of indefinite extension,\nso faith may be continually increased--broadening and deepening its\nfoundation and consolidating its structure. The less distinctly the\ngreat subjects of faith are understood, the more defective is faith;\nthe more explicit, the more perfect. They most vaunt of faith who\nhave least experience in its practice. \"Empty vessels sound the\nloudest.\" We have all need to cry, _\"Lord, increase our faith.\"_\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The true minister cannot be indifferent to the\nspiritual state of his people._ 2. _The fidelity and perseverance of\nbelievers is an inspiration and unspeakable joy to the anxious\nworker._ 3. _Faith and practice powerfully react upon each other._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 7-10. _Glad Tidings of Christian Steadfastness_--\n\n  +I. Produce comfort of mind+ (ver. 7).\n\n +II. Make life more enjoyable+ (ver. 8).\n\n+III. Are the occasion of thankful joy before the Lord+ (ver. 9).\n\n +IV. Excite to assiduous and earnest prayer+ (ver. 10).\n\n\nVers. 9, 10. _Religious Joy_--\n\n  +I. Is occasioned by the religious progress of others.+\n\n +II. Is mingled with ingenuous gratitude.+\n\n+III. Is enjoyed as in the presence of God.+\n\n +IV. Is accompanied with fervent prayer.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11-13.\n\n_A Comprehensive Apostolic Prayer._\n\nThe prayers of the apostle Paul are among his sublimest utterances.\nThe frequency with which they occur in his writings indicates the\nhabitual devoutness of his mind. In both the epistles to the\nThessalonians nearly every chapter is distinguished and sealed by a\nfervent outbreathing of his soul to God. In these verses he\nexpresses, in the most comprehensive and suggestive terms, his\ndearest wishes for the welfare of the Church.\n\n+I. This prayer recognises the essential oneness of the Father and\nthe Son.+--1. _Christ is invoked equally with the Father._ \"Now God\nHimself and our Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 11). The\nword \"Himself\" stands foremost in the sentence and refers to both\npersons, as if the writer said, \"May our God and Father, and our Lord\nJesus Christ, _Himself_ direct our way unto you.\" It should be also\nnoted that the verb \"direct,\" belonging to both persons, is in the\nsingular number. This fact was urged as an important point by\nAthanasius in the great Arian controversy in the fourth century. As\nthe Son partakes equally with the Father in the honour of invocation,\nso also in excellency of nature. Divine properties are also ascribed\nto the Son in overruling by His providence the affairs of men. \"What\nthings soever the Father doeth, these also doeth the Son likewise\"\n(John v. 19).\n\n2. _It is the privilege of the believer to realise a personal\ninterest in the Father and in the Son._--By an act of appropriating\nfaith we can say, God _our_ Father and _our_ Lord Jesus Christ.\nSimilar phrases occur no less than twenty-six times in these two\nepistles. Blessed confidence! What a wealth of tenderness, of\ncomfort, of satisfying assurance, and of joyous triumph is involved\nin the earnest, trustful cry of the soul--_My_ God! _my_ Saviour!\n\n+II. This is a prayer for providential guidance in securing a much\ndesired interview.+--\"Direct our way unto you\" (ver. 11). Hitherto\nthe way to Thessalonica had been insuperably blocked up. The brethren\nthere were as eager to welcome Paul as he was to be present with\nthem; but Satan had hindered by interposing many obstacles.\nNevertheless, let God give the signal and all impediments from men or\ndevils would vanish. The road would at once become straight and\nplain. God should be recognised in the simplest affairs of life. \"It\nis not in man that walketh to direct his steps\" (Jer. x. 23); and\nonly those journeys are prosperous wherein God is pilot. There are\ncrises in life when everything depends on being guided in the right\nway--_e.g._ in selecting a school or college, entering on the\nreligious life, commencing business, contemplating marriage, or in\nchange of residence. In these and all other matters acknowledge God,\nand He shall direct thy paths (Prov. iii. 6). Our prayer for guidance\nmust ever be in submission to the Divine will. The apostle's prayer\nwas not answered immediately; five years elapsed before he again\nvisited Macedonia. That path is safest and best in which God's finger\npoints. Let His call be our loadstar; His hand the cloud, to move or\npause as He directs.\n\n+III. This is a prayer for the bestowal of an increased measure of\nthe highest Christian affection.+--1. _Christian love is progressive\nand mutual._ \"And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love\none toward another\" (ver. 12). The apostle had before commended their\nlabour of love, and Timothy had brought good tidings of their\ncontinued love. Now he prays they may increase and excel more and\nmore. Love is the indispensable badge of the genuine Christian. He\ncannot have too much of it--the more the better. It grows with all\nother graces and causes them to grow. There is no limit to its\nexpansion but our finiteness. But love must be mutual in its\nexercise--\"one toward another.\" \"For this is the message,\" says St.\nJohn, \"that ye heard from the beginning, that ye should love one\nanother\" (1 John iii. 11); and, \"Seeing ye have purified your souls\nin obeying the truth through the Spirit unto unfeigned love of the\nbrethren, see that ye love one another;\" urges St. Peter, \"with a\npure heart fervently\" (1 Pet. i. 22).\n\n2. _Christian love is unselfish._--\"And toward all men\" (ver. 12).\nThe old Levitical law declared, \"Thou shalt not avenge, nor bear any\ngrudge against the children of thy people; but thou shalt love thy\nneighbour as thyself\" (Lev. xix. 18). And the New Testament\nreiterates the truth, that charity out of a pure heart, and of a good\nconscience, and of faith unfeigned is the fulfilling of the royal law\n(1 Tim. i. 5).\n\n3. _Here we have Christian love practically exemplified._--\"Even as\nwe do towards you\" (ver. 12). Paul and his co-labourers had given\nunmistakable evidence of their sincere love for the Thessalonian\nconverts in their self-denying labours, uncomplaining sufferings, and\nunceasing anxiety on their behalf (ch. ii. 8, 9, 13; ch. iii. 3-5).\nLove is the soul of self-sacrifice, prompts to labour, braves all\nsuffering, and persists in doing good to others, even to those who\nleast appreciate and most violently oppose the best endeavours.\nMinisters should exemplify in their own lives what they prescribe to\nothers.\n\n+IV. This is a prayer for confirmation in a state of unblameable\npersonal purity.+--1. _There is no stability in Christian graces\napart from love._ \"To the end he may establish your hearts\" (ver.\n13). If it were possible to possess every other grace but love, it\nwould be like a varied summer landscape, very beautiful but\ntransient, having in it no element of permanency. Above all other\ngraces we are exhorted to \"put on charity which is the bond of\nperfectness\" (Col. iii. 14)--a girdle which adorns and binds together\nall the rest. Love is the fulfilling of the law, the infallible test\nand evidence of stability.\n\n2. _Unblameable holiness is the legitimate and necessary outcome of\nlove._--\"To the end He may stablish your hearts in holiness\" (ver.\n13). The apostle prays for an increase of love _in order to_ the\nattainment of a higher personal purity. All defects in obedience\nissue from a defect in love. Our love of God makes us solicitous to\nknow and obey Him and fearful to offend Him. Our love of man makes us\ncareful to preserve his honour, life, and possessions, and in no way\nto impair his happiness. The whole of the law is love. There is no\nduty to God or man but love inclines unto, and no sin from which it\ndoes not restrain. To be unblameable in holiness, store the soul with\nlove. When love fails, obedience and all holy duties fail.\n\n3. _Holiness screens the soul from Divine censure at the second\nadvent of Christ._--\"Unblameable in holiness before God, even our\nFather, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints\"\n(ver. 13). Christ will come in glorious pomp attended by His holy\nones--saints and angels. He who remains steadfast in holiness shall\nbe held blameless then. Our outer _life_ may be censured by men; but\nif God, even our Father, who stablishes our _hearts_ in holiness,\nabsolves and approves, it will be enough. That holiness alone is\ngenuine which will bear the searching scrutiny of Omniscience.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Recognise God in every event of life._ 2. _To attain\nthe highest degree of personal purity pray for an increase of love._\n3. _Act in all things so as to secure the Divine approval._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 12, 13. _A Prayer for Growth in Personal Piety_--\n\n  +I. Acknowledges and invokes the Divine source of all spiritual\n      good.+--\"The Lord make you.\"\n\n +II. Growth in piety is growth in Christian love.+--\"Increase and\n      abound in love.\"\n\n+III. Growth in piety is the establishment of the soul in unblameable\n      holiness.+--\"To the end He may stablish your hearts unblameable\n      in holiness.\"\n\n +IV. Growth in piety is essential to gain the approval of God at the\n      second advent of Christ.+--\"Before God, at the coming of our\n      Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints.\"\n\n\nVer. 13. _The Coming of Christ_--\n\n  +I. Will be an imposing spectacle.+\n\n +II. Should be ardently longed for.+\n\n+III. Demands on our part diligent moral preparedness.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER IV.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +And to please God, so ye would abound more and more.+--R.V.\ninserts \"even as ye do walk after God.\"\n\nVer. 2. +What commandments.+--R.V. \"charge\"; margin, \"charges.\" \"The\nGreek word signifies an announcement, then a command or advice\npublicly delivered\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 3. +Your sanctification, etc.+--\"The reception of Christianity\nnever delivers, as with the stroke of a magician, from the wickedness\nand lusts of the heathen world which have become habitual; rather a\nlong and constant fight is necessary for vanquishing them\"\n(_Huther_). The sanctification here is first negative--abstinence.\n\nVer. 4. +How to possess his vessel.+--R.V. \"to possess himself of his\nown vessel.\" With the long list of names in view of those who\ninterpret \"vessel\" as meaning \"body,\" it is almost daring to hint at\nanother meaning. The list, however, is strong of those who regard the\nexpression as a figurative designation for a wife, and 1 Pet. iii. 7\ndecides us.\n\nVer. 5. +Not in the lust of concupiscence.+--R.V. \"not in the passion\nof lust.\" \"The word 'passion' signifies not so much a violent feeling\nas an overpowering feeling, one to which a man so yields himself that\nhe is borne along by evil as if he were its passive instrument; he\nhas lost the dignity of self-rule, and is the slave of his lower\nappetites\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 6. +That no man go beyond and defraud.+--R.V. \"transgress, and\nwrong.\" \"More exactly, that none overreach and take advantage of his\nbrother in the matter. 'The matter' of the last two verses. . . . The\napostle sets the wrong in the strongest light; it is to cheat one's\nbrother, and that in what touches most nearly the sanctities of life\"\n(_Ibid._). +The Lord is the avenger.+--The heathen deities, so far as\nthey were anything, were oftener patterns than avengers of such\nthings, and they who made them were only too like them.\n\nVer. 8. +He therefore that despiseth.+--Margin and R.V. \"rejecteth.\"\nHe who pushes aside sanctification in his preference for uncleanness\nwill have to reckon with God Himself.\n\nVer. 9. +Ye have no need that one write to you.+--St. Paul admits the\nbrotherly love amongst them. It was adroit on his part, therefore, to\nmake uncleanness an offence against brotherly love. +Taught of\nGod.+--Is an expression only found here in the New Testament. We are\nreminded of Isa. xxviii. 26. The mother-wit of the farmer who had no\n\"school of agriculture\" is traced by the prophet to God; he is\nGod-taught to distinguish his methods. So these Thessalonians took to\nbrotherly love naturally, as we say.\n\nVer. 10. +We beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more and\nmore.+--Brotherly love is a good thing, of which St. Paul evidently\nthought too much could not be had.\n\nVer. 11. +Study to be quiet.+--R.V. margin, \"Go: be ambitious.\" \"An\nexample of St. Paul's characteristic irony; the contrast between\nambition and quiet, giving a sharper point to his exhortation, as\nthough he said, 'Make it your ambition to have no ambition!'\"\n(_Ibid._). +To do your own business.+--To be occupied with your own\naffairs.\n\nVer. 12. +That ye may walk honestly.+--The adverb here is used to\nmatch the verb--to walk with a dignified and gentlemanly bearing. St.\nPaul's ideas of gentlemanliness--\"working with the hands\"--would not\nsuit the youth of gentlemanly habits who wants to be adopted where he\nwill have nothing to do. +And may have need of nothing.+--What a\nnobly independent soul! What a splendid text these verses would make\nfor some plain words to Christians who indulge in sharp practices, or\nwaste until they have to throw themselves on any one who will support\nthem!\n\nVer. 13. +Them which are asleep.+--The R.V. reading changes the\nperfect participle (\"them who have fallen asleep and continue to\nsleep\") unto the present, \"them that fall asleep,\" as they drop off\none after another. See on the expression our Lord's beautiful words,\nLuke viii. 52; John xi. 11 f.\n\nVer. 15. +We which are alive and remain unto the coming of the\nLord.+--\"We must recognise that Paul here includes himself, along\nwith the Thessalonians, among those who will be alive at the advent\nof Christ. Certainly this can only have been a hope, only a\nsubjective expectation on the part of the apostle\" (_Huther_). +Shall\nnot prevent.+--The meaning of \"prevent\" is \"to go before.\" But the\nconnotation came to have more prominence than the meaning, so it come\nto signify to stop (by standing in the way). R.V. gives, \"shall not\nprecede.\" It is the same word as in ch. ii. 16 (in another tense).\nThe apostle says, \"We shall not arrive before them.\"\n\nVer. 16. +With a shout.+--Like the ring of command heard over the\nnoise of battle. \"We must not look for literal exactness where things\nare depicted beyond the means of sense\" (_Findlay_). +With the trump\nof God.+--The trumpet here, like that in 1 Cor. xv. 52, is the\nmilitary trumpet.\n\nVer. 17. +Shall be caught up.+--The idea conveyed by the word is that\nof sudden or violent seizure, as when the fiery messengers carried\noff the prophet Elijah, or as when St. Paul was \"caught up\" to the\nthird heaven.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.\n\n_Earnest Exhortations to a Higher Sanctity._\n\nPurity is the perfection of the Christian character. It is the\nbrightest jewel in the cluster of saintly excellencies, and that\nwhich gives a lustre to the whole. It is not so much the addition of\na separate and distinct grace as it is the beauteous and harmonious\ndevelopment of all the graces in the most perfect form. As Flavel has\nsaid: \"What the heart is to the body, that the soul is to the man;\nand what health is to the heart, holiness is to the soul.\" Purity is\nthe sound, healthy condition of the soul and its vigorous growth\ntowards God. In the concluding prayer of the preceding chapter the\napostle indicates that God will, through His spirit, fill the\nThessalonians with love--the great distinctive feature of a genuine\nand higher sanctity. He now urges upon them the necessity of earnest\nand persistent endeavours after its attainment. Human agency is not\nannihilated but stimulated by the Divine. Observe:--\n\n+I. That a higher sanctity consists in living under a sense of the\nDivine approval.+--1. _Religion is a life._ \"How ye ought to walk\"\n(ver. 1). A walk implies motion, progression, continual approach to a\ndefinite goal. Religion is not an ornament to wear, a luxury to\nenjoy, a ceremony to observe, but a _life._ It penetrates every part\nof our nature, throbs in every pulse, shares every joy and sorrow,\nand fashions every lineament of character. We make sad mistakes; but\nthere is goodness hived, like wild honey, in strange nooks and\ncorners of the world.\n\n2. _Religion is a life modelled after the worthiest examples._--\"As\nye have received of us how ye ought to walk\" (ver. 1). The\nThessalonians not only received the wisest counsels from their\nteachers, but they witnessed their holy and consistent lives; and\ntheir attention was constantly directed to the all-perfect\nexample--Christ Jesus. It is the tendency of all life to shape itself\nafter the character of its strongest inward force. The love of God is\nthe mightiest power in the life of the believer; and the outer\nmanifestation of that life is moulded according to the sublime\npattern of the inner Divine ideal.\n\n3. _Religion is a life which finds its chief joy in the Divine\napproval._--\"And to please God\" (ver. 1). It is possible, then, so to\nlive as to please God. What a powerful incentive to a holy life is\nthe thought, the Lord taketh pleasure in His people! We can rise no\nhigher in moral excellence than to be acceptable to God. To enjoy the\nsense of His approval fills the cup of happiness to the brim. In\nvain, the world frowns or demons rage, if God smiles. The learned and\npious Donne, when taking solemn farewell of his friends on his\ndeathbed, said: \"I count all that part of my life lost which I spent\nnot in communion with God or in doing good.\"\n\n4. _Religion is a life capable of vast expansion._--\"So, ye would\nabound more and more\" (ver. 1). _Life_ in its healthiest and\nintensest form is _happiness._ As we advance in the religious life\nour happiness increases. \"All the while,\" says Fuller, \"thou livest\nill, thou hast the trouble, distraction, and inconveniences of life,\nbut not the sweets and true use of it.\" God has made every provision\nfor our increase in holiness; we are exhorted to it, and most really\npromote our highest good and the Divine glory in attaining it. There\nis no limit in our elevation to a higher sanctity but our faith.\n\n+II. That the necessity of a higher sanctity is enforced by Divine\nauthority.+--\"For this is the will of God, even your sanctification\"\n(ver. 3).\n\n1. _A higher sanctity involves a conformity to the Divine\nnature._--God is holy, and the loftiest aim of the believer is to be\nlike Him. There is to be not only an abstinence from all that is\nimpure, but a positive experience of its opposite--purity. By faith\nwe participate in the Divine nature and possess qualities analogous\nto those which constitute the Divine perfections--mercy, truth,\njustice, holiness. The grand purpose of redemption is to bring man\ninto holiest fellowship with God.\n\n2. _A higher sanctity is in harmony with the Divine will._--\"For this\nis the will of God, even your sanctification.\" Not only the attitude\nand tendency of the soul, but all its active outgoings must be holy.\nSuch is the will of God. What He proscribes must be carefully\navoided; what He prescribes must be cheerfully and faithfully done in\nthe manner He prescribes it. His will is here emphatically expressed;\nit is supported by abundant promises of help; and it is declared that\nwithout holiness no man shall see the Lord. The will of God is at\nonce the highest reason, the strongest motive, and the final\nauthority.\n\n3. _The Divine will regarding a higher sanctity is enforced by duly\nauthorised messengers and well-understood precepts._--\"For ye know\nwhat commandments we gave you by the Lord Jesus\" (ver. 2). The Divine\nwill is expressed in definite commandments. The apostle did not\nassume authority in any dictatorial spirit. He delivered unto others,\nand powerfully enforced what he had received \"by the Lord Jesus\"\n(Rom. xiv. 14). He taught them to observe all things whatsoever the\nLord had commanded--_all_ those things, only those, and no others.\nThese precepts were well known, \"For ye know what commandments we\ngave you.\" Obedience should ever be in proportion to knowledge.\nKnowledge and practice are mutually helpful to each other. Knowledge,\nthe mother of practice; practice, the nurse of knowledge. To know and\nnot to do is to incur the heaviest condemnation. A certain Stoic,\nspeaking of God, said: \"What God wills, I will; what God wills not, I\nwill not; if He will that I live, I will live; if it be His pleasure\nthat I die, I will die.\" Ah! how should the will of Christians stoop\nand lie down at the foot of God's will! \"Not my will, but Thine be\ndone\" (Luke xxii. 42).\n\n+III. That the possession of a higher sanctity is repeatedly urged by\nearnest exhortations.+--\"Furthermore then, we beseech you, brethren,\nand exhort you\" (ver. 1). Doctrine without exhortation makes men all\nbrain, no heart; exhortation without doctrine makes the heart full,\nleaves the brain empty. Both together make a man. The apostle\nlaboured in both, and it is difficult to say in which of the two he\ndisplayed most earnestness. In addition to all he had urged before,\nhe _beseeches_ and _exhorts_ the Thessalonians to press onward to\nhigher attainments; in which we have a fine example of the\ncombination of a tender, brotherly entreaty, with the solemn\nauthority of a Divinely commissioned ambassador. Some people, says a\ncertain writer, are as thorns; handle them roughly and they pierce\nyou; others as nettles--rough handling is best for your safety. A\nminister's task is an endless one. Has he planted\nknowledge?--practice must be urged. Is the practice\nsatisfactory?--perseverance must be pressed. Do they continue in\nwell-doing?--they must be stimulated to further progress. The end of\none task is the beginning of another.\n\n+Lessons.+--_The believer is called to the attainment of a higher\nsanctity._--1. _By the voice of God._ 2. _By the voice of His\nfaithful ministers._ 3. _And by the aspirations of the life Divinely\nplanted within him._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 3. _Uncleanness Inconsistent with a Profession of the Gospel._\n\n  +I. Our sanctification is the will of God because He is the avenger\n      of all such as do things contrary to that purity which He\n      enjoins.+\n\n +II. Because God has called us, not to uncleanness, but to holiness.+\n\n+III. Because God has given unto us His Holy Spirit.+--The Spirit is\n      called the Holy Spirit and the Spirit of Holiness, not only\n      because He is essentially and perfectly holy in Himself, but\n      because He is the Author of holiness in believers. These\n      considerations are motives to stir up and animate our wills to\n      obey and co-operate with the will of God.--_R. Mant._\n\n\n_Why was the Spirit sent? or, We must needs be Holy._\n\n  +I. The coming of the Holy Ghost is to make us new creatures by\n      giving us the strength to become so.+\n\n +II. Since sanctification is declared to be the special work of the\n      Holy Ghost, this clearly proves the difficulty of that work.+\n\n+III. The work of sanctification is something more than merely\n      driving out the evil one.+\n\n +IV. Love and devotion to God are necessary to holiness.+\n\n  +V. Strength--the strength of the Holy Spirit--is necessary to\n      defend holiness.+--_A. W. Hare._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3-7.\n\n_Distinctive Features of a True Sanctification._\n\nIt is comparatively easy for some minds to grasp the broad outlines\nof a grand undertaking, but they fail in working out the details. It\nis a fatal defect and involves the ruin of the whole scheme. The\npeculiar genius of minds like these is to deal with things in the\nmass; but they have not the ability or the patience to master a\nnumerous and complicated series of minute particulars. They are more\ntheoretical than practical; they are strong in the concrete, but\nfeeble in the abstract faculty. So it is possible to form a bold\nconception of some great, leading Christian virtue, to expatiate on\nits exquisite beauty, to exalt in grandiose terms its supernatural\ndignity, and to enforce with magisterial importance its superlative\nnecessity, but all the while to be lamentably deficient in practical\nattention to the thousand and one little details which, in every-day\nlife, constitute the essence of the virtue. Sanctification is an\naspect of the Christian life, facile and seductive in theory, but\ndifficult and commonplace in practice. It is the essence and\nperfection of the Christian life, and is attained, not by some\nmagical feat of the mental powers, but by patient plodding, stern\nconflicts, and hard-won moral victories. It is the sublime but little\nunderstood science of living aright, in the sight of God and man.\nSecretary Walsingham, in writing to Lord Burleigh, said: \"We have\nlived long enough to our country, to our fortunes, and to our\nsovereign; it is high time that we began to live for ourselves and\nfor our God.\" In the above verses are portrayed the distinctive\nfeature of a true sanctification. Observe:--\n\n+I. A true sanctification consists in the maintenance of a personal\nchastity.+--1. _This involves an abstinence from gross sensual\nindulgence._ \"That you should abstain from fornication\" (ver. 3). A\nword that designates, not only the actual transgression known by that\nname, but all the sinful lusts of the flesh. This vice is a prolific\nsource of many other vices. It is like the fabled Hydra, or\nmany-headed snake, of which it is said that when one head was cut off\nanother grew in its place. Fornication is the root of extravagance,\ndrunkenness, disease, poverty, profanity, murder, and irreparable\ninfamy. It is a sin the most bewitching, the most prevalent, the most\nfatal in its tendencies, and against which the most terrible\nvengeance of Heaven has been declared. It brought the flood on the\nworld of the ungodly, fire and brimstone upon Sodom, pestilence upon\nthe Israelites, and destruction upon the nations of antiquity. Prior\nto Christianity, it was hardly regarded as a vice. The apostolic\nteaching revealed its enormity, denounced it with righteous\nindignation, and supplied the spiritual weapon by which it is to be\nslain.\n\n2. _Involves a rigid maintenance of bodily purity._--\"That every one\nof you should know how to possess his vessel in sanctification and\nhonour\" (ver. 4). The vessel of the body is the temple of the Holy\nGhost, and whatever would defile or disgrace that sacred shrine must\nbe carefully avoided. The apostle seems to imply there is a kind of\nart in chastity which all should practise. \"That every one of you\nshould know\"--should have skill--the power of self-control.\nChristianity is the science of sciences, the art of living well, and\nno small skill is necessary in regulating the exercise of the\nChristian virtues. To _possess_--to rule the body in purity, keep a\ndiligent guard upon the senses (Job xxxi. 1; Prov. xxiii. 33; Gen.\nxxxix. 6, 7), avoid the company of the sensual; be temperate; be\nindustrious; continue instant in prayer.\n\n3. _Involves a masterly restraint upon the passionate outgoings of\nevil desire._--\"Not in the lust of concupiscence; _not in the passion\nof lust;_ even as the Gentiles which know not God\" (ver. 5).\nIgnorance is the origin of unchastity; and the apostle shows to what\nextent of wickedness man may go who knows not God. An old writer\nsays, \"Ignorance is a master, a mother-sin; pull it, thou pullest all\nsin.\" Concupiscence is the rudimentary stage of evil desire;\nunchecked, it spreads through the soul, inflames the passions, and\nrises into an ungovernable tempest of lust. Evil must be restrained\nin its earliest manifestation, banished from the region of thought.\nThe longer it is harboured, the more powerful it becomes.\n\n     \"We are not worst at once--the course of evil\n      Begins so slowly and from such slight source,\n      An infant's hand might stem its breach with clay;\n      But let the stream get deeper, and philosophy shall strive in\n          vain\n      To turn the headlong current.\"\n\n+II. A true sanctification consists in the universal exercise of\nstrict justice.+--1. _That no violation of justice is allowable._\n\"That no man go beyond or defraud his brother in any matter\" (ver.\n6). The prohibition extends not only to acts of unchastity, but to\nall the transactions of life. The value of a commodity is governed by\nits use, its relation to the immediate wants of man. In nature that\nwhich has life and sense is more excellent than an inanimate\ncreature; in this view an insect is superior to a diamond. But with\nregard to use, a loaf of bread is of more value than a thousand\ninsects. Justice requires there should be a fair proportion between a\nthing and its price. To exact a price which is beyond the worth of\nthe commodity sold, or to give a sum which is below its due value, is\nto overreach on the part of either the seller or the buyer. The\ncommercial world of the present day might ponder with advantage the\nlessons to be learnt from the practice of an ancient Christian\nsimplicity. The man who begins a course of dishonesty by defrauding a\nstranger will soon reach the point of cheating his dearest brother\nand chuckle at his unjust success.\n\n2. _That every violation of justice will be certainly\npunished._--\"Because that the Lord is the avenger of all such, as we\nalso have forewarned you and testified\" (ver. 6). The rogue will not\nalways triumph; and his ill-gotten gains may be the instruments of\nhis curse. An all-seeing Eye watches all his sinuous trickeries, and\nan unseen Hand rests on all his covetous accumulations, and by-and-by\nthe blow of vengeance will be swift and terrible. The successful\nrobber is apt to lull himself into a false security; he has escaped\ndisaster so often and so long that he begins to fancy his villainy\nmay be continued with impunity. But their \"judgment lingereth not,\nand their damnation slumbereth not,\" for \"the Lord is the avenger of\nall such\" (see Prov. xxii. 22, 23, xxiii. 10; 2 Pet. ii. 3). Not that\nwe are to act honestly from the fear of punishment; but while\nstriving to act rightly from love to God and a lofty sense of duty,\nit is also salutary to remember that vengeance belongeth unto the\nLord, and He will recompense. Where human justice fails, the Divine\nvengeance will supply the deficiency, that injustice may not escape\nunpunished.\n\n+III. That a true sanctification recognises the supreme authority of\nthe Divine call.+--\"For God hath not called us unto uncleanness, but\nunto holiness\" (ver. 7). A holy life gives no licence to sin.\nEverything is in favour of holiness--the Caller is holy (1 Pet.\ni. 15), the instrument holy (John xvii. 17), and the Spirit, the\nimmediate worker, is the fountain of all holiness. Religion is a holy\ncalling, because it leads to holiness; and though it finds us not\nholy, yet it makes us so. They answer not their calling who commit\nany manner of sin. Unmercifulness, cruelty, fornication, and\nuncleanness are not of God. In every temptation to evil remember the\nDivine calling.\n\n+Lessons.+--_A true sanctification_--1. _Provides for the chastity of\nthe whole man._ 2. _Governs all the transactions of daily life._\n3. _Responds to the highest call of God._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 6. _Reason for Conscientiousness._--A man was once asked why he\nwas so very particular to give good measure--over good--and he\nreplied: \"God has given me but one journey through this world, and\nwhen I am gone I cannot return to correct mistakes.\"\n\n\n_Respect for Conscientiousness._--Dr. Arnold, of Rugby, once remarked\nrespecting one of his pupils who was in the habit of attending to all\nhis duties conscientiously and faithfully, \"I could stand hat in hand\nto that boy.\"\n\n\nVer. 7. _Christian Holiness._\n\n+I. The nature of holiness.+--Conformity to the nature and will of\nGod. Not to be confounded with virtue.\n\n+II. The origin of holiness.+--It is immediately connected with\nregeneration. No holiness in man previous to this.\n\n+III. The progress of holiness.+--The seed, the tree. The dawn, the\nday. The child, the man.\n\n+IV. The objects of holiness.+--In reference to God, to the moral\nlaw, to duty, to sin.\n\n+V. The influence of holiness.+--\"There is an energy of moral suasion\nin a good man's life passing the highest efforts of the orator's\ngenius. The seen but silent beauty of holiness speaks more eloquently\nof God and duty than the tongues of men and angels.\"--_G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 8.\n\n_A Word to the Despiser._\n\n+I. The Christian minister is spiritually commissioned to exhort men\nto holiness.+--\"Who hath also given unto us His Holy Spirit.\" The\napostles were endowed for their special ministry by the extraordinary\ngifts of the Holy Ghost; they were infallibly guided into all truth;\nthey wrought miracles; and their word was with power. Though\nmiraculous gifts are no longer bestowed, Christian ministers are\nnevertheless called and qualified by the Divine Spirit; they are\nempowered to proclaim the will of God and to urge men to\nreconciliation and purity (2 Cor. v. 20). The Rev. F. W. Robertson\nwas once hesitating in the pulpit of a brother-clergyman which of two\nsermons he should preach. Something whispered to him, \"Robertson, you\nare a craven; you dare not speak here what you believe.\" He selected\na sermon that seemed almost personal in its faithfulness and power.\nBut it was _the_ message given to him for that hour.\n\n+II. That the most faithful exhortations of the Christian minister\nmay be despised.+--This is done when men reject the Word spoken,\nrefuse to listen to it, neglect to meditate upon it, and decline to\nenter upon the course of holy living which it counsels. This conduct\nshows:--\n\n1. _The voluntary power of man._--He can resist the truth or accept\nit. He is responsible for the exercise of all his moral powers, and\ntherefore incurs guilt by any abuse of those powers.\n\n2. _The blinding folly of sin._--It darkens the understanding,\nperverts the will, petrifies the affections, and banishes the good\nthat elevates and saves. Sin is also a force--a stealthy,\nremorseless, destructive force; wherever it breathes, it blasts and\nwithers; wherever it plants its sharpened talons, it lacerates and\ndestroys; and the disorder, the moral anarchy, the writhing agony of\na groaning world bear witness to the terrible ravages of man's great\nenemy. To wilfully reject the overtures of righteousness is to\nrelinquish the inheritance of eternal life, and to doom the soul to\nthe endless miseries of spiritual death.\n\n+III. That to despise the faithful exhortations of the Christian\nminister is to despise God.+--\"He therefore that despiseth, despiseth\nnot man, but God.\" The contempt of the true minister does not\nterminate in his person alone but reaches the majesty of that Being\nby whom he is commissioned. To disregard the message of an ambassador\nis to despise the monarch he represents. The Saviour declared, \"He\nthat despiseth you, despiseth Me\" (Luke x. 16). As the edicts\nproclaimed by the public herald are not his own, but the edicts of\nthe prince who gives them authority and force, so the commands\npublished by the Divinely commissioned minister are not his own but\nbelong to Him whose will is the law of the universe. It belongs to\nGod to reveal the law, freighted with His sanction and authority; it\nbelongs to man to declare it. The exhortation, whether uttered by a\nMoses, who was commended for the beauty of his personal appearance,\nor by a Simeon Niger, who was remarkable for his physical deformity,\nis equally the Word of God, to which the most reverential obedience\nis due. To despise the meanest of God's ministers is an insult to the\nmajesty of Heaven and will incur His terrible displeasure. In\nRetzsch's illustrations of Goethe's _Faust_ there is one plate where\nangels are represented as dropping roses upon the demons who are\ncontending for the soul of Faust. Every rose falls like molten metal,\nburning and blistering where it touches. So is it that truth acts\nupon the soul that has wilfully abandoned its teachings. It bewilders\nwhen it ought to guide.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Divine commands concern man's highest good._\n2. _Take heed how ye hear._ 3. _To despise the Divine message is to\nbe self-consigned to endless woe._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 9, 10.\n\n_Brotherly Love the Proof of a True Sanctification._\n\nLove is the bond of perfectness, the golden cincture that binds\ntogether and beautifies all the other graces of the Christian\ncharacter. Christianity has rescued man from barbarism and slavery.\nIt was the first to advocate and insist upon the common brotherhood\nof humanity, and, by inspiring in the heart the love of Christ, has\nmade it possible for men to love each other as brethren. This was the\nmost striking feature of the Christian spirit in the early times, and\nto which even the enemies of the Church bore testimony. In the second\ncentury the scoffing Lucian declared: \"It is incredible to see the\nardour with which the people of that religion help each other in\ntheir wants. They spare nothing. Their first legislator has put it\ninto their heads that they are all brethren.\" The mutual exercise of\nlove towards the brethren is an indisputable evidence of spiritual\nregeneration (1 John iii. 14); and in this chapter the apostle\nevidently alludes to it as the proof of a true sanctification.\nObserve:--\n\n+I. That brotherly love is Divinely taught.+--\"For ye yourselves are\ntaught of God to love one another\" (ver. 9).\n\n1. _It is commanded by Christ._--\"These things I command you, that ye\nlove one another\" (John xv. 17). This is a lesson the world never\ntaught and cannot teach. The natural heart is essentially selfish and\ncruel, and delights in fierce aggression on the rights of others, and\nin angry retaliation for fancied wrongs. Brotherly love is a fruit of\nChristianity and is a powerful influence in harmonising the warring\ninterests of humanity. If love prevail, other graces will not be\nabsent.\n\n2. _It has the example of Christ._--He frequently reminds His\ndisciples of what should be the scope and character of their love\ntowards each other--\"_As I have loved you,_ that ye also love one\nanother.\" The same glorious example was also the constant burden of\nthe apostle's teaching, \"Walk in love, as Christ also hath loved us\"\n(John xiii. 34, xv. 12; Eph. v. 2). Brotherly love should be pure,\nhumble, self-denying, fervent, unchangeable.\n\n3. _It is its own commendation._--\"But as touching brotherly love, ye\nneed not that I write unto you.\" Love is modest and ingenuous in its\nexercise, making itself felt without obtrusiveness, and almost hiding\nitself underneath the multitude of benefits it creates. We should not\nhesitate to commend whatever good we see in others. The great\nSearcher of hearts does not pass over any good thing in a Church,\nthough otherwise clouded with infirmities, without a laudatory notice\n(Rev. ii. 2, 3). A word of prudent commendation will often stimulate\nthe soul in its endeavours after holiness.\n\n4. _It is a grace Divinely wrought._--\"Ye yourselves are taught of\nGod.\" The heart is powerfully inclined to the exercise of this grace\nby the gracious working of the Holy Spirit, not independent of but in\nconjunction with the outward ministry of the Word. The invariable\nmethod of Divine teaching is explained in Jer. xxxi. 33; Acts\nxvi. 14. Those are easily taught whom God doth teach.\n\n+II. That brotherly love must be practically manifested.+--\"And\nindeed ye do it toward all the brethren which are in all Macedonia\"\n(ver. 10). Love is not limited by locality or distance; it is\ndisplayed, not only towards those we know and with whom we have\nChristian communion, but towards those whose faces we have not seen.\nThe foreign missionary enterprise is a magnificent monument of modern\nChristian charity. Love should be practically manifested in\nsupplying, as far as means and opportunity will allow, each other's\nneed, in bearing one another's burdens, in forgiving one another,\nand, if necessary, in kindly reproving one another. During the\nretreat of Alfred the Great, at Athelney, in Somersetshire, after the\ndefeat of his forces by the Danes, a beggar came to his little castle\nthere and requested alms. When his queen informed him they had only\none small loaf remaining, which was insufficient for themselves and\nthe friends who had gone abroad in quest of food with little hope of\nsuccess, the king replied: \"Give the poor Christian one half of the\nloaf. He who could feed five thousand men with five loaves and two\nsmall fishes, can certainly make that half of the loaf suffice for\nmore than our necessities.\" Accordingly, the poor man was relieved,\nand this noble act of charity was soon recompensed by a providential\nstore of fresh provisions with which the foraging party returned.\n\n+III. That brotherly love is susceptible of continuous\nenlargement.+--\"But we beseech you, brethren, that ye increase more\nand more\" (ver. 10) Notwithstanding the commendation of the apostle,\nhe exhorts the Thessalonians to seek greater perfection in this\ngrace. What is the sun without light? What is fire without heat? So\nwhat is life without love? The rich seek to increase their store, the\nwicked add to their iniquities; the saint should not be less diligent\nin increasing unto every good word and work. \"A child that stayeth at\none stature and never groweth bigger is a monster. The ground that\nprospereth not and is not fruitful is cursed. The tree that is barren\nand improveth not is cut down. So must all increase in the way of\ngodliness and go forward therein. Unless we go forward, we slip back\"\n(_Jewell_). The growth of charity is _extensive,_ as it adds to the\nnumber of the objects loved, and _intensive_ as to its inward fervour\nand tenacity. The more we apprehend the love of God to ourselves, the\nmore our hearts will enlarge in love to Him and all saints. True\nbrotherly love crushes all self-love and is more anxious to hide than\npry into the infirmities of others. Seldom is a charitable man\ncurious, or a curious man charitable.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _That brotherly love is the practical manifestation of\nthe love of God in man._ 2. _That brotherly love should be constantly\ncultivated._ 3. _That brotherly love is a crowning feature of the\nhigher Christian life._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 9, 10. _Brotherly Love_--\n\n  +I. An evidence of practical holiness.+\n\n +II. An affection Divinely taught.+\n\n+III. Should be constantly manifested.+\n\n +IV. Grows by diligent cultivation.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.\n\n_A Pacific Spirit another Proof of a True Sanctification._\n\nTo pass from the subject of brotherly love to the necessity of\nmaintaining a quiet and peaceable disposition was for the apostle a\nnatural and suggestive transition. Love and peace are twin\nvirtues--\"Two lovely berries moulded on one stem.\" Brotherly love can\nhave no place in the heart from which peace has fled and where war\nand discord reign. The quiet spirit is not a weak, meaningless,\ncowardly condition of mind, but contains in it all the elements of\npatient endurance, unconquerable bravery, and inviolable moral power.\nIt is not the quietness of the shallow lagoon, on whose surface the\nheaviest storm can raise but a few powerless ripples; it is rather\nthe profound calm of the ocean, which, when roused by the tempest, is\noverwhelmed in its impetuous onset. Christ is likened to the\nlamb--gentle, harmless, pacific; but when His fury is once let loose\nupon the ungodly, the distracted victims will shriek for the rocks\nand mountains to fall on them and hide them from the face of Him that\nsitteth upon the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb. A pacific\nspirit is another practical evidence of possessing the genuine\nsanctification so earnestly commended by the apostle. Observe:--\n\n+I. That a pacific spirit is to be studiously cultivated.+--\"And that\nye study to be quiet\" (ver. 11). The word \"study\" signifies to seek\nafter an object with a holy and active ambition, as though it were\nthe highest honour to possess it. How different this is from the\nrestless spirit of the world! There is nothing some people dread so\nmuch as being quiet. They delight in a row; and if one does not\nhappen as frequently as they wish, they make one for themselves. The\npolitical agitator, the avaricious money-getter, the fiery advocate\nof war, all seek to attain their selfish ends in the midst of tumult\nand confusion. Nor is the sacred circle of the Christian Church,\nwhich should ever be the abode of peace and harmony, free from the\nviolence of the irrepressible disturber. There are some people who\nnever will be still; you cannot hold them still. They are full of\nendless suggestions for other people to carry out. Their tongue is a\nperpetual clatter. They fly from one department of work to another\nand create distraction in each. They are always on the go. No sooner\nhave they related to one, with such evident satisfaction, the details\nof the latest uproar they were in, than they are off to brew another.\nThey try one's temper; they harry one's nerves; they break one's\npeace most cruelly. To such people it would be the severest task to\nobey the apostolic injunction, \"That ye study to be quiet,\" and yet\nno one in the world has more need to do so than they. A pacific\nspirit cannot be secured without much self-denying effort; but it is\na jewel worth all the trouble and all the sacrifice (Prov. xx. 3;\nCol. iii. 12-15).\n\n+II. That a pacific spirit is attained by a persevering industry in\npersonal duties.+--1. _That personal duties have the first claim upon\nour efforts._ \"Do your own business\" (ver. 11). Attend first to your\npersonal concerns--whatever comes within the compass of your general\nor particular calling. The man who is inattentive to his own special\nduties cannot with any reason dictate as to the duties of others. To\ndo one's own business is the best safeguard against idleness and\nmeddling curiosity. Solomon declared, \"Every fool will be meddling\"\n(Prov. xx. 3). An officious interference with the business of others\ncreates discords. All strifes--domestic, social, ecclesiastical, and\npolitical--may be traced to meddlesomeness. The meddling man is a\nfool, because he gratifies his own idle curiosity at the expense of\nhis own well-being and the happiness of others. See that the business\nyou do is your own business, and that you let that of your\nneighbour's alone. \"Be not eavesdroppers, hearkening what is said or\ndone in your neighbour's house. Wide ears and long tongues dwell\ntogether. They that love to hear all that may be told them do also\nlove to blab out all they hear\" (_Jewell_).\n\n2. _That personal duties demand genuine hard work._--\"And to work\nwith your own hands\" (ver. 11). The claims and enjoyments of religion\ndo not release us from the necessity of toiling for our daily bread\nand providing things honest in the sight of all men. True religion\nrather consists in doing all the work of life with consistency,\ndiligence, and perseverance. Manual labour is not the only form of\ngenuine industry. The industry of some of our public men is something\namazing. There is no greater foe to piety than idleness. It is the\nbeginning of many other evils and has been the origin of many a\ncareer that has ended with the prison and the gallows. An idle man is\nalways something worse. His brain is the shop for the devil, where he\nforges the most debasing fancies and plots the most pernicious\nschemes. Many take more pains to go to hell than almost the holiest\nto go to heaven. Hi\u00e8rome used to say that a man who labours\ndisheartens even the devil himself.\n\n3. _That industry in personal duties is enforced by apostolic\nprecept._--\"As we commanded you\" (ver. 11). The apostle frequently\ntook occasion to enforce upon his converts the importance of\ndiligence in one's daily business and set them an example in his own\nconduct (2 Thess. iii. 7, 8). Honest labour is not beneath the\ndignity of any, and he who works the hardest has the greater\ninfluence in enforcing industry upon others.\n\n+III. That a pacific spirit, combined with diligence, recommends\nChristianity to those outside the Church.+--\"That ye may walk\nhonestly towards them that are without\" (ver. 12). Industry is no\nsmall part of honesty. A lazy man can never be an honest one, though\nhis chastity and fidelity were as renowned as Joseph's, if that were\npossible to a mere idler. A restless, trifling busybody does\nunspeakable damage to religion. Many, who are Christians by\nprofession, are often more heathenish in practice, and the blindest\namong the aliens are swift to detect and pronounce judgment on their\ndishonesty. The unbelieving world, on the other hand, is impressed\nand attracted by the peaceful and diligent behaviour of the faithful.\nHuman nature is powerfully influenced by appearances.\n\n+IV. That a pacific spirit, combined with diligence, ensures an\nhonoured independence.+--\"And that ye may have lack of nothing\" (ver.\n12). It is more blessed to be able to give than to receive. What a\nmercy it is neither to know the power and misery of those temptations\nwhich arise from pinching poverty, nor yet to be necessitated to\ndepend upon the cold-hearted, merciless charity of others. The\npatient, quiet persevering plodder in the way of Christian duty may\nnot always be rewarded with affluence; but he is encouraged to\nexpect, at least, a modest competency. And the very spirit he has\nstriven to cultivate has enriched him with an inheritance, which few\npossibly attain--_contentment with his lot._ He whose is the silver\nand the gold will care for His loved and faithful servants (Ps.\nxxxvii. 25).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Quarrelsomeness and indolence cannot co-exist with a\nhigh degree of sanctity._ 2. _To secure the blessings of peace is\nworthy of the most industrious study._ 3. _The mightiest aggressions\nof the Gospel upon the world are made quietly._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 11. _Study to be Quiet._\n\n+I. Make it our meditation day and night and fill our minds with it.+\n\n+II. Put our meditation into practice.+\n\n+III. We must unlearn many things before we can be taught\nthis.+--1. _Cast out self-love._ 2. _Covetousness._ 3. _Pull back our\nambition._ 4. _Bind our malice._ 5. _Empty ourselves of all\nsuspicion, surmising, and discontent._\n\n+IV. Mind our own business.+--1. _Because it is becoming._ 2. _Brings\nadvantage._ 3. _It is necessary._ 4. _We are commanded to do\nso.--Farindon._\n\n\n_Mind your own Business._\n\n  +I. The Bible contains little encouragement for the idler.+\n\n +II. The text enjoins diligence not only in business, but in one's\n      own business.+\n\n+III. The counsel of the apostle is supported by the best wisdom of\n      the world.+--\"It becomes a man,\" said Herodotus, \"to give heed\n      to those things only which concern himself.\"\n\n +IV. The apostle takes it for granted that ours is a worthy\n      business.+\n\n  +V. Only by diligence in the care of your own souls will you be\n      able to do really effective work for Christ.+--_A. F. Forrest._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.\n\n_Sorrow for the Dead._\n\nThe Thessalonians who cherished a vivid expectation of the near\napproach of the second advent of Christ appear to have fallen into a\nmisconception as to the relation of their deceased friends to that\nglorious event. While believing that the pious dead would ultimately\nbe raised again, they feared they would not be permitted to share in\nthe joy of welcoming Him back to His inheritance of the redeemed\nearth and in the triumphant inauguration of His reign. \"It was just\nas if, on the very eve of the day of the expected return of some long\nabsent father, a cruel fate should single out one fond expectant\nchild and hurry him to a far distant and inhospitable shore.\" But all\ntheir fears and perplexities were dissipated by the sublime\ndisclosures contained in this epistle.\n\n+I. That sorrow is a merciful relief to a soul bereaved.+--Sorrow is\nnowhere forbidden. It may be an infirmity, but it is at the same time\na solace. The soul oppressed and stricken by the weight of a great\ncalamity finds relief in tears.\n\n     \"O ye tears! O ye tears! till I felt you on my cheek,\n      I was selfish in my sorrow. I was stubborn, I was weak;\n      Ye have given me strength to conquer, and I stand erect and\n          free,\n      And know that I am human, by the light of sympathy.\"\n\nThe religion of the Bible does not destroy human passions. We do not\npart with our nature when we receive the grace of God. The mind that\nis capable of a _real sorrow_ is capable of good. A griefless nature\ncan never be a joyous one.\n\n+II. That sorrow for the dead is aggravated by ignorance of their\nfuture destiny.+--\"I would not have you to be ignorant concerning\nthem which are asleep, that ye sorrow not, even as others which have\nno hope\" (ver. 13). The radius of hope is contracted or expanded in\nproportion to the character and extent of intelligence possessed.\nIgnorant \"sorrow is a kind of rust to the soul, which every new idea\ncontributes in its passage to scour away. It is the putrefaction of\nstagnant life and is remedied by exercise and motion.\" The heathen,\nwho have no satisfactory knowledge of the future life, give way to an\nexcessive and hopeless grief. Du Chaillu describes a scene of wailing\nfor the dead among the Africans. \"The mother of poor Tonda,\" he\nwrites, \"led me to the house where the body was laid. The narrow\nspace of the room was crowded; about two hundred women were sitting\nand standing around, singing mourning songs to doleful and monotonous\nairs. As I stood looking, filled with solemn thoughts, the mother of\nTonda approached. She threw herself at the foot of her dead son and\nbegged him to speak to her once more. And then when the corpse did\nnot answer she uttered a shriek, so long, so piercing, such a wail of\nlove and grief that tears came into my eyes. Poor African mother! She\nwas literally as one sorrowing without hope, for these people count\non nothing beyond the present life.\" It was the dictum of an old\nGreek poet--a man once dead there is no revival; and those words\nindicated the dismal condition of unenlightened nature in all lands\nand in all ages. What an urgent argument is here for increased\nmissionary efforts among the heathen!\n\n+III. That sorrow for the dead in Christ is soothed and moderated by\nthe revelation of certain great truths concerning their present and\nfuture blessedness.+--1. _That death is a sleep._ \"Them also which\nsleep in Jesus\" (ver. 14). The only part of man to which the figure\nof the text applies is the body. As to the soul, the day of death is\nthe day of our birth into a progressive and eternal life. It is\ncalled a departure, a being with Christ--absent from the body,\npresent with the Lord. _Sleep is expressive of rest._ When the toil\nof life's long day is ended, the great and good Father draws the dark\ncurtain of night and hushes His weary children to rest. \"They enter\ninto rest.\" _Sleep is expressive of refreshment._ The body is laid in\nthe grave, feeble, emaciated, worn-out. Then a wonderful process goes\non, perceptible only to the eye of God, by which the body acquires\nnew strength and beauty, and becomes a fit instrument and suitable\nresidence for the glorified soul. _Sleep implies the expectation of\nawaking._ We commit the bodies of the departed to the earth in sure\nand certain hope of a glorious resurrection. They wait for \"the\nadoption, to wit, the redemption of the body\" (Rom. viii. 23).\n\n2. _That the dead in Christ will be roused from their holy slumber\nand share in the glory of His second advent._--\"Will God bring with\nHim\" (ver. 14). The resurrection of the dead is a Divine work. \"I\nwill redeem them from the power of the grave\" (Hos. xiii. 14). Christ\nwill own His people in their persons, their services, and their\nsufferings. They shall receive His entire approval, be welcomed by\nHim into His everlasting kingdom, and crowned by Him with glory and\nthe affluence of incorruptible bliss.\n\n3. _That the resurrection of Christ from the dead is a pledge of the\nrestoration and future blessedness of all who sleep in Him._--\"For if\nwe believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so them also which\nsleep in Jesus will God bring with Him\" (ver. 14). Christ Himself is\nthe resurrection, not only as revealed in His Word and exemplified in\nHis own person, but as specially appointed by the Father to effect it\nby His own power (John v. 25, vi. 39). The Word of God sheds a light\nacross the darkness of the grave and opens a vista radiant with hope\nand immortal happiness. \"Let me penetrate into Thy heart, O God,\"\nsaid an afflicted saint, \"and read the love that is there. Let me\npenetrate into Thy mind, and read the wisdom that is there; then\nshall I be satisfied--the storm shall be turned into calm.\" A vital\nknowledge of Christ silences every murmur and prepares for every\nemergency.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _An ignorant sorrow is a hopeless one._ 2. _To rise\nwith Jesus we must live and die to Him._ 3. _Divine revelations\nregarding the future life greatly moderate the grief of the present._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 13, 14. _The Sleep of the Faithful Departed._\n\n  +I. The dead are said to be asleep because we know they shall wake\n      up again.+\n\n +II. Because they whom men call dead do really live unto God.+\n\n+III. Because they are taking their rest.+\n\n +IV. Death is changed to sleep, so that it becomes a pledge of rest\n      and a prophecy of the resurrection.+\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _We ought to mourn rather for the living than for the\ndead._ 2. _In very truth it is life rather than death that we ought\nto fear.--H. E. Manning._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Resurrection of the Body._\n\n  +I. The heart seeks it.+\n\n +II. The Bible declares it.+\n\n+III. The redemption of Christ secures it.+--_A. F. Forrest._\n\n\n     The author discusses this event as the second coming of\n     Christ. The Transcriber finds the second coming described\n     in Rev. xix. 11-21. This passage describes \"the rapture of\n     the church\" which precedes the seven years of Tribulation\n     described in Revelation chapters iv.--xviii. The second\n     coming is a time of judgment; the rapture gathers the\n     church prior to Daniel's Seventieth Week, a time of great\n     trial for the people and nation of Israel. The rapture is\n     as a thief in the night; at the second coming, every eye\n     shall see Him.\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 15-18.\n\n_The Second Advent of Christ._\n\nAmong the words of consolation in the valedictory discourse of Christ\nto His disciples was the promise, after His departure, He would come\nagain and receive them unto Himself. Time has sped noiselessly along;\nevents of vast magnitude have rapidly succeeded each other, and left\ntheir lessons for the ages to ponder; nations have passed through the\nthroes of suffering and revolution; generation after generation has\ngone down to the grave; for nearly nineteen hundred years the Church\nhas been strained with profound, intense, and anxious expectancy: but\nstill the promise remains unfulfilled. Will He come? Are the hopes of\nthe Church doomed to be for ever unsatisfied? Must the bodies of the\npious dead be for ever shut down in the sepulchres of land and sea?\nWill the wrongs of the universe never be redressed? If questions like\nthese flit for a moment across the mind, it is not that the Church\nhas lost confidence in the promise. Faith in the second advent of\nChrist is more widely spread and more firmly held to-day than ever.\nLong waiting has sharpened the longing, brightened the hope, and\nclarified the vision. In these words, the apostle assures the\nThessalonians of the second coming of Christ, furnishes some\nimportant particulars of the event, and points out the bearing of the\nglorious doctrine in consoling the sorrow of the bereaved.\n\n+I. That the second advent of Christ is the subject of Divine\nrevelation.+--\"For this we say unto you by the word of the Lord\"\n(ver. 15). In a subject of such vast moment the apostle was anxious\nto show that he had the highest and most incontrovertible authority\nfor the statements he uttered. He had a special revelation from\nheaven and spoke under the direct and immediate inspiration of the\nDivine Spirit. The second advent of Christ is emphatically taught in\nthe Holy Scriptures (cf. Matt. xxiv. 3, xxv. 31; Mark viii. 3; John\nxiv. 3; Acts i. 2, iii. 19, 20; Rom. viii. 17; 1 Cor. i. 8; 2 Tim.\niv. 1; Tit. ii. 13; 1 Pet. i. 5; 2 Pet. iii. 12; Jude 14).\n\n+II. That the second advent of Christ will be distinguished by signal\ntokens of terrible majesty.+--1. _There will be the triumphant shout\nof the Divine Redeemer._ \"For the Lord Himself shall descend from\nheaven with a shout\" (ver. 16). Just before Jesus expired on the\ncross He cried with a loud voice, and though there was the ring of\nvictory in that cry, it sounded more like a conscious relief from\nunutterable suffering. But the shout of Jesus on his second coming\nwill be like the loud, clear, joyous battle-shout of a great\nConqueror. That shout will break the silence of the ages, will\nstartle the universe into attention, will raise the dead, and summon\nall people into the presence of the victorious Messiah. Formerly He\ndid \"not cry, nor lift up, nor cause His voice to be heard in the\nstreet\" (Isa. xlii. 2). But now is the revelation of His power. \"Our\nGod shall come, and shall not keep silence\" (Ps. l. 3, 4).\n\n2. _There will be the voice of the archangel_ (ver. 16).--The angelic\nhosts are arranged in an hierarchy of various ranks and orders. The\narchangel is the chief of the heavenly multitude. In response to the\nmajestic shout of the descending Lord, the archangel lifts up his\nvoice, like the loud cry of the herald announcing the glorious\nadvent, and the sound is caught up and prolonged by the vast hosts of\ncelestial attendants.\n\n3. _There will be the trumpet-blast._--\"With the trump of God,\" with\ntrumpet sounded by the command of God--such a trumpet, perhaps, as is\nused in the service of God in heaven. Besides the shout of Jesus and\nthe voice of the archangel, the sound of the trumpet will also be\nheard in the host. It is called in 1 Cor. xv. 52 \"the last trumpet\";\nand in Matt. xxiv. 31 we read, \"He shall send His angels with great\nsound of a trumpet, and they shall gather together His elect.\" Among\nthe Hebrews, Greeks, and ancient Latins it was the custom to summon\nthe people with the trumpet. In this way God is said to gather His\npeople together (Isa. xxvii. 13; Jer. iv. 5, vi. 1). The whole\npassage is designed to show that the second advent of King Messiah\nwill be attended by the most imposing evidences of pomp and regal\nsplendour.\n\n+III. That the second advent of Christ will be followed by important\nconsequences to the people of God, living and dead.+--1. _The pious\ndead shall be raised._ \"When we which are alive, and remain unto the\ncoming of the Lord, shall not prevent them which are asleep. And the\ndead in Christ shall rise first\" (vers. 15, 16). The living at that\nday--who, it would seem, would be spared the necessity of dying and\nseeing corruption--shall, nevertheless, have no advantage over the\ndead. Before any change takes place in the living to fit them for the\nnew condition of things, the dead in Christ shall rise first, and be\nclothed with immortality and incorruptible splendour. Whatever\ndisadvantages may be the lot of some of God's people over others,\nthey are ever recompensed by some special privilege or prerogative.\nThe best state for us is that in which God places us. And yet every\nman thinks another's condition happier than his own. Rare indeed is\nthe man who thinks his own state and condition in every respect best\nfor him.\n\n2. _The living and the raised shall unite in a simultaneous greeting\nof their descending Lord._--\"Then we which are alive and remain shall\nbe caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the\nair\" (ver. 17). The living, after passing through the wondrous change\nfrom mortal to immortal, shall not anticipate for a single moment the\nnewly raised bodies of the pious dead, but together with them, in one\nreunited, loving, inseparable company, shall be caught away in\nchariots of clouds, to meet the Lord in the air, and greet Him in the\ndescent. He comes to fulfil His promise (John xiv. 3).\n\n3. _All believers in Christ shall be assured of eternal felicity with\nHim._--\"And so shall we ever be with the Lord\" (ver. 17). For ever\nwith the Lord in familiar companionship--in rapturous communion, in\nimpending glory, in ever-enchanting revelations. With Him, not\noccasionally, or for an age, or a millennium, but uninterruptedly for\never, without the possibility of separation. How great the contrast\nwith the brightest experiences of this changeful life! There are\nthree things which eminently distinguish the heavenly life of the\nsoul--perfection, perpetuity, immutability.\n\n+IV. That the contemplation of the second advent of Christ is\ncalculated to minister consolation to the sorrowing.+--\"Therefore\ncomfort one another with these words\" (ver. 18). A community in\nsuffering creates a community in sympathy. \"If a thorn be in the\nfoot, the back bows, the eye is busy to pry into the hurt, the hands\ndo their best to pluck out the cause of anguish; even so we are\nmembers one of another. To him that is afflicted, pity should be\nshowed from his friend\" (Job vi. 14). The best consolation is that\nwhich is drawn from the revelations of God's Word. There are no\ncomforts like Scripture comforts. The bereaved were sorrowing for\ntheir loved ones who had been smitten down by death and were full of\nanxiety and uncertainty about the future. Shall they meet again, or\nare they parted for ever? The teaching of inspiration on the second\ncoming of Christ assures them that their departed relatives shall be\nrescued from the power of death, that they shall meet again, meet in\nglory, meet to part no more, to be for ever with each other and with\nthe Lord.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Church is justified in looking for the second\nadvent of Christ._ 2. _The second advent of Christ will bring an\neverlasting recompense for the suffering and sorrow of the present\nlife._ 3. _The record that reveals the second advent of Christ should\nbe fondly prized and constantly pondered._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 15-18. _The Second Coming of Christ and Sorrow for the Dead._\n\n  +I. The final period of the world the apostles left undetermined.+\n\n +II. Though ignorant of the final period of the world, they were\n      confident it should not come till the prophecies respecting the\n      destiny of the Church were accomplished.+\n\n+III. The Church, being ignorant of the day in which Christ should\n      come to judge the world, should be always ready for that event.+\n\n +IV. Sorrow for the dead is compatible with the hope of a\n      Christian.+--1. _When it proceeds from sympathy._ 2. _From the\n      dictates of nature._ 3. _From repentance.--Saurin._\n\n\nVer. 18. _The Day of comforting One Another._\n\n+I. We must observe a rule and method in this duty.+\n\n+II. This method is taught not in the school of nature, but of\nChrist.+--1. _In general, we must comfort one another with the Word\nof God._ 2. _We must comfort one another with the Scripture teaching\non the coming of the Lord and the resurrection of the\ndead.--Farindon._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER V.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Times and seasons.+--The one is the even, continuous flow of\nthe river, the other is the cataract. Seasons we may represent as\nepochs. Our Lord in the same words refused to gratify the curiosity\nof His followers (Acts i. 7).\n\nVer. 2. +For yourselves know perfectly.+--The adverb here is the same\nas in Eph. v. 15 (A.V. \"circumspectly,\" R.V. \"carefully\"). It is used\nfive times only in the New Testament. The translations are\ninteresting--Matt. ii. 8: A.V. \"diligently,\" R.V. \"carefully.\" Luke\ni. 3: R.V. \"accurately.\" Acts xviii. 25 (like Matt. ii. 8). Perhaps\nthe Thessalonians had asked for precise information. \"The apostle\nreplies, with a touch of gentle irony, 'You already know precisely\nthat nothing precise on the subject can be known'--that the great day\nwill steal upon the world like a thief in the night.\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 3. +For when they shall say.+--R.V. \"when they are saying.\" No\nmatter at what hour they say, \"Peace and security,\" like the voice of\nthe watchman crying, \"All's well.\" +Then sudden destruction.+--The\nword for \"sudden\" is only found again at Luke xxi. 34 in the New\nTestament. It is really unforeseen. +As travail.+--In the simile\nthere is the suggestion that the day cannot be far off though not\nexactly known.\n\nVer. 5. +Children of light.+--Quite an Oriental expression. The kings\nof Egypt called themselves \"children of the sun.\" So these of a\nbetter sun.\n\nVer. 6. +Let us watch and be sober.+--Ever on the alert as men who\nlive in hourly expectation of their Lord's arrival. It is precisely\nthey who maintain the preparedness of spirit who are calm when the\nmidnight cry rings out, \"The bridegroom cometh.\"\n\nVer. 7. +They that be drunken are drunken in the night.+--The\nexplanation is given in our Lord's words--\"because their deeds are\nevil\": as though darkness could veil the loss of self-respect.\n\nVer. 9. +For God hath not appointed us to wrath.+--The inevitable\nsequence of a life of sensual gratification. The very severest forms\nof expression for wrath fell from the gentlest lips concerning the\nservant who falls to gluttony and drunkenness because his lord does\nnot appear at the expected hour (Luke xii. 45, 46).\n\nVer. 12. +Them which labour among you and are over you in the\nLord.+--\"A clear testimony, from this earlier New Testament writing,\nto the existence in the Church at the beginning of a ministerial\norder--a clergy as distinguished from the laity--charged with\nspecific duties and authority. But there is nothing in grammar nor in\nthe nature of the duties specified which would warrant us in\ndistributing these functions amongst distinct orders of Church\noffice\" (_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 13. +And to esteem them very highly in love.+--R.V. \"exceeding\nhighly\"--the same Greek adverb as in ch. iii. 10, the strongest\nintensive possible to the language. So deep and warm should be the\naffection uniting pastors and their flocks. Their appreciation is not\nto be a cold esteem (_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 14. +Warn them that are unruly.+--R.V. \"admonish the\ndisorderly.\" Every Church knows these characters--men who will break\nthrough all restraint. +Comfort the feeble-minded.+--R.V. \"encourage\nthe faint-hearted.\" In ch. ii. 11 we have met the verb before. The\nfeeble-minded would have been scarcely worth the pity of the\nphilosophers with whom alone the great-souled man was supreme. The\ncomfort in that teaching, for the hour when the strong shall be as\ntow, was very scanty and inadequate. +Support the weak.+--So be like\nthe Lord who \"upholdeth all that fall, and raiseth up all those that\nbe bowed down\" (Ps. cxlv. 14). +Be patient toward all men.+--R.V.\n\"longsuffering.\" It is the very opposite of what we mean by being\n\"short-tempered.\"\n\nVer. 15. +Evil for evil.+--A _quid pro quo,_ similar in kind and in\nquantity perhaps, but retaliation delights in interest.\n\nVer. 19. +Quench not the Spirit.+--When there has been excess, and a\ngood has come into disrepute, it is natural to seek to stifle down\nfurther manifestations of it. The energy of the Holy Spirit, like\nPentecostal flame, is regarded as being capable of extinction.\n\nVer. 20. +Despise not prophesyings.+--Do not set down as of no value,\nprophesyings. The word for \"despise\" is used of those who trusted in\nthemselves that they were righteous and set at nought others (Luke\nxviii. 9), and the contemptuous bearing of him who eats flesh with\nwhich an idol's name has been associated, and laughs at the\nshuddering scruples of the brother who thinks it a dreadful thing to\ndo, and sets him at nought (Rom. xiv. 3-10). The prophesyings at\nCorinth were such as might easily be contemned (1 Cor. xiv. 23).\n\nVer. 21. +Prove all things.+--Make trial of all. A sentence fatal to\nthe suppression of inquiry and to credulous faith. It forbids me to\naccept what is given out as prophecy even, unless it has a\nself-evidencing power. +Hold fast that which is good.+--The good here\nis that which is ethically beautiful. In ver. 15 another word points\nthe contrast to the evil return of injury.\n\nVer. 22. +Abstain from all appearance of evil.+--Perhaps the best\nidea of the word rendered \"abstain\" would be gained by \"hold off,\" in\nantithesis to the \"hold fast\" of ver. 21.\n\nVer. 23. +Sanctify you wholly.+ \"Rather--unto completeness. The\napostle prays that they may be sanctified to the fullest extent\"\n(_Ibid._). +Your whole spirit . . . be preserved blameless.+--R.V.\n\"be preserved entire, without blame.\" \"From the degree of holiness\ndesired we pass to its range, from its intension (as the logicians\nwould say) to its extension\" (_Ibid._).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-11.\n\n_The Attitude of the Church towards the Second Coming of Christ._\n\nA book written by one who knew of the _first_ advent of the Redeemer\ncloses, anticipating, desiring, beseeching the _second,_--\"Even so,\ncome, Lord Jesus\" (Rev. xxii. 20). The revelation concerning that\nsecond coming is distinct and emphatic; but the exact period, when\nthe event will happen, is wrapped in uncertainty. As when we ascend a\nwinding river some well-known landmark appears to alter its position,\nseeming now distant, now near--so, at different points on the\ncircuitous stream of life, the familiar subject of the second Advent\nreveals itself as a near or remote event. \"It is plain,\" says Archer\nButler, \"that that period which is distant in one scheme of things\nmay be near in another, where events are on a vaster scale and move\nin a mightier orbit. That which is a whole life to the ephemera is\nbut a day to the man; that which is in the brief succession of\nauthentic human history is counted as remote, is but a single page in\nthe volume of heavenly records. The coming of Christ may be distant\nas measured on the scale of human life, but it may be 'near,' and 'at\nhand,' and 'at the door,' when the interval of the two advents is\ncompared, not merely with the four thousand years which were but its\npreparation, but with the line of infinite ages which it is itself\npreparing.\" The uncertainty of the time of the second Advent and its\nstupendous issues define the attitude of the Church.\n\n+I. It is an attitude of expectancy.+--1. _The time of the second\ncoming is uncertain._ \"But of the time and the seasons, brethren, ye\nhave no need that I write unto you\" (ver. 1). A gentle hint that all\nquestions on that subject were unnecessary, as there was nothing more\nto be revealed. The untameable curiosity and reckless daring of man\ntempt him to pry into secrets with which he has nothing to do and to\ndogmatise on subjects of which he knows the least. Many have been\nfanatical enough to fix the day of the Lord's coming. For a time,\nthere has been a local excitement; the day has come and gone; the\nworld has moved on as before, and the prophetic enthusiasts have\nexposed themselves to scorn and ridicule. \"Of that day and hour\nknoweth no man\" (Mark xiii. 32). This uncertainty is a perpetual\nstimulant to the people of God to exercise the ennobling virtues of\nhope, of watchfulness, of fidelity, of humility, of earnest inquiry,\nand of reverential awe.\n\n2. _The second coming will be sudden._--\"For yourselves know\nperfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night.\nFor when they shall say, Peace and safety, then sudden destruction\ncometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child\" (vers. 2, 3).\nThe thief not only gives no notice of his approach but takes every\npossible care to conceal his designs. The discovery of the mischief\nhe has wrought takes place when it is too late. The prudent will take\nevery precaution to avoid surprise and to baffle the subtlety and\nsharpness of the marauder. That which is sinful and unlawful in\nitself affords a resemblance to express an important truth and to\nadmonish to duty. There is nothing more certain than that the Lord\n_will_ come; nothing more uncertain _when_ He will come; and both the\none and the other should keep His people in an attitude of prayerful\nexpectation and moral preparedness. Faith breeds fear; the more\nearnestly we believe, the more we tremble at the Divine threatenings.\nUnbelief lulls the soul into false security. What a dreadful\nawakening will that be, when the thunder of God's wrath shall\nsuddenly burst from the hitherto tranquil heavens!\n\n3. _The second coming will be terrible to the wicked._--\"And they\nshall not escape\" (ver. 3). Wicked men are never more secure than\nwhen destruction is nearest, never nearer destruction than when they\nare most secure. The swearer may be seized while the oath is burning\non his tongue, the drunkard engulfed in judgment while the cup is\ntrembling between his lips. The other day a certain suspension bridge\nwas crowded with pleasure seekers; the slender erection, yielding\nunder the unwonted strain, broke in two, and in a moment precipitated\nnumbers into the river rolling below and into a watery grave. Not\nless fragile is the confidence on which the unbelieving rest; and\nmore terrible still will be the catastrophe that will suddenly\novertake them. The destruction of the wicked--of all their joy, of\nall they most prized in this life--will be sudden, painful,\ninevitable. Now there is peace, for mercy reigns; but when the great\nday comes there will be nothing but indignation and wrath,\ntribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil (Rom.\nii. 8, 9).\n\n+II. It is an attitude of vigilance.+--1. _This vigilance is enforced\non the ground of a moral transformation._ \"But ye, brethren, are not\nin darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. Ye are all\nthe children of light, and the children of the day: we are not of the\nnight, nor of darkness\" (vers. 4, 5). Believers in Christ are\ndelivered from the power of darkness, of spiritual ignorance, of\ngodless profanity, of dark and dangerous security, and translated\ninto the kingdom of light, of truth, of purity, and felicity. They\nare children of the day when the light shines the brightest, when\nprivileges are more abundant, when opportunities multiply, and\nresponsibility is correspondingly increased. The light of past ages\nwas but the dawn of the effulgent day which now shines upon the world\nfrom the Gospel sun. Every inquiring and believing soul passes from\nthe dawn to the daylight of experimental truth.\n\n2. _This vigilance must be constant._--\"Therefore let us not sleep,\nas do others, but let us watch and be sober. For they that sleep\nsleep in the night; and they that be drunken are drunken in the\nnight\" (vers. 6, 7). Let us not, like the drunkards steeped in\nsottish slumber, be immersed in the deep sleep of sin and unconcern,\nneglecting duty, and never thinking of a judgment; but let us watch,\nand in order to do so effectually, be sober. We are day-people, not\nnight-people; therefore, our work ought to be day-work, not\nnight-work; our conduct such as will bear the eye of day and has no\nneed to hide itself under the veil of night. A strict sobriety is\nessential to a sleepless vigilance.\n\n+III. It is an attitude of militant courage.+--\"But let us who are of\nthe day be sober, putting on the breastplate of faith and love; and\nfor an helmet the hope of salvation\" (ver. 8). The Christian has to\nfight the enemy, as well as watch against him. He is a soldier, and a\nsoldier on sentry. The Christian life is not one of soft, luxurious\nease; it is a hard, fierce conflict. The graces of faith, love, and\nhope constitute the most complete armour of the soul. The breastplate\nand helmet protect the two most vital parts--the head and the heart.\nWith head and heart right, the whole man is right. Let us keep the\nhead from error and the heart from sinful lust, and we are safe. The\nbest guards against error in religion and viciousness in life\nare--faith, hope, and charity; these are the virtues that inspire the\nmost enterprising bravery. Drunkards and sluggards never make good\nsoldiers.\n\n+IV. It is an attitude of confidence as to the future blessedness of\nthe Church.+--1. _This blessedness is Divinely provided._ \"For God\nhath not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation by our Lord\nJesus Christ, who died for us\" (vers. 9, 10). The whole scheme of\nsalvation was Divinely conceived and Divinely carried out in all its\nessential details. And, without discussing other methods by which the\nsalvation of the race could be effected, it is sufficient for us to\nknow that the infallible wisdom of God provided that the death of His\nSon was the most effectual method. Our sins had exposed us to the\nwrath of God, who had declared death to be the penalty of sin. This\ndeath Christ underwent on our behalf, in our stead, and so saved us\nfrom it. In every extremity, at every new challenge of the enemy, on\neach successive field of effort and peril, this is the password and\nbattle-cry of God's people--_Christ died for us._\n\n2. _This blessedness consists in a constant fellowship with\nChrist._--\"That whether we wake or sleep, we should live together\nwith Him\" (ver. 10). The happiest moments on earth are those spent in\nthe company of the good, reciprocating the noblest ideas and\nemotions. Christ, by dying for us, has begotten us into a life of\nineffable and endless felicity; and \"the hope of salvation\" enables\nus to look forward to the period when, released from the sorrows and\nuncertainties of this changeful life, we shall enjoy the bliss of\nuninterrupted communion with Jesus.\n\n     \"The soul to be where Jesus is\n      Must be for ever blest.\"\n\n3. _The confidence of inheriting this blessedness encourages mutual\nedification._--\"Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one\nanother, even as also ye do\" (ver. 11). \"All Christians\nindiscriminately are to use these doctrines for mutual exhortation\nand mutual edification. And so the spirit of the verse will be this:\nComfort one another as to this matter, and then, free from the\ndistracting and paralysing influence of vain misgivings, go on\nedifying one another in all the relations, and by all the means and\nappliances of your Church fellowship; even as also ye do. Ye do it\nnow, in the midst of your own secret, personal sorrows and depressing\nfears. But you will be able to do it more effectively, with the\nclearer views I have now given you of what awaits us all--those\nsleeping in Jesus, and us who are alive and remain unto the coming of\nthe Lord\" (_Lillie_).\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The great event of the future will be the second\ncoming of Christ._ 2. _That event should be looked for in a spirit of\nsobriety and vigilance._ 3. _That event will bring unspeakable\nfelicity to the good and dismay and misery to the wicked._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 2. _The Day of the Lord_--\n\n  +I. A day which will be in some unique and pre-eminent sense His\n      day.+\n\n +II. It is the day of judgment.+\n\n+III. The coming of His day is suggestive of fear.+--\"As a thief in\n      the night.\"\n\n +IV. It will come suddenly.+\n\n  +V. Cannot be prevented by any efforts of our own.+\n\n +VI. We may prepare for the day of judgment by judging ourselves in\n      self-examination.+--_H. P. Liddon._\n\n\nVer. 6. _The Pilgrims on the Enchanted Ground._\n\n+I. Hopeful keeps awake by goodly counsel and discourse.+\n\n+II. Ignorance comes up again.+--1. _Ignorance explains the ground of\nhis hope._ 2. _Christian explains what good thoughts are._\n3. _Ignorance speaks reproachfully about things he knows not._ 4. _He\nagain falls behind._\n\n+III. Christian and Hopeful renew their\nconversation.+--1. _Reflections over the conduct of Ignorance._\n2. _Why ignorant people stifle conviction._ 3. _Reasons why some\nbackslide._\n\n+IV. Some lessons from this stage.+--1. _In times of danger it is\nwise to recall former experiences._ 2. _Human philosophy may seem\nvery wise, but the Bible is an unfailing touchstone.--Homiletic\nMonthly._\n\n\n_Moral Sleep._\n\n+I. The season devoted to sleep is one of darkness.+--He is in\ndarkness as to God, himself, and the Gospel.\n\n+II. Sleep is often sought for and obtained by the use of\nopiates.+--These are: 1. _The falsehoods of Satan._ 2. _The pleasures\nof sense._ 3. _The fellowship of the world._\n\n+III. During sleep the mind is usually occupied with dreams.+--The\nlife of the ungodly is one continued dream.\n\n+IV. He who is asleep is in a great measure insensible to\npain.+--1. _The sting of sin is in man's nature._ 2. _Through this\nsleep he feels it not.--Stewart._\n\n\nVers. 9, 10. _Salvation is of God._\n\n+I. The choice of God.+--1. _It was early._ 2. _It was free._\n3. _Efficacious._ 4. _Appropriating._\n\n+II. The work of Christ.+--He died as our Substitute. 1. _This fact\nexplains His death._ 2. _Vindicates the justice of God in His death._\n3. _Displays the love of Christ._\n\n+III. The privilege and duty of Christians.+--1. _Life in Christ._\n2. _Life with Christ._ 3. _In Him and with Him here and\nhereafter.--G. Brooks._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 12, 13.\n\n_The Treatment due to the Ministerial Office._\n\nAn excessive modesty prevents many ministers from calling attention\nto the sacred office they hold, and to the respect in which it should\never be regarded by those over whom they have the oversight. Such a\nmodesty is inexcusable. To say nothing of the contempt with which the\nworld looks upon the ministerial office, there are thousands within\nthe Church who are utterly ignorant of its duties and awful\nresponsibilities, and who have but vague, distorted notions of their\nduty towards the men who first led them to Christ, and who have been\ninstructing them in the truths for years. Let not the minister\nhesitate, even at the risk of being thought egotistical, to speak on\nthis subject, and enforce the New Testament teaching. The apostle was\nnot withheld by any false sense of modesty from pointing out, with\nall emphasis and authority, the obligations of the Church towards\nthose who minister in the Word and doctrine. Observe:--\n\n+I. The distinctive duties belonging to the ministerial\noffice.+--1. _To labour._ \"Them which labour among you\" (ver. 12),\neven unto weariness, as the verb signifies. The work of the faithful\nminister is no sinecure; it taxes all the powers of the brain and\nmuscle. It is a work demanding prolonged and earnest study, intense\nfeeling, and ceaseless toil.\n\n2. _To rule._--\"And are over you in the Lord\" (ver. 12). The minister\nis not simply a sort of popular delegate or hired agent, bound to\nreceive the instructions, execute the wishes, and flatter the humours\nof his constituents. He is, indeed, the servant, in the proper sense\nof that word, but not the slave and tool of the Church. The right to\nspeak and act in the name of Christ carries with it an aspect of\npre-eminence and authority, and the same is implied in the very names\nthat designate the ministerial office--as pastors, or shepherds,\nteachers, bishops, or overseers. On the other hand, the\nimpressiveness of sacerdotal assumption is checked and limited by the\nwords, \"In the Lord.\" The minister is to rule only in the Lord,\nrecognising the joint union of himself and his Church with the Lord,\nand the principles and polity by which the Church of Christ is to be\ngoverned.\n\n3. _To admonish._--\"And admonish you\" (ver. 12). These words also\nqualify the nature of the rulership. It must not be a despotic\nlording it over God's heritage, issuing commands with absolute and\narbitrary authority, and enforcing those commands, if not instantly\nobeyed, with terrifying anathemas. No; he is to rule by the force of\nmoral suasion--by instruction, admonition, advice, warning. The verb\nmeans to put in mind. To gain obedience to the right, precept must be\nrepeatedly enforced in all the varied forms of reproof, rebuke and\nexhortation.\n\n+II. The treatment due to the ministerial office.+--1. _An\nintelligent acknowledgment of its character._ Think of its Divine\nappointment, its solemn responsibilities, its important work, its\nexhausting anxieties, its special perils. Whatever the ministers seem\nto you, they are the eyes of the Church and the mouth of God.\nAcknowledge them; sympathise with and help them; give credit to their\nmessage; they watch and pray; they study and take pains for your sake.\n\n2. _A superlative, loving regard._--\"Esteem them very highly in love\"\n(ver. 13). The adverb is particularly forcible, signifying\nsuper-exceedingly, more than exceedingly. There is a hint here to\nthousands in the Church at the present day, which it is hoped they\nwill have the grace to act upon. The profound reverence and esteem to\nbe shown to the ministerial office is to be regulated, not by fear,\nbut by love. The hard-working, devoted, and faithful minister is\nworthy of all honour and affection.\n\n3. _The true ground of this considerate treatment._--\"For their\nwork's sake\" (ver. 13). Love them for your own sake; you have life\nand comfort by them. Honour them for their office' sake; they are\nyour fathers; they have begotten you in Christ; they are the stewards\nof God's house, and the dispensers of His mysteries. Honour and love\nthem for God's sake; He has sent them and put His Word in their\nmouth. To love a minister is not much, except his work be that which\ndraws out affection. He who can say, \"I love a minister because he\nteacheth me to know God, because he informs me of duty, and reproves\nmy declensions and backslidings\"--he is the man who has satisfaction\nin his love.\n\n+III. An important exhortation.+--\"And be at peace among yourselves\"\n(ver. 13). Not simply be at peace with your pastor, but among\nyourselves. You are all the children of God. God is a God of peace.\nDiscord, contention, and unquietness are fit only for the children of\nthe devil. Live in godly unity as becometh the children of peace.\nThis is a duty frequently enjoined (Heb. xii. 14; Jas. iii.; Ps.\ncxli.). Let there be peace especially between the minister and his\nflock--no rivalry between ministers, no disputings and contentions\namong the people. There can be no prosperity where peace is absent.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The minister is accountable to God for his fidelity._\n2. _The people can never profit under the minister they have not\nlearned to respect._ 3. _Peace is an essential condition of success\nin Christian work._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 12, 13. _A Public Ministry_--\n\n  +I. Is ordained by God.+--\"Over you in the Lord.\"\n\n +II. Has clearly defined duties.+--1. _To labour._ 2. _To govern._\n      3. _To admonish._\n\n+III. Should be highly esteemed.+--\"Esteem them very highly in love\n      for their work's sake.\"\n\n\nVer. 13. \"And be at peace among yourselves.\" _Church Concord_--\n\n  +I. Possible only where there is mutual peace.+\n\n +II. It is the duty of every member of the Church to promote\n      harmony.+\n\n+III. Peace with God is the condition of peace with each other.+\n\n +IV. Discord in a Church mars the usefulness of the best ministry.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14, 15.\n\n_A Group of Christian Precepts._\n\nThe supernatural character of Christianity is not less apparent in\nthe purity and loftiness of the morality it inculcates, than in the\nsuperiority of the truths it reveals. It is intensely practical in\nits teaching and aim. It is not like a glow of light that irradiates\nthe external character for a time; it is an inward radiance that\ncannot help making itself visible in the outer life. It is not a\nsentiment; it is a principle. The moral precepts of Christianity can\nbe appreciated and obeyed only by the soul that has become thoroughly\npossessed by the Christian spirit. Each precept in these verses may\nbe fittingly used as the homiletical heading of a distinct paragraph.\n\n+I. Warn them that are unruly.+--The unruly are those who, like\ndisorderly soldiers, break their ranks, and become idle, dissolute,\nand worthless in their lives. This disorderliness was a besetting sin\nof the primitive Churches, not excepting the Thessalonian. Many of\nthem, entertaining false ideas about the nearness of Christ's second\ncoming, became indifferent to the ordinary work of life, and sank\ninto listlessness and apathy, and even worse. Says the proverb, \"An\nidle brain is the devil's workshop,\" and when a man is not diligently\nemployed in some healthy and vigorous occupation, he is apt,\nnotwithstanding his Christian profession, to become an instrument of\nevil and a disturber of the Church, the peace of which he is pledged\nto maintain. It is difficult to pin some people down to a bit of fair\nand honest work. They are full of schemes and suggestions for other\npeople to carry out; they lay down the line of conduct with the\nutmost precision, but never themselves illustrate the easiness or\ndifficulty of on keeping the line; they make laws and regulations\nwhich they never dream of observing themselves and are for ever\nfinding fault that other people do not observe them. These are the\nrestless gipsies of the Church, the pests of every Christian\ncommunity into which they intrude, the mischief-makers and busybodies\nin other people's matters. Warn such. Admonish gently at first,\nputting them in mind of their duty. It is the fault of many to limit\nadmonitions to gross and grievous sins; but in these cases, warning\noften comes too late. If admonition in the earlier stage is not\neffectual, then proceed to sharper and more faithful reproof. If that\nis unavailing, hesitate not to take more summary measures--separate\nyourselves from their society.\n\n+II. Comfort the feeble-minded.+--More correctly--encourage the\nfaint-hearted. The reference is not to the intellectually weak, but\nto such as faint in the day of adversity, or are ready to fall away\nbefore the prospect of persecution and suffering (ch. ii. 14), or who\nare disheartened and desponding in consequence of the loss of friends\n(ch. iv. 13). It may also include those who are perplexed with\nconstant doubt and apprehension as to their spiritual condition, and\nwho through fear are all their lifetime subject to bondage. There are\nsome people so weighed down with a sense of modesty as to\nincapacitate them from using the abilities they certainly possess,\nthough underneath all this modesty there may be the pride of thinking\nthemselves better able to judge of themselves and their abilities\nthan anybody else. Others, again, are so oppressed with the\ninveteracy of sin, that they despair of gaining the victory over it,\nand give up all endeavours. These need encouraging with the promises\nof God, and with the lessons and examples furnished by experience.\nHeart-courage is what the faint-hearted require.\n\n+III. Support the weak.+--A man may be weak in judgment or weak in\npractice. There may be lack of information as to certain great truths\nnecessary to be believed and stoutly maintained, or lack of capacity\nin clearly understanding and grasping those truths. Such was the\ncondition of many in the apostle's day, who, not apprehending the\ncomplete abrogation of the Mosaic law, and thinking they were still\nconscientiously bound to observe ordinances, were weak in faith. Some\nlinger for years in the misty borderland between doubt and certainty,\nwith all its enfeebling and poisonous malaria--ever learning, but\nnever coming to a knowledge of the truth. Defective faith implies\ndefective practice. Support such with the moral influence of our\nsympathy, our prayers, our counsel, our example. While not\ncountenancing their sins, we may bear or prop them up by judiciously\ncommending in them that which is good, by not too severely condemning\nthem in the practice of things indifferent (1 Cor. ix. 20), and by\nstriving to rectify their errors with all gentleness and fidelity.\n\n+IV. Be patient toward all men.+--Not only toward the weak, the\nfaint-hearted, and the disorderly, but towards all men--the most\nwayward and perverse, the bitterest enemies and persecutors. Consider\nthe patience of God towards ourselves, while for years we refused His\ncalls and despised His admonitions; and let us strive to imitate His\nlongsuffering and kindness. Lack of present success is no warrant to\nany to cease from obvious duties and leave things to drift in\nhopeless entanglement and ruin. The triumphs of genius in art,\nscience, and literature are triumphs of patience.\n\n+V. See that none renders evil for evil unto any man.+--Retaliation\nbetrays a weak, ignoble, and cruel disposition. Pagan morality went\nso far as to forbid only the unprovoked injuring of others, and it is\nnot without  noble examples of the exercise of a spirit of\nforgiveness,\n\n     \"Exalted Socrates, divinely brave,\n      Injured he fell, and dying, he forgave;\n      Too noble for revenge, which still we find\n      The weakest frailty of a feeble mind.\"\n\nThe Jews prostituted to purposes of private revenge the laws which\nwere intended to administer equitable retributions between man and\nman. It is Christianity alone that teaches man to bear personal\ninjuries without retaliation. \"Hath any wronged thee?\" says Quarles;\n\"be bravely avenged--slight it, and the work is begun; forgive it,\nand it is finished. He is below himself that is not above an injury.\"\nPublic wrongs the public law will avenge; and the final recompense\nfor all wrong, private and public, must be left to the infallible\nJudge of all (Rom. xii. 19, 20).\n\n+VI. But ever follow that which is good, both among yourselves and to\nall men.+--The noblest retaliation is that of good for evil. In the\nworst character there is some element of goodness, that may call out\nthe desire to do good towards it. Our beneficence should be as large\nas an enemy's malice (Matt. v. 44, 45). That which is good is not\nalways that which is pleasing to the objects of our benevolence, nor\nis it always pleasing to ourselves. Goodness should be sought for its\nown sake, and sought with increasing earnestness and perseverance, as\nthe hunter seeks his prey. It is the great aim and business of life.\nGoodness is essentially diffusive; it delights in multiplying itself\nin others. It is undeterred by provocation; it conquers the most\nvirulent opposition.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The preceptive morality of Christianity is a signal\nevidence of its transcendent glory._ 2. _Practice is more potent than\nprecept._ 3. _The Christian spirit is the root of genuine goodness._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16-18.\n\n_The Secret of a Happy Life._\n\nHappiness is not found in anything external. It is a certain state of\nthe soul when it is filled with the peace of God and lit up with the\nsunshine of heaven. It is a mockery to talk about cultivating\nhappiness. It is not a potato to be planted in mould and tilled with\nmanure. \"Happiness is a glory shining far down upon us out of heaven.\nIt is a Divine dew which the soul, on certain of its summer mornings,\nfeels dropping upon it from the amaranth bloom and golden fruitage\noff paradise.\" An aged Divine once gave this advice to a newly\nmarried pair: \"Don't try to be happy. Happiness is a shy nymph, and\nif you chase her, you will never catch her; but just go quietly on\nand do your duty, and she will come to you.\" In these verses we have\nrevealed to us the secret of a happy life.\n\n+I. The secret of a happy life is found in constant and faithful\ndischarge of Christian duties.+--1. _It is our duty continually to\nrejoice._ \"Rejoice evermore\" (ver. 16). To rejoice is not only a\nprivilege, but a duty; the believer is as much obliged to rejoice as\nhe is to believe. It seems a mockery to direct people to rejoice in\nthe midst of a world of sin, sorrow, and death, and in a Church which\nis sorely tried; and yet such was the condition of things when these\nwords were penned, and when similar counsel was given to the\nPhilippians (Phil. iv. 4). Religion is never recommended by sour\nlooks, sepulchral tones, and suppressing every external manifestation\nof gladness. No wonder the Christian is able to rejoice continually,\nwhen we remember the inexhaustible sources of joy he possesses in his\nrelations to Christ, to God, and to the Holy Ghost, in the promises\nof the Divine Word, and in a long, beneficent, and holy life. By\nbecoming religious, a man does not lose his joys, but exchanges\nthem--transitory, fading, earthly joys--for joy unspeakable,\nglorious, and that fadeth not away.\n\n2 _It is our duty to pray always._--\"Pray without ceasing\" (ver. 17).\nAs we are every moment in need, so should we every moment seek help\nin prayer. The Lord requires not only frequency in prayer, but also\nunwearied importunity. We must guard against the error of the\nEuchites, who flourished in the fourth century, and who regarded all\nother exercises of religion than inward prayer as unnecessary and\nvain. Live in the spirit of prayer. Let the whole work of life be as\nprayer offered to God. He who prays the most lives the best. Prayer\nsurrounds the soul with a golden atmosphere, through which is sifted\nthe sunbeams of heavenly joy.\n\n3. _It is our duty to be ever grateful._--\"In everything give thanks\"\n(ver. 18). Prayer should ever be accompanied with thanksgiving. What\nwe may pray for, for that we must give thanks; and whatever is unfit\nmatter for prayer is unfit for thanksgiving. The Christian can meet\nwith nothing in the way of duty that is not a cause for thankfulness,\nwhatever suffering may be entailed. When we think of the ceaseless\nstream of God's mercies, we shall have ample reasons for\nunintermitted thanksgiving.\n\n+II. The secret of a happy life is in harmony with the Divine\nwill.+--\"For this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you\"\n(ver. 18). It is the will of God that His people should be rejoicing,\npraying, and grateful; and this will is revealed by Christ, as\ndeclared in His Gospel, as received in His Church, and as observed by\nthose in communion with Him. What a revelation is this, not of an\narbitrary demand of the impossible state of the affections towards\nGod, but a beautiful and consolatory discovery of the largeness of\nHis love and of the blessed ends for which He has redeemed us in\nChrist. The will of God supplies constant material for gratitude and\npraise.\n\n+Lessons.+--_Learn the three indubitable marks of a genuine\nChristian:_ 1. _To rejoice in the mercy of God._ 2. _To be fervent in\nprayer._ 3. _To give thanks to God in all things._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 16. _Rejoice Evermore._\n\n  +I. In the exercise of faith.+--1. _In the truths of God._ 2. _In\n      the promises of God._\n\n +II. In the practice of Christian hope.+\n\n+III. In performing the duty of charity.+--_Barrow._\n\n\nVer. 17. _On Self-recollectedness and Ejaculatory Prayer._\n\n+I. Mental prayer consists in gathering up the mind from its\nwanderings and placing it consciously in the presence of God.+\n\n+II. In breathing out the mind towards God.+\n\n+III. Materials for ejaculatory prayer.+--1. _Found in daily portions\nof Scripture._ 2. _Stated prayer cannot be dispensed with even where\nejaculatory prayer is practised._ 3. _Ejaculatory prayer helpful in\nstriving after a life of sanctity.--E. M. Goulburn._\n\n\nVer. 18. _The Perpetual Thanksgiving of a Christian Life._\n\n+I. Its difficulty.+--1. _From our fancied knowledge of life._\n2. _From our unbelieving distrust of God._\n\n+II. Its motive.+--God's will is so revealed in Christ, that,\nbelieving in it, we can give thanks in all things. 1. _Life the\nperpetual providences of a Father._ 2. _That perpetual providence is\na discipline of human character._ 3. _The discipline of life is\nexplained by eternity alone._\n\n+III. Its attainment.+--It is the gradual result of a life of earnest\nfellowship with God.--_E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-22.\n\n_Varied Aspects of Spiritual Influence._\n\nIn the natural world the greater law of distribution is manifested in\nthe infinite variety that appears in the midst of an unchanging and\ninflexible uniformity. And in the Church of God what varied gifts,\ngraces, and attainments are found in its members. No two are\nprecisely alike. There are diversities of gifts, but the same Spirit;\nand the multiplicity and variety of endowments are intended to be\nexercised for one grand and definite purpose (Eph. iv. 12, 13). By\ngrouping together the precepts contained in these verses, we have\nsuggested to us the varied aspects of spiritual influence. Observe:--\n\n+I. The fervency of spiritual influence.+--1. _The influence of the\nSpirit is represented under the emblem of fire._ \"Quench not the\nSpirit\" (ver. 19). Fire purifies the gold of its dross, enlightens by\nits splendour the eyes of the beholder, and raises the temperature of\nthe Christian life. The person inspired is borne along, as it were,\nwith spiritual ardour (Acts xviii. 25; Rom. xii. 11). Timothy is\ndirected to rekindle or keep up the fire (2 Tim. i. 6). Christian\nbaptism is baptism \"with the Holy Ghost and with fire\" (Matt.\niv. 11). The descent of the Holy Ghost at Pentecost was in tongues of\nfire (Acts ii. 3). The Spirit, as fire, bestows both the light of\nknowledge and the fervour of love.\n\n2. _The influence of the Spirit may be quenched by denying the\npersonality and Godhead of the Spirit,_ by depreciating the necessity\nof and restraining the fervour of His presence in Christian work; by\nignoring special reference to Him in prayer; by stifling the voice of\nconscience; by neglect of religious ordinances; by conformity to the\nworld; by unsanctified use of past afflictions. The gifts of the\nSpirit, with all His holy operations, must be fervently and\ndiligently cherished within us.\n\n+II. The instructiveness of spiritual influence.+--\"Despise not\nprophesyings\" (ver. 20). The word \"prophesying\" in the New Testament\nsignifies not only the prediction of future events, but the\ninstructions of men inspired by the Holy Ghost, teaching Christian\ndoctrines, revealing or explaining mysteries, exhorting to duties,\nconsoling the sorrowing and afflicted. It is what we understand by\npreaching. It is not so much the prediction of events that are\nfuture, as it is the proclamation of duty that is instant. However\nexalted the believer may be in spiritual experience, however rich in\nfaith and charity, it is still his duty to attend to preaching.\n\"Despise not prophesying.\" Like many a negative in the Bible, it\nmeans a very decided positive in the opposite direction. Despise it\nnot by exalting reason over revelation. Despise it not by identifying\ntrue religion with the weakness, oddities, and eccentric notions of\ngood but ignorant men. Despise it not by denying its beneficent\nteachings, spurning its wise counsels, and neglecting its faithful\nwarnings. Where there is no prophecy the people perish. He that\ndespiseth it shall be despised of the Lord; he shall be cast into\ndarkness, because he would not delight in the light (Acts xiii. 41;\nProv. i. 24-31).\n\n+III. The possible abuse of spiritual influence.+--\"Prove all things;\nhold fast that which is good\" (ver. 21). Error is never so dangerous\nas when it is the alloy of truth. Pure error is seen through at once\nand rejected; but error mixed with truth makes use of the truth as a\npioneer for it, and gets introduction where otherwise it would have\nnone. Poison is all the more dangerous when mixed up with food--error\nis never so likely to do mischief as when it comes to us under the\npretensions and patronage of that which is true. Hence the importance\nof testing every pretender to spiritual illumination--as the\ngoldsmith tests the gold and discovers the amount of alloy in it.\n\"Beloved,\" says St. John, \"believe not every spirit, but try the\nspirits, whether they are of God; because many false prophets are\ngone out into the world\" (1 John iv. 1). There are certain\nfundamental truths that are beyond all necessity of testing, and\nwhich transcend the powers of human reason to fully comprehend. The\ndirection is addressed to the Church, to those who possess the Spirit\nby whose help the test is applied. The utterances of the Spirit may\nbe tested in their relation to the glory of Jesus, and by the\ninfluence of the truths uttered upon the moral and spiritual life of\nthe teacher and his followers. Having proved the truth, hold fast\nthat which is good, as with both hands and against all who would\nforcibly wrest it from you. When you have tried and found out the\ntruth, be constant and settled in it. A wavering-minded man is\nunstable in all his ways:--\n\n     \"Seize upon truth wherever 'tis found,\n      Among her friends, among her foes,\n      On Christian or on heathen ground,\n      The flower's divine where'er it grows--\n      Refuse the prickles and assume the rose.\"\n\n+IV. The sensitiveness of spiritual influence.+--\"Abstain from all\nappearance of evil\" (ver. 22). Nothing will sooner quench the fire of\nthe Spirit in the believer than sin. Therefore is he exhorted to\nabstain, to hold aloof from every species of evil not only from that\nwhich is really and in itself evil, but also from that which has the\nshape or semblance of evil. Not what we are, but what we appear,\ndetermines the world's judgment of us. Our usefulness in the world is\nvery much dependent on appearances. Our abhorrence of evil, both in\ndoctrine and practice, must be so decided as to avoid the very show\nof it in either. He makes conscience of no sin that makes no\nconscience of all; and he is in danger of the greatest who allows\nhimself in the least. \"By shunning evil things,\" says Bernard, \"we\nprovide for conscience; by avoiding ill, shows we safeguard our\nfame.\" The believer has need of a sound judgment, a sensitive\nconscience, and an ever-wakeful vigilance. To sanction evil in any\nform is to dim the lustre and stifle the operation of spiritual\ninfluence. \"Know nought but truth, feel nought but love, will nought\nbut bliss, do nought but righteousness. All things are known in\nheaven ere aimed at on earth.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The mightiest influence in the universe is\nspiritual._ 2. _Increase of spiritual influence is dependent on\nuprightness of life._ 3. _The best spiritual gifts should be eagerly\nsought._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 19. _Quench not the Spirit._\n\n+I. The mode of the Spirit's operation is likened unto that of\nfire.+--1. _Fire of unrest._ When the Spirit convinces of sin.\n2. _Fire of purification._ When the Spirit burns up evil within.\n3. _Fire of consecration._ When the Spirit dwells within as a mighty\nimpelling force.\n\n+II. It is in our power to quench the Holy Fire.+\n\n+III. The ways in which men quench the Spirit.+--1. _By continuing in\nknown sin._ 2. _By indulging in a light, frivolous spirit._ 3. _By\nrefusing to believe in anything they cannot see or touch._ 4. _By\nallowing worldly affairs to absorb the affections._ 5. _By neglecting\nreligions duties._ 6. _By not exercising the gifts already\nbestowed.--Local Preacher's Treasury._\n\n\nVer. 20. _Despise not Prophesyings_--\n\n  +I. Because they are the sayings of God.+\n\n +II. They are the grand appointed means of our salvation.+\n\n+III. Because we greatly need them.+\n\n +IV. We grieve the Spirit of God thereby.+\n\n  +V. It is the sure way of contracting a habit of despising Divine\n      things in general.+\n\n +VI. It lays stumbling-blocks in the way of others.+\n\n+VII. Those who despise destroy themselves.+--_E. Hare._\n\n\n_Abuse of Public Worship._\n\n+I. The offence.+--1. _Habitual neglect of public worship._\n2. _Attendance on public worship in an improper state of mind._\n3. _Failure to improve public worship for the purposes for which it\nis intended._\n\n+II. Its sin and danger.+--1. _It involves contempt of the authority\nof God._ 2. _It involves contempt of an institution with which God\nhas specially identified Himself._ 3. _It involved contempt of one of\nthe appointed means of grace._ 4. _It involves contempt of our own\nsoul.--G. Brooks._\n\n\nVer. 21. _Rationalism._\n\n+I. Prove all things.+--1. _Our own sentiments._ 2. _The sentiments\nof others._\n\n+II. Hold fast that which is good.+--1. _Against the assaults of\nproud reason._ 2. _Against the assaults of mad passions._ 3. _Against\nthe assaults of a menacing world.--Ibid._\n\n\n>_Prove all things._\n\n+I. The course of conduct commanded.+--\"Prove.\" 1. _By an appeal to\nthe Word of God as supreme._ 2. _Sincerely._ 3. _Thoroughly._\n4 _Prayerfully._\n\n+II. The extent to which the course of conduct is to be\ncarried.+--\"All things.\" 1. _Things taken for granted to be right._\n2. _Things wrong._ 3. _Things doubtful._\n\n+III. Some hindrances to the adoption of this course.+--1. _Dislike\nto the trouble it may cause_ 2. _Fear of the demands which the result\nmay make._\n\n+IV. Blessings likely to result from this course.+--1. _Activity of\nmind in matters of religion._ 2. _A specific acquaintance with the\nWord of God._ 3. _Legitimate independence of thought._ 4. _Increasing\nstrength of Christian character._ 5. _Increase of Christian\nsagacity._ 6. _The adorning of the Christian doctrine in the eyes of\nmen.--J. Holmes._\n\n\n_Hold Fast that which is Good._\n\n   +I. Be well assured of the value and goodness of the possession.+\n\n  +II. Cherish a deep sense of responsibility because you have been\n       led to prove and to be convinced of the good.+\n\n +III. Be assured that powerful influences will be exerted that you\n       may lose your hold.+\n\n  +IV. Do not allow your convictions of its goodness to be unsettled.+\n\n   +V. Do not take hold of anything which you cannot hold at the same\n       time that you firmly grasp this.+\n\n  +VI. Do not let a little of it go.+\n\n +VII. Hold it more firmly.+\n\n+VIII. Regard how others have been affected by the way they have\n       held.+\n\n  +IX. Depend entirely on the grace of God to enable you to do\n       this.+--_Ibid._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 23, 24.\n\n_A Prayer for Sanctification._\n\nSanctification is the supreme end of the Christian life, and\neverything should be made to contribute to the grand result. It is\nthe crown and ornament of all other graces, the perfecting of every\nmoral virtue. The fact that man is capable of so lofty a degree of\npersonal holiness indicates that it is the supreme end for which he\nought to live. He misses the glory that is within his reach if he\ndoes not attain to it. Sanctification in its radical meaning is\nsimply separation--a separation from what is evil to what is good. It\nthen implies to make holy that which is unholy. It begins in a moral\ntransformation, the regeneration of the heart, and advances to\nperfection. Observe:--\n\n+I. That sanctification is a complete work.+--\"Sanctify you wholly;\nand I pray God your whole spirit, and soul, and body be preserved\nblameless\" (ver. 23).\n\n1. _It affects the intellectual nature of man._--\"Your spirit.\" It is\nthis that distinguishes truth from falsehood and apprehends the\nmysteries of religion. If the intellect is sanctified, there is less\ndanger of falling into error and heresy. Enlightened by the Holy\nGhost, it enables man to prove all things and to test and judge every\naspect of truth.\n\n2. _It affects the spiritual nature of man._--\"Your soul\"--the seat\nof the affections and will, the passions and appetites. The having\nthe heart in a right or wrong condition makes the difference between\nthe moral and the immoral character. When the heart is sanctified the\npassions and appetites are kept within due bounds, and the believer\nis preserved pure from the sinful lusts of the flesh. The same\ndistinction between spirit and soul is made in Heb. iv. 12; and in\nTit. i. 15 a distinction is made between the intellectual and moral\nin the terms _mind_ and _conscience._\n\n3. _It affects the physical nature of man._--\"Your body.\" The body is\nthe temple of the Holy Ghost (1 Cor. iv. 19) and must be kept pure\nand blameless--must be kept in temperance, soberness, and chastity;\nto pollute it with fleshly lusts is to pollute and destroy it (1 Cor.\niii. 17). The body, immortalised and glorified, will be the companion\nof the glorified soul throughout eternity; and the Thessalonians had\nalready been assured that the body was to rise from the grave (ch.\niv. 16). The whole complex nature of man is to be purified. Mere\noutward decency of conduct is not enough; the inner man, the\nintellectual, moral, and spiritual faculties must be kept in a state\nof purity and holiness. He hath sanctity in no part who is not\nsanctified in every part.\n\n4. _It is a necessary fitness to meet Christ at His coming._--\"Be\npreserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver.\n23). It is the power of God only that can keep man holy, though the\nutmost circumspection and vigilance are to be exercised on his part.\n\"Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God\" (Matt.\nv. 8)--see Him now as the inner eye of the soul is clarified, and see\nHim at His coming in power and great glory.\n\n+II. That sanctification is a Divine work.+--1. _The believer is\ncalled to sanctification by the God of unswerving fidelity._\n\"Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do it\" (ver. 24). God\nis faithful to all His promises of help. Every promise is backed by\nthe whole force of His omnipotence--\"who also will do it.\" There is\nnothing greater in the universe than the will of God; it actuates His\npower and ensures His faithfulness. Entire sanctification is\ntherefore no impossible attainment. God calls, not to mock and\ndisappoint, but to bless.\n\n2. _The believer is called to sanctification by the God of\npeace._--\"The very God of peace sanctify you\" (ver. 23). Peace and\nsanctification are inseparable; without holiness there can be no\npeace. God is the author and giver of peace, and delights in peace.\nMr. Howels, of Long Acre chapel, used to say that if he saw two dogs\nat peace with each other, he saw there \"the very God of peace\"; that\none atom of peace left in a world of war with God is a truce of the\nlingering mercy and favouring goodness of God. Peace is a reflection\nof the Divine presence on earth. The Thessalonians had been enjoined\nto cultivate mutual peace and harmony (ver. 13), and personal\nholiness had been earnestly recommended (ch. iv. 3). They are now\ntaught where peace and holiness are to be found. Both are gifts of\nGod. We have need of peace--peace of conscience, peace from the rage\nand fury of the world, peace and love among those who are of the\nhousehold of God.\n\n+III. That sanctification is obtained by prayer.+--The loftiest duty\nis possible with grace; the least is all but impossible without it.\nAll grace must be sought of God in prayer. The virtue and power of\nall exhortation and teaching depend on the Divine blessing. What God\nencourages us to seek in prayer is possible of attainment in actual\nexperience. Prayer is the expression of wants we feel. It is the\npower by which we reach he highest spiritual excellence.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Cherish the highest ideal of the Christian\ncharacter._ 2. _Pray for Divine help in its attainment._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 23. _The Sanctification of the Complete Man._\n\n+I. Its meaning.+--1. _There is a great trinity of powers--body,\nsoul, and spirit--linking man with three different worlds._ The\nphysical, the intellectual, the spiritual. 2. _These three ranges of\npowers become gateways of temptation from three different worlds, and\nunless they are all consecrated we are never free from danger._\n\n+II. Its attainment.+--1. _We cannot consecrate ourselves._ 2. _God\npreserves the entire sanctification by imparting peace._\n\n+III. The motive for endeavouring to attain it.+--\"Until the coming\nof our Lord Jesus Christ.\" 1. _A day of manifestation when the\nshadows and unrealities of time will fade in the full morning of\neternity._ 2. _A day of everlasting gatherings.--E. L. Hull._\n\n\n_The Trinity._\n\n  +I. The first power or consciousness in which God is made known to\n      us is as the Father, the Author of our being.+\n\n +II. The second way through which the personality and consciousness\n      of God has been revealed to us is as the Son.+\n\n+III. A closer and a more enduring relation in which God stands to us\n      is the relation of the Spirit.+--It is the graces of the Spirit\n      which harmonise the man and make him one; and that is the end,\n      aim, and object of all the Gospel.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\nVer. 24. _The Faith of Man and the Faithfulness of God._\n\n  +I. The highest object of man's existence is to hold communion with\n      his God.+\n\n +II. Rightly to believe in Christ is to know and feel this\n      communion.+\n\n+III. The unalterable faithfulness of God is a fidelity to His own\n      gracious engagement.+\n\n +IV. The prominent character of God is unshaken stability.+\n\n  +V. God is faithful to his warnings as He is to His\n      promises.+--_A. Butler._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 25-28.\n\n_Closing Words._\n\n+I. An important request.+--\"Brethren, pray for us\" (ver. 25). The\nmost gifted saints have need of the prayers of God's people. The\ngreat apostle, much as he prayed for himself, did not himself feel\nindependent of the intercessions of others. His large experience of\nthe power of prayer made him only the more anxious to strengthen his\npersonal interest at the throne of grace. The least gifted saint in\nother respects may be mighty in prayer. Believers are so bound\ntogether as to be dependent on one another, and all on the great Head\nof the Church. The richest inheritance of the anxious minister are\nthe prayers of his people. A praying Church will never have to\ncomplain of an insipid and fruitless ministry.\n\n+II. A Christian salutation.+--\"Greet all the brethren with an holy\nkiss\" (ver. 26). The \"kiss of charity\" in those days was a token of\nfriendship and goodwill, something equivalent to the shaking of hands\nin modern times. In the Syrian Church, before communion, each takes\nhis neighbour's right hand, and gives the salutation, \"Peace!\" The\ngreeting was \"a holy kiss\"--pure and chaste, such as one Christian\nmay give to another, and not sin. Christianity is the soul of\ncourtesy. \"Forms may change; but the same spirit of brotherly love\nand cordial recognition of one another, under whatever diversities of\ntemporal circumstances, should ever characterise those who know the\nlove of a common Saviour, and have entered into the communion of\nsaints\" (_Lillie_). Let the love of the heart toward all the brethren\nbe practically manifested in becoming acts of courtesy and goodwill.\n\n+III. A solemn direction.+--\"I charge you by the Lord that this\nepistle be read unto all the holy brethren\" (ver. 27). The first\nepistle to the Thessalonians is, in point of time, the earliest of\nall the canonical books of the New Testament; and here is a solemn\ninjunction that it be publicly read to all the people. The Romish\nChurch, if she does not deny, very unwillingly allows the reading of\nScripture by the laity. \"What Rome forbids under an anathema,\" says\nBengel, \"St. Paul enjoins with an adjuration.\" None should be\ndebarred from reading or hearing the Word of God. \"Women and children\nare not to be excluded\" (Deut. xxxi. 12; Josh. viii. 34, 35). Lois\nand Eunice knew the Bible and taught it to the child Timothy. The\nBer\u0153ans had free access to the sacred volume, and searched it at\ntheir pleasure. The public reading of the Holy Scriptures is an\nimportant means of edifying the Church; it is enforced by apostolic\nauthority; it familiarises the mind with the greatest truths; it\nkeeps alive the enthusiasm of the Church for aggressive purposes.\n\n+IV. A gracious benediction.+--\"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be\nwith you. Amen\" (ver. 28). The epistle closes, as it began, with\nblessing. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ is the fountain of all\nthe good that has flowed in upon and enriched the human race. The\nthree great features of that grace--pardon, peace, holiness--are\nclearly elucidated in this epistle. The fountain is inexhaustible.\nIts streams of blessing are ever available for needy, perishing man.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer is an ever-present duty._ 2. _Christianity\nhallows all the true courtesies of life._ 3. _The Word of God should\nbe constantly read and studied._ 4. _The best blessings issue from\nthe inexhaustible grace of our Lord Jesus Christ._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 25. _Pray for Us._\n\n+I. We greatly need your prayers.+--Our state, like yours, is a state\nof probation. We have uncommon wants. We have a strict account to\ngive.\n\n+II. We request your prayers.+--1. _You can pray._ 2. _God will hear\nyou._\n\n+III. We may reasonably expect that you will pray for us.+--1. _We\npray for you._ 2. _We are labouring for your advantage._\n\n+IV. We are warranted to expect it from your own\nprofessions.+--1. _You profess a high degree, not only of respect,\nbut of love to your preachers._ 2. _Some of you can scarcely give us\nany other proof of it._\n\n+V. It will be to your advantage to pray for us.+--1. _It will\nprepare your minds for hearing us._ 2. _This will make us useful to\nyou._\n\n+VI. Your prayers will make us more useful to others.+\n\n\nVer. 27. _The Public Reading of the Scriptures._\n\n+I. To debar the Lord's people from acquainting themselves with\nScripture is a great sin.+--Scripture should be translated into the\nnative tongue of every nation where Christ has a Church, that people\nmay read it, hear it, and be acquainted with it. They ought\ndiligently to improve all helps to acquaint them with the mind of God\nrevealed in Scripture and look upon their doing so as a duty of\ngreatest importance and weight.\n\n+II. Ministers and Church guides should see that the people of their\ncharge be acquainted with Scripture.+--Should invite them to read it\nin secret and in their families, and use their influence that\nchildren of both sexes be trained up at schools to read the Lord's\nwords distinctly in their own native language.\n\n+III. Scripture should be publicly read to God's people assembled\ntogether for His worship.+--Even though not immediately expounded and\napplied, the reading of God's Word allows it to speak for itself and\nimpress its own Divine authority.--_Fergusson._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - Page 483, Introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 484, Contents, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 485, notes on chapter i., verse 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Verse 5, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Verse 8, apply RC to \"Word\"\n   (twice). Verse 10, change \"Lord's return\" to \"lord's,\" referring\n   to the traveler spoken of in the parable.\n\n - Page 486, lesson \"Phases,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point I, change \"first person plural\" to \"first-person plural\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Divinely\"; add\n   \"John xvii. 21\" reference; apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice), \"Word,\"\n   and \"Divine.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - Page 487, same lesson, point III 1, change \"finding i#\" to\n   \"finding it\"; add comma to \"So our.\" Point III 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; add \"Eph. ii. 15\" reference. Application (\"Lessons\"),\n   point 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 488, lesson \"Thanksgiving,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"epistles, and.\" Point I 1, add comma to \"sees and\"; add \"James\n   ii. 26\" reference. Point I 4, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 489, same lesson, point II, remove comma from \"God, and.\"\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 490, lesson \"Gospel,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Point I 1, apply RC to\n   \"Victim\" and add \"Isa. liii. 3\" reference. Point I 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\" Point I 3, apply RC to \"Gospel's,\" \"Divine,\" and \"Gospel\n   Word.\" Each of points II and II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 491, application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Word,\" and \"Gospel.\" Point 2, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Germ\n   note, each of points I, I 1, I 2, and II, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point III 4, apply RC to \"Word.\" Lesson \"Practical Result,\"\n   introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Word,\" and \"Gospel.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 492, same lesson, point I 2, apply RC to \"Word\" and \"Gospel.\"\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Word\" and\n   \"Gospel\" (twice); remove comma from \"Sea, and.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 493, \"Evidences\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   \"Power\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"Conversion,\"\n   point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice). Point I 2, apply RC to \"Deity.\"\n\n - Page 494, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel\" and \"Divinely.\" \"Wrath to come\" note, point I, apply\n   RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 495, notes on chapter ii., verse 3, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Verse 4, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Verse 5, add em-dash before\n   poem; add left double quotes to poem.\n\n - Page 496, notes on chapter ii., verse 10, change \"unblamably\" to\n   \"unblameably.\" Verse 13, apply RC to \"Word.\" Verse 15, in the Luke\n   quotation, move the right double quote from after \"Son\" to after\n   \"off.\" Verse 18, remove comma from \"one, and.\" Lesson \"Essential\n   Elements I,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 497, same lesson, introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   I, apply RC to \"Divine\" and \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"invectives, or\"; add \"Matt. xxiii. 33\" reference; apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point III, apply RC to\n   \"Divinely\" and \"Divine\"; remove comma from \"God, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; add \"Jer. xx. 9-11; Jer. i. 7\" and \"Phil. iv. 13\"\n   references.\n\n - Page 498, germ note, each of points I and II 1, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Point II 3, change \"His\" to \"his,\" referring to Paul.\n   Lesson \"Essential Elements II,\" in each of introduction and points\n   I 2, I 3, II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\" and \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 499, same lesson, point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add\n   \"2 Cor. ii. 17\" reference. Point II 3, change \"cloak\" to \"cloke\"\n   to match A.V. text. Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 500, lesson \"Essential Elements III,\" point I 1, add \"2 Tim.\n   ii. 24, 25\" reference. Point I 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   II 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 501, same lesson, point II 2, add \"Matt. xx. 28; Mark x. 45\"\n   and \"Acts xx. 24\" references. Lesson \"Essential Elements IV,\"\n   point I, add \"1 Cor. ix. 13, 14\" reference.\n\n - Page 502, same lesson, point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II,\n   change \"unblamably\" to \"unblameably\"; remove comma from \"truth,\n   and\"; add left double quote before poem. Point III 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; remove comma from \"earth, and.\" Germ note, point I,\n   apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point III 3, change \"unblamable\" to\n   \"unblameable.\"\n\n - Page 503, lesson \"Correct Estimate,\" introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel\" (twice). Point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II, apply\n   RC to \"Gospel\" and \"Divine.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and\n   \"Visitor.\" Before poem, add em-dash. After poem, apply RC to\n   \"Word.\" Point II 2, add \"1 Peter i. 23\" reference. Point II 4,\n   apply RC to \"Word.\" Add warning about the word \"niggardly.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - The break between pages 503 and 504 is in the word \"effectually\":\n   effec|tually.\n\n - Page 504, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Word\" (twice) and\n   \"Divine Word.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and \"Word\"; add\n   \"Isa. ix. 3\" reference. Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC\n   to \"Gospel\" and \"Word.\" Point 3, apply RC to \"Word.\" Germ note,\n   each of points I and I 1, apply RC to \"Word.\" Lesson \"Suffering,\"\n   introduction, remove comma from \"character, and\"; add comma to \"So\n   there.\"\n\n - Page 505, same lesson, point I, add \"Ps. lv. 12, 13,\" \"2 Tim.\n   iii. 12,\" and \"Matt. x. 36\" references. Point II, add \"Matt.\n   xx. 22\" and \"Matt. x. 38\" references; apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"Fury,\" introduction, add comma to \"vegetation the.\"\n\n - Page 506, same lesson, introduction, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Divinely.\" Point I 1, add \"Matt. xxvii. 25\" reference. Point II,\n   apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove comma from \"memory, and.\"\n\n - Page 507, germ note, point III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson\n   \"Power,\" point I 1, add \"Gen. xliii. 14\" reference.\n\n - Page 508, same lesson, point III 2, add \"Ps. xvi. 11\" reference.\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), each of points 1 and 2, add comma to\n   \"therefore we.\"\n\n - Page 509, \"Joy\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Notes on\n   chapter iii., verse 2, add \"Luke xxii. 32\" reference. Verse 3, add\n   \"James i. 6\" reference. Verse 8, add \"Phil. i. 21\" reference.\n   Verse 11, change \"ii. 18\" to \"ch. ii. 18.\"\n\n - Page 510, lesson \"Mission,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point II, remove comma from \"Paul, and\"; add em-dash before poem.\n   Point III, add \"1 Tim. i. 2; 2 Tim. i. 2\" references; add comma to\n   \"finally he\"; apply RC to \"Gospel\"; add comma to \"Thus Timothy.\"\n\n - Page 511, same lesson, point IV 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and\n   \"Divine.\" Point IV 2, apply RC to \"Gospel\"; add \"ch. iii. 3\"\n   reference. Lesson \"Perils,\" introduction, add comma to \"is when\";\n   apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Gospel\"; add \"Acts xiv. 22\" and \"John xv. 19\" references.\n\n - Page 512, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 2,\n   apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 513, germ note, point V, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"News,\"\n   introduction, add \"Prov. xv. 25\" reference.\n\n - Page 514, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and\n   \"Divine.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove comma from\n   \"difficulties, and.\" Point III 2, remove comma from \"love, and.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, add comma to \"maintained and.\"\n\n - Page 515, lesson \"Steadfastness,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Word\"\n   and \"Gospel.\" Point II, change \"3 John v. 4\" to \"3 John 3, 4.\"\n\n - Page 516, same lesson, point III 2, add \"ver. 9\" reference for\n   consistency. Point III 3, apply RC to \"Author\" and \"Preserver.\"\n\n - Page 517, lesson \"Prayer,\" point I 1, add \"John v. 19\" reference.\n   Point II, add \"Jer. x. 23\" and \"Prov. iii. 6\" references; apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\" Point III 1, remove comma from \"graces, and.\"\n\n - Page 518, same lesson, point III 1, add \"1 John iii. 11\" and\n   \"1 Pet. i. 22\" references. Point III 2, add \"ver. 12\" reference\n   for consistency, add \"Lev. xix. 18\" and \"1 Tim. i. 5\" references.\n   Point III 3, add \"ver. 12\" reference for consistency; change\n   \"ii. 8, 9, 13; iii. 3-5\" to \"ch. ii. 8, 9, 13; ch. iii. 3-5.\"\n   Point IV, change \"unblamable\" to \"unblameable.\" Point IV 1, add\n   \"Col. iii. 14\" reference. Point IV 2, change \"unblamable\" to\n   \"unblameable\" (twice). Point IV 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Germ note,\n   point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III, change \"unblamable\" to\n   \"unblameable.\"\n\n - Page 519, notes for chapter iv., verse 5, add single quotes around\n   the word \"passion.\"\n\n - Page 520, notes for chapter iv., verse 15, change \"ii. 16\" to \"ch.\n   ii. 16.\" Lesson \"Exhortations,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"annihilated, but\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Each of points I, I 2,\n   and I 3, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 3, change \"It is, possible,\n   then\" to \"It is possible, then\"; add comma to \"vain the.\"\n\n - Page 521, same lesson, points I 4 and II, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n   Point II 1, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice), remove comma from\n   \"nature, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 2, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; change scripture quotation from \"For this the will\" to\n   \"For this is the will\"; apply RC to \"He.\" Point II 3, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\" (twice); add \"Rom. xiv. 14\" and \"Luke xxii. 42\"\n   references. Point III, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - Page 522, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divinely.\" Lesson \"Features,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"defect, and.\"\n\n - Page 523, same lesson, point I 1, add comma to \"Christianity it.\"\n\n - Page 524, same lesson, point II 2, change \"Prov. xxii. 10\" to\n   \"Prov. xxiii. 10\"; add \"2 Pet. ii. 3\" reference; apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine,\" \"Caller,\" and \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 525, lesson \"Word,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II,\n   apply RC to \"Word.\" Point III, remove comma from \"alone, but\";\n   apply RC to \"Divinely\"; remove comma from \"own, but\"; apply RC to\n   \"Word\"; remove comma from \"Heaven, and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"),\n   each points 1 and 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 526, lesson \"Brotherly Love,\" point I, apply RC to\n   \"Divinely.\" Point I 1, remove commas from \"taught, and\" and\n   \"Christianity, and.\" Point I 4, apply RC to \"Divinely,\" \"Word,\"\n   and \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 527, same lesson, point II, add comma to \"Accordingly the.\"\n   Point III, scripture quote, remove comma from \"beseech, you\";\n   text, remove comma from \"self-love, and.\" Germ note, point II,\n   apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - Page 528, lesson \"Pacific Spirit,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"another, and.\" Point II 1, add \"Prov. xx. 3\" reference; change\n   \"your neighbours\" to \"your neighbour's.\" Point II 2, remove comma\n   from \"evils, and.\"\n\n - Page 529, same lesson, point II 3, remove comma from \"business,\n   and.\" Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 530, lesson \"Sorrow,\" introduction, remove comma from \"child,\n   and.\" Point II, remove commas from \"life, and\" and \"son, and.\"\n\n - Page 531, same lesson, point III 1, add \"Rom. viii. 23\" reference.\n   Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add \"Hos. xiii. 14\" reference.\n   Point III 3, apply RC to \"Word\" (twice); remove comma from \"grave,\n   and.\" In-line note about eschatology before \"Second Advent\" lesson.\n\n - Page 532, lesson \"Second Advent,\" introduction, add comma to\n   \"words the.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove comma from\n   \"heaven, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 1, apply RC to\n   \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 533, same lesson, point IV, apply RC to \"Word\"; remove comma\n   from \"death, and.\"\n\n - Page 534, germ note, point II, add comma to \"general we.\" Point\n   II 1, apply RC to \"Word.\" Notes on chapter v., verse 2, in the\n   Findlay quote, change left double quote before \"You already know\"\n   to a left single quote and add a right single quote after \"known.\"\n   Verse 13, change \"iii. 10\" to \"ch. iii. 10.\" Verse 14, change\n   \"ii. 11\" to \"ch. ii. 11.\"\n\n - Page 535, lesson \"Attitude,\" introduction, change \"The book that\n   records the _first_ advent\" to \"A book written by one who knew of\n   [it]\" because neither John's Gospel nor his Revelation discuss it;\n   add \"Rev. xxii. 20\" reference. Point I 1, change \"untamable\" to\n   \"untameable\"; add comma to \"time there.\"\n\n - Page 536, same lesson, point I 2, remove comma from \"approach,\n   but\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Point II 2, add comma to \"therefore our\"; remove comma from \"day,\n   and.\"\n\n - Page 537, same lesson, point IV 1, apply RC to \"Divinely\" (thrice).\n\n - Page 538, \"Moral Sleep\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Lesson \"Treatment,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 539, point II 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point II 3, apply RC\n   to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 540, lesson \"Precepts,\" point I, remove comma from\n   \"themselves, and\"; add comma to \"cases warning.\" Point II, change\n   \"ii. 14\" to \"ch. ii. 14\" and \"iv. 13\" to \"ch. iv. 13.\"\n\n - Page 541, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from \"duties, and.\"\n\n - Page 542, lesson \"Happy Life,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"mould, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine\"; capitalise \"Divine\" referring\n   to a churchman. Point I, change \"iv. 4\" to \"Phil. iv. 4\" for\n   concreteness; apply RC to \"Divine Word.\"\n\n - Page 543, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Gospel.\" \"Self-recollectedness\" note, point I, remove comma from\n   \"wanderings, and.\" Lesson \"Influence,\" introduction, add comma to\n   \"verses we.\"\n\n - Page 544, same lesson, point III, add \"1 John iv. 1\" reference.\n   Poem, set the second line flush left with the rest of the poem.\n\n - Page 545, \"Despise\" note, point IV, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Prove\"\n   note, point I 1, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 546, same note, point IV 2, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 547, lesson \"Prayer,\" point I 3, change \"iv. 16\" to \"ch.\n   iv. 16.\" Point I 4, add \"Matt. v. 8\" reference. Point II, apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\" Point II 2, apply RC to \"Divine\"; change \"iv. 3\" to\n   \"ch. iv. 3.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 548, \"Trinity\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Author.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"Closing Words,\" point III,\n   apply RC to \"Word\"; remove comma from \"Bible, and.\"\n\n - Page 549, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Word.\" \"Public Reading\" note, point I, remove comma from\n   \"Scripture, and.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Word\" and \"Divine.\"\n\n\n\n+THE SECOND EPISTLE+\n\n+TO THE THESSALONIANS.+\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n+INTRODUCTION.+\n\n+Occasion and design.+--Probably little more time elapsed between the\ntwo epistles than was necessary for the messenger of Paul to return\nto him. This appears likely from the fact that Silvanus and Timothy\nwere still with Paul, at Corinth, as when the first letter was sent.\nThe condition of the Church at Thessalonica had meanwhile grown more\ntrying, the flame of persecution burnt more fiercely, and the\nconviction that this presaged the immediate appearance of the Lord\nfrom heaven grew stronger. \"Religious effervescence had come to a\nsort of paroxysm; an ever-increasing number of Christians gave up all\ntheir worldly concerns and duties for the sake of living a life of\ncontemplation, inquisitive idleness, and begging. In order,\ntherefore, to abate the intensity of this carnal rather than\nspiritual flame the apostle is obliged to make use of all the means\nat his disposal, and the two principals of these are instruction and\ndiscipline\" (_Godet_).\n\nThe design of the epistle is heard in the phrase, \"that ye be not\nquickly shaken from your mind nor yet be troubled . . . as that the\nday of the Lord is immediately impending\" (ch. ii. 2).\n\n+Style and character of the epistle.+--In style these two epistles to\nThessalonica are alike. We need not expect the style in which St.\nPaul writes to the Churches which had become faithless--then his\nlanguage defies style--nor of that to those whose edification in the\ndoctrines of the Christian faith is his aim. There is much in common\nbetween these letters and that to the other Macedonian Church. \"They\nare neither passionate, nor argumentative; but practical,\nconsolatory, prompted by affection, by memory and hope. Hence they\nrepresent, as it has been aptly said, 'St. Paul's normal style,' the\nway in which he would commonly write and talk to his friends\"\n(_Findlay_).\n\nIn their character, \"they are (1) the letters of a missionary,\n(2) singularly affectionate letters, (3) especially cheering and\nconsolatory letters, and (4) eschatological letters, _i.e._ they set\nforth the last things in Christian doctrine\" (_Ibid._).\n\n+Outline of the Epistle.+\n\n     i.     1, 2. Greeting.\n\n3-12 & ii. 13-17. The thanksgiving, with exhortations and prayers.\n\n    ii.     1-12. The doctrinal section: the Man of Sin.\n\n   iii.     1-16. The practical section, with messages, concluded with\n                  prayer.\n\n          17, 18. Autographic conclusion and benediction. (_Farrar_)\n\n\n+CHAPTER I.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 3. +We are bound to thank God.+--We owe a debt of gratitude to\nGod. It is not so much what is seemly that comes into prominence\nhere, as what is due. +Even as it is meet.+--The word for \"meet\"\ndirects attention to the value of the increase of the faith of the\nThessalonians. As though the apostle said, \"It is something worth\ngiving thanks for.\" +Your faith groweth exceedingly.+--The word for\n\"groweth exceedingly\" does not occur again in the New Testament. It\nmeans \"to increase beyond measure.\" The faith of the Thessalonians\nwas like \"a fruitful bough by a fountain whose branches run over the\nwall,\" though \"the archers have solely grieved it, and shot at it and\npersecuted it\" (Gen. xlix. 22, 23). +The charity of every one of you\ntoward each other aboundeth.+--This is high praise indeed--a plethora\nof love. Like a brimming fountain kept always full, so the love of\nthese early Christians overflowed, Cf. on 1 Thess. iv. 9.\n\nVer. 4. +We ourselves glory in you.+--St. Paul had to rebuke the\nCorinthians for the factious spirit which set off the excellencies of\none teacher against those of another. Here he plays off one Church\nagainst another, as a schoolmaster might seek to stir up his pupils\nby mentioning the names of those who have taken scholarships. But St.\nPaul well knew that this needed care (see Col. iii. 21; R.V. or\nGreek).\n\nVer. 5. +Which is a manifest token.+--\"An _indication._\" The\nsteadfast and resolute continuance in the profession and adornment of\nthe Christian faith, in face of opposition, might suggest to\npersecutors, as to Gamaliel, the possibility of the Divine origin of\nthe faith, to oppose which was to fight against God (Acts v. 39).\n\nVer. 6. +Seeing it is a righteous thing.+--\"There is no\nunrighteousness in Him\" (John vii. 18). However stern the\nretribution, none who suffers will ever be able to impugn the\njustice. +To recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.+--The\nR.V. comes nearer to the original, \"affliction to them that afflict\nyou.\" This _lex talionis_ is a sword that is dangerous to any hand\nbut His who said, \"Vengeance is Mine; I will repay\" (Rom. xii. 19).\n\nVer 7. +And to you who are troubled rest with us.+--The idea\nsuggested by the words is that of poor, hunted fugitives with nerves\ntensely strung and with a wild look of fear in the eyes. As the\nguardians of the infant Jesus were assured of safety by the death of\nhim who sought the child's life, so the strain of fear shall be\nrelaxed in the case of the persecuted Thessalonians.\n\nVer. 8. +In flaming fire.+--Lit. \"in a fire of flame.\" \"Fire is a\nsymbol of Divine anger and majesty in Scripture; and flame is fire in\nmotion, leaping and blazing out\" (_Findlay_). +Taking vengeance on\nthem that know not God.+--St. Paul does not consider ignorance as a\nvalid excuse where knowledge might be had, any more than a man would\nbe looked on as innocent who should plead that, being a foreigner, he\ndid not know that the law of any country which he visits forbids\nmurder. \"This is the condemnation, that light is come into the world,\nand men loved darkness rather than light, because their deeds were\nevil\" (John iii. 19).\n\nVer. 9. +Who shall be punished with everlasting destruction.+--R.V.\n\"who shall suffer punishment, even eternal destruction.\" It has been\nrepeatedly shown that only arbitrariness can limit the meaning of\nthis terrible phrase. Our comfort must be that He with whom \"it is a\nrighteous thing to recompense affliction\" (ver. 6) will always be\nself-consistent. +From the presence of the Lord.+ The fulness of joy\nis there, and they who, like Cain, go out from it carry the ache of\nan irreparable loss with them. The Hebraism in the phrase is brought\nout by the R.V. \"from the face of the Lord.\"\n\nVer. 10. +To be glorified in His saints.+--Two meanings at least suit\nthis phrase: (1) It may be the apostle thought of the great\nascription of praise rising from the vast assembly of saints, or\n(2) it may be he is thinking of the saints as the trophies of the\nRedeemer's love and power--the work that speaks the Master's praise.\n+And to be admired.+--R.V. \"marvelled at.\" The same work describes\nthe fawning sycophancy of men of the Balaam spirit, or it might\ndescribe the open-eyed and speechless wonder of an African chief in a\nState function.\n\nVer. 11. +And fulfil all the good pleasure.+--R.V. \"every desire of\ngoodness.\" \"As much as to say, May God mightily accomplish in you all\nthat goodness would desire and that faith can effect\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 12. +That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in\nyou.+--A little mirror may not increase the sum-total of sunlight,\nbut it may cause some otherwise unobservant eye to note its\nbrightness. So, Christ's infinite and eternal glory cannot be\naugmented but only shared by Christians (John xvii. 22).\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_Phases of Apostolic Greeting._\n\nUnder this heading we have already treated homiletically the\napostle's formula of salutation, which is the same here as the\nbeginning of the first epistle.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3, 4.\n\n_Congratulatory Features of a Prosperous Church._\n\nWe have here a suggestive example of the apostolic method of dealing\nwith a Church in which the incipient elements of error were beginning\nto operate. He applauds first what is really good, and then\nfaithfully, almost fiercely, warns of the threatening evil. He who\nwould effectually rebuke must first learn how to tenderly sympathise.\nThese verses indicated what are the congratulatory features of a\nprosperous Church.\n\n+I. There is a vital and progressive faith.+--\"Your faith groweth\nexceedingly\" (ver. 3). Faith feeds on truth; and all truth leads to\nand unites with God, its source. A living faith can only be sustained\nby a living truth; and where there is life there will be growth. We\nare ruled by our beliefs; if they are wrong, our track is wrong, our\nlife a mistake, our energies wasted. The faith of the Thessalonians\nwas so real, so vivid, so vitalising, so deeply rooted in the\nquickening soil of Gospel truth, that it flourished with tropical\nluxuriance. The doom of a Church is sealed when its faith is dead and\nits creed inert. It is like a fossil in the grasp of a fossil--a\nmuseum of dry, bony, musty remains.\n\n+II. There is a reciprocal and expansive charity.+--\"And the charity\nof every one of you all towards each other aboundeth\" (ver. 3). Love\nis the fruit of the Christian spirit, and the proof of its\ngenuineness. It should be manifested to every believer in Christ. The\nlove of a common Saviour and the sharing in a common suffering tend\nto intensify mutual esteem and affection. The prayer of the apostle\non behalf of the Thessalonians was fulfilled (1 Thess. iii. 12)--an\nencouragement to pray on behalf of others. Where charity abounds,\nthere is mutual forbearance with one another's faults and frailties,\nthe absence of suspicion and jealousy, no tendency to pass harsh and\nrapid judgments on the conduct of others, a disposition to think the\nbest of each other, to share each other's trials, and bear each\nother's burdens.\n\n+III. There is a patient fidelity under suffering.+--\"Your patience\nand faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that ye endure\"\n(ver. 4). These trials began with the first planting of the Gospel in\nThessalonica and seemed to have continued without cessation. The Jews\nwere the principal agents and instigators stirring up the populace\nagainst the Christians and rousing the suspicions of the magistrates\nwho were specially jealous of religious innovations (Acts xvii. 5-8).\nTheir faith made them patient and uncomplaining under the pressure of\naffliction; they believed the Gospel was still the power of God unto\nsalvation, though their profession of it brought on them sorrow and\nsuffering. The former warnings and teachings of the apostle were not\nin vain; their faith triumphed over persecution. Suffering is the\nopportunity for patience and the test of faith. Troubles come not\nalone, but are like chain-shot, or like the billows of the sea,\nlinked one to another, each succeeding blow being more destructive\nthan the other. Patience without faith is simply dull, stupid,\nstoical endurance. It is faith that renders the soul invincible and\ntriumphant.\n\n+IV. There is ample ground for apostolic gratitude and\ncommendation.+--\"We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren,\nas it is meet; . . . so that we ourselves glory in you in the\nChurches of God\" (vers. 3, 4). Even the enemies of the Church are\nsometimes constrained to admire and applaud the spirit of harmony,\nthe affection and enterprise which characterise its members. It is\nalso encouraging to have the approbation and good word of the\nministers of God, especially of those who have been instrumental in\nconverting men to the truth; but no Church could command the respect\nof the good if it did not first secure the smile and blessing of God.\nThe apostle thanks God as the great Giver of all the grace which he\nrejoices to see has done so much for the Thessalonians. God had\nwrought this work of faith and love and patience in their hearts, and\nHe would make it prosper and increase. He had put this fire in them\nand would make it burn; He had laid this leaven in the dough or meal\nof their hearts, and He would make it heave and work till the whole\nwas leavened. The apostle felt it at once his duty and joy to thank\nGod on their behalf and to boast of their attainments to others. \"We\nare bound to thank God always for you, as it is meet; . . . we\nourselves glory in you in the Churches of God.\" It is a noble\nChrist-like spirit to sympathise with the sufferings and rejoice in\nthe prosperities of the Church. A cheery word, a simple, hearty\nprayer, an act of sympathy and kindness, will do much to animate and\nencourage the struggling people of God. One lively Church is the\nmeans of rousing the zeal and emulation of others.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Vigorous Church-life is the result of an intelligent\nand active faith in the truth._ 2. _Suffering is no sign of the\nDivine displeasure, but often a means of spiritual prosperity._\n3. _Those who rejoice in the success of the Church are most likely to\nshare in the blessings of that success._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 3. _Growth in Grace._\n\n+I. Evidences of growth.+--1. _Taking increasing pleasure in God's\nWord._ 2. _A growing attachment to the doctrines of Christ._\n3. _Increasing acquaintance with the mind of God._ 4. _In love one to\nanother for the truth's sake._\n\n+II. Importance of growth.+--1. _Brings glory to God._ 2. _Influences\nthe ministry of the Word._ 3. _Not to grow, our religion declines and\nbecomes doubtful.--Sketches._\n\n\nVer. 4. _Christian Fidelity_--\n\n  +I. Is severely tested by tribulations.+\n\n +II. Is a stimulating example to others.+\n\n+III. Is a theme of grateful boasting.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 5-7.\n\n_The Recompense of Suffering for the Truth._\n\nIt is not an uncommon spectacle to see vice prosperous and\ntriumphant, while virtue is ignored and oppressed. To a superficial\nobserver it would seem that all the great prizes of the\nworld--wealth, power, social status, gaiety, display, pleasure--were\nthrown indiscriminately and with lavish abundance into the lap of the\nwicked, and that the God-fearing few are left in obscurity to\nstruggle with hardships, penury, and affliction. Nor is it always an\neasy matter to reconcile the sufferings of the good with the goodness\nand justice of God. But all things come round to the patient man. We\nmust look to the future for the faithful redress of present\ngrievances. In this chapter the apostle ministers consolation to the\nsuffering Thessalonians by assuring them of a coming day in which\nthey would be abundantly recompensed for all they had to endure, and\nin which the righteousness of God would be publicly vindicated.\nObserve:--\n\n+I. That the maintenance of the truth often entails considerable\nsuffering.+--\"The kingdom of God, for which ye also suffer\" (ver. 5).\nThey who will live godly in Christ Jesus must suffer persecution. The\nworld is violently opposed to the Church, and that opposition is full\nof malignant hatred and cruelty. Socrates once said something like\nthis--that if goodness were to become incarnate in one man, so that\nman would be perfectly good, the world would put him to death. What\nSocrates said was realised in Christ. \"If they have persecuted Me,\"\nsaid Christ to his followers, \"they will also persecute you\" (John\nxv. 20). It is not the least among the trials of the good that they\nare obliged to come in contact with evil in so many forms, and that\nthey are so savagely assailed and oppressed with it. Athanasius\nregarded the suffering of persecution to be a special note of a\nChristian man, observing: \"It is the part of Christians to be\npersecuted; but to persecute the Christians is the very office of\nPilate and Caiaphas.\"\n\n+II. That suffering for the truth has a morally educating\ninfluence.+--\"That ye may be counted worthy of the kingdom of God\"\n(ver. 5). The believer has no worthiness in himself, nor can he\nacquire any by the merit of his own works. This worthiness is but\nanother word for meetness--that meetness of state and character, as\nsinners justified and sanctified, without which no man shall enter\nthe kingdom. Only to such has the kingdom been promised. And the\nsufferings they endure on behalf of the kingdom, so far from\nimpairing their title, serve rather to confirm and illustrate it.\nEvery Christian grace is tested, developed, and trained by suffering.\n\"The least reproach augments our glory. Every tear is not only noted\nand kept in the bottle but made as varnish to add to our brightness\nand glorious splendour. No drop of our blood but wins us a river of\nglory; effusion of it the whole ocean of beatitude.\" When Ignatius,\nBishop of Antioch, was cast to the lions, he exclaimed: \"I am God's\nwheat, and must be ground by the teeth of the wild beasts that I may\nbe found His pure bread.\"\n\n+III. That suffering for the truth will be Divinely\nrecompensed.+--\"Which is a manifest token of the righteous judgment\nof God\" (ver. 5)--_i.e._ their sufferings and the constancy with\nwhich they endured them proved God's justice. A strange assertion!\nThe people of God have often been staggered by the fact that the\nwicked persecute and prosper, and the poor saints are plagued and\noppressed (Ps. lxxiii. 1-14; Jer. xii. 1-4). But from this very fact\nthe apostle derives consolation. It is a proof to him of a future\nstate in which all this apparent inconsistency will be set right, in\nwhich the saint and the persecutor will each receive his own proper\nrecompense.\n\n1. _Suffering will be Divinely recompensed in the deliverance of the\nsufferer._--\"And to you who are troubled rest with us\" (ver. 7). The\nword \"rest\" really means _the slackening of strings that had been\npulled tight._ To the persecuted and afflicted Thessalonians, the\nhappiness of heaven is held out under the image of rest and relief\nafter suffering. It is, as it were, the relaxing of tension after\nhaving been stretched on the rack. The keenest suffering for the\ntruth is limited in its duration; and the righteousness of God is\npledged to sustain and deliver His afflicted ones. The sweet rest of\nheaven will be all the more enjoyable because shared with those who\nhave passed through a similar conflict.\n\n2. _Suffering will be Divinely recompensed in the punishment of the\npersecutor._--\"Seeing it is a righteous thing with God to recompense\ntribulation to them that trouble you\" (ver. 6). The punishment of the\npersecutor is as just as the relief of the oppressed; and God has\nboth the intention and the power of accomplishing what He thinks\njust. The law of retaliation will be rigidly enforced. The very\nmeasure the persecutors have dealt they are to receive back again;\nand the retaliation will be all the more terrible because of its\nunanswerable justice. Truth must triumph over all its enemies. Its\nwatchword is \"no surrender.\" The apostate Julian spent his strength\nin trying to destroy the true Church; but when he fell on the\nbattle-field, as the blood was gushing from his breast and his eyes\nwere closing in death, he hissed between his setting teeth,\n\"Galilean, Thou hast conquered!\" And the Galilean must and will\nconquer, and all His enemies shall receive their just measure of\npunishment.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The sufferings of the good afford an opportunity for\nthe display of Divine justice._ 2. _Suffering is no evidence of\nDivine displeasure._ 3. _The glory of the future will infinitely\noutweigh the sufferings of the present life._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _Rest in Heaven for the Troubled._\n\n+I. Our Lord's coming is called a revealing of Him.+--Here He is\nrevealed in the outer world and in the Gospel. There he will be\nrevealed in glory, without disguise or veil.\n\n+II. Look at the troublers and their portion.+--\"It is a righteous\nthing with God to recompense tribulation to them that trouble you.\"\nSorrow of the acutest kind without comfort or alleviation.\n\n+III. Look at the portion of the troubled.+--\"Rest.\" A heaven of\nquietness and repose, and yet of ceaseless and tireless activity in\npraising God.\n\n+IV. The righteousness of the Divine conduct.+--\"It is a righteous\nthing with God.\" The Lord's second coming is not on an errand of\nmercy; His main business is to dispense justice.--_C. Bradley._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 7-10.\n\n_The Day of Judgment._\n\nThe apostle sought to comfort the persecuted and suffering Church at\nThessalonica by assuring them of a coming day of recompense, in which\nthe Divine righteousness would be satisfactorily cleared, His enemies\npunished, and His people rewarded. He now proceeds to depict the\nstartling scenes of that promised day--\"that day for which all other\ndays were made\"--and to indicate the twofold aspect of severity and\nmercy which will characterise the awards of the great Judge. In\ndealing with a subject of such overwhelming import, and which affords\nsuch scope for the play of the most powerful imagination, special\ncare should be taken to keep within the limits of the revealed Word.\nThese verses suggest:--\n\n+I. That the day of judgment will be ushered in with awful\nsplendour.+--1. _The person of the Judge will be clothed with\ndazzling brightness._ \"The Lord Jesus shall be revealed from heaven\nin flaming fire\" (vers. 7, 8). The career of Christ on earth was one\nof obscurity, humiliation, and suffering, relieved now and then with\noutbursts of Divine glory; but when He comes the second time, He will\nappear in all the unveiled charms of His peerless majesty, clad with\nheavenly splendour and brilliant as a fiery flame. The revelation of\nJehovah is often referred to in the Old Testament under the emblem of\nfire (Exod. xiii. 21; Num. ix. 15; Deut. iv. 24; Isa. x. 16, 17,\netc.). The glimpse caught by the seer of Patmos of the ineffable\nbeauty and glory of the God-man bowed him with astonishment and awe\n(Rev. i. 13-17). And who shall stand before the flashing splendours\nof the great and holy Judge! Heaven is too narrow for the full\ndisplay of the Divine majesty; it glances on every globe; it\nirradiates the universe.\n\n2. _The Judge will be attended by an angelic retinue._--\"With His\nmighty angels\" (ver. 7). The pomp and state of the earthly judge, the\ngaily decked chariot, the sounding trumpets, the accompanying\nofficers of justice, are but a feeble representation of the pomp and\nstate of the heavenly Judge, \"who maketh the clouds His chariot, who\nwalketh upon the wings of the wind\" (Ps. civ. 3), and whose gorgeous\ntrain is composed of hosts of mighty angels, who attend to execute\nHis will, to punish the wicked, and to assist at the final\nconsummation (Matt. xiii. 41, 42). These angels of might are\nministers of His power, and by their agency He will make His power\nfelt. We have an illustration of the colossal mightiness of these\nangelic messengers in the apparent ease with which one angel in a few\nhours laid thousands of the Assyrians low (2 Kings xix. 35).\n\n+II. That the day of judgment will be a time of punishment to the\ndisobedient.+--1. _The objects of punishment._ \"Them that know not\nGod, and that obey not the gospel of our Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 8).\nNot that ample opportunity has not been given to all to acquire a\nknowledge of God. To punish for not knowing what we cannot know would\nbe an injustice and a cruelty. God has given to all the double light\nof His works and Word. He has also given the eyes of sense and\nreason, and the help of His Holy Spirit to guide all to the knowledge\nof Himself and of \"the glorious gospel of the blessed God\" (1 Tim.\ni. 11). It is not the involuntary ignorance of the uninstructed that\nis meant, but the wilful ignorance of the determined adversary, who\nnot only rejected the Gospel himself, but barbarously persecuted\nthose who received and obeyed it. Knowledge of God is of little value\nif it does not lead to obedience. Confused, indistinct, inoperative\nknowledge is no knowledge. To know and not to obey the Gospel\ninvolves a heavier condemnation.\n\n2. _The character of the punishment._--\"Who shall be punished with\neverlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord and from the\nglory of His power\" (ver. 9). Awful words! Who can fully explain what\nthey really involve? If destruction means annihilation, how can it be\neverlasting? Besides, the notion of the absolute extinction of\nanything God has made--the reduction to nothingness of either a\nreasonable soul or a material atom--has as little support from the\nteachings of revelation as of science. Again, it is urged that\n\"everlasting\" does not always in Scripture mean what lasts for ever,\nbut sometimes what lasts only for a long period. But the utmost this\nargument could prove would be that the present possibly may be, not\nthat it is, one of these peculiar cases. Were it the only fact in the\ncase, there would still be the terrible uncertainty. \"But then\nremember,\" says Dr. Lillie, \"that if it had really been intended to\nteach the eternity of future punishment, no stronger words, phrases,\nand images could have been found for the purpose than those actually\nemployed.\" Whatever the punishment may be in itself, is it not\npunishment enough to be for ever excluded \"from the presence of the\nLord,\" driven, a moral wreck, \"from the glory of His power\"? Let the\nwords of this ninth verse be seriously weighed in private meditation,\nand some sense of their awful signification cannot fail to be\nrealised.\n\n+III. That the day of judgment will be a revelation of the glory and\nblessedness of the faithful.+--1. _The glory of Christ is bound up\nand reflected in His Church._ \"When He shall come to be glorified in\nHis saints and to be admired in all them that believe in that day\"\n(ver. 10). The Church is the creation of Christ; for her He lived,\nsuffered, died, and triumphed, and into her He poured the glory of\nHis matchless character. \"The glory which Thou gavest Me I have given\nthem\" (John xvii. 22). His Church, like a mirror, shall reflect to\nthe gaze of an admiring universe the unutterable glory of the great\nRedeemer. \"The beauty of the Lord our God shall be upon her, and His\nglory shall be seen upon her\" (Ps. xc. 17). How great a change is\nthis from the sins, the struggles, the failures, the disappointments,\nand sufferings of earth!\n\n2. _A life of faith leads to a life of glory._--\"Because our\ntestimony among you was believed\" (ver. 10). Faith rests on testimony\nand is vitally affected by the character of the testimony. Saving\nfaith relies on the infallible testimony of the Word of God\nconcerning Christ. The faith exercised in the midst of\ndiscouragements and persecution is often tenacious and vigorous. The\nGospel is backed by evidence sufficient to convince every sane and\nreasonable mind. All may believe it who will; none will be excluded\nfrom glory but those who _will not_ believe. In ancient Athens were\ntwo temples--a temple of Virtue and a temple of Honour--and none\ncould enter the temple of Honour but by passing through the temple of\nVirtue. So, none can enter the temple of Glory who does not first\npass through the temple of Faith.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The day of judgment, though future, is inevitable._\n2. _The proceedings of that day will be in harmony with the holiest\nprinciples of Divine justice._ 3. _That day should be solemnly\ncontemplated in its approach, in its attendant circumstances, and in\nits final decisions._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 7, 8. _The Divine Judge_--\n\n  +I. Has appointed a day of retribution.+\n\n +II. Will be revealed on that day in terrible majesty.+\n\n+III. Will take vengeance on the disobedient.+\n\n\nVers. 9. 10. _Divine Retribution_--\n\n  +I. Will be in strict harmony with the principles of universal\n      righteousness.+\n\n +II. Means terrible punishment to the wicked.+\n\n+III. Will bring unspeakable felicity to the good.+\n\n +IV. Will be recognised as faultlessly just.+\n\n  +V. Will enhance the Divine glory.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 11, 12.\n\n_A Prayer for Completeness of Moral Character._\n\nTo meet Christ at His coming, and to dwell with Him in the bliss of\nthe future, demands a moral preparedness. To promote this should be\nthe constant, unwearied solicitude of both pastor and people. The\npossession of any measure of Divine grace supplies the strongest\nmotives for seeking the highest possible degree of moral excellence.\nIn this passage observe:--\n\n+I. That completeness of moral character is really the attainment of\nthe Divine ideal.+--\"That our God would count you worthy of this\ncalling\" (ver. 11). The tyro in religion pictures to himself a more\nor less definite outline of what he may become and what he may do.\nThe charm of novelty, the enthusiasm of first love, the\nindefiniteness of the untried and the unknown, throw a romantic\nglamour over the Christian career, and the mind is elated with the\nprospect of entering upon grand enterprises and winning signal\nvictories. But mature thought and experience and a more familiar\nacquaintance with the Divine mind lead us to modify many of our\nearlier views, and to readjust the main features of our own ideal of\nthe Christian character, so as to be more in harmony with the Divine\nideal. God calls us to purity of heart and life, and makes us worthy,\nand gives us power to attain it. We have no worthiness in ourselves\nor in our works. The fitness for heavenly glory is acquired by\nfollowing out the God-given inspiration to \"live soberly,\nrighteously, and godly in the present world\" (Tit. ii. 12).\n\n+II. That completeness of moral character consists in the delighting\nin goodness.+--\"And fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness\"\n(ver. 11) Some are influenced to be good because they are afraid of\nthe penalties attached to a life of sin. Others because of the\nsubstantial rewards and benefits found in a life of probity and\nuprightness. But the highest type is to love goodness for its own\nsake, and to delight in it as goodness; to be wholly possessed with a\nlife-absorbing passion to find and to diffuse goodness everywhere.\nThis approaches nearest to the Divine ideal. \"He hath pleasure in\nuprightness, and hath no pleasure in wickedness\" (1 Chron. xxix. 17;\nPs. v. 4). There is no pleasure like that we find in true goodness.\nSeverus, emperor of Rome, confessed on his deathbed, \"I have been\neverything, and now find that everything is nothing.\" Then, directing\nthat the urn should be brought to him, he said, \"Little urn, thou\nshalt contain one for whom the world was too little.\"\n\n+III. That completeness of moral character is attained by the\nexercise of a Divinely inspired faith.+--\"And the work of faith with\npower\" (ver. 11). We have no innate righteousness. It is God-given.\nIt is received, maintained, and extended in the soul by faith in the\nmerits of the all-righteous Saviour. \"While faith itself is the gift\nof God, it is no less an exercise of the mind and heart of man. And\nbecause, like everything else about man, it partakes of his great\nweakness, it needs ever, as it walks in the light of the Divine Word,\nto stay itself on the Divine hand.\" Faith is the mighty instrument by\nwhich the Divine life is propagated in the soul, and by which the\nloftiest blessings are secured.\n\n+IV. That completeness of moral character promotes the Divine\nglory.+--\"That the name of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in\nyou, and ye in Him\" (ver. 12). It will be seen at the last that\nChrist has been more abundantly glorified by a humble, holy life than\nby wealthy benefactions or by gigantic enterprises. The name now so\nmuch despised, and for which those who now bear it suffer so much,\nshall be magnified and exalted \"above every name\" (Phil. ii. 9). The\nfollowers of Christ shall share in the glory of their Lord. Their\nexcellencies redound to His glory; and His glory is reflected on them\nin such a way that there is a mutual glorification. \"What a glory it\nwill be to them before all creatures that He who sits upon the throne\nonce shared their sorrows and died for them! What a glory that He\nstill wears their nature and is not ashamed to call them brethren!\nWhat a glory to be for ever clothed with His righteousness! What a\nglory to reign with Him and be glorified together!\" (_Lillie_).\n\n+V. That completeness of moral character is rendered possible by the\nprovisions of Divine grace.+--\"According to the grace of our God and\nthe Lord Jesus Christ\" (ver. 12). The source or all human goodness,\nin all its varying degrees, is in the Divine favour. It is worthy of\nnote that Christ is here recognised as on an equality with the\nFather, and as being with Him the fontal source of grace. The glory\nwhich it is possible for sanctified humanity to reach is \"according\nto grace.\" The grace is \"exceeding abundant\" (1 Tim. i. 14); so is\nthe glory. There is a fathomless mine of moral wealth provided for\nevery earnest seeker after God.\n\n+VI. That completeness of moral character should be the subject of\nconstant prayer.+--\"Wherefore also we pray always for you\" (ver. 11).\nThe Thessalonians where favoured in having the prayers of the\napostles. It is a beautiful example of the unselfishness of the\nChristian spirit when we are so concerned for others as to pray for\nthem. We value that about which we pray the most. We have need of\nprayer to help us to attend faithfully to the little things which\nmake up the daily duties of the Christian life. Attention to trifles\nis the way to completeness of moral character. The great Italian\nsculptor, Michelangelo, was once visited by an acquaintance, who\nremarked, on entering his studio, \"Why, you have done nothing to that\nfigure since I was here last?\" \"Yes,\" was the reply, \"I have softened\nthis expression, touched off that projection, and made other\nimprovements.\" \"Oh!\" said the visitor, \"these are mere trifles.\"\n\"True,\" answered the sculptor, \"but remember that trifles make\nperfection, and perfection is no trifle.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _It is important to have a lofty ideal of Christian\nperfection constantly in view._ 2. _While humbled by failures we are\nnot to be disheartened._ 3. _Earnest, persevering prayer wins great\nmoral victories._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 11, 12. _Genuine Religion illustrated._\n\n+I. Religion in its nature.+--It is a worthiness into which we are\ncalled and with which we are invested.\n\n+II. Religion in its source.+--The goodness of God. 1. _All present\nreligious views and feelings are the effect of Divine grace._ 2. _Man\nhas no rightful claim to Divine grace._ 3. _Religion has its true\nsource in the good pleasure of God._\n\n+III. Religion in its principle.+--Faith. \"The work of faith with\npower.\" The producing and sustaining principle of religion.\n\n+IV. Religion in its end.+--1. _The glory of the Redeemer._ \"That the\nname of our Lord Jesus Christ may be glorified in you.\" 2. _The glory\nof the redeemed._ \"And ye in Him.\"\n\n+V. Religion in its measure or rule of dispensation.+--\"According to\nthe grace of our God and the Lord Jesus Christ.\"--_Zeta._\n\n\nVer. 12. _Christ glorified in His People._--The bust of Luther was\nshut out from the Walhalla, or German Westminster Abbey. The people\nwere indignant, but said, \"Why need we a bust when he lives in our\nhearts?\" And thus the Christian ever feels when he beholds many\naround him multiplying pictures and statues of Christ, and he can\nsay, \"I need them not, for He is ever with me; He lives perpetually\nin my heart.\"\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER II.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Beseech . . . by the coming of our Lord.+--The English\nreader who consults the similar phrase \"to beseech by\" in Rom. xii. 1\nwill be wholly astray. St. Paul begs his readers not to be thrown\ninto consternation or kept in a flutter of excitement over that\nmatter of the _Parousia,_ or \"coming.\"\n\nVer. 2. +Not soon shaken.+--Like a house built on sand when the storm\nbreaks to fury, or like the _mobile vulgus_ in Thessalonica who were\nonly too willing to follow the lead of Jewish agitators (Acts\nxvii. 13). +In mind.+--R.V. \"from your mind.\" \"Out of your wits\"\nexpresses the apostle's meaning exactly. They are to behave like men\nin whom reason is supreme--not like men in a panic. +Or be\ntroubled.+--The same word was used in reporting our Lord's counsels\non the same subject. \"Be not troubled: . . . the end is not yet\"\n(Matt. xxiv. 6). +By epistle as from us.+--Either by\nmisinterpretation of something St. Paul had written, or by a forged\nletter purporting to have come from him.\n\nVer. 3. +Let no man deceive.+--R.V. \"beguile or cheat you.\" +A\nfalling away.+--Lit. \"_the_ apostasy,\" a desertion from the army of\nGod; a recantation of faith in Christ. Our Master foretold that when\n\"iniquity shall abound the love of many shall be blown cool\" (Matt.\nxxiv. 12). +That man of sin.+--Another reading is \"lawlessness.\" The\nman in whom sin gathers itself up into a head--the last product of\nsin. +The son of perdition+--_par excellence,_ sharing the title with\nhim whom Christ so named (John xvii. 12). Abaddon (Rev. ix. 11) may\nclaim him as his own ultimately.\n\nVer. 4. +Who opposeth and exalteth himself.+--The participle rendered\n\"who opposeth\" is used twice by St. Luke in the plural as\n\"adversaries.\" So in the singular (1 Tim. v. 14). The compound word\nfor \"exalteth himself\" occurs (2 Cor. xii. 7), and is given as\n\"exalted-above-measure.\" +Above all that is called God.+--The shudder\nof horror in these words reminds us how a monotheistic Jew must\nregard the impious act. We can understand that a Roman emperor would\nregard the God of Jew or Christian as a tutelary deity; but the acme\nof profanity is reached in this act of Antichrist. +Or that is\nworshipped.+--R.V. margin, \"Gr. an object of worship.\" \"The very name\n_Sebastos,_ the Greek rendering of the imperial title _Augustus,_ to\nwhich _Dieus_ was added at death (signifying 'the one to be\nworshipped'), was an offence to the religious mind. . . . Later,\nC\u00e6sar or Christ was the martyr's alternative\" (_Findlay_). +Showing\nHimself that He is God.+--Or, as we would say, \"representing Himself\nto be God.\" Compare Herod's acceptance of the worship (Acts xii. 22).\n\nVer. 6. +What withholdeth.+--R.V. \"that which restraineth.\" \"A hint\nwas sufficient, _verbum sapientibus:_ more than a hint would have\nbeen dangerous\" (_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 7. +He who now letteth.+--R.V. \"there is one that restraineth.\"\nThe old word for \"obstruct\" is found in Isa. xliii. 13: \"I will work,\nand who shall let (_i.e._ hinder) it?\" \"Where then are we to\nlook . . . for the check and bridle of lawlessness? Where but to law\nitself? The fabric of civil law and the authority of the magistrate\nformed a bulwark and breakwater against the excesses both of\nautocratic tyranny and of popular violence\" (_Ibid._).\n\nVer. 8. +And then shall that Wicked be revealed.+--R.V. \"and then\nshall be revealed the lawless one.\" Outward restraint being\nwithdrawn, there is no inward principle to keep him back: he is\n\"lawless.\" +And shall destroy.+--R.V. \"bring to nought.\" It is the\nsame word as that which describes the effect of the revelation of the\nGospel on \"death\" in 2 Tim. i. 10--to render absolutely powerless.\n+With the brightness of His coming.+--R.V. \"by the manifestation of\nHis coming.\" Lit. \"by the epiphany of His presence.\"\n\nVer. 9. +Even Him, whose coming, etc.+--These words look back to the\nbeginning of ver. 8. \"The two comings--the _parousia_ of the Lord\nJesus and that of the Man of Lawlessness--are set in contrast. The\nsecond forms the dark background to the glory of the first\"\n(_Ibid._). +Power and signs and lying wonders.+--Simulating the\nsupernatural evidences of the Gospel as the magicians of Egypt those\nof Moses.\n\nVer. 10. +Deceivableness of unrighteousness.+--R.V. \"deceit.\" The\ndeceit which is characteristic of unrighteousness, or marks its\nmethods. +They received not the love of the truth.+--The _sine qua\nnon_ for an answer to Pilate's question (John xviii. 38) is this love\nof the truth.\n\nVer. 11. +God shall send them strong delusion.+--R.V. \"God sendeth\nthem a working of error.\" \"It is a just, but mournful result, that\nrejecters of Christ's miracles become believers in Satan's, and that\natheism should be avenged by superstition. So it has been and will\nbe\" (_Ibid._). One is reminded of the old saying that \"the gods first\ndrive mad those whom they mean to destroy.\"\n\nVer. 12. +Believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness.+--Here again we have the mental rejection of truth\nconsequent on a liking for that which truth condemns. If \"the heart\nmakes the theologian,\" the want of it makes the infidel.\n\nVer. 13. +We are bound to give thanks.+--The same form of expression\nas in ch. i. 3, save that here \"we\" is expressed separately and\nemphatically.\n\nVer. 15. +Stand fast.+--Ready for any shock which may come\nunexpectedly through the insidious methods of Antichrist. +Hold the\ntraditions.+--As of the apostle said, keep a _strong_ hand on them.\nTradition is that which is handed over from one to another. Compare\n1 Cor. xi. 23. \"I received of the Lord . . . I delivered unto\nyou . . . He was betrayed.\" Here the words \"delivered\" and \"betrayed\"\nrepresent a doing, of which the word for \"tradition\" is the act\ncompleted. Paul handed over that which his Lord charged him to\ntransmit; Judas handed over Christ to the Jews.\n\nVer. 16. +Everlasting consolation and good hope.+--Consolation, or\ncomfort, is ministered by the Paraclete (John xiv. 16; Acts ix. 31),\nwho abides for ever with those who are Christ's.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-12.\n\n_Antichrist Portrayed._\n\nVarious interpretations of this remarkable paragraph have been\nattempted. Some modern German critics would divest it of any\nprophetic significance and treat it as a representation of the\nwriter's own personal feelings and forebodings. Others would restrict\nits application to the destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, and to\npersons, principles, and events that preceded that catastrophe. The\ncommonly received Protestant interpretation is to identify the Man of\nSin and his doings with the Papacy; and there are certainly many\npoints of that interpretation that accord very remarkably with the\nprophecy. But there are serious objections to all these views. We\nbelieve the revelation of the Antichrist here depicted is yet future,\nthough the elements of his power are now in preparation. From the\nwhole passage we gather the following suggestions:--\n\n+I. That Antichrist will be embodied in some living personality.+--He\nis called \"that man of sin, the son of perdition\": \"that\nWicked\"--_the lawless one_ (vers. 3-8). The fathers of the early\nChurch, for at least three centuries after the apostolic age, while\ndiffering on some minor details, seemed unanimous in understanding by\nthe Man of Sin, not a system of deceit and wickedness, or a\nsuccession of individuals at the head of such a system, but some one\nman, the living personal Antichrist, the incarnation of Satanic craft\nand energy, who should put forth his power to weaken and destroy the\nChurch.\n\n1. _He will arrogantly assume Divine prerogatives._--\"Who opposeth\nand exalteth himself above all that is called God, or that is\nworshipped; so that he as God sitteth in the temple of God, showing\nhimself that he is God\" (ver. 4). In these words we note Antichrist's\nintrusion into the special dwelling-place of God, his usurping\nsession there, and his blasphemous and ostentatious assumption of\nDivinity. The wildest excesses of pride and audacity cannot exceed\nthis.\n\n2. _His advent will be accompanied with remarkable displays of\nSatanic power._--\"Whose coming is after the working of Satan with all\npower and signs and lying wonders\" (ver. 9). Antichrist as the\nmasterpiece of Satan will be endowed with extraordinary qualities.\nThe devil will tax his prodigious abilities to the utmost in making\nthis great adversary of the Church as potent for mischief as\npossible. We know how readily the man of science can impose upon the\nignorant with his experiments. And how easy it is for Satan, with his\nvast knowledge and resources, to delude thousands with his\nsimulations of the miraculous! The advent of Antichrist is to be a\nfiendish caricature and audacious mockery of the glorious coming of\nthe Son of God!\n\n+II. That Antichrist will work deplorable mischief in human\nsouls.+--1. _He seeks by secret methods to promote apostasy from the\nChurch of God._  \"A falling away first\" (ver. 3). \"The mystery of\niniquity doth already work\" (ver. 7). Here we detect the germs and\npreparation of the antichristian curse that is to work such havoc.\nThe primitive Church of apostolic times was not such a model of\nperfection as we sometimes imagine. The leaven of iniquity, of\n_lawlessness,_ the essence of all sin, was already working. Observe\nthe sorrowing references of the apostles to the many evils of the\ndifferent Churches: Tit. i. 11; 1 Tim. vi. 5; 2 Cor. xi. 26; Philem.\n9; 2 Tim. i. 15; 1 John ii. 18-20; 2 John 7; 3 John 9. _Passim._ The\nmost disastrous apostasies have been the result of long, secret\nendeavours.\n\n2. _He begets a dislike to saving truth._--\"With all deceivableness\nof unrighteousness in them that perish; because they received not the\nlove of the truth that they might be save\" (ver. 10). The truth was\nrevealed, its saving benefits were offered; they had but to accept\nthe truth and they were safe. But they rejected the truth; they loved\nit not. Their treatment of the Gospel rendered them more easy victims\nto the deceptions of Antichrist; fascinated by his unrighteous\nglamour, they recede from the truth and cherish a bitter hostility\ntowards it.\n\n3. _His victims are abandoned to self-delusion and\ncondemnation._--\"And for this cause God shall send them strong\ndelusion that they should believe a lie; that they all might be\ndamned\"--might be _judged_ according to their individual character\nand works--\"who believed not the truth, but had pleasure in\nunrighteousness\" (vers. 11, 12). See here the fearful consequences of\na hatred to and rejection of the truth! The soul takes delight in\nsinning--has \"pleasure in unrighteousness.\" It is, then, not only\nabandoned to its iniquity, but its delusions are intensified so as to\nembrace the most palpable falsehoods as truth. It shall then be\njudged on its own merits, so that God shall be justified in His\nspeaking and clear in His judging. Terrible indeed is the fate of the\nvictims who fall under the spell of Antichrist.\n\n+III. That the coming of Antichrist is for a time restrained.+--\"And\nnow ye know what withholdeth that he might be revealed in his\ntime. . . . Only he who now letteth will let, until he be taken out\nof the way\" (vers. 6, 7). There is an external power with an\nindividual at its head which holds back the power of Antichrist until\nthe proper season comes. What that power is is not revealed; but God\ncan use any power for this purpose, until the Divinely appointed time\nshall come for the revelation and overthrow of Antichrist.\n\n+IV. That Antichrist shall be summarily destroyed.+--\"Whom the Lord\nshall consume with the spirit of His mouth\"--as insects wither on the\nmere approach of fire--\"and shall destroy with the brightness of His\ncoming\" (ver. 8)--with the _appearing_ of His coming, as it were the\nfirst gleaming dawn of His advent. For a time Antichrist shall reign\nin pomp and splendour and delude many to their ruin; but at the\ncoming of the true Lord of the Church the great impostor shall be\ndethroned and utterly abolished. \"It is enough,\" says Chrysostom,\n\"that He be present, and all these things perish. He will stay the\ndeception simply by appearing.\"\n\n+V. That the followers of Christ need not be afraid of losing any\nbenefits to be conferred by His second coming.+--\"Now we beseech you,\nbrethren, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ, and by our\ngathering together unto Him, that ye be not soon shaken in mind, or\nbe troubled, neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by letter as from\nus, as that the day of Christ is at hand\" (vers. 1, 2)--_on hand, has\nalready come._ When Paul wrote the first epistle, the Thessalonians\n\"were sorrowing by the graves of their departed friends, and the\ngrief of nature was enhanced by the apprehension that their beloved\nones might suffer loss at the coming of the Lord. But now, should\nthey hear that He had come and had not called for them, a yet deeper,\nmore agitating motion must seize them, lest they themselves had\nforfeited their share in the glory of the kingdom.\" These words would\nallay their fears. Christ has yet to come, and before that coming\nAntichrist is to arise and reign. Wait patiently, labour diligently,\nand be not harassed with too great an eagerness to know future\nevents. All the blessings of Christ's second coming shall be shared\nby you and by all who are to be gathered together unto Him.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _There are trying times ahead._ 2. _The only safety\nfor the soul is to hold fast the truth._ 3. _At the darkest moment of\nthe Church's trial the glory of God will appear._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 1-6. _A Warning against Imposition._\n\n+I. The danger.+--1. _Their faith was imperilled._ 2. _Daily duties\nwere interfered with._\n\n+II. Signs of the coming end.+--1. _By a great apostasy._ 2. _The\nappearance of Antichrist as the man of sin and son of perdition._\n3. _The proud pretensions of Antichrist._ (1) Opposing Christ.\n(2) Substituting error for truth. (3) Overweening self-exaltation.\n\n+III. Hindrances to the spread of truth+ (ver. 6)--1. _The civil\npowers of that day._ 2. _The machinations of Satan at all times._\n3. _The unfaithfulness of God's people._\n\n\nVers. 1-3. _A False Alarm_--\n\n+I. May arise from a misconception+ +of an important\ntruth.+--\"Concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our\ngathering together unto Him\" (ver. 1).\n\n+II. Is aggravated by unwarrantable deceptions.+--\"Let no man deceive\nyou by any means\" (ver. 3). \"Neither by spirit, nor by word, nor by\nletter as from us, as that the day of Christ is come\" (ver. 2).\n\n+III. Is the cause of much real suffering.+--\"Shaken in\nmind--troubled\" (ver. 2)--like a ship escaped from its moorings,\ntossed in a rolling sea.\n\n+IV. Is allayed by the affectionate entreaty of competent\nteachers.+--\"We beseech you, brethren\" (ver. 1).\n\n\nVer. 5. _Memory_--\n\n  +I. Is freighted with treasures of precious truth.+--\"I told you\n      these things.\"\n\n +II. Associates the presence and character of the teacher with the\n      truth taught.+--\"When I was yet with you.\"\n\n+III. Is often vividly reminded of the value of its\n      possession.+--\"Remember ye not.\"\n\n\nVers. 7-10. _The Mystery of Iniquity_--\n\n  +I. Is the deepest and most subtle form of error.+\n\n +II. Is propagated with great cunning and persistency.+\n\n+III. Is embodied in a powerful and wicked personality+ (vers. 7, 8).\n\n +IV. Is Satanic in its origin and manifestation+ (vers. 9, 10).\n\n\nVers. 10-12. _The Destructive Subtlety of Sin._\n\n+I. It has manifold methods of deception.+--\"With all deceivableness\nof unrighteousness\" (ver. 10).\n\n+II. It incites the soul to a hatred of saving truth.+--\"That\nreceived not the love of the truth that they might be saved\" (ver.\n10).\n\n+III. It abandons its victims to judicial self-deception.+--\"God\nshall send them strong delusion that they should believe a lie\" (ver.\n11).\n\n+IV. It leads to inevitable condemnation.+--\"That they all might be\ndamned\" (ver. 12).\n\n+V. It encourages sin for the love of sin.+--\"Who believed not the\ntruth, but had pleasure in unrighteousness\" (ver. 12).\n\n\nVers. 11, 12. _Strong Delusions._\n\n  +I. Believing a lie as truth.+\n\n +II. Sent as a judgment for not believing the truth.+\n\n+III. Are brought on by those who have pleasure in sin.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 13, 14.\n\n_Salvation a Divine Act._\n\nWhen the air is thick with antichristian theories, sincere inquirers\nafter truth are perplexed, the grasp of the hesitating is loosened,\nand the fidelity of the strongest severely tested. Only those who\nfully yield themselves up to the teaching and guidance of the Divine\nspirit are safe. A clever inventor has recently constructed a\nfireproof dress, which enables him to walk about unharmed in the\nmidst of the fiercest fire. Experimental godliness is a fireproof\ndress, and the soul clothed with this is safely guarded from the\nfiery darts of the wicked and will pass unscathed through the\nfiercest fires of temptation. We never know what it is to be really\nsaved till we personally experience the sanctifying power of the\ntruth. These verses teach that salvation is a Divine act.\n\n+I. Salvation is an act of the Divine will.+--1. _The Divine will is\nactuated by Divine love._ \"Brethren _beloved_ of the Lord, God hath\nfrom the beginning chosen you to salvation\" (ver. 13). When we\nexamine the sources of salvation, we find them not in ourselves, but\nin some power outside of ourselves. We are saved, not because we are\ngood, or better than others, or more favourably circumstanced, but\nbecause God has chosen us. And if we ask still further how it is that\nGod should lavish the grace of His salvation on sinful man, we are\nreduced, in the final analysis, to this answer: Such is the Divine\nwill--a will swayed in all its mighty potentialities by infinite love.\n\n     \"Love, strong as death; nay, stronger--\n        Love mightier than the grave;\n      Broad as the earth, and longer\n        Than ocean's widest wave.\n      This is the love that sought us,\n      This is the love that bought us,\n      This is the love that brought us,\n        To gladdest day from saddest night,\n        From deepest shame to glory bright,\n        From depths of death to life's fair height,\n        From darkness to the joy of light.\"--_Bonar._\n\n2. _The Divine will provides the means of salvation._--\"Whereunto He\ncalled you by our gospel\" (ver. 14). The Gospel is God's method of\nsalvation, and it is through this Gospel He \"will have all men to be\nsaved, and to come unto the knowledge of the truth\" (1 Tim. iii. 4).\nIf the Gospel were but a human expedient, it would fail; but, as it\nwas originated and devised in the Divine mind, so it is backed and\nmade forceful by the operation of the Divine will.\n\n+II. Salvation as a Divine act is in harmony with individual\nfreedom.+--1. _Salvation implies personal holiness._ \"Through\nsanctification of the Spirit\" (ver. 13). The Spirit sanctifies the\nindividual soul, and the soul, in the exercise of its voluntary\npower, co-operated with the Spirit. The soul feels the need of being\nsanctified, is willing to be sanctified, earnestly desires to be\nsanctified, and gives free, unrestricted scope to the Spirit in His\nsanctifying work.\n\n2. _Salvation implies personal faith._--\"And belief of the truth\"\n(ver. 13). This clause brings out distinctly that the sanctification\nof the Spirit is not wrought on a passive and unresponsive agent.\nFaith is the gift of God, but it is an act of man. It is a\nself-giving; the surrender of his own freedom to secure the larger\nfreedom that salvation confers on the soul that trusts. Without God's\ngift there would be no faith, and without man's exercise of that gift\nthere is no salvation. It is not faith that saves, but the Christ\nreceived by faith. Erskine puts it thus: \"As it is not the laying on\nthe plaster that heals the sore, but the plaster itself that is laid\non, so it is not the faith, or receiving of Christ, but Christ\nreceived by faith that saves us. It is not our looking to the brazen\nserpent mystical, but the mystical brazen serpent looked unto by\nfaith--Christ received by faith--that saves us.\"\n\n+III. Salvation as a Divine act aims at securing for the soul the\nhighest blessedness.+--\"To the obtaining of the glory of our Lord\nJesus Christ\" (ver. 14). The saved soul aspires after glory, but it\nis glory of the loftiest type. It is not the changeful glory of\nworldly magnificence. It is not the glory of Paul, or of the greatest\nhuman genius. It is \"the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ.\" When the\nsoul catches a glimpse of the splendour of this Divine blessedness,\nit can be satisfied with no lower aims. \"Paint and canvas,\" said\nGuthrie, \"cannot give the hues of a rainbow or of the beams of the\nsun. No more can words describe the Saviour's glory. Nay, what is the\nmost glowing and ecstatic view that the highest faith of a soul,\nhovering on the borders of another world, ever obtained of Christ,\ncompared with the reality? It is like the sun changed by a frosty\nfogbank into a dull, red copper ball--shorn of the splendour that no\nmortal eyes can look upon.\" As it is Christ's glory that we seek, so\nit is Christ's glory we shall share.\n\n+IV. Salvation as a Divine act affords matter for unceasing\ngratitude.+--\"But we are bound to give thanks alway to God for you\"\n(ver. 13). The mercy of God in our salvation is ever providing\nfruitful themes for gratitude on earth: the glory of Christ as\nrevealed in heaven will be the song of everlasting thankfulness and\npraise. Every added trophy of saving power augments the gratitude and\njoy of the faithful.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The rejection of the truth is the rejection of\nsalvation._ 2. _Salvation brings the highest good to man and the\ngreatest glory to God._ 3. _Salvation will be the exhaustless theme\nof the heavenly song._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 13. _The Holy Ghost the Sanctifier._\n\n+I. Connect the Divine purpose and agency that the nature and effect\nof the latter may be more apparent.+--To collect a people out of the\nwreck of human life has been God's purpose from the first. To\nsanctify them is to separate them to God in fact and in effect. The\nHoly Ghost is given by Christ to sever the once dead in sins from the\ndead around them.\n\n+II. The scope of this agency.+--God's work is perfect. It has its\nstages; but the Holy Ghost conducts it from first to last.\nSanctification is progressive. The end of sanctification is salvation.\n\n+III. The ordinary means through which the Holy Ghost\noperates.+--Through belief of the truth, the Gospel. The Spirit\nsanctifies through the truth.--_H. T. Lumsden._\n\n\nVer. 14. _The Glory of Sainthood_--\n\n  +I. Is the object of the Gospel to promote.+--\"Whereunto He hath\n      called you by our gospel.\"\n\n +II. Is a conscious personal possession.+--\"To the obtaining of the\n      glory.\"\n\n+III. Is a sharing of the glory of Christ.+--\"Of the glory of our\n      Lord Jesus Christ.\"\n\n\n_What Saints should be._--In the cathedral of St. Mark, Venice, a\nmarvellous building lustrous with an Oriental splendour beyond\ndescription, there are pillars said to have been brought from\nSolomon's temple; these are of alabaster, a substance firm and\nendurable as granite, and yet transparent, so that the light glows\nthrough them. Behold an emblem of what all true pillars of the Church\nshould be--firm in their faith and transparent in their character;\nmen of simple mould, ignorant of tortuous and deceptive ways, and yet\nmen of strong will, not readily to be led aside or bent from their\nuprightness.--_Spurgeon._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 15.\n\n_Christian Steadfastness._\n\nIn all ages the people of God have been assailed with the weapons of\na subtle and plausible philosophy which has sought to supplant the\nsimple truth of the Gospel with human opinions. The evil heart of man\nchafes under the righteous restrictions of the truth, and in its\nangry and delirious opposition has sought to rid itself of God and of\nall the laws that bind it to a life of obedience and holiness. And\nwhen it fancies it has succeeded in demolishing the truths it hated\nand against which it rebelled, it is aghast at the desolation it has\nwrought and recoils in alarm from the dark, horrible gulf to the\nbrink of which it has forced itself. Stricken with bewilderment and\ndespair, man strives to construct a religion for himself, and he\nseeks to substitute his own wild ravings for the truths of Divine\nrevelation. It is the attempt of a bold, impious infidelity to put\nerror in the place of truth, philosophy in the place of religion,\nhuman opinion in the place of God. The exhortation of this verse is\nalways timely.\n\n+I. Christian steadfastness is an important and ever-present\nduty.+--1. _It is_ _necessary to growth and maturity in personal\npiety._ Trees must grow or die. So it is with piety; it must grow or\nperish. No plant or tree can thrive that is being perpetually plucked\nup and transplanted; nor can the soul prosper unless it is\nsteadfastly rooted in the soil of truth. Darwin describes a marine\nplant--the _Macrocystis pyrifera_--that rises two hundred feet from\nthe depths of the Western Ocean and floats for many fathoms on the\nsurface, uninjured among the waves and breakers, which no masses of\nrock, however hard, can long withstand. It maintains its strength by\nclinging tenaciously to the rocks far down below the surface of the\nsea. So personal piety grows and flourishes by maintaining a firm\nhold of the Rock of Ages.\n\n2. _It is necessary in bearing witness for Christ._--The value of a\nlighthouse or a landmark to the mariner is, that he can rely on\nalways finding it in the same place. And the value of a Christian\ntestimony is that it is not erratic and changeful, but stable and\nreliable: it hesitates not to witness for Christ in any place. Fifty\nyears ago at a dinner-party in the west end of London, the\nconversation was dishonouring to Christ. One guest was silent, and\npresently asked that the bell might be rung. On the appearance of the\nservant he ordered his carriage, and with polished courtesy\napologised to his host for his enforced departure, saying, _for I am\nstill a Christian._ This gentleman was the late Sir Robert Peel.\n\n3. _It is a stimulating example to the weak and faltering._--There\nare timid, feeble followers of Christ who, until they become well\ngrounded, lean on others; and if their exemplars vacillate and\nchange, so do they. Few have the courage to break away from a\npernicious example. When travelling on the Continent, Dr. Duff made\nthe acquaintance of Cardinal Wiseman, and for some time travelled\nwith him; but when at Antwerp he saw the cardinal prostrate himself\nbefore the Virgin, he courteously but firmly bade him \"good-bye.\"\n\n+II. Christian steadfastness is shown in an unflinching maintenance\nof apostolic doctrine.+--\"Hold the traditions which ye have been\ntaught, whether by word, or our epistle.\" These traditions were the\ndoctrines preached by the apostles. For some years after the\nascension of Christ, there was no written Gospel or epistle. The\ntruth was taught orally by those who were living witnesses of the\nfacts on which the doctrines--or traditions--were based.\n\n1. _Apostolic doctrine must be clearly apprehended._--It must\ntherefore be diligently studied, and the truth sifted from the mass\nof errors with which false teachers surround it. What is not\nintelligently comprehended cannot be firmly held.\n\n2. _Apostolic doctrine must be earnestly embraced._--Not simply\ndiscussed, not simply admired and praised, but prayerfully and\ncordially accepted--taken in as spiritual food, and systematically\nfed upon to give strength and stamina to the soul.\n\n3. _Apostolic doctrine must be firmly held and stoutly defended\nagainst all errors._--\"Hold the traditions.\" Believe them when\ntempted to disbelieve; defend them when assailed by the enemy. A\nbrave Athenian, who wrought deeds of valour in the battle of\nMarathon, seized with his right hand a stranded galley filled with\nPersians. When his right hand was cut off, he seized the boat with\nhis left, and when that was smitten, he held on with his teeth till\nhe died. The grasp of truth by a Christian believer should not be\nless tenacious than the dogged heroism of a heathen warrior.\n\n+III. Christian steadfastness is emphatically enforced.+--\"Therefore,\nbrethren, stand fast.\" Though misunderstood and misrepresented,\nthough savagely opposed by the enemies of the truth, stand fast. As\nthe wings of the bird are strengthened by the resistance of the\natmosphere in which it floats, so your graces will be strengthened by\nthe opposition with which you resolutely contend. In order that your\nown personal piety may be matured, that your witnessing for Christ\nmay be unmistakable, and that your example may be a stimulating\nencouragement to others, \"stand fast, and hold the traditions which\nye have been taught.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The unstable are the prey of every passing\ntemptation._ 2. _The Word of God is the unfailing source of moral\nstrength._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16, 17.\n\n_Prayer an Expression of Ministerial Anxiety._\n\nThe apostle had warned the Thessalonians of the errors that were\nbecoming rife among them. Indeed, the existence of these errors, and\nthe grave injury they threatened to the faith of the new converts,\nprompted him to write these epistles--the first in a series of\nmagnificent apostolic polemics. The apostle knew that if the\nsimplicity of the Gospel was vitiated at the beginning of its\nworld-wide mission, unspeakable disaster would ensue, as the\ncheckered history of the Church in the early centuries unhappily\nproved. Hence his anxiety, not only to clearly state, but with all\nhis resources of logic and persuasion, resolutely to defend the\ncardinal principles of the Gospel. He not only argues but prays.\nThese verses teach that _prayer is the expression of ministerial\nanxiety._\n\n+I. It recognises the need of spiritual consolation.+--\"Now our\nLord . . . comfort your hearts\" (vers. 16, 17). You have sorrowed\nover the loss of friends and harassed yourselves as to their\ncondition in another world. I have pointed out to you that your fears\nwere groundless (1 Thess. iv. 13-18). Now, I commend you God as the\nSource and Giver of all consolation and pray that He may specially\ncomfort you. \"It is God's presence,\" says Burroughs, \"that\nconstitutes the saint's morning. As the stars may impart some light,\nand yet the brightness of all combined cannot form the light of day,\nbut when the sun appears there is day forthwith, so God may make some\ncomfort arise to a soul from secondary and inferior means; but it is\nHe Himself alone who, by the shining of His face and the smiles of\nHis countenance, causes morning.\" A comfort that is made up of our\nfancies is like a spider's web that is weaved out of its bowels and\nis gone and swept away with the turn of a besom.\n\n+II. It recognises the perils that beset the path of\nobedience.+--\"And establish you in every good word and work\" (ver.\n17)--or, according to the Revised Version, \"every good _work and\nword._\" Work is better than speech, deeds more eloquent than words,\nthough both are necessary. The best safeguard against temptation is\nto be employed. \"The busy man is tempted by one devil, the idle man\nby a thousand.\" The force of gunpowder is not known till some spark\nfalls on it; so the most placid natures do not reveal the evil that\nis in them till they are assailed by some fierce and sudden\ntemptation. Excellence in anything can only be reached by hard work;\nso stability in grace is attained only by being diligently engaged in\nGod's service. Steadfastness is not dull quiescence: it is\nself-absorbing activity. If you would be strong, you must work.\n\n+III. It recognises the Divine source of all spiritual\nhelp.+--1. _That this help is the outcome of Divine love._ \"Our Lord\nJesus Christ Himself and God even our Father, which hath loved us\"\n(ver. 16). God helps because He loves. His love evokes the best and\nnoblest in us, as the master-musician brings out melodies from an\ninstrument that inferior players have failed to produce.\n\n                       \"Love is a passion\n     Which kindles honour into noblest acts.\"\n\n     \"O let Thy love constrain us\n        To give our hearts to Thee;\n      Let nothing henceforth pain us\n        But that which paineth Thee.\n\n     \"Our joy, our one endeavour,\n        Through suffering, conflict, shame,\n      To serve Thee, gracious Saviour,\n        And magnify Thy name.\"\n\n2. _That this help meets every possible exigency of the Christian\nlife._--\"And hath given us everlasting consolation and good hope\nthrough grace\" (ver. 16). The consolation refers to everything in the\npresent, the good hope to everything in the future. The consolation\nis constant, _everlasting,_ as flowing from inexhaustible sources,\nand is ever available in all the changes and needs of life; and the\nhope turns our fears into confidence and our sorrows into joy. When\nthe frail barques of the Portuguese went sailing south, they found\nthe sea so stormy at the southern point of Africa that they named it\nthe Cape of Storms; but after it had been well rounded by bolder\nnavigators, they named it the Cape of Good Hope. So, by the Divine\nhelp afforded us, many a rough cape of storms has been transformed\ninto a cape of good hope. All spiritual help is given \"through\ngrace\"--the free, unmerited favour of God--and is therefore a fitting\nsubject of prayer.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Every minister should be emphatically a man of\nprayer._ 2. _Prayer for others has a reflex benefit on the\nsuppliant._ 3. _An anxious spirit finds relief and comfort in prayer._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 16, 17. _St. Paul's Prayer for the Thessalonians._\n\n+I. The objects the apostle addressed.+--1. _God, even our Father._\n2. _Our Lord Jesus Christ._\n\n+II. The gifts the apostle acknowledged.+--1. _The manifestation of\nDivine love._ 2. _The communication of saving grace._ 3. _The\nbestowment of Christian hope._\n\n+III. The blessings the apostle requested.+--1. _Increasing felicity\nin the Lord._ 2. _Persevering stability in the truth.--Eta._\n\n\nVer. 16. _A Good Hope through Grace._\n\n+I. The grace of hope.+--1. _Refers to the resurrection of the body._\n2. _To eternal life to be enjoyed by both soul and body._\n3. _Pre-requisites of this hope._--Conviction of sin. An experimental\nacquaintance with the Gospel.\n\n+II. The excellency of this hope.+--\"A good hope.\" 1. _In opposition\nto the hopes of worldly men._ 2. _It is a lively hope._ 3. _The\nobject of it is an infinite and eternal good._ 4. _It has a good\nfoundation._ 5. _It produces good effects._\n\n+III. The source of this hope.+--\"Through grace.\" 1. _Man is the\nsubject of infinite demerit._ 2. _Christ alone possesses infinite\nmerit._ 3. _The Scripture warns against all self-dependence.--Helps\nfor the Pulpit._\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+CHAPTER III.+\n\n_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._\n\nVer. 1. +Have free course and be glorified.+--Probably St. Paul took\nthis image from the Old Testament. In Ps. cxlvii. 15 the word of the\nLord is said to \"run very swiftly.\"\n\nVer. 2. +Unreasonable and wicked men.+--The word for \"unreasonable\"\nonly occurs twice besides in the New Testament: once, the malefactor\non the cross says, \"This man has done nothing amiss,\" or out of\nplace; and again the barbarians \"beheld nothing amiss\" come to Paul\nwhen the viper had fashioned on his hand. The thief is a good\ncommentator here. Men who by their vagaries hold even their friends\nin painful suspense, and especially such as are indifferent to\nmorality, seem to be meant.\n\nVer. 3. +And keep you from evil.+--\"Keep\" here is a military word\nreminding of the psalmist's name for God--\"Shield.\" The Revisers add\n\"one\" after \"evil,\" as in the Lord's Prayer.\n\nVer. 5. +Direct your hearts.+--The same word for \"direct\" again\noccurs only in 1 Thess. iii. 11 and Luke i. 79. A similar phrase in\nthe LXX. of 1 Chron. xxix. 18 (R.V. \"prepare\"). +Into the patient\nwaiting for Christ.+--A.V. margin and R.V. text, \"into the patience\nof Christ.\" \"The Thessalonians were eagerly awaiting His return: let\nthem wait for it in His patient spirit\" (_Findlay_).\n\nVer. 6. +Walketh disorderly.+--Falling out of the ranks and desertion\nof the post of duty are grave faults, which if the _esprit de corps_\ndoes not prevent it must be punished by treating the defaulter as one\nwho has discredited his comrades in arms.\n\nVer. 7. +We behaved not ourselves disorderly among you.+--\"We never\nlived an undisciplined life among you.\" Men will bear the sharp\nrebukes of a martinet, even when they observe that he is as much\nunder discipline as he would have the youngest recruit, as the lives\nof men like Havelock and Gordon testify.\n\nVer. 10. +If any would not work, neither should he eat.+--\"A stern,\nbut necessary and merciful rule, the neglect of which makes charity\ndemoralising\" (_Ibid._). It is parasitism which is condemned.\n\nVer. 11. +Working not at all, but are busybodies.+--\"Not working, but\nworking round people,\" as we might represent St. Paul's play on the\nwords. \"Their only business is to be busybodies.\"\n\nVer. 13. +Be not weary in well-doing.+--Such bad behaviour under\ncover of the Christian name is abhorrent to St. Paul. \"The loveliness\nof perfect deeds\" must be worthily sustained. Well-doing here points\nto that which is admirable in conduct rather than that which is\nbeneficent.\n\nVer. 14. +Have no company with him.+--The difference between this\ntreatment of a delinquent and excommunication may be more in idea\nthan fact. He would feel himself tabooed in either case. But this\nagrees better with the notion of Christians as being separated.\n_\"Come out from among them.\"_ Cf. Tit. ii. 10. +That he may be\nashamed.+--Not, of course, that he may become a laughing-stock, but\nthat, feeling abashed, he may quickly put himself right with the\ncommunity.\n\nVer. 15. +Yet count him not as an enemy.+--When Christ says the\nimpenitent brother is to be regarded as a Gentile, He gives no\nsanction to the way in which the Jew too often regarded the Gentile.\n+Admonish him as a brother.+--Who, though in error, has not\nsacrificed his claim to gentle treatment and consideration.\n\nVer. 16. +Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always.+--The\nChurch at Thessalonica had been passing through stormy waters. The\napostle prays that God may give them to--\n\n     \"Feel His halcyon rest within\n      Calming the storms of dread and sin.\"\n\nVer. 17. +The salutation . . . the token.+--As though he said, \"This\nthat I am about to write is my sign-manual.\"\n\nVer. 18. +The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you\nall.+--Whatever St. Paul's handwriting may have been, it could not\nwell be more characteristic than this word \"grace,\" as certainly he\ncould not have chosen a more beautiful word to engrave on his seal.\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1, 2.\n\n_Prayer for Ministers._\n\nPrayer should not be all on one side. It is a mutual obligation and\nprivilege. The Thessalonians are reminded how often they were the\nsubject of anxious prayer, and they are now asked to remember their\nown ministers at the throne of grace. Mutual prayer intensifies\nmutual sympathy and affection and deepens the interest of both\nparties in promoting the success of the Gospel. Note:--\n\n+I. That prayer for ministers is apostolically enjoined.+--\"Brethren,\npray for us\" (ver. 1). True prayer is spontaneous. It does not wait\nto be formally authorised. A loving heart loves to pray.\nNevertheless, there are laggards in this duty, and they may be\nprompted to the exercise by employing all the weight of apostolic\nauthority and example. If apostles felt the need of prayer, how much\nmore should we! Ministers are but men; but by the use of the word\n\"brethren\" the writer indicates that ministers and people have common\nprivileges, common wants, and common dangers. The ministerial office\nhas also its special responsibilities and perils, and nothing helps\nmore vitally the efficient discharge of its duties than the constant\nprayers of an appreciative and devoted people.\n\n+II. That prayer for ministers should have special reference to the\nsuccess of the Gospel.+--1. _The Gospel is Divine._ \"The word of the\nLord\" (ver. 1). The Gospel is a message to man, but it is more than a\nhuman message. It is the voice of God speaking to man through man. If\nit had been simply of human origin, it would have been forgotten and\nsuperseded by the changing theories ever teeming from the fertile\nbrain of man. Every human institution is liable to be supplanted by\nanother. There is nothing permanent in philosophy, government, or\nmorals that is not based on eternal truth. The Gospel is abiding,\nbecause it rests on unchanging truth. It is the \"word of the Lord.\"\n\n2. _The spread of the Gospel is beset with difficulties._--\"That the\nword of the Lord may have free course\" (ver. 1). The pioneers of the\nGospel in Thessalonica had to contend with the malignant hatred of\nthe unbelieving Jews, with the seductive theories of the Grecian\nphilosophy, and with the jealous opposition of the Roman power. All\nhindrances to the Gospel have a common root in the depravity of the\nhuman heart--hence the difficulties occasioned by the inconsistencies\nof half-hearted professors, the paralysing influence of scepticism,\nand the violence of external persecution. The chief difficulty is\nspiritual, and the weapon to contend against it must be\nspiritual--the weapon of _all-prayer._ Savonarola once said, \"If\nthere be no enemy, no fight; if no fight, no victory; if no victory,\nno crown.\" We are to pray that the Gospel \"may have free course\"--may\nrun, not simply creep, or loiter haltingly on the way, but speed\nalong as a swift-footed messenger. \"Take courage from thy cause: thou\nfightest for thy God, and against His enemy. Is thy enemy too potent?\nfear not. Art thou besieged? faint not. Art thou routed? fly not.\nCall aid, and thou shalt be strengthened; petition, and thou shalt be\nrelieved; pray, and thou shalt be recruited.\"\n\n3. _The glory of the Gospel is to change men's hearts and ennoble\nmen's lives._--\"And be glorified, even as it is with you\" (ver. 1).\nYou Thessalonians, notwithstanding your imperfect views and defective\nconduct, are samples of what the Gospel can do in changing the heart\nand giving a lofty purpose to the life. Pray that its triumph may be\nmore complete in you, and that its uplifting influence may be\nrealised by others. \"That which Plato was unable to effect,\" says\nPascal, \"even in the case of a few select and learned persons, a\nsecret power, by the help only of a few words, is now wrought upon\nthousands of uneducated men.\"\n\n+III. That prayer for ministers should be offered that their lives\nmay be preserved from the violence of cruel and unbelieving\nenemies.+--\"And that ye may be delivered from unreasonable and wicked\nmen: for all men have not faith\" (ver. 2). _Not all have faith,_ even\namong those who profess to have it, and it is certainly true of all\nthose who scout and reject the Gospel. The unbelieving are perverse\nand wicked, and it is from this class that the minister is met by the\nmost unreasonable and malicious opposition. Perhaps the most\ndangerous foes with which a minister has to contend are those who\nmake some profession of religion, but in heart and practice deny it.\n\"Men will write for religion, fight for it, die for it--anything but\nlive for it.\" The minister, girded with the prayers of his people, is\nscreened from the plots and attacks of the wicked.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The success of the Gospel is a signal demonstration\nof its Divine authorship._ 2. _Ministers of the Gospel have need of\nsympathy and help in their work._ 3. _The grandest spiritual results\nare brought about by prayer._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 1. _The Ministerial Request._\n\n+I. The request presented.+--1. _That the power of religion may be\neminently experienced in our own souls._ 2. _That we may be preserved\nfrom the official dangers to which we are exposed._ 3. _That we may\nbe able ministers of the New Testament._ 4. _That prudence and\nfidelity may distinguish our labours._\n\n+II. The grounds on which it rests.+--1. _It rests on the mutual\nconnection which subsists between ministers and people._ 2. _On the\nlaw of love._ 3. _On its advantage to yourselves._ 4. _On the\nprevalency of fervent prayer._ 5. _On its connection with the\nsalvation of souls.--Sketches._\n\n\nVer. 2. _Unbelief_--\n\n  +I. Abandons the guide of reason.+\n\n +II. Leads to a vicious life and causes trouble to others.+\n\n+III. We should pray to be delivered from its evil results.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 3, 4.\n\n_The Faithfulness of God._\n\nFrom the want of faith in man, referred to in the preceding verse,\nthe writer, as if to show the contrast, naturally glides into the\nsubject of the Divine faithfulness. Unbelief may abound, but God can\nbe relied on; man may be fickle and unreasonable, but the fidelity of\nGod is inviolate.\n\n+I. The faithfulness of God is a fact established by abundant\ntestimonies.+--\"But the Lord _is_ faithful\" (ver. 3). He is faithful\nto His own nature. He cannot deny Himself. He is faithful to His\npurpose, to His Word, to every promise, and every threatening too.\nThe whole history of God's dealings with the Jewish people is a\nsuggestive and impressive commentary on His inflexible faithfulness.\nThe fact that the Church of God exists to-day, notwithstanding\ndefection within and persecution without, is an unanswerable\ntestimony to His fidelity. \"You may be faint and weary, but my God\ncannot. I may fluctuate and alter as to my frames and feelings; but\nmy Redeemer is unchangeably the same. I might utterly fail and come\nto nothing, if left to myself. But I cannot be so left to myself. He\nis rich to relieve and succour me in all my wants. He is faithful to\nperform and perfect all His promises\" (_Ambrose Serle_).\n\n+II. The faithfulness of God is practically manifested in\nestablishing His people in all good and in keeping them safe from all\nevil.+--\"Who shall stablish you and keep you from evil\" (ver. 3). The\npeople of God do not perpetuate themselves. He perpetuates. His\nfaithful guardianship gives persistency to His people, so that in\nevery age and in the darkest times there has been a bright succession\nof living witnesses of His unchanging character. He preserves them,\nnot because of any inherent grace or self-deserving, but because He\nis faithful. \"Janet,\" said a Scottish minister to a Christian woman\nof great faith, whom he was visiting, \"suppose, after all, God were\nto let you drop into hell!\" \"Even as He will,\" was her reply; \"but if\nHe does, He will lose mair than I'll do.\" A single flaw in the Divine\nfidelity would shatter the faith of the universe.\n\n+III. The faithfulness of God inspires confidence in the fidelity of\nthe obedient.+--\"And we have confidence in the Lord touching you that\nye both do, and will do the things which we command you\" (ver. 4).\nBecause God is faithful, we know that you can be kept faithful, if\nyou are willing and seeking to be so kept. Moreover, you will\nassuredly be kept faithful, while you observe in the future, as you\nhave done in the past, \"the things which we command you,\" and in\ncommanding which we have the Divine authority. Consider these things,\nlet them sink into your hearts; then act accordingly. Let obedience\nfollow conviction, and we have no fear about the result. Von Moltke,\nthe great German strategist and general, chose for his motto, _\"Erst\nwagen, dann wagen,\"_--_\"First weigh, then venture\"_; and it was to\nthis he owed his great victories and successes. Slow, cautious,\ncareful in planning, but bold, daring, even seemingly reckless in\nexecution, the moment his resolve was made. Vows thus ripen into\ndeeds, decision must go on to performance. The final perseverance of\nthe saint depends on the Divine perseverance; his faithfulness on the\nDivine faithfulness. If we had no living Saviour to pilot our ship,\nno promise on which to rely, we might have cause to fear. The Divine\nfaithfulness is unquestionable; our faithfulness is maintained only\nby obedience.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The faithfulness of God is the guarantee of the\nbeliever's safety._ 2. _The faithfulness of God should encourage the\nexercise of implicit faith in Him._ 3. _The faithfulness of God\ndemands undeviating obedience to His laws._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 3. _The Divine Faithfulness_--\n\n  +I. An incontrovertible fact.+\n\n +II. A guarantee of personal establishment in the truth.+\n\n+III. An invulnerable protection from evil and all its works.+\n\n\nVer. 4. _Christian Obedience_--\n\n  +I. Is a voluntary and constant activity.+\n\n +II. Is based on well-understood and authoritative precepts.+\n\n+III. Is the pathway of blessing.+\n\n +IV. Inspires confidence in others.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 5.\n\n_Divine Love and Patience._\n\nAgain, the apostle is on his knees. How beautifully the habitual\ndevoutness of the apostle's spirit comes out in the side-lights\nthrown from passages in his writings like this verse! He lives and\nbreathes in the electric atmosphere of prayer. All the time he is\nreasoning, expounding, warning, and persuading he is also praying.\nPrayer is a powerful aid to the preacher. It keeps his soul in\nsympathy with the realm of spiritual realities, gives him clearer\ninsight into truth, and intensifies his experience of the Divine. We\nlearn from this verse:--\n\n+I. That Divine love and patience are conspicuous elements in man's\nredemption.+--\"The love of God and the patient waiting for\nChrist\"--_the patience of Christ_ (R.V.). The love of God devised and\nthe patience of Christ carried out the great plan of human salvation.\nThe Gospel is a grand revelation of the Divine love and patience in\nChrist Jesus; and the history of the Gospel in its world-wide\nprogress is a many-sided illustration of these two conspicuous\nvirtues in the Divine character and operations. After the last French\nwar, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Paris was imprisoned. His cell\nhad a window shaped like a cross, and with a pencil he wrote upon the\narms of the cross that they denoted the height, length, breadth, and\ndepth of God's love. That man knew something of the love of God. The\npatience of Christ in suffering for mankind was sustained and\nsublimated by the love of God, and was an object-lesson to the world,\nteaching, in a way that appealed to the most callous, the power and\nuniversality of that love.\n\n+II. That Divine love and patience are the distinguished privilege of\nhuman experience.+--\"Direct your hearts into the love of God and\npatience of Christ.\" The love we are to enjoy is no mere human\npassion, fickle and evanescent; the patience, no mere grim stoical\nendurance. We are admitted into the sacred adoption of the Divine\nmysteries; we share in their spiritual ecstasy and unruffled calm,\nthe very love and patience of God! The Divine in us becomes more\ngrowingly evident to ourselves and to others. Love gives\nstaying-power to and teaches us how to suffer without murmuring, to\nendure without retaliating. \"Sire,\" said Beza in his reply to the\nking of Navarre, \"it belongs to God's Church rather to suffer blows\nthan to strike them; but let it be your pleasure to remember that the\nChurch is an anvil which has worn out many a hammer.\" With time and\npatience the mulberry leaf becomes satin.\n\n+III. That Divine love and patience are more fully enjoyed by the\nsoul that prays.+--\"And the Lord direct your hearts.\" The prayerful\napostle had realised the blessedness of a personal participation in\nthe love and patience of God. But for the love of God he would never\nhave ventured upon his evangelistic mission, and but for the patience\nof Christ he would not have continued in it. Now he prays that the\nhearts of the Thessalonians may enjoy the same grace or be set in the\ndirect way of attaining it. It is of vital consequence that the\ncurrent of the heart's outgoings should be set in the right\ndirection. This brief petition shows what we ought to ask for\nourselves. The best way to secure a larger degree of love and\npatience is to ardently pray for them.\n\n     \"What grace, O Lord, and beauty shone\n        Around Thy steps below!\n      What patient love was seen in all\n        Thy life and death of woe!\n\n     \"Oh! give us hearts to love like Thee--\n        Like Thee, O Lord, to grieve\n      Far more for others' sins, than all\n        The wrongs that we receive.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The Christian life is a sublime participation in the\nnature of God._ 2. _Love and patience reveal the God-like character._\n3. _Prayer is at its best when engaged with the loftiest themes._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\nVer. 5. _Waiting for the Second Advent._\n\n+I. The love of God a preparation for the Redeemer's\ncoming.+--1. _The love of God is the love of goodness._ 2. _The love\nof God is the love of man expanded and purified._ The love of man\nexpanded into the love of Him, of whom all that we have seen of\ngentle and lovely, of true and tender, of honourable and bright in\nhuman character, are but the shadows and the broken, imperfect lights.\n\n+II. Patient waiting another preparation for the Redeemer's\ncoming.+--1. _The Christian attitude of soul is an attitude of\nexpectation._--Every gift of noble origin is breathed upon by hope's\nperfect breath.\n\n2. _It is patient waiting._--Every one who has ardently longed for\nany spiritual blessing knows the temptation to impatience in\nexpecting it.--_F. W. Robertson._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS ON THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 6, 7.\n\n_Christian Consistency._\n\nThe apostle commended with a warm-hearted eulogy whatever was good in\nthe Thessalonians, but he was not less faithful in administering\nrebuke when it was needed. A number of the converts, not sufficiently\npondering the words of the writer, were carried away with the\ndelusion that the second advent of Christ would take place\nimmediately, and they abandoned all interest in the practical duties\nof life--an error that has been often repeated since, with similar\nresults. Fearing the mischief would spread, and seeing that all\npervious warnings were disregarded, the apostle in these verses\ntreats the mistaken enthusiasts with unsparing condemnation. Disorder\nmust be crushed, and consistency preserved.\n\n+I. Christian consistency is in harmony with the highest\nteaching.+--\"After the tradition which he [or they] received of us\"\n(ver. 6). The rules of Christian consistency were clearly laid down\nin the traditions or doctrines taught by the apostles and were\nenforced with all the weight and sanction of Divine authority. To\nviolate these rules is to \"walk disorderly\"--to break the ranks, to\nfall out of line. The value of the individual soldier is the degree\nin which he keeps in order and acts in perfect harmony and precision\nwith the rest of the regiment. A breach of military rule creates\ndisaster. Let the believer keep the Divine law, and the law will keep\nhim.\n\n     \"The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre,\n      Observe degree, priority, and place,\n      Insisture, course, proportion, season, form,\n      Office and custom, in all line of order.\"--_Shakespeare._\n\n+II. Christian consistency is enforced by apostolic example.+--\"For\nyourselves know how ye ought to follow us: for we behaved not\nourselves disorderly among you\" (ver. 7). The apostles illustrated\nwhat they taught, by a rigid observance of the rules they imposed on\nothers. Precept was enforced by practice. While the preachers\nlaboured among the Thessalonians, the influence of their upright\nexamples kept the Church in order. Much depends upon the conduct of a\nleader in Church or State. It is said of a certain military commander\non taking charge of an army that had been somewhat lax in discipline:\n\"The presence of a master-mind was quickly visible in the changed\ncondition of the camp. Perfect order now reigned. He was a rigid\ndisciplinarian, and yet as gentle and kind as a woman. He was the\neasiest man in our army to get along with pleasantly, so long as one\ndid his duty, but as inexorable as fate in exacting its performance.\nHe was as courteous to the humblest private who sought an interview\nfor any purpose as to the highest officer under his command.\"\n\n+III. Christian consistency is to be maintained by separation from\nthe lawless.+--\"Now we command you, brethren, in the name of our Lord\nJesus Christ, that ye withdraw yourselves from every brother that\nwalketh disorderly\" (ver. 6). If all efforts to recover the\nrecalcitrant fail, then the Church has the highest authority for\nseparating completely from the society and fellowship of such.\nContinued communion with them would not only seem to condone their\noffence, but destroy discipline, and put an end to all moral\nconsistency. Such a separation from the unruly would be more marked\nin the early Church, when there was only one Christian community, and\nwhen the brethren were noted for their affectionate attachment to\neach other.\n\n+Lessons.+--_Christian consistency_--1. _Is defined by the highest\nlaw._ 2. _Avoids association with evil._ 3. _Is a reproof and pattern\nto the unbelieving._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 6, 7. _The Disorderly in Church Life_--\n\n  +I. Violate the rules that give compactness and strength to all\n      Church organisation.+\n\n +II. Ignore the highest examples of moral consistency.+\n\n+III. Should be faithfully warned and counselled.+\n\n +IV. If incorrigible, should be excluded from the privileges of\n      Christian fellowship.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 8, 9.\n\n_Self-denying Labour._\n\nPioneer work involves hard toil and much patience and self-denial.\nThe character and surroundings of the people whose highest good is\nsought must be studied. The apostle took his measure of the\nThessalonian converts, and, perhaps foreseeing the extravagances to\nwhich they would yield, he and his co-labourers determined to set\nthem an example of unselfish industry, even to the extent of\nsurrendering their just rights.\n\n+I. Here we see self-denying labour carried on amidst weariness and\nsuffering.+--\"Neither did we eat any man's bread for nought; but\nwrought with labour and travail night and day\" (ver. 8). Work is a\npleasurable exercise to the strong and healthy, but it becomes a\nhardship when carried to excess. The devoted missionaries worked when\nthey were weary--worked when they should have been resting. After a\nhard day's toil in teaching and visiting, they laboured far on into\nthe night, so as to maintain themselves independent of help from\ntheir converts. Much as we hear of the dignity of labour, the toiler,\nwhether by hand or brain, in the weariness and pain that overtake\nhim, feels that some portion of the original curse still clings to\nhis handiwork. The best work is often accomplished in the midst of\nacute suffering. The unique histories of England were written by\nJ. R. Green while the shadow of death was consciously hovering over\nhis desk; and the exquisite Christian lyrics of H. F. Lyte were\npenned while he felt that every moment his heart was throbbing\n\"funeral marches to the grave.\"\n\n+II. Here we see self-denying labour declining the maintenance that\nmight be legitimately claimed.+--\"That we might not be chargeable to\nany of you: not because we have not power\" (vers. 8, 9)--right,\nauthority. While the apostle forbears to urge their just right to\nministerial support by the people, he gives them clearly to\nunderstand it is their right. Their self-denial in this instance was\nfor a special purpose, and was only intended to be temporary, and not\nto establish a universal rule. In other places, St. Paul insists upon\nthe duty of the Church to maintain its ministers (1 Cor. ix. 4-14;\nGal. vi. 6). All honour to the self-denying zeal and suffering toil\nof the unaided Christian worker; but what shall we say of the\nparsimony and injustice of the people who allow such a state of\nthings to continue?\n\n+III. Here we see self-denying labour set forth as an example and\nreproof to those who are most benefited by it.+--\"To make ourselves\nan ensample unto you to follow us\" (ver. 9). Here the purpose of\ntheir disinterested conduct is plainly stated--to set an example of\nindustry to the idlers. St. Paul acted in a similar manner towards\nthe Corinthians, but with a different design. In the latter case he\nwished to manifest a better spirit than that of the false teachers\nwho were greedy of filthy lucre (2 Cor. xi. 8-13). The earnest\nevangelist is ever anxious to clear his work from the taint of\nself-seeking. Let the heart of man be changed and sanctified, and it\nwill inspire and regulate the practical exercise of every Christian\nvirtue. How little does the world appreciate its greatest\nbenefactors! And yet no unselfish act is without its recompense. The\nactor is not unblessed. To exchange, as Christ did, the temple for\nNazareth, the Father's house for the carpenter's shop, the joy of\npreaching for irksome toil, is a great advance in spiritual obedience\nand nobility of character.\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _The essence of the Christian spirit is\nunselfishness._ 2. _The earnest Christian pioneer labours\nungrudgingly for the good of others._ 3. _The self-denial of the\npreacher does not exonerate the people from the duty of his\nlegitimate maintenance._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 8. _Industry the Secret of Success._--When Sir Isaac Newton was\nasked by what means he had been able to make that successful progress\nin the sciences which struck mankind with wonder, he modestly\nreplied, that it was not so much owing to any superior strength of\ngenius as to a habit of patient thinking, laborious attention, and\nclose application.\n\n\nVer. 9. _Ministerial Maintenance._\n\n  +I. It is a claim based on scriptural and apostolic authority.+\n\n +II. The temporary waiving of the right is a noble example of\n      self-denial and unselfish devotion.+\n\n+III. No personal waiving of the right releases the Church from its\n      obligation.+\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 10-12.\n\n_Christianity and Work._\n\nChristianity is the Gospel of work. Its clarion-call thrills along\nthe nerves of human life and summons the world to labour. It gives to\nwork meaning, purpose, dignity, and exalts drudgery into a\nblessedness. While full of sympathy for the feeble and maimed, it has\nno pity for the indolent. Its Founder and first apostles were giants\nin labour, and their example animates the world to-day with a spirit\nof noblest activity. It is not the drone, but the worker, who blesses\nthe world. \"Be no longer a chaos,\" writes Carlyle, \"but a world, or\neven a worldkin. Produce! produce! were it but the pitifullest,\ninfinitesimal fraction of a product, produce it in God's name! 'Tis\nthe utmost thou hast in thee; out with it, then. Up, up! whatever thy\nhand findeth to do, do it with thy might.\"\n\n+I. Christianity recognises the duty of every man to work for his own\nsupport.+--\"For even when we were with you, this we commanded, that\nif any would not work, neither should he eat\" (ver. 10). The\nnecessity of food involves the necessity of work. As every one must\neat, so every one must work. The wife of a certain chieftain, who had\nfallen upon idle habits, one day lifted the dish-cover at dinner and\nrevealed a pair of spurs, a sign that he must ride and hunt for his\nnext meal. It is said that in the Californian bee-pastures, on the\nsun-days of summer, one may readily infer the time of day from the\ncomparative energy of bee-movements alone; drowsy and moderate in the\ncool of the morning, increasing in energy with the ascending sun, and\nat high noon thrilling and quivering in wild ecstasy, then gradually\ndeclining again to the stillness of night. Is not this a picture of\nour life? Work is necessary for sustenance, for health, for moral\ndevelopment; and rest is all the sweeter after genuine toil.\n\n+II. Christianity is intolerant of an ignoble indolence.+--\"For we\nhear that there are some which walk among you disorderly, working not\nat all, but are busybodies\" (ver. 11). The disorderly are the idle\ntattlers, who make a pretence of work by busying themselves with all\nkinds of things but their own duty. They are triflers, wasting their\nown time and other people's; and they do serious mischief. In certain\nforeign parts, where insects abound in such swarms as to be a pest to\nthe people and destructive enemies to young growing plants, an\nelectric apparatus has been constructed to destroy the brood\nwholesale. The appliance consists of a strong electric light\nattracting the moths and insects, a suction-fan drawing them into a\nshaft as they approach the light, and a small mill in the shaft where\nthe victims are ground up and mixed with flour, thus converting them\ninto poultry-food. Cannot some genius contrive a means of putting an\nend--short of grinding them into chicken-food: let us be merciful,\neven to our enemies!--to those social pests who go buzzing about our\nhomes and Churches, worrying with their idle gossip and stinging with\ntheir spiteful venom the innocent and inoffensive? If these\nbusybodies would devote, in doing their duty, the energy they waste,\nthey would be able to produce quite a respectable amount of honest\nwork. But they find it easier to sponge on the generosity and\nsimplicity of others. They are parasites; and all parasites are the\npaupers of nature. Parasitism is a crime--a breach of the law of\nevolution.\n\n+III. Christianity enforces the necessity of a steady and independent\nindustry.+--\"We command and exhort by our Lord Jesus Christ that with\nquietness they work, and eat their own bread\" (ver. 12). The apostle,\nhaving the authority of Christ for what he counsels, _commands_; and\nas a man addressing his fellow-men, he _exhorts_ and persuades. The\nlaw of Christianity is both stern and gentle: unbending in principle,\nand flexible only in manifold persuasions to translate the principle\ninto actual living practice. It rouses man from yielding to a sinful\nlistlessness and helps him to develop a robust Christian manhood.\nWhen an Indian candidate for the ministry was asked the question,\n\"What is original sin?\" he frankly replied, \"He did not know what\nother people's might be, but he rather thought that his was\nlaziness.\" Idleness is the prolific source of many evils: work is at\nonce a remedy and a safeguard. A clergyman once said, \"A Christian\nshould never plead spirituality for being a sloven; if he be but a\nshoe-cleaner, he should be the best in the parish.\" We are honouring\nChristianity most when we are doing our best to observe the precepts,\n\"Working with quietness and eating our own bread.\" An American\npreacher once said, \"You sit here and sing yourselves away to\neverlasting bliss; but I tell you that you are wanted a great deal\nmore out in Illinois than you are in heaven.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Christianity encourages and honours honest toil._\n2. _Fearlessly denounces unprincipled idlers._ 3. _Is an inspiration\nto the highest kind of work._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 10. _Industry the True Charity._--When the palace and church\nbuildings of Caprarola were completed, Borromeo, the great patron of\nidle almsgiving, came to see it, and complained that so much money\nhad not been given to the poor instead. \"I have let them have it all\nlittle by little,\" said Alexandro Farnese; \"but I have made them earn\nit by the sweat of their brow.\"\n\n\nVer. 11. _Idleness and Death._--\u00c6lian mentions a witticism of\nAlcibiades when some one was vaunting to him about the contempt the\nLaced\u00e6monians had for death. \"It is no wonder,\" said he, \"since it\nrelieves them from the heavy burden of an idle and stupid life.\"\n\n\nVer. 12. _The Way to Value Quietness._--\"How dull and quiet\neverything is. There isn't a leaf stirring,\" said a young sparrow\nperched on the bough of a willow tree. \"How delicious a puff of wind\nwould be!\" \"We shall have one before long,\" croaked an old raven;\n\"more than you want, I fancy.\" Before many hours a tempest swept over\nthe country, and in the morning the fields were strewn with its\nravages. \"What a comfort the storm is over,\" said the sparrow, as he\ntrimmed his wet fathers. \"Ah!\" croaked the raven, \"you've altered\nyour mind since last night. Take my word for it, there's nothing like\na storm to teach you to value a calm.\"--_G. Eliot._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF VERSE_ 13.\n\n_A Call to do the Best Work._\n\nThe apostle has shown the necessity and duty of work--that honest\nindustry is a law of Christianity. Now he inculcates unwearied\ndiligence in accomplishing the best work, designated by the\ncomprehensive and suggestive phrase \"well-doing.\" Whatever is worth\ndoing at all is worth doing well. No man has done his best till he\nhas done all he can. A man's highest work is the outcome of his best\nendeavours. Observe:--\n\n+I. Doing the best work is well-doing.+--\"Be not weary in\nwell-doing.\" We may define to ourselves this duty of well-doing by\nseeking answers to two questions:--\n\n1. _How can I get the most good?_--The ancient philosophers discussed\nthe question of the supreme good with amazing subtlety of logic; but\nthey started their investigations with the erroneous assumption that\nthe supreme good must be a human product. The question is not how to\nget good, but the most good--the highest, the best. We get the most\ngood by bringing the soul into complete submission to the highest law\nof its being--voluntary and full surrender to the will of God. Call\nit getting saved, getting converted; call it what you like, so long\nas you get the thing itself--the love of God in the soul through\nfaith in the Lord Jesus.\n\n2. _How can I do the most good?_--These two questions are closely\nlinked together, and are mutually interpretative of each other--the\none being the qualification and motive for the other. It may be\nasserted we get the most good by doing the most good. The rose cannot\ndiffuse the fragrance it does not possess, however much like a rose\nit may look. The question here, again, is not how I can do good, but\nthe most, the highest, and best. We do the most good by beginning\nwith the duty that lies nearest to us and doing it at once. The\nearnest worker never lacks opportunity: there is the home, the\nChurch, the perishing multitude, ever within easy reach. \"He that\nwinneth souls is wise\" (Prov. xi. 30). The highest plaudit of heaven\nis, \"Well done, good and faithful servant\" (Matt. xxv. 21).\n\n+II. The best work is not done without encountering\ndifficulties.+--\"Be not weary.\" The exhortation implies there are\ndifficulties. These arise:--\n\n1. _From vague and imperfect views of duty._--We have no sympathy\nwith the rhapsody of the mystic who said, \"Man is never so holy and\nexalted as when he does not know where he is going.\" We must know\nclearly what we would be at, what is within the compass of our power\nand opportunity, where our efforts must necessarily end, and room\nleft for the play of other influences. We must be practical and\nmethodical. Clearness is power. Confusion of ideas creates\ndifficulties.\n\n2. _From unrealised ideals._--We have formed lofty conceptions of\nwhat is to be done, and what we must do. We have elaborated extensive\norganisations, and worked them with unflagging zeal. But the result\nhas been disappointing. Because we have not accomplished all we\nwished, we are discouraged; our success has not been commensurate\nwith our ambition, and we are tempted to slacken our endeavours. \"Be\nnot weary.\" We are not the best judges of what constitutes success.\nIf it does not come in the form we expected, we must not hastily\nconclude our work is vain.\n\n3. _From the loss of spiritual power._--We have neglected prayer and\nthe cultivation of personal piety. We have been so absorbed in the\nexternal details of our work as to overlook the duty of keeping up\nspiritual communion with the Highest. We begin to frame excuses--a\nsure sign of moral decadence. \"We have no talents.\" Then we should\nseek them. We have more talents than we suspect, and resolute working\nwill develop them. \"Our adversaries are numerous and fierce.\" If we\nkeep at our work, they will not trouble us long.\n\n+III. The best work demands incessant diligence.+--\"But ye, brethren,\nbe not weary in well-doing.\" The best state of preparedness for the\ncoming of the Lord is to be busily employed in the duty of the hour.\nEvery moment has its duty. Opportunity has hair in front; behind she\nis bald. If you seize her by the forelock, you may hold her; but if\nsuffered to escape, not Jupiter himself can catch her again. Arnauld,\nthe Port Royalist, when hunted from place to place, wished his friend\nNicolle to assist him in a new work, when the latter observed, \"We\nare old; is it not time to rest?\" \"Rest!\" returned Arnauld. \"Have we\nnot all eternity to rest in?\" A man's work does not ennoble him, but\nhe ennobles it.\n\n+Lessons.+--_The text is a spiritual motto to be adopted_--1. _By\nministers and Sabbath-school teachers._ 2. _By parents seeking the\nspiritual good of their children._ 3. _By all discouraged Christian\nworkers._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSE._\n\n_Weary in Well-doing._\n\n+I. The text by implication brings before us a state of mind to which\nbelievers are liable.+--\"Weary in well-doing.\" 1. _From a lamentable\nwant of fitness for spiritual duties and employments._ 2. _From the\nopposition of the world._ 3. _From the hostile agency of spiritual\nwickedness._ 4. _From the dimness of our conceptions of the things\nwhich should especially influence us._ 5. _From failing to lay hold\non the Divine strength._\n\n+II. The text an exhortation suited to those in the state referred\nto.+--\"Be not weary.\" 1. _Because you are engaged in well-doing._\n2. _Because the time is short._ 3. _Because your associates are\nglorious._ 4. _Because the issue is certain._ 5. _Because sufficient\nstrength is provided.--Stewart._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 14, 15.\n\n_Treatment of the Refractory._\n\nAfter all the warnings of the apostle against erroneous views and his\nexhortations to Christian diligence, he foresees there may be some\nrefractory members of the Church who still persist in their\nextravagances, reject all counsel, and defy all rule and order. In\nthese verses he gives explicit directions how to deal with such. The\ninveterately lazy are often something worse than lazy and are not\neasily reclaimed. When disobedience settles into a habit, stringent\nmeasures are necessary to arouse the victim to a sense of duty; and\nthe efforts of restoration must be both resolute and kind.\n\n+I. It should be made evident that his conduct is an obstinate\ndefiance of authority.+--\"And if any man obey not our word by this\nepistle, note that man\" (ver. 14). Not only note that his disorderly\nbehaviour is a scandal to Christianity and an example to be avoided,\nbut let it be brought home to him, by direct and faithful dealing,\nthat it is a grave breach of the highest law. We can make nothing of\na Fool till he is first convinced of his folly. The first step in the\nprocess of reformation is conviction of the need of reformation. It\nis said of Thoreau, the author, that \"he was by nature of the\nopposition; there was a constitutional 'No' in him that could not be\ntortured into 'Yes.'\" There are many like him, even in the Christian\nChurch. It may seem a difficult, almost an impossible task, to\nconvince the refractory of his error; but it is the first thing to be\ndone, and persevered in. When the hearers of Austin resented his\nreproofs, he used to say, \"Change your conduct, and I will change my\nconversation.\"\n\n+II. With the view of bringing him to repentance he is to be excluded\nfrom Christian fellowship.+--\"And have no company with him, that he\nmay be ashamed\" (ver. 14). The refractory practically excludes\nhimself from every circle that loves order, harmony, and peace; for\nwho can bear the rasping chatter of an irresponsible gossip who is\nconstantly raking up and turning over everybody's faults but his own?\nBut the Church must take action unitedly in dealing with the\ncontumacious. He must be deliberately and pointedly shunned, and,\nwhen compelled to be in his company, the members must show, by the\nreserve of their bearing towards him, how deeply he is grieving the\nhearts of the brethren and sinning against God. In the days when\nthere was only one Church, and exclusion from it was regarded as the\ngreatest calamity and disgrace, the fear of utter excommunication\ncould not fail to have some effect upon those thus threatened with\nit. Few people can bear the test of being left severely alone. It\ngives them the opportunity for reflection, remorse, and reform.\n\n+III. Efforts should be made in the spirit of Christian brotherhood\nto effect his recovery.+--\"Yet count him not as an enemy, but\nadmonish him as a brother\" (ver. 15). Though shunned and threatened\nwith exclusion from Church fellowship, he is not to be passed by with\ncontemptuous silence. He is not a heretic or a blasphemer, nor is he\nguilty of any monstrous crime. He is sinning against the good order\nof society and the peace of the Church. He is still a brother,\ntroublesome and unreasonable though he be; and while there is the\nleast hope of his restoration, he should be faithfully admonished. He\nis not to be accused and slandered to outsiders; this will only\naggravate his riotousness and make him more defiant. He must be seen\nprivately and spoken to faithfully, but with the utmost tenderness.\nThe Christian spirit teaches us to be discreet in all things, and\nespecially in administering reproof. Virtue ceases to be virtuous\nwhen it lacks discretion, the queen of ethics. \"To be plain,\" writes\nFelltham, \"argues honesty; but to be pleasing argues discretion.\nSores are not to be anguished with rustic pressure, but gently\nstroked with a ladied hand. Physicians fire not their eyes at\npatients, but minister to their diseases. Let reproof be so as the\noffender may see affection, without arrogancy.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _It is an important part of Church discipline to\ncontrol the unruly._ 2. _It is in the power of one discontented\nperson to work much mischief._ 3. _Church discipline must be\nadministered with fidelity and Christian tenderness._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVers. 14, 15. _The Disobedient_--\n\n  +I. Should be specially noted.+\n\n +II. Should not be admitted to intimate friendship without\n      repentance.+\n\n+III. Should be kindly but faithfully admonished.+\n\n\nVer. 14. _Obedience should be prompt._--When a large passenger\nsteamer was sinking, the question whether scores of her passengers\nand crew would be saved or drowned was settled within fifteen\nminutes. And millions have decided the momentous question of their\neternal salvation or perdition in even less time than that. It seems\nto have been short work with Simon Peter when Jesus bade him quit the\nnets and follow Him. Peter obeyed at once. Prompt obedience honours\nGod. It puts the soul immediately within the Almighty's hold; and\nwhen Jesus has His omnipotent grasp of love upon me, none shall be\nable to pluck me out of His hands (John x. 28). Prompt obedience\nsaves.--_Cuyler._\n\n\n_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 16-18.\n\n_Apostolic Courtesy._\n\nThe epistle is coming to a close, and the Christian courtesy of the\napostle comes out in the spirit in which he expresses his farewell.\nIf he has spoken out plainly and even severely, it has not been in\nvindictiveness and anger. All that he has said and written is in the\ninterests of peace. His sharpest reproofs and most faithful\nadmonitions have been suffused with an undercurrent of\nloving-kindness; and his concluding words drop with the gentleness of\nrefreshing dew.\n\n+I. Apostolic courtesy supplicates the blessing of the Divine peace\nand presence.+--\"Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always\nby all means. The Lord be with you all\" (ver. 16). Prayer was the\nlife-breath of the apostle, as we have frequently pointed out in the\nstudy of these epistles. Considering the dissensions that disturbed\nthe harmony of the Thessalonian Church, this epistle appropriately\ncloses with a prayer for peace. First, and most important of all,\npeace with God and the individual conscience; then mutual peace and\nconcord one with another--peace, such as keeps the mind in an even\nand heavenly frame, as a sentinel that guards a door, lest foes\nshould get in and make havoc where God hath commanded peace. Where\nGod's presence is manifested, there is peace; hence the apostle adds,\n\"The Lord be with you all.\" Peace is a Divine gift, and a Divine\nexperience in man; it is the peace of \"the Lord of peace\" that we\nshare.\n\n+II. Apostolic courtesy is expressed in an emphatic Christian\nsalutation.+--\"The salutation of Paul with mine own hand, which is\nthe token in every epistle: so I write\" (ver. 17). This epistle was\nwritten by an amanuensis, probably Silas or Timothy, at the dictation\nof Paul; and the apostle wrote his own signature, adding the\nsalutation and benediction. This act not only stamped the genuineness\nof the epistle but indicated in a most unmistakable manner the\nanxiety of the apostle to thoroughly identify himself with all that\nwas expressed in the epistle, and to assure the Thessalonians of his\npersonal interest in and love towards them. Christianity is the soul\nof courtesy. Bolingbroke once said, \"Supposing Christianity to be a\nmere human invention, it is the most amiable and successful invention\nthat ever was imposed on mankind.\" When the courtiers of Henry IV. of\nFrance expressed their surprise that he returned the salutation of a\npoor man, who bowed down before him at the entrance of a village, the\nking replied, \"Would you have your king exceeded in politeness by one\nof the lowest of his subjects?\" As he is the best Christian who is\nmost humble, so is he that truest gentleman that is most courteous.\n\n+III. Apostolic courtesy is indicated in the solemn invocation of the\nabiding grace of God.+--\"The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with\nyou all. Amen\" (ver. 18). A farewell full of pathos, full of\nsolemnity, full of peace, full of admiration and love for the\npeople--all good wishes condensed into a single phrase. Even an\napostle can desire for the Church, or any of its members, no richer\nbenediction than that comprehended in \"the grace of our Lord Jesus\nChrist.\"\n\n+Lessons.+--1. _Peace is a prime essential in Church prosperity._\n2. _The Christian spirit is the essence of true courtesy._ 3. _We can\ninvoke no higher blessing on others than to be kept in the enjoyment\nof Divine grace._\n\n\n_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._\n\nVer. 16. _The Omnipresent God_--\n\n+I. In history.+--Shaping the course and destiny of nations.\n\n+II. In providence.+--1. _Guarding._ 2. _Guiding His people._\n\n+III. In grace.+--1. _Manifesting His goodness in Christ._ 2. _Giving\ninclination and power to do His will._ 3. _Demanding and bestowing\npersonal holiness._ 4. _Ensuring constant peace._\n\n\n_Peace in Danger._--During the great earthquake in London, when\nthousands were running about and crying in terror, when buildings\nwere falling and the ground rocking like the ocean in a storm, Wesley\ngathered a few of his followers in one of their little chapels, and\ncalmly read to them the forty-sixth Psalm, \"God is our refuge and\nstrength.\"\n\n\nVers. 17, 18. _Christian Courtesy_--\n\n  +I. Takes pains to make itself evident.+--\"So I write.\"\n\n +II. Is a hearty expression of personal regard.+--\"The salutation of\n      Paul with mine own hand.\"\n\n+III. Invokes the blessing of Divine grace on all+ (ver. 18).\n\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\nTranscriber's Notes\n\n - Page 551, Occasion, first paragraph, change \"two principal\" to\n   \"two principals.\" Second paragraph, add \"ch. ii. 2\" reference.\n   Style, second paragraph, add left double quote before \"they are.\"\n\n - Page 552, Outline, in the second row of the table, change an\n   em-dash to an ampersand because the material described by the\n   second row is interrupted by the material described by the third\n   row. Final row, add period after \"benediction.\"\n\n - Page 553, notes on chapter i., verse 5, apply RC to \"Divine\"; add\n   \"Acts v. 39\" reference. Verse 6, add \"John vii. 18\" and \"Rom.\n   xii. 19\" references. Verse 8, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Verse 9, add\n   \"ver. 6\" reference.\n\n - Page 554, notes on chapter i., verse 12, add comma to \"So Christ.\"\n   Lesson \"Features,\" point I, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II, add\n   comma to \"abounds there.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Gospel\"; remove\n   commas from \"Thessalonica, and\" and \"Christians, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 555, same lesson, point IV, remove comma from \"them, and.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Germ note,\n   each of points 1 1 and II 2, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 556, lesson \"Recompense,\" point I, add \"John xv. 20\"\n   reference. Point II, remove comma from \"bottle, but.\" Point III,\n   apply RC to \"Divinely.\" Point III 1, apply RC to \"Divinely\"; add\n   comma to \"Thessalonians the.\" Point III 2, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - The break between pages 556 and 557 is in a unit that style\n   indicates should not be broken: \"persecutor.--|Seeing.\" The whole\n   unit was moved to the earlier page.\n\n - Page 557, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), each of points 1\n   and 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Germ note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Lesson \"Judgment,\"\n   introduction, apply RC to \"Divine\" and \"Word.\" Point I 1, apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 558, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 2,\n   add \"Ps. civ. 3\" reference. Point II, apply RC to \"Word\"; add\n   \"1 Tim. i. 11\" reference; apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice). Point\n   III 1, add \"John xvii. 22\" reference.\n\n - Page 559, same lesson, point III 1, add \"Ps. xc. 17\" reference.\n   Point III 2, remove comma from \"testimony, and\"; apply RC to\n   \"Word\" and \"Gospel\"; add comma to \"So none.\" Application\n   (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Divine Retribution\"\n   note, point V, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Lesson \"Prayer,\"\n   introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (thrice).\n\n - Page 560, same lesson, point I, add \"Tit. ii. 12\" reference. Point\n   II, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divinely,\"\n   \"Divine Word,\" and \"Divine\" (twice). Point IV, apply RC to\n   \"Divine\"; add \"Phil. ii. 9\" reference; remove comma from \"nature,\n   and.\" Point V, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice); add \"1 Tim. i. 14\"\n   reference. Point VI, change \"Michael Angelo\" to \"Michelangelo.\"\n\n - Page 561, \"Genuine Religion\" note, each of points II 1 and II 2,\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Christ Glorified\" note, apply RC to \"He\n   lives.\" Notes on chapter ii., verse 1, tag the word \"Parousia\" as\n   Greek, such that it sets in Italic, rather than Roman, type.\n\n - Page 562, notes on chapter ii., verse 3, change \"#xcellence\" to\n   \"excellence.\" Verse 8, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Verse 9, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Verse 10, add \"John xviii. 38\" reference. Verse 13,\n   change \"i. 3\" to \"ch. i. 3.\" Lesson \"Antichrist,\" introduction,\n   remove comma from \"significance, and.\"\n\n - Page 563, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\" and\n   \"Divinity.\" Point II 1, remove right double quotes after \"Church\n   of God\"; change \"apostle\" to \"apostles\"; change the period after\n   \"Churches\" to a colon introducing a list of references. Point\n   II 2, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 564, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Divinely.\"\n\n - Page 565, lesson \"Salvation,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Divine\";\n   remove comma from \"wicked, and\"; apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I,\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 566, same lesson, point I 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I 2,\n   apply RC to \"Divine,\" \"Gospel\" (thrice), and \"Divine\" (twice).\n   Point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III, apply RC to \"Divine\"\n   (twice). Point IV, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 567, \"Holy Ghost\" note, point I, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point\n   III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" \"Sainthood\" note, point I, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"Steadfastness,\" introduction, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel\" and \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 568, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 569, same lesson, application (\"Lessons\"), point 2, apply RC\n   to \"Word.\" Lesson \"Prayer,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   (twice); remove comma from \"argues, but.\" Point I, remove the\n   commas from \"friends, and,\" \"consolation, and,\" and \"bowels, and.\"\n   Each of points III and III 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n - Page 570, same lesson, point III 2, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Prayer\"\n   note, point II 1, apply RC to \"Divine.\" \"Good Hope\" note, point\n   I 3, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point III 3, change \"self dependence\"\n   to \"self-dependence.\"\n\n - Page 571, notes on chapter iii., verse 6, change \"_esprit de corps_\n   do not\" to \"_esprit de corps_ does not.\" Verse 16, add em-dash before\n   poem.\n\n - Page 572, lesson \"Prayer,\" introduction, remove comma from\n   \"affection, and\"; apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Point II, apply RC to\n   \"Gospel.\" Point II 1, apply RC to \"Gospel,\" \"Divine,\" and \"Gospel\"\n   (twice). Point II 2, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (four times). Point\n   II 3, apply RC to \"Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 573, same lesson, point III, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n   Application (\"Lessons\"), point 1, apply RC to \"Gospel\" and\n   \"Divine.\" Point 2, apply RC to \"Gospel.\" Lesson \"Faithfulness,\"\n   introduction, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Word.\"\n\n - Page 574, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point III,\n   apply RC to \"Divine\"; tag Von Moltke's motto as German so it sets\n   in Italic, rather than Roman, type; apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice).\n   Lesson \"Divine Love,\" introduction, add comma to \"Again the\";\n   apply RC to \"Divine.\" Point I, apply RC to \"Divine,\" \"Gospel,\"\n   \"Divine,\" \"Gospel,\" and \"Divine\"; add comma to \"war the.\"\n\n - Page 575, same lesson, point II, apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice).\n   Point III, apply RC to \"Divine\"; remove comma from \"grace, or.\"\n\n - Page 576, lesson \"Consistency,\" introduction, add comma to\n   \"crushed and.\" Point I, remove comma from \"apostles, and\"; apply\n   RC to \"Divine\" (twice).\n\n - Page 578, lesson \"Work,\" introduction, apply RC to \"Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 579, \"Industry\" note, change \"#er. 10\" to \"Ver. 10\" and\n   \"Caprarolo\" to \"Caprarola.\"\n\n - Page 580, lesson \"Call,\" point I 2, remove comma from \"us, and\";\n   add \"Prov. xi. 30\" and \"Matt. xxv. 21\" references.\n\n - Page 581, same lesson, point II 3, apply RC to \"Highest.\" Germ\n   note, point I 5, apply RC to \"Divine.\" Lesson \"Treatment,\"\n   introduction, remove comma from \"lazy, and.\"\n\n - Page 582, same lesson, point III, change \"to oe anguished\" to \"to\n   be anguished.\"\n\n - Page 583, \"Obedience\" note, add \"John x. 28\" reference. Lesson\n   \"Courtesy,\" point I, apply RC to \"Divine\" (thrice). Point II,\n   apply RC to \"epistle, but.\"\n\n - Page 584, same lesson, Application (\"Lessons\"), point 3, apply RC\n   to \"Divine.\" \"Peace\" note, change \"forty-sixth psalm\" to \"Psalm.\"\n   \"Christian Courtesy\" note, point III, apply RC to \"Divine.\"\n\n\n\n+INDEX.+\n\n[H. = Homily; N. = Note; I. = Illustration]\n\nAbraham, all nations blessed in, N. Gal.\nAbraham's faith, imitators of, H. Gal.\nAbrahamic gospel, H. Gal.\nAbuse of Christian Liberty, H. Gal.\nAbuse of public worship, H. 1 Thess.\nAccess to Father, privilege of, H. Eph.\nAccess to God, H. Eph.\nAccess to God revealing Trinity in unity, H. Eph.\nActive faith, righteousness attained by, N. Gal.\nAdopting love of God, H. Eph.\nAdoption, H. Gal.\nAdoption and its claims, I. Gal.\nAdoption of children by Jesus Christ, H. Eph.\nAdoption of sons, Christ's mission for, in fullness of time, H. Gal.\nAdvent, second, of Christ, H. 1 Thess.\nAffection and meekness, power of, N. Gal.\nAffections, religious, are attended with change of nature, H. Eph.\nAffliction, necessity and perils of, H. 1 Thess.\nAim high, H. Phil.\nAlarm, false, H. 2 Thess.\nAll and in all, Christ, H. Col.\nAll are one in Christ, H. Gal.\nAll concluded under sin, N. Gal.\nAll, knowledge of Christ intended for, N. Eph.\nAll nations blessed in Abraham, N. Gal.\nAlone, bearing our burdens, H. Gal.\nAmbassador, Gospel, H. Eph.\nAngels, evil, H. Eph.\nAnger and meekness, H. Eph.\nAnger sinful, H. Eph.\nAntichrist portrayed, H. 2 Thess.\nAntidote to contention, humility an, N. Phil.\nAnxiety, ministerial, N. Gal.\nAnxiety, ministerial, H. Col.\nAnxiety, prayer and expression of, H. 2 Thess.\nAnxieties of ministerial life, H. Phil.\nAnxious care, H. Phil.  362\nApathy one of our trials, N. Gal.\nApostle, erring, H. Gal.\nApostle, religious life of, H. Gal.\nApostle's view of his ministry, H. Eph.\nApostleship, Divine call to, H. Gal.\nApostleship, practical proof of, H. Gal.\nApostolic assurance of supernatural character of Gospel, N. Gal.\nApostolic benediction, H. Eph.\nApostolic courtesy, H. 2 Thess.\nApostolic credentials, H. Gal.\nApostolic estimate of Christian character, H. Col.\nApostolic exposure of false teachers, H. Gal.\nApostolic greeting, H. Phil.\nApostolic greeting, phases of, H. 1 Thess.\nApostolic greeting, phases of, H. 2 Thess.\nApostolic introduction to Epistle, H. 1 Thess.\nApostolic praise of order and stability, H. Col.\nApostolic prayer, comprehensive, H. Col.\nApostolic prayer, comprehensive, H. 1 Thess.\nApostolic preaching, H. Col.\nApostolic preaching characterised by transparent truth, H. 1 Thess.\nApostolic preaching, perversion of, H. Gal.\nApostolic salutation, H. Eph.\nApostolic salutation, H. Col.\nApostolical care for Church, H. Eph.\nApprehension of spiritual blessings, H. Eph.\nArmour, Christian's, N. Eph.\nAscension and its results, H. Eph.\nAsceticism, H. Col.\nAspirations of soul, higher, H. Col.\nAssociation, H. Gal.\nAssurance of Christian inheritance, H. Eph.\nAtheism, practical, H. Eph.\nAttainment of resurrection, H. Phil.\nAttainment, spiritual, H. Phil.\nAttitude of Church towards second coming of Christ, H. 1 Thess.\nAttractiveness of worth, I. Gal.\nAuthor and End of creation, Christ, H. Col.\nAuthority, best, to be obeyed, I. Gal.\nAuthority, ministerial, Divine blessing highest sanction of, N. Gal.\nAuthority of messenger of God, H. Gal.\nAwakening, slumbering souls and their, H. Eph.\n\nBad and good examples, H. Phil.\nBad companions, I. Gal.\nBad manners, reform of, H. Gal.\nBaptism, H. Gal.\nBaptism, teaching of, H. Gal\nBaptism, true, H. Col.\nBear one another's burdens, H. Gal.\nBear one another's burdens, N. Gal.\nBeliever complete in Christ, H. Col.\nBeliever crucified with Christ, and Christ living in believer, H. Gal.\nBeliever exalted together with Jesus Christ, H. Eph.\nBeliever's life in Christ, features of, H. Phil.\nBeliever's perfection, Divine fulness of Christ's pledge of, H. Col.\nBeliever's portion in both worlds, H. Phil.\nBeliever's salvation, grounds of confidence in, H. Phil.\nBelievers, benefit conferred by Spirit on, H. Eph.\nBelievers, characteristics of, H. Eph.\nBelievers, children of promise, H. Gal.\nBelievers, duty of, in evil day, H. Eph.\nBelievers, enemies of, H. Eph.\nBelievers, Paul as example to, H. Phil.\nBelievers, steadfastness of, a source of true ministerial\n     satisfaction, H. 1 Thess.\nBelieving soul, manner in which Gospel comes to, H. 1 Thess.\nBenediction, apostolic, H. Eph.\nBenediction, concluding, H. Gal.\nBenediction, suggestive, H. Eph.\nBeneficence, opportunity of, H. Gal.\nBenefit conferred by Spirit on believers, H. Eph.\nBenevolence, practical Christian, H. Phil.\nBest authority to be obeyed, I. Gal.\nBest work, call to do, H. 2 Thess.\nBible sword of Spirit, H. Eph.\nBiblical account of sin, N. Gal.\nBlameless life, lustre of, H. Phil.\nBlessedness, man's final condition of, H. Col.\nBlessing, Divine, highest sanction of ministerial authority, N. Gal.\nBlessing of redemption, great, H. Col.\nBlessings of reconciliation, personal, H. Col.\nBlessings, spiritual, H. Eph.\nBoasting, empty, H. Gal.\nBody, human, resurrection of, H. Phil.\nBody of Christ, Church the, H. Col.\nBody of Christ, members of, H. Eph.\nBody, one, and one spirit, H. Eph.\nBody, resurrection of, H. 1 Thess.\nBoldness a duty in a minister, H. Eph.\nBoldness, Christian, H. Phil.\nBond of unity, peace the, H. Eph.\nBonds, Paul's, ministry of, H. Phil.\nBondage and liberty, H. Gal.\nBondage, freedom from, N. Gal.\nBondage, spiritual, ignorance of God a, N. Gal.\nBondwoman and her son, cast out, N. Gal.\nBook, names in, H. Phil.\nBravery, Christian, exhortation to, H. Phil.\nBravery, moral, picture of, H. Eph.\nBread, wheat is better than, H. Col.\nBrethren, false, and their treatment, H. Gal.\nBride, Christ and His, H. Eph.\nBrotherhood, Christian, H. Gal.\nBrotherhood of man, Christian, H. Eph.\nBrotherly love in action, H. Eph.\nBrotherly love, a proof of true sanctification, H. 1 Thess.\nBrotherly reproof, N. Gal.\nBurden, every man has his own, H. Gal.\nBurden or a glory, cross, H. Gal.\nBurdens, bear one another's, H. Gal.\nBurdens, bear one another's, N. Gal.\nBurdens, our twofold, N. Gal.\nBurden-bearing, H. Gal.\nBurden-bearing, mutual sympathy in, H. Gal.\nBusiness, mind your own, H. 1 Thess.\n\nCall, Divine, to apostleship, H. Gal.\nCall, Gospel and, to preach it, H. Gal.\nCall of Gospel to sinners, H. Eph.\nCall to Christian fortitude, H. Eph.\nCall to do best work, H. 2 Thess.\nCalling of Gentiles, H. Eph.\nCare, anxious, H. Phil.\nCare, cure of, H. Phil.\nCauses of ministerial thanksgiving, H. Col.\nCensure, Church, N. Gal.\nCeremonial and zeal in religion, H. Col.\nCeremonial in religion transitory and unsatisfying, H. Col.\nChange effected by Gospel, H. 1 Thess.\nChange great, effected in man by Gospel, H. Eph.\nChange of life, religion, H. Col.\nChange of nature, religious affections are attended with, H. Eph.\nCharacter and privileges of children of God, H. Gal.\nCharacter Christian, essentials of, H. Col.\nCharacter, love perfection of, N. Gal.\nCharacteristics of believers, H. Eph.\nCharge, a father's, H. Eph.\nCharity, industry the true, I. 2 Thess.\nCharity, nature, properties, and acts of, H. Eph.\nChildren, adoption of, by Jesus Christ, H. Eph.\nChildren and parents, duties of, H. Eph.\nChildren and parents, duties of, H. Col.\nChildren of darkness and of light, H. Eph.\nChildren of God, H. Gal.\nChildren of God, character and privileges of, H. Gal.\nChildren of promise, believers, H. Gal.\nChildren of wrath, H. Eph.\nChrist a revelation because equal to Father, H. Col.\nChrist all, and in all, H. Col.\nChrist, all are one in, H Gal.\nChrist and creation, N. Eph.\nChrist and His bride, H. Eph.\nChrist, Author and End of creation, H. Col.\nChrist, believer complete in, H. Col.\nChrist, believer's life in, features of, H. Phil.\nChrist, Church complete in, H. Eph.\nChrist, the body of, H. Col.\nChrist, coming of, H. 1 Thess.\nChrist, contrasted humiliation and exaltation of, H. Eph.\nChrist, crucified, H. Gal.\nChrist, death and life with, H. Col.\nChrist, dignity and dominion of, H. Eph.\nChrist, Divine fulness of, pledge of believer's perfection, H. Col.\nChrist, enthusiasm for, H. Phil.\nChrist, exaltation of, H. Phil.\nChrist, excellent knowledge of, H. Phil.\nChrist, Firstborn from dead, H. Col.\nChrist, fulness of, H. Col.\nChrist, gift of, H. Gal.\nChrist, gifts of, to His church, H. Eph.\nChrist, glorified in His people, N. 2 Thess.\nChrist, glorying in cross of, H. Gal.\nChrist, God known in, N. Eph.\nChrist, great Peacemaker, H. Eph.\nChrist, growth into, in love and truth, H. Eph.\nChrist, Head of Church, H. Eph.\nChrist, heroic devotion to, H. Phil.\nChrist, hidden treasures of wisdom in, H. Col.\nChrist, humiliation of, a pattern of supreme unselfishness, H. Phil.\nChrist, in practical life, H. Col.\nChrist in you the hope of glory, H. Col.\nChrist, indwelling Word of, H. Col.\nChrist, knowledge of, intended for all, N. Eph.\nChrist, Law preparing for, H. Gal.\nChrist, life in, present condition and future glory of, H. Col.\nChrist, life of, only true idea of self-devotion, H. Phil.\nChrist living in believer, and believer crucified with Christ, H. Gal.\nChrist, love of, H. Eph.\nChrist, loving, in sincerity, H. Eph.\nChrist, members of body of, H. Eph.\nChrist, name of, doing all in, H. Col.\nChrist, obedient to Law, H. Gal.\nChrist, odium of cross of, H. Gal.\nChrist, our Life, H. Col.\nChrist, our Pattern, H. Phil.\nChrist, our Sacrifice, H. Gal.\nChrist, poor representative of, I. Gal.\nChrist, redemption through, H. Eph.\nChrist, relation of, to God and all created things, H. Col.\nChrist, relation to moral creation, H. Col.\nChrist, riches of, N. Eph.\nChrist, risen with, H. Col.\nChrist, sacrifice of, H. Eph.\nChrist, second advent of, H. 1 Thess.\nChrist, coming of, attitude of Church towards, H. 1 Thess.\nChrist, servant of, H. Gal.\nChrist, the Christian's life, H. Phil.\nChrist, the Inheritance of saints, N. Eph.\nChrist, the only gain, H. Phil.\nChrist the Reconciler, H. Col.\nChrist the Redeemer, H. Phil.\nChrist, true knowledge of, external religionism incomparable\n     with, H. Phil.\nChrist, unsearchable riches of, N. Eph.\nChrist, worthy of universal homage, H. Phil.\nChrist's crucifixion, H. Phil.\nChrist's love for the Church, H. Eph.\nChrist's mission for adoption of sons in fulness of time, H. Gal.\nChrist's resurrection, power of, H. Phil.\nChrist's sacrifice of Himself explained, and man's duty to offer\n     spiritual sacrifice inferred and recommended, H. Eph.\nChrist's sufferings, fellowship of, H. Phil.\nChrist's truth in relation to our daily conversation, H. Col.\nChristian benevolence, practical, H. Phil.\nChristian boldness, H. Phil.\nChristian bravery, exhortation to. H. Phil.\nChristian brotherhood, H. Gal.\nChristian brotherhood of men, H. Eph.\nChristian character, apostolic estimate of, H. Col.\nChristian character, essentials of, H. Col.\nChristian character, love perfection of, H. Col.\nChristian character, malice incompatible with, H. Eph.\nChristian Church a family, H. Eph.\nChristian circumcision, H. Col.\nChristian citizenship, H. Phil.\nChristian conduct, rule of, N. Eph.\nChristian consistency, H. Gal.\nChristian consistency, H. Phil.\nChristian consistency, H. 2 Thess.\nChristian contentment, H. Phil.\nChristian conversation, H. Col.\nChristian courtesy, H. Phil.\nChristian courtesy, H. 2 Thess.\nChristian, dead to law, H. Gal.\nChristian duty, suggestive summary of law of, H. Col.\nChristian duty to poor, N. Gal.\nChristian equity, H. Phil.\nChristian ethics, Paul's doctrine of, H. Eph.\nChristian ethics, science of, H. Phil.\nChristian excellence, eulogy of, H. Phil.\nChristian experience, highest type of, H. Phil.\nChristian fidelity, H. 2 Thess.\nChristian forgiveness, H. Eph.\nChristian forgiveness. H. Col.\nChristian fortitude, call to, H. Eph.\nChristian generosity, H. Gal.\nChristian generosity, H. Phil.\nChristian greeting, H. Phil.\nChristian greetings and counsels, H. Col.\nChristian holiness, H. 1 Thess.\nChristian humility, H. Col.\nChristian humility, illustrated in character of Paul, H. Eph.\nChristian inheritance, assurance of. H. Eph.\nChristian joy, H. Phil.\nChristian law of marriage, H. Eph.\nChristian law of prayer, H. Eph.\nChristian liberty, H. Gal.\nChristian liberty, love the highest law of, H. Gal.\nChristian life a Divine creation, H. Eph.\nChristian life a race, H. Gal.\nChristian life, dignity of, H. Eph.\nChristian life, liberality a fruit of, H. Phil.\nChristian life, Lord's Supper sample of, H. Col.\nChristian life, perpetual thanksgiving of, H. 1 Thess.\nChristian life, poetry of, H. Col.\nChristian life, suggestive features of, H. Col.\nChristian love, prayer for, H. Phil.\nChristian manhood, true, H. Eph.\nChristian maturity, H. Eph.\nChristian minister, devoted, H. Phil.\nChristian ministry, H. Col.\nChristian ministry, efficacy of, H. Gal.\nChristian ministry, pre-eminent honour and sublime theme of, H. Col.\nChristian ministry, real and counterfeit in, H. Phil.\nChristian ministry, solemn and responsible trust, H. Col.\nChristian mirth _versus_ drunken mirth, H. Eph.\nChristian mission, projected, H. Phil.\nChristian obedience, H. 2 Thess.\nChristian perseverance, hope a stimulus to, H. Col.\nChristian prayer, witness of Christian citizenship, H. Eph.\nChristian precepts, group of, H. 1 Thess.\nChristian principles applied to common life, H. Eph.\nChristian principles, tendency of, to produce contentment, H. Phil.\nChristian rectitude, H. Phil.\nChristian reformation, H. Gal.\nChristian religion, truth and dignity of, H. Eph.\nChristian salutation, N. Gal.\nChristian servitude, N. Eph.\nChristian sobriety inculcated, H. Eph.\nChristian spirit a new spirit, H. Eph.\nChristian steadfastness, H. 2 Thess.\nChristian steadfastness, glad tidings of, H. 1 Thess.\nChristian sympathy, practical, H. Gal.\nChristian temper, the same mind which was in Christ, H. Phil.\nChristian, true glory of, H. Gal.\nChristian truth, the girdle of, H. Eph.\nChristian unity, H. Col.\nChristian unity, an occasion of joy, H. Phil.\nChristian waiting for his Deliverer, H. 1 Thess.\nChristian warfare, H. Eph.\nChristian warrior equipped, H. Eph.\nChristian wisdom, H. Eph.\nChristian work, disappointed hopes in, H. Gal.\nChristian zeal, H. Gal.\nChristian's armour, N. Eph.\nChristian's estimate of living and dying, H. Phil.\nChristian's imitation, duty and object of, H. Eph.\nChristian's life, Christ the, H. Phil.\nChristian's power, source of, H. Phil.\nChristian's truest test and excellence, H. Eph.\nChristians, doubtful, H. Gal.\nChristians, examples to world, H. Phil.\nChristians of different denominations, temper to be cultivated by,\n     toward each other, H. Phil.\nChristianity and persecution, H. Gal.\nChristianity and poverty, H. Gal.\nChristianity and work, H. 2 Thess.\nChristianity, harmony of, in its personal influence, H. Eph.\nChristianity, hearty, H. Col.\nChristianity, inviolability of, H. Gal.\nChristianity, mercantile virtues without, H. Phil.\nChristianity, nullified by legalism, H. Gal.\nChristianity, superior to external rites, H. Gal.\nChristly character, H. Gal.\nChristmas of soul, N. Gal.\nChurch a Divine edifice, H. Eph.\nChurch a witness, N. Gal.\nChurch, apostolical care for, H. Eph.\nChurch, attitude of, towards second coming of Christ, H. 1 Thess.\nChurch, censure, N. Gal.\nChurch, Christ Head of, H. Eph.\nChurch, Christ's love for the, H. Eph.\nChurch, Christian, a family, H. Eph.\nChurch, complete in Christ, H. Eph.\nChurch concord, H. 1 Thess.\nChurch, Divine ideal of the, H. Eph.\nChurch edification, public reading of Holy Scriptures important\n     means of, H. Col.\nChurch, future glory of the, H. Eph.\nChurch, generous, H. Phil.\nChurch, gifts of Christ to His, H. Eph.\nChurch, growth of, H. Eph.\nChurch, how a, lives and grows, H. Col.\nChurch, joy of suffering for, H. Col.\nChurch, prosperous, congratulatory features of, H. 2 Thess.\nChurch quarrels, N. Gal.\nChurch, sevenfold unity of, reflected in Trinity of Divine persons, H. Eph.\nChurch, the body of Christ, H. Col.\nChurch, the habitation of God, N. Eph.\nChurch, the temple of God, N. Eph.\nChurch, troubles of, judgment on, H. Gal.\nChurch, unity and concord in, H. Phil.\nChurch, unity and concord of, H. Eph.\nChurch, universal, Jerusalem type of, H. Gal.\nChurch, welfare of, ministerial anxiety for, N. Phil.\nChurch-life, disorderly in, H. 2 Thess.\nChurch-life, side-lights on, in early times, H. Col.\nChurch-life, true, N. Eph.\nCircumcision, Christian, H. Col.\nCircumcision, spiritual, H. Phil.\nCircumcision, true, H. Col.\nCitizenship, Christian, H. Phil.\nCitizenship, Christian prayer witness of Christian, H. Eph.\nCity, great, solitude of, H. 1 Thess.\nCities, large, dissipation of, H. Eph.\nClaims, imperative, of Divine commission, H. Gal.\nClearer discernment in Divine things desired, H. Eph.\nClosing words, H. 1 Thess.\nCollege life, H. Eph.\nColossians, Epistle to--Coloss\u00e6 and its people, N. Col.\nColossians, Epistle to--outline of Epistle, N. Col.\nColossians, Epistle to--style of Epistle, N. Col.\nColossians, Paul's prayer for, H. Col.\nComfort, religious, elements of, H. Eph.\nComforting one another, duty of, H. 1 Thess.\nComing of Christ, H. 1 Thess.\nCommencement of Gospel at Philippi, H. Phil.\nCommission, Divine, imperative claims of, H. Gal.\nCommission, exalted, ministerial, H. Eph.\nCommon life, Christian principles applied to, H. Eph.\nCommunion of saints, H. Eph.\nCompanions, bad, I. Gal.\nComplete man, sanctification of, H. 1 Thess.\nCompleteness of moral character, prayer for, H. 2 Thess.\nCompleting of soul, H. Col.\nComprehensive and sublime prayer, H. Eph.\nComprehensive apostolic prayer, H. Col.\nComprehensive apostolic prayer, H. 1 Thess.\nComprehensiveness of Gospel, N. Eph.\nConcluding benediction, H. Gal.\nConcord and unity in Church, H. Phil.\nConcord, Church, H. 1 Thess.\nCondition of man's final blessedness, H. Col.\nConduct, Christian, rule of, N. Eph.\nConduct of life, wise, H. Eph.\nConfidence in believer's salvation, grounds of, H. Phil.\nConfirmatory proofs of Divine call, H. Gal.\nConflict and suffering, H. Phil.\nConflict between Law and faith, H. Gal.\nCongratulatory features of prosperous Church, H. 2 Thess.\nConscientiousness, reason for, I. 1 Thess.\nConscientiousness, respect for, I. 1 Thess.\nConsecrated life, development of events in, H. Phil.\nConsistency, Christian, H. Gal.\nConsistency, Christian, H. Phil.\nConsistency, Christian, H. 2 Thess.\nConstant joy, I. Gal.\nContention, humility an antidote to, N. Phil.\nContentment, Christian, H. Phil.\nContentment, true, tendency of Christian principles to produce, H. Phil.\nConversation, Christian, H. Col.\nConversation, daily, Christ's truth in relation to our, H. Col.\nConversion and its evidences, H. 1 Thess.\nConversion and vocation of Paul, H. Gal.\nConversion, condition of Ephesians before, H. Eph.\nConversion, power of God in, N. Eph.\nConversion, test of suffering, H. 1 Thess.\nConverts, joy of minister in his, H. 1 Thess.\nConverts, new, dealing with, H. 1 Thess.\nCo-operation of Divine and human in man's salvation, H. Phil.\nCorrect estimate of gospel truth, H. 1 Thess.\nCounsels and greetings, Christian, H. Col.\nCounterfeit and real in Christian ministry, H. Phil.\nCounterfeits, godly zeal and its, H. Gal.\nCourage under suffering, N. Eph.\nCourtesy, apostolic, H. 2 Thess.\nCourtesy, Christian, H. Phil.\nCovenant of promise, Divine, H. Gal.\nCovenants, Divine and human, H. Gal.\nCovetousness which is idolatry, H. Col.\nCowardly retreat, I. Gal.\nCreated things, all, relation of Christ to God and, H. Col.\nCreation, Christ and, N. Eph.\nCreation, Divine, Christian life a, H. Eph.\nCreation, new spiritual, N. Eph.\nCreature, new, N. Gal.\nCredentials, apostolic, H. Gal.\nCross a burden or a glory, H. Gal.\nCross, enemies of, H. Phil.\nCross, of Christ, glorying in, H. Gal.\nCross, odium of, H. Gal.\nCross, triumph of, H. Col.\nCrucifixion, Christ's, H. Phil.\nCrucifying flesh, H. Gal.\nCulture, Divine, H. Phil.\nCure of care, H. Phil\nCure of vice and vain-glory, H. Gal.\nCurse and sentence of Law, N. Gal.\n\nDaily conversation, Christ's truth in relation to our, H. Col.\nDanger of grieving Him, office of Holy Spirit and, H. Eph.\nDanger, peace in, I. 2 Thess.\nDarkness, children of, and of light, H. Eph.\nDarkness, light in, N. Eph.\nDarkness to light, from, H. Col.\nDarkness, works of, N. Eph.\nDay, happy, and its sequel, H. Phil.\nDay of judgment, H. 2 Thess.\nDay of Lord, H. 1 Thess.\nDead, Christ Firstborn from, H. Col.\nDead, resurrection of, an object to aim at, H. Phil.\nDead, sorrow for, H. 1. Thess.\nDead, to Law by Law, H. Gal.\nDealing with new converts, H. 1 Thess.\nDeath a peacemaker, N. Eph.\nDeath and life with Christ, H. Col.\nDeath and spiritual life, H. Col.\nDeath, Christian's life and, H. Phil.\nDeath, idleness and, I. 2 Thess.\nDeath, state of sin a state of, H. Eph.\nDeath to life, transition from, H. Col.\nDeceived, be not, H. Gal.\nDeceived sowers to flesh, H. Gal.\nDeceivers and deceived, case of, considered, H. Eph.\nDeceptive glamour of error, H. Gal.\nDefence, fearless, of fundamental truth, H. Gal.\nDefender of faith, astute, H. Gal.\nDefiniteness in prayer, H. Phil.\nDeity, incarnate, H. Phil.\nDeliverer, Christian waiting for his, H. 1 Thess.\nDelusions, strong, H. 2 Thess.\nDenominations, temper to be cultivated by Christians of different\n   towards each other, H. Phil.\nDeparted, faithful, sleep of. H. 1 Thess.\nDependence, mutual, law of, H. Eph.\nDespise not prophesyings, H. 1 Thess.\nDespiser, word to, H. 1 Thess.\nDestiny, glorious, of human body, N. Phil.\nDestructive subtlety of sin, H. 2 Thess.\nDevelopment of events in consecrated life, H. Phil.\nDevil, wiles of, H. Eph.\nDevoted Christian minister, H. Phil.\nDevotion, true, H. Col.\nDevout doxology, H. Eph.\nDifference between Law and Gospel, H. Gal.\nDifference, sowing to flesh and to Spirit, H. Gal.\nDifficult and important mission, H. 1 Thess.\nDignified and touching farewell, H. Gal.\nDignity and dominion of Christ. H. Eph.\nDignity of Christian life, H. Eph.\nDignity of sonship with God, H. Gal.\nDilemma of turn-coats, H. Gal.\nDisagreement, feminine, H. Phil.\nDisappointed hopes in Christian work, H. Gal.\nDiscernment, clearer, in Divine things desired, H. Eph.\nDiscrimination, spiritual, H. Phil.\nDisintegrating force of error, N. Gal.\nDisobedience, folly of, H. Gal.\nDisobedient, H. 2 Thess.\nDisorderly in Church-life, H. 2 Thess.\nDissipation of large cities, H. Eph.\nDistinctive features of true sanctification, H. 1 Thess.\nDisturber of faith, H. Gal.\nDivine act, salvation a, H. 2 Thess.\nDivine and human covenants, H. Gal.\nDivine and human, co-operation of, in man's salvation, H. Phil.\nDivine blessing highest sanction of ministerial authority, N. Gal.\nDivine call, confirmatory proofs of, H. Gal.\nDivine call to apostleship, H. Gal.\nDivine commission, imperative claims of, H. Gal.\nDivine covenant of promise, H. Gal.\nDivine creation, Christian life a, H. Eph.\nDivine culture, H. Phil.\nDivine edifice, Church a, H. Eph.\nDivine faithfulness, H. 2 Thess.\nDivine fulness of Christ pledge of believer's perfection, H. Col.\nDivine grace, frustrating, N. Gal.\nDivine grace, glory of, H. Eph.\nDivine grace, salvation an act of, H. Eph.\nDivine ideal of the Church, H. Eph.\nDivine Judge, H. 2 Thess.\nDivine life, positiveness of, H. Gal.\nDivine love and patience, H. 2 Thess.\nDivine peace, rule of, H. Col.\nDivine, Trinity of, sevenfold unity of Church reflected in, H. Eph.\nDivine promise, Law not contrary to, H. Gal.\nDivine retribution, H. 2 Thess.\nDivine strength, H. Col.\nDivine things, clearer discernment in, desired, H. Eph.\nDivinity and truth of Christian religion, H. Eph.\nDoctrine of Christian ethics, Paul's, H. Eph.\nDoctrine of predestination, N. Eph.\nDoing all for God, H. Col.\nDoing all in name of Christ, H. Col.\nDoing good, on, H. Gal.\nDominion and dignity of Christ, H. Eph.\nDouble harvest, H. Gal.\nDoubtful Christians, H. Gal.\nDoxology, devout, H. Eph.\nDrunken mirth _versus_ Christian mirth, H. Eph.\nDrunkenness, vice of, H. Eph.\nDuty and object of Christian imitation, H. Eph.\nDuty, Christian, suggestive summary of law of, H. Col.\nDuty of believers in evil day, H. Eph.\nDuty of comforting one another, H. 1 Thess.\nDuty of thanksgiving, H. Eph.\nDuties of children and parents, H. Eph.\nDuties of children and parents, H. Col.\nDuties of servants and masters, H. Eph.\nDuties of servants and masters, H. Col.\nDuties of wives and husbands, H. Eph.\nDuties of wives and husbands, H. Col.\nDying and living, Christian's estimate of, H. Phil.\n\nEarly Christians, faith of, H. Eph.\nEarly Church, glimpses of life in, H. Phil.\nEarly times, side-lights on Church-life in, H. Col.\nEarnest of inheritance, Holy Spirit an, H. Eph.\nEarth, heaven and, family in, H. Eph.\nEdification, Church, public reading of Holy Scriptures important\n     means of, H. Col.\nEdifice, Divine, Church a, H. Eph.\nEffective preaching, secret of, H. Col.\nEffects, evidences and, of revival, H. 1 Thess.\nEffects of Gospel upon those who receive it, H. Phil.\nEffectual mediator, I. Gal.\nEfficacy of Christian ministry, H. Gal.\nEfficacy of prayer, H. Col.\nEfficacy of Word of God, and way of receiving it, H. 1 Thess.\nEjaculatory prayer, and self-recollectedness, H. 1. Thess.\nElection, mystery of, N. Eph.\nElection of God, H. 1 Thess.\nElements, essential, of success in preaching, H. 1 Thess.\nElements of religious comfort, H. Eph.\nEmpty boasting, H. Gal.\nEnchanted ground, pilgrims on, H. 1 Thess.\nEnd of creation, Christ Author and, H. Col.\nEnemies of believers, H. Eph.\nEnemies of cross, H. Phil.\nEnemies of man, invisible, H. Eph.\nEnjoyment, spiritual, H. Eph.\nEnlarged Gospel, H. Eph.\nEnlightenment, spiritual, N. Eph.\nEnmity of heart, power of Gospel to dissolve, N. Eph.\nEnthusiasm for Christ, H. Phil.\nEphesians before conversion, conditions of, H. Eph.\nEphesians, Epistle to--analysis of Epistle, N. Eph.\nEphesians, Epistle to--genuineness of Epistle, N. Eph.\nEphesians, Epistle to--practical design of Epistle, N. Eph.\nEphesians, Epistle to--to whom sent, N. Eph.\nEphesians, Paul's prayer for, H. Eph.\nEqual to Father, Christ a revelation because, H. Col.\nEquity, Christian, H. Phil.\nErring apostle, H. Gal.\nErring, restoration of, H. Gal.\nError, deceptive glamour of, H. Gal.\nError, disintegrating force of, N. Gal.\nError, safeguards against, H. Phil.\nErrors respecting forgiveness of sin, H. Eph.\nEssential elements of success in preaching, H. 1 Thess.\nEssentials of Christian character, H. Col.\nEstimate of Gospel truth, correct, H. 1 Thess.\nEternal praise should be offered unto God, H. Phil.\nEthics, Christian, Paul's doctrine of, H. Eph.\nEthics, science of, H. Phil.\nEulogy of Christian excellence, H. Phil.\nEvangelical consistency, H. Phil.\nEvery man has his own burden, H. Gal.\nEvidence, truth its own, H. Gal.\nEvidences and effects of revival, H. 1 Thess.\nEvidences of conversion, H. 1 Thess.\nEvidences of sonship, H. Gal.\nEvil angels, H. Eph.\nEvil day, duty of believers in, H. Eph.\nEvils, worst of, H. Eph.\nExaltation, contrasted humiliation and, of Christ, H. Eph.\nExaltation of Christ, H. Phil.\nExaltation of labour, Paul's, H. Eph.\nExalted ministerial commission, H. Eph.\nExample, power of, N. Gal.\nExample, power of, H. 1 Thess.\nExamples, good and bad, H. Phil.\nExcellence, Christian, eulogy of, H. Phil.\nExcellence, Christian's truest test and, H. Eph.\nExcellency of knowledge of Christ, H. Phil.\nExcellent knowledge of Christ, H. Phil.\nExcitement, sensual and spiritual, H. Eph.\nExhortations, earnest, to higher sanctity, H. 1 Thess.\nExperience, Christian, highest type of, H. Phil.\nExposure, apostolic, of false teachers, H. Gal.\nExternal religionism incomparable with true knowledge of\n     Christ, H. Phil.\nExternal rites, Christianity superior to, H. Gal.\nExtremity, joy of good man in, H. Phil.\n\nFaith, active, righteousness attained by, N. Gal.\nFaith and Law, conflict between, H. Gal.\nFaith, astute defender of, H. Gal.\nFaith, disturber of, H. Gal.\nFaith, justification by, H. Eph.\nFaith, justification, not by works, N. Gal.\nFaith, justification, not by works, H. Gal.\nFaith, justification, not by works, I. Gal.\nFaith, life of, H. Gal.\nFaith of early Christians, H. Eph.\nFaith of man and faithfulness of God, H. 1 Thess.\nFaith, reasonableness of, H. Gal.\nFaith, righteousness through, H. Gal.\nFaith, salvation by, H. Eph.\nFaith, working by love, religion is, H. Gal.\nFaithful departed, sleep of, H. 1 Thess.\nFaithful minister, N. Eph.\nFaithful reproof, N. Gal.\nFaithfulness of God, H. 2 Thess.\nFaithfulness of God and faith of man, H. 1 Thess.\nFalse alarm, H. 2 Thess.\nFalse and true in religion, H. Phil.\nFalse and true zeal, H. Gal.\nFalse brethren and their treatment, H. Gal.\nFalse methods of salvation, H. Gal.\nFalse philosophy, marks of, H. Col.\nFalse philosophy, seductive peril of, H. Col.\nFalse teachers, apostolic exposure of, H. Gal.\nFalse teachers, emphatic warnings against, H. Phil.\nFalse teaching, perils of, H. Gal.\nFalsehood, sin of, H. Eph.\nFamily, Christian Church a, H. Eph.\nFamily, in heaven and earth, H. Eph.\nFamily, one, H. Eph.\nFarewell, dignified and touching, H. Gal.\nFarewell, words of, H. Col.\nFate of unbelievers, H. Gal.\nFather, access to, privilege of, H. Eph.\nFather, Christ a revelation because equal to, H. Col.\nFather, God our, H. Phil.\nFather, God the, H. Eph.\nFather's charge, a, H. Eph.\nFearless defence of fundamental truth, H. Gal.\nFeatures, congratulatory, of prosperous Church, H. 2 Thess.\nFeatures, distinctive, of true sanctification, H. 1 Thess.\nFeatures of believer's life in Christ, H. Phil.\nFeatures of Christian life, suggestive, H. Col.\nFeeling, past, N. Eph.\nFellowship in Gospel, H. Phil.\nFellowship in wickedness, and its condemnation, H. Eph.\nFellowship of Christ's sufferings, H. Phil.\nFellowship of mystery, H. Eph.\nFeminine disagreement, H. Phil.\nFidelity, Christian, H. 2 Thess.\nFidelity, in ministry, H. Gal.\nFidelity to truth, N. Gal.\nFidelity unswerving, in accomplishing its lofty mission, Christian\n     ministry demands, H. Col.\nFinal blessedness, condition of man's, H. Col.\nFirstborn from dead, Christ, H. Col.\nFlesh and spirit, H. Gal.\nFlesh, crucifying, H. Gal.\nFlesh, deceived sowers to, H. Gal.\nFlesh, works of, H. Gal.\nFolly of disobedience, H. Gal.\nFoolish talking and jesting, against, H. Eph.\nForce of error, disintegrating, N. Gal.\nForgiveness, Christian, H. Eph.\nForgiveness, Christian, H. Col.\nForgiveness of sin, errors respecting, H. Eph.\nForlorn state of Gentile world, H. Eph.\nFormalism tested and found wanting, H. Phil.\nFortitude, Christian, call to, H. Eph.\nFree grace, working out salvation harmonises with, H. Phil.\nFreedom from bondage, N. Gal.\nFruit of Christian life, liberality, H. Phil.\nFruit of Spirit, H. Gal.\nFruits of righteousness, H. Phil.\nFrustrating Divine grace, N. Gal.\nFulness of Christ, H. Col.\nFulness Divine, pledge of believer's perfection, H. Col.\nFulness of time, H. Gal.\nFundamental truth, fearless defence of, H. Gal.\nFury of old religion against new, H. 1 Thess.\nFuture glory of the Church, H. Eph.\nFuture present condition and, of life in Christ, H. Col.\nFuture life, H. Eph.\n\nGain, Christ the only, H. Phil.\nGalatians, Epistle to--authorship of Epistle, N. Gal.\nGalatians, Epistle to--character of Galatians, N. Gal.\nGalatians, Epistle to--purpose and analysis, N. Gal.\nGalatians, Epistle to--time of writing, N. Gal.\nGenerosity, Christian, H. Gal.\nGenerosity, Christian, H. Phil.\nGenerous Church, H. Phil.\nGentile life--a warning, H. Eph.\nGentile world, forlorn state of, H. Eph.\nGentiles, calling of, H. Eph.\nGentleness, grace of, H. Gal.\nGenuine religion illustrated, H. 2 Thess.\nGerm of spurious ministry, H. Phil.\nGift of Christ, H. Gal.\nGifts of Christ to His church, H. Eph.\nGirdle of truth, H. Eph.\nGlad tidings of Christian steadfastness, H. 1 Thess.\nGlamour of error, deceptive, H. Gal.\nGlimpses of life in early Church, H. Phil.\nGlorious destiny of human body, N. Phil.\nGlory, future, of the Church, H. Eph.\nGlory, hope of, Christ in you the, H. Col.\nGlory of Divine grace, H. Eph.\nGlory of Gospel, H. Col.\nGlory of sainthood, H. 2 Thess.\nGlory or a burden, cross, H. Gal.\nGlorying in cross of Christ, H. Gal.\nGod, access to, H. Eph.\nGod, revealing Trinity in unity, H. Eph.\nGod, children of, H. Gal.\nGod, Church the habitation of, N. Eph.\nGod, doing all for, H. Col.\nGod, election of, H. 1 Thess.\nGod, eternal praise should be offered unto, H. Phil.\nGod, faithfulness of, H. 2 Thess.\nGod, faithfulness and faith of man, H. 1 Thess.\nGod, glorified in good men, N. Gal.\nGod, glorified in His servant, H. Gal.\nGod, ignorance of, a spiritual bondage, N. Gal.\nGod, imitation of, N. Eph.\nGod, known in Christ, N. Eph.\nGod, life of, H. Eph.\nGod, light of, H. Eph.\nGod, likeness to, H. Eph.\nGod, man without, N. Eph.\nGod, manifold wisdom of, H. Eph.\nGod, masters accountable to, N. Eph.\nGod, nearness to, H. Eph.\nGod, omnipresent, H. 2 Thess.\nGod, our Father, H. Phil.\nGod, peace of, keeping heart, H. Phil.\nGod, relation of Christ to, and all created things, H. Col.\nGod, salvation is of, H. 1 Thess.\nGod, singing in worship of, H. Eph.\nGod, sonship with, dignity of, H. Gal.\nGod, temple of, Church the, H. Eph.\nGod, the Father, H. Eph.\nGod, true Israel of, H. Gal.\nGod, unity of, and His purpose regarding men, H. Gal.\nGod, whole armour of, H. Eph.\nGod, wrath of, H. Col.\nGod's infinite liberality, H. Eph.\nGod's offspring, N. Gal.\nGod's riches, man's need supplied from, H. Phil.\nGod's sabbatic law antedated Mosaic Law, N. Gal.\nGod's work and man's care--salvation, H. Phil.\nGodless and hopeless, H. Eph.\nGodly zeal and its counterfeits, H. Gal.\nGod-made minister, N. Eph.\nGood and bad examples, H. Phil.\nGood, hold fast that which is, H. 1 Thess.\nGood hope through grace, H. 2 Thess.\nGood, imitation of, H. Phil.\nGood man, joy of, in extremity, H. Phil.\nGood men, God glorified in, N. Gal.\nGood news and its good effects, H. Col.\nGood, on doing, H. Gal.\nGood works, grace and, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, a Divine revelation, H. Gal.\nGospel, a mystery, H. Eph.\nGospel, Abrahamic, H. Gal.\nGospel, according to Mark, H. Eph.\nGospel, ambassador, H. Eph.\nGospel and call to preach it, H. Gal.\nGospel and Law, difference between, H. Gal.\nGospel and Law, history of Sarah and Hagar allegorical of, H. Gal.\nGospel at Philippi, commencement of, H. Phil.\nGospel, call of, to sinners, H. Eph.\nGospel, change effected by, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, comes to believing soul, manner in which, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, comprehensiveness of, N. Eph.\nGospel, effects of, upon those who receive it, H. Phil.\nGospel, enlarged, H. Eph.\nGospel, fellowship in, H. Phil.\nGospel, glory of, H. Col.\nGospel, great change effected in man by, H. Eph.\nGospel, in word and in power, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, inviolable unity of, H. Gal.\nGospel, irrepressible, H. Phil.\nGospel, manifests itself, H. Col.\nGospel, mystery of, H. Eph.\nGospel of grace, praise for work of Trinity in, H. Eph.\nGospel of peace, H. Eph.\nGospel of your salvation, H. Eph.\nGospel, one, H. Gal.\nGospel, power of, N. Gal.\nGospel, power to dissolve enmity of heart, N. Eph.\nGospel, practical result of true reception of, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, preaching of, not in vain, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, profession of, uncleanness inconsistent with, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, remonstrance with revolters against, H. Gal.\nGospel, state of men without, H. Eph.\nGospel, superhuman origin of, H. Gal.\nGospel, superhuman origin of, N. Gal.\nGospel, true, to be preached and believed, H. Gal.\nGospel, true, universally the same, H. Col.\nGospel, truth, correct estimate of, H. 1 Thess.\nGospel, use of Law under, H. Gal.\nGovernment of tongue, H. Eph.\nGrace and good works, H. 1 Thess.\nGrace and peace, H. Gal.\nGrace, Divine, glory of, H. Eph.\nGrace, Divine, salvation an act of, H. Eph.\nGrace, frustrating Divine, N. Gal.\nGrace, good hope through, H. 2 Thess.\nGrace, Gospel of, praise for work of Trinity in, H. Eph.\nGrace, growth in, H. 2 Thess.\nGrace of gentleness, H. Gal.\nGrace of God, justification by works makes void the, H. Gal.\nGrace of our Lord Jesus Christ, H. Phil.\nGrace, promise of, N. Gal.\nGrace, salvation is of, H. Eph.\nGrace sovereign, pardon an act of, N. Eph.\nGrace, state by nature and by, H. Eph.\nGrace, state of, H. Eph.\nGreat blessing of redemption, H. Col.\nGreat city, solitude of, H. 1 Thess.\nGreat Mediator, reconciling work of, H. Col.\nGreat moral translation, H. Col.\nGreat prison, N. Gal.\nGreat truths, two, presentation of, H. Col.\nGreeting, Christian, H. Phil.\nGreetings and counsels, Christian, H. Col.\nGrieving the Holy Spirit, H. Eph.\nGround, enchanted, pilgrims on, H. 1 Thess.\nGroup of Christian precepts, H. 1 Thess.\nGrowth, humility a, N. Eph.\nGrowth in grace, H. 2 Thess.\nGrowth in personal piety, prayer for, H. 1 Thess.\nGrowth into Christ in love and truth, H. Eph.\nGrowth of Church, H. Eph.\nGuidance of Spirit, H. Gal.\n\nHabitation of God, Church the, N. Eph.\nHagar and Sarah, history of, allegorical of Law and Gospel, H. Gal.\nHandwriting of ordinances, H. Col.\nHappy day and its sequel, H. Phil.\nHappy life, secret of, H. 1 Thess.\nHappy memories, H. Phil.\nHarmony of Christianity in its personal influence, H. Eph.\nHarvest, double, H. Gal.\nHarvest, spiritual, principle of, H. Gal.\nHead of Church, Christ, H. Eph.\nHeadship of Christ, H. Eph.\nHeart, enmity of, power of Gospel to dissolve, N. Eph.\nHeart, peace of God keeping, H. Phil.\nHeart, what is your, filled with? H. Eph.\nHearty Christianity, H. Col.\nHeaven and earth, family in, H. Eph.\nHeaven, qualification for, H. Col.\nHeaven, rest in, for troubled, H. 2 Thess.\nHeirs according to promise, H. Gal.\nHeroic devotion to Christ, H. Phil.\nHidden treasures of wisdom in Christ, H. Col.\nHigh moral feeling that should influence preacher, H. 1 Thess.\nHigher aspirations of soul, H. Col.\nHigher sanctity, earnest exhortations to, H. 1 Thess.\nHigher spiritual knowledge, prayer for, H. Eph.\nHighest type of Christian experience, H. Phil.\nHindrances, Satanic, H. 1 Thess.\nHistory of Hagar and Sarah allegorical of Law and Gospel, H. Gal.\nHold fast that which is good, H. 1 Thess.\nHoliness, Christian, H. 1 Thess.\nHoliness, supreme end of reconciliation, H. Col.\nHoly Ghost the Sanctifier, H. 2 Thess.\nHoly Scriptures, public reading of, important means of church\n     edification, H. Col.\nHoly Scriptures, public reading of, important means of church\n     edification, H. 1 Thess.\nHoly Spirit and earnest of inheritance, H. Eph.\nHoly Spirit, grieving the, H. Eph.\nHoly Spirit, office of, and danger of grieving Him, H. Eph.\nHomage, Christ worthy of universal, H. Phil.\nHome-life, sanctity of, N. Eph.\nHonour, pre-eminent, and sublime theme of Christian ministry, H. Col.\nHope a stimulus to Christian perseverance, H. Col.\nHope, good, through grace, H. 2 Thess.\nHope of glory, Christ in you the, H. Col.\nHopes, disappointed, in Christian work, H. Gal.\nHopeless and godless, H. Eph.\nHousehold, piety in, H. Col.\nHuman and Divine, co-operation of, in man's salvation, H. Phil.\nHuman and Divine covenants, H. Gal.\nHuman body, resurrection of, H. Phil.\nHumiliation and exaltation of Christ, contrasted, H. Eph.\nHumiliation of Christ a pattern of supreme unselfishness, H. Phil.\nHumility a growth, N. Eph.\nHumility an antidote to contention, H. Phil.\nHumility Christian, H. Col.\nHumility Christian, illustrated in character of Paul, H. Eph.\nHumility, Paul's, H. Eph.\nHusbands and wives, duties of, H. Eph.\nHusbands and wives, duties of, H. Col.\nHypocrisy, profession without, N. Gal.\n\nIdeal, Divine, of the Church, H. Eph.\nIdleness and death, I. 2 Thess.\nIdolatry, covetousness which is, H. Col.\nIgnorance of God a spiritual bondage, N. Gal.\nImitation, Christian's duty and object of, H. Eph.\nImitation, moral, H. Col.\nImitation of God, N. Eph.\nImitation of good, H. Phil.\nImitators of Abraham's faith, H. Gal.\nImperative claims of Divine commission, H. Gal.\nImportant and difficult mission, H. 1 Thess.\nImposition, warning against, H. 2 Thess.\nIncarnate Deity, H. Phil.\nIndividual character, sowing and reaping in their bearing on\n     formation of, H. Gal.\nIndustry secret of success, H. 2 Thess.\nIndustry the true charity, I. 2 Thess.\nIndwelling Word of Christ, H. Col.\nInexorability of Law, H. Gal.\nInferiority of Law, H. Gal.\nInfinite liberality, God's, H. Eph.\nInfluence, moral, H. Phil.\nInfluence, spiritual, varied aspects of, H. 1 Thess.\nInheritance, Christian, assurance of, H. Eph.\nInheritance of saints, Christ, N. Eph.\nInheritance, saintly, meetness for, H. Col.\nIniquity, mystery of, H. 2 Thess.\nInterruptions in our work, and the way to deal with them, H. Eph.\nInviolability of Christianity, H. Gal.\nInviolable unity of Gospel, H. Gal.\nInvisible enemies of man, H. Eph.\nIrrepressible, Gospel, H. Phil.\nIsrael of God, true, H. Gal.\n\nJerusalem above, H. Gal.\nJerusalem, type of universal church, H. Gal.\nJesting and talking, against foolish, H. Eph.\nJesus Christ, adoption of children by, H. Eph.\nJesus Christ, believer exalted together with, H. Eph.\nJesus, name of, H. Phil.\nJesus, suffering for, H. Gal.\nJesus, supremacy of, H. Eph.\nJesus, unselfishness of, H. Gal.\nJews, persecuting, H. 1 Thess.\nJoy, Christian, H. Phil.\nJoy, Christian, unity an occasion of, H. Phil.\nJoy, constant, I. Gal.\nJoy of good man in extremity, H. Phil.\nJoy of minister in his converts, H. 1 Thess.\nJoy of ministerial success, H. Phil.\nJoy of suffering for Church, H. Col.\nJoy, pure, H. Phil.\nJoy, religious, H. 1 Thess.\nJudge, Divine, H. 2 Thess.\nJudgment, day of, H. 2 Thess.\nJudgment, on troubles of Church, H. Gal.\nJust, resurrection of, H. Phil.\nJustification by faith, H. Eph.\nJustification, not of works, N. Gal.\nJustification, not of works, H. Gal.\nJustification, not of works, I. Gal.\nJustifying faith, true, is not of ourselves, N. Eph.\n\nKnowledge and wisdom, Christ the treasury of, N. Col.\nKnowledge of Christ, excellent, H. Phil.\nKnowledge of Christ, intended for all, N. Eph.\nKnowledge, true, of Christ, external religionism incomparable\n     with, H. Phil.\nKnown and unknown love of Christ, H. Eph.\n\nLabour, Paul's exaltation of, H. Eph.\nLabour, self-denying, H. 2 Thess.\nLarge cities, dissipation of, H. Eph.\nLast words, H. Phil.\nLatitudinarianism, N. Gal.\nLaw and faith, conflict between, H. Gal.\nLaw and Gospel, difference between, H. Gal.\nLaw and Gospel, history of Hagar and Sarah allegorical of, H. Gal.\nLaw and promise, N. Gal.\nLaw, Christ obedient to, H. Gal.\nLaw, Christian dead to, H. Gal.\nLaw, curse and sentence of, N. Gal.\nLaw, fulfilled in love to others, H. Gal.\nLaw, inexorability of, H. Gal.\nLaw, inferiority of, H. Gal.\nLaw is for transgressors, H. Gal.\nLaw, lesson from the, H. Gal.\nLaw not contrary to Divine promise, H. Gal.\nLaw of Christian liberty, love the highest, H. Gal.\nLaw of marriage, Christian, H. Eph.\nLaw of mutual dependence, H. Eph.\nLaw of retribution, H. Gal.\nLaw, our schoolmaster, H. Gal.\nLaw, preparing for Christ, H. Gal.\nLaw, under, H. Gal.\nLaw, use of, H. Gal.\nLeading of Spirit, N. Gal.\nLegal bondage and spiritual freedom contrasted, H. Gal.\nLegal prescriptions, no trust in, N. Gal.\nLegalism a relapse, H. Gal.\nLegalism, Christianity nullified by, H. Gal.\nLesson from the Law, H. Gal.\nLiberality a fruit of Christian life, H. Phil.\nLiberality, God's infinite, H. Eph.\nLiberty, bondage and, H. Gal.\nLiberty, Christian, H. Gal.\nLiberty, Christian, abuse of, H. Gal.\nLiberty, Christian, love the highest law of, H. Gal.\nLiberty, Christian, right use of, H. Gal.\nLife and death, Christian's, H. Phil.\nLife and walk in Spirit, H. Gal.\nLife, change of, religion, H. Col.\nLife, Christ our, H. Col.\nLife, Christian, a Divine creation, H. Eph.\nLife, Christian, a race, H. Gal.\nLife, Christian, dignity of, H. Eph.\nLife, Christian, Lord's Supper example of, H. Col.\nLife, common, Christian principles applied to, H. Eph.\nLife, death and, with Christ, H. Col.\nLife, death to, transition from, H. Col.\nLife, future, H. Eph.\nLife in Christ, present condition and future glory of, H. Col.\nLife in early Church, glimpses of, H. Phil.\nLife, misspent, review of, N. Gal.\nLife, new, H. Col.\nLife of Christ, only true idea of self-devotion, H. Phil.\nLife of faith, H. Gal.\nLife of God, H. Eph.\nLife of love, H. Eph.\nLife, wise conduct of, H. Eph.\nLife, wise conduct of, H. Col.\nLife, word of, living ministry and living Church, H. Phil.\nLight, children of darkness and of, H. Eph.\nLight, from darkness to, H. Col.\nLight, in darkness, N. Eph.\nLight, meetness for inheritance of saints in, H. Col.\nLight, of God, H. Eph.\nLight, spiritual, summons to, H. Eph.\nLikeness to God, H. Eph.\nLiving and dying, Christian's estimate of, H. Phil.\nLiving ministry and living Church: Word of life, H. Phil.\nLooking on things of others, H. Phil.\nLord, day of, H. 1 Thess.\nLord Jesus, marks of, H. Gal.\nLord, one, H. Eph.\nLord, rejoicing in, H. Phil.\nLord's Supper example of Christian life, H. Col.\nLove an attendant of regeneration, H. Gal.\nLove and patience, Divine, H. 2 Thess.\nLove and truth, growth into Christ in, H. Eph.\nLove, brotherly, H. 1 Thess.\nLove in action, H. Eph.\nLove, Christ's for the Church, H. Eph.\nLove, Christian prayer for, H. Phil.\nLove, faith working by, religion is, H. Gal.\nLove for preacher, H. Gal.\nLove, life of, H. Eph.\nLove of Christ, H. Eph.\nLove of God, adopting, H. Eph.\nLove of Son of God to men, H. Gal.\nLove, perfection of character, N. Gal.\nLove, perfection of Christian character, H. Col.\nLove, powers of, H. Gal.\nLove, service of, H. Gal.\nLove, the highest law of Christian liberty, H. Gal.\nLove to others, Law fulfilled in, H. Gal.\nLoving Christ in sincerity, H. Eph.\nLustre of blameless life, H. Phil.\n\nMaintenance, ministerial, N. Gal.\nMaintenance, ministerial, H. 2 Thess.\nMalice incompatible with Christian character, H. Eph.\nMan and man, truth between, H. Eph.\nMan, Christian brotherhood of, H. Eph.\nMan, faith of, and faithfulness of God, H. 1 Thess.\nMan, great change effected in, by Gospel, H. Eph.\nMan, invisible enemies of, H. Eph.\nMan, justified by faith alone, I. Gal.\nMan, mortification of sinful principle in, H. Col.\nMan, unity of God and His purpose regarding, H. Gal.\nMan, without God, N. Eph.\nMan's care and God's work--salvation, H. Phil.\nMan's duty to offer spiritual sacrifice inferred and recommended,\n     Christ's sacrifice of Himself explained, and, H. Eph.\nMan's final blessedness, condition of, H. Col.\nMan's need supplied from God's riches, H. Phil.\nManhood, true Christian, H. Eph.\nManifold wisdom of God, H. Eph.\nManners, bad, reform of, H. Gal.\nMark, Gospel according to, H. Eph.\nMark, pressing toward, H. Phil.\nMarks of false philosophy, H. Col.\nMarks of Lord Jesus, H. Gal.\nMarked men, H. Gal.\nMarriage, Christian law of, H. Eph.\nMasters, accountable to God, N. Eph.\nMasters, and servants, duties of, N. and H. Eph.\nMasters, and servants, duties of, H. Col.\nMaturity, Christian, H. Eph.\nMediator, effectual, I. Gal.\nMediator, Great, reconciling work of, H. Col.\nMedical profession, religion and the, H. Col.\nMeek, who are the? I. Gal.\nMeekness and affection, power of, N. Gal.\nMeekness and anger, H. Eph.\nMeetness for saintly inheritance, H. Col.\nMembers of body of Christ, H. Eph.\nMemory, H. 2 Thess.\nMemories, happy, H. Phil.\nMen, love of Son of God to, H. Gal.\nMen, marked, H. Gal.\nMen, state of, without Gospel, H. Eph.\nMercantile virtues without Christianity, H. Phil.\nMessenger, Divinely commissioned, self-evidencing proof of, H. Gal.\nMessenger of God, authority of, H. Gal.\nMessenger, trusted, H. Eph.\nMind which was in Christ, Christian temper the same, H. Phil.\nMind your own business, H. 1 Thess.\nMinister, boldness a duty in a, H. Eph.\nMinister, devoted Christian, H. Phil.\nMinister, faithful, N. Eph.\nMinister, God-made, N. Eph.\nMinister, joy of, in his converts, H. 1 Thess.\nMinister, true qualification of, H. Gal.\nMinisters, prayer for, H. 2 Thess.\nMinisterial anxiety, N. Gal.\nMinisterial anxiety, H. Col.\nMinisterial anxiety, for welfare of Church, N. Phil.\nMinisterial anxiety, prayer an expression of, H. 2 Thess.\nMinisterial authority, Divine blessing highest sanction of, N. Gal.\nMinisterial commission, exalted, H. Eph.\nMinisterial life, anxieties of, H. Phil.\nMinisterial maintenance, N. Gal.\nMinisterial maintenance, H. 2 Thess.\nMinisterial office, treatment due to, H. 1 Thess.\nMinisterial request, H. 2 Thess.\nMinisterial satisfaction, steadfastness of believers a source\n     of true, H. 1 Thess.\nMinisterial success, joy of, H. Phil.\nMinisterial thanksgiving, H. 1 Thess.\nMinisterial thanksgiving, causes of, H. Col.\nMinistry, apostle's view of his, H. Eph.\nMinistry, Christian, H. Col.\nMinistry, Christian, efficacy of, H. Gal.\nMinistry, Christian, pre-eminent honour and sublime theme of, H. Col.\nMinistry, Christian, real and counterfeit in, H. Phil.\nMinistry, Christian, solemn and responsible trust, H. Col.\nMinistry, fidelity in, H. Gal.\nMinistry, of Paul's bonds, H. Phil.\nMinistry, public, H. 1 Thess.\nMinistry, spurious, H. Phil.  315\nMinistry, work of, H. Eph.\nMiracles, confirmatory of truth, N. Gal.\nMirth, Christian _versus_ drunken, H. Eph.\nMission, Christ's for adoption of sons in fulness of time, H. Gal.\nMission, difficult and important, H. 1 Thess.\nMission, projected Christian, H. Phil.\nMission, special, recognition of, H. Gal.\nMisspent life, review of, N. Gal.\nMistaken zeal, H. Gal.\nModel pastor, H. Col.\nMoral bravery, picture of, H. Eph.\nMoral character, prayer for completeness of, H. 2 Thess.\nMoral creation, relation of Christ to, H. Col.\nMoral feeling, high, that should influence preacher, H. 1 Thess.\nMoral imitation, H. Col.\nMoral influence, H. Phil.\nMoral sleep, H. 1 Thess.\nMoral sowing and reaping, H. Gal.\nMoral stupidity, H. Eph.\nMoral transformation, thorough, H. Eph.\nMoral translation, great, H. Col.\nMortification of sinful principle in man, H. Col.\nMosaic Law, God's sabbatic law antedated, N. Gal.\nMutual dependence, law of, H. Eph.\nMutual duties of children and parents, H. Eph.\nMutual submission, H. Eph.\nMutual sympathy in burden-bearing, H. Gal.\nMystery, fellowship of, H. Eph.\nMystery, Gospel a, H. Eph.\nMystery, of election, N. Eph.\nMystery of Gospel, H. Eph.\nMystery of iniquity, H. 2 Thess.\n\nName of Christ, doing all in, H. Col.\nName of Jesus, H. Phil.\nNames in book, H. Phil.\nNations, all, blessed in Abraham, N. Gal.\nNature and by grace, state by, H. Eph.\nNature, change of, religious affections are attended with, H. Eph.\nNature, new, necessity of, N. Gal.\nNature, new, spiritual, H. Col.\nNature, putting off old, and putting on new, H. Eph.\nNature, source, and purpose of spiritual blessings, H. Eph.\nNature, state of, H. Eph.\nNearness to God, H. Eph.\nNecessity and perils of affliction, H. 1 Thess.\nNecessity of new nature, N. Gal.\nNeed, man's supplied from God's riches, H. Phil.\nNeed, our, and our supply, H. Phil.\nNeighbour's rights, regard for, I. Gal.\nNew birth begins our true life, I. Gal.\nNew converts, dealing with, H. 1 Thess.\nNew creature, N. Gal.\nNew fury of old religion against, H. 1 Thess.\nNew life, H. Col.\nNew nature, necessity of, N. Gal.\nNew nature, putting off old and putting on, H. Eph.\nNew spirit, Christian spirit a, H. Eph.\nNew spiritual creation, N. Eph.\nNew spiritual nature, H. Col.\nNews, good, and its good effects, H. Col.\nNews that gladdens, H. 1 Thess.\nNoble attitude of sufferer for truth, H. Phil.\nNoble self-sacrifice, I. Eph.\nNon-age of pre-Christian world, H. Gal.\n\nObedience, H. Eph.\nObedience, Christian, H. 2 Thess.\nObedience should be prompt, N. 2 Thess.\nObject and duty of Christian's imitation, H. Eph.\nOdium of cross of Christ, H. Gal.\nOffice of Holy Spirit and danger of grieving Him, H. Eph.\nOffspring, God's, N. Gal.\nOld nature, putting off, and putting on new, H. Eph.\nOld religion, fury of, against new, H. 1 Thess.\nOmnipresent God, H. 2 Thess.\nOne body and one Spirit, N. Eph.\nOne family, H. Eph.\nOne Gospel, H. Gal.\nOne in Christ, all are, H. Gal.\nOne Lord, H. Eph.\nOne Spirit, one body and, H. Eph.\nOneness of Church, H. Eph.\nOpportunity of beneficence, H. Gal.\nOrder and stability, apostolic praise of, H. Col.\nOrdinances, handwriting of, H. Col.\nOrigin of Gospel, superhuman, H. Gal.\nOthers, looking on things of, H. Phil.\nOthers, sins of, H. Gal.  101\n\nPacific spirit proof of true sanctification, H. 1 Thess.\nPardon an act of sovereign grace, N. Eph.\nParents and children, duties of, H. Eph.\nParents and children, duties of, H. Col.\nPast feeling, N. Eph.\nPastor, model, H. Col.\nPastors and people, H. Gal.\nPatience and love, Divine, H. 2 Thess.\nPattern, Christ our, H. Phil.\nPaul an example to believers, H. Phil.\nPaul, Christian humility illustrated in character of, H. Eph.\nPaul, conversion and vocation of, H. Gal.\nPaul's bonds, ministry of, H. Phil.\nPaul's doctrine of Christian ethics, H. Eph.\nPaul's exaltation of labour, H. Eph.\nPaul's humility, H. Eph.\nPaul's introduction to Ephesian Epistle, H. Eph.\nPaul's prayer for Colossians, H. Col.\nPaul's prayer for Ephesians, H. Eph.\nPaul's prayer for Thessalonians, H. 2 Thess.\nPeace, Divine, rule of, H. Col.\nPeace, Gospel of, H. Eph.\nPeace, grace and, H. Gal.\nPeace in danger, I. 2 Thess.\nPeace of God keeping heart, H. Phil.\nPeace the bond of unity, H. Eph.\nPeace, unity and, H. Col.\nPeacemaker, Christ great, H. Eph.\nPeacemaker, death a, N. Eph.\nPeople, pastors and, H. Gal.\nPerfection, believer's Divine fulness of Christ pledge of, H. Col.\nPerfection is attained, how, N. Gal.\nPerfection of character, love, N. Gal.\nPerfection of Christian character, love, H. Col.\nPerils and necessity of affliction, H. 1 Thess.\nPerils of false teaching, H. Gal.\nPerils of suffering, H. 1 Thess.\nPerils, peculiar, Christian ministry is surrounded by, H. Col.\nPerpetual thanksgiving of Christian life, H. 1 Thess.\nPerplexity, preacher's, H. Gal.\nPersecuting Jews, H. 1 Thess.\nPersecution, Christianity and, H. Gal.\nPersecution, on, H. Gal.\nPerseverance, Christian, hope stimulus to, H. Col.\nPerseverance of saints, H. Phil.\nPersonal blessings of reconciliation, H. Col.\nPersonal influence, harmony of Christianity in its, H. Eph.\nPersonal piety, prayer for growth in, H. 1 Thess.\nPerversion of apostolic preaching, H. Gal.\nPerversion of truth, H. Gal.\nPhases of apostolic greeting, H. 1 Thess.\nPhases of apostolic greeting, H. 2 Thess.\nPhilippi, commencement of gospel at, H. Phil.\nPhilippians, Epistle to--Philippi and the Philippians, N. Phil.\nPhilippians, Epistle to--place and time of writing Epistle, N. Phil.\nPhilippians, Epistle to--occasion and contents of Epistle, N. Phil.\nPhilosophic vagaries, H. Col.\nPhilosophy, false, marks of, H. Col.\nPicture of moral bravery, H. Eph.\nPiety in household, H. Col.\nPiety, personal, prayer for growth in, H. 1 Thess.\nPilgrims on enchanted ground, H. 1 Thess.\nPlea for steadfastness, H. Phil.\nPleadings of anxious teacher with his pupils in peril, H. Gal.\nPoetry of Christian life, H. Col.\nPoor, Christian duty to, N. Gal.\nPoor, remember the, H. Gal.\nPoor, representative of Christ, I. Gal.\nPositiveness of Divine life, H. Gal.\nPoverty and Christianity, H. Gal.\nPower, Christian's, source of, H. Phil.\nPower, Gospel in word and in, H. 1 Thess.\nPower, of Christ's resurrection, H. Phil.\nPower, of example, N. Gal.\nPower, of example, H. 1 Thess.\nPower of God in conversion, N. Eph.\nPower of Gospel, N. Gal.\nPower of Gospel to dissolve enmity of heart, N. Eph.\nPower of meekness and affection, N. Gal.\nPower of Satan great but restricted, H. 1 Thess.\nPower of truth, H. Gal.\nPowers of love, H. Gal.\nPractical atheism, H. Eph.\nPractical Christian benevolence, H. Phil.\nPractical Christian sympathy, H. Gal.\nPractical life, Christ in, H. Col.\nPractical proofs of apostleship, H. Gal.\nPractical result of true reception of Gospel, H. 1 Thess.\nPraise, eternal, should be offered unto God, H. Phil.\nPraise for work of Trinity in Gospel of grace, H. Eph.\nPray for us, H. 1 Thess.\nPrayer, access to God in, H. Eph.\nPrayer, an expression of ministerial anxiety, H. 2 Thess.\nPrayer and thanksgiving, H. 1 Thess.\nPrayer, Christian law of, H. Eph.\nPrayer, Christian, witness of Christian citizenship, H. Eph.\nPrayer, comprehensive apostolic, H. Gal.\nPrayer, comprehensive apostolic, H. 1 Thess.\nPrayer, definiteness in, H. Phil.\nPrayer, duty of, H. Eph.\nPrayer, efficacy of, H. Col.\nPrayer, for Christian love, H. Phil.\nPrayer, for completeness of moral character, H. 2 Thess.\nPrayer, for higher spiritual knowledge, H. Eph.\nPrayer, for ministers, H. 2 Thess.\nPrayer, for sanctification, H. 1 Thess.\nPrayer, Paul's, for Colossians, H. Col.\nPrayer, Paul's, for Ephesians, H. Eph.\nPrayer, Paul's, for Thessalonians, H. 2 Thess.\nPrayer, programme of, H. Eph.\nPrayer, subjects of, H. Phil.\nPrayer, sublime and comprehensive, H. Eph.\nPrayer, true, H. Phil.\nPraying and preaching, H. Col.\nPraying in Spirit, H. Eph.\nPraying with all prayer, H. Eph.\nPreacher, high moral feeling that should influence, H. 1 Thess.\nPreacher, love for, H. Gal.\nPreacher, successful, H. Col.\nPreacher's perplexity, H. Gal.\nPreaching and praying, H. Col.\nPreaching, apostolic, H. Col.\nPreaching, apostolic, characterised by transparent truth, H. 1 Thess.\nPreaching, apostolic, perversion of, H. Gal.\nPreaching, effective, secret of, H. Col.\nPreaching, essential elements of success in, H. 1 Thess.\nPreaching of Gospel not in vain, H. 1 Thess.\nPrecepts, Christian, group of, H. 1 Thess.\nPre-Christian world, non-age of, H. Gal.\nPredestination, doctrine of, N. Eph.\nPrescriptions, legal, no trust in, N. Gal.\nPresent condition and future glory of life in Christ, H. Col.\nPresentation of two great truths, N. Col.\nPressing towards mark, H. Phil.\nPrinciple of spiritual harvest, H. Gal.\nPrinciples above rules, N. Col.\nPrinciples, Christian, applied to common life, H. Eph.\nPrison, great, N. Gal.\nPrivilege of access to Father, H. Eph.\nPrivileges and character of children of God, H. Gal.\nProfession of Gospel, uncleanness inconsistent with, H. 1 Thess.\nProfession without hypocrisy, N. Gal.\nProgramme of prayer, H. Eph.\nProgress of revelation, H. Gal.\nProgress, retrospection the basis of, H. Col.\nProjected Christian mission, H. Phil.\nPromise and Law, N. Gal.\nPromise, believers children of, H. Gal.\nPromise, Divine, covenant of, H. Gal.\nPromise, Divine, law not contrary to, H. Gal.\nPromise, Gospel call and, H. Eph.\nPromise, heirs according to, H. Gal.\nPromise of grace, N. Gal.\nProof, confirmatory, of Divine call, H. Gal.\nProof, practical, of apostleship, H. Gal.\nProphesyings, despise not, H. 1 Thess.\nProsperous Church, congratulatory features of, H. 2 Thess.\nProve all things, H. 1 Thess.\nPublic ministry, H. 1 Thess.\nPublic reading of Holy Scriptures important means of Church\n     edification, H. Col.\nPublic reading of Holy Scriptures important means of Church\n     edification, H. 1 Thess.\nPublic worship, abuse of, H. 1 Thess.\nPupils in peril, pleadings of anxious teacher with his, H. Gal.\nPure joy, H. Phil.\n\nQualification for heaven, H. Col.\nQualification of true minister, H. Gal.\nQuarrels, Church, N. Gal.\nQuench not Spirit, H. 1 Thess.\nQuestions, searching, H. Gal.\nQuiet, study to be, H. 1 Thess.\nQuietness, way to value, I. 2 Thess.\n\nRace, Christian life a, H. Gal.\nRationalism, H. 1 Thess.\nReading, public, of Holy Scriptures important means of Church\n     edification, H. Col.\nReading, public, of Holy Scriptures important means of Church\n     edification, H. 1 Thess.\nReady to go, but willing to wait, H. Phil.\nReal and ceremonial in religion, H. Col.\nReal and counterfeit in Christian ministry, H. Phil.\nReap if we faint not, H. Gal.\nReaping, moral sowing and, H. Gal.\nReaping, sowing and, in their bearing on formation of individual\n     character, H. Gal.\nReason for conscientiousness, I. 1 Thess.\nReasonableness of faith, H. Gal.\nReception of Gospel, true, practical result of, H. 1 Thess.\nRecognition of special mission, H. Gal.\nRecompense of suffering for truth, H. 2 Thess.\nReconciler, Christ the, H. Col.\nReconciliation, holiness supreme end of, H. Col.\nReconciliation, personal blessings of, H. Col.\nReconciling work of great Mediator, H. Col.\nRectitude, Christian, H. Phil.\nRedeemer, Christ the, H. Phil.\nRedeeming the time, H. Eph.\nRedemption and its issues, H. Gal.\nRedemption, great blessing of, H. Col.\nRedemption of time, H. Eph.\nRedemption through Christ, H. Eph.\nReform of bad manners, H. Gal.\nReformation, Christian, H. Gal.\nRefractory, treatment of, H. 2 Thess.\nRegard for neighbour's rights, I. Gal.\nRegeneration, love an attendant of, H. Gal.\nRejoice evermore, H. 1 Thess.\nRejoicing in Lord, H. Phil.\nRelapse, legalism a, H. Gal.\nRelation of Christ to God and all created things, H. Col.\nRelation to moral creation, H. Col.\nReligion a change of life, H. Col.\nReligion and the medical profession, H. Col.\nReligion, ceremonial and real in, H. Col.\nReligion, ceremonial in, transitory and unsatisfying,  H. Col.\nReligion, Christian, truth and divinity of, H. Eph.\nReligion, false and true in, H. Phil.\nReligion, genuine, illustrated, H. 2 Thess.\nReligion, is faith working by love, H. Gal.\nReligion, true, scriptural view of, H. Gal.\nReligion, true and self-revealing, H. Eph.\nReligionism, external, incomparable with true knowledge of\n     Christ, H. Phil.\nReligious affections are attended with change of nature, H. Eph.\nReligious comfort, elements of, H. Eph.\nReligious joy, H. 1 Thess.\nReligious life of apostle, H. Gal.\nRemedy for worldly care, H. Phil.\nRemember the poor, H. Gal.\nRemonstrance with revolters against Gospel, H. Gal.\nReproof, brotherly, N. Gal.\nReproof, faithful, N. Gal.\nReproof, right mode of giving and receiving, H. Gal.\nRequest, ministerial, H. 2 Thess.\nRespect for conscientiousness, I. 1 Thess.\nRest in heaven for trouble, H. 2 Thess.\nRestoration of erring, H. Gal.\nResult, practical, of true reception of Gospel, H. 1 Thess.\nResurrection, attainment of, H. Phil.\nResurrection, Christ's, power of, H. Phil.\nResurrection, of body, H. 1 Thess.\nResurrection of dead an object to aim at, H. Phil.\nResurrection of human body, H. Phil.\nRetirement preparation for work, H. Gal.\nRetreat, cowardly, I. Gal.\nRetribution, Divine, H. 2 Thess.\nRetribution, law of, H. Gal.\nRetrospection the basis of progress, H. Col.\nRevelation, Christ a, because equal to Father, H. Col.\nRevelation, progress of, H. Gal.\nRevelation, supernatural, N. Gal.\nReview of misspent life, N. Gal.\nRevival, evidences and effects of, H. 1 Thess.\nRevolters against Gospel, remonstrance with, H. Gal.\nRiches, God's, man's need supplied from, H. Phil.\nRiches of Christ, N. Eph.\nRiches, unsearchable, of Christ, N. Eph.\nRight mode of giving and receiving reproof, H. Gal.\nRight use of Christian liberty, H. Gal.\nRights, regard for neighbour's, I. Gal.\nRighteousness attained by active faith, N. Gal.\nRighteousness, fruits of, H. Phil.\nRighteousness, through faith, H. Gal.\nRisen with Christ, H. Col.\nRites, external, Christianity superior to, H. Gal.\nRitualist, zealous, H. Gal.\nRule of Christian conduct, N. Eph.\nRule of Divine peace, H. Col.\nRules, principles above, N. Col.\n\nSabbath, shadow and substance of, H. Col.\nSabbatic law, God's antedated Mosaic Law, N. Gal.\nSacrifice, Christ our, H. Gal.\nSacrifice, Christ's, of Himself explained, and man's duty to offer\n     spiritual sacrifice inferred and recommended, H. Eph.\nSacrifice of Christ, H. Eph.\nSafeguards against error, H. Phil.\nSaints, Christ the inheritance of, H. Eph.\nSaints, communion of, H. Eph.\nSaints, perseverance of, H. Phil.\nSaints, what, should be, N. 2 Thess.\nSainthood, glory of, H. 2 Thess.\nSaintly inheritance, meetness for, H. Col.\nSalutation, apostolic, H. Eph.\nSalutation, apostolic, H. Col.\nSalutation, Christian, N. Gal.\nSalvation, a Divine act, H. 2 Thess.\nSalvation, an act of Divine grace, H. Eph.\nSalvation, believer's, grounds of confidence in, H. Phil.\nSalvation by faith, H. Eph.\nSalvation, false methods of, H. Gal.\nSalvation, God's work and man's care, H. Phil.\nSalvation, Gospel of your, H. Eph.\nSalvation is of God, H. 1 Thess.\nSalvation is of grace, H. Eph.\nSalvation, man's, co-operation of Divine and human in, H. Phil.\nSame, true Gospel universally the, H. Col.\nSanctification of complete man, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctification, prayer for, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctification, true, brotherly love proof of, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctification, true, distinctive features of, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctification, true, pacific spirit, another proof of, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctifier, Holy Ghost the, H. 2 Thess.\nSanction of ministerial authority, Divine blessing highest, N. Gal.\nSanctity, higher, earnest exhortation to, H. 1 Thess.\nSanctity of home-life, N. Eph.\nSarah and Hagar, history of, allegorical of Gospel and Law, H. Gal.\nSatan, power of, great but restricted, H. 1 Thess.\nSatanic hindrances, H. 1 Thess.\nSchoolmaster, Law our, H. Gal.\nScience of Christian ethics, H. Phil.\nScriptural view of true religion, H. Gal.\nSealing of Spirit, N. Eph.\nSearching questions, H. Gal.\nSecond advent of Christ, H. 1 Thess.\nSecond advent of Christ, waiting for, H. 2 Thess.\nSecond coming of Christ, attitude of Church towards, H. 1 Thess.\nSecond coming of Christ, and sorrow for dead, H. 1 Thess.\nSecret of effective preaching, H. Col.\nSecret of happy life, H. 1 Thess.\nSecret of success, industry, H. 2 Thess.\nSeductive peril of false philosophy, H. Col.\nSeeking things above, H. Col.\nSelf abolished and replaced, I. Gal.\nSelf-conscious truth, H. Gal.\nSelf-denying labour, H. 2 Thess.\nSelf-devotion, life of Christ only true idea of, H. Phil.\nSelf-evidencing proof of Divinely commissioned messenger, H. Gal.\nSelf-sacrifice, noble, I. Eph.\nSelf-recollectedness and ejaculatory prayer, H. 1 Thess.\nSensual and spiritual excitement, H. Eph.\nSentence of Law, curse and, N. Gal.\nServant, God glorified in His, H. Gal.\nServant of Christ, H. Gal.\nServants and masters, duties of, H. Eph.\nServants and masters, duties of, H. Col.\nService of love, H. Gal.\nServitude, Christian, H. Eph.\nSevenfold unity of Church reflected in trinity of Divine Persons, H. Eph.\nShadow and substance of sabbath, H. Col.\nSide-lights on Church-life in early times, H. Col.\nSin, all included under, N. Gal.\nSin, Biblical account of, N. Gal.\nSin, destructive subtlety of, H. 2 Thess.\nSin, forgiveness of, errors respecting, H. Eph.\nSin of falsehood, H. Eph.\nSin, state of, a state of death, H. Eph.\nSin, state of ungodliness, H. Eph.\nSins of others, H. Gal.\nSincerity in youth, value of, H. Phil.\nSincerity, loving Christ in, H. Eph.\nSinful anger, H. Eph.\nSinful principle in man, mortification of, H. Col.\nSinging in worship of God, H. Eph.\nSinners, call of Gospel to, H. Eph.\nSleep, moral, H. 1 Thess.\nSleep of faithful departed, H. 1 Thess.\nSlumbering souls and their awakening, H. Eph.\nSobriety, Christian, inculcated, H. Eph.\nSolitude of great city, H. 1 Thess.\nSon of God, love of, to men, H. Gal.\nSonship, evidences of, H. Gal.\nSonship with God, dignity of, H. Gal.\nSorrow for dead, H. 1 Thess.\nSoul, believing, manner in which Gospel comes to, H. 1 Thess.\nSoul, Christmas of, N. Gal.\nSoul, completing of, H. Col.\nSoul, higher aspirations of, H. Col.\nSouls, slumbering, and their awakening, H. Eph.\nSource of Christian's power, H. Phil.\nSovereign grace, pardon an act of, N. Eph.\nSowers to flesh, deceived, H. Gal.\nSowing and reaping in their bearing on formation of individual\n     character, H. Gal.\nSowing and reaping, moral, H. Gal.\nSowing to flesh and to spirit, difference between, H. Gal.\nSowing to Spirit, H. Gal.\nSpecial mission, recognition of, H. Gal.\nSpirit, being filled with, H. Eph.\nSpirit, benefit conferred by, on believers, H. Eph.\nSpirit, Bible sword of, H. Eph.\nSpirit, Christian, a new spirit, H. Eph.\nSpirit, flesh and, H. Gal.\nSpirit, fruit of, H. Gal.\nSpirit, leading of, N. Gal.\nSpirit, one body and one, H. Eph.\nSpirit, praying in, H. Eph.\nSpirit, quench not, H. 1 Thess.\nSpirit, sealing of, N. Eph.\nSpirit, sowing to, H. Gal.\nSpirit, walking in, H. Gal.\nSpiritual and sensual excitement, H. Eph.\nSpiritual attainment, H. Phil.\nSpiritual blessings, H. Eph.\nSpiritual blessings, apprehension of, H. Eph.\nSpiritual bondage, ignorance of God a, N. Gal.\nSpiritual building, Church of God a, H. Eph.\nSpiritual circumcision, H. Phil.\nSpiritual creation, new, H. Eph.\nSpiritual discrimination, H. Phil.\nSpiritual enjoyment, H. Eph.\nSpiritual enlightenment, N. Eph.\nSpiritual freedom and legal bondage contrasted, H. Gal.\nSpiritual harvest, principle of, H. Gal.\nSpiritual influence, varied aspects of, H. 1 Thess.\nSpiritual knowledge, higher, prayer for, H. Eph.\nSpiritual life, death and, H. Col.\nSpiritual light, summons to, H. Eph.\nSpiritual nature, new, H. Col.\nSpiritual sacrifice, man's duty to offer, inferred and recommended,\n     and Christ's sacrifice of Himself explained, H. Eph.\nSpurious ministry, H. Phil.\nSpy, a, I. Gal.\nStability and order, apostolic praise of, H. Col.\nState by nature and by grace, H. Eph.\nState of grace, H. Eph.\nState of men without Gospel, H. Eph.\nState of nature, H. Eph.\nState of sin a state of death, H. Eph.\nState of sin a state of ungodliness, H. Eph.\nSteadfastness, Christian, H. 2 Thess.\nSteadfastness, glad tidings of, H. 1 Thess.\nSteadfastness of believers a source of true ministerial\n     satisfaction, H. 1 Thess.\nSteadfastness, plea for, H. Phil.\nStimulus to Christian perseverance, hope a, H. Col.\nStrength, Divine, H. Col.\nStrife of flesh and spirit, H. Gal.\nStrong delusions, H. 2 Thess.\nStudy to be quiet, H. 1 Thess.\nStupidity, moral, H. Eph.\nSublime and comprehensive prayer, H. Eph.\nSubmission, mutual, H. Eph.\nSubstance and shadow of sabbath, H. Col.\nSubtlety of sin, destructive, H. 2 Thess.\nSuccess in preaching, essential elements of, H. 1 Thess.\nSuccess, ministerial, joy of, H. Phil.\nSuccess, secret of, industry, H. 2 Thess.\nSuccessful preacher, H. Col.\nSuffering and conflict, H. Phil.\nSuffering, courage under, N. Eph.\nSuffering for Church, joy of, H. Col.\nSuffering for Jesus, H. Gal.\nSuffering for truth, N. Gal.\nSuffering for truth, recompense of, H. 2 Thess.\nSuffering, perils of, H. 1 Thess.\nSuffering test of conversion, H. 1 Thess.\nSuffering, uses of, N. Gal.\nSufferings, Christ's, fellowship of, H. Phil.\nSuggestive benediction, H. Eph.\nSuggestive features of Christian life, H. Col.\nSummary of law of Christian duty, suggestive, H. Col.\nSummons to spiritual light, H. Eph.\nSuperhuman origin of Gospel, H. Gal.\nSuperhuman origin of Gospel, N. Gal.\nSupernatural revelation, N. Gal.\nSupper, Lord's, sample of Christian life, H. Col.\nSupply, our need and our, H. Phil.\nSupremacy of Jesus, H. Eph.\nSword of Spirit, Bible, H. Eph.\nSympathy, mutual, in burden-bearing, H. Gal.\nSympathy, practical Christian, H. Gal.\n\nTalking and jesting, against foolish, H. Eph.\nTeacher, anxious, pleadings of, with his pupils in peril, H. Gal.\nTeachers, false, apostolic exposure of, H. Gal.\nTeaching, false, perils of, H. Gal.\nTeachings of baptism, H. Gal.\nTemper, Christian, the same mind which was in Christ, H. Phil.\nTemper to be cultivated in Christians of different denominations\n     toward each other, H. Phil.\nTemple of God, Church the, H. Eph.\nTest and excellence, Christian's truest, H. Eph.\nTest of conversion--suffering, H. 1 Thess.\nThanksgiving and prayer, H. 1 Thess.\nThanksgiving, duty of, H. Eph.\nThanksgiving, ministerial, H. 1 Thess.\nThanksgiving, ministerial, causes of, H. Col.\nThanksgiving, perpetual, of Christian life, H. 1 Thess.\nTheft, warning against, H. Eph.\nThessalonians, First Epistle to--contents of the epistle, N. 1 Thess.\nThessalonians, First Epistle to--occasion and design of\n     Epistle, N. 1 Thess.\nThessalonians, First Epistle to--Thessalonica and its\n     Church, N. 1 Thess.\nThessalonians, Second Epistle to--occasion and design of\n     Epistle, N. 2 Thess.\nThessalonians, Second Epistle to--outline of Epistle, N. 2 Thess.\nThessalonians, Second Epistle to--style and character of\n     Epistle, N. 2 Thess.\nThessalonians, Paul's prayer for, H. 2 Thess.\nThorough moral transformation, H. Eph.\nTidings, glad, of Christian steadfastness, H. 1 Thess.\nTime, fulness of, H. Gal.\nTime, redeeming the, H. Eph.\nTime, worth of, H. Col.\nTongue, government of, H. Eph.\nTouching and dignified farewell, H. Gal.\nTranscendent love of Christ, H. Eph.\nTransformation, thorough moral, H. Eph.\nTransgressors, Law is for, H. Gal.\nTransition from death to life, H. Col.\nTransitory and unsatisfying, ceremonial in religion, H. Col.\nTranslation, great moral, H. Col.\nTreasures of wisdom in Christ, hidden, H. Col.\nTreasury of wisdom and knowledge, Christ the, N. Col.\nTreatment due to ministerial office, H. 1 Thess.\nTreatment, false brethren and their, H. Gal.\nTreatment of refractory, H. 2 Thess.\nTrials, apathy one of our, N. Gal.\nTrinity in unity, access to God revealing, H. Eph.\nTrinity of Divine persons, sevenfold unity of Church reflected in, H. Eph.\nTrinity, praise for work of, in Gospel of Grace, H. Eph.\nTrinity, the, H. 1 Thess.\nTriumph of cross, H. Col.\nTroubled, rest in heaven for, H. 2 Thess.\nTroubles of Church, judgment on, H. Gal.\nTrue and false in religion, H. Phil.\nTrue and false zeal, H. Gal.\nTrue baptism, H. Col.\nTrue charity, industry the, I. 2 Thess.\nTrue Christian manhood, H. Eph.\nTrue Christian zeal, H. Gal.\nTrue Church-life, N. Eph.\nTrue circumcision, H. Col.\nTrue contentment, tendency of Christian principles to produce, H. Phil.\nTrue devotion, H. Col.\nTrue glory of Christian, H. Gal.\nTrue Gospel to be preached and believed, H. Gal.\nTrue Gospel universally the same, H. Col.\nTrue Israel of God, H. Gal.\nTrue life, new birth begins our, I. Gal.\nTrue minister, qualification of, H. Gal.\nTrue prayer, H. Phil.\nTrue religion self-revealing, H. Eph.\nTrue religion, scriptural view of, H. Gal.\nTrue use of Law, H. Gal.\nTrust, Christian ministry solemn and responsible, H. Col.\nTrust, no, in legal prescriptions, N. Gal.\nTrusted messenger, H. Eph.\nTruth and Divinity of Christian religion, H. Eph.\nTruth and love, growth into Christ in, H. Eph.\nTruth between man and man, H. Eph.\nTruth, Christ's, in relation to our daily conversation, H. Col.\nTruth, fidelity to, N. Gal.\nTruth, fundamental, fearless defence of, H. Gal.\nTruth, girdle of, H. Eph.\nTruth, its own evidence, H. Gal.\nTruth, miracles confirmatory of, N. Gal.\nTruth, not to be yielded, N. Gal.\nTruth, perversion of, H. Gal.\nTruth, power of, H. Gal.\nTruth, self-conscious, H. Gal.\nTruth, sufferer for, noble attitude of, H. Phil.\nTruth, suffering for, N. Gal.\nTruth, suffering for, recompense of, H. 2 Thess.\nTruth, transparent, apostolic preaching characterised by, H. 1 Thess.\nTruths to live on, N. Gal.\nTruths, two great, presentation of, H. Col.\nTurncoats, dilemma of, H. Gal.\nTwofold burdens, our, N. Gal.\n\nUnbelief, H. 2 Thess.\nUnbelievers, fate of, H. Gal.\nUncleanness inconsistent with profession of Gospel, H. 1 Thess.\nUnder Law, H. Gal.\nUngodliness, state of sin a state of, H. Eph.\nUnity and concord in Church, H. Phil.\nUnity and peace, H. Col.\nUnity, Christian, H. Col.\nUnity, Christian, an occasion of joy, H. Phil.\nUnity, of Church, H. Eph.\nUnity, of God and His purpose regarding man, H. Gal.\nUnity of Gospel, inviolable, H. Gal.\nUnity, peace the bond of, H. Eph.\nUnity, sevenfold, of Church reflected in Trinity of Divine Persons, H. Eph.\nUnity, Trinity in, access to God revealing, H. Eph.\nUniversal Church, Jerusalem type of, H. Gal.\nUniversal homage, Christ worthy of, H. Phil.\nUnknown and known love of Christ, H. Eph.\nUnsatisfying and transitory, ceremonial in religion, H. Col.\nUnsearchable riches of Christ, N. Eph.\nUnselfishness of Jesus, H. Gal.\nUnselfishness, supreme, humiliation of Christ a pattern of, H. Phil.\nUnswerving fidelity in accomplishing its lofty mission, Christian\n     ministry demands, H. Col.\nUs, pray for, H. 1 Thess.\nUse, right, of Christian liberty, H. Gal.\n\nVagaries, philosophic, H. Col.\nVain-gloriousness, H. Gal.\nVain-glory, vice of, and its cure, H. Gal.\nValue of sincerity in youth, H. Phil.\nVaried aspects of spiritual influence, H. 1 Thess.\nVice of drunkenness, H. Eph.\nVice of vain-glory and its cure, H. Gal.\nVices to be renounced and virtues to be cherished, H. Eph.\nVirtues, mercantile, without Christianity, H. Phil.\nVirtues to be cherished and vices to be renounced, H. Eph.\nVocation, conversion and, of Paul, H. Gal.\n\nWaiting for second advent, H. 2 Thess.\nWalk in Spirit, life and, H. Gal.\nWalking circumspectly, H. Eph.\nWalking in Spirit, H. Gal.\nWarfare, Christian, H. Eph.\nWarning, a--Gentile life, H. Eph.\nWarning against imposition, H. 2 Thess.\nWarning against theft, H. Eph.\nWarnings, emphatic, against false teachers, H. Phil.\nWarrior, Christian, equipped, H. Eph.\nWeariness in well-doing, against, H. Gal.\nWeary in well-doing, H. 2 Thess.\nWelfare of Church, ministerial anxiety for, N. Phil.\nWell-doing, H. Gal.\nWell-doing, against weariness in, H. Gal.\nWell-doing, weary in, H. 2 Thess.\nWhat is your heart filled with? H. Eph.\nWheat is better than bread, H. Col.\nWhole armour of God, H. Eph.\nWickedness, fellowship in, and its condemnation, H. Eph.\nWiles of devil, H. Eph.\nWilling to wait, but ready to go, H. Phil.\nWisdom, Christian, H. Eph.\nWisdom, hidden treasures of, in Christ, H. Col.\nWisdom of God, manifold, H. Eph.\nWise conduct of life, H. Eph.\nWise conduct of life, H. Col.\nWitness, Church a, N. Gal.\nWives and husbands, duties of, H. Eph.\nWives and husbands, duties of, H. Col.\nWord and in power, Gospel in, H. 1 Thess.\nWord, closing, H. 1 Thess.\nWord of Christ, indwelling, H. Col.\nWord of God, efficacy of, and way of receiving it, H. 1 Thess.\nWord of life: living ministry and living Church, H. Phil.\nWord to despiser, H. 1 Thess.\nWords, last, H. Phil.\nWords of farewell, H. Col.\nWork and Christianity, H. 2 Thess.\nWork, best, call to do, H. 2 Thess.\nWork, Christian, disappointed hopes in, H. Gal.\nWork, interruptions in our, and way to deal with them, H. Eph.\nWork, man's and God's, H. Phil.\nWork of ministry, H. Eph.\nWork, retirement preparation for, H. Gal.\nWorks, justification by faith not by, N. Gal.\nWorks, justification by faith not by, H. Gal.\nWorks of darkness, N. Eph.\nWorks of flesh, H. Gal.\nWorking out salvation harmonises with free grace, H. Phil.\nWorld, Christians examples to, H. Phil.\nWorld, pre-Christian, non-age of, H. Gal.\nWorlds, both, believer's portion in, H. Phil.\nWorldly care, remedy for, H. Phil.\nWorship of God, singing in, H. Eph.\nWorship, public, abuse of, H. 1 Thess.\nWorst of evils, H. Eph.\nWorth, attractiveness of, I. Gal.\nWorth of time, H. Col.\nWrath, children of, H. Eph.\nWrath of God, H. Col.\nWrath to come, H. 1 Thess.\n\nYouth, value of sincerity in, H. Phil.\n\nZeal, H. Gal.\nZeal, Christian, H. Gal.\nZeal, mistaken, H. Gal.\nZeal, true and false, H. Gal.\nZealous ritualist, H. Gal.\n\n\nHOMILIES FOR SPECIAL OCCASIONS.\n\n_Church Seasons:_\n\n   Advent, Eph. v. 13, 14; 1 Thess. iii. 13 _b_; iv. 15-18; v. 1-11;\n     2 Thess. iii. 5.\n\n   Christmas, Gal. iv. 4.\n\n   Lent, Col. ii. 21-23; iii. 5-9.\n\n   Good Friday, Gal. i. 4; vi. 14, 15; Phil. ii. 8; Col. ii. 15.\n\n   St. Mark's day, Eph. iv. 7.\n\n   Ascension Day, Eph. iv. 9, 10; Phil. iii. 10; Col. iii. 1, 2.\n\n   Whit Sunday, Gal. v. 22-26; 25; Eph. i. 13; iv. 30;\n     2 Thess. ii. 13.\n\n   Trinity Sunday, Eph. ii. 18; iv. 4-6.\n\n\n_Holy Communion:_ Eph. ii. 19; iii. 15; Col. iii. 17.\n\n\n_Missions to Heathen:_ Eph. ii. 3; 11, 12; iii. 1-6.\n\n   Bible Society, Eph. vi. 17.\n\n\n_Evangelistic Services:_ Eph. i. 7, 8; ii. 1-3; 4-9; Col. i. 13, 14;\n   ii. 13, 14.\n\n\n_Special:_\n\n  Ordination, Gal. i. 10; 15-19; 16; vi. 6; Eph. iii. 7-9; iv. 11, 12;\n    vi. 20; Col. i. 25-27; 28-29; iv. 12, 13; 1 Thess. ii. 1-12.\n\n  Workers, Gal. i. 6; Eph. iv. 11, 12; Phil. iv. 2, 3;\n    2 Thess. iii. 13.\n\n  Baptism, Gal. iii. 26-29; Col. ii. 12.\n\n  Confirmation, Eph. ii. 20-24.\n\n  Harvest, Gal. vi. 7, 8; 9.\n\n  Temperance, Eph. v. 18.\n\n  Friendly Society, Gal. vi. 2.\n\n  Death, 1 Thess. iv. 13, 14.\n\n  Parents, Eph. vi. 4; Col. iii. 20, 21; 23-25.\n\n  Young, Eph. vi. 1-4; Phil i. 10 _b_.\n\n  Worship, Eph. v. 19-21; 19.\n\n  Almsgiving, Gal. ii. 10; vi. 2; 10; Phil. iv. 15, 16.\n\n       *       *       *       *       *       *       *       *\n\n\n\n+Transcriber's Notes+\n\n - Page 585, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Ambassador, Gospel,\" and\n   \"Apostolic assurance of supernatural character of Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 586, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Believing soul, manner in which\n   Gospel comes to,\" \"Call, Gospel and, to preach it,\" \"Call of\n   Gospel to sinners,\" \"Change effected by Gospel,\" and \"Change\n   great, effected in man by Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 588, for \"Church, generous,\" change page number from 36 to\n   368. For \"Church, growth of,\" change page number from 21 to 217.\n\n - Page 589, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Commencement of Gospel at\n   Philippi.\"\n\n - Page 590, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Difference between Law and\n   Gospel.\" For \"Disappointed hopes in Christian work,\" change page\n   number from 1 to 10. Change \"Disturber #f faith\" to \"Disturber of\n   faith.\" Change \"Divine call, apostleship\" to \"Divine call, to\n   apostleship.\" Change \"Divine fullness of Christ's pledge #f\n   believer's perfection\" to \"of.\" Change \"Earnest of inheritance,\n   Holy Spirit and\" to \"an.\" Apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Effects of\n   Gospel upon those who receive it.\"\n\n - Page 591, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Enlarged Gospel,\" \"Enmity of\n   heart, power of Gospel to dissolve,\" and \"Estimate of Gospel\n   truth, correct.\" For \"Excellency of knowledge of Christ,\" add page\n   number 343.\n\n - Page 592, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Fellowship in Gospel\" and\n   \"Glory of Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 593, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Grace, Gospel of, praise for\n   work of Trinity in,\" \"Hagar and Sarah, history of, allegorical of\n   Law and Gospel,\" and \"Heart, enmity of, power of Gospel to\n   dissolve.\"\n\n - Page 594, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"History of Hagar and Sarah\n   allegorical of Law and Gospel,\" \"Inviolable unity of Gospel,\" and\n   \"Irrepressible, Gospel.\" For \"Known and unknown love of Christ,\"\n   add page number 196.\n\n - Page 595, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Law and Gospel, differences\n   between,\" \"Law and Gospel, history of Hagar and Sarah allegorical\n   of,\" and \"Man, great change effected in, by Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 596, apply RC to \"Great\" in \"Mediator, Great, reconciling\n   work of.\" Apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Men, state of, without Gospel.\"\n   Apply RC to \"Divinely\" in \"Messenger, Divinely commissioned,\n   self-evidencing proof of.\" Apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Mystery,\n   Gospel a\" and \"Mystery of Gospel.\"\n\n - Page 597, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"One Gospel,\" \"Origin of Gospel,\n   superhuman,\" and \"Peace, Gospel of.\"\n\n - Page 598, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Power, Gospel in word and in,\"\n   \"Power of Gospel,\" \"Power of Gospel to dissolve enmity of heart,\"\n   \"Practical result of true reception of Gospel,\" \"Praise for work\n   of Trinity in Gospel of grace,\" \"Preaching of Gospel not in vain,\"\n   \"Profession of Gospel, uncleanness inconsistent with,\" and\n   \"Promise, Gospel call and.\"\n\n - Page 599, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Reception of Gospel, true,\n   practical result of,\" \"Remonstrance with revolters against\n   Gospel,\" \"Result, practical, of true reception of Gospel,\" and\n   \"Revolters against Gospel, remonstrance with.\"\n\n - Page 600, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Salvation, Gospel of your,\"\n   \"Same, true Gospel universally the,\" \"Sarah and Hager, history of,\n   allegorical of Gospel and Law.\" Apply RC to \"Divinely\" in\n   \"Self-evidencing proof of Divinely commissioned messenger.\" Apply\n   RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Sinners, call of Gospel to\" and \"Soul,\n   believing, manner in which Gospel comes to.\"\n\n - Page 601, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"State of men without Gospel\"\n   and \"Superhuman origin of Gospel\" (twice).\n\n - Page 602, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Trinity, praise for work of, in\n   Gospel of Grace,\" \"True Gospel to be preached and believed,\" and\n   \"True Gospel universally the same.\" Apply RC to \"Divinity\" in\n   \"Truth and Divinity of Christian religion.\" Apply RC to \"Gospel\"\n   in \"Uncleanness inconsistent with profession of Gospel,\" and\n   \"Unity of Gospel, inviolable.\"\n\n - Page 603, apply RC to \"Gospel\" in \"Word and in power, Gospel in.\"\n   The \"Homilies for Special Occasions\" section was reformatted to\n   put each of the topics on a separate line rather than running them\n   together.","title":"The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary of the Books of the Bible: Volume 29 (of 32): The Preacher's Complete Homiletic Commentary of the Epistles of St. Paul the Apostle: Galatians, Ephesians, Philippians, Colossians, and I-II Thessalonians","tradition":"scripture-revelation","translated_text":null,"word_count":403781}