Chapter V: AUTOGRAPH CONCLUSION.--1. The Judaisers' motive (ch. vi. 12, 13) (15)

+III. For the attainment of the most complete endowment of the Divine fulness.+--"That you might be filled with all the fulness of God" (ver. 19). The prayer asks that man may gain the sum-total of God's gifts, be filled in every capacity of his nature with the whole plenitude (the πλήρωμα) of God. To reach this glorious result, we need, indeed, special spiritual strengthening. New wine bursts old bottles; and a large and sudden inflow of Divine grace would be disastrous to the soul unprepared to receive it. What is wanted is strength--strength of the highest and purest kind. Muscular strength--a magnificent healthy physique--is a great gift; but it is one of our lowest endowments, and its abuse sinks us to a worse than brutish sensuality. Intellectual strength is a still higher gift, and if rightly used will lift us into a loftier world of wonders, of beauty, of purity and joy; but if abused will drag us down to the base level of the vapouring, scoffing sceptic, whose attempts to glorify error are instigated by a savage but utterly powerless hatred of truth. Spiritual strength is the highest gift of all. It is the motive-power that gives movement and direction to thought and action. Without it man is the plaything and victim of unrestrained passions. A short time ago I inspected one of the finest ocean-going steamships, a marvellous combination of strength and elegance. Everything seemed as perfect as engineering science could make it. But there was something wanting; it was a fatal defect. The giant shaft and powerful screw, the triple expansion cylinders, the cranks, pistons, and wheels were all there, but the noble vessel was useless, heaving helplessly on the rolling tide. The fires were out, and the active driving-power was lacking. What steam is to that great floating mass of complicated mechanism, giving it life, movement, direction, purpose--that spiritual strength is to our mental and physical organism. To receive the fulness of indwelling Deity the soul must be strengthened with spiritual strength. We cannot pray too earnestly for this.

+IV. Uttered with a reverential recognition of the great Giver of all blessing.+--1. _Beginning with the submissive awe of a humble suppliant._ "For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father," etc. (vers. 14, 15). The apostle is overwhelmed with the contemplation of the rich blessings stored up for man in Christ Jesus, and prostrates himself with lowly homage in the conscious presence of the great Donor of all spiritual good. Nothing humbles us more than a sight of the blessings possible of attainment by the greatest sinner.

2. _Ending with an outburst of triumphant praise_ (vers. 20, 21).--Praise soars higher than prayer. Man's desires will never overtake God's bounty. When the apostle desires that God's praise may resound in the Church "throughout all ages," he no longer supposes that the mystery of God may be finished speedily as men count years. The history of mankind stretches before his gaze into its dim futurity. The successive generations gather themselves into that consummate age of the kingdom of God, the grand cycle in which all the ages are contained. With its completion time itself is no more. Its swelling current, laden with the tribute of all the worlds and all their histories, reaches the eternal ocean. The end comes; God is all in all. At this furthest horizon of thought, Christ and His own are seen together rendering to God unceasing glory (_Findlay_).

+Lessons.+--1. _Prayer is the cry of conscious need._ 2. _Increases in importunity as it is strengthened by faith._ 3. _Finds its sublimest themes in the culture of the spiritual life._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 14, 15. _The Christian Church a Family._

+I. The definition here given of the Christian Church.+--1. _A society founded upon natural affinities--"a family."_ A family is built on affinities which are natural, not artificial; it is not a combination, but a society. In ancient times an association of interest combined men in one guild or corporation for protecting the common persons in that corporation from oppression. In modern times identity of political creed or opinion has bound men together in one league in order to establish those political principles which appeared to them of importance. Similarity of taste has united men together in what is called an association, or a society, in order by this means to attain more completely the ends of that science to which they had devoted themselves. But, as these have been raised artificially, so their end is, inevitably, dissolution. Society passes on, and guilds and corporations die; principles are established, and leagues become dissolved; tastes change, and then the association or society breaks up and comes to nothing. It is upon another principle altogether that that which we call a family, or true society, is formed. It is not built upon similarity of taste nor identity of opinion, but upon affinities of nature. You do not choose who shall be your brother; you cannot exclude your mother or your sister; it does not depend upon choice or arbitrary opinion at all, but is founded upon the eternal nature of things. And precisely in the same way is the Christian Church formed--upon natural affinity, and not upon artificial combination.

2. _The Church of Christ is a whole made up of manifold diversities._--We are told here it is "the whole family," taking into it the great and good of ages past now in heaven, and also the struggling, the humble, and the weak now existing upon earth. Here, again, the analogy holds good between the Church and the family. Never more than in the family is the true entirety of our nature seen. Observe how all the diversities of human condition and character manifest themselves in the family. First of all, there are the two opposite pales of masculine and feminine, which contain within them the entire of our humanity; which together, not separately, make up the whole of man. Then there are the diversities in the degrees and kinds of affection. For, when we speak of family affection, we must remember that it is made up of many diversities. There is nothing more different than the love which the sister bears towards the brother, compared with that which the brother bears towards the sister. The affection which a man bears towards his father is quite distinct from that which he feels towards his mother; it is something quite different towards his sister; totally diverse, again, towards his brother. And then there are diversities of character. First, the mature wisdom and stern integrity of the father, then the exuberant tenderness of the mother. And then one is brave and enthusiastic, another thoughtful, and another tender. One is remarkable for being full of rich humour; another is sad, mournful, even melancholy. Again, besides these, there are diversities of condition in life. First, there is the heir, sustaining the name and honour of the family; then perchance the soldier, in whose career all the anxiety and solicitude of the family is centred; then the man of business, to whom they look up, trusting his advice, expecting his counsel; lastly, perhaps, there is the invalid, from the very cradle trembling between life and death, drawing out all the sympathies and anxieties of each member of the family, and so uniting them all more closely, from their having one common point of sympathy and solicitude. Now, you will observe that these are not accidental, but absolutely essential to the idea of a family; for so far as any one of them is lost, so far the family is incomplete. And precisely in the same way all these diversities of character and condition are necessary to constitute and complete the idea of a Christian Church.

3. _The Church of Christ is a society which is for ever shifting its locality and altering its forms._--It is the whole Church, "the whole family in heaven and earth." So, then, those who were on earth and now in heaven are members of the same family still. Those who had their home here, now have it there. The Church of Christ is a society ever altering and changing its external forms. "The whole family"--the Church of the patriarchs and of ages before them; and yet the same family. Remember, I pray you, the diversities of form through which, in so many ages and generations, this Church has passed. Consider the difference there was between the patriarchal Church of the time of Abraham and Isaac and its condition under David; or the difference between the Church so existing and its state in the days of the apostles and the marvellous difference between that and the same Church four of five centuries later; or, once again, the difference between that, externally one, and the Church as it exists in the present day, broken into so many fragments. Yet, diversified as these states may be, they are not more so than the various stages of a family.

+II. Consider the name by which this Church is named.+--"Our Lord Jesus Christ," the apostle says, of whom "the whole family in heaven and earth is named."

1. _First, the recognition of a common Father._--That is the sacred truth proclaimed by the Epiphany. God revealed in Christ--not the Father of the Jew only, but also of the Gentile. The Father of a whole family. Not the partial Father, loving one alone--the elder--but the younger son besides, the outcast prodigal who had spent his living with harlots and sinners, but the child still, and the child of a Father's love.

2. _The recognition of a common humanity._--He from whom the Church is named took upon Him not the nature merely of the noble, of kings, or of the intellectual philosopher, but of the beggar, the slave, the outcast, the infidel, the sinner, and the nature of every one struggling in various ways.

3. _The Church of Christ proceeds out of and rests upon the belief in a common Sacrifice.--F. W. Robertson._

_The Family in Heaven and Earth._--With the boldness of a true and inspired nature the apostle Paul speaks with incidental ease of one family distributed between heaven and earth. There is, it seems, domesticity that cannot be absorbed by the interval between two spheres of being--a love that cannot be lost amidst the immensity, but finds the surest track across the void--a home affinity that penetrates the skies, and enters as the morning or evening guest. And it is Jesus of Nazareth who has effected this; has entered under the same household name, and formed into the same class, the dwellers above and those beneath. Spirits there, and spirits here, are gathered by Him into one group; and where before was saddest exile, He has made a blest fraternity.

I. +Members of the same home cannot dwell together, without either the memory or the expectation or some mutual and mortal farewell.+--All we who dwell in this visible scene can think of kindred souls that have vanished from us into the invisible. These, in the first place, does Jesus keep dwelling near our hearts; making still one family of those in heaven and those on earth. This He would do, if by no other means, by the prospect He has opened, of actual restoration. And since the grave can bury no affection now, but only the mortal and familiar shape of their object, death has changed its whole aspect and relation to us; and we may regard it, not with passionate hate, but with quiet reverence. It is a Divine message from above, not an invasion from the abyss beneath; not the fiendish hand of darkness thrust up to clutch our gladness enviously away, but a rainbow gleam that descends through Jesus, without which we should not know the various beauties that are woven into the pure light of life. Once let the Christian promise be taken to the heart, and as we walk through the solemn forest of our existence, every leaf of love that falls, while it proclaims the winter near, lets in another patch of God's sunshine to paint the glade beneath our feet and give a glory to the grass. Tell me that I shall stand face to face with the sainted dead; and, whenever it may be, shall I not desire to be ready, and to meet them with clear eye and spirit unabashed? Such and so much encouragement would Christianity give to the faithful conversation of all true affections, if it only assured us of some distant and undefinable restoration. But it appears to me to assure us of much more than this; to discountenance the idea of any, even the most temporary, extinction of life in the grave; and to sanction our faith in the absolute immortality of the mind. Rightly understood, it teaches not only that the departed will live, but that they do live, and indeed have never died, but simply vanished and passed away.

II. But it is not merely the members of the same literal home that Christ unites in one, whether in earth or heaven. +He makes the good of every age into a glorious family of the children of God;+ and inspires them with a fellow-feeling, whatever the department of service which they fill. Keeping us ever in the mental presence of the Divinest wisdom and in veneration of a perfect goodness, it accustoms us to the aspect of every grace that can adorn and consecrate our nature; trains our perceptions instantly to recognise its influence or to feel its want. It looks with an eye of full and clear affection over the wide circle of human excellence. Such hope tends to give us a prompt and large congeniality with them; to cherish the healthful affections which are domestic in every place and obsolete in no time; to prepare us for entering any new scene, and joining any new society where goodness, truth, and beauty dwell.--_Martineau._

_The Christian Brotherhood of Man._--The brotherhood of man has been the dream of old philosophers, and its attainment the endeavour of modern reformers. Man can only reach his highest life when he forms part of a society bound together by common sympathies and common aims, for by a great law of our nature it is true that he who lives utterly apart from his fellows must lose all true nobleness in selfish degradation. There is no real progress for the individual but through social sympathy. There is no strong and enduring aspiration but in the fellowship of aspiring souls. That conviction which men have so strongly felt and so vainly endeavoured to realise is perpetually asserted in the Book of God.

+I. The brotherhood of man in Christ.+--1. _The Christian brotherhood is a unity of spirit under a diversity of form._ Thus with the Church of the first century. At first it was one band of brotherhood; but as it grew and individual thought expanded and experience deepened there arose infinite diversities. The more men think and the more they grow, the more will they differ.

2. _There are spiritual ties in action which in Christ bind man to man._--Paul's words imply a threefold unity. 1. The fellowship of devotion to a common Father. 2. The fellowship with Christ our common Brother. 3. That fellowship is unbroken by the change of worlds.

+II. Results of realising this fact of brotherhood.+--1. _Earnestness of life._ 2. _Power and grandeur of hope._--Some complain that their ideas of heaven are vague and ineffective. Only realise the brotherhood of man, and then the hope of the future will become a power in life.--_E. L. Hull._

_The One Family._--1. Believers on earth and saints and angels in heaven spring from the same common parent. 2. Are governed by the same general laws. 3. Share in the same pleasures and enjoyments. 4. Have the same general temper, the same distinguishing complexion. 5. Have one common interest. 6. Look to, rely upon, and are guided by the same Head. 7. Are all objects of God's love. 8. At the last day will meet in God's presence, be openly acknowledged as His children, and admitted to dwell in His house for ever.

+Lessons.+--1. _If we estimate the dignity of men from the families with which they are connected, how honourable is the believer!_ 2. _We see our obligations to mutual condescension, peaceableness, and love._ 3. _Let those who are not of this family be solicitous to obtain a place in it.--Lathrop._

Vers. 16-19. _Paul's Prayer for the Ephesians._

+I. For spiritual strength.+--It was not bodily strength, civil power, or worldly distinction; it was the grace of fortitude and patience.

+II. For an indwelling Christ.+--As we become united to Christ by faith, so by faith He dwells in our hearts.

+III. For establishment in love.+--True love is rooted in the heart. It is a spiritual affection towards Christ. Its fruits are love to men, imitation of Christ's example, obedience to His commands, zeal for His honour, and diligence in His service.

+IV. For increase of knowledge in the love of Christ.+--The love of Christ passeth all known examples of love. This love passeth our comprehension in respect of its breadth or extent, its length, its depth, as the benefits it has procured exceed all human estimate. Though the love of Christ passeth knowledge, there is a sense in which it is known to the saints. They have an experimental knowledge, an influential knowledge, an assimilating knowledge of the love of Christ.

+V. For the fulness of God.+--That they may have such a supply of Divine influence as would cause them to abound in knowledge, faith, love, and all virtues and good works.--_Lathrop._

Ver. 19. _The Love of Christ._

+I. The love of Christ passeth knowledge.+--1. _He Himself furnishes an illustrative instance_ when Paul says, "For scarcely for a righteous man will one die"--a merely just and righteous man would be admired; but he would not so take hold of the heart of another to produce a willingness to die for him;--"yet peradventure," in some rare case, "for a good man," a man of benevolence, adorned with the softer virtues and abounding in the distribution of his favours--for such a one "some might even dare to die"; some one, overcoming even the love of life in the fulness of his gratitude, might venture to give his own life to preserve that of such a one. But we were neither just nor good; we were sinners, and "God commendeth His love toward us, in that while we were yet sinners Christ died for us." Passes it not, then, all knowledge, all reasonable conception and probability, that this fallen nature should be so sympathised with that these flagrant rebellions should excite, not an inexorable anger, but pity and love? And such love that our Saviour--looking not so much on man as offending, but as His creature, and as His creature still capable of restoration--should melt in compassion and die to effect his redemption; this is indeed love "that passeth knowledge."

2. _The manner in which this love is manifested carries the principle beyond all conception and expression._--It was love to the death. It was death for sinners, death in their stead; death, that the penal claims of law, and that law the unchangeable, unrelaxable law of God, might be fully satisfied. The redemption price was fixed by a spotless justice, and the love of Christ to the sinner was to be tested by the vastness of the claims to be made upon Him. But the wages of sin is death; and His love shrank not from the full and awful satisfaction required. It was death in our stead. Then it must be attended with anxious forebodings. Of what mysteries have I suggested the recollection to you? Can you comprehend them? That feeling with which He spoke of the baptism of blood? That last mysterious agony? That complaint of being forsaken of God? You feel you cannot. They transcend all your thought; and the love which made Him stoop to them is therefore love "which passeth knowledge."

3. The love of Christ passeth knowledge if we consider it _as illustrated by that care for us which signalises His administration._

4. The subject is further _illustrated by the nature of the blessings which result to men from the love of Christ._--We usually estimate the strength of love by the blessings it conveys or, at any rate, would convey. And if the benefits be beyond all estimate, neither can we measure the love.

5. _The love of Christ passeth knowledge because it is the love of an infinite nature._ Love rises with the other qualities and perfections of the being in whom it is found. Among animals the social attachments are slight, and the instinctive affection dies away when its purposes are answered. In man love arises with his intellect. In him it is often only limited by his nature, and when rightly directed shall be eternal. Many that love on earth shall doubtless love for ever. Were Christ merely a man His love could not pass knowledge. What man has felt man can conceive. Love can be measured by the nature which exercises it. But this love passeth all knowledge but that of the Divine nature, because itself is Divine. Christ is God, and he who would fully know His love must be able to span immensity and to grasp the Infinite Himself.

+II. But while it is true that the love of Christ passeth all knowledge, it is equally true that it is to be known by us.+--To know the love of Christ is: 1. _To recognise it in its various forms and expressions in our constant meditations._ And where shall we turn and not be met by this, to us, most important subject? How delightful an occupation, to track all the streams of mercy up to their source. We are surrounded by the proof of the love of Christ. Let us see to it that the blinding veil be not on our heart, that our eyes be not holden that we should not know Him. We are called to know the love of Christ. Let us accustom ourselves to reflect upon it, to see it in its various forms and results; and then shall our meditation of Him be sweet. 2. To know the love of Christ is _to perceive it in its adaptation to our own personal condition._ 3. To know the love of Christ is _to experience it in its practical results._ He offers you pardon, and the offer is a proof and manifestation of His love; but properly to know it pardon itself must be accepted and embraced. This is to know his love. Seek it, and you must find it. Rest without it, and you are but "as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal." 4. To know the love of Christ we must _put forth those efforts through which that love is appointed to express itself in our daily experience._

+Lessons.+--1. _The rejection of love, especially of redeeming love, involves the deepest guilt._ 2. _Remember that the grace is common to you all.--R. Watson._

_The Unknown and Known Love of Christ._

+I. There are some respects in which the love of Christ passeth our knowledge.+--1. In its objects; so unworthy and degraded. 2. In its sufferings; love to the death. 3. In its care. 4. In its blessings. 5. In its degree. It is the love of an infinite nature.

+II. There are some respects in which the love of Christ may be known.+--1. Our views of it may be clearer and more consistent. 2. Our views of it may be more confidential and appropriating. 3. Our views of it may be more impressive and more influential.--_G. Brooks._

_The Transcendent Love of Christ._

+I. This representation must be confirmed.+--1. This love is Divine. 2. Consider the objects it embraced. 3. The means by which it manifested itself. 4. The blessings it secured.

+II. The perception the Christian may acquire of this love, notwithstanding its Divine infinitude.+--1. It is the great interpreting principle which he applies to all the tremendous facts of redemption. 2. The sacred element and incentive of all piety--the theme of contemplation, the ground of confidence, the motive of obedience. 3. The impulse and model of all benevolence and zeal.

+III. Conclusions from a review of the subject.+--1. It is only natural to expect a transcendent character in Christianity. 2. No better test exists of what is genuine Christianity than the level of the views which it exhibits concerning the person and work of Christ and the tone of the affections which it encourages towards Him. 3. There is much of implicit as well as declarative evidence in support of the Saviour's supreme Divinity. 4. How necessary is it that we should live habitually under the influence of this transcendent love.--_R. W. Hamilton._

Vers. 20, 21. _A Devout Doxology._

+I. The acknowledgment the apostle makes of God's all-sufficiency.+--1. God often does for men those favours which they never thought of asking for themselves. 2. God answers prayers in ways we think not of. 3. The mercies God is pleased to grant often produce consequences far beyond what we asked or thought. 4. The worth of the blessings we ask and God bestows infinitely exceeds all our thought.

+II. The ascription of glory the apostle makes to this all-sufficient God.+--1. God is glorified by the increase of his Church. 2. God is glorified in the Church when a devout regard is paid to the ordinances He has instituted. 3. By the observance of good order in the Church, and by the decent attendance of the members on their respective duties. 4. That God may be glorified there must be peace and unity in the Church.--_Lathrop._

_God's Infinite Liberality._

+I. The object of this doxology.+--The God of all grace. Whatever we think we ask. No limit to our asking but our thinking. God gives beyond our thinking. Here, take all this! Ah, poor thing, that transcends thine asking and even thy thinking, but take it. If it transcend all communicated power of mind, I say, "I thank Thee, my God, for it. I know it is exceeding good, but I cannot understand it. Keep it among Thy treasures. My blessedness rests not in my intellect, but in Thy favour. Remember Thou hast given it me. It may come I shall be able to understand it better and appreciate it more." I shall never have asked too much, I shall never have thought too much, till I have asked beyond God's ability, till I have thought beyond God's ability. That ability is not a bare abstraction of the omnipotence of God, but it is the omnipotence of God as working in the Church and in the people of God. He is not omnipotent in heaven, and impotent in thee, or partially powerful in thee.

+II. The doxology itself+ (ver. 21).--All should glorify God, but all will not. In the Church alone will God get glory. It is as the name of Christ is glorified in us that we are glorified in Him. It is when the glory that God reflects on the creature is by the creature ascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it, transcendently and infinitely glorious, it is then that the glory rests. When it is appropriated it is lost, but it is possessed when it is tossed back and fro between God and the creature. When the creature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in greater measure; but the humble creature, emulous of God's glory, sends it all back again to Him, and as it reciprocates so it increases. God gives not to end by enriching us--that is an immediate end; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified. Be ashamed to get little--get all things. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying you are rich, but by coming and getting. The more you get always give glory, and come and ask and receive.--_Dr. John Duncan._

* * * * * * * *

+CHAPTER IV.+

_CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._

Ver. 1. +Walk worthy of the vocation.+--They had been called to life in the Spirit, and they must also "walk in the Spirit."

Ver. 2. +With all lowliness.+--The Christian--"born from above"--is to exhibit a trait of character with the "high-born" Greek despised, and which Heine in modern times called "a hound's virtue." "The pride that apes humility" steals in under Chrysostom's description of this "lowliness." He says, "It is a making of ourselves small when we are great." +And meekness.+--"A grace in advance of 'lowliness,' not as more precious than it, but as presupposing it, and as being unable to exist without it" (_Trench_). +With longsuffering.+--The exact opposite of our "short-tempered"--_e.g._ "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?" means "Has the Lord become irritable?" (Mic. ii. 7). The word suggests to men by nature irascible that "slowness to wrath" recommended by St. James. +Forbearing one another in love.+--The brother who is tempted to anger is not to look down from the height of a lofty pride on those who try his patience, but in compassionate love, remembering his own frailty, must "suffer long and be kind."

Ver. 3. +Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Sprit in the bond of peace.+--It is no easy-going indifference that is inculcated; they will have to "exert themselves," "give diligence" (R.V.), before that peace obtains which is the harmonious and frictionless working of each part of the machine.

Vers. 4-6. +One body . . . and in you all.+--"Seven elements of unity St. Paul enumerates. . . . They form a chain stretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in heaven" (_Findlay_).

Ver. 7. +But unto every one of us is given grace.+--The distributing Spirit (1 Cor. xii. 11) leaves no humblest member of the body of Christ without His endowment.

Ver. 8. +Wherefore He saith.+--What follows is a quotation of Ps. lxviii. 18 "with free alteration" (_Meyer_), adapting the return of the hero-king to his own city to that most magnificent of all triumphs--over Hades and Death--achieved by Him "who was dead and is alive for evermore." "Being by the right hand of God exalted He hath poured forth this" abundance, as a conqueror scatters his largesse.

Vers. 9, 10. +Now that He ascended . . . that He might fill all things.+--The exaltation, in His case, presupposed the humiliation. From the throne of the universe--"the glory which He had with the Father"--to the profoundest depths where any poor lost piece of humanity that is redeemable can be found, and thence again to the throne He relinquished. +The same also.+--Exalted, to be confidingly and adoringly loved; humbled, to be worshipped no less as "the Son of man who is in heaven."

Ver. 11. +And He gave some to be, etc.+--"Christ gave the persons, and the community gave to them the service" (_Meyer_). +Apostles . . . prophets . . . evangelists.+--We cannot accept the order as significant of rank. It would grace an angel to be the "evangelist" of such a salvation. As apostles they went forth "sent" by their Master to men in their need; as prophets they "spoke out" what He had taught them; as evangelists they were the messengers of _good_ tidings. They were apostles that they might be evangelists (Matt x. 5-7), "going about heralding" the kingdom and gathering men into it. +Pastors and teachers.+--Shepherds and instructors of those gathered together by men of another order. These are the true "bishops," whatever "other name" they bear (1 Pet. v. 1-4).

Ver. 12. +For the perfecting of the saints.+--"Saints," whilst a title of the highest honour, is often expressive of the ideal rather than the real life of those who bear it; the "perfecting" is the rendering into actual life of what is implied in the term of honour. +For the work of the ministry.+--R.V. "_into_ the work." If the end of all Christ's gifts so far as "the saints" are concerned is their perfect equipment, so far as His messengers are concerned they go forth unto service first, honour afterwards. +For the edifying of the body of Christ.+--Practically the same as the foregoing, but with an ultimate reference to Christ. The double figure of a building and of a body is familiar to our own speech, as when we speak of "building up a strong frame."

Ver. 13. +Till we all come.+--Suggestive of standing opposite to something towards which we have been toiling. Can one think without a tremor of joy, of the moment when he will find himself in perfect correspondence with the Divine Archetype? +In the unity of the faith.+--The world has seen many attempts to bring about uniformity of creed, after the manner of Procrustes, by stretching or chopping. "The unity of the faith" is a very different thing, and much to be desired. +The knowledge of the Son of God.+--Lit. the complete knowledge. +Unto a full-grown man.+--As above intimated, a child does not become a man by means of the rack. The significance of the word "man" here is as great as when we bid some one who has lost his self-respect to "be a man."

Ver. 14. +That we henceforth be no more children.+--In what respects his readers are not to be children the apostle makes plain, viz. in helplessness and credulity. +Tossed to and fro.+--With no more power of resistance than a cork on the waves. +By the sleight of men and cunning craftiness.+--As some poor simpleton, who thinks himself capable, falls a victim to card-sharpers, so unstable souls fall victims to those who say with Falstaff, "If the young dace be a bite for the old pike, I see no reason in the law of nature but I may snap at him."

Ver. 15. +But speaking the truth in love.+--If it be possible to make the medicine palatable without destroying its efficacy--to capsule the bitter pill--its chances are so much the greater of doing good. The A.V. margin gives "being sincere," and the R.V. "dealing truly," the different renderings indicating the difficulty of finding an English equivalent.

Ver. 16. +Fitly joined together and compacted.+--R.V. "fitly framed and knit together." Bengel suggests that the first expression means the _fitting_ together, and the second the _fastening_ together. Meyer, denying this, says the distinction is that the former corresponds to the _figure,_ the latter to the _thing_ represented. The grammar, like the physiology, of this verse is difficult. Are we to read, "The whole body . . . maketh increase of the body"? Apparently we must, for the body "_builds itself_ up in love."

Ver. 17. +That ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk.+--In this and the two following verses we have again the lurid picture of ch. ii. 2, 3: "in the vanity of their mind."

"The creature is their sole delight,
Their happiness the things of earth."

Ver. 18. +Having the understanding darkened.+--Remembering our Lord's saying about the single eye and the fully illuminated body we might say, "If the understanding--by which all light should come--be darkened 'how great is that darkness'!" +Because of the blindness.+--R.V. "hardness." The word describes the hard skin formed by constant rubbing, as the horny hand of a blacksmith.

Ver. 19. +Who being past feeling.+--Having lost the "ache" which should always attend a violation of law. An ancient commentator uses the now familiar word "anæsthetes" to explain the phrase. +Having given themselves over.+--"Given" represents a word which often connotes an act of treason--and "themselves" is emphatic--"the most tremendous sacrifice ever laid on the altar of sin" (_Beet_). +To lasciviousness.+--"St. Paul stamps upon it the burning word ἀσέλγεια like a brand on the harlot's brow" (_Findlay_). +To work all uncleanness with greediness.+--R.V. margin, "to make a trade of all uncleanness with covetousness." Their "sins not accidental, but a trade"; and a trade at which they work with a "desire of having more."

Ver. 20. +No not so.+--As differently as possible. The same mode of speech which led St. Paul to say to the Galatians, "Shall I praise you? . . . I praise you not."--_i.e._ "I blame you highly."

Ver. 21. +If so be that ye have heard Him.+--The emphasis is on "Him"--"assuming, that is, that it is He, and no other."

Ver. 22. +That ye put off concerning the former conversation.+--It is no "philosophy of clothes" inculcated here. It is a deliverance from "the body of death," like stripping oneself of his very integument. +Conversation.+--R.V. "manner of life." +Which is corrupt.+--R.V. much more strikingly--"waxeth corrupt." St. Paul's figure elsewhere is appropriate--"like a gangrene eating into the flesh."

Vers. 23, 24. The stripping off being complete, and the innermost core of the man being renewed, the investiture may begin. The "habit" laid aside is never to be resumed, and the new robes, "ever white," are not to be soiled. +Righteousness and true holiness.+--R.V. "Righteousness and holiness of truth." See the "dealing truly" of ver. 15, R.V. margin.

Ver. 25. +Putting away lying.+--Findlay holds to it that "_the lie, the falsehood,_ is objective and concrete; not _lying,_ or _falsehood_ as a subjective act, habit, or quality." +Members one of another.+--Let there be "no schism in the body."

Ver. 26. +Let not the sun go down on your wrath.+--The word for "wrath" is not the usual one. It almost seems as if the compound form had reference to the matter "alongside which" wrath was evoked. If "curfew" could ring out the fires of wrath at sundown, we might welcome the knell. Meyer quotes the Pythagorean custom of making up a quarrel by the parties "shaking hands" before sunset.

Ver. 28. +Let him that stole steal no more.+--Though we have not here the word for "brigand," we may think that the thieving had not always been without violence. +That he may have to give.+--Not the profits of wickedness, but "the good" results of his own labour, and may give it to the needy "with cheerfulness" (Rom. xii. 8), with a "hilarity" beyond that of "those who divide the spoil" (Isa. ix. 3).

Ver. 29. +Let no corrupt communication.+--R.V. "speech." Putrid speech can never come forth from any but a bad person, "for out of the abundance of the heart the mouth speaketh." +But that which is good to the use of edifying.+--The word in season "fitly spoken" has an æsthetic charm (Prov. xxv. 11), but it was more necessary to teach these loquacious Asiatics the utilitarian end of having a human tongue. "It is the mere talk, whether frivolous or pompous--spoken from the pulpit or the easy-chair--the incontinence of tongue, the flux of senseless, graceless, unprofitable utterance that St. Paul desires to arrest" (_Findlay_).

Ver. 30. +Grieve not.+--"Do not make Him sorrow." A strong figure like that which says that God was sorry that He had made man (Gen. vi. 6). +Whereby ye are sealed.+--Cf. ch. i. 13. "In whom ye were sealed" (R.V.)

Ver. 31. +Let all bitterness.+--_i.e._ "of speech." "Sarcasm I now see to be, in general, the language of the devil," said one liberally endowed with it. The satirist Hipponax--a native of Ephesus--was called "the bitter." Such a man as "speaks poniards," and whose "every word stabs," may be brilliant and a formidable opponent; he will never be loved. +Wrath and anger.+--The former is the _fuming_ anger, "the intoxication of the soul," as St. Basil calls it; the latter is the state after the paroxysm is over, cherishing hatred and planning revenge. +Clamour and railing.+--"Clamour" is the loud outcry so familiar in an Eastern concourse of excited people (Acts xxiii. 9), like that hubbub in Ephesus when for two hours the populace yelled, "Great is Diana of the Ephesians" (Acts xix. 28). "Railing," blasphemy--speech that is calculated to do injury. +Malice.+--"Badness." "This last term is separated from the others as generic and inclusive" (_Beet_).

Ver. 32. +Be ye kind.+--The word is found in Christ's invitation to the weary--"My yoke is easy." It is characteristic of the Father that "He is _kind_ to the unthankful." The man who drinks wine that is new and harsh says, "The old is _good_" (mellow). +Tenderhearted.+--Soon touched by the weakness of others. +Forgiving . . . as God . . . forgave you.+--The motive and measure of our forgiveness of injuries is the Divine forgiveness shown to "all that debt" of our wrong-doing (Matt. xviii. 32).

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 1-3.

_The Dignity of the Christian Life_--

+I. Imposes the obligation to act in harmony with its lofty aims.+--"Walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called" (ver. 1). There is the practical, stimulative influence of a high ideal. The Spirit within us has not only changed our nature and cleansed our spiritual vision, but He has lifted our horizon, formed within us distinct outlines of the Christian ideal after which we are to labour, and furnished us with the moral forces with which we are to attain the beauty and unity of a perfect spiritual character. We who are created in God's image and restored in Christ and made partakers of the Divine nature in Him, are bound by condition of our creation and redemption to endeavour to be like Him here that we may have the fruition of His glorious Godhead hereafter. The true Christian cannot stoop to any meanness either in thought or action. He is dignified without being proud.

+II. Involves the practice of self-suppression.+--1. _In a just estimate of ourselves._ "With all lowliness and meekness." In endeavouring to balance the value and use of our powers and faculties, and in measuring the degree and volume of our influence, we must observe humility--not a cringing cowardly spirit which would deter us from the right for fear of doing wrong, but an elevated sense of right with courage to perform it, and with humility to acknowledge and confess when we are in the wrong. It does not mean the craven surrender of our honest convictions and carefully formed judgment. We may efface ourselves, but not the truth within us. An Italian bishop being asked the secret of his habitual humility and patience replied, "It consists in nothing more than in making good use of my eyes. In whatever state I am, I first of all look up to heaven and remember that my principal business here is to get there. I then look back down to earth and call to mind the space I shall shortly occupy in it. I then look abroad into the world and observe what multitudes there are who in all respects have more cause to be unhappy than myself. Thus I learn where true happiness is placed, where all our cares must end, and how very little reason I have to repine or complain."

2. _In a loving forbearance towards each other._--"With longsuffering, forbearing one another in love" (ver. 2). The meek man may be severe with himself, and his constant habit of self-suppression may render him somewhat impatient with the unreasonable outbreaks of temper in others. Meekness must be balanced and moderated with patience, and both virtues exercised in the all-pervading element of love. Love softens every harshness, tones down asperity, and welds together the Christian character in a firm but not too rigid a unity. "Bind thyself to thy brother," said Chrysostom. "Those who are bound together in love bear all burdens lightly. Bind thyself to him and him to thee. Both are in thy power; for whomsoever I will, I may easily make my friend."

+III. Demands an earnest striving after a peaceful spiritual unity.+--"Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace" (ver. 3). Peace--"a silken cord binding into one the members of the Church; the encompassing element of the unity of the Spirit" (_Beet_). The apostle repeatedly and solemnly inculcates unity and peace on all the Churches, warns them against contentions and divisions, and kindles into righteous indignation against all those insidious and false teachers who, under the pretence of advocating a higher piety really disturb and rend the Church of Christ. On what an enormous scale are preparations made for war! We should not be less diligent and elaborate in taking every precaution in promoting and maintaining peace.

+Lessons.+--1. _True humility is always dignified._ 2. _Personal happiness is not the highest aim of the Christian life._ 3. _The noblest virtues of the Christian character are not attained without earnest endeavour._

_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._

Vers. 1-3. _True Church Life._--1. The word "walk" is a very extensive signification. It includes all our inward and outward motions, all our thoughts, words, and actions. It takes in, not only everything we do, but everything we either speak or think. 2. We are called to walk, first, "with all lowliness," to have the mind in us which was also in Christ Jesus; not to think of ourselves more highly than we ought to think; to be little, and poor, and mean, and vile in our own eyes; to know ourselves as also we are known by Him to whom all hearts are opened; to be deeply sensible of our own unworthiness. Who can be duly sensible how much remains in him of his natural enmity to God, or how far he is still alienated from God by the ignorance that is in him? 3. Yea, suppose God has now thoroughly cleaned our heart, and scattered the last remains of sin; yet how can we be sensible enough of our own helplessness, our utter inability to all good, unless we are every hour, yea, every moment, endued with power from on high? 4. When our inmost soul is thoroughly tinctured therewith, it remains that we "be clothed with humility." The word used by St. Peter seems to imply that we be covered with it as with a surtout; that we be all humility, both within and without; tincturing all we think, speak, and do. Let all our actions spring from this fountain; let all our words breathe this spirit; that all men may know we have been with Jesus, and have learned of Him to be lowly in heart. 5. And being taught of Him who teacheth as never man taught, to be meek as well as lowly in heart. This implies not only a power over anger, but over all violent, turbulent passions. It implies the having all our passions in due proportion; none of them either too strong or too weak, but all duly balanced with each other, all subordinate to reason, and reason directed by the Spirit of God. 6. Walk with all "longsuffering." This is nearly related to meekness, but implies something more. It carries on the victory already gained over all your turbulent passions, notwithstanding all the powers of darkness, all the assaults of evil men or evil spirits. It is patiently triumphant over all opposition, and unmoved though all the waves and storms thereof go over you. 7. The "forbearing one another in love" seems to mean, not only the not resenting anything, and the not avenging yourselves; not only the not injuring, hurting, or grieving each other, either by word or deed, but also the bearing one another's burdens, yea, and lessening them by every means in our power. It implies the sympathising with them in their sorrows, afflictions, and infirmities; the bearing them up when, without our help, they would be liable to sink under their burdens. 8. Lastly, the true members of the Church of Christ "endeavour," with all possible diligence, with all care and pains, with unwearied patience, to "keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," to preserve inviolate the same spirit of lowliness and meekness, of longsuffering, mutual forbearance, and love; and all these cemented and knit together by that sacred tie--the peace of God filling the heart. Thus only can we be and continue living members of that Church which is the body of Christ. 9. Does it not clearly appear from this whole account why, in the ancient creed commonly called the Apostles', we term it the universal or catholic Church, "the holy catholic Church"? The Church is called holy, because it is holy, because every member thereof is holy, though in different degrees, as He that called them is holy. How clear this is! If the Church, as to the very essence of it, is a body of believers, no man that is not a Christian believer can be a member of it. If this whole body be animated by one Spirit, and endued with one faith, and one hope of their calling, then he who has not that Spirit and faith and hope is no member of this body. It follows, that not only no common swearer, no Sabbath-breaker, no drunkard, no whoremonger, no thief, no liar, none that lives in any outward sin, but none that is under the power of anger or pride, no lover of the world--in a word, none that is dead to God--can be a member of His Church.--_Wesley._

_Brotherly Love in Action._

+I. Walk in lowliness.+--Humble thoughts of ourselves, of our own knowledge, goodness, and importance are necessary to Christian peace and union. We shall not despise our brethren for their want of the internal gifts or external advantages we enjoy. We shall not lean to our own understanding; but, conscious of our liability to err, we shall be attentive to instruction and reproof, open to conviction, ready to retrace our errors and confess our faults.

+II. Walk in meekness+--in a prudent restraint and government of the passions. We shall not be easily provoked, our resentments will not be sudden, without cause or without bounds. If a variance happens, we shall stand ready to be reconciled. We shall be cautious not to give, and slow to take offence. In matters of religion our zeal will be tempered with charity.

+III. To our meekness we must add longsuffering and forbearance.+--These terms express the patient and exalted exercise of meekness rather than virtues distinct from it. We are not only to be meek, but longsuffering in our meekness; not only to restrain anger under ordinary offences, but to suppress malice and forbear revenge under the most provoking injuries.

+IV. We must endeavour to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace.+--Not unity of opinion--this is not possible, nor reasonable to be expected, in the present state of mankind; but unity of spirit, of heart and affection, disposing us to preserve the bond of peace and maintain all the duties of Christian fellowship, whatever differences of sentiment take place. To the same purpose are the apostle's exhortations to all the Churches, and especially to those in which diversity of opinion concerning ceremonial usages threatened their external peace.--_Lathrop._

Ver. 3. _Peace the Bond of Unity._

+I. There is a union of the visible Church and the members thereof among themselves, and this is twofold:+ the one necessary to the being of a Church and being of a Church member, so that a Church cannot be a Church nor a man a member without it, the tie of which is God's covenant with the visible Church, and the Church's laying hold of it; the other necessary to the well-being of the Church, which is entertained by unity in judgment, in heart and affection, by concurrences in purposes and actings.

+II. Neither fair pretences for peace and union in the Church, nor seconded but contradicted by practice, nor yet careless endeavours easily broken by difficulties, will God accept as the duty required for preserving or restoring unity.+--There is no less called for than the utmost of our serious endeavours for that end, so that we not only eschew what may give cause of rending, but also be not easily provoked when it is given by others, and when a rent is made spare no pains for having it removed, and weary not under small appearances of success.

+III. Whatever differences may fall out among the members of the Church they are not to break the bond of peaceable walking+ one with another by factious sidings, but ought to study unanimous and joint practice in those things wherein there is agreement; and where this peaceable deportment is, it tends to preserve what remains of spiritual unity and to regain what is already lost.--_Fergusson._

_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 4-6.

_The Sevenfold Unity of the Church reflected in the Trinity of Divine Persons._

+I. One Spirit+ (ver. 4), the animating Principle of the +one body+ (ver. 4)--the Church; the Source of its life and ever-watchful Guardian of the Church's unity; the Inspirer of the +one hope,+ "Even as ye are called in one hope of your calling" (ver. 4). Where the Spirit of Christ dwells as a vitalising, formative principle, He finds or makes for Himself a body. Let no man say, "I have the spirit of religion, I can dispense with forms, I need no fellowship with men, I prefer to walk with God." God will not walk with men who do not care to walk with His people. The oneness of communion amongst the people of Christ is governed by a unity of aim. The old pagan world fell to pieces because it was without hope; the golden age was in the past. No society can endure that lives upon its memories, or that contents itself with cherishing its privileges. Nothing holds men together like work and hope. Christianity holds out a splendid crown of life. It promises our complete restoration to the image of God, the redemption of the body with the spirit from death, and our entrance upon an eternal fellowship with Christ in heaven. The Christian hope supplies to men more truly and constantly than Nature in her most exalted forms--