perpetual circle of manifold, ever-varying, all-comprehending love, whose centre, circumference, and fulness is God the Father, from whom all proceeds, and to whom all returns-the Son, the Mediator, the GodMan on earth, and the Man-God in heaven, through whom the Godhead condescends to bless-and the Holy Spirit, the indweller, who consecrates the temple and awakens and sustains the fervour of the worshippers. This glorious God is ours, this God of boundless love! You live, move, and breathe in Him, brother, and though you may have been in the far country, like the prodigal, He seeks to give you the name and the place and the honours of a son! Do you know Him? He is thy Father. Approach, and you will find Him love!

14th. "The Holy Temple." This is the substance of verses 19-22. This fine figure and other similar ones are the basis of the idea which Augustine incorporated in the name of his most profound and popular work "The City of God." The words strangers and foreigners are opposed to fellow-citizens and household, and refer to what they were in the state of nature. They were strangers and foreigners, but they are so no more. They are now denizens of the Holy City, and members of the family of God. The partition wall is taken down, the distinction between "the people" and "the Gentiles," so far as it refers to religious privileges, is removed, and all believers are fellow-citizens in the heavenly polity or New Jerusalem citizenship (Phil. iii. 20), of which Canaan, Jerusalem, and the whole Jewish economy were but the types. City and House are the great ideas of the passage, and they show us the twofold relations of the Church to God. Grace has made us a nation, a holy city, whose God is the Lord, whose only king and ruler is Jehovah. We are fellowcitizens with the saints in light; but this relation, however

honourable, is external and national, the relation between a city and its king, and hence he adds the name, "Household of God." Ye are not only His people, but His family; ye not only dwell in His city, but ye live in His house. He is your God as the chosen people, and your Father as the redeemed family. The God of Abraham is the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, and hence Jews were the servants, and Christians are the Sons of God (Heb. iii. 1-7), and Jew and Gentile are swallowed up in the name Believer. (2.) Consider further your privileges in this passage, and stand fast for the rights which God has given you. Ye are built upon the foundation of apostles and prophets, Jesus Christ being the chief corner-stone. Apostles are put before prophets, because the office is more honourable; not because they are first in order of time, but first in order of rank and dignity; the apostles of the New and the prophets of the Old Testament are the foundations of the living temple of God. They are the authorized and commissioned teachers of mankind, by whom the will of God in things pertaining to salvation has been made known to the world. that we really know of God and the Divine character we owe to them. No nation ever without revelation attained to the belief even of the Divine unity, much less to the Trinity, mediation, redemption, final judgment, and everlasting life; and they would be wise men and philosophers of our times, who presume to slight the apostles and prophets; and would, but for them, have been sacrificing to even a less reputable god than Mercury. The foundation stone bears the weight of the temple, the corner-stone unites its various parts, and the topstone completes it. Jesus is related to His Church in various ways, and every name and office only serves to bring to view more of His fulness. The apostles and

All

prophets are the external visible foundations; He is the real, invisible, immovable foundation (1 Cor. iii. 11), the Rock of Ages on whom alone the hopes of the fallen race can rest. His person is the centre of all relations, near or remote, by which the Church and the creation are brought into various degrees of fellowship with God. As the Son of God He is the foundation, upbearing and sustaining the whole building; as God-Man, Mediator, He is the chief corner-stone which unites the different parts; and as the Son of Man, the highest and head of the worshippers, He is the top-stone which completes and consolidates the whole temple God. This, then, is the idea of a Church. It is a congregation of faithful men, a number of believers associated in the ordinances of the Gospel growing together into a holy temple in the Lord. God dwells in them as His house; is seen, manifested, and worshipped in them as His temple; makes over to them as His family all the Divine promises, and finally glorifies them in His heavenly kingdom. These are the elect, chosen before the foundation of the world; the redeemed, the called, the faithful servants who hide not their talents in the earth; the branches of the vine, the trees of His planting, the members of His household, the stones of His temple, the heirs of His purchased possession, the witnesses of His grace, and the expectants of His glory! My brother, are you a stone in this temple? Are you fitted into some place that the strength of the building is yours to enable you to resist the storms? Then walk in love as Christ also hath loved you, and given Himself an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-smelling savour (Eph. v. 2). Do not forget where your treasure is, even in heaven, and let your heart be there also.

CHAPTER VI.

"For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles, if ye have heard of the dispensation of the grace of God which is given me to you-ward: how that by revelation He made known unto me the mystery; (as I wrote afore in few words, whereby, when ye read, ye may understand my knowledge in the mystery of Christ) which in other ages was not made known unto the sons of men, as it is now revealed unto His holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit; that the Gentiles should be fellow-heirs, and of the same body, and partakers of His promise in Christ by the Gospel whereof I was made a minister, according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of His power. Unto me, who am less than the least of all saints, is this grace given, that I should preach among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and to make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery, which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God, who created all things by Jesus Christ: to the intent that now unto the principalities and powers in heavenly places might be known by the church the manifold wisdom of God."-EPHESIANS iii. 1-10.

We have now surveyed the proportions of the heavenly temple where God dwells, composed alike of Jews and Gentiles, whom the Spirit of life has quickened by faith, and drawn together by one common hope. This is my doctrine, and for this purpose I am called (says Paul) even to proclaim to the Gentiles the grace and compassion of God, that they, as well as the Jews, may be incorporated into the body of Christ, built up into the one Temple, and engrafted into the one living, life-giving Vine. There is no difference any more; the veil is removed; the partition wall is broken down, and the stream of Jehovah's love finds no impediment

in the whole world, save unbelief, which shuts against it the human heart. The time is come for forming a new community, which, rising out of the ruins of all former kingdoms, and pervaded with new and immortal principles, shall open the gates of righteousness to all nations, and people the heavenly paradise with saints and heroes and martyrs, from regions now filled with idolatry and spiritual death. I announce to all sinners a Saviour; to all outcasts from God and righteousness a home; and to all prodigals a welcoming Father. I am the apostle of the Gentiles, specially commissioned from God to break down all national distinctions, and publish the free and full mercy of God to all mankind. This is the cause of the Jewish wrath which pursues me to the uttermost, and seems to be satisfied with nothing less than my death. Hence

1st. "My imprisonment" (ver. 1). I am for this very reason a prisoner of Christ. I follow the ancient commentators in supplying the words "I am," as being the simplest way of completing the sense. I preach equal privileges for Jews and Gentiles, and therefore I am now a prisoner. If we connect "For this cause" in verse 1 with the same phrase in verse 14, making all between a parenthesis, you have a very different meaning, and supply the ellipsis thus-For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, bow my knees for the sake of you Gentiles, &c. In this latter case the passage is much weakened as a proof of his love. "I am in prison, and even in prison I pray for you," is, indeed, kind and brotherly, but not such an evidence of love as, "I preach the love of God to you Gentiles, and therefore I am in bonds." The proof of my love to you Gentiles is my prison, not my prayers. For you I braved the fury of the people (Acts xxii. 22, xxv. 11, 12, xxvi. 17); for you I had to appeal unto Cæsar,