effect, that the word of the Lord grew mightily and prevailed.

It was here that idolatry first woke up to the fact that in the religion which Paul preached it had to do with a mortal foe. The heathen recognized no such mortal enemy in Judaism: and they were quite right; the Jews were haters of idols and idolatry, but idolaters had nothing to fear from them.

The Jews kept to themselves, and let the idolaters alone. The Christians welcomed to their society Jews and Gentiles alike. Demetrius and his fellow craftsmen were keen-sighted enough to see that if a society of Jews and Gentiles, worshipping one God, and recognizing no divisions, setting up no barriers, was possible, idolatry was hasting to its end.

In an Epistle written to the Christian society in this city of Ephesus, if anywhere we should expect to find laid down the ground of a spiritual society which has a deeper foundation than the Jewish calling or covenant; which has its foundations in the nature of God Himself; which explains and supports all human relationships; and which has all spiritual enemies to fight with.

And this is what we do find, as we shall presently

see.

Ch. i. 1: Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus through the will of God, to the saints which are at Ephesus, and the faithful in Christ Jesus: Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ.

This Epistle has been described as instruction passing into prayer, a creed soaring into song.

Accordingly, instead of a thankful remembrance of the truth and patience of the Christian believers to whom he is writing, with which the Apostle usually begins his letters, in this Epistle he breaks out at once into a fervent Thanksgiving.

Then he goes on to speak of an election, or choosing out, of a predestination or fore-ordaining.

It must be confessed that we meet these words, "election" and "predestination," with a certain amount of alarm and suspicion. They are generally taken to represent doctrines which, if true, are very terrible: terrible as effecting the destinies of mankind, terrible as affecting the character of God.

The first of the Lambeth Articles, which were vainly sought to be imposed upon the Church of England, lays down this doctrine in all its naked hideousness. "God from all eternity has predestined certain men to life; and certain men he has reprobated to death." No wonder then that these words, when they occur, should cause us to start back in alarm: but if by a vigorous effort we shake ourselves free from the hateful, God-dishonouring doctrines which have been connected with them, we shall see that these words, as S. Paul used them, describe an all-righteous, all-merciful, all-loving purpose to which we can safely trust ourselves, and the race to which we belong.

There can be no question that in the passage which we are now going to read, the Apostle asserts a Divine purpose, a purpose which, though to be carried out in time, was not formed in time, but in eternity; a purpose which can be affected by no accident, and suffer no change, and experience no break-down. And what is this purpose, this Divine plan? It is, that they who are the objects of this eternal purpose may be holy, and without blemish before Him in love.

"Our danger does not lie in thinking that God has predestinated us to this perfect holiness, but in thinking that He has not so predestinated us.

"But if we so believe in this our predestination as

to give ourselves credit as belonging to a class in which we do not include others, or in which we have tempted others not to include themselves, we have put our election upon a new ground.

"It is no longer that God, being holy, necessarily wishes the creatures He has made in His image to be like Him, but that, being Almighty, He has been able to decree that certain persons, among whom we reckon ourselves, shall have certain spiritual and divine blessings; and that certain other persons should be excluded from them. Thus God is represented not as One whose only will is a good will, who only aims at what is good, good for all; but as a great Potentate who can do what He likes, who can give blessings or withhold them as he chooses."

Very different is the Heavenly Father with whom we have to do! Very different is the election wherewith He has chosen us!

The Heavenly Father chose us in Christ, in His Son, from eternity, not that we might have something, but that we might be something-that we might be holy and without blemish; having foreordained us to what? To the adoption of sons. Our original, our essential calling is to be sons. We are sons in God's purpose and calling, before we are actually admitted as sons into the family of His Church.

Now if God thus chose us to be holy, it would follow that when man sinned, God would make a way for forgiveness, would ordain a means whereby His Divine forgiveness might flow to man; if God fore-ordained as to the adoption of sons, it would follow that God would provide for the removal of that which would prevent our living as sons.

And thus having spoken of the work of the Father, the Apostle passes on to the work of the

Son; viz., that in Him, and through His sacrifice, we have our redemption, even the forgiveness of our sins. But the Apostle does not linger even among such vital truths as these; but hurries on to show how they are all to be referred to one ground,—the good pleasure of God's Will; and to one end,--the gathering up of all things in Christ.

Ch. i. 3: Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places (literally in the heavenlies) in Christ even as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blemish before Him in love: having foreordained us unto adoption as sons through Jesus Christ unto Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, to the praise of the glory of His grace, which He freely bestowed on us in the Beloved in whom we have our redemption through His Blood, the forgiveness of our trespasses . . . . . having made known unto us the mystery of His will.... to sum up all things in Christ, the things in the heavens, and the things upon the earth. . . . . . . In whom ye (Gentiles) also, having heard the word of the truth, the Gospel of your salvation,--in whom, having also believed, ye were sealed with the Holy Spirit of promise, which is an earnest of our inheritance, unto the redemption of God's own possession, unto the praise of His glory.

....

In this passage we see the Three Persons of the Holy and Undivided Trinity uniting in the work of man's salvation. First they are spoken of together as included in the work of blessing, then "the threefold cord, so to speak, is unwrapped, and the part of each Divine Person separately described."

The Father in His eternal love has chosen us to holiness, ordained us to sonship, bestowed grace on us in the Beloved.

In the Son we have redemption in His blood,

knowledge of the mystery of His will, inheritance under Him the One Head.

Through the Spirit we are sealed; by hearing the word of our salvation, by receiving the earnest of our inheritance, we may hope to be brought to the inheritance of the purchased possession.

In reading this whole passage we can hardly help asking, who are the "we" of whom the Apostle speaks? who are the elect? who are the chosen?

If we remember to what it is that the elect are chosen, that they are chosen to be holy, to be God's sons, how shall we dare to say of any, how shall any one dare to say of himself, they are not, I am not?

If we insist upon a definite answer to the question, Who are the elect? we may say, All men in Christ. Christ, the Second Man, is really and truly God's only Elect; we are elect in Him. If it be asked Who, then, is not elect? we may say, That man is not elect whose nature Christ did not take!

Is there then, it may be said, no difference between the world and the Church, between believers and non-believers?

Yes, surely a great difference indeed. The little band of Christians in Ephesus were called out of the unbelieving mass of Jews and heathens, to show what God intended all His human children to be. The Church was the advanced guard of humanity, claiming God's election not for itself alone, but as the representative of mankind, in the sure conviction that neither Adam's sin, nor all the sin of the world, has been able to defeat the design of the Creator. And what is that design? It is to sum up all things in Christ; or, as he had before said to the Colossians, "to reconcile all things unto Himself."

Now as this glorious purpose passes before our minds, ought it not to be a relief to be told that this

Q