Colossians 4

23. The obedience of the Christian is a voluntary obedience, since it is the obedience of love. But to prescribe to one’s self difficult duties in order to have the pleasure of obeying one’s self; this willworship, as Paul designates it, is not the worship of God, but that of an idol. This idol is the human self, which, broken in conscience by the cross of Jesus Christ, persists, broken as it is, in raising itself, and rises the higher the lower its fall. Perfidious suggestions of the indestructible enemy! how many souls have ye not carried back to the world by the path of an extraordinary devotion and refined piety; led back to the world merely by your having subjected them to the illegitimate empire of self! A. V.

1. If ye then be risen with Christ, seek those things which are above, where Christ sitteth 2 on the right hand of God. Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. 3 For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. When Christ, who is our life, 4 shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory. Mortify therefore your members 5 which are upon the earth; fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection, evil concupiscence, 6 and covetousness, which is idolatry: for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh on 7 the children of disobedience: in the which ye also walked some time, when ye lived in them. 8 But now ye also put off all these; anger, wrath, malice, blasphemy, filthy communication 9 out of your mouth. Lie not one to another, seeing that ye have put off the old man with 10 his deeds; and have put on the new man, which is renewed in knowledge after the image 11 of him that created him: where there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircum- cision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free: but Christ is all, and in all. 12 Put on therefore, as the elect of God, holy and beloved, bowels of mercies, kindness, hum- 13 bleness of mind, meekness, longsuffering; forbearing one another, and forgiving one anoth- 14 er, if any man have a quarrel against any: even as Christ forgave you, so also do ye. And 15 above all these things put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to the which also ye are called in one body; and be ye thank- 16 ful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom; teaching and admonishing one another in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing with grace in your hearts to 17 the Lord. And whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God and the Father by him.

THE reputed virtues of human society are no education for God, inasmuch as they all more or less lack that one essential character without which all virtue is profitless for heaven, and would be useless in heaven—the habit of acting from the love and in obedience to the will of God. Joyful obedience must be the happiness of heaven; joyful obedience must, therefore, be the holiness of earth. No vaunted virtue wrought out of God, no amiability of manner, gentleness of temper, fidelity of friendship, honor, integrity, decorum, no virtue that leaves the heart a rebel to its Maker, or forgetful of Him, can dispose for heaven, or “make meet for the inheritance of the saints in light.” How, then, shall we produce the heavenly mind which fits for a heavenly world? Clearly and solely, by cultivating affections that rest in heaven itself and its God; and by devoting our earthly affections, not merely as their own instinctive impulses lead, but also, as far as may be, in felt and constant conformity to his appointment. Religion, as distinct from the virtues of society, the graceful amenities of ordinary life—Religion, which fixes the heart wholly and permanently on God himself—it is no enthusiasm, no idle speculative illusion, to affirm that this alone can meet the requirements of a creature formed for God and his eternity. Faith, and hope, and love, which are the great organs or exercises of religion, are the instruments which, gradually uniting the heart to the spiritual world and its Lord, separate it from earth, predispose it for heaven, win the will to his service, spiritually disembodily the soul before its time, and train it for the fellowship and the heritage of the saints. Through these the pathway lies to heaven, and through these alone. W. A. B.

1-14. According to Paul, the Christian life in man originates in resurrection with Christ, and is braced and purified by the consciousness of such resurrection. Since believers in Christ are, in a moral and spiritual sense, raised with Him, they are bound to seek the things which are above, and to mind those things rather than objects which are beneath. Duties on the earth are, of course, to be fulfilled, and the occupations of common life must be pursued; but the habitual preponderance of thought and affection is due to objects that are heavenly. The Christian is to be—not by fits and starts, but by habit and repute—conversant with heaven. His life is properly a heavenly life, “hid with Christ in God.” It is only “members” that he has on the earth—not his life, and certainly not his treasure. This position conferred on believers through grace is thus used as an argument for personal endeavors to be holy. Ye have died; “therefore put to death your members on the earth.” Carry out the principle of the extinction of the life in sin, as respects your members in detail, the past instruments and servants of unrighteousness. Ye have put off the old man, and put on the new; therefore put on in detail the attributes of Christian character. These properties the apostle enumerates, giving great prominence, as was his wont, to sweet and lowly virtues, and assigning the highest place to love as “the bond of perfectness.” D. F.

1. The resurrection of Christ, his restored and exalted life, touches, in various ways, and at all points, the spiritual life of Christian men. Christ’s resurrection is typical of man’s new life; for, as he was raised from the dead, so we are to walk “in newness of life”—“as those who are alive from the dead” too. Then, his present condition, consequent on his rising from the dead, is to be felt as a motive to spiritual-mindedness. The raised, exalted, living Christ is to be the life of our life, the source of our holiness; even as the dying Christ is the death of our sins. Believing in him, he lives in us. Still further, the resurrection of Christ is at once the pledge and model of our own. His present condition of glory and blessedness is that to which we are to be conformed. T. B.

Risen with Christ. He has already been exalted above the heavens, yet we are not separated from him. Be this our meditation on earth, that we are reckoned as in heaven; and let us labor that, as our Lord ascended with our own body into heaven, so we, as far as we can, may ascend after him in hope, and follow him in heart. Let us ascend after him both in our affections and in our advances toward perfection. Aug.—The risen life has its clearly defined obligations no less than its glorious privileges. Those who have in very deed shared in Christ’s resurrection-life should seek things above the level of that tomb which, with him, and through him, they had left behind. H. P. L.—The weaknesses, the littlenesses, the incoherences of daily life, so long as they are felt and struggled with, are evidences of a victory yet to come. They bear witness to us that we can not rest till we rise to the level of Him in whom we live. They never cease to teach us that the end to which we are called is not now or here. B. F. W.—Only he has found the full, controlling, blessing, quickening power that lies in the thought of the future, and in life directed by it, to whom that future is all summed in the name of his Saviour. Whatever makes a man live in the past and in the future raises him; but high above all others stand those to whom the past is an apocalypse of God, with Calvary for its center, and all the future is fellowship with Christ and joy in the heavens. Having these hopes, it will be our own fault if we are not pure and gentle, calm in changes and sorrows, armed against frowning dangers, and proof against smiling temptations. A. M.

2. We ought not to be satisfied till we find in ourselves a refinedness from this earth, a thorough purgation from all undue degrees of sensual inclination and affection, an aptitude to spiritual exercises and enjoyments, a worshiping posture of soul, formed to the veneration of the eternal wisdom, goodness, power, holiness; profound humility and abnegation of ourselves, a praiseful frame of spirit much used to gratulations and thanksgivings, a large and universal love imitating as much as is possible the divine, a proneness to do good to all, a steady composure and serene temper of spirit, every way suitable to the regions where nothing but perfect purity, entire devotedness to God, love, goodness, and peace shall have place for ever. Howe.

3. Our life is hid with Christ in God.** God is the author of the vital action, Christ is the vital center, the very heart of the system, from whom and in correspondence with whom every pulsation of spiritual being is made. They that are Christ’s feel that they are in the exercise of grace only so long as Christ lives in them: that the true method of cultivating piety is to cultivate a sense of dependence on Christ; that, if we desire to grow in grace and to glorify God, we must look above and beyond all means, all instrumentality, all ordinances, to Jesus Christ as our living head. J. W. A.—The loftier the exaltation we ascribe to the Saviour in his divineness, the more intimately always we find him related to the sympathies of our humanity. The most reverential view of God manifest in the flesh is the largest producer of daily holiness as well as the dearest to the heart. And thus it is proved, as in many instances besides, that what is most profoundly spiritual is also most directly practical. For the most intensely practical are the vital, comprehensive truths that lie deep among the springs of action and emotion, and bind us to the invisible. Yes; whatever reaches down to the sources of our being, whatever changes the great central currents of our purpose, whatever transfigures our conduct, regenerates our nature, and thus moves us to a diviner practice every way—that is practical. When our faith does this, it is a practical faith. And by no appeal does it lay a firmer hold on honest convictions, or animate holier energies, than when, by the Spirit’s favor, it shows us the beauty and the strength of that “life that is hid with Christ in God.” F. D. H.

3,4. The hidden life has its root and birth in death. “Ye have died with Christ, and your life is hid with Christ in God.” The hidden life has its consummation and crown in the second advent of our Lord: “When Christ, who is our life, shall appear, then shall ye also appear with him in glory.” Do you think that, with such a starting-point as baptism into the Saviour’s death, and with such a goal as the marriage supper of the Lamb, Christians can love the world and the things of the world? A. S.

In verse 4, “shall appear” ought to be “is manifested,” and “appear” the second time, “be manifested.” A.—Christ our life. Here is my life, namely, the birth of this man, the righteousness of this man, the blood of this man, the death and resurrection of this man, the ascension and intercession of this man for me, and the second coming of this man to judge the world in righteousness. Here is my life, if I see this by faith without me, through the operation of the Spirit within me: I am safe, I am at peace, I am comforted, I am encouraged; and I know that my comfort, peace, and encouragement is true, and given me from heaven by the Father of mercies, through the Son of the Virgin Mary—the Son of man, the Son of God, the true God. Bun.—Christ is our life in a far higher sense than the opener of a free way of access to God through the rent veil of his flesh. He is the perennial source of that new life within, which consists in communion with God, likeness to God, in gratitude, in love, in peace, and joy, and hope—in trusting, serving, submitting, enduring. This life hangs ever and wholly upon him; all good and gracious affections, every pure and holy impulse, the desire and ability to be, to do, to suffer—coming to us from him to whose light we bring our darkness, to whose strength we bring our weakness, to whose sympathy our sorrow, to whose fullness our emptiness. W. H.

5. To mortify is to make dead, to destroy. “Ye are dead,” therefore let your members on earth be dead: “fornication, uncleanness, inordinate affection,” etc. As if he had said, By becoming Christians ye engaged to be dead; and therefore see to it that ye are so. But what he requires us to make dead or to destroy are our evil affections and desires, and these only. T. A.

5-10. Sanctification is not mending the old nature which we inherit from Adam; it is cultivating and developing the new nature which we receive from Christ. The old nature can not be improved; it is under a ban and a curse; it is to be crucified with its affections and lusts, and mortified in its members; we are to put it off, as we put off a worn-out and defiled garment; nay we are to count ourselves dead to it, as if it had no more relation to us, since we are alive to God through Jesus Christ our Lord. The soul is like a house of which strangers have taken possession, and lord it cruelly over the owner. What shall you do for your liberty? Can you change the strangers’ hearts and make them other men, so that you would be content or even glad they should remain? That is impossible. Pride will never be humble, lust will never be pure, selfishness will never think of a neighbor’s interests, envy will never exult in a neighbor’s joy. “Old inbred habits will make resistance; but by better habits they shall be entirely overcome.” The old affections must be expelled by new: the evil overcome with good. A. W. T.

Some besetting sin, long denied indulgence, against which we have prayed, and watched, and wrestled, appears to be dead: the “old man” hangs motionless, to appearance lifeless, on the cross; when, like the convulsive movement of a body from which bystanders supposed the life was gone, in some bad word, or deed, or thought, the “old man” lives again, and the “new man” learns to his sorrow that the flesh he had crucified is not yet dead. The entire death of sin—a consummation devoutly to be wished for—is a blessing reserved for the close of life. We can not indeed be too diligent in mortifying sin, in crucifying every limb and member of the flesh. Still the question is not whether sin is altogether crucified, but is crucified at all? is whether we are delivered, though not completely, from its power? is whether it has ceased to reign, though it has not ceased to remain within us? It is slow work dying on a cross, but slower still dying to sin. However, take comfort, Christians: God will perfect that which concerneth us—a hope which, thanks be to God, shows the believer a Father’s reconciled countenance shining on him through the darkest cloud; a hope which will enable you, while confessing with Paul, “The good that I would, I do not; but the evil which I would not, that I do,” in almost the same breath to exclaim, “I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord . . . there is no condemnation to them who are in Christ Jesus.” T. G.

10. The simple yet grand truth is, that man was created “in the image of God,” without any addi- tional supernatural investment; “in the likeness of God,” without any added impartation of God; what we understand by a truly and a merely perfect man. By the fall his nature became changed from perfect to imperfect, from holy to sinful, from the likeness of God to a loss of that likeness. And now, what Christ seeks in coming into the world, surrounded with the lights of revelation and the teachings of the Spirit, is to restore man to the state from which he is fallen; to change his nature with a reverse movement from imperfect to perfect, from sinful to holy, from the loss to the repossession of likeness to God. We do not need a mysterious reinvestiture with the Divine nature, but a Scriptural restoration to the perfection of our own nature. We need, not a virtually miraculous addition, but a spiritual though intelligible change; a change inscrutable in its mode, but most intelligible in its effects; wrought by the Spirit of God in the secrecy of his goings, yet distinctly cognizable by us in the results of his workings: still, a mere change, and not an addition. This change is all that we can have; and it is enough, as well as all that is possible. As the issue of our literal resurrection will be to “fashion our vile bodies into a likeness to Christ’s glorious body”; so the issue of this spiritual resurrection is, to refashion our fallen souls into a likeness to his more glorious Godhead. J. S. S.—God had no rest from the creation till he had made man, and man can have no rest in the creation till he rests in God. The human spirit never rises to its original glory till carried up on the wings of faith and love to its original copy. Charnock.

11. For “neither,” better “no such thing as”; and it ought to be “Greek and Jew,” “circumcision and uncircumcision.” The apostle says that there is no such thing as “Greek and Jew,” i. e., the distinction between them. The last four have no copula, and should stand, “barbarian, Scythian, bondman, freeman.” A.

Christ is all. “Christ—in the divinity of his nature; Christ—in the perfection of his atonement; Christ—in the prevalence of his intercession; and Christ—in the love of his heart, and in the power of his arm, is the rock on which I rest; and now, death, do your worst.” (Thus spake John Rees on his dying-bed.)

12. For “bowels of mercies,” read “an heart of pity.” A.—Kindness. Instead of absorbing everything toward yourself, and making all things minister to the great Self-idol, you will become expansive and forthgoing. You will be considerate of the interests and character, the comfort and feelings of others, and to do good and communicate you will never forget. Humbleness of mind. This is the grace which lies prostrate at God’s footstool, self-abasing and self-disparaging, amazed at God’s mercy and abhorring its own vileness. Meekness. The grace which, from beneath that footstool, lifts up a candid and confiding eye, accepting God’s smile of Fatherly affection, and adoring those perfections which it can not comprehend. And “long-suffering, forbearance, forgiveness,” those self-denying and self-conquering graces, which not only give none occasion of offense, but are not easily provoked—those magnanimous graces, which will strive to overcome evil with good, to live it down and love it down, and which, if all effort should fail, will not be lost, but come back in peace and joy to your own bosom. Hamilton.

13. Forgiving. If it is in us to forgive, in any real and properly Christian sense of the term, it will not be that we can somehow be gotten down to it, by the expostulations of brethren, nor that we only do not expressly claim a right to stay in our grudge, or the hurt feeling raised by the wrongs of our adversary, till he comes to us in a better mind. Perhaps he ought to come, or to have come long ago, but that is nothing as regards our justification. If we know how to forgive, we shall be like Christ our Master, we shall be giving ourselves for our adversary, circumventing him by our prayers, contriving ways to reach his tenderness and turn the bad will he is in, taking pains that we may get him into the right again. H. B

15. The peace with God procured to the believer through Christ, the peace which has its life in God, of which they are assured in union with him, that peace, amid all fluctuation, is the controlling, the determining element in the Christian life. N.—We make a great mistake when we say there is strength in passion, in the exhibition of emotion. The real strength and majesty of the soul of man is calmness; “the peace of God” ruling; the word of Christ saying to the inward storms, “Peace!” and there is “a great calm.” From the apostle’s words we infer that peace is attainable, and within the reach of our own wills; that if there be not repose there is blame; if there be not peace, but discord in the heart, there is something wrong. There is a peace that will enter there if you do not thwart it; there is a Spirit that will take possession of your soul, provided that you do not quench it. In this world we are recipients, not creators. In obedience and in gratefulness, and the infinite peace of God in the soul of man, is alone deep rest and repose. F. W. R.

16. The word of Christ. The literal word of Christ is one of the most wonderful things that ever has been in the world. All at once, up in Galilee, a silent man—for he was then known only as a man—began to speak. Amid friends, and foes, and crowds of thoughtless, indifferent people, the speaker continued to speak; and as he spake the word grew and multiplied, and became increasingly a living spiritual force in the life of the whole nation. And he did all that was done by his word. The word of Christ dwelt in this world richly before it was committed to writing. When this Epistle was written they had not the gospels. They had, as yet, little, comparatively, even of the apostolic writing; but they had the word of Christ in its newness, its energy, its vitality. A. R.—The testimony of Jesus is the spirit of prophecy, and the person and work of Immanuel are the great burden of the Bible. And to regenerate souls it is this which makes the Bible dear. It is the word of Christ, concerning himself and from himself, the word of which He is the beginning and the ending, the all in all. Hamilton.

Dwell in you. Let it inhabit you. Let it make house and home of you. Yield yourselves up as sacred dwellings, to be occupied and filled with the word of Christ. This means that, willingly, other tenants shall not be suffered to remain unless they are in full agreement with this chief dweller. The word of Christ touches and transmutes everything else. All thoughts are ruled, all cares are hallowed by it, and all enjoyments made safe, and pure, and good. It must be this much, or it can be nothing vital. Christ’s word in the morning—selfish prudence all through the day? That will not do. Christ’s word for the religious service—the word of man for the mercantile transaction? Surely not. Christ’s word for sickness, for sorrow, for death, for the funeral, the grave—other words than His, any that are most pleasant, for times of health and happiness? That never can be. Let the word of Christ dwell in you!

“Richly”—in great abundance and readiness; in its best forms, in its sweetest fragrance, with all its refreshing, luminous, guiding powers. Fill yourself with it. Open all the doors that it may come in. The word is nigh thee. It is in thy mouth and in thy heart, if only thou wilt, if thou wilt but let it dwell in thee richly. It is everything to have a real faith in Christ, and in his blessed gospel, and a real sense of the love of God therein, to be answered by our love and obedience for ever. Life with some has few turns and changes, inward or outward; but, with Christ and his word in the heart, it will be in the main what life ought to be, a passing from darkness into light, a growing through grace into glory. A. R.

This verse should run thus: “Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly; in all wisdom teaching and admonishing one another” (this is the highest use of speech, as it looks toward man) “in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing thankfully in your hearts to the Lord” (this is the highest use of speech, as it looks toward God). These two ends, then, are edification and praise. And the minstrelsy of psalms and hymns and spiritual songs has often brought the Christian out of a state of mind in which prayer seemed a labor and a drudgery, if not an impossibility, into that calm and holy frame in which he could again put forth spiritual energies, and has found himself able to renew his interrupted converse with God. E. M. G.

Hymnody actively educates, while it partially satisfies, the instinct of worship; it is a less formal and sustained act of worship than prayer; yet it may really involve transient acts of the deepest adoration. But, because it is less formal, because in using it the soul can pass, as it were, unobserved and at will from mere sympathetic states of feeling to adoration, and from adoration back to passive although reverent sympathy, hymnody has always been a popular instrument for the expression of religious feeling; and from the first years of Christianity it seems to have been especially consecrated to the honor of the Redeemer. H. P. L.—Good hymns are concentrations of the deepest experience and ripest thought, crystallized into the most beautiful forms of language. A hymn should be a concentrated sermon, a compressed force entering the mind, there to put forth expansive power, acting with holy pressure upon heart and life. Havergal.

17. “Whatsoever ye do, in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Do all, that is to say, for the sake of the character, as revealed to you, of him whom you love; do it all, giving thanks unto God and the Father by him. And then, in the parallel passage at the close of the same chapter, “Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily,” that is one principle; and next, as the foundation of all real heartiness, do it “as to the Lord.” If you want to live in this world, doing the duty of life, knowing the blessings of it, doing your work heartily, and yet not absorbed by it, remember that the one power whereby you can so act is, that all shall be consecrated to Christ and done for his sake! The burdens of life are too heavy, and its duties are too hard, for any man to bear by himself alone. No one who plunges himself into the affairs of the world without God can easily escape one of two sad alternatives. Either he is utterly wearied and disgusted with their triviality, and dawdles out a languid life of supercilious superiority to his work, or else he plunges passionately into it, and, like the ancient queen, dissolves in the cup the precious jewel of his own soul. There is but one escape, and that is to have Christ Jesus for our Lord, to make his will our law, his love our motive, his pattern our example, his glory our end. A. M.—There is no single sphere of personal, household, political, or social life which can be excepted from the influence of this highest rule of life. “To him

18. WIVES, submit yourselves unto your own husbands, as it is fit in the Lord. Husbands, 20 love your wives, and be not bitter against them. Children, obey your parents in all things: 21 for this is well pleasing unto the Lord. Fathers, provoke not your children to anger, lest 22 they be discouraged. Servants, obey in all things your masters according to the flesh; not 23 with eyeservice, as menpleasers; but in singleness of heart, fearing God: and whatsoever 24 ye do, do it heartily, as to the Lord, and not unto men; knowing that of the Lord ye shall 25 receive the reward of the inheritance: for ye serve the Lord Christ. But he that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons. 1 Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal; knowing that ye also have a 2 Master in heaven. Continue in prayer, and watch in the same with thanksgiving; withal 3 praying also for us, that God would open unto us a door of utterance, to speak the mystery 4 of Christ, for which I am also in bonds: that I may make it manifest, as I ought to speak. 5 Walk in wisdom toward them that are without, redeeming the time. Let your speech be 6 always with grace, seasoned with salt, that ye may know how ye ought to answer every man. 7 All my state shall Tychicus declare unto you, who is a beloved brother, and a faithful 8 minister and fellowservant in the Lord: whom I have sent unto you for the same purpose, 9 that he might know your estate, and comfort your hearts; with Onesimus, a faithful and beloved brother, who is one of you. They shall make known unto you all things which are 10 done here. Aristarchus my fellowprisoner saluteth you, and Marcus, sister’s son to Barnabas, (touching whom ye received commandments: if he come unto you, receive him;) 11 and Jesus, which is called Justus, who are of the circumcision. These only are my fellow- 12 workers unto the kingdom of God, which have been a comfort unto me. Epaphras, who is one of you, a servant of Christ, saluteth you, always labouring fervently for you in 13 prayers, that ye may stand perfect and complete in all the will of God. For I bear him record, that he hath a great zeal for you, and them that are in Laodicea, and them in Hie- 14 rapolis. Luke, the beloved physician, and Demas, greet you. Salute the brethren which 15 are in Laodicea, and Nymphas, and the church which is in his house. And when this 16 epistle is read among you, cause that it be read also in the church of the Laodiceans; and 17 that ye likewise read the epistle from Laodicea. And say to Archippus, Take heed to the 18 ministry which thou hast received in the Lord, that thou fulfil it. The salutation by the hand of me Paul. Remember my bonds. Grace be with you. Amen.

THERE are careless minds which have no spring of thought in themselves, which are quiet and, in truth, empty till some outward objects come to engage them. This state finds exactly all that it desires in the presence or the near hope of outward objects; the mind lives in its daily pursuits and companions and amusements. What impressions have been once produced are soon worn away. There are other minds which enter keenly into everything presented to them by their outward senses, and which, when their senses cease to supply them, have an inexhaustible source of thought within, which furnishes them with abundant matter of reflection or of speculation. To such a mind doing is most delightful, whether it be outward doing or the mere exercise of thought; either supplies alike the consciousness of power. Where, then, is there room for the less obtruding things of God? Into that restless water another and another image is for ever stepping down, pushing aside and keeping at a distance the sobering reflections of God and of Christ. In our careless state of mind the call to us is to watch; in our over-busy state the call to us is to pray; in our hard state there is equal need for both. And even in our best moods, when we are not hard, nor careless, nor over-busy, when we are at once sober and earnest and gentle, then not least does Christ call upon us to watch and to pray, that we may retain that than which else no gleam of April sunshine was ever more fleeting, that we may perfect that which else is of the earth, earthly, and when we lie down in the dust will wither and come to dust also. T. A.

18-25. All are to be loving, pitiful, and forgiving; all are to praise God with the life and with the lips; all are to consecrate their whole lives to the service of their master, Jesus. And if all, then each separate class; each glorifying God, each serving the Master Christ, in its peculiar place and circumstances; wives and husbands, children and parents, servants and masters. A. (See parallel passage, Eph. 5 : 22-33, 6 : 1-9, Sec. 303. B.)

19. The word “bitter” indicates not so much a special fault to be censured as the fundamental danger and temptation to which the relation is exposed. The reference is to that authority with which the husband is invested, and the abuse of which is his constant peril. The word “bitter” touches this as with the point of a needle. What is called the weakness of woman is really her strength. It springs from the more exquisite delicacy of her organization, both intellectual and physical, by which she is fitted for the more delicate and tender offices which she is called to discharge. The dependence to which all this adapts her is not her degradation, but her glory. It betrays, then, only the folly of him who is unable to distinguish betwixt subordination and inferiority, and who fails to remember that subordination in office often obtains where there is absolute equality in rank. B. M. P.

23. To be faithful in the perishable things of this world is a great thing in the eyes of our Lord. It does not matter in what material we work, whether it be mean or costly. “Do all things,” saith the apostle to servants, and to us all, “heartily, as unto the Lord.” The most common and trivial work is to be connected with the deepest. Take an interest in it; do it with all your ability, from the deepest motive, and with the highest aim; do it to please the Lord; he will bless you in the labor, and he will reward you for the work. A. S.—No duties can be imagined lower in the social scale than those of a bond-servant in a heathen family—a position in which many members of the early Christian community found themselves. And therefore, if the duties of those bond-servants admitted of being done heartily, as to the Lord, much more do yours. E. M. G.

The gospel does not unduly slacken the bonds of society, but rather strengthens them; yet over every cleft between men and men she throws the golden bridge of love, which shows its power in cheerful obedience. How good it would be were this truth more commonly understood and grasped! and how much clearer should our view of life be, how much holier its development, if all Christians regarded the apostle’s words as personal, each one viewing them as addressed to himself! “Ye serve the Lord Christ”; thus ye occupy an honorable position, whether ye are placed on the height or in the shade. Van O.—In order to serve Christ acceptably, we have not to revolutionize our lot, nor to seek other conditions than those Providence supplies. The place is nothing; the heart is all. Chambers of patient invalids, beds of submissive sickness, obscurity, weakness, baffled plans—a thousand nameless limitations of faculty, of opportunity, of property—all these are witnesses of silent but victorious faith. In all of them God is glorified, for in all of them his will is done. Out of all of them gates open into heaven and the joy of the Lord. Mercifully the Father has appointed many ways in which we may walk toward his face, and run on his errands. Work is the way for strength; lying still is the way for infirmity, if only there are trust and prayer in both. F. D. H.

1. Masters, give unto your servants that which is just and equal.** Such is the rule that Christianity lays down; but what exactly, in any particular case, would be the just and equal thing to do—what would be the proper wages for the master to offer and the servant to receive—she leaves that to be adjusted between masters and servants, according to the varying circumstances by which the wages of all kinds of labor must be regulated. W. H.

Christianity goes to the slave, and tells him he is the Lord’s freedman; it goes to the master, and tells him he is Christ’s servant. It tells both master and slave that they are brethren. It goes to the king, and tells him he is the subject of a higher power; it goes to the subject, and tells him he may become a king and priest to God. It raises all men to the level of a common immortality; it depresses them all to the level of a common sinfulness and exposure; it subjects all to a common accountability; it offers to all a common salvation; it proposes to all a law of perfect equity and a principle of universal love; and then it leaves these principles and motives to work their own effect, assured that, in proportion as they act, they must change the nature, if not the name, of all visible institutions opposed to its spirit. M. H.

2. Continue in prayer.** Prayer, with outstretched arm, fetches from the inexhaustible reservoir above those rich supplies of the oil of divine grace, fed by which the Christian lamp of faith will burn with a steady and increasing brightness; till, having guided the believer through the journey of life, cheered by its gladdening ray the gloom of the chamber of death, and even darted a bright gleam of heavenly light deep down into that dark valley through which he must pass to the city of his God, it will there be absorbed in the blaze of light that burns around the throne. Kirke White.

Watch in the same. When we pray, it is that we may not be led into temptation, that we may have the victory over the world and its allurements, that we may be kept from the evil, that God will give us grace to walk through these scenes so unfriendly to piety without being ensnared by them. And then to plunge voluntarily into the midst of them and live in them as though the soul could be satisfied with them for ever, this surely is not to watch unto prayer, it is to contradict the prayer and hinder our prayerfulness. R. S. S.—We must watch before prayer in order to dismiss the world from our thoughts, to gather up our minds in God, and to implore the Holy Spirit’s help. We must watch during prayer, to guard against distraction, against the incursions of evil thoughts, against wanderings of mind and decay of fervor. We must watch after prayer, in order that we may act consistently with what we have been imploring of God, wait his time for answering us, and not lose the visitation of grace. Bp. Wilson.—With thanksgiving. This element in devotion, and essential charm of Christian life, Paul never forgets.

5. They are to consider the influence of their example, not only on those within the Church, but on those without. Unbelievers observe closely, perhaps suspiciously, the behavior of professed believers; and they will pay little heed to words, however wise, if unsupported in those who speak them by a discreet and upright walk. “Redeeming the time” always accompanies practical wisdom. It is meant that a Christian should seize and use well every opportunity to do good and to promote the glory of Christ. D. F.

That strange, awful thing, Time! sliding, gliding, fleeting on—on to the cataract; and then the deep, deep plunge down, bearing with it and swallowing up the world and the ages, until every interest that now seems so great and absorbing is as a straw on the mighty bosom of a flood. Let but a man possess his soul with this idea of Time, and then unworldliness will be the native atmosphere he breathes. F. W. R.—Time is a valuable material, because what we bring out of it is our own and ours for ever. It is something that we shall carry with us when time itself is no more. The image of our life hewn out of these years is our living self, our character, our conscious being—every deed or thought that has gone to make up what we are. This is the true wealth—what a man is in himself. What unspeakable treasures are hid in these unexplored years; what inconceivable heights and degrees of blessedness; what after-memories of holy living and beneficent action; what riches of penitence, humility, and love! And, of all that we quarry out of this mine, nothing shall be lost, not a grain, not a fragment. The value of time as material is seen, too, from the fact that it is never given but once, and consequently, when lost, can never be regained. God’s providence says, “Use it now or never.” Thus we see time’s value. It is the material of life. No mine is so rich or abundant. Its results last. They are eternal. What we draw from it is our own and ours for ever—the only thing that is, and, when lost, it can never be recovered. E. H. G.

6. Though pious speech may be rejected as cant when not sustained by corresponding conduct, it is when so supported a great instrument of good. Let it be “always with grace” as befits the utterance of men under grace; and let it be “seasoned with salt,” not dull, prosy, or insipid, but having point and pertinency so as to be relished and remembered. D. F.—The secondary use of speech is to please and be entertaining to each other in conversation. This is in every respect allowable and right: it unites men closer in alliances and friendships; gives us a fellow-feeling of the prosperity and unhappiness of each other; and is in several respects serviceable to virtue, and to promote good behavior in the world. And, provided there be not too much time spent in it, if it were considered only in the way of gratification and delight, men must have strange notions of God and of religion, to think that he can be offended with it, or that it is in any way inconsistent with the strictest virtue. Bp. Butler.

We leave an innocent and pleasant circle, and feel more animated and cheerful; but this feeling may be true or not. If there has been nothing truly important and great, the conversation which has amused and interested us by its brilliancy and humor leaves nothing behind to strengthen us when we return to the cares, the duties, and the fatiguing troubles of life. But, if such social intercourse has given us a deeper feeling or more correct understanding of some truth of eternal importance, if it has afforded us a new insight into some department of the spiritual life, or gladdened us by the discovery

of beautiful and noble aspirations of some kindred soul who is interested in the same great purpose, then we carry away an enriched feeling of life into the hours of labor and toil. There is stirred within us a high energy, which brings to us protracted blessing. Something out of the stream of living water has flowed into our soul, and we are strengthened for the next moments of anxiety and work. Schleiermacher.