June 17

PART II.—Colossians 1:18.

IN reflecting on the headship of the church, we must be struck with its dignity. How glorious — how illustrious — how divine is the church's head. We are reminded also of its all-sufficiency. There can be no lack with such a head — no perplexity nor imbecility: the head of the church is emphatically full of grace and truth. Neither ought we to forget the efficient sympathy of this head. Jesus, as the head of the body, feels all that his members suffer. He is touched with a feeling of all their infirmities, and he knows well how to succour and support in temptations and trials,

"For he hath felt the same."

In all their afflictions he is afflicted, and whatever is done to them he considers it as done to himself: the most insignificant member cannot suffer without the sympathizing consciousness of the head. The duties which devolve upon the members of the body to the head, obviously include sacred reverence: to him belongs all honor and glory: we are to revere and honour him even as we revere and honour the Father: his glory we are to seek in all things, and whatever we do, we are to do it in his name. As the head, he also demands our sub- iection and obedience: we are his disciples only if we follow and obey him; if his grace influences our hearts, and if we rejoice to keep his command- ments. There must likewise be conformity and resemblance between the members and their head: as members of Jesus, we are partakers of his divine nature; "beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, we are changed into the same image from glory unto glory, even by the Spirit of the Lord." As we once possessed the image of the earthy, by grace we are renewed, and bear the image of the heavenly. How endearing, interest- ing, precious, and everlastingly momentous, is the union between Christ and his church!