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THE PASTOR'S PRAYER FOR 
 THE PEOPLE'S WEAL, 
 
 A PRACTICAL EXPOSITION OF ST PAUL'S PRAYER 
 FOR THE EPHESIANS. Eph. iii. 14-21. 
 
 JAMES SPENCE, D.D 
 
 MINISTER OF THE POULTRY flHAPEL, LONDON, 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 JAMES NISBET AND CO. 21 BERNERS STREET. 
 
 M.DCCC.LVII. 
 
EDINBURGH: 
 
 PRINTED BY BALLANTYNE AND COMPANY, 
 
 PAUL'S WORK, 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 INTRODUCTORY LETTER, 
 SECTION I. THE BENDED KNEE, 
 
 II. THE DIVINE INVIGORATION, 
 
 III. THE GLORIOUS GUEST, . 
 
 IV. THE WONDERFUL LESSON, 
 V. THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT, 
 
 VI. THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY, 
 
 1 
 
 5 
 24 
 44 
 64 
 84 
 104 
 
I mcC, NOV 1881 
 
 \tkhologio&l 
 
 '':■"'» 
 
 
 TO THE 
 
 MEMBERS OF THE CHURCH 
 
 WORSHIPPING m THE POULTRY CHAPEL, 
 LONDON. 
 
 My Dear Friends,— I dedicate this 
 little book to you. Be pleased to regard it, 
 and accept it, as an evidence of my earnest 
 desire for your highest welfare. The sub- 
 stance of it you have already heard in the 
 public instructions of the sanctuary : its 
 perusal, with the Divine blessing, may be 
 useful to you in private. Amidst the ear- 
 nest toils and ceaseless activity of life in 
 this great metropolis, it is quite impracti- 
 cable for a pastor to have such opportunity, 
 
11 DEDICATION. 
 
 as he might desire, of sacred and profitable 
 intercourse with the members of his flock 
 at their own homes. FeeHng this diffi- 
 culty, and often mourning over it, I have 
 thought that the following pages might 
 be kindly received by you, as containing 
 counsels, suggestions, and wishes from me 
 on the most important themes that can 
 engage our thoughts, or enlist our affec- 
 tions. My highest aim is to stimulate, en- 
 courage, and direct your spiritual life : and 
 the object in this case may be gained, if 
 you will make it a book for the closet — 
 hearing in it my sincere prayer for you — 
 letting it speak with you of that Saviour 
 whom to trust and love is the way "to 
 glory and virtue ;'' and of that Divine 
 Father whom we should seek to follow 
 " as dear children ;" and of that Holy Spiiit 
 who is the " Comforter" of the present life, 
 and the "Earnest" of the glorious future. 
 
DEDICATION. iil 
 
 It is my hope, of course, in sending 
 forth these pages, that they may find their 
 way to "regions beyond you," and that 
 they may be honoured -of God to cheer 
 and strengthen other hearts as well as 
 yours. That it may be so, I am sure 
 you will all unite with me in fervent 
 prayer to Him who still walketh amidst 
 the "golden candlesticks,'^ and holdeth 
 " the stars" in His right hand ; and to 
 Him we shall ascribe the praise. 
 
 I am, 
 
 In the fellowship of the Gospel, 
 
 Your affectionate pastor, 
 
 JAS. SPENCE. 
 
 Clapton Square, December 1856. 
 
I t 
 
 gf 
 
 REC. NOV 1881 
 THSOLOGIG&L 
 
 SECTION I. 
 
 ''For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is 
 named." — Ephesians iii. 14, 15. 
 
 " Behold he prayeth ! " Christ saw and heard 
 him ; and with these words sought to silence the 
 fears of Ananias regarding the persecutor, and to 
 indicate the change which had taken place in 
 Saul, who was henceforth to be a noble preacher 
 of the cross which he had despised. Before then, 
 Saul had doubtless often prayed in accordance 
 with the customs of the Jews ; but he had prayed 
 as a self-righteous Pharisee. But the Lord had 
 graciously appeared to him on his way to Damas- 
 cus : his stubborn heart was bowed and softened, 
 and now he prayed, for the first time, as a peni- 
 
6 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 tent and contrite sinner. Prayer was, in his new 
 circumstances, the token of his penitence, the ex- 
 pression of his conscious worthlessness, the act of 
 his vokmtary surrender to a Divine Master, and 
 the breathing of his soul after God. And how 
 often, after that momentous crisis in his history, 
 was this Apostle on his knees. He was a chosen 
 vessel unto Christ, to bear the Saviour's "name 
 before the Gentiles, and kings, and the children 
 of Israel" (Acts ix. 15). In his own spiritual 
 life he found the value of prayer. "With his 
 "thorn in the flesh," and with his outward 
 " fightings " and his inward " fears," he proved 
 by it the sufficiency of his Master's grace, and 
 was enabled even to glory in infirmities (2 Cor. 
 xii. 7-9). In seasons of affliction and trial, 
 when exposed to the malignity of foes, and the 
 fury of persecutors, he could solace his soul in 
 the prison-cell and at the midnight hour, and 
 strengthen himself for further endurance by com- 
 munion with God, in the utterance of prayer and 
 the uprise of song. 
 
 But, as an apostle, his fears and desires and 
 hopes went far beyond himself There " came 
 upon him daily the care of all the churches " 
 (2 Cor. xi. 28), and often must this care have led 
 him to the throne of the heavenly grace on their 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 7 
 
 behalf. Scattered up and down throngli his 
 epistles, we frequently meet with declarations of 
 the outbursting desires of his heart, and with the 
 record of his prayers for the early Christian con- 
 verts. Few of these supplications are so full as 
 this presented in behalf of the Christians at Ephe- 
 sus ; none more impressive, affectionate, or beau- 
 tiful. In them he had a peculiar, a kind of 
 fatherly interest. He had been the means of 
 planting the Christian Church in that city, the 
 population of which was given up to idolatry ; 
 and for three years he had laboured amongst 
 them as an evangelist and teacher with holy 
 anxiety and untiring zeal. God crowned his 
 work with eminent success. He seems ever after 
 to have retained a fond and Hvely impression of 
 Ephesus. On his last journey to Jerusalem, when 
 he came to Miletus, remembering that, in all 
 human probability, he would never be so near 
 Ephesus again, he sent for the elders of the 
 Church. Th^y hastened to meet him ; and there, 
 probably on some quiet spot by the shore, he 
 spoke to them, reminding them of his past la- 
 bours among them, and urging them to fidelity 
 and vigilance ; and then, as if in harmony with 
 Nature's sublime praises, in the constant rush 
 and ripple of the sea-waves, he took leave of 
 
8 THE PASTOE'S PEAYER. 
 
 them, by kneeling down and praying witli them 
 all (Acts XX. 36). The scene was one of solemn 
 and affecting interest. Often would these elders 
 subsequently call it to mind, and derive, from the 
 very memory of it, a solace and a stimulus in 
 their holy work of feeding the flock of God. 
 
 But though the Apostle was not to see them 
 again in the flesh, he did not forget them ; and 
 here he declares that he bore them on his spirit 
 at the throne of grace, and prayed that they 
 might be blessed with all spiritual blessings in 
 Christ.* Thus he prayed for them ; thus he gave 
 himself to prayer for the churches ; thus by toil 
 and prayer he sought to discharge the responsi- 
 bility which rested on him as an ambassador for 
 Christ. Not by work without prayer. Prayer 
 strengthened him for work ; prayer left his work 
 for blessing in the hands of the Master whom he 
 served. And with something of apostolic spirit 
 and apostolic earnestness will every faithful pas- 
 tor intercede for the people of his charge, seeking 
 Heaven's gracious might to supplement and bless 
 his feeble efforts on their behalf He will often 
 bow his knees to the Father for their protection, 
 their progress, and their prosperity, that they 
 may be stedfast and unmoveable, always abound- 
 
 See Appendix, Note A. 
 
THE BENDED KNER 9 
 
 ing in the work of the Lord. There is much in 
 these words by which the Apostle introduces his 
 various petitions for the Ephesian Christians, 
 which may teach us generally regarding the 
 nature, the method, and the encouragement of 
 prayer. 
 
 I. 
 
 IN THE APOSTOLIC SUPPLIANT WE MAY SEE THE 
 NATUEE OF PEAYER. 
 
 " For this cause/' he says, " I bow my knees." 
 The words, " for this cause," throw us back to 
 the first verse of the chapter, for all between it 
 and the verse before us seems to be parenthetical. 
 We then see, in imagination, an apostle on his 
 knees before God, and praying for the people 
 whom he sought to instruct and edify. Prayer 
 in itself does not require the bending of the knee ; 
 but to bend the knee is the most becoming atti- 
 tude for prayer. Under the open canopy of 
 heaven, in the silence and retii^ement of the 
 closet, amidst the bustle and crowd of the 
 thronged highway, at the desk in the counting- 
 house, behind the counter in the shop, anywhere, 
 everywhere, the soul may send up its desire, 
 breathe forth its aspiration, and raise its petition 
 
10 THE PASTOE's prayer. 
 
 to God. Yet the bending of the knee is becom- 
 ing and beautiful in the feeble and sinful creature 
 approaching God; and though Paul says nothing 
 of prayer, says only that he bowed his knees, yet 
 no expression describing prayer could be more 
 significant and suggestive. The form is taken 
 for the thing itself In prayer the bending of 
 the knee may be regarded as the expression of 
 reverential homage, of unaffected humility, of 
 earnest supplication, and in a sense also of hope- 
 ful confidence. Now these are the very elements 
 which constitute and characterise true prayer. 
 
 The bended knee is the token of reverential 
 homage, — of homage and reverence. Thus Solo- 
 mon kneeled down and spread forth his hands to 
 heaven, when he off'ered his remarkable prayer at 
 the dedication of the temple. Thus the dying 
 Stephen kneeled down when, in the conscious 
 presence of his Saviour, to whom he had just 
 commended his spirit, he prayed for his mur- 
 derers. And so always the bending of the knee 
 is the expression of reverence and homage. And 
 such homage on the part of the creature is be- 
 coming and necessary. Prayer is an approach to 
 the Eternal, a drawing nigh unto God, an effort 
 to speak to the Infinite and the Almighty King ; 
 it is the uprise of the thoughts and desires to 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 11 
 
 the Creator and Father of all, to whom supreme 
 homage is due, and who is to be had in reverence 
 of all who would seek or see His face. Where is 
 reverence called for, if not in the presence of the 
 Hearer of prayer ? 
 
 The bended knee is the token of imaffected 
 humility, a humility that does not feel itself 
 worthy to stand in addressing the God of life and 
 the Father of glory. In true prayer there is ever 
 the sense of demerit, the consciousness of infinite 
 distance from the majesty and perfection of God, 
 and the honest desire to take the position of self- 
 abasement and lowliness. There may be the 
 burden of guilt, the accusing voice of conscience, 
 the sense of shortcoming and waywardness ; and 
 the feeling of the soid vdll be a feeling of unwor- 
 thiness, which may be expressed in the words, 
 " What am I that I shoidd be permitted and pri- 
 vileged to speak to God ? '' So many of our 
 words in prayer must be words of confession or of 
 lamentation, that the bending of the knee, in the 
 presence of God, is the becoming token of humi- 
 lity before Him. 
 
 The bended knee is the token of earnest sup- 
 plication. The attitude is not only the instinc- 
 tive expression of petition, but conveys also the 
 idea of earnestness. He that throws himself on 
 
12 THE PASTOE'S PRAYEE, 
 
 his knees before human power, or rank, or wealth, 
 is anxious to obtain its favour or avert its frown. 
 The posture indicates the earnestness. And what 
 earnestness and fervour should there be in prayer 
 to God ; an earnestness which will be as a wrest- 
 ling with God — an earnestness which will not take 
 a denial, and will not be sent empty away. With 
 God is the storehouse of blessing and grace, the 
 power and the willingness to help ; with us are 
 destitution, demerit, and need. In approaching 
 Hun, therefore, we may well go full of ardent 
 desire and of earnest importunity. 
 
 And may we not say also that the bended knee 
 is the token of hopeful confidence 1 Prayer has 
 no meaning except there be faith that it will be 
 listened to ; and the very posture indicates the 
 belief that importunity and earnestness will be of 
 avail. " He that cometh to God must believe 
 that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them 
 that diligently seek Him'' (Heb. xi. 6). The 
 child, conscious of having offended his parent, 
 approaches with trembling, yet with hope, that 
 the eye which now flashes with disapprobation 
 may soon beam with forgiving affection. His 
 prayer is inspired by his belief in parental love. 
 And so it is ever with the childi'en of God. 
 
 Such are the elements and characteristics of 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 13 
 
 true prayer. Thus the apostle prayed for his 
 children in the faith ; thus the faithful pastor 
 prays for himself and his flock ; thus every be- 
 liever prays for his own spiritual Hfe and the 
 prosperity of God's cause. Homage, humility, 
 supplication, faith, enter into the very essence of 
 prayer. With the burdened spirit, that would 
 pour forth its wants and its desires before God, 
 there are no philosophical doubts which debar or 
 delay its approach. It does not wait — it cannot 
 wait for philosophical replies to sceptical ques- 
 tionings about the value or virtue of prayer. It 
 knows God's power and wilHngness ; it feels its 
 own need, and in the exercise of petition for itself 
 or intercession for others, it throws itself on God's 
 fulness and grace. Prayer is the instinctive cry 
 of the spiritual life ; no less the dictate of human 
 nature, than the requii^ement of Divine revela- 
 tion. " Ha ! " says the sceptic, " God is immu- 
 table, and prayer is unreasonable : He cannot 
 change his plans for you." " That immutabi- 
 lity," says the Christian, "is my very encou- 
 ragement to pray. He has declared Himself the 
 hearer of prayer : it has been part of His plan 
 with moral beings from the first to provide for 
 the influence of prayer ; and because He will not 
 depart from His character, nor change His plan, 
 
14 THE PASTOE'S PKAYEE. 
 
 I approach Him, with humble confidence, in 
 prayer/' " Ah ! but/' says the sceptic again, 
 " nature is uniform, and prayer is absurd ; nature's 
 processes cannot be altered for you/' " There is 
 much," replies the Christian, "very much in 
 nature which I do not know ; many influences and 
 agencies beyond my knowledge or my power to 
 know, and some one of these influences God him- 
 self may touch, and thus bring to me the blessing 
 which I need ; and that, too, without interrupting 
 the sequence of cause and efiect, or interfering in 
 any way with the uniformity of nature. As truly 
 as I may ask and obtain the help of my fellow- 
 creature in any work of difliculty to me, without 
 interfering with the regularity of physical agency, 
 so surely I may ask and obtain the help of my 
 Father and God. And if it be so in the physical, 
 how much more in the moral and spiritual rela- 
 tions of my being." To deny the necessity and 
 influence of prayer is to deny the moral govern- 
 ment of God, and to say, that there is no agency 
 higher or holier in the universe than those whose 
 eflfects we see in the material works of nature 
 around us. Prayer, as well as labour, is part of 
 God's plans for His creatures to make progress by; 
 and asking, as well as effort, is a link in the 
 chain with which God would bind humanity to 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 15 
 
 Himself. In the moral govermnent of God from 
 the first, prayer has had to fill an important place, 
 and by it we may throw ourselves into the very posi- 
 tion of harmony with His designs and His will. 
 
 Prayer then is the utterance of want, the ex- 
 pression of desire, and the aspiration of hope, 
 borne on the wing of faith to the throne of the 
 Eternal. It is good to pray for ourselves ; it is 
 blessed to intercede for others. " The effectual 
 fervent prayer of a righteous man availeth much" 
 (James v. 16). Happy Christian, of whom it 
 may with truth be often said, " Behold he pray- 
 eth ! " 
 
 II. 
 
 IN THE GLOEIOUS OBJECT ADDRESSED WE SEE THE 
 METHOD OF PRAYER. 
 
 " I bow my knees,'' says the Apostle, " unto 
 the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ.'' God is 
 addressed as the Father of Jesus Christ, This 
 does not imply, on the part of our Saviour, any 
 inferiority of nature, or any posteriority of exis- 
 tence. The relationship, in truth, marks identity 
 of nature, and identity of prerogative, " with infi- 
 nite, eternal, unchanging, and reciprocal love." 
 There is, of course, much in the designation which 
 
16 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 we cannot comprehend, much in the relationship 
 between the Father, the Son, and the Spirit, 
 beyond our present capabilities of knowledge. 
 But, in the fact that God is here addressed as the 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, there is impor- 
 tant truth which teaches us the true method of 
 prayer. 
 
 It is not the universal Father, in a vague and 
 indefinite sense, that we are to address ; not 
 simply the Great Being, who is alike the Creator 
 of the seraph and the worm, but the Father of 
 Christ the Saviour and Guardian of humanity. 
 It is by this relationship to Christ that we know 
 God. The Divine Being, away from Christ His 
 only begotten Son, is to us an inscrutable majesty 
 and an infinite mystery ; but, in approaching Him, 
 we go to Him as the Father of our Lord. Christ 
 we know, and God is revealed in Christ. He 
 has come down to us in the person of His Son, 
 and made Himself known in our nature, in aU 
 the perfection of His righteousness, and the riches 
 of His mercy. In Jesus we see the evidences of 
 His existence and rule, the discovery of His pur- 
 poses, and the very qualities of His heart. As we 
 behold Christ we behold the manifestation of 
 God, " the brightness of His glory and the express 
 image of His person/' so that Jesus could truly 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 17 
 
 say, " I and my Father are one ;" " He that hath 
 seen me hath seen the Father/' The utterance of 
 prayer, therefore, to God, as the Father of Christ, 
 is not to an infinite abstraction, but to a living, per- 
 sonal, glorious Being, who thus has made Himself 
 known to us. 
 
 Nor is this all ; God is reconciled in Christ. 
 He is, "in Christ, reconciling the world unto 
 Himself." As guilty creatures, therefore— as way- 
 ward and disobedient childi-en, — we can in no 
 other way properly approach God, but as the 
 Father of Christ. Jesus took upon Him our 
 nature, took upon Him the form of a servant, 
 and became obedient unto death, dying, the Just 
 for the unjust, that He might bring us to God. It 
 is as the Father of Christ that God can hear His 
 erring children cry unto Him ; and it as only as 
 the Father of Christ that they can, with fearless 
 confidence and conscious joy, enter into His pre- 
 sence. There God meets with us : in this myste- 
 rious relationship to Jesus He deigns to hear 
 us ; there our view of Him gets definiteness, our 
 hope gets shape and form, and our faith a resting- 
 place. Had He not so revealed Himself, and been 
 reconciled.to us, how could sinful man have ever 
 lifted his wistful eye, or raised his burdened heart 
 to his Father and God ? Jesus, as the Son of the 
 
 B 
 
18 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 Highest, " is not ashamed " to call his people 
 "brethren/' We know to whom we pray, when 
 we pray to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ ; 
 and we can ap23roach God acceptably in no other 
 character, than as the God who sent His Son to 
 redeem us from all iniquity. 
 
 But the language of the Apostle contains 
 another thought which we must consider. 
 
 HI 
 
 IN THE HIGH RELATIONSHIP DECLARED WE LEARN 
 THE ENCOURAGEMENT TO PRAYER. 
 
 " Of whom the whole family in heaven and 
 earth is named.'' The phraseology requires us to 
 apply the term to God as the antecedent. It is 
 of Him, or from Him, that the whole family in 
 heaven and earth is named. The relation of the 
 family is to the Father. He is the Head of a 
 numerous offspring, all entirely dependent on 
 Him. This family is brought into especial re- 
 lationship to God through Jesus Christ. From 
 this family some would exclude the holy angels ; 
 but the terms are wide, and seem to comprehend 
 the whole circle of holy and intelligent beings. 
 We know that redemption has affected the moral 
 constitution of the universe, and that angels are 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 19 
 
 interested in its influences and triumphs. By it 
 the different orders of beings are connected to 
 Grod the Father, and to one another by a new 
 and tender tie. Through it, we are " come unto 
 Mount Zion, and unto the city of the living God, 
 the heavenly Jerusalem, and to an innumerable 
 company of angels, to the general assembly and 
 church of the first-born which are written in 
 heaven " (Heb. xii. 22, 23). " The whole family 
 in heaven and earth,'' then, is a collective title for 
 God's inteUigent creatures, who, by creation, or 
 redemption, bear His image. It iacludes the 
 angels who have kept their first estate ; it in- 
 cludes the spirits of just men made perfect ; it 
 includes all on earth who are on their way, 
 through grace, to everlasting glory. This illus- 
 trious family derives and bears its name from 
 God. This may be regarded as comprehending 
 its existence, its character, its bond of unity, and 
 its privileges ; all are from God. Its very exists 
 ence is from God, for by the power of His good- 
 ness He preserves the angels in their holy alle- 
 giance to Him ; and by the power of His grace 
 He redeems and adopts the sinful children of 
 men. Its character is from Him, for all His 
 children are conformed to His image, and made 
 partakers of His nature. The Father s Hkeness 
 
20 THE pastok's peayer. 
 
 is imprinted on every member of this glorious 
 family. Its bond of unity is from Him, and in 
 Him, as the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, for 
 it is " by Christ that He reconciles all things unto 
 Himself, whether they be things on earth, or 
 things in heaven '' (Col. i. 20). Through Jesus, 
 as the only begotten Son, they are not merely 
 subjects, but children, merged into one family, 
 and become as brethren. And all its privileges 
 are from God, whether they refer to the blessings 
 and triumphs of the j)resent, or to the unspeak- 
 able glories of the future. To God, then, as thus 
 in the wondrousness of His love a Father, a 
 Father through Christ, and the Father of such a 
 family, the Apostle addresses his prayer. Nor 
 was such a designation meaningless or unde- 
 signed, as applied to the Hearer of prayer. It 
 affords the highest encouragement for all God's 
 children to pray ; encouragement, the full force 
 of which we are not able here to ai3preciate or 
 understand. Some aspects of it we may see. 
 
 A relationship so wonderfully entered upon by 
 God, and so gloriously sustained, warrants the 
 faith of abundant provision for all the children. 
 As we have seen, it is in Christ that God becomes 
 the Head of this numerous family. In reference, 
 therefore, to its very existence and character, we 
 
' THE BENDED KNEE. 21 
 
 have brought before us all that is involved in the 
 incarnation, sacrificial death, and mediatorial do- 
 minion of Jesus. Then may we not confidently 
 say, " He that spared not His own Son, but de- 
 livered Him up for us all, how shall He not with 
 Him also freely give us all things ? " (Rom. viii. 
 82). Assuredly the Divine Father did not form 
 this family, did not enter on this relationship, 
 to mock the necessities, or trifle with the aspira- 
 tions of any of His children. He will be in them, 
 and for them, and to them, all that they need here, 
 and all that they need for ever. 
 
 And a relationship so wondrously comprehen- 
 sive warrants the faith of varied and abundant 
 provision for all. It is not as if one class of 
 beings only were allied to the Father by the bond 
 of filial affection, but angels and saints, cherubim 
 and seraphim, apostles and martyrs, the redeemed 
 in glory, and the believer here fighting with sin 
 and the devil, — all are the children of God, so that 
 in Him there must be sufficiency and variety of 
 blessing, and of glory for all their need. The 
 bond that bound prophets and apostles to God 
 binds us ; yea, the bond which binds angels to 
 the eternal throne, binds the weakest behever 
 now ; and the God of angels is the God of saints. 
 " One family in heaven and earth ! '' The infinite 
 
22 THE pastor's peayer. 
 
 Father who has taken the spirits of the departed 
 to Himself, into the mansions of blessedness, is 
 the Father who now watches over the bereaved 
 and sorrowing ones on earth, and who is prepar- 
 ing them for the same home and the same joys 
 above. How cheering for the widow and the 
 orphan is the thought, that the God who is the 
 Father of the deceased now in glory, and who 
 provides for the felicity and triumph of eternity, 
 is their Father in time, with an eye that never 
 slumbers, and an ear that is never closed, and an 
 arm that iS never shortened so that it cannot 
 shield and save. What encouragement have they, 
 in the very extent of His fatherhood, to pray unto 
 Him! 
 
 Besides, a relationship so exquisitely tender 
 warrants faith in all that it involves and requires. 
 No tie is more sacred, no union more holy than 
 that of the family circle. The domestic constitu- 
 tion is from God, and He often uses it to illus- 
 trate the tenderness and strength of the relation- 
 ship of His people to Himself He is a loving 
 and a merciful Father, a wise, a perfect, and a 
 glorious Head ; and having bound His children 
 to Himself, and to each other, by a tie which 
 death itself cannot sever, He will not leave them 
 without protection or supply ; neither here in 
 
THE BENDED KNEE. 23 
 
 the stormy wilderness, nor hereafter in His house 
 above. He will be their Father and their God 
 {(Sis^ver and ever. " If ye, then, being evil,'' said 
 the Saviour, "know how to give good gifts to 
 your children : how much more shall your heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him." What more do we need ? The Spuit is 
 the guide and comforter of the present, the pledge 
 and earnest of the glorious future. 
 
 What encouragement, then, have we to prayer 
 for ourselves, and to mtercession for others. We 
 can go to God as a Father, who comjDrehends in 
 the ckcle of His love all in the universe who bear 
 His image ; and He has taken this relationshij) on 
 Himself through the mediation of His Son Jesus 
 Christ our Lord. Let us then be more fervent 
 and frequent in prayer ; let us ever come with 
 holy boldness to the throne of grace, assured that 
 we never can ask too much from Him who sent 
 His Son to be the propitiation for our sins. In 
 prayer and intercession there is a blessedness 
 which none of us has yet fully realised, a power 
 which none of us has yet fully tried. 
 
 Now we come to see the blessings for which 
 the Apostle prayed in behalf of the Ephesians. 
 
24 THE pastor's PEAYEE. 
 
 SECTION 11. 
 ®^c gibhtc l/nbtgnniibiT. 
 
 " That lie would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, 
 to be strengthened with might by his Spirit in the inner man.'" — 
 EphesianSj iii. 16. • 
 
 This prayer presents in the range of its peti- 
 tions the highest spiritual blessings which mortals 
 can here enjoy, and in terms so significant and 
 sublime that human thous^ht cannot exhaust the 
 richness of their meaning. Some difficulty has 
 been felt, and various opinions formed, as to the 
 precise connexion of the various parts of the 
 prayer. How many petitions are there ? If more 
 than one, are they in any way dependent on each 
 other? Do the blessings that are sought arise, 
 the one out of the other ? Or are they distinct, 
 and without any dependent relation ? Some com- 
 mentators say that there is only one petition, and 
 that all the other expressions are subordinate 
 clauses : others allege that every separate expres- 
 sion is to be regarded as a distinct petition. This 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 25 
 
 is not the place for any mere verbal criticism of 
 the text ; but it appears to me, after much exami- 
 nation, that the various thoughts in this prayer 
 form a sort of sacred ladder on which the desires 
 of the Apostle rise one above the other, until they 
 reach a climax in his wish, that those for whom 
 he prayed might be " filled with all the fulness of 
 God." According to this view, which I shall 
 endeavour to confirm, the several petitions of the 
 prayer were connected in the mind of the Apostle ; 
 and in our exposition of them are to be considered 
 as arising the one from the other.* We have 
 now to do with the first petition, in which he 
 prays that God, according to the riches of His 
 glory, would strengthen them with might by His 
 spirit in the inner man. Several points are sug- 
 gested for our thought and examination. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE GIFT OR BLESSING THAT IS SOUGHT. 
 
 It is strength — inward, spiritual strength — , 
 "to be strengthened with all might in the inner 
 man.'' How expressive is the language — how full 
 of meaning every term which the Apostle employs. 
 
 Look at the nature of this blessing. It is 
 
 * See Appendix, note B. 
 
26 THE pastor's prayee. 
 
 strength — not bodily, not merely mental or in- 
 tellectual, but spiritual — strength and might for 
 "the inner man/' This is its direction and its 
 character. It is strength for that part of our 
 nature in which sj^iritual life has its seat and 
 dominion, in which spiritual renewal takes place, 
 and in which, or by which, we are especially 
 allied to the nature of God. We speak of a man 
 of a strong mind — a man of a strong heart — a 
 man of a strong will. All these attributes may 
 belong to us as we come into the world, by the 
 law of our creation, without the possession of 
 that strength for which the Aj^ostle prays, and 
 which is the special gift of the Spirit. This 
 strength is a power or principle from God infused 
 into them all, and so imparted to the soul that it 
 becomes strong in the strength of the Eternal. 
 It is not an aj)pendix, or an addition, or a mere 
 supplement to our being, but a power which 
 becomes a part of our being, which is assimilated 
 with it, and gives it tone, character, and vigour. 
 Men in the world seek after strength ; they wish 
 to be strong in body, strong in their worldly 
 standing, strong in their social position, strong in 
 their relative influence. But they generally seek 
 to reach this by some external process, by some- 
 thing which comes as an aj^pendix to thek outer 
 
THE DIVINE myiGOEATION. 27 
 
 life, such as worldly property, attainment, or 
 pleasure ; or by some change in their position or 
 outward circumstances. But none of these things 
 contribute to the true strength of the spiritual 
 nature ; nor can it be promoted or secured by 
 them. The grand blessing and gift to be desired 
 is inward mio-ht — strenoth for the inner man. 
 He who is surrounded by much human glory, 
 and can call much worldly property his own, and 
 can number many friends, and can wield an exten- 
 sive influence over his fellows, may be weak, 
 indeed, in the true attributes of spiritual power 
 and manly might ; while, on the other hand, a 
 man may seem helpless, destitute, and forlorn in ^ 
 the eyes of the world, as much so as the patriarch 
 Job after all his calamities and afflictions had 
 befallen him, and yet be strong in the possession 
 of that might which invigorates, fortifies, and 
 ennobles character. 
 
 And how great and constant is the need of 
 this blessing ? There can be no doubt of this in 
 a world of sin, and amidst the frailness of fallen 
 humanity. We need it daily, hourly, unceasingly. 
 And yet how prone we are to forget this — to 
 think that our " mountain stands strong," whether 
 it be in character or in principle, in attainment 
 or in resolve. Hence, alas ! we are often left to 
 
28 THE pastor's peayer. 
 
 betray our weakness. Fallen humanity, even 
 when sanctified, is ever frail in itself, easily 
 defeated, and easily overcome. There was fine 
 philosophy as well as piety in the Apostle's decla- 
 ration, " When I am weak then am I strong.'' 
 It is when we are most conscious of our own 
 native weakness, that we are most likely to be 
 strong and to prevail ; when we lie most lowly, 
 that we shall rise to the greatest spiritual height. 
 We need strength to believe and trust — a strength 
 that will rise above inward fears and outward 
 difficulties— a strength that will lay hold of God 
 and cling to Him amidst all perplexity, commo- 
 tion, or sorrow. We speak of the power of faith, 
 and we have tried and felt its power ; but to 
 exercise that faith, often in the face of improba- 
 bilities and in spite of hindrances and hopes 
 deferred, requires a strength which must come 
 from above. We need strength to resist; for no 
 attribute of character is more demanded in a 
 world of evil influence, of unholy persuasion, 
 and of alluring selfishness, than resistance. The 
 oak resists the buff'eting of the storm, and waxes 
 stronger from its very force : the rock resists the 
 billows, which in fury lash its sides and never 
 rest from assailing its strength. So to be strong 
 for the resistance of evil in all its forms, we need 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 29 
 
 constant supplies of inward might. And do we 
 not need strength to act ? for right action is the 
 duty and privilege of life. We are not here to 
 live for ourselves, but for God ; and in living for 
 God how much is there for us to be and do. The 
 performance of daily duty, however humble and 
 unostentatious, often requires a strength which 
 the natural man does not possess. It may be 
 duty to our God and Saviour, or a duty that we 
 owe to ourselves, or some duty that our relation- 
 ship to our fellows requii^es from us ; and faith- 
 fully to discharge it in sj^ite of fears or frowns, 
 in the midst of the tears of some and the 
 threatenings of others, demands a strength which 
 is not our own. If holy, self-denying, and god- 
 like action is to adorn and crown our Uves, we 
 must be strong. And do we not also require 
 might to endure — strength for endurance ? Many 
 are the tribulations through which the godly have 
 to pass ; many are the scenes of trouble, vexation, 
 disappointment, and affliction in which they have 
 to bear a part : and to bear trial with resignation, 
 to endure without a murmuring sigh or a com- 
 plaining word, to feel that all things are working- 
 good for us, to manifest the spirit of calm sub- 
 mission and holy acquiescence, requires a strength 
 which is not natural to the soul of man. How 
 
so THE PASTOE'S prayer. 
 
 true it is, then, in all aspects of the Christian 
 life, that we need strength — strength of heart, 
 and mind, and soul — inward spiritual strength 
 which the world cannot give, and which when 
 given it cannot take away. 
 
 Thus we are reminded of the SOURCE of this 
 strength. The Apostle prays that He, " the 
 ^Father of our Lord Jesus Christ," would grant 
 this strength to the Ephesian Christians. It 
 must come from God : for He alone has it, and 
 He only can bestow it. Hence we read of "going 
 in the strength of the Lord God'' (Ps. Ixxi. 16), 
 of " feeding in the strength of the Lord " (Micah 
 V. 4), of " making God our strength " (Ps. lii 7), 
 and of " taking hold of the strength of Jehovah '' 
 (Isa. xxvii. 5). And how often do we find the 
 ancient saints calling upon God as their strength, 
 boasting of Him as their strength, and praising 
 Him as their strength and stay. It is true that 
 all power and aU strength belong to God, and 
 come from Him. The "strength of the hills is 
 His " (Ps. xcv. 4). " Strength and beauty are in 
 His sanctuary'' (Ps. xcvi. 6). "In the Lord 
 Jehovah is everlasting strength " (Isa. xxvi. 4), 
 and truly " blessed is the man whose strength is 
 in Him " (Ps. Ixxxiv. 5). The strength that we 
 need then must be divinely imparted, must be 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGORATION. 31 
 
 sought for from God, and can only be bestowed 
 by Him. The abiding consciousness of this 
 would 23revent many a faiku-e in character, and 
 many a disappointment in hope. It is not in 
 what the world seeks, nor in what it trusts, nor 
 in what it delights, nor in what it glorifies, that 
 the true strength of the soul can be obtained. 
 This comes from God alone, and can only be 
 found in Him. In the consciousness of this 
 truth, let us ever look up, that we may be strong 
 in the Lord and in the power of His might. 
 
 11. 
 
 THE MEANS BY WHICH THIS BLESSING IS REALISED. 
 
 It is "by His Spirit,'' the power, presence, and 
 working of the Holy Spirit of God in the soul. 
 We are this day reminded of His glorious out- 
 pouring and wondrous influence on the day of 
 Pentecost.* Then new truth was revealed to the 
 Church, then new power was manifested in her, 
 then new triumphs followed in her train. And 
 the Divine Spirit is ever the agent in the process 
 of the soul's spiritual invigoration. "He bears 
 God's commission, and does His work," in 
 strengthening the souls of His people. In their 
 
 * This discourse was preached on Whitsunday 1856. 
 
32 THE pastor's peayee. 
 
 relation to God and truth and eternity, He 
 alone can invigorate the inner man. It is He 
 that imparts spiritual life, and He must strengthen 
 and nourish it. This is especially manifest when 
 we contemplate the nature of the true life of the 
 inner man. All life is of course renewed and 
 strengthened, according to its particular nature. 
 It can only be invigorated by that which assimi- 
 lates or may be assimilated to that nature. If a 
 plant, for instance, be drooping and giving evi- 
 dence that its life is enfeebled and decaying, no 
 external props that you can place underneath it 
 will be of avail to revive it. The canker, if there, 
 must be removed from it. It must have light, 
 and rain, and manure, and all the nourishing 
 influences which may be assimilated to itself by 
 the varied processes of nature's chemistry. So, 
 if a living body is enfeebled through disease, and 
 the powers of its vitahty are begmning to decay, 
 you cannot throw strength into that shattered 
 frame, or re-invigorate that life by a new dress 
 or a mere outward application. It must be by 
 the proper communication of nourishing food, or 
 remedying medicine, which the elements of the 
 life, by nature's power, may lay hold of, and turn 
 into means of health and sources of strength. 
 Whatever cannot assimilate or be assimilated to 
 
THE DIVINE mVIGORATION. 33 
 
 the nature of the life cannot possibly promote its 
 energy and vigour, its development and growth. 
 Now, for the life of the inner man, what power 
 can assimilate but the power of the Spirit of God? 
 Wliat can be assimilated but the truth of, God? 
 And surely proper views of man^s spiritual nature 
 and necessity, even in the light of a just and 
 truthful mental philosophy, would shew the ab- 
 surdity and faUacy of all notions of mere sacra- 
 mental efficacy. These external things, as rites, 
 cannot by any process be assimilated to* the life 
 of the soul, and cannot of themselves, from their 
 very nature, minister to its strength. This is the 
 work of the Spirit of God by means of the truth 
 which He teaches and appHes, and which the 
 sacraments in part only signify and symboHs-e. 
 
 We may in some respects see how the Spirit 
 alone can thus strengthen. He only can reach 
 the inner man and operate on it. His nature is 
 spiiitual, and, as the Infinite Si^irit, He can send 
 His influence into the human soul, when every 
 other influence might be resisted and opposed. It 
 is in virtue of His natm^e, that the work is specially 
 ascribed to Him, of thus renewing and sanctifying 
 the human soul. He has free access- to the soul 
 in all its aspects and conditions, at all times and 
 under aU circumstances. He may move it as He 
 
 C 
 
34 THE pastoe's peayee. 
 
 wills; for the hearts and minds of all are in His 
 hands. There is, indeed, a mystery about His 
 working which we cannot understand : we see its 
 results, but we cannot trace its nature or its 
 mode. " The wind^ bloweth where it listeth, and 
 thou hearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell 
 whence it cometh, and whither it goeth: so is 
 every one that is born of the Spirit '' (John iii. 
 8) ; and so, we may truly say, is every one that 
 is strengthened by the Spirit with His holy might. 
 Every barrier to the full triumph of the truth in 
 the soul may be overcome by Him ; all deadness 
 may be exchanged for life and activity ; all indif- 
 ference may be destroyed ; all obduracy and 
 obstinacy may be broken down ; all prejudices 
 may be vanquished and removed under the work- 
 ing of His power. No other influence on the 
 human soul can be like His — none so j)otent, none 
 so effective, none so thoroughly congenial to our 
 proper natm-e. And in all this there is no vehe- 
 mence, no force, no undue excitation : but like the 
 mighty operations of nature in which the most 
 sublime results are secured by the most silent and 
 unseen influences, man's soul is quickened, re- 
 newed, and strengthened by an influence from 
 above which works with the outgoing and energy 
 of his own created and finite but immortal spirit. 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGORATION. 35 
 
 Nothing can mthstand the effect of His power in 
 the soul when He works : and yet He does not force 
 or drive or compel, but draw and win and gently 
 subdue, disarming hostility itself. Our prayer and 
 effort should ever be to let Him work in us. 
 
 And remember also, that it is the special pro- 
 vince and pecidiar function of the Divine Spirit, 
 to apply to the inner man the truth and blessing 
 wrought out by Christ. Strength is imparted by 
 the special application of these to the soul. It 
 is He that makes the truth drop as the rain, and 
 distil as the dew, on the inner life. It is He that 
 wields it as a hammer, and makes it operate as a 
 fire upon the hardened heart. How full is His 
 influence, and how extensive the range of His 
 operations. Every avenue to the human soul is 
 open to Him, and every power is under His con- 
 trol. It is His to fill the intellect with clearer 
 views of truth, and higher perceptions of duty 
 and privilege,, so that with truth thus revealed 
 to us, we may be strengthened with inward might. 
 It is true that the Spirit is in the "Word, so that 
 the oracles of God are living oracles : but much 
 more than this is true. A human author may 
 write with such intensity of faith, and such ardour 
 of enthusiasm, as to throw his spirit into his book, 
 and the reader may catch that spirit and imbibe 
 
36 THE PASTOE S PRAYER. 
 
 it. But if difficulty should occur to him in the 
 perusal of the book, the author is not there to 
 explain his meaning, or to solve the difficulty, or 
 to give clearer comprehension to the reader. But 
 with the truth of God, the Holy Spirit is present 
 to teach the man who hears or reads it, to give 
 him clearer views of it, and to apply it to his 
 conscience and his heart. Thus he may be 
 divinely strengthened. So it is the Spirit's pro- 
 vince to furnish the will with motive, to unfold 
 its meaning and enforce its power. Although 
 men are everywhere surrounded with motives 
 that bear upon their inner life, yet they are im- 
 acknowledged and unfelt, until the Spirit' lay 
 them on the soul. It is His work also to re- 
 plenish the heart with love ; for He enables us to 
 see the holy objects of affection, and infuses into 
 the heart the holy principle of love, so that in 
 the full enjoyment of that which really is its life, 
 the heart may be strengthened with sacred might. 
 So likewise it is the work of the Spirit to establish 
 the conscience with purity. It is only when He 
 lifts it up from its dethronement and degradation, 
 that it can truly echo the voice of God within ; 
 and as He operates through the truth of the cross, 
 so conscience reaches peace, regains the ascend- 
 ancy, and becomes powerful in us for hoHness and 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 37 
 
 obedience. Thus the whole soul is strengthened 
 mth the midit of God " in the inner man/' And 
 what more is needed to strengthen us than this ? 
 or how can we be truly strengthened otherwise, 
 than by the Spirit of the living God? With 
 clearer and higher views of truth, with more 
 loving hearts, with dispositions more conformed 
 to God, and with purer and more tender con- 
 sciences, shall we not be strong? Yes, this is 
 godlike strength : this is the true strengthening 
 process for the soul, and this is the blessing which 
 we should individually seek — to be strong in the 
 Lord, and in the power of His might. 
 
 And let us remember that this process can be 
 realised and enjoyed anywhere — that the Spirit 
 can strengthen us under all circumstances. There 
 are some who are conscious of weakness in their 
 exposure to temptation, and in their experience 
 of trial, and they think that in another situation 
 and under different circumstances they would be 
 stronger, and would manifest more of the manli- 
 ness of the Christian life. And yet this idea may 
 be \VTong, as it certainly is unnecessary to cherish 
 it. Just where you are, you may be strengthened 
 with all holy might. Do you think you can be 
 in any situation of difficulty, in any position of 
 exposure or danger, where the Spirit of your 
 
S8 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 Heavenly Father cannot see you and reach you, 
 and where He cannot make you strong ? Banish 
 such an unworthy thought. Kemember Daniel 
 and the three Hebrew youths, made strong when 
 all human power and all hellish malice seemed 
 against them (Dan. x. 19). You maybe strong 
 where you are — in the midst of surrounding 
 wickedness or folly, in the midst of temptation, 
 or evil, or worldliness in all their forms ; but the 
 strength must come from God, and must be im- 
 parted by His Holy Spirit. We cannot explain 
 the mode, btit each one for himself can ascertain 
 the fact. Every child of God may know what it 
 is to be led by the Spirit, to walk in the Spirit, 
 and to be filled with the Spirit. No agency is 
 more powerful, no agency is so free. " If ye then, 
 being evil, know how to give good gifts unto your 
 children: how much more shall yom' Heavenly 
 Father give the Holy Spirit to them that ask 
 Him" (Luke xi. 13). Why then are we so often 
 weak and feeble — childish when we should be 
 manly — easily overcome when we should be bold 
 and valiant ? Is it not because we do not live 
 in the Spirit, do not pray for the Spirit, do not 
 cherish the Spirit's power as we ought ? It is 
 only as we walk in the Spirit that we shall not 
 fulfil the lusts of the flesh : it is only as we are 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 39 
 
 strengthened by the Spirit that we can be truly 
 strong. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE MEASURE IN WHICH THIS GIFT MAY BE EE- 
 CEIVED, AND THE GROUND ON WHICH IT IS TO 
 BE EXPECTED. 
 
 It is " according to the riches of His glory."' 
 This is one of those expressions used by the 
 Apostle, in which the grandeur of his thought 
 seems to overflow his words ; and every word is 
 rich in meaning. It would be difficult to get two 
 words in the English language more expressive in 
 their way, than the terms " riches '' and " glory."' 
 And here the riches of the Divine glory are at once 
 the measure and the pledge of the strength which 
 we may receive. Human riches are glorious to 
 many — all the glory that they seek. Human glory 
 is rich — rich in many attractions that influence 
 the natural mind. But here, there is a heaping 
 up of these terms in relation to God — "the riches 
 of His glory."' The glory of God is the eflPulgence 
 of His character as He has disclosed it, of His per- 
 fections as He has made them known, and of His 
 doings as they are presented before us in nature, 
 providence, and redemption. How rich, then, 
 
40 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 how infinitely rich and inexhaustible is His glory ! 
 All creation proclaims His natural glory. What 
 beauty, what variety, what wealth, what goodness 
 everywhere ap]3ear in the works of the material 
 creation ! These shew forth His Godhead and His 
 power. His glory shines in the sea, and in the 
 stars, and on the everlasting hills. And accord- 
 ing to the amazing riches of that glory we may be 
 made strong. His moral glory appears in our 
 own moral nature ; in the law under which He 
 has placed all moral beings ; in the infinite dis- 
 tance of His nature from evil ; and especially in 
 that marvellous provision of wisdom, righteous- 
 ness, and mercy, which He has made for our 
 peace and purity and salvation in the Gospel of 
 His Son. Here we see His own infinite fulness ; 
 and it is to this display of His perfections that we 
 are ever referred for a view of the Divine glory, 
 and a true estimate of the Divine character. In 
 the cross of Christ the perfections of Jehovah 
 meet in glorious effulgence ; and the gift of good- 
 ness and love, of righteousness and grace dis- 
 played there, is not only the measure, but the 
 ground of every good and perfect gift from Him. 
 He that has given so much will "withhold nothing 
 that is necessary. He that has given so much 
 will give again and again, as a God only can give 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 41 
 
 to meet the need of His children. " He that 
 spared not his own Son, but delivered him up 
 for us all, how shall he not with him also freely 
 give us all things?'' (Rom. viii. 32). He will 
 give strength to his people '' according to the mea- 
 sure of the gift of Christ." The wealth of heaven, 
 in an unspeakable gift, has been poured out upon 
 us, and according to the riches of the glory dis- 
 played in this gift shall we receive spiritual 
 strength. It is difficult, if not impossible, for us 
 adequately to conceive all that this measure im- 
 plies. We are sure it has the idea of infinite ful- 
 ness. With Him is inexhaustible wealth of 
 blessing and of power — a blessing that can meet 
 our need at all times and under all circumstances, 
 and a power that can adapt itself to every aspect 
 of our condition, and every stage of our life. The 
 depth of the riches of the Divine glory never can 
 be fathomed ; and vast as the number is of those 
 who have been made strong by this heavenly 
 might, it is inexliaustible and infinite still. So, 
 further, we see in this the idea of gracious gene - 
 7'osity. This fulness with God is for communica- 
 tion to His creatures. We may be heirs of His 
 glory; we may share in His holiness ; we may be 
 partakers of His nature. And there is evidently 
 also the idea of ungrudging bestowment. No 
 
42 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 stinted measure is with God ; He gives without 
 upbraiding, gives freely to the weak, the way- 
 ward, and the undeserving. No one is sent 
 empty away. We are never straitened in Him ; 
 for He gives strength and bestows blessing like a 
 God, "according to the riches of His glory" — a 
 glory that we cannot estimate, and riches that are 
 unsearchable. With a measure of strength beyond 
 our thous;ht have we not seen the inner man 
 often strengthened ? We have seen the outward 
 frame decay, and pin after pin of the earthly 
 tabernacle taken out, so that it has been ready to 
 fall into the dust ; and yet, amidst all, the inward 
 man has been graciously renewed, and the soul 
 has been triumphant in the valley of the shadow 
 of death. This was strength from God. We 
 have seen the timid and the humble, shrinking 
 from publicity and acclamation, yet trusting in 
 God, and quietly accomplishing wondrous achieve- 
 ments in the progress of righteousness and truth. 
 This was only by strength from God. In a time 
 of defection, and amidst general coldness in the 
 Christian community, we have known one solitary 
 spirit bear up and wrestle so perseveringly in 
 j)rayer, that the blessing has been vouchsafed and 
 the Church wondrously revived. This was by 
 strength from God. 
 
 Who then would not be strong? Who would 
 
THE DIVINE INVIGOEATION. 43 
 
 not thus be strengthened with all sacred might ? 
 " Ask, and it shall be given you, seek and ye shall 
 find/' We are commanded to be strong, and 
 with such a gift before us, and with such an 
 Agent to make it truly ours, well may we be 
 strong. Some, in the true "battle of life," 
 tremble and are afraid; but God says, "Be strong/' 
 Some, as they perceive the frowns and hear the 
 threats of the world, are filled with anxiety ; but 
 God says, " Be strong/' Some, as they lift their 
 eye to the future, can see nothing but gloomy 
 clouds, lowering storms, and j^ortentous shadows, 
 and they are unnerved ; but God says, "Be strong/' 
 Take the sentiment of the Apostle's words, 
 then, not simply as an article of your creed, but 
 as a grand spiritual fact to be realised, that by 
 the Spirit of the living God you may be 
 strengthened, — made strong in faith, strong in 
 resistance, strong in duty, strong in endurance, 
 and strong in hope. Let this be the subject of 
 your prayer for yourselves, honest, earnest, and 
 fervent ; and Divine power will be vouchsafed to 
 you. "Be filled with the Spirit;" drive Him not 
 from you by unbelief and indifierence ; yield your 
 souls to His power, and He will strengthen you 
 with an inward might before which duty will be 
 a delight, trial will be deprived of its gloom, and 
 death wUl not have a terror for you. 
 
44 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 SECTION III 
 
 " That Chi-ist may dwell in your hearts by faith." Ephesiaus 
 iii. 17. 
 
 It has been already stated, that there is mani- 
 festly a close and important connexion between 
 the different expressions or petitions of this Apos- 
 tolic prayer. What then is the connexion be- 
 tween this petition and the preceding ? Is the 
 indwelHng of Christ intended as the result of the 
 inward strengthening, or prayed for as the means 
 of that invigoration ? There is evidently here a 
 distinct blessing asked for, but a blessing that 
 presented itself to the Apostle's mind, I think, 
 as one to grow out of the sj)iritual and inward 
 strengthening. The connexion between them, 
 therefore, appears to be a connexion of purpose 
 or design on the one side, and of result on the 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 45 
 
 other. He j^rayed for inward strength on theii' 
 behalf, that they might more thoroughly realise 
 and enjoy the indwelling j^resence of the Saviour. 
 There is probably an allusion to "the habitation 
 of God," mentioned chap. ii. 22 ; and the 
 strengthening of the soul would be to render it 
 more fitly an abode, for the permanent presence 
 of Christ. The renewed soul is the temple of 
 God, the dwelling-place of Christ, but "in a 
 temple that was crazy or was built of loose and 
 incongruous materials the Divine Guest could not 
 be expected to dwell."* In the inner man 
 spiritually strengthened, Christ would take up 
 His abode. 
 
 Assuming that such is the connexion, how 
 sio;nificant and beautiful is the sentiment, " That 
 Chrilt may dwell in your hearts." Why is it 
 that that widowed mother every night, ere she 
 retires to rest, puts a light in the window of her 
 lonely cot on the top of the cliff, round whose 
 base roll and rage and roar the waves of the rest- 
 less ocean? It is because the memory of her 
 shipwrecked sailor-boy dwells in her heart, and 
 that memory prompts her to warn others of the 
 dangers of the coast which proved fatal to him. 
 Why is it that the emigrant on the distant shore, 
 
 * Comment, on Ephesians, by J. Eadie, D.D., in locum. 1854. 
 
46 THE pastoe's pkayer. 
 
 in the land of liis adoption, rejoices at the ap- 
 pearance of every sail in the horizon which has 
 come from his native coimtry ? It is because his 
 fatherland, and his kindred there, dwell in his 
 heart. Why is it that the bereaved husband 
 often retires to think of the past enjoyment of 
 his home, and to gaze on the likeness which he 
 ever carries in his bosom ? Is it not because the 
 memory of the departed is sacred to his soul, and 
 her form and voice, her manner and affection 
 still dwell in his heart? Man's heart was formed 
 by God for being a dwelling-place ; and blessed are 
 they whose hearts have occupiers worthy of them. 
 Here we have suggested to us three simple 
 ideas — The Guest, The Abode, The Eesidency or 
 Indwelling. 
 
 I. 
 
 THE GUEST. 
 
 " That Christ may dwell in your heart.'' How 
 much is said of Christ in the Scriptures ! In 
 fact, nowhere else can we find information re- 
 garding Him. The burden of symbol and pro- 
 phecy is Christ. The hero of the inspired singer, 
 of the enraptured seer, and of the sacred historian 
 is Christ. Poet, prophet, and priest alike speak 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 47 
 
 of Clirist as the coming Deliverer, or as the 
 crowned Conqueror. How much does it re- 
 veal of the spiritual hfe of Paul, for instance, 
 carefully to read such an epistle as this to 
 the Ephesians. His thoughts and feelings, his 
 desires and hopes, his joys and triumphs, all 
 cluster around Christ, and find their vitality in 
 Him. There is scarcely a verse without some 
 allusion to Him, either in relation to His person 
 or His work. And here he prays that Christ 
 may dwell in the hearts of those to whom he 
 wrote. There must be something illustrious and 
 extraordinary, therefore, in the person and charac- 
 ter of Christ to warrant such a prayer. And 
 need we say that there is ! " Unto them who be- 
 lieve He is precious," and the more precious the 
 more that they know of Him. I think it may be 
 fairly taken as a fact of experience in the Chris- 
 tian life, that the more it grows, the higher will 
 become the soul's conceptions of the mediatorial 
 glory, personal dignity, and relative worth of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ ; and the more that He is 
 known, so much the more constant and abiding 
 will be His dwelling in the heart. Who then is 
 this that is thus to dwell, or ought thus to dwell, 
 in the heart ? 
 
 If we view Him in His person, w^e see what a 
 
48 THE pastoe's prayer. 
 
 glory there is in the mystery of godliness, " God 
 manifest in the flesh/' He who thought it not 
 robbery to be equal with God took upon Him 
 the form of a servant, and became obedient unto 
 death, even the death of the cross. In Christ 
 Jesus we see the glory of Godhead, dwelling in 
 the temple of His humanity, — two natu^^es in one 
 person. In a sublime sense, to us or by us not 
 fully comprehensible, He was the Infinite and 
 equal Son of the Almighty and the Eternal 
 Father ; and in every part of His earthly life may 
 be read the inscription, Emmanuel, God with us, 
 for He was the image of the invisible God. If we 
 vievf Him in his work, we see what a glory there 
 is in redemption — God, in Christ, reconciling the 
 world unto Himself We see Him as the Eriend 
 of sinners and the Redeemer of men, as the Victor 
 of death and the Conqueror of sin and hell. He 
 came to give his life a ransom for many, to 
 make his soul an offering for sin, to die, the Just 
 for the unjust, to seek and to save the lost ; and, 
 in the execution of his Godlike enterprise, tra- 
 velling onward in the greatness of his strength, 
 we see Him, at length, bow his head on the cross, 
 and, in dying, shake the pillars and foundations 
 of Satan's empire, and pass from the shame of an 
 apparent defeat, to the throne of a glorious and 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 49 
 
 everlasting victory. Our life and liberty, our 
 hope and our salvation, are all in Him, and in the 
 work which He has done. If we view Him in His 
 character, we see what a glory there is in moral 
 perfection. He was holy, harmless, undefiled, and 
 separate from sinners. He dwelt with siimers, 
 communed with sinners, received sinners, and 
 saved sinners, yet was Himself sinless and un- 
 stained. What a force of truth, what a majesty 
 of goodness, what a lustre of purity, what a store- 
 house of grace was in Him ! The mind never 
 seems to weary in contemplating His character 
 and career ; there is nothing that pains it, for even 
 its celestial brilliancy is toned down by the veil of 
 humanity through which it is seen. 
 
 And this is the guest that is to dwell in the 
 heart. Never, certainly, was there such a guest pro- 
 posed for the temple of our manhood — the Christ 
 of God, the Saviour of men, the Lord of angels. 
 
 You will observe, therefore, that it is not simply 
 a historical fact that is to dwell in the mind or 
 the memory — not even the fact of the incarnation, 
 or of the death or the resurrection of Christ. 
 That is not the proper guest for the temple of 
 humanity. Nor is it merely a theological doctrine, 
 which may have its place and dominion in the 
 understanding ; not even by itself abstractedly the 
 
 D 
 
50 THE pastor's prayee. 
 
 doctrine of the atonement, or of justification by- 
 faith in the Saviour — the very elements of all 
 gospel doctrines. Neither a fact nor a doctrine 
 can adequately fill the heart. It is a Divine per- 
 son only vs^ho can rightly dwell there ; not the fact 
 that Christ died, but Christ himself that died and 
 rose again ; not the doctrine of justification by 
 faith, but Christ himself, the Justifier of all who 
 believe. Let this never be forgotten by us, for 
 we come short of the gospel if we come short of 
 this. And yet how many profess to receive the 
 facts, and 'to glory in the doctrines, who have 
 never yet received, or submitted to, Christ him- 
 self. It is He that must dwell in the heart, for 
 He only can fill it with effect and with j)ower. It 
 is quite possible to believe the fact of the incar- 
 nation and the doctrine of the atonement, while 
 the Incarnate and the Atoning One himself does 
 not dwell in the heart, and has no proper place in 
 the temple of manhood. Christ must be the 
 guest, occupying the throne of the affections, and 
 enshrined in the very temple of the soul. 
 
 11. 
 
 THE ABODE. 
 
 " That Christ may dweU in your hearts.'' The 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 51 
 
 heart is, then, the j^roper dwelling-place of Christ. 
 The heart of man was formed for a tenant — for 
 some power, or principle, or person to occupy it. 
 The intellect may be uncultivated or dormant, 
 the conscience may be seared and powerless, while 
 the heart may be full. It will have an occupant. 
 It may be regarded generally as the seat and scene 
 of the inner life of man ; or it may be regarded 
 more particularly, as I have just hinted, as the 
 seat of the desires, the emotions, and the affec- 
 tions. The idea of the apostle in this prayer 
 may point to the whole inner man, with a special 
 view, however, I think, to the seat of feeling and 
 affection, for he immediately speaks of being 
 " rooted and grounded in love." 
 
 Christ cannot dwell in the outer court of 
 humanity ; He must reign on the throne of man- 
 hood ; He must be in the inner shrine of the 
 living temple. And yet, alas ! how many keep 
 Him in the outer courts. They may suspend His 
 name, so to speak, on the outside of their nature, 
 but He does not dwell in their hearts : they may 
 call themselves His disciples, but there is no cor- 
 responding consecration of their inner life. It is 
 not enough that He dwell in the opinions of men, 
 although many give Him no other abode. They 
 may have generally correct views of His personal 
 
52 THE pastor's peayee. 
 
 glory ; they may profess a high admiration of His 
 mediatorial work, and an enthusiastic attachment 
 to orthodoxy ; but to cherish merely the fact of 
 His divinity as a theory, or accept the relation of 
 His death to the forgiveness of sin, only as a 
 doctrine, is to let Him dwell in the opinions, 
 without yielding Him a place in the heart. His 
 name to the intellect may be the illustrious symbol 
 of wisdom, and goodness, and power, while it 
 may be as nothing to the heart — without attrac- 
 tion or influence. 
 
 Nor surely is it enough that He dwell in the 
 imaginations of men ; and yet multitudes seem 
 to be satisfied with this. They can feed their ima- 
 gination with sensuous scenes, attractive forms, 
 pictures, crucifixes and relics, and please them- 
 selves with the idea that thereby they cherish 
 allegiance to Christ himself. It would be wrong 
 to say, that the reign of Christ in the heart is 
 incompatible with the j^lay of the imagination 
 over a picture or over a crucifix ; but all history 
 testifies as a fact, that when religion comes to be 
 much a thing of the imagination, it gradually 
 ceases to be much a thing of the heart. 
 
 Christ must, then, dwell in the heart, for the 
 heart is the inner shrine of humanity, from which 
 alone true homage and worship can ascend to Him 
 
THE GLORIOUS GUEST. 53 
 
 — the homage and worship of intelligent, earnest, 
 and supreme affection, such as He claims, and such 
 as He deserves. Christ must dwell in the heart, 
 for the heart is the citadel of manhood, from 
 which influence may go forth to guide the under- 
 standing, and to purify the conscience. The 
 stronghold of humanity is taken when the heart 
 is occupied. The intellect may cherish opmion, 
 the conscience may now and then utter its voice, 
 the imagination may delight in its glowing con- 
 ceptions, and still the course may be unchanged 
 and the character may be uninfluenced ; but if 
 the heart be held and filled, then manhood is 
 captured, and all its attributes will bow to the 
 conqueror. Who so worthy, then, to fill the heart 
 and dwell in it, as the Lord Jesus Christ ? There 
 only can He be the object of the homage and the 
 aff'ection which He deserves. There only will He 
 condescend to abide with man, bringing with 
 Him all the blessings of his grace, and shedding 
 around Him all the influences of His benignity 
 and love. 
 
 Has the Saviour thus a place in our hearts ? is a 
 question which everyone should ask. Where would 
 you wish to place the image of your best, your 
 longest tried, your truest friend ? Where would 
 you wish to jDlace the sacred memorial of a parent 
 
54^ THE pastoe's prayee. 
 
 whose care, and love, and kindness to you have 
 been your very life ? Would it be enough that 
 in your minds you should merely cherish a good 
 opinion of that friend ? Would your fihal nature 
 be satisfied with obtaining a portrait of that 
 parent, that you might occasionally gaze on it, 
 suspended in the best room of your abode ? No, 
 no ; that friend, that parent, must dwell in the 
 heart. You feel that is the only place and position 
 worthy of your own sentiment and regard. 
 Around him your affections cluster — on him your 
 filial love is 'fixed — for him your fondest desires 
 arise. Such a friend is Christ Jesus, deserving 
 the highest place in your hearts, and willing to 
 turn them into His own abode, for the good and 
 glory of your nature. Remember the illustrious- 
 ness and excellence of the guest — the Christ of 
 God, and where should He reign but on the throne 
 of the heart ? 
 
 III. 
 
 THE INDWELLING. 
 
 What is the nature and character of the resi- 
 dency? We speak of Christ dwelling in the 
 heart, and the apostle prays for it, as a high 
 spiritual blessuig ; but what is meant by it ? Is 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 55 
 
 it a spiritual fiction, or a substantial privilege ? 
 Is it a foolish piece of fanaticism, or a holy and 
 sober reality ? To them who believe He is pre- 
 cious, and in their experience the indwelling of 
 Christ is a great, joyous, and divine reality. 
 
 But let us look more particularly at the nature 
 of this residency. " Christ dwells in the heart by 
 faith.'' Then it is obvious that — 
 
 1. This indwelling is spiritual. No other oc- 
 cupation of the heart is possible. It was His 
 spuitual presence that He promised to His dis- 
 ciples when He said, " Lo, I am with you alway, 
 even to the end of the world.'" It is not merely 
 an influence that He sheds abroad, but His per- 
 sonal presence that He spiritually manifests. As 
 one like unto the Son of God walked with the 
 three Hebrew youths in the burning fiery fur- 
 nace, so the Son of God manifests himself to his 
 people, and dwells in their hearts now (Dan. iii. 
 25). This is indicated by the very terms, " dwell 
 by faith." The whole thing is in its nature 
 spiritual ; it may not on that account be dis- 
 cerned by the carnal mind, but is apprehended 
 and enjoyed by those who are taught of the Spirit. 
 In this indwelling of Christ, faith has a twofold 
 power, or a double work. 
 
 (1.) It secures the presence of Christ, for it is 
 
56 THE pastok's pkayer. 
 
 into the soul that believes that He enters. There 
 may be knowledge, there may be admiration, 
 there may be profession ; but unless there is faith, 
 there can be no indwelling presence of Christ. 
 Faith is the evidence of submission and surrender 
 to Him, the token of dependence, and the expres- 
 sion of confidence ; and it is only into the heart 
 thus believing, that Christ Jesus can come and 
 dwell. Nothing else can induce or secure His 
 presence. You remember how, in the days of 
 His flesh, He responded, by the exercise of His 
 Divine power, to the presence of faith ; and mani- 
 fested forth His glory to those who believed on 
 Him. So it is now, for faith has still the same 
 value and spiritual power. Until there be faith, 
 there is no submission ; and how can the Saviour 
 dwell in the heart that has not submitted to Him. 
 There may not be much knowledge, there may 
 not be many outward advantages, but if there be 
 living faith in the heart, there Christ will as- 
 sm'edly reveal Himself 
 
 (2.) Faith realises the presence of Christ. It 
 is, so to speak, the eye which sees Him, by which 
 we reach the consciousness of His sympathy, and 
 the enjoyment of His gracious presence. Accord- 
 ing to faith, simple and confiding, will be the 
 soul's realisation of the Saviour's grace and glory. 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 57 
 
 and its assurance of His divine presence and 
 spiritual power. It is by faith that He is present 
 to the heart in all His merit, virtue, and efficacy 
 as the Saviour of men. It is by faith that He is 
 present to the heart as the object of affection and 
 worship. " Whom having not seen, ye love ; in 
 whom, though now ye see him not, yet believ- 
 ing, ye rejoice with joy unspeakable and fidl of 
 glory '' (1 Peter i. 8). Faith is the jDrinciple, by 
 the exercise of which we commune with Him and 
 abide in Him. Further — 
 
 2. This indwelling is real, though spiritual. 
 It is not a dream of the soul, nor a fiction of the 
 imagination, but a spiritual reality. It is in- 
 fluential and powerful, and can neither be a 
 sentimental notion nor a fanatical delusion. It is 
 a daily and devout experience to the Christian, 
 some points or aspects of which may be profitably 
 traced. 
 
 Christ's presence imparts light, which faith 
 difiuses and reflects. Wherever He is, there is 
 light. His Hfe is the light of men ; and as the 
 living truth, when He enters into the believing 
 soul, His path and presence are the path and pre- 
 sence of celestial Hdit. He brings to the heart 
 the light of the knowledge of the glory of God, 
 shininoj in and from Himself. If our faith be 
 
58 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 weak, the diffusion of this light will be feeble 
 and its reflection imperfect : according to faith 
 will it shine into the understanding, the con- 
 science, and the heart, so that the brightness of 
 His presence within shall be more surely recog- 
 nised and seen. This light from the indwelling 
 of Christ is a reality to every believer, for by it 
 the shadows are dissipated from his moral hori- 
 zon, and he sees all things new. 
 
 Christ's presence conveys life, to which faith 
 gives pulsation and power. The soul is spiritually 
 dead until Christ, by his grace, descends and enters 
 into it. It is He that animates and quickens ; and 
 when He is formed in the soul the hope of glory, new 
 life appears and is develojDed. Faith catches and 
 spreads this life, so that every energy of manhood 
 shall respond to its pulsation. If faith be weak, 
 the life will seem as dormant, and the heart as 
 dead ; but if faith be lively and earnest, it will 
 make the pulse of this true life beat in every 
 power and element of om^ nature. According to 
 faith will there be evidence, that the life from the 
 indwelling of Christ is real, and hence that the 
 indwelling itself is a reality. 
 
 Christ's presence imparts a joy which faith 
 intensifies and spreads. If there be a reality in 
 human life, it is in the power of afi'ection ; and no 
 
THE GLORIOUS GUEST. 59 
 
 emotion is so full of joy as love. But never does 
 the soul truly love the high objects worthy of its 
 affection, until Christ himself is admitted to the 
 throne. Then the affections rise through Him to 
 God as a reconciled Father, and joy unspeakable 
 takes possession of the soul. Then the heart is 
 fiUed ; and faith, working by love, sheds the bless- 
 edness of this affection through the mind, and 
 makes it conscious of being sweetly but power- 
 fully led, by those cords which are truly the bands 
 of a man. Joy through the indwelling of Christ 
 is thus a reality to every believing heart. 
 
 Christ's presence inspires a hope which faith 
 cherishes and brightens. AVlien the Saviour 
 comes into the soul, He is in it the hope of glory. 
 He brings with Him gracious promises, and celes- 
 tial prospects — a living ho]3e that maketh not 
 ashamed. Through faith this hope becomes an 
 anchor of the soul, for faith sees its object, and 
 diffuses the blessedness which its presence brings. 
 As Christ spiritually rises in the soul, it is begot- 
 ten anew to this living and glorious hope. 
 
 No one, then, can doubt that this spiritual in- 
 dwelling of Christ is a reahty and a holy expe- 
 rience in the Christian life. That which can give 
 such light, impart such Iffe, promote such joy, and 
 inspire such hope in the soul, must be a reality. 
 
60 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 With this light and this life, with this joy and 
 this hope, the believer is conscious of a reality 
 which he would not exchange for all that the 
 world calls good, or noble, or great. Truly Christ 
 Jesus makes known His presence to the souls in 
 whom He dwells. His spiritual munificence, and 
 abundant grace, and sanctifying influence are the 
 tokens of His residency in the hearts that humbly 
 trust Him. 
 
 8. This indwelling is constant and pei'manent. 
 This idea is involved in the term " dwell.'' Christ 
 is not to come and tarry like a wayfaring man, 
 for a night, or for a time only ; but to take up 
 His abode in the heart. It is to be His permanent 
 residence in time and for ever ; where He may 
 bestow those blessings, and shed around Him 
 those hallowed influences which most surely be- 
 token the grace and the majesty of His presence. 
 Christ wishes to make his abode with us an abode 
 from which He may not be driven, as assuredly 
 from which He will not withdraw if we cleave unto 
 Him. Sometimes, indeed, through our folly and 
 unbelief and sin, we may lose the consciousness of 
 the presence of our heavenly guest ; amidst our 
 attention to the din and the turmoil of the world. 
 His voice may be drowned, so that we do not hear 
 it ; but this will be to our loss and our shame. 
 
THE GLOEIOUS GUEST. 61 
 
 He does not wish to withdraw from us ; nay, 
 rather He would have us always to cherish His in- 
 dwelling presence. If we are true to Him, He will 
 abide with us — will be with us in sorrow and in 
 joy ; with us in weakness and difficulty ; with us 
 in the sunshine of prosperity, or the gloom of 
 adversity ; with us in the silence of our chamber, 
 in the precincts of the sanctuary, in the scenes of 
 business, in the furnace of affliction, and with us 
 in the valley of the shadow of death. Thus in any 
 enterprise, and in any emergency, we shall never 
 be alone. With such a guest in the heart, we 
 have an unfailing source of light and progress, of 
 purity and trimnj^h. To have such a guest now, 
 is to have the temple of our humanity, even here, 
 radiant with moral loveliness and glory. How 
 much is involved in the sentiment of the text, we 
 do not fully know ; but our experience of it may 
 daily rise higher and higher. Let it be, then, a 
 prayer for ourselves, as for a blessing and glory 
 in us, that Christ may dwell in our hearts by 
 faith ; and let us see to it that His indwelling is 
 constant and permanent, through our growing 
 faith in His glorious person and His perfect work. 
 But, alas ! Christ is not thus dwelling in the 
 hearts of all men. Are there not some at the 
 door of whose hearts He has stood knocking long 
 
62 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 for admission, and who liave not received him yet? 
 He, the Son of God, and the Lord of life, comes 
 to bless men, and they do not receive Him into 
 their souls ! Why is this ? There He stands, 
 stands in the attitude of earnest solicitude and 
 heavenly patience, and they trifle with Him, and 
 are occupied within with other company. Re- 
 member that the soul was formed as a temple for 
 God ; but the glory is departed, and over it are 
 now inscribed the words, "Here Jehovah once 
 dwelt/' It is only when Christ Jesus enters and 
 assumes the sceptre of dominion in the soul, that 
 this true glory of humanity comes back again. 
 Oh, then, reader, admit Him into your heart, if 
 He is not there already ; admit Him now, admit 
 Him cordially, admit Him without delay ; as you 
 value life, as you would rise to heaven, as you 
 would have your pathway bright, and joyous, and 
 beautiful, through time to immortality, admit the 
 Saviour into your heart. Still He knocks with 
 His " head filled with dew, and His locks with the 
 drops of the night," during which you have kept 
 Him standing without ; still He knocks and says, 
 " Open to me." Will you then open ? Without 
 Him you are shut out from God and from hope ; 
 with Him in your soul as the guest of your love, 
 with your heart as the abode of His consecration, 
 
THE GLORIOUS GUEST. 63 
 
 victory and honour, feKcity and glory, are before 
 you for ever and ever ! 
 
 May the Spirit give you the strength which 
 shall fit you for His permanent abode in affection 
 and peace ! 
 
64 THE pastor's PRAYEE. 
 
 SECTION IV. 
 
 " That ye, being rooted and grj)unded in love, may be able to 
 compreliend witb all saints, what is the breadth, and length, and 
 depth, and height : and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knowledge." — Ephesians iii. 17-19. 
 
 What can be said, even to illustrate the force, 
 the majesty, or the beauty of these words ? They 
 are by themselves significant and grand, rich in 
 the highest thought, the holiest sentiment, and 
 the profoundest feeling. And yet plain as they 
 seem to be, few passages in the New Testament 
 have been the subject of more conflicting opinions. 
 The chief point of difficulty has been, to determine 
 to what the apostle refers, in the terms of measure- 
 ment which he uses — "That being rooted and 
 grounded in love, ye may be able to comprehend 
 the breadth, and length, and depth, and height " — 
 of what ? As many as nine or ten different inter- 
 pretations or opinions have been given on this 
 
THE WONDEEFUL LESSON. Q5 
 
 point. One says the words refer " to the mystery 
 of the cross : '' another says they refer to " the 
 Divine nature : " a third says they refer to " the 
 Christian temple/' or church, spoken of in the end 
 of the second chapter. But I need not enumerate 
 more, for they only tend to perplexity. On coming 
 away from conflicting comment and criticism to 
 the words of the Apostle, their meaning seems 
 plain; and, divesting the mind of all opinions 
 from men,* I cannot help thinking that one would 
 be led to conclude, that Paul can only be speaking 
 of Christ's love in redemption, to which he imme- 
 diately more definitely alludes. The rise in the 
 Apostle's idea seems to me to be found in the 
 
 words rendered "comprehend" and ''know" 
 
 both, however referring to that ''knowledge-sur- 
 passing" love which is the source and centre of 
 moral glory in the universe.* 
 
 Eemembering the general train of remark in 
 the former sections, we do not find difficulty in 
 tracing the connexion and continuity of thought. 
 There is still advancement in the Apostle's suppli- 
 cation. He had prayed for spiritual strength on 
 behalf of the Christians to whom he wrote : the 
 result to be secured by this strengthening process 
 was the indwelling of Christ by faith : Ind now 
 
 * See Appendix. Iv^ote C. 
 E 
 
66 THE pastoe's peayee. 
 
 he prays, that this indwelling of Christ might 
 produce in them a love to Him, which would 
 qualify them more and more for the intellectual 
 perception, and the spiritual knowledge of the 
 love of Christ — that love which is the glorious 
 fountain of blessedness and beauty to the moral 
 creation. 
 
 We have suggested for our consideration, 
 
 I 
 
 THE PEEPAEATIVE QUALIFICATION TO BE BEACHED. 
 
 That ye — " being rooted and grounded in love.'* 
 This is the condition or qualification for some- 
 thingbeyond — the qualification for comprehending 
 and knowing the love of Christ. Some have 
 supposed that the expression refers to the love of 
 Christ to us ; that Christians are to be rooted and 
 grounded in His love. But it is evidently to 
 subjective love — our love to Christ as an affection 
 and a principle in us — that the Apostle refers ; in 
 love to Him, as our highest Friend and only 
 Saviour, we are to be rooted and grounded. 
 
 We are reminded of the SOUECE of this qualifi- 
 cation. Whence and how comes it, but through 
 Christ's indwelling in the heart. This is clearly 
 the Apostle's idea. The being rooted and 
 
THE WONDEEFUL LESSON. 67 
 
 grounded in love, is the moral and spiritual quali- 
 fication resulting from Christ^s dwelling in the 
 heart by faith. Nor surely is such a result surpris- 
 ing from such a cause. Such a guest cannot be 
 enshrined in the heart without being loved. He 
 cannot truly dweU in the soul, without becom- 
 ing the object of earnest and devoted affection. 
 Fairer than the sons of men, with peerless grace and 
 matchless beauty, with personal excellence and 
 mediatorial glory. He gathers around and to Him- 
 self the fondest affection of the souls in whom 
 He dwells. He cannot be there without being 
 loved: and if we are not conscious of such affec- 
 tion—conscious of constant and growing love to 
 Him, it is because we do not have Him in us 
 dwelling by faith, as we ought to have. " Faith 
 worketh by love : " and if our faith is feeble, if it 
 IS not realising and appropriating in its power, 
 then love may indeed be cold and weak. But 
 it is impossible that Christ can dweU in the soul, 
 either as the object of confidence, or the subject 
 of devout reflection, without His becoming the 
 object of earnest and fervent love. When we 
 think of the wondrous glory of His person, of the 
 vastness of His condescension and the infinitude 
 of His compassion, of the riches of His mercy and 
 the greatness of His grace, of His personal excel- 
 
68 THE pastoe's prayee. 
 
 lence and His mediatorial majesty, we must surely 
 see, that if He really dwell in our hearts, not as 
 an occasional visitor and with temporary sojourn, 
 but as a constant friend and habitual guest. He 
 must be ardently and supremely loved. 
 
 And we have presented to us the natuke of this 
 qualification in the expressive language, "being 
 rooted and grounded in love." We are not only to 
 love Christ, but to be rooted and grounded in love 
 to Him. The terms are figurative, and have a re- 
 ference to the ideas of a tree and a building. To the 
 stability of a tree a root is necessary proportioned 
 to the expansion of the branches ; to the stability 
 of a building a foundation is necessary corre- 
 sponding to the magnitude of the superstructure. 
 We can hardly conceive terms that convey a 
 stronger notion of the character of true love to 
 Christ. " Eooted and grounded in love ! '' This 
 affection, then, must be no floating, secondary, 
 feeble, evanescent passion, but stable and con- 
 stant, powerful and strong. The various ideas of 
 strength, constancy, and livingness, may be natu- 
 rally and appropriately gathered from the lan- 
 guage. Love to Christ must be strong. The 
 tree that is well rooted is stable ; the building 
 that is well grounded is strong. To be rooted 
 and grounded in love is to be strong in love, firm 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 69 
 
 and stable in attachment to Christ. Love to Him 
 must be supreme, the ruling principle and govern- 
 ing affection, rising above and controlling all 
 mere natural affection, and so filling the soul as to 
 shut out all antagonistic affection. It must be 
 the strongest principle that rules our manhood, re- 
 ceiving a tribute from every power and element 
 of our intellectual and moral being. 
 
 Love to Christ must be constant To be 
 rooted and grounded in any principle, excludes 
 the idea of fickleness and fluctuation. It is quite 
 possible for the soul to be filled and fired with a 
 passion for some object to-day, which may shortly 
 be forgotten or even despised. This we often 
 see ; this we may at times have exhibited or felt. 
 But love to Christ must be constant. He himself 
 is unchangeable, " the same yesterday, to-day, and 
 for ever/' always deserving the same sujDreme 
 affection. The building that is well grounded 
 may be beaten and battered by many a storm, 
 but it does not shift from its foundations ; the 
 tree that is well rooted may be rocked and shaken 
 by many a tempestuous wind, but you still find it 
 in its place. So love to the Saviour, though 
 exposed to the winds of temptation and the 
 trials of this mortal life, must be unshaken and 
 steadfast. 
 
70 • THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 Love to Christ must be vital and progressive. 
 That which is "rooted" grows, because it is 
 living. So love to the Saviour will expand. It 
 is not a dead but a living principle, and vrill 
 increase in its influence and its blessedness, ac- 
 cording to the place which the Saviour has in the 
 views, and thoughts, and faith of the soul. 
 
 Such, then, is the preparative qualification of 
 which the Apostle speaks. To many who may 
 read this it belongs ; but to how many ? Now 
 the question is asked by the living Lord him- 
 self, and asked at every reader, " Lovest thou 
 me ? " What is your reply ? Can you say with 
 Peter, " Lord, thou knowest all things ; thou 
 knowest that I love thee." Are you conscious of 
 being " rooted and grounded in love " to Christ ? 
 How much depends on this ! Our views of sal- 
 vation, our estimate and prospect of future glory, 
 our present consolation, our successful conflict, 
 our apprehension of the grandeurs of redemption, 
 and our participation of the grace and glory of 
 the gospel, all depend on our love to Christ, and 
 are connected with it. Well might the Apostle 
 name it, as the grand qualification for a glorious 
 privilege. Hence we have to examine. 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 71 
 
 11. 
 
 THE CONSEQUENT PEIVILEGE TO BE REALISED. 
 
 " That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, 
 may be able to comprehend, with all saints, what 
 is the breadth, and length, and depth, and height ; 
 and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knowledge.'' It has been already said, that in the 
 former, as well as in the latter, of these clauses, 
 the Apostle is evidently speaking of the love of 
 Christ. The terms of measurement are properly 
 applicable only to that. The glorious privilege, to 
 be secured and enjoyed, is a transcendent view 
 and lofty experience of Christ's love, in all its 
 power and glory ; and the great truth taught in 
 this petition is, that the right qualification to have 
 such a view, and reach such an experience of 
 Christ's love, is love to Christ. If we are filled 
 with love to Him, then are we fitted to com- 
 prehend something of the glory of His love, and 
 to feel the grandeur of its attraction and its 
 power. 
 
 It appears to me that there are two ideas in 
 these expressions, the one rising in significance 
 and importance above the other. There is allu- 
 sion to the intellectual or mental apprehension 
 
72 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 of what it is and does ; and then to the experi- 
 mental acquaintance with its power and glory. 
 
 1. The first aspect of the privilege is the mental 
 apprehension of what it is and does. To " compre- 
 hend with all saints/' &c. The Apostle means to 
 imply that this is more or less an attainment of 
 all saints ; or, to pray that it may be so. It is 
 probably part of his prayer — an extension of his 
 petition to all believers, that they might have a 
 right understanding and a clear view, such a view 
 as the mind could seize of the vastness of Christ's 
 love. This can only be done, as we see its 
 dimensions and measure them, by its working 
 and its effects. We may then briefly follow out 
 the terms which he uses in speaking of it, that, 
 in thinking of them, we may have a higher per- 
 ception of this glorious theme. 
 
 There is the breadth — a breadth in this love 
 which includes all ages, all ranks, and all condi- 
 tions of men. Christ loved the world : He laid His 
 glory by for the fallen race, in all its rebel guilt 
 and accursed doom. His delights were with the 
 children of men. All peoples, kindreds, tongues, 
 and tribes shared in the affection and regard 
 which brought Him from the skies. To love a 
 world so as to sustain its sinking hopes and avert 
 its doom, and to taste death, in some sense, for 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 73 
 
 every man in it, is a breadth of affection which 
 may well fill us with wonder and adoration. 
 High and low, rich and poor, bond and free, Jew 
 and Gentile, master and servant, share in that 
 love, and in the blessings which it has procured. 
 How broad it is ! 
 
 There is the length — a length in this love which 
 stretches from eternity to eternity. It began ere 
 the foundations of the earth were laid, and will 
 exist after time shall be no more. Jesus has loved 
 mth an everlasting love, and He will love unto 
 the end. Oh ! mighty and glowing truth. Wlien 
 the morning stars sang together and the sons of 
 God shouted for joy, this love issued from beneath 
 the eternal throne ; throughout all time it has 
 rolled as a stream of life, blessing and beautifying 
 this world of ours ; and it will continue to flow on 
 and on, overcoming the strong barriers of ingra- 
 titude and sin, until the church is completed, and 
 then, as the river of love, it will flow into the 
 ocean of eternity again, to be the refreshing and the 
 delio;ht of the redeemed for ever and ever. Who 
 can measure its length ? 
 
 There is the depth — a depth of love which leaves 
 no darkness unexplored, no degradation of man 
 unreached, and no misery unmet. Who can 
 fathom its profundity ? Not man, nor angel ! 
 
74 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 If we can measure the distance between the bosom 
 of the Infinite Father and the manger in Beth- 
 lehem, or the distance between the throne of 
 heaven and the cross of Calvary, or the difference 
 between the hallelujahs of the celestial hierarchy 
 and the blasphemies of devils and men, then may 
 we understand the depth of the Saviour's love. 
 It descended from the skies down to the very 
 darkness of death and the gloom of the grave. It 
 brought Him who knew no conflict in heaven, to 
 do battle on earth with the fiends of hell and the 
 foes of men. • And, in the infinitude of its com- 
 passion, it stoopeth down to the lowest depths of 
 sin, and misery, and degradation, to draw sinners 
 thence. There is not one, although he may in truth 
 be the chief of sinners, wallowing in iniquity and at 
 the very portals of the place of woe, that may not 
 be reached by the deep lines of this redeeming 
 love. No suff"ering was too great for this love to 
 undergo, no guilt is too great for this love to 
 obliterate, no misery is too great, no wretched- 
 ness too low, for this love to reach and remove. 
 Who then can fathom its depth ? 
 
 There is the height — a height of love, which will 
 not leave its object half attained, or its work un- 
 done. It will rise to its level amidst the heights 
 of immortality and heavenly glory ; and it raises 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 75 
 
 men redeemed and regenerated thither. It ele- 
 vates to a throne, and a kingdom, and a crown on 
 high, carrying the soul that receives its blessings 
 back with it to glory. Who can scale its height ? 
 Many are the barriers that human pride and 
 prejudice, unbelief and folly, oppose to its pro- 
 gress ; but it rises and surmounts them all. Lofty 
 are the mountains of human guilt, which often 
 come between the soul and God ; but, like the 
 waters of the flood, it rises above them all. 
 Worthless, indeed, are men in their sinfuhiess 
 and shame ; but this love will bear them upward 
 to the mansions of glory and the dwelling-place 
 of God, and will raise them to the intelligence, 
 repose, and felicity of heaven. What a glorious 
 principle, then, is this love of Christ ! Saints on 
 earth look up into its heights from here below ; 
 angels look down into its depths with wondering 
 adoration from above ; but their gaze cannot meet, 
 and they are never able to say that they have fully 
 measured the Saviour's love. 
 
 The Apostle seeks, and certainly we ought to 
 seek, to be able, in some sense, to comprehend 
 this love — to have a right mental perception of its 
 vastness and its power — to have as clear an un- 
 derstanding and appreciation as we can, of its 
 wondrous nature and glorious achievements. 
 
76 THE pastor's peayer. 
 
 And is not such a view a privilege, and a pri- 
 vilege, too, of most blessed influence ? Surely no 
 one doubts it. Say, which has the most exten- 
 sive, useful, and lasting effect in the world, — the 
 display of scientific research, of philosophic skill, 
 of hterary genius, or of moral heroism ? It need 
 not be asked. We may study and admire the 
 artist's skill and the philosopher's wisdom ; we 
 may be pleased, interested, and instructed by the 
 pen or the tongue of eloquence ; for the time, we 
 may shout the praises of him who, by scientific 
 discovery, has added to the information or the 
 comfort of his fellow men ; but the act of moral 
 heroism touches the heartstrings of our humanity, 
 makes the very fibres of our manhood quiver, and 
 evokes in response the homage or hearty approval 
 of our being. To see a noble, disinterested action, 
 to see the expression of love and self-denial for an 
 avowed enemy, to behold an act of bold self-sacri- 
 fice for righteousness' sake, to trace the heroic 
 course of a Howard, and mark the philanthropy 
 of a Wilberforce, or the patriotism of a Washing- 
 ton, impresses us more powerfully, more benefi- 
 cially, and more lastingly, than any other human 
 display. Justly, then, might the Apostle ask for 
 a right understanding of the love of Christ. In 
 it we see the moral heroism of heaven, the prin- 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 77 
 
 ciple of an achievement, in self-denial and sacri- 
 fice, which is peoj)ling heaven with redeemed and 
 regenerated men. To comprehend it, ennobles 
 the thouo-ht and elevates the nature of our man- 
 hood. Let us devoutly ponder it, that it may be 
 in us, and to us, and upon us as a living power. 
 But much more is involved in this petition; it 
 includes also, 
 
 2. The EXPERIMENTAL acquaintance with what 
 this love is. " And to know the love of Christ, 
 which passeth knowledge.'' This is the know- 
 ledge of which Paul elsewhere speaks ; " God hath 
 shined in our hearts, to give the light of the know- 
 ledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus 
 Christ '' (2 Cor. iv. 6). It is a knowledge for the 
 heart ; and yet this love is a knowledge-surpass- 
 ing love. How can it, then, be known ? The 
 apparent obscurity or paradox is easily solved. 
 This love may be known in the high and peculiar 
 sense in which the word is often used in Scrip- 
 ture, and yet it cannot be fully known by man. 
 " He that loveth is born of God, and knoweth 
 God'' (1 John iv. 7). Yet, who can, ''by searching, 
 find out God ? " who can " find out the Almighty 
 unto perfection ? " May we not know and enjoy 
 the light of the sun, although the eye cannot take 
 in all his magnificence, nor bear the dazzling 
 
78 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 splendour of his meridian effulgence ^ May we 
 not know the bays, and gulfs, and creeks along the 
 shore, although we cannot fathom all the depths, 
 or discover all the secrets of the mighty rolling 
 ocean ? May we not know something practically 
 of Nature's harmonies and Nature's laws, although 
 her mysteries often perplex us, and many of her 
 secrets are beyond our ken ? So may we know a 
 love — the love of Christ, "which passeth know- 
 ledge/' As the attachment of a man, it may, 
 perhaps, be measured ; but as the love of God in 
 our nature, who can, by searching, find it out ? 
 
 It passeth knowledge in the eternity of its 
 origin and duration. Eternity we cannot mea- 
 sure ; and a love fixed from eternity on objects 
 not yet called into being, is above our feeble 
 powers of understanding. We may speak of it, 
 and sing of it, and shout its praises, but we 
 cannot have any adequate ideas of it, owing to the 
 feebleness of our finite powers. 
 
 It passeth knowledge in the wondrousness of 
 its means — the means by which it reaches its 
 unworthy objects. It came to us through the 
 incarnation, the mediation, and the death of Em- 
 manuel, God's only begotten Son ; but this " mys- 
 tery of godliness" is beyond the reach of our 
 finite thought. In His incarnation there is a 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 79 
 
 height of glory which we cannot scale ; in His 
 passion there is a depth of meaning which we 
 cannot fathom ; and while we speak of them, 
 thought fails to grasp the full idea of their glory. 
 It passeth knowledge in the boundlessness of 
 its resources. " Many waters cannot quench 
 love ; '' but here is a love which has outlived all 
 the malignities of hell, and all the wickedness and 
 spitefulness of earth. It endured the contradic- 
 tion of sinners against itself, and only waxed 
 the fairer and more glorious. It lives amidst 
 repulsive unloveliness and ingratitude ; it lives 
 unnourished even by reciprocated affection ; it 
 lives unchanged in ardour amidst the obliquities 
 of human life, and meets with undiminished grace 
 the waywardness of human hearts. How different 
 this from an affection merely human ! 
 
 It passeth knowledge in the hvingness of its 
 influence. Its power never dies. To those who 
 know it now, it is as sacred and as precious and 
 as new, as when first it drew the human heart and 
 transformed the human soul; and it will maintain 
 its freshness through the ceaseless epochs of 
 eternity. The Saviour's name, as the symbol of 
 love, wiU endure for ever, and eternally present 
 new phases of attraction to the loving heart. 
 
 Verily it passeth knowledge. Yet we may 
 
80 THE pastoe's peayek. 
 
 know it, just as one may drink of tlie flowing 
 stream and be refreshed, altliougli lie may have 
 no means of fathoming its depth, or finding out 
 its source. 
 
 The love of Christ may be known in the 
 blessedness of a personal appropriation. It was 
 this that enabled the Apostle to say, " He loved 
 me and gave himself for me ;" and this we should 
 seek to attain. What is all the boundlessness 
 of His love to us, if we have not the consciousness 
 that we share in its achievements and its bless- 
 ings — the happy assurance that it extends even 
 to us ? Such a knowledge we may reach — a know- 
 ledge that He is ours, and that we are His — that 
 our case He has pitied, and that our sins He has 
 pardoned. And what is this, but the experience 
 of a simple and confiding faith, that takes the 
 Saviour at His word, and finds in Him all that 
 He has promised and pledged Himself to be ? 
 Do we, then, thus know His love ? for to know it 
 thus, is to the soul liberty, and joy, and prospective 
 glory. 
 
 This love may be known in the virtue of its 
 marvellous power. Nothing has such influence 
 over the human soul as the love of Christ. It 
 transforms, emancipates, and purifies the moral 
 nature. What has it done in many who may 
 
THE WONDERFUL LESSON. 81 
 
 read these pages ? What did it effect in the myriads 
 now before the throne ? It is all-pervading, all- 
 subduing, all-constraining, in its power. It weans 
 from sin and wins to purity : it crucifies the world 
 and subdues the lusts of the flesh : it prompts 
 to holy action and summons to patient endurance ; 
 it destroys iniquity and inspires devotion. It is 
 the love of Christ alone that can fuUy teach us to 
 deny ourselves and live for God ; that can trans- 
 form us from the world, make us pure in heart, 
 and adorn our lives with the moralities of heaven. 
 " The love of Christ constraineth us ; because we 
 thus judge, that if one died for aU, then were all 
 dead : and that he died for all, that they which 
 live should not henceforth live unto themselves, 
 but unto him which died for them and rose again" 
 (2 Cor. V. 14, 15). Thus we may know it, by 
 jdelding ourselves to its constraining influence 
 and its purifying power. Nothing else can de- 
 stroy the love of sin, and enshrine holiness in the 
 soul. 
 
 This love of Christ may be known in the 
 preciousness of its consolations. No emotion is 
 so sweet and soothing as that of pure affection. 
 What blessedness is enjoyed by the heart that 
 knows this love ! The sense of the Saviour's love, 
 at first, quiets conscience, dispels fear, calms the 
 
 V 
 
82 THE pastor's peayer. 
 
 agitation of the soul, and hushes to Divine rest 
 the heart on whom it descends. And throughout 
 the Christian life, this sense of the Saviour's love 
 is the most precious source of all solid comfort, 
 substantial peace, and holy joy. This soothes us 
 in affliction and sustains us in trial : this cheers 
 us in adversity and lightens us in darkness. In 
 the midst of sorrow or of doubt, oppressed with 
 care or assailed by temptation, we can go again 
 and again, and bathe our weary souls in the ocean 
 of this Divine affection, and always be refreshed. 
 "We never can be in any darkness where it will 
 not afford us light, nor in any conflict where it will 
 not prove a defence, nor in any sorrow where it will 
 not be to us a joy. How much do we owe to this 
 love of Christ ! What would the world be to us 
 without it ? It relieves the present ; it removes 
 the pressure of the guilty past ; it irradiates the 
 future with glory. 
 
 Thus, then, we may know this love ; and this 
 privilege may be ours, even now, in a far higher 
 degree than it is. We may perceive the glory 
 of His love, and realise its preciousness ; to love 
 Him is the proper qualification for such a privilege. 
 
 Nor is it difficult to see the connexion between 
 the qualification and the privilege. Intellectual 
 progress, to be thorough and healthy, requires 
 moral qualifications. A slave cannot know the 
 
THE WONDEEFUL LESSON. 83 
 
 joy and dignity of a free man ; an avaricious man 
 must be ignorant of the luxury connected with 
 true generosity. . A man who does not love 
 cannot see or feel the glory of that affection in 
 another. Love sees love. It is common to say 
 that love is blind ; and in one sense this may be 
 true enough ; but love alone has the true acute- 
 ness to discover love, and interpret its sacred 
 tokens. It discerns its presence, sees its working, 
 and traces its power, when no other feeling or 
 principle can do it. Love appreciates love. Just 
 as a blind man cannot distinguish colours, and as 
 a deaf man cannot understand sounds, so the 
 soul, that does not love Christ, is not fitted to 
 apprehend or appreciate the grandeur and the 
 sacrifice of His infinite affection. And it is love 
 that provokes love. " We love Him because He 
 first loved us ;'' and love to Him qualifies us more 
 and more for perceiving, realising, and enjoying 
 the glorious riches of His Divine love to us. 
 "Every one that loveth is born of God, and knoweth 
 God. He that loveth not, knoweth not God; for 
 God is love '' (1 John iv. 7, 8). Let Christ dwell 
 in our hearts by faith that we may love ; and as 
 we love Him, our souls shall rise to know more of 
 the power and wonderfulness of that affection, 
 which is the source of blessedness to the moral 
 universe. 
 
84 THE pastoe's prayer. 
 
 SECTION V. 
 
 *'That ye might be filled with all the fulness of Grod." 
 — Ephesians lii. 19. 
 
 We have endeavoured to trace the connexion 
 between the various petitions of this apostolic 
 prayer. There is evidently a close chain of 
 thought running through the whole. He first 
 prays for spiritual strength on their behalf, that 
 they might thereby have and enjoy the indwelling 
 of Christ. This indwelling of Christ in the heart 
 is to produce a love to Him so ardent and strong, 
 that by it the soul may be qualified for a more 
 thorough intellectual apprehension, and a more 
 profound spiritual experience of the love of Christ 
 the Saviour. Now, the Apostle prays that this 
 knowledge of the love of Christ might so influence 
 them, and operate in them, as to be the means of 
 filling them "with all the fulness of God." This 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 85 
 
 is the climax — the end and high object of alL 
 The Apostle asks, on their behalf, for strength, 
 for the indwellmg of Jesus, for immoveable stead- 
 fastness and fervour in love, and for a higher 
 knowledge of the love of Christ; that, through 
 these various steps of spiritual blessing, they 
 miffht at lenojth be filled with all the fulness of 
 God. By inward strength the soul is prepared 
 for the indwelling of Christ ; by the indwelling 
 of Christ the soul becomes rooted in love ; by the 
 exercise of love the soul becomes fitted for higher 
 knowledge and deeper experience of the love of 
 Christ ; and by the knowledge and experience of 
 Christ's love the soul becomes filled with the 
 fulness of God. 
 
 As we have already seen, the true qualification 
 for appreciating love is to love. It is love that 
 sees love, and aff'ection that calls forth afiec- 
 tion. It is only the man who loves Christ, that 
 can have a spiritual understanding of the love of 
 Christ. So, tlie qualification for being filled with 
 the fulness of God, is the spiritual knowledge and 
 experience of the greatness and glory of Christ's 
 love. And no wonder it is so ; for if God him- 
 self be love, a sea of love, " without a bottom or 
 a shore," how can we be filled by His fulness save 
 only as we know and feel the preciousness and 
 
86 THE pastok's peayer. 
 
 power of the love of Christ, and of God's love in 
 Him. To see and feel this love, is the pathway to 
 the realisation of this highest privilege for man, 
 in being filled with the fulness of God. 
 
 This is a wonderful, and in some respects a 
 difficult and mysterious theme ; man filled with 
 the fulness of God ! We approach it with humility, 
 in dependence on the help of that Spirit whose 
 truth it is, and who alone can make us fully 
 understand it. 
 
 We are reminded first of the fact that, — • 
 
 THERE IS PERFECT AND COMPLETE FULNESS IN 
 
 GOD. 
 
 This refers especially to His character and not 
 to His being; to His moral and spiritual excellence, 
 not to His uncreated essence. There is no de- 
 ficiency, no flaw in Him. He is everywhere and 
 always God, infinite and unchangeable in His per- 
 fections. But fulness in the case of life is percep- 
 tible by us only through evidence. "Reading,'' 
 says Lord Bacon, " maketh a full man ; " but we 
 can know that a man is full, only by what he 
 brings out or gives forth. So the fulness of God 
 is manifest to us m His outgoings and His works. 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 87 
 
 How clearly does this fulness appear in nature ! 
 Everywhere throughout creation there is a rich- 
 ness, a variety, and a beauty, which proclaim the 
 fulness of God — a fulness of power and wisdom, 
 of goodness and of skill. You may sail on the sea 
 and behold God's wonders in the deep, you may 
 skim the surface of the mountain-girt lake, you 
 may climb the hill, you may wander by the river- 
 side and listen to the music of its flowing waters, 
 you may roam through woods and over moors — 
 everywhere, earth and air, sea and land, betoken 
 the fulness that there is in God. The graceful 
 fern that you crush beneath your feet as you 
 hasten through the copse, the tender moss that 
 makes for you a pathway of nature's velvet on 
 which to tread, the little flowers that deck the sides 
 of the rocks and cliffs amidst which you roam, the 
 out-bursting verdure of the spring, the richly laden 
 fields of autumn — all shew forth the fulness 
 that there is in God. The ten thousand forms of 
 life and beauty which exist, have all come from 
 Him. And when you Hft your eyes from earth to 
 heaven, and behold the orbs which people the 
 empyrean, what a fulness must there be in 
 God ! " The heavens declare the glory of God ; 
 and the firmament sheweth his handy-work " 
 (Ps. xix. 1). "Lift up your eyes on high, and 
 
88 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 behold who hath created these things, that 
 bringeth out their host by number : he calleth 
 them all by names, by the greatness of his might, 
 for that he is strong in power ; not one faileth "" 
 (Isa. xl. 26). 
 
 Nor is it nature only that shews this fulness : 
 it is not less manifest in Providence. How full 
 is His hand of blessing and of bounty to His 
 creatures. He opens it liberally, and supplies the 
 wants of everything that liveth. See how He 
 gives seed-time and harvest, summer and winter, 
 the earlier and the later rain, without fail. To 
 us His mercies are new every morning ; on us 
 daily His " paths drop fatness.'' The history of 
 individuals, of families, of kingdoms, is under 
 His care and subject to His control. "He doeth 
 according to his will in the army of heaven, and 
 among the inhabitants of the earth ; and none 
 can stay his hand, or say unto him, What doest 
 thou ? " (Dan. iv. 35). Nothing can circumvent 
 His wisdom, or escape His vision ; nothing can 
 outreach His power, or exhaust His goodness. 
 
 And then, what a glorious display of this ful- 
 ness have we in redeniptio7i — a fulness of grace 
 and truth, of righteousness and mercy, of love and 
 purity, which could not contain itself; but which 
 burst forth towards us in the greatest of all gifts, 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 89 
 
 and the highest of all possible expressions of 
 fatherly regard. Here we see those attributes of 
 the Godhead which may not be clearly or fully 
 discoverable elsewhere — a fuhiess of moral per- 
 fection and beauty, respecting which, the riches of 
 nature and the glories of creation are silent or dark. 
 Here there is a fulness of moral grandeur which 
 strikes angels with admiration ; for there is not 
 a moral motive which Godhead can supply, nor a 
 moral power which Godhead can wield, nor an 
 attractiveness with which it can be clothed, nor a 
 holiness which it can enshrine, that is not exhi- 
 bited in the person and the passion of God's only 
 begotten Son. Oh ! what a fulness is there in 
 God as we see Him in the cross of Jesus Christ ; 
 a fulness which meets every craving, which fills 
 every void, which adapts itself to every necessity, 
 of our moral natm^e ; a fulness which proclaims 
 Jehovah a God of righteousness and truth, as He 
 is of mercy and of love ; One who is of purer eyes 
 than to look on sin, and yet who wishes the sinful 
 children of men to be made happy. We do well 
 surely to meditate on this fulness, to think of what 
 it is in God, and of what it is to us ; for the higher 
 that our thoughts and conceptions are of our Di- 
 vine Father, so much the loftier shall be our worship, 
 so much the stronger our love, and so much the 
 
90 THE pastor's peayee. 
 
 purer our devotion. There is infinite fulness in 
 God, and of His fulness even we may receive. 
 
 11. 
 
 MAN MAY BE FILLED IN ACCOEDANCE WITH THE 
 FULNESS OF GOD. 
 
 The word translated " with " more exactly 
 means " up to," with the idea of " aim and end 
 quantitatively considered." It is not of course 
 the uncreated essence of God, or His Godhead 
 with which, or up to which, man can be filled. 
 This is incommunicable : and such an idea is 
 Pantheistic. The creature cannot become the 
 Creator; and the fulness of Godhead cannot 
 absolutely dwell in manhood. Hence it is not 
 meant, that the whole fulness of God can be con- 
 tracted so as actually to lodge in any created soul. 
 Man cannot really be filled with the absolute 
 fulness of Diety ; but he may be filled with a 
 fulness in correspondence with the fulness of 
 God; he may be filled with every element of 
 which that moral fulness consists; he may be 
 filled, in his finite measure, with a fulness even up 
 to the fulness of God. Yet when he is thus full, 
 he will still be man, and at an infinite distance 
 from God. Yes; wondrous as this truth, in 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 91 
 
 some aspects, may seem, man may be thus full 
 of God ; and it is only in the attainment and 
 possession of such fulness that he is truly great. 
 " The smaller vessel may have its own fulness 
 poured into it from one of larger dimensions.'^ 
 The communicable fulness of God will in every 
 element of it impart itself to the regenerated, 
 exalted, and sanctified soul of the Christian. The 
 difference between God and the believer morally 
 will be, not in kind, but in measure and degree.* 
 What, then, is really meant by the assurance 
 to be inferred from this petition, that man may 
 thus be filled in accordance with, and up to, the 
 fulness of his Maker? One thing seems clearly 
 implied — that man is not now naturally full of 
 God, not filled with His fulness. No ; by sin he 
 has emptied himself, emptied his manhood of its 
 glory, and beauty, and power. Through his own 
 foUy, he has emptied his understanding and his 
 heart ahke, of the glorious objects with which 
 they should be filled. In one sense, indeed, man 
 is not empty, nor can he be empty. Just as truly 
 as nature abhors a vacuum in physics, so truly 
 must man be filled "with something ; but, alas ! 
 he is not filled with God. He is full of himself 
 and his own devices, so that his affections, aspira- 
 
 * See Dr Eadie's Comment., in loc. 
 
92 THE pastor's pkayer. 
 
 tions, and desires revolve around himself. Yet 
 this greatest of all attainments may again be his; 
 he may once more be full of God, and filled with 
 all the fulness of his Divine Father. What, then, 
 is this fulness ? 
 
 1. It is the fulness which God intended for 
 man. Wlien God made him, He made him in 
 His own image, fitted to hold spiritual and holy 
 converse with the infinite and uncreated Spirit ; 
 made his soul the temple in which He was to 
 dwell, and manifest His glory here on earth. 
 Man was to be wise in the wisdom of his Maker ; 
 righteous only in Hjs righteousness ; and his 
 conscience truly to be as the voice of God within 
 him. And the fulness here spoken of, with which 
 he may again be filled, is the realisation of that 
 original Divine ideal. We behold it now in Jesus 
 Christ, whose humanity was perfect, whose human 
 soul, as viewed apart from his Divinity, was full 
 of God. God gave to man an understanding, that 
 it might be filled with truth from Himself, and a 
 heart, that it might be filled with love, and a 
 conscience, that it might be filled with law and 
 authority Divine ; and only as each power of our 
 being is filled with the true life intended for it, 
 can it be said that we have reached the true 
 fulness which God intended for us. With an 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 93 
 
 intellect whose beamings may be so bright ; with 
 a heart whose throbbings may be so strong and 
 pure ; with a will whose energy may be so great, — 
 what may not that fulness be in the realisation of 
 the Divine idea in us. God made us for a pur- 
 pose, and that purpose was, that our souls might 
 be thus full of Him for His own glory. The per- 
 fection of manhood truly consists in its being full 
 of God. No other creature here can be so filled ; 
 this glory can only be where there is a moral 
 nature, for nowhere else can there be the image 
 of the Divine. This reality in us is our dignity 
 and salvation ; its absence through sin is our dis- 
 grace and ruin. As creatures, we are only vessels 
 empty and without glory, until we are filled with 
 the fulness of God. 
 
 2. It is the fulness which God himself enjoys. 
 Not, of course, as already said, the whole fulness 
 of God's nature, for that cannot contract itself so 
 as to lodge in our nature ; but a fulness in holy 
 harmony, and moral correspondence with that 
 which God himself enjoys. His fulness is ever 
 infinite ; ours is necessarily limited by the essential 
 conditions of a created nature. Ours may be as 
 the correspondence of a minature, with the fulj 
 face and form which it represents. God, as we 
 have seen, possesses a fulness which is perfect and 
 
94 THE pastoe's peayek. 
 
 » 
 
 complete ; no attribute is awanting, no aspect of 
 any attribute is imperfect. He is infinite in all 
 His perfections ; and when all the true elements 
 of our nature are divinely full, and all its energies 
 are rightly exercised, with our consciences echoing 
 His voice, and our wills responding to His autho- 
 rity, then do we become God-like, and partake of 
 the fulness which our Divine Father enjoys. In 
 Christ Jesus dwelt all " the fulness of the God- 
 head bodily;'' from Him shone forth the glory as 
 of the only begotten of the Father ; He was full 
 of grace and truth; and of the fulness that thus 
 dwelt in Him, His disciples may receive even grace 
 for grace. Take any element or attribute that 
 you like, as belonging to the spiritual fulness and 
 glorious lustre of the Divine character, and of this 
 fulness man may receive, so that he, too, shall be 
 fuU. " God is light, and in Him is no darkness 
 at all ;'' and so man may become a child of the 
 light and of the day, and be filled with the radiant 
 brightness of the truth and knowledge of God. 
 " God is love," and man's heart may respond, in 
 the surrender of its affections to the attraction 
 and influence of the Divine, so as to be filled with 
 love. " God is true ;" all that He thinks is truth 
 eternal, all that He says is truth uttered, all that 
 He does is truth accomplished ; so man may 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 95 
 
 become true, a child of the Highest, emancipated 
 by the truth, begotten again by the word of truth, 
 and thus, in knowing and doing the truth, partake 
 of the fulness of God. God is holy; and as man 
 becomes conformed to the image of God, so does 
 he come to be filled with the fulness which God 
 enjoys. When thus filled, the distance between 
 man and God will still be infinite ; but man may 
 be full according to the craving and capacity of 
 his nature, and his fulness will be from the 
 fulness of his God. 
 
 3. It is the fulness which God alone can im- 
 part. Hence, most truly, it is the fulness of God. 
 No creature can adequately fill man's soul. As 
 lord of this creation, he is above all other crea- 
 tures, and demands something more than they 
 can yield for the true filling of his soul. The 
 soul of a child may be filled with the care of a 
 doll or a toy ; but who can say that a doll is in 
 keeping with the nature and immortality of the 
 soul? And yet men seek to fill the temple of 
 their manhood with the trifles and the trash of 
 this world, turning their Father's earthly abode 
 into a place of merchandise, or a den of thieves. 
 Such is the consequence, and such the power of 
 sin. The imagination is filled with vain fancies 
 and foolish hopes ; the mind is filled with fruitless 
 
96 THE pastor's peayer. 
 
 speculations or selfish secularities ; the heart is 
 filled with sordid affections, or unworthy objects 
 of attachment. The soul, which God alone can 
 truly fill, is filled with things which have driven 
 Him from His temple and His throne. Yet in 
 mercy He has provided for its being truly filled 
 again. This is the grand design of His conde- 
 scension and interposition, in the gospel of His 
 Son. He has come down to us in the person of 
 Jesus, has emptied Himself, that we might empty 
 ourselves of our folly and unbelief, and return to 
 Him, so as to become again full of God. He who 
 was infinitely and eternally rich, yet for our sakes 
 became poor, that we, through His poverty, might 
 become rich. This is the fulness which He im- 
 parts ; and the fulness for which our nature really 
 craves. How wondrous is the fact, that God 
 thus emptied Himself towards us, that we might 
 become partakers of His nature, and be fiUed with 
 His fulness. And in no other way, by no other 
 means, could we have reached this glorious at- 
 tainment. By coming to Christ, and sharing in 
 the achievement of His love and the victory of His 
 righteousness, we receive His grace, and are filled 
 in accordance with the fulness of God, even to '' the 
 measure of the stature of the fulness of Christ.'' 
 Think on this privilege in its vastness and 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 97 
 
 glory — the realisation in us of the Divine ideal of 
 our nature ; the enjoyment of that fulness in our 
 measure which God Himself possesses in His in- 
 finite measure ; the attainment of the fulness 
 which God alone, by the triumph of His grace, 
 can impart. And this privilege may be ours, if 
 we truly know the love of God. The soul of man 
 may be filled, with all that God can bestow of 
 spiritual good and blessing, and with all that its 
 nature, as a created spiiit, can receive from Him. 
 Manhood filled with the grace and presence and 
 glory of Divinity ! filled even to the measure of 
 the fulness of God ! This is truly to partake of 
 the Divine nature, to have God dwelling in us, so 
 as to control our thoughts, feehngs, and actions, 
 so as to form our characters and guide our course 
 for ever. What a noble nature have we, capable 
 of thus being filled with the fulness of God ! 
 what a gi-acious and glorious God have we, thus 
 to fill us after we had turned from Him ! 
 
 III. 
 
 THE ATTAINMENT OF THIS FULNESS OF GOD IS 
 THE GRAND OBJECT AND ISSUE OF THE CHRIS- 
 TIAN LIFE. 
 
 This is the culminating point of the Apostle's 
 
 G 
 
98 THE pastok's prayer. 
 
 prayer for the Ephesians. Beyond this there 
 seemed no desire which he could express — no 
 blessing that he could wish for them. This is 
 the perfection of man — to be full of God — filled 
 even to the fulness of the measure of God. 
 
 This object is glorious. It is the end for which 
 inward strength, and love, and grace are to be 
 sought. Forgiveness, and liberty, and joy are but 
 as means to this glorious end; for man only 
 reaches the true dignity and nobleness of his 
 nature, when he is filled in accordance with the 
 fulness of God. We speak in praise of a man 
 that is full of honourable feeling ; we admire a 
 man that is full of honest enthusiasm ; we almost 
 envy a man that is full of knowledge ; we love a 
 man that is full of kindness and amiability ; but 
 what shall we think of a man that is growing up 
 in all things into Christ, a man that is being 
 filled even to the measure of the fulness of God ? 
 This is truly the highest condition of being for 
 us ; beyond this we cannot reach or rise. Blessed 
 it would indeed be for us if we sought to realise it 
 more. The world, in its conscious purpose and 
 longing, is full of anything and everything but 
 God. Men are full of ambition, of selfishness, of 
 carnality, of spiritual indifference, and seek not 
 God. But to be filled, in accordance with the 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 99 
 
 fulness of God, is the perfection and glory of 
 humanity. And we may thus be filled, may rise 
 to be perfect as men, even as God is perfect as 
 God. Then Divine truth will enlighten our minds, 
 and Divine love will dwell in our hearts, and 
 Divine law will issue from our consciences, and 
 Godlike action will adorn our lives. We shall be 
 the children of the Most High God, breathing 
 His Spirit, and shewing forth His likeness in a 
 godless world. Who would not seek to realise 
 this object in his life, thus to be like God ? 
 
 And this object is practical ; eminently so. It 
 partakes nothing of the Pantheistic notion of all 
 things being a part of God, or emanations from 
 Him. It is the conscious homage of an intelli- 
 gent spirit to the Infinite and Eternal ; it is the 
 entire surrender of a soul to the Great God and 
 Father of all souls, to be filled by Him. It is not 
 a fanciful dream ; it is not a religious speculation ; 
 it is not a sentimental spiritual theory, but a 
 grand reality for every Christian. This is evident 
 when you consider how it is reached and attained. 
 What spiritual processes have to be gone through, 
 what spiritual experiences to be realised, before 
 this privilege is fully reached ! There must be 
 inward strength ; there must be the spiritual in- 
 dwelling of Christ; there must be strong and 
 
100 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 steadfast love ; there must be the apprehension 
 and experience of Christ's infinite affection — and 
 all this in order to obtain a fulness in accordance 
 with the fulness of God, to have God truly in 
 us, our Guest, our Friend, our Euler, and our 
 Guide. No, it is not a sentimental pietism, nor a 
 dream of mere spiritual philosophy, but a living 
 practical reality. It rises upward, and leads us 
 through the doctrinal, the intellectual, and the emo- 
 tional, to the spiritual and the practical. It takes 
 with it all the elements and aspects of our man- 
 hood to make them Godlike. With reverence we 
 utter the truth, that God is the most practical of 
 all beings. He is a Being of glorious and won- 
 drous action, as appears in all His works. His 
 life is not a dream, but a transcendent, though 
 mysterious, ever active reality ; and man's life 
 only becomes truly practical and real, as it rises 
 to the fulness of God. Some rest in doctrine, 
 and are content ; some rest in what they call ex- 
 perience, and are satisfied with feelings and frames 
 of mind ; but the Apostle, in this petition, leads us 
 through and beyond mere doctrine, and through 
 all feeling, up to the fulness of God as the end 
 of the Christian life. Doctrine is nothing, and 
 feeling is nothing, save only as we are led through 
 them to the grand practical attainment of the ful- 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 101 
 
 ness of God. The work of the Spirit, and the 
 work of Christ, are both involved in bringing 
 any sinful man to this highest attainment. God 
 working for us by Christ, and God working in us 
 by the Spirit, can alone bring us to a fulness in 
 accordance with His own. And truly this fuhiess 
 is the glory of manhood. 
 
 This object is progressive. As already said 
 the word " with '' might be more exactly ren- 
 dered " even to '' or " up to.'' There is the idea 
 of progress. The Christian life is onward, up- 
 ward, forward. This gracious fulness is not 
 reached at once. We are to grow to the measure 
 of the stature of the fulness of Christ. The stan- 
 dard to be reached is a fulness in accordance with 
 the fulness of God. Progress may seem to be 
 slow ; it may be through much difficulty, many 
 hinderances, and many fears ; but still the course 
 will be upward, if Christ be dwelling in the heart — 
 upward in holy love and heavenly purity — ^upward 
 in humility and every Christian grace. We are 
 surrounded by a cloud of witnesses, and in every 
 step and stage of our earthly pilgrimage, an echo 
 greets us from the skies, " Excelsior ! Excelsior ! " 
 Onward and upward, even to the fulness of God ! 
 Our thoughts and our language seem to tremble 
 under the magnificence of this idea. Yet God is 
 
102 THE pastor's peayee. 
 
 true ; and it would be for our help and comfort, 
 more fondly and more firmly to grasp the truth, 
 that, weak and sinful as we are, we may rise to the 
 fulness of God, and become full in our redeemed 
 manhood, as He is full in His perfect Godhead. 
 For this Christ died, and for this the Spirit works 
 here amongst men. You have, doubtless, often 
 seen a child, the very tone of whose voice was like 
 his father's, and whose every feature was like his 
 father's, and whose little childish ways were gone 
 about in hig father's manner, and you may have 
 remarked, "How full of his father is that 
 child/' So, in truth, it should be with us ; we 
 should be ever striving to reach the fulness of 
 our Father in Heaven. This grand result may 
 not be completely realised on earth, where so 
 many hindering and disturbing influences are in 
 operation ; but it will be reached in heaven, 
 where the redeemed shall ever be in immediate 
 and recipient contact with the fulness of God. 
 We shall be like the Christ of God, our living 
 Lord and King, for we shall see Him as He is, and 
 for ever dwell within the vision of His glory. 
 What a prospect for the people of God ! Such a 
 destiny and such a dignity for man I And this, 
 I repeat, through the love of Christ, and the 
 agency of the Holy Ghost, the strengthening of the 
 
THE HIGHEST ATTAINMENT. 108 
 
 Spirit, and the indwelling of the Saviour. This 
 is never to be forgotten, for in no other way is 
 this attainment possible for us. It is the Divine 
 love of Christ alone that can make the soul of 
 man again a temple for Jehovah, and transform 
 the virtues of earth into the moralities of heaven, 
 and make the daily duties of life a preparation 
 and a progress, for the service and triumphs of 
 immortality. 
 
104j the pastoe's prayer. 
 
 SECTION VI. 
 ®Ij^ Grateful ^o^oUsU* 
 
 " Now unto him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above 
 all that we ask or think, according to the power that worketh in 
 us, unto him be glory in the church by Christ Jesus, through- 
 out all ages, world without end. Amen." — Ephesians iii. 20, 21. 
 
 In the former sections we have examined the 
 various petitions in this prayer of the Apostle for 
 the Christians at Ephesus ; but there still remains 
 the consideration of the sublime doxology with 
 which it closes. The prayer itself had apparently 
 reached a height beyond which neither faith nor 
 nor desire, neither hope nor imagination, could go. 
 Yet the Apostle is not satisfied. He had asked 
 for inward spiritual strength, he had asked for 
 the indwelling presence of Christ, he had asked 
 for a higher knowledge and a deeper experience 
 of the love of Christ, and he had asked for all 
 these, as preparatory steps to the grand request, 
 that they might be " filled with all the fulness of 
 God.'' What more, then, remained to be ex- 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 105 
 
 pressed or wished for? And yet, so far as the 
 riches of God's grace were concerned, an immensity 
 still lay beyond. Divine Omnipotence would not, 
 even then, have done all that it could achieve. 
 God was able to do, not only what he had asked, 
 but infinitely more than he knew how either to 
 ask or think. 
 
 Praise fitly succeeds prayer ; and to the Almighty 
 possessor of such j^ower, and the Divine giver of 
 such munificence, it was becoming to close such a 
 prayer with an ascription of homage and adora- 
 tion, especially to Him as the Hearer and An- 
 swerer of prayer. 
 
 In these two verses we have a proof of a great 
 and wondrous truth, and an illustration of the 
 way in which the Scriptures often teach such 
 truth. The doctrine of the Trinity is brought 
 into view — clearly involved, although not for- 
 mally or dogmatically asserted. The power that 
 worketh within us, according to verse 1 6, is the 
 Spirit ; the glory in the Church is presented to 
 God, but presented by the Church as in living 
 union with Jesus Christ. Thus the three per- 
 sons in the Godhead are introduced, as having 
 to do with the tokens and triumphs of the Chris- 
 tian life. 
 
 Three subjects are suggested for our examina- 
 
106 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 tion in these verses : — (1 ) The glorious designa- 
 tion by which God is here recognised ; (2) The 
 personal warrant for such recognition as declared ; 
 and, (3) The grateful doxology to God as thus 
 sublimely and truly designated. 
 
 THE GLOEIOUS DESIGNATION BY WHICH GOD IS 
 HEEE EECOGNISED. 
 
 He is "able to do exceeding abundantly above all 
 that we ask or think/' There is here, what is not 
 unusual with Paul, a heaping up of terms to give 
 intensity and impressiveness to the idea that he . 
 wishes to convey. Two expressions are combined 
 — God is able to do above all ; yea, superabundantly 
 above all that we can ask or think. We may 
 gather from these terms several distinct ideas, the 
 one rising above the other in greatness and sig- 
 nificance. 
 
 To God belongs superabundant power. Al- 
 mightiness is one of his peculiar attributes. All 
 power is His, in heaven and on earth : and omnipo- 
 tent is His arm. There is no limit to the majesty 
 or wonderfulness of His working. All nature, in 
 every department, proclaims His power ; all pro- 
 vidence testifies the greatness of His might and 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 107 
 
 tlie inexhaustibleness of His resources. Nothing 
 is too vast, nothing is too minute for Him. Nothing 
 is too difficult or too great for His omnipotence. 
 The tokens of His glorious power are everyivhere 
 around us, wherever we can trace His footsteps 
 or see His works. None can " thunder with a 
 voice like Him ;" no arm outstretched can cope 
 with His. But this is not all. 
 
 To God belongs superabundant power to an- 
 swer prayer. This is the attractive truth for us, 
 in our present destitution and helplessness. His 
 power is a power that may bear on us for our 
 welfare and safety. His ability to do is engaged 
 in providing for our life, and triumph, and glory. 
 Power, naked, absolute power, would be to us an 
 object of terror, rather than of attraction, since it 
 might be used against us, for our defeat and de- 
 struction. But the power which belongs to God, 
 and which is here celebrated, is power to minister 
 blessing and to supply good, especially in answer to 
 prayer. This is the mode in which His illimit- 
 able power displays itself towards us, by the be- 
 stowment of spiritual gifts. There is nothing 
 holy, or good, or desirable for us that He is not 
 able, and far more than able, to supply. We can 
 ask for nothing, proper in itself or wise for us, 
 that He has not in His power to give, or that He 
 
108 THE pastor's peayee. 
 
 • 
 
 cannot create for us. It is God's plan to make 
 tiie natural subserve the moral; and the range of 
 a believing prayer can never be beyond the bounds 
 of His power, or the fulness of His hand. In the 
 arrangements of His moral government, from the 
 first, He has provided for the potency of prayer, 
 and it is one of His established laws, that prayer 
 shall be the means of blessing and good to him that 
 uses it. Further — 
 
 To God belongs superabundant power for our 
 good, beyond our asking. The thought is tran- 
 scendently grand, that the power by which God 
 has created all things, by which He sustains the 
 universe, by which He makes the seasons revolve 
 in order, may be guided for our spiritual good, 
 and turned into an inexhaustible store of blessing 
 for us. And it is not only unlimited in itself, but 
 unrestricted by our prayers. God is able to do 
 far above what we ask ; and it is well for us that 
 it is so ; for our asking is often limited, often 
 feeble, often imperfect. It is frequently true 
 that we have not, because we ask not, or because 
 we ask amiss ; but our Father in heaven is able 
 to do abundantly beyond all that we can ask. 
 There is not a blessing that we crave, nor a help 
 that we need and pray for, nor a mercy that we 
 desii'e, that is not within His power — ^yea infi- 
 
THE GEATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 109 
 
 nitely beyond which He is not able to go, in His 
 power to give. And yet again — 
 
 To God belongs superabundant power for our 
 good, even beyond our thoughts. There are 
 thoughts at times too big for expressio;i, feelings 
 too deep for utterance, desires which fashion them- 
 selves in the soul as the groanings which cannot 
 be uttered, prompted by the Spirit; yet beyond 
 and above all these God can work and is " able 
 to do." The loftiest flight of our thought, the 
 widest range of our conception, or the most daring 
 expectation of our souls, does not limit or restrict 
 the power of God to confer blessing in answer 
 to prayer. His power transcends not only our 
 spoken petitions, but far surpasses even such 
 thoughts as are too big for words, and too deep 
 for utterance. "And still those desires which 
 are dumb from their very vastness, and amazing 
 from their very boldness, are insignificant re- 
 quests," compared with the gracious power of 
 God. Oh, how wonderful, how spirit-stirring is 
 this truth ! Our ideas seem confused and lost 
 amidst its grandeur. Power — power to do us 
 good — power to do us good in answer to prayer 
 — power to do us good beyond our asking — power 
 to do us good even beyond our thinking ! What 
 a God is ours ! How little we know of the depth 
 
110 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 of His riches, or of the glory of His promises, or 
 of the stores of His grace ! And even though we 
 did know them, in something of their depth and 
 power, our " loftiest imagination of possible bless- 
 ing would come infinitely short of the power and 
 resources of the Hearer of prayer/' 
 
 Go then, Christian, to your Divine Father for 
 all that you want ; go in humble confidence ; go 
 and ask largely ; go with your heart full of desire ; 
 go breathing sighs which you can scarcely ex- 
 press : and the power that is with Him can do 
 infinitely more than meet your need. It can out- 
 strip your petition and your hope. Can anything 
 be more encouraging than this assurance, that 
 God is thus able to do exceeding abundantly 
 above all that you can ask or think? And in 
 yourself, remember that you have ground for such 
 an expectation, for no definite bounds can be set 
 to what they may expect in whom Christ dwells, 
 and who know His love. 
 
 11. 
 
 THE PERSONAL WARRANT FOR SUCH DESIGNATION, 
 AS HERE STATED. 
 
 " According to the power that worketh in us.'' 
 This refers, of course, to the power of the Holy 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. HI 
 
 Spirit spoken of in tlie 16th verse, as strengthen- 
 ing the soul with inward might. His power now 
 works in the believer — in all the children of God. 
 They have not to wait for evidence and tokens of 
 the assurance, that God is able to do abundantly 
 beyond all they ask or think. They have that 
 evidence and those tokens within themselves. The 
 glorious manifestations of it are not reserved for 
 the future only, but are present now in their 
 spiritual life and Christian history. The infinite 
 power of God, from which so much may be ex- 
 pected, is the same as that of which they are now 
 the subjects. The power that already worketh in 
 them, is the power that will do for them more 
 than they can ask or even think. It is that power 
 which wrought in Christ when it raised Him 
 from the dead, and set Him at the right hand of 
 God (chap. i. 19, 20). It is that power which 
 has made the believer what he is, raising him 
 from a death in trespasses and sins, to a life of 
 holy joy, liberty, and hope. The past, then, to 
 the Christian is a pledge, and the present is a 
 foretaste, of the future. He has experienced a 
 change which nothing but Omnipotent love could 
 have effected, and that which has done so much 
 for him, is stiU able to do far above all that he 
 can ask or think. 
 
112 THE PASTOE's prayer. 
 
 To see this more fully and impressively, we 
 have only to look at the Christian's Hfe, and to 
 trace his spiritual history. What is the power 
 that now worketh in him ? What has it done for 
 him ? His views of the future, his prospects of 
 higher achievement and higher triumph for him- 
 self and in himself, depend much upon his con- 
 sciousness of the present, and his assurance of the 
 past. It is well, therefore, surely to know what 
 this Divine operative power has done in him 
 already. 
 
 It has been in him a power to emancipate. 
 Eemember his former guilty and sinful state, 
 under the curse of a broken law, under the just 
 condemnation and displeasure of God, exposed to 
 righteous vengeance and wrath, and more or less 
 strongly under the power of sin and the tyranny 
 of darkness. What power could rescue from such 
 a state ? Certainly no arm of human authority, 
 no force of human persuasion, no power of human 
 reason or human merit. But the power of the 
 Spirit by grace has done it, so that through this 
 power, and through it alone, the believer is de- 
 livered from the curse, freed from the condem- 
 nation, redeemed from the bondage, emancipated 
 from the tyranny of Satan, and introduced into 
 gladdening and glorious liberty. The Christian 
 
THE GEATEFUL DOXOLOGT. 113 
 
 is God's freeman, the freeman of the universe. 
 " It is God that justifieth : who is he that con- 
 demneth?''' And the gracious power that has 
 given liberty from such a curse, and from such a 
 bondage — what may it not do ? 
 
 It has been a power to quicken. The natural 
 man is dead in trespasses and in sins, insensible 
 to the attractions of the heavenly, the realities of 
 the future, and the glories of the Divine ; and 
 thus, as regards God and eternity, to all intents 
 spiritually dead. He breathes not holy affection 
 to God, he seeks not the food provided for the 
 soul, he rejoices not in the influences which purify 
 and adorn true life. What then shall quicken 
 him ? At the sound of whose voice shall he arise 
 from the grave of insensibility and sin ? What 
 power shall infuse new life into his manhood? 
 Certainly not the power of mere human opinion 
 or worldly polish, of society's conventional law or 
 philosophy's charm. They cry indeed to men to 
 live, but the silence that meets the sound, throws 
 mockery on the attempt. It is the voice of Christ 
 alone — the power of God by His Spirit in the 
 gospel of His Son — that can quicken the dead 
 soul, and draw it forth to the beauty and the bliss 
 of a new spiritual life. And this gracious power, 
 in the case of every Christian, has brought him 
 
 H 
 
114 THE pastor's PEAYER. 
 
 into this new and better life, a life in whicli his 
 soul freely breathes the atmosphere of heaven, 
 and his heart beats with the pul^e of a Divine 
 affection, and his manhood finds itself linked, by 
 the tie of a new creation, to the throne and king- 
 dom of the Redeeming God. And the power 
 that has done this in him — ^what is it not able 
 to do ? 
 
 It is a power to sustain. Were it not so, the 
 life which it has imparted would soon languish 
 and die. There is nothing here, nothing in 
 worldly pursuits, nothing in worldly posses- 
 sions or pleasures, that can of itself nomish or 
 strengthen the spiritual life. If it is maintained, 
 it must be maintained by God, through His own 
 Divine j^rovision and gracious care. The world 
 in itself has no food for spiritual life. Yea, here 
 that life meets with hinderances, entanglements, 
 oppositions, and depression which would crush it, 
 were it not for " the power that worketh in us.'' 
 To see the life of piety exist and flourish in 
 such a region, amidst such hostile influences, is a 
 noble testimony to its divinity. And surely the 
 power which can foster, cherish, and maintain 
 this life, and which can secure its growth, in the 
 face even of untoward influences from earth, and 
 malignant antagonisms from hell, is able to do 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 115 
 
 above all that we can ask. The power that can 
 keep the lamp of truth and the fire of holy love 
 alive within ns here, will do more than meet 
 our need. 
 
 And it is a power to cheer and solace. The 
 way is often dark and stormy ; the path is often 
 rugged and dreary ; the world is a scene of sorrows 
 and a vale of tears ; where is the j^ower, in the 
 face of all its storms and in the midst of aU its 
 trials, that can brighten the pathway and cheer 
 the heart? It is only the power of the Spirit 
 that " worketh in us.'' Every other power, such 
 as human wealth or wisdom can bring to our aid, 
 may disappear before some form of trial or some 
 load of grief But the power that worketh in the 
 Christian is equal to all his need — is his joy in 
 sorrow, his light in darkness, liis hope in obscurity 
 and sadness, a consolation to him which the 
 world cannot give, and which it cannot take away. 
 It abides with the soul amidst the deepest earthly 
 distress, under the severest earthly dej^rivation, 
 and enables it to joy in the God of its salvation. 
 And the power that can do this, that is daily 
 doing this, in a world of disappointment and 
 tears — what may it not do ? what may not be ex- 
 pected from it ? 
 
 Such is the power that worketh in the Christian 
 
116 THE pastor's prayer. 
 
 — that energises in his soul. The term is very 
 expressive. It is not a latent, inactive, ineffica- 
 cious influence, but a mighty, present, potent 
 energy, thus bringing life, liberty, and joy, and 
 maintaining them in the face of all hostile influ- 
 ences from earth or hell. " Eye hath not seen, 
 nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart 
 of man, the things which God hath prepared for 
 them that love him. But God hath revealed them 
 unto us by his Spirit" (1 Cor. ii. 9, 10). And 
 just as the believer did not think, and could not 
 previously have thought, of the glory of his life, 
 or of the joy of his liberty, or of the brightness 
 of his hope, or of the riches of the provision 
 made for him, so he may be sure that the power 
 that has v^rought all this in him, exceeding all his 
 previous concejotions, is able to do far above all 
 that he can now ask or think. Eor what Christian 
 is there whose spiritual experience, in the enjoy- 
 ment of peace and hope, does not outstrip all his 
 previous thought or anticipation? Then, surely, 
 the capability of that power which has given him 
 this experience, may well be beyond his asking or 
 imagining. Only let us be sure that the power is 
 now working in us, and with the consciousness of 
 what it has done and is doing in us, we shall 
 intelligently and triumphantly swell the doxology 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 117 
 
 of glory to Him, who is able to do infinitely above 
 all that we can ask or think. Yet how many seek 
 not this consciousness as they ought ; other influ- 
 ences beside the power of the Spirit work in them, 
 so that they cannot anticipate the future and foresee 
 its glory as they might. This is to their spiritual 
 injury and shame. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY TO GOD, THUS 
 SUBLIMELY AND TRULY DESIGNATED. 
 
 " Unto him be glory in the church by Christ 
 Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. 
 Amen." This is the doxology to the God who is 
 able to do more than we can ask or think. And 
 glory may well be ascribed to God, for such a 
 holy triumphant power ; and where can it be truly 
 and acceptably ascribed but in the S23here of the 
 Church, redeemed by Christ, and in living union 
 with Him ? Observe, then : — 
 
 1. The nature of this doxology. It is the 
 ascription of glory — " Unio him be glory." No 
 word is more suggestive, more rich, in implied 
 meaning, or more difficult of definite explanation, 
 than the word glory. It has its true application 
 only in reference to the character, works, and 
 
118 . THE PASTOE'S PEAYER. 
 
 ways of God. It is the lustre of Divine excellence, 
 and the splendour of moral perfection. "The 
 heavens declare the glory of God ;" but when 
 the angels came and announced to the shepherds, 
 in the plains of Bethlehem, the Saviour's birth, 
 they shouted and sang, " Glory to God in the 
 highest.'' Jesus was " the brightness of His 
 Father's glory;" in Him was beheld " the glory 
 as of the only begotten of the Father ;" and this 
 glory was the resplendent fulness of grace and 
 truth dwelt in Him, and shone forth from Him. 
 
 The form of this doxology seems to comj^rehend 
 tliree things — acknowledgment, gratitude, and 
 adoration. There is the acknowledgment that 
 all grandeur and excellence dwell with God, and 
 are in Him — that He is the source and centre of 
 all true glory, and that power and goodness, holi- 
 ness and beauty, belong to Him alone. There is 
 gratitude or praise, the public ascription of this 
 moral perfection and illustrious excellence to God. 
 This is more than mere acknowledgment : God 
 is to be praised as the possessor of this moral 
 splendour, and the minstrelsy of the heart is 
 evoked in gratitude to Him for its display. The 
 Christian is to give " thanks at the remembrance 
 of His holiness," and at the thought of His glo- 
 rious perfection. And then there is adoration. 
 
THE GRATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 119 
 
 Homage and worship are to mingle with our 
 gratitude and acknowledgment. The uprise of 
 the soul, in aspiration and allegiance, is due to 
 such a living centre and King of moral excellence. 
 
 In this doxology, therefore, we have the ascrip- 
 tion to God of the glory that is due, as well as 
 the expression of a desire that this glory may be 
 seen and admired by all His creatures. All good- 
 ness and greatness are in Him ; and where should 
 this ascription be made, and praises rise to Him. 
 so appropriately as in the Church, the scene of so 
 many manifestations of this glory ? 
 
 2. The sphere of this doxology. " In the 
 Church.'' Creation, with all its mysteries, gran- 
 deurs, and beauties, shews forth the glory of God. 
 In the universal temple of nature every one of 
 His works proclaims His glory ; but it is in the 
 sphere of the Church that the greatest glory 
 redounds to Jehovah. It is in the work of re- 
 deeming, sanctifying, and saving men, that the 
 splendours of the Divine perfection, and the 
 lustre of moral excellence, most gloriously shiae 
 forth. In the origin and foundation of the Church, 
 in its life and preservation, in its privileges and 
 prospects, in its achievements and triumphs, what 
 manifestations of the Divine glory appear ! And 
 surely from it, most fully and most fitly, may this 
 
1 20 THE pastoe's peayer. 
 
 doxology arise. The world was made to be the 
 scene of redemption and of moral triumph ; so 
 that the voice of the material creation is, in a 
 sense, hushed before the holier and loftier ascrip- 
 tions of glory which arise to Jehovah from the 
 Church. The splendours of the stars will be 
 eclipsed before the growing splendours of the 
 Church. The hosannas of the redeemed are 
 higher and grander than the songs of nature ; 
 and the "music of the spheres" will be lost 
 and forgotten in the hallelujahs of the saints. 
 Pass in your imagination, then, from the tribute 
 of praise, which the wonders of geology, and the 
 grandeurs of astronomy, and the discoveries of 
 science, and the beauties of nature, raise in har- 
 monious concert to the Almighty Architect of the 
 universe ; and learn that from the Church, re- 
 deemed by the precious blood of Chrisf, and 
 quickened by the Spirit, the highest glory will 
 redound to Grod. Tor it, as the glorious spiritual 
 temple of Jehovah, composed of living stones, all 
 earthly societies and kingdoms, all material dis- 
 plays and outward dispensations, are but as 
 scaffolding; and from it, when they have passed 
 away and perished, will the praises of the Eternal 
 King arise. The whole universe was before the 
 Apostle's mind when he wiote these words, and 
 
THE GEATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 121 
 
 he knew something of the glory which it brought 
 to God ; but here, beyond and above all beside, 
 he singles out the Church as the fullest and most 
 appropriate sphere, for displaying and proclaiming 
 the glory of God. What an elevating truth is 
 this ! And what an honour to be living members 
 of this Living Church! If this be our position 
 and privilege, then from us, in us, and by us, 
 God's glory may be seen, in its moral splendour 
 and illustrious perfection, more than from aU the 
 material works around us. Shall v/e not, then, 
 unite in this ascription of glory to Him that is 
 able to do exceeding abundantly above all that 
 we can ask or think ? 
 
 3. The means or medium of this doxology. 
 It is "by ChrJLSt Jesus." The preposition is ''in," 
 and the meaning is wider, and deeper than the 
 truth which appears on the surface of the text. 
 It is not only, that, through Christ as the great 
 Mediator, the Church sends forth and sends up 
 its praises and ascriptions of glory to God, but 
 that only in Christ, in living union and holy 
 fellowship with Him, can these praises arise and 
 this glory be ascribed. This is a beautiful and 
 significant truth. The Church is the true sphere 
 of this highest doxology to God ; but it is not 
 the Church as established by human authority, or 
 
122 THE PASTOIi's PEAYER. 
 
 • 
 
 the Church as free from such control, but the 
 Church as in holy and harmonious fellowship with 
 its living Head. This alas ! is too much for- 
 gotten. The earthly position and the earthly 
 relations of the Church may be favourable, or 
 they may be adverse ; the Church may be courted 
 by the noble and the great, or it may be frowned 
 and trampled upon ; it may be adorned with the 
 gay trappings of the State, or it may have to pass 
 through scenes of violence and blood ; but it is 
 not in any of these outward circumstances that 
 the Church appears, as the sphere of this ascription 
 of glory to God. No, it is not in the wealth of 
 which it may be possessed, nor in the honours 
 with which it may be invested, nor even in the 
 persecutions with which it may be tried, that the 
 Church yields the highest tribute to the Divine 
 glory ; but in its relation to Christ, and in its liv- 
 ing union to Him. The spirit of this doxology is 
 inspired by oneness with Jesus, and is valuable 
 only in the triumphant fellowship of the Church 
 with Him. No other consciousness, but the con- 
 sciousness of union to Him, can inspire it with 
 the song of acceptable praise, or make it truly the 
 sphere of glory to Cod. And as the Church at 
 large is what its members are, it is only as we 
 individually are in living union with Christ, 
 
THE GEATEFUL DOXOLOGY. 123 
 
 irrespective of all outward distinctions, that we 
 can help to swell this tribute and tide of praise to 
 the Eedeeming God. 
 
 4. The duration of this doxology. It is to be 
 " throughout all ages, world without end/' The 
 Apostle, to give intensity to the idea, combines 
 two phrases, each of which is se23arately used in 
 the New Testament for eternity. It wjH be 
 "through all the generations of the age of 
 ages," — for ever and ever. The Church redeemed 
 will ever be the sphere of the highest glory to 
 God. Eternal perfection will raise and sustain 
 an eternal anthem of j)raise. Yes ; when the 
 everlasting hills have been shaken and consumed, 
 the Church will be strong ; when the stars have 
 paled their lustre, the Church will continue to 
 shine with growing brightness and beauty ; when 
 the seas have passed away, and ceased to reflect 
 the glory of the sun, the Church will more and 
 more illustriously reflect the glory of its God. 
 Because the Kedeemer lives, the Church will live 
 also, the loudest herald and the loftiest display of 
 the glory of its King. We anticipate a glorious 
 final dynasty, the dynasty of the saints under Christ 
 the Master of eternity, and the adorable Monarch 
 of all the future — a kingdom that is to know no 
 end, from which shall be reflected the Divine 
 
124? THE pastok's prayer. 
 
 glory, and from which shall arise hosannas to 
 God for ever and ever. Who would not be in 
 tliis Church, with such a prospect to inherit, and 
 such a mission to perform, world without end? 
 Let each one now seek for himself the power that 
 worketh in God's people, that by it he may be 
 prepared for participation in the glories that are 
 yet to be revealed. 
 
APPENDIX. 
 
 Note A. 
 
 The absence of tlie words iv 'E^eo-w, " at Ephesus" from 
 a few of the ancient MSS. in the first verse of the 
 Epistle, has led some to doubt their genuineness in 
 many others where they are found ; and thus the ques- 
 tion has been debated whether this Epistle was really 
 addressed to the Ephesians. Messrs Conybeare and 
 Howson, in their valuable and beautiful work on " The 
 Life and Epistles of St Paul," say, " It is a mysterious 
 dispensation of Providence that his (Paul's) Epistles to 
 the two great metropolitan churches of Antioch and 
 Ephesus, with which he was himself so peculiarly con- 
 nected, should not have been preserved to us " (vol. ii. 
 p. 408, note 3). Thus they assume that the Epistle to 
 the Ephesians is improperly so called, and was not so 
 addressed. But there is a great preponderance of ex- 
 ternal evidence to show, that there is no sufficient 
 reason to change the current title. The internal evi- 
 dence against the received designation, such as the 
 absence of salutations and personal notices, is of more 
 importance, and is somewhat remarkable, especially 
 when we remember that Paul was so long at Ephesus. 
 Yet even this cannot set aside the all but unanimous 
 voice of antiquity. Over against it may be placed an- 
 other kind of internal evidence, which has not been 
 
126 APPENDIX. 
 
 sufficiently dwelt upon by critics. It is manifest, 
 from the whole tone of the Apostle, that he was well 
 acquainted with the Christian character and religious 
 history of those to whom he writes. He addresses them 
 as having enjoyed the richest treasures of grace, and 
 the highest privileges in the Christian life. He speaks, 
 without hesitation, of their conversion, of their fellow- 
 citizenship with the saints, and of their Christian excel- 
 lence. He places them even on a level with himself in 
 Christian attainments, and rejoices with them in a 
 common salvation, and dwells, with gratitude, on their 
 elevation to a participation of the glories and mysteries 
 which he describes. All this well agrees with the idea, 
 that he addresses those among whom he laboured for 
 nearly three years, and whom he therefore personally 
 and fally knew ; but it hardly comports with the opinion 
 that he addresses those of whom he had heard only by 
 report. The reference to report, in chap. i. 15, is easily 
 understood, on the ground of the Apostle's absence for 
 several years from Ephesus. 
 
 Note B. 
 
 The climactic character of the whole passage seems 
 to have been generally overlooked by commentators. 
 The recognition of it certainly imparts a beauty and a 
 significance to the Apostle's j)rayer, not otherwise seen. 
 Mr Ellicott recognises it, in his admirable " Critical and 
 Grammatical Commentary " on this Epistle ; and, as his 
 work did not come into my hands until after my own 
 opinion was formed, I have the more satisfaction in 
 quoting from such a clear and scholarly volume. " The 
 Apostle prays that they might be strengthened, so that 
 
APPENDIX. 127 
 
 the result of it might be the indwelKng of Christ, the 
 natural consequence of which would be the being rooted 
 and grounded in the principle of Christian love. This 
 was to be their basis and foundation, in which alone 
 they were to be fully enabled to realise all the majestic 
 proportions of Christ's surpassing love to man." " The 
 object and purpose of i^Laxv^i-v KaTcika^ea-Oai {being able 
 to com-prehend, &c.), is to be filled with all the fulness of 
 God, and where Christ the living Son of God dwells, 
 there surely ixav to TrXrjpcofxa tov Qeov is already." — A 
 Critical and Grammatical Commentary on St Pau.Vs 
 Epistles to the Ephesians. By C. J. Ellicott, M.A. 
 London : J. Parker & Son. 1855. 
 
 Note C. 
 
 Little notice has been taken by critics of the distinc- 
 tion between KaraXa^eadai, to comprehend, and yvapuL, 
 to know ; and yet, as it appears to me, much of the 
 point, force, and beauty of the Apostle's idea depends 
 on this very distinction. I cannot agree with Dr Eadie 
 when he says, in his " Commentary on the Greek Text 
 of the Epistle to the Ephesians " (a full and valuable 
 commentary, to which I cheerfully acknowledge my 
 obligations), that yva>vaL is simply in unison with 
 KaraKa^eaOaiy and denotes " a similar exercise of mind." 
 The verb KaraXaii^avM occurs in the New Testament 
 only in the middle voice, as applied to the mental 
 powers, and has the idea of mental perception, intellec- 
 tual recognition, the seizure of some fact or object by 
 the mind — as Acts iv. 13, when the rulers ^'•perceived'''' 
 that Peter and John were "unlearned and ignorant 
 men;" Acts x. 34, when Peter ^'- perceived^ from the 
 
128 APPENDIX. 
 
 whole circumstances of the case, in the house of Cor- 
 nehus, that God was no respecter of persons ; Acts 
 XXV. 25, when Festus said to Agrippa, regarding Paul, 
 that he had ^^ found''' (perceived) that he had done 
 nothing worthy of death. But yvSivai expresses much 
 more than this — as John x\^i. 3, " This is life eternal 
 that they might Jcnoiv thee," &c. ; 1 John iv. 7, " Everj' 
 one that liveth is born of God, and hioweth God " — 
 and so in many other passages. The former term, 
 Kara\al3eadai, expresses the mental perception or know- 
 ledge of essentials ; the latter term, yvavai, expresses 
 the deeper knowledge which arises from spiritual con- 
 sciousness and religious experience. The one thus 
 rises above the other ; and the second clause supplies 
 the defining genitive which is awanting in the fir§t — 
 viz., the love of Christ. 
 
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 CHRISTIANITY ADAPTED TO MAN IN ALL THE 
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 CONTENTS :- 
 
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 adapted to Man as an Intellectual Being. — III. Chris- 
 tianity adapted to Man as a Moral Being. — IV. Chris- 
 tianity adapted to Man as an Emotional Being. — ^V. 
 Christianity adapted to Man as a Social Being. — VI. 
 Christianity adapted to Man as a Suffering Being. — VII. 
 Christianity adapted to Man as an Immortal Being. — 
 VIII. Christianity the Religion of a Sound Mind. — IX. 
 Christianity the Eeign of God .in the Human Soul. 
 
CRITICAL NOTICES. 
 
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 THE MARTYR-SPIRIT: 
 
 WHEEE IS IT NOW ? 
 
 A DISCOURSE 
 
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