Colossians 3 - The Biblical Illustrator

Forbearing one smother, and forgiving one another.

Forbearance

To forbear is not only freely to forgive, but to meet half way, with extended hand (E. T. E. B.)

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During the celebrated John Henderson’s residence at Oxford, a student of a neighbouring college, proud of his logical achievements, was solicitous of a private disputation. Some mutual friends introduced him, and having chosen his subject, they conversed for some time with equal candour and moderation; but at length Henderson’s antagonist, perceiving his own confusion inevitable, in the height of passion threw a full glass of wine in Henderson’s face. The latter, without altering his features, or changing his position, gently wiped his face, and coolly replied, “This, sir, is a digression. Now for the argument.” A greater victory than any controversial success could have given him. (Cottle.)

Divine forgiveness admired and imitated

I. Study the pattern of forgiveness.

1. What is this forgiveness of Christ?

(1) He forgave offences most great and grievous. Men did all they could against Him. Say not that you have never thus transgressed. “He was despised, and we esteemed Him not.” These offences were unprovoked. Towards no man had He acted harshly. Such is human depravity that His very virtue provoked hostility. “They hated Me without a cause.” He continues to forgive causeless wrong.

(2) He forgave the most unworthy persons. None deserved such kindness; in fact, to talk of deserving it is a contradiction. If He had left us in our sin we could have brought no complaint against Him.

(3) He had always power to execute vengeance. Some pardon because they cannot punish. Half the forgiveness in the world comes from weakness of hand rather than forgiveness of heart.

2. How did He forgive?

(1) Unsolicited. Before we had thought of mercy He had thoughts of mercy toward us. “I have blotted out … return unto Me.” Pardon is not first as matter of experience, but it is as matter of fact with God.

(2) Heartily. Forgiveness when it comes from human lips in studied phrase is not worth the having: but when Jesus absolves it is from the heart, and sin is put away for ever.

(3) Completely. He keeps no back reckonings. “I will not remember thy sins.” Even fathers, when they have forgiven a wayward child, will, perhaps, throw the offence in his teeth years after; but Christ says, “Thy sins shall not be mentioned against thee any more.”

(4) Continuously. He forgave us long ago. He still forgives. It is not a reprieve, but a free pardon.

(5) Graciously. Some people make it appear as though they were coming down from such awful heights. You newer feel that about Christ. He never scalds the sinner with scornful pity.

(6) Greatly. The offence had brought trouble into the world, and He bore that trouble. Some people hand us over to consequences; Christ delivers us from them.

(7) Consciously. There is a theory abroad that we may be forgiven and not know it. But the Holy Spirit writes forgiveness on our hearts.

II. Copy it for yourselves.

1. This precept is universally applicable. It is unqualified in its range. It is not put that superiors are to forgive inferiors, or the less are to forgive the greater. The rich are to be forbearing to the poor, and the poor to the rich; the elder is to forgive the junior for his imprudence, and the junior the elder for his petulence and slowness.

2. This forbearance and forgiveness are vital. No man is a child of God who has not a likeness to God; and no man is forgiven who will not himself forgive.

3. Gloriously ennobling. Revenge is paltry; forgiveness is great-minded. David was greater than Saul, and Saul acknowledged it. To win a battle is a little thing if fought out with sword and gun, but to win it in God’s way with love and forgiveness is the best of victories. A nation in fighting, even if it wins the campaign, has to suffer, but he that overcomes by love is all the better and stronger for it.

4. Logically appropriate to all. If our Lord has forgiven us ten thousand talents, how can we take our brother by the throat for one hundred pence.

5. Most forcibly sustained by the example in the text. “Even as Christ.” It is said

(1) “If you pass by every wanton offence you will come to be despised.” But has Christ’s honour suffered? Far from it. It is His glory to forgive.

(2) “If we overlook offences, other people may be tempted to wrong us.” But has any been tempted to do so because Christ has forgiven you? Why, that is the very ground work of holiness.

(3) “I know several pious persons who are unforgiving.” But that proves their impiety; and if it did not, the Master is your example, not your fellow-servant, particularly in his faults.

(4) “These persons would not have forgiven me.” Just so; but you are a child of God, and must not lower your standard down to that of publicans and sinners.

(5) “I would forgive him, but he does not deserve it.” That is why you are to forgive him; if he deserved it you would be bound to do him the justice he could claim.

(6) “I cannot forgive.” You “can do all things through Christ that strengthens you.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Human forgiveness

The world is rife with human quarrels; families, neighbour-hoods, Churches, have their quarrels. They arise from many principles in the depraved heart besides misunderstandings. Hence forgiveness is important. The text suggests two things concerning forgiveness.

I. The duty. Here it is urged as well as in other places (Romans 12:19). Besides this there are two reasons.

1. You desire forgiveness yourself. Who would like to have the vengeance of a man always in his heart towards him? If you would like forgiveness, you must do as you would be done by.

2. You need forgiveness yourself when you have offended. He who cannot forgive others breaks the bridge over which he himself has to pass. Besides, an unforgiving spirit is an injury to its possessor.

II. Its model. “Even as Christ.”

1. How did Christ forgive? Promptly, generously, fully, without any reflection upon past offences.

2. Examples: The woman taken in adultery. His enemies--“Father, forgive them.” The dying thief. (D. Thomas, D. D.)

Forgiveness

implies--

1. The remission of the right to retaliate when safe and proper.

2. The dismissal of the revengeful feelings which injury may have excited.

3. The revival of those feelings of goodwill which it becomes us habitually to cherish. (W. Fleming.)

Forth-giving

To forgive a thing is to “forthgive” by your own act and freewill, to give it forth from you that it may go clean out from you--out of sight and out of mind.

Forgiveness a distinctively Christian virtue

We cannot say that it was unknown to the ancients; under certain conditions, no doubt, it was very common. In domestic life, in which all the germs of Christian virtue are to be found, it was undoubtedly common. Undoubtedly friends fell out and were reconciled in antiquity as among ourselves. But when the only relation between the two parties was that of injurer and injured, and the only claim of the offender to forgiveness was that he was a human being, then forgiveness seems not only not to have been practised, but not to have been enjoined nor approved. People not only did not forgive their enemies, but did not wish to do so, nor think better of themselves for having done so. That man considered himself fortunate who on his deathbed could say, in reviewing his past life, that no one had done more good to his friends or more mischief to his foes. The Roman Triumph, with its naked ostentation of revenge, fairly represents the common feeling of the ancients. Nevertheless, forgiveness even of any enemy was not unknown to them. They could conceive it, and they could feel that there was- a Divine beauty in it, but it seemed to them more than could be expected of human nature, superhuman. (Ecce Homo.)

International forgiveness

Is that which is right between individuals wrong as between societies? Am I to forbear and forgive when acting alone, but when associated with two or three others am I to manifest a different spirit? Is my individual conscience to be merged in the associated conscience, and does the Christian law for a society differ from the law for individuals? Enlarge the society till it becomes the nation. Is the law of Christ abrogated? It would seem to be so considered by the “Christian nations” of the world. Why is Europe in time of peace an entrenched camp? Why are millions of the strongest and healthiest men withdrawn from productive labours and domestic life to be trained in the art of killing, while the people groan under the burden of a taxation and a poverty God never sent? Because in international law there is so little recognition of the Divine precept--“forbearing one another and forgiving one another.” Because many who in their private relations manifest meekness and gentleness, as politicians and statesmen seem to think the old Pagan law is unrepealed. How few of the wars which have desolated Europe during the last thousand years would have been waged had it been more than nominally Christian l If instead of resenting every supposed affront, of vindicating on every petty occasion what is called the honour of a flag, of supposing the dignity of an empire precludes all forbearance, patience, and concession, there had been even a little of the “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering” enjoined in our text, the history of the world had been differently written; heathen nations would have said, “see how these Christians love;” instead of the flags of Europe inspiring terror in distant regions, they would have been everywhere hailed as symbols of peace; and the old prophecy would have had a fulfilment in the case of Christendom--“the joy of the whole earth is Mount Zion.” (Newman Hall, LL. B.)

A quarrel--

A quarrel: Both sides wrong

In most quarrels there is a fault on both sides. A quarrel may be compared to a spark, which cannot be produced without a flint as well as a steel; either of them may hammer on wood for ever, no fire will follow. (R. South.)

Quarrels prolonged

“I have seen in the south of France a row of beggars sitting on the side of a bridge, day after day, winter and summer, showing sore legs and sore arms; these sores never get well, they were kept continually raw with caustic in order to excite compassion and obtain alms. And the most bitter jealousy reigned between these beggars as to the size and irritability of their respective sores. The man with only an inflamed knee burned with envy of the man whose whole leg was raw. Not for all the world would they let their wounds heal, as that would cut off from them a means of livelihood. I fear a great many people love their grievances against neighbours much as those beggars loved their sores. They keep them constantly open and irritable by inventing and applying fresh aggravations. They are proud of them, they like to expose their wrongs, as they call them, to all their neighbours.” (S. Baring-Gould.)

And above all these things put on charity.

The grace of charity

I. Charity is the greatest of graces in the width and extent of its sphere. Other graces have particular things with which they are more intimately concerned; special parts of life on which they throw the light of their charm; special times in which they actively operate. They are like the winds that blow, the rain that falls, the snow that covers, or the lightning that purifies sometimes. But charity is like the Divine sunlight that shines on always, works always, tempers the winds, warms the rains, dissipates the mists, melts the snow; sometimes seen and felt, sometimes unseen, but never ceasing its influence, and recognizing no earth limits to its sphere. Charity covers the whole life and relationships of the Christian, and 1 Corinthians 13:1-13. maps out and distinguishes them.

1. The sphere of a brother’s opinions.

2. The sphere of a brother’s failings.

3. The sphere of a brother’s sorrows.

4. The sphere of a brother’s sins.

II. Because of the difficulty with which it is attained. Difficulty is often the test of value. Gold is valued because of the cost and toil of procuring it. Charity is difficult mainly through the separatings of sin. Sin broke up the fellowship of the human family, and filled the world with opposing interests. Charity is to heal these great wounds, temper the opposing relations, and on its own substantial basis to make the human family one again. And, as charity is God’s own nature, we have first to be reconciled to, and come into sympathy with Him.

III. Because IV never faileth. The summer flowers which blossom in beauty fade and fail. Charity is no summer flower born of earth, sunshine, and showers. It is a heaven-born plant; its flowers never fail; it is like the tree of life. (R. Tuck, B. A.)

Gospel charity

There is no grace or duty that is not commanded in Scripture, but this is commanded above all others (1 Peter 4:8; 1 Corinthians 12:31).

I. The nature of this love. It is the second great duty brought to light by the gospel. There is a natural love which follows on natural relations, and there is a love which arises from society in sin or in pleasure, from a suitableness of humour in conversation, or of design as to political ends, but all these are utter strangers to evangelical love. And therefore, when it was first brought to light by the gospel, the heathen were amazed. “See how these Christians love one another.” What is this love.

1. It is a fruit of the Spirit (Galatians 5:22), as contradistinguished from that which arises from our natural inclination.

2. It is an effect of faith. “Faith worketh by love.” How: When it respects God’s command requiring this love, His promise accepting it, and His glory where unto it is directed. Self may work by love sometimes, and flesh, interest, and reputation, but not by this love.

3. It is that which knits the souls of believers with an entire affection (Ephesians 4:16; Psalms 16:2).

(1) The whole mystical body of Christ being the adequate object of gospel love, it is indispensably required of us that we love all believers as such. But this is accompanied by some limitations.

(a) In the exercise of it, it will much answer the evidence that persons are interested in the body of Christ. There are some whose opinions and practices will exercise the most extensive charity to judge that they belong to it. Yet, according to our evidence, so is our love to be.

(b) There may be degrees in our love, especially as to delight and valuation, according as we see more or less of the image of Christ upon a believer, this likeness being the formal reason of this love.

(c) Its exercise must be determined by opportunities.

(2) There is required an inclination to all acts of love towards all believers, as opportunity shall serve. If we turn our face away from our brother how dwelleth the love of God in us? If it be in us let it be advantaged by any opportunity, and it will break through difficulties and pleas of flesh and blood.

(3) Christ has provided us with a safe, suitable, and constant object by His institution of particular Churches. Let none, then pretend that they love the brethren in general while their love is not exercised towards those in the same Church society with them.

II. The grounds why this love is so necessary.

1. Because it is the great way whereby we can give testimony to the power of the gospel (John 17:21-23). There is no oneness but that whereof love is the bond of perfectness, that will give conviction unto the world that God hath sent Christ, for He alone can give it.

2. We have no evidence that we are disciples without it (John 13:34-35).

3. This is that in which the communion of saints principally consists.

(1) The fountain and spring of this communion is our common participation of one Spirit from the one Head, Jesus Christ.

(2) This communion is expressed in the participation of the same ordinances in the same Church.

(3) The life and formal reason of this communion is love. Ephesians 4:15-16 is the most glorious description of this communion of saints. It begins in love--“speaking the truth in love;” it ends in love--“edifying itself in love;” it is carried on by love; it is all love.

III. Cautions against its hindrances.

1. Take heed of a morose disposition. If it does not hinder some fruits of love, yet it sullies the glory of its exercise. Grace is intended to change our natural temper and make the froward meek, and the passionate patient.

2. Take heed of hindrances which may attend your state and condition. Riches and honour encompass with so many circumstances that it is difficult to break through them to familiarity with the meanest members of the Church. The gospel leaves you your providential advantages, but in things which concern your communion it lays all level (James 2:1-26.). We all serve one common Master, who for our sakes became poor.

3. Take heed of satisfying yourselves with the duties of love without looking after the entire working of the grace of love. (J. Owen, D. D.)

Charity the bond of perfectness

These words come after an exhortation to the practice of the Christian virtues of mercy, etc.. In addition to these we are to put on charity, which is the bond of perfectness. Not perfect bond, but that which renders perfect. Love is that which unites all the others into a complete whole. Another interpretation is to this effect. As in verse 14, Paul has said in the Church and in Christ “there is neither Greek nor Jew,” etc., he says here that love is the unifying principle which binds together all the otherwise discordant members of the Church.

I. Love is used of--

1. Benevolence to man.

2. God’s love to us.

3. Our love to God.

4. Brotherly love among Christians.

5. Love in general as a Christian grace without specification of object. Its characteristics are noted in 1 Corinthians 13:1-13.

II. Of this love it is taught--

1. That without this all our passions, professions, hopes, are vain and worthless. No amount of orthodoxy, power, natural or supernatural, devotion, almsgiving, Church membership, assiduity in religious duties, is of any avail.

2. That this love is the fruit of faith. It cannot exist without it, and faith without it is dead.

3. It is the bond of perfectness.

(1) It unites all the Christian virtues.

(2) It unites all the members Of Christ’s body.

4. It is the image of God. It makes us like Christ.

5. It is the beauty and blessedness of heaven. Perfection of the religion of the Bible.

(1) Not ritualism, benevolence, orthodoxy, but

(2) Faith which works by love. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

Love the bond of perfectness

The Christian is here conceived a cleansed and beautifully-robed man, fitted to enter the presence of the great King. He describes the work which we have to do in order to prepare ourselves for the royal audience. There is an inner cleansing of the heart, the thoughts, the secret springs of our being. “Mortify, therefore, your members which are upon the earth.” There is also a putting off of the old garments of self, pride, and indulgence; the clean spirit cannot do with the foul clothes; and there is the putting on of the new dress--the various garments that compose it are called, “bowels of mercies, kindness, humbleness of mind, meekness, long-suffering, and forgiving.” These are, as it were, the under-garments; the man is not clothed fit for the presence of the Divine royalty without the robe, worked in graceful colours, made of finest material, hanging in graceful folds, putting the touch of harmony and grace on all the other garments, and being, as it were, “the bond of perfectness,” finishing off and perfecting the whole dress. That over-covering, all-hallowing robe is charity; in its adornings, and completings, and harmonisings, being the very “bond of perfectness” to a gracious character. (R. Tuck, B. A.)

Love a perfecting grac

e:--Here is an evident allusion to the zone of the orientalists, which was generally adorned with jewels and ornaments, and which, by adjusting the folds of the drapery, served at once to give a beautiful form to the human figure, and to unite and perfect the whole dress. The use the apostle here makes of the metaphor is apparent: as the zone was a most material part of the dress, combining and perfecting all, and giving symmetry and beauty to the form of the person by whom it was worn; so charity is the best of all the graces, perfecting and combining the whole in beauty and in love. And, like that also, we may remark that it is put on last. Men in general are much mare anxious to hate and to destroy than to love and do good; and even after they seem to have imbibed much of the Christian temper, this sacred bond, this beautiful zone, is long wanting. (R. Hewlett, D. D.)

Love the perfection of the Christian character

Love is the most potent affection of the human heart.

I. It is the prime element in every other grace of the Christian character. It is the soul of every virtue, and the guarantee of a genuine sincerity. Without it all the rest are but glittering sins. It is possible to have all those mentioned in verse 12; but without love they would be meaningless, cold, and dead. Mercy would degenerate into sentimentality, kindness into extravagance, humility into mock depreciation, long-suffering into dull, dogged stupidity.

II. It occupies the most exalted place in Christian character. “Above all these things,” as the outer garment covers and binds together the rest.

III. Love is the pledge of permanency in the Christian character. As the girdle, or cincture, bound together the loose flowing robes of the ancients, so love is the power that holds together all those graces which together make up perfection. Love is the preservative force in the Christian character. Without it, knowledge would lose its enterprise, mercy and kindness become languid, humility faint, and long-suffering indifferent. Lave binds together in a bond which time cannot injure, the enemy unloose, or death destroy.

IV. The perfection of the Christian character is seen in the practical manifestation of love. “Put on charity.”

1. Love is indispensable. It is possible to possess many beautiful traits--much that is humane and aimiable--without being a complete Christian: to be very near perfection, and yet lack one thing. Without love all other graces are as sounding brass and a tinkling cymbal

2. Love is susceptible of individual cultivation.

Lessons:

1. The mere profession of Christianity is empty and valueless.

2. Every grace of the Christian character must be diligently exercised.

3. Above and through all other graces love must operate. (G. Barlow.)

Love is over all, and the bond of perfectness, because--

I. It is of greater extent than any other virtue. Mercy and kindness, and humbleness and forgiveness, are separate graces; but love embraces them all, regards generally our neighbour and those in adversity, our friends and enemies, the good and the bad.

II. Without it all other graces are vain and delusive. Mercy without it is weakness; humility, debasement, meekness, cajolery, and deceit; patience, stupidity; forgiveness, hypocrisy; all is inconsistent, heartless, wayward, selfish.

III. It supplies the want or remedies the defect of any other graces and virtues. For we are always falling short in one or other, from indwelling sin, from temptation, from cast of character, from peculiar circumstances. A sweet charitable temper provides the articles of Christian attire in which we are from time to time most defective, supplies their place, hides their imperfections, remedies the ill effects of their absence. (Bishop D. Wilson.)

Love the “finish” of the Christian character

When the cutler brings his goods to market, he may have the best of steel in the blade and the best of horn in the handle, and every part may be rivetted strongly; but if the blade has not been polished, and if there be no finishing work in the handle, he cannot sell his stock. It is just as good for practical purposes as though it were finished; but people do not want it. They want their blades polished and their handles finished, and they are so used to having goods sand-papered and burnished, that they will not take them unless they are so. There must be art in them. And this is carried so far, that when articles are good for nothing art is put on the outside to make them seem good for something. And men buy things for the sake of their looks. The idea of perfection lies in the direction of the aesthetic; and as much so in social and moral elements as in physical things. Men are not now finished in any respect in their higher relations. I mean even good men. There are hundreds of men that are in the main laying out their life and character in right directions, and on right foundations; but how few men know how to be good variously, systematically, gracefully, genially, sweetly, beautifully. (H. W. Beecher.)

When the apostle speaks so highly of charity, he does not mean to disparage the other graces. They also are most beautiful, considered apart from charity, only charity has such a sun-like excellence, in its presence all star-like beauty, and even moon-like beauty, seem to grow dim and fade away. Compare the diamond with a common wayside stone, and we are not greatly impressed with its superiority; the contrast is too great. Set it in the royal crown; encircle it with pearls; let it compare with other jewels; with ruby, and garnet, and emerald; then the depth of its crystal purity seems so impressive, and the flashing of its light so exquisite. Set charity alongside “humbleness, bowels of mercies, long-suffering,” or forgiving, then it seems to gather up into itself much of the charm and loveliness of such graces, and stands forth in the centre of them all, “the very bond of perfectness.” (R. Tuck, B. A.)

And let the peace of God rule in your hearts.

The peace of Christ

The various reading “peace of Christ” is not only recommended by MS. authority, but has the advantage of bringing the expression into connection with the great words of our Lord, “Peace I leave you,” etc. A strange legacy left at a strange moment. It was but an hour or so since He had been “troubled in spirit” as He thought of the betrayer--and in an hour more He would be beneath the olives of Gethsemane; and yet even at such a time He bestows on His friends some share in His deep repose of spirit. Surely the “peace of Christ” must mean what “My peace” meant: not only the peace which He gives, but the peace which lay like a great calm on the sea on His own deep heart, and we must not restrict it to mutual concord. When He gave us His peace He gave us some share in that meek submission of will to His Father’s will, and in that stainless purity, which were its chief elements. The hearts and lives of men are made troubled not by circumstances, but by themselves. Whoever can keep his own will in harmony with God’s enters into rest. Even if within and without are fightings, there may be a central peace. Christ’s peace was the result of the perfect harmony of His nature. All was co-operant to one great purpose; desires and passions did not war with conscience and reason, nor did the flesh lust against the spirit. Though that complete uniting of all our inner selves is not attained on earth, yet its beginnings are given us by Christ, and in Him we may be at peace with ourselves, and have one great ruling power binding all our conflicting desires in one, as the moon draws after her the heaped waters of the sea. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The power of Divine peace

The connection between this verse and the foregoing is obvious. The man who has this peace is most likely to cultivate love. Christian calmness is the concomitant and stimulus of Christian affection which is hindered by doubt, anxiety, or fear.

I. The nature and value of this blessing.

1. It is the highest blessing. It is peace with God and the rest of the soul in Him--the peace which comes from Christ and through Him. In its character it is that which Christ Himself enjoys, and when we have it, with no gloom from the past, no forebodings for the future, no pursuing vengeance and no depressing fear, we stand strong and calm amid the troubles of this world, like the rock unmoved amid the ocean surges. It is a Divine tranquillity which the world cannot take away and no earthly sorrow diminish.

2. It is a present blessing--not one hoped for to be realized by and by. Yet there are many who are in uncertainty about it, and they go about doubting and unhappy. It ought not to be so when Christ gives it freely. Come forth and dwell in the glory of the Divine love and it will flow into the soul.

3. It is a powerful blessing.

(1) A power of stimulus. It is the mightiest help on the side of piety, it leads and lifts the soul to Him from whom it comes.

(2) A power of defence (Philippians 4:7).

(a) It fortifies against temptation and sin;

(b) against infidelity.

A Christian may be a poor logician and unacquainted with historical evidences, but if Divine peace rules his heart, he has a stronger defence than reason or learning can supply.

(3) A power of control. It is a wise and safe monitor. We are often perplexed as to what is right or wrong in pursuits, amusements, alliances, etc. But if the peace of God is supreme it will settle these moral difficulties at once.

(4) A power of concentration. It gathers together all the powers of manhood that they may go forth in obedience to Christ. It enabled Paul, freed as he was by it from all doubts and fears, to say, “This one thing I do.”

II. Inducements and encouragements to its realization.

1. The Divine call to it--“To which we also are called.” They surely forget this who go in doubt or uncertainty. It is God’s gracious design that we should have it. The gospel summons us to happiness. “Peace on earth” was the proclamation of the angels. To give it was the mission of Christ, and His promise to the disciples, “In the world ye shall have tribulation, but in Me peace.”

2. Our condition in this world of turmoil and sin. By it we may be raised above the sorrows and anxieties of time. We can and ought to be calm when other men are agitated--when panic is abroad, credit shaken, commerce paralyzed, the bonds of society loosened, human hopes stricken.

3. The unity of the Church--“in one body.” The more we are conscious of it, and let it rule, the more shall we contribute to the manifest oneness of the body of Christ. No strifes and divisions can exist where it reigns.

III. The spirit in which it is to be cherished. Thankfulness is an habitual exercise of the Christian soul; here it is for peace. And when we think that God has called us to it, and contemplate the way in which it has come to us through the Cross, and estimate its value in this world of sorrow, how profound should be our gratitude. (J. Spence, D. D.)

The ruling peace of Christ

The figure is that of the umpire or abitrator at the games who, looking down on the arena, watches that the combatants strive lawfully, and adjudges the prize. The peace of Christ, then, is to sit enthroned as umpire in the heart; or if we might give a mediaeval instead of a classical shape to the figure, that fair sovereign, Peace, is to be Queen of the Tournament, and her “eyes rain influence and adjudge the prize.” When contending impulses and reasons distract and seem to pull us in opposite directions, let her settle which is to prevail. We may make a rude test of good and evil by their effects on our inward repose. Whatever mars our tranquillity, ruffling the surface so that Christ’s image is no longer visible, is to be avoided. That stillness of spirit is very sensitive, and shrinks away at the presence of an evil thing. Let it be for us what the barometer is to the sailor, and if it sinks let us be sure that a storm is at hand. There is nothing so precious that it is worthwhile to lose the peace of Christ for the sake of it. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The peace of God ruling the heart

There are here four pieces of advice.

I. Possess the peace of God. Many persons have peace but it is a false peace, the peace of ignorance, stupidity, indifference--the followers of the false prophet who cried “peace, peace,”’ when there was no peace. Woe to the man whose peace of mind is like the deadly smoothness of the current just as it nears the cataract! The text refers to--

1. Peace with God. If you are reconciled through Jesus Christ, don’t act as though it were doubtful (Romans 5:1). Growing out of this there is peace with God in all His providences which can only come through an entire submission to the Divine will. If thou canst not change thy place change thy mind till thy mind shall love thy place. If forgiven why raise minor points. It is like quarreling on small points of law when the great case has been decided.

2. Peace such as God commends. Perfect peace with Himself and then with all men. What are men’s offences against us compared with those which God has forgiven? And what can men do to us at the worst that we should fear or revenge their injuries? “Peace on earth: good-will toward men.”

3. Peace which God works in the soul. We cannot create this. To take the wild-beast heart out of us and to put a new heart in us is a Divine work.

4. The peace of God--a Hebraism for excellence, as great mountains and trees are called hills and trees of God. It is greater than any other peace. It is the holiest, deepest, one which passeth all understanding, and eternal.

II. Let this peace rule in your hearts.

1. In order to peace there must be a ruler. Those people who are for putting down all governors may bid farewell to peace. The worst king is better than the despotism of the mob, the carnival of misrule wherein every man doth what is right in his own eyes, and all eyes love darkness rather than light. See how it is in a house! Where the head is not the head, the hand is not the hand, and nothing is itself. You must have a governing faculty somewhere; and if nothing governs within your heart the devil governs.

2. It is a blessed gift of grace when the peace of God rules in the heart. If it is in your heart at all, it must rule, for it has power to put down all rebellion. When a riot arises we appeal to the lawful power to come and put down the uproar. So in our hearts we can say to the master principle, the peace of God, “Come, put down my murmuring, arrest this bad temper, help me that I may not break out into anger.”

3. Yield yourself to the blessed umpireship of the peace of God. Resolve to judge all things by it, and do nothing that would upset its government. If you do--say by getting angry--you harm yourself physically, but much more spiritually. In such a case you cannot pray as you did, nor read some scriptures as you did, nor look the Well-beloved in the face and say “I am acting in a way that pleases Him.” It is therefore a serious thing for a believer to break this peace.

4. If a man has this peace he may go down to any meeting, however turbulent--and yet he will be wise to answer and be silent, to do or not to do, for it will keep him quiet. But if his mind be unhinged before the Lord he will be weak as another man, and say and do what he will wish to wipe out with tears.

III. Strengthen yourself by God’s spirit with arguments. Remember--

1. Only can you be happy in heart and healthy in spirit as long as you keep the peace of God.

2. Only then can the Church prosper. A Church disputing is a Church committing suicide’, and most disputes are about little points?

3. Only thus can God be glorified. If you are always fretting and anxious how can you promote that; or if you are finding fault with everybody.

4. God calls you to this. If you are not a peaceful man you have not inherited your true calling. He called you to be a peacemaker.

5. He calls you in one body. What would you think of the hand if it should say, “I will have no peace with the eye,” or the foot if it should say, “I will not carry the heavy body about”? What is to become of the glory of Christ if the members live in contention?

IV. Occupy tour minds healthily--“Be ye thankful.”

1. That is the way to keep our peace with God. Bless Him for all your miseries as well as for all your mercies.

2. That is the way to keep our peace with men. Be thankful in the home society, etc., for benefits received. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Unity and Peace

1. It may surprise us to find peace urged as a duty, whereas it seems a matter over which we have no control. But the text proceeds upon the supposition and urges thankfulness for it also.

2. Moreover, remember that these words were written when the apostle lay in prison, expecting a violent death; when false doctrines were rife and religious animosities fierce; and they are part of an eager controversial Epistle. Therefore it is possible to be in the midst of danger, to breathe the atmosphere of religious controversy, and even to be a controversialist, and yet the soul not lose its deep peace. Joined with this is the doctrine of Church unity as its basis.

I. The unity of the Church of Christ.

1. Distinguish between the unity of comprehensiveness and that of singularity. The army is one, that is the oneness of unity; the soldier is one, that is the oneness of the unit. The body is a unity of manifold comprehensiveness, a member of a body exhibits a unity of singularity. Without unity peace is impossible. There is no peace in a soldier, but there is in an army; none in a limb, only in a body. In order to have peace you must have a higher unity, and herein consists the unity of God’s own being. When the Unitarian speaks of God as one, he means simply singularity of number. We mean that He is of manifold comprehensiveness. “I and My Father are one.”

2. Unity subsists between things dissimilar.

(1) There is no unity in the separate atoms of a sand-pit; they are things similar. Even if they be hardened into a mass they are only a mass. There is no unity in a flock of sheep; it is simply a repetition of things similar.

(2) But a body is made up of dissimilar members and is thus a unity; so that if you strike off from this any one member the unity is destroyed and only a part is left..

(3) So with the Church.

(a) The unity of its ages is not that every age is the repetition of every other, but that each has put forth its own fragment of truth. In early ages martyrdom proclaimed the eternal sanctity of truth rather than give up which a man must lose his life. This age by its revolutions and socialisms proclaims the brotherhood of man. So that just as every separate ray--violet, blue, and orange--make up the white ray, so these manifold fragments blended make up the perfect white ray of truth.

(b) With regard to individuals. At the reformation, e.g., it was given to one to proclaim that salvation is not local; to another, justification by faith; to another, the sovereignty of God; to others, the supremacy of the Scriptures, the right of private judgment, the duty of the individual conscience.

(c) So again with regard to Churches. Would we force upon others our Anglicanism? Then in consistency you are bound to demand that in God’s world there shall be but one colour, and one note. But the various Churches advance different truths, varieties to be blended in unity.

3. Unity consists in submission to one single influence or spirit. Take away the unifying life of the body, and decomposition begins, the principle of cohesion being gone. We know the power of a single living influence. Take, e.g., the power wherewith the orator holds together a thousand men as if they were one; or that which concentrates the conflicting feelings of a people when the threat of foreign invasion has fused down the edges of variance and makes the classes of this manifold and mighty England one; or the mighty winds which hold together the various atoms of the desert, so that they rush like a living thing across the wilderness. And this is the unity of the Church, the subjection to the one uniting spirit of its God. You cannot produce unity by ecclesiastical discipline, by consenting to some form of expression, such as “Let us agree to differ,” by parliamentary enactments. Give us the living Spirit of God and we shall be one. This was exhibited at Pentecost, and may be so again.

II. The inward peace of the members of the Church.

1. This peace is when a man is contented with his lot, when the flesh is subdued to the spirit, and when he feels in his heart that all is right. To this we are called, “Come unto Me all ye that labour, etc.”

2. This was the dying bequest of Christ; and herein lies the power of Christianity to satisfy the deepest want of man--the repose of acquiescence in the will of God.

3. It is God’s peace. God is rest. The “I am” of God is contrasted with the “I am becoming” of all other things. And this peace arises out of His unity. There is no discord between the powers and attributes of God.

4. It is a living peace, and must be distinguished from the peace of the man who lives for and enjoys self: the peace on the surface of the caverned lake that no wind can stir; that is the peace of stagnation: the peace of the stones which have fallen down the mountain’s side; that is the peace of inanity: the peace in the hearts of enemies who lie together on the battle field; their animosity is silenced in death. If ours is the peace of the sensualist, or of inaction, apathy or sin, we may whisper to ourselves “Peace, peace,” but there will be no peace.

5. It is the peace which comes from an inward power--“rule.” There is no peace except where there is the possibility of the opposite of peace, although now restrained and controlled. You do not speak of the peace of a grain of sand, or of a mere pond, but of the sea, because its opposite is there implied. And we make a great mistake when we say there is strength in passion. If the passions of a man are strong, the man is weak if he cannot control them. The real strength of a man is calmness, the word of Christ saying, “Peace!” and there is “a great calm.”

6. It is the peace of reception, but not of inaction.

(1) The peace of obedience. Very great is this when a man has his lot fixed, and his mind made up, and sees his destiny before him and acquiesces in it. Deep is the peace of a soldier to whom has been assigned an untenable position, with the command, “Keep that, even if you die,” and he obediently remains to die. Great was the peace of Elisha. “Knowest thou,” said the excited men around him, “that the Lord will take,” etc. “Yea, I know it; hold ye your peace.”

(2) The peace of gratefulness; that peace which Israel had when these words were spoken. “Stand still and see the salvation of God.” (F. W. Robertson, M. A.)

The heart controls the life

An engine, dragging its train on the rail, is sweeping along the landscape. As it comes near it strikes awe into the spectator. Its furious fire and smoke, its rapid whirling wheels, its mighty mass shaking the ground beneath it, and the stealthy quickness of its approach,--its whole appearance and adjuncts make the observer bate his breath till it is past. What power would suffice to arrest that giant strength. Although a hundred men should stand up before it, or seize its whirling wheels, it would cast them down, and over their mangled bodies hold on its unimpeded course, with nothing to mark the occurrence but a quiver as it cleared the heap. But there is a certain spot in the machinery where the touch of a little child will make the monster slacken his pace, creep gently forward, stand still, slide back, like a spaniel fawning under an angry wold at the feet of his master. I find a law in my members that when I would do good evil is present with me. No power in heaven or earth will arrest that downward fall, unless it be laid upon the heart. (W. Arnot, D. D.)

Be ye thankful.

Thankfulness

I. Things to be thankful for.

1. Providential mercies.

(1) Your food.

(2) Your clothing.

(3) Your health.

(4) Your learning.

(5) Your reason.

(6) Your parents, friends, and homes.

(7) Deliverance from danger.

2. The means of grace.

(1) Your Bible.

(2) Your sabbaths.

(3) Prayer.

(4) Christian companion ships.

(5) Christian books.

3. Christ and salvation.

II. The ways of showing thankfulness.

1. In word. Thank God--

(1) at your meals.

(2) In your prayers.

(3) In your praises.

2. In deed.

(1) By giving of our money.

(2) Your time.

(3) Yourselves.

III. The sin of unthankfulness. It is ranked with the vilest sins. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)

Thankfulness; natural

If you consider the universe as one body, you shall find society and conversation to supply the office of the blood and spirits: and it is gratitude that makes them circulate. Look over the whole creation, and you shall see that the band or cement which holds together all the parts of this glorious fabric is gratitude or something like it. You may observe it in all the elements; for does not the air feed the flame, and does not the flame at the same time warm and enlighten the air? Is not the sea always sending forth as well as taking in? And does not the earth quit scores with all the elements, in the noble fruits and productions that issue from it? And in all the light and influence that the heavens bestow on this lower world, though the lower world cannot equal their benefaction, yet, with a kind of grateful return, it reflects those rays that it cannot recompense; so that there is some return, however, although there can be no requital. (R. South, D. D.)

Thankfulness should be practical

As physicians judge of the condition of men’s hearts by the pulse that beats in their arms and not by the words that proceed from their mouths; so we may judge of the thankfulness of men by their lives rather than by their professions. (E. Foster.)

Gratitude the one thing needed

A gentleman in Bombay seeing an anchorite sitting under a cocoa nut tree, asked for an interest in his prayers. The anchorite replied he would with pleasure grant the request, but he scarce knew what best to ask for him. “I have seen you often,” he said, and you appear to have everything you want that can conduce to human happiness; perhaps the best thing I can ask for you will be a grateful heart. (W. Baxendale.)

Rest and be thankful

There is a picturesque tract of the Western Highlands of Scotland, in passing through which the traveller has to ascend a long winding path, very steep, rough, and lonely, leading up a wild and desolate glen. The savage and awful grandeur of the scenery, with its bare hills and rocks, is hardly equalled in this country. But if the traveller goes up that glen on foot (and it is hardly possible to go up it otherwise), his appreciation of the scene around him is gradually overborne by the sense of pure physical fatigue. Not without a great strain upon limbs and heart, can that rugged way be traversed. At last’ you reach a ridge, whence the road descends steeply on the other side of the hill. You have ended your climbing, and you may now begin to go down again, from whichever side you come. And there, at this summit, you will find a rude seat of stone, which bears the inscription in deeply-cut letters, “Rest and be thankful.” Many weary travellers have rested there: let us trust that a good many have been thankful. We all know that the like name has been given to more than one or two like restingplaces, that it is borne by various seats, at the top of various steep ascents in this country. There is something pleasing, and something touching, in the simple natural piety which has dictated the homely name. He was a heathen who said it, but he spoke well who said, Wheresoever man feels himself in peace and rest, let him think of God, and give thanks to Him. “Rest and be thankful,” says the stone in the Highland glen: “Be ye thankful,” says St. Paul to the Christians of Colossae. It is not said to whom we are to be thankful. There is a touch of natural piety in the fact, that that does not need to be said. That is taken for granted. We all know who it is that is the Giver of all good: and when we are told, generally, to be thankful, of course we know to whom! Resting at the summit of the mountain path, it is not to the man who erected that seat for the weary traveller: though it is fit and right that he should be kindly thought of while we are enjoying the effect of his work, yet we are to look beyond him to a cause above him. He erected that seat, acting (as it were) for God: every mortal who does a kind and good deed, in a right spirit, is acting for God, and in God’s name: and he went away when his work was done, asking of the wayfarer, putting his request on record with a pen of iron upon the stone,--that for whatever comfort and rest might be experienced there, the wayfarer might bestow his thanks in the right quarter. And St. Paul does just the same! (A. K. H. Boyd, D. D.)

Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.

The Word of Christ

I. What is it? The Scriptures of the Old and New Testament.

1. Christ is their author.

2. He is their subject-matter--they testify of Him. Christ is the Word, the wisdom of God, the truth; and truth as well as grace came by Him.

II. How shall we treat it?

1. Let it dwell in us. It must not be as a stranger, or a visitor, or as an acquaintance with whom we are not specially intimate, or as a friend away and seldom seen, but rather as a resident member of our family with whom we are in constant and loving communication.

2. Let it dwell in you. It is not enough that it be in our house, study, pocket, and so at hand. It must be in our heart, pervading our whole spiritual nature, directing and controlling all our life and conduct. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart.” “Out of the heart are the issues of life.”

3. Let it dwell in you richly, plentifully, profoundly. This implies--

(1) An intimate knowledge of the truth.

(2) A believing, saving experience of the truth.

We should seek to understand it in its inmost compass; in all its bearings and relations, and then gladly receive it, in the love of it, into good and honest hearts (James 1:2). (T. W. Sydnor.)

The school of the Word

I. The lesson-book. The Word of Christ, so called, because--

1. He is its central theme. The beginning of the story of the race is told that the first Adam may prepare the way for the second: then the mass of the race is forgotten, and one chosen family selected because Christ was to come out of it. The songs, prophecies, teachings of the Old Testament are full of Christ, and its characters are as fragments of the perfect character of Jesus. The ethics of the book find their full manifestation in Him. The Gospels are biographies of Him, and the Epistles expositions of the truths of that biography.

2. It was originated by Christ. Some write of what they see or hear, but Christ produces the history He causes to be recorded. He not only breathed His Spirit upon men’s minds that they might write its doctrines; He produced the facts which are the basis of the doctrines. Pardon is taught; but He made the atonement by His death. Immortality is taught; but He revealed it first by His resurrection.

3. He dwells in it. Men are in quest of Christ, and seek Him in sacraments and holy things and places. But we have “not to ascend into heaven to bring Him down,’“ etc. “The Word is nigh thee.” Christ is in His Word, not as Plato in his republic or Shakespeare in his plays, but as a living and operating power. “My words are spirit, and they are life.”

4. Through it He works. There is not a process of grace promised or commended that it does not promote.

(1) Conviction of sin. “The entrance of Thy Word giveth light.” “The Word is powerful, sharper than any two-edged sword.”

(2) Conversion. “The law of the Lord is perfect, converting the soul.”

(3) Salvation from sin. “Thy Word have I hid in my heart,” etc.

(4) Edification. “The Word of His grace … is able to build you up,” etc.

(5) All sound Christian profit. “Is profitable for doctrine,” etc

II. The school.

1. The Church generally. Christ appointed the Church to teach His Word, and His Word forms the basis of her creeds, and the final authority when those creeds are questioned. It is to be exalted in her worship, commemorated in her sacraments, and proclaimed and defended in her pulpits.

2. The school of devotion; the prayer-meeting.

3. The school of experience; the class or fellowship-meeting.

4. The school of the family, where children learn theology, and the Divine character and administration, by object lessons, by what father and mother say and do.

5. But pre-eminently is the Sunday school the school of the Word.

III. The teacher.

1. His qualification. The Word is to dwell in him richly--in his tongue as its expounder; in his memory as a student; in his heart as a believer: so that when he prays he uses it, when he teaches texts come to his tongue-ends, and as he lives he illustrates it. It must so dwell in him that he will delight in it, love to quote it, go to sleep in times of storm resting upon it, and use it in the hour of death as the key to the kingdom.

2. His method.

(1) Teaching;

(2) admonishing;

(3) translating into life. (Bishop Vincent.)

The indwelling of the Word

There is nothing easier than to hear the Word with a general regard, and few things more difficult than to receive it as a principle of spiritual life. Satan hinders; cumbering with much business, diverting with trifles, or disturbing with wicked imaginations or affections.

I. The word of Christ.

1. In a special and limited sense this is the gospel, because He preached and published it.

2. In a larger sense it is both Testaments, for He is the author of both.

3. Then in listening to Bible teaching we are listening to Christ Himself. “The Word” is one of His titles, and He would have us honour it by honouring the Scriptures which testify of Him.

4. It is sometimes called the Word of the Kingdom, because it shows the way to the kingdom of grace, that we may be partakers of the kingdom of glory; “the Word of life,” because the instrument of regeneration and spiritual sustentation.

5. But though necessary, how many unnecessary things are preferred before it. It is the polar star which shines out in the spiritual firmament to point you to Christ; and yet in how many instances is the glimmering taper of human reason preferred! It opens a well of life; yet many choose the broken cistern.

II. Its dwelling-place.

1. It is to dwell.

(1) This points out a contrast between a settled and vagrant life. With the mere wanderer we hold little in common: the resident is well known. As you give yourself up to the study of the sacred oracles, the mind of the Spirit becomes imparted to your own.

(2) This is an allusion to God’s “dwelling” in the Holy of Holies. Christ’s Word is to be as the Shekinah.

2. It is to dwell within: not in the understanding merely to enlighten it, nor in the judgment to inform and convince it, but to be deeply seated and treasured up in the heart. “I will write My law in their inward parts,” etc. And unless it is so written it is quite certain that we have no interest in the covenant.

(1) It is to dwell there as a man dwells in his own house, which he is proud of calling his castle, and which is not as a temporary tent. “If ye continue in My Word,” etc. How many there are who give it only the entertainment of a wayfaring man who obtains with difficulty a lodging for the night, and in the morning is gone.

(2) In order thus to dwell it must be mixed with faith. Without faith it may produce various effects: it may make you, like Herod, “do many things,” and induce yon, like Felix, “to hear Paul gladly”; it may produce feelings of wonder, etc.; but it is only when received in faith that it can really profit.

III. The measure in which it is to dwell in us.

1. Richly: not as a scanty stream, but as a full flowing river. You are not to be content with partial views of God’s truth. The whole written Word is the soul’s pasturage. “All Scripture … is profitable.” “Man shall not live by bread alone, but by every word,” etc.

2. This requires prayerful searching, and much more than reading in haste a chapter in the morning or at night. We do not search after worldly wealth so.

3. This rich indwelling will be fruitful in

(1) comfort;

(2) holiness;

(3) revived spiritual life. (T. Watson, B. A.)

The indwelling Word of Christ

I. This exhortation is connected with the exhortation out of which it springs (Colossians 3:14-15); and with the outward expression in which it finds vent (Colossians 3:16).

2. The Word of Christ is not His personal teaching merely, but the whole Bible as His present Word, affording the materials of present speech.

3. Its indwelling is personal, and is not to be evaporated, as if it referred to the Church collective (Rom 8:11; 2 Corinthians 6:16; Eph 3:17; 2 Timothy 1:5; 2 Timothy 1:14).

I. Let the word of Christ dwell in you.

1. This implies a sense of the preciousness of Christ Himself realized by faith.

(1) No one’s word will be precious to you unless he is precious whose word it is. The word of one you dislike will be contemptuously rejected; the word of one who is an object of indifference will pass swiftly by you.

(2) How much of the Word of Christ may be missed unless He is precious. In many parts you think that He is only dimly and distantly to be found, and even passages fullest of Him do not bring Him as speaking personally to you. But it is only as it does that that the Bible is the Word of Christ. A friend’s letter is his word to me when by means of it I call him up before me in his own loved person speaking to me. Then it dwells in me. Thus, through my love to Him and His preciousness to me, Scriptures which seem to have little to do with Him may become His Word to me.

2. The preciousness of Christ’s Word, as well as of Christ Himself, is essential to its dwelling in you.

(1) If Christ is precious, His Word must be precious. The word of a precious friend is precious even before you know what it contains. Its very outside is welcome. But it becomes more so as you study it, and especially if it be of real value.

(2) Most Christians can name a text apparently having little to do with Christ, which has become, nevertheless, one of His best remembrancers. It is connected with some marked crisis; as a whisper of consolation, a breath of pity in sinfulness, felt as the Word of Christ just then wanted.

(3) The way of finding Christ all through the Bible is not merely to get it to speak of Christ, but to get Christ to speak to you about it; and so to make it all His, i.e., let it all, every bit and fragment of it, be welded into your experience, with Christ living in you the hope of glory.

(4) This may be by the Spirit being given in answer to the prayer of faith. He teaches you all things as said by Christ. Do not force it to tell of Christ formally, so as to offend critics and offend ordinary readers. Take it in its plain meaning, but expect that Christ in it may have some lesson to teach; some comfort to impart; some rebuke to administer.

3. The felt preciousness of real present and living intercourse between Christ and you will cause the Word, as His, to abide in you.

(1) That Word sustains the intercourse, and is for colloquial uses. You are to dwell in Christ and He in you, but communion cannot long be maintained without language. We may dream of this mutual indwelling after some vague, sleepy fashion; but if it is to be more than a dream there must be talk between us. He Himself deals with this subject (John 15:7; John 16:23). This can only be realized by the Comforter “bringing to remembrance whatsoever He hath said unto you.” His Word, then, must be the staple of the verbal intercourse. He uses it in speaking to you, and you in speaking to Him.

(2) Thus used, it will dwell. Otherwise, while whole strings of texts or Chapter s may be retained in the memory, and may be glibly quoted, the virtue will be gone out of them. If you would have the Word to abide in you as the precious Word of a precious Saviour, you must always turn it to account in fellowship with Him.

II. Richly.

1. In quantity. Let the mind and soul be richly stored. Ah! how much there is of the Bible that does not dwell in you because you do not realize it as the Word of Christ; whole Chapter s that have not been linked to any gracious dealing of Christ.

2. In quality.

(1) A rich manure is one that enriches the soil; and it dwells in the soil richly in proportion as it enriches it, turning its hard, dry sterility into fruitful mould. So let the Word of Christ dwell in you as to enrich your souls.

(2) But it must be as the Word of Christ. For such is the poverty and perversity of the soil, that otherwise even the Word will, instead of enriching the soul, become partaker of its deadness, and end in being as salt which has lost its savour. The letter killeth, but the Spirit giveth life, making it truly the living Word of a living Christ.

(3) And how penetrating, as well as powerful, should be its virtue. It should reach to every nook of your life.

3. In correspondence to the riches of Him whose Word it is. Riches of goodness, glory, wisdom, knowledge, grace; unsearchable riches of Christ.

4. It is to dwell in you, not only as rich receivers, but dispensers. “Freely ye have received, freely give.” You are to be richly productive, fruit-bearing, in faith, in good works.

5. Notice the social hearing of the precept as embedded in the context (Colossians 3:12-15 on the one hand, and Colossians 3:16 on the other). In either view this indwelling is not to be like a mass of dead matter crammed into a dead receptacle; as bales are packed in a warehouse, or loads of unread learning are crowded on library shelves for show. Out of the abundance of the heart the mouth, the life, the hand must speak. (R. S. Candlish, D. D.)

Indwelling of the Word of Christ

I. The Word of Christ.

1. The literal Word of Christ is one of the most wonderful things that ever has been in the world. Not from Roman rostrum, nor in terms of Greek philosophy, nor as a Jewish rabbi, but simply and naturally to simple and ordinary men wherever they could be got together, and as He spake the words seem to root themselves in the heart, and grew a living force in the life of the nation. Then came the alternative that He must keep silence or die; but He went on speaking till lie said, “It is finished.” Immediately on His resurrection He began to speak, and when He went away He left nothing behind Him but His Word. At that time His life and death were unknown powers, and He did not leave the least written explanation of them, nor were the Gospels in existence at the time of this Epistle; but there was the Word of Christ in its newness and energy.

2. Whether or not that Word would have lived without a literary embodiment we are not required to settle. For evidently it was Christ’s purpose to condense His living speech into writings for the instruction of men. And there is clear reference here to the written as well as the spoken Word. Thus the phrase takes its most comprehensive sense--the gospel--all that is revealed of God for human salvation.

3. Manifestly all this lies solely in the Scriptures. There is authoritative Word of Christ for us nowhere else. But here the Book is all His. He has fulfilled it, explained it, inspired it, made it a living Word from first to last, that He might by His Spirit give it living and blessed applications.

II. Its indwelling. Yield yourselves up as sacred dwellings to be occupied with it.

1. This means that other tenants are not to remain unless in full agreement with this chief dweller. Thoughts and words of men, plans of earthly ambition, pleasures of sin--away! All thoughts are to be ruled, all cares hallowed by it, and all enjoyments made safe and good. It must be this much, or it can be nothing vital. Christ’s Word in the morning, selfish prudence all through the day; Christ’s Word for religious service, the word of man for the mercantile transaction; Christ’s Word for sickness and death, other words for times of health and pleasure; will not do. The tenant will only occupy as sole possessor of the tenement.

2. Let it dwell. There is plenty of it to fill the wonderful house.

(1) Down to the deepest base of life it will go, where passions lurk, and flowing round and through them, it will purge away what is unhallowed, leaving only wholesome forces to strengthen and perfect character.

(2) Into the rooms that lie more open to common day, and more level with the world, where many busy feet come and go--where knowledge gathers her stores, prudence holds her scales, judgment records her decisions, diligence plies her tasks, acquisition counts her gains, and foresight watches the opening future; into all these the living Word will enter, and at her ingress the darkening shadow melts, the wrinkles of care are smoothed, and slippery things cease their blandishments, and injustice and unkindness hide their heads.

(3) Up higher yet, where imagination lights her lamp, and invention stirs her fires, and desire bends the knee, looking upward, and hope sits watching with nothing between her and the stars.

3. Richly--in its best forms and sweetest fragrance, with all its luminous, guiding powers. Fill yourselves with it. Open all the doors, fling wide the windows. You have only to do that. You have not to make the Word: it is nigh thee in thy heart and in thy mouth if thou wilt but let it dwell in thee richly.

4. But here is more than a mere passive allowance. There is a direct appeal to the will and to the activity of the mind. The Word, abundant as it is, will not come to dwell at all without consent and careful and diligent endeavour. Much “wisdom” is needed for the due remembrance and seasonable entertainment of the various parts in order to apply it to meet the wants of life as they arise. In this every man must be his own minister. We do not need the whole Bible every day; we need it as we need corn in the granary, as the lamps by night. There is many a passage in reserve. We glance at them to-day with only a general interest, but the day will come when they will be as thousands of gold and silver. Meantime it is a great matter to know what is daily bread for this day.

(1) Am I in the dark about myself, about the world? Then it will be wise to let the Word of Christ dwell in me as a revelation.

(2) Am I doubting and desponding, finding few signs of grace? Then let me remember the Word of Christ as a word of assured salvation, saving the eyes from tears, the feet from falling, and the soul from death.

(3) Am I, though calmed with forgiveness, very weak, and unfit for continuing the struggle of the nobler life? Then let me take some strong promise, adapted to the need, and drink it up as a tainting man would drink a cordial until I am refreshed.

(4) Am I sorrowing? Can I forget “Let not your heart ,be troubled.”

(5) Am I passing away from earth and time? More than ever do I need to take Him at His word: “I will not leave nor forsake.”

III. The outflow. One of the divinest and most necessary truths is that we must give in order to have. The Word of Christ, in order to secure continuance, must be always leaving us. Go among the mountains, and you will see that it is the living stream that flows away; and where it flows the grass is green, and the flowers bloom, and the cattle drink, and the children linger to dip the foot and hear the song. Yet the spring is in no way exhausted. It is fed by the drawing sun, the condensing mountains, the bountiful clouds, the wide sea. Let your inner life, nourished by the indwelling Word, have not ostentatious and noisy, but natural and continuous expression. Its light will come to you from the land of lights. So will you draw from the infinite ocean of Divine love (see Colossians 3:16-17). A beautiful life; a life of poetry and heart music; a life, too, open alike to all. (A. Raleigh, D. D.)

Psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.

I. The Psalms of the Old Testament have no single and universally accepted designation in the Hebrew Scriptures. They first obtained such in the Septuagint. Psalm comes from a word signifying properly a touching, and then a touching of a stringed instrument with a plectrum, and next the instrument itself, and lastly the song sung with this musical accompaniment. It was in this latest stage that the word was adopted by the Septuagint, and to this agree the ecclesiastical definitions of it. In all probability the word here and in Ephesians 5:19 refers to the inspired Psalms of the Hebrew canon, and certainly designates these on all other occasions where it is met with in the New Testament, with the doubtful exception of 1 Corinthians 14:16. The psalms, then, which the apostle would have the faithful to sing to one another are those of David, Asaph, and the other sweet singers of Israel.

II. Hymns. While the “psalm” by right of primogeniture, as at once the oldest and most venerable, occupies the foremost place, the Church of Christ does not restrict herself to such, but claims the freedom of bringing new things as well as old out of her treasure house, a new salvation demanding a new song. It was the essence of a Greek “hymn” that it should be addressed to, or be in praise of a god or a hero, i.e., a deified man, as Callisthenes reminded Alexander, who, claiming hymns for himself, or suffering them to be addressed to him, implicitly accepted divine honours. In the gradual breaking down of the distinction between the human and the divine which marked the fallen days of Greece and Rome, with the usurping on the part of men of divine honours, the hymn came more and more to be applied to men; although this was not without remonstrance. When the word was assumed into the language of the Church, this essential distinction clung to it still. A “psalm” might be a De profundis, the story of man’s deliverance, or a commemoration of mercies received; and of a “spiritual song” much the same could be said; a “hymn” must always be more or less of a Magnificat, a direct address of praise and glory to God. Augustine in more places than one states the essentials of a hymn.

1. It must be sung.

2. It must be praise.

3. It must be to God.

But though “hymn” was a word freely adopted in the fourth century, it nowhere occurs in the early Fathers, probably because it was so steeped in heathenism, so linked with profane associations, there were so many hymns to Zeus, Hermes, Aphrodite, etc., that the early Christians shrank from it. We may confidently assume that the hymns referred to in the text were direct addresses to God, such as Luke 1:46-55; Luke 1:68-79; Acts 4:24, and that which Paul and Silas sang in the Philippian dungeon (Acts 16:25). How noble, how magnificent uninspired hymns could prove we have evidence in the Te Deum, in the Veni Creator Spiritus, and in many a later heritage which the Church has acquired. That the Church, brought at the time when St. Paul wrote into a new and marvellous world of realities, would be rich in those we might be sure, even if no evidence existed to this effect. Of such evidence, however, there is abundance (Ephesians 5:14; 1 Timothy 3:16; 2 Timothy 2:11-14). And as it was quite impossible that the Church, releasing itself from the Jewish synagogue, should fall into the same mistake as some portions of the Reformed Church, we may be sure that it adopted into liturgic use, not psalms only, but also hymns, singing them to Christ as God (Pliny, Ephesians 10.96); though this we may conclude, more largely in Churches gathered out of the heathen world than in those wherein a strong Jewish element existed.

III. Spiritual songs. Ὀδή is the only word of this group which the Apocalypse knows (Revelation 5:9; Revelation 14:3; Revelation 15:3). St. Paul, on the two occasions when he employs it, adds “spiritual” to it, and this, no doubt, because “Ode” by itself might mean any kind of song, as of battle, of harvest, or festal, or hymeneal, while “psalm,” from its Hebrew use, and “hymn,” from its Greek, did not need such qualification. The epithet thus applied does not affirm that these odes were Divinely inspired, any more than the spiritual man is an inspired man (1 Corinthians 3:1; Galatians 6:1), but only that they were such as were composed by spiritual men, and moved in the sphere of spiritual things. How are we, then, to distinguish these from the former two. If “psalms” represent the heritage of sacred song derived by the Christian Church from the Jewish, the “hymns and spiritual songs” will cover what further in the same kind it produced out of its own bosom; but with a difference. What the hymns were we have seen; but Christian thought and feeling will soon have expanded into a wider range of poetic utterances than those in which there is a direct address to the Deity. If we turn, e.g., to Herbert’s Temple, or Keble’s Christian Year, there are many poems in both, which, as certainly they are not “psalms,” so as little do they possess the characteristics of hymns. “Spiritual songs” these might be fitly called; even as in almost all our collections of so-called “hymns” there are not a few which by much juster title would bear this name. (Archbishop Trench.)

The poets of the New Testament

I. The extent of the poetic endowment in the primitive churches. That it was extensively bestowed we may conceive--

1. From the frequent reference made to it (1 Corinthians 14:26). In Corinth it was valued as a charismata (see also Ephesians 5:19; James 5:13).

2. From the universality of the preternatural endowment. The gift of the Spirit was generally bestowed, and this would rouse the poetic faculty in all who had it, and consecrate it to sacred uses.

3. From the universality of excited feelings in the apostolic Churches. Most of those who embraced religion were subject to extraordinary excitement, and poetry is the language of excited feelings. To the unconverted this inspiration was madness or intoxication.

II. Its character. Poetical productions have a character. They are fruitful or barren, corrupt or chaste. There is much in our great poets repugnant to our sense of propriety and which we would fain suppress; but the mere fact that these early Christian poets were under the power of the Spirit would show that their poetry must have been high and pure. There are three things which determine the value of poetry.

1. Intellectual merit. This was high with the primitive Christians. “Let the Word of Christ dwell in you richly.” Christian truth is calculated to incite the highest feelings of the soul, and these lofty emotions would find utterance in “psalms and hymns and spiritual songs.” The profoundest feelings of our nature can only be expressed in poetry. The highest strains of the orator are poetical.

2. Moral purity. “Admonishing one another.” This implies a deep concern for each other’s moral welfare. The basis of this concern is personal morality, and issued in strains that were morally improving.

3. Poetic conception. The ideas of the primitive Christians were imaginative and creative.

III. Its utility. Every Divine gift is bestowed for a useful purpose. What is the use of this?

1. For personal enjoyment. The true poet lives in a creation of his own, and in the deepest solitude he communes with the infinite source of light, life, love, and beauty. “Poetry,” said Coleridge, “has been to me its own exceeding great reward. It has soothed my affliction, it has endeared solitude, and it has given me the habit of wishing to discover the good and beautiful in all that surrounds me.”

2. As an element in public worship. Nothing adorns, enlivens, and augments the interest of public worship more than music. It secures the harmony of hearts as well as of voices.

3. It is of social utility. Poetry has exercised a powerful influence on society in all ages, for consolation, inspiration, etc. (P. L. Davies, M. A.)

The service of song

I. The duty.

1. Singing is God’s ordinance, binding all sorts of men (Ephesians 6:19; James 5:13; Psalms 66:1-2; Psalms 92:1; Psalms 135:3). This is a part of our piety, and is a most comely thing.

2. A Christian should recreate himself chiefly this way (James 5:13). God does not allow us to shoulder out this with other recreations.

3. We should sing in our houses as well as in our Churches.

(1) For daily exercise (Psalms 101:1-2).

(2) When Christians meet together (1 Corinthians 14:26; Ephesians 5:19).

II. The manner.

1. We should teach and admonish by singing, and that--

(1) ourselves, by considering the matter.

(2) Others, as ministers in appointing hymns for the congregation, or masters of the family, or when Christians meet, there should be choice of such psalms as may comfort or rebuke according to occasion (1 Corinthians 14:26).

2. We must sing with grace. This is diversely interpreted; some understand it of the dexterity that should be used in singing; others of the comeliness, right order, reverence, or delight of the heart; others of thanksgiving. Rut I think that to sing with grace is to exercise the graces of the heart in singing, i.e., with holy joy (Psalms 9:2); trust in God’s mercies (Psalms 13:5); a holy commemoration of God’s benefits (Psalms 47:6); yea, with the desire of our hearts that our singing may be acceptable (Psalms 104:33-34).

3. We must sing with our hearts, not with our tongues only for ostentation. To sing with the heart is to sing with the understanding (Psalms 47:7; 1 Corinthians 14:14), with sense and feeling. Hence we are said to prepare our hearts before we sing (Psalms 57:7). Then we must sing earnestly and awake out of our lethargy (Psalms 57:8).

4. We must sing to the Lord (Ephesians 5:19), both to God’s glory and with a sense of His presence, and upon a holy remembrance of His blessings.

III. The uses.

1. For instruction. When we are merry to sing psalms (James 5:13), yea, to account this a heavenly melody (Ephesians 5:19).

2. For reproof of such as delight in profane songs. (N. Byfield.)

The conditions of the service of song

I. Psalms, etc., must be spiritual.

1. As to the origin. As Moses, David, and others under the impulse of the Holy Spirit, composed their psalms, etc., so we, whether we sing the same or others, ought to do it under the same direction (Ephesians 5:18-19).

2. As to matter: they treat of spiritual things, relating to the glory of God and our salvation; not of secular and vain matters.

II. They must be sung with grace.

1. With gratitude. The word sometimes means this (1 Corinthians 15:57; 2 Corinthians 2:14). Gratitude is not improperly joined to songs; because we are moved to sing in joyous and prosperous circumstances, in which condition thankfulness is binding and necessary.

2. With gracious affability, which conveys both pleasure and utility to the hearers; so that what Horace says concerning poets may he said of these spiritual songs. “They would both profit and delight.” So the word means in Colossians 4:6, and Ephesians 4:29.

III. They must be sung in the heart, i.e., from the inmost affection. And rightly is an ardent emotion required, for the action of singing declares the inward exultation of the heart. He therefore acts the hypocrite who sings with the heart asleep. Hence David not only tunes his voice to the harp, but his voice before either (Psalms 57:7-8). So Mary (Luke 1:46-47). Do not think one thing and sing another.

IV. They must be sung unto the Lord. The songs of Christians ought not to aim at promoting dissoluteness or gain; but to be employed in celebrating the praises of the Redeemer. Corollaries:

1. The custom of singing is useful, and is to be adopted in the assembling of Christians, as well in public as in private.

2. It is so to be performed, that they who hear may from thence derive spiritual pleasure and edification. Therefore farewell to all nugatory, and much more to impure songs.

3. In singing it ought to be our especial care that the heart be affected; they who neglect this, may perhaps please men by an artificial sweetness of voice, but they will displease God by an odious impurity of heart.

4. What things are done for cheerfulness and relaxation of the mind by Christians, ought to be of such a kind as are agreeable to Christ and religion: we must therefore detest the madness of those who cannot be cheerful without the reproach of Christ and the ridicule of religion. (Bp. Davenant.)

The service of song a means of Christian edification

Whenever a great quickening of religious life comes, a great burst of Christian song comes with it. The mediaeval Latin hymns cluster round the early pure days of the monastic orders; Luther’s rough stormy hymns were as powerful as his treatises; the mystic tenderness and rapture of Charles Wesley have become the possession of the whole Church. The early hymns were of a dogmatic character. No doubt just as in many a missionary Church a hymn is found to be the best vehicle for conveying the truth, so it was in these early Churches, which were made up largely of slaves and women--both uneducated. “Singing the gospel” is a very old invention though the name be new. In these early communities Paul said, “Every one of you hath a psalm, a doctrine.” If a man had some fragment of an old psalm, or some strain that bad come fresh from the Christian heart, he might sing it, and his brethren would listen. We do not have that sort of psalmody now. But what a long way we have travelled from it to a modern congregation, standing with hooks that they scarcely look at, and “worshipping” in a hymn which half of them do not open their mouths to sing at all, and the other half do in a voice inaudible three pews off. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

The hymnology of the Church

has from the first been a most important element in her holy progress and means of usefulness. A large part of the Bible is poetry. Instruction thus conveyed aids the memory and makes a greater impression on the mind. How constantly did David find relief in expressing his hopes and fears, his joys and sorrows in song; and in the record of his experience how precious is the boon he has left for the instruction and encouragement of God’s children in all ages. There was a special impressiveness in the use of psalms and hymns in the early Church. The first forms of literature in every country and in great national movements are for the most part in song. Thus it was in Greece; thus it was in Scot land. Facts of history, deeds of prowess, wonderful providences, are handed down in song, and are in this form better remembered and more easily preserved. In our own day, with the power of the printing press, this may not be so necessary; but when books had to be copied in MS., and books were scanty, the citation of song and psalm formed an important element of instruction. It has been said, by a well-known author, that if he were allowed to make the songs of a nation, he cared not who made the laws. The hymns of the Church have often been as the very shrine of spiritual life, for the preservation of doctrine, and the means of progress. How many cares have been relieved by some well-known hymn? How many Christians have crossed the river strong in the faith with the words of some precious stanza on their tongues which they learnt in the Sunday school? (J. Spence, D. D.)

Singing with grace in your hearts unto the Lord.--

Phrygia was proverbially a land of music

A music of wild excitement was used in the worship of Cybele, and of Salazion, the Phrygian Diouysos. Hence St. Paul might be the more anxious that Christian singing should be sweet and graceful in a Phryglan Church. For a deep feeling of anxiety on the part of a ruler in the ancient Church that sacred song should be beautiful, see the story how Ignatius brought back the melody of angels heard in vision to his Church at Antioch (Socrates, Hist. 6:8). Heartfelt singing is not voiceless singing (Psalms 111:1). The Psalmist’s praise was in his heart, but it must have been vocal also, for it was such praise as is offered in the “assembly.” The three conditions of sacred song are sweetness of vocal expression, fulness of inward devotion, direction to a Divine object. These are expressed in this clause.

(1) As to outward expression--“gracefully, sweetly, so as to give pleasure and be attractive.”

(2) As to inward devotion--“heartfelt.”

(3) As to the Being addressed--“to the Lord.”

The clue to the real meaning of the passage is to bear in mind that the apostle is speaking of singing as a Church duty, a part of the Church’s corporate life, a declaration of peace among her children, and a means of edification. The recognition of sweetness and pleasingness as an element of public worship is very interesting and important. Such care for singing, again, is quite of a piece with Paul’s high ideal of womanly grace and beauty in youth (1 Corinthians 11:15), priestlike dignity in age (Titus 2:3), with his recognition of things “lovely” (Philippians 4:3), with his appeal to primary aesthetic instincts (1 Corinthians 11:13), with his horror of “confusion” in public worship (1 Corinthians 14:33), with the word for agrave and majestic beauty in public service expressed in that great foundation-rubric (1 Corinthians 14:40). It shows how thoughtfully he considered local circumstances, and adapted his lessons to them. Phrygian music was apt to become the accompaniment of the passionate and unmanly wailing of Asian barbarism. As Plato says, “The Phrygian strain was adapted for sacred rites and fanatical excitement, being of almost frenzied wildness.” (Bp. Alexander.)

Power of a hymn

On one of the days when President Garfield lay dying at the seaside, he was a little better, and was permitted to sit by the window, while Mrs. Garfield was in the adjoining room. Love, hope, and gratitude filled her heart as she sang the hymn commencing “Guide me, O Thou great Jehovah!” As the soft and plaintive notes floated into the sick chamber, the President turned his eyes up to Dr. Bliss, and asked, “Is that Crete” “Yes,” replied the doctor; “it is Mrs. Garfield.” “Quick, open the door a little,” anxiously responded the sick man. Dr. Bliss opened the doer, and after listening a few moments Mr. Garfield exclaimed, as the large tears coursed down his sunken cheeks, “Glorious, Bliss, isn’t it?” (W. Baxendale.)

Power of a hymn

A little boy came to one of our city missionaries, and holding out a dirty and well-worn bit of printed paper, said, “Please, sir, father sent me to get a clean paper like that.” Taking it from his hand the missionary found it was a bill with the hymn “Just as I am” printed upon it.. He looked down into the little earnest face and asked the boy where he got it, and why he wanted a clean copy. “We found it, sir, in sister’s pocket after she died; and she used to sing it all the time she was sick, and loved it so much that father wanted to get a clean one to put in a frame to hang up. Won’t you give us one, sir?” (G. F. Pentecost, D. D.)

Saved by a hymn

On board the ill-fated steamer Seawanhaka was one of the Fisk University singers. Before leaving the burning steamer and committing himself to the merciless waves, he carefully fastened upon himself and his wife life preservers. Some one cruelly dragged away that of his wife, leaving her without hope, except as she could cling to her husband. This she did, placing her hands firmly on his shoulders, and resting there until, her strength becoming exhausted, she said, “I can hold on no longer!” “Try a little longer,” was the response of the wearied and agonized husband, “let us sing ‘Rock of Ages.’” And as the sweet strains floated over the troubled waters, reaching the ears of the sinking and dying, little did they know, those sweet singers of Israel, whom they comforted. But, lo! as they sang, one after another of the exhausted ones were seen raising their heads above the overwhelming waves, joining with a last effort in the sweet, dying, pleading prayer, “Rock of Ages, cleft for me,” etc. With the song seemed to come strength; another and yet another was encouraged to renewed effort. Soon in the distance a boat was seen approaching! Could they hold out a little longer? Singing still, they tried, and soon with superhuman strength, laid hold of the lifeboat, upon which they were borne in safety to land. This is no fiction; it was related by the singer himself, who said he believed Toplady’s sweet “Rock of Ages” saved many another besides himself and wife. And this was only salvation from temporal death I But, methinks, from the bright world yonder the good Toplady must be rejoicing that God ever taught him to write that hymn, which has helped to save so many from eternal death, as, catching its spirit, they have learned to cast themselves alone for help on that dear “Rock of Ages,”--cleft, sinner, for them, for you, and for me, and which ever stands rent asunder that it may shelter those who Utter the cry, “Let me hide myself in Thee.” (Canadian Baptist)

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Whatsoever ye do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.

Method and music, or the art of holy and happy living

It is always an advantage to have the laws of a kingdom as concise as possible. The amount of litigation caused by the English code is immense. In God’s government the matter is plain enough--included in ten commandments, and further reduced by Christ to, two. Our text is an instance of the terseness of Divine precepts. It contains a law applicable to every action, word, thought, place, circumstance in a few brief words. It is a great advantage to a mechanic to be able to carry with him a pocket rule or square. And so we have here a compendious rule in life which car, never fail.

I. Holy walking described. “Whatsoever,” etc. This rule applies to those who are in Christ. The unconverted require a radical change before they can carry it out. You cannot walk as a believer if you have not believed. But having begun at the beginning, and taken the step of salvation by faith, the walk has to be carried on by following this injunction, which means--

1. To do all through the office and name of Christ as Mediator.

(1) You are bound to offer daily praise: it must be in the name of the Lord Jesus.

(2) You are to abound in prayer. His name gives power to prayer; it is not so much your earnestness and sincerity, but His blood that speaks to God.

(3) You are to give Him your time and services in teaching the ignorant, etc.; they can only be acceptable in Him.

(4) You are to-give of your substance; if you give all your wealth, the offering presented without Christ is nothing.

2. Do all under the authority of Jesus Christ. He is your King. The business of a Christian upon earth is not an independent one; he is a steward for Christ.

3. Do all under the sanction of Christ as our example. It is an admirable course to ask, “What would Christ have done in these circumstances?”

4. Do all as to the glory of Christ. The Christian must not seek self.

5. Do all in the strength of Christ. With Him is the residue of the Spirit, and the Spirit is the believer’s power. These words are a rebuke--

(1) to those who do nothing in Christ’s name;

(2) to those who glory in the name of men, as of churches or of saints;

(3) to those professors who dishonour the name under which they profess to live. We-have--

II. Holy music prescribed--“Giving thanks,” etc. Soldiers march to battle to trumpet and drum, etc., and it is an excellent thing when Christian men know how to sing as well as work. The best music consists in thankfulness to God. We ought to praise Him in all things, but more particularly in the exercise of religion. Some people are so afraid of joy, that they seem to labour under the delusion that all who are devout must be unhappy. The text tells us under what aspect we should regard God when thus thanking Him. It is as a Father.

III. Holy motives inculcated. Inscribed on our hearts are reasons which must secure obedience. These are--

1. Gratitude. All we have has been received from the Father through Christ.

2. The worthiness of Christ. “Him hath God exalted to be a Prince and a Saviour.”

3. Love. He claims our love, and He gives us His. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Suggestive summary of Christian duty

I. The guiding law of christian duty. “Do all in the name,” etc. In Christ is--

1. The purest motive to duty. Motive originates and governs action, and makes it good or bad. It is only in Christ we find the holiest and purest motive; in Him love takes the place of selfishness (2 Corinthians 5:14-15).

2. The noblest pattern of duty.

3. The highest end of duty. He is the goal towards which all actions tend. There is no higher name for it--“is above every name.”

4. The final authority of duty.

II. Its universal obligation--“Whatsoever ye do,” etc. There must be--

1. A recognition of Christ in everything.

2. Absolute dependence on Christ at all times.

3. Supreme devotion to Christ.

III. Its unvarying spirit--“Giving thanks to God and-the Father by Him.” Lessons:

1. The name of Christ is the greatest power in the universe.

2. All duty gathers its significance and blessedness from its relation to Christ.

3. A thankful spirit is happy in enterprise, brave in difficulties, and patient in reverses. (G. Barlow.)

Godly living

This was applied to the “elect of God” This is the title given by the apostle to Christians. A course of action is appointed for them to carry out.

I. What is to be done? “Do all.” The “all” refers to every act of religious life. There is to be--

(1) Humbleness of mind;

(2) longsuffering;

(3) meekness; above all

(4) charity.

The word of Christ must dwell richly in the heart (see previous verse).

II. How it is to be carried out--“In the name of the Lord Jesus.” This implies three things.

1. By the authority of Christ (Acts 3:6).

2. For the sake of Christ (Mark 9:41).

3. For the glory of Christ (Acts 15:26). (Preacher’s Analyst.)

The motive power of a holy life

This is one of the bold sweeping statements of Scripture. However extraordinary and extravagant, it is in keeping with the whole spirit of Christianity. Unlike other religions, that of Christ admits of no compromises. It will have all or nothing, the first place or none. The author of nature and the author of Christianity give tokens of being one and the same, in that their principles are alike simple, universal, imperious, inexorable. In both is the same quiet exertion of power, the same calm majesty of law, and the laws of each can never be trifled with with impunity. The law of gravity does not admit of dispute, neither does the law that eternal life is to be found through the Son of God. Observe--

I. The extreme breadth and lofty spirit of Christian duty. “Whatsoever,” etc. These words cover the whole sphere of Christian activity. Our words, thoughts, desires, labours, etc., are to be under the habitual influence of a sacred and sanctifying power which lies lurking in the name of the Lord Jesus. There are one or two simple explanations which show that there is no real extravagance in this large demand.

1. If the Christian law is just another name for the law of truth, love, and holiness, it is quite clear that we shall never get out of the range of that law, neither in this world nor the next. Not more cer tainly does the law of gravity reach from world to world than does this law prevail wherever intelligence exists.

2. If religion consists in entering the service of a God who looks not on the outward appearance but on the heart, that religion will be the only true one which produces right dispositions towards Him of faithfulness in all things, the smallest as well as the biggest. The spirit we are of determines the character of our actions whether they are holy or unholy. The life of the saint and of the sinner are made up very much of the same commonplace duties, and in all that is patent to the world there may be little difference between them: but the spirit by which they are actuated constitutes a gulf between them as wide as that which divides light and darkness, heaven and hell.

3. It were well for the Church and the world if we recognized more clearly this breadth of Christian duty. There is no act, however little, which Christ does not see and touch, and which may not tend as much to His honour as the songs of the Seraphim; there is no affection, talent, energy on which He does not put His hand and say, “That is mine,” and which may not be transformed into a worship as sincere as that of the communion; no step we can take in life over which He does not watch, and which may not be made a step on the road that brings us nearer Him; no time here or hereafter when it will not be a delightful duty to “do all in the name of the Lord Jesus.” This round world may therefore become to us a temple, and this little life a song of praise.

II. The motive power of a holy life. The stress lies on “the name of the Lord Jesus.”

1. All the apparent extravagance of the injunction vanishes when we lay our hands on the secret of the Divine life. In the realm of spirit as of matter when we see a great result we know that behind it is a great cause; and we may search the world and we shall not find a power over human hearts comparable with that which lies in this name. What combination of forces has cut so deep a groove across the world? One or two of the world’s heroes and sages have won wide admiration and respect, but who has laid his hand on so many hearts and touched for good so many lives? Bad as the world is, what is good in it is due to Christ. Even now the good is gaining the victory, and the King is Christ. Blot out that name and you blot out the best part of history, all that is purest in morals, elevating in literature, gentle in manners, merciful in laws. Time weakens other forces, but it adds vigour to this.

2. There is no need to enter into the various component elements which go to make up this moral force. What He was and did for us, and above all what He now is and does, explains it. One phrase holds it all--“He died for me.” In Jesus we have not a man dead long ago, but a living Saviour and King ever near us, bearing the one name by which we may be saved. It is His presence by His Spirit in the hearts of His people which is the motive power of their holy life. “The love of Christ constraineth us.”

III. The sacredness of common life and labour. The key-note of this chapter is that religion is a life in Christ, so all-pervading and all-permeating this life that it hallows everything.

1. One of the leading peculiarities of the religion of Jesus is that it virtually annihilated the distinction between the secular and the sacred. As it overstepped all barriers of climate, colour, and race to call men brethren, so it passed over all barriers of priestly function to make all men holy, and so all men are now made priests unto God.

2. What God hath joined together let no man put asunder; and He has wedded religion and life. That is no religion which we cannot carry with us wherever we go; into our pleasures and sorrows, our business and closets. (J. Macgregor, D. D.)

Things sacred and things secular

It is one of the most precious effects of Christianity that it gives interest and dignity to commonplace life. Think how it would bear on the obscure toilers of Ephesus, Corinth, or Rome. Artizan, labourer, soldier, slave, would learn the truth that God cared for him, and designed him for a glorious destiny. It is through Christ that life is worthy of the name of life. The distinction between things secular and things sacred has wrought unspeakable mischief. Involves one rule of life for the person in holy orders, and another for the man who has not received a religious vocation. The monk or the nun is a “religious;” if any be not a priest, or monk, or nun, that person need not be so religious. It is a detestable, an irreligious distinction.

I. It is a distinction which would have been utterly foreign to the mind of an early Christian, and is quite opposed to the spirit of the new testament. Christ, therein revealed, has laid hold upon the whole of life. He has consecrated what we call secular employments by Himself engaging in them. Possible to eat and drink to the glory of God.

II. This distinction is bad, because it vanishes on nearer observation. We find it perfectly impossible to draw a sharp line. Art, science, politics, business, everyday duty, instead of being detached from religion, have such intimate relations with it that they are, or may be, and ought to be, themselves essentially religious. A bad sermon on the text, “Behold I stand at the door and knock,” is (it would seem) sacred; but to paint the well-known picture illustrating same text was secular. To write hymns sacred. Then was it a sacred or a secular work to write “Paradise Lost,” Wordsworth’s “Excursion,” or Cowper’s “Task”? Surely, too, all great music is most truly religious. Again, is it a sacred or a secular work when a young girl, under a deep sense of duty, consecrates her life to attendance upon a suffering mother? Contrariwise, consider what are generally classed as sacred works--praying, preaching, administering sacraments, visiting the sick. How intensely secular they may become I How mean and perfunctory the spirit in which they may be performed! How easily may their motive come to be that so well expressed in Bible words--“Put me into one of the priest’s offices, that I may eat a piece of bread.”

III. This distinction is radically irreligious, Implies that all things are not of God. Churches are, but not houses we live in. Clergymen, but not men of other professions and employments. Sunday, but not other six days. But Christ claimed the world for Himself and His Father, in the sense that He claimed everything in the world. Factories and railways, camps and courts of law, mansions, museums, and picture-galleries, to say nothing of the world of trees, and rivers, and birds, and flowers, form part of the world which belongs to Him, the Heir of all things. This is the only religious view of life.

IV. Seek, then, to make your whole life religious. Pure religion is when the sense of God’s love, of the vastness of His claims, of the breadth of His commandments, so works through the life as to make it one organic whole, and when the poor unworthy distinction of secular and sacred is forgotten; when what is most religious is most human, and what is commonest is ennobled and justified by the grace which flows from “Christ our Life.” (J. A. Jacob, D. D.)

Doing all in the name of Christ

I. What this is.

1. To go to God through Him (John 15:3; John 15:16; John 16:23-26).

2. To do all by His authority (Matthew 18:18-20; Matthew 28:18-20; 1 Timothy 6:15).

3. To do all by His strength (Acts 4:6-7; Act 4:10; 1 Samuel 17:45; Philippians 4:13; 2 Corinthians 12:9). Without Him we can do nothing, with Him every thing (1 Corinthians 15:10).

4. For His glory (1 Corinthians 10:31; John 5:23; Revelation 5:12-13).

5. To live a life of faith for a supply of all things for life and godliness (2 Peter 1:1-21; 2Pe 2:1-22; 2 Peter 3:1-18; John 16:23).

6. To walk in the religion of the Lord Jesus (Micah 4:5; 2 Timothy 2:19; Matthew 10:22; Luke 21:17; Revelation 2:3; Revelation 2:13).

7. To follow His example (Mat 16:24; 1 John 2:6; 1 Peter 2:21-23).

II. Why we are to do it.

1. Be cause all we are, have, or can do, is of Christ (1 Corinthians 3:22-23).

(1) All grace and strength (1 Corinthians 1:30).

(2) Adoption (Ephesians 1:5).

(3) Reconciliation with God (2 Corinthians 5:18).

(4) All our actual supplies (Philippians 4:19).

2. Because the Father has highly exalted Him, and given Him a name which is above every name (Philippians 2:8-10). Therefore we must all honour the Son as the Father (John 5:23).

3. Because we cannot be accepted but by Him (Ephesians 1:6; Hebrews 13:15; Hebrews 5:1).

4. Because all that comes from God to us must be by His hand.

III. How we may do it.

1. We must be supposed to be in Christ first (John 15:4-5).

2. Supposing this we must exercise faith upon Him, and have constant recourse to Him, in all that we do for the supplies of His grace and Spirit (1Pe 2:20; 1 Peter 5:7; John 16:16; John 16:23; John 16:26).

3. We must live in close communion with Jesus in the use of all His ordinances (Zechariah 4:12).

4. We must exercise our thoughts much upon Him, and be much taken up with Him in the course of our lives (Psalms 73:23).

IV. some uses.

1. It is not in our power to act as we please, or for our own ends (Romans 14:7-8).

2. The impiety of those who invoke Christ’s name on their wicked courses.

3. We cannot expect God’s blessing on anything not done in Christ’s name. (H. Wilkinson, D. D.)

Doing all to the Lord Jesus

All have felt at times a painful void after absorption in active duty. There has been nothing sinful, on the contrary the work, it may be, has been sacred, undertaken with prayer, and been for the good of man and the glory of God, and yet there is no satisfaction.

I. Where is the evil in this? It is that we are slow to learn in act what we know in our souls, that we can do nothing good without God. We take it for granted and so forget it.

1. As to ordinary matters men, e.g., think it unlikely they will die to-day because they have lived safely through so many dangers, and take it for granted that their food will nourish them because it has always done so. Where, then, is there any room for dependence on God even with prayer for protection and blessing, since the feeling assumes that they will be granted without any prayer at all.

2. As to deeds of grace. It is well, as people’s devotions now are, if Christians really prayed to God to carry them through the trials of the day, as really believing that for this they needed the special help of God. How many, if they pray at all, hope to do right and escape flagrant wrong almost through the intention of doing or not doing, and think that if they call upon God in some general way things will not be much amiss with them.

3. As to daily life. Many Christians seem to think that in the daily deeds and words of life they either cannot or else must sin, and that these two are much the same. What people hate is being in earnest at all, and so they do not wish to pray for the grace of God lest they should have to be at the pains of using it. So they are ready to think that they cannot help themselves, that they must fall into sins of infirmity, and thus they cast their faults on God, or they look upon them as no great faults at all, and so they act as though they could not sin. And apart from these who learns, in the midst of his conscious and acknowledged besetting sin, to ask for the grace of God? The angry, sinful word again and again escapes, and the thought of God at best but follows it.

II. Thy remedy. “Whatsoever ye do,” etc., as one bearing His name, in the might of His name, and to its glory. Refer all things to Him. Let Him be the beginning from whom all flows, the end in whom all are gathered, our aim, our reward. Have Him before thee as the pattern whom thou art to copy; the Redeemer in whom is thy strength, the Master and Friend whom thou art to serve and please, thy Creator and thy heaven.

1. But can, one will say, all the little acts of life be done to Him? Were it not almost an indignity to bring them in reference to His great Majesty? On the contrary, great love shows itself most in little acts. Nothing is too small to be done for one deeply loved, and nothing but deep love will do unweariedly all little things to please whom it loves. Little things are the very instances of acceptable service in Scripture. It says not, “Give your bodies to be burned for the glory of God,” but, “Whether ye eat or drink,” etc.

2. How, then, can they be done? Do them as thou wouldest if thou sawest God by thee, with prayer that they may be done aright. He eats and drinks to the glory of God, who does so not for pleasure, but for strength for God’s service; He sleeps to God’s glory, who rests in Christ, hoping to rise to do Him honour; he does his daily task to the glory of God who plies it under the eye of God, and does it or not as and how he thinks God would have it done or not.

3. How can we do both at once without distraction--study, speak, or do and think of Christ at the same time? Will not work be done carelessly? Be thine own judge? Hast thou ever deeply loved parent, bride, husband, or child? Didst thou find that thou toiledst for them less diligently because thou thoughtest of and toiledst for them? Or hast thou done anything for man’s praise, feeling that the eye whose praise thou prizedst was upon thee? Was this a hindrance? Nay, a good and a spur which quickened every nerve. And who looks down upon us? Our Father, our Friend and Brother, who came down from heaven and suffered for us, is ready to help and reward us. And shall not such love quicken us to do all things better. Does it not give strength to self-denial to take up our cross after Jesus? gladness to alms-giving to give to Jesus? cast a holy reverence round a sick room when we minister to Jesus? impart sweetness to teaching children that in them we receive Jesus? When thou hast learned to do all things to Jesus, it will shed pleasure over all dull things, softness over hard things, peace over trial. It will make contradiction sweet, to bear it meekly with Jesus; poverty, honourable to be poor with Jesus; toil, gladsome to labour for Jesus. (E B. Pusey, D. D.)

Common work in the name of Jesus

Wherever we are called to work we must dedicate the labours of our hands or our brain to God, doing all in the name of the Lord Jesus. Solomon was called to build the temple of the Lord, but every man who is an honest worker, who does his best in the place where heaven has put him, is building up a temple, holy, acceptable to God. The Minister of State in his cabinet, labouring to do right and caring nothing for popularity; and the little servant-maid in the kitchen, who scorns to tell a lie, or neglect her daily duties, are both in their respective stations working for God, doing their duty. None but pure gold may receive the special goldsmith’s mark, none but true, honest work can bear the mark of the Lord Jesus. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)

Every-day religion

Plato had a fable which I have now nearly forgotten, but it ran something like this: He said spirits of the other world came back to this world to find, body and find a sphere of work. One spirit came and took the body of a king and did his work. Another spirit came and took the body of a poet and did his work. After a while Ulysses came, and he said, “Why, all the fine bodies are taken, and all the grand work is taken. There is nothing left for me” And some one replied, “Ah! the best one has been left for you.” Ulysses said, “What’s that?” And the reply was, “The body of a common man, doing a common work, and for a common reward.” A good fable for the world, and just as good a fable for the Church. “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do it to the glory of God.” (T. De Witt Talmage, D. D.)

The essence of fiery

I begin to see that religion consists not so much in joyous feelings as in a constant exercise of devotedness to God, and in laying ourselves out for the good of others. (D. Stewart.)

The all-pervasiveness of religion

Religion is one of the colours of life which mingles most intimately with all the other colours of the palette. It is that which lends them their appearance of depth, and the best of their brilliance. If by a subtle process it is taken away, all become tarnished and discoloured. (W. Mallock.)

The acceptable prayer

As a petition to the Queen can only reach her through the hands of a minister, so we can only approach God the Father through His Son Jesus Christ. All our prayer and praises must be offered in the name of the Lord Jesus. Very many of those prayers are like letters with no name and address upon them, which never reach their destination. What is it that makes our public services in church so frequently cold and spiritless? Why is it that some of us look on church-going as an irksome task, and the hours spent in God’s house as the most wearisome of our lives? The reason is simply this, that their services are being offered in the wrong name. One offers it in his own name, he is sacrificing to selfishness; another offers it in the name of fashion, another in the name of respectability, but there can be no reality in our services unless offered in the name of Christ. (H. J. W. Buxton, M. A.)

Consistency and gratitude

I. “whatsoever ye do in word or deed,” etc.

1. Paul here clearly gives to Christ the whole of life. The conceptions, affections, and resolutions of the soul refer to words and works as being the principles and motives of them. For it is impossible that they should be in the name of Christ except our understandings and will so address them. The Spirit moves all, and upon this the difference between man’s actions depends. It is this that gives them the right and title they have in Christian morality. Works that are the same as to external action are good in one and bad in another. The aims of an ambitious man and of a true believer have no external difference, yet if you examine the inward springs of both, you will find one a piece of vanity, the other a fruit of charity.

2. The rule is short and easy, but of almost infinite use. As a little square serves an artificer to design and mark out a multitude of lines, and to correct those that are amiss, so by this little rule there is no human action respecting which we cannot ascertain whether it is right or wrong; nor is there any part of our lives which this rule is not capable of guiding and forming to perfection.

3. Specifically the name of Christ is the rule.

(1) As the name of God signifies the Hebrew word by which the Lord distinguishes Himself, so Jesus is sometimes taken for the name which was given by express Divine command. But it is not thus taken here as if Paul simply intended that in our actions and discourses we should always intermix the word Jesus, or at least preface it.

(2) The name of God is taken for the power, authority, and will of God (Deu 18:19; 2 Kings 2:24; Psalms 20:7; Psa 39:16; Psa 39:24; 1 Samuel 17:45; 2 Chronicles 14:11). So in like manner the name of Jesus (Acts 4:7; Matthew 7:22; Matthew 24:5; Matthew 18:20). So the apostle means--

(a) That we refer all to His glory.

(b) That we act according to His will.

(c) That we live in entire confidence in and dependence upon Him.

4. By this

(1) Paul banishes, from our mind all unfruitful works of darkness, it being evident that we can do nothing that is opposed to His will.

(2) He perfects and enlivens those of our works which of themselves are commanded of God, engrafting on them the true motive and directing them to the true end.

(3) He sacrifices those which are in their nature indifferent; e.g., if this rule is observed in eating and drinking, acts indifferent in their nature,

(a) the sacred name will purge them of the excess of intemperance on the one hand, and the foolish scruples of superstition on the other.

(b) Being referred to the glory of God, from indifferent they become holy and acceptable to God.

3. We must not so take the precept as if we were obliged in every act and word to raise our thoughts directly to Christ. It is sufficient that we frequently and ordinarily make this application of mind. But it is necessary that we have this deposition so formed in our hearts, that when circumstances allow us to think of Christ our souls may lean that way as being habituated to it.

II. “Giving thanks into God and the Father by Him.” These words may be taken as an independent precept (Ephesians 5:20) or a reason for the preceding rule, a title under which we ought to do all things in the name of Christ, so that our whole life may be an act of gratitude through Christ, which is to be preferred.

1. Thanksgiving is one of the most necessary and universal offices of a Christian. Remember what we are to God through creation, providence, and grace.

2. God the Father is the proper object of gratitude as the first principle of action, though not to the exclusion of the Son and Spirit.

3. By Jesus this gratitude is to be rendered.

(1) He is the channel by which all God’s goodness is poured upon us.

(2) Our thanks cannot be grateful to the Father except addressed and presented by Christ. Application:

1. For the confirmation of faith.

(1) We have a proof of the divinity of Christ. The faithful neither rejoice, nor speak, nor act, but in the name of God--but here it is required that our whole life be referred to the name of Christ. It must therefore be concluded that He is not a creature, but very God.

(2) Is it not an outrage to require that saints should share this honour with Christ as Rome does? (Acts 4:12; 1 Corinthians 1:12).

2. For the instruction of our faith.

(1) If we would be truly Christians, we must have Christ continually before us as the pole star, the rule of our whole life.

(2) How many of us fall short of this. (J. Daille.)

The reality of religion

I. Christianity is a reality, and deals with realities.

1. If it could be shown that its requirements were unreal, its statements exaggerated, its views of attainment unreasonable, it would lose immensely in its character for truth and its power for good.

2. Here we may fall into opposite mistakes.

(1) We may take the sayings of Scripture strictly to the letter, set them clown as exaggerated, and above our capacities. This is the way with worldly people. They admire the gospel, but never think of realizing it. It is to them a mere night of stars to wonder and gaze at, not a sun to light them to their daily work, and warm their hearts with love.

(2) Some religious people, like the former, strain the Bible to its literal meaning, and then require that meaning in full, and thus lead to the same point, and encourage indolence and unbelief.

(3) Owing to a mixture of these we find Christian precept and practice widely sundered. And so men satisfy themselves with being Christian hearers and heathen livers, without the least suspicion of inconsistency.

3. Owing to this enormous abuses have sprung up under the shadow of the Church. A large proportion of the infidelity of the working classes is due to this unreal teaching. A strained and exaggerated view of religion has been put before them, alien from their habits of thought, and by no means supported by the example of its professors.

II. The text is a remedy for unreality in religion.

1. Observe the extent of this saying. It is plain that it must propose some motive and rule which shall touch daily life at every point.

(1) Nothing is more common than a man with a powerful motive which rules his whole life--gain, ambition, love of family, science, art, victory, the exercise of an energetic nature. But whatever it be, reality is its necessary condition. There are of course many visionaries, men pursuing objects which have no real existence, but to them they are not unreal.

(2) Observe how such motives act.

(a) As to their inward influence on the man himself. Are they evermore in his view and present to his thoughts? Or is not their influence for the most part rather a constraining power of which he is unconscious, rather than a stimulus carried on by conscious effort? Take a man whose motives is the advancement of himself or his family. Such an object is consciously present when he chooses to reflect on it, but day by day in the toil and struggle he is not ever thinking of it, but he is pursuing it. The labourer working under the useful light and genial warmth does not lose his time and dazzle his sight in gazing on the sun, but plies his arm with his eye fixed on his work, and so uses for its intended purpose the light God has bestowed.

(b) They are seldom loudly professed, so seldom that a man professing loudly a given motive arouses suspicion that he is acting on some other, and only using this as a blind. Here, as in nature, the deepest is the stillest; but by this very stillness all who are observant know its depth. Whatever mystery a man makes of his object in life, spectators generally arrive at correct conclusions.

2. Recur to the motive of the text.

(1) There is a wide difference between persons who pursue objects which only appear real to them, and those whose objects are absolutely real. In the case of the former pursuit will lead away from, in the case of the latter it will lead to, the truth. It is not necessary that a motive should be based on reality to be all-constraining, but it is in order that it may be a worthy motive for an intelligent being.

(2) The facts implied in the name, “The Lord Jesus,” rest upon evidence as strong as can possibly be alleged for anything. The belief in Christ is not only the unavoidable conclusion of a sound mind from evidence, but the only satisfactory way to account for the state of the world in which we find ourselves.

(3) But based on reality it must also be real to me, or it cannot be my motive. It must have points of contact with every part of my life. Has it these points? Not if our Lord be a mere teacher. Mere precepts cannot touch us at all points, or constrain us to do all things in a teacher’s name. But our Lord, being God, became man, bore our sins and carried our sorrows, grew up through our life, and tasted death for every man. Take any life, in any condition or time, and there is help and hope for it in Jesus.

(4) Now suppose a man embrace Jesus as his Saviour--let Christ’s love become the acknowledged fact of His life, then it will become a constraining motive, and will not be contented with influencing some of his faculties, employing some of his time; from the nature of things it must have all--Christ is mine, and I am His, and whatever I do, spiritual or secular, business or recreation, I must do all in His name.

(5) There are certain solemn times when this great motive is and must be expressly recognized; but when the whole man is possessed with the love of Christ, the whole ordinary being follows the direction of the central impulse. The Christian at his daily task is not ever pondering spiritual truths. He would be a bad workman and a bad Christian if he were.

(6) Such deep constraining motive is not usually displayed before men; but its existence is not easily concealed. If a man be a Christian, men will take knowledge of him that he has been with Jesus. (Dean Alford.)

Christian ends lend grandeur to human life

He who lives for the glory of God has an end in view which lends dignity to the man and to his life. Bring common iron into proper contact with the magnet, it will borrow the strange attractive virtue, and itself become magnetic. The merest crystal fragment, that has been flung out into the field and trampled on the ground, shines like a diamond when sunbeams stoop to kiss it. And who has not seen the dullest rain-cloud, when it turned its weeping face to the sun, change into glory, and, in the bow that spans it, present to the eyes of age and infancy, alike of the philosopher who studies, and of the simple joyous child who runs to catch it, the most brilliant and beautiful phenomenon in nature? Thus, from what they look at and come in contact with, common things acquire uncommon glory. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The name of Jesus set in work

Those old saints of the Middle Ages, how dearly they loved to set the name of Jesus forth everywhere, by all means, in every curious work of art--not merely of Church art, mind you, but of household and domestic furniture. Go, for example, into many of the farms round here, and notice the fire-dogs that stand in the yawning chimney: how they are wrought at the sides into those most blessed of all letters, the I.H.C., by which our dear Lord is set forth. Nothing so mean that it was thought unworthy of this monogram; nothing so glorious that it was considered unfit to have that excelling glory added thereto. There they taught us the great lesson--“Do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus.” Yes, silver and gold and gems conspired together to mark out this name on the paten, or the chalice, or the shrine; the manufacturer of Limoges worked it out in his enamel; in the monastery potteries they burnt it in on their tiles; in convents they embroidered it on chasuble and cope; in the glorious windows of churches the light came in, sanctified, as it were, and hallowed by the name of the True Light; the poor peasant was encouraged, with his clasp knife, to consecrate his house by carving the same name on the hutch of his door or the barge-boards of his roof; the name of salvation could not be out of place among the dwellings of those who looked to be saved; the name which to adore will be the work of eternity, could never be out of place for the meditation and the worship of earth. (Dr. Neale.)

Wives submit yourselves unto your own husbands.

The Christian family

1. In the family, Christianity has signally displayed its power of refining, ennobling and sanctifying earthly relationships. Domestic life as seen in Christian homes is a purely Christian creation, and would have been a new revelation at Colossae as it is in many a mission field to-day.

2. Domestic happiness and family Christianity are made up of very homely elements. One duty is prescribed here for one member of each of the three family groups, and varying forms of another for the other. The wife, child, servant, are to obey; the husband to love, the father to show his love in gentle considerateness, the master to yield his servants their dues. Like some perfume distilled from common flowers which grow on every bank, the domestic piety which makes home a house of God and a gate of heaven, is prepared from these two simples--obedience and love.

I. The reciprocal duties of wives and husbands.

1. The Christian ideal of the wife’s duty has for its centre subjection.

(1) Some will smile at that as a survival of a barbarous theory of marriage; but turn to Ephesians 5:22-33, and you will find that marriage is regarded from a high and sacred point of view. To Paul all earthly relationships were moulded after patterns of things in the heavens. What the Church’s subjection to Christ is, such is the wife’s to the husband, a subjection of which love is the very soul. As in the loving obedience of the believing soul to Christ, the wife submits not because she has found a master, but because her heart has found its rest. Thus everything harsh and degrading disappears. It is a joy to serve where the heart is engaged, and that is eminently true of the feminine nature. For its full satisfaction a woman’s heart needs to look up, and to serve where it loves. In this nobler, purer, more unselfish love, as much as in physicial constitution, is laid the foundation of the Divine ideal of marriage.

(2) The subjection is limited by “We must obey God rather than man,” and there are cases in which on the principle of “Tools to those who can use them,” the rule falls to the wife as the stronger character. Popular sarcasm, however, shows this to be contrary to the true ideal. And then woman’s intellectual and moral qualities render it wise for a man to take her counsel. But all such considerations are consistent with apostolic teaching.

2. What of the husband’s duty? He is to love.

(1) Because he loves he is not to be harsh. He is to be as patient and self-sacrificing as Christ, that he may bless and help. That solemn example lifts the whole emotion and carries the lesson that man’s love is to evoke the woman’s subjection, just as in the heavenly pattern Christ’s love melts and moves human wills to glad obedience which is liberty.

(2) Where there is such love there will be no tenacious adherence to rights. Love uttering a wish speaks music to love listening, and love obeying the wish is free and a queen.

3. The young are to remember that the nobleness and heart repose of their whole lives may be made or marred by marriage, and to take heed where they fix their affections. If a man and woman love and marry in the Lord, He will be in the midst, a third who will make them one, and that threefold cord will not be quickly broken.

II. The reciprocal duties of children and parents--Obedience and gentle authority.

1. The injunction to children is laconic and universal.

(1) The only limitation is when God’s command is contradicted.

(2) The enforcement is that it is “well pleasing in the Lord.” To all who can appreciate the beauty of goodness is filial obedience beautiful. In Ephesians it is regarded as “right” appealing to the natural conscience.

(3) The idea of a father’s power and a child’s obedience has been much softened by Christianity, but rather from the greater prominence given to love, than from the limitation given to obedience. There is now great laxity in reaction from the tee great severity of past times. Many causes lead to this. Children are better educated than their parents, and a sense of inferiority often makes a parent hesitate to command, as well as a misplaced tenderness makes him hesitate to forbid. But it is unkind to place on young shoulders “the weight of too much liberty.” Consult your children less, command them more.

(4) And as to children, here is the one thing God would have you do, and which is moreover pleasing to those whose approbation is worth having, and will save many a sting of conscience now which may tingle again when all too late. Remember Dr. Johnson standing bareheaded in Lichfield market-place, in remorseful remembrance of boyish disobedience.

2. The law for parents is addressed to fathers, partly because mothers have less need of it and partly because fathers are the head of the household.

(1).How do parents provoke their children? By unreasonable commands, by capricious jerks at the bridle alternating with capricious dropping of the reins altogether, ungovernable tempers, frequent rebukes and sparing praise. And what follows? “Wrath,” as Ephesians has it, and then apathy. “I cannot please, whatever I do,” leads to a rankling sense of unjustice and then to recklessness, “it is useless to try.” Paul’s theory of the training of children is connected with his central doctrine, that love is the life of service, and faith the parent of righteousness. When a child loves and trusts, he will obey. Children’s obedience must be fed on love and praise.

(2) So parents are to let the sunshine of their smile ripen their children’s love to fruit of obedience, and remember that frost in spring scatters the blossoms on the grass. Many a father drives his child into evil by keeping him at a distance. He should make his boy a companion and a playmate, and try to keep him nearer to himself than to any one else; then his opinions will be an oracle, and his lightest wish a law.

(3) Parents would do well, too, to remember Ephesians 6:4, and Deuteronomy 6:6-7, and not relegate religious instruction to others. Children drift away from a faith which their parents do not care enough about to teach.

III. The reciprocal duties of masters and servants. Obedience and justice.

1. These servants are slaves. Paul recognized that “sum of all villainies,” but his gospel had principles which cut up slavery by the roots. Christ and His apostles did not war against it nor against any existing institutions--“First make the tree good,” etc. Mould men, and the men will mould institutions. And so slavery has died in all Christian lands now. But the principles laid down here are applicable to all forms of service.

2. Note the extent of the servant’s obedience.

(1) “In all things,” the limit again being God’s command, but inward completeness is insisted on, “not with eye service,” etc. We have a proverb about the worth of the master’s eye, which bears witness that the same fault clings to hired service, and thus darkens into theft. All scamped work, all productions which are got up to look better than they are, all fussy parade of diligence when under inspection and slackness afterwards are transfixed here, “But in singleness of heart,” etc., with undivided motive, which is the antithesis and cure for eye service--and fearing God, which is opposed to pleasing men.

(2) Then follows the positive injunction, lifting obedience to an earthly master into a religious duty, and transfiguring the slave’s lot. This evokes new powers, and renewed consecration.

(3) The stimulus of a great hope is added. Whatever their earthly masters failed to give them, if they are Christ’s they will be treated as sons and receive the son’s portion. Christ remains in no man’s debt.

(4) The last word is a warning against neglect of duty. The wrongdoer will receive retribution, but it does not warrant an inferior’s breach of moral law. Two blacks do not make a white--a lesson to oppressed peoples and their champions.

3. Masters are bidden to give their slaves what is equitable. A start ling injunction respecting those who were chattels and not persons.

(1) The apostle does not define what is just and equal. The main thing was to drive home the conviction that there are duties owing to slaves and employes. We are far from: a satisfactory discharge of these yet, but everybody admits the principle--and we have mainly to thank Christianity for that. Paul does not say, “Give them what is kind and patronizing.” Charity likes to come in and supplies wants which would never have been felt had there been equity.

(2) The duty of masters is enforced by the fact that they have a Master who is to be their pattern. Give your servants what you expect and need to get from Christ. (A. Maclaren, D. D.)

Husbands and wives

The duty of the latter is put first, because obedience is more difficult and distasteful than love, and because the love of the husband largely depends on the subjection of the wife.

I. As to wives.

1. The proposition that wives ought to be subject to their husbands.

(1) In general this subjection is a Divine disposition whereby the more imperfect are subordinate to the more perfect, in order to their government and preservation. Without this, neither natural affairs, nor political societies, nor even the world could subsist. From whence follow--

(a) The author of creatures would not have them confounded through disorder (1 Corinthians 14:13).

(b) It is not the mark of a base but of a generous mind to be subject to his superiors. “Every man in proportion to his depravity bears a ruler with rude impatience.

(c) Those who shake off the yoke of due subjection are blind to their own interests. “Obedience is the mother of prosperity.”

(2) In particular this subjection consists in--

(a) The internal act of the heart and the acknowledgment of the mind (Ephesians 5:33; 1 Peter 3:6).

(b) Conformity of manners and affections. As a mirror adorned with gems and skilfully polished is nothing unless it express a true likeness of the person looking into it; so a wife, however endowed and beautiful, is nothing un less she render herself conformable to the manners of her husband (1 Corinthians 7:37).

(c) Performance of wifely duties--conjugal love (Genesis 2:18; Titus 2:4; Proverbs 31:12)--care of the children and the house (Titus 2:4-5). The Egyptian women had no shoes, that they might learn to keep at home.

(3) The reasons for this subjection.

(a) The Divine appointment (Genesis 3:16).

(b) The natural imperfection of the woman (1 Peter 3:7).

(c) The order of creation. Woman was created after, out of, and for man (1 Corinthians 11:8-9).

(d) The transgression of the woman (1 Timothy 2:14).

(2) The disadvantage of refusing this subjection. The violation of natural order every where is productive of disastrous disturbances.

(4) The hindrances to this subjection.

(a) Pride, which makes the wife disesteem her husband as unworthy to command her. To obviate this evil let her remember that her husband’s dignity and her own inferiority are not to be estimated from virtues, figure, nobility, or riches; but from Divine ordination; that pride is of the devil, who, as he incited Eve, instills the same poison into her daughters.

(b) Defect of love. She studies not to please her husband who is displeased with him. This evil will be avoided if parents would not compel their daughters to odious nuptials (Genesis 24:57-58); if women would beware of marrying for honour and riches; and if after marriage they would avoid all occasions of offence.

(c) Foolish vanities, such as an immoderate desire of appearing in public, extravagance in dress, etc.

2. The limitation of the proposition--“As it is fit in the Lord;” as far as God permits, and as far as it is befitting women who are in the Lord. The occasion of this arose from the circumstance that many believing women were united to unbelieving husbands. If their husbands should strive to compel them to idolatrous worship they must resist (Acts 5:29). The foundation for this is that all authority is derived from God and subordinate to Him. From whence it follows--

(1) That thus wives render a sub mission grateful to God Himself.

(2) That the wife is bound to be a companion of her husband in everything but sin.

(3) That it is impious to choose a husband who is likely to persuade his wife to do such things as are not fit in the Lord.

II. As to husbands.

1. The precept enjoining love.

(1) The affection of love itself is required. This gives the heart to the thing loved, which is the most precious gift, and that in which all else is given.

(2) This affection will express itself

(a) In living at home, delighted with the wife’s presence and company, and not seeking others in preference (Proverbs 5:18-19). This effect we see in Christ’s love toward His Church (Matthew 28:20).

(b) In direction and instruction in all those things which relate to this life and the next (1 Corinthians 14:35), because both are partners in earthly things and heirs together of the grace of life (1 Peter 3:7).

(c) Provision of all necessary things, in imitation of Christ’s care of His Church. He who neglects this, subjects himself to heavy censure (1 Timothy 5:8).

(3) In order to perform this duty let a man beware of marrying--

(a) By the eyes alone, i.e., choosing for mere external beauty. Love which rests on such an unstable foundation cannot be firm and constant.

(b) By the fingers, i.e., choosing for money. The man who does this seeks not a wife but a money porter, and after he has laid his claws on the money, he regards not of a straw the porter.

2. The injunction forbidding bitterness. Plutarch says, “They who sacrificed at the rites of Juno, took out the gall of the victim, signifying by the ceremony that it was not fit that bile and bitterness should enter into the married state.” The bitterness here prohibited shows itself--

(1) In the affections. Without saying or doing anything injurious a husband embittered against his wife can make her life exceedingly bitter. That this is to be avoided we gather

(a) from the precept itself, which admits of no exception. As a wife is bound to obey her husband in spite of his many imperfections, so the husband is bound to love the wife notwithstanding hers.

(b) From the example of Christ (Ephesians 5:29).

(2) In words. A tender mind is wounded no less by bitter words, than the body is by sharp weapons.

(3) In actions. God gave not Eve to Adam as a slave but as a companion and helpmeet. This tyranny is exercised

(a) when the wife is removed from domestic rule and degraded to the rank of a maid, even perhaps subjected to one of them, (Proverbs 31:27; Titus 2:5).

(b) When things pertaining to her dignity or necessity are denied.

(c) When she is treated with cruelty. (Bp. Davenant.)

Relative duties--husbands and wives

The root of all society is the family. (Genesis 2:18; Psalms 68:6). The real strength and virtue of a nation consist to a great extent in the purity of family ties; and in this, more than anything else socially, has the religion of Christ blessed the world. Of the domestic institution, conjugal life and love are the very element and fountain (Ephesians 5:25-33; Titus 2:4-5; 1 Peter 3:1-7).

I. The duty of the wife.

1. The subjection is not that of a drudge or slave, to be ruled by force. It means that in the home, as everywhere else, “order is heaven’s first law.” If there is to be peace and happiness in the home there must not be two co-ordinate authorities. The husband is to be the house-band--the strength and bond of the family. The submission required of a wife involves--

(1) A sense of dependence. In many things this is unavoidable, she being the weaker vessel, and created in a condition of dependence (1 Corinthians 11:8-9). When she tried to lead her husband and undertook to govern, the issue was disastrous for both. This dependence is touchingly illustrated in the social sympathy for, and Divine promises to widows, because she is deprived of her earthly prop and stay.

(2) A feeling of deference. “Sarah obeyed Abraham, calling him lord.” Many husbands, it may be said, do not deserve this, and the wife may sometimes take advantage of a husband’s weakness for his good. If a woman has married a man she cannot respect, she may have herself to blame; but his weakness does not exempt her from the duty of honouring him as her husband. If he abdicate hie position, she may be obliged to take the lead, yet the true wife will strive to do it in such a way as not to wound him.

(3) A spirit of devotedness. It is beautiful to see a loving wife clinging hopefully and prayerfully to a bad husband. Just as forbidding is it to hear a wife complaining all round the parish. A good wife will care for her husband’s comfort and character as her own; and when he is harassed will do her best to make him forget his anxieties (Proverbs 31:10-12).

2. The reason for this injunction--“as it is fit in the Lord.” It is God s will that it should be so, and also the dictate of common sense. Where there are two wills seeking for mastery there will be wrangling and bitterness. But the wife is not a slave to do the bidding of a taskmaster, losing in a mechanical obedience the sense of responsibility. No! she may not do wrong to please her husband. Her own relation to God will determine the standard of right and limit of duty. How much has a Christian wife in her power I By submission she may gain conquests for Christ, and commend the Lord whom she supremely loves.

II. The duty of the husband. The sum and fountain of all other duties is love.

1. Positively--“love your wives.”

1. Paul does not say as the complement of submission, “Rule your wives wisely, keep them in their position.” The rule of love is sweet and easily borne. Either side is, perhaps, apt to forget its own special obligation: the wife is not so likely to forget her love as her subjection, nor the husband his authority as his love. But he will most surely and fully receive the acknowledgment due to him who truly loves; and she will be most tenderly loved who shows most heartily deference. Let the love which won the youthful bride be continued and augmented.

2. This love must be manifested. It is too often taken as a matter of course. Contact with the world often deadens the susceptibilities, and love is left to care for itself and struggle for a precarious existence. But the wife craves for love, and a tone of tenderness will make her soul brighten for days amid the manifold cares of home. It is one thing to be silly in the expression of a rapturous fondness and quite another to be manly in the exhibition of a sincere affection. If a man is not ashamed of being married he ought not to be ashamed of showing his love, in, e.g., preferring his wife’s society, in seeking to please her, in taking an interest in those things which specially occupy her thought. And she has a right to expect it amidst the monotony of her household cares.

2. Negatively--“Be not bitter against them.” It is possible to have a general sentiment of affection and yet to be bitter. This spirit is grossly wrong in a Christian man to the woman who has given up all for him. It may be exhibited in surly silence as well as in sharp words. There will be need of forbearance on both sides. Some homes, alas, are in a state of chronic conflict. He commands imperiously; she resists proudly. Some men are pleasant and genial abroad, but churlish at home. Marriage is left us as a wreck saved from Paradise; according to our spirit and conduct it will be either a reminder of “paradise lost,” or a help towards “paradise regained.” (J. Spence, D. D.)

Wife: meaning of the word

It literally means a weaver. The wife is the person who weaves. Before our great factories arose, one of the great employments in every house was the fabrication of clothing; every family made its own. The wool was spun into thread by the girls, who were therefore called “spinsters”; the thread was woven by their mother, who was accordingly called the weaver or the wife; and another remnant of this old truth we discover in the word heirloom, applied to any old piece of furniture which has come down to us from our ancestors, and which, though it may be a chair or bed, shows that a loom was once the most important piece of furniture in the house. Thus in the word wife is wrapped up a hint of earnest, indoor, stay-at-home occupations, as being fitted for her who bears this name.

Qualities of a wife

A good wife should be like three things; which three things she should not be like.

1. She should be like a snail, to keep within her own house; but she should not be like the snail to carry all she has upon her “back.

2. She should be like an echo, to speak when spoken to; but she should not be like an echo, always to have the last word.

3. She should be like a town clock, always to keep time and regularity; but she should not be like a town clock, speak so loud that all the town may hear her. (Old writer.)

The value of submissiveness in wives

A pleasure-loving husband boasted of the good temper of his wife; and a wager was laid that she would rise at midnight and give the company a supper with perfect cheerfulness. It was put to the test, and the boast of the husband was: found true. One of the company thus addressed the lady, “Madam, your civility fills us with surprise. Our unreasonable visit is in consequence of a wager which “we have certainly lost. As you cannot approve of our conduct, give me leave to ask what can possibly induce you to behave with so much kindness to us?” “Sir,” she replied, “When I married, my husband and myself were both unconverted. It has pleased God to call me out of that dangerous condition. My husband continues in it. I tremble for his future, and therefore try to make his: present as comfortable as possible.” “I thank you for the warning, my dear,” said her husband, “by the grace of God I will change my conduct.” From that time he became another man. (E. Foster.)

A considerate wife

When Mr. Disraeli retired from office he was offered an earldom. He declined it with the intimation that if there was any reward thought to be deserved, he wished it to be conferred upon his wife, to whom he attributed all his success. His wife therefore became Viscountess Beaconsfield. On the day, long before this, when he was to unfold the Budget, he entered the carriage absorbed in thought, his wife quietly taking her seat beside him. In getting in, her finger was caught by the door, which shutting upon it held it so fast that she could not withdraw it. Fearful of driving figures and arguments from his head, she uttered no cry nor made any movement until they reached the House; nor did Disraeli hear of it till long after. All that evening the faithful wife sat in the gallery, that her husband’s quick eye might not miss her from it, bearing her pain like a martyr, and like a woman who loves. (E. Foster.)

Husband: meaning of the word

It means literally “the band of the house,” the support of it, the person who keeps it together, as a band keeps together a sheaf of corn. There are many married men who are not husbands, because they are not bands of the house. In many cases the wife is the husband, who by her prudence and economy keeps the house together. The man who by his dissolute habits strips his house of all comfort, is only a husband in a legal sense. He is not a houseband; instead of keeping things together he scatters them. (E. Foster.)

Husband’s love

Tiberius Gracchus, the Roman, finding two snakes in his bed, and consulting with the soothsayers, was told that one of them must be killed; yet, if he killed the male, he himself would die shortly; if the female, his wife would die. His love to his wife, Cornelia, was so great, that he killed the male, saith Plutarch, and died quickly. (G. Swinnock, M. A.)

A wife not loved too much

Rowland Hill often felt much grieved at the false reports which were circulated of many of his sayings, especially those respecting his publicly mentioning Mrs. Bill. His attentions to her till the close of life were of the most gentlemanly and affectionate kind. The high view he entertained of her may be seen from the following fact:--A friend having informed Mr. Hill of the sudden death of a lady, the wife of a minister, remarked, “I am afraid our dear minister loved his wife too well, and the Lord in wisdom has removed her.” “What, Air?” replied Mr. Hill, with the deepest feeling, “can a man love a good wife too much? Impossible, sir, unless he can love her better than Christ loves the Church.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Husband’s love reciprocated

Xenophon relates, that when Cyrus had taken captive a young prince of Armenia, together with his beautiful and blooming wife, of whom he was remarkably fond, they were brought before the tribunal of Cyrus to receive their sentence. The warrior inquired of the prince what he would give to be reinstated in his kingdom, and he replied that he valued his crown and his liberty at a very low rate; but if the noble conqueror would restore his beloved wife to her former dignity and possessions, he would willingly pay his life for the purchase. The prisoners were dismissed, to enjoy their freedom and former honours; and each was lavish in praises of the conqueror. “And you,” said the prince, addressing his wife, “what think you of Cyrus?” “I did not observe him,” she replied. “Not observe him!” exclaimed her husband; “upon whom, then, was your attention fixed?” “Upon that dear and generous man,” she replied, “who declared his readiness to purchase my liberty at the expense of his life.” (Christian Age.)

The influence of a wife

The tear of a loving girl, says an old book, is like a dewdrop on a rose; but one on the cheek of a wife is a drop of poison to her husband. Try to appear cheerful and contented, and your husband will be so, and when you have made him happy, you will become so, not in appearance but in reality. The skill required is not so great. Nothing flatters a man so much as the happiness of his wife: he is always proud of himself as the source of it. (J. Moser.)

A wife’s influence

As I was conversing with a pious old man, I inquired what were the means of his conversion. For a moment he paused. I perceived I had touched a tender string. Tears gushed from his eyes, while, with deep emotion, he replied, “My wife was brought to God some years before myself. I persecuted and abused her because of her religion. She, however, returned nothing but kindness, constantly manifesting an anxiety to promote my comfort and happiness; and it was her amiable conduct, when suffering ill treatment from me, that first sent the arrows of conviction to my soul.” (N. Y. Observer.)

Children, obey your parents in all things.

The mutual offices of parents and children

Among all those mutual offices by which society is preserved those incumbent on parents and children are the most important. If a man neglect his children or misgovern them, how wilt he duly treat other dependants? Or if a child shake off the parental yoke, how will he bear that of a master or prince? Whereas a good child in the house is likely to be a good subject in the state, and a good father will prove a good master and magistrate (1 Timothy 3:4-5).

I. The duty of children.

1. Those addressed are of either sex. Daughters, therefore, must not urge their weakness, nor sons their strength, as a reason why obedience should be dispensed with. Nor must time or fortune, for children, of whatever age or rank, are unalterably their father’s and mother’s (Genesis 46:29).

2. The duty is obedience: which includes the “honour” prescribed by the law. But the term is used to show us that this honour is not a vain respect, and to condemn hypocritical obsequiousness (Matthew 21:30).

3. The extent of the duty is universal. This is natural, and would have been literal but for sin. Now, however, exceptions must be introduced (Ephesians 6:1), and obedience in things not “well pleasing to the Lord” is prohibited. If a father should command his son to be an idolater, or to kill or hate his neighbour, or forbid him to embrace the service of God, obedience would be criminal (Luke 14:26; Matthew 10:37). But children are to obey--

(1) In those things which are conformable to the Divine will--in which case God’s law has an additional sanction--viz., parental authority, and disobedience involves, therefore, double guilt.

(2) In things indifferent. I wish that fathers would confine themselves to what is human, yet if they command anything not repugnant to God’s law, however harsh, it must be obeyed.

(3) Whence it appears how dangerous and contrary to the Word of God is the doctrine of Rome, which enfranchises children from this authority, daughters at twelve and sons at fourteen, giving them liberty, in spite of their parents, to enter a cloister. This directly contradicts Numbers 30:3-8; Matthew 15:4-6.

4. The enforcement. The apostle might have urged the justice of the thing itself, gratitude prompting it; or from nature, which has engraven this law on animals; or from the custom of all nations, who have authorized the veneration of parents as of sacred persons, and made piety at once Divine worship and filial obedience. But he alleges nothing but the sole will of God. That this is well pleasing to God is seen--

(1) From His commandment.

(2) The promise annexed.

(3) The punishments threatened (Deuteronomy 21:18; Exodus 21:17 : Leviticus 20:9; Proverbs 20:20; Proverbs 30:17).

(4) His Fatherly relation (Malachi 1:6).

II. The duties of parents.

1. The provocation forbidden is an ill effect of the abuse of parental authority. Fathers provoke their children--

(1) When they deny them a suitable maintenance (1 Timothy 3:1-16).

(2) When they give them inhuman or unrighteous commands (1 Samuel 20:34; Matthew 14:8).

(3) When without necessity they compel them to perform sordid actions.

(4) When they assail them with irritating or angry words (1 Samuel 20:30).

(5) When they chastise them beyond measure or desert (2 Samuel 7:14).

2. To dissuade fathers from this fault, the apostle shows the evil it produces. Nothing more dejects the heart of a child than undue vigour.

(1) It saddens him when in the countenance and actions of that person to whom he should be most dear he sees nothing but aversion.

(2) It intimidates and deprives him of all courage for a good undertaking; for, finding himself ill-treated by his father, what can he hope for from others.

(3) Some get hardened, and fall by degrees into desperate impiety. (J. Daille.)

The obligations of parents and children

I. The duty of children.

1. The duty itself contains four things.

(1) Reverence (Leviticus 19:3; Leviticus 19:20; Hebrews 12:9).

(a) With respect to speech, that it be agreeable to the relation, graced with humility and modesty, giving them honourable titles, pleasing answers, respectful requests.

(b) With respect to behaviour. Rude and haughty looks cannot comport with this duty.

(2) Observance.

(a) Attending to their instructions.

(b) Executing their commands.

(c) Depending on their counsels--as regards a calling in life, and marriage.

(d) Following their examples.

(3) Pious regards.

(a) With respect to their benevolence towards us.

(b) With respect to their claims when in indigence, in infirmity, or dead.

(4) Submission.

(a) To their admonitions.

(b) To their corrections.

2. The extent of the duty. We cannot imagine that this is so universal and absolute as obedience to God. He is the only absolute lawgiver (James 4:12), and when parental claims conflict with His, we are absolved from our obedience. Hence we find Acrotatus commended among the ancients because, when his parents had required of him to do an unjust thing, he answered, “I know you are willing I should do that which is just, for so you taught me to do; I will therefore do what you desire, but not what you bid.”

3. The reason for the duty: because it is well pleasing to the Lord. The supreme authority of our heavenly Father makes any duties He requires highly reasonable: and in pleasing God you please your parents and yourself too, for you must needs be happy when God and you are pleased (Psalms 19:11; Ephesians 6:1).

II. The office of parents. They are not to irritate their children, but, by parity of reasoning, to so comport themselves in good government as to secure their children’s honour. Let us look, then, at this positive side of the matter. L The more general parental duties.

(1) Prayer for all necessary things, but more particularly that they may be God’s children.

(2) Good behaviour (Proverbs 20:7; Proverbs 3:22).

2. More particular.

(1) Sustenance.

(2) Education (Ephesians 6:4; Proverbs 22:6).

(3) Disposal into some fit employment and marriage.

III. The means of managing the duties of both relations. 1, To children.

(1) Be thoroughly sensible of the mischief of disobedience, and the benefit of obedience.

(2) Remove all tendencies to the dishonour of parents, and set a value on their instructions.

(3) Perform all with sincerity and impartiality to both parents.

(4) Set about your filial duties willingly and readily.

(5) Persevere in all, whatever temptations you meet with.

2. To parents.

(1) Be sure you keep up the life and power of godliness in your domestic practice.

(2) Maintain your parental authority, and assert the dignity of your relation, yet with love and mildness.

(3) Sweeten all with expressions of endearment, to insinuate the more into their affections, but still with Christian prudence.

(4) Endeavour to carry it with all evenness and impartiality to every child, according to a rational proportion. (Richard Adams, A. M.)

The duties of parents and children

God hath set the solitary in families. The domestic constitution is the type of all governments. If discipline is neglected in the home, it is rarely that the loss is made up afterwards. Coleridge has said: “If you bring up your children in a way which puts them out of sympathy with the religious feelings of the nation in which they live, the chances are that they will ultimately turn out ruffians or fanatics, and one as likely as the other.” Lord Bacon observes that fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their sons; but the mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof. It is therefore of vital importance that the reciprocal duties of parents and children should be faithfully and diligently observed.

I. The duty of the child to the parent is to obey.

1. This obedience is universal. “In all things.” The law commands: “Honour thy father,” etc., and the most signal way is to obey. Parents have the wisdom of experience, and know the dangers that threaten their children, and are in a position to offer judicious counsel. Filial obedience should be prompt, cheerful, self-denying, uniform; not dilatory and reluctant.

2. This obedience is qualified and limited by the Divine approval.

II. The duty of the parent to the child is to rule.

1. The parent is not to rule in a spirit of exasperating severity. An excessive severity is as baneful as an excessive indulgence.

2. To rule in a spirit of exasperating severity tends only to dishearten. A certain writer has significantly said: “What if God should place in your hand a diamond, and tell you to inscribe on it a sentence which should be read at the last day, and shown there as an index of your own thoughts and feelings? What care, what caution, would you exercise in the selection. Now this is what God has done. He has placed before you the immortal minds of your children, more imperishable than the diamond, on which you are about to inscribe every day and every hour, by your instruction, by your spirit, or by your example, something that will remain and be exhibited for or against you at the judgment day!”

Lessons:

1. To rule wisely we must first learn to obey.

2. Disobedience is the essence of all sin.

3. That government is the most effective that tempers justice with mercy. (G. Barlow.)

Children entreated to obey their parents

I. Why you should obey.

1. Because it is your duty.

(1) God commands it, and He is so good that we ought to obey Him, and so great that He will not allow disobedience to go unpunished.

(2) Your parents command it, to whom you owe your all of earthly happiness.

2. Because it is your interest. Neither God nor your parents would wish it if it were not for your good.

(1) It will secure for you God’s blessing, whereas disobedience will bring down His curse. Remember Hophni and Phinehas, and Absalom.

(2) It will make you cheerful and happy in your minds, whereas disobedience makes you sullen and disagreeable to yourselves as well as others.

(3) It promotes your daily improvement. Disobey, and your evil dispositions will become daily more tyrannical.

(4) It makes others love you: but no one likes a disobedient child.

(5) It is most favourable to conversion, but the contrary almost precludes the hope of it.

3. Because you have the perfect pattern of our Lord to urge you to obey.

II. How you should obey.

1. Religiously. With a regard to what pleases God, and not what pleases self or parents so much.

2. Heartily and sincerely, as opposed to that hypocritical obedience which some children yield when their parents are in sight, because they are afraid of the consequences.

3. Completely. It is of no use for children to obey in some things and disobey in others; to do half what their parents command, and leave half undone.

4. Instantly, without waiting to ask the reason, or promising to obey at some future time.

5. Cheerfully. There is an obedience of the hand, but a disobedience of the heart.

6. Always. Not simply till you go to business, or are of age, or married. “Despise not thy mother when she is old.” (B. W. Noel, M. A.)

Obedience of children

The commander of the Orient, before the Battle of the Nile, placed his son, Cassabianea, thirteen years of age, on certain duty, to stay at his post till relieved by his father’s order. Soon after the father was slain. The boy held his post in the midst of fearful carnage, ignorant of his father’s fate; and while the sailors were deserting the burning and sinking ship, he cried, “Father, may I go?” The permission did not come, and there he stood at his post and perished. (E. Foster.)

Obedience to a master

The Hon. Thomas H. Benton was for many years a United States senator. When making a speech in New York once, he turned to the ladies present, and spoke about his mother in this way” “My mother asked me never to use tobacco, and I have never touched it from that day to this. She asked me never to gamble, and I never learned to gamble. When I was seven years old she asked me not to drink. I made a resolution of total abstinence. That resolution I have never broken. And now, whatever honour I may have gained, I owe it to my mother.” (King’s Highway.)

The rarity of obedience

A tradesman advertised for a boy to assist in his shop, and go on errands. A few hours after the morning papers were circulated he had his shop thronged with all kinds of boys. Not know ing which to choose he advertised again: “Wanted, to assist in a shop, a boy who obeys his mother.” Only two boys ventured to apply for the situation. (J. Bate.)

Safety of obedience

A pointsman in Prussia was at the junction of two lines of railway, his lever in hand for a train that was signalled. The engine was within a few seconds of reaching the embankment, when the man, on turning his head, perceived his little boy playing on the rails on the line the train was to pass over. “Lie down!” he shouted to the child, but as to himself, he remained at his post. The train passed safely on its way. The father rushed forward expecting to take up a corpse, but what was his joy on finding that the boy had at once obeyed his order! He had lain down, and the whole train passed over him without injury. The next day the king sent for the man, and attached to his breast the medal for civil courage.

Disobedience regretted

When I was a boy, and a little reckless, my mother used to say to me, “De Witt, you will be sorry for this when I am gone.” I remember just how she looked, with her cap and spectacles. I remember just how she sat with the Bible on her lap. I laughed the admonition off, but she never said a truer thing in all her life. I have been sorry for it ever since. (T. De W. Talmage, D. D.)

Fathers, provoke not your children to wrath, lest they be discouraged.

The treatment that discourages piety

Discouraged, Paul means, in good. His language is addressed to fathers, for he seems to have had in view the case of advanced children; and yet the language is equally applicable to the case of mothers and very little children. Children are discouraged and hardened to good--

I. By too much prohibition. There is a monotony of continuous prohibition which is really awful. It does not stop with ten, like the words of Sinai, but keeps up the thunder from day to day. All commandments, of course, in such a strain come to sound Very much alike, and as they are all equally annoying, the child learns to hate them all. The study should be rather to forbid as few things as possible, and then soundly to enforce what is forbidden.

II. By unfeeling and absolute government. If a Christian father is felt to be a tyrant, he will seem to his child to be a tyrant in God’s name, and that will be enough to create a sullen prejudice against all sacred things. Nor is the case improved when the child is cowed into fear of such a parent, and thus reduced to submission. There is a beautiful courage in a child’s approach to God; but if his courage even toward his father is broken down, he will only shrink from God with a greater fear.

III. By an over-exacting manner and a difficulty in being pleased. Children love approbation, and are specially disappointed when they fail of it in their meritorious endeavours, and especially when they are blamed for a trivial defect which, had they known, they would have avoided. But some parents appear to think it a matter of faithfulness to be not easily pleased, lest the children should have loose impressions of duty. They do not consider how they would fare if God should treat them in the same manner. But what can win a child to attempt to please God when His earthly representative is so difficult to please?

IV. By holding displeasure too long, and yielding with too great difficulty. It is right when children have done wrong to make them feel your displeasure; but that should not take the manner of a grudge, and hold on after repentance. On the contrary, there should be a hastening towards the child like the prodigal’s father, otherwise repentance will be turned into a sullen aversion, and into a feeling that there is the same heavy tariff of displeasure to be paid when he would turn towards God.

V. By hasty and false accusations. When good intentions are rated low, and children are put under the ban of dishonour, they are very likely to show that they are no better than they are taken to be. To batter self-respect is the surest way to break every natural charm of virtue and religion. The effect is scarcely better where acknowledged faults are exaggerated and set off by colours of derision. It will do for a parent to be severely just, but exaggerated justice is injustice, and more terribly so when it assumes the Christian name.

VI. By keeping children in a continual torment of suppression. We have no right to be anxious anywhere; it is unbelief which trust in God should set at rest. And we have less right to be, in that it destroys the comfort of others. Only to be in a room with an anxious person is enough to make one positively unhappy. What, then, is the woe put upon a hapless little one who is shut up day by day to the fearing look and deprecating whine, and supercautionary keeping of a nervously anxious mother. Nothing will so dreadfully overcast the sky of childhood as the weather this makes. It worries the child in every putting forth and play lest he should be hurt, and takes him away from every contact with the great world’s occasions that would school him for manhood. And then, since the child will most certainly learn how little reason there was for this eternal distress, he is sure to be issued finally in a feeling of confirmed disrespect. No, there must be a certain courage in maternity and the religion of it. The child must be wisely trusted to danger, and shown how to conquer it.

VII. By giving them tests of character that are inappropriate to their age. A child loses his temper, and the conclusion forthwith sprung upon him is that he has a bad heart. Whereupon he is reluctant to pray, as if the wrong were conclusive against him. But how would the father or mother fare if tested by the same rule? So, if the child evinces a desire to play on Sunday, has not the father, who has outgrown play, occupied himself even in church with his secular schemes? If a child is wholly perverse, it will not discourage him to tell him of it; but if he wants to be good, he should be shown how ready God is to help him and to forgive his faults.

VIII. By the holding aloof system by which children are denied a recognition of their church membership. The child giving evidence, however beautiful, of his piety, is still kept back from the Lord’s table, for the simple defect of years. As if years were a Scriptural evidence of grace. No plan could be devised for the discouragement of piety in children more certain in its object. They are only mocked and tantalized by their baptism itself. (H. Bushnell, D. D.)

Servants, obey in all things your masters.

Servants and masters

I. A precept of obedience.

1. The occasion of this precept seems to spring from the circumstance that converted servants thought themselves exempt from servitude. The error had some colour. If masters embraced Christianity with their slaves it seemed unjust to hold them in bondage; and if masters still adhered to paganism, what right had they, the servants of Satan, over those who were now Christ’s free men?

2. The precept involves--

(1) Humility in receiving the commands of another.

(2) Alacrity in executing them.

(3) Universality “in all things” lawful and honest.

He that is lord of the flesh must not command contrary to the Lord of the Spirit (Matthew 10:28).

3. Instructions.

(1) Christianity does not subvert political order, such as depriving heathen masters of their legitimate authority over Christian servants. Therefore those err who think all authority to be opposed to evangelical liberty, and papists who have it that the authority of a king over subjects is dissolved by heresy.

(2) Christianity frees from the yoke of human servitude that which is the best and most excellent thing in man, viz., the spirit and conscience (Galatians 5:1). They therefore err who would rule the consciences of men either by ecclesiastical or physical force.

(3) Christians ought to obey even the unjust commands of their masters (1 Peter 2:18).

II. The manner of obeying.

1. Negatively.

(1) Not with eyeservice--a disease familiar to servants--obedience under the eye (Luke 12:45).

(2) As men-pleasers--the cause of the disease. As comedians who act in order to please that they may obtain benefit do not mount the stage unless people are looking on, so men-pleasers move not a hand unless their masters are there to behold and applaud.

2. Positively. The remedies for the disease.

(1) Singleness of heart, which is opposed to deceitful eye-service. He who serves his master to the eye seems to have two hearts; one dutiful, which excites to obedience in the master’s presence; the other undutiful, which impels to idleness in the master’s absence. But he who obeys with singleness of heart has one heart alone and ever the same, which moves to duty irrespective of his master’s presence or absence.

(2) Fearing God. As the study of deceitful pleasing can produce nothing but eye-service, so the fear of God produces simplicity and sincerity. He who fears man alone will be changeable, inasmuch as it is excited by presence and allayed by absence; but the fear of God is constant because He is always present.

(3) From the heart.

(a) Not compulsorily and unwillingly. We do anything heartily when the mind rejoices in what the hand does. On the contrary, when the mind murmurs, although the outward act rosy be performed, yet it is done from the body rather than from the mind.

(b) Benevolence of spirit towards the commander of the work (Ephesians 6:7). No one obeys better than he who renders obedience from love.

(4) As to the Lord. As those who serve the Lord more especially than men. Because--

(a) They who obey are more servants of Christ than of earthly masters. Earthly masters buy their servants’ bodies with silver and gold; Christ redeems both soul and body with His blood for perpetual liberty.

(b) They obey earthly masters only at the appointment of Christ, and Him through them His stewards.

(c) Christ commands them to obey their masters.

III. Incentives to obedience.

1. The promise.

(1) The Bestower of the reward. The apostle rightly would have those servants expect a reward from Christ. For earthly masters give food and clothing to slaves as due in common with beasts. They are consoled, therefore, by the fact that they have a heavenly Master who will not suffer them to be destitute of a reward.

(2) The quality of the reward. “Reward” and “inheritance” seem incongruous; the first being paid to labourers, the latter given to children. The celestial reward is called hire or wages, not because merited, but because of the resemblance in some sense between the two.

(a) As hire is only given to workmen, so the heavenly kingdom is not given to the indolent.

(b) As hire is not given until work is finished, so heaven is not bestowed until life is ended.

But the heavenly reward is unlike hire--

(a) in that it is given, not according to the merit of the workman, but from the grace and liberality of the bestower (Luke 17:10);

(b) in that it is not proportioned to labours bestowed, for finite has no proportion to infinite.

2. The confirmation of the promise, “Ye serve the Lord Christ” (Matthew 25:40-45). All works of obedience are rendered to Christ because commanded by Him.

3. Corollaries.

(1) No service is dishonourable since all is rendered to Christ.

(2) No honour screens a wicked man from disgrace since he serves an infamous master.

(3) They who, being placed under the rule of others, are unwilling to serve, are rebels against Christ (1 Samuel 8:7).

(4) We ought not to obey any who is opposed to the will of Christ. (Bishop Davenant.)

The duties of servants

I. The duty of a servant is to obey his master in all things relating to his state of servitude. There is nothing degrading in service. It is the employment of angels, and is ennobled by the example of Christ. To obey in all things is not pleasant or easy; but the Christian servant will strive to accomplish the task. He consults not his own but his master’s will, nay, time. But his employer is only according to the flesh, and has no power over the spirit; nor is he to command anything forbidden by God.

II. The servant’s duty is to be discharged in a spirit of sincerity.

1. Free from duplicity. From the treatment he received the slave was tempted to be diligent in the presence of his master, but indolent and reckless in his absence. Christianity has elevated man from slavery, and provided him with the highest motives to moral action.

2. It is to be done in the fear of God. “Fearing God”--the one Lord as contrasted with the master according to the flesh. The Christian servant has a conscience to satisfy. The fear of the Lord is the holiest motive power in all acceptable service. He who serves man as he seeks to serve God will take care that the Divine and human interests do not collide.

III. The servant is to act from the loftiest religious principle.

1. In every duty God is to be recognized. “And whatsoever ye do, do it as to the Lord, and not unto men.” This will give a moral dignity to the most menial employment, and exalt the common drudgery of toil into a means of religious refreshment.

2. In every duty the best powers should be exercised. “Do it heartily.” If the heart be engaged, it will put into operation the best powers of the whole man. No work is well done when the heart is not in it.

IV. Faithful service will meet with a glorious reward (Colossians 3:24).

V. Every act of injustice will meet with impartial retribution (Colossians 3:25). Some regard the wrong-doer referred to in this verse as the servant who defrauds the master of his service; others, as the master who defrauds the servant of his just recompense. But the words announce a general principle which is equally applicable to both. The philosophers of Greece taught, and the laws of Rome assumed, that the slave was a chattel, and that as a chattel, he had no rights. The New Testament shows that between both there is a reciprocity of duties and of penalties. The injustice done in the world, whether by master or by servant, shall be impartially redressed, and the injured one vindicated at the day of final retribution. (G. Barlow.)

Loving service is true service

To lead a discouraged people to the Holy War is as difficult as for Xerxes’ commanders to conduct the Persian troops to battle against the Greeks, The vassals of the great king were driven to the conflict by whips and sticks, for they were afraid to fight: do you wonder that they were defeated? A Church that needs constant exhorting and compelling accomplishes nothing. The Greeks had no need of blows and threats, for each man was a lion, and courted the encounter, however great the odds against him. Each Spartan fought con amore; he was never more at home than when contending for the altars and for the hearths of his country. We want Christian men of this same sort, who have faith in their principles, faith in the doctrines of grace, faith in God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Ghost; and who therefore contend earnestly for the faith in these days when piety is mocked at from the pulpit, and the gospel is sneered at by professional preachers. We need men who love the truth, to whom it is dear as their lives; men into whose hearts the old doctrine is burned by the hand c,f God’s Spirit through a deep experience of its necessity and of its power. We need no more of those who will parrot what they are taught, but we want men who will speak what they know. Oh, for a troop of men like John Knox, heroes of the martyr and covenanter stock! Then would Jehovah of hosts have a people to serve Him who would be strong in the Lord and in the power of His might. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

Faithfulness in work

A carpenter was once asked why he troubled to finish off a magistrate’s bench so carefully? His reply was, “I can’t do otherwise; besides, I may have to sit on it One of these days.” (H. D. Machay.)

Whatsoever ye do, do it heartily, as unto the Lord.

Servants of Christ

The apostle was speaking to slaves, who must have felt their condition to be irksome and degrading, but he applies a principle which altogether transforms it. They are to feel and act as servants of Christ. This principle is of far-reaching application. We are to serve Christ by discharging all the duties of life so as to please Him. This suggests a train of thought which has a special suitableness to young men. Note then the things which are essential to the realization of this lofty ideal of Christian service.

I. There must be a full surrender of the whole being to Christ. “No man can serve two masters.” “He that is not with Me is against Me.” Alas! how many act as though they bad made a bargain with Christ; that part of their nature should be given to Him, and part retained for the world and self. In certain circumstances they seem devout and earnest believers, in others frivolous and worldly Such a course is dishonouring to Christ, and injurious to their own souls. There are families in which the children having been asked to do something, refuse or delay; then a struggle ensues, involving discomfort to both parents and children. In others the first intimation is followed by prompt obedience. In the one case is love, order, and happiness; in the other the reverse. Why? In the one case the children had learned to obey, in the other they had not. So some of God’s children have not learned to surrender their wills utterly to Him; hence every act of obedience involves a struggle; but some have learnt to make the struggle once for all, and are now happy in that service which is perfect freedom.

II. Strive to be efficient in your worldly calling. “Whatsoever,” whether the work of master or servant, prince or peasant, “do it as to the Lord.” When we can recognize Christ as our Master, and our work as rendered to Him, it should make us faithful servants, whoever may be our immediate employer. Unfortunately this has not been always acted on, and religion has been regarded as a disqualification for efficient service. A lad once said, when urged to decision, “I would like to learn my business before being converted, for I notice that the pious men in my father’s employ are not generally good workmen.” I want you to wipe out this reproach, and try to excel in everything for the sake of Christ--whether in school, workshop, or counting-house, etc. The influence of Christian character and effort is greatly enhanced when connected with superiority in business. A working man who had recently come to reside in a northern village, was asked, as he was strolling in the fields one Sunday, to attend a cottage service where the speaker was going to preach. The invitation was rudely declined, and OH mentioning the matter to an acquaintance who came up immediately, he was asked if he knew who the preacher was. “No.” “Why that is Thompson, the best forgeman in the district.” “Oh, indeed, I have often heard of Thompson’s work; I will go and hear him preach.” He did so and became a new man.

III. Strive to acquire mental culture and general intelligence for the sake of Christ.

1. It will open to you many avenues of enjoyment.

2. It will enable you to discover riches and beauty in the Divine word which would otherwise be concealed.

3. It will help to keep you free from the religious crotchets by which the Christian life is now weakened and disfigured.

4. It will give you greater power to serve Christ. Edward Irving had in his Glasgow congregation the wife of a shoemaker, who was a determined infidel. Irving visited him day after day without producing any impression. But one day he sat down beside him and began talking about his work and the material he was then handling. The man became interested, for he found that the minister knew as much about his trade as he did himself. Next Sunday he went to church, and when taunted by his former companions, replied, “Mr. Irving is no fool, he kens leather.”

IV. Have some special work to do for Christ. The field of Christian usefulness is wide, and there can be no difficulty in finding suitable work. To help you in this--

1. Be regular and faithful in your devotions.

2. Try to do every day something simply for Christ’s sake--repress your temper, speak to some friend about salvation, practise some self-denial, for Christ’s sake, and with the help of the Spirit. Conclusion: Are you serving Christ or Satan? You must be one or the other. (G. D. Macgregor.)

Do all for God

1. When we remember that our destiny is to live with Christ and glorified beings, and that any work that does not fit us for that is a great impertinence, it is alarming at first sight to note that the great bulk of our occupations are of the earth, earthy. All professions and trades are for the purpose of supplying defects in the existing order, and, therefore, when that order is no more, and is superseded by one in which there are no defects, the occupations of this life must necessarily die a natural death. Is there not, then, something which seems inappropriate in the circumstance that all this short life should be taken up in doing what has no reference to eternity, and will be swept away like so much litter?

2. It was just this feeling that gave rise to Monasticism. Men assumed that eternity would be given up to prayer and praise; these, therefore, must be the earthly occupations of religious men. Let us not rail at their mistake, for it is a common assumption that a secular pursuit is an obstacle to a religious mind. Hence a seriously disposed young man is pointed out as destined for the Church.

3. As the pushing of a false theory to its extreme point is one method of showing its fallacy, imagine it to be God’s will that all Christians should have a directly spiritual pursuit. What then? The system of society is brought to a dead-lock. Take away the variety of callings, reduce all to that of the monk, and civilization is undermined and we revert to barbarism. This assuredly cannot be the will of Him who has implanted in us the instincts which develope into civilization.

4. But if this cannot be the will of God, then it must be His will that this man should ply some humble craft; that this other should have the duties of a large estate; that a third should go to the desk; a fourth minister to the sick; a fifth fight the battles of his country. Now if this be the case the greatest harm is done when a man thrusts himself out from his proper vocation. Each man’s wisdom and happiness must lie in doing the work God has given him. So thought St. Paul. He did not urge his converts to join him in his missionary journeys, but to abide in his calling with God.

5. “With God.” This wraps up the secret of which we are in search, how we may serve God in our daily business. How can this be done? By throwing into the work a pure and holy intention. Intention is to our actions what the soul is to the body. As the soul, not the body, makes us moral agents, so motive gives action a moral character. To kill a man, of malice prepense, is murder; but to kill him by accident is no sin at all. A good work, such as prayer, becomes hypocrisy if done for the praise of men.

6. Now the great bulk of life’s work is done with no intention whatever of serving God.

(1) The intention of some in their work is simply to gain a livelihood: a perfectly innocent and even good motive, but not spiritual and such as redeems the work from earthiness.

(2) Others labour with a view of gaining eminence. The effects of work done in this spirit, if it does not meet with success, are sad to witness.

(3) Others mainly work from energy of mind. They would be miserable if idle; but that work has of course no spiritual character.

(4) Another class work from the high and elevating motive of duty; but if the intention have no reference to God’s appointment it has no more spirituality than might have been found in the mind of Cicero or Seneca.

(5) A great mass of human activity has no intention at all, and so runs to waste from a spiritual point of view. Multitudes work mechanically, and by the same instinct of routine as a horse in a mill. But man is surely made for something nobler than to work by mere force of habit.

7. Now what is the true motive which lifts up the humblest duties into a higher atmosphere? This--“Whatsoever ye do,” etc. The primary reference is to the duties of slaves, the lowest imaginable. The a fortiori inference is this, that if the drudgery of a slave admits of such a consecration, much more does any nobler form of business. No man after this can say, “My duties are so very commonplace that they cannot have a religious dignity and value.”

8. Practical counsels.

(1) Before you go to your task fix it in your mind that all lawful pursuits are departments of God’s harvest-field in which He has called Christians to labour.

(2) Pursue your own calling with the conscious intention of furthering His work and will.

(3) Then put your hand to it bravely, keeping before you the main aim of pleasing Him with diligence and zeal

(4) Imagine Jesus surveying your work as He will do it at the last day, and strive that there may be no flaw in it. (Dean Goulburn.)

Working

Were I to ask, “What was the purpose for which you were sent into the world,” I should get a variety of replies. But the right answer would be, To work. So the Bible tells us, and Providence and the worm around. Work is not an evil, but a good. There is work in heaven. Adam unfallen was a working man. If there had been no sin the world would not have been a world of idleness. And what is true of us is true of all God’s creatures. Take water; it never stands still. Take horses, or even the birds, how soon they have to work for a living. Our text tells us how to work and for whom to work. Take then its instruction as a guide for--

I. School work. Many wish there were no such thing. This is foolish, for schools make all the difference between us and heathens. How hard it is for a man to get on in life who has had a poor education. School work is hard, but it will be made all the lighter ii done heartily and to the Lord; and then there would be no need for the coaxing and bribing and threatening that are so common.

II. Home work. Young people should make themselves useful at home, and not expect that everybody should be attending upon “them. Home work is an important part of the training for after life; and there is nothing in it beneath the dignity of any girl. And what a comfort it would make you, and what a saving you might be to mother’s cares. And the reason it is repulsive is because you do not take to it in a right spirit. Throw heart in it, and it will soon be enjoyable.

III. Business work. Whatever is worth doing at all is worth doing well--the work even of a message-boy, crossing sweeper, or shoeblack. It is often when people are busy at their work that God comes with a blessing. Moses, Gideon, Elisha, the shepherds, the apostles were all called when at their work. Is yours humble? You can exalt it by taking it as Christ’s, and by doing it with all your heart.

IV. Soul work. This is done more for us than by us. And yet we have to “work out” what God works in. This will have to be done heartily and unto the Lord, or literally not at all. We have to escape--which surely involves earnestness--to Jesus.

V. Christian work. Every work is Christian if done for Christ, but there is work more especially done for Him. When a little girl’s mother comes to visit her at school, she wants to introduce all her friends to her. Your work is to introduce them to Jesus. You need not be missionary to do this. (J. H. Wilson, M. A.)

“Not unto men”

It is related that when Phidias, the great sculptor who carved statues for one of the temples of antiquity, was labouring with minute fidelity upon the hair on the back of the head of one of the historic figures which was to be elevated from the pavement to the very apex of the building, or placed along the frieze, some one expostulated with him, saying, “Why do you take such great pains with the hair? It is never to be seen.” His simple reply was, “The gods will see it.” So he laboured thoroughly in the minutest things, not for the eyes of men but for the eyes of the gods. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Knowing that of the Lord ye shall receive the inheritance; for ye serve the Lord Christ.

Christian Socialism

Christianity, though altogether opposed to those levelling theories which disaffected men industriously broach, places the highest and the lowest on a par in the competition for eternity. Christianity is the best upholder of the distinctions in society; and he can have-read his Bible to little purpose who does not see the appointment of God that there should be rich and poor in the world, master and servant; who does not perceive that want of loyalty is want of religion, and that there is no more direct rebellion against the Creator than resistance to any constituted authority, or the endeavour to bring round that boasted equality in which all shall have the same rights, or to speak more truly, in which none shall have any. But if Christianity makes it sinful to repine against servitude, it gives a dignity to the servant who would still remain in servitude. It tells the servant, that ii faithful here, he may rank with his master hereafter, even though the employment of the master has been the advancement of Christ’s cause on earth. And oh! it should be a surprisingly cheerful thing to those who have to wear away life in the meanest occupations, that, as immortal beings, they are not one jot disadvantaged by their temporal position, but they make as much progress in the Christian race as those placed at the very highest summit in the Christian office. (H. Melvill, B. D.)

Living for Christ

I. Unity of purpose is necessary.

1. For the development of character.

2. For success in life.

Glory, self-interest, benevolence, each gives unity and force, whereas a man without any such governing principle becomes weak; and it is only by making one object predominant and seeking that object that great results are achieved.

II. That which gives unity to the Christian life is Christ.

1. He is the unifying principle of Christian theology.

2. Of the inward life of the Christian.

3. Of his outward and active life.

We have an illustration of this in Paul, in his theology, experience, and work. Negatively he did not seek wealth or honour, either as his main or subordinate object. He simply sought the glory of Christ.

III. The glory of Christ should be our aim.

1. Because it is our duty. This is the highest thing we can do. Whatever else we do will, in the end, be regarded as nothing.

2. Our inward holiness and happiness will thereby be best advanced.

3. Only thus can we be really useful. Thus only do we associate ourselves with the saints and angels. The extension of Christ’s kingdom is the only thing worth living for.

4. Christ has died for you, redeemed you. You are not your own but His. Serve Him, then, under the constraint of His love. (C. Hodge, D. D.)

The perfect service

It would be truthful to say that all “serve the Lord Christ.” Some against their will--Pharisees, Pilate, Judas, etc. Some unconsciously--all who spread the true refinement of art, the researches of science, the charities of philanthropy. But Paul is not now speaking to such, but “to the saints and faithful brethren in Christ at Colossae.” And these words indicate about the life service of all true Christians.

I. Its motive. The constraint is “for Christ’s sake.” Such motive is--

1. Deep enough. It has its hands on all the hidden springs of purpose and love.

2. Abiding enough. To please others who may change or die, or please self, which is fickle and disappointing, cannot ensure the prolonged service men can render to the eternal and unchanging Christ.

II. Its pattern. In some warfare the commander says, “Go”; in this He says, “Follow Me.” “He was in all points tempted,” etc. “He has left us an example.”

III. Its help. The fishers after their night of bootless toil, Peter walking on the waves, Paul receiving grace to endure a hidden sorrow, are specimens of men needing and receiving help from Christ.

IV. Its comprehensiveness. It includes all circumstances, whether of partizan or statesman; all ages, whether of child or patriarch; of all spheres, whether of the inward or outward life. “Whatsoever ye do.”

V. Its consummation. It has now the approval of conscience and the Master; it will ultimately receive “the reward of the inheritance.” (U. R. Thomas.)

The service of Christ is

I. honourable service. We serve the Lord Christ--King of kings, and Lord of lords. The servants of royalty are nobles; so we are kings and priests unto God.

II. Reasonable service. The master had a claim upon the slave as his property won in war or purchased by money. We have been bought with a price. Christ has a right based upon His service of love; we should respond with gratitude.

III. Entire service. The slave was his master’s altogether--self, family, belongings, etc. So Christ claims all we are and all we have--time, money, secularities, and not merely Sabbaths, worship, etc.

IV. Happy service. Sometimes the road is rough, but the motive for treading it makes it smooth, and the companionship of Him we love relieves its tedium and lightens its darkness.

V. Easy service. “Take My yoke upon you … and ye shall find rest.” Love is the magic power which makes what is irksome pleasurable.

VI. The service of Friendship (John 15:15). It is the badge of true Christian discipleship--not creeds, professions, sentiments, etc.

VII. Lucrative service.

1. It is its own reward here.

2. It has an exceeding great reward by and by. (A. C. Price, B. A.)

How difficulties in Christ’s service are overcome

Sometimes when a man’s limb has been broken, and long weeks of rest are necessary in order that the fractured bones may reunite, there is danger lest the limb should become permanently contracted; so as soon as it is safe to do so, the patient is ordered to exercise the limb. At first the exercise gives acute pain, but after awhile, as vigour and strength return to the limb, in the thrill of health that he feels, the man forgets the pain and is glad. Now sin has dislocated man’s moral nature, and though by grace it may have been reset, still God’s wise exercise of it is exceedingly painful; but then this exercise begets spiritual health, and that health sends such a thrill of pleasure through the soul that the very act of obedience to, and service of, Christ, gains strength to obey and serve; and with increasing strength difficulty after difficulty disappears, pain goes, pleasure comes, and the Christian is master of his work, and delights in it. (A. C. Price, B. A.)

What makes Christ’s service easy and pleasant

That huge piece of timber which lies there in that quiet creek, from which the tide has receded, leaving it dry and immovable in the sand; try to shift it, and it is only with the utmost difficulty that you can do so. But wait till the tide comes in, and the waters flow around it. Make the attempt now, and with what comparative ease you accomplish it! Even so there are ten thousand things in the way of duty laid upon us by God which, so long as the heart is unrenewed, seem hard and burden some, but all of which yield when once the love of Christ has once entered and filled the heart, are cheerfully taken up and done with ease and joy to the Loved One. A little child had given to her by a friend a bunch of ripe, beautiful grapes. Just as she was about to eat them her mother said, “My child, will you give me those grapes?” The little one looked at the grapes and then at the mother whom she loved; and then after a pause, as the mother’s love came rushing with full tide into her heart, and overmastering every other feeling, she flung the grapes into her mother’s lap, and with a kiss surrendered them all (Matthew 18:3). The love of Christ makes sacrifice easy and delightful. (A. C. Price, B. A.)

The ruling motive of Christ’s servants

You cannot serve two masters--you must serve one or other. If your work is first with you, and your fee second, work is your master, and the Lord of work, who is God. But if your fee is first with you, and your work second, fee is your master, and the lord of fee, who is the devil; and not only the devil, but the lowest of devils--“the least erected fiend that fell.” So there you have it in brief terms--work first, you are God’s servants; fee first, you are the fiend’s. And it makes a difference, now and ever, believe me, whether you serve Him who has on His vesture and thigh written, “King of kings,” and whose service is perfect freedom; and him on whose vesture and thigh is written, “Slave of slaves,” and whose service is perfect slavery. (John Ruskin.)

The sure reward of Christ’s servants

When Calvin was banished from ungrateful Geneva, he said, “Most assuredly if I had merely served man, this would have been a poor recompense; but it is my happiness that I have served Him who never fails to reward His servants to the full extent of His promise.” (C. H. Spurgeon.)

All for Jesus

The gospel does not barely supply us with directions, but furnishes us with reasons and power for obedience. The apostle knew that the conditions of believers are various, and therefore laid down distinct precepts for masters and servants, etc., but proposed a common motive for all. Our translation is in the indicative and states the fact--“Ye serve the Lord Christ.” Is that so? If not, the original will bear rendering in the imperative--“Serve ye the Lord Christ.” What an exaltation for a slave of Satan to become a servant of Christ. “Thy gentleness hath made me great.” It is a greater honour to serve Christ in the most menial capacity than to occupy the throne of the Caesars. To serve us He laid aside His glorious array and girt Him with the garments of a servant. In our turn let us serve Him alone and for ever. Ye serve the Lord Christ--

I. In the common acts of life. The fact that the text was addressed to the lowest is instructive. He does not address this choice saying to masters, preachers, deacons, magistrates, or persons of influence, but to slaves. He goes to the kitchen, the field, etc., to his toiling brethren. If the poor slave should serve Jesus how much more ought I?

1. Those who are in a low estate serve the Lord Christ.

(1) By a quiet acquiescence in the arrangement of Providence which has placed them where they are. While the race is as it is some must serve. When a man can say, “I have learned in whatsoever state I am to be content,” that is obedience and the service of Christ.

(2) By exercising the graces of the Spirit in the discharge of our calling. An honest, trustworthy servant is a standing evidence of the power of religion, and preaches in the nursery, workshop, and many places where a preacher would not be admitted, a silent but effective sermon. This was how the gospel spread in Rome.

(3) By displaying the joy of the Lord in our service. Many have been won to Christ by the cheerfulness of poor Christians. It was so in Paul’s day. The Christian slave would not join in the jollity of the heathen festivals, but whenever any one was in trouble he was the cheerful comforter.

(4) By performing the common acts of life as unto Christ’s self. To the man of God nothing is secular, everything is sacred. “What God hath cleansed, that call thou not common.”

2. This view of things--

(1) Ennobles life. The bondsman is henceforth free; he serves not man but God.

(2) Cheers the darkest shades.

(3) Ensures a reward.

(4) Should stimulate zeal.

If you serve the Lord Christ, serve Him well. If you had work to do for Her Majesty you would try to do your best.

II. In religious actions. Every professor should have something to do for Christ. It would be well if our Church discipline permitted us to turn out every drone. They are of little use in honey making and are at the bottom of all quarrels. But all who work are not necessarily serving Christ.

1. Some serve in a legal spirit. This spirit has a measure of power in it, as the lash drives the slave. But Christians are free and should serve Christ from gratitude and not from fear.

2. Some in a spirit of formality, as a part of the general routine of their existence. It is the proper thing to go to a place of worship, to give their guinea, etc. Christ is not served by such mechanical working.

3. Some in a party spirit, who serve not Christ but their own denomination, and who would almost be vexed at Christ being honoured by any other sect.

4. Some out of the ambition to be thought useful. Our parents or friends wish us to be active in the Church, and therefore we do it.

5. We must rise above all this. What we do we must do for the Master alone.

III. In special acts done to himself. We desire not only to aid our friend in his projects, but to do something for him himself. So we want to do something, personally, for our Divine Benefactor.

1. We can adore Him. We may be doing nothing for our fellows while thus occupied, but Jesus is dearer to us than the whole race. And as we adore Him in secret so we should extol Him in public.

2. We should pray for: Him. “Prayer shall be made for Him continually.” It is delightful to pray for sinners and for saints, but there should be special prayer for the extension of Christ’s kingdom, that He may see the travail of His soul.

3. There should be much communion with Him. “If any man serve Me let him follow Me, and where I am there shall also My servant be.” To be near Him is one of the essentials of service. Let no day pass without a word with Jesus. You are His spouse--can you live without a loving word from your husband?

4. You should sit at His feet and learn of Him, studying His Word. Martha prepared a feast for Christ and did well, but Jesus gave Mary the preference.

5. You must obey Him. “If ye love Me keep My commandments,” not simply build chapels, etc.

6. You must be willing to bear reproach for His sake.

7. Care for His Church. “Lovest thou Me?--feed My sheep.” If you cannot serve with your tongue you can feed the hungry, clothe the naked, etc. “Inasmuch as ye have done it unto one of the least of these,” etc.

8. Bestow upon Him little wastefulnesses of love--breaking alabaster boxes of very precious ointment on: Him. Think of something now and then that you could not justify in prudence. (C. H. Spurgeon.)

He that doeth wrong shall receive for the wrong which he hath done.

I. Punishment threatened.

1. To masters.

(1) Imperious masters wrong their servants.

(a) By defrauding them of their clothing, food, or wages.

(b) By imposing labours beyond their strength.

(c) By afflicting them with reproaches and unjust stripes, for all of which see Exodus 5:1-23.

(2) For these wrongs servants are not to rise against their masters in anger, nor leave their tasks through idleness: God will see due punishment done as He did to the Egyptian oppressors.

2. To servants.

(1) Contumacious servants wrong their masters as far as they do not pay them due obedience and reverence; and deceitful and slothful servants because they do not yield due submission, or do so without sincerity.

(2) These shall be punished for their dishonesty by God the Avenger and Judge (2 Kings 5:1-27.).

3. Instructions to both.

(1) In all sin it is determined by God that punishment shall be inflicted. What, then, can it profit to have avoided the avenging hand of men, and to fall into the hands of the living God?

(2) Earthly masters, however powerful, cannot with impunity trample on their dependants, for they are subject to God, and must render an account before His tribunal.

(3) Those who are wronged must not revenge, but leave that to God.

II. An objection anticipated.

1. Masters might object, Who shall call us to account? Slaves were accounted as nothing. According to the lawyers no wrong could be done to them. But in case of arraignment, by power and bribery it was easy to secure acquittal. The apostle affirmed that in the final court there was a judge who recognized the rights of slaves and who was not to be terrified by power, nor turned aside by favour or bribes (Job 34:19).

2. Servants might object, If we neglect the duties of our wretched bondage surely the merciful God will not punish us. Paul denies that God can favour the poor more than the rich (Exodus 23:3; Leviticus 19:15).

3. Instructions.

(1) Not only the wrongs done to the great, but those to the small have God alike for their avenger.

(2) It behoves those who act for God on earth to imitate this Divine justice. A judge should be a sanctuary for all impartially. (Bishop Davenant.)

Retribution in this life

Herod the Great, the slayer of the innocents, and first persecutor of Christianity, was overwhelmed with agonizing physical disease; and his numerous family was extinct in a hundred years. Pilate, who condemned Christ, was soon after expelled from office and committed suicide. Nero, after slaying thousands of Christians, attempted to take his own life; but failing through cowardice, called others to his aid. The persecutor Domitian was murdered by his own people. So it was with Caius, Severus, and Heliogabalus. Scarcely one of the prominent persecutors of the Church escaped signal retribution. Claudius was eaten of worms. Decius, Gallus, Aurelian, Maximin all died violent deaths. Maximinius put out the eyes of thousands of subjects, and himself died of a fearful disease of the eyes. Valens, who caused fourscore presbyters to be sent to sea in a ship and burnt alive, was himself defeated by the Goths, fled to a cottage which was fired, and he perished in the flames. (E. Foster.)

The certainty of future retribution

As you stood some stormy day upon a sea cliff, and marked the giant billow rise from the deep to rush on with foaming crest, and throw itself thundering on the trembling shore, did you ever fancy that you could stay its course, and hurl it back into the depths of the ocean? Did you ever stand beneath the leaden, lowering cloud, and mark the lightning’s leap as it shot and flashed, dazzling athwart the gloom, and think that you could grasp the bolt, and change its path? Still more vain and foolish his thought, who fancies that he can arrest or turn aside the purpose of God. (T. Guthrie, D. D.)

The Divine justice

Justice in general is the giving every one their due. In God it is that attribute whereby He disposeth all things according to the rule of equity (Deuteronomy 32:4; Psalms 11:5), and rendereth to every man according to his works without respect of persons (Psalms 62:12; Job 34:11; Job 34:19; Song of Solomon 6:6-7). God is positively or affirmatively just (Zephaniah 3:5); He is eminently the Just One (Acts 7:52); He is superlatively most just (Job 34:17). Wilt thou condemn Him who is most just? or, as some read it, justice--justice without the least tincture, mixture, or shadow of injustice. He giveth to all their due, without fear of evil. He standeth in awe of none for their power or greatness. His day of vengeance is against the cedars of Lebanon and the oaks of Bashan, and all the high mountains (Isaiah 2:13-14), without hope of gain. Men are unjust for bribes (Hosea 4:14); but riches prevail not in the day of His wrath (Proverbs 11:4; Ezekiel 7:19). He is no taker of gifts (2 Chronicles 19:7), and without respect to any in their honours or outward excellencies (Jeremiah 22:24). He will not pluck the signet from His hand in the day of His justice. Israel were a people near to Him (Deuteronomy 4:7; Psalms 148:14), yet He doth not spare them when they rebel against Him (Psalms 74:1-3; Psalms 44:10-14; Jeremiah 7:12). Adam and the angels were great and excellent beings, yet when they sinned He made them suffer. He accepteth not the persons of princes nor regardeth the rich more than the poor (Job 34:19). Men may do justly, God must do justly. (G. Swinnock.)

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Wrongdoing returns upon the sinner

Do you remember that poem of Southey’s about Sir Ralph the Rover? On the east of Scotland, near Arbroath, in the old days, a good man had placed a float with a bell attached on the dangerous Inchcape Rock, so that the mariners hearing it might keep away. This Sir Ralph the Rover, in a moment of devilry, cut away both float and bell. It was a cruel thing to do. Years passed. Sir Ralph roamed over many parts of the world. In the end he returned to Scotland. As he neared the coast a storm arose. Where was he? Where was the ship drifting? Oh that he knew where he was! Oh that he could hear the bell on the Inchcape Rock! But years ago, in his sinful folly, he, with his own hands, had cut it away. Hark! to that grating sound heard amid the storm, felt amid the breakers; the ship is struck; the rock penetrates her, she goes to pieces, and with curses of rage and despair, the sinner’s sin has found him out; he sinks to rise no more until the great day of judgment. (G. Litting, LL. B.)