■■A 
 
THE 
 
 PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL : 
 
 BEING AN 
 
 ANALYSIS AND EXPOSITION 
 
 DEVOTIONAL PORTION OF THE APOSTLE'S WRITINGS. 
 
 BY 
 
 W. B.^POPE, 
 
 THBOLOGICAl, TUTOR, DIDRBURY COLLEGE, MANCHESTER. 
 
 LONDON : 
 
 PUBLISHED FOE THE AUTHOR AT THE 
 
 WESLEYAN CONFERENCE OFFICE, 
 
 2, CASTLE STREET, CITY ROAD ; 
 SOLD AT 66, PATERNOSTER ROW. 
 
 1876. 
 
C," 
 
 I; 
 
 ADVERTISEMENT. 
 
 The substance of these Papers has appeared in the 
 Methodist Magazine, The Writer, being requested to 
 collect them into a volume, has taken the opportunity 
 of expanding the original Essays and making them 
 somewhat more complete as an analysis. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. St. Paul's Spirit of Prayer 3 
 
 II. Analysis 20 
 
 II. 
 
 SALUTATIONS. 
 
 I. Invocations 41 
 
 II. Introductory Greetings 49 
 
 Grace, Mercy, and Peace 52 
 
 III. Valedictory Benedictions 57 
 
 The Apostolical Benedictions fi2 
 
 III. 
 
 THANKSGIVINGS. 
 
 EUCHARISTICAL 71 
 
 I. Formal Thanksgivings 72 
 
 The Thessalonian Epistles : Thanksgiving for the 
 Success of the Gospel 72 
 
VI CONTENTS. 
 
 PAOB 
 
 The Epistles to the Corinthians: the Gifts and Con- 
 solations of Grace 79 
 
 The Epistle to the Romans 8G 
 
 The Epistles of the Imprisonment 90 
 
 The Pastoral Epistles 93 
 
 II. K.IACULATIONS 95 
 
 The Victory 9(5 
 
 Christ's Triumphal Procession 97 
 
 The Zeal of Titus 98 
 
 The Unspeakable Gift 99 
 
 The New Obedience - .... 99 
 
 Deliverance from the Body of Death 100 
 
 IV. 
 THE PRAYERS. 
 
 Introductory on the Thessalgnian Prayers. . . . 105 
 
 I. The Abounding of Charity 107 
 
 II. Entire S.-mcTiFicATiON 117 
 
 ill. The Good Pleasure of Goodness 130 
 
 IV. Everlasting Consolation 145 
 
 V. Love and Patience 154 
 
 VI. Peace from the Lord op Peace 159 
 
 VII. Restoration to Corporate Perpectness 167 
 
 VIII. Unity 183 
 
CONTENTS. vii 
 
 PAOB 
 
 IX. Hope 193 
 
 X. The Knowledge of the Divine Will 201 
 
 XI. The Full Assurance op Knowledge 212 
 
 XII. The Glory of tIie Inheritance 21'J 
 
 XIII. The Indwelling Trinity 2;}<J 
 
 XIV. Perseverance to the Day op Christ 260 
 
 XV. The Everlasting Covenant V^-^-f-^-V .» j 272 
 
 l^^Mr .?] 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 I. ST. PAUL'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 
 
 II. ANALYSIS. 
 

 n p r y. . 
 
 ST. PAUL'S SPIRIT OF PRAYER. 
 
 When St. Paul found it necessary to impress a seal of 
 authentication upon his letters, the sign which he chose 
 was an autograph Benediction. " So I write," he said ; 2 Thess. 
 and the reader witnessed his peculiar marks on the "^- ^^' 
 parchment. But " the token in every Epistle " was not 
 simply the marks that defied the forger : those singular 
 characters shaped a prayer in which was prominent the 
 word GRACE (XAPis), the watchword of the Apostle's 
 theology. His peculiar handwriting was his sign-manual ; 
 but only as containing an invocation of grace. 
 
 To his own generation, and to some generations that 
 followed, this indispensable seal of genuineness served 
 its purpose. We have not now the same evidence, nor 
 the same need of it. To us there are very many other 
 most obvious tokens of the Apostle's hand. Not to speak 
 of the breath of inspiration that pervades the Epistles 
 that bear his name, they are full of those specific touches 
 of individuality concerning each of which he might also 
 have said, So I write. The same style of theological 
 thought, whether contemplative or dialectic ; the same 
 method of exhibiting the facts of redemption, " my gospel ; " 2 Tim. ii. 
 the same unmistakable characteristics of phrase and con- ^• 
 struction ; the same wonderful blending of the external 
 and objective truth with his own internal and subjective 
 experience ; the same light and shade, stronger than 
 in any other writer, produced by his ever-varying fluc- 
 tuations of feeling ; — all these mark out the Avritings of 
 
 b2 
 
THE PRAYERS OF HT. PAUL. 
 
 St. Paul from the rest of the Bible, just as the Bible is 
 marked out from all other books. Weighty and power- 
 ful in every other sense, his Epistles are especially so in 
 their self-attestation. 
 
 Yet it remains true, in a certain sense, that the Apostle's 
 prayer, thougli not his autograph prayer, is still his token 
 in every Epistle. No peculiarity is more deeply impressed 
 upon his writings than the abundance of tlieir expressions 
 of devotion. Whether we think of the diffused spirit, or 
 the occasional utterance, it is alike true that the element 
 of prayer reigns in them. Either as doxology or as 
 benediction, as praise or as supplication, as cjaculatory 
 formula, or as studied and full outpouring, as interwoven 
 with the tissue of the teaching or as inlaid upon it, — 
 everywhere, in every letter, and in a manner that has no 
 parallel, prayer stamps its solemn gi-andeur upon the 
 page. If we except the Book of Psalms, which is expressly 
 the universal Liturgy of the Bible, nothing like it is 
 observed in any other writer of Holy Scripture. So 
 unique and all pervasive is this quality that it may fairly 
 be made prominent as a test of authenticity ; the unity 
 into which it gathers the body of the Pauline documents 
 is an evidence that goes far to outweigh all that may be 
 said of the occasional diversities of style. It is, so to 
 speak, a law of the Apostles composition too specific to be 
 lightly set aside. 
 
 This characteristic of St. Paul as a writer may be 
 regarded as bearing witness to his profound personal 
 devotion ; and, thus regarded, it throws a rich light upon 
 his character as a convert and servant and imitator of 
 Christ. His prayers may also be viewed as part of his 
 theological teaching, in which his theology adopts its most 
 elevated and sacred vehicle. Or they may be viewed as 
 his own illustrations and expositions of his theory and 
 precept of prayer. A brief consideration of each of these 
 aspects of the subject, and of all combined, will be the 
 
THE APOSTLES DEVOTION. 
 
 best preparation for the substance of the following 
 Essays. 
 
 I. Nothing was further from St. Paul's thought than to 
 delineate his own devotion, or to give posterity an oppor- 
 tunity of tracing in the copiousness and fervour of his 
 devotional language the depth of his communion with 
 God. Yet, Avith the most entire unconsciousness, he has 
 done this. 
 
 The same thing may be said with respect to his character 
 generally. No writer, save David, is so clearly reflected 
 in his own writings as St. Paul. No biographer, of all the 
 multitudes who have attempted it, has ever drawn his 
 portrait as he has undesignedly drawn it for himself. With 
 what few but vivid touches has he depicted the Saul of the 
 days of darkness, wise and yet ignorant, malignant and yet 
 sincere, blameless and yet the chief of sinners ! And the 
 convinced and humbled rebel, how sharply is he described : 
 his midday turned into deepest night, his spirit shut up in 
 the prison-house, and all the agony of the smitten body 
 of sin poured out in one exceeding bitter cry, " wretched 
 man that I am !" And when the revealed Christ has risen 
 upon him in his darkness, and lighted him on his new 
 way of consecration to God, and charity to man, and self- 
 sacrifice for the Gospel, how almost i^erfectly can we trace 
 in his own words the process by which he died to self, 
 and put on Christ, and won perfection ! Every posture 
 and attitude of his soul in his not uncertain career seems 
 imprinted upon the familiar thought of Christendom : not 
 by legions of essays written about him ! but by himself 
 and his own Avords. 
 
 We have here, however, to do with the abundance of his 
 prayer, and that especially as attested by his Avritings. 
 The unstudied tone of the whole — the habit of speech that, 
 like Peter's in another sense, bewrayed him — declares him 
 to have lived, and moved, and had his being in prayer. 
 
 Almost every incident of his life recorded by himself is 
 
6 THE PtlAYERii OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 connected with deep devotion : he is either found praying 
 or left praying by every event. The first breatli of his new 
 life, its first pulsation after his death to sin, was prayer : 
 and such prayer as his ncAv Master was well pleased to 
 witness. The Lord had heard this young devotee pray 
 before. After the manner of his nation he had Avorshipped 
 God with all sincerity ; for, as he told Timothy at the end 
 of his life, 1 e liad learnt to serve God from his forefathers. 
 At the feet of Gamaliel, he had been disci])lined in the 
 whole ritual of a devout Jew, of which ample i)ublic and 
 private worship was an essential part. He had gone up to 
 the temple at every hour of prayer, and on his housetop 
 or under his fig-tree the same Eye that saw Cornelius and 
 Nathanael had often seen Saul. But the supplication 
 with groanings unutterable which the Saviom- heard, and 
 as yet answered not, was the beginning of a new devotion. 
 Acts ix. *' Behold, he prayeth ! " And why did the Saviour, who 
 silently heard this new cry, utter this wonderful comment 
 upon it ? Was it because the supplication Avas uttered to 
 Himself? Doubtless the troubled penitent did address 
 his appeal to that vanished Vision ; but it was not for that. 
 Nor was it to give Ananias assurance that the enemy of 
 Christianity was now subdued, and devout, and accessible. 
 But it was to mark that deep and unspeakable ecstasy of 
 pleading which is always in God's dealings allied with 
 special Divine visitations, which the Saviour had sanctified 
 by His own supreme pattern, and which Avould hence- 
 forward have in this petitioner its most impressive illustra- 
 tion. Tliis was the great beginning, and the Redeemer 
 has given it a memorial for ever. When the convert, with 
 sprinkled conscience and spirit washed, has found freedom 
 of access into the Holiest, he goes no more out. His 
 devotion is constant and always intense. He w^as in the 
 perfect absorption of prayer when the Saviour came 
 to him in the temple, and gave him his high commission. 
 It M'as in such a rapture of conscious and intelligent 
 
 11. 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 
 
 devotion that the thh-cl heaven opened to him, and he 
 heard things not lawful to utter ; and whatever other 
 meaning we may assign to the record, it doubtless may be 
 regarded as indicating the familiarity of the Apostle with 
 those innermost mysteries of the kingdom of grace which 
 are not made known to those who ask, which are not 
 always found of those who seek, but which never have 
 resisted those who knock with the desperation of im- 
 portunate desire. In such prayer as this the vision from 
 Macedonia found him. Thus he waited upon God during 
 the terrors — terrors to all but him — of the shipwreck on 
 the Avay to Rome. 
 
 All this may seem to refer to the life contemplative, the 
 life of tranquil devotion, which, in the midst of labours 
 more abundant, St. Paul lived. But the same habitual 
 communion with God gave the law to his daily labour as 
 an Evangelist and an Apostle. The grace given to him — 
 his office, and function, and trust — was to preach the un- 
 searchable riches of Christ ; but no small part of his apos- 
 tolical life was prayer. He stood in the midst of the 
 world as an interceding priest ; uttering one long, fervent,, 
 though, alas ! fruitless intercession for Israel, and offering 
 up the Gentiles on the altar of his devotion before he won 
 them by the preaching of faith. This was no small part 
 also of the burden of all the churches that rested on him : 
 whatever deduction may be made for sacred rhetoric — 
 though there is no reason for any — always, day and night, un- 
 ceasingly, his spirit was pleading for the witnessing Church 
 everywhere, and for all, individually, whom he knew in 
 the flesh. He speaks of intercession as one great element 
 of his apostolical power. And in the same spirit of entire 
 dependence upon God and His never-failing direction, he 
 takes every step in his career. He has no occasion, like 
 those of old, to go up and consult a distant oracle ; the 
 Lord, whom he served daily and hourly, heard his prayers, 
 and told him what he should do. Daily and hourly: they 
 
8 
 
 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Isaiah 
 xxxvii, 
 14. 
 
 Acts 
 xxvii. 
 23. 
 
 1 Kings 
 xviii. 
 15. 
 
 read these Epistles very superficially who do not see in 
 them traces of such a sacred familiarity with the Saviour 
 as the Apostles in the Gospels never knew. Every danger 
 threatening the kingdom is, like Hczekiah's letter, " spread 
 before the Lord ; " every thorn in the flesh or spirit is 
 carried directly to Him, the only Healer ; every blessing 
 is immediately made matter of thanksgiving to Him ; the 
 opening of every door of usefulness is sought at His hands, 
 and entered with gi-atitude for His grace. The Apostle 
 places himself on a level with the humblest Christian 
 labourer in this respect. The Spirit of his inspiration 
 raised him above us his fellows ; but the Spirit of his de- 
 votion is common to us all. And in his habitual reference 
 of every the slightest movement to the will of God, sought 
 in prayer and never sought in vain, we have one of the 
 noblest examples of prayer without ceasing. 
 
 These observations but faintly indicate what every 
 devout reader may soon verify for himself, — the influence 
 of the xVpostle's devotion upon every movement of his life. 
 Let any one take the pains to track him through his career 
 in the New Testament with direct reference to this object, 
 and mark the result. Whether we follow the preacher in 
 the Acts, and listen to his public discourses and his private 
 appeals, or take up the Epistles of the teacher, we are 
 always in the presence of a man who is in the Presence of 
 God. " Whose I am, and Whom I serve," is his motto, 
 once uttered by himself, always felt by us : suggesting 
 that more ancient example of mighty supplication, whose 
 watchword was " The Lord of hosts . . . before Whom I 
 stand." It is not that the other writers of Scripture were 
 in a loM'er sphere. They also lived and moved and had 
 their being in prayer. But the Holy Spirit has not caused 
 them to leave us the same legacy of their example. 
 St. Pauls vocation was to transfer to himself — to an 
 extent far beyond what he intended Avhen he spoke of 
 Apollos and himself as figures — the doctrines and precepts 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 
 
 19. 
 
 that he taught. Though it was his glory to have lost all 
 glorying, and to have died to all self not found in Christ, 
 the Holy Ghost has constrained him to hand down to us 
 the most beautiful and unaffected self-portraiture extant in 
 the world. Though he served " the Lord with all humility Acts xx. 
 of mind," — let the depth of these words be sounded, — he 
 has given to us in the passages we shall attempt to expound 
 a living embodiment that cannot be surpassed of a devo- 
 tion universal, all-absorbing, and never weary, ascending 
 to the loftiest heights of aspiration and descending to the 
 lowliest details of daily duty, of a spirit of prayer that 
 shapes and rounds the entire character, clothing it as with 
 a garment. 
 
 II. It is a light thing to say that St. Paul carried liis 
 devotion into his theology : everywhere and always in the 
 Spirit of prayer, that Spirit would rest upon him in a 
 double iDortion when unfolding the mysteries of Christian 
 truth. He shares the common prerogative of the organs 
 of the Holy Ghost : to be taught themselves and to teach 
 others with more than the ordinary measure of the unction 
 of the Holy One. The reverence that impresses its solemnity 
 upon all his writings, down to the least of them, springs 
 from the same source as that which reigns throughout the 
 Word of God ; it is a necessity of inspiration. But in this 
 respect also, as in respect to. the portraiture of his own 
 character, it is St. Paul's peculiarity to give special tokens, 
 more demonstrative than the others give, of his deep 
 homage to Divine truth. The student cannot but feel 
 sometimes that the secret of his mysterious Christian 
 training betrays itself. When he passed so suddenly from 
 the bondage of the letter to the freedom of the Spirit, 
 from the feet of Gamaliel to the feet of Jesus, he entered 
 into such direct communion with his Heavenly Teacher 
 as must have made theology and devotion one to him in 
 a most preeminent degree. The ancient familiarity which 
 his brethren had enjoyed with the Lord was compensated 
 
10 THE PRAYERS OF HT. PAUL. 
 
 to him by a three years' discipline of his own ; and the 
 sustained revelations of those silent seasons must have 
 stamped the powers of the other Morld upon his thought 
 witli a deeper impress than the common privilege of faitii. 
 To this we may ascribe one of the most characteristic 
 facts in these documents : the Apostle's habit of appeal to 
 his invisible Master as present with him while he writes. 
 He spreads the parchment as it were before the Lord ; 
 and, receiving his inspiration in prayer, in prayer he 
 transmits his Master's revealed will. This, of course, was 
 true of all who were thus moved of the Holy Ghost ; but 
 in St. Paul's case there was something very peculiar. He 
 feels, and gives his readers to feel, that the Lord is at his 
 right hand ; his Master is appealed to in every variety of 
 adjuration and prayer, and that in a manner and to an 
 extent of which there is no parallel elsewhere. It might 
 be possible to assign this special circumstance to a special 
 cause. This last Apostle, born out of due time, suspected 
 at the first, and more or less suspected to the end, might 
 have felt that he needed to confirm his own words by 
 such constant reference to the sanction of heaven. Nor 
 can there be any doubt that he did thus sometimes appeal 
 from the doubts of men to the only Ctcsar, and challenged 
 the loyalty of his fellow Christians by writing as from the 
 very presence-chamber of the Lord. But this is not the 
 only nor is it the best explanation of the fact. The writer 
 
 Gal. ii. 20. as M'cU as the disciple might say, *' I live ; yet not I, but Christ 
 livetli in me;" the Apostle's life as well as the Christian 
 
 Col. iii. 3. Paul's was " hid with Christ in God." His reverent appeal 
 was part of his humility ; what might seem to be vehement 
 self-assertion was in reality the purest renunciation of self. 
 He was conscious of having received a special grace both 
 as preacher and as teacher. The chief of sinners before 
 his conversion, he was less than the least of all saints 
 afterwards : he yet was conscious of being intrusted Avith 
 deeper mysteries than were committed to the Apostles 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 11 
 
 who were in Christ before him. How he was personally 
 kept humbled he has more than once hinted ; his humility 
 as a teacher needed only that he should write as in the 
 sanctuary, on bended knees before the Lord. 
 
 The greatest of all systematic and polemical theologians 
 is the most obviously devout in spirit and in form. Stand- 
 ing between God and man, he is in his writings, as well as 
 in his preaching, the medium of a revelation that alter- 
 nates between benediction and doxology. One half of his 
 pages is largely governed by the former ; his doctrines 
 being conveyed to the Church as the unfolding of the 
 grace that he supplicates ; the other half is largely 
 governed by the latter, all his manifold teachings paying 
 back their tribute of praise to God. 
 
 We are thus led to the consideration of St. Paul's more 
 formal prayers as the vehicle of his theology. The 
 thoughtful reader cannot fail to see, it soon becomes to 
 hira a familiar fact, that much of the Apostle's deepest and 
 richest teaching assumes the devotional form. What might 
 be termed, if we were speaking of another author, his 
 choice and classical passages are fragments of liturgy 
 inlaid upon the text, or rather complete and finished acts 
 of worship. And this holds good as well of his dogmatic 
 teaching proper as of his method in exhibiting the privi- 
 leges, prerogatives, and attainments of the Christian's life 
 and hope. 
 
 It is but a swift glance that can be taken in these pre- 
 liminary notes. As the eye ranges through the long series 
 of these Epistles, it marks that Avithout a single exception, 
 from the opening of his commission to the Thessalonians 
 down to its pathetic seal to Timothy, they contain doc- 
 trinal statements of great importance in the form of more 
 or less explicit prayer. The never-absent salutations and 
 doxologies, and the stately collects that occur occasionally, 
 are the Apostle's chosen vehicle for the announcement of 
 the highest mystery, that of the Holy Trinity. This doc- 
 
12 THE FRAYEBS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 trine is sacred to devotion ; devotion is sacred to it. Tiie 
 Holy Spirit moved him to postpone to a later time what- 
 ever systematic definition the Clnirch might need ; and to 
 confine his own statement, and argument, and proof to the 
 language of devotion. The Three-One God is never named 
 in St. Pauls writings saving as blessing and being blest : 
 and, as these two prerogatives belong alike to God alone, 
 this introduction of the three all-holy Persons is the best 
 demonstration of their Divinity. Similarly the Apostle 
 commends the Godhead of the Saviour and of the Holy 
 Ghost to the Church mainly through the same medium of 
 Avorship. And that entire department of Christian theo- 
 logy which is based upon the economical relations of the 
 Father, the Incarnate Son, and the Holy Spirit, — a de- 
 partment of theology vitally important, — finds its clearest 
 unfolding in the Ephesian, Colossian, Corinthian prayers. 
 Several of the Epistles contain in their thanksgivings and 
 supplications statements concerning the atonement which 
 are corner-stones in the fabric of St. Pauls theology : 
 witness, especially, the opening passage of the Epistle to 
 the Colossians, where the doctrines of redemption have 
 their noblest and most indispensable text, set, however, 
 to such a melody of praise as seems to anticipate the 
 Apocalypse. The relation of the Old Testament to the 
 New, the ancient mystery revealed in Christ, is treated 
 dogmatically in several passages ; but its fullest disclosure 
 is found in the Doxologies, especially that to the Romans, 
 where a reference to the long suppression of the secret, 
 and its solution in tlie calling of the Gentiles, carries the 
 strain of devotion to the highest pitch. The doctrines of 
 faith, regeneration, Christian perseverance, and entire 
 sanctification, are best studied in the Apostles prayers. 
 The student may easily verify these remarks ; and in 
 doing so he will find how rich an excerpt of Avhat it is the 
 fashion to call Pauline theology may be collected in the 
 form of these devotional sentences. 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 13 
 
 It is not a matter equally obvious, but it is equally true, 
 tiiat St. Paul somewhere or other in every Epistle, 
 generally at the outset or the close, condenses the essence 
 of the subject he dwells upon into thanksgiving or sup- 
 plication. The Epistle to the Galatians may seem to be. 
 an exception to tliis, but it really is not so. " God forbid Gal.vi.l4. 
 that I should glory, save in the Cross !" is essentially the 
 wanting Prayer of the Epistle which gathers up all its 
 meaning. And this leads to another observation, that 
 topics of denunciation or warning are generally — not 
 always, but generally — dealt Avith in the indirect, but 
 most effectual, method of intercession ; Avhile on the other 
 hand, the Apostles commendations (in Avhicli he is far 
 more affluent than in reproofs) are for the most part 
 administered through the medium of thanksgivings to 
 God. Abundant illustrations of this rise to the mind, 
 as it glances along the line of the Epistles from Thessa- 
 lonians to Titus. 
 
 Generally speaking, there might seem to be a certain 
 contrariety between theological teaching and the utterance 
 of devotion. But this is not the case in Scripture. It is 
 not so in the highest Prayer known to man — that of the 
 seventeenth chapter of St. John. It is not so in the 
 prayers of the Acts, nor in that of St. Peter's Epistle. 
 Especially it is not so in the series of St. Paul's prayers. 
 They are all of them, from the shortest to the longest, 
 remarkable for nothing more than for their close, rigorous, 
 theological analysis. It is as if St. Paul had set before 
 himself that earliest model given us by our Saviour, which 
 is also the most systematic and sj^mmetrical form of words 
 that could be desired, either for the memory of the child 
 or the deepest thinking of the adult. Symmetry can go 
 no further than he carries it in the great systems of 
 prayer contained in the Ephesian, Philippian, and Corin- 
 thian Epistles. If we may so speak, nowhere is the sacred 
 artist more elaborate than in these elevations of his 
 
14 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 thought to heaven. They are finished to the highest 
 degree of perfection : the central prayer of all his prayers, 
 that in tiie heart of the Ephesian Epistle, is literally 
 without a flaAV as a compendium of all interior evangelical 
 trutli. Hence there is a sense in which an exposition 
 of St. Pauls devotions is comparatively easy. In them we 
 have less of the harsher peculiarities of the writer, fewer 
 of the things hard to be understood ; the agitations of 
 polemics are not there ; all is the tranquil simplicity 
 of contemplative devotion ; eternal truth as it is. The 
 difficulty that remains is of anotlier kind, and to that we 
 must now turn. 
 
 However symmetrical and perfect these sentences are 
 as statements of Christian doctrine, it is their exhibition 
 of Christian privilege that has always made them so 
 precious to the devout. As such only they give out all 
 their beauty. This really explains their origin. When- 
 soever the Apostle approaches the higher Christian life, 
 and the exceeding greatness of the power and promise 
 of God, and the innermost secrets of the provisions of the 
 Christian covenant, we perceive him, as it were, changing his 
 voice : doctrine, precept, exhortation give place to prayer ; 
 the pen is laid down, and the sentence finished in ardent 
 praise or intercession, to be afterwards written under the 
 suggestion of the Holy Ghost, just as it left his heart. In 
 some instances — such as the opening prayer to the 
 Colossians and those that abound in the Thcssalonian 
 Epistles — the words go off into petition and return again 
 without disturbing the order, only leaving their richer 
 sanctity on the text. In others again — most notably 
 in the middle of the Ephesians — there is an intentional 
 suspension of the theme, and the prayer is as deliberate 
 and set as when the Apostle knelt with the same Ephesians 
 by the sea-shore ; as clear and sharply defined as if it had 
 been let into the body of the Epistle ; perfect througliout 
 from the bending of the knees and the orderly approach. 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 15 
 
 down to the final doxology and Amen. His deepest 
 thoughts take refuge in adoration. Not in rhapsody : 
 for, as we have seen, no parts of his writing are so 
 finished in their articulation as these high devotions. 
 They suggest the third heaven to which he had been 
 rapt ; but they are not among the things which it was 
 not lawful for him to utter. These i)rayers are, on the 
 contrary, mighty exhortations. They are indirect but 
 most urgent appeals to those who hear him to seek, in the 
 only way in which they can be found, the highest blessings, 
 and the most perfect victory, and the most abundant 
 peace of the covenant of grace. 
 
 These prayers are the crown of the Apostle's writings. 
 They are not, indeed, to be taken as summaries of his 
 doctrine ; nor do they, in any sense, represent the entire 
 argumentative, expository, and ethical wealth of his 
 theology. In studying them we do not study the perfect 
 Paul in his integrity, as the masterbuilder of Christian 
 theology. But we have in them the best produce of his 
 mind ; the flower and fruit into which the great tree of his 
 Christian divinity here and there burst. The rich sap 
 everywhere, these are the ripe clusters. In such sentences 
 M'e may be sure that his own great heart found its deepest 
 rest, as in them it expressed its most abounding aspiration. 
 Just as that Greater than Paul utters His perfect soul in 
 the final intercessory jirayer, finding there His rest before 
 His sorrow, and anticipating His ascension, so our Apostle 
 rises in these brief intervals of worship out of the common 
 level of his teaching and argument, and enters by antici- 
 pation into his rest also. 
 
 III. This introduction woidd be wanting if it did not 
 finally point out how St.^Paul's prayers illustrate his 
 theory and doctrine of prayerj and how they yield us 
 suggestions for the material of supplication, as Avell as 
 models to regulate its spirit. Like his Master, and indeed 
 by His authority, he also teaches us to pray. 
 
16 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 The Apostle Paul furiiislies the only example of the 
 new method of devotion, after the full doctrine of the 
 ]\Iediator between God and man had been revealed. The 
 few prayers of the Acts of the Apostles contain, indeed, 
 the germ of what St. Paul afterwards developed, but only 
 the germ. He Avhose function it was first and most fully 
 to set forth theologically the economy of the Christian 
 mediation, has given ns the only formulas of perfect 
 Christian prayer in the Xcav Testament. We shall find 
 that, as his doctrine concerning prayer is that we have 
 access to God through the mediation of His Incarnate Son 
 by the suggestion and spiritual ministry of the Holy 
 Ghost, so his own practice is faithful to that doctrine. 
 The object of the formal intercession that he offers in 
 
 Eph. iii. the Church and for the Church is God, God the Father, 
 ^^- THE Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, His most 
 holy name having connected with it such appendages 
 as the burden of the supplication renders appropriate : 
 God of peace, of hope, of patience, of consolation, of 
 all and every grace, severally, according to the aspect 
 of the Divine benignity which the prayer appealed to. 
 But he is careful to obviate the unchristian notion that 
 the three several Persons of the Godhead are not in- 
 dividually to be addressed as fountains of grace and 
 benediction. Reserving the solemn and stately formula 
 of set public devotion, he is free to invoke the name 
 of Jesus, and even represents the company of believers 
 as known by the characteristic of calling upon that Xame. 
 As to himself, and as a private Christian, there is ample 
 evidence that, from the time he first saw that Just One, 
 he never ceased to beseech His interposition in every 
 
 2 Cor. xii. emergency. " I besought the Lord thrice ! " 
 
 / The Apostle's prayers have not been as such incorporated 
 into the liturgies of the churches^ however often they 
 enter into the free petitions of unliturgical worship. But 
 the common consent of Christendom has agreed to use 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEVOTION. 17 
 
 his great Benediction ; in the public service of almost 
 all communions it has its place, the New Testament 
 substitute for the ancient Levitical blessing ; and the 
 sentences of worship, whether of thanksgiving or of sup- 
 plication, to which we have referred, have exercised, 
 even though they are not directly quoted, their marked 
 influence upon the public worship of the Church from 
 the beginning. 
 
 There is danger, however, of our forgetting that St. Paul 
 did not indite these prayers as part of his official function, 
 but that they were actually his own most earnest and real 
 intercessions. They are not the illustrations of style 
 merely, nor marks of a habit that he had contracted. 
 They were tokens, rather they are tokens, of his firm 
 faith in the virtue of mutual intercessory prayer. Even i 
 his usual apostolical benedictions are not sacred utterances 
 in the name of the Lord ; they are prayers for the Divine 
 grace, mercy, and peace. And those more copious out- 
 pourings of his desire for the churches were pleadings that 
 he personally offered before God, as he said, day and 
 night. They were his actual petitions, with which he \ 
 besieged heaven constantly. They ceased to be his I 
 supplications when he ceased to live ; for the prayers of 1 
 Paul, like the prayers of David, and every other mortal 
 that departs hence, are ended. But they remain to Ps. Ixxii. 
 show us what intercessory prayer should be. ^^• 
 
 Let it be remembered that he is not more earnest in 
 praying for others than he is earnest in desiring others to 
 pray for him. He never prays as an Apostle, always as 
 a Christian man ; and as such depends on the response 
 of others' prayer. "Brethren, pray for us !" has an infinite 
 force when we remember this. But he who has such 
 boundless faith in the efficacy of the mutual intercession of 
 perfect charity among fellow Christians upon earth, keeps 
 the most absolute silence as to the interchange of prayers 
 between the living and the dead ; and this silence is the 
 
 c 
 
18 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 most effectual reproof by anticipation of a pjreat error. 
 St. Paul prays for the churches and for Timothy down 
 to tlic very last ; but, when he is about to depart, and 
 seems to be looking back already as from another world 
 upon his son left to fight the good fight alone, he does 
 not say : " I will not cease to pray for thee !" Sometimes 
 he dwells on the communion of the tMO worlds in a strain 
 that would have required him to tell us if that communion 
 had included mutual intercession. But, by how much the 
 more rigidly he excludes the petitions of heaven for earth, 
 so much the more diligently does he teach the efficacy and 
 Johnxvii. strength of the Saviours " Father, I will," on behalf of his 
 ^■** fellow Christians and the kingdom of God. The profound 
 mystery of this direct influence of our requests on the 
 counsels of heaven none felt more deeply than St. Paul, 
 the theologian of all the mysteries. But he prays like 
 a little child himself, and so teaches us to pray. 
 
 Finally, we must return to a point touched lightly 
 in passing. In yet another sense these prayers teach 
 us how to pray ; they teach us how large, yea, hoAv bound- 
 less, is the charter that is the directory and the warrant 
 of personal supplication. AYhatsoever we find written in 
 these utterances of his desire for us was written for our 
 encouragement, for the encouragement of every one. 
 St. Paul does not sketch in these forms of sound words 
 an ideal perfection, to be hoped for not in time, but 
 in eternity: a victory, purity, and j)eace that passeth 
 attainment as it passeth understanding. These heights 
 of rest in God are not a sphere where all the unrealised 
 aspirations and desires of regenerate man find their 
 vanishing points at an infinite distance. Whatsoever he 
 prays for as the heritage of believers on earth, every 
 believer may claim. All may attain these higher bless- 
 ings, and the more fervent prayers that reach them are 
 not commended to any class or order. There is no 
 hierarchy in the kingdom of grace, save what is created 
 
THE APOSTLE'S DEMOTION. 19 
 
 by degrees of earnestness in the prayer of faith. These 
 passages of St. Paul's writings must be approached 
 without any notion of their being transcendental or 
 pious hyperboles, without any notion of their being the 
 portion of an elect order of saints ; like the Lord's 
 Prayer, they are meant for the Christian's every-day 
 life. But, if they are so regarded, they cannot fail to 
 quicken devotion, and to raise and to enlarge our views 
 of what true religion is. If the spiritual state be 
 vigorous, they serve to guide and direct the healthy 
 desires of the soul. If it be languid, they serve to in- 
 vigorate its failing energy. There cannot be a more 
 useful discipline than the prayerful study of these 
 prayers. 
 
 (J 2 
 
II. 
 
 ANALYSIS. 
 
 Having given a general view of the devotional element 
 that pervades St. Paul's writings, it will be fiu'ther 
 necessary for our purpose to sketch an analytical outline 
 of its various forms of expression. Tliis is a task as 
 practicable as it is interesting. 
 
 To reduce to system such utterances as these, in which 
 the free Spirit breathes Ilis influence as He listeth, might 
 seem a thing impossible. But it is far otherwise. The 
 Apostle prays with the understanding, in every sense of 
 the word ; a high and sure theory always guides his prac- 
 tice ; and the same tranquil order that is impressed upon 
 his dogmatic teaching is almost equally apparent in his 
 acts and formulas of worship. Here, as everywhere in 
 Holy Writ, freedom has its own bonds, and there is a laAv 
 of liberty; from the set and familiar phrases that never 
 vary, up to those outbursts which almost lose their hold 
 on language, the Apostle's devotions are governed by the 
 fixed rules of Christian prayer ; uniting what, in the 
 language of the INlystics, is the prayer of Meditation and 
 the prayer of Contemplation. He preserves uniformly a 
 method and a proportion in his teaching; and this de- 
 partment of it presents no exception. We may formally 
 arrange the whole compass of his inspired communica- 
 tions. Whatever unutterable things he may in his 
 ecstasy have sometimes meditated before God find no 
 record in these Epistles: in them he is never vibrating 
 between in the body and out of the body ; never for an 
 
ANALYSIS. 21 
 
 iustaut elevated to a point where his spirit is not subject 
 to himself, and his speech not amenable to law. It is 
 only rhapsody that defies analysis, and there is no rhap- 
 sody here. However distasteful the idea may at first 
 seem, there is no sentence which does not enter and take 
 its place in a classification that will prove all the more 
 perfect the more perfectly it is wrought out. 
 
 But the idea ought not to be distasteful. There is no 
 contradiction between high devotion and perfect order ; 
 witness the profoundest portions of the Old Testament 
 and of the New. And it is not proposed to isolate these 
 passages, so as to study them apart from their place in 
 Scripture. That would indeed be a fatal error at the 
 outset. However possible it may be without violence to 
 insert doctrinal texts into theological systems, this can 
 seldom be the case with those utterances of devotion that 
 are born of the occasion, and owe much of their force to 
 the context. They must be studied and examined before 
 they are translated, and to a great extent independently 
 of any formal doctrine. They will never be so beautiful 
 or full of meaning as in their own place. But, this being 
 undeniable, it is equally true that a large and comprehen- 
 sive view of the Apostle's devotional teaching will tend to 
 exalt our conception of its grandeur as a whole, and some- 
 times throw a very important light upon its individual 
 passages. Moreover, such a general glance is essential to 
 our present object. 
 
 What classification, then, shall we adopt ? It would 
 help us if we could take as our guide any extant record 
 of St. Paul's manner of conducting the religious service of 
 a Christian assembly. But there is none to be found, and 
 we are left to our imagination. He would doubtless begin 
 by invoking the benediction of the God of grace through 
 Jesus Christ ; he would present his thanksgivings and 
 praises for the common salvation and the Christian 
 liistory of this particular church ; he would ofier general 
 
22 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 prayers for the eanctification and religious prosperity of 
 the saints ; he Avould tlien enlarge in specific petitions and 
 intercessions ; and crown all by offering, on the part of 
 the worshipping assembly, a full doxologj" in the name 
 of the Redeemer. Now if we apply this theory of the 
 Apostle's supposed order of worship to his WTitings, as 
 composing one gi'cat liturgy, embedded in a series of 
 theological documents, we shall find that they submit to 
 the classification almost without a difficulty or a flaw. 
 We have first the familiar formulas of invocation that 
 always begin and end with prayer for grace and peace ; 
 then a series of eucharistical acknowledgments running 
 almost unbroken through the Epistles ; we have, further, 
 the entire body of supplications for the perfecting of 
 the saints, various and free and deep and full ; amongst 
 these are interspersed a number of less copious but fer- 
 vent personal requests and intercessions; and, finally, 
 there are many ascriptions of glory in which adoration 
 takes its most reverent and most exalted forms. Let us 
 attempt to distribute under these five heads the rich 
 variety of matter at our disposal. 
 
 I. The first class of passages comprises those formulas 
 of Invocation in which the blessing of God is called doAvn 
 upon the people ; at the commencement they take the 
 place of Christian Salutations ; at the close they are com- 
 monly regarded as Benedictions. But they are alike direct 
 prayers to God. 
 
 Strictly speaking. Invocation refers to the Being in- 
 voked, whether as God, or Lord, or the Father, or the 
 Triune Name. But we have no instance in St. Paul's 
 writings of a direct invocation which is not bound up with 
 the blessing invoked upon those for whom he pleads. 
 Anything like the Redeemer's " Holy Father," or St. 
 Stephen's " Lord Jesus," or the direct invocations of 
 David and Daniel, do not occur. Hence Ave need not 
 dwell on these as distmct from what follows. 
 
ANALYiilS. 23 
 
 The Greetings that invariably open the Epistles are the 
 •salutations, current respectively among the Greeks antl 
 the Hebrews, blended into one, raised to a higher mean- 
 ing, and uttered in the form of invocation from God 
 the Fath^' and the Lord Jesus Christ. The two words 
 " grace " and ^' peace " in their combination signify all 
 that the goodness of God has to bestow, and all that 
 the misery of man can need. Both are sought from the 
 Father, and equally from His Son our Saviour. In one 
 memorable variation of the prayer — that of the Epistle to 
 the Galatians — the redeeming work of Christ is added as 
 the ground on which the supplication is based. In the 
 Pastoral Epistles to Timothy anc^ Titus;i)mercy separates 
 between the grace and peace which it really unites ; and 
 the formula takes its perfect character: "Grace, mercy, iTim. i.2. 
 and peace, from God our Father, and Jesus Christ our 
 Lord." Here it is manifest that the Christian salutation 
 is merged and lost — or all but merged and lost — in the 
 supplication for that grace which lies at the basis of the 
 religious life, and is the inspiration and encouragement of 
 all other prayer. 
 
 The Benedictions at the close of the Epistles are, like 
 the Greetings at the commencement, variations on one 
 formula, the key-note of which is the same that begins, 
 Grace. This word here finds its most comprehensive 
 application ; it is the source of all salvation in Christ, it 
 is the spnng of all good in the Christian, and it goes back 
 to its source in thanksgiving, — the same word receiving 
 progressively these three meanings. No document ever 
 left the Apostle's hand without having this sacred word 
 written in his own characters at the end ; and once, in the 
 Second Epistle to the Corinthians, the formida swells to 
 its full Trinitarian proportions, and becomes the Benedic- 
 tion that the Church has appropriated for ever: "The sCor.xiii. 
 grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of God, and ^^• 
 the communion of the Holy Ghost, be with you all." 
 
24 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 But here it is observable that this is not necessarily a 
 valedictory formula: it is as appropriate at the begin- 
 ning as at the end. It is an invocation upon the entire 
 Christian life. It is not the specific close of worship, 
 which is, whether on earth or in heaven, Doxology 
 alone.' Hence, also, it must be carefully observed that 
 it is not a benediction in the sense of modern and per- 
 verted ecclesiastical usage. It is an invocation of the 
 blessing of the Triune God, pronounced in prayer; and 
 not an authoritative act performed in the name of God. 
 Whatever benediction of persons or things may be sup- 
 posed to belong to ministerial function, in the service of 
 God and in the worship of the Christian congregation, 
 there is only One Priest whose ofiice it is to bless. His 
 prerogative is not shared, even by Apostles. The supreme 
 Benediction of the New Testament is, like its type and 
 original in the ancient temple, a prayer to the Triune God 
 for His Triune blessing. 
 
 11. Almost equally uniform is the occurrence of the 
 I Thanksgivings in which the Aj)Ostle challenges the gra- 
 titude of his readers, and presents for them, and with 
 them, due acknowledgments of the gi*eat blessing of the 
 Gosjiel, and of their own particular mercies. Generally, 
 these take the form of simple thanksgi\ing for Christian 
 benefits ; sometimes God is blessed and praised as the 
 Author of these benefits; whilst here and there brief 
 flashes of ejaciUatory thanks lighten up the page, in which 
 both meanings are blended in one word. 
 
 Tlie outpourings of thankfulness which begin the Epistles 
 have, as a rule, direct reference to the specific Christian 
 history of the people to whom St. Paul AATitcs. Then- 
 first object being to express his gratitude, they subordi- 
 nately tend to conciliate the reader's goodwill. Hence, in 
 his first Epistles, written to the Thessalonians, there is 
 a most remarkable effusion of gratuhitory acknowledg- 
 ments. He seems to regard them as patterns of the 
 
ANALYSIS. 25 
 
 manner in which the Gospel should be received : patterns 
 not only in Macedonia and Achaia, but to all iDeople 
 throughout the world. He sends them, therefore, as it 
 were, the firstfruits of his fervent gratitude, for the suc- 
 cess of his labours everywhere and to the end. In the 
 former letter words fail him : " What thanks can we render i Thesp, 
 again unto God for you ?" In the latter he is bound, and "^- ^' 
 he repeats this strong word, to give thanks for the growth 
 of their faith. Writing to the Corinthians, his thanks- 
 giving is strikingly adapted to their high standing and 
 prerogatives, as a congregation of Christians endowed 
 ■with a larger than usual distribution of gifts. Offering uj) 
 his most solemn oblation of praise for the Romans, he 
 thanks God that the tidings of their faith had spread 
 throughout the whole world: a congratulation as much 
 justified by fact as that more limited one to the Thes- 
 salonians. These sent their record forth throughout a 
 province, the Romans throughout the earth. The same 
 exquisite propriety will be seen to mark the phraseology 
 employed to the Philippians, whose steady, continuous 
 perseverance was preeminent among the churches ; as 
 also that to the Colossians, and in the minor Epistles. 
 It is illustrated, also, though differently, in the conspicuous 
 absence of thanksgiving in the Epistle to the Galatians. 
 
 These eucharistical ascriptions are always offered directly 
 to God through Jesus Christ : no created being shares 
 them. But in some passages they assume the more ex- 
 plicit form of praise, the Giver being thought of rather 
 than the receiver and the gift. " Blessed be God " is their 2 Cor. i. 3. 
 watchword : it is the language of praise, as distinguished 
 from doxology, in which simple adoration is expressed, — 
 thanksgiving being not lost or forgotten, but swallowed 
 up in worship. There are three cardinal examples of this 
 high praise as occurring at the commencement of the 
 letters. The first is that most striking deviation from rule 
 which is found in the Galatian Epistle. In this exceptional 
 
1 Pet. i. 3. 
 
 2(> THE PRA VERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 opeuing the invocation of the name of Jesus glides into an 
 acknowledgment of His redeeming work, on which again 
 is based a Doxology : the customary thanksgiving for the 
 Galatians, which their unhappy apostasy precluded, seems 
 to be compensated by tliis more fervent ascription to God. 
 The Second Epistle to the Corinthians furnishes also a re- 
 markable example, as will be more fully seen. But it is 
 the Ej)hesian Epistle which in this, as in all that pertains 
 to St. Paul's devotion, has the preeminence : invocation, 
 thanksgiving, praise, prayer, doxology, are all most wonder- 
 fully blended. The opening ascription of praise is one of 
 the highest of the Apostle's strains ; differing from all 
 others in this, that it melts into the ordinary current of 
 the Epistle without any sure and determinate mark of dis- 
 tinction. These two apostolic Benedictions, it may be 
 Epli. i.3^ further observed, are offered to the " God and Father of 
 om* Lord Jesus Christ;" and it cannot but be felt that 
 St. Peter in the ojiening of his Epistle has caught the 
 tone of his beloved brother. He adds a third to these 
 beautiful Hymns to the Father. 
 
 Some of these eucharistical passages are remarkable for 
 a certain combination of thanksgivhig and prayer that 
 seems peculiar to St. Paul ; a combination Avhich is stamped 
 deeply on his precept, and again and again exemplified in 
 his practice. Sometimes the two occur together, as in the 
 natural order of grace : thanksgiving for much being fol- 
 lowed by prayer for more. Sometimes the one passes 
 into the other, as in the Epistle to the Ephesians, by an 
 insensible and natural transition. Sometimes, as in those 
 to the Romans and Philemon, — the greatest and the least 
 of the Ei)istles, — both prayer and thanks unite to subserve 
 a personal object, and exert a specific influence upon the 
 readers. Sometimes, as in tlie Epistle to the Philippians, 
 the one is as it were the counterpart or counterbalance of 
 the other : the thanksgiving expresses confidence hi then- 
 final salvation ; the prayer comes in to show the warrant 
 
ANALYSIS. 27 
 
 and to prescribe the conditions of that confidence. Tn 
 more tlian one of these letters the prayer seems to be 
 St. Paul's practical method of expressing the gratitude 
 wliich his thanksgiving expressed in words ; whilst in some 
 instances, as in the First Epistle to the Thessalonians, 
 liis spirit appears to take refuge in supplication from the 
 pressure of an emotion not otherwise to be borne. These 
 are only instances of a general rule. Tliroughout his 
 writings prayer and i)raise and thanksgiving, whilst per- 
 fectly distinct, yet follow hard one upon another, and 
 blend into indissoluble unity. Hence we include them all 
 under the generic title of " The Prayers of St. Paul." 
 
 Before leaving this topic, a glance must be thrown upon 
 the ejaculatoryi expressions of a spirit in which gratitude 
 is always the uppermost and overflowing emotion. The 
 Apostle chose at the outset as his theological watchword 
 the term grace ; and he, more than any other writer, has 
 stamped upon that word, in the Greek original, its widest 
 and its deepest meaning, — grace as the principle in God, 
 as an influJiice of the Gospel in the regenerate, and as the 
 semi's return of gratitude. In this last meaning it was as 
 dear and as familiar to St. Paul as in the two former. 
 Glory and thanks are notes continually recurring in his 
 Epistles : glory for the more stately doxology, thanks the 
 familiar term for ready service. The spirit of constant 
 gratitude runs through the Apostle's history. Again and 
 again we read of his offering praise in the presence of his 
 brethren. That vigorous saying, " He thanked God, and Acts 
 took courage," might fairly be taken as the watchword of j^^""' 
 the man and his communications. " I thank God through Rom. vii. 
 Jesus Christ !" is the brief and pregnant expression of his ^^• 
 infinite debt at the beginning of his Christian career. 
 "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable gift!" was 2 Cor. ix, 
 a tribute to that vast obligation of which every lesser i^- 
 benefit, of money or what else, reminded him. " Thanks 2 Cor. ii. 
 be to God, which always causes us to triumph in Christ ! ' ^^- 
 
28 
 
 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 1 Cor. 
 57. 
 
 1 Cor. i. 
 14. 
 
 1 Cor. xvi. 
 
 18. 
 
 2 Cor.viii. 
 
 16. 
 1 Thess. 
 V. 18. 
 
 2 Cor. i. 
 23. 
 
 Acts 
 xxvii. 
 23. 
 
 Horn. ix. 3. 
 
 was a kind of spontaneous testimony which every token of 
 success evoked, and which escaped his lips, we may be 
 sure, ten thousand times. " Thanks be to God, which 
 giveth us the victory I" seals and crowns the whole. Other 
 examples are more commonplace, but tliey show the 
 alacrity of a spirit " ready to every good word." Such 
 are the expression of his thanks that he " baptised none of 
 you but Crispus and Gains ;" that he spake 'S>1th tongues 
 more than ye all;" for Avhat was put into "the heart of 
 Titus ; " and some other examples that give the Apostle's 
 o>\Ti illustration of his precept, " In everything give 
 thanks." 
 
 It may be noted, by way of transition to St. Paul's 
 prayers more properly so called, that ejaculatory petition 
 is as characteristic of his writings as ejaculatory gratitude. 
 Scarcely a letter is Mithout instances — some of them very 
 strikmg ones — of tliis practice. God is appealed to in the 
 I most earnest of all possible adjurations, from the familiar 
 "God forbid!" (not so forcible, however, in the original) up 
 to the solemn " I call God for a record ui)on my soul ! " 
 These formulas of conscientious appeal to God, Avhich help 
 us to understand our Saviour's precept concerning the 
 oath, are never mere expletives, of course ; nor are they 
 examples of a habit contracted by the writer, however 
 reverent ; they have all the sanctity of prayer, as uttered 
 by one whose testimony concerning his own relation to 
 God was this, " Whose I am, and Whom I serve ; " and 
 who remembered to the end of his life, with the sorroAv of 
 a forgiven spirit, that he had once been a blasphemer. 
 They all find their justification in the circumstances to 
 which they owe their origin ; and some of them, such as 
 the pathetic apostrophe, " I could Avish that myself were 
 accursed from Christ for my brethren ! " must be classed 
 among this petitioner's intercessions. 
 
 III. W^e now penetrate to the heart and centre of our 
 subject, the series of gi*eater Supplications which, more 
 
ANALYSIS. 29 
 
 than any other department of devotional teaching, is 
 characteristic of St. Paul. In other respects he is imi- 
 tated by his brethren ; or, rather, the form of sound 
 words is common to him and to them ; but this collection 
 of prayers is peculiarly his own. Let us briefly note some 
 of their leading common features, and then attempt to 
 exliibit them in their order. 
 
 These prayers are ofifered by the Apostle for the Church, 
 but at the same time they are presented in the midst of 
 the congregation which joins with him in ofiering them to 
 God. They are not, therefore, strictly speaking, inter- 
 cessions : the assembly discerned the Spirit's meaning, 
 " After this manner pray ye ! " and they made these sup- 
 plications their own, as if their absent father was leading 
 their devotions. They are notwithstanding all so framed 
 as to be entirely independent of the specific state of any 
 individual community: without a single exception they 
 bear what may be called an impersonal character. Unlike 
 the Thanksgivings, they make no direct reference to the 
 peculiar condition, nor even to the peculiar wants, of the 
 church to which they are addressed : they belong to the 
 General Assembly. Each might be transferred to any 
 other Epistle than that which owns it without giving or 
 receiving any vital injury. It is true that some grace and 
 some point would be here and there lost; but nothing 
 essential to the interpretation. For instance, the opening 
 Prayer in the first of the Thessalonian Epistles is very 
 similar to the final one in the Hebrews : a transposition 
 would not create any violent anomaly in either Epistle, 
 although '* the coming of the Lord Jesus " gives the Thessa- i Thess. 
 Ionian Prayer a peculiar emphasis, and " the blood of the „"^- ^?;. 
 everlasting covenant " has an affecting force at the conclu- 20. 
 sion of the great sacrificial Epistle. 
 
 Another element they have in common : they are all 
 more or less devoted to the grand conception of the 
 perfect, individual. Christian life. The word Perfection is 
 
30 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the seal with which they are all alike stamped, and that 
 ideal which is found in them is to be personally realised. 
 They do not exclude those elements of excellence Avhich 
 belong to the jjerfection of the community as such : in 
 some of these prayers that idea has, as will be seen, a 
 marked prominence. But the individual life is never 
 excluded. There is nothing for which this assemblage of 
 Collects is more remarkable than the way in which they 
 blend the edification of the Church and the edification of 
 the individual. Whilst we think that we arc reading a 
 gi*eat intercession for the growth and maturity of the 
 John xvii. body of Christ, *' made x^erfect in one," Ave suddenly 
 23. find, as in the Ephesian Prayer, that the Apostle is giving 
 every one of us, even the feeblest, a petition to inflame his 
 own desire and to point his own aspiration. 
 
 Lastly, they are distinct and perfect each in itself, while 
 their full Aveight of glory is felt only Aviien they are blended 
 into harmony. There is scarcely one of them that might 
 not be made the centre of a system of Christian ethics, or 
 of the charter of Christian privilege. We feel in reading 
 each that it contains the sum of regenerate desire and 
 hope ; and that its unqualified fulfilment in the heart and 
 life would place us side by side Avith Christ in the enjoy- 
 ment of the inheritance of the sanctified. Each in itself 
 Avould be in a certain sense a sufficient directory to the 
 attainment of perfect holiness. But yet they both give 
 and receive light and strength, Avhen compared together, 
 and studied in connection. 
 
 Considering hoAV much the Apostle Avas attached to 
 sacred formulas, it is very remarkable that not a clause in 
 the Prayers is ever repeated or reproduced : the Epistles 
 that echo each other in some respects are distinct in this. 
 And yet, if \ye read them consecutively, Ave must feel not 
 only that one spirit rules them all, but that they all belong- 
 to one common system, in Avhich each is perfect, but their 
 union makes a triple perfection. And noAV let us verify 
 
ANALYSIS. 
 
 31 
 
 our judgment by tracing them through the Apostle's 
 writings in order. 
 
 No arrangement possible could be better than the 
 chrouological one. Beginning with the two Thessalonian 
 Epistles, we find the supplication to be as abundant as we 
 have seen the thanksgiving to be. There are no less than 
 five distinct Prayers. Charity, the royal grace, the bond 
 of perfectness in heaven and earth, leads the long train : 
 for the first of these Prayers has for its subject the 
 ABOUNDING OF LOVE ui its relation to consummate holi- 
 ness and the preparation for the day of Christ. Then 
 follows the prayer for entire sanctification, every 
 word and every phrase of which is unique : the believer's 
 triple nature is commended to the faithfid God of the 
 Christian vocation, to be entirely consecrated by His 
 grace, and that for ever. In the Second Epistle occurs 
 the beautiful petition for the fulfilment of the divine 
 GOOD pleasure, in the experience of believers, to the 
 mutual glorification of Christ in them and of them in 
 Christ. Scarcely does the echo of this sublime suppli- 
 cation die away when the strain begins again, and the God 
 of everlasting consolation is invoked to bestow the blessing 
 of christian STEADFASTNESS. And, before the Epistle 
 ends, another x^rayer is offered, of which the patience of 
 CHRIST is the burden. These five Thessalonian supplica- 
 tions are marked by certain most striking and never-re- 
 peated thoughts and words; and they may be said to 
 form quite a Liturgy of themselves. 
 
 Passing over the appeal to the Galatians, in which it 
 might almost seem as if the writer's spirit was too much 
 pressed for formal prayer, — although, as we shall see here- 
 after, there is one great intercession in it, — we reach tlie 
 two Epistles to the Corinthians, in the course of whicli 
 praise and thanksgiving abound almost to tlie exclusion of 
 supplication. At the close of the second letter there are 
 found the disjointed fragments, as it Avere, of a petition. 
 
 1 Thess. 
 iii. 12, 
 13. 
 
 1 Thess. V, 
 23. 
 
 2 Thess. i. 
 11, 12. 
 
 2 Thess. ii. 
 
 16, 17. 
 2 Thess. 
 
 iii. 5. 
 
32 THE PRATERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 2 Cor. the theme of which is perfect restoration, or, as our 
 
 xui. 9. translation has it, perfection, thus rendering a word whicii 
 
 occurs only here. Then we pass to the gi'cat theological 
 
 Epistle, where the prayers for whicli we seek occur only at 
 
 Rom. XV. the end : one being for unity in spirit and worship, 
 
 Rom. XV. ^^^ t^^® other for the consummation of hope. These 
 13. two petitions are in reality one, being divided only by 
 some appropriate quotations of Scripture. 
 
 And now we enter into the sanctuary of St. Paul's 
 writings, the tranquil temple-Epistle, where, as might be 
 expected, praise and 'prayer rise to their highest pitch. 
 The first petition it is hard to characterise by any one 
 
 Ephes. i^ epithet : for the present let us term it the vision of the 
 christian inheritance, although neither that nor any 
 other phrase can give any hint of its wonderful fulness. 
 Then comes the central Collect in the Apostle's Liturgy, 
 
 Ephes. iii. the PRAYER OF THE INDWELLING TRINITY. In every rc- 
 
 spect this is the highest strain of his devotion : here is its 
 perfection. Wliat John xvii. is to the Gospels, this prayer 
 is to St. Paul's wi-itings. Connectmg it with the preceding, 
 we have in these two eflfusions the loftiest language of 
 human worship not uttered by the Word Himself. 
 
 In the Epistle to the Colossians occurs the memorable 
 record of the Apostle's agony on their behalf ; that is, of his 
 
 Col. ii. intense supplication for their full assurance of under- 
 
 ^' 2- STANDING. This, howcvcr, is preceded by a subdued and 
 
 altered version of one of the Ephesian prayers, its burden 
 
 Col. i. 10. being the fruitfulness of practical knowledge. These 
 two petitions are, as it were, counterparts, and as such 
 we shall expound them : in the one, the settlement of their 
 minds in the mystery of Christ is the theme of petition ; 
 in the other, their wise use of that knowledge in the dili- 
 gence of daily life. Both these prayers are solemnly 
 connected with the death and resurrection of the Re- 
 deemer. In the first chapter of this Epistle supplication 
 and thanksgiving join in the most impressive manner 
 
 15—23. 
 
 14—21. 
 
 '\ 
 
ANALYSIS. 33 
 
 aroiind the Cross; prayer asking for insight into the 
 mystery which praise adoringly acknowledges. How pre- 
 cious and how appropriate these prayers are to us in the 
 present times of rebellion against the mysteries of Christ 
 and of God ! 
 
 Two Supplications remain ; and, taking them in their 
 order in the chronology of St. Paul's writings, it might 
 seem as if they were intentionally reserved to the last. 
 In the Philippian Epistle " perseverance to the day of Pliil. i 
 CHRIST " is the theme. This prayer, as we have seen, is the ^—^^■ 
 counterpart of a preceding thanksgiving, and not to be 
 imderstood save in connection with it. It sums up all the 
 Christian graces, and asks for their perfect growth and 
 consummation unto the great day : the day of Christ, 
 which we have missed in several of the preceding suppli- 
 cations, now coming again at the close, as it was found in 
 the beginning, of the Apostle's devotions. Many think 
 that here St. Paul's Prayers should find their appropriate 
 finish. But it is very difiicult, let criticism say what it 
 may, to assign to any other writer the " prayer of the jjeb. xiii, 
 EVERLASTING COVENANT," Containing SO affecting a sum- 20,21. 
 mary of the sacrificial Epistle, with its glorious Doxology, 
 fit close of the whole. 
 
 Here we have twelve great Liturgical Prayers, and a 
 thirteenth added, which seems written in St. Paul's 
 undeniable handwriting. What a wonderful series of 
 devotional fragments they constitute ! And what a per- 
 fect whole, when all are contemplated together ! These 
 words are the words of a man, and. a man of like 
 passions with ourselves : but we know, we feel, while 
 we read, that none could have uttered them unless 
 " moved by the Holy Ghost." They have no parallel but 2 Peter 
 in the sacred Fountain whence they originally flowed, the ^" " 
 departing prayer of Jesus. St. Paul must have known 
 that Fountain, — though the Saviour's words whvg as yet 
 buried deep in the heart of St. John. 
 
 D 
 
34 THE PRAYURS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 IV. What in our modern language would be termed 
 Intercessions should now be introduced. But it will be 
 seen, in due course, that in the fullest sense of the term 
 these are presented in the New Testament only by the 
 Mediator. One is our Intercessor, even Christ, and all we 
 are petitioners in common. Prayers, however, >vhich are 
 offered on behalf of others not present, whether desiring 
 those prayers or not desiring them, may be included under 
 this title ; and of them we have some striking examples, 
 which must be considered in their order. 
 
 Foremost rises in all its unspeakable depth his interces- 
 sion for his blinded brethren after the flesh, for Israel 
 under temporary reprobation. His intercessions in this 
 behalf are not referred to often, never at any length, but 
 in hints of wonderful pathos. It is in relation to this that 
 we hear him expressing himself in terms that defy transla- 
 tion : the most vehement words he ever uttered, hard to 
 be understood, save by those who have entered into the 
 secret of that infinite self-sacrificing love wliicli made 
 
 Koua. ix.3. Moses and St. Paul one. " I could wish that myself were 
 accursed from Christ for my brethren ! " Intercession for 
 country and people and kindred cannot go beyond this. 
 Belonging to the same class, though in a lower sphere, 
 is the Apostle's most earnest pleading for the apostate 
 Christians of Galatia, who, with the Cross set forth evi- 
 dently before them, had been bewitched into a virtual 
 
 Gal. iv.i9. abandonment of Christ. " I travail in birth " is the strong 
 expression that bears its record of the Apostle's agony on 
 their behalf, and abides in his Epistle a monument and 
 example of the anxiety with which all Christians should 
 intercede for those who are surrendering the pure Gospel 
 for its semblance. Lastly, we hear the same accents of 
 Christian intercession — blending holy severity with long- 
 suffering tenderness — in the Apostle's prayer for his indi- 
 
 2 Tim. iv. vidual opponents. " I pray God that it may not be 
 laid to their charge !" was more than a hasty formula of 
 
 16. 
 
ANALYSIS. 35 
 
 pitying resentment; it was a true and deep intercession 
 for those who forsook him in his strait for the Gospel ; an 
 echo of the cry that he heard from Christ's martyr, and 
 could never forget ; an echo of the Lord's own prayer. 
 And the language used concerning Alexander the Copper- 
 smith, whom, as an enemy, not of himself, but of his Master, 
 he had " delivered unto Satan," is not at all inconsistent i TLm. i. 
 
 • 20 
 
 with this spirit of intercession : " the Lord reward him." g Tim iv. 
 
 It is pleasant, however, to turn to the Apostle's more 14. 
 familiar and more tender supplications on behalf of his 
 friends. How full of gi-ace, for instance, is the prayer for 
 Philemon which St. Paul tells us he constantly offered. 
 Interceding with his master for Onesimus, he intercedes 
 with God for the master himself; and the reference to this 
 intercession, interesting for its own sake, as we shall see, 
 is yet more interesting as affording a glimpse of that 
 habitual pleading for friends of which St. Paul was almost 
 the loftiest example. Onesiphorus also had been a bene- 
 factor in few things ; rich is the recompense for which the 
 grateful supplicant prays on his behalf: " The Lord grant 2 Tim. i, 
 unto him that he may find mercy of the Lord in that ^^' 
 day!" and meanwhile may his house be refreshed by it ! 
 Lastly, the Apostle's son and successor in the Gospel, 
 Timothy, was always in his prayers; it being one great 
 addition to his joy and one great element of his gratitude 
 in his closing days thus to remember those who needed 
 his help. Both the Epistles seem written as " before God 2 Tim. iv. 
 and the Lord Jesus Christ : " they are full of the most tender ^' 
 solicitude, which finds its highest expression, as we shall 
 see, in that memorable intercession: "Consider what I 2 Tim. ii. 
 say ; and the Lord give thee understanding in all things." 
 
 V. Lastly, there remains the series of Doxologies in 
 these Epistles. Like the Benedictions at the outset, they 
 are introduced by one unvarying formula : the watchword 
 here is glory, as in the former it had been grace. 
 
 These expressions of adoration, however, do not occur 
 
 D 2 
 
36 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 generally at the close. They are the most exalted strain 
 of devotion, and will survive when all other offerings 
 cease ; but they are not reserved by St. Paul for the end 
 of his Epistles. He sometimes begins vrith them, some- 
 times places them at the close of his petitions ; but more 
 frequently they are interposed at those points Avhere his 
 doctrine reaches the limit of human understanding, and his 
 reverent spirit takes refuge in worship. 
 
 The Object of St. Paul's doxology is always God : ** God 
 through Jesus Christ." The same law rules here that rules 
 in the offering of prayer : neither is formally addressed to 
 the Holy Trinity as such, but both to the One God through 
 the Mediator. It is not that the tribute of glory is denied 
 to Christ : indirectly it is offered to Him in manifold forms. 
 As Jesus is called upon and prayed unto by St. Paul, who 
 nevertheless generally makes God as such the Object of 
 prayer, so the saints are taught by him to glory in the 
 Saviour, and to expect the revelation of His glory at the 
 last, while yet he usually directs all doxology to the Father. 
 Usually, we say : for the ascription of glory to Christ in 
 the prayer of the Epistle to the Hebrews seems to be an 
 exception ; and there can be no doubt that St. Paul, like 
 St. Peter in his second Epistle and St. John in the Apo- 
 calypse, was wont to offer his highest adoration to the 
 Lord. In the order of economical worship, the God of 
 GLORY is the Three-One God in undistinguishable unity. 
 
 The solemn procession of tliese doxologies through the 
 writings of St. Paul is familiar to all. Neglecting the 
 chronological order, it is not impossible to find one that 
 may be called the order of grace. First is the dread 
 tribute paid to the unfathomable mystery of the Divine 
 counsel : a doxology into which should merge all our 
 reasonings and all our doubts, when the marvels of revela- 
 Rom. xi. tion make us afraid : " For of Him, and through Him, 
 '^^' and to Him, are all things : to whom be glory for ever. 
 Amen!" Then comes the tribute paid to the God of 
 
ANALYSIS. 37 
 
 redemption, occurring again and again, of which that in 
 the Epistle to the Galatians may be taken as the type : 
 " According to the will of God and our Father: to whom Gal.i.4, 
 be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Here, as in the 
 Epistle to the Ephesians, and everywhere, the whole 
 economy of the mediatorial work pays its tribute to the 
 Father of Our Lord Jesus Christ : but we must not forget 
 that our Lord declares Himself to have been glorified in 
 His own work ; and that in the latest songs of the Scrip- 
 ture supreme adoration redounds from it to Him in the 
 unity of the Father and of the Holy Ghost. The next 
 great tribute is offered to God as the Source of establish- 
 ing grace, based upon the revealed mystery of the Gospel, 
 and made kno^vn by evangelical preaching : " To God only Rom. xvi. 
 wise, be glory through Jesus Christ for ever. Amen." ^'■ 
 With this must be connected that grand ascription to the 
 God who supplies the people's need, the New-Testament 
 Shaddai : " Now unto God and our Father be glory for Pliil. iv. 
 ever and ever. Amen ; " which may be paralleled by the 
 similar ascription at the end- of the Ephesian Prayer. 
 Towards the close of his writings, the Doxologies become, 
 if possible, more triumphant ; and, at the same time, 
 connect the glory of God with personal salvation. St. 
 Paul's Pastoral Epistles were written at the gate of 
 heaven ; and it is not surprising that his praises for his 
 o^vn individual mercy shoidd much more abomid. Three 
 great ascriptions occur in the Epistles to Timothy; the 
 first excited by the remembrance of the faithful Saying, 
 and his own mercy as the foremost transgressor, though 
 rather by the former than the latter : " Now unto the i Tim. i. 
 King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only wise God, be ^'^• 
 honour and glory, for ever and ever. Amen." The 
 second seals the solemn charge to Timothy, when he is as 
 it were consecrated finally to his Gospel mission : the 
 revelation of the Lord Jesus Christ is appealed to, who 
 will be sent back for the reward of His servants by Him, 
 
18. 
 
 38 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 1 Tim. vi. " who is the blessed and holy Potentate, the King of 
 1.5, 16. kings, and Lord of lords ; who only hath immortality, 
 
 dwelling in the light which no man can approach unto ; 
 whom no man hath seen, nor can see : to whom be honour 
 and power everlasting. Amen." The last this saintly 
 hand ever penned, before he joined the never-ceasing 
 singers, paid its tribute to God's preserving and delivering 
 
 2 Tiin. iv. gi'ace. " And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil 
 work, and will preserve me unto His heavenly kingdom : 
 to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." Thus we 
 see, that in St. Paul's writings, as in our own individual 
 life, the offering of praise to God regards first His un- 
 speakable perfection, then contemplates His redeeming 
 work, then triumphs in the assurance and hope of personal 
 salvation. 
 
 The analysis of these devotions of St. Paul has thus 
 been sketched, hastily indeed, but with some pretension to 
 completeness. In this outline we have given the plan of 
 the following essays. Whilst attempting to expound 
 these Greetings, Thanksgivings, and Petitions in their 
 context, their order, and their unity, we shall keep the 
 holy Apostle in view as an inspired example of the 
 Christian pleader with God. So, by the Divine blessing, 
 we may not only use the devotions he has left, but use 
 them in his spirit, and pray St. Paul's prayers as he 
 himself prayed them. 
 
SALUTATIONS. 
 
 I. INVOCATIONS. 
 II. GREETINGS. 
 Ill, BENEDICTIONS. 
 
SALUTATIONS. 
 
 Under this term we include those Invocations, whether of 
 ^'eeting at the commencement, or of benediction at the 
 close, which are found in all, or nearly all, St. Paul's 
 Epistles. They are formulas, strictly speaking, though not 
 absolutely bound by a mechanical ride. A certain type of 
 expression is evidently iDresent to the wi'iter's mind which 
 invariably guides his phraseology ; the changes that occa- 
 sionally appear are simply variations on the one theme, 
 and variations, in most cases, easily to be accounted for. 
 These are the only set, or stereotpyed, sentences that can 
 be found in the Apostle's writings. This, of itself, would 
 commend them to our earnest study ; but, in addition to 
 this source of interest, they have a striking theological 
 stamp and significance, being, in a certain sense, watch- 
 words of the truth, as Avell as invocations, furnishing a key 
 to the interpretation of the documents which they sanctify 
 by a form of devotion. We shall consider the introduc- 
 tory Greetings and valedictory Benedictions in their order, 
 after having first taken a general view of the common 
 element that unites them. 
 
 I. INVOCATIONS. 
 
 Looking at these formulas in their external, and, as it 
 were, historical aspect, there are some preliminary obser- 
 vations of importance that suggest themselves in relation 
 to our present object. 
 
42 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 We must needs be struck by the fact that these phrases 
 are of St. Paul's theological mintage, under the Holy 
 Spirit owing their origin to him. Wliether we regard the 
 new terms pressed into this service, and the long prescrip- 
 tive sanctity of those which they displaced ; whether Ave 
 take the words separately, or view them in their new com- 
 binations ; whether we think of the pervading character of 
 this kind of devotion, or mark with what regularity its 
 phrases strike a note at the outset that echoes at the close, 
 thus rounding every Epistle with a sacred formula ; how- 
 ever we look at these Invocations, they claim to be placed 
 among the peculiarities and characteristics of the Apostle. 
 They are, like so many others, his own sayings ; " things 
 new " brought out of the rich treasury of which the Holy 
 Ghost made him master for the Church's good. In no 
 writings that preceded his do we find these phrases : 
 witness the earliest Christian document, the first pastoral 
 epistle, in Acts xv., and the Epistle of St. James, and the 
 historical books that were beginning to be known. On 
 the other hand, in no writings that followed his are they 
 altogether omitted ; their stamp, at least, is impressed 
 upon them all down to the last. St. Peter, who, in other 
 respects, preserves his individuality so sharply that we can 
 distinguish from every other the one voice that si^eaks in 
 the Acts and the Epistles, here falls into St. Paul's strain, 
 and imitates him partly at least in both letters. St. Jude 
 adopts it, as also does St. John in one of his three Epistles, 
 and with a double imitation in the Apocalypse. But these 
 instances of the wavering use of St. Paul's phrases, while 
 they pay a tribute to the force and authority of his style, 
 leave him still, so to speak, the proprietor of his own 
 formulas. They are strictly specimens of what we are 
 taught to call, in modern language, Pauline phraseology. 
 
 These invocations, as such, are based upon the epistolary 
 phrases of courtesy and good-Avill current in the ancient 
 world. They are the Apostle's substitutes for the " Greet- 
 
SALUTATIONS. 43 
 
 ing" and the " Peace" wliichthe Greeks and the Hebrews, 
 in their respective languages, used for the expression of 
 their well-wishing. These, in their naked and simj)le form, 
 we may suppose St. Paul never used after he began to be 
 " a man in Christ," when all things became new to him. 
 Not that Christianity abolished them at once, or, indeed, 
 abolished them at all ; the sacred " Peace," made doubly 
 sacred by the " My " that the Lord had added to it, could 
 never become obsolete; and the Greek '^greeting" is 
 found still in the two earliest documents q^ Christianity. 
 St. Paul did not reject or disparage either ; the " Peace," 
 in particular, he often used to convey his fervent good- 
 will. But, as formulas of salutation and valediction, he 
 made them new by a new meaning and order. The 
 " greeting " he elevated for ever into " grace ; " and the 
 " peace " he made new by its connection with the gi'ace 
 that provided, and the mercy that bestowed it, through 
 Jesus Christ. His earliest benediction was "grace and 
 peace " at the beginning, " the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ" at the close. With many variations the same 
 strain always is heard. These became his token in every 
 Epistle ; not only in those which remain, but in those 
 which i^robably are lost; not only in the more elevated 
 writings, but also, as we see, in the simpler effusions, like 
 that to Philemon. 
 
 Such general observations have a certain interest ; but 
 they are only external, and concern the latter. It is much 
 more important to remember that these phrases of the 
 Apostle are the chosen language of inspiration ; that they 
 are the watchwords of the theology with which St. Paul's 
 name is specially connected; and that their constant 
 recmTence in the sacred language of devotion, — beginning, 
 continuing, and ending every treatise on the Christian 
 faith mth these its most impressive text-words, — was 
 designed by the Holy Spirit to keep the eternal principles 
 of " the Gospel of the gi-ace of God " before the Church. 
 
44 TEE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 St. Paul was chosen to be the expositor of the precious 
 peculiarities of the economy of grace : in unfolding "the 
 mystery of the Father and of Christ" he had a vocation 
 almost unshared. Whilst in his estimation of himself not 
 worthy to be called an apostle, in his estimation of his 
 high calling he claims the preeminence above all. As an 
 example or pattern of the achievements of Divine grace, 
 he places himself in the forefront of all men : " in me first." 
 So also as the expounder of the doctrines of that gi-ace he 
 takes the foremost rank : " to me is this grace given," also. 
 What then can be more impressive and appropriate than the 
 unceasing repetition of these memorial words ? By them 
 the Apostle keeps before our minds and hearts contmually 
 the central truths of his teaching. By them he being 
 dead yet speaketli ; by these formulas — and because they 
 are formulas — he speaketh to almost every congregation 
 of Christendom, and almost every time they meet. The 
 Benedictions of which grace is the key-note are heard 
 wheresoever this Gospel is preached, wheresoever Avor- 
 shippers assemble in the name of Jesus. Each of his 
 salutation-words alone — grace, or mercy, or peace — pro- 
 claims his own Gospel ; but their combination and order 
 constitute a testimony or a protest which the Church will 
 always need and shall never lack. 
 
 Fm'ther, it requu'es to be borne in mind, m our conside- 
 ration of these habitual forms of prayer, that they are 
 used within the Church, and presuppose the Christian 
 people's familiarity with the creed and the system of 
 Christian doctrine. It has been said that the words of the 
 Benedictions are watchwords of St. Paul's theology ; but 
 it must be remembered that they did not of themselves 
 teach that theology. They are its devotional expression, 
 but do not contain any doctrinal definition or statement 
 as such. The dogmatic teaching is thus introduced by 
 prayer, or sanctified by benediction ; but in both cases it 
 is supposed to have been already received. These 
 
SALUTATIONS. 45 
 
 formulas were publicly read in the hearing of instructed 
 Christians. They are not appended to documents of a 
 missionary character, expounding to unconverted heathen 
 or Jews the newly-received doctrines of the faith. Such 
 documents we possess, in the forms of addresses and 
 appeals inlaid into the Acts. But in those documents we 
 find no such language as our Benedictions contain ; nor 
 can we very well imagine St. Paul prefacing with " Grace, 
 mercy, and peace from God the Father, and our Lord 
 Jesus Christ," an appeal to the Greeks on Mars' Hill, to 
 the semi-savage idolaters of Lystra, or the embittered 
 Jews of Antioch. This remark admits of a double ai^pli- 
 cation. 
 
 First, we must assume at once that the doctrine of 
 the Holy Trinity, and of the economical relations of the 
 Persons of the Holy Trinity, underhes these apostolical 
 forms of sound words. All the members of every Chris- 
 tian community were either already baptised into the 
 name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Ghost, or 
 were in course of preparation for that baj)tism. Bearing 
 this in mind, or rather, what is more to the purpose, 
 bringing an active recollection of tliis to the study of the 
 words, harmony is introduced, and precision, where other- 
 wise would be obscurity and indefiniteness. The exj^ositor 
 who denies the doctrine of the Triune God finds these 
 phrases literally unmeaning ; or, if he seeks to impose a 
 meaning on them, he finds them intractable. So also, on 
 the other hand, the orthodox Christian who takes them as 
 the authoritative statement and exposition of a new and 
 mysterious doctrine, will perceive that they tell him only 
 half the truth. Just as in the early Church the instructed 
 faithful knew well that the apostolical phrase which they 
 heard — of baptising " in the name of the Lord Jesus " — had Actsxix. 
 the Saviour's own triune formula behind and beneath it, and ^• 
 were unconscious of any perplexity, so, in the case of those 
 who heard these Benedictions, a profound fundamental 
 
46 THE PR A TEBS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 truth had been already embraced that gave the solution 
 to M'hatcver ambiguity they might seem to involve. If 
 gi*ace and mercy and peace were invoked from God the 
 Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, this was clearly under- 
 stood by those who were believers in the mediation of the 
 Incarnate Son of God ; and, without the word, they would 
 supply by a Cln-istian instinct and necessity the secondary 
 mediation of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 Moreover, the fact that these Invocations are uttered 
 for the benefit of the disciples of Cln-ist gathered into the 
 close fellowship of worship, must also be remembered in 
 their exposition. They who receive the Christian benedic- 
 tion are the adopted children of God, who is their Father 
 in a sense that none others may claim to know. HoAvever 
 narrow it may seem, and however opposed to the current 
 thinking of our time, the fact remains that the great docu- 
 ments of Christianity are addressed to the chosen and 
 faithful. Their phraseology' is for the elect ; to be spirit- 
 ually discerned and to be spiritually interpreted. The lead- 
 ing terms of the Benedictions are supposed to be already 
 understood, experimentally understood, by those who 
 receive them. Grace, mercy, peace, love, communion, are 
 words which have ah-eady been made precious to the minds 
 and hearts of those to whom they are spoken. To re- 
 member this, also, at the right time is of gi-cat advantage. ' 
 It is of equal importance to bear in mind that these 
 apostolical Invocations are prayers, and thereby teach us 
 in what sense, and in Avhat sense only, human benedictions 
 are pronounced upon the people of God. They are not 
 official formulas, of which the New Testament contains no 
 example ; or, if the apostolical official dignity be claimed 
 for them, they are still rather appeals to heaven for the 
 descent of blessing than declarations that that blessing is 
 given. The holy Apostle does not speak as if the people 
 bent their heads before him to receive a benediction that 
 it was his prerogative to bestow : he rather bids them lift 
 
SALUTATIONS. 47 
 
 24. 
 
 up their hearts with his in supplication to the common 
 God and Father of all. In fact, there is no benediction of 
 man, either in the Old or in the New Testament, that 
 strictly corresponds with those which abound in the Bene- 
 dictionals of some Christian churches. All the Benedic- 
 tions proper are either offered to God, or come from Him 
 by human invocation : His alone is the prerogative of 
 blessing and being blest. In the most stately and formal 
 example of which we have any record, the ordering of 
 which is given with precision, the language is pitched to 
 this strain : " The Lord bless thee and keep thee ! " The Num. vi. 
 most solemn Benediction, proiDerly so called, in the New 
 Testament, is that in which the whole congregation by the 
 ministry of the elders bless by thanksgiving and prayer 
 the eucharistic elements. The Benediction of St. Paul is 
 indeed pronounced with uplifted hands, but over the heads 
 of the people only, as uplifted to God for them. The 
 force of this fact will be felt if we strive to transfer to the 
 New Testament the notions of later times, and imagine 
 these Invocations translated into the style of priestly or 
 pontifical ritual. As an organ of inspiration, and the 
 instrument or channel of such unlimited blessing to the 
 Church, to St. Paul, if to any on earth, the prerogative of 
 sacramentally blessing the people might seem appropriate. 
 But he disclaims this, both negatively and positively. The 
 only personal declaration as from himself that we ever 
 hear hira making takes no higher and no more authorita- 
 tive form than this : " My love be with you all ! " He blesses i Cor. xvi. 
 his people by invoking for them, and bidding them join 
 him in invoking for themselves, the blessing of God. 
 
 It must be noted, further, that these formulas have 
 been sanctified by the Holy Ghost to the Church's use. 
 They have supplanted all others, and commended them- 
 selves as worthy of all acceptation. They were doubtless 
 prepared for the function and place which they have 
 occupied in the more public and private service of God ; 
 
 24. 
 
48 THE PBAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 and without any express injunction the mind of the Spirit 
 was b}^ all men understood. It has been observed that 
 the later writers of Scripture have to a certain extent 
 used tliese forms. They discerned in them the authorita- 
 
 Nuni. vi. tive New-Covenant rendering of the Old-Covenant priestly 
 ~ ■ benediction. After St. Peter and St. Jude had adopted 
 them, these formulas must have come into very general 
 use. The Book of the Revelation gives token of the habi- 
 tude of a generation after St. Paul's death : St. John 
 there expresses his own greeting in the Apostle's words, 
 and closes with the well-known Benediction. Thus the 
 volume of Scripture ends with the Pauline formula. The 
 first miinspired document of Christian literature, the 
 former Epistle of Clement, takes up the Apostle's gi-eeting, 
 and thus bears the same testimony to the custom of the 
 first century. So also, though with sundry variations, do 
 multitudes of writings that followed. St. Paul has given 
 his Salutations to all times. Out of his phrases benedictory 
 expressions have been formed for use both in the East and 
 West : especially that well-known eucharistical invocation 
 
 Phil. iv.7. of " The peace of God which passeth all understanding ! " 
 There is no more perfect invocation in worship, public, 
 
 1 Tim .i. 2. social, or private, than " Grace, mercy, and peace I " But 
 it is the form of sound words which we sometimes term 
 the Apostolical Benediction that has received the highest 
 honour in this kind. At the beginning or at the close 
 of the service it has for ages conveyed the common 
 blessing of the Triune God upon the evangelical Church. 
 And wherever the spirit of due reverence reigns, the 
 formula is retained in its integi-ity. 
 
 Lastly, it is a preliminary remark of some importance 
 that the Benedictions that begin and those that close the 
 Epistles must be regarded as connected, or rather as 
 mutually supplementary. To this may be added, fm*ther, 
 that all the invocations of all the Epistles, not only those 
 that occupy the first and last place, but also those which 
 
SALUTATIONS. 49 
 
 occasionally occur as ejaculations, must be taken as one 
 connected whole : the Divine and authentic Benedictionary, 
 which needs no additions of human device. Not one of 
 these expressions but helps the general exposition ; and 
 the benefit is further enlarged if the remainder of Scrip- 
 ture is included. For instance, what a rich flood of light 
 is poured upon the entire series of the Invocations by that 
 once-uttered salutation with which, as we have seen, St. 
 Paul ends a life and a labour that was full of blessing to 
 all: ''The Lord Jesus Christ be with thy spirit!" All 2 Tim. iv. 
 graces that are supplicated are centred in a Person, and a 
 Person who is God, in all the fulness of His Benediction 
 to the spirit of every Christian. Again, a word in St. I 
 Peter is very helpful. St. Paul's phrase, which he adopts, 
 " Grace and peace," never has a verb either expressed or 
 indicated. We of course can easily supply it ; but St. 
 Peter makes our conjecture needless. He gives as it were 
 an authoritative commentary on the phrase he quotes, 
 " Grace unto you, and peace, be multiplied :" a word 1 Pet. i. 2. 
 which, beyond all others in the language he wrote, was 
 suitable for the filling up of what was lacking in the 
 Apostle's formula. St. John also in the Revelation gives Rev. i. 4, 5. 
 an important explanation of St. Paul's meaning, bring- 
 ing out most fully the Trinitarian significance of the 
 Benedictions. These instances might be continued. But 
 it is unnecessary to say anything more to pave the way to 
 the consideration of a series of phrases which, though 
 limited in the variety of form, are absolutely unlimited as 
 a treasury of Christian truth and blessing. 
 
 II. INTRODUCTORY GREETINGS. 
 
 St. Paul's introductory Salutations conform generally to 
 one type. But they have an interesting history, as they 
 develop into the full form with which the Pastoral Epistles 
 make us familiar. That history we must glance at ; partly 
 for its own sake, and partly for the sake of the exposition. 
 
 E 
 
50 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 It runs through three stages : first the '^ Grace and Peace" 
 with which the Apostle began ; then the same words, with 
 Rom. i. 7. the addition, " From God our Father and the Lord Jesus 
 Christ;" then the same phrase, with the insertion of 
 " Mercy " between Grace and Peace. 
 
 2 Thess. i. It is probable that the Apostle, writing to the " Church 
 
 ' ■ of the Thcssalonians, in God the Father and the Lord 
 Jesus Christ," added only the plain and simple words " Grace 
 unto you and Peace." That was the first evangelical 
 innovation on the familiar " Greeting " of the Greek and 
 " Peace" of the Hebrew. In two letters contained in the 
 Acts — that of the Apostolic Council in Jerusalem, and that 
 of Claudius Lysias — we have the Greek phrases. We find 
 one of them also where it seems anomalous, in the Epistle 
 of St. James, Avhich forsakes the Hebrew altogether, and 
 adopts the classical phrase. St. John, in one of his private 
 Epistles, omits both the Greek and the Hebrew, and sub- 
 
 3 John 2. stitutes : " I wish that thou mayest prosper and be in 
 
 health, even as thy soul prospereth." Deducting these 
 exceptions, the remaining books of Scripture adopt St. 
 Paul's Greeting or some slight variation of it. The 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, it may be mentioned, is an excep- 
 tion around which there has always hung a certain veil of 
 mystery. It is a letter, or at least it takes that form ; for 
 Heb.iii. 1. it soou addresses the "holy brethren." It ends in the 
 very manner of St. Paul ; and yet its commencement is 
 unlike his style : as if a treatise begun only under his 
 auspices was taken as it proceeded into his own hands. 
 
 The Apostle used tlie form only once in its earliest 
 simplicity. In the Second Epistle to the Thcssalonians, 
 and always afterwards, down to the last, the invocation is 
 addressed to the Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. The 
 only noticeable variations are found in the Colossian 
 Epistle, where the invocation is from God the Father 
 alone, explained by the occurrence of the name of the 
 Lord Jesus Christ immediately afterwards ; and in the 
 
SALUTATIONS. 51 
 
 Epistle to Titus, where " Saviour " is added to the " Lord Titus i. 4. 
 Jesus Christ." Besides these, however, there are two very 
 remarkable expansions of the formula, which give a cha- 
 racteristic to the two most deeply doctrinal Epistles of St. 
 Paul. Writing to the fallen churches of Galatia, to which 
 alone among the Christian congregations he has no congra- 
 tulations to send, he lets his invocation from the Lord Jesus 
 flow on into a gloAving reference to the Saviour's redeeming 
 work, and thence into a doxology to the Father. The 
 secret of this change is obvious ; it is to be sought in the 
 impassioned vehemence of their jealous teacher and 
 Apostle, who seizes the first occasion of the mention of the 
 name of Jesus to set forth evidently before them His 
 atoning sacrifice, from sole dependence on which they had 
 been seduced. Thus viewed, the change has a wonderful 
 pathos. To an opposite reason another and equally re- 
 markable deviation in the Epistle to the Romans may be 
 ascribed. Between his own name, known to them only by 
 report, and that of the saints to whom he writes, he inserts 
 one of the most condensed and comprehensive parentheses 
 even in his writings, embracing some of the prominent 
 characteristics of the Gospel, of its Divine Author, and his 
 own call to the ministration of that Gospel. Tliis most 
 weighty and most powerful of all his weighty and powerful 
 letters breaks through the Apostle's ordinary rule, both in 
 the exordium and in the conclusion. But the irregularity 
 does not affect the salutation in either case. 
 
 The Epistles to Timothy and Titus, written at the 
 close of his life, introduce a new term into the Greeting : 
 between grace and peace ^' mercy " is inserted. This 
 word gives a rhythmical perfection and theological com- 
 pleteness to the formula which it had not before. The 
 term itself is not a favourite one with the Apostle, at least 
 in its relation to the economy of grace. He uses it very 
 sparingly elsewhere ; but it seems to have been taken into 
 liis later vocabulary with a peculiar fulness of meaning, 
 
 e2 
 
52 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 and is employed in the most affecting relations in the last 
 three Epistles. To this final and consummate form we 
 shall now turn. We are bound to regard it as the edition 
 of his gi-eeting which St. Paul desired to transmit, or 
 rather which, the Holy Spirit commends, to our study and 
 devotion. 
 
 GRACE, MERCY, AND PEACE. 
 
 As an invocation these words may be, must be, regarded 
 as addressed to God, and as addressed to man. They first 
 carry our thoughts to the Source of every blessing, and 
 then regard all blessing as conferred on His people. 
 
 There can be no doubt that we have here the Bene- 
 diction of the Triune God, invoked solemnly upon the 
 
 1 Tim. i. young minister, whom "in the faith" St. Paul rejoiced over 
 2- as his son, and to whom in a very especial manner he 
 
 committed his Gospel. Many reasons have been assigned 
 for the introduction of the term INIercy, Was it to show 
 his deep personal interest in his convert ? Was it because 
 ministers of the Gospel especially need mercy? Was it 
 because the course of years had deepened the Apostle's 
 feeling of the profound tenderness of tlie grace of God 
 towards the misery of man ? Probably for none of these 
 reasons ; but rather because the tendency of Christian 
 worship was more and more strongly towards the distinct 
 acknowledgment of the Three-One God : in other words, 
 for the same reason that the Trinity is impressed more 
 vividly upon every scene in the Apocalypse than elsewhere. 
 In fact, the Apostle's phrase, as adopted in these pastoral 
 Epistles, and as we think it would have been expressed 
 had he written other letters, had become more distinctly 
 than before the New-Testament re-utterance of the old 
 
 Num. vi. Levitical Benediction : " The Lord bless tiiee, and keep 
 
 24—26. i^ijgg . ^|jg Lord make His face shine upon thee, and be 
 
 gracious unto tliee : the Lord lift up His countenance upon 
 
 thee, and give thee peace." And it was on its way to that 
 
SALUTATIONS. ^3 
 
 more full expansion or development which was reserved 
 
 for St. John, who like St. Peter comments on the formula 
 
 that he adopts: "Grace be unto you, and peace, from Rev. i. 4,5. 
 
 Him which is, and which was, and which is to come ; and 
 
 from the Seven Spirits which are before His throne ; and 
 
 from Jesus Christ." 
 
 But while the Triune God is invoked, as the context shows, Rev. i. 4. 
 the three terms, Grace, Mercy, and Peace, are not to be 
 referred respectively to the three Persons of the adorable 
 Trinity. Grace is of God, mercy is of God, and peace is 
 of God. There is no distinction indicated ; hence in the 
 sublime Greeting of the Apocalypse, which throws back 
 upon all the former Greetings its evidence that they also 
 were addressed to the Trinity, mercy is omitted, and only 
 the earlier two retained. The Supreme Being is clothed 
 with each of these perfections individually, even as He is 
 clothed with them all in combination. He is " the God of i Pet. v. 
 all grace," He is "the God of peace," and He is in the Old ^^^^^ ^y- 
 Testament " the God of mercy." In the final Benediction 20. 
 grace is assigned always to our Lord ; but the article, the ®j cxvm. 
 grace, shows that it has a peculiar meaning there, and is 
 the grace of the Mediatorial Lord. We do not usually 
 find mercy or peace ascribed distinctively to any one 
 Person of the Trinity. Never throughout the Scriptures 
 is any such separation carried into the internal recesses of 
 the Three-One. As the Son doeth whatsoever He seeth 
 the Father do, so He also as the Son feels towards man 
 all that the Father feels. In function and office and 
 economical relations the distinction is kept up with most 
 exquisite precision ; but the whole round of Divine emo- 
 tions belongs almost indifferently to the three Persons. 
 Grace, love, kindness, mercy, peace or reconciliation, are 
 all sentiments that have their inexhaustible fountain in 
 God as such. Hence, apart from the fuller revelation of 
 
 the mediatorial work, the Trinity of both Testaments is ^t 
 
 . /. T 1 . Num. VI . 
 
 the same, as the fountam of blessmg and grace and peace. 22—29. 
 
54 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Xo Sabelliaiiisin is to be dreaded here. There is one God 
 throughout the Bible, even as there are three Persons in 
 one God. And the introductory Greetings keep that 
 present to our thoughts by making the tlireefold blessing 
 proceed from God the Father, and from the Lord Jesus, 
 with what might almost seem a careful avoidance of dis- 
 
 1 Pet. i. tinction. The ultimate fountain of mans hope is "in God," 
 ^^- in the one God whose last revealed name — a name by 
 
 Ex. vi. 3. which He " was not known " to the fathers — is the Three- 
 One. 
 
 Still, the terms, whilst they refer in their combination 
 to the one original Source, are distinct in their meaning 
 and application as traced up to the Divine Being. Grace 
 is in God the lo\ingkindness which rests freely upon man, 
 as an object deserving nothing ; the favour which goes out 
 toAvards him as guilty and deserving displeasure. It is 
 therefore the essential love of God seeking the creature 
 as only in a state of sin and rebellion. That same grace, 
 as looking upon the misery of man bearing the conse- 
 quences of his sin, and as applying the means of his 
 recovery, is mercy. And that same mercy and grace arc 
 peace in God, when the atonement provided by grace, 
 and offered by mercy to justice, is regarded as having 
 Ijroduced in the Divine Being Himself the propitiatory 
 effect: reconciliation to the world or peace for man. The 
 fountain is open in Zion for sin and uncleanness only 
 because the fountain is open in God above : an infinite 
 fountain of grace or favour towards the sinful race, of 
 mercy for the sorrows and miseries of all transgi-essors, 
 and of the peace of pardon for every penitent suppliant 
 for salvation. 
 
 But the God from whom this triune blessing is invoked 
 
 Eph. vi. is " God tlie Father and the Lord Jesus Christ." Here there 
 is very much to ponder. It was evidently tiie form of 
 words chosen by St. Paul to express at once three truths. 
 First, the saving blessings of grace flow from God through 
 
SALUTATIONS. 55 
 
 the Christian atonement only upon the family of those who 
 are His adopted children by faith in Jesus Christ. Other 
 blessings, the common benefit of the reconciliation of God 
 in Christ with the race, the free gift to mankind, are 
 bestowed unasked upon all. But the blessings invoked 
 upon the household of faith come from Him who is the 
 reconciled Father, not of the race as such, but of those 
 who are adopted into His family on the terms of the New 
 Covenant. Secondly, the triune benefit, here called grace 
 and mercy and peace, comes through the mediation of the 
 Redeemer. The title " our Lord," which in this connec- 
 tion St. Paul never omits, regards Him as seated on a 
 mediatorial throne which He has reached through the 
 ofiering of His atonement upon the cross. By the sacrifice 
 of Himself He obtained great riches for us: the eternal 
 love of God became through his propitiatory work grace 
 and mercy and peace for man; and this is His abiding 
 dignity, as the incarnate Head of the Church, that He 
 is joined with the Father in the bestowment of all that 
 man receives. Lastly, the word of mediation is omitted, 
 because the Lord Jesus Christ, through whom as the 
 Minister of the Trinity these heavenly gifts descend, is 
 Himself God, to be honoured as the Father is honoured. 
 Of this no more sufiicing demonstration is needed, or can 
 be had, than the fact that in the invocation of the bless- 
 ings of grace — the bestowment of which must ever be the 
 supreme prerogative of God — His name is conjoined with 
 that of the Father: " and from our Lord Jesus Christ." Not 
 one solitary omission of this conjunction shakes the sted- 
 fast streng-th of the argument. 
 
 Viewing these blessings as invoked upon man, we per- 
 ceive more clearly the jpropriety of the terms both in 
 their distinct and in their combined character. 
 
 Just as they spring from one source in God, the eternal 
 fountam of His redeeming love, so also they enter the 
 hearts of those who receive them as one blessing. They 
 
7 
 
 •'>6 THE PEA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 constitute the abiding, continuous triune Benediction of 
 the Triune God, as necessary to the spiritual life as the 
 air we breathe is to the life natural. Hence each of the 
 three terms is sometimes used in the New Testament to 
 signify the whole fulness of the gift of heaven. That 
 Benediction enters to abide for ever in the heart that 
 values it : there to increase and abound yet more and 
 more mitil it deepens into the blessing that flows from the 
 beatific vision. The triune inheritance of blessing cannot 
 be thoroughly understood until we grasp the idea that 
 before it disparts and becomes threefold for our need, it 
 is one as the Blessing of God — that word of Scripture 
 hich has and needs no definition. 
 
 But this central blessing is threefold in its impartation 
 to us. It is Grace, whether of God the Source or of 
 Christ the Mediator, for the guilty sinner ; it is JNIercy for 
 the wretchedness that follows and accompanies guilt ; it is 
 Peace as the spiritual rest that results from the enjoyment 
 of both. Grace proclaims within the soul that a Saviour 
 has borne away its sentence of doom; mercy is that very 
 Saviour Himself entering M'ith His o^^^l message, and 
 healing the miseries of the respited and pardoned sinner ; 
 peace is the same Saviour s gift when He sends that other 
 Comforter to bear witness of what He has done and is 
 still ever doing. Grace is Jesus approaching the Cross ; 
 mercy is Jesus the good Samaritan ; peace is Jesus coming 
 down by the Holy Ghost. Grace is pardon, mercy is 
 recovery, peace is sanctification. Grace puts up the 
 Divine sword into its sheath ; mercy heals the wounds it 
 made ; peace keeps it away for ever. When the Christian 
 joins in the invocation of this triune benefit, the first word 
 reminds him of his sin, the second of his spiritual maladies, 
 the third of his soul's enemies and conflicts. And the 
 threefold Benediction meets all his need : it is the triple 
 brass that fortifles him, and under the panoply of which 
 he goes on his way rejoicing and without a fear. And yet 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 57 
 
 /. 
 
 there are not three blessings, but one blessing. Every act 
 of supiDlication and faith implicitly recognises God as 
 Father, Son, and Holy Spirit ; as the Giver of grace, the 
 Fountain of mercy, and the Author of peace. So every 
 blessing that comes from God comes equally from the 
 Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit, as the grace that 
 forgives still the past, and comforts the soul in its present 
 need, and adds something to its hope of final victory and 
 its present possession of life. Grace is always pardoning sin, 
 and "reigns" as such; mercy is for ever "rejoicing against Rom. v. 
 judgment," healing its sharp wounds ; peace is for ever j^^^^ j- 
 invoked to " keep your hearts and minds through Christ 13. 
 Jesus." The three blessings are one : one in their source ; ^^^^• 
 one in man's constant need of them and in God's con- 
 stant bestowment ; one in their final issue. 
 
 III. VALEDICTORY BENEDICTIONS. 
 
 The valedictory formulas to which we now pass are 
 generally termed Benedictions ; but they have only a 
 conventional propriety in the name, being precisely of the 
 same order of invocation as the Greetings. They also 
 have their history and j)rocess of external development 
 in St. Paul's Epistles, the study of which will help very 
 much towards the understanding of their theological 
 import. Like the Greetings, they present one typical and 
 perfect form, and that will stand in the exposition for all 
 the rest. 
 
 The word Grace rules the entire series of these final 
 Benedictions, but there are a few remembrancers of the 
 older forms, to which we must briefly refer. The first of 
 these is the immemorial word of the ancient covenant — 
 that of Peace — which throughout the books of the Old 
 Testament is the symbol of the perfect favour of God in 
 heaven and the richest and most comprehensive blessing 
 of God on earth. On this word our Saviour impressed 
 the seal of a new and still higher sanctity : He blessed it 
 
58 THE PRAYERS OF HT. PAUL. 
 
 and liallowed it for ever in word, He unfolded its deepest 
 meaning on the Cross, and it is His gift from heaven to 
 His saints. St. Paul has paid his full tribute to the word 
 Peace. We have seen how he took it up into his apos- 
 tolical greeting : we have only to glance through the 
 closing paragraphs of his Epistles to see how perpetually 
 present it is to his mind as a single phrase, perfect and 
 entire in itself, and lacking nothing for the conveyance of 
 
 Phil. iv. a full Valediction. The " God of peace " and the "peace 
 "—'■^- of God " are forms that answer to each other, not only in 
 the one passage where they occur together, but through- 
 out his writings. The word is woven in a great variety of 
 ways into the tissue of manifold benedictions. To the 
 
 Gal.vi. IG. Galatians, for histance, it is linked Avith " mercy ;" while to 
 
 Epli. vi. the Ephesians it introduces " love with faith." We shall 
 
 2'^- see hereafter how it is the Divine attributes to Avhich 
 
 prayer delights to turn ; the tranquil peace of God is 
 
 invoked to confute Satan, the world, and the turbulent 
 
 unsanctity of man's own heart. 
 
 Besides these variations on the word Peace, running 
 through St. Paul's writings, there are a few other bene- 
 dictions which need not occupy us more than a moment. 
 
 2 Thess. " The Lord be with you all ! " occurs once in the Second 
 111. 16. Epistle to the Thessalonians. And, in the First Corin- 
 thian Epistle, the termination of which is distinguished by 
 three distinct final formulas, we have the only instance of 
 a direct personal expression of regard, very much after 
 the fashion of a modern message of love. It will be 
 interesting to turn to the passage, as in itself a singular 
 instance of St. Paul's peculiarities. Every one must have 
 noticed how slowly and with what seeming dijfficidty he 
 closes some of his letters. This is one of them. The 
 emphasis of the combination of the several sentences Avill 
 be noticed hereafter : now it is enough to point to the 
 .. tender personal kindness that adds even to the closing 
 24. benediction the words, " ]My love be with you all ! " 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 59 
 
 Returning then to the habitual valediction of which 
 Grace is the sign, there are observable three leading- 
 forms, with sundry subordinate variations. " The grace 
 of our Lord Jesus Clirist be with 3 ou " is the first and 
 most general ; this diminishes to " Grace be with you " or 
 " with thee ;" and finally we have the form which is 
 appropriate to the Church as such, that is, the full 
 liturgical phrase: "The Grace of the Lord Jesus Christ, 2Cor.xiii. 
 and the love of God, and the communion of the Holy ^ ' 
 Ghost, be with you all. Amen." 
 
 The first form is found in the greater number of the 
 Epistles, with a few variations, such as the occasional 
 insertion of the word " all." Invoking His benediction on 
 the Galatians, — the foolish and bewitched Galatians, — he 
 is careful to show by his last word how true his heart is 
 in its desire for their welfare : he asks that the Saviour's 
 grace may be " with their spirit," to which as against the Gal.vi.is. 
 fleshly mind he thus makes his appeal, and calls them, by 
 a singular exception, as if compensating for the terms 
 in which he had questioned their Christian adoption, 
 Brethren. The same peculiarity of expression, however, 
 '' with your spirit," is found in Philemon. It is not so Phil. 25. 
 easy to account for the variation at the end of the 
 Ephesians, where the Saviour's grace is invoked upon 
 those who love Him " in sincerity " or uncorruptness. Ephes. vi. 
 Connecting this with the close of the First to the Corin- ^^' 
 thians, where St. Paul gives to " anathema " every man 1 Cor. xvi. 
 who loves not the Lord Jesus, we are taught to appreciate ^^' 
 a certain peculiar tenderness with which the Apostle's 
 heart beat towards the Person, and, so to speak, the 
 character of his Master. 
 
 In the Second Epistle to the Corinthians we have the 
 full and finished valediction. Why it was given in this 
 Epistle there is nothing whatever to show. Suffice that it 
 summed up, in a manner of which there had been hitherto 
 no example, the relations of the three Persons of the Holv 
 
25. 
 
 21. 
 
 60 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 Trinity to the work of redemption and the accomplish- 
 ment of the Divine will in the saints. Nothing resembling 
 it is found elsewhere ; as an echo of the baptismal formula 
 it is unique. It is evidently, also, so constructed as to be 
 adapted exclusively to public worship : hence it was early 
 appropriated to the service for which it is used hi the 
 present day, and for which, doubtless, it will be used so 
 long as congregations assemble on earth. 
 
 Long after this full expansion of the Benediction, the 
 Apostle began to abbreviate this formula, making it both 
 concise and individual in its application. The Epistle to 
 
 Heb. xiii. the Hebrews says simply, " Grace be with you all," and 
 the same is found in the three Pastoral Epistles. The 
 First, however, to Timothy, contains the only instance in 
 Avhich the benediction is invoked upon an individual : 
 
 1 Tiiu. vi. ' Grace be with thee ! " What is most remarkable here 
 is, that the omission of the name Jesus Christ is obviously 
 the result of a certain process of condensation, which 
 leaves the omitted words to be implied. The terms which 
 connect grace with the name of Jesus are dropped ; but, 
 strangely enough, the article remains, as if to bear Avitness 
 of the sacred Name that is left out. It might seem as if 
 the same process were at work which caused the baptism 
 in the name of Jesus to stand for baptism into the triune 
 Name. " The grace be with you!" is literally the formula: 
 that grace, namely, which had now become the symbol of 
 all that is saving in the Gospel of Christ, and all that 
 produces holiness and happiness in man. The article is 
 never found in the Greetings, when all manifestations of 
 Divine goodness are traced up to their fountain in the 
 Divine nature. In the grammar of the Holy Ghost, that 
 article is never wanting in these benedictions, even Avlien 
 it might seem superfluous. The reason, doubtless, is that 
 in them the grace of God is always connected, whether 
 avowedly or silently, with the redeeming work of Christ. 
 It is a fact which will not escape the attentive reader, 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 61 
 
 that the very last invocation traced by the hand of St, 
 Paul — as it were, the dying- benediction of the writer as 
 such — has a new and striking feature in it. " The Lord 2 Tim. iv. 
 Jesus Christ be with thy spirit ! " precedes " Grace be with ^^■ 
 you ! " What a vokirae of meaning is there in this double 
 invocation, as it were the legacy of the holy Apostle to 
 each and to all, to Timothy, to me, and to every one ! 
 The presence of Christ with the spirit of every believer 
 always and in all places : than this there is nothing 
 within the possibihty of thought more precious to the 
 Christian. " He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit :" i Cor. vi. 
 the largest word the Book gives us for our privilege of ^"• 
 union with Christ. It is hard to keep within limits when 
 such a word as this, the last of such a teacher, is sug- 
 gested. Let us not forget in due time to recall it. 
 
 While such is the final legacy of St. Paul, the impres- 
 sion left upon the mind by this preliminary survey of his 
 Benedictions generally is that the leading word in his 
 theology is Grace. Whatever changes the Invocations, 
 whether of greeting or of valediction, undergo, this word 
 is never lost. It holds its preeminent place, and leaves its 
 echo in the ear whenever and wherever his writings are 
 read. The last word is grace, as the first was grace. 
 It is his token in every Epistle. It is his elect word. 
 Other terms of leading theological interest have their full 
 tribute paid to them ; none of them are omitted, all are 
 honoured, in his catholic and universal doctrine. Let the 
 glorious central words in the vocabulary of the Christian 
 religion be traced through the New-Testament writers,- 
 and it will be found that there is not one, not even love, 
 that holds elsewhere a higher place than in his writings. 
 Yet it remains true that Grace was his chosen motto, and 
 memorial, and badge : the word which he wrote with his 
 own hands when his deputies wrote the rest. The word 
 has clung to his name through all succeeding times. 
 Grace, as St. Paul understood it, the grace of Jesus 
 
62 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Christ, has become in the systems of theology that have 
 ruled Christian thought the most fundamental of all 
 words : most central in doctrine, most effectual as a 
 protest against error, and most representative of the 
 energy of the Gospel. 
 
 THE APOSTOLICAL BENEDICTION. 
 
 2 Cor.xni. " ijjjg m-ace of the Lord Jesus Christ, and the love of 
 
 14. 
 
 God, and the communion of the Holy Ghost, be Avith you 
 all. Amen." It is the will of the Divine Spirit that this 
 form of words should serve many purposes. These we 
 may indicate very briefly ; reserving some topics of deep 
 interest for future treatment, when the prayers of the 
 Apostle will require us to refer to them. The Apostolical 
 Benediction, as it once and only once assumes this perfect 
 form, stands in one of St. Paul's Epistles, the authenticity 
 of Avhich has never been called in question ; and tlie most 
 captious criticism has never impeached its phraseology as 
 we now study it. 
 
 The first and most obvious point of interest connected 
 with this solitary formula is its distinct relation to the 
 Holy Trinity and the formula of Christian baptism. The 
 manner in which the mystery of the three-one God is 
 gradually revealed in the New Testament is itself a mys- 
 tery, but one into which it is not necessary here to enter. 
 Omitting the visions of the Apocalypse, we have three 
 great central passages which serve as it were for the expla- 
 nation and illustration of the universal phraseology of the 
 New Testament. At the beginning of the Gospels Jesus 
 is baptised of the Holy Ghost as the eternal Son of God 
 incarnate: that text sheds its glorious light over all tlie 
 Gospels and their revelations of the Divine nature of 
 Christ and the dignity of the Personal Comforter. Before 
 He departs the Redeemer ordains that Baptism — not His 
 Miitt. own now, but His people's — be administered ** in the 
 
 xxviii.l!). 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 63 
 
 name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy 
 Ghost :" that text throws its radiance on the whole history 
 of the foundation and spread of the Church. And here, 
 in this Benediction, St. Paul gives a third clear and distinct 
 and perfect declaration concerning the three-one Source 
 of the spiritual good of the Redeemed. He that does not 
 understand these words aright, will understand aright no 
 part of the apostolical teaching : for this text also pours 
 its steady light upon all the doctrinal part of the New 
 Testament. Whatever doubt may arise on the considera- 
 tion of the passage in itself should be dispelled by a colla- 
 tion of it with the others, and with the general tenour of 
 the New Testament. None can bless save One, even as no 
 name is the foundation of faith and hope but One. The 
 demonstration of the Holy Trinity contained in the two 
 great formulas, that of baptism and that of benediction, 
 is of a kind which becomes more and more absolutely 
 satisfying the more profoundly it is studied in all its 
 bearings. How many doubting souls — souls doubting all 
 things because doubting one — has this benediction helped : 
 blessing them, so to speak, doubly in turning them away 
 from their sceptical and rationalising hesitation. 
 
 It is, however, the expression of a mediatorial Benedic- 
 tion, an invocation of the blessings of the economy of 
 grace upon the congregation in the order of the Divine 
 bestowment in Christ. 
 
 It is " the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ :" the loving- 2 Cor. xiii. 
 kindness or love of God, as it looks upon man in sin and ^'^• 
 guilt, looks upon him only from the face of Jesus Christ ; 
 only through His finished atonement ; only through His 
 mediation and intercession generally. Hence it is His 
 grace : He has connected it with His own name for ever ; 
 to us, whether on earth or in heaven, grace will be 
 eternally the grace of Christ. That word is St. Paul's 
 token in every Epistle : it is also his Master's token both in 
 heaven and in earth. The force of this truth will be still 
 
64 TH£! PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 more deeply felt if we remember that in every instance 
 save this the Apostle's closing Benediction, that in which 
 he takes leave of some of the churches for ever, — his final 
 benediction, in which his deepest, and at the same time 
 most familiar, thought would be uttered, — invokes only 
 "the grace" of the Redeemer. Our Lord is the God of 
 grace, as well as the Mediator of the covenant of grace ; 
 and this name stands in the forefront of the formula, 
 because the bestowment of the favour which rests upon 
 sinful man through Christ's mediation is the essential 
 preface to every other blessing. There can be no love of 
 God shed abroad in the heart save as resulting from the 
 infinite self-sacrifice of Him Avhose grace stooped for our 
 
 2 Cor. viii. Sake to a measureless impoverishment ; nor can the Holy 
 ^- Spirit be imparted save through the hands of Him who 
 
 has obtained by death all gifts for man. 
 
 2 Cor.xiii. <' The love of God " is not here said to be the love of the 
 
 14 
 
 Father. His lore it is ; but He is not named as the 
 Father for reasons that may be gathered from the general 
 strain of the mediatorial language of the Christian cove- 
 nant. That which is deadly heresy when referred to the 
 interior relations of the Three-One God is pure and simple 
 truth when referred to the dispensation of mercy through 
 the atonement and the ministration of the Trinity in the 
 Church. The Father is the Fount of redemption ; or 
 rather the Head of Christ is God : it is not said that the 
 Head of the Son is the Father. As the first name in the 
 economy of redemption, the Father here represents the 
 Godhead absolutely, thus rendering needless what later 
 1 Cor. ascriptions have found needful — the insertion of " three 
 XI. 3. persons in one God " in the formula. The love of God is 
 here twofold : first, the love of the triune God is revealed 
 through the grace of Christ, wliich was and is its eternal 
 expression : that love was and is behind the gi-ace ; as, on 
 the one hand, the love could not flow to us save through 
 the grace of atonement, so, on the other, the grace of the 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 65 
 
 atonement could not flow to us save through the love of 
 
 God. Secondly, the love of God is the manifestation of 
 
 the Divine love in the heart as the source and spring of 
 
 all that is good and holy and Divine in our renewed 
 
 nature : it is " shed abroad" within us, not as the effusion Rom. v. 5. 
 
 of comfort and joy, but, as the word itself indicates, as 
 
 light and strength and cleansing grace poured abundantly 
 
 into the soul to abide in it for ever. 
 
 "The communion of the Holy Ghost" is generally sCor.xiii. 
 the common participation in the person and ofiices and 
 gifts of the Divine Spirit, through whose influences alone 
 the inward work of religion is begun, continued, and 
 brought to consummation. Here it must be emphatically 
 noted tliat the communion necessarily implies three ideas, 
 which are one and strictly inseparable. The fellowship 
 invoked is the general and individual possession of the 
 Holy Spirit, the sacred, common heritage of the people of 
 God. The benediction does not expressly ask for the Son 
 and the Father ; but the grace of the Son and the love of 
 the Father cannot be separated from the internal posses- 
 sion of the Giver of each. In the case of the Holy Spirit, 
 however, the participation in Himself is made emphatic ; 
 because through His entrance into the soul all blessing- 
 comes, and the way is thrown open for the Father and Johnxiv. 
 the Son. The word also includes, not as a separate mean- ^^* 
 ing, but as the same under another form, the idea of the 
 Spirit's own impartation : upon the whole company and every 
 individual in it the benediction invokes the distributive 
 influence of the Spirit as every one has need. And, lastly, 
 the word irresistibly leads on to the further thought of 
 the unity created by this common gift. This is the blessed 
 " fellowship" which is spoken of immediately after the day 
 of Pentecost ; this is the true community of goods, or " all Actsiv.32. 
 things common," the transitory type of which the Church for 
 a season saw. For this our Saviour prayed : " that they may Johu xvii. 
 be one ;" one in the " communion of the Holy Ghost." ^^ 
 
 F 
 
66 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 But, wliilst thus retaining the propriety of the distinc- 
 tion between the Three Persons in the formula, it must be 
 remembered still that " the Lord our God is one Lord ;" the 
 blessing of the Church descends through what seems to be 
 a triple channel from one Source. 
 
 Hence, lastly, the benediction is to some extent the 
 supplement of the gi'eeting. In tliis its final form it shows 
 that the Church, the congi*egation of God's people and 
 saints, is the abiding home and sphere of heavenly bless- 
 ing. The greetings and benedictions generally are invoked 
 upon all without reference to the Church as such. But 
 this one, Avhich gathers into itself and consummates, and 
 at the same time enlarges, all the other invocations, is so 
 ordered that it must be pronounced upon the jieople 
 gathered into one. Each member has his portion of the 
 common good ; but only as one of a holy communit3\ The 
 blessing, as it falls upon the heart of the believer, tells him 
 first of his interest in Christ and His grace, the Source of 
 all his hope ; then it assures him of the love of God, the 
 secret of happiness and of heaven ; and it leaves lingering 
 in his ear the word " communion." So, in the ancient Liturgy 
 of the temple, the Blessing is proclaimed on the holy 
 mountain, to proceed thence to every member of the 
 Pacxxxiv. religious fellowship of God's people: "The Lord, that 
 ^' made heaven and earthy bless thee out of Zion ! ' 
 
 Let us not pass from these invocations without paying 
 one more tribute to the word that rules this province of 
 our subject, which begins and ends every Epistle, and is 
 the theme that runs through all. The gracious expression 
 is new in the New-Testament service, but without losing 
 any of its ancient meaning. In its earliest classical use 
 it signifies that undefinable grace which made rejoicing, 
 which created joy, of whatever kind. The heavenly charm 
 of this word makes every page of the New Testament 
 smile. The most impressive illustration is seen in the 
 
BENEDICTIONS. 67 
 
 Saviour s human gi*aciousness : " Grace is poured into thy Ps. xlv. 2. 
 lips ;" "they wondered at the gracious words." So grace is Luke iv. 
 poured on the word which testifies of Him. But the term ^^• 
 which once signified gracefulness generally has received a 
 new triple application in the Gospel. First, it is the grace 
 of God in Christ, the Source of all salvation to sinful man ; 
 then it is the same grace entering the heart and working all 
 its wonders there ; then it goes back again to God in thanks. 
 These three meanings run through the New Testament, 
 and give the term charis, in its theological sense, a 
 peculiar grace in the classical sense. 
 
 There are two and only two other terms with which 
 Grace shares this sj)ecific tlireefold employment. Love 
 also is the source in God of all salvation in man ; it 
 is also in man the bond of perfectness, the principle 
 by which faith works all good; and it also goes back 
 to God in devotion as the heart's pure and perfect re- 
 sponse. Thus neither of these two great new creations in 
 the vocabulary of Christianity can be expounded without 
 pursuing it through these phases. Grace and love come 
 from God, abiding in man, and go back whence they 
 come ; each completes its cycle in the experience of true 
 religion. But there is another word which has the same 
 triple application, though this is neither so obvious nor so 
 generally acknowledged. It is Glory, It will be seen 
 hereafter that the love of God which is manifested in His 
 grace is also termed His glory : not the glory of 
 His absolute perfections so much as the glory of His per- 
 fections in the work of redemption. The Epistle to the ~) 
 Ephesians will impress upon us "the riches of the glory of %h.i.i8. 
 His inheritance." This word also runs through the same 
 sacred cycle. The glory which shines forth from God "hi 2 Cor. iv. 
 the face of Jesus Christ " abides in man as his sanctifica- ^" 
 tion unto perfection : we are " changed into the same 2 Cor. iii. 
 image, from glory to glory," and the glory of God is our ^^• 
 internal irradiation of holiness, our transfiguration in 
 
 F 2 
 
68 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 His sight. And that glory goes back to God in the 
 
 highest expression of gratitude and joy and tlianksgiving. 
 
 The doxology of the Church, and of every individual soul, 
 
 is expressed by glory as Avell as by thanks. Our devotion 
 Eph. i. c. is " to the praise of the glory of His grace : " where the 
 
 two words are for once combined. But this leads onward 
 
 to the sequel. 
 Johni. IG. The word Grace, however, must close this section ; and 
 
 form the transition to the Thanksgivings which follow : in 
 
 this sense also " grace for grace." 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 
 
EUCHARISTICAL. 
 
 It has been already shown that tlie thanksgivings in St. 
 Paul's Epistles are abundant and diversified, shedding an 
 equal and most refreshing glow over all themes and all 
 styles of writing alike. It has been seen, also, that the 
 material in this province of our exposition may be con- 
 veniently classified. There is the formal doxology which 
 at set times arrests the flow of the discourse, and sends it 
 up to God in pure adoration : the examples of this must 
 be collected apart ; for they belong to a higher order, and 
 leave simple thanksgiving far behind them. Then there 
 are the expressions of gratitude which are only introduc- 
 tory to supplication : these must be taken as part of the 
 Prayers into which they merge. There remain two classes 
 of passages : first, the special thanksgivings, on behalf of 
 the churches or the individuals addressed by the Apostle, 
 which all but invariably begin and sometimes end his 
 Ei)istles ; and, secondly, those terse and vigorous ejacula- 
 tions of gratitude which are familiar as proverbs and dear 
 to all Christian hearts. To these two departments in their 
 order our attention will now be directed : with the under- 
 standing, however, that, as the passages referred to are 
 scarcely ever definitely marked off* in the text, but glide by 
 an insensible transition into the current of the discourse, 
 nothing like formal exposition must be attempted. With 
 the Prayers, properly so called, the case will be found to 
 be different. 
 
72 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 I. FORMAL THANKSGIVINGS. 
 
 It needs but a slight glance to note that the expressions 
 of gratitude which begin the Epistles are introduced by 
 2 Cor. i. 3. two formulas: the one, "Blessed be God," occurring only 
 1 Cor. i. 4. twice ; the other, " I thank God," being the customary 
 phrase. Noav, although there is a marked diiference 
 between the strains of thanksgiving thus respectively 
 commenced, it will serve no useful purpose to do more 
 than mention the distinction. We shall therefore com- 
 ment on the lessons taught by the themes of the Apostle's 
 gratitude as they arise in the order of his letters. 
 
 THE THESSALONIAN EPISTLES : THANKSGIVING FOR THE 
 
 SUCCESS OF THE GOSPEL. 
 
 To the Thessalonians St. Paul addressed the firstfruits 
 of his pen as an inspired writer. The thoughtful reader 
 would perhaps detect in their style the fact that these 
 were his earliest writings ; at any rate, remembering that 
 they were the earliest, he will not fail to perceive several 
 things in their tone and character that are best explained 
 by that fact. For instance, he will mark the fervent ex- 
 pression of gratitude for the triumph of the Word of God 
 in his hands. Something like this, indeed, is found in 
 most of the letters ; but in none that follow do we hear 
 anything like the joyous, jubilant, even rapturous tribute 
 to the success of a preached Gospel which we hear in these 
 earliest letters. The first time the preacher becomes the 
 teacher, and places on record the Gospel that he had 
 orally delivered, he attests most amply the extent and the 
 reason of its gi'eat success. His gi*atitude was not indeed 
 2Tim. ii. inspired by the fact that it was ''my Gospel," or that it 
 Avrought its wonders in his hands ; but his tiiankfulness 
 abounded because it demonstrated its Divine power 
 through the Holy Ghost. This is the one topic of the 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 73 
 
 Thessalonian thanksgiving. But we must trace it tlirough 
 two or tiiree variations of form. 
 
 Its first expression is a grateful acknowledgment of the 
 Christian change that had been produced in these first- 
 fruits of the Gospel through the energy of the Word. 
 
 The earliest of St. Paul's descriptions of a prosperous 
 religious life is deeply interesting as such. It is also 
 worthy of study as containing the first exhibition of the 
 three elements that best of all define the Christian proba- 
 tionary character. Never before had "faith, hope, and iCor.xiii. 
 charity " been written down as the ministering graces of 
 man's perfection. In due time the Apostle will compare 
 them in their abstract relations, and give the preeminence 
 in this life and in the next to love. Here he has no 
 thought of comparison, but magnifies the triumphs of the 
 three in their respective functions in the life of probation. 
 He remembers what he had seen of the swift effbcts of the 
 Divine Word in their souls ; and the wonderful union of 
 rapidity and reality in the work of grace in them awakened 
 on every remembrance his warm gratitude. The faith with 
 which they had received tlie word that he brought to their 
 hearing was a working faith : whilst it was the instrument Acts xvii. 
 of the attainment of a salvation that was not of works, 
 yet in its energy these Thessalonian Christians had van- 
 quished fierce opposition, and surmounted great difiiculty, 
 and obtained precious promises. Thus the first mention 
 of Christian faith in St. Paul's writings strikes the note to 
 which he is ever afterwards faithful, — that "faith which Gal. v. 6. 
 worketh by love." And the love itself which had been 
 " shed abroad in our hearts by the tloly Ghost " had Rom.. v. 5, 
 approved itself true by its self-sacrificing toil: it was 
 laborious charity. And the hoj)e which he had himself 
 witnessed in them for a short season, and the energy of 
 Avhich he had since heard of from Timothy, was a patient 
 hope : patient, not merely as enduring from day to day 
 the adversity of life, but as deliberately in Christ Jesus 
 
74 THE PRAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 remitting to a futurity beyond this state its best and 
 loftiest expectations. Tliis triune blessedness of their 
 religion will be best understood when we connect with it 
 the words that close the chapter ; in wliich the Apostle 
 describes the people of Acliaia as everywhere familiar with 
 the special characteristics of the Thessalonians' conver- 
 sion : how in the work of faith they renounced idolatry, 
 and in some unprecedented way gave signal proof of their 
 renunciation of it ; how in the labour of their love they 
 1 Thess. i. served their ncAvly-revealed God, the "living and the true ;" 
 ^' ^^' how in their patient hope they waited for Jesus to perfect 
 their deliverance from Avrath. There Avas probably in the 
 early religion of these converts something unknown to us 
 that gave a deep emphasis to the Apostle's gratitude on 
 their behalf ; but the perfect summary describes the pros- 
 perity of vital godliness in every soul. 
 
 It will be observed, however, that the real spring of St. 
 Paul's thankfulness is the efficiency of the Gospel of Christ, 
 the Word preached by himself, in producing, and in pro- 
 ducing so soon, so excellent and approved a character. 
 As the Apostle himself speaks, he rejoices in the power of 
 the truth ; as the Holy Ghost speaks through him. He 
 rejoices in the fair work of His own hands. Here, then, 
 on this the special text for ministerial confidence in the 
 Word, let us pause to consider these important terms. 
 Two things are observable. The preacher sees in the 
 confirmed piety of the Thessalonians matter of double 
 gratitude : first, for their election and the efi^ectual work- 
 ing of God in them ; and, secondly, for their faith and 
 co-operation Avith the Divine Spirit. He thanks God for 
 both, here as always united. The thanksgiving to God 
 does not exclude his congratulating them on their personal 
 energy and faith ; whilst his congratulation docs not in 
 the slightest degree derogate from the tribute of glory to 
 God. 
 
 First, the Divine accomplishment of a Divine purpose 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. /o 
 
 by His word is matter of the Apostle's praise. He be- 
 holds in the conversion and stedfastness of the Thessa- 
 lonians the token that they were included in the number 
 of those who were elected, through their acceptance of 
 the Gospel call, to the enjoyment of the blessings of 
 the Christian covenant. " Knowing, brethren beloved of i Thess. 
 God, your election " means most obviously, and can only ^" ' 
 mean, that the Apostle inferred their election from their 
 exhibition of the fruits of the Spirit. The election was 
 effected through the Divine " power," working by the 
 " Holy Ghost " the strong " assurance " or conviction of 
 faith. God receives the glory, in the Apostle's thanks- 
 giving, of the power that wrought persuasion in the 
 hearts of these hearers of His Word : that persuasion 
 resulted not from any art or vehemence in the preacher's 
 utterance, but solely from the Word, from its own power as 
 the Word of God, and the power of the Holy Ghost using 
 it as an instrument. Here, in the first occurrence of that 
 great word "election," around which, especially in St. Paul's 
 use of it, such dire controversies have raged, we have 
 the clue to his application of the term throughout his 
 writings. He never himself contemplates, nor permits us 
 to contemplate, an election of God that is not effected in, 
 that is not inferred from, our acceptance of the Gospel. 
 Carried up to an eternity iiast or future, the word has no 
 meaning for human theory or practice. 
 
 In the Second Epistle we have a fresh light shed upon 
 the same truth, and an additional help for its interpre- 
 tation. Throughout this St. Paul seems to write more 
 expressly as the Apostle of the Gentiles, and to bring more 
 vividly to his own mind the scenes recorded in the Acts. Acts xvii. 
 The bigotry of the Jews and the calling of the Gentiles 
 were never brought into such direct conjunction as in the 
 conversion of the Thessalonians. In their case was most 
 signally demonstrated the equalising of the two great 
 portions of mankind, whether as seen in the rejection of 
 
xxvi.18. 
 
 7Q THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the perverse Jew or in the election of the believini; 
 Gentile. Tliis runs in the writer's mind throughout the 
 letter. It gives its emphasis to the expression twice used 
 
 2 Thess. here, but here alone used, " We are bound to give thanks." 
 It is as if the Apostle was under a strong constrahit to 
 violate his own and his peojile's prejudices, and give thanks 
 for the revelation of the election of the heathen. Hence 
 in the thanksgiving we now consider, the word "hath 
 chosen " — used only liere by St. Paul in this connection — 
 is precisely the same which expresses in the Greek of 
 
 ''^^"v^Mft Deuteronomy the choice of the ancient peculiar people: 
 a circumstance that is more than a mere coincidence. 
 This does not imply, however, that his words concerning 
 the order of salvation has only this meaning. The calling 
 of the Gentiles rises into the higher thought of an eternal 
 purpose that all the saints, M'hether Jews or Gentiles, 
 should, through sanctification of the Spirit and belief of 
 the truth, attain the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 "By our Gospel:" when St. Paul uses this phrase, he 
 always has an undertone of meaning that adds to the idea 
 of the Gospel of grace generally the specific idea of a 
 Gospel of free and undistinguishing grace. Chosen in 
 "sanctification of the Spirit and belief of the truth:" the 
 choosing is vitally, essentially, inseparably bound up for us 
 with the work of Divine grace and human co-operation. 
 Speculation may carry the election backwards to the 
 Eternal Mind in which all things are already known from 
 the beginning ; or forwards to the eternity from which all 
 things are regarded as having already reached their end. 
 But in either direction we are lost if we shape our medi- 
 tation in formula : such contemplations have no speech 
 nor language for their expression. In the actual life of 
 probation we have to join the Apostle in thanksgiving that 
 we can infer our election from our grace. 
 
 Secondly, this leads to the strain of gratitude that 
 rejoices over the Thessalonians' own faith and obedience. 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 77 
 
 He does not ask them to thank God with him for their 
 high privilege as called to receive a sovereign bestowment 
 of the grace of God denied to others. The language is 
 not, " Let us thank the Divine grace that through its 
 operation we are not as other men are : " however true 
 that might be, it is not the tone of the common rejoicings 
 of St. Paul and his converts. On the contrary, the 
 whole of the second chapter of the former Epistle is 
 occupied, first, with a challenge to his readers to give their 
 testimony to the Apostle's own fidelity as put in charge 
 with the Gospel ; and secondly, with a generous acknow- 
 ledgment of their courageous faith in the Gospel they 
 heard. " For this cause also thank we God without i Thef?s. 
 ceasing, because, when ye received the Word of God 
 which ye heard of us, ye received it not as the word of 
 men, but, as it is in truth, the Word of God, which 
 efiectually worketh also in you that believe." The mighty 
 operation of God is in those who believe ; but those only 
 who believe experience that mighty operation. Here there 
 is a clear distinction between the " effectual working " and 
 the "faith." The two terms are not interchangeable. 
 Whilst there is no true faith that is not of the operation 
 of God, there is much operation of God which hindrance 
 on the part of man prevents from becoming effectual. 
 Belief is Divine and human. Were it not Divine, the 
 Apostle would not have so fervently thanked God. Were 
 it not human also, marking, in the mystery of freedom, 
 the difference between man and man, — " all men have not 2 Thess. 
 faith," — he would not so earnestly have thanked them for "^- ^• 
 bearing so patiently, in their laborious charity and work- 
 ing faith, the enmity of the Jews on whom " the wrath is 1 Thess. 
 come upon them to the uttermost ; " nor woidd he have so "• ^^• 
 plainly said that they " were ensamples to all that be- 1 Thess. 
 lieve," and that by reason of the exceeding growth of ^' '• 
 their faith he " gloried in them in the churches." 2 Thess. 
 
 The same double truth we find in the stern context of ^ ^' '^' 
 
78 THE FRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 2 Thcss. the Thanksgiving in the Second Epistle. St. Paul does 
 "■ ■ not expressly include their faith among the reasons for 
 gratitude in this passage : nor indeed does he ever thank 
 God for the gift of faith as such. But he places the 
 Thessalonians' faith in contrast with the unbelief of the 
 Jews ; and, while he does not say that their faith reached 
 its perfect operation in the concurrence of their will with 
 the will of God, he does inversely say the same thing by 
 
 2 Thess, declaring that those Avhose punishment was " to believe a 
 
 11.11,12. jjg " g^j-^^j ^Q |jg a damned" believed not because they " had 
 
 pleasure in unrighteousness : " they received not the love 
 
 2 Thess. of the truth, " that they might be saved." Again he asks 
 "• ^^' their prayers that the same success which his Gospel could 
 boast among them might attend it elsewhere in spite of 
 the " unreasonable and wicked " Jews : unbelievers be- 
 cause unreasonable, not because reprobate only. From 
 all this we gather that the thanksgivings of St. Paul in 
 these Epistles do not forget the responsibility of man, 
 while they acknowledge the supremacy of God. There is 
 no merit in believing the Gospel ; but there is no absolute 
 necessity laid upon any to believe it. Without Divine 
 grace there can be no faith ; but in spite of Divine gi'ace 
 there may be no faith. And thanksgiving for the spread 
 of the Gospel must not fail to blend congratulations over 
 those who believe with gratitude to the Giver of that 
 grace by which they believe. 
 
 But we must not thus leave these most jubilant sen- 
 tences, our last impression of them suggesting controversy. 
 Rather let us learn the lesson they teach of unfaltering 
 joy over such triumphs as the Gospel wins, Avhether in our 
 own hands or in the hands of others. Joy : for the pro- 
 cess of salvation, the working out of the Divine purpose in 
 the spirits of men, whether many or few, is matter of 
 boundless satisfaction to all who are like-minded with St. 
 Paul. Again and again does the thought of their growing 
 holiness provoke him to gladness deep, full, and irrepres- 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 79 
 
 sible : " What thanks can we render to God again for i Thess. 
 you, for all the joy wherewith we joy for your sakes in the ^"" 
 sight of our God ! " Who can help thinking of Him who 
 first spoke of joy in God's presence over a sinner's sal- 
 vation, and regarding St. Paul here and elsewhere as 
 the perfect illustration of his meaning and the rival of the 
 angels ? Such gladness, so deep and always unspringing, 
 should fill our hearts as we see God's word having free 
 course and His work reviving. And unfaltering joy : the 
 Thessalonians were few; their salvation had for its foil the f 
 uttermost wrath upon multitudes, and those the Apostle's 
 own brethren after the flesh ; the Gospel was encountered 
 by " absurd and wicked men" everywhere ; and the Divine 2 Thess. 
 good pleasure was satisfied only in a few amidst the mass "^- ^• 
 who believed the lie ; — yet the holy Apostle counts it all 
 joy. Even this measured and scanty blessing touched the 
 deepest springs of his gladness. He allows no thought of 
 sorrow to intrude into the mystical sphere where the joy 
 of his Lord reigned. Well for us also if we, living after 
 many generations in the midst of the same opposites of 
 salvation and wrath, can, like St. Paul, feel bound to 
 thank God always. 
 
 THE EPISTLES TO THE CORINTHIANS: THE GIFTS AND 
 CONSOLATIONS OF GRACE. 
 
 Passing over the Epistle to the Galatians, where there is 
 nothing eucharistical, we come to the Corinthian Epistles, 
 which abound in the ejaculations of gratitude — hereafter 
 to be considered — and are both commenced by an act of 
 thanksgiving appropriate to their respective contents. The 
 dispensation of Divine gifts is the theme that unites the 
 two : in the former Epistle it is the dispensation of the 
 spiritual endowments, in the latter of the consolations, of 
 grace. 
 
 In the earlier Epistle the formal expression " I thank i Coi.i. 4. 
 my God " first occurs. Here also the Church is' more dis- 
 
80 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 tinctly tlian before regarded as in Christ, a profound 
 phrase that afterwards becomes, as we shall see, more 
 common than any other. Here also the Apostle uses for 
 the first time the appropriating language, *' my God," 
 which we shall meet with again, but not often. Passing 
 by these points, we note the subject of the thanksgiving, 
 the gi-ace tiiat took the form of special gi-aces or gifts. 
 Two things here must be remarked in reference to this : 
 the Corinthians were blessed in being abundantly endowed 
 with the extraordinary endowments of the Spirit ; the 
 Apostle's thanksgiving on this behalf makes all these 
 subordinate to their sanctified and permanent fellowship 
 with Christ. 
 
 It was undoubtedly the purpose of the Epistle to con- 
 demn the perversions and abuses of Divine gifts of Avhich 
 the Corinthians had been guilty. But it was no part of 
 St. Paul's plan to disparage those gifts. Hence at the 
 outset he magnifies their value as tokens of tlie Divine 
 favour, and as most blessed in themselves. When they 
 
 iCor. i. 4. first received "gi-ace in Christ Jesus," the Spirit dis- 
 pensed to them severally as He willed the gifts of insight 
 into the Scripture, of utterance with tongues, of special 
 occasional illuminations from the other world : gifts that 
 were bestowed upon the Corinthian community more 
 abundantly than upon any other. They were in a pre- 
 eminent sense a church of St. Paul's OAvn founding and 
 care ; and the Holy Spirit had honoured the Apostle by 
 vouchsafing to them their wealth of gifts. This the 
 Apostle gratefully and, if the word may be allowed, 
 
 1 Cor. ix. gracefully acknowledges. They were " the seal of mine 
 2- apostleship ;" and, notwithstanding all the faults with 
 
 which it was his duty to reproach them, he blessed God 
 for the abundance of tlieir unrevoked spiritual endow- 
 ments. Abuse does not nullify the privilege ; spiritual 
 
 iCor. xii. gifts were to be earnestly coveted; and, whether in 
 2^- churches or in individuals, the Spirit still dispenses 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 81 
 
 talents according to the election of grace and by pre- 
 rogative. The peculiar gifts of the Corinthian Church 
 have been withdrawn from the Church universal, not- 
 withstanding the eagerness of many to prove that they 
 have been continued. But special endowments are 
 still bestowed on communities and on men ; and this 
 Corinthian thanksgiving teaches us that the gifts spring 
 from grace, and should be acknowledged to the glory of 
 God. 
 
 But, secondly, these manifold gifts are made in the 
 Apostle's acknowledgment subordinate to the continuance 
 and consummation of fellowship with Christ. As they 
 sprang from grace at the first, so they are lost in grace 
 at the end. The thanksgiving passes as it were into a 
 prophetic invocation, in which the endowments are for- 
 gotten, and the end of all is the being found " blameless " 
 in the day of the Lord Jesus. This spotlessness of spirit is 
 to be secured and retained through the faithfulness of 
 God, who hath called His people, not to the possession 
 and use of spiritual gifts, but in them and through them 
 and above them also, to the "communion of Jesus Christ" 
 Himself. Preeminent gifts from age to age distinguish 
 the few: but all are called to the equal participation of 
 the common Lord. After this most careful and skilful 
 thanksgiving, the Apostle proceeds, with the " but " that 
 in verse ten changes his voice, to the condemnation of 
 their abuses. In this we need not follow him. 
 
 The Thanksgiving in the Second Epistle is remarkable 
 in many respects : taking it altogether, it is one of the 
 most striking passages in St. Paul's writings. Its one 
 subject is the consolation of God in Christ ; but, before 
 dwelling on that, a glance must be given to the external 
 peculiarities of the paragraph. And first we mark a ncAV 
 phrase, "Blessed be God," which, whenever it occurs, 2Cor.i. 3. 
 indicates a very strong emotion, and is here specially 
 appropriate as introducing the Apostle's sense of deliver- 
 
 G 
 
82 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 ance from one of the sorest conflicts of liis life. It is 
 observable also that the Father and Author of all mercy 
 and consolation is such only as the Fatlier of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ ; both fatherhoods being here for the first 
 time found in the Epistles, and, as thus united, nowhere 
 else. It will be further remarked that the term " consola- 
 tion" or comfort enters into the sentence with a variety 
 of form and application that has no parallel in the case of 
 any other word in any other passage. There is a most 
 interesting play upon various forms of the term itself, and 
 this interest is increased by the relation in which it is 
 placed to other terms: in fact, the long sentence is com- 
 pact of consolation. The English translation improves 
 the melody by varying the term twice ; but the over- 
 powering emotion of the Avriter ^vould perhaps have been 
 better reproduced by letting the one word be seen to 
 recur ten times in five verses. Lastly, it bespeaks the 
 delicacy and grace of the Apostle's mind that this exu- 
 berant expression of thanksgiving exhausts itself before 
 he once alludes to the painful combination of trials out 
 of which he had been delivered, or was in course of 
 deliverance. And now let us briefly analyse the thanks- 
 giving itself. 
 
 It is addressed to the God of all consolations, for the 
 comfort which He bestows as the Father of mercies ; but 
 the consolation for which St. Paul oflfers his gratitude is 
 regarded as Christ's consolation, shared with Him by the 
 mystical fellowship that makes the believer one with Him 
 in suffering and in triumph ; and, lastly, his owti consolation 
 is valued by the Apostle mainly as reaching Christ's people 
 through him. 
 
 The wonderful power of these words is best felt when we 
 refer them to affliction generally, of which the Apostle's 
 tribulation was only a sjiecial instance. We are forbidden 
 to dwell upon the particulars of his grief, which are only 
 hinted, and that very indefinitely. Suffice that he had 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 83 
 
 passed through a period of complicated and exhausting 
 
 anxiety : driven from Ephesus by tumult ; exposed to 
 
 deadly danger, so deadly that he was cut oif from all 
 
 human hope, and pronounced the sentence of death upon 
 
 himself ; kept waiting in indescribable suspense as to the 
 
 issue of his former letter ; the sending of which had been 
 
 his severest trial ; and dreading above all things some 
 
 ruinous calamity to the Church of Corinth, in which he 
 
 felt an interest unlike in many respects, if not surpassing, 
 
 that which he felt in any other : — in all this he had been 
 
 comforted by the mercies of God, and from all this he had 
 
 been delivered by the Divine consolation through Titus. 
 
 But the expression, " God of all comfort," that is, of each 2 Cor. i. 3. 
 
 specific kind of consolation, gives the thanksgiving to us in 
 
 its widest generality. God's names are manifold as our sin 
 
 and misery : He is the " God of all grace " for our sin. He 1 Pet. v. 
 
 is the " Father of mercies " for our misery of every kind, ^*^- 
 
 and He is the " God of all comfort " for every variety of 2 Cor. i. 3. 
 
 our woe. His heart eternally the same. His countenance 
 
 in Christ changes to meet our necessity as we come to 
 
 Him. And this name demands that we pause and ponder ; 
 
 as it now rises on the page of Scripture, it is at once old 
 
 and new; old, for God's stedfast consolation has been 
 
 turned upon the children of men from the beginning ; new, 
 
 for never before had this name of the Paraclete and of the 
 
 Incarnate Son been given to the Father. 
 
 This part of the thanksgiving is obviously an echo of the 
 Thessalonian prayer: "comfort your hearts." But the 2Thess.ii. 
 second element of it, that the consolation comes through ' 
 Christ as the counterpart of the suffering which is shared 
 with Him, introduces a new view of religion, or rather a 
 new aspect of an old view, and one which will continually 
 reappear, viz., that our sorrows and consolations are alike 
 shared by Christ, and are precious fruits of our union with 
 Him. The words, as originally written by St. Paul, exhibit 
 a touching antithetic play in them, intimating that botli 
 
 G 2 
 
84 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the passion and the peace of Christ overflow upon His 
 members. Doubtless, there was a special sense in which 
 
 Col. i. 24. the Apostle Paul filled up "in his flesh the afflictions of 
 Christ ;" but no such sense as denies to every Christian the 
 oblii^ation and the prerogative of continuing his Master's 
 
 Gal.ii. 20. sorrow and endurance in his own person as "crucified 
 with Christ." So also we may suppose that this elect 
 servant of Jesus had in his soul some richer overflowings 
 of the Redeemer's heavenly joy than others rejoice in ; 
 but, granting St. Paul's prerogative, it is the common 
 
 Matt. XXV. privilege to "enter into the joy of our Lord "to some 
 ^^' extent even in this life, and to receive through our union 
 with Him the virtue of an effectual consolation for every 
 sorrow that we endure in His fellowship. Certain it is 
 that here we have the first hint of that most elevated and 
 elevating doctrine which teaches us, on the one hand, that 
 
 Rom.Ti.9. Christ, who Himself " dieth no more," nevertheless is so 
 one with us that in our death to sin through the virtue of 
 His Atonement He is still continually dying, and in our 
 sufferings on His behalf continually suff'ering ; whilst, on 
 the other hand. His own immeasurable comfort in heaven 
 overflows into the hearts and lives of all His own in virtue 
 of that mystical fellowship, St. Paul, elsewhere, in the 
 spirit of the Lord Himself, makes a division between the 
 two ; assigning the suff'ering with Christ to this life, and 
 the glorification with Him to the next. And there is a 
 grand truth in this, but there is some qualification needful. 
 The suffering is excluded from the future state, but the 
 consolation is not excluded from the present. The death 
 and life will not be intermingled hereafter ; but noAv they 
 are intermingled. Christ is a savour of life to our holi- 
 ness, — if we may quote St. Paul's words in a neighbouring 
 chapter, — even while He is a savour of death to our sins. 
 And we are all called upon, throughout the chequered life 
 that now is, to thank the God of all comfort — the Father 
 
 2 Oor. i. 5. of our Lord and the Father of our mercies — that " as the 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 85 
 
 sufferings of Christ abound in us, so our consolation also 
 aboundeth by Christ." 
 
 It must be observed, hoAvever, once more, that St. Paul's 
 thanksgiving is animated by the happy feeling that his 
 Corinthians are one with him in his consolation. At first 
 it might seem that he was grateful because the Divine 
 comfort would enable him to comfort others generally: 
 that is, those who are " in any trouble." But afterwards 
 we perceive that he refers to these Corinthians in par- 
 ticular; and, assured of their union with him in Christ, 
 rejoices because they would share his happiness when they 
 heard of it, even as they would share his sorrow. In other 
 words, he rejoices because he is confident that the same 
 consolation in Christ that came to him would come to 
 them. He deems them to be as intimately united to 
 Christ as he himself was ; nor can he suppose that any 
 joy that came to him, in relation to the Gospel among 
 them, would be denied to the Corinthians. It is the same 
 generous identification of himself with them, and of both 
 with Christ, which we constantly find : as, for instance, Phii. i. 7. 
 where it is hard to determine whether St. Paul means that 
 he had the Philippiaus in his heart, or that they had him 
 in their heart, or whether he meant both. On the present 
 occasion the words fiow on in the same high and intense 
 style. Nothing can be more impressive than verse eleven, 2 Cor. i. 
 when rightly understood: the Apostle demands the prayers ^^' 
 of many observers among them on his behalf, or rather he 
 takes those many prayers for granted ; and then rejoices 
 to think that as the prayers of many had obtained for him 
 a great benevolence from God, so the thanksgivings of the 
 same many would proceed from joyful souls to God on his 
 behalf. The depth of these sentiments is equalled by their 
 refinement. 
 
 But we have to do with the plainer and more obvious 
 lesson. Consolation is imparted to us that we may comfort 
 others, first, by pointing to the example of God's grace in 
 
«6 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 ourselves ; and, secondly, by using in their behalf the skill 
 which our charity learns from experience. God is the 
 
 2 Cor. i, 3. Source of " every comfort" to us, that we may be tlie instru- 
 ments of every comfort to those who are " in any trouble." 
 No office of our faith brings us nearer the person of our 
 Lord ; in none do we more directly imitate Him ; and in 
 none does He take so much pleasure in seeing Himself 
 reflected. He shines upon us that we may shine upon 
 
 Matt. V. 1. others. "Blessed are they that mourn : for they shall be 
 comforted : " we may without irreverence subjoin another 
 benediction : Blessed are the comforted, for they shall 
 minister comfort. Blessed indeed are tliose who learn 
 this lesson of the Apostle ; and who can thank God with 
 a double gratitude : first, because He relieves them of 
 their own dejection and sorrow ; and, secondly, because 
 He thereby enables them to succour their afflicted brethren. 
 That those who have received the great consolation should 
 feel the unspeakable dignity of their mission to be con- 
 solers of others, is one of the main lessons of St. Paul's 
 self-sacrificing life ; Ave shall often mark it as Ave read his 
 prayers ; but noAvhere is it more nobly uttered than in 
 
 2 Cor. i. 4. this thanksgiving for comfort: — "Blessed be God Avho 
 comforteth us, that we may be able to comfort them Avhich 
 are in any trouble, by the comfort AvhercAvith we ourselves 
 are comforted of God." 
 
 THE EPISTLE TO THE ROMANS. 
 
 A tribute has been already paid to the stately introduc- 
 tion of the Epistle to the Romans, rich earnest of the great 
 exposition that follows. We noAv take up the thanksgiving 
 Kom. i. 8. Avhich next claims precedence : " first, I tliank my God 
 through Jesus Christ ;" noticing certain peculiarities in 
 the form of this offering of gi-atitude, before Ave consider 
 its matter. 
 
 St. Paul here gives us a glimpse into the innermost 
 mysteries of his devotion. He makes his appeal to the 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 87 
 
 God whom he served alike in the secret shrine of his spirit 
 and in the Gospel labour of his public life : calling upon 
 Him to witness how constantly and how fervently his 
 thanksgivings and his prayers mingled on behalf of the 
 Roman Christians. Every word demands its comment. 
 The Apostle speaks of himself as i^resenting a liturgical 
 service ; he uses priestly x)hraseology that recurs at the 
 end of the Ejwstle, and occasionally elsewhere. Not 
 numbered among the priests after the law, he was a priest 
 after the order of the true INIelchizedek : ministering at a 
 hidden altar which he never left, and in the order of a 
 course that was never interrupted. The service he offered 
 was offered not only with his spirit, — that indeed was true, 
 but not all the truth, — it was in his spirit that he waited on 
 his never-ending ministry ; in the sanctuary of his inner 
 man, Avhich Christ had entered and cleansed for the 
 inhabitation of the Triune God. In that shrine he had 
 formerly jDresented the worship of ignorance and cere- 
 monial bigotry : honouring the Father, but neglecting the 
 Son of His love, and blending with his adoration the 
 breathings of threatening and slaughter against His saints. 
 But it had pleased God to "reveal His Son in him," at Gal.i. 16. 
 whose command, " Take these tilings hence," the whole john ii. 
 ritual of his carnal observances had retired from his heart 16. 
 for ever. There he revised his theology, and ordered the 
 entire framework of his service anew. Conscious of the 
 reconciliation, he could use language never used before, 
 and say " My God " in the confidence of appropriating 
 reverence and love. But while in the hidden temple of 
 his spirit he rejoiced before the new-found God of his new 
 life, in the deep satisfaction of an eternal possession, his 
 service was never separated even in thought from the 
 claims of the Gospel. The interests of Christ's kingdom 
 were bound up indissolubly with all the thoughts and 
 desires of his heart : to him there was no difference, save 
 in words, between "In my spirit" and "In the Gospel of Komi. 9. 
 
«« THE FliAYERki OF HT. FALL. 
 
 His Son." But of this deep secret there could be but One 
 Witness, and to Him now, as on every occasion, and in 
 every i)lace, he can make his appeal. The matter of his 
 thanksgiving is twofold : first, he blesses God that the 
 Romans had already received the Faith ; and secondly, 
 that it was about to be his own lot to see them, and rejoice 
 with them, and confirm their Christianity'. 
 
 Roin.i. 8. Their faith was "spoken of throughout the Avorld." 
 How and when they had received it he does not sa}, 
 nor is there any other voice to break the silence. In a 
 certain sense it had come to them, as it had come to him- 
 
 Gal. i. 1. self, " not of man, nor by man : " not by formal mission, 
 apostolic or otherwise, but by the preaching of the Holy 
 Ghost through the Christian Dispersion of the Pentecost. 
 iSome of the first and best grains of the " handful of corn 
 on the top of the mountains " had been scattered on the 
 seven hills of Rome. In the harvest great was tiie Apostle's 
 joy. It was the only time that he had as yet sent his 
 congratulations to a people not called by his own ministry ; 
 but God was his witness that for no triumph of the Gospel 
 had he been more thankful than for this. 
 
 " Throughout the whole Avorld : " deep gi-atitude utters 
 large words. But this is not the language of mere hyper- 
 bole. Over the Tliessalonians St. Paul had rejoiced that 
 their faith was sounded abroad throughout Achaia: but 
 the tidings and the influence of the conversion of the 
 Romans radiated to the ends of the earth. It was as yet 
 hidden from the Apostle that Rome's misbelief and super- 
 stition would one day be spoken of throughout the world. 
 He could look upon the imperial city, with the eye of a 
 strategist, only as the centre of the earth, having subtile 
 affinities w^th every peojjle in every region, filled with a 
 life that pulsated to the extremities of human society. He 
 knew well how much was gained when Rome was gained. 
 And he spoke the language of strong anticipation — not 
 fulfilled indeed according to his thought — of the impetus 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 89 
 
 to Christianity, westward and eastward, to the north and 
 to the south, that would result from the establishment of 
 a pure and earnest faith in the metropolis of the world. 
 
 The thanksgiving turned to prayer, without ceasing to 
 be thanksgiving, when the Apostle referred to the great 
 hope of his life, that he might visit them and confirm their 
 faith. 
 
 The secret influence of this " his earnest expectation 
 and his hope" runs through almost all the pages of St. 
 Paul's recorded history. When the thought that he must 
 "see Rome also" first dawned on his mind, we scarcely Acts. xix. 
 know ; but we do not travel far with him through the Acts ^^' 
 without perceiving that it became a master passion, too 
 strong and too abiding to have been implanted by any 
 other than the Holy Spirit. He began his course as an 
 Apostle to the Jews ; then he became the preeminent 
 Apostle of the Gentiles; but in Rome the two missions 
 would unite, and he was to consolidate there a Christianity 
 composed of Jews and Gentiles, one in Christ Jesus. By 
 this deep desire he not only yielded to an impulse of the 
 Holy Ghost, but also magnified his ofiice : as Peter and 
 John went down to Samaria to confirm that new province 
 of Christ's kingdom, so must a greater than either in the 
 work of the Gospel go to Italy to confirm the allegiance of 
 a far more important province of that kingdom. Hence 
 he stedfastly set his face to go up to Rome ; and, the time 
 being as he thought nigh at hand, he sends this Epistle as 
 his forerunner, to be the text of his future preaching, and 
 to assure them of his joy in the prospect of so soon follow- 
 ing his letter. 
 
 In due time the Apostle's desire was granted him. But 
 in this as in almost every stage of his career, he was led in 
 a way most mysterious and unforeseen. Through much 
 tribulation, and as the result of an appeal to Caesar from 
 C?esar's representatives, he was led to Rome in bonds, and 
 kept in bondage. How far he was able to accomplish his 
 
90 THE PEA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 cherished object, — whether he perfected the organisation 
 of the Roman Church, went on to Spain, and then re- 
 turned to die, — we know not. Nor is it needful here to 
 inquire. We pass on to the Epistles which he wrote 
 during his imprisonment, and by which he furthered the 
 Gospel iu his bonds. . 
 
 THE EPISTLES OF THE IMPRISONMENT. 
 
 The four letters written in his own house in Rome bear 
 abundant traces of the circumstances in the midst of 
 which they were composed. Tlie writer was able in per- 
 fect tranquillity of spirit to review the past, and surrender 
 his soul to " the powers of the world to come ;" whilst the 
 present, between life and death, was given up to devotion. 
 His soul Avas not fettered with his body ; the spirit of sup- 
 plication within him was not bound ; and he who prayed 
 always was now shut up to " prayers more abundant : " 
 hence in these Epistles we shall find oui* richest material. 
 But the thanksgivings proper, to which our attention is 
 now directed, will not detain us long; partly because they 
 run in a strain already described, and partly because they 
 are generally interwoven with the prayers that will be 
 considered hereafter. 
 
 To the Colossians St. Paul pours out his congratulations 
 on their having receiA^ed and made their own the truth of 
 Col. i. 6. the Gospel jireached " in all the world." He returns to 
 the old formula which unites the graces of faith and hope 
 and charity. The ground of his rejoicing over them was 
 their possession of the faith that is in Jesus, the love they 
 manifested to all saints, and the strong hope of heaven 
 which sustained them in the exercises of their faith and 
 charit}'. After this beautiful variation on the three-one 
 grace of Christianity in its perfection on earth, he passes 
 on to his intercession for them : with the touching assur- 
 ance that on the very day of his hearing about their con- 
 
TEA NKSGl VINGS. 9 1 
 
 version they had been added to the number of churches 
 never forgotten in his long Litany. 
 
 To Philemon, and the httle society of the church wont 
 to meet in his house, the Apostle sends his greetings. But 
 his letter has a specific object. He mediates with the 
 dignity of love between two of his own converts, an 
 ofifending slave and an offended master. And no plea 
 which he afterwards uses with such exquisite courtesy 
 could have been more successful, or could have had more 
 weight with Philemon, than the assurance that the 
 Apostle remembered him daily in his prayers, with 
 special thanksgiving for his love and faith. As the 
 gratitude glides into prayer to God for Mm, and then 
 into requests to himself for Onesimus, — from his father 
 in Christ who calls him " brother," the single instance of Pliil- 16. 
 the kind, — we may be sure that no gift would be felt by 
 Philemon too costly a token of gratitude for such a place 
 in the Apostle's daily devotions. 
 
 The Epistle to the Ephesians, as it contains two Prayers, 
 so it is introduced by a double thanksgiving : the former 
 reverently acknowledging the blessings treasured in Christ 
 for the saints ; the latter thanking God for the Ephesians' 
 participation in those blessings, in language very similar 
 to that which we have just heard. The Ephesians also 
 hear that they had been taken up into the Apostle's cease- 
 less devotions, from the day that he knew of their faith. 
 The former stands alone in St. Paul's writings as a Bene- 
 diction offered to the God and the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus, in response for the Benediction sealed in Christ 
 from eternity for His chosen people, and imparted to 
 them in time as they become His people by being fomid 
 in Him. Here is once more the great and deep distinction 
 between the saved within and the world without. "In Eph.i. 3, 
 Christ " the Apostle beholds a new mankind marked out 
 in the Father's counsel for all spiritual blessings from 
 heaven : " accepted in the Beloved," and to be made 
 
92 THE PRA YEBS OF -ST. FA UL. 
 
 " holy and without blame " through the Spirit. Summing 
 up the privileges that distinguish the new race in Christ 
 
 Eph. i. 3. from the old race in Adam by one word, — " Who hath 
 blessed us," — he renders back the Church's benediction in 
 language wiiich beyond all other is kept sacred in Scrip- 
 ture for the Supreme being, — " Blessed be God ! " The 
 prayers into which the Epistle after this continually rises 
 will bring us back to this subject in due time. 
 
 The Epistle to the Philii)pians has a deeper interest 
 than any other in its opening thanksgiving. Between 
 these comi)anions of St. Pauls early tribulation and him- 
 self there was a peculiar bond of sympathy and love ; and 
 to them he opens his heart, his deep human heart, more 
 perfectly than perhaps to any other people. It might 
 seem a thing impossible to add intensity to the phrases of 
 thankful remembrance that have passed before us ; but we 
 must needs mark here some finer touches unknown else- 
 where. Concerning the Philii)pians alone does he say that 
 
 Phil. i. 3. " every remembrance " made him thankful. It gave him 
 joy, only joy, to send his memory back to that "first day," 
 when the Christianity of Europe was founded by his 
 
 Actsxvi. ministry at the river side 'Svhere prayer Avas wont to be 
 made ;" when, amidst special interpositions of Providence, 
 they received in much affliction the Gospel of gi-eat joy ; 
 and when they began a fellowship in that Gospel, its privi- 
 leges and its service, that had never been interrupted 
 " from that day until now." The circumstances of that 
 critical time — the first day at once of the European 
 Churches and of the Gospel's freer advancement upon 
 earth — were such as to make it the theme of St. Paul's 
 habitual gratitude. But how much Mas that heightened 
 by the fact that " the whole remembrance " of their sub- 
 sequent history was such as to give him satisfaction. The 
 declensions and internal rivalries which elsewhere grieved 
 him had not dimmed the brightness of the Philijipian 
 Church. Perhaps this was the only community for whose 
 
 13. 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 93 
 
 consistent, equable, ever-advancing piety " from the first Phil. i. 5. 
 day until now " he could thank his God. Hence the inex- 
 pressible tenderness that pervades his letter to them, and 
 the thousand tokens, to be felt rather than observed, of a 
 love and secret understanding between him and them of 
 which there is no parallel. How his thanksgiving once 
 more takes refuge in prayer, and in what most confident 
 prayer, we shall hereafter see. 
 
 THE PASTORAL EPISTLES. 
 
 In the first series of his letters the Apostle is teaching 
 and contending for the faith ; in the second series, written 
 at Rome, he is inditing the thoughts of a tranquil contem- 
 plation ; in these last, to Timothy and Titus, he is taking 
 farewell of the world, and leaving his legacy to his suc- 
 cessors in the ministry. We have seen how the tone of 
 gi'atitude fluctuates with the circumstances and occasion 
 of every letter. And we must observe it still in the pas- 
 sages that remain. They are found in the two Epistles to 
 Timothy: in one St. Paul offers a final thanksgiving for 
 himself before he departs, and in the other it is for 
 Timothy that he praises God. 
 
 In the opening chapter of these pastoral charges the 
 holy Apostle, Paul the aged, ready to be offered up, seems 
 to leave on record a great act of final penitence and faith. 
 Let the reader mark the structure of the preceding para- 
 graph, and see with what set purpose he introduces 
 himself, his whole self, from the beginning, that he may 
 rejoice over his own soul as the spoil of Divine grace. It 
 is not an incidental reference, but one of the most elabo- 
 rate and prolonged summaries of his career : introduced 
 evidently for the purpose of paying his last tribute to the 
 grace of the Gospel as shown in his own person. In all 
 his writings there is no more remarkable passage tlian 
 this : none more profound, none more sublime, none 
 
94 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 finished with more care, none that lias j^one -deeper into 
 the heart of the universal Church. Its better part, how- 
 ever, belongs to the doxology that closes, and we shall 
 meet it again. Meanwhile it is interesting to observe the 
 order of the sentence. First comes the thanksgiving for 
 the grace that strengthened him by the virtue of a new 
 life to serve his Master Jesus in the Gospel. Then, 
 secondly, the riches of the Divine mercy so lavished upon 
 him as to make him a pattern, — the chief of sinners saved 
 by grace, — lead his thoughts up to an act of w^orship in 
 which the sense of personal gratitude is lost in the con- 
 templation of the Divine glor}'. Never did he deal more 
 rigorously with his former self : the Saul of this his last 
 
 1 Tim. i. indictment was a " blasphemer, and a persecutor, and 
 13- injurious;" it was only through mercy that he was not 
 Saul still ; and his final and eternal acceptance would be 
 that of the "chief" of sinners. But it must not be for- 
 gotten that the leading note of his thanksgiving is not so 
 much his own forgiveness and peace as the stupendous 
 mercy that made him a minister of that Gospel w hich once 
 he persecuted. Nor does it abate his thankfulness wlien 
 he remembers that he had sinned in the deep ignorance of 
 unbelief: the sincerity of his sin only brought him with- 
 in the range of possible mercy ; but it was " exceeding 
 abundant grace " that at once forgave him his great debt, 
 and accepted the payment of his life's earnest devotion. 
 In the Second Epistle, and in the last recorded thanks- 
 
 1 Tim i 2 S^^^^S) ^^^ sliows his deep concern for liis " son in the 
 faith ;" in a style which is a reminiscence of earlier writings, 
 but with a strong peculiarity of its own. The sentence is 
 just what the first strong feeling of the Apostle made it. 
 His purpose is to tell this young minister how warm a 
 place he had in the writer's heart and prayers ; that he 
 was nigiit and day remembered in intercession, witii which 
 thankfulness for Timothy's hereditary faith and early piety 
 was mingled. The thought of Timothy's ancestry reminded 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 95 
 
 him of his own ; and he adds, concernmg himself, the testi- 
 mony that he "served God with a pure conscience from 2Tiui.i.3. 
 his forefathers." Not long since we remarked on the 
 litm-gical ministry of Paul "in his spirit;" and showed Rom. i. 9. 
 how the entrance of the Gospel into his soul had renewed 
 and changed his interior service. Our present words, St. 
 Paul's last testimony concerning his own devotion, are not 
 inconsistent with those. The lessons derived from his 
 forefathers were not forgotten when he sat at the feet of 
 Jesus. The same God whom he had served before, he 
 served still ; but with a higher, purer, and better service, 
 — the service of a pure, sprinkled, and pacified conscience. 
 Whereas, writing to the Romans, St. Paul spoke of his 
 spirit as the sphere of a new service in the Gospel of 
 Christ, here, writing to Timothy, and paying a final tribute 
 of loyalty to the older dispensation, he declares that his 
 present service was only that which his forefathers had 
 prepared him for, though they knew it not. Thus, as in 
 the former Epistle, St. Paul's testimony seemed to count 
 his former life a blank, and worse than a blank, in the 
 present Epistle he qualifies that testimony, and thanks 
 the God whom he had from his forefathers known, but 
 whom now, in the Gospel of His Son, he served in a 
 regenerate spirit and with a pure conscience. With thesQ 
 words we take farewell of the Aj^ostle's more formal 
 thanksgivings. 
 
 II. EJACULATIONS. 
 
 A series of informal, abrupt, ejaculatory acts of grati- 
 tude, now to be collected, will close this review. Before 
 examining them in detail we must observe that they are 
 expressed by a peculiar formula — " Thanks be to God " — i Cor. xv. 
 which was familiarly in the Apostle's use at a certain time, ^^* 
 exhausts itself in one or two Epistles, and never recurs. 
 This is not the only instance of a phrase created by a 
 
96 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 special current of emotion, and emplojed as a favourite 
 1 Tim. i. for a season. It is enough to point to the '' Faithful 
 ^^- Sajing," which is limited to one little batch of Epistles ; 
 though other illustrations will occur to the students of St. 
 Paul's phraseology. The swift and vivid expression of 
 thanks which we now consider may be said to be the 
 property of the Epistles to the Corintliians, though it 
 lingers on, slightly varied, into the Romans. Those 
 Epistles were written, as we have seen, amidst circum- 
 stances of special trial ; and their writer was under the 
 pressure of more than ordinary emotion. To that emotion 
 — to a temper of mind just then liable to strong outbursts 
 of sacred excitement — the phrase owed its origin. This 
 will appear more clearly as Ave proceed. 
 
 THE VICTORY. 
 
 It is at the close of the resurrection chapter that this 
 word first springs into the Apostle's thought. The hymn 
 of Christian hope has all but spent its melody: there 
 remains but one condensed epitome, the conclusion of the 
 Avhole matter of the Church's rejoicing anticii)ation. In 
 one sentence St. Paul brings together the three terms 
 most terrible to man, never elsewhere united as they are 
 here, — death, sin, and the law. Death has no terror that 
 sin does not give it ; and, if sin be destroyed, death is 
 resolved into a stingless accident in man's history, a mere 
 change from what is good to something far better. Sin 
 has an eternal terror of its own, dependent neither on 
 death nor on the law : yet it is the law which defines and 
 gives strength to sin ; and, unless tlie law be satisfied, sin 
 must rule for ever. But in the work of the atoning Saviour 
 these words lose their triple terror : the law is satisfied, 
 and sin is abolished, and death is translated into endless 
 life. Then, cries the Apostle, in the name of the ransomed 
 Church, and finding a new song for this new transport : 
 " Thanks be to God who giveth us the victory through our 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 97 
 
 Lord Jesus Christ ! " And this word is the earnest, always i Cor. xv. 
 on the lips of the redeemed upon earth, of that greater ^'' 
 thanksgiving when redemption shall be complete. 
 
 CHRIST'S TRIUMPHAL PROCESSION. 
 
 Following the chronological order we pass to another 
 victory, achieved also over sin, but through the peaceful 
 warfare of the Gospel. The reader must turn to the second 
 chapter of the Second Epistle to the Corinthians, and mark 
 the transition from the thirteenth verse to the fourteenth. 
 In the one, the Aj)ostle has " no rest in his spirit : " in the 2 Cor. ii. 
 other, he is at the head of " a triumphal procession in . ^^' ^^• 
 Christ." The two renderings of this glowing passage are 
 harmonised and made one " in Christ : " if in Him the 
 Apostles are led through the world the captives of grace, 
 it is that in Him they may share the victory as other 
 captives swell the jirocession " in every place." Borrowing 
 his image from the poor triumphs of human warfare, which 
 celebrate the victories of man's lust and ambition, he de- 
 scribes by one vivid expression the steady advance of 
 the King, as the Psalmist had long ago extolled it, in 
 the way of the victory of " meekness and righteousness," Ps. xlv. 4. 
 humbling first the rebels against His law, and then raising 
 them into sharers of His exaltation, leading them captive 
 still, and yet " causing them to triumph." But we have to 
 do with the outburst of thanksgiving. In it the Apostle 
 finds refuge from all his anxieties and fears : the sure 
 victory of Christ, and of His servants in Him, was the 
 never-failing compensation for their sacrifice and toil. 
 Nor is the exultation of his gi-atitude marred by the sad 
 counterpart which this triumph involves. Changing the 
 figure, the triumphal procession is a diffusion of the know- 
 ledge of Christ : an incense of life breathed forth upon all 
 who receive it, and an odour of death to all who receive it 
 not. So it must be, now and for ever, in the history of 
 
 H 
 
98 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 " the Gospel of the glory of the blessed God." It is per- 
 mitted to His saints to forget the dead in the joy of the 
 2 Cor. iL victory of life ; and still to cry, " Thanks be unto God, 
 14- which always causeth us to triumi)h in Christ." 
 
 THE ZEAL OF TITUS. 
 
 St. Paul had sad experience that all his fellow-servants 
 in Christ were not like-minded with himself; and that 
 amidst the multitudes of those who, whilst bearing the 
 
 Phil. ii. 21. Christian name, "seek their own, not the things which 
 are Jesus Christ's," tliere were but few who were equal to 
 every strain upon their fidelity. We remember the warm, 
 frank commendation he bestows upon Timothy in the 
 Philippian Epistle : " Ye know the proof of him," as one 
 who " naturally cares for your state," thinking nothing of 
 himself in the comparison. The eighth chapter of the 
 Second Epistle to the Corinthians adds Titus with Timothy 
 to the selecter number of the self-sacrificing servants of 
 the Gospel. The words of the sixteenth verse deserve care- 
 ful study : the more narrowly they are observed the more 
 pure appears the zeal of Titus. He was like-minded with 
 his father in the Gospel; had the "same earnest care;" 
 and what higher praise could be given him than this ? 
 Whilst he complied with the exhortation to go to Corinth, 
 it was his own heart that went first ; " of his own accord " 
 he accepted the mission, and his love was " more earnest " 
 even than his obedience. But neither Paul nor Titus had 
 this sacred passion, save as the gift of God : it was the 
 efifect of grace ; and, knowing the inexpressible precious- 
 ness of a spirit of self-devotion, the noblest princi])le that 
 man's heart can beat with, the Apostle ejaculates rather 
 
 2Cor. viii. than writes: — "But thanks be to God, which put the 
 ^^* same earnest care into the heart of Titus for you!" 
 Thanks be to God ! for Titus' sake, who received the 
 grace ; for the Corinthians' sake, who had the benefit. 
 
THANKSGIVINGS.. 99 
 
 THE UNSPEAKABLE GIFT. 
 
 One of the briefest and most abrupt of these impassioned 
 expressions of the Apostle's gratitude, this can have no 
 other object than that supreme Gift of God to man which 
 includes all other gifts : which gives back all former gifts 
 that he had lost, and superadds what St. Paul can find no 
 other word to describe but indescribable. To suppose 2 Cor. ix. 
 that he is thanking God for the spirit of benevolence given ^^• 
 to the Corinthians, or that he is putting into the mouths 
 of the poor in Jerusalem the gratitude which they should 
 utter, is to forget altogether the manner of the writer. 
 It is the very law of his communications to trace every 
 stream of grace to its fountain in redemption ; and to 
 make the Divine benevolence in the gift of grace the 
 spring of all charity upon earth. Hence, after having 
 exhausted in these chapters the whole subject of Christian 
 almsgiving — its ground, its fruit, its methods, its argu- 
 ments, its blessedness— he, as his wont is, suspends the 
 current of his thought, that he may pour out the great 
 thanksgiving which alone could worthily close it. Ready 
 with his familiar formula, and choosing a new word, — to 
 be afterwards used again only when he is dwelling upon 
 the unsearchable mysteries of a grace " past finding out," 
 — he cries: "Thanks be unto God for His unspeakable 2Cor.ix. 
 Gift!" 1^5.' 
 
 THE NEW OBEDIENCE. 
 
 At a moment of vital importance in the discussion of 
 the Epistle to the Romans the Apostle's watchword of 
 gratitude is again ready. It is that point at which he is 
 pleading with all his strength for the holiness that must 
 follow the acceptance of justification by faith, and the 
 obligations of the life that is derived from union with the 
 Lord. Death with Christ to sin, life with Christ to 
 righteousness, are the themes of his teaching in the order 
 
 h2 
 
100 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 of his exposition of the mediatorial work. But at this 
 particular point, when he contemplates the perversion 
 that had begun already to make Christ the minister of 
 sin, his spirit explodes in two characteristic wa^s. Think- 
 ing of those who would argue that, the law being abolished 
 and grace reigning, the believer might be indifferent to 
 sin, he cries, with an emphasis that is better rendered in 
 our English than in the original Greek, indeed with all the 
 might of his mighty nature : — God forbid ! Then, turning 
 with deep gratitude to the Romans themselves, worthy 
 illustrations of a better doctrine, and as if at once to 
 release them from every suspicion of sharing that most 
 unchristian thought, he immediately adds the phrase which 
 Rom. vi. he never used save under strong excitement : " But God 
 be thanked that ye were the servants of sin, but ye have 
 obeyed from the heart that form of doctrine which Avas 
 delivered you." As then, so now. Christianity has only 
 God forbid ! for every Antinomian ; but a deep and heart- 
 felt Thank God ! for every example of the new obedience. 
 
 DELIVERANCE FROM THE BODY OF DEATH. 
 
 We take our farewell of St. Paul's ejaculations in that 
 one which is the most personal to himself, and comes home 
 most directly to the hearts of his readers. It is more 
 really an ejaculation than any of the others, as it might be 
 taken out of the text or transferred without any violence. 
 In fact it is, so to speak, a premature earnest or prelude 
 of the greater thanksgiving which fills the next chapter. 
 There is, however, something grand in its abrupt sim- 
 plicity where it stands, especially if m'C conform it, with 
 Rom. vii. a better reading, to the general type : " I thank God 
 25. through Jesus Christ our Lord!" This, the last use of 
 the phrase, returns to the very form of the first. 
 
 But for what is this gi-atitude expressed ? For the pros- 
 pect of coming deliverance to his soul in bondage, bound 
 to the body of sin ; or to the man under conviction whose 
 
THANKSGIVINGS. 101 
 
 24. 
 
 case he here " transfers to Mmself." And we can under- 
 stand the strength of the thanksgiving only when we 
 measiu-e the wretchedness of the one chapter and the 
 blessedness of the other, between which it forms a link of 
 transition. 
 
 The words immediately preceding our text sum up the 
 seventh cliapter : its meaning is condensed in that one 
 exceeding bitter cry, " wretched man that I am ! who Rom. vii. 
 shall deliver me from this body of death?" The "I" of 
 the convicted sinner is awakened to a sense of sin and 
 desire for salvation, but awakened only to find himself 
 struggling in a nature which is to him as a body, and so 
 entirely under the bondage of corruption that it might be 
 called a " body of death." This wrestling penitent cries 
 out for his Deliverer : for One whom he knows to be near, 
 and who shall deliver him, not from the body by death, 
 nor from the body as the seat of evil, but from that other 
 self which is as a man of sin within him ; One who shall 
 enable him, rescued from the condemnation of the law, to 
 live even in the flesh a sanctified life, free from the law of 
 sin and death. It was this cry which Saul uttered during 
 that ever-memorable time in Damascus ; these were the 
 agonies of supplication which his Saviour heard when He 
 said, " Behold, he prayeth." The answer he received at Acts ix. 
 once and for ever ; the seventh chapter passed into the 
 eighth in his own experience long before he wrote either. 
 He was delivered by one act of his Redeemer from the 
 body of death, foi* his sentence was reversed and he lived ; 
 from the body of death, inasmuch as his whole being — his 
 spirit and its instrument, his flesh — was inhabited by the 
 Holy Ghost, sin was no longer a necessity of his life ; 
 though in the flesh he could please God. He left his 
 Damascus prison with this very song on his lips, and now 
 that he is describing the well-remembered experience, as 
 " a pattern to them that should afterwards believe," he is 
 as it were in haste to tell the secret. Before he has quite 
 
 11. 
 
102 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 ended the narrative of his sore struggles, — wlien, after 
 conviction but betbre the new birth, he was only taught 
 that he could not redeem himself, — he greets the coming 
 Deliverer, as it were before the time : " I tliank God 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord ! " Not " my Lord : " he 
 writes for us; and Christ is the common Redeemer, both^ 
 his and ours. 
 
 And now we have accomplished our task, and followed 
 in their order these ejaculations of gratitude, so familiar 
 and, we may add, so dear to all hearts. Running our eye 
 backward over the series, we are tempted to group them 
 into a symmetrical whole for which our Apostle gives us 
 no authority. Here are six notes of deep thanksgiving in 
 the Christian life, — if fancy may weave what exposition 
 has gathered, — and the seventh is not yet. The first 
 *' Thanks be to God" in every true experience marks the 
 hour of conscious deliverance from the law, its sentence 
 and its bondage : this undertone of gratitude runs through 
 all the rest. The second blesses God for the new obe- 
 dience, the mould of Christian doctrine into which the 
 regenerate soul is cast to its deep content: it is the 
 gratitude of reflection upon a confirmed regenerate life. 
 The third expresses the ever-increasing sense of the value 
 of the great Redemption, the unspeakable riches of the 
 grace of our Lord Jesus Christ ; the fourth rejoices in 
 witnessing the pure earnestness of Christian zeal in others, 
 the counterpart of our own ; the fifth, in this inverted order, 
 rejoices in that stately triumphal procession of Christ in 
 His Gospel through the earth, which, though man observe 
 it not amidst his more engrossing triumphs, is seen of 
 angels, and believed in and shared in by His saints. The 
 sixth, in the gloom of time and the reign of death, sings 
 the great victory that is to come, sings it always, but 
 especially at the grave-side. In due time there will be a 
 seventh "Thanks be to God," which shall swallow up all 
 other songs. 
 
THE PRAYERS. 
 
 I. THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 
 II. ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 III. THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOODNESS. 
 
 IV. EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 
 V. LOVE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 VI. PEACE FROM THE LOVE OF PEACE. 
 VII. RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 
 VIIL UNITY. 
 IX. HOPE. 
 
 X. KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 
 XL FULL ASSURANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 XII. THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 
 XIIL THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 
 XIV. PERSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST. 
 XV. THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 
 
INTRODUCTORY ON THE THESSALONIAR PRAYERS. 
 
 The two Epistles to the Thessalonians are a field peculiarly 
 fruitful for our present purpose. The language as well as 
 the spirit of deep devotion pervades both : formal thanks- 
 givings and supplications are more frequent and occupy 
 a larger space than in any other Epistles. Not indeed 
 that there is any decline in this respect as we proceed with 
 the series. Prayer is the strength of St. Paul's apostolical 
 teaching to the close. But the earliest of his writings are 
 also the richest both in the number and in the importance 
 of their Prayers. i 
 
 These two Epistles contain, beside other devotional I 
 phrases, five express intercessions, the common charac- 
 teristic of which is that they all bear in them the burden 
 of entire sanctification. Each dwells on one aspect of 
 Christian perfectness, and as a whole they may be said to 
 exhaust the subject, viewed either as to theology or to life. 
 The first connects unblamable holiness with the abounding i Thess. 
 of charity ; the second looks rather at the utmost sancti- "g ' 
 fication of man's whole nature ; the third contemplates the i Thess. v. 
 accomplishment of the design of grace in internal good- g |^' ^^ j 
 ness; the fourth makes the goal of regenerate hope the ii, 12, 
 soul's stability in holiness ; while the fifth sums up all in ^ ■^^^^17"' 
 two words, the perfect love of God, and the perfect 2 Thess. 
 patience of Christ, into which the Spirit directs the be- "^- ^• 
 liever as the way of life. 
 
 Whilst all these prayers rise to the height of evangelical 
 privilege, the first three are formally dedicated to this by 
 their very construction and phraseology. The full con- 
 summation of religious experience is the central idea of 
 each, and in unfolding it almost all the terms which are 
 sacred to Christian perfection are employed. They form 
 a Trilogy of Entire Sanctification, and, deeply interesting 
 
106 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 in themselves?, their interest is enhanced by the fact that 
 they are the very earliest of the Apostle's Prayers. It is 
 evident that he began his teaching in the highest possible 
 strain, and one that he never relaxed, but kept up in 
 its unfaltering strength to the end. It has been vainly 
 attempted to prove that St. Paul's theological views varied 
 with the advancement of life, but no one has ever been 
 reckless enough to assert that he ever changed his estimate 
 of the possible elevation of man's nature in the present 
 state. 
 
 This Trilogy has another point common to its three 
 parts. They all connect finished sanctification with the 
 coming of our Lord and the presence of the Father 
 brouglit near to tlie Church in the second advent. This 
 fact must impress its influence, as we shall see, upon the 
 exposition. First, it shows that nothing less than com- 
 plete purity can be the object desired in these Prayers : 
 it is such integrity of the Christian spirit and character as 
 may sustain the test, the supreme test, of the great day. 
 Secondly, it proves that tliis integrity was expected as 
 a present blessing of the covenant of grace : for the day of 
 the Lord, used as an argument to diligence and hope, was 
 always regarded as ready to dawn upon the company of 
 Christian believers. The light of that day is supposed to 
 rise upon the sanctity that it tests, and not to create it. 
 From this it follows, further, that these supplications, like 
 all otiiers found in Scripture, should be received by us as 
 indicating our present privilege. Every such prayer is 
 a prayer " with promise." We have our Lord's assurance 
 that all tilings which are desired for us in the Word of 
 God may be received by us in this present life. If the 
 answer is beyond the reach of faith and hope, or to be 
 attained only in another state, the prayer itself will tell us 
 so. But these unrestricted petitions prescribe the range 
 and the duty also of our expectation. Remembering this 
 axiom let us ai)proach these prayers in their order. 
 
THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 107 
 
 I. 
 
 THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 
 
 " And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love one toward 
 another, and toward all men, even as we do toward you : to the end He 
 may stablish your hearts unblamable in holiness before God, even our 
 Father, at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ with all His saints." — 1 
 Thess, iii. 12, 13. 
 
 In the introduction of this, the first of St. Paul's formal 
 Prayers, some things are worthy of note in relation to the 
 Object to Whom it is presented. 
 
 First, our Lord Jesus Christ is expressly addressed : not 
 as the Mediator only, by whom petitions are made accept- 
 able, but as Himself the Hearer, and the Answerer, of 
 prayer. It is true that, in the order and economy of 
 grace, Christ is the Procurer of every blessing, and the 
 Holy Ghost the Administrator. But they err who deny 
 that supplications may be offered to the name of Jesus. 
 St. Paul again and again besought the Lord ; generally for 
 himself, but also for the welfare of others and of the whole 
 Church. Here the Saviour is asked first for a temporal 
 and lower gift, for the prosperous direction of the Apostle's 
 course, and then for the highest blessings that man can 
 receive. 
 
 At the same time, secondly, it must be observed that 
 our Lord is invoked in the unity of the Father. Literally 
 "in the unity of the Father;" for "God Himself our 
 Father, and our Lord Jesus Christ," two Persons, are yet 
 One in the verb " direct." The very grammar faithfully, 
 however insufficiently, expresses their unsearchable One- 
 ness, not only in counsel and act, but in nature and dignity. 
 The taking up of our human nature into the Son's Divine 
 Personality has not impaired the eternal unity of the 
 
108 THE PBAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Father and the Son. This remarkable Two-one relation 
 2 Thess. occurs again in another of the Thessalonian Prayers : tlius 
 "• 16- it is established by two witnesses, and afterwards the deep 
 anomaly ceases to occur. 
 
 jSIoreover, it requires only a glance at the construction 
 to observe that here at the outset, as everywhere, there is 
 a latent, and more than latent, reference to the mediatorial 
 Trinity. Who is that Lord Avho shall stablish the saints 
 before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord 
 Jesus Christ ? It is the Holy Ghost, in the unity of the 
 Father and of the Son, but also in His own administrative 
 function as having our holiness in His charge, and so pre- 
 siding over our internal redemption as the Lord Jesus 
 presides over our external. Our sanctification in the next 
 2 Thess. Epistle is said to be " of the Spirit." If it be asked. Why 
 "• ^^- then is the Holy Ghost not named ? the only answer is 
 that it pleased the Holy Ghost Himself to withhold His 
 name, or to assume here the name of Lord. If any vindi- 
 cation of this answer is needed, it is found in the plain 
 fact that throughout the later New Testament the idea of 
 God is never separated from the doctrine of the Holy 
 Trinity, explicit or implicit. Wherever one Person is 
 mentioned, two other Persons are included ; whilst still 
 the Divine nature is one. And when we find, as we often 
 find, a collocation of Three Names, — more w^e never meet 
 with, — then we must understand the mediatorial Trinity to 
 be meant. It becomes us to accommodate our thoughts to 
 the Divine style, and to catch the spirit of the language of 
 the Holy Ghost. When we have done this, there will 
 remain no difficulty in applying the simple principle. While 
 to us there is but one God, — namely, the one God who is 
 Three-one, — we become familiar with a considerable vari- 
 ation in phraseology, of which this passage is an instance. 
 Proceeding to the introduction as such, it further 
 connects the prayer with the preceding thanksgiving. The 
 Apostle has been deeply moved by Timothy's report, which 
 
THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 109 
 
 brought good tidings of his converts' faith and charity, 
 and of their strong desire to see himself. Never to be 
 outdone in love, he responds to this desire by vehement 
 prayer, by supplications urged day and night, that it 
 might please the Lord to speed his way to them. This 
 request he makes permanent in the letter he is writing ; 
 and the impulse of affection in his own heart dictates the 
 additional prayer which gives his strong feelings their 
 relief. If he may not visit them at once he can pray for 
 them ; and no better thing can he ask than that they may 
 know the might of that charity which fills his own spirit : 
 " And the Lord make you to increase and abound in love i Thess. 
 even as we do towards you !" ^"- ^^• 
 
 The prayer itself asks for the unlimited abounding of 
 charity, and connects this with the perfection of holiness. 
 
 The first blessing invoked in St. Paul's supplication for 
 the Church is charity, that gift of God and grace in man 
 which always has the preeminence. It is the ruling 
 emotion of the regenerate soul, which, assured by its 
 very life of the love of God, goes back to Him directly in 
 devotion, and indirectly in the deeds of charity to man. 
 In love, as in an element, the Apostle prays that they may 
 grow. Not excluding the increase of this grace as making 
 God its object, he here expressly desires the enlargement 
 of their souls in its exercise towards their fellows. 
 
 And here at the very threshold of his theology, St. 
 Paul establishes the true character of love as it rests 
 especially on the fellow-elect, and as it embraces all men. 
 This distinction between the particular and the catholic 
 love bears close analogy to the same distinction in the love 
 of God Himself. Both St. Paul and St. Peter find it 
 needful to employ for these distinct terms : and we only 
 follow their example when we draw sharply the line of 
 demarcation between the love of brethren and the love 
 of all. But the distinction, however important, belongs 
 to a lower sphere, and has significance only for a season. 
 
110 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 The two graces are one in charity, which is the bond of 
 perfectncss ; and when the intercession asks for the 
 largest aboundings of charity, it leaves all limitation 
 behind : hence the emphatic addition, *' and toward all 
 men." 
 
 But what is the specific increase that is prayed for? 
 This will be seen if we consider the vehement language 
 by which he describes it, and the standard he sets up in 
 his own exanii)le. 
 
 The words " increase and abound " might be interpreted 
 as a compound expression created by St. Paul, as his 
 manner is, to include all that is possible to the capacity 
 of the human heart. But, more closely examined, the 
 former is found to signify rather the growth of the soul in 
 the sphere of charity, and the latter its aboundings in the 
 outward manifestation. It is in love that the soul of the 
 believer must wax : elsewhere love is regarded as growing 
 in us, but here we are regarded as growing in love ; which, 
 like faith, is not only a grace within, but also an element 
 around the soul. Having the latter in view, the suppli- 
 cation prays for us that we may be " increased in love," 
 which means that we may become more and more enlarged 
 in heart as our love is enlarged, gi'owing with its growth. 
 The other term by a slight variation makes tiie sentiment 
 more intense : the '' abound " added to the " increase " 
 asks that the evidence of our increase in love may day by 
 day abound and overflow. The phrase very remarkably 
 blends the two ideas of our own growth in the principle 
 and the ever increasing demonstration of our growth to 
 others. But, whatever peculiarity there may be in the 
 words, they are undoubtedly the very strongest that could 
 be selected to signify the unlimited energy of charity to 
 man. Not, however, we must observe again and again, 
 charity to man only. The continuation in the next chapter 
 shows this : for there, when the Apostle speaks of love to 
 to our fellow Christians as "taught of tJod," he calls it 
 
THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. Ill 
 
 1. 
 
 " Philadelphia," only a branch of charity, though never i Thess. 
 separable from that other love that belongs to God. So ^^* ^^ 
 here, while love to man is supplicated in its large abound- 
 ings, it is regarded only as springing from the abundant 
 effusion of the love of God. He now uses the larger and 
 more comprehensive word : and thus while he speaks of 
 love to man, he includes love to God. For both and 
 together are the fruit of Divine Grace. 
 
 The Apostle presents his own example as at once a 
 standard, a guide, and an incentive. He does not mean, 
 " and may He make us also abound towards you :" the 
 turn of his phrase expressly avoids this, and declares that 
 he knew himself, that he felt himself, to be continually 
 expanding in the habit and exercises of that love which 
 " puffeth not up," but "edifieth," which enlarges and iCor.viii. 
 strengthens the spiritual nature not in apearance only, 
 but in reality. This is the first instance of a practice of 
 the writer Avith which we soon become familiar : that 
 of commending his own example to the believers whom he 
 exhorts. Nowhere in his writings is the abounding self- 
 sacrifice of his love more vividly exhibited than here. 
 The same Spirit whose influence led him to propose hinself 
 as a pattern, or at least as an illustration, of true charity, 
 gave him the perfect self-devotion which breathes in all 
 his words. Let the collective strength of the previous 
 expressions be again adverted to : they present to us an 
 absolutely perfect description of self-forgetting charity. 
 Love runs through the whole round of its emotions, and 
 spends almost all that it has to give, from the tenderness 
 of the nursing mother to the devotion which sacrifices life. 
 It begins in verse five, where the Apostle speaks of his 
 anxiety about their safety as all but intolerable. The 
 glad tidings that they had resisted the tempter was to him 
 strength for the endurance of his own temptations: in- 
 deed, — and what could go beyond this ! — their prosperity 
 was the very life of his soul. Then comes the rapture of 
 
iii. 12. 
 
 112 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 1 Thess. gratitude : " what thanks can we render to God again for 
 lii. 9. you!" and the daily and nightly prayer that the work of 
 tlie Gospel may bring him near the Thessalonians ; that he 
 may behold their face, and fill up the deficiencies of their 
 faith by a personal colloquy that might teach more 
 affectionately, and at the same time more effectually, 
 than a letter. There is more than human sympathy here. 
 
 Ln.vii,47. Having had " much forgiven," the Apostle "loved much." 
 This is the first time that he opens his heart to us, and we 
 may well stand amazed at the perfection of charity which 
 we behold. But while we are pondering the exhibition, 
 and calling to mind how that consummate charity Avas 
 manifested through a life of self-sacrifice even unto death, 
 
 1 Thess^ we hear his intercession diverting us from himself: "the 
 Lord make you to abound in love, even as we do." 
 
 The connection between this abounding love and un- 
 blamable holiness is one of the most important topics in 
 experimental theology. " To the end that " has here its 
 full force : the petitioner is not adding to his supplication 
 in what follows, but showing the reason for which he 
 urged his request, and the ultimate consequence of its 
 attainment. Confirmation in holiness of heart is the 
 immediate result of abounding love ; unblamable holiness 
 is the result as connected with the coming of Christ ; and 
 establishment in that perfection of perfect and blameless 
 love is the eternal result. However swiftly these grada- 
 tions passed through the writer s mind, and however firmly 
 they are blended into one, we cannot gather all his mean- 
 ing unless we take them separately. 
 
 Love, whether regarded in its unity, or divided into 
 devotion and charity, is the energy of all holiness ; the 
 law in man's heart by which the Holy Ghost effects our 
 sanctification. By it we are entirely released from sin : 
 not, indeed, by the power of love in itself, but by love as 
 the instrument of tlie Spirit in expelling every impure and 
 sinful aff'ection. The soul in which the Divine love is shed 
 
THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 113 
 
 abroad in its fulness can give no place to evil desires ; this 
 is a light which leaves no part dark, — a law, royal in its 
 authority, that allows nothing rebellious to remain. By 
 it, also, we are strengihened into complete obedience ; 
 for " love is the fulfilling of the law." The answer of Ro. xiii. 
 St. Paul's prayer involves nothing less than the sovereign ^^• 
 control of a principle that permits no duty to be neglected, 
 no commandment to be disobeyed, no offence against man 
 to be conceived or spoken or done, no method of pleasing 
 God to be forgotten. There is no limit to the increase of 
 tliis love. St. Paul has in this, his first prayer for charity, 
 chosen two terms that spurn restriction. Now this fact 
 teaches us, on the one hand, that an absolutely perfected 
 love — perfected, that is, in the sense of having reached an 
 impassable limit — there cannot be either in time or in 
 eternity ; the love of God to man can never be spent, nor 
 can man's return of love to God. But it teaches us, also, on 
 the other hand, that there is nothing in the heart of man 
 that shall resist it : its abounding shall fill his heart, and 
 its overflow his life, even unto a relative if not absolute 
 perfection. Hence the holiness the confirmation of which 
 the Apostle prays for is, strictly interpreted, a state of 
 sanctification in which man's heart, that is, man himself, 
 is already established by the power of God. 
 
 The idea of confirmation in unblamable holiness before 
 God, even our Father, carries the view forward to that 
 day which is the vanishing point of all the lines of the 
 Apostle's theology and hope. Here it is the awful idea of 
 the inquisition of the Searcher of hearts that is impressed 
 ujion our minds. The confirmed holiness that is the con- 
 comitant, or result, of perfected love is supposed to be 
 brought under the more direct scrutiny of God, who, 
 always present as the Judge in His house, will come 
 nearer, yea, infinitely near, in that dreadful day. It is 
 brought before Him ; it is not created by His coming : 
 neither does death destroy the body of sin, nor the ap- 
 
 I 
 
114 THE PRAYERS OF ST. RAUL. 
 
 pearing of Christ perfect the holy love of His saints. Our 
 Col. i. 22. exposition must not falter here. " Holy and unblamable 
 and unreprovable in His sight " is a saying which sinful man 
 hears with amazement and fear : he is too ready to think 
 it beyond human attainment. That " all the saints " bring 
 their finished holiness to compare with that of men, and 
 that even by their side the sanctity of believers is still un- 
 Impeached, is impressive, but adds nothing to the thought. 
 Enough that the eye of Supreme Justice will regard the 
 saints made perfect in love as unblamable in holiness. 
 Unblamable ; for charity reigning in the heart shall achieve 
 a perfect fulfilment of the evangelical law. Justice shall 
 be satisfied, and mercy rejoice. And this is the state of 
 holiness to which we are called : to the fulness of that 
 charity which, shed abroad by the Spirit, covers, not by 
 hiding, but by destroying, our multitude of sins ; through 
 Jesus Christ, " Who shall also confirm us to the end," — 
 1 Cor. i. 8. not at the end, but from this time to the end, — that we 
 " may be blameless in the day of our Lord." 
 
 Once more, the construction of the Apostle's sentence 
 allows us, if indeed it does not require us, to interpret his 
 prayer as asking that we may be at the coming of Christ, 
 and by the coming of Christ, confirmed in our unchange- 
 able condition of holiness before God. Let us note care- 
 fully what is then to be confirmed, and what the confirm- 
 ation means. It is not the establishment of an uncertain 
 character ; for the abounding of love has already accom- 
 plished that. It is not the establishment in brotherly 
 love ; that is a grace which, strictly speaking, and as one 
 of the branches of charity, may be supposed to end with 
 time. But it is the establishment of the unblamable holi- 
 ness of perfect love ; and that establishment itself is the 
 confirmation of the soul in a state that can never know 
 change, — in other words, it is the seal and end of what we 
 mean by probation. A few words may be necessary on 
 each of these points. 
 
THE ABOUNDING OF CHARITY. 115 
 
 The holiness of perfect love is the permanent character 
 of the saved. Love abideth ; and without holiness none 
 can see the Lord. Of nothing else it is said that it abides, 
 and will abide for ever. Holiness is the consummation of 
 all that religion has to accomplish for the soul in its sanc- 
 tification from sin and its consecration to God. And love 
 is, and will ever be, the law of heaven as well as the 
 law of earth. Faith, confirmed till the day of Christ, will 
 cease as the principle of holiness when it shall have lost 
 by finding its highest object, an unseen God. Hope in its 
 relation to holiness shall cease ; for, though the spirit will 
 go on to higher glory, it will never know that there is 
 a future before it : it will never be conscious of an object 
 waited for. 
 
 This establishment implies the end of i^robation. That 
 is to say, as death ends the soul's probation, so the coming 
 of Christ without death will end it. Not only will the 
 great day diffuse the glory of sight over the dimness of 
 faith, and make all the objects and experiences of religion 
 more vivid, it will also stereotype them for ever. 
 
 With the day of the Lord the order of probation vanishes. 
 It vanishes to the individual in death, but to the Church, 
 and to man's history generally, only at the coming of 
 Christ. Then — not till then, but assuredly then — all that 
 belongs to the warfare, and suspense, and growing victory 
 of religion shall cease. We shall be established eternally. 
 All that a probationary condition has had of dread shall 
 terminate ; but nothing more effectually than that pro- 
 bation itself, with the whole family of terms that belong 
 to it. Phenomena shall be lost in eternal reality. With 
 the abolition of sin, trial also and the possibility of change 
 shall be abolished. Rest in God shall be the law of 
 heaven ; and that rest shall be movement in an orbit 
 around the throne that shall never be perturbed. 
 
 What remains in the prayer is subordinate, and, so to 
 speak, not of its essence. The Lord's coming with all His 
 
 I 2 
 
116 THE PRAYEIRS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 saints will have for its object man)^ things that need not 
 enter into this exposition. It will be the gathering into 
 one of all the fruits of the IMediatorial work : the saints 
 disembodied shall come Avith Jesus to receive their bodies, 
 to join those sanctified like themselves, to blend into 
 fellowship around the Lord for ever. And Christian 
 *' saints " must needs include the angels : they will be 
 present at the end, as they have never been absent from 
 the beginning. Our brethren in heaven shall not be per- 
 fect without us ; nor shall either we or they be perfected 
 without the angels. The Lord will bring all His saints : 
 all, namely, Avhom heaven already has ; but Ave ourselves 
 must be added to make the '' all " in its fullest sense 
 complete. 
 
 What shall follow Ave need not noAv ask. The one theme 
 of this beginning of the Prayers of Paul the Apostle is 
 enough for us : the perfect fulness of love, bringing in 
 a holiness AA'hich shall be found unblamable and as such 
 confirmed in the day of Christ. 
 
ENTIRE 8ANCTIFICATI0N. 117 
 
 II. 
 
 ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 
 
 " And the very God of peace sanctify you wholly ;• and I pray God 
 your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the 
 coming of our Lord Jesus Christ. Faithful is He that calleth you, who 
 also will do it."— 1 Thess. v. 23, 24. 
 
 The first thing that arrests attention when we approach 
 this prayer is its position. It is the only one, save that in 
 the Hebrews, which forms a conclusion ; and this gives it 
 a specific character. We perceive its full meaning, and 
 feel its full force, only Avhen we read ourselves into it as 
 the end of the whole Epistle. As such, it is, so to speak, 
 the natural close of a most impressive course of precept 
 and exhortation. Sanctification from all sins had been 
 again and again urged, but especially from those which 
 most emphatically express the defilement and loathsome- 
 ness of sin. Sanctification, in its positive sense, as the 
 energy of love, the strength of the new life, commanding 
 through the will man's entire being, and going forth 
 towards all that is outside of self, had been inculcated 
 and prayed for, but especially with regard to fellow- 
 Christians and fellow-men. And now all previous petitions 
 are gathered up into one. The Epistle ends with a prayer 
 for absolute and unrestricted sanctification : for a sancti- 
 fication negative and positive, perfect in whole, and perfect 
 in parts, at once consummate and progressive, confirmed 
 for time and for eternity. 
 
 This emphasis becomes if possible more marked when 
 we regard the prayer as the close of the strain im- 
 mediately preceding. As far back as the fifteenth verse 
 we perceive the signs of a very strong emotion in the 
 
118 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Apostle's spirit. There the idea of love, vanquishing all 
 evil and pursuing all good, stirs his soul. His exhortations 
 become very bold, and each of them bears the burden 
 of perfection. Nowhere have we in the same compass so 
 many wonderful precepts. The words are few, the sentences 
 are hurried and condensed, but they are " exceeding 
 broad." We are prepared for the grandeur of the prayer 
 that follows by the grandeur of its introduction. When we 
 come to the verge of the supplication itself we cannot but 
 feel that the Apostle is about to ask some great thing. 
 Precept never laid a stronger obligation on human energy, 
 and never put a higher honour on human ability, than 
 
 1 Thess. when it says : " Test all tilings, hold fast all that is good, 
 
 V. 21,22. ^jj^j keep back from every form of evil." Precisely at 
 
 that point, when man's ambition to be perfect has been 
 
 stimulated to the utmost, the transition is made from what 
 
 1 Thoss. ^ve can do for ourselves to what God must do for us : " But 
 
 V 23 
 
 may the God of peace Himself sanctify you wholly ! " 
 
 In several respects this prayer is peculiar, and may be 
 said to stand alone. 
 
 Its phraseology is from beginning to end unique : all 
 save the invocation of the " God of Peace," and the 
 reference to the coming of the Lord, which indeed belong 
 to the mere framework of the petitions, and, when closely 
 examined, are not without their own marks of distinctness. 
 The expressions Avhich compose the ftibric of the prayer — 
 " sanctify," " wholly," " whole," " spirit and soul and 
 body," "preserved blameless," "faithful Caller," "who 
 will do" — are each and all very emphatic, and do not 
 occur again in the devotional language of the Apostle. 
 It has been remarked before that his prayers are full of 
 variety ; and that each is stamped with its own character- 
 istics. But tliis one has more tlian the usual individuality : 
 it is marked off from the rest in a way not to be mistaken. 
 It has more of the old temple spirit and temple phrase- 
 ology in it than any of those which follow ; and exhibits 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFIGATION. 119 
 
 more affinity with the Epistle to the Hebrews than with 
 any of St. Paul's other writings. 
 
 This at once suggests a comparison with the greatest of 
 all recorded supplications, the highpriestly consecration- 
 prayer in St. John. Though this Apostle was not one 
 of those who companied with the Lord Jesus, and the 
 Gospels Avere not yet written, some of his devotions 
 contain remarkable reminiscences of the Saviour's words, 
 and all of them are fashioned after the "manner" that He 
 taught His disciples. As an instance, we shall hereafter 
 compare the cast of the Ephesian prayer with the " Our 
 Father." In the present case we have only to hint at the 
 resemblance to the Lord's supplications for His disciples 
 before He left them. The reader will pursue the parallel 
 with ease. There can be no better preparation for our 
 present study than a careful perusal of the highpriestly 
 prayer : there we have the ground or source of all New- 
 Testament doctrine concerning sanctification. " I sanctify Jno. xvii. 
 INIyself that they also might be sanctified" — is the key 
 to the whole sacred mystery. The Divine consecration, 
 separating believers from the world, while keeping them 
 blameless in it ; having its end, on the one hand, in the 
 unity of the mystical body in holiness, and on the other, 
 in the vision of Christ's glory at His coming : and brought 
 to its perfection by the Righteous or Faithful God of the 
 Christian vocation ; — these form a series of ideas which 
 are common to the Lord and the writer of this Prayer. 
 One might almost suppose that St. Paul had been lingering 
 between the Paschal chamber and Gethsemane, and heard 
 these words. But no such supposition is needed. The 
 sayings of that last evening had long been the commnon 
 heritage; and we know that all of them had been made 
 matter of special revelation to Christ's latest Apostle. 
 
 The Saviour's prayer for our sanctification, however, 
 was in some respects very different from that of His 
 servant. His intercession was the utterance of His 
 
120 THE FRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 I will," based upon the fulfilment of His redeeming obli- 
 gation. And while to His Father it was the expression of 
 His eternal will, as now shared and enforced by His human 
 heart, to us it is Divine teaching as to the connection 
 between His sanctification and ours. He ofi*ered, through 
 the eternal Spirit of His Divinity, the spotless sacrifice 
 of His flesh for our redemption ; we only present our- 
 selves, that we may be sanctified from sin and then con- 
 secrated by the Divine Spirit of God, being made ** par- 
 takers of His holiness." He sanctified Himself; and, in 
 virtue of that sanctification. He sanctifies us also. His 
 Spirit uses as His instrument the truth of redemption, 
 which is the Word of the Gospel ; but the sanctification 
 itself lias its ground in the union with Christ which 
 He effects. That union gives to our faith the virtue of 
 His sacrifice ; we are justified and sanctified from guilt 
 and condemnation. It gives to our faith also the virtue of 
 His life : sprinkled and accepted in Him we receive His 
 Spirit as the source and the power of our anointing unto 
 holiness. As " we are in Him " we are justified and 
 sanctified from the defilement that would hinder con- 
 secration ; as "He is in us" we are sanctified unto all 
 holiness of devotion and obedience. But this disthiction 
 must be effaced as soon as it is made. The Holy Spirit 
 of Christ imparted to us unites the two ideas in one : He 
 first sanctifies us from the defilement of unpardoned sin, 
 purging the conscience ; and the consecration thus rendered 
 possible He effects, dedicating us to the service of the living 
 God. Such is briefly the connection between the original 
 text in the Gospel and the expanded doctrine in the 
 Epistles. 
 
 The expressions by which God is invoked in St. Pauls 
 prayers always contain important helps for their interpre- 
 tation. Here there are three, each very significant in 
 itself, and all still more significant in their order. '* The 
 God of peace " is the Author of reconciliation accomplished 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 121 
 
 through the atoning mediation of Christ ; " He that 
 calleth " is the Father who calls, and is ever calling, the 
 individual soid to Christ and to salvation ; the Sanctifier 
 " who will do " what He hath promised is the Finisher of 
 that which began in the call to appropriate the peace. The 
 God of a finished redemption summons every one to the 
 enjoyment of reconciliation and to the perfect holiness of 
 the Christian life. 
 
 It is only the " God of peace " who calls to sanctifica- 
 tion : that is, those only are sanctified, or can be sanctified, 
 who have entered into the enjoyment of the Divine favour. 
 God here receives a new designation. This great word 
 *' peace" received a new and deeper meaning at the cross; 
 and from that time God has added it to His many names. 
 " Righteous Father," " Holy Father," were the terms by 
 which our Lord invoked the God of redemption; those 
 names He bears still, — they can never be changed, — but 
 now He delights to be known as the " God of grace," the 
 " Father of mercies," the " God of peace." He calls every 
 sinner who repents to come to Him as the God of recon- 
 ciliation ; and the believer pardoned not only receives the 
 assurance of relief from the Divine displeasure, but enters 
 into a state of habitual fellowship Avith a reconciled 
 Father. Peace begins the state of grace, peace pervades Rom. v. i. 
 it, and peace is its perfection. And thus the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ takes this name as the 
 Giver of every blessing that flows thi'ough the reconciliation 
 of the atonement to redeemed man. 
 
 " He that calleth " is a designation that seldom occurs : i Thess. 
 never again in the phraseology of prayer. Generally ' ' 
 the calling of God is referred to the past, marking the 
 influence of the Spirit through the word at the season of 
 conversion. Sometimes, as we shall soon see, it refers to 
 the final issue ; and the calling is to the kingdom and 
 glory of Christ. Here, however, it is the continuous and 
 abiding call between the two extremes that is meant : we 
 
122 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 are called, always called, " unto lioliuess." It is not 
 signified that God derives this name from the fact that it 
 is He who invites us to Himself in the Gospel ; but the 
 exjiression affectingly reminds us that the design of tlie 
 vocation is always an entire holiness, and that we are 
 called to it always. It is a remembrancer made, every 
 time we hear it, of an abiding obligation on our part, of a 
 constant will on the part of God. He that is now and 
 ever calling us is calling us to perfect sanctification. And, 
 as every vocation implies a promise, the Apostle adds, 
 " Faithful is He that calleth," who will not fail to do His 
 part, requiring only fidelity on ours. It is not ''who 
 calleth " simply, but " who calleth you." 
 
 The third name is not mentioned, but implied in the 
 prayer. God is the only Sanctifier of His saints. The 
 word itself, with the wliole class of phrases that it governs, 
 belongs to Him alone. It is God that justifieth : no less 
 is it God that sanctifieth. We have no right to adopt 
 either of these terms to signify anything that we can do ; 
 and it is only a lax religious phraseology that speaks of 
 man's sanctifying or consecrating himself. Whenever the 
 Scriptures speak of our part in this matter, other terms 
 are carefully employed : a wide range of them is at our 
 command. Words wx have for duty and virtue in every 
 form ; for the formation of character and the performance 
 of good works ; even for the washing and cleansing of our- 
 selves. But this word " sanctify " belongs to God, and 
 must itself be sanctified or set apart from our common 
 Johnxvii. use. One only could say, "I sanctify Myself!" 
 
 The importance of this is silently impressed upon us by 
 the turn of the phrase Avhen the sublime prayer begins. 
 " The very God of peace " is language hallowed in mul- 
 titudes of hearts ; and no revision will effiice it from the 
 current language, at least of this generation. It must, 
 however, be rightly understood. What the Apostle means 
 is : " But, Avhilst vou are doing all that men can do to 
 
 19. 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 123 
 
 gain perfection, up to the point of testing all, cleaving to 
 the good, and eschewing evil in every appearance that it 
 may or can assume, may God Himself, Who alone can do 
 tliis, ' sanctify you wholly ' !" The Father is the Sanctifier : 
 "Sanctify them through Thy truth!" The Son is the Johnxvii. 
 Sanctifier: " He that sanctifieth, and they that are sancti- tt V'.- 
 fied, are all of one." But preeminently the Holy Ghost ii. 
 is the Sanctifier : " Through sanctification of the Spirit." ^ T.^®^^- 
 Each Person of the Holy Three-in-One ; but God alone. 
 
 Entering now into the prayer itself, we mark its great 
 central idea, the entireness of personal sanctification ; 
 and we shall better apprehend this if we rigidly confine 
 ourselves, as the words confine us, to that one idea. But 
 it wiU be well to consider first Avhat kind of entireness is 
 not meant. 
 
 There is a sense in which all accepted believers are of 
 necessity entirely sanctified : — they are absolutely washed 
 fi-om the guilt of their sins ; their hearts are sprinkled 
 from an evil conscience ; and that defilement which must 
 needs liinder the Divine acceptance, is not seen in them 
 or imputed to them. This ancient Levitical meaning of 
 the word comes up Avith it out of the Old Testament, and 
 never altogether forsakes it, at least in the language of 
 Scriptural theology. It is thus applied throughout the 
 Epistle to the Hebrews, and, with a certain change, in 
 St. John's Epistles. As the sprinkling of typical blood, 
 and the washing of typical water, sanctified to the purify- 
 ing of the flesh, so the better blood and the purer water 
 of the Gospel pm-ged the conscience and washed the 
 spiritual body of the sacrifice. In this sense, sanctification Heb.x.22. 
 is one \f\i\\ justification : they meet and go together for 
 a season before they widely separate. Tlie soul that is 
 justified in the forum or in the court mediatorial, is in the 
 temple and before the altar sanctified. Now this sancti- 
 fication is always entire, even as justification is always 
 complete: "By one offering, He hath perfected for ever Heb.x.i4. 
 
124 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 them that are sanctified." We shall return to this truth 
 in the sequel : meanwhile, it is enough to say here that 
 such a meaning of sanctification does not enter — or enters 
 only as subordinate — into t:ie Apostle's prayer. 
 
 In another sense, also, believers in Christ may be said 
 to be entirely sanctified. They are presented to God upon 
 an altar Avhich makes everything holy that touches it ; and 
 thus they are set apart, consecrated, and devoted to the 
 Divine service. The seal impressed on Christians marks 
 them out as the Lord's. They are His whose Spirit they 
 receive. Now that consecration to God must be, in a 
 certain sense, absolute, if it exist at all. The offering 
 must be either on the altar or not on the altar. Accord- 
 ingly, much of the language of Scripture speaks of the 
 redeemed as entirely sanctified to God. But it is not this 
 sanctification, common to all regenerate Christians, that 
 the Apostle prays for. The oblation placed on the altar 
 is altogether destined for God, and therefore is and must 
 be wholly dedicated ; but it has yet to go up to heaven in 
 the consuming fire as a whole burnt-offering. 
 
 Once more, there is a sanctification of the elect in the 
 mmd and purpose of God which may be said to be entire. 
 They are complete in Christ, according to the foreknow- 
 ledge of God : in the Divine intention the saving process 
 Rom. viii. has already reached its end. " Whom He justified, them 
 „^^- He also glorified." "He hath perfected for ever them 
 14. that are in process of being sanctified." Christ is of God 
 1 Cor. i. iwatle to them " wisdom, and righteousness, and sancti- 
 30. fication, and redemption." The whole round of evangelical 
 blessing is the inheritance of the sanctified who persevere. 
 The patience of Divine grace waits till the gi-eat end is 
 attained ; and meanwhile the prescience of Divine love 
 rejoices over the foreknown as already perfectly sanctified. 
 But of any such ideal in the Divine mind the Apostle does 
 not think in this prayer. 
 
 These several views of entire holiness unite in one 
 
'ENTIRE BANCTIFICATION. 125 
 
 element, that of imputation. But the Apostle's prayer 
 uses a word which takes us into an altogether different 
 region : *' Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will do 
 it." St. Paul does not pray that God may reckon the 
 Thessalonians to be sanctified ; that He may constantly 
 impute to them the principle of consecration, or that He 
 may bring them finally to the perfect holiness that His 
 Divine mind foresees. He prays that God may accom- 
 plish within them a work of all-pervading sanctification, 
 according to His unfailing promise, and by the virtue of 
 His all-sufficient power. 
 
 The entireness of the sanctification here prayed for is 
 expressed in two ways : first, it is a complete consecration 
 of the whole person or being of the Christian ; and, secondly, 
 it is the preservation of the same integral person in a state 
 of blamelessness till the coming of Christ. These we must 
 consider in order ; but before doing so, it will be well to 
 obviate some objections arising out of the form and con- 
 struction of the sentence. 
 
 It has been, or it might be, said that the words used by 
 the Apostle are too rare and too uncertain in their mean- 
 ing to permit their being made the foundation of a doctrine 
 so important as that which is sometimes based upon them. 
 But, granted that they are unusual — scarcely occurring 
 again — it cannot be proved that they are indefinite in 
 their signification. On the contrary, they are chosen with 
 extreme precision, and bear their sense in their very form. 
 Passing by this, two other preliminary objections, based 
 upon this one, must in few words be obviated. 
 
 The first takes the form of an honourable explanation, 
 though not a sound one. This assumes that the term 
 " wholly " must refer to the sanctification of the entire 
 body of Thessalonians ; while blamelessness is afterwards 
 supplicated for each individual in his " wholeness," or 
 integrity. The sense thus yielded is a beautiful one, and 
 quite in harmony with our Saviour's prayer for the unity 
 
126 THE PBAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 of believers in holiness. But, apart from the difference 
 in the expression between the Lord's words and St. 
 Paul's, there is no instance of any individual community 
 as such being regarded or prayed for as capable of 
 entire sanctification : that blessedness is the prerogative 
 of either the whole mystical Church or the individual 
 Christian. 
 
 The other less worthy subterfuge simply asserts that 
 what seems to be the plain meaning of the terms must not 
 be unduly pressed. It is alleged that here and elsewhere 
 the Apostle is " very bold," and his language is not to be 
 too nicely measured and weighed ; that he does not always 
 restrain his enthusiasm and pause to select the " words of 
 truth and soberness ; " that his theology ought not to be 
 made responsible for his exuberant phrases ; that it is not 
 right to found dogmas from which human self-knowledge 
 revolts upon occasional unlimited terms, especially when 
 those terms are used by one whose grandest passages owe 
 their sublimity to an unmatched use of the rhetorical 
 hyperbole. This is the style in which a loose theory of 
 inspiration speaks ; it furnishes a canon for interpreting 
 the Bible which is only too readily adopted by indolence 
 and unbelief ; and the result is that the glory of Scriptural 
 ethics vanishes before it. Whatever else may be said in 
 condemnation of this theory of indeterminateness in St. 
 Paul's diction, it is enough here to point to the words 
 that lead the van and bring up the rear of this text. It 
 1 Thess. begins and it ends with the power of God. And with 
 V, 24. regard to the latter, " Faithful is He," it is remarkable 
 that this pithy formula is with hardly an exception used 
 precisely on those occasions when the strength of the 
 Apostle's language might seem to demand the confirmation 
 or the sanction of a special Divine guarantee. 
 
 Taking then, first, the entireness of sanctification as an 
 end attained, we must mark well two things : first, there 
 is a consecrating act of God put forth to the utmost 
 
ENTIRE 8ANGTIFICATI0N. 127 
 
 necessary point ; and, secondly, that concentrating force 
 pervades the whole being of man. 
 
 It is the function, act, and energy of the Holy Ghost — 
 " the God of peace " — applied through the truth to the 
 centre of man's nature, or rather to his entire being. The 
 work is one of Divine power, a work which God begins, 
 continues, and brings to perfection : He " will do it." 
 The prayer gives all the glory to God : man is supposed 
 in his finished holmess to be "filled with the Spirit." Now Eph.v.is. 
 this separates our sanctification from any and every dis- 
 ciplinary self-consecration which man by his own effort 
 may attain. It is not the result of a new direction or 
 impetus given to our faculties ; it is through no energy 
 of the self-consecrating will ; through no contemplation 
 of the illuminated reason ; through no mighty outgoings of 
 the regenerate feeling. There is a power above and 
 behind all these : using them, indeed, each and all, but 
 not leaving the recovery of holiness to them. It is not 
 the moral agent retrieving himself by Divine aid, but a new 
 and more abundant life infused and sustained and brought 
 to perfection, within man's own being indeed, but by a 
 power above it. Here is the test of all systems of theology, 
 of all schools of interpretation, of all views of evangelical 
 privilege. 
 
 The sanctifying power of God pervades man's whole 
 being : it extends to all the elements of his nature, " the 
 whole ;" and it sanctifies them " wholly," as belonging to 
 one indivisible person. Thus this doctrine of sanctifica- 
 tion is in strict harmony with the general teaching of 
 Scripture, literal or figurative, which describes the end of 
 religion as gradually attained. Let it be at once observed, 
 however, that the entireness of sanctification is not said of 
 each of the parts of our triple constitution, as such, but 
 only of the whole as combined . 
 
 The spirit of man is sanctified, and in it the process really 
 has its origin and its perfection. Man's spirit is that 
 
128 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 element of his nature which is not only his preeminence 
 but his distinction also. In that he is only a little lower 
 than tiie angels, and lower than they only for a season ; 
 in that he has no fellowship whatever with the lower 
 creation. There is the seat of the Divine image in man, 
 an image wliicli may be marred but never can be lost. 
 The perfect restoration of tliat image belongs to a future 
 economy, where entire sanctification is swallowed up in 
 glory. jNIeanwhile the sjiirit is consecrated from sin and 
 sense and unto God in all its faculties. The reason is 
 filled with truth, and becomes a mirror capable of reflect- 
 ing the Divine image, an eye that can in everything see 
 God : not glorified as yet, not healed of all its infirmities, 
 but entirely dedicated to its one original and long-for- 
 gotten function, that of being the depository of the 
 supreme first principles of goodness, rectitude, and truth. 
 The conscience — using that term in its improper sense as 
 including not only the moral consciousness but the standard 
 to which it appeals — is sanctified unto perfect fidelity as 
 an internal legislator true to the trutli, as an incorrupt- 
 ible witness pacified, and as an interpreter of the Divine 
 judgment delivered from all fear. And the wUl is sanc- 
 tified : not raised, indeed, to its utmost strength ; but 
 consecrated wholly, and deepening in its consecration as 
 knowledge widens ; altogether sanctified as the servant 
 of its own supreme choice and intention, and as the master 
 of all its own acts ; sanctified by release from every impedi- 
 ment of unholy motives, and by tlie constant influence of 
 the truth applied by the Spirit : the impulse behind it, 
 the end before it, and all its means between the two, con- 
 secrated in the unity of one supreme principle — the glory 
 of God. But we are apt to lose the noblest meaning of 
 the term " spirit " if we exchange it for these synonymes. 
 It is the element in man's nature which is turned to God 
 and capable of God. Dead or asleep in the unregenerate 
 it is quickened into life by the Holy Spirit ; and when it 
 
ENTIRE SANGTIFIGATION. 129 
 
 is entirely possessed by Him who quickens it — the 
 " spiritual " man being " filled with the Spirit," and wholly 
 spiritual — it is wholly sanctified to the vision of God : not 
 indeed as yet to a direct intuitional contemplation of God 
 — though a high state of this contemplation is possible 
 even on earth — but to a state in which God is seen in all 
 things, and all things are seen in God. This entire sancti- 
 fication of the spirit "passeth understanding:" not only as 
 being undefiuable to human thought, but as belonging to 
 that sphere of man's nature which is above or outside of 
 the discerning faculty. " He that is joined unto the Lord i Cor. vi. 
 is one Spirit." ^^' 
 
 The soul is consecrated also as distinct from the spirit, 
 though altogether subordinate to it. The soul in Scrip- 
 tural phrase — that is, when mentioned apart from the 
 human spirit where the Divine Spirit's seat is — comes 
 between the higher and the lower elements of our being. 
 It is the sphere of the desires and passions, which are 
 innocent in themselves, but transformed by the sinful will 
 into worldly afifections and lusts ; which are restored, how- 
 ever, to their original innocence by being brought under 
 the control of the Holy Ghost through the will, refusing 
 them their unholy stimulants and nourishment in the 
 world. The soul partakes both of the spirit and of the 
 body. As allied to both and uniting them it is the sphere 
 of those processes of understanding and feeling of which 
 animals below us exhibit the traces ; and which, so to 
 speak, the spirit conducts through the medium of the 
 bodily organisation. Linked with the infirm brain and 
 heart and members, the soul can attain to only a negative 
 perfection. Its glorification has yet to come ; but by the 
 Divine grace its almost innumerable faculties of per- 
 ception and feeling and action may be and must be 
 brought under the supreme ascendency of the sanctifying 
 Spirit. 
 
 The body is also sanctified, as the instrument of spirit 
 
 K 
 
130 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 and soul, and as an integi-al and everlasting part of man's 
 nature. In the former sense its consecration is bound up 
 Avith that of the soul : a holy soul uses all the members 
 and functions of the body holily. But our prayer means 
 more than that. The body of the Christian is consecrated 
 in virtue of the Incarnation. Though only material and 
 doomed to dissolution, it is a " holy thing :" in fact, as the 
 vehicle through Avhich the spirit and the soiU act, it has 
 more abundant honour put upon it : for of what besides 
 1 Cor. vi. the body is it said that it is " the temple of the Holy 
 ^9- Ghost?" But, like the spirit and the soul, and still more 
 than they, its sanctification is limited; postponed, as it 
 were, till that day when its hour shall have come, and its 
 sanctification and glorification shall be one. 
 
 The entireness of the consecration, " wholly," has refer- 
 ence to the person made up of these constituents. The 
 Christian is entirely sanctified when he in his triune per- 
 sonality is absolutely dedicated to God. The three parts 
 of our nature are not introduced in order to show that 
 holiness becomes perfect by proceeding through these in- 
 wardly towards the centre. The process is precisely the 
 opposite of this. The sanctification is of the man, in 
 whom spirit and soul and body unite : it begins with the 
 self of " the inner man," made now *' the new man," that 
 governs all. Shi destroyed, and love perfect, in the inner 
 man, the rest follows. The Holy Ghost, dwelling in that 
 renewed self, becomes a will Avithin the will that rules 
 the whole ; and when He has confirmed that Avill in its 
 supreme devotion to God sanctification is entire. Perfect 
 love in the will concentrates the strength of the mind, and 
 of the soul, and of the body, on God alone. The Spirit of 
 holiness unites the triple consecration into one. He makes 
 the heart or inner man a temple, the sanctity of Avhich is 
 difl^used from the human spirit, which is man's holiest, 
 through his soul which connects him with the body, and 
 the body which connects him with the world of sense. 
 
ENTIRE S A NOTIFICATION. 131 
 
 This leads directly to the second part of the prayer for 
 entire holiness, that which asks for continuance in such 
 a state. Here, indeed, is the point where the main 
 difficulty lies, and which therefore demands to be very 
 carefully examined. But the language of the Apostle is 
 so clear and express, that the expositor who does not take 
 counsel of fear will not go astray. It suggests three 
 subjects of consideration. First, the same power that 
 sanctifies as an act preserves that sanctification as a 
 state. Secondly, the state of holiness is one that admits 
 of no defect : " the whole " of the spirit, and soul, and 
 body is the Lord's. Thirdly, the consecration is such as, 
 in the judgment of God Himself, is " blameless." Let us 
 mark these in their order. 
 
 Entire sanctification, as distinguished from sanctifica- 
 tion simply so termed, may be regarded as the confirmed, 
 habitual, no longer interrupted devotion of the whole 
 being to God. As the poAver that created the world 
 sustains it by an abiding and omnipresent indwelling 
 energy, so the power that can fix upon God the strength 
 of the whole soul can keep it fixed on Him. In wholly 
 sanctified spirits this establishing grace reigns ; and that 
 is the distinction between them and others, between them 
 and their former selves. It is the concentrated devotion 
 of all to God made permanent that makes the difiference. 
 A strong influence of grace descending in answer to prayer 
 at an opportune moment may carry the whole soul to God 
 for a season : may exclude every other thought from the 
 mind, still every alien feeling in the soul, and draw the 
 entire will into conformity with the will of God. This 
 may often be the case for a time, and during strong- 
 excitement ; but not so often is their continuance in such 
 a state. When the prayer of faith that brings this bless- 
 ing becomes unceasing in its fervent and effectual in- 
 wrought power, this act of intense devotion becomes the 
 tranquil state of the soul. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 But how does the prayer of faith grow so mighty? 
 
 Not without the use of eflfectual means ; but to them 
 
 this present apostolic prayer does not directly point our 
 
 attention. Suffice to say that habitual faith working by 
 
 habitual love and sustained by habitual hope brings the 
 
 Eph. i. 19. " exceeding greatness of the Divine power " into the life. 
 
 But that power uses the means of its own appointment. 
 
 Nourished by the word of God, which is God Himself, 
 
 " all things are possible " to faith. Supposing the faith to 
 
 grow weak, or to be suspended, sanctification ceases to be 
 
 r entire. " By faith we stand " upon these heights of the 
 
 I " hill of the Lord." And He who is faithful is '* able to 
 
 keep us from falling." 
 
 The consecration of the Christian is the preservation of 
 all that belongs to his spirit, and to his soul, and to his 
 body blameless in the fellowship and in the service of 
 God. The whole man becomes entirely the Lord's as His 
 property and w^orshipper ; the whole man becomes entirely 
 the Lord's as His instrument and servant. Hence entire 
 sanctification is the habitual communion with God as the 
 supreme good of the soul ; and the habitual reference of 
 every act to the will and glory of God as the Lord of life. 
 All this is not expressly stated in our prayer ; we must 
 therefore not linger upon it. But it is necessarily implied, 
 and we must not i)ass it by altogether. The one principle 
 of entire consecration, which is faith in the poAver of God 
 working by love, keeps the spirit and soul faithful to God 
 as the supreme object of worship and source of happiness. 
 The whole heart is given to Him. No satisfaction is 
 sought for the intellect, the affections, or the desires apart 
 from Him. Love makes the whole being a whole burnt 
 offering : a sacrifice that for ever burns, but is never 
 consumed ; and the spirit that is preserved in this un- 
 divided allegiance to the Supreme Good is conscious of 
 its high choice, and rests in it: "All my springs are in 
 Thee." But, whilst there is such satisfying communion 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFICATION. 133 
 
 with God and perfect fellowship with Him, the sanctified 
 soul is also consecrated to His service. Love takes order 
 for this also ; and, by the mystery of its divine cmming, 
 makes the man who is always sanctifying his God in the 
 temple of his own heart a never-weary servant of God in 
 the activity of probation. It stamps upon every action of 
 life, from its highest labours and sacrifices down to the least 
 movement of tlie least member of the body, the character 
 of consecration to the Holy One. All is done with a con- 
 scious or latent aim to glorify Him. Life has no higher 
 perfection than this ; and he who is preserved in this state 
 is wholly sanctified. All the aspirations of devotion, all 
 the claims of charity, all the obligations of obedience, 
 may, through the energy of this self-renouncing love, be 
 reached, be responded to, and be discharged. This love, 
 this ever-necessary charity, the bond of perfectness, we 
 have been obliged to import into this prayer from that 
 which precedes. We cannot expound such language as 
 this mthout it ; and, by an appeal to its power, we may 
 explain what in these words seems too high for human 
 nature. Love is the fulfilling of the law : the perfection 
 of worship, the energy of all obedience, the sufficient 
 strength of all duty to God and man. 
 
 And this state of entire consecration is lastly preserved 
 in " blamelessness." So wonderful is this word, that we 
 instinctively ask whether its meaning is not fainter than 
 its sound. But the more closely we question it, the more 
 stedfastly does it affirm that it is even so. It is literally 
 and nothing less than " blameless " or " unblameworthy." 
 
 Returning to the meaning of sanctification with which 
 we set out, this word " blameless " must signify of course 
 that no blame is imputed. The wholly sanctified are pre- 
 served in a state of acceptance as continually sprinkled 
 or washed or cleansed — for all these terms are used — by 
 the virtue of the atoning blood. The Fountain opened 
 once for all sends its precious current for ever over their 
 
134 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 soul. But the word means more than that. The high 
 priest so entirely consecrates the oflfering to God, that the 
 whole spirit and soul and body, the three-one oblation, is 
 a faultless sacrifice. Sin is no longer found in it. It 
 is impossible honestly to argue away this explanation of 
 the word. Exposition must accept it: reverently, sub- 
 missively, thankfully accept it. And it is confirmed in 
 that acceptance by calling to mind the only two other 
 occasions on which our nature is divided as it is here. 
 Both passages represent man's being as in the temple and 
 ready for the altar. One divides the spirit and the body ; 
 and the body presented by the spirit as the representative 
 of a whole life dedicated to God is supposed to be a 
 
 Eom. xii. "living, holy, and acceptable sacrifice." The other divides 
 1- the spirit and soul; and there the sacred scrutiny is 
 
 Heb iv. described as piercing to the " thoughts and intents of 
 ^^* the heart," — the keenest imaginable exhibition of the 
 Divine requirement in the soul that God accepts. With 
 this full in his thought, St. Paul nevertheless prays that 
 the Thessalonians may be preserved blameless in the 
 sacrifice of spirit and soul and body. No wonder that the 
 living souls thus wholly sanctified are supposed to be un- 
 blamable at the coming of the Lord Jesus. Test can go 
 no further. 
 
 The fidelity of God is pledged to the accomplishment 
 of this. " Faithful is He that calleth you, who also will 
 do — !" What will He do? This the prayer sublimely 
 leaves unexpressed. But the word that begins the sen- 
 tence gives us the clue to the Apostle's exact meaning. 
 It is not simply that God is mighty, and will achieve the 
 full sanctification of His saints. He is faithful : this 
 implies His covenant, and the promises of His covenant, 
 and not less its conditions. Sanctification and obedience 
 are continually conjoined by all the Apostles: that obe- 
 dience being the obedience of love and also of faith. If 
 we yield ourselves up with all our heart to the will of 
 
ENTIRE SANCTIFIGATION. 135 
 
 God, and " cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the 2 Cor. vii. 
 flesh and spirit," His promise shall be fulfilled in a per- 
 fected holiness. But it is faith rather than obedience that 
 Scripture directly connects with our finished sanctification. 
 The Faithful Caller demands faith in the called. This 
 most wonderful prayer becomes a most unlimited promise, 
 the superscription of which is, " According to your faith 
 be it unto you." 
 
136 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 III. 
 
 THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOODNESS. 
 
 " Wherefore also we pray always for you, that our God would count you 
 worthy of this calling, and fulfil all the good pleasure of His goodness, and 
 the work of faith with power : that the name of our Lord Jesus Christ 
 may be glorified in you, and ye in Him, according to the grace of our 
 God and the Lord Jesus Christ." — 2 Thess. i. 11, 12. 
 
 At the point where this intercessory prayer rises out of 
 the text we see exemplified St. Paul's manner of giving 
 a devotional turn to every subject, especially to every 
 difficult or transcendent subject. He has been contem- 
 plating the day of the Lord : as if present he witnesses 
 the glorification of God in the punishment of the wicked 
 and in the salvation of the saints. With a graceful com- 
 bination of courtesy and charity he assumes that the 
 Thessalonians are among the latter : saved " because our 
 testimony among you was believed." But whilst he is 
 telling them this a change passes over his mind. The 
 language of exultation and confidence becomes the lan- 
 guage of hope ; and hope takes refuge in supplication. 
 Prophecy glides into prayer : — that God may graciously 
 count them worthy of so high a dignity ; that He may 
 also make them worthy of it ; and that He may crown 
 their imputed and imparted worthiness with glory at the 
 last. 
 
 There is no room for doubt that the translation " count 
 worthy" literally expresses the Apostle's meaning. His 
 prayer afterwards includes in its object the Thessalonians' 
 actual meetness for glorification as accomplished by the 
 Divine power ; but here at first he thinks only of the 
 
THE GOOD PLEASUBE OF GOODNESS. 137 
 
 condescending grace that Avill confirm to the end a vocation 
 resting only on an imputed worthiness, or rather upon a 
 worthiness that God imparts solely through grace. The 
 term has a rigorous reference to the Divine estimation which 
 runs parallel with the creation of goodness within us. God 
 is emphatically, as we have seen, " He that calleth : " and 
 His calling is, from beginning to end, the invitation of 
 undeserving sinners to the enjoyment of His grace and 
 glory. The call is one ; but it may be viewed under three 
 aspects, or rather in a threefold gradation ; and in each 
 the honour is conferred upon man as unworthy in himself, 
 but reckoned worthy through the grace of Christ. 
 
 The first call, to the fellowship of the blessings of 
 salvation in the kingdom of grace, is in all respects in- 
 dependent of our merit. The Gospel comes to us in our 
 guilt and depravity, and, making no distinction between 
 degrees of vileness, invites all alike to an equal place in 
 the Divine favour. The first summons to the presence of 
 God, where mercy awaits the vilest, is a distinction of 
 which we are reckoned worthy for Christ's sake alone. It 
 is not only a message of pardon ready for our sins, but an 
 undeserved honour put upon our fallen estate. Thus it is 
 grace with a double meaning : grace as the forgiveness of 
 all transgression, and grace as the condescending kindness 
 that calls us before our very repentance has begun. 
 
 We are also said to be called unto holiness, and those 
 who are accepted and rencAved are termed specifically " the 
 called." But it must never be forgotten that their name 
 and place among the saints really depend upon the gracious 
 imputation of the Divine tolerance. No change of character, 
 no degree of holiness, even though reaching to an entire 
 destruction of sin, avails to modify this essential relation. 
 The saint is always and only reckoned to be holy : not 
 because his holiness is other than real, but because the fact 
 remains that he is and must ever be, with all his sanctity, 
 only a sinner saved by grace. The righteousness conferred 
 
138 TEE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 on him as a believer is his own indeed, but it is also of 
 God's free and pure imputation to tlie end. His personal 
 character is holy, but it needs, if only on account of the 
 past, to be wrapped round by the Divine reckoning as a 
 garment. And hence we are at best only counted worthy 
 of the estate of holiness into which Ave are called. Justifi- 
 cation must to all eternity be " imputed : " forensic, if the 
 term may be allowed ; even in the court of heaven. 
 
 Lastly, we are called by God to His "kingdom and 
 glory ; " and that is the precise vocation referred to in our 
 prayer. But that vocation, viewed as the consummate issue 
 of the Divine imrpose concerning us, will be as much the 
 conferring of an undeserved distinction as the first accept- 
 
 Jude2i. ance was. We look "for the mercy of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ unto eternal life. " Those who enter into the glory 
 of heaven must pass through an inquisition which will at 
 once attest that they are faultless and prove that they are 
 nevertheless unworthy to enter. It is true that their 
 sanctity will be their garment of righteousness, unspotted 
 from the world ; but the judgment of God, which never 
 forgets though it forgives the past, Avill bear witness that 
 the garment was once stained. Their good deeds will 
 follow them ; but so also will their forgiven sins, though in 
 a different sense and for a dififerent reason. If we are 
 saved we shall be saved " according to the grace of our 
 God and the Lord Jesus Christ." God must confer 
 upon us the final dignity, as He conferred the first, 
 gi-atuitously and of His mercy, counting us worthy. 
 The whole tenour of Scripture is faithful to this. Our 
 Lord dwelt much upon the good works that will pass the 
 
 Luke XX. ordeal ; but He speaks of those who " shall be accounted 
 2^- worthy to obtain that world," and He bids us pray always 
 
 Luke xxi, that we may be " accounted worthy to escape all these 
 things that shall come to pass, and to stand before the 
 Son of man." 
 
 Hence we see the appropriateness of this term as intro- 
 
 36. 
 
THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOODNESS. 139 
 
 ducing the prayer. It gives to God the glory of the full 
 and complete salvation which it supplicates. But having 
 done this it does not end there. It does not intercede as 
 if the election would hereafter be arbitrary and matter 
 only of sovereign disposal ; nor does it simply express a 
 good wish that the Thessalonians may prove to have been 
 elected and called. But it asks that they may be among 
 the number of those who, called and sanctified on earth, 
 will be hereafter glorified by the grace that at once counts 
 them and makes them worthy. 
 
 The prayer proceeds to teach us what this making 
 worthy means. The connection between the former and 
 the latter part is not expressed ; but it is very obvious. 
 St. Paul asks that the Thessalonians may be dignified with 
 the final call, being found worthy of it through the full 
 sanctification of Divine grace. He uses some of the 
 strongest and most expressive terms he ever adopts ; and 
 arranges them in a remarkably symmetrical manner, leav- 
 ing the expositor nothing to do but observe the pairs of 
 counterparts that make up the whole prayer. 
 
 Accordingly we must first mark the combination of the 
 imputed and the imparted worthiness. These always go 
 together : what the enemies of the doctrine of justification 
 say, to wit, that God never reckons a man to be what he is 
 not, is perfectly true when rightly understood. In this 
 world the Divhie grace mercifully waits while the process 
 is going on ; and God may be said to be always making 
 His justified ones worthy of their justification. Nor will 
 He finally accept them, and present them faultless and 
 crown them, until the work of their sanctification is com- 
 plete: until, that is, all the requirements of His justice and 
 all the good pleasure of His grace are fulfilled in them. The 
 imputation of worthiness is complete at once ; the infusion 
 of it is gradual. The reckoning waits a while for the 
 reality, which will surely come ; and then will the counting 
 worthy and the making worthy be merged into one. 
 
140 TEE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Hence we must regard the two phrases here employed 
 as embracing further the entire compass of religion. It is 
 the internal and the external perfection of the spiritual 
 life ; in both the Divine and the human combine ; and the 
 result is perfection Avhether viewed with reference to the 
 power of God put forth or the accomplishment of the work 
 in us. 
 
 It is the whole of religion that is described in the words 
 " all the good pleasure of goodness, and the work of faith 
 with power." We have here one of those many striking 
 summaries in which the Apostle delights to throw out his 
 views of finished godliness ; " all that goodness can delight 
 in and desire " refers, of course, to the formation of a per- 
 fect character within ; whilst the vigorous " work of faith " 
 must include, as the antithesis, all that the external duties 
 of religion involve. It is the fundamental distinction 
 between the inward and the outward, the experience and 
 the action, the character reached and the performance, the 
 virtue attained and the duty done. We find this double 
 aspect recurring continually ; but nowhere else have we 
 this precise pair of counterparts : — the perfect realisation 
 of all that the regenerate heart can desire, and the perfect 
 discharge of every obligation that law can impose ; or, in 
 other words, the perfection of goodness within and the 
 perfection of fidelity without. 
 
 We must, however, mark more specifically the union of 
 the Divine and the human in the perfect holiness prayed 
 for. Not, indeed, as some think, that the Divine part is 
 the pleasure of His goodness and the human part our work 
 of faith, the two combining in the religion which is to be 
 complete and wanting nothing. No such distinction is in 
 the words. They speak of the complacency our own souls 
 feel in goodness as a desire satisfied by God ; and our work 
 of faith as fulfilled in Divine power. Both and equally 
 unite the two ever necessary elements, the Divine ijower 
 and human attainment. 
 
THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOODNESS. 141 
 
 Take the former. The Apostle uses terms which literally 
 make no distinction between the Divine energy in us and 
 our own energy. His phrase is sometimes rendered "the 
 good pleasure of goodness," sometimes " the good pleasure 
 of His goodness." The fact is, that the delight our re- 
 generate souls experience in goodness, in all kinds and 
 degrees of goodness, in goodness carried in every direction 
 to its highest point, is no other than a fruit of the Spirit's 
 renewing grace. It is the desire of God beating in our 
 hearts. It is all that His holiness would see in us put into 
 our own aspiration and purpose. It is, as the Apostle 
 elsewhere says, "the bowels of Christ yearning in us" 
 after perfection. There is literally no distinction possible 
 here. The calm complacency of the soul in all that is true, 
 and honest, and just, and pure, and lovely, and of good 
 report, is the sure token of our regeneration. An unre- 
 generate soul may admire all excellencies, and yet sigh to 
 think of them as an unattainable ideal and a perfection 
 too high for human hope, exhibited only for human despair. 
 But it is only the renewed soul that takes a tranquil and 
 tender delight in the thought of the attainment of these 
 things : having tasted that the Lord is gracious, it feels 
 His commandments also and His promises to be inex- 
 pressibly sweet. Those in whom the " mind of Christ " is, 
 long for Christ's goodness ; they hunger and thirst after 
 righteousness ; their "good pleasure" is in all that is holy; 
 they think upon perfection with a sacred, inextinguishable 
 desire. Abhorring all that is evil, they cleave with the 
 full strength of their souls to all that is good ; and thus 
 delighting themselves in God, stirring up in their own 
 souls every aspiration towards holiness, they have their 
 " heart's desire." Ps xxi. 2. 
 
 Take the latter. The work of man's faith is his own 
 work, whether it be the resistance to all evil or the dis- 
 charge of all duty. But it is a work which God fulfils in 
 us : for He worketh in us of His good pleasure to will and 
 
142 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 to do. Here again our prayer fails to make any distinc- 
 tion ; and that evidently because no distinction is to be 
 
 Luke xvii. made. God does not " add faith to us," to use the words 
 ^- of the disciples' supplication to their Master ; He does not 
 
 wait for our faith, and then reward and co-oj^erate with 
 its workings ; He works within us through our faith. Faith 
 is man's acting in the strength of God ; and the power of 
 God in human experience is known only through faith. 
 The Divine blessing does not simply Avait upon, assist, and 
 reward our efforts. There is more than that. What we 
 do in faith is the act of God within us. When the dejected 
 disciples addressed the petition we have quoted to our 
 Lord, He gave an ever-memorable reply. He told them that 
 their faith, nourished by devotion, should be a j)rinciple 
 of Divine power working within and accomplishing wonders 
 
 Matt xvii. possible only to God. " Ye shall say unto this mountain, 
 ^^- Remove hence to yonder place ; and it shall remove ; " 
 that is, it shall remove at the bidding of God in you. 
 
 It remains that we dwell upon the perfect attainment of 
 worthiness during the present discipline of the Christian 
 life. It is impossible to put too much strength into the 
 exposition of the words, " fulfil with power," which belong 
 both to the internal and to the external life of grace. 
 The same Divine might is invoked upon the hidden pro- 
 cesses of grace and upon the open conduct of Christian 
 obedience. And whether we think of the power of God 
 or the fulfilment in us, there is obviously no limit to 
 the attainment brought within the reach of gi'ace. What 
 is there impracticable to the power of God, either in 
 imparting to us, or performing in us, or accomplishing for 
 us ! And that other word " fulfil " is, in its present connec- 
 tion, if possible, still more emphatic. It is a word which 
 is always reserved in the New Testament for very high 
 service ; its fulness of meaning embraces all thmgs, M'hile 
 its strength carries all imperfection before it. The prayer 
 is, that God may accomplish in our hearts all that we 
 
THE GOOD PLEASURE OF GOODNESS. 143 
 
 desire, all that goodness finds congenial, all that we have 
 set our heart upon. Unless some other word of limitation 
 shall afterwards unsay what the Holy Ghost here says, the 
 believer may dare to hope for the utmost fulfilment of his 
 largest desires. And what can they be but the full and 
 abiding and undisturbed possession of Sovereign Goodness 
 Himself ! What but such a state of finished holiness and 
 obedience as God can look down upon with pure com- 
 placency, acceptance, and love ! 
 
 Lastly, the Apostle carries us forward in his prayer to 
 the day when this worthiness shall be acknowledged to be 
 complete, and shall be crowned with glory for ever. 
 " That the name of our Lord Jesus may be glorified in us, 
 and we in Him :" these words are an echo of those which 
 have just preceded, " when He shall come to be glorified 
 in His saints," and must by them be interpreted. 
 
 The finished holiness of the saints, with every desire 
 of their heart fulfilled and every duty of their life dis- 
 charged, will redound to the glory of the name of Jesus. 
 What they shall be He will have made them : hence the 
 last words of the prayer, " according to the grace of 
 our God and Lord Jesus Christ," as the words were 
 probably written by the Ax^ostle. As the name of the 
 Father is glorified in the Son, — that is, through the 
 revelation of His redeeming Person and work made mani- 
 fest to the universe in all its glory of wisdom and justice 
 and grace, — so the name of the Son Himself is glorified in 
 His saints, that is, in their full acceptance and sanctifica- 
 tion through His atonement. He is already glorified with 
 the glory which He had with the Father before the world 
 was ; but He waits yet to receive that other and still 
 richer and more deeply-desired glory that shall redound 
 to Him through the reflection of His own holy likeness 
 from an innumerable company of His redeemed. And 
 when we use this prayer, we ask that we may be among 
 the number of those whose imputed and whose imparted 
 
144 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 worthiness shall both and alike reflect honour on the name 
 of Jesus ! 
 
 But we also are to be " glorified in Him ! " The " name " 
 is not now mentioned ; because it is only through our most 
 intimate and eternal union Avith Himself that we attain 
 our supreme glorification of body and soul for ever. Here 
 the prayer of the servant is once more like the prayer of 
 the Master ; but supplementing what He left unexpressed. 
 Jno^xvii. He said, " Father, I will that they also, whom Thou hast 
 given Me, be with ISIe where I am ; that they may behold 
 My glory." St. Paul, not without his Lord's permission, 
 adds, " And be glorified in ]\Ie." When we remember all 
 that is meant by being '* glorified in Him," we must needs 
 feel persuaded that He whose Name is thus spoken of is 
 God. In God alone is the sphere of the creature's blessed- 
 ness and glory. Language never goes, never can go, 
 beyond this. Well may we linger upon the last words of 
 our prayer, and muse upon that other rendering of them 
 which an instinct of gratitude accepts, " According to the 
 grace of our God and Lord Jesus." 
 
 24. 
 
EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 145 
 
 IV. 
 EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 
 
 " Now our Lord Jesus Christ Himself, and God, even our Father, 
 which hath loved us, and hath given us everlasting consolation afld good 
 hope thi-ough grace, comfort your hearts, and stablish you in every good 
 word and work."— 2 Thess. ii. 16, 17. 
 
 There are some preliminary points of interest that de- 
 mand attention here. 
 
 This Prayer, like the preceding, passes by a sudden 
 transition from the human duty to the Divine grace : 
 " But may the Lord Himself stablish you in every good 
 work : not in the obedience of these statutes onl} , 
 but in the whole conduct of life, in every good word 
 and work." It must be observed that man's obliga- 
 tion to establish his own character, and the effectual 
 establishing power of God, are not regarded as co- 
 operating elements. It is not the Apostle's manner thus 
 to speak of them: he makes the confirmation of our 
 holiness either altogether our own work or altogether 
 the work of the Divine Spirit. There are not two factors 
 conspiring to produce one result : it is all our own at the 
 same time that it is all of grace. 
 
 Again, once more the Lord Jesus is the Being addressed ; 
 but with a peculiar relation to the Father that requires 
 carefid consideration. It has been observed before that 
 this is the second of two solitary instances in whicli the 
 Father and the Son are united with a verb following in 
 the singular. Those who resent both the theology and 
 the grammar of this peculiarity resort to hard expedients. 
 They suppose that the Father, the Source of love and 
 everlasting consolation, is referred to in parenthesis, the 
 Lord Jesus Christ being then the Author of establish- 
 
 L 
 
146 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 ing grace. Even in that case the supremacy of Christ as 
 the Hearer of prayer and Giver of grace is maintained ; 
 and still the indissoluble union between our Lord and the 
 Father as the one indistinguishable Comforter is such as 
 to satisfy every desire of orthodoxy. Moreover, it is 
 remarkable that tiie name of Jesus comes first : of this 
 there is no other example ; and it must be noted as a 
 striking and memorable fact, especially in the argument 
 with those who think that St. Pauls estimate of his 
 Saviour only by slow degrees reached an exaggerated 
 loyalty, and that it was not until the close of life that he 
 called Jesus his God. 
 
 It is a rule almost invariable that the Person addressed 
 in prayer is addressed under an aspect appropriate to the 
 specific supplication. The God of all grace — of every kind 
 of grace — turns a countenance infinitely varied towards 
 His petitioners; and we may always choose among the 
 numberless attributes and descriptions He has assigned to 
 Himself some name that will form a suitable invocation. 
 Here the Apostle is about to ask on behalf of the Thessa- 
 lonians that they may be consoled, strengthened, and 
 established under the pressure of their enemies in the 
 world and in the Church ; and accordingly, with exquisite 
 precision, he calls upon Christ and God as the Everlasting 
 Consoler and Strengthener through grace. Upon Christ 
 and God in the unity of their bestowment : for, as the 
 Apostle includes the Saviour in the act of giving, he must 
 needs include Him also, according to this canon of inter- 
 pretation, in the possession of the attributes assigned to 
 the Giver. We are reminded of the words of our Highest 
 Jno. xvii. Authority : " all Mine are Thine and Thine are Mine." It 
 ^^- is impossible to distinguish between the Father and the 
 Son in the prerogative of love and everlasting consolation. 
 The "love of God" comes to us only through, and as 
 inseparably connected with, " the grace of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ ; " but in the present unique passage the benedic- 
 
y. 
 
 EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 147 
 
 tory distinction is not preserved. We shall not, therefore, 
 allude to it again. 
 
 God in Christ is invoked as having loved us, first and 
 more generally ; then, more particularly, as having given 
 us through grace everlasting consolation and good hope. 
 
 " Who hath loved us." This is the Apostle's first allusion 
 to the supreme and ultimate source of redemption. It is 
 his first clear declaration that in the economy of human 
 salvation love has the preeminence. Already he had said 
 the same thing negatively, when he taught that " God has i Thess. v. 
 not appointed us to wrath, but to obtain salvation ;" but 
 here he gives the blessed truth its most emphatic and most 
 general positive form. " Which hath loved us," or, rather, 
 " Who by one great, eternal gift proved once for all that 
 He loved us." Whatever other attributes of God are 
 illustrated or vindicated in redemption, all is done, not 
 only in perfect harmony with love, but also under the 
 government and ascendency of love, which is in God as 
 well as in man " the bond of perfectness." In many other 
 phrases will the Apostle afterwards set forth this master- 
 principle, but in all the long list (which however we must 
 forbear to quote) not one with more profound simplicity 
 and pathetic force tells us that our redemption sprang 
 from the love of God, and was its one supreme and eternal 
 manifestation. The only saying that could surpass this 
 was reserved for St. John in his First Epistle, the last 
 document of revelation. 
 
 It must be further observed that the link between the 
 love that gave and the gift itself is grace. The love of 
 God must by its very nature impart : all being, and all 
 that belongs to being, is essentially the gift of God. But 
 there is a glorious peculiarity in the gift of grace ; and, 
 however plausibly it may be argued that there is some- 
 thing of grace in every Divine gift, it remains true that 
 grace is the medium of the gifts of the love of God as they 
 reach us through redemption. Grace is a word that, so 
 
 L 2 
 
148 THE PR A YEBS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 far as we know, belongs to us as men ; and we can now 
 have no conception of a gift of God that comes not through 
 our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. It is most interesting 
 to watch the history of the word " gift " in the New Testa- 
 ment, and to mark how true its use is to the idea here 
 expressed. 
 
 The gift is twofold, '' everlasting consolation " and "good 
 hope ; " but, before these are separated, they must be 
 regarded in their unity. They comprise the whole sum of 
 our benefit in Jesus Christ ; and a more melodious phrase 
 than is used for the purpose is not to be found in the New 
 Testament. The blessing conferred on man through the 
 gi'ace brought by Christ is an " everlasting consolation " as 
 it comes from God, and a " good hope" as we receive it ; 
 consolation in its power and possibilities, hope as enter- 
 tained by our sorrowful hearts ; eternal consolation for all 
 the miseries that sin has entailed, and good hope of a 
 glorious compensation in eternity. Or, to sum up all, the 
 former phrase embraces, more negatively, the retrieval of 
 all tlie consequences of sin in the past ; while the latter, 
 more positively, embraces all tliat man has to expect, when 
 recovered and healed, in the future. 
 
 " Everlasting consolation,' as a term given to the Gospel, 
 is a phrase noAvhere else used. It implies nothing less 
 than the healing of the gi-eat wound of sin and tlie removal 
 of its consequences. From everlasting to everlasting the 
 comfort of redeeming grace reaches to all the sorrows of 
 man. It is an eternal remedy of an eternal disease ; an 
 eternal assuagement of a sorrow tliat would otherwise 
 know no end. Notiiing is more certain than that of itself 
 the misery of sin must last for ever : it has in its own 
 nature no resources of cure, no elements of change. As 
 man's sin involved him in guilt, the eternal purpose of God 
 provided an atonement ; as it involved him in misery, 
 otherwise unrelieved and abiding, the eternal purpose pro- 
 1 Jno. iii. vided consolation in Christ. He " was manifested " to 
 
 8. 
 
EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 149 
 
 " destroy the works of the devil ;" "to put away sin by the Heb ix. 
 sacrifice of Himself ;" and, with infinite meaning, to comfort ^^' 
 the earth, like Xoah of old, because of the curse that had 
 fallen upon it. The consolation of this supreme Comforter Gen.v. 29. 
 of man is eternal ; unlike the beggarly and fleeting solaces 
 of time — in which it is the joy that endureth but for a 
 night, while the sorrow cometh in the morning — it endures 
 for ever, and survives all the mutations of things. It is an 
 eternal consolation springing from an " eternal redemp- Heb. ix. 
 tion." 12. 
 
 But it must be remembered that this " strong consola- 
 tion" is treasured up only for those who flee to it for 
 refuge. It is not a relief of tlie world's estate of misery 
 which is applied with infallible certainty to all mankind. 
 In this sense also " not as the off*ence" was "the free gift." 
 The ofifence has brought an inevitable woe upon all : the 
 alleviation and deliverance may be refused and rejected 
 for ever. Hence this adjective of boundless meaning is else- 
 where applied by the x\postle to the exact opposite of its 
 application here : " Who shall be punished with everlasting 
 destruction." What in the design of God, and in the expe- 
 rience of multitudes, is an all-sufiicient remedy, becomes, 
 through man's refusal to be comforted, a "savour of death 
 unto death." 
 
 The " good hope " describes all that part of the ever- 
 lasting gift which has reference to the future. This 
 expression also is unparalleled in Scripture, though it 
 has certain near approximations. As the Epistle to the 
 Hebrews supplies " eternal redemption " as something 
 like a parallel of "everlasting consolation," so "good 
 hope" finds in that Epistle its representative in the 
 " bringing in of a better hope." As consolation is the 
 relief of misery, so hope introduces a positive good, " the 
 better promises " of tiie Christian covenant, which, while 
 they silently include, immeasurably surpass, any mere 
 deliverance from evil. The hope itself may be said to be 
 
150 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the whole of the Christian benediction ; for, the entire 
 compass of such blessings as are received in the present 
 life constitute only an earnest, and moreover they belong 
 only to a moment. The Christian salvation is essentially 
 
 Rom. viii. a benefit reserved : "we are saved by hope." And all this 
 ^^' was in the Apostle's mind in the designation which he here 
 first bestows on Christian hope : no epithet in his vocabu- 
 lary ever surpasses " good." We look for " good things to 
 come ;" and that looking is hope. It is a good hope : good 
 
 Heb. viii. in itself; " better " in relation to the promises given to the 
 fathers ; it is really the best inheritance that God has to 
 give, that Christ can merit for us, or that we can receive. 
 
 None of St. Paul's prayers contains so copious a desig- 
 nation of the Hearer of prayer. This suggests the thought 
 that these attributes really contain a tribute of thanks- 
 giving, unavowedly but very emphatically offered. In 
 fact, no supplication ever goes up to God in Scripture 
 without a more or less direct ascription of praise. The very 
 mention of the Divine name is a token of homage ; but 
 when the Divine titles to human gi-atitude are, as here, 
 expressly mentioned, it is that the petitioner may be 
 prepared for his petition by the acknowledgment of the 
 Divine goodness. And now let us pass to the prayer 
 itself, the exposition of which, however, has been more 
 or less anticipated. 
 
 Here, as always, we mark the symmetry that reigns 
 more evidently in the prayers than in any other part 
 of St. Paul's Avritings. At a first glance, and also upon 
 closer investigation, the following seems the sense : — 
 *' May the Lord Himself, in the unity of the Father who 
 loved us in Him, and as a gift of grace bestowed on us 
 eternal consolation and good hope, console your inner 
 man by the word that invigorates, and keep your outer 
 life stedfast in every good work and in every good 
 doctrine." 
 
 Generally Ave understand the purport of the prayer 
 
EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 151 
 
 better if we consider the immediate occasion of it. Con- 
 fidence within and stability without were precisely the 
 graces which the Apostle aimed to strengthen by his 
 words : his exhortation had this for its object, that they 
 should not be "shaken or troubled in mind." In the SThess.ii, 
 former Epistle the coming of death was the disturbing 
 thought ; in the present Epistle it is the coming of Christ, 
 the Lord of death. In order to administer encourage- 
 ment, St. Paid is under the necessity of seeming to add to 
 their disquietude. The Epistle is full of gloom. The 
 shadow of a new enemy, the " man of sin," is in it ; the 
 frightful developments of evil and the distresses coming 
 on the world are among the most harassing revelations 
 the Apostle could give ; and combined were enough to 
 overwhelm the early faith of new converts. Hence the 
 unusual abundance of hortatory language in the two 
 Epistles. But, after all that the stimulating words of 
 their teacher coidd do, a higher Comforter was necessary. 
 Hence the sudden turn : " May the Lord Himself comfort 
 and stablish your hearts ! " 
 
 The comfort here prayed for is not what we call by that 
 name. It is always in Scripture at once exhortation to 
 the soul and invigoration as the result. The heart here is 
 not the seat of feelings and affections : if for no other 
 reason, yet for this, that it is the heart which (according 
 to the true reading) is to be both comforted and con- 
 firmed. It is the centre of the man, the man himself. 
 And the inner man is comforted when words are spoken 
 to him by the Spirit which strengthens his own energies. 
 Of the words of the Holy Ghost the Comforter, who is in 
 reality Christ the Comforter, our Lord said, " They are jno. vi. 
 Spirit and they are life." They reveal truths which it ^^' 
 fortifies the soul even to hear and know. So close is the 
 Scrifjtural union of the two ideas that we have by degrees 
 lost the distinction, and the term " comfort " stands for 
 both encouragement in word and invigoration for act. 
 
152 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 It seems obvious thus to introduce the Holy Ghost. 
 But it will not escape notice that it is the Lord and the 
 Father who are, — rather who is, — the Comforter here. 
 
 Jas. i. 17. All consolation of word and deed is ultimately ''from the 
 Father." The Saviour is the Comforter of man, discharg- 
 
 1 John ii. ing under this title a double function : in heaven, He is 
 ^- our Advocate, and in our own hearts He is our Advocate ; 
 
 1 Thess. but the latter office He gives to His Representative, the 
 ^' ^' Holy Spirit, that other Comforter. Our prayer forgets 
 the distinction, though these Epistles do not forget it. 
 Indeed, tliis great word must needs bring in the whole 
 fulness of God ; each of the Divine persons speaks through 
 Christ to the human heart. jNIan, like Job, has his Three 
 Comforters around him ; but the poor analogy fails when 
 this is said. The Three who comfort our hearts are One : 
 one in nature, one in operation, one in infinite love to our 
 souls. 
 
 The idea of establishment in the Christian life is as 
 familiar in this Epistle as that of consolation. Here the 
 Apostle introduces, according to the law of symmetry to 
 which reference has been made, the work and the word ; 
 or, as Ave think, the deeds and the doctrines of a true 
 religion. 
 
 By keeping the heart strong in His consolation the 
 Lord stablishes the life in His obedience. But the 
 precise burden of the prayer is that God may bless in 
 them, in us, the formation of a character which shall 
 make holy life as it were the operation of an unvarying 
 law. ^Yhen the word ever}' is added, nothing is wanting 
 to make this another of the Apostle's assertions of a com- 
 plete Christian perfection. He asks, and bids us ask, for 
 the permanent habit of full obedience. And Avhat can 
 the Lord God require more of His creatures than this? 
 But all is dependent on the establishment of a firm faith 
 in the Christian doctrine. Strange it is that expositors 
 should with almost one consent decline to receive this 
 
EVERLASTING CONSOLATION. 153 
 
 interpretation, which indeed the exhortation of verse 
 fifteen forces upon us. There can be no confirmed obe- 
 dience and holiness without the Christian doctrine. And 
 whatever scruple may arise on this subject is obviated by 
 the reflection that "work" and "Avord" are here linked 
 into one idea. By no other construction of his phrase 
 could the Apostle have joined them more intimately than 
 by that which lies before us. The life that a Christian 
 should beyond all things desire is a life of entire goodness 
 based upon and growing out of perfect truth. 
 
 A touching comment on our prayer is given in the 
 promise which follows after a few sentences. It is as if 
 the Divine Spirit had without delay, " while he was yet 
 speaking," ratified the request : " The Lord is faithful who 2 Thes 
 shall stablish you." 
 
 iii. 3. 
 
164 TEE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 V. 
 
 LOVE AND PATIENCE. 
 
 " And the Lord direct your hearts into the love of God, and into the 
 patient waiting for Christ."— 2 Thess. iii. 5. 
 
 Our attention is at once arrested by the threefold order 
 of this prayer. It bears that peculiar triune stamp 
 wliich we often meet, and which cannot be satisfactorily 
 accounted for save on the theory of a Trinity latent or 
 expressed in all Christian supplication. The only other 
 solution that could be tolerated for a moment would 
 make "the love of God" and "the patience of Christ" 
 technical forms for certain graces into the possession of 
 which the Lord is asked to guide the Christian. This 
 might be admitted were the present passage the only 
 instance; but, as it is one of many, we fall back upon 
 the important canon that the Holy Ghost is always to be 
 regarded as referred to when a third Divine Person joins 
 the Father and the Son, or God and His Christ. Of 
 course it may be said that this is mere assumption ; but 
 such an argument we care not to answer. Suffice that 
 for us the administrative Lord is now the Holy Spirit of 
 Christ. 
 
 The Prayer itself is one of those clear, terse, classical 
 sentences, which, as we constantly see, exhibit all religion 
 in a symmetrical pair of counterparts. But what the 
 precise relation of these is will better be perceived if we 
 glance at the context, with which this petition is very 
 closely connected. First, we have, in verse 3, a promise 
 of the Lords fidelity in their preservation ; then follows, 
 in verse 4, an expression of the Apostles " confidence in 
 
LOVE AND PATIENCE. 155 
 
 the Lord," that the Thessalouians will be faithful to them- 
 selves ; and then comes the supplication which takes them 
 into a higher and more glorious region than that of mere 
 preservation. 
 
 The promise pledges the faithfulness of the Lord, — 
 the Lord Jesus Christ, that is, as emphatically so called 
 in the preceding chapter, — to their confirmation in grace. 
 It is one of those forms of invocation, half promise and 
 half prayer, which abound in St. Paul's writings, of which 
 " the Lord shall deliver me," " The Lord reward him," are 2 Tim. iv. 
 obvious instances. The preservation is, on the one hand, ' 
 a confirmation of the soid itself, and, on the other, the 
 restraint of the evil one. Not the one without the other : 
 the two kinds of guardianship are alike necessary and 
 mutually supplementary. By confirming our inward 
 stability, the Lord often keeps the tempter from us; 
 and, when he comes, the blessing of the Lord on our 
 resistance tends itself to confirm our stedfastness. But 
 the Apostle does not leave all to the Lord's fidelity. He 
 rejoices also in the confidence that the Lord's protected 
 ones will protect themselves, by fortifying their own 
 minds with the truth, and their own lives by obedience 
 (verse 4). Thus has the Apostle, so to speak, balanced 
 the Divine and the human in one protection : " The Lord 
 is faithful if you may be trusted." But, as God must in 
 all things have the preeminence, the prayer follows which 
 gives to God the Spirit the prerogative of directing the 
 soul into the love of God which confirms the spirit, into 
 the patience of Christ which will endure and survive all 
 the enemy's attacks. Stedfastness is essentially con- 
 nected with constant obedience to the commandment 
 (verse 4), when the love of God shed abroad in the heart 
 is the secret and source of that obedience. Stedfastness 
 is also bound up with perseverance in resistance to the 
 evil one ; and that requires the shedding abroad of the 
 patience of Christ within the soul. Thus the connection 
 
156 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 solves a difficulty which many have felt in interpreting 
 these words. The Spirit is asked to guide the soul into 
 the abiding experience of the love of God ; and into the 
 full participation of the stedfast endurance of which 
 Christ is at once the source, the example, and the reward. 
 The love of God is exhibited under two aspects in the 
 New Testament. In the one it is the soul's supreme com- 
 placency, affection, and devotion, the whole strength of 
 the mind, and heart, and will, fixed upon God as the 
 supreme object of the outgoing of man's being. But that 
 is not here meant : when the Apostle makes that the 
 object of his prayer he asks it as a benediction of God, and 
 not as a blessing into which the soul is directed. The 
 other view of God's love regards it as the Divine sentiment 
 towards man, the revelation of which, through Christ, to 
 the soul and in the soul, is the strength of all holy consola- 
 tion and obedience. That love of God beams forth from 
 the face of Christ upon all the world ; but those only 
 experience it, rejoice in it, and respond to it, Avho are 
 brought into a state of mind from Avhich every impediment 
 is removed. It is not the heart as the sphere of the aftec- 
 tions that is here meant, but, as before, the whole man : 
 the same inner jiersonality that achieves the obedience, 
 wages the good warfare, and wins the victory. In the 
 strength of the love of God, always poured abundantly 
 upon, and around, and into the soul, there is no duty past 
 performance, and no difficulty that may not be overcome. 
 No higher prayer can be offered to God than this, that by 
 the sweet influence of His Spirit Ave may be drawn from 
 - every lower affection, released from every base impedi- 
 ment, and have our entire being and all that is in it thrown 
 open to the unhindered operation of the love of God. 
 
 " The patience of Christ " is a phrase that ought not to 
 seem strange to those Avho are familiar Avith St. Paul's 
 habit of uniting the believer with his Lord in all things. 
 He prays literally for the stedfastness of patience that is 
 
LOVE AND PATIENCE. 157 
 
 Christ's, and for nothing else, in these words. The "patient i Thess. i. 
 waiting for Christ " would have required an altogether ^^' 
 different word : that one, namely, which is used in the 
 former Epistle. " Patience for the sake of Christ " is 
 equally opposed to the Apostle's phrase. Both these 
 meanings are of course included, and in themselves per- 
 fectly appropriate. The Divine Spirit by His grace does 
 direct the souls of believers into a posture of tranquil yet 
 earnest expectation of the coming of Christ ; and into the 
 patient endurance of all trials for His sake. But the 
 specific meaning of this prayer, — that which we must first 
 lay hold of, that it may regulate all others, — is that it may 
 please the Lord to remove every hindrance to our perfect 
 union and sympathy with our Lord in His example of 
 endurance unto death. We are called to suffer with 
 Christ if we would reign with Him ; to fill up, in our 
 humble measure and degree, His afflictions ; and, in the 
 strength of His patient Spirit, to hold out to the end. Our 
 way is " directed " into this patience when we are led into 
 the way of humble, self-renouncing submission : when all 
 things that minister to self-complacency, satisfaction with 
 this life, and earthly-mindedness, are put out of the way 
 when, in short, we are brought into fellowship with the 
 Saviours mind who " endured the cross " for " the joy that 
 was set before Him." His patience is ended, so far as it 
 is endurance. But we have not yet resisted unto death. 
 And we can offer no more important prayer than this, that 
 we may have our self-will bound, and be girded and led 
 by Another into the way of our Saviour's humiliation and Jno- xxi. 
 self-sacrifice. 
 
 But the full force of the prayer is not felt unless we 
 unite its two branches. Love and patience are here for 
 the first and last time joined ; and the reflections suggested 
 by their combination are not easily exhausted. 
 
 In our salvation their union has its most impressive 
 exhibition : the mercy of the Father of our spirits reaches 
 
158 TBE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 US only through the endurance of the Son ; at the cross 
 the love of God and the patience of Christ are blended in 
 the mystery of their redeeming unity ; and only that union 
 saved the world. Again the mercy of God waits upon the 
 free will of man with a patience that owes its tender long- 
 suffering to the intercession of Christ ; and thus once more 
 the love of God and the patience of Christ combine. So 
 also the Divine economy of grace provides the full power 
 of the love of God for the progressive salvation of the 
 saints, waiting for their full conformity to holy law with a 
 patience that is the most precious fruit of the Redeemer's 
 mediation. Gods love wins its final and eternal triumph 
 in our sanctification only because the Intercessor s voice 
 is continually heard : " Have patience with them, and they 
 shall pay Thee all." Eternal glory Avill be the last demon- 
 stration of the love of God and the crowiiing victory of the 
 patience of Christ. 
 
 We must, however, regard this combination as the object 
 of our prayer. To the Apostle's mind all that the Christian 
 needs for the struggle and victory of life is the abundant 
 effusion of the love of God into the heart as an active 
 principle, and the perfect defence of the heart by the 
 patience of Christ as a passive grace. But the form of 
 his prayer shows that he did not separate the two as much 
 as we do. All duty and all resistance find their strength 
 in the love of God ; all duty and all resistance must be 
 perfected in the patience of Christ. The true Christian is 
 all love in his work ; he is all patience in his hope. The 
 hope of Christ's return gladdens the soul continually : it 
 kindles love to deeper fervour, and gives patience and 
 strength to endure. In due time — that is, when all prayers 
 that are born of time shall cease — the patience of Christ 
 Ileb. iii. shall be lost in the " partaking of Christ ; " and the great 
 ^^- surviving gi-ace, the love of God in us, will abide for ever. 
 
PEACE FROM THE LORD OF PEACE. 159 
 
 VI. 
 PEACE FROM THE LORD OF PEACE. 
 
 " Now the Lord of peace Himself give you peace always by all means. 
 The Lord be with you all."— 2 Thkss. iii. 16. 
 
 The term " Peace " is usually reserved by the Apostle for 
 his invocations and greetings. On a first glance, this 
 passage might seem to be no exception. The Epistle is 
 about to end a troubled and yet reassuring strain ; and, 
 after an earnest exhortation to the spirit of quietness and 
 contented industry, the final salutations of j)eace might 
 appear to be an appropriate close. But we see as we read 
 on that the Apostle has in store another farewell saluta- 
 tion, and ends with liis own chosen token of "Grace." 
 The present greeting is translated while taking form into 
 an impressive petition, which stands alone amongst the 
 prayers, not only as to its object, the Peace of the Gospel, 
 but also in respect to every turn of its j)hraseology. 
 
 That it is Jesus who is meant by " tlie Lord of Peace," 
 will be obvious if we remember how constantly each of 
 the terras of this appellation is given to Him. St. Paul 
 habitually calls Him Lord, especially in this Epistle ; and 
 His name is brought into special relation with " peace " 
 throughout his writings. Hence, combining the terms. He 
 is the Lord of Peace : He i)rocured it by His sacrifice. He 
 preaches it by His Gospel, and in His spiritual kingdom 
 He administers its blessings for ever. 
 
 Although this title is nowhere else literally given to our 
 Saviour, it is only an apt compendium of His other titles, 
 and gives in one perfect phrase the whole sum of His 
 mediatorial work. 
 
160 THE PR A YERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Taking it in its widest sense it expresses the general 
 characteristic and design of His appearance upon earth. 
 The appellation is only another form of the ancient title 
 by which His coming was foreannoiinced from the begin- 
 ning. How He should restore harmony on earth was not 
 known, at least it was not revealed ; but it was declared 
 that He should vanquish the power of Satan, turn away 
 from man the displeasure of God, and establish a govern- 
 ment of peace. In the great Old-Testament prediction of 
 His coming, Isaiah makes all His glorious names merge 
 Isa. ix. 6. into one, " The Prince of Peace ;" His mediatorial obedi- 
 Isa. liii.5. ence is described by one phrase, the bearing "the chas- 
 tisement of our peace;" and His kingdom is a government, 
 Isa. ix 7. "the increase of" which would be "peace," the "abuud- 
 Ps. Ixxii. ^iiQQ of peace." In all these prophetical utterances, which 
 are central and leading texts, it is obvious that it is not 
 the idea of tranquil prosperity alone that is meant, but 
 that pecvdiar peace of the Gospel which required a mys- 
 terious reconciliation of God and man. Let us follow out 
 the programme of the three texts of the Prophet who 
 thus interprets the Apostle by anticipation. 
 
 When our Lord came, the very manner of His coming 
 was a token of peace. His appearance was the manifesta- 
 tion of God among men in the most close and friendly 
 relation : in a relation so intimate as to surpass all human 
 conception. He was " God with us ;" and that name was 
 the unsearchable secret of the angels' song, " Peace on 
 earth." They did not simply utter a prophecy of an issue 
 of peace that the world should hereafter witness; they 
 declared that the world's Peace was born among men, and 
 that the alliance of God with our nature in the Person of 
 Christ was the Reconciliation which had been preached as 
 to come and was now at length brought nigh. The incar- 
 nation could have no meaning but this. A visitation of 
 judgment would have required only that the Son of God 
 should appear as a Theophany or manifestation, not that 
 
PEACE FROM THE LOUD OF PEACE. IGl 
 
 He should take our very nature into His being and per- 
 sonality. His becoming man was as such an eternal 
 ratification of peace between heaven and earth : the 
 mystery of grace of which the Lord Himself gave us 
 a token and seal in the birth of Immanuel. Tliis was I^a vn. 
 
 14. 
 
 indeed " an everlasting sign that shall not be cut ofi:" \v. 13. 
 
 But He who brought the sign was Himself cut off in 
 order that it might be everlasting. Though the recon- 
 ciliation was virtually effected from the beginning, — for 
 the Lamb was " slain from the foundation of the world," 
 and the Peace of the Gospel followed the steps of the first 
 transgi'essors, when they left Paradise, — yet it required 
 the atonement of " the blood of the cross." That sacrifice Col. i. 20. 
 of our Representative was absolutely necessary ; the war- 
 fare of Divine justice against our sins must needs spend 
 its severity upon Him. The peace was not indeed doubt- 
 ful before He died : it had been proclaimed through all 
 ages, and was for ever " settled in heaven," before Satan's 
 shadow fell on the earth ; but this unlimited assurance 
 rested upon the supreme counsel of the Holy Trinity, 
 which made the Son's sacrifice and the Father's accept- 
 ance of it an eternal necessity. *' Li the body of His 
 flesh," that is, in His incarnation, the Redeemer declared 
 the acceptance of the race of mankind ; but it was only 
 "in the body of His flesh through death" that in very Col. i. 21 
 deed the " enemies " are " reconciled." ^^• 
 
 The title we now consider, however, is a glorious one. 
 The "Lord of Peace" does not direct our thought so 
 much to the abasement of Him who by His self-sacrifice 
 propitiated the Divine ofifence at sin, as to the exaltation 
 of the Redeemer who has obtained for man the reconcilia- 
 tion. Our jSlelchizedek became the King of Salem, that is, 
 the King or Lord of peace, by virtue of the sacrifice whicli 
 He first offered as the Priest of the Most High God. But 
 the Royal title tells us that He has achieved our peace 
 gloriously, abundantly, and with the power of an endless 
 
 M 
 
162 TEE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 life. Yet, rather, like His ancient type, He was never other 
 than a King : at the lowest point of His abasement under 
 the shame of our sin, and of His agony in the endurance 
 of its curse. He was " the Lord." Well, therefore, and by 
 every title, may He be called " The Lord of Peace." 
 
 Whilst this is true, it must not be forgotten that the 
 term " Lord " is for the most part applied to Christ in 
 
 Rom. xiv. respect to the jurisdiction He obtained in death. " To 
 
 ^' this end Christ both died and revived, that He might be 
 
 Lord both of the dead and living." When He rose from the 
 
 Matt. dead, " all power in heaven and in earth " was given unto 
 
 xxviii. 18. Him : all things pertaining to man's salvation passed im- 
 mediately into His hands. As St. Peter said, in his first 
 
 Acts X. 36. unstraiteued sermon to the Gentiles, "He is Lord of 
 all." Everything became Dominical from that time : the 
 " Lord's " house, the " Lord's " supper, the " Lord's " day, 
 mark the great change. And thus " the peace " became 
 also His, to be administered by Him, on conditions of His 
 appointment. 
 
 Christ is Himself the Publisher of His own peace. 
 
 Actsx.36. "The word which God sent unto the children of Israel, 
 preaching peace by Jesus Cln-ist : He is Lord of all," is 
 
 2 Cor. V. now " the word of reconciliation," fjreached in His name 
 19. by the ambassadors of Christ. The terms on which the 
 sinner may make his peace with God are prescribed by the 
 Lord Himself ; nor does He permit any human authority 
 to interfere with them. They are very simple; but they 
 are also very rigorous, as against both those who add to 
 them and those who take from them. He requires a true 
 and deep repentance, and a real and stedfast Avarfare 
 against all sin : no peace that is pronounced upon those 
 who are careless of this condition was ever ratified by 
 Him. But when this condition is complied with He 
 demands only a supreme reliance on Himself; and tliose 
 who encumber the sinner's approach by any human 
 devices and inventions have no sanction from Him : they 
 
PEACE FROM THE LORD OF PEACE. 163 
 
 must answer to the " Lord of the peace " for their 
 affliction of the souls of those whom He calls to find rest 
 in Himself. 
 
 This leads, however, to another most important truth 
 which this prayer teaches us. Our Saviour Himself 
 administers His own government by His Spirit, and im- 
 parts with His own hand the blessings of His peace. As 
 He presents His atonement to the Father in heaven, so 
 He imparts it to us upon earth. By Him, St. Paul else- 
 where says, " we receive the atonement :" which is, being Rom. v. 
 interpreted, we receive from Christ that peace within ^^• 
 which answers to the reconciliation or atonement without. 
 He dispenses the forgiveness of sins, and gives the assur- 
 ance of it, by His Spirit : i^ermitting none to interpose 
 between Himself and the penitent save as the simple 
 ambassadors of His will. Of this He gave clear tokens 
 dm-ing His presence with us. Sending His Apostles fortli, 
 He commanded them to preach that " the kingdom of Matt. iii. 
 heaven is at hand," and to utter the salutation of peace ^• 
 on every house ; but the assurance of the remission of sins 
 He reserved for His own lips. They might perform all won- 
 ders of mercy in His name ; but not pronounce forgiveness. 
 The greeting of peace they might ofifer, but not speak the 
 peace of pardon. But in proportion to the restraint upon 
 them was the freedom with which He Himself dispensed 
 it to the penitent. "Go in peace," " Go unto peace," are 
 words with which the Gospels make us very familiar; but 
 we have only a few instances recorded out of multitudes. 
 And still " the Lord of peace " speaks the word that 
 tranquillises the conscience and gives the heart rest. The 
 prayer lays much emphasis upon "Himself:" we are 
 instructed to pray directly to Him in whom are hid all the 
 treasures of forgiveness and peace, as well as of wisdom 
 and knowledge, and to expect that He will speak to us by 
 His Spirit — whose voice is as clear to the spiritual ear as 
 was the Lord's own to the outward ear of Jewish penitents 
 
 M 2 
 
164 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL, 
 
 — the assurance of our acceptance with God. Indeed, the 
 Apostle suggests a change here to our advantage. The 
 Lord was wont to say, "Go unto peace;" but now He gives 
 an abiding peace : **The Lord be with you all." 
 
 There is another very striking M'ord in this petition. 
 " The Lord of peace give you peace always." This unusual 
 exi)ression must have its full force. It means at the 
 outset that the humble petitioner may expect a permanent, 
 im varying, uninterrupted assurance of His acceptance : the 
 prayer for forgiveness that ascends "without ceasing" is 
 without ceasing heard and answered "always." And, if 
 this is not pressing the word too far, w^hat an unspeakable 
 privilege it assures! But this is not all. The peace of 
 Christ, like the peace of God, is larger and deeper than 
 reconciliation: it includes all that is included in perfect 
 spiritual prosperity, and therefore compasses the soul 
 around with goodness and "passeth understanding." It 
 was in this deep and full meaning that the Saviour Himself 
 used the term, when He at once bequeathed it as His only 
 legacy, and promised it as His only gift. "Peace I leave 
 with you, My peace I give unto you." Two blessings He 
 preeminently made His own ; and sealed them as His 
 
 Johnxiv. own to His people for ever: His "peace," as including all 
 ^^- the profound, unsearchable, blessedness of fellowship with 
 
 John XV. Himself; and His "joy," as including all the outward 
 manifestations of that blessedness for ever. "My peace" 
 has, of course, two interpretations : it is either the spiritual 
 prosperity Avliich the Saviour imparts, and of which the 
 world knows nothing ; or it is the unspeakable and 
 boundless peace of the Lord's own hidden spirit. We 
 humbly limit ourselves to the former in our prayer; but 
 who shall forbid the earnest petitioner to glide into the 
 latter meaning? What is there in the Lord's peace, or in 
 the joy of our Lord, into which the believer may 
 not enter? 
 
 " By all means:" this also is a peculiar phrase; so unusual, 
 
PEACE FROM THE LORD OF PEACE. 165 
 
 that we may be sure it was intended to carry a very special 
 meaning. There are, indeed, evidences among the various 
 readings that the word has offended the critics and 
 transcribers: but it remains firm, and teaches us that 
 we must not only expect the Lord's peace always, but that 
 we must expect it to come to us through strange and 
 seemingly discordant methods. He who is the " Lord of 
 peace " shows His supremacy in this, that He can make all 
 things contribute to His servants' prosperity, and extract 
 their well-being out of elements that seem utterly at 
 variance with it. We pray not merely that the Redeemer 
 may shed through His word, and His sacred ordinances, 
 the sweet influences of His peace. For this we scarcely 
 need to pray. But we ask that He may impart it in 
 tribulation, and make tribulation minister to the profound 
 communion of the soul with God ; that He may preserve to 
 the spirit interior peace, whilst the surface, and sometimes 
 more than the surface, is harassed by temptation ; that the 
 very turbulence of the world may be made not only to 
 heighten our peace by contrast, but to confirm it by 
 driving us to more intimate fellowship with Him whose 
 "good cheer" is the supreme and all-suflBcient pledge of Jno. xvi. 
 victory. This bold petition demands that the rage of 
 Satan and the wrath of man should not only praise God, 
 but be turned to His servant's deeper joy. If we connect 
 it for a moment with the preceding verses, it teaches the 
 Thessalonians to expect that the unrest and disorder of 
 evil men should work out for the devout who were 
 exercised thereby a far more exceeding peace. The voice 
 of the Lord may not always hush the storm around or 
 within the soul ; but always and by all means He will give 
 His peace in that inner man wliich disquietude ought 
 never to reach. 
 
 Whatever wonders of grace are involved in all this 
 receive their solution in the final words, "The Lord be 
 with you all!" Let it be once more observed that this is 
 
166 THE PEA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 not the farewell gi'eeting, wliicli might be explained, or 
 explained away, as a mere good wish. It is emphatically 
 a part of the prayer, and indicates that the special presence 
 of the Lord is a blessing >vhich must be asked, and which 
 is the secret of all peace and happiness. It is true that He 
 promised His presence with His disciples to the end of the 
 world. But not the less on that account is the internal 
 inhabitation of the heart by Christ an object of earnest 
 prayer and the exceeding great reward of faith. And it is 
 His presence which brings with it all spiritual good. 
 Where He dwells there must be peace. No heart can be so 
 cheerless but that His sudden entrance and benediction 
 shall infuse into it life and energy. He commanded His 
 disciples to pronounce their peace in every house they 
 entered. Much more does He observe His own law. 
 Entering our hearts, He speaks His "peace;" abiding in 
 us. He gives us peace "always;" and by the secret energy 
 of His grace He turns all events to our good, giving us 
 peace "by all means." 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFEGTNESS. 167 
 
 VII. 
 
 RESTORATIOISr TO CORPOR/VTE 
 PERFEGTNESS. 
 
 " Now I pray to God that ye do no evil ; not that we should appear 
 approved, but that ye should do that which is honest : . . . . and this also 
 we wish, even your perfection." — 2 Cor. xiii. 7 — 9. 
 
 The Epistles to the Corinthians have given us some 
 important illustrations of the Apostle's devotional grati- 
 tude, as exhibited in elaborate thanksgivings and in brief 
 ejaculatory expressions. But they furnish no prayers, 
 jiroperly so called, until the passage now lying before us ; 
 in which the writer closes a long series of the most earnest 
 exhortations and warnings that he ever had occasion to 
 utter, by the vehement outpouring of his desire for the 
 perfection of the church at Corinth. We shall better 
 understand the j)urport of the petition if we consider for 
 a moment the circumstances that gave rise to it, and mark 
 the peculiarity of the language it employs. 
 
 This short and abrupt " wish " is inlaid into a very difficult 
 context ; the difficulty of which, however, all but vanishes 
 when we obtain a clear view of the Apostle's relations 
 to the Corinthian Christians, and enter into the deep 
 trouble that engrossed his heart. No city was more dear 
 to liim than Corinth. He had spent a longer time there 
 than in any other European centre. But, after devoting 
 to them so much of his oral labours, it had been his dis- 
 appointment to find that, to a great extent, those labours 
 had been in vain. He had written one long letter of 
 rebuke — probably following another that has not come 
 down to us — which contained the most careful and 
 thorough exposure of the doctrinal, moral, and eccle- 
 
168 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 siastical evils that had crept in among them. The result 
 of this pastoral he had waited for with intense anxiety; 
 but that result, when it came, had given him only a partial 
 satisfaction. Some of their backslidings had been healed ; 
 but the roots of their declension remained. The present 
 Epistle most frankly acknowledges the good in their re- 
 pentance ; but it scarcely disguises, or attempts to disguise, 
 the Apostle's resentment of that unholy tolerance which 
 permitted the continuance among them of principles sub- 
 versive of Divine and apostolical authority. He cannot 
 suppress his conviction that the Corinthian church was, to 
 a gi'cat extent, disorganised. Influences were at work 
 fatal to its unity, and completeness, and integrity in faith 
 and order. Now St. Paul knew full Avell that his own 
 apostolical authority was, under Christ, the bond of their 
 perfectness both in doctrine and discipline. Accordingly 
 he dwells much upon the " proof" of that authority which 
 his coming among them would exhibit. Whether they had 
 suggested this word, or the Apostle only attributed it to 
 them, — " Since ye seek a proof of Christ speaking in me " 
 (verse 3), — it certainly had seized his mind, and he dwells 
 upon the idea, after his manner, with all kinds of variations. 
 This one word ''proof" is the key to the whole passage, 
 and solves every difiiculty. As to the approval of his 
 authority in Christ, there was this alternative : either he 
 would prove it by rectifying their disorders magisterially, 
 and so restoring them to soundness ; or they testing them- 
 selves, putting away their evil, doing what was honest, and 
 thus " restoring themselves to perfectness," would prove the 
 virtue of his apostolical counsel and leave " unapproved," 
 that is, unevidenced in act, the prerogative of apostolical 
 discipline. And here comes out, in all its strength and 
 tenderness, St. Pauls unselfish love. Unlike Jonah, he 
 would be rejoiced that his threatenings went for nothing, 
 provided only the amendment of the Corinthians was the 
 reason. And in the hope of this he utters the double wish, 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 169 
 
 which is, however, the language of ardent prayer, that they 
 might be restored to " perfection," as the result of ab- 
 staining from every evil, and of performing all that was 
 good. 
 
 It will be obvious, therefore, that the "perfection" of 
 this prayer includes, on the one hand, perfect restoration 
 to ecclesiastical order, and, on the other, perfect recovery 
 of moral purity : the corporate or Church idea predomi- 
 nating in the word, as its etymology in the Greek indicates. 
 It will be obvious, fiu-ther, that the evils for their deliver- 
 ance from which the Apostle prays, and the corporate 
 perfection which is the ideal of his desire, must be 
 illustrated by reference to the general strain of the two 
 Epistles. 
 
 First, the prayer is for the perfect recovery which would 
 result from " not doing the evil," or, what is the same 
 thing, the putting away of the evil by " doing what is 
 excellent" (verse 7)- The vices that infested the Corin- 
 thian church exhibit to us as in epitome the vices that 
 have been the bane of the Church of Christ generally from 
 the beginning. The New Testament has given us a clear 
 description of those errors, as also of similar deviations 
 from the standard of corporate perfectness among the 
 churches of Asia Minor, And the reason of this faithful 
 delineation, so humbling to the apostolic churches, will be 
 evident to every reader. The communities of Corinth, of 
 Galatia, and of Asia Minor are specifically set forth as 
 warning examples. 
 
 The fundamental disorder that needed to be repaired 
 was that of rebellion against the supreme authority of the 
 Divine Revealer, and the Divine Inspirer of Truth, in the 
 person of the Apostles, their representatives in the Church. 
 Whether as Judaizers or as Rationalists, the opponents of 
 St. Paul evidently abounded in Corinth. If not producing 
 such absolutely revolutionary effects as in Galatia, the 
 Corinthian Judaizers were by no means uninflucntial ; but 
 
170 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the false Gnosis of those who measured faith by reason was 
 still more predominant. The openings of the two Epistles 
 are devoted to these two parties respectively. But through- 
 out both it requires no very minute observation to note 
 that the Apostle is strenuously bent on checking the 
 tendency of some among the Corinthians to think for 
 themselves in the light of their own reason, and to 
 criticise the unassailable words of revelation. His aim is 
 
 2 Cor. X. 5. to "bring into captivity every thought to the obedience of 
 Christ." "The knowledge of the glory of Cod" had shone 
 into his heart and the hearts of his fellow- Apostles from 
 
 2 Cor. iv. "the face of Jesus Christ," and if it was "hid," it was "hid 
 
 ^' ^' '^' to them that are lost." The treasure was despised by 
 
 many of the "Avise in this world," because it was in 
 
 "earthen vessels." But — and here Ave must turn from the 
 
 Second Epistle to the First — "the things of the Spirit 
 
 1 Cor. ii. of God" are "foolishness" to the "natural man,... 
 because they are spiritually discerned." The Apostle then 
 declares, as his final appeal, in the hearing not only of the 
 Corinthians, but of Christendom to the end of the world. 
 Cor. ii. "We have the mind of Christ." Rationalism, the bane of 
 the modern Church, has here its best description and its 
 only cure. The Scriptures of inspiration contain the mind 
 of Christ ; they require a spiritual discernment, and cannot 
 be judged by the unregenerate reason. Rebellion against 
 this truth is virtually a rejection of the Bible, and there- 
 fore of Christianity. As a principle in the individual, this 
 is fatal to religious stability and growth. As a principle in 
 the Church, it is the root of all disorganisation; and it 
 must be put aAvay, with all its forms of manifestation, 
 before the community bearing the name of Christ can put 
 on its "perfection." With regard to the Church at large — 
 not now to make special application — there is no prayer in 
 the Apostle's entire Liturgy that should be more fervently 
 offered : " And this we pray, even your restoration." 
 Answered it certainly will be ; for the unity and victory of 
 
 14. 
 
 16. 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 171 
 
 the Faith are sure. But the answer is long delayed. With 
 
 regard to the universal Church, it seems more distant 
 
 than ever ; and tliis should make those communities wliich 
 
 are faithful to "the foundation of the Apostles and Pro- Eph.ii.20. 
 
 phets " more earnest to maintain their integrity. 
 
 Another element of disorder for the removal of which 
 from the Corinthians the Apostle prayed, was the direct 
 result of the former, — a lax maintenance of some of the 
 vital doctrines of the Christian confession. It is impossible 
 for us now to determine what errors were taught at 
 Corinth, or upon which of the fundamental truths of the 
 Gospel the spirit of Rationalism fastened. Our documents 
 are never exhaustive on these subjects. St. Paul generally 
 singles out the points in which obliquity was most manifest, 
 such as the Coming of Christ, when wi'iting to the Thessa- 
 lonians; the one atoning foundation, when writing to the 
 Galatians; — and as to all others he says, "The rest ^vill I l ^oi* ^i- 
 set in order when I come." The heretics in Corinth 
 assailed the resurrection generally, and this as including 
 Christ's resiu^rection in particular : hence their doctrinal 
 errors were perilously near to an entire abandonment 
 of the atoning death of the Redeemer; and it was not to 
 be wondered at that they misapprehended the design of 
 the sacramental memorial of that death. Many hints there 
 are, which cannot be referred to here, of the spreading 
 influence of heretical opinion among them. And it was 
 not without reference to the corruptions of doctrine that 
 the dejected Apostle expressed his fear that " he should 2 Cor. xii. 
 not find them such as he would." His jealousy of the 
 preacher of another Jesus, who might have corrupted theii' 
 simplicity as the serpent beguiled Eve, had assumed just 
 before a very marked expression. To save them from 
 listening to such miserable rivals, he condescended to speak 
 boastfully — his " folly " for their sake — of his own superior 2 Cor. xi. 
 credentials. His vehement desire to j)reserve the Corin- ^■ 
 thian church " a chaste virgin to Christ," undefiled by ^ g!!.*/^' 
 
172 THE PMAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 doctrinal error, as he himself explains his meaning, gives a 
 peculiar tremulousness and tumult to his diction which has 
 no parallel save in the Epistle to the Galatians. And 
 there cannot be a doubt that the integrity of their faith 
 was in his thought when he declared with so much 
 emphasis that he could do " nothing against the truth, but 
 for the truth," and earnestly besought of God that they 
 might be " perfect and entire, wanting nothing." In this 
 sense, also, the praying people of Christ have much need 
 day and night to urge the Apostle's cry. 
 
 Neglect and irreverence in the Divine service invariably 
 follow hard upon laxity in doctrine. Of this the Corinthian 
 church furnished a striking example: the sin and the 
 punishment are both most vividly set before us, with 
 somewhat of the same awful solemnity with which the 
 crime and the doom of Ananias and Sapphira, individual 
 mockers of God, are described in the Acts. The disorgani- 
 sation in worship which the First Epistle condemns must 
 have gone to an extreme almost inconceivable by us : that 
 the Supper of the Lord, the central act of worship, should 
 have been so desecrated as to call down upon the church 
 such visitations of sickness and death, implies a spirit of 
 license and insensibility to Divine things that doubtless 
 infected all parts of the service of the church. The 
 Second Epistle makes no reference to a continuance of this 
 disorder; we may therefore suppose that the Apostle's 
 stern rebuke attained its object. But that Epistle plainly 
 enough indicates that the same leaven was at work in 
 other directions ; and the final prayer included the removal 
 of that spirit of disorder and the observance of all that was 
 "decent" (verse 7), in its wish for their restoration to 
 perfectness. 
 
 The Corinthian church is in this, as in other respects, 
 set forth as an example to all churches and to us. It is 
 true that the peculiar punishment which vindicated the 
 sanctity of the communion of Christ's most holy fellowship 
 
EE8T0RATI0N TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 173 
 
 with His people has not been continued nor even repeated 
 in any known later instances. But the Divine displeasure 
 on this kind of desecration is not the less severe on that 
 account. Hypocrisy, and lying, and tempting of the Holy 
 Spirit are not less flagrant sins because they are not now 
 visited with the penalty that lighted on Ananias and 
 Sapphira. In all these cases the chastisement was signal 
 in early times that men might never deem the Divine 
 justice lowered by the Gospel ; it was not repeated, for 
 that would have been inconsistent with the ordinary law of 
 Gospel probation. Never was the Apostle's prayer for 
 reformation more needful than now. Two kinds of dis- 
 honour are in our own day done to the Divine service : the 
 one taking away its simplicity, and discerning more in the 
 ordinances than they have to show; the other robbing 
 everything external and symbolical of its true value, and 
 reducing religious ceremonial to the level of mere human 
 arrangement. Both are equally distant from ecclesiastical 
 perfection ; both are equally violations of the Divine order 
 in the ordinances of religion. In our own times, and in 
 our own land of England, and in our own neighbourhood, 
 wherever we may dwell, are to be found representatives of 
 both. The Ritualists, as they are conventionally called, 
 discern the Lord's body in their central service in a 
 sense in which others discern it not. They "see," as 
 really present, what the Scripture only bids us rightly 
 to ''discern" and "estimate." There is much reason 
 to thmk that by a superstitious ceremonial, based upon 
 a great delusion, they dishonour what they desire to 
 reverence; whilst from all wilful contempt of the holy 
 communion of believers they may be safe. The same 
 may be said of many communities which systematically 
 neglect the Supper of the Lord, and are indifferent to all 
 the outward decencies of worship. They neither see nor 
 discern the Lord's body ; which, whether as meaning His 
 sacrifice or His si)iritual food, they dishonour in its memo- 
 
174 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 rials. Meanwhile they also do not intend the dishonour 
 which they inflict on the house and name of God. From the 
 equal sins of excess and defect may we and ours be saved ! 
 Closely connected with the preceding elements of dis- 
 order and imperfection is the spirit of faction which the 
 Apostle vehemently condemns throughout both Epistles. 
 This evil seems to have been rebuked by the First Epistle 
 in vain ; for, just as he is about to close the Second, St. 
 Paul intimates that he anticipated on his third coming 
 a recurrence of the distress which he felt when the Co- 
 rinthian parties — the originals of all subsequent sects — 
 shocked him by the use of his own name, in common with 
 the names of Peter and Apollos and of Christ Himself, as 
 the watchword of separation. Amongst the vehement out- 
 bursts of his resentment which we read and wonder at, 
 none contains a more condensed fervour of protest than 
 "Is Christ divided? was Paid crucified for you?" — words 
 which no exigency short of the most imperative could ever 
 have extorted from St. Paul, even in the apostrophe of 
 argument. It might seem as if the holy Apostle had a 
 presentiment, if not a foresight, of the calamities that 
 should befall the Church through this spirit of division. 
 Just as at a later time he hurled rather than wrote his 
 protest against the Antinomian and Gnostic heretics who 
 were beginning to vitiate the doctrine of Christ, so now he 
 sets no limit to his righteous indignation against the dis- 
 turbers of the unity of the Church. The first paragraphs 
 of the First Epistle and the last paragraphs in the Second 
 unite in this. The strong references to his severity as the 
 minister of the Saviour's wrath, which so aflectingly alter- 
 nate in this chapter with his tenderness, are all to be 
 explained by his resentment of this deadly sin. And it 
 was with a distinct apprehension of its exceeding sinfulness 
 that he expressed his hope that they would cease to do 
 this evil, and breathed forth his wishes for their " perfect 
 restoration to order." 
 
EESTOBATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 175 
 
 The last element of disorder referred to by the Apostle 
 was the violation of Christian morality of which the church 
 was guilty : disorder which in some respects was manifest 
 and glaring, whilst in others it was secret and connived at. 
 None of the churches whose burden lay on the Apostle 
 provoked so deeply his displeasure ; none so humbled and 
 gi-ieved him. In proportion to the abundance of their 
 spiritual gifts was their carelessness in the discharge of 
 spiritual obligations. St. Paul's most generous praise in 
 some passages has tended to hide this fact ; but the 
 evidence of it appears in almost every paragraph. Espe- 
 cially we have it in the context of our prayer. In chap, 
 xii. there is obvious reference to those two classes of moral 
 oflfence from which in chap. vii. 1 the Corinthians had been 
 exhorted to cleanse themselves. 
 
 The sins of the spirit are summed up here in one of 
 those catalogues for which St. Paul's Epistles are remark- 
 able. The list is perhaps more complete than anywhere 
 else : and here alone is it written down as marking the 
 conduct of professing Christians. It is true that St. Paul 
 only expresses his fear that he should not "find them 
 as he would ; " but we know how to interpret these words 
 of his Christian courtesy and charity and good hope. His 
 fear was no other than his confident and sad expectation. 
 The extent to which these ebullitions of pride, wrath, 
 jealousy, malignity, and strife pervaded the Corinthian 
 church we know not. But the Apostle does not qualify 
 his words, nor restrict their application, as he certainly 
 would have done if these vices had been limited to a 
 refractory and undisciplined few. The same can hardly be 
 said of the sins of the flesh that follow. St. Paul passes by 
 a remarkable transition to another tone. With deep 
 pathos he intimates his dread that his God will " humble " 
 him and make him " mourn " in the presence of the many 
 who had not repented of their notorious and unbridled 
 sensuality. Let the term " many " be duly weighed, and 
 
176 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 still more the "not repenting:" the result >vill be a 
 conviction that many of the Corinthians were no less 
 infamous in their secret sensuality than in their open 
 turbulence. In fact, there is no resisting the evidence that 
 this most liberally endowed of all the churches, Avhich had 
 enjoyed the Apostle's long residence, had heard the highest 
 Christian eloquence of Apollos, and had received more 
 epistolary communications than any other, surpassed all 
 churches in practical ungodliness. And this condition of 
 relaxed morality was only the result, the natural and 
 necessary result, of those other elements of disorder to 
 which allusion has been made. The true and only means 
 of recovery were neutralised by infidelity and the haughty 
 spirit of Rationalism: hence the old Corinth reasserted 
 itself and obtained ascendency over the new. 
 
 Putting these things together, we shall have a very com- 
 plete view of those elements of disorder and imj^erfection 
 the removal of which the Apostle earnestly desired. Now 
 let us take his word " perfection " in its positive meaning, 
 and consider what his aspiration was for the Corinthian and 
 every Christian church. It must be remembered that St. 
 Paul's prayers always rise above their immediate occasion, 
 and embrace the widest range of objects and the most 
 abundant fulfilment that it could enter the heart to desire. 
 It would be wrong, therefore, to limit his good wish here to 
 the removal of the "evil" that he deprecated as marring the 
 Corinthians' perfection. He longed and prayed for their 
 attainment of all the comj^leteness that may belong to a 
 Christian church. Let us once more endeavour to interpret 
 the Apostle's word by a glance at the tenor of the Epistles : 
 this time, however, seeking the elements of a positive per- 
 fectness, and no longer thinking of the correction of abuses. 
 
 But before doing so, we cannot but dwell for a moment 
 upon the wonderful fact that such a church, outwardly 
 encompassed and inwardly harassed by such corruptions, 
 should be prayed for as capable of perfect amendment ; 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 177 
 
 that the possibility should be assumed of a restoration 
 to soundness, not at some distant time, but as it were 
 immediately, and as the result of energetic cooperation 
 with Divine gi-ace. What was the secret of this transi- 
 tion from deep distrust and the extreme of moral dis- 
 approval to the strong expression of prayerful hope and 
 exhortation? Was it St. Paul's confidence in the power 
 of his own words ? No ; for he had written two letters 
 comparatively in vain. Was it his vague and unfounded 
 reliance upon the victory of Christian principle generally, 
 or a sanguine trust in these Corinthians in particular? 
 No ; for he also in his degree " knew what was in man." 
 But it was his firm assurance that, through the blessing 
 of God on his personal efibrts, the church would be roused 
 to redeem itself from its bondage, and protest against and 
 cast out its ofi'enders, and vindicate its purity. He knew 
 that the enemies of order and purity were only a minority ; 
 and it may be that at this season of great anxiety — of 
 unsurpassed anxiety, evidence of which is found in every 
 paragraph of this Epistle — ^his Master gave him a secret 
 assurance of his success. Certain it is that for a season 
 the Corinthian church enjoyed great prosperity. And 
 this is an abundant encouragement to us in our day. 
 There need be no more than a step between great disorder 
 and a sound amendment. 
 
 The bond of ecclesiastical perfectness is evidently 
 throughout these Epistles, and in all St. Paul's writings, 
 a compact organisation vivified and kept in living unity 
 by the Holy Spirit. It was tliis for which he prayed ; 
 and that he prayed for it proves that every Christian 
 community should keep such a standard of aspiration in 
 view. It is true that the Apostle's highest ideal points 
 rather to the spiritual than to the visible community ; the 
 growth into the fulness of the stature of the perfect man 
 in Christ Jesus belongs rather to the mystical body of 
 which the Lord is the Head than to any one embodiment 
 
 N 
 
178 THE PR A YERH OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 of coqioratc Christianity on earth. But the visible Church 
 also has its perfection of organised unity ; and it was that 
 M'hich the writer evidently had in his niind. Although 
 the English word " perfection " gives no hint of tliis, the 
 Greek term so translated carries that meaning. It ex- 
 presses the Apostle's ardent wish that the Corinthian 
 community might be "perfectly joined together" under 
 one regimen and discipline : all factions suppressed, all 
 divisions abolished, and all the separate congregations of 
 the city united under their pastors and teachers in one 
 corporate body for common worship, communion, and 
 religious labour. And it expresses the Holy Spirit's will 
 concerning us in our day that division and discord shoidd 
 cease ; that, although separations in modern times are tole- 
 rated wliich the New Testament did not anticipate, every 
 individual community should maintain its ovm. unity, sub- 
 ordination and tranquil internal government, under its 
 own rulers and guides, while ready to communicate in all 
 good things with every other evangelical church upon 
 earth. Lawlessness within a church itself, and bitterness 
 towards other churches, are both and alike inconsistent 
 with its corporate perfection. 
 
 The Church's order of worship may even on earth attain 
 a certain standard of perfection ; and this must be in- 
 cluded in the present jirayer. To all hearts rightly 
 touched, there is something unsi^eakably attractive in 
 the idea of a perfect Christian service in the Lord's house. 
 There are many who tliink this unattainable, or, if attain- 
 able, of slight importance : either they hold an exag- 
 gerated notion of the comparative value of a strictly per- 
 sonal religion, or they regard public devotion as the mere 
 vehicle for religious instruction, or they undervalue com- 
 mon worship because it is made too common. But those 
 who enter deeply into the spirit of the New Testament 
 delight in the house of the Lord and its ser^^ces as much 
 as the Psalmist did in the days of elaborate ritual. 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNESS. 179 
 
 We can hardly gather St. Paul's ideal of a perfect 
 Christian worship from these Epistles in particular; 
 scarcely perhaps from all his EiDistles united. The cir- 
 cumstances of the early Church were peculiar ; and it is 
 scarcely too much to say that the normal and permanent 
 worship of the Christian house of prayer was scarcely 
 known among the Corinthians. With them, as with most 
 of the early churches, the Lord's Supper was more central 
 and exclusive than it was intended to be and afterwards 
 became ; it was also surrounded with some very doubtful 
 appendages, afterwards disused. So, also, the extraordinary 
 endowments of many members of the community introduced 
 an element unfamihar in the permanent service. Hence, 
 we must not look to these Epistles for a model of that 
 perfection the principles of wliich, however, are very plamly 
 set forth in them as throughout the New Testament. 
 
 It is not too much to say that in these days the minds 
 of devout men are everywhere bent upon discovering and 
 acting out those principles. The perfection of the sweet 
 service of song and prayer and meditation and word and 
 sacrament is aimed at in very diiferent ways and vrith 
 very different results. Happy the Christian congregations 
 which seek to attain in the Spirit's own method the ideal 
 which the Spirit proposes : avoiding the two extremes, 
 of a ceremonial that stifles the simpUcity of devotion, and 
 of a bareness and poverty which dishonour the Holy 
 Name of Him who is in the midst. That there is such 
 a perfection of praise and prayer attainable as shall make 
 the place where the disciples meet the antechamber of 
 heaven, and the Christian communion the earnest of an 
 eternal fellowship, let us never doubt. 
 
 Once more, the Apostle's ideal of corporate perfection 
 included a noble theory of mutual help in the Christian 
 fellowship. These Corinthian Epistles are a complete 
 depository of the social principles of Christianity, and of 
 the preceptive details of its system of mutual edification. 
 
 N 2 
 
180 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 The spirit of uncharitableness, selfishness, and faction 
 which reigned among them having been sternly rebuked, 
 the Apostle proceeds to dilate upon the perfect opposite in 
 the Christian ideal ; and thus the beautiful exhibition of 
 charity in the twelfth chapter in the former Epistle 
 counterbalances the miserable exhibition of faction in the 
 First. The theory which he lays doMii cannot now be 
 examined. It is very high, but not beyond attainment. 
 Suffice to say that it proclaims this principle : that every 
 member of the body must in his vocation and stewardship 
 render back to Christianity all that in Christianity he 
 receives, and give to the community the fullest advantage 
 of whatever talent he as an indi\^dual may possess. Of 
 course, if the corporate perfectness of a Church waits for 
 the universal operation of these principles, it will wait for 
 ever, and in vain. Such perfection is not attainable by 
 the community on earth. But the nearer the approacli 
 to this, the nearer is the Church to the realisation of its 
 earthly calling. It may be said that the Saviour's design 
 is accomplished most fuUy where charity has the disposal 
 of the Church's wealth ; where emj^loyment is given in 
 various ways to the diversified talents of its members in 
 preaching and in teaching ; where mutual exhortation and 
 encouragement are secured by periodical meetings ; where, 
 in short, every joint, according to its defined function in the 
 common organisation, supplieth the measure of its eifectual 
 working to the edifying of the body in love. No apostolical 
 test of perfectness in the Church as a community is more 
 easily applied, or more generally forgotten, than this. 
 
 Still remaining Mitliin the limits of an indi\ddual com- 
 munity, we may regard the Apostle's ideal as embracing 
 also a high standard of Christian morality. In other 
 words, the purity of the Church must be guarded by 
 a rigid discipline. But that discipline is of two kinds. It 
 is certainly ecclesiastical, according to the ordinary mean- 
 ing of the word : where that is relaxed, the Church is 
 
RESTORATION TO CORPORATE PERFECTNE8S. 181 
 
 already on the way to dissolution, or to a corrupt con- 
 tinuance which is worse than dissolution. Whatever other 
 attributes and prerogatives it may have, the Cliurch that 
 does not prosecute even to the death every capital offence 
 against its purity is very far from its perfection. But the 
 more effectual discipline is the maintenance of a high 
 standard of morality in the common sentiment of the 
 people through the sedulous instruction of the Christian 
 ministry. A perfectly healthy Church, or a Church on 
 the way to perfection, is always accepted of God and 
 approved of all men who aim at perfect sanctity of morals. 
 The interior operation of grace in transforming the 
 characters of its members into the likeness of Christ is 
 altogether another matter : that is a perfection which 
 belongs rather to the mystical community, and is seen 
 by God alone. But the practical observance of the Divine 
 commandments in general, and of the Saviour's inter- 
 pretations of them in particular, is what may be read 
 of all men, and what all men demand of the professing 
 Church. It is not, however, because the world expects 
 it, or because consistency demands it, that the "ap- 
 proved" Church aims at a lofty standard of morals. It 
 is because Jesus Christ is in it (verse 5), and prompts by 
 His Spirit to every good word and work. Where vice 
 reigns, or even moral laxity, there, it may be confidently 
 said, the Church is in the way to declare itself " repro- 
 bate " or unapproved. Its perfection, however, as prayed 
 for by St. Paul, is its aim at a j^erfect holiness. 
 
 Lastly, we should not be faithful expositors of our 
 Apostle's meaning if we did not make the end of per- 
 fection the strong spirit of charity in the Christian com- 
 munity : charity, that is, in its distinct character, as going 
 beyond the limits presided over by brotherly love. 
 Charity is a word of many meanings. It covers a mul- 
 titude of graces in itself, 'as well as a multitude of sins 
 in others. It has an unlimited range within tlie daily 
 
182 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 life of the believer, and within the sphere of the local 
 community. But its highest meaning and its noblest 
 sphere is the Catholic Church and the outer world. And 
 of this kind of charity, as essential to the perfection of 
 a Christian society, these two Corinthian Epistles beyond 
 any other bear witness. Nothing is more characteristic 
 of the Apostle, whether of his noble spirit or of his 
 peculiar mental habits, than the extraordinary anxiety 
 displayed throughout this letter for the due and cheerful 
 exercise of the Corinthians' benevolence towards the poor 
 Christians of Jerusalem. And we may regard this as only 
 one illustration of that boundless compassion towards the 
 miserable inhabitants of this sin-stricken world which 
 every Christian community is bound by its allegiance to 
 Christ to exhibit. Nothing is more certain than that no 
 other excellence, and no combination of excellences, will 
 compensate for the lack of this in the Church of our 
 Saviour's charity. In this, and in nothing short of tliis, is 
 its perfection. 
 
 Scarcely any reference has been made, in the inter- 
 pretation of this Prayer, to the individual believer. In 
 expoundingmostof St. Paid's devotional utterances, whether 
 of supplication or of thanksgiving, the Christian man and 
 the Christian Church have been as it were indistinguish- 
 able. Here, hoAvever, we have had a peculiar word to deal 
 Avith : one that expressly demands an ecclesiastical ajD- 
 plication. But it must not be forgotten that every 
 application of Scriptural truth must find its way to the 
 individual, and only through the individual reaches tlie 
 community. Every one who hears this short and earnest 
 expression of St. Paul's " wish " must bethink himself of 
 his own soul, and ask what there is in himself of disorder 
 and imperfectness, and seek to bring his OAvn heart into 
 the "unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace," so making 
 sure that his own part is contributed towards the Church's 
 perfect harmony. 
 
UNITY. 183 
 
 VIII. 
 UNITY. 
 
 " Now the Grod of patience and consolation grant you to be likeminded 
 one toward another according to Christ Jesus : that ye may with one 
 mind and one mouth glorify God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus 
 Christ."— EoM. xv. 5, 6. 
 
 The two prayei's which are so closely connected in this 
 chapter might, on the first glance, appear to be the broken 
 fragments of one concluding supplication. But, when 
 closely examined, they are found to be perfectly distinct, 
 having each its own most appropriate reference to the 
 general strain of the preceding Ej)istle. The former 
 reverts to the blending of Jews and Gentiles in the one 
 Church of Christ, and prays for the grace of unity in 
 its manifestation towards each other and towards God. 
 The latter takes uj) the fundamental doctrine of Christian 
 salvation by faith, and prays for the abounding experience 
 of the blessings of that salvation, as they are reserved for 
 hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost. These 
 l^etitions have their specific bearing upon the state of the 
 Church on whose behalf they are offered ; but, like all the 
 prayers of St. Paul, they are so framed as to belong to 
 the universal Church, in all its communities and in all its 
 individual members. Hence we may fairly give them 
 general titles, and expound them in their general appli- 
 cation. 
 
 It wiU be observed at once that the several words here 
 used are peculiar, scarcely one of them occurring in any 
 of the other prayers. The customary invocation has a 
 striking turn given to it, and the description of the unity 
 
1H4 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 asked for is no less characteristic. In the interjjretation 
 of botli we shall have more than usually to explore the 
 context. 
 
 God is addressed as the God of patience and conso- 
 lation. If we throw our eye backward, we see the meaning 
 to be this, that God is the Giver of that stedfastness and 
 encouragement which it is the design of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures to inspire. The Apostle has just been paying a 
 grand and precious tribute to the ancient oracles of the 
 Old Testament as given for the instruction of Christians : 
 which instruction, sealed upon the heart as jmssive patience 
 and active comfort, feeds and strengthens the principle 
 of hope. But the Scriptures, whether written aforetime 
 or by the Apostles themselves, are only the instrument 
 which God uses for the maintenance in our souls of a sure 
 and efficacious confidence of future glory. This hope was 
 the end of the Old Testament, realised in Christ ; in Clirist 
 the same hope is raised to a higher life, expanded to 
 embrace a larger object, and ^sustained by fuller promises. 
 But we are still saved by hope. And the God of the 
 Christian hope is still the God of patience and comfort. 
 His Spirit still teaches us by the finished Scriptures to 
 endure stedfastly, strong in the consolation of grace, until 
 the sum of all Christian expectation is reached. Thus 
 here, and here only, God receives a name [derived from 
 the Bible as His instrument. No higher testimony could 
 be given to the written Word than this. The Scriptures 
 are the power of God for the infusion into 'human souls of 
 fortitude and strength. And God] is the God of that 
 patience and consolation which only through the Scrip- 
 tures He imparts. 
 
 The connection between this invocation and the subject 
 of the prayer will now bcj sufiicicntly^ obvious. But it 
 requires us to remember St.iPaul's habit of passing silently, 
 as it were, and without warning, "^from a single and|isolated 
 quotation to the general^scope of the^Old-Testament Scrip- 
 
UNITY. 185 
 
 tures, as well as his habit of leaving his readers to supply 
 many of the links of his argument and exhortation. Had 
 he filled up the measure of his meaning, many verses 
 would have required to be inserted before the petition 
 commenced. We must be bold to read his omissions into 
 the text. His purpose was to exhort the Gentile and the 
 Jewish Christians, or, in other words, the strong and 
 the weak, to mutual self-renouncing forbearance, requiring 
 " patience " on both sides, and mutual self-forgetting joy 
 in the " consolation " of the Christian fellowship. Now 
 both these exhortations the writer enforces, as his manner 
 is, by an apj)eal to the sovereign authority, even Christ. 
 As in the previous chapter he had solved the difficulty 
 between the two parties by bringing both into the presence 
 of the common Lord, at the foot of whose throne all dis- 
 sensions should expire, even so he does now, but with 
 a most affecting variation. First, he appeals to the 
 Saviour's example of self-sacrifice, which he makes Him 
 utter from the familiar sixty-ninth Psalm. Then he appeals 
 to the Saviour's revealed will touching both Jews and 
 Gentiles in their unity. Our prayer comes in as a paren- 
 thesis. Before we proceed to expound it, let us glance for 
 a moment at the two branches of the exhortation. 
 
 The duty of self-sacrificing regard to the edification of 
 others is a law of the Christian fellowship enforced by the 
 example of Christ. He "pleased not Himself." This 
 remarkable expression, which simply declares the one 
 principle of the Redeemer's self-renunciation for the good 
 of man, might have been illustrated by an appeal to the 
 entire sum of His history. But the Aj^ostle chooses 
 instead an obscure word from a INIessianic Psalm, in which 
 a typical sufierer cries unto God, "The reproaches of them 
 that^reproached Thee fell on^ Me." He seems to put these 
 words into the lips of Christ Himself; and they refer, not so 
 much to His licarious submission to judgment on behalf 
 of man, as to His meek endurance of the indignities cast 
 
186 THE PEA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 upon Ilim on the way to that final judgment on the Cross. 
 As the supreme self-sacrifice of redemption is the sum of 
 all example, so our Lord's innumerable lesser abnegations 
 bring that example home to our daily life. And here is 
 the connection with our prayer. The suffering Christ, 
 whether in His types in the Old Testament, or Himself 
 the Antitype in the New, teaches His people to endure the 
 contumely of the world and to bear with each other's 
 mutual recriminations. There Mas grave need for this 
 appeal to the last and highest argument. The church at 
 Rome was in great danger. Bigotry on the weak side 
 begat intolerance on the strong side ; and the animosity 
 that was common to the two Avas contrary to the first 
 principles of the law and example of Christ. Hence the 
 pregnant reference, which hints far more than it expresses, 
 to the great lesson of self-sacrificing endurance taught 
 throughout the Old Testament. Hence the solemn suppli- 
 cation to God that He would raise them to the high pitch 
 of their duty by imparting to them the strength of His 
 patience and consolation through the study of His Word. 
 
 Here comes in the prayer, then, as it were before its 
 time. When it ends, the same exhortation to mutual 
 forbearance and love is further enforced by the declared 
 will of Christ Himself as the Fulfiller of ancient prophecies 
 concerning the blending of Jews and Gentiles in the 
 Church. The Apostle bids them " receive " one another : 
 a word that must have its most intense meaning. The 
 Jewdsh Christians should receive the Gentile and the 
 Gentile the Jewish in the same spirit as that in which 
 Christ had received both into equal fellowship with Himself, 
 thus advancing the glory of God. The argiunent, if ex- 
 l)anded, would be this. The common Redeemer of all 
 men, for the manifestation of the highest glory of God, in 
 the accomplishment of His purposes, admitted the two 
 classes of mankind to the same privileges. He was in an 
 especial manner the Minister of the circumcision, and the 
 
UNITY. 187 
 
 first stage of His career limited his high service of the 
 Father to the covenant People. Not only so, in every 
 stage of His career He would minister to the glory of God 
 by the exhibition of His truth in the fulfilment of all the 
 promises to Israel. As the Redeemer He would never 
 forget the tribes of the Election. But as He glorified the 
 fidelity of God towards the covenant People, so also He 
 glorified the mercy of God towards the Gentile nations. 
 Here, however, the Apostle, by an exquisite refinement, 
 changes His style. He returns to the Old-Testament pre- 
 dictions, all given " for our instruction," and chooses three 
 which j)rove that in Christ the Gentiles also were to bring 
 to the Author of redemption a tribute of glory as loud, and 
 as full, and as lasting, as that which Israel should bring, 
 and much more abundant. 
 
 First, the Redeemer Himself is their great Repre- 
 sentative, and gathers their Catholic thanksgivings uj) 
 into His own lips : " I will confess to Thee among the 
 Gentiles." But the second makes them their own repre- 
 sentative, and commands all the nations by a double 
 prophecy to join the ancient people in their praises : 
 " Rejoice, ye Gentiles, with His people." The third lays 
 the common foundation of both in a prediction of Isaiah, 
 that the true David should " reign over the Gentiles," and 
 that "in Him the Gentiles should trust." At this point 
 the Apostle bursts into a second prayer ; but the entire 
 assemblage of these quotations belongs to the first, and 
 are really, though following it, its introduction. They 
 explain the great Hope which the Old Testament, inter- 
 preted by Christ, inspires. They give the reason why the 
 God of the Aj)ostle's supplication derives His title from 
 the " patience and consolation " of Scripture in the one 
 prayer, and from its " hope " in the other. They finally 
 illustrate the phraseology of the petitions now to be con- 
 sidered, so far as tliey have a specific reference to the 
 Church at Rome. Against the latent discord and manifest 
 
188 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 dissension between the two parties the entire volume of 
 the Old Testament protested. The root of this evil was 
 neglect of the " instruction " given by the prophets, for- 
 ge tfulness of the great " hope " they announced to universal 
 man, and slowness of heart to learn the "patience and 
 consolation" which their predictions, through the Spirit's 
 grace, infuse. To the mind of St. Paul it concerned the 
 highest glory of God that the ancient distinction between 
 Gentile and Jcav should be utterly abolished and forgotten. 
 To this high level of contemplation he had long since risen 
 with Christ. To this high level the Christians of Rome 
 had not risen. A large concluding section of his Epistle 
 is devoted to tlie endeavour to raise them out of their 
 unevangelical position : a labour of love which engaged 
 his whole soul. His arguments are enforced by the example 
 and teaching of Christ, by the supreme revelation of the 
 glory of the Divine counsel, and by the blessedness of 
 the common patience, consolation, and hope of the Gospel. 
 But here, as everyAvhere, his mightiest argument is prayer. 
 It is his manner whenever he would stimulate his readers 
 to the highest achievements and attainments of grace, or 
 impress upon them the importance of some great forgotten 
 duty, to make them kneel with him. This observation may 
 be verified by a glance at the long series of his Epistles : 
 tlie solitary exception being that to the Galatians, On 
 the present occasion he can scarcely wait till the argument 
 proper is ended. He breaks off midway, and cries : " ]\Iay 
 tliat God who gives patience and strength through the 
 Scriptures grant you to have but one sentiment of love 
 towards each other, even as Christ has but one feeling 
 towards you, holding you all equally dear : may He give 
 you one faith towards Him who is not the God of Jews 
 and of Gentiles respectively, but of one common humanity 
 in the Person of Jesus Christ ; that you may, with one 
 ini varied and accordant confession, glorify Him in the 
 name of the One Saviour of all." 
 
UNITY. 189 
 
 But the Prayer lias survived its original purpose; it 
 belongs to the universal Church, and has its relation to 
 every community, with an obligation resting upon each 
 individual confessor of the name of Jesus. Unity is the 
 one topic that emerges out of the whole : the unity of 
 brotherly love, the unity of common faith in the media- 
 torial God, and the unity of a worshipping confession. 
 Each of these is the gift of God, but only a gift of God 
 that blesses the effort of man to attain. All that has to be 
 said on this unity in general has been anticipated in the 
 exposition of the Prayer in the Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians. But there is one feature peculiar to this 
 passage which will amply repay our attention. It is the 
 unity of mind and voice in the glorification of the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Those who mind the 
 same thing in the concord of brotherly love must make 
 His name the centre of unity : that seems to be the 
 meaning of " according to Christ Jesus ;" His name is the 
 standard of union, and not its example. So, also, their 
 union in the purest worship of the Gospel is the unity of 
 thought and word in the confession of the Divine Father 
 of the Person of Christ. In other words, the confession 
 and adoration of God in Christ, with all that is involved in 
 it, is the bond of unity in the worship of the Christian 
 Church. 
 
 Our English translation, " God even the Father of our 
 Lord," does not expressly indicate this, or rather expresses 
 it in a diluted form. The word " even " is needless. The 
 sacred formula throughout St. Paul's writings is always 
 faithful to our Lord's own saying, " I ascend to My God 
 and your God," which declares at once an immeasurable 
 difference and an essential unity between His relation and 
 ours to the common Father. ( To the Ephesians " The God [ Eph. i. i: 
 of our Lord Jesus Christ " is the object of Christian prayer A' 
 as He is here the object of Christian praise. In that 
 passage the acknowledgment of our Saviour's incarnate 
 
190 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 relation to God is said to be the highest wisdom of revela- 
 tion, as Ave shall hereafter see ; in this passage the relation 
 of God to the Incarnate Saviour is said to be the subject 
 of highest worship. There is no difficulty in understand- 
 ing this, if we remember that in the mystery of Christ's 
 Person God in all His fulness is revealed to us ; but not 
 simply as God, rather as God incarnate, the Godhead 
 
 Col.ii. 9. " dwelling bodily in His fulness " in Christ. In the Media- 
 torial economy of the Trinity the Father is God, as it were 
 absolutely ; the Son incarnate, one with the Father in 
 eternal dignity, is in the dispensation of grace and the 
 return of glory subordinate as jNIediator; the Spirit 
 proceedeth from the Father and the Son as, touching 
 redemption, subordinate to both. The bold but reverent 
 maintenance of this truth is necessary if we would form a 
 right theory of New-Testament devotion. It does not by 
 any means imperil the coequal dignity of the other Persons 
 of the Trinity, who, " for a season if need be," are the 
 Father's Ministers in the execution of His will. The 
 glorification of the Son is included in that of the Father, 
 if we remember that the Father is the " God of Jesus 
 
 1 Cor. xi. Christ :" that is, not the " Head of Christ " simply, but the 
 3- God who, in the redeeming manifestation of the Trinity, is 
 
 known only as revealed in the Son. The " Christ of God ' 
 is the *' God of Christ ;" and the '* God of Christ " is really 
 " God in Christ." So, also, in the neighbouring prayer the 
 " power of the Holy Ghost" is no less than the Divine power 
 of a Personal Agent ; for, in this sense also, " there is no 
 power but of God." While all prayer goes up to the 
 Father through the Mediator by the Holy Spirit, it is the 
 Holy Trinity in the Person of the Father who receives 
 human supplication. And, while all praise glorifies the 
 God and Father of Jesus Christ, the only God whom 
 mortals know, it is the praise of the Triune God that the 
 Father, if such language may be allowed, representatively 
 receives. The right understanding of all this depends 
 
UNITY. 191 
 
 upon our sound conceptions of the two temporal INIissions 
 of the Son and the Spirit : on these two subordinations, 
 received in the simplicity of Christian faith, hang all the 
 mysteries of the worship of redemption. 
 
 The glorification of God as revealed in the Person of 
 Christ is here said to be a confession of the common mind 
 and common voice of the Church. There is no express 
 distinction between the faith and the worship. The faith 
 is the body of the worship, and the worship the spirit of 
 the faith : but these two are one. How all Divine doc- 
 trine and Divine praise are wrapped up in the knowledge 
 and acknowledgment of God in Christ we shall more fully 
 see when we come to the Ephesian Prayers. The one 
 thought that is peculiar to our present passage, which 
 therefore must be pointed out particularly, is the petition 
 that God would grant this unity of confession. St. Paul 
 prays that the Romans might live together in peace, 
 minding the same thing "according to Christ Jesus." 
 And then he rises to the highest manifestation of that 
 unity in their glorifying God with one mind and one 
 mouth. Both gifts are Divine. It is God that maketh 
 men to be of one mind in a house ; and it is the same 
 God who by His Spirit reveals that knowledge on which 
 a true worshipping confession is based. This is the 
 abiding need of the Church ; and the supply of this need 
 is the supply of all need. It is a perversion of our Prayer, 
 a j)erversion as superficial as it is dangerous, to say that 
 the unity of the Christian confession is secured if men agree 
 to worship the common Father through Christ. The con- 
 fession here referred to includes all the fundamentals of 
 complete evangelical truth. It is a very large, and full, 
 and glorious acknowledgment of the "mystery of God 
 and of Christ." There is no petition more important than 
 this in the present day. When we ofibr it in these times, 
 we must forget the divisions of the church at Rome. 
 There are divisions among us in comparison of which the 
 
192 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 differences of the Jewish and Gentile Christians, however 
 critical, were slight. When St. Paul wrote the Epistle 
 to the Romans there were two evils that interfered with 
 the unity of faith : that of the " weak," who in their 
 bigotr}'^ limited the Gospel ; that of the " strong," who 
 in their license would make it too free. The same evils 
 reign after long centuries of the Spirit's administration ; 
 but they are intensified and aggi'avated. and give but 
 slight signs of arrest. Bigotry and Latitudinarianism still 
 fight against the simplicity of faith. Our refuge is in the 
 charity, on the one hand, that cultivates brotherly love 
 "according to Christ Jesus;" and, on the other, the 
 fervent prayer Avhich maintains a sound confession in 
 preaching and teaching whilst it supplicates the universal 
 outpouring of the Spirit of truth. Our Lord's witnesses 
 on earth, bearing their testimony against a midtitude of 
 errors, must unite in this Prayer of the Apostle, remem- 
 bering amidst all their discouragements the special attri- 
 bute here given to the Hearer of then* prayer, " The 
 God of patience and consolation." . 
 
BOPE. 193 
 
 IX. 
 HOPE. 
 
 " Now the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, 
 that ye may abound in hope, through the power of the Holy Ghost." — 
 Rom. XV. 13. 
 
 This Prayer is closely connected with the preceding. The 
 more immediate and obvious link seems to be the final 
 Avord of the quotation, " In Him shall the Gentiles hope ;" 
 but, if we look closely, we see that the note of hope had 
 been struck before : " that we through the patience and 
 consolation of Scripture might have the hope." We need 
 not, however, pause on the connection. The Apostle has 
 lost sight of it, and gives us his soUtary petition for this 
 grace of the Christian life in a manner perfectly inde- 
 pendent, thus adding an element indispensable to the com- 
 pleteness of the series of his Apostolic Supplications. 
 Hope is its one subject, whether we regard the God to 
 whom it is addressed, or the fulness of the blessing wliich 
 it asks. 
 
 The Author of redemption derives some of the most 
 precious among His many names from the Gospel which 
 manifests His glory. As that Gospel rests upon an accom- 
 plished propitiation, He is " the God of grace," " the 
 Father of mercies," with an abundance of attributes 
 attending these names ; as that Gospel displays its present 
 efifects in the souls of men, He is " the God of peace," and 
 His name of names is Love ; as that Gospel reserves its 
 blessedness for the future, especially the final future. He 
 is " the God of hope." Hence it is an undue limitation to 
 make this mean "the Giver of hope." The signification 
 
 o ' 
 
194 
 
 THE PBAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 1 Tim. i. 
 
 1. 
 Col. i. 23. 
 Eph. i. 18. 
 1 Thess. 
 
 V. 8. _ 
 Eom. viii. 
 
 20, 24. 
 Titus ii. 13. 
 1 Thess. 
 
 iv. 13. 
 Gal. V. 5. 
 
 1 Thess. 
 
 V. 8. 
 Rom. vii. 
 
 20. 
 Titus i. 2, 
 
 iii. 7. 
 Col. i. 27. 
 Eom. V. 2 ; 
 
 2Cor.iii. 
 
 12. 
 
 is rather that God is the Author and Fountain of the 
 entire Cliristian salvation, as it is not yet revealed and im- 
 parted. This includes both a ^v\de range and an inter- 
 minable perspective. Taking the former, there is hardly 
 an aspect of the redeeming work which '' the God of 
 hope " does not preside over. The Son whom He has sent is 
 " Jesus Christ, which is our hope ; " the Gospel is the found- 
 ation of a gi'eat hope ; the Christian vocation is summed 
 up in hope ; salvation is our comprehensive hope. Taking 
 the latter, the future is a glorious sequence of revelations 
 which the God of hope has yet to disclose. There is the 
 hope of the glorious appearing of God and our Saviour ; 
 the hope of the resurrection, which is the redemption 
 of all past pledges, and the new earnest of all that is 
 to come ; the hope of righteousness by faith, which, 
 although already imparted, is to be sealed as a final 
 declaration of righteousness through Christ imputed and 
 imparted ; the hope of salvation, as the final deliverance 
 from every evil that our nature has ever knoA^ii ; the 
 hope of eternal life, as more than mere deliverance ; the 
 hope of glory, which admits no paraphrase but tlie word 
 perfection. Now, it would be easy to show that every 
 one of these forms of the one great Gospel blessing is 
 referred to God as its Author. And when He is called 
 "the God of the hope," we must give the expression 
 a wide meaning. As He is the God of Creation, Re- 
 demption, and Providence, so also He is the God of the 
 Gospel hope. 
 
 But the Prayer refers to the establishment, assurance, 
 and abundance of the Christian hope as imparted by the 
 Holy Spirit to believei*s. Though other terms are found 
 here, it may easily be seen that they pay their tribute 
 to this one grace ; and it is the observation of this fact 
 that gives the interpretation its only key. Faith is the 
 root of hope ; the peace and joy which are the fruits of 
 faith are the nourishment of hope ; and the abundance 
 
HOPE. 195 
 
 of hope is here in a certain sense made the perfection of 
 the Christian life as it is a hfe of probation. 
 
 Faith and hope are within the soul so united and in- 
 separable, that the only definition of both contained in 
 Scripture makes them all but identical: "Faith is the Heb.xi. l. 
 substance of things hoped for." They are one in this, 
 that their objects are invisible : " Faith is the evidence 
 of things not seen," and " we hope for that we see not." Rom. viii. 
 But they always and essentially differ in this, that in the ^^• 
 administration of salvation faith has to do with the pre- 
 sent, and hope with the future ; or, rather, that faith 
 brings the past, and hope the future, into the reality of 
 the present moment. Faith and hope blend in the ex- 
 perience of the " now " that is ; but faith brings its assur- 
 ance of a mercy resting upon the work already wrought, 
 and hope its assurance of a salvation yet to be revealed. 
 Faith rests upon the " It is finished," already spoken ; 
 hope rejoices in the assurance of another " It is finished," 
 which the creation waits to hear. But, while they thus 
 are counterparts, it is obvious that faith must have the 
 preeminence, as being the parent of hope. We may con- 
 ceive of a faith without hope, shut up to the present 
 moment, however difiicult the conception may be ; but 
 we cannot conceive of a hope that does not believe in 
 its object. Hence, when the Apostle is about to invoke 
 upon the Romans the abundance of Christian hope, he 
 utters his prayer in a circuitous manner, and takes faith 
 on the way: "May the God of hope fill you with joy 
 and peace in believing, in order that ye may abound 
 in hope " as the fruit of that abounding faith. 
 
 There is, further, an evident connection in St. Paul's 
 mind between the fruits of faith and the abounding in hope. 
 The Prayer borrows from the previous chapter that part 
 of the definition of the internal kingdom which refers 
 to the graces of experience : " peace and joy in the Holy Rom. xiv. 
 Ghost." It is hard to separate between these two, almost i-'- 
 
 02 
 
196 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 as hard as to discern between soul and spirit. But those 
 who are accustomed to study the subtleties of St. Paul's 
 phraseology, when the economy of salvation is concerned, 
 will be prepared to allow that peace is the blessed settle- 
 ment of the controversy between God and the sinner as 
 respects the past ; while joy is the present good cheer of 
 the soui as encompassed by mercies, but feeling the present 
 rather than thinking of the past or the future. " We joy 
 in God through Jesus Christ," by whom we have received 
 the peace of the Reconciliation. Now these two demand 
 imperatively a third, to fill up the measure of the Christian 
 estate : peace touching the guilty past, and joy in the 
 fruitful present, do not so much cry out for as naturally 
 produce good hope for the unknown future. 
 
 But of all these there may be measures and degrees. 
 Nothing is more characteristic of St. Paul's Christianity 
 than his perpetual emphasis on the increase, even unto 
 perfection, of every grace of godliness. It would be hard 
 to mention one for the fulness of which he has not expressly 
 hoped or prayed on behalf of his people. He is a most 
 generous interpreter of the privileges of grace. In some 
 form or other the notion of fulness enters into every 
 department of his practical theology. Here we have set 
 before us as the object of prayer the almndance of peace 
 and joy and hope as the result of the abounding power 
 in us of the Holy Ghost. It is uncertain whether or not 
 the Apostle meant to connect the Spirit's operation with 
 the increase of all the three in believers' hearts. It is 
 more probable that the faith, with its two first-born graces, 
 referred to Christ in whom the Gentiles should " trust," 
 and that the hope, its later offspring, is referred to the 
 operation of the Comforter. But this is matter of sliglit 
 importance : certain it is that faith, with all that springs 
 from it, is of the operation of the Holy Ghost, whose 
 " power " in the soul, as that of a personal Agent, tends 
 ever to increase where it is nourished, and with its increase 
 
HOPE. 197 
 
 enlarges the range and deepens the character of all the 
 graces. 
 
 We have seen how characteristic it is of St. Paul 
 that he never prays for anything short of the "fulness" 
 of these graces. The notion of abounding plenitude he 
 throws into every kind of variation of which language 
 would afford him the forms : in fact, a consecutive chain 
 of these passages which have the " sound of abundance ' 
 in them would be a rich transcript of liis mind. But it 
 is a term that reluctantly submits to exposition. It is 
 chiefly to be defined by negatives, though the negatives 
 are positive enough for man's desire. To be filled with 
 peace is to be dispossessed of the last residue of servile 
 dread before God, and to have risen beyond the possibility 
 of unholy resentments towards man : and for this the 
 Apostle prays as among the blessings of the Christian 
 heritage. To be filled with joy is at least to have van- 
 quished all the sorrow of the world, to find elements 
 of rejoicing even in tribulation, and to possess a serene 
 contentment of heart that finds nothing wrong in nature, 
 providence, or grace : this also he asks as the common 
 privilege of Christian men. To abound in hope is a grace 
 that he expresses by another word : a word that rather 
 brings the answer of the prayer down into the region 
 of our own endeavour. The God and Giver of hope 
 bestows its increase rather as the fruit of our own passive 
 I)atience under suffering and strenuous fortitude in re- 
 sisting discouragement. Hence the marked allusion to 
 the " power of the Holy Ghost." Hope is strengthened 
 by the habit of endurance and the habit of resistance. 
 And these are habits which beyond all others require the 
 Divine strength within us. While all graces demand the 
 in-working of the Holy Ghost, these demand His " power." 
 It is not without reference to this that we are said to be 
 "saved by hope;" and that our helmet is " tlie hope iTbess. v. 
 of salvation." 
 
 8. 
 
198 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 It must not be forgotten that the abounding in hope 
 is prayed for as the end and result of the fuhiess of joy 
 and peace. This indicates, on the one hand, that these 
 more tranquil graces are instruments for the attainment 
 of that more strenuous gi-ace ; and, on the other hand, 
 it seems to make hope the consummate probationary 
 sentiment of the Christian character. A few words on 
 each of these points are all that are now necessary. 
 
 " That ye may abound in hope :" joy and peace minister 
 to hope. The assurance of reconciliation with God in 
 Christ, the tranquillity of soul which springs from con- 
 scious salvation from guilt and fear, cannot rest in itself : 
 it must needs muse upon that which is to come. If what 
 has been said is true, that peace in its essence is a sure 
 sense of deliverance from all the consequences of the past, 
 through the grace of our Lord's propitiation, how can 
 it but encourage the expectation of all the fruits of a 
 justified state and of the adoption to an inheritance ? We 
 
 iPet. i. 3. are "begotten again unto a lively hope." The soul, no 
 longer weighed down under the burden of sin, by a holy 
 necessity springs upward ; and every upward aspiration 
 
 Eoni. viii. is hopc. " IIow shall He not with Him also freely give us 
 ^^- all things?" is not merely St. Paul's theological deduction, 
 it is the silent inference of every new-born spirit. Peace 
 is not hope, but it sets hope free. Until the pardon is 
 sealed, all that the future has is a ministration of death. 
 With the regenerate life of justification hope revives and 
 fear dies. So also joy, by an equally Divine necessity, 
 encourages endurance and fortitude and the hopeful 
 expectation of the great release. Hope in this case of 
 
 Rom. V. 2. course ministers as it is ministered unto. We " rejoice 
 in hope of the glory of God." The glorious prospect 
 gladdens the soul, and enables it to count tribulation joy. 
 But that refers to the " consolation " of hope. Its 
 " patience," which enters so largely into Christian ex- 
 perience, is nourished by the joy whicli the Holy Ghost 
 
HOPE. 199 
 
 imparts. For, every reviving and cheering influence of 
 the Spirit strengthens the spirit to encounter its difiiculties 
 and privations and temptations. Every inspiration of 
 Christian rejoicing, whether from the Divine immediate 
 contact with the soul, or imparted through the word of 
 promise, is a direct earnest of future hai)piness. As such 
 it must invigorate and exalt the Christian's hope. Hence 
 the habitual reference to encouragement of hope as the 
 proximate, though not ultimate, design of all God's dealings 
 Avith His people. Directly or indirectly the nourishment 
 of this grace is constantly made the end of the Spirit's 
 dispensations of His influence. But nowhere more im- 
 pressively than in this Prayer, which makes the abounding 
 of joy and peace subsidiary to the abounding of hoj)e, 
 and connects with this last result the rarely-used expres- 
 sion, *' by the power of the Holy Ghost." 
 
 It is scarcely too much, then, to say finally that hope 
 is in some sense the highest of the probationary graces. 
 It is the servant of many of them, but it is itself served 
 by all. So far as the estate of probation is concerned, 
 simply and as such, what would everything else be without 
 this ? The mere imagination of the withdrawal of hoj)e 
 withers the rest and wraps all in darkness. It might 
 seem a hard and thankless task to compare the graces, 
 but St. Paul has set us the example. In his comparison 
 we know that charity has the preeminence by every 
 right : it is of the Divine nature, it binds together time 
 and eternity, heaven and earth, and God and man ; it 
 survives eternally. But, as the grace of oiu" stern jDro- 
 bation, hope has its own peculiar preeminence. It 
 imparts its strength to all other graces, so that they 
 without it cannot be made perfect. It divides the 
 ti'iumphs of faith, it enters largely into the self-denials 
 and labours of love. As it respects tlie present life, 
 rounded by the last conflict of death, hf>pe is in some 
 sense " the abiding grace." There are many seasons when 
 
200 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 all would be lost but for its secret strength. There comes 
 a supreme moment to all when hope — or we may say 
 "faith working by hope" — is the only anchor of the soul. 
 And, when it has endured its final strain, it will, like faith 
 and charity, be glorified for ever. For hope is in reality 
 an imperishable grace, as the others are. The eternity 
 of love needs no advocate. Nor can any one doubt that 
 faith will never be swallowed up of sight : there will be 
 a boundless realm for faith that the eye of even the 
 glorified shall never penetrate. And with all its fruition, 
 hope will have its everlasting anticipation of glories not 
 yet revealed. But it is not of our hope in eternity that 
 this Prayer speaks : rather of an eternal hope. For the 
 never-failing abundance of this ' ' very present help in 
 trouble " let every Christian make his humble supplication 
 to Him who has suffered Himself to be called by this 
 name, "The God of hope." 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 201 
 
 X. 
 
 THE lO^OWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 
 
 " For this cause we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to 
 pray for you, and to desire that ye might be filled with the knowledge of 
 His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding ; that ye might walk 
 worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing, being fruitful in every good work, 
 and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, 
 according to His glorious power, unto all patience and long-suffering with 
 joyfulness ; giving thanks unto the Father, which hath made us meet to 
 be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in light : who hath delivered 
 us from the power of darkness, and hath translated us into the kingdom 
 of His dear Son : in whom we have redemption through His blood, even 
 the forgiveness of sins." — Col. i. 9 — 14. 
 
 The Prayers inlaid into the Epistle to the Colossians are 
 distinguished from most of the others by their diffuseness ; 
 but, like all the rest, they are under the law of a strict 
 unity. They embrace the entire Christian life, in almost 
 every aspect of it; and at the same time gather up 
 their several elements into relation to one idea, the know- 
 ledge of God. The two intercessions consider that know- 
 ledge under different points of view ; in the former it is the 
 knowledge and obedience^ of God's will, in the second it is 
 the knowledge of God's Mystery, Christ. By making these 
 two ideas our starting points, we shall best be able to 
 collect the substance of the two petitions as they flow 
 almost without break into the general body of the doctrine 
 that follows, and also to exhibit the remarkable symmetry 
 which governs these in common with aU the Apostle's 
 devotional paragi'aphs. 
 
 The former of the two petitions, which we now study, 
 asks, first, for the bestowment of a knowledge of the Divine 
 will, as attained by a spiritual understanding and wisdom ; 
 
202 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 secondly, for the practical conformity with that will, 
 actively in good works, passively in perfect endurance, and 
 in the thankfulness that should pervade both. 
 
 The faith and charity of the Colossians had been so 
 reported to the Apostle as to fill his heart with thank- 
 fulness ; wliich took its habitual course, that of unceasing 
 prayer on their behalf. " Do not cease to pray for you " 
 is an affectionate hyjierbole which needs no explanation, as 
 coming from him who gave the precept, "Pray without 
 ceasing." Blending the subject of his prayer Avith his 
 purpose in ofifering it, St. Paul asks generally that they 
 might be "filled with the knowledge of the Divine will," 
 and particularly as that knowledge is to be in "all 
 sjiiritual Avisdom and understanding." 
 
 To be " filled with the knoAvledge of the Divine will " 
 comprises three terms, Avhich in their union signify an 
 impartation from above of a penetrating and thorough 
 insight into the nature of the will of God as directing the 
 practical life. Based on the eternal purpose of redemption, 
 this mil of God is specially the counsel of human sanctifi- 
 cation. As matter of request it is the Holy Spirit's 
 operation on the himian faculties which makes the know- 
 ledge living and experimental : translating the external 
 law into an internal ; rewriting on the tablets of the heart 
 the moral law which had been all but efi'aced, and filling 
 the heart with the sense of its supremacy. But the Apostle 
 closely connects mth this the " spiritual wisdom and 
 understanding" which bring Divine knoMiedge do>m into 
 the sphere of the human faculties. As the Holy Spirit 
 alone can impart it, so He imparts it only through the 
 "understanding" which makes every aspect of the Divine 
 will the object of study, and aggregates the whole into 
 "wisdom," wliich is the practical application to life of all 
 those i)recepts which the understantling severally embraces. 
 But both the limited understanding and the unhmited 
 wisdom are " spiritual," as distinguished from the workings 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 203 
 
 of both in the merely " natural " man. The unregenerate 
 " understanding " may make the moral law in its individual 
 requirements the object of study, and arrange the whole 
 into a system of rules for the " wisdom " of merely human 
 ethics. But in the regenerate all this becomes spiritual : 
 the individual precepts are studied in the light of love 
 and the new nature, and the whole wisdom of holiness is 
 the result of a teaching that is *' from above." James i. 
 
 The Prayer when analysed distributes the practical P- 
 apphcation of this wisdom into three ranges of religious 
 experience : the fruitfulness, the endurance, and the thank- 
 fulness, of personal religion. 
 
 Nowhere have we a more complete view of the perfect 
 Christian life as it is the outward exhibition of interior 
 gi'ace. Every word answers to that idea of fulness — " filled 
 with the knowlege of His will " — which is the key-note : the 
 walk is to be absolutely worthy of the Lord Himself in " all " 
 well pleasing ; the abundance of the good works is to be 
 seen in every department, and by the knowledge of God 
 there must be increase even in this completeness. But 
 the order of the supplications must be changed in the 
 exposition of them ; we have the evergrowing fruitfulness 
 of the holy character, and its complete response to the 
 ^vill of God. 
 
 First comes the fruitfulness in every good work. The / 
 figure and the reality are blended according to the Scrip- /^^ 
 tural custom : the holiness of the regenerate is the fruit of 
 a tree of life within him, while at the same time it is the 
 sum of his own habits and acts. The figure evermore 
 suggests, and keeps in view, that all the manifestations 
 of godliness are the fruit of a Divine life within ; that it is 
 Christ indwelling by His Spirit who produces all that is 
 good in us ; that the source of every the slightest thought 
 or word or deed of religion is the life and energy of the 
 Holy Ghost. Hence the habitual use of this figure by our 
 Lord and His Apostles. But to teach another lesson the 
 
204 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 figure is always linked with the fact, and by it qualified. 
 The phrase "every good work "teaches that the thoughts, 
 words, and deeds of holiness are our o\n\ ; as much our own 
 as their sinful opposites ever were. As in the beginning so 
 in the continuous process of grace there is a perfect union 
 as it were into one hypostatic i^ersonality, of the Divine 
 and human. The fruits of the Divine in the soul are 
 the works of the human will : in their secret source they 
 have a heavenly origin, in their outward manifestation 
 they are the human actions of a human life under human ^ 
 conditions. But it is the wonderful idea of completeness 
 that here arrests the attention. " In every good work : " 
 the tree of life brings forth, not " twelve manner of fruits " 
 simply, but all the fruits that tlie infinite iliversity of the 
 relations of life permit ; and the one " good work " of re- 
 ligion is multiphed into every possible act of obetlience to 
 God, and charity to man, and devout imitation of Christ. 
 According to the infallible canon for the interpretation of 
 these Prayers there is nothing in the aspiration which may 
 not be fulfilled in the experience. Hence the Christian 
 life may be one "filled with all goodness." 
 
 The true reading of the next sentence gives here an 
 instructive turn to the thought. The words "increasing 
 by the knowledge of God" suggest that the fi'uitfulness 
 of the Christian life knows no limitation : that its per- 
 fection has not such a character of completeness as admits 
 no further development ; that, in short, as the knowledge 
 of God and His will grows, the fruits of obedience grow 
 likewise. St. Paul does not mean that practical godli- 
 ness leads to progress in the knowledge of God ; but, 
 conversely, that a daily advancing in the knowledge of 
 God, that is, of God's will in its application to ever de- 
 veloping life, leads to richer fruitfulness in good Avorks. 
 It may be said that the two are one. And they are 
 one in a very profound sense. We rise thi'ough duty 
 to a knowledge of God ; and, with growing sanctity, the 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 205 
 
 notion of the Divine Being becomes more clear and 
 cloudless to the soul. But the general spirit of this^ 
 Prayer recommends the other view, which indeed is more 
 consonant with the true reading of the text, that the, 
 enlarging knowledge of the good, acceptable, and perfect 
 will of God, as "proved" in the varying applications of 
 that will in daily life, leads to an unlimited increase of ^ 
 good works. To the Christian man every day brings a 
 new dispensation of duty; the interior law of his God 
 unfolds perpetually new obligations; and, as the law 
 broadens in the field of its application, the obedient life 
 puts on new aspects of perfection. The tree is for ever 
 bearing fruit; for the secret life that feeds it knows no 
 limit to its development; it is that of which our Lord 
 said, " I am come that they may have life, and that Jno. x. lo. 
 they might have it more." And the life is always adding 
 to its sum of good works : they may fill every moment, ^ 
 make every circumstance of the day contribute, and 
 stamp their character uj)on every the most evanescent 
 movement of the soul. But in all this it is taken for 
 granted that the knowledge of God's will, which is the 
 instrument of a never-ending increase of holiness, is a 
 spiritual, living, and obedient knowledge. 
 
 We now go back to the glowing words which precede : 
 ''That ye might walk worthy of the Lord unto all 
 pleasing." They present a standard to which religion 
 may aspire, which it may indeed surely reach. That 
 standard is twofold: such a daily walk as should do 
 honour to God, and such an aim to secure His approval 
 as should win His complacency always and in all things. 
 It must not be forgotten that this petition is intended, 
 like every other similar prayer, to impress upon the 
 minds of all who read it what the design of the Christian 
 should be in all things. 
 
 The Christian may aim, without undue ambition, at 
 a walk worthy of Christ : worthy of His most holy reli- 
 
206 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 gion, worthy of His Sermon on the Mount, worthy of 
 His own personal holiness ! This is a most remarkable 
 word : the highest and most stimulating of many of 
 a like nature which the Apostle uses to rouse us to 
 a sense of the dignity of our vocation. There is not a 
 single Epistle in which he has not used the appeal to 
 a consciousneess of the unspeakable grandeur of the 
 Christian profession. But none of his other inspiriting 
 appeals rises to the level of this : ** That ye might walk 
 worthy of the Lord!" We are too much in the habit 
 of hurrying over such words, and letting them melt into 
 the general effect of the sentence. But this is one which 
 deserves to retain its individuality, to be taken out of 
 the context, and pondered deeply, until we become 
 amazed at its significance. Can any aim be higher than 
 that of being worthy of the Lord? Hardly less im- 
 pressive is its fellow in the sentence, " Unto all well- 
 pleasing:" this also, like the former member, is a word 
 that never elsewhere recurs. If it is not to be robbed 
 of its meaning by the usual artifices that tone down 
 St. Paul's enthusiasm, it represents it as the simple pos- 
 sibility of life to please the Sovereign Arbiter of human 
 conduct with whom there is no respect of persons, who 
 judgeth according to every man's work ! There is a daring 
 completeness in the sentence: "Unto all well-pleasing!" 
 There is no reservation for human infirmity, no under- 
 tone of deprecation of the Divine severity, no hint of 
 a tolerant construction of our conduct in the forbear- 
 ance of our Lord ! The Christian standard is the constant 
 increase in all good works tin*ough the ever-enlarging / 
 knowledge of God's will, a conversation worthy of the 
 design of redemption, and in all things after the Lord's 
 own heart. In the blessed confidence of this Prayer 
 the beloved Son in whom the Father is well pleased 
 reflects that perfect complacency upon all who are truly 
 His in the unity of His incarnate life. 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 207 
 
 And now a shadow falls upon the descrii)tion of reli- 
 gion : not a shadow of sin, but a shadow of care. The 
 negative side of the Christian walk is its endurance of 
 the trials of life ; and this is presented as a passive 
 "patience" combined with an active, resolute "long- 
 suffering," both being the result of the plenary infusion 
 of the glory of the Divine strength acting in every kind 
 of energy upon the human faculties. The ideas are all 
 general, but the sentence is one which, as a whole, gives 
 this view also of religious experience an unspeakable 
 dignity. 
 
 While the bestowment of Divine knowledge is regarded 
 as the instrument or energy of the holy life, it is the 
 Divine power which is especially connected with the 
 patience of that holiness. It is the strength of God of 
 course in both which accomplishes all ; but that strength 
 is "made perfect in weakness." The interior discipline 
 of religion is both endurance and resistance : endurance 
 of what is imposed and must be submitted to, and that 
 is the " patience " of our Prayer ; resistance of all tempta- 
 tion to rebel, and that is its " long-suffering " or magna- 
 nimity. For both St. Paul supplicates; and teaches us 
 to depend upon an assistance from above which is literally 
 unlimited, being " according to the measure of the power 
 which it is the glory of God to put forth," and in us 
 unlimited also, because it is manifested in "every kind 
 of strength." Thus the grandeur of the Christian conflict 
 is that the omnipotence of God is brought down into the 
 secret arena of the struggle. He who outwardly " spoiled Col. ii. 15. 
 principalities and powers," making a show of them openly, 
 triumphing over them in His cross, now inwardly and 
 secretly carries on the same war on the field of the 
 believer's experience. He infuses into the soul every kind 
 of strength : strength to bear the inflictions of the Divine 
 will, in the sorrows of life, in the disappointments of 
 temporal expectation, in the innumerable oppositions of 
 
208 TBE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 evil, ill the inexiiaustible varieties of the pressure of the 
 one great cross ; strength to resist temptations from with- 
 out, in the assaults of Satan, in the waywardness of men, 
 in the persecutions of the haters of Christ, and in all the 
 constant demand upon resolution and energy for the 
 resistance of evil. It is this which explams the sudden 
 surprise of the transition "with joyfulness." If it be 
 that Divine strength is working in the Gmstian's expe- 
 rience, and as it Avere reserving the very "glory" of its 
 power for the conilicts of that experience, surely the 
 believer should, to use St. Peter's word, " count it all joy " 
 to be undergoing temptation. St. Paul does not, however, 
 merely say that patience and fortitude lead to joyfulness : 
 the " unto " which pervades the Prayer becomes changed 
 into " with." The joy accompanies the struggle ; it is, so 
 to speak, engendered by it. There is its own secret, 
 mysterious, and unspeakable blessedness in the feeling of 
 victory within through the power of God. But not only in 
 the feeling of victory. The very conflict itself is joyous, if 
 Divine and human strength unite : the spirit feels more 
 surely in this than almost in any other of its experiences 
 that it is one with Christ. And, in the last analysis, it is 
 the boundless joy of the Redeemer Himself, conquering 
 afresh within His saints, which is diffused, as He knows 
 well how to diffuse it, through the otherwise exhausted 
 facidties of His tempted people. 
 
 This comprehensive intercession now includes in its de- 
 scription of the perfect life thanksgiving, as one of the three 
 elements of the Christian walk. Not, however, as one that 
 stands apart from the rest, and is their supplement ; but as 
 one that enters into all. In the New Testament thanksgiving 
 may be said to be the pervading gi-ace, preeminently ; it 
 is scarcely ever alluded to without some reference to its 
 being spread abroad through the thought and being and 
 life. It is remarkable that the gratitude inculcated and 
 prayed for as the perfection of personal religion is here 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 209 
 
 made to spring from the sense of redemption, and that 
 alone. In such a comprehensive view of godliness vre 
 might have expected to find the other benefits of God's 
 hand acknowledged. But it appears plain — and in this 
 passage perhaps more than in any other — that, since the 
 perfecting of the redeeming scheme, all the unnumbered 
 benedictions of providence have become redemj)tional, and 
 are to be classed among "the other benefits of His 
 passion." To pass from the kingdom of darkness into the 
 kingdom of God's Son is not to leave the kingdom of 
 nature and providence. The kingdoms of this world 
 have, in this sense also, become the kingdom of our 
 Lord. The inheritance of the saints in light includes 
 all the blessings of this world, sanctified now and as it 
 were glorified. They have, in fact, become spiritual 
 things in Christ Jesus. 
 
 When we examine further, to ascertain what the 
 Apostle's arrangement of the thanksgiving is, we are more 
 at a loss than before. A studied order there is : for he 
 never composes a prayer without that. We see at once 
 that the Christian's gratitude is gratitude for the redemption 
 in the blood of Jesus, and that this redemption is viewed 
 as regeneration in the light, as the restoration of an inheri- 
 tance, and as the forgiveness of sins. At that point does 
 the Prayer end ? Strictly speaking, it does not. It flows 
 on into a doxology to the glory of the only-begotten Son, 
 and without any suspension of its breath goes whither- 
 soever that theme leads it, until this chapter flows into 
 the next, and we find ourselves in another Prayer. 
 Obviously, therefore, we must limit ourselves to the thanks- 
 giving as based upon our own experience of the great 
 redemption. 
 
 Thanksgiving, however, does not carefully analyse. It 
 does not distinguish precisely between the benefits of 
 redemption as they are deliverance from evil, and as they 
 are restoration to forfeited good. It does not, for a 
 
210 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 moment, forget the distinction. But it cannot pause to 
 take account of it and present to God its theological defi- 
 nition. And what the Apostle's Prayer does not do our 
 exposition of it must avoid. Suffice that, generally, the 
 burden of Christian gratitude is the experience of being 
 "made meet," or fitted for, the estate of Christians. The 
 word used by the Apostle is a general one, and embraces 
 all that is meant by being placed in a capacity of enjoying 
 the blessings of religion. Elsewhere the same idea w^e have 
 seen expressed as being " counted worthy of God's king- 
 dom." The "inheritance" is tlie wiiole estate of Christian 
 privilege which the redeeming power of Christ has 
 recovered; and our "portion" in it as "partakers" refers 
 to the secret and sure experience of every believing Cln-is- 
 tian that he is one of the children of God, by the adoption 
 of grace, and so has a title to an inheritance by adoption 
 which he already enjoys in his regeneration. For it is 
 regeneration that underlies the whole : the " making 
 meet" includes the renewal of the nature, as does the 
 " translation from the kingdom of Satan into the kingdom 
 of God's dear Son." Now, while the regenerating gi-ace of 
 redemption is in view, the Apostle is contented to term it 
 "light." Tlie inheritance is that of the saints in the light 
 of Christian knowledge and enjoyment and purity : they 
 are in the " light" of the outer court now, as they will here- 
 after be in the " glory " into which that light will finally 
 deepen. But the Prayer reserves the greatest word for 
 the last : we have in redemption, through the paying down 
 of the ransom-price of Christ's blood, the remission of sins 
 which could not other^Wse be forgiven. Tlius the thanks- 
 giving winds up with redemption : which, viewed in relation 
 to our sins, is the rescue from their curse by forgiveness, in 
 relation to our doom is the restoration of our inheritance, 
 in relation to our character is the translation into a sphere 
 of the light of holiness. 
 When the Apostle reaches this word, we hardly know 
 
THE KNOWLEDGE OF THE DIVINE WILL. 211 
 
 whether he is rishig to doxology or descending to theo- 
 logical teaching. We must leave him at this point with 
 one sentence lingering in our thoughts, a sentence which 
 gives the reason and at the same time the expression of all 
 Christian thanksgiving: *' Thanks be unto God for the gift 
 of His redeeming Son, the Son of His Love." 
 
 P 2 
 
212 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 XI. 
 THE FULL ASSURANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 
 
 " For I would that ye knew what great conflict I have for you, and for 
 them at Laodicea, and for a&-many as have not seen my face in th^. flesh ; 
 that their hearts might be comforted, being knit together in love and 
 unto all riches of the full assurance of understanding, to the acknowledg- 
 ment of the mystery of God, and of the Father, and of Christ ; in whom 
 are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge. And this I say, lest 
 any man should beguile you with enticing words." — Col. ii. 1 — 4. 
 
 The second Colossian Prayer rises if possible into a higher 
 region. It is the sequel of the first, inasmuch as it shows 
 at once the end of all practical obedience, and the\ground 
 of all practical knowledge in the " acknowledgment of the 
 mystery of God which is Christ, in whom are hid all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge." 
 
 It is scarcely necessary to prove that we are justified in 
 numberhig this among St. Paul's Prayers. The words that 
 introduce it not only show that it is a supplement of the 
 petition in the former chapter, but also that the Apostle's 
 request now deepens into "great conflict," or agony. Not 
 only for the Colossians, but for all whose faith he had not 
 had the opportunity of confirming by personal instruction, 
 therefore for us also, St. Paul pours out his soul with an 
 intensity of desire which is akin to our Lord's own agony, 
 and which he seems as if he longed to make them know 
 and make them share : " I would that ye knew how great 
 agony I have ! " As to the matter of his supplication, it is 
 expressed in the form of the end that its answer would 
 obtain : the full assm-ance of then* understanding of Christ, 
 the mystery of God. We shall enter into the spirit of it if 
 we consider how this is to be obtained : " that their hearts 
 
THE FULL ASSURANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 213 
 
 might be comforted, being knit together in love, and unto 
 all riches of full assurance;" what it is in itself, "the full 
 assurance of the mystery of God which is Christ;" and what 
 this effects as a spiritual safeguard from "philosophy and 
 vain deceit." A Prayer more important for all times, and 
 especially for these times, we cannot ponder or make our 
 own. 
 
 It is hardly possible to separate the "full assurance" 
 here prayed for from the processes by which it is reached. 
 It is a branch, together with the "knitting together in 
 love," of the one common trunk, "the comfort of the 
 heart." This last root-principle of all religious establish- 
 ments must not be limited in its meaning to the mere 
 consolation of the heart in trouble, or even in its invigora- 
 tion in grace ; it must be understood, as we have elsewhere 
 seen, to signify the full work of the Paraclete within the 
 soul. The "heart" is not the seat of the affections, but 
 the inner man, the true person in whom the Holy Ghost 
 carries on His renewing work, shedding abroad both the 
 love and the truth of God. Hence from this common 
 l)rinciple spring two developments, one of charity and the 
 other of knowledge ; and these are united, though sepa- 
 rate, for the edification in love is " unto all the riches of 
 the full assurance of the understanding." The love of God 
 strong in the heart of each, and in the heart of each the 
 "bond of perfectness," . is, as "brotherly love," the bond 
 of a union in which all are edified or built up together 
 into the common fellowship of the body of Christ. Thus 
 while " knowledge," carnal knowledge, " puffeth up " the 
 individual, and makes also a hollow fellowshiji, " love 
 buildeth up" both the individual and the community of 
 saints. " Growing up together as a holy temple," they 
 share together the revelations of the Divine mysteries 
 Avhich belong to the temple. They have the riches of the 
 knowledge of God imparted to them, in the radiations of 
 Divine light through the AYord by the Holy Spirit. These 
 
214 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 riches are the common heritage of the sacred Treasury; 
 they are possessed only in the Church of the living saints, 
 for the compact felloAvship of love alone leads " unto all 
 the riches of the full assurance of the understanding." 
 But, while the riches are the common stock, every one's 
 individual " knowledge " is his own : hence follows, " unto 
 the full acknowledgment of the mystery of God which is 
 Christ." Thus, all that is meant by this deep privilege 
 belongs to each Christian who joins the Apostle in his 
 agony to attain it. This cannot be too constantly remem- 
 bered. Whatever treasures of Divine revelation the 
 fellowship of Christians may possess, there can be no 
 common '* knowledge." Each must know and be assm-ed 
 for himself. 
 
 But what is " the full assurance of the understanding ? ' 
 It is no other than such a clear, deep, undoubting confi- 
 dence in the reality of the objects of knowledge which the 
 understanding grasps as excludes all present hesitation 
 and fortifies the mind against the suggestions of error. 
 This great grace comes from the operation of the Holy 
 Ghost, "comforting the heart," but it comes through the 
 diligent study of the mystery hid in Christ. It is one 
 of the highest blessings that the soul hi this life can attain, 
 and hence is spoken of as the result and crown of love. 
 But this particular grace will best be understood by com- 
 paring it with other forms of it as exhibited by St. Paul. 
 He speaks of three kinds of full assurance; that of faith, 
 that of hope, and that of the understanding. In one sense, 
 these three are various forms of the same thing; the sure 
 conviction of the reality of the objects personally trusted 
 in, hoped for, and apprehended in knowledge. Yet they 
 are quite distinct in the Apostle's theology. The full 
 assurance of faith is the Divinely-wrought conviction of the 
 reality, and the possession of the present object: the same 
 Spirit who quickens into life faith in Gods promise gives 
 the internal assurance that it is fulfilled, and that in such 
 
THE FULL ASSURANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 215 
 
 swift succession that it is impossible to distinguish between 
 faith and assurance. There is a difference however : and 
 it is only in the highest perfection of the act of saving faith 
 that it is thus its own evidence of its object. There are 
 stages of faith by which it travels towards this goal ; but 
 in this it has its perfect work. The assurance of hope is in 
 like manner the full conviction of the reality of its objects 
 as our own in reservation. Hope also may pass through 
 its many stages : in full assurance it also iDuts on its 
 perfection, being released from every doubt as to the 
 existence of its object, and from every present fear as to 
 its being reserved for the soul, in its present position of 
 faith. Beyond this it cannot go : it would not be the 
 assurance of hope if it were the assurance of an eternal 
 and inalienable salvation. The only Christian assurance of 
 salvation is for the present moment: running on indeed 
 into a state, as a point flows on into the line, but only for 
 the present. The instant it turns to the future, it is hope : 
 hope that is full of assurance and without fear, but only 
 hope. Now the full assurance of understanding differs 
 from these in being more general in its object; including 
 all the truths of the common salvation, all the facts 
 that make up saving truth, of the unity, harmony, and 
 practical consequences of which the understanding is fully 
 assured. It has a perfect knowledge of the systematic 
 whole of that which faith confidently apprehends in its 
 individual parts. The understanding calmly, and in the 
 very abundance of assurance, arranges and rejoices in the 
 riches of its possession as its own, as its sum of knowledge. 
 So far as the individual truths of this knowledge are 
 embraced for salvation, the soul exerts its Faith in full 
 assurance; so far as they belong to a reserved future, 
 it exerts its hope in full assurance also ; but so far as they 
 are independent altogether of present and future, and 
 are the possession of the mind and not of the experience, 
 the soul delivers them to the care of the understanding 
 
216 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 which treasures them as its best and most assm-ed 
 knowledge. 
 
 All the varieties of Christian knowledge which the 
 understanding deals with are gathered up by St. Paul into 
 the unity of one object for the contemplation of the 
 spiritual mind, which is the reason, enlightened by the 
 Holy Ghost and brought face to face with that object, 
 the Mystery of God in Christ. Concerning this adorable 
 Mystery there are some things of profound importance 
 here taught. 
 
 It is the mystery of God which is Christ. This being 
 most probably the precise sentence which St. Paul wrote, 
 we are taught by him that the Person of Christ, in whom 
 God is man, and man is God, is the central and all-compre- 
 hending mystery. Here, undoubtedly, the word "mystery" 
 must have more than its current Scrij^tural meaning : the 
 secret of Christ's Person, as it has been expounded in the 
 preceding chapter, is impenetrable to human intellect. It 
 is a mystery, concerning Avhich the Apostle does not say 
 that it shall be revealed. It is the mystery of God; His, 
 and He alone can understand it. It is tlie profoundest 
 exhibition of God the Holy Trinity, that one of the sacred 
 Persons should show forth to mortals the " fidness of the 
 Godhead bodily! " 
 
 But it is shown forth, and in such a manner that we may 
 have a full and distinct knowledge — for this is St. Paul's 
 word, not acknowledgment — of this mystery. There is a 
 difference between the penetrating a mystery, and the 
 beholding and knowing it. We are here taught that in the 
 richness of its full assurance, the understanding collects all 
 the elements that go to the conception of the Divine- 
 human Person, and unites them in one supreme object of 
 Knowledge. The object is Christ, who is one in the unity 
 of His person, Avork, and relations to man ; in fact, the sum 
 and substance of all religious truth. The knoAvledge is 
 absolute, clear, and unqualified. It is more than the 
 
THE FULL ASSUEANCE OF KNOWLEDGE. 217 
 
 logical understanding could ever reach ; it is the revelation 
 of the things of Christ directly to the mind by the Holy 
 Ghost. And this is knowledge, certitude, assurance. 
 
 Yet this one object of knowledge, the Christ of God, 
 contains all other objects. In this mystery, in Christ 
 Himself, " are hid all the treasures of wisdom and know- 
 ledge." To the riches of the full assurance corresx)ond the 
 riches of the truths of which it is assured. But it is an 
 implicit assurance ; for they are hidden in Christ. Not, of 
 course, that they are absolutely concealed; from age to 
 age those treasures of mystery are communicated to the 
 Church, and become its familiar knowledge. Indeed, it is 
 obvious that the Apostle is thinking rather of the revela- 
 tion of these treasures than of their concealment. They 
 are treasures of wisdom and knowledge ; not of contempla- 
 tion alone, which they might be as mere knowledge, but of 
 practical use also, as the wisdom that guides the whole 
 nature of redeemed man. Hence the emphasis upon " all 
 the treasures." It is as if St. Paul would say that there is 
 no individual knowledge, and no general wisdom, worthy 
 of the name, which is not in and through and from Christ. 
 All other intellectual treasures of the race, however 
 valuable and beautifid and useful in themselves, are of 
 phenomena and of time, and must pass away. If the vast 
 fabric of things be destroyed or reconstructed, all extant 
 science physical becomes at once obsolete. But the know- 
 ledge of Christ is always becoming richer. Earthly wisdom 
 must decrease, heavenly wisdom must increase. As the 
 individual man grows daily in that knowledge, so also does 
 the Church behold more and more the developments of 
 " the manifold wisdom of God " in Christ ; and the Avorld 
 itself is silently and surely becoming more and more the 
 sphere of the manifestation of Christ's truth. 
 
 Lastly, we are leaving the Prayer itself when we point 
 to the Apostle's reason for the urgency of his petition. 
 His deep desire was to defend the Colossians from their 
 
218 THE PRATERS OF ST. RAUL. 
 
 special danger, that of listening to "oppositions of science 
 and philosophy falsely so called." Errors which afterwards 
 assumed forms known as Gnosticism had begun to becloud 
 the doctrine of the incarnation, and of the relation of God 
 in Christ to the universe. Tlie full assurance of under- 
 standing in the mystery of Christ would be their effectual 
 safeguard. The mind, once raised to this region of cloud- 
 less certitude, would not easily be seduced to descend into 
 the region of scepticism, where doubt chases doubt in 
 never-ceasing restlessness of caprice. Gnosticism, under 
 other names, is still darkening the counsel of the 
 Hypostatic Union of the Redeemer's natures in One 
 Person. False philosophy and contradictory science 
 change their forms of attack, but their essential spirit 
 is always the same, and the defence of the Christian man, 
 and of tlie Christian minister, is uow% as it ever has been, 
 to seek and to find and to keep, in the unity of the faith 
 and in the bond of love, that serene assurance of the 
 understanding which fills the mind with the highest 
 wisdom, and leaves all hesitation and every shadow of 
 doubt far behind it. That students of this adorable 
 mystery shall ever be able to find a formula of the doctrine 
 of the Undivided and Indivisible Christ, which shall divest 
 it of its peculiar and inexplicable difficulties, the Apostle 
 does not promise. JSIodern " theological science " promises 
 itself this achievement; but it has no sanction for its 
 ambition here. Moreover, that Christians may live with 
 Christ in the " heavenly places," where nothing belonging 
 to llira is uncertain, seems hardly credible when we look 
 around us on the disputing Church. But it is the clear 
 teaching, and the sure promise, of this Apostolic Prayer. 
 
THE ^LOBY OF THE INHERITANCE. 219 
 
 XII. 
 THE GLORY OF THE mHERITANCE. 
 
 " Wherefore I also, after I heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus, and 
 love unto all the saints, cease not to give thanks for you, making mention 
 of you in my prayers ; that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father 
 of glory, may give unto you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation in the 
 knowledge of Him : the eyes of your understanding being enlightened ; 
 that ye may know what is the hope of His calling, and what the riches of 
 the glory of His inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding great- 
 ness of His power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of His 
 mighty power, which He wrought in Christ, when He raised Him from the 
 dead, and set Him at His own right hand in the heavenly places, far 
 above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every 
 name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to 
 come." — Ephesians i. 15 — 21. 
 
 The Epistle to the Ephesians is, more than any of the 
 others, written in devotional language. It begins with ' 
 a long doxology, which glorifies the Father of Jesus Christ 
 for the predestined eternal sonship of His saints, for the 
 bestowal of grace upon them in the Eternal Son of His 
 love, and for the dispensation of the fulness of times which 
 brought the accomplishment of redemption. Thus while 
 " the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ" receives Eph. i. 3. 
 the tribute, the "Beloved," in whom the decree was 
 eternal, and the "Si)irit of Promise, the Holy One, who is Eph. i. 13. 
 the earnest of that inheritance," complete the Trinity of the 
 mediatorial economy. The grace which was bestowed 
 freely in the eternally beloved Son is in the first mention 
 of it described as the "glory of His grace," whereby the Eph. i. 6. 
 redeeming work is connected with the supreme Divine 
 attributes. This " glory " recurs again and again in the 
 prayer which we have before us. The same is true of the 
 
220 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 " inheritance, " which is twofohl : first, it is God's portion, 
 
 Eph. i. 11. " in whom we became His inheritance," or that " pnrchased 
 
 P^ph. i.i4, l)Ossession" which is hereafter to be redeemed; then it is 
 
 Eph i. 14. " ^^^ inheritance," of which the Holy Spirit is the earnest. 
 
 In the prayer that follows it will appear that both senses 
 
 of the word are retained : God's inheritance in ns and ours 
 
 in Him are profoundly and internally related and one 
 
 in Christ. 
 
 The doxology can hardly be said to end until verse 14; 
 and even then it ends only to begin again in the thanks- 
 giving which the Apostle ceased not to present, but which 
 l)assed immediately into prayer, that they might experi- 
 mentally know the glory of the Christian inheritance. The 
 ])etitions offered on their behalf, and in behalf of the whole 
 Church, cannot be understood without some reference to 
 the state of those who are thus prayed for. They are first 
 spoken of as Gentiles introduced to the common hope 
 which had been revealed to the ancient people who "first 
 trusted in the Christ:" that this is the allusion of the 
 Apostle seems evident from the tenour of the Epistle and 
 from the force of the Avord "before ;" but it is equally obvious 
 that the allusion is a very covert one, and too faint to 
 be pressed. The emphasis of the thanksgiving falls, not 
 upon the extension of grace to the Gentiles, but upon their 
 Eph. i. 15. '' faith in the Lord Jesus, and love unto all saints," that is, 
 if the words are strictly rendered, the faith belonging to 
 them as a people now found in Christ is acknowledged, and 
 the fruits of it in brotherly love. Going back to the 
 l>receding Avords, we must interpret the "wherefore" as 
 resuming the beautiful description of Christian privilege 
 which the Ephesians had attained. This moves in a series 
 of pairs. They heard the " word of truth, the Gospel of 
 your salvation:" truth as from Christ and salvation as for 
 them. They believed, and in beheving, were sealed : faith 
 and its assurance are here united, as also faith towards 
 Christ and sealing of God for Himself. Then the seal 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 221 
 
 becomes an "earnest of our inheritance" until the Lord 
 redeems His own " purchased possession, unto the praise 
 of His glory." The Christian inheritance in God and God's 
 inheritance in the Christian are one, though the term is 
 diiFerent in the two cases for the sake of propriety. 
 
 Thus we are introduced to the Prayer, which must be 
 viewed in its one leading idea, the revelation to experi- 
 mental knowledge of the glory of the Christian inheritance. 
 This divides into two parts : the Father is invoked, through 
 the Son, for the Spirit of revelation to enlighten the eyes ; 
 and the effect is described as the perception of the hope of 
 our calling, or the riches of the inheritance generally, and 
 particularly the personal experience of it through faith, 
 which apprehends the might of the exalted power of the 
 risen Saviour. There is, however, a certain unity in 
 this prayer which renders close analysis impossible or 
 superfluous. 
 
 The invocation introduces the Holy Trinity; and this 
 must be remembered in the interpretation of the terms 
 employed by the Apostle. With this key in our hands — 
 which must be used throughout the Epistle, and especially 
 in its prayers — we have " the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,! 
 the Father of glory," addressed as the Giver of all know-^ 
 ledge; " the Spirit of wisdom and revelation " is then asked 
 for us, both the gift and the medium of it; and " our Lord 
 Jesus Christ" is the sphere of that knowledge, the full 
 " knowledge of Him " being the revelation of the Triune 
 God. 
 
 The title by which the Head of the mediatorial Trinity 
 is addressed has no parallel elsewhere. He is the God of 
 our incarnate Lord, both Divine and human ; but His God 
 in a relation derived from His human nature. Let not 
 this, however, be supposed to mean that He is the God of 
 Jesus Christ as the Being whom He worships, and to whom 
 He prays: He is the God of whom Jesus and Jesus alone 
 bears witness, the God whose definition is that He is 
 
222 THE PRATERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 revealed in His incarnate Son. He is the Father of glory, 
 as the eternal Father of our Lord, in a relation derived 
 from His Divine nature. Though "glory" does not mean 
 precisely the Divine essence as in the Son, it approaches 
 
 John i. 14. very near that meanhig. St. John says, " We beheld His 
 glory, the glory as of the only-begotten of the Father;" 
 and St. Paul : " Beholding as in a glass the glory of the 
 Lord." The ancient glory of the Shekinah was the symbol 
 of the Divine residence in humanity through the incarnation 
 of the Son; and now the symbol has become a reality: in 
 
 Acts vii. one sense the " God of glory " has become " the Lord of 
 p glory;" that is, in Christ: in another sense, "the God of 
 
 8. glory " has become " the Father of glory," inasmuch as all 
 
 His glory is enshrined in the Son. Thus the two designa- 
 tions are only one under two aspects. It is the God 
 revealed in Christ who is addressed, not, as we might have 
 expected, " the God of glory " and " the Father of our Lord 
 Jesus Christ;" but inverting the order, and thus laying 
 a stumbling-block before superficial exposition, while 
 giving to faith an adorable mystery. 
 
 " The Spirit of wisdom and revelation " is the special 
 burden of the prayer ; and is introduced in such a manner 
 as to define that Spirit in His personality as the Giver of 
 revelation objectively and the source of wisdom subjec- 
 tively. Immediately before, the Apostle had said that the 
 Holy Spirit was the seal of their consecration in the temple 
 of God, and that as a Person : "Who is the earnest." 
 When, therefore, the supplication asks conditionally that 
 the Father "may give unto you the Spirit of T\isdom and 
 revelation," it is obvious that the emphasis lies on a specific 
 influence of the Holy Ghost, already indwelling in the 
 heart. What the precise blessings are, which we are 
 taught to expect, will appear fi*om a combination of the 
 three terms : wisdom, revelation, and knowledge of God. 
 Their combination : the arrangement of the two former 
 words in the original shows that they were most closely 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 223 
 
 united in the Apostle's thought, while both have their 
 further explanation in the third. 
 
 The Spirit is in every believer a revealing Agent, 
 unveiling or showing the things of Christ. In the Church 
 generally, He executed that office once for all as the Spirit 
 of inspiration, revealing the mind of God through the 
 Scriptures ; and continually executes it by interpreting 
 those Scriptures to the common mind and heart of the 
 people of God, who " have an unction from the Holy One, i John ii. 
 and know all things." But it is evident that the Apostle 
 invokes that Spirit here as the Revealer of truth to the 
 individual Christian ; and as this is the strongest and 
 clearest instance of the mention of such a privilege, it must 
 be riveted on our minds. The Holy Ghost dwelling in the 
 believer may be to him a perpetual internal oracle ; " the 
 word of Christ " dwelling in him ''richly ;" that is, the very Col. iii.i6. 
 voice of the Word secretly teaching him what he could not 
 otherwise know. For we must not lose here the proper 
 meaning of the term revelation : it is more than the mere 
 direction of the understanding in the meditation of truth ; 
 it is no less than the secret disclosure to the contemplation 
 of truth concerning Christ which is not written in words. 
 Unless this be so, revelation is no more revelation. The 
 logical understanding may weave into systematic doctrine 
 the Scriptural teacliing concerning the Person and work of 
 the INIediator. But that is not all, nor is that enough. It 
 is the privilege of every believer to have the anointing 
 from the Holy One, which makes Him a personal Saviour 
 revealed over again to the heart. The same Spirit who 
 presides over what must be called the external revelation 
 of the Christ, presides also over what may be called the 
 internal revelation to each. Nothing less than this will 
 satisfy the language of our prayer ; nothing less than this 
 should satisfy the aspiration of the Christian. It is true 
 that he has already, by the very terms of his discipleship, 
 received already such an internal manifestation of the 
 
224 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Saviour. He has already " trusted in Christ," and his 
 union with the Lord has been ah-eady "sealed." He has 
 received an internal assurance of acceptance which no 
 theoretical belief could bring him ; he has beheld the Lord 
 by a lijjfht not kindled by human ai^ency. But he has 
 before him a glorious future of revelations ; according to 
 
 John. i. that Avord, " Thou shalt see greater things than these." 
 
 John xiv Tliere remains yet the fulfilment of the gi-eat promise : ** I 
 21. will love him, and will manifest Myself to him." And it is 
 
 concerning that unlimited future of new and ever-deepen- 
 ing discoveries of the " mystery of God and of Christ " that 
 the Apostle here prays in this once uttered petition for 
 " the Spirit of revelation." 
 
 Though the '' wisdom " precedes in the text, it follows in 
 the experience. The truths concerning Christ, Avhich are 
 revealed to " the eyes of the heart," become wisdom when 
 they are applied to the practical conduct of the life. 
 Though there are some passages which seem to wrap up in 
 this word the result of the whole prophetic office of the 
 
 1 Cor. i. Christ, "who is made unto us Wisdom," yet a careful con- 
 ^' sideration will show that it is always the wisdom that 
 shapes the human conduct on earth according to the 
 principles of the Divine teaching from heaven. The Spirit 
 who condescends to impress the truth on the mind of the 
 inner man, revealing, that is, unveiling the Saviour to the 
 interior eye, itself unveiled, is "the Spirit of wisdom," 
 inasmuch as He condescends to be the interior jNIonitor of 
 the spirit in all the varieties of its earthly probation. It is 
 that wisdom which dwells with prudence, in an earlier 
 
 Eph, i. 8. passage : the grace which He made to " abound toward us 
 in all wisdom and prudence." The interior Guide reveals 
 by special illapses the specific privileges and specific duties 
 of the Christian life ; He also indicates the action Avhich 
 these privileges and duties require ; and He becomes the 
 source of a permanent character of wisdom in the Christian 
 walk. No error of exposition is more diligently to be 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 225 
 
 guarded against than that which would limit this prayer to 
 the special and transitory endowments of the age of 
 charisms or "gifts;" as if the Apostle were asking for 
 extraordinary visitations of the Holy Ghost to eke out the 
 deficiencies of a canonical Scripture not yet complete. 
 Let every reader of these words stedfastly believe that all 
 the blessedness of direct revelation from on high and 
 infallible directory for the life below is his own inalienable 
 privilege. But we need not prove this, in the face of the 
 words that now follow; for these words find their unity 
 and perfection in " the perfect knowledge of Him." And 
 this must be regarded as introducing the second and 
 remaining Person in the mediatorial Trinity. It cannot 
 indeed be proved that the "knowledge of Him" is the 
 knowledge of Christ specifically. It cannot indeed be 
 disproved ; but the discussion of this point is superfluous. 
 The very term " full or perfect knowledge " itself indicates 
 that the knowledge meant is that of the supreme God 
 as revealed in the person of the Incarnate Son. Other 
 knowledge of God, it may be boldly said, is "gnosis;" the 
 knowledge of God in Christ is that "epignosis" which is 
 here spoken of. Here may be applied St. Paul's similar 
 distinction elsewhere: "Now I know in part; but then iCor.xiii. 
 shall I know even as also I am known." All knowledge of ^^• 
 God out of Christ is sound and good so far as it goes ; but 
 it is only " in part." And this shows us the propriety of 
 the prayer. It asks that the Spirit may give to every 
 believer that full spiritual apprehension of God, in His 
 evangelical relations to us in Christ, which are the end, 
 and sum, and glory of all revelation. " He that hath seen jno. xiv 9. 
 Me hath seen the Father." 
 
 This answers the question whether "of Him" refers 
 to God or to Christ: it refers to both, but primarily to 
 Christ. Moreover, " in the knowledge of Him " means, 
 according to this interpretation, more than "in order to 
 knowing Him." The design of the revelation comes after- 
 
 Q 
 
226 THE PRA YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 wards : this is the revelation itself. The knowledge of 
 Christ is the substance of all the Spirits teaching. He has 
 no other subject to unfold ; nothing else to show : whatso- 
 ever is not related to the Lord, in whom the Father is, 
 
 John xvii. Cannot be called knowledge. " This is life eternal, that they 
 3- might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, 
 
 Col. iii. 3. whom Thou hast sent." The life which is " hid with Christ 
 in God " is simply and purely the knowledge of God in 
 Christ. And, in proportion as that life deepens, it deter- 
 mines, as it were, to know nothing among men but " Christ, 
 and Him crucified;" nothing besides, unless it be indeed the 
 same exalted Christ, ''in whom are hid all the treasures of 
 wisdom and knowledge." There is no comparison here 
 between this knowledge and other knowledge : true know- 
 ledge, " epignosis," is one and of One ; all else is opinion, 
 speculation, observation of phenomena, the fleeting thought 
 concerning the fleeting objects that perish in the knowing. 
 The sure and unfailing eflfect of the entire surrender of the 
 spirit to this interior Teacher, is the setting the thought 
 
 Col. iii. 2. on "things above, where Christ is." The spirit proper, as 
 distinguished from the soul, becomes sanctified to one only 
 thought. Leaving to the lower faculties such knowledge 
 as is limited to time, it is conversant only with One : " Tlie 
 mystery of God and of Christ " absorbs all, empties that 
 inmost shrine of all memories, thoughts, imaginations, and 
 almost of all images, that it may be filled with the know- 
 ledge of the supreme Essence. 
 
 Hence, to sum up what has been said up to this point: 
 the prayer is addressed to the Father as the Head of tlie 
 mediatorial Trinity, the God whom Christ reveals and the 
 Father whose Divine glory is revealed in Christ, that He 
 would grant to us the full and perfect knowledge of Him- 
 self as He is known only in the Son, through the Holy 
 Spirit, who, sealing and consecrating all believers to God 
 in the Divine temple, is to each an internal Revealer of tiie 
 things of Christ in their manifold applications to the life of 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 227 
 
 practical wisdom. Among all the appeals to heaven which 
 the Apostle suggests to us, there is none more glorious, 
 none more important, than this. But to feel its glory and 
 its importance we must open our hearts to that rich inter- 
 pretation of the words which the Apostle himself gives. 
 
 First, we have the link between the interior Spirit of 
 revelation and the specific results of His indwelling : it is 
 " the eyes of your heart enlightened, that ye may know." 
 The two branches of this clause must be taken together : 
 the illumination of the eyes of the inner man renders him 
 capable of spiritually discerning more and more of the 
 blessedness of the Christian's privilege. And that privilege 
 is exhibited in a threefold progression ; the peculiarity of 
 the clauses being that each refers both to God and to our- 
 selves, and that each rises above its predecessor in fulness 
 and strength. We have God's calling and our hope ; God's 
 inheritance in us the saints ; God's gi'eat power in Christ to 
 us who believe. We have the thrice-repeated "what," but 
 in striking progression: first the simple "hope," then "the 
 riches of the glory of His inheritance," then " the exceed- 
 ing greatness of His power, according to the working of the 
 force of His might, as He wrought in Christ," and so on to 
 infinity. This last word is literally true. The prayer goes 
 off into infinite space and infinite power, and is simply lost 
 amidst the glories of the heavenly places. Whilst we read 
 we are reminded of the writer's words elsewhere : *'0 ye 2 Cor. vi. 
 Corinthians, our mouth is open unto you, our heart is H— 13. 
 enlarged." It requires a large heart to receive such words : 
 "Be ye also enlarged." It requires much boldness to 
 expound them. But the task will be lightened if we 
 remember that the i)rayer, strictly speaking, ends at the 
 point where the Saviour's resurrection is exhibited as the 
 standard of the power of God in the life of the saints. The 
 glory of His authority after the ascension is thrown back 
 upon the petitions, but is nevertheless beyond them. 
 
 " The eyes of your heart being enlightened." The heart 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 THE PR A TEES OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 and not the understanding : the understanding is of the 
 soul in alliance with its bodily organ, the brain ; but the 
 heart is the bodiless inner man, and has its eyes, which are 
 waiting for the illumination of the light which comes from 
 no earthly sun. Not waiting for the first springing of that 
 light ; it has already been shed upon the soul by Him who 
 is the light of life. The form of the word in the original 
 shows that the Apostle is sjieaking of a continuous state of 
 enlightenment, kept up and increasing through the con- 
 stant shining of the Holy Ghost, whether through the word 
 or without the word. And this shining of a clear, steady, 
 unflickering light within both prepares the spiritual organ 
 to discern and furnishes the medium through which are to 
 be discerned all higher truths. The light is not the truth ; 
 nor is it the experience of the truth. It is only the 
 preparation for it, or its medium : the blessed operation of 
 the Holy Ghost on the spiritual vision which enables it to 
 perceive more and more clearly the forms and realities of 
 Divine things ; or, in other words, spiritually to discern 
 them. It is the eye of the heart which is enlightened, but 
 it is enlightened to "know:" to know, that is, by expe- 
 rience ; for, though the heart means the centre of the 
 personality of the inner man, and not the centre of his 
 sensibilities only, it must be remembered that the sensi- 
 bilities cannot be excluded from the word. It always 
 connotes both spiritual perception and spiritual life. The 
 inner man, under the discii)line and education of the Holy 
 Ghost, is never pure intellect, never pure feeling, never 
 pure will ; but the unity of these three, in which neither of 
 the elements can be supposed to be wanting. It is the 
 man who is enlightened both fi-om within and from with- 
 
 John viii. out ; as our Lord says, " He that followeth INIe shall not 
 walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life : " light 
 from the Spirit ^vithin and light from Me without. Or, in 
 
 Luke xi. other words more appropriate to the present subject : " If 
 thy whole body therefore be full of light, having no part 
 
 12. 
 
 36. 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 229 
 
 dark, the whole shall be full of light, as when the bright 
 shining of a candle doth give thee light." The shining 
 Avithin, which disperses all darkness from every corner, 
 makes the whole external world full of light. 
 
 Here then we have the light of knowledge and the light 
 of practical life combined: thus corresponding with "the 
 Spirit of wisdom and revelation." The two are never 
 disjoined in Divine things. They are closely connected 
 throughout this Epistle, which abounds in references to 
 the double illumination that leaves no part dark within 
 or without. To the contemplative eye is presented the 
 grandest assemblage of objects that man's spirit may ever 
 see ; and to the practical eye the way is lighted up to the 
 sure possession of all that contemplation gives to life. 
 Allusion has been made to the three pairs of counterparts 
 in the sequel of the prayer : to the former, those which 
 refer to the objective privileges as they are provided 
 by God, corresponds the contemplation of spiritual discern- 
 ment; to the latter, those which refer to the subjective 
 possession of them, corresponds the practical or experi- 
 mental light that makes them our own. 
 
 The vocation of Christians through the word of the 
 Gospel is twofold: it is to the enjoyment of a personal 
 salvation from sin and the condemnation of the world ; 
 and it is to the future blessedness of religion, springing 
 out of every present moment, filling the whole course of 
 time, and expanding into eternity. The former privilege 
 of the Christian calling it was not necessary that the 
 Apostle should pray for: the Ephesians had trusted in 
 Christ and been sealed as the inheritance of God. The 
 first great enlightening of their eyes had taken place : they 
 had passed from darkness to light. But " the hope of His 
 calling " was still unknown ; and to be known only by their 
 enlarging experience. Hence it is not " your calling," but 
 " His calling : " a significant change of the accustomed 
 phraseology. The amazing blessings to which believers 
 
230 THE PR J YERS OF ST. FA UL. 
 
 are called — invited, that is, rather than ordained — are 
 " hid with Christ in God," hid in the same boundless and 
 unknown treasury as that in which are concealed " all the 
 treasures of wisdom and knowledge." Tliis will sufficiently 
 answer the question sometimes raised, as to the nature of 
 the hope of our prayer: whether it is the knowledge of 
 the objective and external hope, or the experience of the 
 subjective and internal expectation that the Apostle prays 
 for. It is obvious that the two must be combined in such 
 a prayer as this. The enlightened eyes of the heart can 
 know the object of hope only by the experience of the 
 hope itself. As the thing expected is made a possession, 
 and desire passes into fruition, we come to know what to 
 this extent is the hope of His calling, who unfolds only by 
 degrees the mysteries of the Christian vocation. So far, 
 however, as knowledge means experience, this object of 
 knowledge is one : the blessing hoped for and enjoyed proves 
 the blessedness of the hope itself. The Scriptural definition 
 of our inmost jiersonality by the word '* heart" contains an 
 indication of this : it is the personality as the personality 
 of one who feels. A very strict exposition of these M'ords 
 must admit that "the hope of His calling," as known by 
 the enlightened eyes, must mean the treasury of blessings 
 to which in time and in eternity God calls His people : the 
 Apostle prays that we may be taught to appreciate rightly 
 the dignity and blessedness of the Gospel vocation. By 
 adding the word " appreciate " Ave bring out what is after 
 all the secret of the petition. Here Me borrow the 
 " riches " of the next clause. Hope is the expectation of 
 desire ; and its high prerogative as a Christian grace is 
 that it has literally an unlimited range for its expatiation. 
 To know the hope of His calling is simply to know, and to 
 rejoice in knowing, that it passcth knowledge. Whatever 
 faith in the Gospel now brings is only the germ of an 
 endless development. The best that is given to faitli is 
 only an " earnest ; " and the best riches of religion are its 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 231 
 
 hope. This will not be true throughout eternity ; but it is 
 most certainly true in time. 
 
 As a kind of link between this clause and the next, it may 
 be noted that there is the closest possible connection 
 between the enlightening of the eyes of the heart and the 
 knowledge of the treasures in the possession of hope. 
 "That ye may know" really means, "in your knowing." 
 It is not that a faculty is given or stimulated to render us 
 capable of estimating aright the infinite superiority of the 
 Gospel hope to all other riches which the soul may desire. 
 This is included ; but there is more than this. The lighting 
 up of the inward vision is the experience itself; it is that 
 knowledge which is life eternal. Sometimes, indeed, the 
 objects of hope are remitted onward to the future state. 
 But this prayer contains no direct reference to the future 
 state as separated by a great gulf from the present. The 
 hope it exults in is under a law of continuity which allows 
 no break. It makes the illimitable future grow moment 
 by moment out of the present, and so shine onward to the 
 perfect day. But it is plain that here we already expound 
 the words that follow, which by a wonderful cumulation, 
 such as our Apostle often uses, to try, as it were, the 
 utmost resources of human words, sets forth the glorious 
 riches of the inheritance which is mutual between God and 
 His saints in Christ. 
 
 But " glorious riches " is by no means sufficient : this 
 will appear if we take the words in their inverted order, 
 as, indeed, we must take them, if we would know their 
 meaning. 
 
 Nothing will exhaust the fulness of the term inheritance 
 here but that interpretation which makes it mutual, as 
 God's purchased possession in His saints and their posses- 
 sion of Him, the only portion of the soul. For this we 
 have been prepared by the earlier testimony, that in Christ 
 ''we were also made His inheritance." Regenerate and 
 sanctified mankind is and will be for ever the full realisa- 
 
232 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 tion of the typical portion which God had in Israel, 
 concerning whom it was said that they were a people whom 
 
 Deut. iv. Jehovah "chose for His inheritance." His children "pre- 
 destinated in Christ to the adoption of sons " are His por- 
 tion in the human race. Many of the most affecting sayings 
 of the New Testament both illustrate and are illustrated 
 by this truth. As to the Son incarnate, it is not more true 
 that His saints partake of Christ than that He finds His 
 rest, and joy, and satisfaction in them. They are purified 
 unto Himself for a peculiar people ; and they ^W11 be, when 
 their number is complete, the fulness which makes up the 
 sum or complement of His being as He is the Christ. As 
 they are complete or fulfilled in Him, so is He complete or 
 fidfilled in them ; as the original of St. Paul's words to the 
 Colossians shows. Although the sacred dignity of Scrip- 
 ture does not positively condescend to say so, yet the 
 words sometimes all but declare that His sanctified people 
 are the heritage which He receiveth from the Father. 
 
 Jao. xvii. " AH Thine are JNIine." " I will that they also, whom Thou 
 hast given Me, be with Me." But if the saints are the 
 portion of Christ, the Son, " All Mine are Thine ! " and the 
 Father receives as His " portion " wiiat the Son receives as 
 the " lot of His inheritance." And the Holy Ghost inhabits 
 the saints as His own temple and body. Thus we come 
 back to the words which we have already seen to testify all 
 this in another form. The Holy Ghost is " the earnest of 
 our inheritance until the redemption of the purchased 
 possession ; " the earnest in profound reality, both to the 
 saints and to the Triune God of the saints. 
 
 The "glory of His inheritance in the saints" does not 
 therefore mean the glory of heaven to which the saints are 
 called ; but the present manifestation of the glory of gi-ace 
 in believers Avho are gradually " perfected into one " through 
 their union A\ith the Redeemer. Our Lord in His final 
 prayer has taught us to understand what the Divine glory 
 in the saints is : a glory which is spiritual, not seen nor 
 
TEH GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 233 
 
 known of men, not of the similitude of what is generally 
 
 counted glory, but the shining forth of the Divine holiness 
 
 mystically in the Church. Hence St. Paul tells us that we 
 
 " beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed 2 Cor. iii. 
 
 into the same image from glory to glory." To see, or 
 
 to behold, or to apprehend that glory in the Church, 
 
 the eyes of the heart must be enlightened. The M^orld 
 
 does not behold it; it is but dimly apprehended even 
 
 by many who are no longer of the world ; but to those 
 
 who are spiritually taught the presence of the Triune God 
 
 in the sanctuary of His spiritual temple is the presence 
 
 of a Divine glory. To them the heavens do not more 
 
 certainly declare the glory of God, the sun does not more 
 
 certainly light up with glory the physical creation, than 
 
 the Divine indwelling glorifies the mystical Church of His 
 
 inheritance. And the believer, who looks upon the interior 
 
 transformation of his own soul, knows, though his humility 
 
 shrinks from avowing it, that his own " light is come, and Isaiah Ix. 
 
 the glory of the Lord is risen upon " him. ^• 
 
 But if the term "glory" refers rather to the Divine 
 indwelling in the saints His inheritance, the term " riches " 
 refers specially to the experience of the saints themselves, 
 who already possess, as surely, though not so abundantly, 
 as they ever ^dll, God as their everlasting portion. Here 
 let us once more go back to the earUer part of the Epistle, 
 and observe that "the riches of His grace" have been 
 spoken of as abounding towards us. Nor shall we be 
 content with the customary distinction between grace and 
 glory, making the former the heritage of time, and the 
 latter the privilege of eternity. By no means. That 
 distinction between grace and glory is nowhere expressly 
 laid do^\^l in Scripture, though it is now and then in- 
 dicated, and is in some sense a necessary distinction. 
 Certainly in this Epistle, and in our present Prayer, there 
 is no such demarcation. The " riches of grace " are dis- 
 played towards us in our " redemption through His blood. 
 
234 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 the forgiveness of our sins ; " the " riches of His glory " 
 concurrently and most certainly in the positive enjoyments 
 for which deliverance and forgiveness were only the pre- 
 parations. Whilst both the negative and the positive 
 blessings redound alike '*to the praise of His glory," the 
 former unfold rather the riches of His gi'ace, the latter 
 the riches of His glory. What the present estate of our 
 humiliation is to the future manifestation of the sons of 
 God in glory, that the low^er blessings of the grace of 
 deliverance are to the higher blessings of fellowship and 
 union with God. 
 
 Here is the secret of the diiference among Christians 
 as to the endowments of religion. Some know and some 
 do not know the riches of the glory of His inheritance. 
 But that difference is not in the intention of God, the 
 supreme Dispenser of these treasures. He as freely offers 
 to us all the highest glory of His grace as He offers its first 
 experience of pardon. But the eyes of the greater part 
 are long holden. They know not how rich their inheritance 
 is in God, because they forget that He is never the 
 supreme Good of the soul until it has renounced all other 
 sources of satisfaction. He is jealous of His prerogative to 
 be the only blessedness of His people. So long as any 
 creature, especially so long as self, the worst of all the 
 creatures, is the source of the happiness of the sjiirit, 
 so long is there a restraint on the fruition of God. Blessed 
 are they who have the eyes of the heart enlightened to 
 know how past all human language precious are " the 
 riches of the glory of the inheritance of Him." Tliey read 
 the words as we have now quoted them, and are impatient 
 of any other reading. 
 
 Once more we must remember the strict connection 
 between the enlightened eyes of the heart and this thrice 
 blessed heritage. The interior illumination is not a pre- 
 paration to know all this in a future state. However true 
 it may be that the present life is a gracious discipline of 
 
THE GLORY OF THE INHERITANCE. 235 
 
 the faculties of the inner man to bear the exceeding weight 
 of glory that shall be revealed, it is not the purpose of the 
 Apostle to intimate this in his prayer. Here we may 
 borrow the immemorial teaching of the best and purest 
 Mysticism, which has in this passage its text and justifica- 
 tion. That old tradition described the way of perfection 
 as travelling through three stages ; purgation from sin and 
 sense, illumination by secret grace, and perfect union with 
 God. These three processes, however, were not only suc- 
 cessive, but also simultaneous, especially the two latter. 
 Every fresh revelation of the Lord is itself a deeper 
 experience of union with Him, on the one hand, while, on 
 the other, it makes sin and self more loathsome, and 
 purifies the soul from both. But here the Lord's word 
 in the prayer so often quoted is our best interpreter : 
 "I will love Him, and will manifest Myself unto him." Jno. 
 The Fairest Object the eyes of the heart can ever see ^^• 
 is Himself, and that is the object He presents to the 
 prepared vision. But He does not manifest Himself that 
 He may be seen in His loveliness, and then invited to 
 enter. The manifestation of Himself to the perception, 
 knowledge, feeUng, consciousness, and mystical enjoyment 
 of the soul is itself His entrance and His indwelling as the 
 portion and deepest blessedness of that soul. But here 
 again we are anticipating the last swelling clause of the 
 prayer, which goes off" into infinity. 
 
 It might seem to a superficial consideration as if the 
 Apostle, under the strong pressure of emotion, had for- 
 gotten that he was praying for the enlightenment of their 
 eyes, and had omitted a word that should here have been 
 inserted : " that He may grant you to feel the exceeding 
 greatness of His power." But here the observation already 
 made comes a third time to our help : the inward illumina- 
 tion is itself the strength of the Lord in another form ; and 
 to know the might of the Divine power is only another way 
 of expressing the hope of our calhng and the glory of the 
 
236 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 inheritance. And how impressive is this accumulation of 
 Bynonymes, each giving its new tribute of force to the 
 common meaning of the whole ! The Holy Spirit alone 
 can expound these words in that strength of their meaning 
 M'hich passe th language and passeth knowledge. All that 
 we can do is to mark the order that reigns in the tumult of 
 holy words. The Divine power follows the general hope of 
 the calling, and the more specific glory of union with God, 
 as being the still more specific secret of the interior trans- 
 formation of our nature. That power is regarded as in 
 God surpassing all limit, as in us limited only by faith. 
 Having mentioned our faith as the sole and simple con- 
 dition and instrument of the operation of the Divine 
 strength, the Apostle goes on both to explain and to 
 encourage that faith, and its high influence. His method 
 of doing this is one that is very characteristic. He sets 
 before us the risen and exalted Redeemer as the Head of 
 the new Christian creation : risen, through an operation of 
 the Divine power that knows no bounds, which Divine 
 power, however, is continued in every one who becomes 
 identified Avith Him by faith ; exalted, that He might 
 become the Source of that power which faith has at its 
 command. It ^111 be observed that faith is the leading 
 word of the whole, so far as we are concerned, though it 
 seems to come in only subordinately. It is the key placed 
 in our hand whereby we unlock the treasury of these most 
 holy mysteries, and enter and take possession and rejoice. 
 But this faith also is of the secret influence of the Spirit ; 
 it is itself included in the enlightening of the eyes of the 
 heart ; for the opening of the spiritual eye is no other than 
 the quickening of the principle of belief in the inner man 
 into the energy of faith in God. 
 
 The terms which define the power of God for which we 
 pray must be reduced back to their threefold gradation : 
 "according to the working of His mighty power" is, 
 literally, " according to the standard or proportion of the 
 
THE GLORY OF TEE INHERITANCE. 237 
 
 operation in Christ and in us of the strength which is put 
 forth from the might of the attribute of Divine omnipo- 
 tence." We see and feel the " working ; " but we refer that 
 to a " strength " which is beyond the operation ; and that 
 again must be carried back to the infinite resources of the 
 Divine "might." But these three words are used in re- 
 lation to Christ, whose resurrection is regarded as the 
 supreme exhibition of the Divine power as it is spiritual : 
 what the springing of the universe into being is as regards 
 physical power, the raising of Christ is as regards the 
 spiritual power of God in the Church. The resurrection of 
 our Head was virtually the resurrection of His people from 
 the penalty of sin which is death : in the unfathomable 
 mystery of the atonement, He, and we in Him, died to the 
 condemnation of the law, and yet lived. " If One died for 2 Cor. v. 
 all, then all died." " Christ being raised from the dead ^^- . 
 dieth no more." "Reckon ye also yourselves to be dead gJ-n. 
 indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ 
 our Lord." Here we do well to limit ourselves to the prayer 
 which really stimulates our faith to apprehend the truth 
 that the Divine operation in Christ is reproduced and con- 
 tinued in us. There is, for the future, the resurrection of 
 our bodies and of our whole nature from all that belongs 
 to physical death ; and for the present, the still more won- 
 derftd resurrection of our souls from all that belongs to 
 spiritual death. In virtue of our union with Christ, the 
 Divine power is creating in us the exact image of all that 
 our nature is in Him : freedom from all condemnation, and 
 from all the defilement, weakness, and dishonour of sin. 
 "Which thing is true in Him and in you." "To us- ijno.ii.8. 
 ward who believe" there is going forth a Divine power 
 which has no restraint, save in ourselves, as it respects the 
 destruction of our evil and the full re-establishment of the 
 image of God. This is the standard of the Divine opera- 
 tion, and it must be the standard of the expectation of our 
 faith. 
 
238 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 But at this point the structure of the prayer changes. 
 
 "And lie made Him sit in the heavenly places to 
 
 be Head over all things to the Church, which is His body, 
 the fulness of Him that filleth all in all." This seems 
 to indicate that the Divine operation, wrought in Christ as 
 our Representative, is, so to speak, transferred to Him as 
 our Head, that He may accomplish in us all the will of 
 the Divine Omnipotence. In these words our Prayer has 
 ended. The xVpostle's theology continues in a strain that 
 always has in it the preeminence, and dilates upon the 
 eternal relations of the exalted Lord to His Church. We 
 must not pursue the paragraph into its details. Suffice 
 that all the '' riches of the glory " of our Lord's authority 
 in heaven must be brought down to earth and become 
 " the riches of His grace." To the believing Church, and 
 to every humble member of that Church who believes, 
 heaven and earth are one. In this sense " the resurrection 
 is past already." His saints have risen with Christ, and 
 sit in heavenly places with Him. As all the fulness of 
 the Godhead dwelleth in Him bodily, so all His fulness 
 dwelleth bodily in His Church. Between the Head and 
 the members there is a blessed continuity : there can be 
 
 1 Cor. vi. no gulf fixed. " He that is joined unto the Lord is 
 ^^- one Spirit." And it is His will that the unction of His 
 holiness should descend to every member of His mystical 
 body, in the very same irresistible energy whereby in the 
 external universe "all things are put under His feet." 
 This is the measure of the standard of the expectation of 
 faith : a measure tliat reacheth even mito you, whosoever 
 you are that read. Stedfastly believing that He now 
 filleth all His saints with all His gifts, we may set our hope 
 on a full salvation, on the full enjoyment of the hope 
 of His calling, on the full inheritance of our God in our 
 
 Eph.v.18. hearts, on the being "filled with the Spirit." 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 239 
 
 XIII. 
 THE INDWELLIIsTO TRINITY. 
 
 " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father of our Lord Jesua 
 Christ, of whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He 
 would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened 
 with might by His Spirit in the inner man ; that Christ may dwell in 
 yovir hearts by faith ; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may 
 be able to comprehend with aU saints what is the breadth, and length, 
 and depth, and height ; and to know the love of Christ, which passeth 
 knowledge, that ye might be filled with all the fulness of God. Now 
 unto Him that is able to do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask 
 or think, according to the power that worketh in us, unto Him be glory 
 in the Church by Christ Jesus throughout all ages, world without end. 
 Amen." — Ephesians iii. 14 — 21. 
 
 In this prayer we have entered the holiest of the temple- 
 epistle. The Apostle has shown us that in the outer court 
 Jews and Gentiles are one, the wall of partition being re- 
 moved ; that the sanctuary also is one with the court of the 
 general assembly, for the altar of the one eternal sacrifice 
 has served its purpose and is gone ; that the veil between 
 the sanctuary and the most holy place is also removed, not 
 only rent, but done away ; and that the one temple, without 
 any veils and distinctions, is the mystical Church of the 
 living God. Of the perfect worship of this temple he now 
 gives us a model. But he does not introduce it as such. 
 He does not call upon the Ephesians to join in this high 
 exercise. But he throws it into the most simple form of 
 his own intercessory prayer, as if he were himself for the 
 time the high-priest : " I bow my knees before the God and 
 Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. . . . that He would grant 
 you." We must however note, without dwelling on, St. 
 Paul's personal relation to the prayer. " For this cause," 
 
240 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL, 
 
 resumes the same words in verse 1, where the thought was 
 suspended. Because they, the Gentiles, were "also builded 
 together for an habitation of God through the Spirit," *'an 
 holy temple in the Lord ; " and because the Apostle had 
 this grace given to him, that he " should preach among 
 the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ ;" and 
 because in Him "we have boldness and access with con- 
 fidence by the faith of Him;" therefore he, the preacher 
 of this revealed mystery, bowed the knees of his spirit 
 while he wrote and led them as it were into the holiest, 
 and thus prayed for them and with them, that, as the 
 spiritual house of God, they might be filled Avith His triune 
 fulness. If we lose sight of the petitioner's person, as he 
 himself soon loses sight of it, the prayer resolves itself into 
 the mediatorial approach and invocation, the Trinitarian 
 blessings besought, and the doxology, which closes all. 
 
 The invocation is of "the Father, from whom every race 
 in heaven and earth is named." This is all that the text 
 contains ; and it teaches us that our prayer must go up to 
 God as the Father of spirits : the spirits of the heavenly 
 host, and " the spirits of all flesh " on earth. But it must 
 not be forgotten that the mediatorial access through Jesus 
 is presupposed, as having been mentioned immediately 
 before. 
 
 We are struck at once by the simplicity of the name 
 " Father," irresistibly suggesting the analogy of the Lord's 
 Prayer, after the pattern of which this central prayer of 
 the Apostle is constructed. We have only a few instances 
 of so simple an invocation. St. Peter indirectly uses it : 
 " If ye call on the Father." Its direct use is found thrice. 
 First, our Lord places it at the head of His teaching con- 
 cerning prayer. He came from heaven "that He might 
 bring us to God " and teach us to pray : His entire 
 ministry may be defined as a revelation of the way to 
 heaven. Now it is observable that His very first in- 
 structions bring the Supreme before us as " our Father." 
 
TKE INDWELLING TRINITY. 241 
 
 By this name He had not been known to the ancients ; 
 not even the most favoured, not the most beloved, had 
 used that word. It was reserved for the set hour that 
 should disclose the triune mystery : thus the most un- 
 searchable and the most gracious aspects of the Divine 
 essence were by one and the same teaching brought near 
 to us. Both are the result of the mediation of the Son. 
 He alone knoweth the Father in the Trinity, He alone 
 bringeth back the Divine Fatherhood to man. Secondly, 
 our Lord Himself makes this invariably the address 
 by which He approaches heaven : praying through His 
 humanity for us men, He has but this one name, thus 
 hallowing it for our use for ever. He uses it for Himself 
 and for us. The third is this of our text : so striking and so 
 unusual that it was not long permitted to remain in its 
 simplicity. A few words which are implied were added as 
 if of necessity. 
 
 The approach through Jesus is as obvious as if it were 
 directly asserted : so obvious as itself to account for the 
 ancient and venerable interpolation of the words " of our 
 Lord Jesus Christ," " in whom we have boldness and Eph. iii. 
 access with confidence by the faith of Him :" confidence ^^" 
 to approach and boldness to call Him Father. " Through 
 Him we both," Jews and Gentiles, " have access by one Eph. ii. 
 Spirit unto the Father." Our adoption is our union with ^^* 
 the Eternal Son made flesh, and its first fruit is that we 
 may call His Father our Father ; and this special privi- 
 lege is always connected with His mediation under this 
 specific aspect : not so much because He is the media- 
 torial Redeemer in the atonement, or the mediatorial 
 High Priest in Heaven, as because as He is the incarnate 
 mediatorial Son. As we are guilty creatures, He is 
 between us and God the Reconciler ; as we are separated 
 fi-om God by defilement, He is between Eternal Holiness 
 and us, the High Priest with the blood of cleansing. But, 
 as we are children who have wandered, He represents us 
 
 R 
 
242 THE PR A TEES OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 to the Father in His filial nature united with ours. In 
 this last sense He will be the ^Mediator for ever, " In the 
 Beloved " we shall be children of God throughout eternity. 
 In the present life it is the one ground of our approach : 
 whether expressly recognised or not, always assumed. 
 This great prayer of the Apostle's, like our Lord's, makes 
 no direct allusion to our access in Christ. 
 
 But while the highest and most precious privilege of 
 Christian prayer is to call upon the Father by the Spirit 
 of adoption in the unity of the Incarnate Son, and this 
 privilege is the singular prerogative of the brethren of this 
 Elder Brother, there is a sense in which we share it with 
 other races and families upon whom the Fatherly name of 
 God "is named." Although, on the one hand, this appeal 
 to heaven is the most limited of all appeals, on the other 
 hand it is one of the most catholic. The Fatherhood of 
 God is named upon races or families of heaven, of which 
 Ave as yet know little : not races or families in the human 
 meaning, but rather in that of orders of created intelli- 
 gences, brought into being individually, so far as we know, 
 each after his kind. These in multitudes and varieties 
 past all human estimate call God Father, in virtue of 
 their original birthright ; and our restoration to the vast 
 family circle through the mediation of Christ is said in this 
 Epistle, and that to the Colossians, to be " the reconcilia- 
 tion of things in heaven and things in earth " to God and 
 to each other. We with them shall call upon and worship 
 the Father for ever, and all alike through the mediation 
 of the Son : we through His redeeming mediation as that of 
 the Son Incarnate, they through the same Eternal Son, as 
 the Firstborn before every creature, by M'hom and in 
 Eph. iii. 6. whom " all thing were created," the sujireme Interme- 
 diary between the Three-One essential Being and all 
 created intelligences. Nor, in this catholic invocation, 
 must we omit tlie tribes and families of earth, all of whom 
 are in a most real and impressive sense the sons of God : 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 243 
 
 not losing that name even in the farthest "far country," 
 though losing its best privileges. The fact that our Lord 
 is the Son of God in humanity must always forbid the 
 thought that any of the children of men are dealt with 
 otherwise than as children. There is a measure of truth 
 in the ancient interpretation implied in the added clause, 
 "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, of Whom:" at 
 least, so far as earth is concerned. Most certainly the 
 Creator would have had no children on earth, would never 
 have owned such a genealogical tree as that which His 
 name heads in St. Luke, had not Christ entered the race. 
 We know no filial relation that is not of grace through 
 Christ. But such a filial relation cannot be denied to 
 the most degraded sinner while probation lasts ; when 
 that ceases, and not till then, the Son of God becomes a 
 "son of perdition :" his perdition being mainly the loss of 
 the prerogatives of that name. 
 
 When we proceed to the petitions themselves, we are at 
 once arrested by the Trinitarian character they assume. 
 The Father is addressed as the sovereign Dispenser of the 
 riches of the glory of His grace, as the Giver of the influ- 
 ences of the Spirit and of the life of the Indwelling Son. 
 The Holy Ghost is the strength of the inner man of the 
 regenerate. The Son is their hidden life. And the issue 
 of the individual enjoyment of the special gifts of the 
 individual Persons of the Trinity is the filling of the whole 
 Church unto " all the fulness of God ;" that is, the growth 
 of the whole body into its i^erfection as "the fulness of 
 Him who filleth all in all." 
 
 To the Father in the mediatorial Trinity is assigned the 
 sovereign dispensation of the gifts of grace. Here it is not 
 the Son, but the Father, who " in all things " has " the pre- 
 eminence ; " the preeminence, that is, as the primal 
 Author and Source of what is called the counsel of re- 
 demption, " the purpose " or will of the opening words of 
 our Epistle. Of this our Lord Himself gave us the plain 
 
 R 2 
 
244 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Johnxiv. and sufficient text when He said above, "My Father is 
 28. greater than I," Avords Avhich have meaning for ns only 
 when they are regarded as combining two truths, seem- 
 ingly contradictory, but eternally harmonious : an essential 
 equality in the Divine essence, a mediatorial distinction in 
 the economy of redemption. Of all imaginable things 
 none could be more superfluous than for a creaturely -son 
 to say, " ISly Father is greater than I." But nothing was 
 more necessary to future Christian theology than that our 
 Lord should give the original testimony that the subordina- 
 tion of the two Persons to the First, through the incarnation 
 and its issues, was fundamental. This Avord is the justifi- 
 cation of the consistent teaching of the Epistles : not only 
 of occasional passages, but of their entire strain, which 
 makes the Father the Head of the mediatorial Trinity and 
 of the work of redemption, in which the Trinity is one. 
 God is the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, as in the 
 beginning of this Epistle ; and the Father is also that God 
 1 Cor. xi. who is " the Head of Christ." " Of Him are all things," 
 •^- and to Him all prayer is supremely directed; ** through 
 
 Him are all things," for the mediatorial economy in His 
 purpose and will accomplished ; and " for Him are all 
 things," as the " God of glory " in redemption, to whom 
 therefore the final doxology is presented. It must be 
 remembered that there is an absolute Trinity behind 
 the mediatorial, and that in the unity of the Three-One 
 both prayer and praise are offered to the Three Persons in 
 the work of human salvation. But in this Epistle we have 
 only the formal mediatorial order of devotion. The Son is 
 only the Mediator of access. By one Spirit we approach : 
 Eph. V. "^vitli our praises, " Be filled w^th the Spirit, speaking to 
 ^17. one another in psalms;" with our prayers, "Praying 
 18 ^* always with all prayer and supiilication in the Spirit." 
 
 We must be equally careful in our interpretation of the 
 clauses which introduce and discriminate the threefold 
 procession of the grant which reveals the Holy Trinity 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 245 
 
 in the body of believers. Thrice is the purpose of the 
 prayer expressly mentioned, the purpose, however, being 
 so stated as to be really the object of the petitions also. 
 The first has reference to the individual believer, the 
 second to both the individual and the Body, the third pre- 
 eminently to the Body alone. 
 
 And, first, the Spirit is " His Spirit," the Spirit of God 
 the Father, sent from Him through the intercession of the 
 Son. Here it is needful to observe that reference is made 
 to an abiding influence of the Spirit on the inner man of 
 the Christian, who has already received that Spirit under 
 two aspects, as the Spirit of the Son in adoption, and 
 as the Earnest of an always future inheritance. The Holy 
 Ghost is once for all given in both these latter senses : it is 
 the believer's privilege, as a believer, to have the abiding 
 access to God, and hope of future salvation. But the 
 continuous and ever-increasing strength of the Holy Ghost 
 is gi'anted by degrees, and the measure of these degrees 
 makes the dififereuce between one Christian and another. 
 As there is a growth into the fulness of God, and a gradual 
 establishment into permanence of the indwelling of Christ, 
 so there is a progression in the inward operation of the 
 Spirit. That progression is very clearly marked in our 
 Epistle. In the first chapter all believers are sealed 
 by the Spirit as the earnest of God's possession and their 
 inheritance ; in this prayer the ever-increasing might of 
 the Spirit is presented as a promise ; and towards the close 
 we are all exhorted to "be filled with the Spirit." Here, 
 therefore, we have the correction of three prevalent errors. 
 The gift of the Spirit is the common possession of be- 
 lievers : there is no higher or better dispensation marked 
 by His descent upon those who had believed in Jesus only. 
 That gift admits of a boundless variety of degrees in those 
 who are true believers. It may reach the measure of such 
 a perfection that the wh )le being shall be filled with His 
 power. 
 
246 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 Secondly, it is observable that the prayer is for the 
 Spirit's might into " the inner man ; " which opens up to us 
 the blessed mystery of the progressive renewal of our own 
 nature through the growth Mithin us of tlie new man 
 in which Christ dwells. The precision of the New Testa- 
 ment on this subject demands that we make its own 
 distinction here. Tlie inner man, and the new man, and 
 Christ within us, are not definitions of one and the same 
 thing. The inner man is the true personality for which 
 neither science nor religion has any other name : the 
 interior man in the sphere of his moral conscience or con- 
 sciousness ; " the hidden man of the heart," whose heart, 
 however, or conscience may be darkened almost to a total 
 exclusion of the light of Divine things from the nature. 
 When that inner man is reached by the energ}' of the 
 Divine Spirit, and the influences of convincing grace 
 deepen into regeneration, the inner man becomes the 
 " new man," as distinguished from a former state. This 
 work is the prerogative of the Holy Ghost, who, however, 
 forms the image of Christ in the soul, and so intimately 
 unites it to the Lord that His indwelling is " Christ in us." 
 But it must be remembered that this third term is generally 
 reserved, as in this prayer, for the high privilege of the 
 gi-owing believer. Christ, indeed, is in every Christian, 
 Cor.xiii unless he be "reprobate;" but the dwelling of Christ in 
 ^' the heart by faith is the higher expression which we shall 
 
 have presently to consider. JNleanwhile, the subject of 
 petition here is the strengthening grace of the Holy Ghost, 
 directed "towards" the secret springs of action in the 
 interior man. It is as it Avere the Eternal Spirit, from 
 whom all spiritual existence "in heaven and earth is 
 named," seeking His own in the nature of man : the Great 
 Restorer of the defaced Image, creating anew, but by using 
 again the dishonoured materials of His first handiwork, 
 breathing again upon what He once inbreathed, and recall- 
 ing to their original vocation the energies of man's soul. 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 247 
 
 He restores the freedom of the will, though only to give it 
 the liberty of freely following His suggestion. He revives 
 in the reason the remembrance of truth long forgotten ; 
 He lights up in the desires the one supreme affection. In 
 short, He saves the soul through its own faculties ; and, 
 from first to last, His strength is made perfect in the 
 weakness of our inner man. 
 
 As to our adorable Lord, the great prayer takes two 
 forms : one referring back to what precedes, the indwelling 
 of Christ through the Spirit ; the other referring to what 
 follows, the knowledge of the knowledge-surpassing love of 
 Christ which leads to the fulness of God. 
 
 The connection between the clauses is very strict in the 
 original : the strengthening of the inner man, which is the 
 renewal of our original nature, is no other than the perpe- 
 tual invigoration of that faith by which the Christ, the 
 Second Man, dwells in the heart as the new man of our 
 regeneration. As to the former, the believer may say, 
 "Nevertheless I live ;" as to the latter, he must add, "Yet Gal.ii.20. 
 not I, but Christ livetli in me : " " the inner man " and the 
 "new man" become one through the sacred indwelling 
 of Him " who is our Life." The faith here spoken of is the Col.iii. 4. 
 faith of the inner man quickened through Divine operation, 
 and for ever apprehending, embracing, and keeping in the 
 heart the Lord Jesus. Whereas in us, that is, in our flesh, 
 " dwelleth no good thing ; " in us, in our new nature, Christ 
 "dwelleth," or takes up His fixed and permanent abode. 
 The connection indicated above is established in the Epistle 
 to the Romans: "But ye are not in the flesh, but in the Eom. viii. 
 Spirit, if so be that the Spirit of God dwell in you. Now if ^' ^^* 
 any man have not the Spirit of Christ, he is none of His. 
 And if Christ be in you..." The indwelling of His Spirit is 
 the indwelling of Christ, and makes the soul " His : " His in 
 the most blessed and indescribable sense : His to dwell in 
 as His rest, as His body, as His temple, in short, as His 
 abode and His home. This is a blessing prayed for as 
 
248 THE PR A YERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 dependent on the Spirit's ceaseless energy; and the em- 
 phatic word "dAvell" here — the strongest form of tlie 
 expression, in fact, the same which is used of tlie Son : " It 
 
 Col. i. 19. pleased the Father that in Him should all fulness dwell ; " 
 
 Col. ii. 9. '< for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 botlily," — plainly means such a fixed and abiding esta- 
 blishment of the Dread Presence in the heart as transforms 
 the soul into Him. Within and below this a multitude of 
 other illustrations crowd. The indwelling Lord dwells 
 
 Col.iii.i6. richly, as a living word within us; as the Supreme in- 
 ternal authority ruling the life ; as the hope of glory ; 
 as the abiding principle of life and sanctification. But 
 the words of our prayer go beyond all these. They are 
 a significant expansion, and as it were transformation, 
 of the thought that our "inner man" is strengthened. 
 That inner man becomes now a new man, which is 
 only the organ and instrument of the indwelling Christ, 
 who lives over again in the believer's soul, executing 
 there His three ofiices as "the Christ:" teaching, ruling, 
 and sanctifying the spirit that is one with Him as He is 
 one with it. 
 
 There can be no doubt that the change in the next 
 clause directs us to the effect upon our character of that 
 sacred indwelling of the Lord : were the words " rooted 
 and gi'ouuded " absent, it would be otherwise. The thought 
 would then flow on into a prayer that the soul, conscious of 
 so blessed a Guest, might experience — that is, perceive 
 with the mind and feel with the heart — the endless 
 kindness of the love of Christ. This would be in strict 
 
 John xiv. keeping with the Lord's o>\ii sacred promise: "And My 
 Father will love him, and We ^Yi\l come unto him, and 
 make Our abode with him." Hence we may dare to 
 pray for this : for the constant perception of the flow of 
 the Saviour's tokens of love in the soul. What these 
 tokens are can be knoMii only by experience ; just as 
 we can know only by experience what that companion 
 
THE INDWELLING TBINITY. 249 
 
 word meant, "I will manifest Myself to him." How rich Johnxiv, 
 and clear that manifestation is no exposition can tell : it is 
 a revelation that the eye of the heart must be enlightened 
 to see. It was the word by which our Lord when about to 
 depart from the sensible observation of His own promised 
 to be equally and still more really present to the senses of 
 faith : an abiding Reality to spiritual perception. That 
 manifestation He most strictly connected with the know- 
 ledge of His love ; and, bringing both into our present 
 prayer, we may say that this is the order of the three : 
 the indwelling of Christ, the manifesting of Himself to 
 faith as indAvelling, and the knowledge of His secret, 
 gracious, and all-sufficient love. 
 
 But we must not forget that this is the exposition of an 
 imaginary text. The Apostle includes all that precedes ; 
 but liis i)urpose here is to say that the soul rooted in love, 
 and filled with love in the life, is alone able to understand 
 the blessedness of Christ's love to it, which surpasses every 
 other knowledge than that of experience. It is super- 
 fluous to hunt after explanations of these images ; it is 
 idle to imagine that their confusion needs to be explained. 
 The words " rooted and grounded " have but one mean- 
 ing : that love, as the foundation of the Christian cha- 
 racter, and as the sap of the Christian hfe, — or, to add a 
 third figure, ''the bond of perfectness," — is the essential 
 qualification in man for the apprehending of the love of 
 Christ. This alone makes him able, or " fully able," — for 
 the word is a strong one, — either to comprehend the 
 measures of the love of Christ as displayed in redemption, 
 or to know in exiDerience that love as a personal posses- 
 sion. Thus love here, as a subjective condition, corre- 
 sponds with the " opening of the eyes of the heart " in the 
 former prayer. Spiritual things are si)iritually discerned ; 
 and, as all spiritual tilings are to the saints only the 
 mysteries of Cln-ist's love, the spiritual discernment is the 
 discernment of love. To this we must return, after having 
 
250 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 considered briefly the other expressions which are used to 
 express the object of this knowledge. 
 
 First, it is the comprehensive knowledge of the essential 
 characteristics of the love of Christ, as it has been un- 
 folded in the previous part of the Epistle. The mystery of 
 redeeming love has its " breadth and length and depth and 
 height :" definitions these of magnitude which, while they 
 suggest infinit}', imply directions and regions into which 
 the spiritual thought may trace it, and not without suc- 
 cess. As the " ages to come," and " the principalities and 
 powers in heavenly places " have made known to them the 
 " manifold wisdom " of the mystery of Divine grace, so 
 " all saints," the first beneficiaries of these mysteries, are 
 to be their first and most profound and most experimental 
 students. They study, and will for ever study, the breadth 
 of the love that embraces all races ; its length which fills 
 eternity ; its depth which reaches the lowest abyss of sin 
 and misery ; its height, lastly, which reaches to the eternal 
 glorification of the Divine perfections. This is the common 
 study of all saints, who, like the Apostle their representa- 
 tive, know nothing among men, and nothing in heaven, and 
 nothing in the universe, " but Christ, and Him crucified." 
 This fills the circle of their science ; absorbs into itself all 
 worthy knowledge, and casts out as vanity all that it 
 cannot absorb. Theology is the only knowledge, and the 
 Cross is the only theology. When we understand this, 
 and hold it fast, we may expatiate as we Avill on the 
 sacred geometry of the allusion. This knowledge is to be 
 studied in the temple of God ; and it finds its own best 
 illustration in that temple, the growth of Avhich, into all 
 the proportions of its perfection, as " the fulness of Him 
 that fillcth all in all," is the most glorious illustration of 
 the Divine love known to man. But, after all, we must 
 return to the thought of the boundless extent of the love 
 of Christ, which reaches, in every direction in which can 
 be an object of thought, to infinity. 
 
THE INDWELLING TBINITY. 251 
 
 So far this knowledge has rather reference to the whole 
 company of saints as students, and therefore to the love 
 of Christ as exhausted upon, though never exhausted in, 
 the Church. But when the Apostle goes on to add as a 
 supplement, " and to know the love of Christ, which 
 passeth knowledge," he returns more specially to the 
 individual believer, whose knowledge is not so much that 
 of spiritual perception as that of deep, inward, satisfied, 
 though never satisfied, experience of a love that passeth 
 experience. Here is, of course, what is called a paradox ; 
 but one so natural and obvious that it is needless to give 
 it the name. So natural is it that we must not think of a 
 latent comj)arison between the spiritual knowing which 
 may know the love of Christ and the intellectual gnosis 
 which it surpasses. It is the glory of this that it sur- 
 passes all knowledge outside of God : in the depths of the 
 Divine essence, where it originated, whence it came, and 
 to which it returns, alone can it be fully known. It sur- 
 passes human faculties in every sense, and in whatever 
 light regarded. It is a Divine love manifested in the 
 Incarnate ; and every thought and feeling in God must be 
 beyond human understanding. Its deeds and sacrifices, 
 its action and passion, are beyond all human estimate. 
 And — what must never be omitted in this and similar 
 passages — its blessedness as an influence on the human 
 spirit is beyond man's thought to appreciate and describe. 
 What pure and heavenly bliss the human spirit is capable 
 of enjoying in the vision of God, which is only the receiv- 
 ing and returning His love, eternity will prove in full, and 
 time already knows in earnest. The love of Christ is 
 seldom felt, and felt by few, in all its unhindered and 
 unabated power to make the soul happy. But even its 
 beginnings and firstfruits fill the heart with a strange and 
 awful joy, the very first definition of which is that it 
 cannot be described and has no parallel, or, in other 
 words, that it " passeth knowledge." Now when nothing 
 
252 THE PRATERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 hinders its flow into the being, when every creaturely affec- 
 tion is renounced, and all the capacities of the redeemed 
 and sanctified spirit are prepared for this heavenly influ- 
 ence, and when, finally, it pleases the Incarnate Life of 
 the soul to put forth more and more of His i^ower to bless, 
 what Avords can be used concerning the mystery of this 
 communion of love between Him who created the spirit to 
 bless it, and the si)iiat created to be blessed, than this, 
 that it " surpasseth knowledge " ? 
 
 The connection between *' being rooted and grounded 
 in love " and " being able " to comprehend the love of 
 Christ demands deep consideration. The very same words 
 are used in the earlier prayer to signify the strength in- 
 fused by the Holy Ghost ; and their order in the present 
 prayer is such as to make the connection rather stronger 
 and closer than it appears in the English. There are 
 many reasons why much love at the root of the life 
 strengthens the soul to know Divine love. 
 
 First, it removes some effectual impediments to the 
 perception of Divine things generally. Where self reigns, 
 there must needs be a contracted heart in relation to 
 spiritual truth. There is an essential contrariety between 
 self and the heavenly mystery of the Gospel of Christ. 
 The love of redemption cannot be studied even in its 
 elements by the selfish mind; much progress cannot be 
 made in it by the soul that has any residue of self- 
 seeking ; but a full and abounding sympathy with it is 
 the happy privilege of those in whom self is dead. Now 
 St. Paul's " rooted and grounded in love " means the 
 extinction of self as a principle at the root of the character. 
 With that extinction vanishes every impediment to the 
 study of infinite self-sacrifice. Till it is gone the love of 
 Christ in His self-devotion to the cross cannot be fully 
 sympathised with or known. Hence the Apostle, in the 
 chapter of the Epistle to the Philippians which deals with 
 the Lord's example of supreme self-renunciation, sets out 
 
TEE INDWELLING TRINITY. 253 
 
 with this precept : " Let this mind be in you, which was Phil. ii. 5. 
 also in Christ Jesus : " without His mind in us we cannot 
 approach the sacred m} stery. And this is but the echo of 
 our Lord's own words as He drew near to the cross. Not 
 in one saying only, but in the whole course of His instruc- 
 tion, He required perfect self-sacrifice in all who should 
 become His disciples, and showed that both His service 
 and the knowledge of Himself were bound up with the fol- 
 lowing of His example. 
 
 Once more, a rooted and grounded love quickens the 
 intellectual faculties of the heart to the study of Christ's 
 love, which is simply the whole compass of the redeeming 
 scheme. The Gospel is sometimes called "the word," 
 sometimes "the faith," sometimes "the wisdom" of God. 
 It assumes by turns almost every Divine attribute and 
 name ; and here, undoubtedly, it is the glorious work 
 in which the surpassing charity of redemption is manifested 
 that is called " the love of Christ." Now it needs no proof 
 that the love which removes hindrances to the study of 
 redemption quickens the faculties to study it. Love will 
 dehght to be for ever exploring its treasures. It gives 
 itself up to the consideration, the deep, fervent, prolonged, 
 and never-weary pondering of Christ, and all the mys- 
 teries of His Person and work. Love is the secret 
 interpreter, whom the Holy Spirit is for ever educating in 
 this high knowledge. And the perfection of love in the 
 heart and life is such an habitual transformation into the 
 glorious image of Christ as makes the things of Christ its 
 sum of knowledge. 
 
 But, best of all, it is the privilege of the loving soul to 
 be much loved. This is not said precisely in the prayer — 
 for " be able " is not " be privileged " — but it is most cer- 
 tainly impHed. It is to this perfect love, that is crucified 
 to every other object, that the Lord manifests Himself. 
 He feeds the love that He inspires with Himself, the 
 constant impress of His own eternal loveliness upon the 
 
254 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 soul, thus made strong to be able to comprehend what 
 can never be fully comprehended. 
 
 Before passing from these most awful privileges let it be 
 observed that so far the prayer is for the individual. This 
 indwelling is " in your hearts :" not in the common heart 
 of tlie one mystical Body, tlie sacred abstraction of the 
 saved mankind. We are to " comprehend with all saints :" 
 in common with eacli and with all. We must be jealous 
 on this point. Not only is the individual character of 
 these privileges sho^vn, but the language seems further to 
 intimate that it is as common as it is individual : " with all 
 saints," as if it was of the very nature of the saintly rela- 
 tion to rejoice in these experiences of the Divine power. 
 And this indeed is true. There are no blessings in the 
 covenant of grace which are not as free to one as to 
 another of the Christian family. There is no reserved 
 class for whom higher graces are reserved. Nothing is 
 more characteristic of the Epistles of St. Paul, and of 
 the New Testament generally, than the absence of any 
 such reservation. All the highest privileges are thrown 
 open with perfect freedom to the whole society of Christ's 
 people : their experiences are to be enjoyed " with all 
 saints." This fact condemns a sentiment more often felt 
 than expressed ; it overthrows a delusion as common as it 
 is unfounded. The salvation is the ** common salvation " in 
 all its processes, enjoyments, and hopes. Nothing higher 
 than the religion of this prayer can be conceived out of 
 heaven ; but the prayer is offered for every Christian that 
 lives, and is put into the lips of the youngest believer. 
 
 " That ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God." 
 This also, like the love of Christ, "passeth knowledge." 
 But it must not be passed over as a mystical winding up 
 of the prayers in words " unlawful to utter " or expound. 
 On a first consideration it might seem to be an unreal and 
 incomprehensible rliapsody. But if we compare it with 
 other Scriptures we find that the Apostle did not intro- 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 255 
 
 diice this new thought hito his petition without a distinct 
 meaning. It may be generally expressed thus : as the 
 first of the three branches of the prayer has reference 
 only to the inner man of the individual Christian, into 
 which the Spirit directs the strength of the Divine grace ; 
 and as the second, concerning the inhabitation of Christ, 
 includes both the individuals and the Church "with all 
 the saints ; " so the third rises beyond the individual alto- 
 gether, and uses language which is appropriate only to the 
 universal mystical Body of the Redeemer. This alone can 
 grow into " an holy temple," or be filled up into all the 
 fulness of the Triune God. 
 
 We cannot do better than prepare our minds for the 
 interpretation by pondering the other passages in which 
 the saying is used Avith reference to the Church, as both 
 receiving perfection from her Lord and rendering Him 
 His perfection. The Redeemer Himself gave the central 
 word : " As Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee, that John xvii. 
 they also may be one in Us ... . perfected into one." ^^* 
 The Lord gave this word, and great is the multitude of 
 its illustrations. The nearest echo is in St. Paul's to 
 the Colossians, when he says that as the fulness of the 
 Godhead is in Christ so the fulness of Christ is in His 
 Church : " Ye are complete," or fulfilled, ''in Him," which 
 literally means that the plenitude of the Divinity in the 
 one Person of the God-man is " in course of filling up " in 
 the multitudes of His members. So in this Epistle the 
 holy temple grows up into the Lord, increasing — to return 
 to the Colossians — " with the increase of God." The ful- Col. ii. 19. 
 ness of God is in Christ " out of whose fulness all we have Jolmi. 16. 
 received." But the fulness of Christ is the fulness of 
 God, " for in Him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead 
 bodily." Therefore the body of Clirist, when it has re- 
 ceived to its last member and in the utmost degree all 
 that the Head has to bestow on His members, has become 
 "filled unto all the fulness of God." Thus as "the 
 
256 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 18. 
 
 Father " at the outset represents the Holy Trinity, so at 
 the close that Holy Trinity is represented by the final 
 word, " God." 
 
 It is plain therefore that it is to the final riches of the 
 glory of grace in the perfected Church that this last clause 
 of the prayer points. It is the Body of Christ that is 
 surely, gi-adually, blessedly, advancing " unto the fulness 
 of God." But, Avhile this is maintained as necessary to the 
 interpretation of tliese wonderful words, every Christian 
 has a right to muse upon a certain application of it to 
 himself. We cannot forget that in St. John's words, just 
 
 Johni. ifi. quoted, there is a gracious individuality: "out of His 
 fulness have all we received, and grace for grace." In 
 each believer there is the beginning of this last consum- 
 mation. He is undergoing a transformation which changes 
 him into the image of the Lord — "the same image" in all 
 
 2 Cor. iii. — " by the Spirit of the Lord." He never loses his own 
 personality ; yet he may be filled Avitli the personality of 
 his Saviour. His "inner man" will be through time and 
 eternity distinctly his own. Christianity knows nothing 
 of a Pantheistic absorption even into Christ. Yet the 
 supreme glory of the Christian experience is to rise 
 towards that conscious self-nothingness which has for- 
 gotten the " I " and the " me " for ever. 
 
 It is hardly necessary to advert to certain interpreta- 
 tions of these words which they do not fairly permit. The 
 people of God, whether as individuals or as a community, 
 cannot be capable of receiving the fulness of God. This 
 follows from the limitation of the creature. Nor is the 
 Church, any more than its members, ever to be swallowed 
 up in the Divine essence, or to melt into the Deity. This 
 follows from the personal relations of intelligent spirits. 
 It might almost seem as if the language of the prayer was 
 intended to obviate such a semi-Pantheistic meaning as 
 some of the mystics of the Middle Ages found in them. 
 The Divine Trinity is an indwelling Presence in the 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 257 
 
 Church ; and the Church will be so one with God in the 
 Person of the Incarnate Son as to constitute with Him one 
 Body. But the individual will remain a creature of God, 
 a servant of Christ, a temple of the Holy Ghost, for ever. 
 And from the innumerable multitude of these individual 
 spirits will go up, throughout eternity, the Doxology which 
 the Apostle here anticipates. 
 
 The Doxology has two remarkable characteristics in 
 harmony vAi\\ the prayer : first, it preserves the same 
 Trinitarian character, and, secondly, it is stamjDed with 
 the same impress of sacred hyperbole. 
 
 As the tribute to the Divine grace goes back in thanks- 
 giving, — in this sense also, "grace for grace," — so "the 
 riches of the glory of His grace " go back to Him, in the 
 tribute of glory, " glory for glory." It is to be offered to 
 the " Father of glory," though that name is not expressed : 
 not expressed, because the Apostle's thought is swallowed 
 up in the boundlessness of His power to bless. Tlie 
 standard and measure of that power is, as to us, " beyond 
 what we can ask or think ; " as to the Source of it, it is 
 the might of the Holy Ghost, " according to the power 
 that worketh in us." As the Father is not again named, 
 so neither is the Spirit. But His Divine energy is un- 
 doubtedly the Object of the Doxology, "the power which 
 worketh." " Christ Jesus " is expressly named, and in 
 such a way as to show that He also is the Object of the 
 Doxology : it is to be offered " in the Church, unto all the 
 generations of the age of the ages ;" but offered '' in Christ 
 Jesus," as the eternal sphere of this glory. In this life we 
 have access in prayer "through Him;" in the ages of 
 eternity, begun already in the generations of time, we 
 shall " in Him " adore and bless the Triune God. There 
 is a sense indeed in which we both pray and praise, both 
 in time and in eternity, through the Mediator as well as 
 in Him ; but this Doxology seems to reach forward to the 
 eternity which shall swallow up the successions of time, 
 
258 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 and the " through " Him has become " in " Him for ever. 
 Nothing but this will satisfy the remarkable accumulation 
 of terms here : " unto all the generations of the age of the 
 ages," unto the age or eternity into which all the succes- 
 sions of time flow, and which will be the consummation of 
 all ages. The Church " filled unto the fulness of God " as 
 " the fulness of Christ " will in Him, the incarnate Deity, 
 offer eternal praise, in God and unto God for ever. 
 
 The amazing strength of the words, " Who is able to 
 do exceeding abundantly above all that we ask or think, 
 according to the power which worketh in us " must be left 
 to meditation and experience. The closest exposition of 
 their order only adds to their fulness and vigour : *' able 
 to do beyond all things, superabundantly above what we 
 ask vnth words or think without words." The inexhaust- 
 ible "riches of grace" are here once more, under a form 
 which shows how the writer was labouring to express his 
 thoughts. 
 
 The tribute acknowledges that God's omnipotence is 
 able generally to do more than human thought can con- 
 ceive of His doing: there is ahvays an endless reserve. 
 This holds good of the works of creation : only " parts of 
 His ways " are seen. It holds good of the operations of 
 grace; though under different conditions. The Divine 
 Agent, the Holy Spirit, is the Administrator of an 
 economy or of a covenant within the charter of which 
 He is doing, can do, and will do, infinitely more than we 
 can ask or think. Otherwise than as self-limited by His 
 own conditions that Omnipotent Agent is powerless : He 
 exerts His power " according to the counsel of His will," 
 and " in all wisdom and prudence." 
 
 It declares further, and this is the strength of the 
 encouragement here given, that the boundless possibili- 
 ties of grace and blessing are in the very line and order 
 in which they have begun: ** according to the power now 
 working in us." A greater word, and one more stimulat- 
 
THE INDWELLING TRINITY. 259 
 
 iiig to the soul thirsting for God, is not to be found in 
 Scripture. It says plainly that the almighty power is 
 already, and as almighty, at work within us. In the 
 earlier prayer the standard was the operation of God in 
 the resurrection of Christ, and this was said to be " work- 
 ing US-ward." Here the words come nearer to us ; they 
 are within us, " even in our mouth and in our heart." 
 " The power that worketh in us "is an energy that has 
 begun its everlasting work, to cease no more for ever ; 
 but to go on, if not hindered and let, in a continuity 
 which shall expand into results that surpass any defini- 
 tion. This power worketh onward and onward to infinity. 
 On its glorious way it utterly annihilates the sin of the 
 nature: a blessing this that is above what most Chris- 
 tians ask, and in some respects above what they can 
 think. A state in which no sympathy, even the faintest, 
 is felt with sin, and self is lost in God, and concupiscence, 
 natural to man in the world of sense, ceases to be evil " con- 
 cupiscence," is by most Christians utterly inconceivable : 
 it is more than they can "think." But our prayer was 
 indited by One who knew that beforehand, knowing " what 
 is in man." It ought to accustom us to dare both in hope 
 and petition what to men is impossible : but not to God, 
 for " mth God all things are possible ; " and not to faith, 
 for "if thou canst believe, all things are possible to him 
 that believeth." 
 
 S 2 
 
260 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 XIV. 
 
 PERSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST. 
 
 " And this I pray, that your love may abound yet more and more in 
 knowledge and in all judgment ; that ye may approve things that are 
 excellent ; that ye may be sincere and without offence till the day of 
 Christ ; being filled with the fruits of righteousness, which are by Jesus 
 Christ, unto the glory and praise of God." — Phil. i. 9 — 11. 
 
 This Prayer has a special character stamped upon it by 
 its connection with the Thanksgiving that precedes. The 
 Apostle's congratulation of the Philippians, and gratitude 
 on their behalf, had gone so far as to express what might 
 seem to be a confident assurance of their individual salva- 
 tion in the day of Christ. It was, however, far from his 
 intention to leave on record any such expression of uncon- 
 ditional assurance ; on the contrary, here, as everywhere, 
 he is careful to convey a directly opposite sentiment. 
 Between the Thanksgiving and the Prayer there inter- 
 venes an intense declaration of his vehement love : a love 
 which, on the one hand, stimulated his good hope concern- 
 ing them, and made him utter the language of almost 
 absolute anticipation of their eternal welfare ; while, on 
 the other, it gives its pathos to the solemn prayer that 
 they might not disappoint his expectation by neglect and 
 unfaithfulness to grace. 
 
 *' And this I pray : " an unusual preface, which may be 
 explained on the supposition just mentioned. It is as if 
 the Apostle had said : " This is my strong confidence con- 
 cerning you, that you will be found in the day of the Lord 
 complete in His finished salvation ; but this also is with 
 equal earnestness my prayer, that you may not thwart in 
 the meanwhile the operation of His grace." It is in 
 
PERSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST. 261 
 
 harmony with such a view that the words " day of Christ " 
 recur so emphatically ; being inserted in the very middle 
 of the Prayer, even as they had been placed in the very 
 middle of the Thanksgiving. Confident hope and anxious 
 prayer meet in his human " longing " towards them ; and 
 the " day of Christ," which is the goal of his expectation, 
 is also the term of his intercession ; not till then will 
 either his hopes be finally fulfilled, or his fears be finally 
 suppressed. 
 
 Remembering, then, that the " day of Christ " governs 
 the whole Petition, with every individual clause and word, 
 let us mark the ascending order and cumulative force of 
 the supplications : first, for the steady increase of their 
 love in the knowledge of truth and in the moral tact of 
 its appreciation ; secondly, for their perfection, internal 
 and external, of moral character ; and, thirdly, for their 
 final acceptance, thus perfected, in the testing day of the 
 Lord. 
 
 Like the Thessaloniaus, the Philii)pians had been already 
 "taught of God" to love both Himself and one another. 
 The possession of this central grace, the spring of all 
 excellence and the energy of all perseverance, had already 
 been attributed to them. That was the secret of their 
 ''fellowship unto the Gospel from the beginning," but the 
 Apostle prays that this grace may abundantly increase in 
 them : not by any arbitrary and absolute efi\ision into 
 their hearts, but as the result of being fed by knowledge 
 of Divine truth, and of being diligently practised and 
 exercised in the application of that truth to daily life, the 
 love must steadily and equably increase ; not, however, as 
 a gift of God simply, but in its human aspect, as a grace 
 based upon knowledge and strengthened by use. 
 
 The " knowledge" here spoken of is not the intellectual 
 apprehension or theoretical arrangement of truth in the 
 mind, which, however excellent in itself, is altogether 
 independent of love, and will " pass away " when the body 
 
262 THE PRATERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 of truth shall be seen under very different aspects and 
 relations. It is spiritual knowledge, or knowledge of 
 " truth as it is in Jesus ; " that is, in its connection with 
 His saving name and our salvation through Him. It is 
 spiritual knowledge, partly as being bound up with our 
 spiritual nature and needs, partly and chiefly as being 
 imparted by the Holy Ghost, through whose influence 
 alone the truth in the f idlest and deepest sense of the 
 word can be known. But it is knowledge ; knowledge in 
 the strictest sense of the word ; for it is imparted and 
 acquired through the sanctified miderstanding. " Love of 
 the truth " is spoken of as one of the manifestations of the 
 supreme grace ; that love quickens the intellect in its 
 study, and gives energy to its pursuits ; and, as love 
 enlarges and strengthens the power of attaining religious 
 knowledge, so increasing knowledge feeds and heightens 
 love in return. It should not be forgotten, however, that 
 while St. Paul speaks of " all judgment " he speaks of 
 knowledge as only one. Here is a profound truth which 
 is explained at a later point in the Epistle. AU knowledge 
 Eph. iv. is summed up in knowing Christ. All truth is now " as the 
 ^^' truth is in Jesus." He appropriates, confirms, and seals all 
 truth that He did not bring into the world, and the rest 
 He adds. In Him, as the Object, it may be said that 
 knowing and knowledge meet ; the apprehension of Him 
 by faith is the acquisition of the key of all spiritual know- 
 ledge. Hence also the deep secret of the increase of love 
 in the increase of knowledge. How can it be otherwise, 
 when the Person of Christ, the "altogether lovely," is at 
 once the substance of all truth and the object of all love ! 
 " And in all judgment." Tliis word occurs only in this 
 place, and is carefully chosen by St. Paul to signify the 
 faculty, or rather the exercise, of spiritual discernment : 
 that moral sensitiveness of the renewed mind which makes 
 it quick to perceive the good and the evil in every doc- 
 trine, in every practice, in every conflict of seeming duty. 
 
PERSEVERANCE TO THE BA T OF CHRIST. 263 
 
 and in all the variety of the contingencies of daily life. 
 The same idea is presented in the Epistle to the Hebrews, 
 though not exactly the same words, where we read of 
 " senses exercised to discern both good and evil." Now, Heb. v. 
 as knowledge is truth stored up in the mind, so judgment 
 is the mind itself applying that knowledge to the endless 
 occasions which arise for distinguishing between what is 
 good and what is evil, what is fair and what is foul, what 
 is better and what is worse, what is to be sought with 
 ardour and what to be shunned with abhorrence. When 
 the Apostle prays that their love may abound in this 
 discernment, he means to ask that it might not, on the 
 one hand, be a blind and sentimental emotion, and that, 
 on the other, it might be trained as by a kind of instinct 
 to decide aright in every emergency. As we train the 
 bodily senses of sight and touch and hearing to discrimi- 
 nate accurately, and bring them by exercise, voluntary or 
 involuntary, to exquisite precision and almost unfailing 
 accuracy, so our love must be trained to be itself a 
 universal spiritual sense, at once the eye and the ear and 
 the hand of the heart, seeing, and hearing, and touching, 
 in things Divine, with a ,- sure and delicate feeling that 
 seldom needs correction. This gift of the practical life is 
 one that must be acquired by sedulous culture and use ; 
 but, as it depends upon the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 whose never-failing influence consecrates the use of all our 
 faculties, it is asked for by the Apostle as a grace from 
 God. 
 
 The next words make all this still clearer : " That ye 
 may approve things that are excellent," words which 
 describe the operation of this knowledge and discrimina- 
 tion, not so much in the life — we have not yet come to 
 that — as in the mind itself. It is the precious insight of 
 love which, using its knowledge and exercising its tact, 
 distinguishes always and in every case what is more excel- 
 lent, and at once approves of it. St. Paul elsewhere says 
 
264 THE PBATEBS OF HT. PAUL. 
 
 of love tliat it is " the fulfilment of the law : " not only is 
 it the strength of obedience to all commandment, it is also 
 the inward legislator that often tells us what is the com- 
 mandment when outward legislation fails. In this sense 
 also " charity never faileth ; " that is, true love, disciplined 
 by knowledge, will always certify to us what our duty is ; 
 will enable us to distinguish what is true, and pure, and 
 just and good, from all possible counterfeits of these 
 qualities. A warm heart, and strong affections, and even 
 sound enthusiasm, often lead astray ; but not so the well- 
 instructed principle of love to God and man. The Apostle 
 1 Cor. xiii. gi ves the Corinthians the most striking illustration of 
 this which the Bible contains. The praise of charity in 
 that hymn is little more than the praise of its marvellous 
 discrimination. Almost all that can be imagined to look 
 like religion, without being religion, is there condemned 
 by the sure decision of charity, the judge among the graces. 
 To sum up all, St. Paul implores for us the Divine grace, 
 and we must implore it for ourselves, that we may be able 
 to bring an intelligent and thoughtful love so to bear upon 
 the wliole economy and order of life that it may be to us 
 an internal monitor, instructing us always what to believe 
 and what to reject, what to do and what to shun, what to 
 leave behind us as mnvorthy and w^hat to make the mark 
 of our supreme pursuit. An internal monitor : no more. 
 Not an unwritten Bible; not a light within releasing us 
 from the light without ; not a guide leading us to salva- 
 tion "without the AYord;" but the sacred cunning of 
 enlightened love, receiving and using with more and more 
 skilful care and carefid skill the infallible monitions of the 
 Holy Ghost, whose elect and favourite instrument within 
 the human heart is love. 
 
 From the regulating principle the Prayer now passes 
 to the perfect character, as established in the world, 
 under the guidance and control of enlightened love. St. 
 Paul, whose sense of symmetry never forsakes him in this 
 
PERSEVERANCE TO THE DA Y OF CHRIST. 265 
 
 part of his writings, selects two terms that exhibit the 
 whole compass of godliness under two aspects, inward and 
 outward, which he first presents in their separation, and 
 then unites : he asks that his converts may be " sincere " 
 in heart, " without offence " in life, and, as to both, 
 " filled with the fruit of righteousness." 
 
 The first of these words, " sincere," signifies that un- 
 spotted, flawless simplicity of heart and intention which is 
 able to endure every test that can be applied to it. The 
 last and perfect test of every character is the Eye of God, 
 which penetrates every secret. What the sun is in nature, 
 the great Detecter, the all-seeing Face of God is in the 
 religious life. And the sublime petition of our Prayer is 
 that the Philippians might be so entirely actuated by 
 love, distinguishing and rejecting with abhorrence all evil, 
 that the most rigid scrutiny of the Omniscient should find 
 in their hearts no admixture of corrupt motive. Those 
 whom God sees thus pure in heart have it as their reward 
 in their purity to see God. This Divine simplicity of Matt. v. 
 purpose and aim and thought and desire, this lovely 
 integrity of spirit in the midst of the manifold and all- 
 pervading corruptions of the world, is a gift of God, the 
 blessing of His indwelling Spirit on a sincere desire to 
 approve itself pure in His sight. It is a pearl of great 
 price, this of sacred simplicity ! If any quality or attri- 
 bute of the religious spirit might seem to come direct 
 from God, as His gift, it is this. With regard to nothing 
 does our corrupted nature, practised in evil, appear so 
 impotent. Those who have vanquished much, and suc- 
 cessfully pursued many things, often despair of this. 
 Hence it is made so impressively the matter of prayer : 
 such cleanness of heart is the express creation of God. 
 But in this, as in all other things that pertain to man's 
 internal discipline and fjerfection, there is no gift of God 
 that does not take the form of a consecration of our own 
 effort. By the habitual study of our motives, or rather 
 
266 THE PR A YERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 by habitual watchfulness over the unity and simplicity of 
 the one motive that must govern all, we come to detect 
 every evil admixture. And there is but a step between 
 the detection of an aim that is deliberately and heartily 
 renounced, and its suppression in the heart by the power 
 of the Holy Ghost. He that can say, " I hate every false 
 way," may confidently cry, " Unite my heart to fear Thy 
 name." 
 
 " Without offence " may mean either " not giving 
 offfence," or " not stumbling." But, inasmuch as love 
 essentially has reference to the good of others, and a 
 perfect character is one that never fails to recommend 
 religion and make it lovely, it seems better to understand 
 the Prayer as asking that the Philif>pians might be pre- 
 served, through the blessing of God on the wise solicitude 
 of charity, from doing anything that should hinder the 
 salvation of their fellow-Christians or their fellow-sinners. 
 The New Testament lays great stress upon this : far more 
 than we too often, in our refined selfishness, suppose. It 
 is, viewed under one aspect, the very perfection of the 
 Christian character. As such it must have, on the one 
 hand, a very large, and on the other a restricted, inter- 
 pretation. The Christian, actuated by the reasonableness 
 of love, is supposed to do nothing that may of itself be 
 hurtful to his neighbour's soul. That is, his thoughtfid 
 charity must show its tact in this, that his conduct shall 
 at once rebuke the sin of others, and direct them to the 
 beauty of holiness ; that he shall at once contradict the 
 evil around him, and recommend the opposite good ; that 
 he shall by his words and works make iniquity hateful, 
 and yet constrain the ungodly to respect and admire 
 holiness in himself. It must show its tact, not only in 
 abstaining from every such folly as Avould disgi-ace religion, 
 but also in saving his religion as far as possible from the 
 misconstruction of those who are opposed and prejudiced. 
 Beyond this, the discretion of his charity need not go. 
 
PEBSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST. 267 
 
 For there is a necessary limitation. The supreme Pattern 
 
 made religion past all language lovely, both by His words 
 
 and by His example ; He could say, " Which of you con- Jno. viii. 
 
 vinceth Me of sin ? " but His sad cry was, half in iDrotest ^^• 
 
 and half in appeal, " Blessed is he, whosoever shall not be Matt. xi. 
 
 offended in j\Ie ! " The disciple is not greater than his ^• 
 
 Lord ; and the love which failed in Him will fail also in 
 
 us. We may do nothing but good in some cases ; and 
 
 yet our good may be evil, and only evil spoken of. The 
 
 utmost that St. Paul's Prayer can embrace is expressed, 
 
 in this as in many other cases, by his own example. He 
 
 would renounce almost everything that touched his own 
 
 desire rather than make his brother to offend. But this 
 
 was not an absolute rule ; for there was a point at which 
 
 he cried, " With me it is a very small thing that I should 
 
 be judged of you, or of man's judgment." But it was his 
 
 constant exercise, the holy education of his practical love, 
 
 to have a " conscience void of offence toward God," that 
 
 is, to be perfectly "sincere" before Him, and "toward 
 
 man," that is, to place no real stumbling-block or obstacle 
 
 in the way of his neighbour's salvation. 
 
 When the Prayer proceeds to the " fruit of righteous- 
 ness" it completes the picture of this perfection at the 
 same time that it explains more fully the meaning of 
 "sincere and without offence." It is another of the 
 Apostle's unique phrases ; and, as such, strong, deep, and 
 suggestive. It supplicates that the PhUippians might be 
 abundant in the spiritual life, all the manifestations of a 
 renewed and righteous character being amply exhibited 
 in them. The term " righteousness " is one with which St. 
 Paul supposes his readers to be familiar. It is neither 
 the righteousness that is imputed to faith alone, nor the 
 implanted life of regeneration alone, but that new moral 
 righteousness before God which is " by Jesus Christ," 
 which comes to us through our union with Him, which 
 disparts into justification and regeneration in the Ian- 
 
268 THE PBAYEES OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 guage of theology, but unites here in the one great word 
 " fruit." Tlie fruit, or produce of the new method of 
 making us right in Christ, is the entire compass of godli- 
 ness in all its tempers, acts, and offices. It is more than 
 probable that the Apostle wrote " fruit," with this idea of 
 their unity strongly impressed, and not " fruits." Be this 
 as it may, there can be no doubt that the strongest 
 emphasis lies on the word " filled," which has, throughout 
 the New Testament, a meaning that it obtained on the 
 day of Pentecost, a meaning that ought never to be 
 softened do^m or explained away. It sounds out clearly 
 the note of Christian perfection, attainable because 
 prayed for, prayed for because attainable. It leaves no 
 room for the notion of any necessary defect in the re- 
 ligious life. It is in harmony \nth the entire current of 
 Eph, V. Scriptural testimonies, which speak of our being " filled 
 e/ii ■■ ^'^^^^^ the Spirit," " filled unto all the fidness of God," and, 
 19. as the middle term between these, of our being " filled 
 with grace." Those who understand the terms of this 
 Prayer literally, and Adth that understanding ofier it to 
 God for themselves, may count it their pri\alege to be so 
 grafted into Christ as to lose the very saj) and life of the 
 natural tree, to be so replenished mth the life flowing 
 from Him as to bear, throughout the spiritual branches of 
 their new nature, only the fruit of righteousness, and that 
 fruit in abundance. Only that fruit : for the Stem and 
 the branches are one, and holiness is common to Christ 
 and to us. That fruit in abundance : for the fulness of 
 the Spirit of Christ in the Christian is " Avithout measure " 
 according to our created capacity. And all " to the glory 
 and praise of God." , St. Paul had heard of the Saviour's 
 Jno. XV. words : " Herein is My Father glorified, that ye bear much 
 T.,^' ^„ fruit. ' He had also heard of that other word : *' I have 
 
 o no, XV- 
 
 16. ciioseu you and ordained you, that ye should go and bring 
 forth fruit, and that your fruit should remain." Combining 
 the two, he prays that the ample growth of holiness, 
 
PERSEVERANCE TO THE DAY OF CHRIST. 269 
 
 springing from the husbandry of Christ, whose tillage is 
 the infusion of His own enriching life, might appear in 
 the lives of his converts, to the glory and praise of the 
 common Father, the Head of the mediatorial economy. 
 The holy lives of Christians pay their tribute to the 
 " glory " of the Divine character, and they " praise " the 
 manifestation of the Divine grace in Christ. Viewed with 
 respect to God, our practical religion is only the reflection 
 of His holiness, as produced in us by the Spirit of His 
 Incarnate Son. Viewed with respect to ourselves, our 
 holiness is a ceaseless psalm that acknowledges His power 
 and fidelity to His covenant of grace. 
 
 Lastly, we must go back to that central word, " the day 
 of Christ," which really completes the meaning of the 
 Prayer, though not actually forming its last words. It 
 must be noted that there is now a slight, but very im- 
 portant, change in the expression. It is not now " until," 
 but "unto," or rather "for," or "with reference to," the 
 day of Christ. In the Thanksgiving to which reference 
 has again and again been made, the Apostle fixed his hope 
 on their continuance in the good work of personal religion 
 until the great and decisive day, when, and when only, that 
 good work would be finally accomplished. But now in his 
 Prayer he trusts that by the gi'ace of God they will so live 
 that, whenever called hence, their purity of spirit and 
 offencelessness of life, and abundance of practical righteous- 
 ness, would be found unto honour and praise in the testing 
 day. Jesus the Judge will in that day acknowledge the 
 purity which He now approves ; will confirm and reward 
 the righteousness which He now creates. The Apostle 
 does not pray that they may be kept without sin and in 
 the abundance of righteousness until death, though that 
 is his meaning. It is never absent from his thoughts that 
 all Christian integrity, sealed in one sense by death, is 
 to be re-examined, and finally, with the whole universe 
 as witness, ratified in the great day. Death is here, as 
 
2/0 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 almost eveiywhere in St. Paul's writings when he is 
 speaking of the future in the language of consolation, 
 swallowed up in the surpassing glory of the Lord's day. 
 Both in the thanksgiving and in the Prayer, death might, 
 without much impropriety, be substituted for the " day of 
 Christ." But the change would rob both of their highest 
 glory. The Thanksgiving speaks as if believers were 
 working their way to the Lord's presence ; the Prayer 
 speaks as if the Lord were on His way to His saints, to 
 test and reward and consummate their holiness. 
 
 Finally, the lesson which it is the Apostle's intention 
 to leave lingering in our thoughts is this, that there is no 
 guarantee of the good work being performed or consum- 
 mated within us at that day, save as we are found by that 
 day, or by death should death anticipate that day, pure 
 and filled with the fruits of the new life. The Prayer is 
 in this sense, let it once more be said, the counterpart 
 of the Thanksgiving. They mutually illustrate and sup- 
 plement each other. Those who are tempted by their 
 creed or by their indolence to rely on the supposed neces- 
 sity that a salvation once begun must be finally accom- 
 plished, are reminded by the tone and by the words of the 
 prayer that without their inward and outward holiness 
 that blessed issue shall not be attained. There is no such 
 gift or gi*ace of perseverance as certain schools of theology 
 are fond of imagining and placing in their summaries of the 
 covenanted blessings of the Gospel. On the other hand, 
 the Prayer derives a wonderful glow and energy from the 
 Thanksgiving which is its background. The good work 
 shall, as surely as God liveth, be brought to a blessed con- 
 summation, if we seek with all our hearts the fulness of our 
 Saviour's gift of righteousness. We may exult in the most 
 unbounded reliance on the final accomplishment of the 
 Divine will in the day of Christ if for the day of Christ 
 we prepare, through Di\1ne gi*ace, perfect purity of heart, 
 and the abundant fruit of holiness. On the whole, the 
 
PEBSEVHRANCE TO TEE DAY OF CHRIST. 271 
 
 combination of thanksgiving and prayer at the commence- 
 ment of this Epistle is rather intended for encouragement 
 than for warning. To the sincere souls that long for 
 perfect sincerity, to the regenerate members of Christ's 
 mystical body who loathe as the apples of Sodom every 
 remaining fruit of evil that gives evidence that the sinful 
 sap still flows, to the humble saints who believe in the 
 promise that makes the fulness of Christ's Spirit their o^vn 
 as surely as it is Christ's, there is nothing but consolation 
 and good hope whether in the Thanksgiving or the Prayer, 
 They may dismiss from their minds, as if they existed not, 
 all controversies as to the perpetuity of grace in the elect. 
 They have only to live every day as if it were, what indeed 
 it is, the preparation of the Lord's Sabbath. So, when 
 that day of Christ's glorious appearing comes, which is 
 also the day of judgment, the assurance of hope shall give 
 place to the assurance of eternal possession. The Lord 
 shall separate His own from all others, and seal upon 
 their hearts the eternal impossibility of losing His grace 
 or forfeiting their life in Him. He also shall, in His 
 judicial capacity " distinguish things that differ," and 
 " approve the things that are excellent ;" and we, finally 
 approved and accepted, shall share and reflect the glory 
 of the Lord for ever. 
 
272 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 XV. 
 
 THE EVERLASTING COVE I^ ANT. 
 
 " Now the God of peace, that brought again from the dead our Lord 
 Jesus, that Great Shepherd of the sheep, through the blood of the ever- 
 lasting covenant, nmke you perfect in every good work to do His will, 
 working in you that which is well-pleasing in His sight, tlirough Jesus 
 Christ ; to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen." — Hebrews xiii. 
 20, 21. 
 
 Two things occur to the mind on reading this prayer, as it 
 closes the Epistle to the Hebrews ; first, the new style of 
 phraseology which it introduces ; and, secondly, the pro- 
 priety with which it sums up the essence of the previous 
 discourse. 
 
 As to the former : it is remarkable that almost every 
 word, certainly every clause, is a variation on the current 
 Heb. xiii. language of the Epistle. The invocation of " the God of 
 peace ; " the prominence given to the resurrection of 
 Christ ; the name of Him who was " brought again from 
 the dead," " that Great Shepherd of the sheep ; " the rela- 
 tion of His resurrection to the " everlasting covenant ; " 
 the new application of "make you perfect," so different 
 from the " perfection " of previous chapters ; the reference 
 to the interior operation which works "what is well-pleasing 
 in His sight ; " the doxology to Jesus Christ, — all are ex- 
 pressions of a different tone from what might naturally 
 have been expected. The whole prayer is constructed of 
 elements that would have been in most perfect keeping 
 with the Epistle to the Romans, for instance, or that to 
 the Galatians. One thing, however, is plain, that it is 
 precisely in St. Paul's style. And, if it does not force upon 
 us the conclusion that he was the writer of the Epistle, it 
 
 20. 
 
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 2/3 
 
 suggests at least that he made it his own by this final seal 
 of authentication. Moreover, it serves also to form a link 
 of connection between this Levitical-Christian treatise and 
 the other writings of the New Testament, from which, in 
 other respects, it diverges so widely. But this is a ques- 
 tion of the secret history of the literature of the new 
 covenant, into which it is not our province here to enter. 
 
 On the other hand, such a final intercessory supplication 
 most strikingly and pertinently winds up the whole treatise. 
 In this light " the blood of the everlasting covenant " is its 
 central theme, illustrating both what precedes and what 
 follows. The virtue of that blood is the secret of all that 
 had been said ; and here it is reintroduced as the ratifica- 
 tion of the redeeming work of the Saviour who died and 
 rose again, and as the ground of the sanctification unto 
 holiness of the whole flock of the " Great Shepherd." But 
 the order of these remarks will do fuller justice to the 
 prayer if we consider the God who is invoked, the petition 
 that is offered, and the doxology that closes. 
 
 " The God of peace " is a new name in this Epistle ; and 
 most appropriate here for two reasons. First, it does 
 honour to the ancient Israelite benediction, and would 
 touch the inmost hearts of these Hebrew Christians. " The Niuul>. vi. 
 Lord give thee peace " had been for ages the closing words ^^' 
 of the Divine blessing on His people ; and the Apostle 
 who, as we have seen, had, on the Romans, and Corin- 
 thians, and Thessalonians, and Philippians invoked " the 
 God of peace," would not omit to do so when writing to 
 his brethren in the bonds of the former covenant. His 
 new token ''Grace be with you all!" will presently 
 follow, but only as supplementing the old one, never to be 
 superseded. But, secondly, the peace of the Old Testa- 
 ment has received a deeper meaning in the New, and this 
 invocation connects it with the fully revealed economy of 
 reconciliation, "The Peace" of which Christ is the „ 
 Mediator. " He is our Peace : " the Author and Finisher '14." 
 
 T 
 
274 
 
 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 Jer. xxix. 
 11. 
 
 Luke ii. 
 35. 
 
 Geu. xxii. 
 
 14. 
 Ex. xvii. 
 
 15. 
 Judg. vi. 
 
 24. 
 Jer. xxiii. 
 
 6. 
 Eze.xlviii. 
 
 35. 
 
 of the restored harmony between God and His sinful 
 creatures. He has brought to full accomplishment the 
 ancient purpose of which the God of the old economy 
 spake : " I know the thoughts that I think toward you, 
 saith the Lord, thoughts of peace, and not of evil, to give 
 you an expected end." The last "expected end" has 
 come, and all the Divine thoughts are disclosed. Simeon's 
 prophecy had a heavenly as well as an earthly fulfilment, 
 "that the thoughts of many hearts may be revealed:" 
 in Christ is a glorious revelation of the thoughts of 
 heaven and earth. From age to age had Jehovah linked 
 His a'wful name with the progressive manifestation of His 
 purposes. To Abraham, " Jehovah-Jireh ;" to Moses, 
 " Jehovah-Nissi;" to Gideon, "Jehovah-Shalom," The 
 Lord of Peace ; to Jeremiah, " The Lord our Righteous- 
 ness ;" to Ezekiel, " The Lord is there." But this is 'the 
 consummation of all. " The God of peace " is a name 
 that enfolds and unfolds all the treasures of the covenant 
 of atonement or reconciliation for sinful man. This 
 Epistle had dwelt upon the great sacrifice rather as an 
 expiation of sin and propitiation of holy wrath than as a 
 reconciliation between God and man ; the latter view 
 having been exhibited in the Epistles to the Romans and 
 Corinthians. But this final name connects the present 
 with the former Epistles, and gives the one perfect result 
 of Christ's work : that in which it finds its " expected 
 end." 
 
 But the relation of the God of peace to the Redeemer 
 is afiectingly brought out in this invocation. Though 
 this is done, however, only in a parenthetical manner, 
 the novelty of the words and thoughts demands our 
 attention : first, to the gracious name given to the Re- 
 deemer; secondly, to the connection between that name 
 and His resurrection ; and thirdly, to the security of His 
 l)eople as thus guaranteed. 
 
 We have not yet had the name " Shepherd," as applied 
 
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 275 
 
 to Christ, in the course of these prayers. Nor has it 
 occurred in oui* Epistle. But the Old-Testament treasury 
 would not have given up the very best of its " things old " 
 concerning our Lord if this had been omitted. It was 
 one among the ancient names of the Covenant-Angel of 
 Jehovah, the Son who should be manifest in the flesh. 
 It was the " Angel of His presence " who " brought them Isa. Ixiii. 
 up out of the sea with the Shepherd of His flock:" that ^' ^^" 
 is, the "Great Shepherd" who by Moses the under- 
 shepherd led them up from Egypt, "to make Himself Isa. Ixiii, 
 an everlasting name " when He should fulfil this type. ' 
 These and many other prophecies our Lord remembered 
 when He called Himself the " Good Shepherd " who gave 
 "His life for the sheep." How dear to His heart was Jno.x. ii. 
 this name appeared when He was approaching the cross. 
 Among His last remembrances of the prophetic word was 
 that most pathetic one of Zechariah : " Awake, sword, Zech. xiii, 
 against My Shepherd, and against the man that is My 
 Fellow, saith the Lord of hosts : smite the Shepherd, and 
 the sheep shall be scattered." And as the Lord remem- 
 bered these words, and graciously added to them, " After Mat.xxvi. 
 I am risen again, I will go before you into Galilee," words ^^' ^^" 
 which under a first literal fulfilment veiled the fulfilment 
 of which our prayer speaks, and in which we all rejoice, 
 so the Apostle remembers them here : " That brought Heb. xiii. 
 again from the dead our Lord Jesus, that Great Shep- ^^* 
 herd of the sheep, through the blood of the everlasting 
 covenant." 
 
 If He was the " Good Shepherd " because He laid down 
 His life for the sheep. He is the " Great " Shepherd 
 because, in the vu'tue of the covenant blood. He is raised 
 up to be their Lord and Ruler for ever. His greatness 
 in this Epistle is twofold. It is the dignity of His eternal 
 unity and equality with God, whence He is the " Great Heb. iv. 
 High Priest." And it is the dignity with which He is ^'^' 
 invested in His incarnate Person as raised from the 
 
 T 2 
 
270 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 dead. He is the " Great Shepherd " in this latter sense, 
 in which, as the subordinate of the Father, though His 
 Fellow, He was smitten to death, and then " brought 
 again from the dead." In the eternal unity of the God- 
 head He had power to lay down His own life, and had 
 
 Jno. X. 18. " power to take it again." But, in the economy of media- 
 tion, **this commandment He received of the Father." 
 And His greatness as a Shepherd lies in this, that He is 
 both raised and exalted to administer a covenant which 
 the Divine virtue of His blood hath made everlasting, 
 ''ordered in all things, and sure." Thus is fulfilled the 
 
 Isa. Iv. 3, word of the inferior covenant : " Hear, and your soul 
 ^- shall live ; and I will make an everlasting covenant with 
 
 you, even the sure mercies of David. Behold, I have 
 given Him for a Witness to the people, a Leader and 
 Commander to the people:" a Leader and Commander: 
 that is, a Shepherd to guide and to rule ; and " Great " 
 because His rising from the dead had declared Him "to 
 be the Son of God with i^ower," a Divine Ruler in human 
 nature, bearing the human name of David, but Immanuel 
 also, " God with us." He is Great in the strength of His 
 most precious blood, which has been glorified throughout 
 the Epistle, and is now more exceedingly glorious at the 
 end. It makes us great, and He is great in its infinite 
 
 Acts XX. power. By it He hath " pm*chased " the Church ; for by 
 
 jT^^'- it "He entered in once into the holy place, having 
 12. obtained eternal redemption for us." " He shall be 
 
 Lu. i. 32. great, and shall be called the Son of the Highest ;" great 
 because of that name, and great also because of the 
 infinite preciousness of the blood which He shed upon 
 the cross, the worth of Avhich at once satisfied and van- 
 quished death, and confers eternal life on all the sheep 
 who follow Him. 
 
 " The sheep " is a new name for the Church of Christ in 
 this Epistle. But the names of His people follow the 
 names of their Head ; and this is the elect name which 
 
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 277 
 
 distinguishes from the rest of the world those who follow 
 the Lamb, who is their Shepherd in virtue of the atone- 
 ment. They are "the sanctified," "the brethren," "the Heb.ii.ll. 
 perfected," "the heirs of the everlasting testament," "the 
 children," "the people sanctified by His blood," "the holy Heb.iii. l. 
 brethren," of the former part of the Epistle. Here they 
 are the flock gathered together out of the Dispersion of 
 sin. They follow Jesus in the power of His resurrection, 
 and are led by Him to their everlasting inheritance. Their 
 union with the Shepherd as a flock is guaranteed to eter- 
 nity : our Lord was " brought again from the dead " as 
 "the Great Shepherd of the sheep," and without His sheep 
 He is not a Shepherd. His greatness is their security ; for » 
 
 He without them will not be made perfect. His blood is 
 the " blood of an everlasting covenant : " a covenant of 
 peace, a covenant of the Lord of life with death, a covenant 
 which is also a testament of an endless inheritance. In 
 this prayer are the echoes of that glorious prediction in 
 the prophecy of the smitten Shepherd : " He shall speak Zech. ix. 
 peace unto the heathen; and His dominion shall be from it>)ii- 
 sea even to sea, and from the river even to the ends of the 
 earth. As for thee also, by the blood of thy covenant I 
 have sent forth thy prisoners out of the pit wherein is no 
 water ; " out of the pit of sin and the pit of Hades. This 
 is the virtue of the precious blood, that it avails to " per- 
 fect for ever them that are sanctified." He who descended 
 to the pit of death carried with Him the sins of His people, 
 to be brought back again no more for ever. " If one died 2 Cor. v. 
 for all, then were all dead." But He was brought again ^^' 
 from the death He sought and found. And we are assured 
 that He was " brought back again," not for His sake who 
 died, — for He could not be holden of death, — but for our 
 eternal security. In Him we were " brought back again 
 from the dead." 
 
 Are then the sheep eternally secure, in the sense that 
 every one who hath ever received the sprinkling of tlie 
 
2/^8 THE PR A YERS OF ST. PA UL. 
 
 precious blood and taken any steps in the following of the 
 Great Shepherd is infallibly to be giuded to everlasting 
 life ? ISIost assuredly not. In all who are inheritors of 
 the inheritance to which the Redeemer guides His risen 
 people, the prayer that follows must be fulfilled. It is an 
 intercessory petition for their perfection in all good works 
 and for the interior accomplishment in them of all the 
 Divine good pleasure, through the same Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. These prayers, in almost the same words, we have 
 had before. We shall not need to do more than show 
 their connection with the sacrificial language of this 
 Epistle. 
 
 The general jirayer, which includes the other two 
 branches, is, that God would " make you perfect through 
 Jesus Christ." This is the true order, as it gives the gi*eat 
 counterpart of the previous exhibition of the work accom- 
 plished in Christ Himself. There are in this Epistle two 
 words for perfection : one referring to the perfection which 
 results from the finished w^ork of the Redeemer, who by 
 
 Heb.x.i4. His one ofiering hath "perfected for ever them that are 
 sanctified," or in course of sanctification. As our Lord 
 Himself was " made perfect through sufferings," that is, 
 was perfected as a sacrificial atonement by suffering, so 
 all who are joined to Him are once for all made perfect 
 externally through the application of His sacrifice : their 
 Levitical acceptance in the temple is perfect. Of this per- 
 fection the pledge is fomid in the " bringing back Jesus 
 from the dead." But noAv the word is significantly changed, 
 and the prayer runs : " jNIay He who accepts you as per- 
 fected through the finished sacrifice, dispose and order 
 your soids perfectly to do His will by Himself doing within 
 you what is well pleasing through the same Jesus Christ." 
 
 Heb. V. 9. He is " the Author of eternal salvation unto all them that 
 obey Him." But to obey Him is to obey God, that is, to 
 do His will. Who can help thinking of the impressive 
 connection between this doing of the will of God on the 
 
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 279 
 
 part of Christ's flock, and the doing of the will of God by 
 the Shepherd which rendered that possible ? " Lo, I come 
 to do Thy will I" "By the which will we have been saved : " 
 from sin, that is, and death. We also must use the same 
 words, " through Jesus Christ," by His Spirit, and in imita- 
 tion of His example ; and every one of us say for himself, 
 " Lo, I come to do Thy will, O my God ! " Here, then, we 
 have at the close of the Levitical Epistle, which ascribes to 
 Christ the sole prerogative of rendering the sinner and his 
 offering acceptable, the same inculcation of the necessity 
 of individual, personal good works which we find in the 
 forensic Epistle to the Romans. Reckoned righteous 
 through faith, we must be made righteous also. Perfectly 
 accepted on the altar for Christ's sake, we must have all 
 acceptableness wrought in our heart and life. 
 
 We may look at the negative and the positive side of 
 this. The word " make perfect " seems to indicate the 
 former, as it signifies the entire deliverance of the soul 
 from everything that would hinder the complete perform- 
 ance of the will of God. We have seen in one of the 
 prayers for the Corinthians that the same word has re- 
 ference to the perfect corporate readiness of the people to 
 holiness ; and some would find the same allusion here. 
 But it is better to think only of the perfect inward readi- 
 ness which the grace of God works in many ways : by 
 removing every impediment and uniting the heart in the 
 one service of God. The efifect of this secret disposition 
 towards the integrity of obedience, that whole-hearted con- 
 secration to duty on which the Scriptures lay such stress, 
 is the doing God's will " in every good work." God's will 
 is one; and the word "make you perfect" here cannot 
 be better expounded than as signifying the removal of a 
 divided heart : " unite my heart to fear Thy Name ! " But Ps.lxxxvi, 
 when the heart is one, and " made fit and meet " for the ^^' 
 Divine will, then from the unity flows a better multiplicity, 
 that which dispreads the obedience " in every good work." 
 
10. 
 
 280 THE PRAYERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 But there is no will of God which is not simply His good 
 pleasure; the perfect law of the Gospel is simply what 
 pleases God ; and the sublime perfection of the religious 
 Heb. xii. character is simply to reflect the Divine image, ** par- 
 takers of His holiness." The prayer has here a very 
 beautiful change of form and play on its own sacretl 
 words. Tlie God of holiness is asked to do within us what 
 we are doing without: His own good pleasure. **That 
 which is pleasing before Him " is the sum and substance 
 of all spiritual beauty of holiness. The thought pre- 
 sented is one with which the Scripture has made us 
 familiar everywhere from the beginning. The work of 
 God's hands must reflect His own perfection; in the 
 renewal of the soul He is undoing the work of sin, and 
 doing what must please Himself, and be ''very good." 
 And it is obvious that the formation of a holy character 
 must be absolutely the work of God within us. Whatever 
 we contribute is but the performance in His strength of 
 individual good works, the formation of holy habits, 
 and the habitual outgoing of our holy aspirations. To 
 rid and deliver the soul from the relics and vestiges of what 
 God cannot smile upon — and nothing short of this is the 
 burden of the prayer — is necessarily the act of Divine 
 grace alone. We may, by Divine help, "do every good 
 work :" we must, indeed, for the indwelling Saviour only 
 directs our working; and it is a perilous though lovely 
 enthusiasm of the mystics to speak of God absorbing our 
 faculties and working through our energies. He makes us 
 meet, and apt, and "ready to every good work :" no more. 
 But the formation of His own most holy image in us is 
 a different matter. The working in us of all that He 
 can love, delight in, and bless, which implies the utter 
 and absolute removal of all that could awaken His slightest 
 displacence — that is, of Himself, through Jesus Christ 
 alone, — is the last achievement of His grace on earth. 
 And happy are they who know this. Blessed is he that 
 
THE EVERLASTING COVENANT. 281 
 
 believeth that His gi*ace is equal to the accomplishment 
 of this : for in liim also there shall be a performance of 
 those things which are believed. 
 
 But minute analysis fails here. We must let the whole 
 of the heavenly prayer sink into our hearts and melt into 
 them as the last expression of that "mystery of god- 
 liness," which is in us as in Christ " God manifest in the 
 flesh." Our doing and His doing are blended into one 
 word, never elsewhere employed in the same service. 
 None by searching can find out the secret of the One 
 Person who is God and man. None by searching can 
 find out the secret of the one holiness which in us is all 
 Divine and all human. "It is God which worketh in you Pliil. ii. 
 
 13 
 
 both to will and to do of His good pleasure." The prayer 
 commits all to God, whose omnipotence "brought again 
 from the dead" the Great Shepherd; it is also a most 
 fervent exhortation to us to engage all our faculties in 
 the perfect performance of His will. 
 
 But when the question is of glorying, there is no longer 
 any blending of the human and the Divine. All is " through 
 Jesus Christ; to whom be glory, to the ages of ages." 
 Here, however, the supei-fluous question may be urged : 
 Is the doxology offered to Christ, the Author and Finisher 
 of our perfection, both external and internal; or is it 
 offered to the God of peace to whom the prayer was 
 addressed? In this case, if ever, we may reconcile the 
 different expositions by uniting them. They must be 
 united. The natural order of the words assigns the dox- 
 ology to Jesus Christ, as indeed the teuour of the whole 
 Epistle exhibits His right to it. It is rounded with the 
 Divine dignity of " Jesus Christ, the same yesterday, and 
 to-day, and for ever." Certainly, if our Lord Jesus is 
 not the Eternal Son as well as the Great Shepherd, the 
 doxology could not be His ; for glory belongeth unto God 
 alone. But it is as plain as any written truth can be, 
 throughout the Epistle, that the Leader of the Christian 
 
282 THE PRATERS OF ST. PAUL. 
 
 flock, and the Mediator of their peace, and the Provider 
 of their sanctification, and the Pattern of their perfection, 
 is God. Then this glory given to Him is not first taken 
 from God. " God is glorified in Him." But He is glori- 
 
 John xvii. fied as the Father : " Father, the hour is come ; glorify 
 Thy Son, that Thy Son also may glorify Thee." And this 
 mutual glorification is through the Holy Ghost : " He 
 sliall glorify Me." During the present dispensation the 
 glorification of the Father in the Son and of the Son in 
 the Father is becoming more and more perfectly revealed. 
 While God is glorified, or the Father glorified, as the 
 Head of redemption, the Son is also glorified as Himself 
 the perfected Redeemer. Meamvhile the Holy Ghost is 
 glorified in the reflection of His holiness in the Church. 
 
 2 Cor. iii. His work is to change the believing flock " from glory 
 ^^" to glory." While He is accomplishing this, His own name 
 is glorified, both in itself and in the unity of the Three- 
 One. When the redeeming jmrposes are all accomplished, 
 God, the Triune God, shall be all in all. Till then, we 
 may name the name of our Great Shepherd \vith the 
 love of adoration and say, " To Whom be glory for ever. 
 Amen." 
 
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