of vulgar heroes, it does not show itself in swaggering words or reckless deeds, it is not a feverish tide that ebbs and flows, as wine inflames, or circumstances change, but a steady stream of power bearing the soul ever on in the calm majesty of duty. Cowper has well described a morally courageous man: "He holds no parley with unmanly fears; And, trusting in his God, surmounts them all." In this Psalm we have David's moral I. Genuine moral courage TESTED. courage was now tested. Tested by the alarming intelligence and cowardly counsels, not of enemies, but of friends. They presented to his mind two facts to prompt him to a cowardly flight. First: The imminence of his danger. His destruction was ready. "The wicked bend their bow, they make ready their arrow upon the string." All was prepared, nothing was required but the drawing of the string, and the poisoned arrow would pierce his heart. There was no time to lose. It was secret, too. "That they may privily shoot." Had he seen, it would not, perhaps, have been so terrible. The imagination magnifies the unseen. Danger is always essential to develop true courage; danger is the school for culturing moral heroes. There is much truth in what Richter has said, "A timid person is frightened before a danger, a coward during the time, a courageous person afterwards. Another fact which David's friends presented to his mind to prompt him to a cowardly flight was Secondly: The uselessness of religion. "The foundations shall be cast down, what hath the righteous done?" Society is unhinged, respect for law and order is gone. "The foundations of the earth are out of course.' What have the righteous done toward preventing it, or what can they do? Don't depend upon righteousness. Nothing could be more fitted to alarm David, than the idea that righteousness went for nothing in society, and that God was regardless of the just and the true. You shake a man's faith in the worth of rectitude, and you will destroy in him the very soul of true courage. All this David's friends now essayed to do. In this Psalm we have— All this did II. Genuine moral courage EXPLAINED. not intimidate David. On the contrary it reinspired him. What was the very spirit of his courage? Trust in an allsufficient Helper. "In the Lord put I my trust." In Jehovah I have trusted and shall trust. To show that He in whom he trusted was sufficient to help him, he refers to four things. First God's authority. "The Lord is in his holy temple, the Lord's throne is in heaven." This means, Jehovah is in his holy palace; the throne of Jehovah is in heaven. He is over all. He is the King of the universe, and is able to control the events that are transpiring. Secondly: God's knowledge. "His eyes behold, his eyelids try the children of men." He is not ignorant of what is going on, nor is He a mere spectator. He examines the motives of every actor in the scene. Thirdly God's feeling. "The Lord trieth the righteous, but the wicked, and him that loveth violence, his soul hateth." He not only superintends and sees all that is going on, but He has a heart in the matter. His feelings are interested. He loves the good; he loathes the wicked. Fourthly: God's retribution. Upon the wicked he shall rain snares," &c. The idea is, He will punish the wicked, and bless the righteous. Such is the God he trusted in. One who has unbounded authority, whose kingdom ruleth over all. One who has infinite intelligence, "whose eyelids try the children of men." One who has moral feelings, who recoils from the wrong, and sympathizes with the right. One who will exercise a righteous retribution. Who that trusts in such a God as this need fear? Is not this the soul of true courage? Job has this trust, and he said, "Though he slay me, yet will I trust in him." It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in princes." (Psa. cxviii. 8, 9.) They that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be removed, but abideth for ever." (Psa. cxxv. 1.) "Trust in the Lord with all thine heart, and lean not unto thine own understanding." (Prov. iii. 5.) "Whoso trusteth in the Lord, happy is he." (Prov. xvi. 20.) 66 A Homiletic Glance at the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. The student is requested to keep in mind the following things, which will throw much light upon the Epistle. First: The circumstances of the writer when he wrote. He was a prisoner in Rome. During his residence there, in "his own hired house" (Acts xxviii. 30, 31), from the spring A.D. 61 to 63, he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is generally supposed that this Epistle to the Ephesians was the first he wrote during his imprisonment. Secondly: The circumstances of the persons addressed. They lived, it is thought, in Ephesus, an illustrious city in the district of Iona, nearly opposite the island of Samos, and about the middle of the western coast of the peninsula commonly called Asia Minor. It had attained in Paul's day such a distinction as in popular estimation to be identified with the whole of the Roman province of Asia. It was the centre of the worship of the great goddess Diana. Paul resided here on two different occasions. The first, A.D. 54, for a very short period (Acts xviii. 19-21); the second, for a period of more than two years. The persons therefore addressed in this letter are those whom he had converted from paganism, and in whom he felt all the interest of a spiritual father. Thirdly: The purpose of the letter. The aim of the Epistle seems to be to set forth the origin and development of the Church of Christ, and to impress those Ephesian Christians, who lived under the shadow of the great temple of Diana, with the unity and beauty of a temple transcendently more glorious. For the minute critical exegesis of this apostolic encyclical, we direct our readers to the commentaries of Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett, Harless, Stier, Eadie, Hodge, and, last though not least, Ellicott. Our aim will be to draw out, classify, and set in homiletic order, the Divine ideas reached by the critical aid of such distinguished scholars. SUBJECT: Aspects of the True Gospel Ministry. (Continued from page 217.) "For this cause, I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles," &c.-Ephes. iii. 1—13. H AVING examined this passage with some measure of critical minuteness, we regard it homiletically as exhibiting a true Gospel minister in three aspects, as The subject of vicarious suffering, the recipient of Divine ideas, and as the messenger of redemptive mercy. In the first aspect, namely, as the SUBJECT OF VICARIOUS SUFFERING, we have already considered him, we now proceed to consider him in the other two aspects. "By revelation he The Gospel truths II. AS A RECIPIENT OF THE DIVINE IDEAS. hath made known to me the mystery," etc. which Paul had to proclaim to the Gentiles were not derived from any human source, or the deductions of his own reason, or the intuitions of his own soul, but they were revealed to him by God. "I never received it of man," said he, "neither was I taught it, but by the revelation of Jesus Christ." (See Acts xvi.) We have an account of this revelation given by Paul himself. It is the glory of man that he can receive ideas from the great God Himself. He has what no other creature under Heaven has, the capacity to take in the thoughts of the Infinite. It is essential to a true minister that he does this. He cannot offer any spiritual help to humanity unless he does this. His own ideas have no power to help his race. The ideas to enlighten, elevate, and bless souls must come from God. Hence what Paul gave to the Gentiles, he tells us, came by revelation. Two remarks are suggested by the passage in relation to the idea. First: It had been long hidden. He calls it the mystery : "The mystery which in other ages was not made known." It was a mystery not in the sense of incomprehensiveness, but in the sense of undiscoveredness. It had been unrevealed, and therefore unknown to past generations. The whole Gospel was once a mystery; it was in the mind of God as an idea unrevealed to the universe. The particular idea to which that the Gentiles were to Secondly: It was very grand. the apostle here refers is this, partake of the salvation of the Gospel and to be united in one body with the Jews. "That the Gentiles should be fellowheirs and of the same body, and partakers of his promise by Christ in the gospel." Grand idea this! That the poor Gentiles should become "heirs of the same inheritance as the Jewsmembers of the same great spiritual "body" as the Jewspartakers of the same great "promise" as the Jews. The idea that Paul had from God was the uniting of all the races in the world in one great spiritual confederation. Thirdly: It was exceedingly ancient. "From the beginning of the world it was hidden in God." Such was the idea that Paul tells us had been revealed to him and to the holy apostles and prophets by the Spirit. Every true Gospel minister must be the recipient of divine ideas. Paul speaks III. THE MESSENGER OF REDEMPTIVE MERCY. of himself here as the "minister " of the things that have been revealed to him. "Whereof I was made a minister," etc. What he received he had to communicate. The passage indicates several things concerning a true messenger of redemptive mercy. First: The divine designation to the office. "I was made a minister according to the gift of the grace of God given unto me by the effectual working of his power." The office of a true minister is a gift of grace—a gift of grace which comes to the soul by the effectual working of God's power. Paul felt that he became a messenger of these truths not by his own seeking or merit, but by the grace of God. Nor by his own native inclination, but by the effectual working of God's power, referring, undoubtedly, to the divine energy in his conversion. Every man must experience this divine energy before he can become a true messenger of redemptive mercy. God must work in him before he will work by him. The ex Secondly: The humble spirit of the office. "Unto me who am the least of all the saints is this grace given." pression means, Who am incomparably the least of all the saints, who am not worthy to be reckoned amongst them. The memory of his past conduct and the solemn grandeur of the work to which he was called deeply impressed him with the sense of his own unworthiness. Humility is essential to this great work; it is when a man feels his weakness that he is truly strong in the ministry of truth. A deep sense of our own insufficiency is essential to make us sufficient for this of all offices the most grand and momentous. He who feels himself the least of all saints, will become the greatest of all preachers. Thirdly: The grand subject of the office. What is the great theme of the Gospel preacher? Scientific facts, philosophic speculations, theological theories? No, "the unsearchable riches of Christ." The word unsearchable occurs in only one other place in the New Testament (Rom. xi. 33), where it is rendered past finding out. Past finding out, not so much in the sense of mystery, as in the sense of inexhaustibleness. It is an ocean whose depths are unfathomable, and whose breadth and length stretch into the infinite. These unsearchable riches of Christ, unlike material riches, are soul-satisfying, man-ennobling, everenduring. Fourthly: The enlightening character of the office. "To make all men see what is the fellowship of the mystery." The VOL. XXII. T |