^ Few of us can fail to have been struck with the solemnity and high tone of this prayer. It may be that some of us have thought that it contained a higher standard of feeling and life than we could hope to reach, and therefore have been tempted to abandon the consideration of it in silence ; whilst others, striving to force the feelings which it recommends, have been betrayed into false excitement and unreality. The remedy for both these common cases is a careful consideration of the Apostle's petition as a whole. Almost every word is a rich mine of thought, but there is a lesson contained in its general scope which we must carefully observe. It is indeed very spiritual ; but it is not the less practical. It is a pattern for the most advanced Christian ; but it is a lesson for the weakest believer. We are not to regard it only as an Apostle's prayer for the early saints, who lived in days far difi'erent from our times. It is a prayer suitable for all ministers of the Gospel, for all times. It shows us what is the object of Church teaching, and therefore points out the [state to which all Christians ought to be advancing. The Apostle did not pray for any blessing which his people could not receive ; and therefore all he prayed for they were bound to seek. Hence this petition came to the Ephesians not only as an evidence of their pastor's love and devotion, but with an implied command.
And so it is now : the prayers of the Church are exhortations to the faithful. For example : when the earnest petition arises from the altar, "that this congregation here present may with meek heart and due reverence hear and receive Thy holy word," it is a solemn admonition to cultivate that very meekness and reverence for which we pray. And when the Apostle tells us : " For this cause I bow my knees unto the Father that he would grant you according to the riches of his exceeding glory, to be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man " ; when he prays " that Christ may dwell in your hearts by faith,"
EPHESIANS III. 14, 15 93
and that we may be skilled in the heavenly wisdom of the " love of Christ," as the members of His mystical body should be — are not these several petitions so many loving exhortations to us to seek after spiritual strength, to acquire a constant faith, to study God's attributes, especially His love in the Cross, that love which exceeds all other mysteries and surpasses all other knowledge ; and to strive after all the perfection which God requires ? The Apostle opens the door of his " closet " to show all Christian pastors how they should pray for their people ; and all Christian people what they should seek for themselves. As in church solemn lessons are conveyed in the services, so here we are admitted into the awful privacy of an Apostle, to learn our duty whilst we catch his fervour. So beautifully is edification always mingled with devotion.^
3. The prayer is conveniently divided into four petitions: "That be would grant you, according to the riches of his glory, that ye may be strengthened with power through his Spirit in the inward man " — that is the first. " That Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith " — that is the second, the result of the first, and the preparation for the third, " That ye, being rooted and grounded in love, may be strong to apprehend with all the saints what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ which passeth knowledge " — that is the third. And all lead up at last to that wonderful desire beyond which nothing is possible — " that ye may be filled unto all the fulness of God."
I.
The Occasion of this Pkayer.
" For this cause."
1. " For this cause," says St. Paul, " I bow my knees," — what is the cause on account of which he bows his knees ? In order to ascertain this cause we must look back, first of all, to the beginning of the chapter. The chapter begins with the same words, " For this cause I, Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ, for you Gentiles." Then there comes a parenthesis, which continues until the verse immediately preceding our text. Therefore, if we want to find the connexion, we must look at the close of the pre-
* J. Armstroug.
94 THE FATHER AND THE FAMILIES
ceding chapter, where the cause is set forth in language beauti- fully and expressively instructive. There the Apostle has been speaking of those who were " builded together for a habitation of God in the Spirit," of those who, having been previously afar off, had been made nigh by the blood of Christ, who were " no more strangers and foreigners, but fellow-citizens with the saints, and of the household of God"; he had been speaking of those who were saved " by grace through faith," who had been brought into covenant with God through Christ, through whom they had " access by one Spirit to the Father " ; and then he says, " for tlds cause I bow my knees," that is, as if he had said : God hath blessed my ministry to you — Ephesians ; there was a time when you were "alienated from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of the promise, having no hope and without God in the world " ; but the God of all grace has reversed all this, and has now "created you anew in Christ Jesus"; and " for this cmise I bow my knees to the Father, from whom every family in heaven and on earth is named."