all who are outside the pa.le of the gospel. Let us go through the descending and darkening series and observe the several woeful characteristics. I. CHRISTLESS. The Gentile world had no :Messiah. Worldly interests'--buslness, pleasure, culture-have their advantages; but they bring no·Saviour, no Physician of sick souls. As Christ is the Foundation-stone of the new temple, to be without Christ is t,o have nothing on which t-0 erect subsequent Christian blessings. If we ha,e the doctrine and discipline of the New TesL"!.ruent without the 'Obrist, we ·have nothi:ig of re.'ll profit.. The dumb, p.ithetic helplessness of spiritual hunger in the l:i:ier inquiring and doubting minds of our day is a proof that to be without the light and life and lo,e of Christ is as great a loss to us as it was to any in old times. IL CErrllcm.ESS. "Alienated from the commonwealth of Israel;" The Church is n0w -what Israel was in pre-Christian times-the home and family of the people of Gc'<l. Only it is not marked by the visible boundaries of any "Holy Land."· The true Church, the fellowship of kindred followers of Christ, contains many a choice soul that has been accounted a schismatic and cut off from the organized communities· of Christendom. Real excommunication comes not by the fulmination of an anathema, but by the breach of spiritual sympathy. Without the uni_ou that comes through our relation to Christ we voyage in solitude over lonely seas of thought; •• •• • III. U:1!."'EVANGELIZED. "Strangers from the covenants of the promise." 'The Jew had a gospel in Messianic prophecy. The Christian has his in New Testa_ment history. What covenant is there in science? What promise in art? What ~ospel in •com- merce? We may discover laws and facts of the universe, and create w'orks''of skill and beauty, and accumulate treasures of wealth. But still stricken souls· ·err, "Is there no balm in Gilead?" for all this brings no peace to the weary and the broken~ hearted. • IV. PEsSIMIST. "Having no hope." Pagan Rome and Greece were verging towards pessimism in the days of St. Paul, when philosophers advised suicide and historians tangbt contempt of mankind. Pagan Europe now manifests the same tendency. Cultnre fails to convert the Philistine. Science dwarfs humanity before nature, and disco,ers no soul and no heaven. Business, politics, and society drive man to a weariness that sees no rest. V. A = c . Speculative atheism is rare, if it ever exists. Practical atheism is more COIIJmon and more disastrous. It is worse to believe in God and to live as if there were no God, than to doubt his existence. To be without God is not to look for his help nor to obey his will This is death, since in God we live and move a.rid have our being. Glorious must be the gospel that redeems us from such a depth of ruin.-W. F. A. • '
Vers. 13-18.-0hrist our Peace. I. CHRIST MAXEB PEACE. He was ·predicted as the Prince of peace. His birth was heralded by the good news, " On earth peace." . !. Peace between man and man. In Obrist the enmity between Jew and Gentile ceases. Christianity forbids all envy,jealousy, hatred, and strife. It is cosmopolitan, and will not sanction national selfishness cloaked by the sacred name of patriotism. It is brotherly, and will not favour sectarian animosity sheltering under the mask of loyalty to truth. 2. Peace between man and God. Both Jew and Gentile are reconciled "unto God" (ver. 16). The discord between man and man is but a symptom and after consequence of the deeper quarrel between man and God, just as the unrestrained war of factions is a result of the overthrow of the central authority in a state. IL CHRIST';; PEACE IS STABLE. A hollow peace which like an unstable equilibrium iE liable to be upi;et at any moment, and is little better than an armed truce, is only a dec.;ption and a snare. But Christ's peace is solid and secure, involving two great safe- guards. 1. Rewnciliatwn. A duel may be interrupted by the police, and yet the c0mbatants may still cherish mortal hatred to one another. 'l'be forced agreement ?f Jew with Gentile under the Roman empire was no real peace. The order of a. state m which criminals are curbed but not reformed, and the decorum of a society in which only soci'.l.l fear pre\'ents outraaeous 0 insults to purity and godliness, are no proof of real p<,ace with God and man. Dut Christ reconciles, takes away nil disposition for q1t;:·J'(,l]iD~, and establishes peaceable affections between man and man and between ni;rn ar,d God. 2. U1don. 'rht: old feuds between Norman and Snxou cau never be OH. II. 1-22.) 'l'HE EPIS'l'LE TO THE EPHESIANS. 103