revived, simply because the two races have been blended together. So Christ would blend Jew and Gentile, and establish a common family union between Christians and also between the whole Christian brotherhood and our one Father in heaven. Ill, CHIIIST'S PEACE DEPENDS ON THE DESTRUCTION OP THE CAUSES OF DISCORD. Jt does not merely heal the surface-symptoms, but it goes to the root of the evi1 and cuts this out. 'l'he Law, which was the middle wall of partition between Jew and Gentile, is abolished. The religion of Law, which provoked constant enmity between man and God, is done a.way. In the place of rigid, painful exactions, never by any possibility fully satisfied, we have the service of the Spirit, which is the same for all and which is possible to all. IV. CHRIST'S PEACE IS BROUGHT ADOUT BY THE SACRIFICE OF HIMSELF. 1. In rela- t-ion to God. Christ makes reconciliation by his great propitiatory offering of himself. As we look at the cross our enmity to God dies down, and we learn in humble peni- tence to seek for forgiveness. 2. In relation to man. Christ has died for every man. Before that awful tragic event all mutual enmity should be hushed. In the love of our Peacemaker, which is shown in his dying for us, we have the strongest possible motive for a common fervour of love to him that should quench and drown all petty animosities and unite all Christians into one body.-W. F. A. . Vers. 19-22,-Tl;e Christian temple. The pride of Ephesus was her world-famed temple, in which the religion, the art, and even the commerce of the city centred and flourished. What the temple of Diana was materially in its visible pomp and power, the Church of Christ is to be spiritually, but_with a higher splendour and a wider influence. More than once has ·st. Paul described the Church as a temple. The truths shadowed forth by this name press upon us with weighty importance. I. THE MATERIALS WITH WHICH THE TEMPLE IB BUILT. 1. The foundation. "'l'he foundation of the apostles and prophets" must be the work of the earliest and leaclin:,: Christian teachers who laid the first stones of the Church. They preached the funua- mental truths on which the Church stands-primarily Christ crucified, for Christ is the real Foundation-and they gathered in the first converts. The Church receives its Divine recognition in being apostolic and in being founded by inspired men-" pro- phets." 2. The stones. These are the men and women who compose the Church. A building cannot be all foundation. The Church must be the union of individual Christians. It is not the teachers and authorities, but the several members who con- stitute the Church. 'l'hese, therefore, are the rich gifts and the honourable mission of the Church. All classes are here united, and those who were once furthest from God -publicans, Samaritans, Gentiles, heathen, corrupt judicials, the neglected, the 'gno- rnnt, and the base-are brought in. 3. The Corner-stone. Christ crucified is the foun- dation laid by apostles and prophets in their preaching; Christ glorifie,1 is the crowning completion of the whole structure. We begin with Christ; we end in Christ. The temple starts with Christ, and as it rises tier by tier it is !(rowing up to Christ. Christ, the Head of the body and the chief Corner-stone of the Church, is both the suprem11 authority and the perfect glory of his people. II. TlIE PLAN ON WHICH THE TEMPLE IS DESIGNED. 1. The adfustment of a variety of separate pa1·ts. "Each several building" is "fitly framed together." It is as tbou~h the vast temple were begun in several distinct centres, and, as the building progresseu, these approached one another till they met and combined in one vast harmonious itructure. There is variety all through, for the " frozen music," architecture, is a blending of many different notes. In the Church there are necessary diJfereuces. Tho hot imagination of the South must produce a difTerent type of Christianity from that moulded by the cool, practical temperament of the North. All parts of the tcmplo are not for the same ends. One is to take a lowly place in tho monotonous run of stones in a wall; another, to be carved into the delicate grace of o capital, conspicuous to all eyes. But every one bas its place, and the union is dependent on variety. There is no unity in n heap of cannon-Lalla. 'l'he fitting together of the various parts of an elaborate structure constitutes the bi;rhest unity. 2. Ultimute unity. 'l.'o th~ the harmonizing of the sel'eral parts Is tending. Do we not sco the work progres,i1 g now in the cooling of ancient ecclrsin:stic,11 fo11tls sille by side with an enlarging libcrlJ' of thought? 'l'hc true unity will be oneness of ~ympathy, brotherly love, and mutual 104 THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS, [OH. W, 1-21,
helpfulness. Every Christian should strive to realize his share of this and beware of the selfishness of individualism. Christianity begins with individual faith but it grows into an enlarged brotherhood and the formation of one temple. ' III. THE USE TO WHICH THE ':.'EMPLE IS DEDICATED. A temple is a house in which a god dwells. The spiritual temple is" a habitat.ion of God." "God dwelleth not in temples made wi~h. hands." He inhabits the humble and. contrite spirit. The real presence of God 1s m the Church. He does not only bless his·children he visits them and abides with them: He does not confine his'presence to a seledt few-inspired prophets, ordained priests, etc. He fills the whole Church with his presence as the incense spreads through every quarter of the temple. 1. Herein is the true glory ol the Church-not in outward magnificence, but in the spiritual presence. 2. From this ari.."8S the ~1~i~ili!Y o_f the Church, not to defile the te°;lple of the Holy Gho11t, but t-0 let_tbe ~J,,ry oi uoo shme out through every door and wmdow unsullied by any cloud ofsm.-'W. F. A.