The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 132

the gospel introduces a. radical change of feeling. "For the law of the Spirit of life i,1 Ghrist Jesus ha.th made me free from the law of sin and death." And is it not golden to have fine feeling-feeling in which there is no sinful element, but only the fine grain of holiness; to have devoutest reverence and tenderest love towards God; to have duo respect a.nd tender love toward our fellow-men? The man who feels aright all rounJ. has his wealth in his soul, there a. perpetual feast. These blessings we may regard as summed up in Christ. For as Christ is said not only to have the bread of life, br1t to be himself the Bread of life, so we may say he has not only unsearchabl~ riches to bestow, bµt he is himself the unsearchable Riches. He is the true Gold, he is precious in every quality of his being as gold, and, in having him as the Portion of our souls, we must needs have unsearchable riches. V, AN OBJECT AIMED AT BY THE APOSTLE IN HIS PREACHING TO THE GE"liTILES. "And to make all men see what is the dispensation of the mystery." He himseli understood the mystery, having got it by revelation. And he had given them the means of perceiving his nnderstanding of it, a.nd therefore of understanding it for themselves. But so precious a. truth was not to be confined within so narrow aa. area. He had a certain unbounded ambition in preaching the gospel. It was to make all men see the gracious arrangement which had been newly introduced, and see it so as to be inducer\ to take advantage of it. On another occasion his language was, "That all the Gentilea might hear." In both cases it is the language of enthusiasm. It was the burning desire of his heart, to make all men see, that made him go (not without hanlships) from land to land. He was not free to settle down in any one place. When he hat.I established a centre of gospel light in Ephesus, he must go elsewhere. The world was a dark place, and he must establish as many centres of light at suitable points in it as God would enable him to establish during his appointed course. VI. A TWOFOLD ULTERIOR OBJECT SERVED BY THE PREACHING OF THE GOSPEL 'IO THE GENTILES. 1. More immediately men having demonstrated to thern the Divilic sovereignty. •• Which from all ages hath been hid in God who created all things." It is because he has created all things th2.t he has the disposal of all things. 'l'bcrc i~ nothing whatever which he cannot bend to his will. lt was in the exercise of his sovereignty that, at the beginning of the ages, he did not reveal the whole breadth of his purpose. It lay hid in himself. And for ages his ways were dark, in the great majority of men being left to their own natural ignorance and inability. Dming these ages he rested in his own thoughts regarding men, in his own reasons of procedure, in his own ways of working. Ilut there was mystery. 'fhe largeness of his purpose was sovereignly hid under a cloud until, with the coming of Christ and the preaching of the gospel to all men, it clearly burst forth. 2. .Angels seeing by the Church the manifold wisdom of God. "To the intent that now unto the principalities and the powers in the he.wanly places might be made known through the Church the manifold wisdom of God, according to the eternal purpose which he purposed in Christ Jesus our Lord." The Church is the community of which, as is said in the first chapter, Christ is tl,o Head. The interest in this community is here represented as ex.tending to the angels. 'l'hey are here designated on the side of their power and rank as the principaliLies and the powers. In the hundred and third psalm it is said, "Ye his angels, that excel in strength." In what relation rank or dominion is ascribed to them, we have not the means of knowing, as we have not the survey of the heavenly world which they, it is here implied, have of the earthly world. Ilut we are to understand the apostle, in the loftiness of his thought, seizing upon this as being to the honour of the Church, that it attracts the attention of the inhabitants of "the heavenly places "-those who havo never known any other habitation, who, from the first moment of their being, have lived in the p1·esence of God. They have been contemporaries of man during all his history. For when the earth was framed "the morning stars sang together, ant.l the sons of God shouted for joy." We are to think of them as witnessing ruan's innocence and fall, and as being made acq_uaintet.1 with the introduction of grace in tho promiso. And the Law (which had a separating side) was by tho "disposition of angels." An<l angels very signally heralded tho Saviour's birth. Ilut it was not for our ~akcs nlouo that they were thus connected with our history. It woult.l seem that, though in tho heavenly places, they had but a limited knowledge of redemption. 'l'hcy had not forc- knowleclge; they ha.cl to wait like u~ fur the evolution of event~. What was mystcr_v EPHESIANS. Ii  130 THE EPISTLE TO THE. EPHESIANS. [ou. lD; 1-21.