incarnate, suffered, bled, and died. For them the Holy Spirit is in oonstant operation, "All things work together for thefr good." None have engaged so muoh of tho Divine attention as they; none have been recipients of such Divine mercies as they; none are so deep in debt as they. Their hallelujahs ought to be more fervid, more enthusiastic, more incessant than any that echo through the hierarchies of heaven. III. In relation to the REDEEMER. "By Christ Jesus." Why should Paul identify the work of the Church with Christ? Why does he ascribe glory to the Eternal by him or in him? Two reasons may be suggested. 1. Through Christ man ,·s made to ~ee the glory of God. He is the Revealer of the moral glory of God to the soul. "We beheld his glory," says the apostle," the glory as of the only begotten of the Father, full of grace and truth." He himself is "the Brightness of the Father's glory." Where but in Christ can man see the moral glory of God ; the glory not of mere intellect, power, or ouhrnrd goodness which you have in nature, but the glory of tenderness, mercy, for- bearance, purity, rectitude, faithfulness, boundless compassion? Where Christ is not, fu--.d's g1c'ry is not seen. 2. Through Ohn'st man is brought into sympathy with the _clory c:,f God. " God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, ha.th shined in our he.arts, to gi.e the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of J esns Christ.., He it is that inspires, enamours, and transports the soul with the glory of God. Hum.an worship must ever be in connection with Christ. '' He loved us, and gave himself for u.s." IT. In relation to the AGES, "Throughout all ages, world without end. A.men." This implies: 1. That God will be for ever. Were he not to be for ever, worship would not be for ever. He is eternal. "From everlasting to everlasting thou art God.'' "He inhabiteth eternity." "One day with him is as a thousand years, and a thousand years as one day." 2. That the Ohurch will be/or ever. '£he redeemed will never cease to exist. '!'hey a.re to live from generation to generation, through endless ages. 3. That the reasons for praise will be for ever. God's infinite excellence, bis rL.a.emptive and fatherly relation to the Church, and the communications of his love are the grand reasons for praise, and these will be for ever. CoNCLUSION. What a sublime destiny is that of the redeemed I Genuine religious praise is the heaven of the soul It is that in which all the "powers find sweet employ." It is that which brings the whole spiritual man within the glow and the rnnshine of the fatherhood of God. Praise is not the " service of song," as it is called; it is the spirit of life. It is not until all the activities of our being chime in one triumphant and sncce.eding psalm that our destiny is realized.-D. T. Ver. L-" Th£ prisoner of (Jhrist Jesus." St. Paul writes from his Roman dungeon, with the galling constraint.a of his confinement constantly about him. There is a pathos in the situation that must move the sympathy of the reader; and yet there is a dignity and even a glory in it that make us feel the apostle's ocoasional reference to his bonds chiefly a motive for giving the greater weight and solemnity to his persuasive e~hort.ations. I. THE FAITHFUL SERVANT OF CHRIST HAY BECOME A PBIBONEB IN IDB OAUBE, St. Paul was called into the apostleship from a worldly position of great influence and brilliant prospects. He was the most gifted and the most devoted man in the Christian Church. No one laboured more assiduously, and no one met with more marked success. Yet it has all come to this, that the great, honoured apostle lies chained in a Roman prison, his life at the mercy of the "mad boy" Nero. The end might have l)een expected in this form. "A disciple is not above bis master; nor a servant above his lord." If the Lord was crucified, shall we be surprised that the servant is imprisoned? f:itill some are perplexed and disappointed, not at suffering these great hardships, but at haYin:; to bear any cross for Chrut. Christianity is the religion of the cross for the Christian as truly as for Obrist. IL LIBERAL CHRISTI.U."ITY :HAY ENDANGER THE Lll!ERTY OF ITB ADVOOATB. Bt. Paul was a prisuntr "in behalf of you Gentiles." We know, from the history in the Acts, foai it was tr.rough the enmity of Jews that the apostle was accused before the Roman govemmtnt, and that this enmity was roused by the jealousy they felt at hi11 pn,atLirig the gospel to the Gentiles, and advocating the Gentile right to an equality ~itb th Jew. St. Paul was the preacher of the more liberal Christianity of bis day OH, W, 1-21.] 'l'HE El'lSTLE TO 'l'llE EPHESIANS. 141
and thereforo he was most grievously misunderstood and most bitterly opposed. They who feel called to preach more liberal views than arc sanctioned by the prevailin" opin~ons of the age may expcd opposition! b~t may learn the duty of courage and fidelity to truth, and may be cheered by thmkmg of the lonely sufferers in the same cause in bygone days, when the larger views and the freer doctrines were more vigorously opposed than they can be now. The noble champions of liberal Christianity from St. Paul to Maurice, have won substantial victories from which we profit. ' Ill. IT IS DETTER TO BE A PRISONER FOR CHRIST AND LIBERAL TRUTH THA:"I TO BE AT LIBERTY WITHOUT CHRIST AND IN UNCHARITABLE NARROWNESS. After all, the prisoner at Rome is more to be envied than pitied. He was the prisoner of Christ and Chris.; was with him in his bondage. His was the real blessedness of those who are perse- cuted for righteousness' sake. St. Paul was the champion of freedom as opposed to tbc restraints of Judaism, and this real, spiritual freedom could not be destroyed by bolts and bars. "Stone walls do not a prison make, Nor iron be.re e. cage."