The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 144

The immortal dreamer had large liberty in Bedford jail when he travelled to the Beulah heights and almost as far as the gates of the celestial city. JV. THE PRISONER WHO SUFFERS FOB A GOOD CAUSE LAY~ GREAT OBLIGATIONS UPON ALL WHO BENEFIT FROM IT. St. Paul quietly appeals to his imprisonment as a ground for prayer (ver. 14) and exhortation (eh. iv. 1). The sufferings of the great martyrs of liberty in the past urge us, who have entered into the heritage won by their toil and death, to be faithful to so great a trust, to walk worthy of it by using our liberty as an opportunity for the highest service of love, and to preserve it from all encroachments and band it down to our children unfettered by new restraints of theological dogma or of official domination.-W. F. A. Ver. 8.-" Less than the least of all saints." I. HE wno IS MOST HIGHLY GIFTED WITH DIVINE GRACE WILL THmK MOST LOWLY OF mMSELF. St. Paul, the most gifted apostle, is roost deeply conscious of his own unworthiness. We must distinguish between tho endowment of grace and the acquisition of merit. To have much grace is only to bu much favoured. As a man grows in grace be grows in power of spiritual insight; and the result is twofold-be bas more knowledge of bis own true state and a better understanding of the claims of righteousness. Thus the standard is ever rising above bis head in greater heights of holiness, while be is constantly seeing more clearly, freed from all hypocrisy and self-deception, the miserable weakness and sinfulness of his own character. I!, HE WHO THINKS MOST LOWLY OF HIMSELF WILL BE MOST FITTED FOR THE SERVICl'l OF CHRIST. It is not that unworthiness is itself a fitness for service. Both to be unworthy o.nd to think one's self worthy are to be doubly unfit. But as Socrates thought he might be accouuted wise only because be knew he was ignorant while all other Athenians were unconscious of their ignorance, the true servant of Christ is aware of the sinful- ness which is common to him and to all others, but others are not so deeply conscious of it. This humble consciousness of unworthiness is helpful for service, (1) because it makes us look for the indispensable grace of God; (2) because it saves us from preaching ourselves when we should be preaching Christ; and (3) because it compels us to give God all the glory of success.-W. F. A. Ver. 8.-" The unsearchable riches of (Jhrist." Some riches are unsearchable because they a.re inaccessible, like jewels guarded by jealous sentinels, and pearls in sea-caves, and the gold-mines of remote stars. Some riches a.re unsearchable because they are secret, like treasure bid in a. field, and ancient records in undeciphered hieroglyphics ; in this sense an illiterate mim finds the wealth of a library, and an unscientific man the stores of a museum, unsearchable. No doubt there a.re wonderful graces in Christ that are as yet above and beyond our grasp, and deep mysteries tbo.t we cannot fathom, and a spiritual worth in all his blessings that cannot be discovered by the u.nspiritual. But it is not in these senses that the riches of Christ are called unsearchable. The doors of bis treasure-chamber are flung wide that the poorest may enter. '!'here is no  'l'HE EPIB'i'LE TO Tll.E EPHESIANS. [OH, llL 1-21,