the gift. We cannot be blessed by Divine grace in crowds and masses. The Church can only be endowed with grace when her private members are personally blessed. We do not receive grace by becoming part of the grand Catholic Church. But we realize the unity of the Church when we have been first blessed with Christ's grace in our own souls. V. Tms GRACE IS MEASURED OUT IN VARYING PROPORTIONS. In Christ there was grace without measure, In us it is measured. Uhrist has a right to measure it, because it is a. gift which he can withhold or bestow as he pleases. Yet if it is measured there is no stint, for if Christ has first given us himself, we may be sure that he will never keep back any needful lower blessings. 'l'he measure of the grace is detcrmineJ by our spiritnal capacity, our faith, our need, our special mission.-W. F. A. Vers. 9, 10.-The universal experience of Christ. I. THE ASCE21"SION OF CHRIST IMPLIES THAT·HE HAD PREVIOUSLY DESC]:NDED. 1. It implies that he was low down ut some period. Had he always enjoyed his rightful honours there could have been no act o~. rising to them. The coronation shows that the sovereign had once been a subject.· The grea_tness of the elevation of Christ and the stir and change it produces are significant of the low depth of an earlier state. 2. It implies that he had been highly exalted at a previous period. 'l'he mere act of ascension may not show this, but the spiritual character of it does. All things ultimately find their level. The high- shooting fountain is an evidence that its water has come from a great elevation. 3. It implies that by· his deep humiliation Christ merfted his great exaltation. He did not simply deserve it by way of compensation. He earned the high honour of the Ascensio11 by the patient sacrifice of himself in his descent down to a life of lowly service, down to the cross, down even to the dim land of the dead (Phil. ii. 5-11). Thus the last is first, and he who humbled himself is exalted. II. 'fHE ASCENSION AND PREVIOUS DESCEN.DmG OF CHRIST ENABLE HIM TO FILL ALL THINGS. 1. His presence enters into every grade of being. From his awrul primeval glory down to the dread depths of Hades and then up to the throne anJ the right band of God, by the vast sweep and range of his profound humiliation an,l superb exaltation, along every step of existence traversed, Christ comes into personal contact with all life and death. 2. His experience gives him knowledge of every grade of being. . And with this knowledge he hns sympathy for all. Our lack of wide sympathies is chiefly owing to our narrow experience. Christ's sympathy is as universal as h_is experience. In his exaltation he does not forget the scenes that moved his heart in lowlier walk(l. " ... Resting by th' incama.te Lord, Once bleeding, now triumphant for my aa.ke, I ma.rk him, how by seraph hosts adored, He to ea.rth's lowest CM-es is still awake." 3. l<'illing all things by experience, knowledge, and sympathy, he has power over all things. Down even to the spirit~ in prison to whom be preached by the Divine Spirit, and through every rank of life, he has influences to exert, graces to bestow, redemption to accomplish. '!'here is no order of things beyond the reach of Christ. As the great reward of his sacrifice and triumph, of his deepest humiliation nnd his highest exalta- tion, he fills heaven, earth, and holl with a. presence which, if he is the same now as when he lived among men, is everywhere healing and redemptive.-W. F. A.
Vers. 13-16.-The fall-grown man. The object for which the various gifts that flow from the ascension of Christ (see ver. 8) are bestowed is here described. 'l'hat object is not the mere enjoyment of the gifts themselves. It is practical ancl for a distinct purpose, viz. to accomplish "the building up of the body of Christ." For this same end the offices of the Christian ministry and all other ordinances and insti- tutions of Christianity are now ordained. It is not enough to hold services and gather tocrether decorous con,,recrations. 0 Nor is it oven enough to securo converts. '!'ho final object is to build up the Church itself, by developing its manhood and cementing it~ unity. The end is twofold; a".lJ though the two !)arts of it are as intimately connected in experience as they are hero blended together in the lan~nage of St. Paul, they can be considered separately. The fir~t element in the building up of the THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. [OH. l'\t. l-32,