may do so by conniving at them, by not checking or punishing them, by not mourning over them, as well as by actually committing them. It is & dishonour to God, a lure to others, a mischief to ourselves, to stand in the way of transgressors. IL THA'l' BELIEVEns OUGHT TO MAmTAIN A VERY SEPARATE WALK IN THE WORLD. They who have named -the namo of Christ ought to depart from iniquity (2 Tim. ii. HJ). 'l'he cry to them ever is," Come out from among them, and be ye separate" (2 Cor. vi. 1 i). There is no co=on standing-room for Christ and Belial in the Church. This does not countenance our separation from society; for Jesus, who was" separate from sinners," was always in society that he might win sinners to God. Our walk is yet to be as i;eparate as it is to be circumspect, that we may stand apart from the plagues that will descend upon a doomed world.-'l'. C. Ver. 8.-The darkness turned into light. A.JJ a reason for their not lapsing into vices from which they had escaped, the apostle reminds them of the darkness of their pagan condition. I .. THEY WERE ONCE DARKl.'EBS ITSELF. "Ye were oometimes darkness." The phrase is very impressive, for it indicates a moral as well as an intellectual darkness. A hard he~t is always linked with a blinded understanding. The two act and react upon each other,-bccoming alternately cause-and effect. Men do not care to retair. the knowledge of God in their thoughts, and God, in judgment, gives them over to a reprobate mind. The most eulightened natures of the ancient world were thus "darkness" iLself. Athens, the eye of Greece, inscribed upon an altar the confession of its ignorance. The phrase, •:darkness," suggests three thoughts. 1.- There is fear in darkness-the foar of en!lmies, the fear of death, the fear of undefined agencies. Heathenism was full of fears •. Death was a dark. and terrible spectre. 2. There 1·s discomfort in darkness. Light, its opposite, is the symbol of joy. , 3. There is danger in darkness. Enemie>1 use the nights for their deeds of violence. 'Ne stumble on a dark night; we fall down precipices; . we take a wrong road. How expressive is the term as applied to the heathen I II.. THEY, ARE Now "LIGHT iN THE LORD,"_ Conversion has wrought a radical change in the understanding as well as the heart. Believers are now ligb t "in fellow- ijhip. with tbeLord".(1 John i. 3). There is tnore implied than the flashing into a human mind the knowledge of the truth; there is the renewing of thut mind into the love of the truth which it knows. Otherwise the light would torment and not comfort. But believers, thus doubly furnished. may well be called "light in the Lord." The light of the sun does not stream down directly upon the world; at least, it comes to the service of men reflected from a thousand objects which receive it upou their surfaces; similarly the world sees the glory of the Sun of righteousness reflected in tho millions of saints who are "lights in the Lord." Ill, THE l>UTY OF BELIEVERS IN THESE CIRCUMSTANCF:S-" WALK AS CHILDREN OF LIGHT." That is, as those in nearest connection with it, 1. .As light signifies joy, believers walk in the foy of an assured hope and a perpetual cleansing. "If wo walk in the light, ns he is in the light, . . . the bloou of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from nll sin" (1 John i. 7). 2. We walk in the day and therefore should not stumble. '"l'he darkness is past, and the true light now shineth" (1 John ii. 8). We ought to keep an eye fixed on the straight path of duty, and avoid the by-paths thnt lead to darkness and ruin. 3. If we walk in the li~ht, u·e ought clecirly to recognize the f,llowsliip of all travellers to Zion. "If wo walk iu tho light . . . wo havo fcllowsbip one with another," \Ve are going the san10 way, inspire,l by the saroo hopes, moctin:c; tho same difficulties, arriving at last nt tho same home.-'f. C. Ver. 9.-Tl,e fruit of the light. It is shown or seen in nil tho forms of "goo<lncss nnd righteousness nnd truth." Tho goo<l, tho right, tho true, are only to be realized through the light that streams from the Sun of righteousness-" the true light'' that "now shineth." The apostle s11ye the fruit, not the fruits, of the light-as if to show th,u it takes all the three colours to make this light. Christianity would be a very imperfoct manifestation of God if a single one of those elements were missing from the true light. I. GOODNESS. It is spoken of elsewhere as a fruit of the Spirit (Gal. v. 22), aml thorcforo is not mere beneficence, for it hns its Ronrco in religious principle. 'l'hiM 220 THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. [cit. v. 1- 33.
exceJlence, in its T'IUious aspects of kindne.<:S and generosity, is kindled bv the light tb:.t illumin11tes the understanding. • II. R1~HTEOGS..'-~- The light ~h!ch communi~tes a knowledge of righteousness to the mmd also rn~~ a l?Vll _of ngbteon.~ness mto t~e affections. This principle bass due sense of D1vme obligation, and subJects the believer in every relation of life to the guidance of Divine Law. ~II. ·TB= This is a direct _emanation of !he light. It is religious truth, working ultimately to truth of character mall the genmne forms of Christian life.-T. C. Ver. 10.-The experimental test of the LortI's will. As the ninth verse is a parenthesis, the apostle states that it is by walking as children of light we are in a position to prove "what is well-plea.sing unto the Lord." l. CoNSIDEB THE TRUE STANDARD OF JUDGMENT AS TO RIGHT A.ND WRONG, The believer is not to discover it in whatever may be well-pleasing to himself, but in what is well-pleasing to the Lord. It is the.Lord Jesus Christ who is Lord of the conscience to regulate all our thoughts and all our actions. He has a supreme lordsbip over our life as well as over our death: "l<'or whether we live we live unto the Lord." He is thus not merely Saviour and Example, but Director of bis people in all the concerns of religious life. In difficult situations, therefore, the true casuistry of life is to ask-'Will this action be well-pleasing to Christ? IL Co:i-smEB THE SU1!.JECTIVE TEST OF THIS DIVINE WILL. Believers are enabled, in the clear light in which they walk, to discover the right path. It is through their being transformed by the renewing of their mind that they "prove what is that good, and accept.able, and perfect, m.1.1 of God" (Rom. xii. 2). Similarly we learn that "if any man will do bis will. he shall know of the doctrine, whether it be of God" (John vii. 17). Light admitted into the understanding contributes to win the affections, aad, the affections won, open wide the doors for the admission of more light. To know the law yon love and to love the law you know is the best condition in which human beings can be. It is the union of clear light in the understanding with perfect purity of heart which distinguishes the kingdom of redemption in its final practical triumph;-T. C.