to belted knights or tales of chivalry for our ideas about devotion to our wives, but to the foot of the cross, that wo may see in Jesus our perfect Example! Ill. THI!: CHURCH'S REVERENTIAL LOVE TO CHRIST IS THE IDEAL OF WIFELY DEVOTION. (Vers. 22-25.) If Paul would summon husbands up to the heights of con- secration by the example of Christ, he would also summon wives up to a corresponding return of reverential devotion. 'l'he Church, in her love and obedience to Christ, is the patter1:1: of wifely devotion. Now, this leads us to consider how Christ rules in his Church. It is not an inconsiderate despotism, but an intelligent, considerate rule oflove. His wishes are expressed with infinite tenderness. There is no fury in his command- ments. The Church feels and finds that they are not grievous. And so believers are loyal to the Lord from the heart. Nothing is so delightful as to obey him. Suppose, theu, that such a spirit characterized the wife's relations to her husband; that she saw in his every expressed wish the outcome of love, and obeyed him in the belief that obedience was her privilege as well as duty,-what Edenic homes men and women would possess on earth! And here it may be well to notice a fact brought out in Presscnsc's volume already referred to, and it is this, that the New Testament has evidently enteretl into many more details about the family tlian about the constitution of the Church. The reason is obvious. The battle of the fa.iih is to be won through the family. The family is God's unit. The Church is but a family enlarged; heaven, again, is only a family still more enlarged. God as a Father overshadowd all! If Christianity ensures a holy family; if she wins families from worldiness to holiness of life ;-then she may iadee,l lift up her head assured that redemption is drawing nigh. Christian homes on earth, paradise restored,-these are really the creations which we look for; and beyoml tho shadows a still statelier home arises in 1' the Father's house with its many mansions" prepared for the reception of the bride. The family on earth is sanctified that the family in heaven may be prepared for; the heavenly home is but the perfection of the earthly, if this is Christian to its core.-R. M. E.
Vers. 1-14.-Wl,at to imitate and to avoid. I. THE IlllTATION OF Gon AND Cnnr;;T. 1. The imitation of God. "Bo ye therefore imitators of God, as beloved children." The force of example is abundantly acknowledged. How much do most of us sufTcr from the lo,v standard of opinion and practico with which we arc surrounded? On the other hand, we havo all felt what it is to como into contact with one who is misc,! above the common standard. By his strength of principle and generous sentiments and noble endeavours he kindles our aspiration. Wo shouhl liko to be what ho is. The wonderful thing here is that God places us (which is of far greater conseque,cce) under the influence of his own example. 'l'his is the only place in which we are dis- tinctly called to imitate God. But the same truth is given expression to by Christ when he says, "'l'hat ye may be the sons of your Father which is in heaven, for he maketh his sun to rise on the evil and the good, nnd sendeth rain on the just and tire unjust. . . . Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect." P:tn 1 has just exhorted us to imitate God in his forgivingness. This imitation of God pro- ceeds on what was referre(l to before-our being made nfter the Divine image. It pro- ceeds on what is rcferrecl to here-God being our Father, nnd as such communicatiug n kindred naturo to us. Ilut for this kindred nature with God we should have no moro conception of him than the brutes have. "The idea of God, sublime and awful 11s it is, is the idea of our own spiritual nnture purified and enlllrged to infinity. 'fho infinite Light would be for over hidden from us, did not kindred rays d:1wn mHl brighten within us." It belongs to the dignity of our nature (our being pnrtakcrs of tho Divine n-aturo) that there can be proposed to us as our end likenBlls to God. It is de,igued that there should bo a. perpetual unfolding and- enlarging of our spiritual powers and excellences. All our desires, hopes, efforts, nre to be toward this. ,ve 11ro to be filled with the Divine thoughts, replenisbccl with t't111 Divine energy, warmed with the Divine love. Ae a child catches tho very tone of h1,1 father, so aro wo to catch the tone of our heavenly Father. 'J.'here is a reason ,ol•,.,A for our being eager to imitate God. Wo are hie beloved children. Oh, tho lo~u ....,stowecl on usl Sonship forfeited and then restored. What a contrn<liction, to be children reculiarly loved anti not to 6eek likeness to God I But this leads on to tho other thought. 2. 'l.'he imitation of God is also the imitation of Cl1risl. "Au,1 walk in love, even as Christ lllso loved 232 THE EPISTLE TO THE :b:PHESIANS. LcH. v. 1--38