The Pulpit Commentary — Ephesians — Section 235

moral character, unveiled and brought into distinctness before the moral consciousness, by the light of Christian truth, which is at work in your reproof; by the light, I say, it is made manifest-for, it is added, 'everything that is made manifest is light,' has ceased thereby to have the nature of darkness, and is now of the essence of light." And thus, whether there was amendment or not, they would be making an inroad on the territory of darkness, making dark deeds stand out in the light. (3) They are to take this aggressive position in consistency with the awalcening call of God. " Whereforo he saith, Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." The words are from Isa. Ix. 1, 2, and receive from the apostle a. Christian adaptation. (a) It is a call to the child of darkness. He is described as sleeping and dead, that is, in sin. He is insensible to the infinite importance of spiritual and eternal things. (b) It is a call to awake and, arise. "Awake, thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead." He does not let the child of the night alone. He comes to the sleeper and bids him awake, to the dead and bids him a.rise. And in his very summons there is an awakening, quickening power. (c) It is a call to which a promise is attached. "And Christ shall shine upon thee." As if it were said, "The sun is already up, and will pour his enlightening rays upon thee." So while we are sleeping and dead in our sin, it is true that the Sun of righteousness is up shining upon this world of ours, and we must up and catch his rays. Other men are up and doing their work under the light of this Sllli; why should we be asleep and dead in sin ?-R. F. Vers. 15-ZL-Exhortati'c,n to exercise wisdom_ in regard to our manner of walk. "Look therefore carefully how ye walk, not as unwise, but as wise." The object to which we are to look is this-how we walk ; in other word11, the rllnduct of our life. ln regard to this we are to be careful. At cross-roads there are sometimes finger-posts put up to indicate where the different roads lead to, that travellers may be at no loss. By looking carefully at these, they may save themselves much trouble and delay. So it becomes every traveller to eternity to know the road that he is takin~, whether it is tho narrow or the broad. There are finger-posts put up by God(in the Word) by which we may ascertain this and put ourselves right if we have to our grief taken the wron 6 road. But, seeing many do not make use of these finger-posts (do not look at them at all, or only carelessly, and thus exhibit great folly), the exhortation takes the negative as well as the positive form. "Not as unwise, but as wise." 'l'he word translated "care- fully" may also be translated" precisely,'' and suggests this, that we are not only to look to the general correctness of our conduct, but to look to it down to the smallest details. It is only by thus going carefully over it in detail, with no foregone conclusion in our mind, but earnestly seeking God to search us and to discover to us what can be altered for the better, that we may be able to bring it out into some beauty of conception as a whole. Tht:re are two things in regard to which we are to exercise wisdom. I. Turn. "Redeeming the time, because the days are evil." The right management of our time is what we are particularly to look to. The exhortation is to redeem tho time, that is, the timo meted out to us on earth, in which to fulfil the Divine purposes. Literally, as given)n the margin, we are to buy up the opportunity. 'fhe idea is that every moment has its own duty assigned to it. By doing the duty in the moment, wo make a purchase of the opportunity, we turn it into a gain. We keep abreast of time; wo avoid subsequent collision of duties. ·whereas by not doing the duty in the moment, we contract debt, we foll behind. Instead of being the free owners of our time, we become slavish debtors to it. We are to be like merchants that seize every vantage that is going. Merchants, that travel about from place to place, do not get a vantage nt every turn. They must lay their account by e.n amount of fruitless toil. But as heavenly merchants, we are in this enviable position, that every moment comes laden with golden opportunity. And we are to make our moments as they pass rich in all the gains of n good life. 1. Good planning. If we would redeem the time in Its day~, then we must anticipate them by wise economical arrangements. Wo must sec them coming, and know how (God willing) wo nro to fill them up. The light that we hnv~ got from past days we are to put into some workable scheme for the <lays to corno. 'lo the excellence of a day-plan it is essential that we rightly proportion between the various duties ofli[o (so that none aro left out or do not get their proper place). We are to keep up the right proportion between our severer and our lighter engagements. It bohovcs every ono to  THE EPISTLE TO THE EPHESIANS. [en. v. 1-33,