t:lkc them out of tho world, but that thou sbouldest keep them from its e'l"il I" who bids his disciples be" the salt of tbti earth,"" the light of the world" (John xvii. 16; Matt. v. 1:~, 14). Let us have faith in the power of his Spirit, who can so sanctify our mortal body that "sin shall not reign in it" (Rom. vi. 12 ; 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20); and can so hallow the temperate and grateful use of the natural blessiugs God bestows upon us (1 Tim. iv. 3-5; eh. iii. 21, 22) that, "whether we cat or drink or whatsoever we do," we shall" do all to the glory of God" (1 Cor. x. 31; eh. iii. 17), Let us hear St. Paul, while he teaches us to "make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its lusts" (Rom. xiii. 14), yet to "abide with God," each in that secular state "wherein he was called" (1 Cor. vii. 24). (6) God's Law regulates, does not suppress, the natural life. 'l'he home, the field, the mart, the senate, all that belongs to the natural fabric and constitution of human life, is bis creation, the arena for the exercise of his superintend- ing providence, and the field of probation in .which he trains his children for their spiritual manhood. He sent bis Son to be the Saviour of the world, not of the indi- vidual soul alone, but of human society in its widest sense, including business and politiCJ, 11·t and science, all the public interests and constituent elements of collective human life, which are to find their sanctification, that is, their perfection and their unity, as they are penetrated and ruled by "the law of the Spirit of life in Christ Jesus." So "the kingdom of the world" shall "become the kingdom of our Lord and of his Christ" (Rev. xi.15). (7) The Gospel puts high honour on the human body. The fact that Christ was "born of a woman" redeems its birth from dishonour and contempt. The Incarnation is fatal to all theosophy l>ased on the hostility of the material to the spiritual, and to the false spiritualism which would seek God by fleeing from the body. Christ has incorporated our flesh with his own Divinity, aud in the body of his flesh (eh. i. 22) he redeemed us, and reconciled the world to God. To the meanest human person there belongs an unspeakable dignity and sacredness as partaking of that "blood and flesh" in which he shared (Bcb. ii, H), and through which he "poured out bis soul unto death" (Isa. liii. 12). Christ's work will be completed and" the travail of his soul satisfied" only by "the redemption of our body," which will consummate our "adoption "and will bring with it the deliverance of "the creation itself" from "the bondage of corruption" (Rom. viii. 18-25). For this end, we still" wait for a. Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ," descending from heaven (Phil. iii. 20, 21). So waiting, we shall keep pare and clean this "earthly house of our tabernacle" (2 Cor. v. 1; 1 John iii. 3). Nothing that belongs to it can we "call common or unclean" (Acts x. 15 ), "body of humiliatiou" though it is (Phil. iii. 21). We occupy it for Christ our ::Masler. It is the "temple of the Holy Spirit "-the Spirit of delicate purity, the Spirit of order and of beauty, the Spirit of health and unity, whose" communion" is the Church's breath of life, and the secret, perrnsive atmosphere and inspiration that brings all that is pure and healthful into the society of men.
HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vcrs. 1-3.-Nalure and objects.of the apostle's struggle on behalf of the saints. "For I would have you know how great" a struo-.,Je I have for you and for them at Laodicea, and for as many as have not seen my fa~~ in the flesh." His object is to justify his urgency in writing to a people whom he bad not known personally. L Tm: .APOSTLE'S CONFLICT. It marks : 1. His intense an,;;iety on their account. "Fears within as well as fightings without." 2. His an,;;ious labout·s in defending tl1e simplicity of the gospel against the corrupting devices of fulse teachers. 3. J-Jis striving in prayer for the saints. (Ch. iv. 12.) Ministers who" please not men, but God," have often a great" fio-ht of affliction" on behalf of their flocks, especially when they have to encounter mer1' who "resbt the truth" and "withstand the words" of faithful men and" do much evil" (2 Tim. iii. 8; iv. 14, 15). The Judreo-Gnostics had inspired him with a deep concern for the religious integrity of the_ Colossians, the Laodiceans, and, perhaps, the Christians of Hierapolis, who all dwelt m the valle;r of the Lycus. What a blessing to them that they had the praycrd and the labours ol an apostle who bad never seen one of them in the flesh I II. THE OBJECT OF THE APOSTLE'S co~FLICT, "That their hearts may be comforted, OH. II. 1-23.) 'l'HE EPISTLE 'l'O THE COLOSSIANS. IO!J