lax and perilous, If we are" holding fast the Head," we must acknowledo-e him as tho Imnge of God, in whom" ~welleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," ;s the Author nnd tho End of all creat101:1, as the Lord of the world and the supremo Ruler of his Church, as the great Reconciler between God and man by the blood of his cross and as the believer's only Hope of glory. It is from him alone that his member; receive spiritual supplies, are knit together and grow. False teachers, who would divert our faith or affections from him, may rob us of our reward. (Illustration : Racers diverted from the straight coursz toward the umpire at tho goal, or persuaded to nealect 0 one of the laws of the game (Gal. v. 7; Phil. iii. 12-14; 2 'l'im. ii. 5; Heh. xii, 1, 2).) '1.'o us the exhortations come homo (Eph. iv. 14-16; Heb. iii. 12-14; Rev, iiL 11).- E. S. P. Vers. 20-23.-The worthlessness of unautho,·ized ceremonialism, The apostle hero reverts to the ethical errors of the false teachers. Combining his teaching here and elsewhere respecting what he calls "the rudiments of tho world," we learn the follow- ing truths : - I. " THE RUDIMENTS OF THE WORLD " WERE USEFUL IN TREIB OWN TIME AND PLACE. The difficult expression, "rudiments of the world," seems to mean elementary teaching on the religious life which was no part of the teaching of Jesus Christ. It was not necessarily opposed to Christianity; for it included much of the Mosaic legislation under which the Jews were treated as children and pupils (Gal. iv. 3), 'l'hese rudimentary lessons were both disciplinary and typical. Paul respected the prejudices of Jews and of Jewish converts in their favour (Acts xvi. 3 ; xxi. 23-26). He allowed tender consciences to be bound by such rudiments as were not either of Jewish or Christian obligation (Rom. xiv. 2, 3, 14). So in the present day, among heathens just emerging from darkness but not yet "risen with Christ," certain elementary precepts and restric- tions may be valuable as temporary educational expedients. And more stringent rules of Church discipline than the New Testament enforces may be expedient for a time in the training of converts from heathenism who have just come out from a worse than Egyptiau bondage. (Illustrate from Exod. xxiii, 13, and similar requirements in Poly- nesia or other mission fields.) II. THE CHDISTIAN IS EMANCIPATED FROM D0NDAGE TO THESJI! RUDIMENTS. "If yo died with Christ," etc. "This deatll has many aspects in St. Paul's teaching, It is not only a dying with Christ (2 Tim. ii. 11), but it is also a dying to or from some- thing. This is sometimes represented as sin (Rom. vi. 2); sometimes as self; sometimes as the Law (Rom. vii. 6 ; Gal. ii. 19) ; sometimes still more widely as the world," as here and in eh. iii. 3. Our Lord, by his teaching and example, set his disciples free from the tradition~ of men (Matt. xii. 1-13; xv. 1-9) and from some of the ceremonial laws of Moses (Mark vii. 14-19, "This he said making all meats clean;" cf. Acts x; 15). Dy his death as the Sacrifice he fulfilled all that was typical in tho ceremonial Law, so that by union with him" we have been discharged from the Law" (Rom. vii. 6). By his power as the risen Saviour, the supreme Head and Lawgiver of his Church, he replaces the precepts of Moses by his "I say unto you." He thus introduces all believers into a new sphere of life and liberty (Heb. xii. 18-25). We experience what Christ can do for us apart from "the rudiments of the world," and therefore need not go back to them. Having pardon, peace, purity, through the death and resurrection of Christ, it would be as unreasonable to seek those blessings in rudiments, as it would be for a cultured literary man to be constantly practising in elementary rending and spelling hooks. 'J'o "subject ourselves" to such restrictions would boas though a slave on the free soil of Britain should still crouch before his oh! master (Gal. v, 1). Ill. THESE RUDIMENTS HA VE NO POWEil TO PROMOTE THE ODJECT FOR WIDCB THEY ARl!l nECOMMENDED. (Ver. 23.) So far as they were Mosaic they had no longer the value which belongs to even the most "positive" precept8 as a test of obedience. In tho Christian Church even the laws of Moses are merely "the precepts of men;" Jesu~ only is Lord. The rudiments respecting fasting, etc., which originated in asceticism, never had any spiritual value, but were for the most past the result of fundamental error (1 'l'irn. iv. 1-5). Self-denial for our own good or that of others is commended by Paul (1 Cor. viii. 13; ix. 27); but the asceticism of Colossre which was enforced 011 Christian converts is condemned as fostering pri<lc and powerless to suppress sin. CH. ll, 1-23.] THE EPISTLE TO TUE COLOSSI.A.NS. 143
"Pride mny be po.mpered while the flesh grows lean" (Wordsworth). Thus the axe is laid at the root of those unscriptural austerities which are glorified in the Church of Home; e.g. even the saintly Pascal "wore beneath bis clothes a girdle of iron with sharp points affixed to it, and when be found bis mind disposed to wander from religious subjects or take delight in things around him, he struck the girdle with his elbow ancl forced the points into bis side." Men notorious for filth have been canonized (for an illustration, see Eadie on Colossians, p. 211). How absurd to think that hair shirts an,! "thongs and whip-cord arc means of grace"! But as Dr. South has said," The truth is, if men's religion lies no deeper than their skin, it is possible they may scourge them- selves into very great improvements." Occasional fasts may be of value, but a religion of asceticism is "a libel upon Providence, a surly and superstitious refusal of Divine benignity." The safeguard against such e1Tors is a clear view of our salvation by Christ, our union with him, our submission to him, and our fulness in him.-E. S. P.