Ver. 9.-Thefull divinity of <Jltrist. The Gnostic error which St. Paul seems to be opposing was twofold. It dcuicd that all the fulness of the Go~hea~ resided in Christ, teachi.no- that, while the bicrhest effluence of that fulness was Ill him, other effluences which ~ompleted it were distributed through the angels, in descendfog gradations of being. At the same time, in itR abhcrrence of matter, it refused to believe that so much divinity as it allowed to Uhrist coul<I dwell in a human earthly body, and, accordingly, it favoured tbe absurd idea that what men saw of Christ was a phantom appearance, not a real man. In reply to this twofold error, St. Paul teaches that all the fulness of the Godhead is in Christ, and that this dwells in him bodily. I. CHllIST IB FULLY DIVINE. The fulness of the Godhead is in Christ. Wherein thi8 fulness consists is an infinite mystery. We must be omniscient to measure and sound its contents. But we see glimpses of parts of it, rays of divinity breaking out liere and there. And all that we see is in Christ. There is no known characteristic of divi!iity which is not ascribed to Christ in the New Testament, from creation (eh. i. 16) to judgment (Acts x. 42) and the final restitution of all things (Eph. i. 10). 1. In tLiM fact is the essential difference between the divinity of Christ and God's dwelling in the temple of the heart of good men. In men be dwells partially. They can hold but a small part of God's nature, and they do not give up the whole of their hearts for 1that. Christ is wholly filled with the whole of God. 2. 'l'his fact helps us to escape froll.i tLe id,_-a of two or three S<;pt1rate gods. It is the one infinite God who works in (Jff,11, 1-23.J THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 145
cte~tio~, and rules i!1 _heaven, and pleads with our spirits, and dwells fully in Christ, Chnst 1s perfectly D1vrno, because the one God dwells perfectly in him. 'fhus when we worship God and Christ we are not worshipping two beinl7s but the one God in Christ. Therefore, also, all that we see and know of Christ i; ~o much revelation of God. To be in sympathy with Christ is to be reconciled to God. II. GoD IB INCARNATE IN CHRIST. The fulness of the Godhead dwells in Christ in a bodily way. "Tbo Word was made flesh." Some have thought to make this fact seem impossible by absurd representations, which go on the assumption that an infinite God cannot enter a finite being without ceasing to be infinite. How he can do so wo cannot understand. This is not a subject that admits of being rationalized. But dogmatic objectors may be reminded that it is their teaching which sets a limit to the infinite by proclaiming its inability to enter fully a finite being. Docs not the infinity of God involve, not the distribution of innumerable parts through all space, but presence of him wholly in every region of the universe? Why, then, cannot he manirest his presence in a peculiar way in one being? Moreover, if God, who is always infinite, can dwell in man at all, that fact is a mystery which seems to foreshado\v the greater mystery of his full dwelling in Christ. The humanity of Christ is real and pure and perfect humanity, and God who dwells in him is still perfect God. This is very different from the metamorphosis of a God into a man that is described in heathen my- thologies. It is to be practically learnt from this Christian mystery (1) that Go, is now very near to us in a brother man; (2) that we can be raised to God and become one with Christ and God through Christ's oneness with us and God (John xvii. 23).-W. J<'. A. Ver. 10.-Thefulness of humanity. I. WHERF.IN TIIE FULNESS OF HUMANITY CON- SISTS. St. Paul has been writing of the fnlness of the Godhead. He now turns hi~ thoughts to our poor, naked, hungry humanity, and he shows how thero is a com- plet.ion and a satisfaction that may be called our fulness, in some way corresponding t•> the fulness of God. 1. The full satisfaction of our wants. We are empty, hungry, and needy. We require pardon for sin; strength for trouble, temptation, and toil; light in darkness; innumerable graces for innumerable distresses. Our fulness must be tho quenching of the soul's thirst, the satisfaction of the aching void within. 2. The/all attainment of the pe1fection of humanity. We may have every known desire satisfied and may be full up to the measure of our present capacity, am! yet not have attaineJ to the fulness of humanity. Our capacity may be enlarged, new aspirations may bo inspired in us. To attain to the stature of the perfect m,rn, to be quite like Christ, is to reach our spirit's prime and to have onr human fulness. This will be a folness of knowledge, of goodness, of power for spiritual service. II. FROM WHAT THE FULNESS OF HUMANITY IS DERIVED. By the word .. fulness" St. Paul m~ans that which fills as well as that which is perfected in itself. Christ alone can fill and perfect us. 1. We must find the fztlness in Ghrist. Because he is filled with the fnlness of God ho is himself a perfected Man and the Source of the same grace for us. We have to learn, then, that to reach our fulucss we must have what is in Christ. Perfect humanity is not possible without God. When we become possessed by the Spirit of God we become true men. This true religious life does not make us less human; it perfects our humanity. Not by science, nor by learning, nor by energy in affairs of the world, nor by any purely human effort, though all these things have their missions, but through Christ-, we may attain the true ideal of humnnity. 2. JVe can attain to thisfulness by personal union witl1 Ghrist. \Ve :nust not simply learn the method from Christ, nor seek tho blessing as a. gift of his, but derive it from close, living fellowship with him. The secret is to be " in Christ," " rooted" as the tree by being rooted in the soil derives nourishment therefrom, an,! " builded up in him" as the temple stands firm when erected on a solid fouudation.-W. F. A. Ver. 16.-The righta of liberty. At first sight the advice of St. Paul to tbo Colossians, not to let any one interfere with their private judgment in regard to meats, days, etc., may seem to conflict with the principle of generosity laid down in the First Epistle to the Corinthians: "If meat maketh my brother to stumble, I will eat no flesh for evermore, that I make not my brother to stumble." Buts clo~c.r ~;,:aminat.iou 1>f the two cases will show that they differ essentially. COLOSSI ANS. L 116 THE EPISTLE TO THE CuLOSSIANS, [oH. II, 1-23,