The ,crb "show " ( ,ra.p•x«r6•, a.,.-lford, render) equity, as realized by the Christian con- is middle in Toico, and, as in Luke vii. 4 and se10usness, was sure in com·ao of ti we to Titus ii. 7, implies spontaneity-" show on bring about legal eqnality. Knowing that; your pr.rt," "of yourselves." TI> lilrca.,ov ye also have a Lord in heaven (eh.ii. 6; Eph. (" the just"), a concrete expression, denotes vi. fl ; l Car. vii. 22 ; Ph ii. ii. 11 ; Rom. xiv. the ju~tice of the rn11Stcr's dealing (comp. 9; Rov. xvii. 14; xix. 16). (On "knowing," .,-,l xpr1,n&~ in Rom. ii. 4, "the killll dealing see rnr. 2-l: a.) "Ye also," for Christ is" bolh of God"). T~v lCT&r77Ta gi,es the principle their Lord and yours" (Eph. vi. D, Revised hy which he is to be guided, that of equity, Text). The lord~hip of Christ dominates .fairness (so Alford, Ellicott, Lightfoot). tho whole Epistle (eh. i. 15, 18; ii. G, 10, ID, "Equity is the mother of Justice" (Philo, etc.). The assertion thnt the proud master ' On tho Creation of Magistrates,' § 14; who deemed his fellow-man his chattel is see other illustrations in Lightfoot). Meyer himself o. mere slave of Cl,rist, sets Christ's contends for the stricter sense, " equality" authority iu n vivid nnd striking light. (2 Cor. viii. 13, 14)-i.e. of Church status This consideration makes the Christian and brotherhood (Philem. 16 ; eh. iii. 11). mo.ster opprehensivo ns to his treotment of Ilut the context suggests no such special his depcndent.s. Jie i8 "in heaven" (eh. rnference; it deals with the family and iii. I; Eph. i. 21 ; vi. 9; iv. JO; Phil. iii. social relationship of master and serran t. 20 ; I These. i. 10; 2 'fhess. i. 7; Acts iii. "Equity" is a well-established sense of the 21; John iii. 13; viii. 23; Heh. ix. 24), the Greek word. The law of equity bearing on seat of Divine authority and glory, whence all human relations Christ has la.ii.I down ho shall soon return to ju<lgment (comp. Pa. in Luke vi. 31. Here is the germinal lxxvi. 8; Bom. i. 18). pri!leiple of the abolition of slavery. Moral
HOMILETICS. Vers. 1-17.-Sect. 7. The true Christian life. From above only can we be raised. There is no salvation in mere antipathy. Disgust at the vanities of life, repulsion from earthly things, will of itself never lift us beyond them; it needs tho superior influence of heavenly things to do that.. This the Colossian errorists did not rightly understand; or they could not have made ceremonial purifications and bodily austerities the way of holiness, the means of reaching spiritual perfection. "'!'ouch not, taste not" (eh. ii. 20, 21),-tbese were their chief commandments. The physical life was their great aversion, aud to reduce and harass it wr.s the leading object of their moral endeavours. In the last two sections of his letter (eh. ii. 8-23) the apostlo has denounced t!Jeir system as false and mischievous, to be. rejected by Christian believers, since it is not according to Christ, but is, in spite of its high pretensions, essentially base and earthly. He now proceeds, by way of command and appeal, to delineate the true Christian character, the working of Christian principles of life, as contrasted with the rnystico--ceremonial and ascetic ideal of the Gnosticizing teachers. The Christian be describes is one whose "life is Christ "-a life derived from, and animated and governed by, "the Lord from heaven," and not by" the tradition of men and the rudiments of the world"-" the things upon the earth" (comp. John vi. 31-33, 41, 42, 47-59). I. Tim HIDDEN LIFE. (Vers. 1-4.) 1. The vital spring of a practical Christian lifo is personal union with Ghrist. "Ye were raised with Ghrist; your life is hid with Ghrist; ye shall be manifested with him; Christ is your life" (vers. 1-4). (1) Not only must the principle of a perfect and all-sufficing life for men be heavenly; it must be personal. "We live by admiration, hope, and love." .All really commanding and ~overeign influences acting on human nature contain a personal element. We cannot sus- tain ourseh-es on abstract laws, or great universal ideas, or" streams of tendoncy;" on a " something not ourselves that makes for" this or that; on formulas or generalizations of any kind, however grand and comprehensive, however true and useful in their place. In spite of all plaw;ible argument and elegant raillery, and underneath the cbauging modes and fashions of polite or scientific thought, it yet remains a constitutional and fixed 11ecessity of the human soul to find iu that which is higher tbau itself Some Onll to reverence and to obey. .Against this necessity, ~\.lexnnclrine theosophy and :modern ~cepticism equally contend in vain. Men want a living God, Ono who lcnows, who loves and hates, who wills and acts-a just God and a Saviour; and they will not have these terms explained away. We am not to be frightcnetl or discomposed by being 011, w. 1-25.] THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. 159