innocent child (Matt. xviii. 1-4). And the Christian man who in the spirit of this love can" possess his soul in patience" through all the strenuous endeavours and painful collisions and vexing wrongs of life, wears" the girdle of perfectness," and has attained the perfect Christian temper. 2, Christ's peace guards. (Ver. 15.) The Christian's faith and hope are assailed by a thousand enemies, Sometimes amid the common incidents of lire, sometimes in "the heavenly places" of his richest experience ancl most exalted communion with spiritual things (Eph. vi. 12)-sometimes brought about by open and palpable causes, sometimes by strange influences shadowing the inner life and coming we know not whence or how-sometimes through the ruggedness and gloom of his providential path, sometimes through mental perplexities and the chilling and confused intellectual atmosphere around him,-in any or in all of these ways "the trial or his faith" comes-comes, in one shape or other, to every man who has a faith worth trial. And then, whatever be the form which the assault takes or the quarter from which it is directed, he may find in " the peace of Christ" his strong tower of defence and harbour of refuge, His difficulties may Bot disappear under this influence; his doubts may not be at once dispelled; the conflict may still rage furiously around and within him; but he will be kept, the fortress of his heart will not be surrendered (1 Pet. i. 5; Phil. iv. 7). So long as "we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ," and" his love is shed abroad in our hearts" (Rom. v. 1-5), nothing can shake our essential faith or rob us of our immortal hope (Ps. xxvii.; xlvi. ; Luke xii. 32 ; Rev. i. 17). Neither sophistry (eh. ii. 4) nor threatening (eh. ii. 18) will take from us "the prize of our high calling." "One thing," at any rate," we know" (John ix. 25); and to it" we hani the witness in ourselves" (1 John v. 10), in" the peace of God, which passeth all under- standing," "to which we were called," in the "new heart and right spirit" he has" put within" us, in the moral victory attained over selfand the world (1 John v. 4, 5): "we lcnow that we have passed from death unto life" (1 John iii. 14). And we safely infer that he " who has begun a good work in us" will carry it through (Phil. i. 6); that be will keep that which we commit to him, and "none shall pluck us out of his hand" (2 Tim. i. 12; John x. 27-29; Rom. viii. 31-39). So, uoitedly and thankfully, we "hold fast the beginning of our confidence, and tbe glorying of our hope, firm unto the end" (Heb. iii. 6, 14). 3. Christ's word inspires. (Ver. 16.) It is to" dwell in the heart richly "-to be the welcome visitant and constant inhabitant of the mind; to be listened to and diligently learned; to be cherished and pondered in inward meditation, not as an object of theoretic study only, but as the power which is to shape the character and guide the life of the Christian (Dent. vL 6-9; Ps. cxix. 105; John xvii. 17), as the soul's daily nutriment-the bread of God, "which strengtheneth man's heart,"" the word of eternal life" (Deut. viii. 3; Jer. xv.16; Matt. iv. 4; John vi. 63, 68). (1) This word gives all wisdom-best of God's gifts to man, which instructs the mind ancl prompts the tongue and guides the action of its possessor (eh. ii. 2, 3; iv. 5, 6). So furnished, every Christian (eh. i. 28) is able to minister something to his fellows of that which God has taught him by his own study of the Word and its practice in his experience of life (Matt. xiii. 52; Rom. xv. 14; 1 Cor. xiv. 31). Thus the members of the Church are able," in the meekness of wisdom," to" teach and admonish one another," "being knit together in love, and led into all the riches of the full assurance of the understanding, into the knowledge of the mystery of God" (eh. ii. 2). (2) And it stirs iu the heart an ardour of holy feeling that finds expression in Christian song. "The word of Christ," cherished in thought, kindles the emotions and wakens all the music of the soul. The early Christians were a singing people, for they were a cheerful and tha!Jk- fu.l people. And subsequent revivals of religious life, as a rule, have been attended with fresh outbursts of sacred song (Ps. xl. 3). The singing of a people-its heartiness, and simplicity, and the care and pains taken in its cultivation, are a good test of their spiritual state. "Psalms, hymns, spiritual songs "-hymns old and new, narrative, didac- tic lyrical; in every measure and every tone or expression-songs of praise, of confcs- sio'n of wailin"' sorrow, of ecstatic joy; for the congregation, the household, or the private cha~ber ;-all find e. place in the diapason of the Church's music. 4. Christ's name hallows evei·ytldng. (Ver. 17.) Our eating and drinking-acts which seem the most ordinary aud purely physical, and quite remote from the interests and sentiments of the spiritual life-these are to be "sanctified by the word of God and prayer" (1 Tim. iv. 5), by the mention of Christ's name in thanksgiving to the Father, who through him sends 166 THE EPISTLE TO THE COLOSSIANS. [cu. m. 1-26.
us all life's blessings.. And _if o:ur me:e anim~l necessities or lifo nre capable of being t.hi~s hall?wcd, ~here 1s notlnng 1~ family relations, or secular employments, or social or crr1l duties, which may not receive and does not demand the same conseomtion. We may associate Christ with everything we do, doing all as his servants and under his eye, and in such a way that, by every part of our work, he may be glorified in us. And this will be a safeguard to the Christian man. Ir he is to do everythina in Christ's name, he must do nothing unworthy of that name, nothing with which he cannot ::ssociate it. Nowhere, in any company or on any business, must ho forget "either in word or deed," that this "worthy name" is the name which he bears, and whose honour is in his keeping. This is the seal that marks the true Church of Christ which every Christian wears upon his heart: " Let every one that nameth the na~ of the Lord depart from unrighteousness" (2 Tim. ii. 19).