no Many attempts are made to-day to gain the popularity of men, sacrifice too great to be made, whereas the very attempt to gain it is an effectual barrier against the possession of the real thing. Popularity gained by the conscious departure from right principles or any of the duties of life is worse than worthless. There is a vast amount of talk to-day, about making the religion of Christ more popular. As if, the truth of God, destined for all ages, which has the strength, the beauty, and the youth of eternity could be twisted and fashioned so as to suit our bombastic unreal age. This is to attempt to bring the head which towers in infinite majesty above the hills of eternity low enough for our babbling age with its smattering knowledge of science to place its tinsel gaudy crown on it. The truths of God cannot become popular on any such terms, and as long as they are held forth in their simple grandeur, speaking eloquently against falsehood and deceit, men will turn away from them as they did from the Christ who spoke them. II. Here we have Christ UNMASKING THE ROOT-EVIL OF THE HUMAN ᎻᎬᎪᎡᎢ . These people thought the best thing they could do would be to follow Jesus, because all their temporal wants would be satisfied; no more toil and care, but an easy life to them. Their love of ease and selfishness are revealed in these words. In the days of Christ selfishness was glaringly prominent in social, political and religious circles. The question often asked now, is not, "How can I lead the most useful and self-denying life?" but, "How can I have the easiest life and the most conducive to my Is personal advantage?" It would be a rare sight to see a man starting in business and carrying it on, not for the sake of wealth and position, but to express to the world what righteous principles can do in the mercantile world. it not true that thousands profess religion in order to escape from hell and to have a golden harp after finishing their sighing and arm-folding career on earth? They are ready to crown the Christ of God if He will gratify their sensual ideas of the infinite and eternal. we III. Here have Christ DEMANDING THE PURE HOMAGE OF MAN. "Not because ye saw the miracles." This enthusiasm did not arise from their having caught a part of the spirit of those miracles they had seen. Not because they had seen the divinity which flashed like lightning out of those marvellous To works, but because they had partaken of the loaves and fishes and were filled. It is only those who will follow Christ when He is hungry, seeking help from the fig tree; when He has not a farthing to pay the tax; when He is led through the streets of Jerusalem, mocked and spat upon; yea, only those who will remain faithful when He is hanging on the tree, who will have the honour to place the crown on His sacred head. admire a man for his liberality in feeding the hungry is right; but the admiration of a pure, loving, righteous character, though he has not a penny to give away, is far nobler. There is not a higher, brighter, diviner character in the universe than that of Christ, and He claims our homage on that account. The loaves and fishes must not form an element in our admiration of Him. The husband's love for his wife is not owing to her beauty, her intellectual abilities, nor her domestic activities; his love has gone deeper than all that, and has entwined itself around her very being. Her beauty may fade, her reason may give way, and her limbs may be paralysed, but his love does not grow cold. So our love to Christ must entwine itself around His spiritual being; this alone will last. All homage and work will be rejected unless they emanate from a pure unselfish love to Him as the great Revealer of God and the true Friend of man. CYMRO. GENERATIONS UNITED BY COMMON LABOUR AND JOY.-" And Isaac digged again the wells of water,' &c. (Gen. xxvi. 18.) What Isaac did all generations practically do enter on the labours and participate in the enjoyments of the men of preceding ages. 1. The existing generations SUCCEED TO THE LABOURS of those who are gone. In the days of Abraham men were digging wells, but they were gone, the wells they dug had either been, perhaps, filled up or dried, and Isaac set to the work. Thus it is, we are ever entering into the labours of those who have passed away. It is a peculiarity of the human race. Birds. build their nests, but their successors do not take up their work and improve or extend their constructions. Divine benevolence is to be seen in this arrangement. (1) It serves to weld all generations in a common interest. When we take up the work of our fathers, whether it be mechanical, commercial, social, political, or religious, we are brought into conscious contact with their ideas, their plans, their minds, and we feel a kind of mental oneness with them. And when we do our little piece of life work, our minds often run down to those who will arise and take it up. Thus all generations are not only united in nature, but become united in ideas and in soul. (2) It serves as a guarantee of progress in the quality of human productions. The young, with new ambitions, fresh ideas, and vigorous faculties, enter on the labours of their ancestors both with the determination and capacity of improving them. Thus human works are improving. Agriculture, architecture, government, &c., all are on the constant rise. II. The existing generations ENTER ON THE ENJOYMENTS of those that are gone. The wells which Abraham and his contemporaries enjoyed were now for Isaac and the men of his age. Heaven has given the same wells of enjoyment to all. There is: (1) The well of sensuous enjoyment. (2) The well of intellectual enjoyment. (3) The well of social enjoyment. (4 The well of religious enjoyment. The same wells remain. Notes on on the Epistle to the Colossians. REFERRING Our readers for all historical and critical remarks about this Epistle to the able Commentaries of LIGHTFOOT and ELLICOTT, and FARRER's more recent Life and Work of St. Paul," it is nevertheless necessary to carry into and throughout our consideration of the entire Epistle, what was its main purpose. Throughout St. Paul is dealing with the twofold evil that had arisen in the Colossian Church-an error half Judaic, half Gnostican error that was theological and practical. It arose from the wrong conception of matter as inherently evil and as demanding intervening mediators between the material system of things and God; and at making abstinence from contact with material things, as far as might be possible, very incumbent on the godly. This error has its modern analogies in Sacerdotalism, and in Pietism. To combat the error then and now the Plenitude of Christ must be preached; Christ the fulness therefore the all sufficient Mediator, therefore too the all sufficient Consecrator of the material system. The errors of the Ritualist, and of the Recluse are both met by this great fact. No. XIV. THE CHRISTIAN VIEW OF FAMILY LIFE. "WIVES, SUBMIT YOURSELVES UNTO YOUR OWN HUSBANDS, AS IT IS FIT IN THE LORD. HUSBANDS, LOVE YOUR WIVES, AND BE NOT BITTER AGAINST THEM. CHILDREN, OBEY YOUR PARENTS IN ALL THINGS: FOR THIS IS WELL PLEASING UNTO THE LORD. FATHERS, PROVOKE NOT YOUR CHILDREN TO ANGER, LEST THEY BE DISCOURAGED." Col. iii. 18-21. THE ascetic spirit which, as we have before said, was abroad in the early Colossian Church, was at once so ascetic and so pietistic that it undervalued home, depreciated family ties, despised human relationships. We have heard Paul boldly meet this spirit with the great doctrine that Christ is the Fulness of all things, Sustainer of all, Mediator of all, King of all, End of all. Here, and in preceding paragraphs, he is meeting detailed develop ments of that evil spirit by detailed precepts flowing out of that great doctrine of Christ the Fulness. In our text the apostle teaches what we may group around three points. I. THE DUTIES OF FAMILY LIFE ARE RECIPROCAL. He addresses first one and then another of the group in a home. He does not speak of them, or describe them to one another, but sharply, smartly, directly, he turns to each with the summons ye." And thus he summons each to the task of his own duty, the fulfilment of his own obligation. As in some noble antiphon the singers take up their alternative parts, so in the music of home life the members of the family respond with their alternative duties. Between husband and wife, parent and child, the only truly Christian relationshipis that of interdependence, and of reciprocity. II. THE PRINCIPLES TO GUIDE FAMILY LIFE ARE SIMPLE. The statement of the principles here does not seem intended to be exhaustive. Some parallel passages as to the Ephesians, are much more complete. But the principles here noted are specimens. They are moral samples of what must actuate family life. And they No are simple enough. thing grand, romantic, or impossible. "Wives submit." This cannot mean where conscience protests. It must rather indicate where taste or opinion. differ. Defer rather than strive. "Husbands love." This great king-word love (which Paul explains in 1 Cor. xiii.), claims for the husband what Christ gives to the Church-His all. And one injunction of that love will be, "be not bitter," i.e., rough, rude exasperation. Many a courtier in society is uncouth as a bear at home. |