the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel, which ye have heard." Glorious is the

Divine purpose. Here is the end of reconciliation, the consummation of grace,-to present His people holy and unblameable and unreproveable in His sight. There will be a presentation, their introduction, as might be said, at the court of heaven, when they will receive their inheritance, and enter on their glory. It will be the manifestation of the sons of God. This is the hope which entereth within the veil, the splendour of which sends down a glowing and gladsome light upon the path and pilgrimage now. What a contrast to the imperfection, obscurity, and feebleness of the present. Mark their character then. They will be presented holy. This word points to an inward consecration, and to that purity of thought, affection, and desire which springs from it. It may refer especially to the aspect of the character toward God, in a thorough dedication of the soul to Him, so that as a living temple it is filled with His presence and radiant with His glory. Without holiness no man shall see the Lord; this holiness the people of God will possess in perfection; its beauty will enrich them, and shine forth from them in the complete sanctification of their being, through the grace of the Spirit and the power of the truth as it is in Jesus. They will be presented unblameable. This is the development in the life, of the purity and consecration of the heart. It means without blemish, and may have a reference to their character as it respects themselves: they will appear faultless before the throne; without spot, or wrinkle, or any such thing, their robes washed and made white in the blood of the Lamb. They will be presented unreproveable. The purity manifest in heart and life must issue in this attribute, which seems to be the aspect of their character in relation to others. This character will be unchallengeable. "It is God that justifieth, who is he that condemneth?" None in the

universe will be able to accuse them or lay anything to their charge. Then they will be like Christ, for they shall see Him as He is. Such will be their presentation "in His sight," before His presence; the object of His delight, and the triumphant issue of His own gracious reconciliation, when Christ will come to be "glorified in His saints, and to be admired of all them that believe." Not now, not here, but at the appearing of the Saviour, when He will come "the second time without sin unto salvation." Then the saints arrived at maturity will come to their inheritance, and rise to its enjoyment for ever. Every one who has been reconciled will be thus presented, to realize the perfection and inherit the glory. Here they may be obscure, forgotten, despised amongst men, but the time of their manifestation will come; they can afford to wait until Christ maketh up His jewels, when none of them will be found wanting.

Still there is a conditional element in this grand future, a Divine proviso connected with God's gracious purpose: "If ye continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Continuance in the faith is essential to salvation. The words do not necessarily imply doubt, but they suggest the necessity of circumspection, vigilance and care. The blessings of the gospel are realized only by continuous faith and persevering hope. The faith and hope must be held fast; thus only can we make our calling and election sure. He who stops short in the race, and fails to reach the goal, cannot surely win the prize. Man is not acted on mechanically, or as if he were a machine, by the grace of God; his spiritual nature is excited to earnest prayer and believing effort. The very fact that God keeps His people makes them distrustful of themselves, and binds them to Him in loving dependence.

Observe what is required: the Christian must continue This is the grounded and settled in the faith of the gospel.

positive side of the continuance it is not only to abide in the faith, but to abide grounded and settled in it. "The first epithet alludes to the cause and the second to its effect, for what is founded becomes fixed." He has to hold fast the power of Divine truth, to be founded and established in the doctrines of grace, to maintain the form of sound words; -not carried about by every wind of doctrine, not yielding to any false or specious theories which would tarnish the glory or weaken the force of that gospel through which he is reconciled. Nor is this all. He is not to be moved away from the hope of the gospel. To the gospel we owe the hope of future perfection and everlasting glory; and this hope in us must be a living hope, so that we shall not be moved away from it. This may be called the negative side of the continuance, and is the general result of the positive-of being grounded and settled in the faith. Nothing must be allowed to draw us or drive us away from the blessed hope. It is possible intellectually to continue in the faith, while the hope which the gospel inspires is allowed to decline and die within us. But the hope ought to be in us influential and clear, alluring us onward and upward to the region where it will be exchanged for full, glorious and eternal fruition. this end the Colossians had heard and received the gospel; and to this end the same privilege is ours. "We are made partakers of Christ if we hold fast the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end."

To

XI.

St. Paul's View of his Sufferings.

"Which was preached to every creature which is under heaven; whereof I am made a minister; who now rejoice in my sufferings for you, and fill up that which is behind of the afflictions of Christ in my flesh for His body's sake, which is the church."-COLOSSIANS i. 23, 24.

TH

THESE closing words of the twenty-third verse-"which ye have heard, and which was preached to every creature which is under heaven, whereof I Paul am made a minister"—suggest various considerations, why the Christians at Colossæ should strive after the stedfastness and continuance in the faith and hope of the gospel, which the Apostle had been urging. The first consideration is in the fact that they had heard the gospel. It had come to them; they had not sought it. To have the glad tidings of salvation proclaimed to those who, most of them at least, had been Gentiles and pagans, was an unspeakable privilege; and for them to depart from it, after thus hearing it and avowedly receiving it, would be inexcusable and ungrateful. The second consideration is in the assertion of the universality of the gospel-“which was preached to every creature which is under heaven," or rather, which was preached throughout the whole creation.* It

*The preposition & before яáσŋ kтiσe, and the absence of the article, make the translation in the whole creation more in accordance with the Greek than to every creature.

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had reached every land in the known world, and had found a lodgment more or less manifest in every province of the Roman empire. St. Paul saw the universal tendency of Christianity already realized in its spirit. His words indicate its power and progress in the world, and its adaptation to the whole human family. Here, then, was an evidence of its Divinity, placing it in contrast with all human systems, and a reason for their stedfast adherence to its faith and hope. The gospel of Christ invades every land, and is destined to occupy the world for God. The third consideration which might suggest the duty of stedfastness to the Colossians is in the Apostle's public relation to this gospel : Whereof," he says, "I am made a minister." He refers to the fact of his conversion and apostleship; and the consideration of his position and office enabled him to speak as a master with authority. It was the gospel committed to him in which he wished them to be stedfast. He knew its truth and power, and from his knowledge of its value and his experience of its preciousness he could with propriety and force say to the Colossians, "Continue in the faith grounded and settled, and be not moved away from the hope of the gospel." Yet in speaking of himself he uses the word minister, or servant, not arrogating anything on account of his position, but showing the same spirit of humility as when he said to the Corinthians, "Not for that we have dominion over your faith, but are helpers of your joy."

The Apostle's reference to himself and to his joy in suffering is a transition which forms a sort of introduction to the second section of this epistle. Moreover, his own course in devotedness and affliction was well calculated to confirm the faith of the Colossians, especially as his sufferings were in a sense connected with themselves.

I. "Now I rejoice in my sufferings for you." He thus indicates the occasion of his sufferings. When he wrote