man to God? Marvellous relationship between Creator and creature! Marvellous circulation of currents, downwards and upwards, in the spiritual world! It is God's glory to bless and be blessed. It is man's glory to be blessed and to bless. "Thou art good and doest good" (Ps. cxix. 68)-is the fittest of utterances for our mouths; for such doing is a stream which cannot but very freely flow from the fountain of such being— and both combine to lay usunder the strongest obligation to bless such a God. "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless His holy name, who forgiveth all thine iniquities, &c." "Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord

Jesus Christ, who hath begotten us again to a lively hope, &o." (1 Pet. i. 5). "Happy art thou O Israel (for no less true, surely, is this under the New Testament, than once it was under the Old), who is like unto thee, O people saved by the Lord"! (Deut. xxxiii. 29). Yes, thus hath thy "God blessed - and who can reverse it"? Know it, then, thou believer in Christ-know it thou Church of the living God ;— for let world, and flesh, and Satan, say what they may, it is as true as eternal truth can make it-"He hath blessed thee with all spiritual blessings." Wilt not thou, then, thus marvellously God-blessed, count it thy sweetest business to be ever about thy allotted work of God-blessing?

But now comes the question-how, on what principle, with what propriety, can such a God-the Holy, Just, and True, bless-and not only bless, but so bless, so profusely, so strangely bless such creatures as we are? It is enough that any one should really need such blessings-blessings of which pardon and reconciliation are the foremost. The very need makes the difficulty. For if we did not need them we could not receive them-and the needing of such things implies that they could, without any unfairness, unkindness, injustice, be withheld. That is to say, a judge can pardon only where he might rightly punish; and where he has a real right to punish, he may, with a real propriety, refuse to pardon. How, then, do we come to receive this blessing of pardon, with its

fruit of peace, and not these only, but every spiritual blessing? He that has given the one when he might have refused allon what ground can He so freely add the all to the one? Two short words will tell the whole, and the words are" in Christ." In Christ the Incarnate, the Crucified, the Risen, the Glorified-in Him they have all been won, laid up, and dealt out. It was, indeed, a question how any blessing, much more every blessing, was to reach and rest on rebellious, accursed man. But here we have the solution of the appalling difficulty, the justification of the mysterious liberality, and the channel from the Father's heart to the Church's bosom of all the good that ever has come to us, or ever shall, while our treasure lasts in the heavenly places. The treasure is in Christ. Are we in Christ? Then all is settled-the treasure is ours. So the apostle has just been teaching. The saints addressed are in Ephesus; such is the standing ground, the habitation of their bodies. The believers congratulated upon their wealth are in Christ; such is equally the standing ground, the habitation of their spirits. And they being in Him, then that which is in Him is theirs indeed. Such is the relationship of believers to Father and Son, as expressed in these few opening lines of the Epistle. Is it wonderful if, with such a relationship, the Apostolic salutation, setting aside all mere compliments and sentiments, should, after its usual fashion, consist of an earnest wish for the downflow of grace and peace from Father and Son to all the saints at Ephesus, and to all believers everywhere?

Is this, then, "the river that makes glad the city of God"— this gushing stream of "all spiritual blessings "-then we may be sure that the fountain-head is as high as its influence is wide. Siloah was a peaceful stream, and precious to Jerusalem, though it flowed only from the hill of Zion. But this river has its source in a height no lower than the mount of God's everlasting counsels. His blessing of us is, we are told, according as He hath chosen us in Christ before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love; having predestinated us unto the adoption

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of children through Jesus Christ unto Himself." Here, again, is our relationship to the FATHER as the Fountain, and to the SON as the Channel of all spiritual good. The Father chooses in the Son-He predestinates to adoption through Jesus Christ. And what sort of choosing is thus ascribed to the Father does not seem liable to much doubt. It is easy enough to say that He merely chose that His people should be a holy people. But such is very far from the sense expressed by Paul in that word "chosen." He has chosen us out-selected us (that is the unquestionable meaning of the word) out of the mass that was dead in sin ". -"children of wrath even as others." (ii. 1-8.) Out of the heart of that company has he chosen us, that we should be holy. Such is the rock from which the living stones are hewn. We are called, each in his own time, because, before time, we were chosen. We choose God for our God, because He first chose us for His people. On the day that we receive Christ Jesus we become God's children. (John i. 12.) But long before that day we were predestinated unto adoption. It is a great mystery; but, while it is deep and dazzling, it is at least conceivable by our minds. The thought, on the other hand, of our first choosing God-we being what we are this is not conceivable. Great is the mystery of the Divine election, we may repeat for ever; but if, besides being a great mystery, it is the one method by which any can attain to sonship and holiness-others being only left where they were-if this be so, what cause of offence is left to any one?

Passing over, for the present, some references to the Divine rule of action (namely, "the good pleasure of His will," "the praise of the glory of His grace") as that rule appears in these operations, we just notice some further statements embodying the relationship of believers to Father and Son. Thus, "HE hath made us accepted in the Beloved." The height and depth of this blessing we may endeavour to conceive of by comparing it with the contrary evil of not being accepted. Above all we should think of it in connection with the "Eli, Eli, lama sabacthani" which procured for us the acceptance.

GOD'S INHERITANCE.

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For thus it is that the acceptance comes to us.-"In whom we have redemption through His blood, even the forgiveness of sins." Oh that blood, that forgiveness, that redemption, that acceptance! Who shall declare them? Enough for us now that such are the bonds that bind the Church to the Father and to the Son. By the blood of the Son are we redeemed, so as now to be the Father's. Through that we are not only pardoned; we are graciously taken to love's own bosom, as bound up with Him who is above all others THE BELOVED.

We come next to a remarkable statement in verse 10-as to the purpose of "gathering together in one all things in Christ"a statement too important to be overlooked in any view of the contents and scope of the Epistle, especially considering the increasing use that is being made of it as implying the doctrine of a universal restoration. Let us leave it, however, till we have had a fuller insight into the Epistle generally.* Enough for the present that it is the Father who plans it and works it all-" in Christ even in Him.”

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But to proceed with the main subject." In whom also we have obtained an inheritance." So it reads in our version. And a precious truth would this be. But higher and more precious still is the truth really expressed by the Apostle-"IN WHOM also we have been inherited,” that is to say, "have been made an inheritance." Yes, if we must have our Portion, and that Portion be our God Himself (Psalm xvi. 5; cxix. 57; cxlii. 5. ; Lam. iii. 24.)—if, like the Levites, we must have our inheritance, and that inheritance be Jehovah (Deut. xviii. 2.), then He also must have His portion, and inheritance. And such are we; for "the Lord's portion is His people, Jacob is the lot of His inheritance." (Deut. xxxii. 9; Exod. xix. 5; Ps. xxviii. 9; xxxiii. 12; cxxxv. 4.) Nor is this just an Old Testament figure, involving, it might be thought, something of partiality, and perhaps a little of exaggeration. It is equally a New Testament principle and fact—“ Ye are a chosen generation, a holy nation, a peculiar people," i. e. a people for a possession, 1 Pet. * See Appendix A.

might purify unto And so they sing

ii. 9. "He gave Himself for us, that He Himself a peculiar people," Titus ii. 14. above-“Thou wast slain and hast redeemed us to God (bought us for God) by Thy blood." Rev. v. 9. And to the same purpose in v. 14, of the present chapter-"until the redemption of the purchased possession"-i. e. the full deliverance from evil of the possession which our God has purchased for Himself. And so here--" in whom we have even been made an inheritance." For this, in sober earnest, and in God's own reckoning, is the position and preciousness of the ransomed Church. It is nothing less, and it cannot be more than God's own inheritance. Surely, then, it must be the business of the Church, and of each of its members, to understand and act out such a principle. It should be enough for us-in order to all honest and holy use of ourselves-the mere fact that such an One is our Owner. And yet still more impressive than even that fact is the manner in which the acquisition was made. The earth with its fullness is God's property, the sea with its treasures, and the heaven with its host, because by the breath of His mouth He made them. But more precious than all these is the Church as His Inheritance, because by the blood of His Son He bought it.

Such being the action and relation towards the redeemed Church of the Father and the Son, we are now introduced to the relation of the Blessed Spirit towards the same believing company. Verse 13. "In whom also, after that ye believed, ye were sealed with that Holy Spirit of promise."

But what may be meant by the sealing of the Spirit? The question is often, we think, more doubtfully asked than it should be, considering the extreme plainness of the language in which the blessing is described. For what does the act of sealing denote anywhere, in Scripture or out of it, in things great or small, material or moral, but just some mode of shutting up a thing for the sake of securing, preserving, or confirming? Thus we have the sealing of royal decrees, as in 1 Kings xxi. 8; Esther viii. 8; of covenants, religious or civil, as in