A Homiletic Glance at the Epistle of Paul to the Ephesians. The student is requested to keep in mind the following things, which will throw much light upon the Epistle. First: The circumstances of the writer when he wrote. He was a prisoner in Rome. During his residence there, in "his own hired house" (Acts xxviii. 30, 31), from the spring A.D. 61 to 63, he wrote the Epistles to the Colossians, Philippians, Philemon, and to the Ephesians. It is generally supposed that this Epistle to the Ephesians was the first he wrote during his imprisonment. Secondly: The circumstances of the persons addressed. They lived, it is thought, in Ephesus, an illustrious city in the district of Iona, nearly opposite the island of Samos, and about the middle of the western coast of the peninsula commonly called Asia Minor. It had attained in Paul's day such a distinction as in popular estimation to be identified with the whole of the Roman province of Asia. It was the centre of the worship of the great goddess Diana. Paul resided here on two different occasions. The first, A.D. 54, for a very short period (Acts xviii. 19-21); the second, for a period of more than two years. The persons therefore addressed in this letter are those whom he had converted from paganism, and in whom he felt all the interest of a spiritual father. Thirdly: The purpose of the letter. The aim of the Epistle seems to be to set forth the origin and development of the Church of Christ, and to impress those Ephesian Christians, who lived under the shadow of the great temple of Diana, with the unity and beauty of a temple transcendently more glorious. For the minute critical exegesis of this apostolic encyclical, we direct our readers to the commentaries of Alford, Webster and Wilkinson, Jowett, Harless, Stier, Eadie, Hodge, and last, though not least, Ellicott. Our aim will be to draw out, classify, and set in homiletic order, the Divine ideas reached by the critical aid of such distinguished scholars. Subject: Two WORLDS OF ONE RACE. "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them. For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret. But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light; for whatsoever doth make manifest is light. Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light."-Eph. v. 11–14. ANNOTATIONS.-Ver. 11. "And have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness, but rather reprove them." No fault can be found with this translation. The exhortation here is not only to avoid un σvYKOIVWVEÎTE, the corrupt deeds of the depraved heathen, but to 'Eléyxew, reprove them. Do not connive at them or pass them over without notice, but take aggressive measures against them, try and raise the Gentiles to your own Christian standard. Ver. 12.-"For it is a shame even to speak of those things which are done of them in secret." The abominable character of the "works of darkness" is here given as the reason for abstaining from them, and reproving them. The sins to which the Apostle refers were so bad that they were done in "secret," like the mysteries and orgies of heathenism, and so bad that it "is a shame even to speak" of them. Ver. 13.—“ But all things that are reproved are made manifest by the light, for whatsoever doth make manifest is light."—Ellicott's translation of this verse is "But all these things when they are reproved are made manifest by the light, for everything that is made manifest is light." The first clause of the verse seems a very common-place remark. It means light is the means of seeing what things are; and the other clause, “for everything that is made manifest is light," expresses the transformative power of truth. The Gospel is the Organon of God, by it He effects the spiritual transformation of souls. Ver. 14.-" Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light." "He saith." Who? The margin says it. But what is the "it?" Manifestly the Divine Word. But where? The utterances are not found in this form anywhere else in the Bible. There are passages in Isaiah something like it: Isa. xxv. 19; ix. 2; lx. 1. The Apostles, in quoting the Old Testament, sometimes combine several passages in the same quotation, and give, as the teachings of the Prophets, what is nowhere taught or asserted in express terms, but is abundantly implied in what they say. The substance of these words is taught in the Old Testament, and the Apostle gives it. The verse is translated by Dean Alford,-"Wherefore he saith, Up thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall shine upon thee." Paul uses the words to show that Christ is the Source of that light, which at once manifests wickedness and destroys it. HOMILETICS.-The text may be regarded as a portraiture of two distinct worlds of men on this earth-the world of the wicked and the world of the Christian. Here we have— I. The world of WICKED men. The characteristics of these men are here indicated. First: They are worthless. Their works are "the unfruitful works of darkness." Ungodly men live in moral darkness. The sun, which alone reveals things as they are in the spiritual world, shines not in their heavens. All the light they have are the electric flashes of an impure atmosphere. They work in the dark, and their works are "unfruitful." That is "unfruitful" of good. The soil that is sterile as regards its capability of producing fruit is often fertile in its capacity to produce noxious weeds and poisonous herbs; so the ungodly soul, it is unfruitful in goodness, but prolific in crime. Secondly: They are clandestine. "Which are done of them in secret." Though there may be an allusion here to the abominable mysteries which were celebrated in Greece under the screen of night and secresy, it describes the general character of a sinful life. All is secret. Sin is necessarily hypocritical; it speaks in a false voice; it works under masks. The more corrupt the human soul the more sneakish and clandestine. The good alone can afford to be bland and open. Thirdly: They are shameful. "For it is a shame even to speak of those things." Heathenism has ever abounded, and still abounds with nameless iniquities. (Rom. i. 24-32). But sin in all its forms is a shameful thing. It is essentially disgraceful, disreputable, and ignominious. A man has only to think calmly of it in the light of conscience and God, in order to bring burning blushes to his cheek. Sin is a shame. Fourthly: They are sleepy. "Wherefore he saith, Awake thou that sleepest." A sinful soul is sleepy in a moral sense. It is unconscious of its moral surroundings—it is filled with illusory dreams-it must one day be aroused to a sense of reality. Unlike natural sleep, moral sleep does not refresh and invigorate, but enervates and destroys. Fifthly They are mortal. "Arise from the dead." Everywhere the Bible represents sin as a state of death. The sinful soul is like a corpse. It is odious, and the victim of external forces. Such is the world of wicked men around us. worthless-clandestine-shameful-sleepy-mortal. have II. The world of CHRISTIAN men. It is Here we These are represented by the Christians at Ephesus, the men to whom the Apostle is writing. This world has a work to do with the other-the dark world of wickedness around them. And it is here indiIcated. What is it? First: Separation. "Have no fellowship." It does not mean, of course, that Christians are to have no intercourse or dealings with the ungodly. This could not be, and ought not to be if it could. It means, that they are to have no spiritual indentification with them; no thoughts, purposes, or feelings alike. That, like Christ, they are to be "separate from sinners. Morally detached as the lamp from the darkness. "I have written unto you not to keep company, if any man that is called a brother be a fornicator, or covetous, or an idolater, or a railer, or a drunkard, or an extortioner: with such an one no not to eat." (1 Cor. v. 11.) "Wherefore come out from amongst them," &c. (2 Cor. vi. 14-18.) Secondly: Reprehension. "But rather reprove them." Reprove them" by lip. In the name of purity and truth expose and denounce their wickedness. Reprove them by life. Let the life stand in such a grand contrast to all that is sinful that it may be a standing rebuke. Thirdly: Illumination. "All things that are reproved are made manifest by the light." Hold forth the light of the Gospel in the midst of a "crooked and perverse generation." Fourthly Resuscitation. "Awake thou that sleepest and arise from the dead." Thunder in the ear of the sleeper; speak life into the heart of the dead. There is living light for all in Christ. "Christ shall give thee light." "He is the Light of the World." The idea of this verse seems to be, that if Christians will use all their efforts to convert men, they may expect Christ to shine upon them, and bless them. The " light" that comes from Him is a soul-quickening light. "The hour is coming, and now is, when the dead shall hear the voice of the Son of God: and they that hear shall live.” (John v. 25.) Elijah raised the dead; so did the Apostles. We, also, in God's great name can raise the dead-dead souls; the resurrection of a soul is a far grander work than the resurrection of a body. Let us sound the blast of the Gospel trumpet over moral cemeteries, and the graves will open and dead souls come forth to life. A Germs of Chought. EMBLEMS OF SOUL WORK.-No. III. "Judge righteous judgment."-John vii. 24. Analysis of Homily the Eight Hundred and Seventy-second. DJUDICATION is one of the many avocations of civilized man. There are Commercial adjudicators. In almost all departments of action where men ply their energies for a liveli hood, there are those who are recognised as authorities; men whose judgment upon the value of commodities, properties and productions are accepted and acted upon. There are Literary adjudicators; men who for the most part constitute themselves as authorities in all literary productions. In their various journals they arraign our authors at their tribunal, examine their works, and pronounce upon their excellencies or defects. Although it comes not within my purpose to discuss the value of such functionaries or to criticise the way in which their duties are generally lischarged, I cannot but express my profound regret that so many of them are utterly disqualified for the position they have assumed. There are Legal adjudicators: men who preside in our courts of justice, who sift evidence, balance probabilities and always in the name, if not always under the sense of justice, pronounce upon the merits of the case before them. There are Theological adjudicators: men who profess to know the whole truth of God, pronounce in judgment upon the religious opinions of their fellow-men, and at whose feet sit weak-minded religionists who accept their dictates and call them Rabbis. The true, the honest, and independent searchers after the truth repudiate their authority and denounce their arrogant and impious assumptions. Whilst, however, there is a great deal of adjudication going on in the commercial, the legal, the literary and theological departments of human life, there is an adjudication which transcends all others in importance, and which devolves not upon any particular class of men, but upon each man as the most urgent obligation of life. I mean the adjudication of those subjects which are vitally connected with our spiritual and immortal interests; subjects concerning which each must form his own estimate, and where the judgment of one can never become the substitute for that of another; subjects concerning which Heaven commands us to "judge righteous judgment," to prove all things and to hold fast that which is good. What are those subjects? I shall mention only a few of the most important, and they may be comprehended under four general heads:-Man, Christianity, Religion, and Providence. I. MAN. It is of paramount importance that men should form VOL. XXVI. G |