which is only braiding into four lines a bit of gold that the great dramatist has run into a single verse of his own matchless finishing,

"So shines a good deed in a naughty world."

ARTICLE VI.

AN EXEGESIS ON EPHESIANS I.: 3-6.

"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who hath blessed us with all spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ; (4.) According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before him in love; (5.) Having predestinated us unto the adoption of children by Jesus Christ to himself, according to the good pleasure of his will, (6.) To the praise of the glory of his grace, wherein he hath made us accepted in the Beloved."

For

The persons addressed in this passage are Christians. they are "blessed with all spiritual blessings," and have "the adoption of children." In the context they are called "saints," and "the faithful," and those who have "trusted in Christ." They have "believed" in him, and are "sealed with the Holy Spirit." So they have "the forgiveness of sins," and in prospect "redemption" and "an inheritance" through Christ.

Such persons are Christians. They are not Jews, as such, nor yet Gentiles, in distinction from Jews. They are rather the body of believers embraced in the church at Ephesus, in which Jews and Gentiles were mingled. This body, referred to in the text and context, has not the characteristics of a national, but of a spiritual body. So their blessings, for which Paul is so grateful, are spiritual, and come on them as individuals.

These persons were made Christians in accordance with a previous purpose and plan. This is the import of the connective clause that introduces the fourth verse," According as." That is, in a compliance with, and in the carrying out of, a previous arrangement.

So we find the same Greek word, κafùs, used elsewhere in the New Testament. "The disciples went and did as [κatùs] Jesus commanded them." Matt. xxi. 6. Matt. xxi. 6. "One of his disci

ples said unto him, Lord, teach us to pray as [katus] John also taught his disciples." Luke xi. 1. These blessings enjoyed so richly by those individuals at Ephesus - this great and so manifest fact that they were Christians, came not at haphazard, or incidentally. Such result came from the intention, arrangement, and working cause of God.

The plan indicated by the words "according as," is set forth specifically in the phrase following: "According as he hath chosen us." In that word "chosen," there is wrapped up a purpose and plan, in the execution of which there is discrimination and separation, as a taking and a leaving, a giving and a withholding. A few examples of its use in the New Testament will make this evident.

"He put forth a parable to those which were bidden, when he marked how they chose out [ègeλéyovro] the chief rooms." Luke xiv. 7. Here is seen the radical idea of the word. There is an intentional occupation of " the chief rooms," and as intentional a neglect of the others. "God hath chosen the foolish things of the world to confound the wise." 1 Cor. i. 27. Of all the things offered, he takes these by preference. "When it was day he called unto him his disciples; and of them he chose twelve." Luke vi. 13. "I speak not of you all; I know whom I have chosen." John xiii. 18. "Ye have not chosen me but I have chosen you." John xv. 16. In these three passages the Saviour refers to that discriminating, separating love, by which he fixed on and drew unto himself the twelve. It was not a call for twelve volunteers, nor yet the acceptance only of twelve uncalled and offered. It was a specific and efficient selecting of twelve certain ones out of a multitude. In the case of filling the apostolate vacated by Judas, the exactness of the idea in the word "chosen," as an act of thoughtful and matured preference, is very sharply set forth. "They prayed, and said, Thou, Lord, which knowest the hearts of all men, shew whether of these two thou hast chosen." Acts i. 24. No less plain is the case of the choice of the seven deaThe twelve would be relieved of secular cares, and so

cons.

they call on "the multitude of the disciples" to appoint men for this purpose. The multitude consider the work to be done, and then canvass their number for the proper men. Then "they chose Stephen," etc., seven in all. Acts vi. 1 5. Here is a thoughtful, judicious proceeding, consummated in that act of choosing the seven. The same considerate and discriminating policy was adopted by "the apostles and elders, with the whole church," at Jerusalem, when it pleased them "to send chosen men of their own company to Antioch, with Paul and Barnabas; namely, Judas, surnamed Barsabas, and Silas, chief men among the brethren," on the question of circumcision. Acts xv. Here for a specific purpose a definite and select appointment of men was made.

In all these uses of the word "to choose," and in the New Testament use of the word generally, this idea is the central and essential element in its meaning to select certain persons or things through love and favor, and to the neglect of others. Thus did God choose those individuals at Ephesus, on whom he afterward bestowed such spiritual blessings. In his act there was a selection and an omission, the same as where the guests chose "the chief rooms," and the Saviour "the twelve" and the disciples Matthias to the vacant apostleship, and the pentecostal brethren the seven deacons, and the church at Jerusalem the delegation to Antioch.

This purpose and plan of God, according to which he chose these individuals to such blessedness, had an inevitable fixedness and certainty of result. For so we are to understand the phrase "having predestinated us unto the adoption of children." This means evidently more than a willingness on the part of God that they should be children of grace, more than an earnest desire for it. It means more than nominating them to such a promotion, leaving their attainment of it doubtful. The significant word here is "predestinated." IIpoopio means to bound or set limits to a thing beforehand, and when an event is spoken of as predestinated, the essential and substantial part of the meaning is, that that event had an antecedent, a forerunning fixedness or certainty that it was to be. In strictness of meaning it declares the setting of metes and bounds in advance to the work or result that it contemplates. It is the proper Greek

word to designate the act of a commissioner when he lays out a highway, or of a civil engineer when he determines and marks off the route of a future railroad.

In classical Greek its root, opos, is the name for a goal, pillar, or boundary-stone. It also means a mark, with writing attached, affixed to property, to show that it has been previously mortgaged. So the verb pоopícoμaι is used to declare that certain property had received the mark of mortgage.

A few examples will show in what sense the writers of the New Testament used the word.

God hath made of one blood all nations, . . . and hath determined the times before appointed and the bounds of their habitation." Acts xvii. 26. As in a gift of real estate to several persons a man marks off and designates by lines and metes the farm or house-lot for each fortunate receiver. "Truly the Son of man goeth as it was determined." "Him being delivered by the determinate counsel and foreknowledge of God." Luke xxii. 22; Acts ii. 23. Here it is declared that the betrayal and crucifixion of our Lord had a fixedness and a certainty of result, absolute and inevitable, by the appointment of God. "And he commanded us to preach unto the people, and to testify that it is he [Christ] which was ordained of God to be the Judge of quick and dead." Acts x. 42. Thus we see that the appointment of the Lord Jesus as final Judge, and the appointment of those Ephesian Christians to the adoption of children, are events equally fixed and certain, since the same agent, God, acts in both cases, and the same word is used to express his act.

It is true, in each of the passages now cited, illustrative of God's predestinating those Ephesians, the preposition #pó, before, is wanting in the verb. But this is no variation from the word in the passage we are examining that qualifies the great fact that God made the event in question absolutely certain. That preposition is one of time, and merely marks the priority of the determining to the executing of the act. The time when God predestinated those heathen at Ephesus to become Christians, another part of this passage will show us beyond any questioning.

We give but one more parallel passage to illustrate the point now in hand. "Of a truth against thy holy child, Jesus, whom

thou hast anointed, both Herod and Pontius Pilate, with the Gentiles, and the people of Israel, were gathered together, for to do whatsoever thy hand, and thy counsel determined before [wpwopise] to be done." Acts iv. 27, 28. In all which solemn scene and awful transactions of the crucifixion that mixed multitude accomplished only what had been purposed and planned and made certain of God.

Here the word is identical with the one in the text under examination. So by the same word and with the same certainty with which God is said to have predetermined the crucifixion he called out and bounded off from the rest that Ephesian company that was "blessed with all spiritual blessings." As property, previously mortgaged and marked for the benefit of some one, was said to be "predestinated," so bringing the word, and perhaps idea, over from classic to evangelical Greek, those privately marked of God and secured to his Son as a part of his inheritance, were said to be "predestinated" to that end. So do we find from the New Testament use of this word that it is employed to express a purpose or plan that has a fixedness and certainty of result.

It is

It redate. Back of

So the Psalmsays, "Before Psalms xc. 2.

God,

The purpose of God, in the execution of which those persons were made Christians, was eternal. For they were chosen in Christ before the foundation of the world." This was a common expression for those days, meaning before the foundation of the world was laid, or before the world began. one of the simplest terms they had to express eternity. fers to a time anterior to which we can fix no and beyond that head-land is illimitable ocean. ist, when wishing to ascribe eternity to the mountains were brought forth," etc. In that dim, unknown past, therefore, unmarked by eras or epochs in the cycles of time, God chose those Ephesians for adoption through Christ into his family. It was no afterthought with him when he saw what the apostle was doing in that heathen city. It was no second thought with him to choose some of them to be Christians after he saw that they had chosen Christ. It was no carrying out of some previous indefinite and general purpose to save somebody at the city of the great Diana if some apostle should happen to preach