Christ there, and some of the people should happen to believe in him. "According as he hath chosen us in him before the foundation of the world." So then before Paul preached at Ephesus; before the coming of Christ; before a Saviour was promised to Adam; before the dust of which Adam was formed was created; "before the foundation of the world ;" far back in that unmeasured, undefinable eternity, occupied as yet only by God and his waiting purposes, then he chose certain of those worshippers of Diana to become members of Christ's church, "holy and without blame before him."

This choosing and predestinating of certain men was unto holiness. They were to be "holy and without blame before him. in love." Heaven and eternal life were doubtless ultimate aims with God, yet the direct object had in view was their holiness. The object was not that they might live in sin, and dying enter into glory. Such act of God as is shown in predestinating and choosing does in no way encourage sin, for it is a divine act put forth specifically to secure holiness.

So no one may comfort himself under this predestinating doctrine except as he is holy. Holiness is the only proof that one is chosen of God. If one has no holiness he may so far infer that he is passed by. If one would make his calling and election sure, he must strive for it by striving for personal holiness. It is both untrue and sinful for one to say that if he is chosen of God to eternal life he will be saved, do what he may. For God chooses a man that he may become "holy and without blame," and that he become such, the man himself must look to it.

66

God chose and predestinated those individuals unto such holiness and privilege because it pleased him so to do. It was done according to the good pleasure of his will." That he chose some and omitted others is evident, both from the language and from the fact. Why he chose one rather than another is unexplained, except by the statement, "according to the good. pleasure of his will." It was not that he foresaw that they would be Christians. This would be contrary to the reason here given, while it would be but allowing God to endorse a conclusion to which they had of themselves come. Foreseen good works were not the cause or ground of their being chosen.

For Paul says they were chosen that they "should be holy," not because they were, or because it was foreseen that they would be. Their holiness and unblamableness were that whereunto they were predestined, and not the reason for their predestination. That reason lay only in "the good pleasure of his will." He chose some and omitted others because it was his pleasure so to do.

Elsewhere God announces with great clearness this policy, "I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy."

Of course this cannot imply that God acts without good and sufficient reasons in this thing. A being of infinite wisdom, all his conduct is with infinite reasonableness. What this passage affirms is, that the ground for the distinction, that God made among those worshippers of Diana, was not in the persons themselves. They were alike in claim and equally and totally unworthy. The reason for taking some rather than others, or for leaving others, lay far back in "the good pleasure of his will." Wise and well were it for us to leave the matter there, remembering that "it is the glory of God to conceal a thing."

This purpose and work of God by which he secured the salvation of certain ones at Ephesus were the fruit of his glorious grace. That it was done was "to the praise of the glory of his grace." "The glory of his grace," is a Hebraism, for "his glorious grace." This grace, Paul teaches us, must have all the credit and praise for that saving work at Ephesus. Those persons had no title to such favors. Unchosen and unmoved of God, they never would have become "holy and without blame before him." They would have remained as hostile to Christianity and as heathenish, as their fellow-citizens whom God's choosing passed over. Unobligated and self-moved, what God did in this thing was wholly a gratuity, a charity. It was bestowed on those both undeserving and ill-deserving. Nay, more, on those both undesiring and resisting. To make holy men and dear children of such persons in such circumstances, was, most assuredly, "to the praise of the glory of his grace.'

And if God should adopt the same number into his family in any place, at any time, there would be good reason for saying with Paul-"Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ."

is

This passage, that we have thus opened in a popular way, not without its practical lessons. If it is right for God to regenerate a man, and constitute him an heir of eternal life, it is right to intend to do it. And if it would be right to intend to do it immediately before doing it, then it would be right for God to intend to do it so long before, even centuries, as he could foresee all the attendant circumstances. Then, since God foresees all events from eternity, it is right for him to have eternal intentions and purposes to regenerate and save certain men. Nor can there be any reasonable complaint of God's executing these eternal purposes, since they work out only holiness and happiness and heaven for men. The entire result is good, and that exceedingly, to the subject. To purpose to make a man holy, and then do it, cannot be improper. It makes an unregenerate man regenerate, an impure man pure, a sinful man holy, a miserable man happy, an enemy of God his friend. This is all right, praiseworthy, glorious. It makes no man more impure, or sinful, or miserable.

If one dislikes this choosing unto holiness, and this predestinating unto the adoption of children, and is jealous lest God's purpose and plan infringe on human liberty, he may be quieted and comforted by one of two considerations. First, if God does not predestinate a man to holiness, he lets him alone, and so no complaint can arise that his liberty is injured, by coming under the power of predestination. Or, secondly, if God infringes on the rights of any by predestinating them to holiness and heaven, it is to be remembered that they will forever praise him for doing it, and so others who have no personal interest in it should be content.

Some men dislike this doctrine. They esteem it repulsive, giving harsh views of God, making men bold in sin if converted, and careless in impenitence if unconverted, since salvation is a matter of naked, stern, and eternal predestination. They think the doctrine unprofitable to a congregation or individual. Yet Paul opens this Epistle with it. To him it is practical, profitable, comforting. He is very grateful to God for such truth, and after the first formula of salutation in his letter to Ephesus, he breaks forth in exultation and thanksgiving for it. Would all our churches, that profess to follow

Paul, like such letters? Would all our preachers, who confess loudly to a Pauline theology, like to write and read such letters to the churches? If candidates for settlement, would they do it?

Men fail of appreciating the goodness of God by shutting up this doctrine in too narrow limits in their system of faith. They crowd it into a corner, as a small item, or unprofitable, and then, some of them, out of their creed.

But as a matter of fact this doctrine of predestination to holiness stands in the scheme of redemption just where Paul has placed it in this Epistle at the opening. It has the first place. The goodness of God moves him to save. He determines that he will. The determination, to prove certain in result and beyond failure, must rest on persons. This is predestinating them. Then the atonement follows, as a means to a previously fixed end; then gospel truth, then conviction and regeneration by the Holy Ghost. So predestination to eternal life leads off in this series of glorious truths. So Paul exults first in this truth, and first exalts the goodness of God out of which it springs.

ARTICLE VII.

AFTER THE STORM.

ALL night, in the pauses of sleep, I heard
The moan of the Snow-wind and the Sea,
Like the wail of Thy sorrowing children, O God!
Who cry unto Thee.

But in beauty and silence the morning broke,
O'erflowing creation the glad light streamed;
And earth stood shining and white as the souls
Of the blessed redeemed.

O glorious marvel in darkness wrought!
With smiles of promise the blue sky bent,
As if to whisper to all who mourn

Love's hidden intent.

ARTICLE VIII.

CENTRES OF MINISTERIAL INFLUENCE.

By such centres, we mean high places in the church from which the streams of influence naturally flow; cities set on an hill whose light cannot be shut out of the valleys; vortices towards which the multitude gravitates. Of course, then, ours is the popular rather than the scientific meaning of the word.

It has seemed to us that the genus Minister falls into three species with reference to such centres.

First, those who care little or nothing about them. They go where they are first called. Conscious chiefly of a love to the people for Christ's sake, they have little care for the latitude or the altitude of the place in which they exercise that love. Their daily influence streams into the character of their people as the imponderable sunlight enters into the solid substance of vegetation.

They do what the rain-drops do, falling on the smooth surface of a lake, each a distinct centre of force and movement, yet soon lost to human sight because contributing itself wholly to a common useful result. But as to the world's recognizing and honoring this influence, it never enters their thought save perhaps as a flitting vision, or as an intruder that is at once to be cast out.

By far the larger part of all the good done by the Christian ministry, is done by men of this type. From the hills and valleys of New England to the broad levels of the Western prairies these are the saving forces in the ministry; the silent gravitation that gives to the church consistency and perpetuity; the oxygen that is the vital element of the atmosphere, although no mortal sustained by it hath ever heard its voice or seen its shape.

Secondly, those who make a centre of influence of whatever place they chance to fall upon. They are conscious of power, and know that it will make itself felt. They are ambitious of influence, but indifferent as to the place from which it is sent abroad. So they work on resolutely and with high motive, depending more upon what they are and do than upon their