changed. Perhaps there is here an explanation of his caution to Mary, as she would throw herself at his feet. It may be that he means to assure her of the reality of his presence. "Do not lay hold of me as if I were a ghost; I am with you still." But another interpretation refers to his promise that after his ascent to the Father they should again see him and he would abide with them. They shall then know him no more after the flesh, but he shall be in them and abide with them. But his risen appearances neither renewed the old nor realized the future conditions. They prepared the way for the fulfilment of his promise by assuring the disciples' faith.

This victory over hampering conditions is ever being repeated. No longer is the Word of God bound anywhere in the world. Wider and freer grows the life of the Church, the body of Christ. Continually is it being renewed, and, risen with its Lord, is entering into newness of life. And because of this promise and potency of enlarging life, Christianity is the religion of hope and of progress. In its hands are the keys of the future. On its horizon the golden age is ever beckoning us on. "If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above."

Edward McArthur Noyes.

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1

THE NEW LIFE IN CHRIST

COL. 3: 1-15

"If then ye were raised together with Christ, seek the things that are above, where Christ is," etc.

The New Testament letters were written to meet the then present needs of the churches and persons to which they were addressed. To interpret this letter to the Colossians, we must understand as far as we can their condition when Paul wrote to them.

Colossæ was about one hundred and fifty miles east of Ephesus, a considerable journey for that time. But it was on the high road from the latter city to the Euphrates River, and its principal business, the traffic in dyed wools, brought its people into close relations with the Ephesians. Paul had never visited Colossæ (Col. 2: 1), but his intimate friend, Epaphras, had been the pastor of the church there (1:7, 8), perhaps its founder, and had greatly interested Paul in its members by telling them of their character and work. Paul knew Philemon, who lived in that city, and Onesimus, his slave (4:9), and other Colossians. He understood the influences which were disturbing and dividing the church there. Probably Epaphras had told him of them. But in his three years at Ephesus he must have become acquainted with those religious ideas of which he warned men and which he fought against because they hindered men from knowing and following Christ. The same ideas were working in the church at Laodicea also, which was not far away. Paul directed that his letter to each church should be read to the other (4:16).

If we may judge from the epistle, Epaphras had brought to Paul tidings which quickened his anxiety concerning the Colossian Christians. They were being led astray by plausible talkers, Judaizers who had followed in his path through Asia Minor, against whom he had constantly contended ever since his return from his first missionary journey. These men preached a useless and false philosophy (2:8), making religion to consist in obeying certain rules. These preachers sought to persuade the Colossians that in order to be Christians they must be circumcised (2:11), that they must observe distinctions in food and in drink, in observing holidays and Sabbaths (2:16), and that they must worship angels (2:18). This preaching laid great stress on abstinence from marriage and from meat and drink; on the enforcement of rigid rules of asceticism, holding up as their motto, "Handle not, nor taste, nor touch." Paul declares that, though these things make a show of piety, they are not of any real value in subduing fleshly appetites. Not long after Paul wrote this letter he wrote to Timothy, declaring in still stronger language his abhorrence of such teachings, characterizing them as "doctrines of devils" (1 Tim. 4:1-5).

In contrast to this life by which men seek to satisfy their consciences by observing forms and ceremonies, by abstaining from the satisfying of physical appetites, by keeping feasts and Sabbaths, Paul puts before the Colossians a new life, whose motive is love to Christ, whose relation to him is so constant and controlling that the believer is in Christ. and Christ in him. In the part of the letter we are now considering the apostle puts before the Colossian Christians these three things:—

I. The acceptance of the risen life.

Christ died and rose again. On those facts Christian faith rests unshaken. If they had not been believed, apostles would not have preached. "If Christ hath not been

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raised, then is our preaching vain, your faith also is vain," Paul said. But the resurrection of Christ put all his disciples in a new relation to the world. As his first followers were hopeless and despairing when he was crucified, but jubilant, filled with new thoughts and purposes, when they found him alive again, so every one who finds Christ as his Saviour is a new man. "Because I live," Christ says to him, "ye shall live also." its hallowed associations. His sins are forgiven. He is at peace with God. He has divine work to do. He has holy beings to love. He is to fit himself for their everlasting companionship. What power remains to such a man of fleshly temptations which he might once have sought to subdue by rules? One may patiently scrape the frost from the windows of a fireless room on a wintry day, only to see it return again almost before he has seen the world without. But when once the fire is kindled within, the frost vanishes of itself. The warm atmosphere does easily that which mechanism cannot do. Fix your mind on the things that belong to you, said the apostle. Christ is yours. Accept the fact. When you received him as your Saviour and Lord, you died to the things of earth, which he left behind when he ascended to the right hand of God. Your interests are with him. Your life is with him, hid from common eyes. His power and love will be manifested some day, when men come to know him as he is. Then they will understand what your life is also. It will appear glorious, as his will appear. Take full advantage of your new life. Let your thoughts be with God.

Heaven is his. He is to share all

II. The discipline of the risen life.

It has wings, but it has also weights. Make dead the appetites which hold you down. Does lustful passion claim your attention? You love Christ. Cultivate that love by thinking of him till you measure every feeling by the sense of his presence, and base passions will die. Do you thirst

for strong drink? No drunkard can inherit the kingdom of heaven. But you have inherited it. Possess your inheritance. The new affection for the spiritual good is stronger

in

you than the old passion for physical pleasure, for Christ is in you. Honor him. Do you long for other people's possessions to which you have no right? You cannot fix your mind on these objects of desire without making idols of them. Take your mind off from them; fix your thoughts on Christ. God's wrath comes on those who let themselves be governed by their desires for these earthly, evil things. But you will not escape them by making rules for treating them. You put off the old man only by putting on the new man. Anger against others, malicious desire to injure them, insulting words and coarse speech addressed to them or about them, lying-all these belong with the old life which you have put away. Keep it away. You can do it by learning every day more of the Christ whom you have accepted as your Saviour, with whom, risen from the dead, your thoughts and affections abide. Thus you are being changed into his likeness. All external distinctions grow insignificant among those who are coming into the image of Christ. Whether they are Jews or Gentiles, slaves or freemen, circumcised or uncircumcised, is of small consequence to those who are Christians. It makes no difference whether you are rich or poor, Catholic or Protestant, male or female, if only you have made Christ supreme in your life. All things will come right to you if only you are true to him.

III. The experience of the risen life.

You are God's chosen ones. You represent him to men. You must feel towards men as he feels. Cultivate, as his sons and daughters, kindness, courtesy, modesty, patience. See the best things in those you live with. Use your wit to bring out these things and make them grow. Let your brethren work thus with you to make what is divine in you