By A. E. B.

(Concluded from page 165.)

We come now to the various headships of the Lord. In this chapter we get two of them. First He is called, " First-born of all creation "-which means that our Lord has the first place over the whole created universe, both heaven and earth. This includes all those principalities and powers on high, angels and archangels, as well as all upon the earth. This is the largest headship that is given to our Lord in the Scriptures, and it is very wonderful for our contemplation. All things are for Him. That is God's purpose. All this double sphere-heaven and earth-is to be for the display of the glory of His Son. Although sin has entered both the heavens and the earth, yet He is "Head over all things," and superintends creation. But by-and-by the heavens and the earth will display His glory, as never seen before, when there shall be no trace left of sin or evil-when God shall be all in all. This is wonderful truth; and we believers, forgiven, delivered, redeemed, know Him who fills this place as our own Lord and Saviour.

A Second headship. "The head of every man is Christ," (i Cor. 11:3). This headship is not so large as the one of our chapter. The passage becomes quite simple if we compare it with a few other scriptures. He came first to His own-the Jews; they refused to give Him His right place in their midst. Now He is risen and glorified and God has given Him power, (authority) over all flesh, not Jews simply, but all flesh, that He should give eternal life to as many as God had given Him. "He is Lord of all," and so has a right to send Peter with the gospel to the Gentiles, (Acts 10:36). He has authority over all flesh, (John 17:2), and is the head of every man. In this second headship, the heaven is not included, nor the principalities of those places. Hence this headship becomes much smaller than that of Col. 1:

Third. We will look at another sphere of His authority. "That He might be Lord both of the dead and of the living," (Rom. 14:9). This passage opens up for us the unseen world, into which the dead have passed, and we learn that He has the keys of death and hades. All there are subject to His word and call; this includes both the saved and the unsaved. Hence in due time, in divine order, all shall rise at His word. The saints raised for glory, and the unsaved to appear before Him, whom they have refused-for judgment. How solemn a truth this is, for all who have died unsaved, especially men like Robert Ingersoll and Thomas Paine; bold blasphemers as they were, yet they will be subject to Christ in that day and own His authority to their own destruction.

Fourth. Again we continue further. When the Lord comes again to the earth (after our translation to heaven as in i Thess. 4:13-18), then Israel as a nation will be restored to their land, (Ezek. 36). After this the nations, long in heathen darkness, will be brought into millennial favor and blessing, and our Lord will become then "the Head of the heathen," and the strangers shall submit themselves unto Him, (Psa. 18:44; Psa. 66:3, see marginal reading).

All these headships of our Lord declare to us the greatness of His power, glory and majesty. Now we will return to our chapter again, Col. i, and note the second headship given there. " And He is the head of the body, the Church," (ver. 18). In this passage we come to what especially concerns us now, the subject of our highly privileged dispensation. He is the Head of the Church. In this we touch the special theme or ministry given to the apostle Paul to unfold, styled "the mystery." The Church occupies a new and different relationship to that enjoyed by all saints in past ages, as also those of the future age, the millennium. Because we are not only saved, redeemed, and possessors of eternal life, but we have received also the Holy Spirit, and thus are now associated with our Lord in heaven as Head of the Church, and fellow-members of His mystical body on the earth. This last is especially Paul's theme, and there is a nearness, and a sweetness about this place, and the grace attached to it that is very elevating, calling for special praise and holy worship, I Cor. 12, Eph. 3, and Col. i give us this theme. The Church is the body of Christ. She is the spouse or bride of a glorified Saviour, and she awaits the return of her Lord, when she shall be presented as a chaste virgin to Him, without spot or wrinkle (Eph. 5). This place given to us in the New Testament is a place of immense importance and great nearness to our Lord. To illustrate it, we will refer to" King Edward of England. We view his vast dominions and his glory as head over that great empire on various seas, and the multitude of his subjects enjoying great blessings and manifold privileges:but in the whole empire, and among all his subjects, none have the position and nearness to him like that of queen Alexandra. She is his bride-companion. This is small illustration. But oh, the grand reality! In all the universe over which our Lord is Head, heaven and earth, angels and men, none shall have the place of nearness that the Church will have with the Lord on high. She shall be the bride, the companion of a glorified Saviour, the queen Alexandra of the heavens, without a flaw that might be attached to the figure, and all resplendent with His grace and His glory. How immense the grace! How wonderful the glory!

Now, having seen the double headship of this chapter, we will notice two thoughts more that run to the close of this 1st chapter. There is a double reconciliation that follows this double headship. First, a reconciliation that includes each member of the one body over which He is Head, a reconciliation that we enjoy now, (vs. 21, 22). This is what the ministry of the gospel brings us into now. Second, there is also a future reconciliation, which will include all things in the heavens (one sphere of His headship) ; and all things on earth (the other sphere of His headship). In the '' age to come " all evil shall be expelled from both spheres, when all things in the heavens and on the earth will be reconciled, cleansed and beautified, and in the eternal state God shall be all in all. This is the future and second reconciliation of this chapter (ver. 20).

Now we give the closing thoughts to the end of the chapter, which give a double ministry. First, the gospel ministry; this goes out now and is proclaimed to all creation under heaven. It is the power of God unto salvation, and by it the different members are gathered together, and the Holy Spirit, indwelling them, forms the Church, the body. Strange, very strange, that those who profess to be God's people should ever think lightly, or speak lightly of such a blessed ministry. It is the first of the double ministry of this chapter.

Second, "for His body's sake, which is the Church, whereof I am made minister," (J. N. D's version), In this we get the ministry that follows up and completes the. first. The first, the gospel, flows out to all creation under heaven, and gathers sinners, and they are brought out of the darkness into the light, formed and placed in the Church, the body. This is the beginning of the work; then the building up, the ministry of love amongst those gathered and united to Christ is necessary unto the end. Both ministries are essential. The Lord, the head of the Church, in His love and tender care has given gifts to fill both those spheres of service, and we do well not to underrate either. Both are required for the fulfilment of God's purposes, and that He might be glorified in His own work, and also that His beloved people, brought so near to Him and His beloved Son, might receive the continued blessing through those different channels. Next, that sinners may be continually converted and the body of Christ completed, when we shall be gathered all home to glory, to enter the heavenly inheritance, marked out for us before the foundation of the world.

"Unto Him be glory in the Church, by Christ Jesus, throughout all ages, world without end. Amen."