(Continued from page 264.)

So far we have dwelt upon the Church considered as the Body of Christ, and as the House or Temple of God. Looked at as the Body, the Church exhibits the constitution and the activities belonging to the corporate relationships of the saints, as indwelt by the Spirit, and vitally united to Christ the Head. As House, the emphasis is rather upon the priestly functions of the saints, their responsibilities in government, and their testimony. In either aspect we have features common to the other, and both are intimately connected with what is now to engage us.

III.-THE CHURCH AS BRIDE

"Wives, submit yourselves unto your own husbands as unto the Lord. For the husband is head of the wife, even as Christ is the head of the Church, and He is the Saviour of the body. Therefore as the Church is subject unto Christ, so let the wives be to their own husbands in everything. Husbands, love your wives, even as Christ also loved the Church, and gave Himself for it; that He might sanctify and cleanse it by the washing of water by the word, that He might present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle or any such thing; but that it should be holy and without blemish. So ought men to love their wives as their own bodies. He that loveth his wife loveth himself. For no man ever yet hated his own flesh, but nourisheth and cherisheth it, even as the Lord the Church; for we are members of his body, of his flesh, and of his bones. For this cause shall a man leave his father and mother, and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be one flesh. This is a great mystery:but I speak concerning Christ and the Church" (Eph. 5:22-32).

This passage is given in full, that we may have it before us in dwelling upon this most engaging aspect of our relationship to our blessed Lord. As the Body suggests life and activity, and the House, privilege and responsibility, so the Bride tells of the affections. "Love is of God," and we come nearest, perhaps, to His heart in dwelling upon the bridal relations of the Church of Christ than in the other views we have been considering. "It is not good that man should be alone," applies no less to the Last Adam than to the first-it was indeed God's first thought. We find therefore in that first bridal relationship many points of resemblance to the full and final display of the heart and of the joy of God in what He has in store for His beloved Son.

The bride of Christ must be "of one" with Himself. Nothing that God had made of all the creatures would serve as a help-meet for Adam. From himself must be taken the bone and flesh of which the Divine Artificer "builds" the bride and companion for him. The "deep sleep" speaks of a deeper and more solemn sleep into which the Lord entered, the sleep of death, through which alone He could yield that from Himself which would be formed into His Church. Thus are we-by nature sinners and alienated from God-made His brethren, who is not ashamed to own us as that. It was for this that He took part in flesh and blood that through death He might annul our captor's power, and deliver us from that deathful bondage. So Christ "loved the Church and gave Himself for it."

God presented Eve to the awakened Adam, who recognizes her as "bone of my bones, and flesh of my flesh:she shall be called woman -isshah-for she was taken out of man-ish." Thus she is given his name, generically as one with himself, and in contrast with all the other creatures. "This time it is bone of my bones," etc. (Gen. 2:23). So God "called their name Adam" (Gen. 5:2). Thus we have a wondrous glimpse of the link of the Church with her Head and Lord, with His name called upon her. "So also is the Christ" (1 Cor. 12:12); "Why persecutest thou Me,? "(Acts 9:4); "He that is joined to the Lord is one Spirit" (1 Cor. 6:17). We see how closely connected are the thoughts of the body and the bride. "He is the Saviour of the body." We are "quickened together with Christ" (Eph. 2:5).

Let us now look more closely at the passage we have quoted. We find in it a beautiful blending of grace and of responsibility, taken from the closest of earthly relationships, and, as we have seen, those relationships were in the heart of God as the higher and more enduring ones of Christ and the Church.

In passing we might note the goodness of God in thus linking the sweetest of earthly ties with the holiest of heavenly ones. What completer picture of what a husband should be in love, self-relinquishment, care and tenderness than in the love and care of Christ for the Church! What subjection in love could be fuller than that of the Church to her Lord? And what inducement could be holier and sweeter for every Christian home? And, by contrast, how the heavenly relationship shows the awful condition of the world in the basic tie of marriage with its loose practices of careless independence, culminating in frequent divorce. But we return to our proper theme.

We speak first of the greater theme-"Christ loved the church, and gave Himself for it." The spring here is, not our love to Him, feeble at best, but His-"He first loved us." Nor does this divine spring of love have its source in time. He did not begin to love the Church after He came to earth. "Though He was rich, yet for your sakes He became poor" (2 Cor. 8:9). He was rich in glory, the glory He had with the Father before the world was, and we trace to its eternal source the love that was in the Lord's heart for His church. How amazing, how sweetly solemn is this truth. Let our souls drink it in that we may realize more fully that which "passeth knowledge." A love that had its source in heaven and in eternity cannot rest till it has its objects with itself in heaven for all eternity.

"He gave Himself for it." It is not merely incarnation that we have here-amazing truth as it is-but the cross. The word for this giving Himself is,παρέδωκεv, "delivered Himself up," and suggests the complete self-relinquishment of our Lord. It was no martyr's death, no great example for others merely, but it stands out in its unique, solemn and divine fulness-the death of the cross. Here He bore ail the guilt, entered into all the distance, endured all the wrath of God's forsaking. Mingled with the groans of Gethsemane, the "strong crying and tears," with the sweat falling in great blood-drops to the ground; accompanying the meek relinquishment to the arrest by the betrayer's perfidy-the same word, the "deliverer up;" in the palace of the priest and in the hall of judgment; arrayed in mockery in royal robes, smitten, spit upon and crowned with thorns; nailed to the cursed tree, mocked, railed upon and blasphemed; down in the fathomless abyss of forsaking wrath and judgment-we hear the breathings of divine, eternal love; "Christ loved the Church and gave Himself for it."

"Oh, my Saviour crucified, near Thy cross would I abide,
Gazing with adoring eye on Thy dying agony."

O Church of Christ, O saints of God, behold the manner of the love of Christ. Thus has He loved us-"from everlasting to everlasting." What does it mean to us? What our response to it? Was ever bride sought and won at such cost? In the light of love like this the "pomp and glory," the folly and pride, the sin and shame of this poor groaning earth are seen at their true value, and cast, as the scarlet and hyssop, into the consuming flames of His cross.

"My richest gain I count but loss,
And pour contempt on all my pride."

We too take our place beside the two women, so unlike in their past, so united in their present and future, and pour out all the wealth of our souls upon His pierced feet. We too learn to say with the bride of old, "Thy love is better than wine;" "My Beloved is mine and I am His;" "My beloved is white and ruddy, the chiefest among ten thousand;" "Yea, He is altogether lovely;" "Make haste, my beloved." (It is significant that in the arrangement of the books in the Hebrew Bible among the Kethubim, or holy writings, the Song of Solomon just precedes the book of Ruth; the one giving the affections, and the other the grace that has brought her into the dignity and wealth of her new position.)

"That He might sanctify and cleanse it, with the washing of water by the word." Even divine love could not have its rest with a bride unsanctified, or with spotted garments. So we see how our Lord endured all suffering to make her "meet companion then for Jesus." He delivered Himself up, thus laying the righteous basis upon which the work of sanctification might be done. It is no superficial cleansing, no external sanctification, but, based on the cross and sacrifice of our Lord Jesus, involves the complete setting aside of our old man, and our acceptance in the Beloved. The washing of water is the laver of regeneration, the impartation of a new life and nature. The divinely appointed instrument of this is "the Word," the application of the Scripture of truth in the power of the Holy Spirit. The life is thus an intelligent one, in which the newborn soul recognizes that all is of God. We can distinguish but not separate between the work of the Spirit in us, and the justification and acceptance of the believer on the ground of our Lord's work, and in Him. Here is matter for happy meditation rather than philosophic discussion. May the Lord lead us into an increasing apprehension of its blessedness.

It is His work from first to last, therefore it must satisfy Him. Every attribute of His holy nature is satisfied. He has made His bride meet for that place in light and glory which is her eternal portion. All is from Him as all is for Him, therefore to Him is all the praise.

Doubtless, too, this cleansing by the Word is that daily washing of the feet, described in John 13. "Part with Me" includes not only the bathing of regeneration once for all, but the daily cleansing of our walk and ways to make them answer to His desires for us, and to enable us to enjoy the sweetness of fellowship with Himself. Soon, in the approaching day of glory, this will be complete, but here in the wilderness He would have us enjoy in anticipation the blessedness of this.

Notice, too, the place of the Word in all this. What honor He has put upon that. It is one of the causes for deepest sorrow that His Word is so lightly valued in these days. It is God's instrument in new birth-"born again, not of corruptible seed but of incorruptible, by the word of God that liveth and abideth forever." It is also His instrument in the practical sanctification of His people. Our Lord associates it with the keeping of His people separate from the evil in the world. "I sanctify them through Thy truth, Thy word is truth."
Let us pause a moment and ask how the Church, in its practical walk and testimony, answers to this wealth of grace. Has the unutterable love of Christ possessed our souls, individually and collectively, so completely that we do respond to these divine affections? Shall we forget that He yearns over us with an unchanging desire? As we look about us, and listen to the mingled voices of the multitudes of professing believers, is it unkind to recognize the discordant notes of self-interest, self-praise, conformity to the world? Do the words, "Thou hast left thy first love" apply? Or even the more solemn ones, "Thou art neither cold nor hot?" May we lay aside our boasting, and take our proper place low at His feet in confession of our condition. This becomes us, to be at Bochim for ourselves and the whole Church of the present day. The Lord grant that we may be found there. S. R.

(To be continued, if the Lord please.)