Some think that this wonderful letter from the prison-house in Rome to the Ephesian saints was actually a circular letter sent to all the little communities of believers that Paul had visited, and that each several copy had inserted in a blank space, left for that purpose, the name of the particular assembly for which it was intended. It was, in its first form, a sort of blank cheque, without the name of the payee.

We may never know the truth of the matter, and it would not do just simply to speculate about it. There is, however, a possibility that it may be true, and we should seek to realize not merely on the certainties but also on the uncertainties of Scripture. We might carry the analogy of the check still further, and think of the letter as a check in which indeed figures have been inserted, but where the drawer has left blank the space for eagles, dollars or cents, to be filled in by the payee as he will. Mr. Bramwell Booth, of the Salvation Army, once had a check tendered him, with the amount to be filled out as he had faith, and his faith partially failed him, and his bank account suffered because of it. So it it with us constantly. We do not realize on all our blessings.

The blank space for the name of the addressee, however, suggests a question. How appropriate is the superscription, "saints and faithful," for the little association of gatherings with which we are individually connected! Could each rightfully lay claim to one of the copies? Are its members saints? Are they actually faithful brethren? Usage has associated with the name "saint" high and lofty virtues, and the word, "saintliness," with such noble consecration of life to God and man, such beauty of character, such ideal motivation, such unselfishness of service, that through these there dimly shine out the "excellencies of Him" who has "called us out of darkness into His. marvelous light." Saints, in this accrued sense, in fact fulfil God's purpose, as Peter phrases it, in calling them.

And "faithful." It is a lowlier word than "saint," yet implies such devotion to duty and office that perhaps no higher encomium may be uttered, and our Lord commends it to us as the object of our ambition, in His parable of service, by the "Well done, thou good and faithful servant."

As I write, my thoughts have traveled far away from America to the lonely island of Tanna, in the distant Pacific. The island has been visited by a veritable plague that has been sweeping away life after life, and a party of natives and a black follower of Jesus, a tried companion of that noble missionary, J. G. Paton, are grouped on the beach with their belongings, ready to sail away and leave the stricken to their fate. The white man is speaking:"Abraham, they are all going; are you also going to leave me here alone on Tanna to fight the battles of the Lord?" "Missi, our danger is very great now. Missi, would you like me to remain alone with you, seeing my-wife is dead and in her grave here?" "Yes, but considering the circumstances, I cannot plead with you to do so," he answers. "Then, Missi, I remain with you of my own free choice and with all my heart. We will live and die together in the work of the Lord. I will never leave you while you are spared on Tanna."

And Abraham, another son of the father of the faithful, proves -true to his word:"So saying, with a light that gave the fore-gleam of a martyr's glory to his dark face, he shouldered his box and bundles back to his own house."

In this instance, as it should in all cases, the word "faithful" is a happy companion to the word "saint," in its technical sense of "one separated to God." One who is "faithful" to his position as a saint near to God, in being faithful unconsciously assumes all that lovely character, which the world, at large, has joined to the word.

But the word "faithful" has also another link with the word "saint." In the New Testament the Greek word for it is often translated "believing." You will remember that upon a notable occasion- our blessed Lord once said to a disciple:"Be not faithless, but believing." A legitimate translation might also have made it:"Be not faithless, but faithful." This suggests that the prime essential for faithfulness is believing faith. Now faith is that which leads us to God. "Without faith it is impossible to please Him, for he that cometh to God must believe that He is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him." This being led to God then is the first step in that separation of which saintship speaks. Then the welcome from God seals the adventure with His benison. It is, in each case, the old, old story of the younger son dramatized and etched in living light. The prodigal comes to the Father. The Father runs to meet the prodigal. The Father's arms and the Father's welcome home ennoble him with "saintship." Another prodigal is now a saint. What sweet attractiveness there is in each re-told story. And as long as the prodigal keeps joyously believing in that blessed Father, he remains faithful.

A writer, whose name slips me, has characterized a saint as one "who makes it easier for others to come to God." How the stories of other prodigals all down the ages start again the music and the feasting! How the welcome of these prodigals preaching it, with the light of its gladness in their hearts, has been summoning home poor wanderers, just as that of the prodigal in Luke IS has done. How in this way do they continuously make it "easier for others to come to God."

"Grace be unto you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ."

It is somewhat astonishing to find, throughout the epistles, that the apostle's prayers are elicited by good news of believers. Consider for instance, the 15th and 16th verses of this first chapter of Ephesians, the fourth and fifth verses of the first chapter of Philippians, the third and fourth verses of the first of Colossians, the second and third verses of the first chapter of 1 Thessalonians, as illustration. This fact surely bespeaks in clarion tones the universal need of Christians for the prayers of others. .The invocation of grace and peace on the saints and faithful is as clamant of a similar need. Occurring regularly at the beginning of all Paul's letters, we might regard it as something stereotyped and formal, a set greeting that the apostle has become habituated in using. Actually, however, it is anything but stereotyped. This is confirmed by the fact that it occurs in variously modified forms, at the close of his letters also. Their necessity shouted aloud to him, and the response of his heart to that necessity was overflowing and abundant.

Possibly also this double benison, "grace and peace," whispers to us of the Greek and Hebrew forms of salutation. The Greek constantly began his letters with a "Chaire" (hail) and he also used it as a spoken greeting. The word "chaire" is believed to be derived from "Charis" (grace). The Hebrew, in his turn, was accustomed to say, "shalam aleikum" (peace be with you). If the spirit of these greetings in their true significance always shed its fragrance among the assemblies of the "saints " they themselves would then be promoters of the apostle's benediction. One of John Newton's most popular hymns has often attested in power our individual indebtedness to "grace," and has breathed forth a prayer that we ever need to utter, so I quote it here:
"Could we bear from one another
What He daily bears from us?
Yet this glorious Friend and Brother
Loves us, though we treat Him thus,
Though we render good for ill,
He esteems us brethren still.

"Oh, that grace our hearts might soften!
Teach us, Lord, at length to love I
We forget-alas, how often!-
What a Friend we have above.
Yet when home our souls are brought,
We shall love Him as we ought."

Grace and peace then serve to cement together the assembly of God. They serve to make it indeed "spiritual," for, with these prevailing, it is carnal strife that is "excommunicated" and the "communion of saints" is practically strengthened. How sad it is that after greeting an assembly in this way, Paul is in one instance compelled to write:"And I, brethren, could not speak unto you as spiritual but as unto carnal-for whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?" And that Corinthian lament is not mute for us, even today.

Notice also that these Christian blessings well forth from two inexhaustible springs:"from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." Campbell Morgan, in his "Crises of the Christ" has beautifully rearranged several well-known phrases from the 1st chapter of John that reach their climax in grace as the revelation of God.

In the beginning was the Word and the Word became flesh

And the Word was with God and tabernacled among us

And the Word was God . .. full of grace and truth.

Yes, grace and truth became (as a literal rendering would word it) by Jesus Christ. And the marvelous "kenosis" of the second of Philippians rehearses the grand message, while like the echo of the sweet angel-song near Bethlehem we men "of good-will" breathe in that peace that impregnated the divine mission of our Saviour, for verily we know "the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ, who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor, that we through His poverty might be made rich." "Grace be with all those that love our Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity." F. C. Grant

(To be continued, D. V.)