(Continued from p. 363.)

"According as He hath chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."

The phrase, "according to, or, "according as," occurs about twelve times in the first three chapters of this epistle. It is a prominent copulative in Ephesians 1:3-14, which the eminent New Testament Greek scholar, A. T. Robertson, has, from a linguistic viewpoint, pronounced a "noble period" in Paul's writings. Its nobility of thought, too, far surpasses its linguistic beauty, and these "according to's" are harmonious links in the sequence of that thought. They are liaison officers in the stately march of the argument.

The instance in our text yokes the subject of our last "browsing" to that of the present. It not merely suggests the harmonies of God's way with us, the fine inter-lacings of His providences, but in some sort makes each the gauge of the other. "All spiritual blessings in heavenly places in Christ," are lined out against, "Chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world to be holy." In each verse is GOD, infinitely wise, infinitely mighty and infinitely loving; in each there are infinitesimal animalculae, such as ourselves, the objects of His grace. The "blessing" of the one pairs off with the "choosing" of the other. Limned in the background of each there is, on the one hand, "heaven," which Christ has gone to fill, and on the other "earth," the foundation of which He laid in the long, long ago. "All spiritual blessings" then blend themselves with the "holy and without blame before Him," so that the verses seem in their relation to each other something like the bass and treble clefs of a glad musical symphony. The orchestra is tuning in to the chanting of choirs celestial and terrestrial.

If then, at the close of the first chapter, the writer of the epistle is on his knees in humble supplication that the eyes of our understanding might be enlightened to "know" other features of God's great plan of redemption, we may very rightly fall upon our own that the light of the "glory" of our subject be not entirely veiled from our eyes. It is a good thing for us to rest awhile in the "valley of humiliation," for all around us, in this epistle, pile skyward the mountain-peaks of God's high resolves, and everyone of us should be a resolute member of the great Christian Alpine club.

"Resolute" indeed, and also enthusiastic! There should be no "lukewarmness" in our hearts as to God's great "Election Day." Mr. Moody once approached a stranger on the verandah of a hotel at Northfield, and in his characteristic way inquired, perhaps somewhat abruptly, "Are you a Christian?' The stranger, taken aback, answered a little stiffly, "What do you think?" "Not red-hot," shot back Mr. Moody, and walked away. The remedy for this lukewarmness is meditation, contemplation, aspiration. We must get the "lure of the heights" in our hearts. That wild philosopher, Nietzsche, once very wisely remarked:"Look too long into the abyss, and the abyss will begin to look into you." We do not want the abyss, but we do want these blessed mountain heights to look into us, so we must keep looking at them.

The peak now before us is "Mount Election." It is hidden from view behind the word "chosen," but in the original the words are almost exactly alike. Consider then the word itself a moment. "Choice" here necessarily involves knowledge, foreknowledge. It has to do, speaking anthropomorphically, with the "mind of God." But the power of "choice" is a peculiar mark of the "will;" it is a distinct characteristic of God's "conative powers," as the learned call them. Finally, "choice" is intimately bound upon God's love; that is in part the "motive" behind the will. So that God in all that He is is operative in this choice. Response with all that we are is the only logical thing for us.

Unfortunately the words "election" and "predestination" have been veritable trumpet-calls to battle, and the endless logomachies and conflicts that have raged interminably, have been the "kill-joys" of quiet, Spirit-guided meditation. Before considering the matter further, therefore, I shall introduce you to a "battle of words" in the 1st chapter of 1st Thessalonians, which subserves just the opposite end, which is a sort of homeopathic remedy for Calvinistic and Arminian fevers.

The words "election" and "beloved" are the two parties to the quarrel, and, as in the most of history, the war is waged over a question of "property," although in this instance it be but "property" in a prepositional phrase. The Authorized Version reads, "Knowing, beloved, your election by God," and the Revised Version and others read, "Knowing, beloved by God, your election." The latter translation is probably more correct, nevertheless we have here one of those delightful ambiguities of Scripture, which, if properly absorbed, become fresh fountains of blessing within. There is no doubt about the truth of each rendition. Taken together they serve to suggest that our "choice" by God is instigated by "love," and that this particular "love" is nourished hi our "choice" or "election." He loved us, and therefore He chose us, and because He had chosen us, He loved us even the more.

"Chosen not for good in me,
Waked from coming wrath to flee,
Hidden in the Saviour's side,
By the Spirit sanctified,
Teach me, Lord, on earth to show
By my love how much I owe."

A further study of this theme but emphasizes our thesis. Centuries ago a great man, one of the great men of the ages, not long before his death told a little people :"And because He loved thy fathers, therefore He chose their seed after them," while on another occasion he says:"The Lord did not set His love upon you nor choose you because ye were more in number than any people, but because the Lord loved you.. .hath the Lord brought you out." This marriage of Love and Choice is further beautifully illustrated in God's election of Christ:"Behold My Servant, whom I have chosen, My Beloved, in whom My soul hath found its delight." It is no wonder therefore that David in psalm and song (Ps. 65:7) should exclaim:"Blessed is the man whom Thou choosest."

But our text does not permit us to rest on an unqualified"chosen,"but linksthis"chosen" with"in Him." The "Him" is the Beloved Servant, who had , Himself been "chosen," that same "Beloved" in whom we have been "taken into favor." Thus evidently our choice is indissolubly bound up with Christ, and our indissoluble link with Christ is "faith." So when Peter addresses us as "elect according to the foreknowledge of God the Father," the foreknowledge seems to be focussing all its light upon us as "men of faith," "believers." And when our "faith" and God's "love" mingle thus with one another in God's "foreknowledge," all the mists of the mystery of "predestination" dissolve themselves into a beautiful rainbow-promise of holiness and blamelessness before Him. "Without faith it is impossible to be pleasing to Him."

If anyone be otherwise minded, however, that is his right, and we may say to him with the apostle:"But we are bound always to give thanks for you, brethren beloved of the Lord, because God hath from the beginning chosen you to salvation." "Blessed is the man whom the Lord chooseth."

Over the main portal of the beautiful Milan Cathedral is inscribed:"Our pleasures are but for a season," "Our sorrows are but for a season," "Only that which endures is important." This mark of importance is therefore stamped indelibly upon God's choice:"before the foundation of the world." That choice is also thus linked with a great event, at which all the morning stars sang and "the sons of God shouted for joy."

But the jubilation of the sons of God had never been, had not the foundation of the world been antedated by the glorious day of our election.

And as if further to establish the importance of that time the New Testament repeats the words, "Before the foundation of the world," three times, and in each instance it seems as if the chimes in the clock tower of the "Cathedral of the Ages" were ringing out:"His loving-kindness, oh, how strong!" Listen! "Father, I will that those whom Thou hast given Me out of the world, be with Me where I am, that they may see My glory, for Thou lovedst Me before the foundation of the world." "As a lamb without blemish and without spot, who verily was foreordained before the foundation of the world." "Chosen us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we should be holy and without blame before Him in love."

Notice that last clause:"That we should be saints, without blame before Him in love;" this is that to which all the Father's will is directed. "I will that they be with Me, where I am;" this is that to which all Christ's will is directed. "As a lamb without blemish and without spot;" this is the infinite cost of that very costly "choosing in Him before the foundation of the world." Should we not love both Father and Son?

"Shout, O earth! from silence waking,
Tune with joy thy varied tongue;
Shout, as when from chaos breaking,
Sweetly flowed thy natal song.
Shout! for thy Creator's love
Sends redemption from above!

"Downward from His star-paved dwelling,
Comes the Incarnate Son of God,
Countless voices, thrilling, swelling,
Tell the triumphs of His blood:
Shout! He conies thy tribes to bless,
With His spotless righteousness.

"Call Him blessed on thy mountains,
In thy wild and citied plains,
Call Him blessed where thy fountains
Speak in softly murmuring strains:
Shout, O earth, and let thy song
Ring the vaulted heavens along."

–F. C.GRANT.

(To be continued, D. V.)