brethren in the ministry with his own,* to show that he stood not alone in his views of Christian doctrine; and they delight to bear their concurrent attestation in favour of the truths he proclaimed, and against the errors he condemned. Mark next, their unity of affection. "All the brethren that are with me, to the churches of Galatia." Amidst some discrepancy of opinion, there was much love at heart, which yet did not prevent their bearing a faithful and energetic protest against the dangerous views newly entertained by their Galatian friends, upon the subject of the incorporation of the Jewish rites with the Christian faith. It would seem that numbers even of the Hebrew converts among them were untouched with this nascent heresy, since the apostle afterwards says, "As many as walk according to this rule" (which implies that there were "many,") "peace be upon them, and mercy, and upon the ISRAEL of GOD", obviously referring to those Jewish brethren who retained an unswerving allegiance to the faith of Christ. The truth of grace in others should be the most powerful loadstone to attract our regards towards them. For one man to love another, chiefly because he is of his own opinion and party, is little better than a refined species of selfishness, as he does but embrace his own shadow which he sees falling upon his brother's breast. The nearer we approximate to the temper that pervades the heavenly world, the more we shall be disposed to cultivate mutual forbearance and charity amidst mutual infirmities of judgment, whilst we as strenuously resist whatever appears to compromise, or put to hazard, Christian principle. Mark also their unity in prayer, for spiritual blessings to descend upon those to whom they wrote " Grace be to you and peace, from God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ." * Пavтes adeλpoí. Dr. Bloomfield remarks upon this expression, “I have, in Recens. Synop. proved that this cannot mean, as some modern commentators (even Berger and Schott), suppose 'brother Christians,' but (as all the ancients, and almost all the moderns, Beza, Hammond, Whitby, Doddridge, Koppe, Rosenmüller, Michaelis, Jaspis, and Winer, explain) 'brother Ministers.' Compare 1 Cor. i. 1; 1 Thess. i. 1; Phil. iv. 21. Пavтes, on which the other interpretation is chiefly grounded, is often applied to a small number, as three or four. Tais êkêλŋoías, i. e. all of them in the province." Peace was the ancient form of salutation among the Hebrews and other Oriental nations, and it was also used and prescribed by our Lord himself. But afterwards, among the Christians, the word grace was prefixed to it, in memory of that rich confluence of immortal blessings which the mediation of Christ secures; and they are both combined in this prayer as comprehending the highest good for time and for eternity. They are to be sought from God under the relation of a Father, and from Jesus Christ under the character of a Saviour and a Sovereign"JESUS Our LORD." Not peace without grace, for this would leave the soul unsafe; not grace without peace, for this would leave the heart unhappy. The peace that flows not from a sense of God's love and favour, will prove unworthy of the name, and is no better than a calm before a storm. The peace of the hypocrite, like the hollow truce between the Romans and the Samnites, is at once unsound and uncertain,* and is equally destined to end in fearful convulsions; but the peace of the Christian, which springs from grace, and tends to holiness, possesses a character of vitality and permanence, prelusive to the happiness of a higher world. "O Lamb of God, which taketh away the sin of the world, grant us thy peace." "To the churches of Galatia," not to any one church, whose exclusive pretensions were to absorb and swallow up, like Aaron's serpent, the claims of all the rest, as was afterwards the case with the Roman hierarchy, and with kindred institutions; but to "the churches of Galatia," which appear to have been so many harmonious societies and congregations united together, not by political bonds, but by the finer ties of faith and charity. The text affords a noble specimen of the manner in which the best species of moral influence may be employed in the establishment of truth and the correction of error, and instructs Christian parents, ministers, and pious friends in the paramount duty of watching for souls as they that must give account, and of bringing the force of character, opinion, and holy importunity to bear upon the religious welfare of those in whose life their "Pax infida, pax incerta."-Livy. own life is bound up. Christian reader, are you doing this? Remember that the influence man possesses over the mind of man is a pearl of great price, a talent of incalculable worth, for the use or abuse of which all must be answerable at the last tribunal. Were you adequately impressed with this thought, not a day would pass without your importunately urging the petition, in its most extended sense, "Deliver me from bloodguiltiness, O God, the God of my salvation. Open thou my lips" (which sinful timidity and indifference have too often closed), "and my mouth shall show forth thy praise!" Ver. 4. 5.-" WHO GAVE HIMSELF FOR OUR SINS, THAT HE MIGHT DELIVER US FROM THIS PRESENT EVIL WORLD, ACCORDING Love delights in the contemplation of the glory of its object, in the recollection of benefits enjoyed, and in every fit opportunity of renewing the mention of the one honoured and beloved name. We find these elements here. St. Paul could never forget what he owed to the dying love of Christ, nor cease to remember that the moment of his call to the apostleship was the moment of his conversion to Christianity, and that an energy of grace, to which he could assign no limit, had been exerted in his happy experience. Short and emphatic as these introductory sentences are, we observe an earnest reduplication of the name of Jesus, a devout celebration of the peace and mercy which it is his prerogative to impart, and that quiet and serene delight in contemplating the stupendous work of redemption, that mark a mind full to overflowing upon this transcendent theme. We should be glad to select all the passages of this kind, breaking out, like bright stars in a troubled sky, amidst the argumentative portions of the epistle, but must content ourselves with a momentary reference to the fourth verse. He had just before referred both to our Lord's death and resurrection, but now pauses and dwells upon the topic. Our Lord is here presented, 1. As the greatest of all benefactors.-Christ "gave,”— having the will and the power to bestow them,-the highest benefits. He is the only hope of a revolted world. 2. As actually conferring the most precious and costly donation." He gave," not the spoil of rich provinces, not the noblest of earthly gifts, but "he gave HIMSELF." As, when God could swear by no greater, he sware by himself; so when Christ could find no gift worthy of his love, though he had laid suns, and systems, and worlds under contribution, he gave himself. The work of redemption may well exceed the work of creation in our esteem, for in creation Christ gave the creatures to man, but in redemption he gave himself. "Ye were not redeemed with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ." 3. As contemplating, in the gift, the highest moral object.-"For our sins" by his atoning sacrifice, and "to deliver us from this present evil world" by his sanctifying Spirit. Here then is the great central doctrine of Christianity-the doctrine of the atonement. "He made his soul an offering for sin;" which means, not that his soul was annihilated, but that his life and death, his whole being, was freely given as a consecrated sacrifice for the accomplishment of human redemption, that mercy might have free access to pour her full tide of blessings through the length and breadth of our sentenced world. This forms another collateral argument for the divinity of Christ; for how could a mere man achieve such stupendous results? We are therefore shut up to the belief that, though only the human nature was accessible to suffering, the divine nature, in some manner unknown to us, attached an efficacy that was infinite to the entire offering. "To deliver us from this present evil world,* or age; not exclusively from the bondage of the Jewish dispensation, as Locke would suggest, but from those moral evils to which our fallen nature is prone, and upon which worldly considerations exert so deleterious an influence. The word here rendered "to deliver" (λnra) signifies to rescue, to seize, to pluck * Rosenmüller renders 'Atv according to the Hebrew by hominis hujus ætatis, and adds, Judæi qui Messiam ejusque religionem repudiant, et Pagani, qui idolatriæ et sceleribus dediti erant. away from impending danger, and is used by Peter in describing his release by the angel the night before he should have been slain by Herod (Xeró μe), Acts xii. 11; and it intimates the imminent danger to which we were exposed from the world and sin, and our special obligation to the power and grace of Christ.* 4. As securing the highest revenue of glory to the divine character and administration. It was." according to the will of God," the love of the Father being the originating cause of salvation: "to whom be glory for ever,”—a devout ascription in which all the redeemed family, and all assembled worlds, will unite. But these topics are not more impressive in themselves than they are applicable to the scope and bearing of the apostle's argument, which was designed to convict the Galatians, and especially, the Hebrew converts among them, of criminal folly in undervaluing the truth and grace of the gospel dispensation. For if Christ, whom they owned as Messiah, gave himself for them, then were they guilty of the deepest ingratitude in deserting the standard of such a benefactor. If Christ came to rescue them from sin, and from the rigid discipline of the legal ceremonies, and from the servitude of " this present evil world," then how ineffably absurd was it to go back again to the hard bondage whence they had been delivered! If this new and wonderful economy had been introduced "according to the will of God and our Father," then how inconsistent and unfilial a line of conduct must it be, for adopted sons thus to oppose the divine designs. And if the mediatorial scheme brought so large a revenue of praise into the exchequer of heaven, as * Οπως ἐξέληται ... πονηροῦ, “ in order that he might (thereby) deliver us from this present evil age;" by which is meant,—might deliver us from conformity to its corrupt manners, and the condemnation consequent thereon. 'Etaipeiσaι signifies to rescue any one from evil, and, by implication, bring him to good. Toù aluvos, i. e. the present state of things in the world marked by sin and misery; this world as compared with the future and heavenly one; where sin and sorrow shall be done away; or, as it here seems to mean, the corrupt men of the world, Acts ii. 40. See also Rom. xii. 2. The deliverance, however, may be both from the fate attending the evil men of this world, and from the evil customs, examples, and practices of the world."-Bloomf. in loc. |