keeping of this unity is the first specified practical outworking of the

truth of the Mystery, and consequently it is most important that we should

understand what is involved.  The first item in this unity is `the One Body'.

This is the figure used by the Lord to set forth the new standing and

constitution of the Church under the dispensation of the Mystery.

There are two references to the `Body' in the doctrinal section and six

references in the practical section.  The first reference is very

comprehensive and is found at the close of Ephesians 1.  There, after having

spoken of the ascension of Christ `Far above all principality' in heavenly

places, the apostle says:

`And hath put all things under His feet, and gave Him to be the head

over all things to the church, which is His body, the fulness of Him

that filleth all in all' (Eph. 1:22,23).

There is a progression in the revelation of the mystery of Christ as

Paul acknowledges in Ephesians 3:4,5, and there is certainly a fulness in the

revelation of Ephesians 1:22,23 that justifies the apostle's claim to a

clearer revelation than had been given to the sons of men in former days.

David is among the first to speak of this glory of the Lord saying:

`For Thou hast made Him a little lower than the angels, and hast

crowned Him with glory and honour.  Thou madest Him to have dominion

over the works of Thy hands; Thou hast put all things under His feet:

all sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field; the fowl of the

air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths

of the seas' (Psa. 8:5 -8).

In this prophetic Psalm, David looks forward to the day when the

`dominion' lost by Adam (Gen. 1:28) shall be restored by the Lord Jesus

Christ.  The next reference is found in Hebrews 2:5:

`For unto the angels hath He not put in subjection the world to come,

whereof we speak'.

Then follows a quotation from Psalm 8, and a reference to the Lord

Jesus Christ as the Captain of Salvation.  Here we have an advance on the

eighth Psalm.  The `habitable world to come' is a reference to the dominion

ruled over by Nebuchadnezzar and shown to the Lord from the mountain of

temptation, for a peculiar word is used in these passages.  There is a higher

fulfilment of David's words however than is given to them in Hebrews.  In 1

Corinthians 15:24 -28 not merely `sheep and oxen' or `the habitable world to

come', but the world of spiritual powers, even the last enemy death itself is

put under His feet, with the goal in view `that God may be all in all'.

In the epistle to the Ephesians this revelation reaches its zenith.

The glory that David sensed as being `above the heavens', without realizing

what the fact involved, Paul declares to be the glory of the ascended Lord

Who is now seated at the right hand of God, far above all principalities and

far above all heavens (Eph. 1:21; 4:10), given to be Head over all things to

the church and filling all in all, an anticipation of `God all in all' that

is yet to be.  The apostle differentiates the `all things' that are under the

Lord's feet panta, and over which He has been given as Head to the Church,

from `the all things', i.e. the specific and known goal of redemptive and

elective purpose which He fills, ta panta.  The Unity of the Spirit, in