necessity for His present mediation at the right hand of God. He Himself taught His disciples to say `Our Father'.

The unity of the Spirit which the Church of the Mystery is enjoined to keep is another passage which testifies to the

three persons in the Godhead, one Spirit, one Lord, one God and Father of all (Eph. 4:6). We refer to it here because

of its emphasis upon the place of the Father in this seven-fold unity which the church of the Mystery must keep.

The fundamental doctrine of the Fatherhood of God and the preservation of that doctrine from misuse, as in the

conception `the Universal Fatherhood of God' are alike found in the epistle to the Ephesians, and it is impossible for

any one who sincerely believes the prison epistles to neglect, to underestimate or to overstate this wondrous

It is one of the fundamentals of the faith that `all have sinned' and that `there is none righteous, no, not one'. We

should expect this note to be struck with emphasis in such epistles as that to the Romans, where the intention of the

Apostle is evidently to place before the reader the great scheme of Salvation. From the nature of the prison epistles,

the object of which is to make all men see what is the dispensation of the Mystery, and from the character of those

addressed, namely, `saints and faithful in Christ Jesus', the Apostle was under no necessity to introduce so basic a

truth as the universal sinnership of man. Had he never mentioned the subject, it could not have been construed as

either neglect or denial, for the prime object of his writing was to deal with higher things. However, we are

accepting for the purpose of argument, the idea that we do limit ourselves for doctrine to these prison epistles, and

we are supposed by so doing to neglect or deny many fundamentals. What is the state of the case so far as the

doctrine of the fall of man is concerned? The Apostle assumes the presence of sin in all his readers, by the early

introduction of redemption by blood, even the forgiveness of sins (Eph. 1:7). He leaves us without doubt in

Ephesians 2 for he draws an awful picture of the ordinary manner of life of his hearers `in time past'.

`Wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of

the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: among whom also we all had our

conversation in times past in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind; and were by

nature the children of wrath, even as others' (Eph. 2:2,3).

This passage alone would be enough to prove the sinfulness of all men and the impossibility of salvation except

by grace. Further on, the Apostle draws another picture of the dispensational distance of the Gentiles, and there we

find them `without Christ', `without hope' and `without God' (Eph. 2:12). Again in chapter 4 he says:

`This I say therefore, and testify in the Lord, that ye henceforth walk not as other Gentiles walk, in the vanity of

their mind, having the understanding darkened, being alienated from the life of God through the ignorance that is

in them, because of the blindness of their heart: who being past feeling have given themselves over unto

lasciviousness, to work all uncleanness with greediness' (Eph. 4:17-19).

There is only one other passage that compares with this terrible picture of Gentile degeneration, and that is the

latter half of the first chapter of Romans. The Apostle does not hesitate to assume that some who were then

members of the church, had been thieves (Eph. 4:27), and warns the church itself against gross immorality (Eph.

5:3-5). In Colossians we learn that the members of the Body of Christ, were once:

`alienated and enemies in your mind by wicked works' (Col. 1:21).

The list of wickedness given in 2 Timothy 3, where Paul describes the perilous times that are coming, is nothing

more or less than an indication that the horrors of the days of Nero are to be repeated at the close of this age, for

there is almost a word for word repetition of Romans 1:29-32.

The false idea that the world will get better and better is denied by the Apostle who says on the contrary:

`But evil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse, deceiving, and being deceived' (2 Tim. 3:13).

Here we have the ninth fundamental of the faith, fully attested by the prison epistles. Some readers may wonder

why we have not quoted Ephesians 2:1 in this article. We might have quoted it and have strengthened our case, but

to have done so, would have been dishonest on our part. Elsewhere we have shown that Ephesians 2:1 teaches that

the church is dead TO trespasses and sins, not IN them, and consequently we have left that passage out. The