such passages as Romans 15:5,6 and Philippians 1:27; 2:1,2.

This unity can only be kept by the bond of peace.  What is this bond?

What is this peace?  It is that peace made by Christ Who made the two

conflicting parties `one', Who destroyed the enmity between them, Who broke down

the middle wall of partition, Who, by creating of the twain in Himself one new

man `so making peace', made the bond of peace which effectually binds together

the unity of the Spirit.

The things that were set aside were the things belonging to believers as

Jews or as Gentiles.  None of these things are carried over.  There is no

reformation attempted.  The unity of the Spirit is part of the New Creation.  In

exercising our diligence over this, we shall see at once the attempt of this one

to import some doctrine, or of that one to bring in some practice that belongs

to the time before the middle wall was broken down.  Nip all such attempts in

the bud.  Let them not get a foothold.  Be willing to be called narrow, proud,

anything, however untrue and unmerited, but endeavour to keep that sacred unity

as you would defend your life.

We write thus because of the laxity of many, because of the confusion

which exists in the minds of many as to the difference between humility of mind

and resolution, of meekness and strength.  We cannot be charitable with the

goods of another.  Stewardship, though exercised with all lowliness, meekness,

longsuffering and forbearance, must nevertheless be above all things exercised

faithfully.  The Lord keep us faithful as the apostasy sets in.

In Ephesians 4:4-6 we have brought before us the sevenfold unity of the

Spirit, which we are urged to keep.

One Lord

One Hope

One Faith

One Spirit

One Baptism

One Body

One God and Father

Some of the elements of this unity are found in chapter 2:

`For through Him (the one Lord) we the both (the one Body) have access by

one Spirit unto the Father (the one God and Father)' (verse 18).

The Gentiles, being originally `without hope', can hold but the one hope

of their calling.  They have no other.  They had also been saved by grace

through faith, and that not of themselves, it was the gift of God.  This

accounts for every item except the one baptism.  That is found, as we shall see

more clearly presently, in the threefold union with the risen Lord expressed in

the words `quickened together, raised together, seated together'.

It is important to see that the central feature of this unity is the One

Lord.  Without the risen and ascended Christ there is no church which can be

called the One Body.  Not until Christ is seen as Head can the church be seen as

the Body.  This is clearly stated in Ephesians 1:21-23.  Apart from the risen

Son of God, the one God would never be known as the one God and Father.  Apart

from the ascended Lord, the one baptism of the one Spirit is impossible.  The

unity of the faith embraces the Son of God, and the one hope is nothing less

than Christ Himself.  Like the central shaft of the lampstand of the Tabernacle,