for ye serve the Lord Christ.  But he that doeth wrong shall receive for

the wrong which he hath done: and there is no respect of persons'.

Masters are exhorted in Ephesians to `do the same things' which in

Colossians becomes `give that which is just and equal'.  This is not incipient

communism, but refers to the relation of wages to service that it must be

equitable.  Further, the master is exhorted to `forbear threatening', a matter

of even greater difficulty then than today.  At that time slaves were the

personal property of their masters and without redress.

Those of us who have received the truth of the Mystery and who have sought

to carry out as far as possible its teaching, have to submit to the

misunderstandings of our fellows, and among the charges made against us is that

we have exchanged realities for dreams, that we are no longer a practical force,

etc.  We wonder how many husbands and wives when faced with Ephesians 5 would

dare to speak of our teaching as unpractical and only stuff for dreamers?  We

wonder how many fathers, surveying their children's progress, would deny the

practical teaching of Ephesians 6, to say nothing of the servants and the

masters that are forming into hostile camps even though professing the same

The world has a proverb, `Charity begins at home', and if home life and

business life were permeated with the spirit of Ephesians 5 and 6, the church

life and gospel testimony would look after itself.  God is not served by

multiplying meetings and neglecting the claims of home.  God is not served by

attendance at a church service at the expense of faithful daily labour, or at

the expense of faithful recognition.  In many things we offend all.  Let us for

the remainder of our time seek grace to live in harmony with the practical

outcome of being members of that church of which Christ is the Head, the church,

His Body.

`Finally'-- At length this wondrous epistle nears its close.  In height,

depth, length and breadth it stands without a peer in the whole range of

inspired Scripture.  Readers may have sensed that our conception of truth makes

this epistle to us something akin to what the epistle to the Galatians was to

Luther.  It has given us a liberty beyond the dreams of man.  It reveals a

Christ raised far above all, Who fills all in all, Who ascended and descended

that He might fill all things, Whose love surpasses knowledge, Whose riches are

unsearchable.  It has given us a sacred trust: a `good deposit' to guard, a

unity to keep.  It has brought its blessedness into every department of life.

It takes us back before the overthrow of the world, and on, to the ages yet to

come.  Its grace abounds.  What then shall constitute the `Finally' of the

He reminds us that we are not yet actually seated in the heavenlies, but

beset by foes who at present hold to these very spheres.  Though fellowcitizens

with the saints, we are yet walking in the wilderness.  Though sealed unto the

day of redemption, we have to remember that we actually live in an evil day.

Hence the apostle concludes his letter with an exhortation to be strong, to put

on the armour of God, to stand, to watch and to pray.  The language of faith

says, as we look at our inheritance in the heavenlies, `Let us go up at once,