IN THE WORLD.--With these words the terrible catalogue closes, and all hope and

all light are excluded. The world is an abandoned evil complexity, it is the enemy of God

and of godliness, its prince is the devil; the whole world lieth in wickedness (or the

wicked one), the things of the world are not of the Father (I John 2: 15, 16), the rudiments

of the world are antagonistic to Christ (Col. 2: 8). The world is totally oblivious of the

work and witness of the Spirit (I Cor. 2: 12), the elements of the world held the Gentiles

in bondage (Gal. 4: 3). Believers are "not of the world" (John 15: 19), the world knows

them not (I John 3: 1), they have, in Him, "died to the world" (Col. 2: 20), and by His

cross the world is crucified unto them, and they unto it.

If such be a portion of the Scripture testimony concerning this abandoned, wicked,

godless world, what utter bondage and hopelessness is written in the words "in the

world"! According to the age of this world the Gentiles had walked, energized by a

mighty spirit, the prince of the power of the air (Eph. 2: 2, 3).  From this pit of

corruption, and this godless, Christless, promiseless wilderness, God, in the riches of His

grace, stooped to save those who are destined to sit with Christ at the right hand of God

in the super-heavenlies, far above all principality and power. Such grace is unspeakable.

Let us bow our heads in silent adoring worship, and let us rise from our Father's

footstool, finding in our hearts as no stranger expression the words--for me to live is

Christ.

"But now."--The reader has possibly not brought with him the sense of utter despair

with which the scriptural explanation of Eph. 2: 11, 12 left us. We cannot appreciate

fully the glorious change introduced by these little words, "but now", if we are unmindful

of the apostle's exhortation, "wherefore remember". We will not repeat ourselves, but

trust that the reader may feel it worth the while to re-read Eph. 2: 11, 12 before going

further.

The Scriptures which were in the hands of the church at this time gave no clue to what

God would do when the dispensation of the Acts period closed with the setting aside of

an unrepentant Israel. All its prophecies bridged the present interval and spoke of the

blessings attendant upon the second coming. The inspired apostles themselves could

offer no explanation.  Peter confesses that while he did not charge the Lord with

slackness concerning His promise, there were certainly things that only the beloved

brother Paul in his epistles could clear up (II Pet. 3:). Some one may interpose that the

Gentiles were saved and delivered from the dominion of sin and death long before

Eph. 2: was written. This perfectly true and only helps us to see that we are dealing with

something other than salvation in this passage.