middle wall of partition between Jews and Gentiles, and built them all into a holy temple upon one common foundation, of which Jesus Christ is the chief corner stone.  In the third chapter he dwells upon the grace of God which had committed to him, in a special sense, the office of preaching among the Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ; and adds a rapturous prayer for the strengthening of the Ephesians through the Spirit in the inner man, for their establishment in faith and love, and their illumination in the love of Christ which passes knowledge, that they may “be filled with all the fulness of God.”  Then follows a doxology in which the apostle labors to find words wherewith to express his conception of the greatness of God’s power and grace through Jesus Christ.

With the fourth chapter begins the practical part of the epistle.  He begins with an exhortation to unity, the argument for which cannot be abridged:  “There is one body, and one Spirit, even as ye are called in one hope of your calling:  one Lord, one faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all, who is above all, and through all, and in you all.”  Chap. 4:4-6.  He next speaks of the diversity of gifts among believers, all of which come from Christ, and have for their end the unity of the church in faith and knowledge, and thus her stability (verses 7-16).  Then follow earnest admonitions to shun the vices of their former state of heathenism, and cultivate all the graces of the Spirit.  The mutual relations of life are then taken up, as in the epistle to the Colossians.  Here occurs that grand digression in which the love of Christ towards his church is compared with that of the husband towards his wife.  Chap. 5:23-32.  The closing exhortation, in which the Christian is compared to a warrior wrestling not with flesh and blood but with the powers of darkness, and his heavenly panoply is described at length, is (with the exception of the brief figure, 1 Thess. 5:8) peculiar to this epistle and is very striking.

26.  EPISTLE TO PHILEMON.—­This short epistle is essentially of a private character.  It was sent to Colosse by Onesimus at the same time with the epistle to the Colossians, of which Tychieus was the bearer.  Col. 4:7-9.  The epistle itself plainly indicates its object.  It is a plea for Onesimus, the servant of Philemon, who had left his master and apparently defrauded him (verse 18), but now returns to him a Christian.  As a model of Christian delicacy and courtesy it has been the admiration of all ages.

V. EPISTLE TO THE PHILIPPIANS.