with God. The Apostle is here illustrating great leading principles—he is showing what the principle of ordinances is. He was correcting those who were tempted to go back from "the liberty which they had in Christ to be again entangled in the yoke of bondage." The peculiar force of the temptation was, that it appeared to reverence God by engrafting the ancient institutions of God on faith in Christ. This he sternly resisted.

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Christ before his eyes as the blessed reality of all these institutions, he hesitates not to speak of them as infantine and slavish, as hindering access to the Father and preventing intercourse with heaven. He is not speaking of them absolutely, for they were beautiful in their time and place (i. e. the world). But God was now bringing out heavenly and eternal realities. God had sent forth his Son to redeem them that were under the law. In order to this, it needed that Christ himself be made a curse. Every thing followed from such a real redemption, deriving its efficacy from the real glory of Him who was made a curse. Such a redemption delivered from the curse of the law, and from out of the world, into the real liberty of children in the actual presence of God as their Father. The slightest recurrence to the old institutions would mar the reality of all these blessings. This stands out in stronger relief, when the Apostle rebukes the Galatians, for observing "days, and months and times and years.' These in themselves were holy joyous and solemn seasons to Israel (see Lev. xxiii). But the fulness of time had come- -God had sent forth his Son, and in virtue of His Person, the blessings which flowed forth from his redemption were eternal; 66 eternal redemption," "everlasting righteousness, "eternal inheritance," "eternal life, ""eternal life,"-in a word eternal relationship with God-sons-now crying "Abba-Father," and waiting for the manifestation of Jesus to be like Him. After the light brought in by the Son, and his work on the cross, and the reception of the Holy Ghost in consequence of that work, by faith in Him, and not by works of the law, we discover the reason of the Apostle's using language so depreciatory in speaking of the law itself. "But now, after that ye have known God, or rather are

known of Him, how turn ye again [back] to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire again to be in bondage?"

God is pleased to profane his own ordinances when his people have polluted them (Ezek. xxiv. 21); but he often uses this profanation to set forth the excellent glory of his Son. When men, however, turn back to ordinances they profane the Son-to uphold them is to tread under foot the Son of God" (Heb. x. 29).

In writing to the Colossians, the Apostle classes Jewish ordinances and Gentile philosophical dogmas under the same category, "rudiments of the world." "rudiments of the world." But he does so in the way of contrast with that which is immeasurably higher. It is not needful for Christians to ascertain the measure of influence exercised on the moral condition of the Gentiles by the philosophical schools. It is difficult to believe that such an accumulation of wisdom was of no real benefit to mankind (Rom. i. 32), but the difficulty lies a great deal more in the offensiveness of such a statement to the pride of intellect, than in want of evidence as to the fact. The Apostle, however, had not to discuss the question as to the influence of philosophy, but to state the humiliating result. "For after that in the wisdom of God the world by wisdom knew not God, it pleased God by the foolishness of preaching to save them that believe." The introduction of human wisdom into the church was regarded by the Apostle as a foreign element, the tendency of which was to degrade the church of God, and to reduce divine certainties to the level of human speculation. "Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ, for in him dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily, and ye are complete [filled to the full] in him." It is through philosophy, that Christ, as the great doctrine of God, Christ, as the infallible teacher, teaching that which none other could teach or even guess at, "for no man hath ascended up to heaven but He that came down from heaven, even the Son of man which is in heaven," has been dragged down from His lofty eminence; and the saints themselves spoiled

of their choice blessings and high study; "all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge being hid in Christ." Christianity, as it passes in the world, is regarded as one among many systems for the benefit of mankind. It has a place given to it among various moral and philosophical schemes, as "a rudiment of the world." But its very grandeur, which makes it so comprehensive and at the same time so exclusive, is either unseen or disputed. It was the dignity of the Head, and consequent dignity of relation to the Head, which so occupied the soul of the Apostle, that made him fear the introduction of that which was most prized in the world, as loss and degradation. Men value (as they say) practical Christianity, because it is beneficial to man; but they know it not, as respects the dignity of Christ, and the great purpose of God with respect to Him. Is the soul resting on a single object, the heart's affections drawn out to that object, the mind intently bent on the study of that object—even Christ? Is that practical Christianity in man's estimation? Is the fulness of Christ as the Head in which everything centres, "wisdom and knowledge," "principality and power, so sublime a thought, that every other subject of study becomes secondary? Is it possible that after the revelation of Him, "in whom dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily," that the only science of which men are contentedly ignorant, should be the science of eternal life? "This is life eternal, that they might know Thee the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent." Alas! philosophy and vain deceit have indeed spoiled" Christians. These "rudiments of the world," received at first as an aid, have displaced Christ and degraded Christianity. It is not needful to speak disparagingly of the power of the human mind, or of the wonders achieved by these powers, when we speak of them absolutely. But in speaking of them relatively, that is "according to Christ," what have they effected? Have they led man into the path of happiness? Have they discovered" the truth?" or does not the problem remain to this day, to be solved, so far as the human mind is concerned,-"What is truth?" It was man's reasoning which led him to "change the truth of God into a

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lie" (Rom. i. 21, 25). And if the attempt has been made in more recent times to reclaim man from superstition by the mere powers of the human mind, it has only led to scepticism, infidelity, or practical atheism. "God," says the preacher, "made man upright, and he has sought out many inventions." But none of his inventions serve to deliver him out of the actual condition in which

he is as man. Death and judgment are still before him, and he remediless against both the one and the other. When the soul once grasps the meaning of "not after Christ," many a profitless speculation is dismissed, and much prying curiosity prevented. It is not the haughty superciliousness of ignorance under the garb of wisdom, which causes us to see on what level the highest powers of the human mind necessarily stand, but the consciousness of divine teaching respecting the Son of God, His work and His fulness, so far beyond the reach of any stretch of the human intellect, which causes the Saint to regard many things of intellectual interest as "rudiments of the world." We do not attain the end of shewing the vanity of man by degrading him, and denying his powers; but by contrast between man in his best estate, and Christ risen and glorified. It is not by any induction of facts, although that might go a great way, that we prove the utter disappointment of man with the result of his own efforts; but by bringing the coming glory of the Lord Jesus to shed its truthful light upon them. "Behold, it is not of the Lord of Hosts that the people shall labour in the very fire, and the people shall weary themselves for very vanity; for the earth shall be filled with the knowledge of the glory of the Lord, as the waters cover the sea." But there is no disappointment to faith. "He that trusteth in the Lord shall never be ashamed." Faith is conversant with the blessed result of the wisdom of God in redemption, and thus by the power of "things which are not, brings to nought things which are."

The Apostle is led from warning against Gentile philosophy, to warn against the more plausible seduction of Jewish ordinances; by shewing the reality to be in Christ of that of which those ordinances were only shadows (Col. ii. 17). It is a strange phenomenon to see how the wise and prudent in the things of this world grasp at

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that which is solid, but in the things of God they grasp the shadow and reject the substance. With Christ before him as the substance, the Apostle classes the Jewish ordinances and Gentile dogmas together, as alike vain and profitless. "And you, being dead in your sins and the uncircumcision of your flesh, hath He quickened together with Him, having forgiven you all trespasses; blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was contrary to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to His cross.' There was no more life even in the ordinances of God Himself, than in the philosophical dogmas. They alike barred access to God; so far from being helpful, they were discovered by the light of Christ, to be against and contrary to the Saint. The very things which man has called in as aids, are discovered by the light of Christ to be hindrances to the exercise of spiritual life. They bind down to the world; "truth alone makes free indeed." Herein is the misery of many real Christians-their souls are occupied with rudiments of the world, instead of the heavenly realities which are in Christ.

Are "we dead to sin" through Christ, in that "he died unto sin once." Blessed truth! But do our souls know the equally important and connected truth, that we are "dead with Christ from the rudiments of the world," and are introduced as risen with Him into the realities, "which are above?" Then "why" (asks the Apostle), "as though living in the world, are ye subject to ordinances?" Rites, ceremonies, decency, and order, as men insist, and the philosophy of the schools, are, in the Apostolic sense, "rudiments of the world," to which the believer has died, in order that he may "hold the Head," and draw from Him in whom "dwelleth all the fulness of the Godhead bodily"-all that pertains to life and godliness.

The passage (Heb. v. 12) may be reviewed in connection with the preceding passages. "For when for the time ye ought to be teachers, ye have need that one teach you again which be the first principles of the oracles of God; and are become such as have need of milk and not of strong meat." We have not actually the expression "rudiments of the world," but there is