6. _The time will come when, as to many unhappy spirits, the
opportunity of salvation will be lost for ever.--R. Watson._
_The Redemption of Time._--The more the days are beset by things that
grievously invade them, disturb them, waste them, the more careful
and zealous should we be to save and improve all that we can. To this
end--
+I. It is of the highest importance that time should be a reality in
our perception and estimate;+ that we should verify it as an actual
something, like a substance to which we can attach a positive value,
and see it as wasting or as improved as palpably as the contents of a
granary or as the precious metals. The unfortunate case with us is,
that time is apprehended but like air, or rather like empty space, so
that in wasting it we do not see that we are destroying or misusing a
reality. Time is equivalent to what could be done or gained in it.
+II. Keep established in the mind, and often present to view, certain
important purposes or objects that absolutely must be attained.+--For
example: that there is some considerable discipline and improvement
of the mind, some attainment of Divine knowledge, some measure of the
practice of religious exercises, and there is the one thing needful
in its whole comprehensive magnitude.
+III. That time be regarded in an inseparable connection with
eternity is the grand principle for redeeming it;+ to feel solemnly
that it is really for eternity, and has all the importance of this
sublime and awful relation. It might be a striking and alarming
reflection suggested to a man who has wasted his time--now the time
has gone backward into the irrevocable past, but the effect of it,
from the quality you have given it, is gone forward into eternity,
and since you are going thither, how will you meet and feel the
effect there?
+IV. Nothing short of the redemption of the soul is the true and
effectual redemption of time.+--And this object gives the supreme
rule for the redeeming of time. How melancholy to have made so
admirable a use of time for all purposes but the supreme one!--_John
Foster._
Ver. 17, 18. _Sensual and Spiritual Excitement._--There is the
antithesis between drunkenness and spiritual fulness. The propriety
of this opposition lies in the intensity of feeling produced in both
cases. There is one intensity of feeling produced by stimulating the
senses, another by vivifying the spiritual life within. The one
commences with impulses from without, the other is guarded by forces
from within. Here, then, is the similarity and here the dissimilarity
which constitutes the propriety of the contrast. One is ruin, the
other salvation. One degrades, the other exalts.
+I. The effects are similar.+--On the day of Pentecost, when the
first influences of the Spirit descended on the early Church, the
effects resembled intoxication. It is this very resemblance which
deceives the drunkard; he is led on by his feelings as well as by his
imagination. Another point of resemblance is the necessity of intense
feeling. We have fulness--it may be produced by outward stimulus or
by an inpouring of the Spirit. The proper and natural outlet for this
feeling is the life of the Spirit. What is religion but fuller life?
+II. The dissimilarity or contrast in St. Paul's idea.+--The one
fulness begins from without, the other from within. The one proceeds
from the flesh, and then influences the emotions; the other reverses
this order. Stimulants like wine inflame the senses, and through them
set the imaginations and feelings on fire; and the law of our
spiritual being is, that that which begins with the flesh sensualises
the spirit; whereas that which commences in the region of the spirit
spiritualises the senses, in which it subsequently stirs emotion.
That which begins in the heart ennobles the whole animal being; but
that which begins in the inferior departments of our being is the
most entire degradation and sensualising of the soul. The other point
of difference is one of effect. Fulness of the Spirit calms; fulness
produced by excitement satiates and exhausts. The crime of sense is
avenged by sense which wears with time--the terrific punishment
attached to the habitual indulgence of the senses is that the
incitements to enjoyment increase in proportion as the power of
enjoyment fades. We want the Spirit of the life of Christ, simple,
natural, with power to calm and soothe the feelings which it rouses;
the fulness of the Spirit which can never intoxicate!--_F. W.
Robertson._
_Christian Mirth versus Drunken Mirth._--Carnal men seek the joys of
life in revelry, but Christians must seek them in a higher
inspiration--that of the Holy Ghost, whose fulness is the source of
the blithest and most joyous life.
+I. The mirth begotten of wine is the mother of all kinds of
profligacy.+
+II. The mirth begotten of wine destroys men body and soul.+
+III. The fulness of the Holy Spirit produces a truly blithe and
merry life.+--In this life, with its many causes of
depression, men need exhilaration, and the text points us to
the only place where it is to be found without any
alloy.--_G. A. Bennetts, B.A._
_What is your Heart filled with?_
+I. The heart of man must be full of something.+
+II. Those who are full of wine cannot be filled with the Spirit.+
+III. Those who are filled with the Spirit will not be full of wine.+
+IV. The joy that is kindled by fulness of wine is degrading while
it lasts, and will soon expire.+
+V. The joy that is kindled by the fulness of the Spirit makes us
like the angels, and it will never end.+--_Lay Preacher._
_The Vice of Drunkenness._
+I. The nature and extent of the sin.+--The use of meat and drink is
to support and comfort the body. Whatever is more than these is
excess. The highest degree of intemperance is such an indulgence as
suspends the exercise of the mental and bodily powers. If by the
indulgence of your appetite you unfit your body for the service of
your mind, or your mind for the service of God, you waste your
substance as to defraud your family of a maintenance or your
creditors of their dues, become enslaved to a sensual habit and
fascinated to dissolute company, stupefy your conscience, extinguish
the sentiments of honour and banish the thoughts of futurity, you are
chargeable with criminal excess.
+II. The guilt and danger which attend the vice.+--1. _It is an
ungrateful abuse of God's bounty._ 2. _It divests the man of his
native dignity and sinks him below the brutal herds._ 3. _Is
injurious to the body as well as mind._ 4. _Consumes men's
substance._ 5. _Wastes a man's conscience as well as his substance._
6. _Intemperance generates other vices--impure lustings, angry
passions, profane language, insolent manners, obstinacy of heart, and
contempt of reproof._ 7. _Has most lamentable effects on families._
8. _The Scripture abounds in solemn warnings against this sin._
9. _This sin must be renounced, or the end of it will be
death.--Lathrop._
_Being filled with the Spirit._--1. It supposes a sufficiency and
fulness in the Spirit and His influences every way to fill our souls,
to supply all our spiritual wants, and to help our infirmities. 2. It
imparts an actual participation of His influences and fruits in a
large and plentiful measure. (1) As men come to have every power and
faculty of their souls more subject to the Spirit's authority and
under the influence proper to it. (2) As they grow to experience His
operations in all the several kinds of them. (3) As His agency comes
to be more stated and constant in them. (4) As His grace becomes more
mighty and operative in them, so as actually to produce its proper
and genuine effects. (5) As they taste such a sweetness and delight
in the measure of participation attained that they reach forward with
greater ardour toward perfection. 3. That every one should esteem the
fulness of the Spirit a desirable thing. (1) It puts us into a fit
posture of mind for daily communion with God. (2) Would settle our
minds in the truest pleasure and peace. 4. That we should look upon
it as an attainable good. (1) From the Spirit's own gracious
benignity and His declared inclination to fill our souls. (2) From
the purchase and intercession of Christ. (3) From the nature of the
Spirit's work in consequence of redemption (4) From the Gospel being
described as the ministration of the Spirit. (5) From the
declarations of God concerning the Spirit. (6) From the instances of
His grace already made in others. (7) From the beginnings of His
saving grace in themselves, good men may conclude the greatest
heights attainable by them, if they be not wanting to
themselves.--_John Evans._
_On being filled with the Spirit_--
+I. Implies that the Spirit has been largely given to the Church.+
+II. That as God has given the Spirit largely so He has been
abundantly received.+
+III. Is to be possessed by His graces in all their variety.+
+IV. Is to be wholly guided by His influence and subject to His
control.+
+V. Is to be the instrument of fulfilling His mission on earth.+
+VI. Is to have God as the only portion of the soul.+--1. The Spirit
is God on the earth. 2. To be filled with the Spirit is to be
fully occupied with God.--_Stewart._
_MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.--Verses_ 19-21.
_Spiritual Enjoyment_--
+I. Expressed in heartfelt praise to God.+--"Speaking . . . in
spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord"
(ver. 19). Men filled with wine seek their enjoyment in singing
bacchanalian odes and songs; but the men of the Spirit find a higher
and more satisfying joy in chanting psalms and hymns of praise to
God. The holiest excitement seeks expression in music and song. In
the praise meetings of the Ephesians we have the beginnings of
Christian psalmody. The psalms of the Old Testament were sung,
accompanied by musical instruments. "Singing and making melody" means
singing and playing, voice and instrument blending in joyous strains
of praise. Then would follow hymns expressing the great ideas of the
Gospel. Regarding the early Christians Pliny wrote: "They are wont on
a fixed day to meet before daylight--to avoid persecution--and to
recite a hymn among themselves by turns to Christ, as being God."
There might not be much artistic taste in the music, either of voice
or instrument; but the sincerity of the heart was the true harmony.
The contrast of the verse is between the heathen and the Christian
practice. Let your songs be not the drinking songs of heathen feasts,
but psalms and hymns; and their accompaniment, not the music of the
lyre, but the melody of the heart. Is any merry, let him sing, not
light and frivolous songs, breathing questionable morality, but
psalms. The glad heart is eager first to acknowledge God.
+II. Largely consists in thanksgiving.+--"Giving thanks always for
all things unto God" (ver. 20). God is the active Source of all
blessings in creation, providence, and grace, and should be
constantly acknowledged in grateful adoration. The thankful heart is
the happiest; and it is the happy who sing. Thanksgiving is the
predominating element in praise; and praise is the essence of true
worship. Prayer is not the essence of worship, though it is an
important help. Prayer becomes worship when it merges into praise.
The reading and exposition of God's Word are not worship. Preaching
accomplishes one of its loftiest functions when it incites to praise.
Music is not worship but it may become a valuable accessory.
Christianity has taken hold of music and consecrated and elevated it
to the highest uses of worship. It has produced the greatest
musicians and the grandest music. All true music is the outward and
melodious expression of our dearest and most sacred thoughts and
feelings. The musical artist touches what is deepest and best in us.
Nature has no false notes. When we praise God aright, worship becomes
an act of the highest intelligence, calling forth and exercising our
noblest powers. We are to sing with the Spirit, and we are to sing
with the understanding also. Worship is acceptable to God as it is
the joyous expression of the soul, brimming over with thankfulness
and reverence. We are then brought under the spiritually transforming
power of the Being we worship; the worshipper becomes like the object
worshipped.
+III. Soberly recognises the relation in which we stand to each other
and to Christ.+--"Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of
God" (ver. 21). _In the fear of Christ_--so read all the old MSS, and
authorities. The believer passes from under the bondage of the law to
be the servant of Christ, which through the instinct of love to Him
is really to be the Lord's freeman, for he is under the law to
Christ. Thus reverential fear of displeasing Him is the motive for
discharging our relative duties as Christians. The Church should be a
pattern and an example of harmony and peace, and this can only be by
the members submitting themselves one to another "in the fear of
Christ." The man with the most distinguished gifts must not be above
submitting himself to the judgment and will of his fellow-members.
Preacher, organist, choir, and congregation must vie with each other
in harmonious rivalry in the service and worship of God.
+Lessons.+--1. _Spiritual enjoyment is not dependent on fictitious
excitement._ 2. _Expresses itself in holiest song._ 3. _Is unselfish._
_GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._