they err who deny that supplications may be offered to the name of Jesus. St. Paul again and again besought the Lord; generally for himself, but also for the welfare of others and of the whole Church. Here the Saviour is asked first for a temporal and lower gift, for the prosperous direction of the Apostle's course, and then for the highest blessings that man can receive.

At the same time, secondly, it must be observed that our Lord is invoked in the unity of the Father. Literally in the unity of the Father: for "God Himself our Father," and "our Lord Jesus Christ," two Persons, are yet One in the verb "direct." The very grammar faithfully, however insufficiently, expresses their unsearchable Oneness, not only in counsel and act, but in nature and dignity. The taking up of our human nature into the Son's Divine Personality has not impaired the eternal unity of the Father and the Son. This remarkable Two-one relation occurs again in another of the Thessalonian Prayers (2 Thess. ii. 16): thus it is established by two witnesses, and afterwards the deep anomaly ceases to occur.

Moreover, it requires only a glance at the construction to observe that here at the outset, as everywhere, there is a latent, and more than latent, reference to the mediatorial Trinity. Who is that Lord who shall stablish the saints before God, even our Father, at the coming of the Lord Jesus Christ? It is the Holy Ghost, in the unity of the Father and of the Son, but also in His own administrative function as having our holiness in His charge, and so presiding over our internal redemption as the Lord Jesus presides over our external. Our sanctification in the next epistle is said to be of the Spirit. (2 Thess. ii. 13.) It may be asked, Why then is the Holy Ghost not named? the only answer is that it pleased the Holy Ghost Himself to withhold His name, or to assume here the name of Lord. If any vindication of this answer is needed, it is found in the plain fact that throughout the later New Testament the idea of God is never separated from the doctrine of the Holy Trinity, explicit or implicit. Wherever one Person is mentioned, two other Persons are included; whilst still the Divine nature is one. And when we find, as we often find, a collocation of Three Names,-more we never meet with,-then we must understand the mediatorial Trinity to be meant. becomes us to accommodate our thoughts to the Divine style, and to catch the spirit of the language of the Holy Ghost. When we have done this, there will remain no difficulty in applying the simple principle. While to us there is but one God,-namely, the one God who is Three-one,—we become familiar with a considerable variation in phraseology, of which this passage is an instance. Proceeding to the introduction as such, it further connects the

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prayer with the preceding thanksgiving. The Apostle has been deeply moved by Timothy's report, which brought good tidings of his converts' faith and charity, and of their strong desire to see himself. Never to be outdone in love, he responds to this desire by vehement prayer, by supplications urged day and night, that it might please the Lord to speed his way to them. This request he makes permanent in the letter he is writing; and the impulse of affection in his own heart dictates the additional prayer which gives his strong feelings their relief. If he may not visit them at once he can pray for them; and no better thing can he ask than that they may know the might of that charity which fills his own spirit: and the Lord make you to increase and abound in lore, eren as we do toward you!

The prayer itself asks for the unlimited abounding of charity, and connects this with the perfection of holiness.

1. The first blessing invoked in St. Paul's supplications for the Church is charity, that gift of God and grace in man which always has the pre-eminence. It is the ruling emotion of the regenerate soul, which, assured by its very life of the love of God, goes back to Him directly in devotion, and indirectly in the deeds of charity to man. In love, as in an element, the Apostle prays that they Not excluding the increase of this grace as making God its object, he here expressly desires the enlargement of their souls in its exercise towards their fellows.

And here at the very threshold of his theology, St. Paul establishes the true character of love as it rests especially on the fellowelect, and as it embraces all men. This distinction between the particular and the catholic love bears close analogy to the same distinction in the love of God Himself. Both St. Paul and St. Peter find it needful to employ for these distinct terms; and we only follow their example when we draw sharply the line of demarcation between the love of brethren and the love of all. But the distinction, however important, belongs to a lower sphere, and has significance only for a season. The two graces are one in charity, which is the bond of perfectness; and when the intercession of St. Paul asks for the largest aboundings of charity, it leaves all limitation behind: hence the emphatic addition, and toward all

men.

But what is the specific increase that the Apostle prays for? This will be seen if we consider the vehement language by which he describes it, and the standard he sets up in his own example.

The words "increase and abound" might be interpreted as a compound expression created by St. Paul, as his manner is, to include all that is possible to the capacity of the human heart. But, more closely examined, the former is found to signify rather the growth

of the soul in the sphere of charity, and the latter its aboundings in the outward manifestation. It is in lore that the soul of the believer must wax: elsewhere love is regarded as growing in us, but here we are regarded as growing in love; which, like faith, is not only a grace within, but also an element around the soul. Having the latter in view, the supplication prays for us that we may be increased in lore, which means that we may become more and more enlarged in heart as our love is enlarged, growing with its growth. The other term by a slight variation makes the sentiment more intense: the "abound" added to the "increase" asks that the evidence of our increase in love may day by day abound and overflow. The phrase very remarkably blends the two ideas of our own growth in the principle and the ever increasing demonstration of our growth to others. But, whatever peculiarity there may be in the words, they are undoubtedly the very strongest that could be selected to signify the unlimited energy of charity to man. Not, however, we must observe again and again, charity to man only. The continuation in the next chapter shows this: for there, when the Apostle speaks of love to our fellow Christians as taught of God, he calls it philadelphia, only a branch of charity, though never separable from that other love that belongs to God. So here, while love to man is supplicated in its large aboundings, it is regarded only as springing from the abundant effusion of the love of God. He now uses the larger and more comprehensive word: and thus while he speaks of love to man, he includes love to God. For both and together are the fruit of Divine grace. (1 Thess. iv. 9.)

The Apostle presents his own example as at once a standard, a guide, and an incentive. He does not mean," and may He make us also abound towards you:" the turn of his phrase expressly avoids this, and declares that he knew himself, that he felt himself, to be continually expanding in the habit and exercises of that love which puffeth not up but edifieth, which enlarges and strengthens the spiritual nature not in appearance only, but in reality. This is the first instance of a practice of the Apostle with which we soon become familiar: that of commending his own example to the believers whom he exhorts. Nowhere in his writings is the abounding self-sacrifice of his love more vividly exhibited than here. The same Spirit whose influence led him to propose himself as a pattern, or at least as an illustration, of true charity, gave him the perfect self-devotion which breathes in all his words. Let the collective strength of the previous expressions be again adverted to: they present to us an absolutely perfect description of self-forgetting charity. Love runs through the whole round of its emotions, and spends almost all that it has to

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give, from the tenderness of the nursing mother to the devotion which sacrifices life. It begins in verse five, where the Apostle speaks of his anxiety about their safety as all but intolerable. The glad tidings that they had resisted the tempter was to him strength for the endurance of his own temptations: indeed, and what could go beyond this!-their prosperity was the very life of his soul. Then comes the rapture of gratitude: what thanks can we render to God for you! and the daily and nightly prayer that the work of the Gospel may bring him near the Thessalonians; that he may behold their face, and fill up the deficiencies of their faith by a personal colloquy that might teach more affectionately, and at the same time more effectually, than a letter. There is more than human sympathy here. Having had much forgiven, the Apostle loved much. This is the first time that he opens his heart to us, and we may well stand amazed at the perfection of charity which we behold. But while we are pondering the exhibition, and calling to mind how that consummate charity was manifested through a life of self-sacrifice even unto death, we hear the Apostle's prayer diverting us from himself: the Lord make you to abound in love, even as we do!

2. The connection between this abounding love and unblamable holiness is one of the most important topics in experimental theology. "To the end that" has here its full force the petitioner is not adding to his supplication in what follows, but showing the reason for which he urged his request, and the ultimate consequence of its attainment. Confirmation in holiness of heart is the immediate result of abounding love; unblamable holiness is the result as connected with the coming of Christ; and establishment in that perfection of perfect and blameless love is the eternal result. However swiftly these gradations passed through the writer's mind, and however firmly they are blended into one, we cannot gather all his meaning unless we take them separately.

Love, whether regarded in its unity, or divided into devotion and charity, is the energy of all holiness; the law in man's heart by which the Holy Ghost effects our sanctification. By it we are entirely released from sin: not, indeed, by the power of love in itself, but by love as the instrument of the Spirit in expelling every impure and sinful affection. The soul in which the Divine love is shed abroad in its fulness can give no place to evil desires; this is a light which leaves no part dark,-a law, royal in its authority, that allows nothing rebellious to remain. By it, also, we are strengthened into complete obedience; for love is the fulfilling of the laur. The answer of St. Paul's prayer involves nothing less than the sovereign control of a principle that permits no duty to be neglected, no commandment to be disobeyed, no offence against

man to be conceived or spoken or done, no method of pleasing God to be forgotten. There is no limit to the increase of this love. St. Paul has in this, his first prayer for charity, chosen two terms that spurn restriction. Now this fact teaches us, on the one hand, that an absolutely perfected love there cannot be either in time or in eternity; the love of God to man can never be spent, or man's return of love to God. But it teaches us also, on the other hand, that there is nothing in the heart of man that shall resist it: its abounding shall fill his heart, and its overflow his life, even unto a relative if not absolute perfection. Hence the holiness the confirmation of which the Apostle prays for is, strictly interpreted, a state of sanctification in which man's heart, that is, man himself, is already established by the power of God.

The idea of confirmation in unblamable holiness before God, even our Father, carries the view forward to that day which is the vanishing point of all the lines of the Apostle's theology and hope. Here it is the awful idea of the inquisition of the Searcher of hearts that is impressed upon our minds. The confirmed holiness that is the concomitant, or result, of perfected love is supposed to be brought under the more direct scrutiny of God, who, always present as the Judge in His house, will come nearer, yea, infinitely near, in that dreadful day. It is brought before Him; it is not created by His coming: neither does death destroy the body of sin, ror the appearing of Christ perfect the holy love of His saints. Our exposition must not falter here. "Unblamable in holiness before God" is a saying which sinful man hears with amazement and fear: he is too ready to think it beyond human attainment. That "all the saints" bring their finished holiness to compare with that of men, and that even by their side the sanctity of believers is still unimpeached, is impressive, but adds nothing to the thought. Enough that the eye of Supreme Justice will regard the saints made perfect in love as unblamable in holiness. Unblamable; for charity reigning in the heart shall achieve a perfect fulfilment of the evangelical law. Justice shall be satisfied, and mercy rejoice. And this is the state of holiness to which we are called: to the fulness of that charity which, shed abroad by the Spirit, covers, not by hiding, but by destroying, our multitude of sins; through Jesus Christ, "Who shall also confirm us to the end,"-not at the end, but from this time to the end, -"that we may be blameless in the day of our Lord.” (1 Cor. i. 8.)

Once more, the construction of the Apostle's sentence allows us, if, indeed, it does not require us, to interpret his prayer as asking that we may be at the coming of Christ, and by the coming of Christ, confirmed in our unchangeable condition of holiness before God. Let us note carefully what is then to be confirmed, and what the confirmation means. It is not the establishment of an