upper half, and though a screen hangs between the two, yet the feast
is one and the family is one. Singly our dear ones go, and singly we all
shall go. The table spread in the presence of enemies will be left
vacant to its last place, and the one spread above will be filled to
its last place, and so shall we ever be with the Lord, and the unity
which was always real be perfectly and permanently manifested at the
last.

STRENGTHENED WITH MIGHT

'That He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory; to
be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner
man.'--Eph. iii. 16.

In no part of Paul's letters does he rise to a higher level than in his
prayers, and none of his prayers are fuller of fervour than this
wonderful series of petitions. They open out one into the other like
some majestic suite of apartments in a great palace-temple, each leading
into a loftier and more spacious hall, each drawing nearer the
presence-chamber, until at last we stand there.

Roughly speaking, the prayer is divided into four petitions, of which
each is the cause of the following and the result of the
preceding--'That He would grant you, according to the riches of His
glory, to be strengthened with might by His Spirit in the inner
man'--that is the first. 'In order that Christ may dwell in your hearts
by faith,' 'ye being rooted and grounded in love'--such is the second,
the result of the first, and the preparation for the third. 'That ye may
be able to comprehend with all saints ... and to know the love of Christ
which passeth knowledge,' such is the third, and all lead up at last to
that wonderful desire beyond which nothing is possible--'that ye might
be filled with all the fulness of God.'

I venture to contemplate dealing with these four petitions in successive
sermons, in order, God helping me, that I may bring before you a fairer
vision of the possibilities of your Christian life than you ordinarily
entertain. For Paul's prayer is God's purpose, and what He means with
all who profess His name is that these exuberant desires may be
fulfilled in them. So let us now listen to that petition which is the
foundation of all, and consider that great thought of the divine
strength-giving power which may be bestowed upon every Christian soul.

I. First, then, I remark that God means, and wishes, that all Christians
should be strong by the possession of the Spirit of might.

It is a miserably inadequ