nd wonderful it then was that a bond should have
been found which drew together men of all nations, ranks, and
characters. Pharisee and philosopher, high-born women and slaves, Roman
patricians and gladiators, Asiatic Greeks and Syrian Jews forgot their
feuds and sat together as one in Christ. It is no wonder that Paul in
this letter dwells so long and earnestly on that strange fact. He is
exhorting here to a unity of spirit corresponding to it, and he names a
seven-fold oneness--one body and one spirit, one hope, one Lord, one
faith, one baptism, one God and Father of all. The outward institution
of the Church, as a manifest visible fact, comes first in the catalogue.
One Father is last, and between these there lie the mention of the one
Spirit and the one Lord. The 'body' is the Church. 'Spirit, Lord, God,'
are the triune divine personality. Hope and faith are human acts by
which men are joined to God; Baptism is the visible symbol of their
incorporation into the one body. These three clauses of our text may be
considered as substantially including all the members of the series. We
deal with them quite simply now, and consider them in the order in which
they stand here.

I. The one Lord.

The deep foundation of Christian unity is laid in the divine Christ.
Here, as generally in the New Testament, the name 'Lord' designates
Christ in His authority as ruler of men and in His divinity as
Incarnation of God. It would not be going too far to suggest that we
have in the name, standing as it does, for the most part, in majestic
simplicity, a reference to the Old Testament name of Jehovah, which in
the Greek translation familiar to Paul is generally rendered by this
same word. Nor can we ignore the fact that in this great catalogue of
the Christian unities the Lord stands in the centre of the three
personalities named, and is regarded as being at once the source of the
Spirit and the manifestation of the Father. The place which this name
occupies in relation to the Faith which is next named suggests that the
living personal Christ is the true uniting principle amongst men. The
one body realises its oneness in its common relation to the one Lord. It
is one, not because of identity in doctrine, not because of any of the
bonds which hold men together in human associations, precious and sacred
as many of these are, but 'we being many are one bread, for we are all
partakers of that one bread.' The magnet draws all the particles t