e to another point which is involved in the words that I
have just quoted, which stand in connection with those that I have
previously referred to. The phrase 'eternal purpose' literally rendered
is, 'the purpose of the ages,' and that, no doubt, may mean 'eternal' in
the sense of running on through all the ages; or it may mean, perhaps,
that which we usually attach to the word 'eternal,' viz. unbeginning and
unending. I take the former meaning as the more probable one, that the
Apostle contemplates that great will of God which culminates in Jesus
Christ, as coming solemnly sweeping through all the epochs of time from
the beginning. In a deeper sense than the poet meant it, 'Through the
ages an increasing purpose runs,' and that binds the epochs of humanity
together--'the purpose of God in Christ Jesus.' The philosophy of
history lies there, and it is a true instinct that makes the cradle at
Bethlehem the pivot around which the world's chronology revolves. For
the deepest thing about all the ages on the further side of it is that
they are 'Before Christ,' and the formative fact for all the ages after
it is that they are _Anno Domini_.

And now the last thing that is suggested by yet another of these
eloquent expressions is deduced from another part of the same phrase.
The purpose of the ages is described as that which 'He purposed in
Christ Jesus our Lord.' Now the word 'purposed' literally is 'made.'
And it may be a question whether 'purposed' or 'accomplished' is the
special meaning to be attached to the general word 'made.' Either is
legitimate. I take it that what the Apostle means here is that the
purpose of God, which we have thus seen as sovereign, self-originated,
having for its great aim the communication to all His creatures of the
knowledge of Himself, and running through the ages, and binding them
into a unity, reaches its entire accomplishment in the Cradle, and the
Cross, and the Throne of Jesus Christ our Lord.

He fulfils the divine intention. There is that one life, and in that
life alone of humanity you have a character which is in entire sympathy
with the divine mind, which is in full possession of the divine truth,
which never diverges or deviates by a hair's-breadth from the divine
will, which is the complete and perfect exponent to man of the divine
heart and character; and that Christ is the fulfilment of all that God
desired in the depths of eternity, and the abysses of His being. Did He
will th