e' (i.e. in the
narrower and closer circle of believers, learn the wider and all
embracing attitude towards men as men); and in 1 Cor. v. 11, 'Any man
that is named a brother.' The word brother is throughout the New
Testament used of _Christians_ only, except where, in the Acts, it is
used by Jews of Jews. Our Lord's language about brotherhood applies to
the circle of the disciples, except Matt. xxv. 40, 'One of these my
brethren,' i.e. the wretched.

[10] Acts xvii. 28.

[11] Acts xvii. 26.

[12] Dr. Hort thinks 'read' is a technical word for reading the
Scriptures, and that this reading of the Old Testament Scriptures is to
enable them to appreciate St. Paul's 'understanding in the secret of
the Christ.' But I doubt if so technical a use of 'read' can be made
out.

[13] _In Epist. Joan, ad Parth._ v. 10.

{140}

DIVISION I. Sec. 6. CHAPTER IV. 1-16.

_The unity of the church._

[Sidenote: _Connexion of thought_]

This Epistle to the Ephesians, viewed as a whole and from the point of
view of a sympathetic intelligence, has a remarkable unity, and a unity
progressively developed. Thus, first of all, the apostle opened the
imagination of his hearers or readers to consider the place which the
catholic church holds in the divine counsels for the universe, in the
realization of the human ideal, and in the work of redemption from sin
(chap. i and ii). Then he proceeded to justify and explain his own
activity in the cause of catholicity, and made them feel at once the
glory and the profound difficulty of the ideal of unity in diversity
which it involves (chap. iii). It follows naturally and logically that
he should set the Church before them as an actually existing
organization, and bid them study it exactly and note the grounds of its
unity and the common end to which its different elements or members
{141} are meant to minister; and this is what he actually does in the
fourth chapter (1-16). Viewed, however, as a matter of grammatical
structure, it is probable that this passage forms another
digression--the real necessity of the argument acting as an
overmastering motive which pulls contrary to the immediate grammatical
purpose of the writer. Thus he had begun, at the beginning of chapter
iii, to pass from the doctrinal exposition which is involved in his
opening chapters to practical exhortation. The Asiatic members of the
catholic church are to be exhorted to live up to their calling: to turn