ciples, the faithful remnant, exist
in every place, but they are lost in the crowd. They need to be drawn
together if they are to make an impression. A vigorous faith, and the
confident hope for humanity which a vigorous faith begets, were never
better calculated than they are to-day to produce a right moral
impression on the world, owing to the {210} mere absence of rival
enthusiasms. We can supply what is wanted if only everywhere we will
cultivate sincerity and enthusiasm rather than numbers, and aim at
forming strong centres of spiritual life, rather than a weak uniform
diffusion of it.

[1] St. Paul is in part referring to the habit of responsive or
antiphonal chanting, which Pliny, the governor of Bithynia, reports as
characteristic of the Christians half a century later--'to sing
responsively (secum invicem) a hymn to Christ as a God.'

[2] 1 Pet. v. 5.

[3] 1 Chron. xii. 32.

{211}

DIVISION II. Sec. 5. CHAPTERS V. 22-VI. 9.

_The relation of husbands and wives: parents and children: masters and
servants._

[Sidenote: _The law of subordination_]

St. Paul mentions submission as required, in a sense, from all
Christians towards all others--'submitting yourselves one to another.'
But it is plain that in any community, and most of all in a Christian
community where order is a divine principle, some will be specially
'under authority': and accordingly St. Paul applies his general maxim
to three classes in particular--wives towards their husbands, children
towards their parents, slaves towards their masters. But in making
these applications of the law of obedience, he enlarges his subject by
including the counter-balancing principle of the duty of
self-sacrificing love on the part of those in authority; so that he
treats not one side of the relation only but both.

{212}

A. HUSBANDS AND WIVES. (V. 22-33.)

[Sidenote: _Husbands and wives_]

Wives are to be subordinate to their husbands as to the Lord. Just as
the divine fatherhood is the ground of all lower fatherhood, so the
authority of the one great Head is the ground in all lower headships,
and each in its place is to be accepted as the shadow of His. Thus the
husband's headship over his wife is the shadow of Christ's headship
over the church, and that explains of what sort the husband's authority
should be. For Christ's rule is a rule for the advantage of the ruled.
He rules the church as Himself its saviour or deliverer f