199 SERMON XII. THE EPIPHANY; OR, FAR AND NIGH. EPHESIANS Xi. 12, 13. At that time ye were without Christ, being aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise, having no hope, and without God in the world. But now in Christ Jesus ye, who sometimes were far off, are made nigh by the blood of Christ. THESE words were spoken by St Paul to the converts he had made at Ephesus, who, before he preached to them, and brought them to a knowledge of the truth, were in the miserable state here described. They were without Christ; they were aliens from the commonwealth of Israel: they were strangers from the covenants of promise: they were without hope, and without God. This was their wretched plight, so long as they were far off. But through the grace of God, who was pleased to send his servant Paul to declare the gospel of salvation to them, their condition underwent a wonderful change. They were made nigh by the blood of Christ. By that blood they were reconciled to God: they were made partakers in the covenant of promise, fellow-citizens with the saints, became entitled to all the glorious privileges of God's people, and were admitted to dwell in his house, and to share in the blessings and honours of his family. It is of this marvellous and happy change, that St Paul reminds the Ephesians in the text. To make them feel their blessedness as Christians, he sets before them their wretchedness as Gentiles, or heathens; when, as we read in the book of Acts, they were worshipers of the great goddess Diana, and of the statue which in their fond conceits they imagined to have fallen from heaven: that is, they were blind idolaters, and bowed down to gods that were no gods, but the work of men's hands, wood and stone. Nor was this the case with the people of Ephesus alone, before the coming of Christ. The Jews indeed had been favoured from the earliest times with a knowledge of the one true God and through their teaching in almost every great city there was a congregation, larger or smaller, of devout men, or proselytes, as : they were called, who had left the idols of their fathers, and worshipt the great Jehovah. But with these exceptions the whole earth was lying dead in darkness and in wickedness. Even the city of Athens, which among the heathens passed for the light of the world, was wholly given up to idolatry. The account which we read in the Epistle to the Romans applied, under one form or other, to all the Gentiles: "they had changed the glory of the incorruptible God into an image made like to corruptible man, and to birds, and four-footed beasts, and even to creeping things." Their souls were bound to the footstool of any dumb idol that chance had set up among them. Why do I speak of these things to you? For the same reason which led St Paul to speak of them to the Ephesians: to remind you of the fearful depths of evil, out of which through God's mercy you have been brought, that your hearts may be stirred to thankfulness, and that, feeling how much you owe to God for his goodness, you may be roused to do your best toward paying off your great debt of love to him, by giving yourselves up to his service, and striving to walk before him in holiness and righteousFor we too are not of the seed of Abraham after the flesh: we too by birth are Gentiles, as the Ephesians were: and if the mercy of God ness. had not been revealed to our forefathers, as well as to them, if our forefathers, having sometimes been far off, had not been made nigh by the blood of Christ, we at this day should still be what they were, and what so many millions of idolaters in all quarters of the world are even now: we should be aliens from the commonwealth of Israel, and strangers from the covenants of promise: we should be without hope, and without God, even in the midst of God's own world. But, blessed be God! it pleased him to call our fathers to the knowledge of the truth in Christ Jesus. Nay, it has pleased him to enrich them with one spiritual blessing after another, and to exalt them with religious privileges and religious knowledge, not merely above the heathens, but, I might almost say, above every other Christian people. Moreover they have been allowed to hand down those religious privileges, a rich and precious inheritance, the richest and most precious of all earthly inheritances, to us, their children; and we are now enjoying them. At least it is our own fault, our own sin, if we are not. Thoughts of this kind can never be out of season; for it can never be out of season to meditate on the great mercies that God has vouchsafed to us. But they are more especially fitted for the festival we are this day celebrating. To-day is the feast of the Epiphany, as it is called, that is, of the manifestation or shewing forth,-a feast kept in remembrance of that great and glorious day, when Christ was first manifested and shewn to the Gentiles. In the Gospel for the day we read how it pleased God, by means of a wonderful star, to make the birth of Jesus known to the wise men, and how they came from their own country in the East to Jerusalem, and how the words on their lips, when they got there, were, "Where is he that is born King of the Jews? For we have seen his star in the East, and are come to worship him." Nor did they come empty-handed. According to the prophecy in the 72nd Psalm, that the kings of Arabia and Saba should bring gifts, they had brought the riches of those very countries, which abound in gold and spices, to offer to the new-born King. And where, and how did they find him? In a splendid palace, in the midst of a mighty city, surrounded by guards, with the lords and ladies of the land taking pride in waiting upon him? He was in a small house, in the petty village of Bethlehem, with nobody to nurse or tend him but his virgin mother. Had they arrived a little sooner, they would have found him, as the shepherds did, in a stable. But pro bably some kind-hearted person had been moved with pity for the Virgin's forlorn condition, and had taken her in with her babe: for we read, that, |