2. _This power invests Christ with supreme rule and authority_ (ver. 22). On the night when Christ was born what a difference was there in all outward marks of distinction between the child of the Hebrew mother as He lay in His lowly cradle, and the Augustus Cæsar, whose edict brought Mary to Bethlehem, as he reposed in his imperial palace. And throughout the lifetime of the two there was but little to lessen that distinction. The name of the one was known and honoured over the whole civilised globe, the name of the Other scarce heard of beyond the narrow bounds of Judea. How stands it now? The throne of the Cæsars, the throne of mere human authority and power, has perished. But the empire of Jesus, the empire of pure, undying, self-sacrificing love, will never perish; its sway over the consciences and hearts of men, as the world grows older, becomes ever wider and stronger (_Hanna_). The rule of Christ will last till all enemies are subdued, and obedience to Him becomes a reverential and joyous experience. Transcriber's Note: Please search the Internet for videos that explore the properties of elemental mercury ("quicksilver") rather than performing the experiments yourself. +III. The Church is complete as it is endowed with the Divine fulness of Christ+ (ver. 23).--The Church to-day seems broken into fragments, torn by divisions and strife; but by-and-by it will blend in a glorious unity. Take a mass of quicksilver, let it fall on the floor, and it will split into a vast number of distinct globules; gather them up, and put them together again, and they will coalesce into one body as before. Thus, God's people below are sometimes divided into various parties, though they are all in fact members of one and the same mystic body. But when taken up from the world and put together in heaven they will constitute one glorious, undivided Church for ever and ever. The completeness of the Church is not the aggregation of all the virtues of the saints blended in beauteous and harmonious unity, but the glory of the Divine fulness that pervades every part. +Lessons.+--1. _The Church as a Divine creation is a revelation of Christ._ 2. _The Church is composed of those who are created anew in Christ Jesus._ 3. _Christ is everything to His Church._ _GERM NOTES ON THE VERSES._ Vers. 19-23. _The Dignity and Dominion of Christ._ +I. The first step in Christ's exaltation was the resurrection from the dead.+--This miracle is an incontestable evidence of the truth of the Christian religion, and an evidence of the great doctrine of the resurrection of the body and a future life, and of the efficacy of Christ's blood to expiate the guilt of our sins. If we believe that Jesus died and rose again, we must believe that the same mighty power which wrought in Him can also work in us to raise us from the dead.