+I. That Christ is Head over all things.+--The Father hath given Christ to be Head over all things. 1. Originally involved in a covenant or agreement between the Father and the Son. 2. Now a matter of history. 3. The path of Christ to the mediatorial throne capable of being traced. 4. He there laid deep the foundations. 5. The whole universe is under His sway--heaven, earth, hell, all worlds, all elements. 6. He is qualified for such dominion--Divine attributes, angelic spirits, believers, the devil and wicked men, the Holy Spirit. +II. That Christ is Head over all things, to the Church.+--Christ sits upon the throne in the same character in which He trod the earth and hung upon the cross. 1. It is as Mediator. 2. The same ends which He contemplated. It was for the Church He clothed Himself in human form. 3. He gives a peculiar character to the entire Divine government. He Christianises it. 4. He employs all His attributes, resources, creatures. +Lessons.+--1. _Redemption is a wide and extended plan, not so easily accomplished, not so limited._ 2. _All creatures and dominions should do Christ homage._ 3. _The Church is secure from real danger._ 4. _Believers may well glory in Christ as their Head.--Stewart._ * * * * * * * * +CHAPTER II.+ _CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._ Ver. 1. +And you did He quicken.+--The italics in A.V. and R.V. show a broken construction of St. Paul's meaning, the verb being supplied from ver. 5, where the broken thread is taken up again. +Dead in trespasses and sins.+--"Dead through," etc. (R.V.). "What did they die of?" it might be asked; and the apostle answers, "Of trespasses and sins" (so _Alford_). "The word for trespasses is one of a mournfully numerous group of words" (_Trench_). It has sometimes the milder meaning of "faults," "mitigating circumstances" being considered. It makes special reference "to the subjective passivity and suffering of him who misses or falls short of the enjoined command" (_Cremer_). Meyer denies any "_real_ distinction between the words for 'trespasses' and 'sins.' They denote the same thing as a 'fall' and a 'missing.'" Ver. 2. "Shadows," says Meyer, "before the light which arises in ver. 4." +Wherein in time past ye walked.+--It is a sombre picture--men walking about "to find themselves dishonourable graves" in the "valley of the shadow of death," knowing not whither they go because the darkness--the gloom of spiritual death--"hath blinded their eyes" (1 John ii. 11). +According to the course of this world.+--Well translated by our modern "zeit-geist," or "spirit of the age." +The prince of the power of the air.+--However contemptuous St. Paul may be of the creations of the Gnostic fancy, he never dreams of saying there is nothing existent unless it can be seen and felt. The dark realm and its ruler are not myths to the apostle.