+I. To distribute the unbounded wealth of the Gospel.+--"Unto me . . . is this grace given, that I should preach the unsearchable riches of Christ" (ver. 8). In calling the Gospel "the unsearchable riches of Christ" the apostle signifies that Christ, the whole truth about Him and centred in Him, is the theme of his preaching, and that in Christ he finds a mine of inexhaustible wealth, a treasure of truth which cannot be told. He speaks as one who has searched--searched so long, so far, as to have produced on his mind the impression of unsearchableness. His whole style of writing in this chapter is that of a man overwhelmed with a sense of the infinite grace of God revealed in Christ. The expression "unsearchable riches," while conveying the impression of infinitude as the words "breadth," "length," "height," "depth," suggests a different idea--that of a mine of precious metal, rather than that of a vast continent of great length and breadth with high mountains and deep valleys spread over its surface. Paul speaks as a man digging in a recently discovered gold-field, who finds particles of the precious metal in such abundance that he cannot refrain from exclaiming ever and anon, "What an inexhaustible supply of gold is here!" He speaks further as one who feels it his special business to let all the world know of this gold-field, and invite all to come and get a share of its wealth (_A. B. Bruce_). +II. To reveal to men the secret mind of God.+--1. _The Gospel was for long hidden alone in God._ "Which from the beginning of the world hath been hid in God" (ver. 9). It was a mystery hid _in_ God, not _from_ God. The idea of the universality of the Gospel, though veiled for ages by the limitations of the Divine dealings with the Jewish people, was never absent from the mind of God. Down through the rolling years one eternal purpose runs, and now and then the most gifted of the Hebrew seers caught a glimpse of its ever-widening range. This great secret of the ages was revealed to Paul in such clearness and fulness that he regarded it as the one purpose of his life--his heaven-sent commission--to make it known to his fellow-men, of whatever nationality. 2. _The purpose of the creation of all things by Christ was also a part of the Divine mystery._--"Who created all things by Jesus Christ" (ver. 9). The statement of this fact--thrown in by way of parenthesis--links the whole created things with the development of the Divine purpose, and asserts the absolute sovereignty of Jesus over all worlds. In some way yet to be more fully explained as the Divine purpose ripens all created beings are to be advantaged by the sublime redemptive work unfolded in the Gospel. "For He hath created all things, and by Him all things consist."