+II. The doxology itself+ (ver. 21).--All should glorify God, but all will not. In the Church alone will God get glory. It is as the name of Christ is glorified in us that we are glorified in Him. It is when the glory that God reflects on the creature is by the creature ascribed as due only to God when He is glorified as the Author of it, transcendently and infinitely glorious, it is then that the glory rests. When it is appropriated it is lost, but it is possessed when it is tossed back and fro between God and the creature. When the creature gives it to God, God of His rich grace sends it back in greater measure; but the humble creature, emulous of God's glory, sends it all back again to Him, and as it reciprocates so it increases. God gives not to end by enriching us--that is an immediate end; but the ultimate end is that He may be glorified. Be ashamed to get little--get all things. Get out of your poverty, not by fancying you are rich, but by coming and getting. The more you get always give glory, and come and ask and receive.--_Dr. John Duncan._ * * * * * * * * +CHAPTER IV.+ _CRITICAL AND EXPLANATORY NOTES._ Ver. 1. +Walk worthy of the vocation.+--They had been called to life in the Spirit, and they must also "walk in the Spirit." Ver. 2. +With all lowliness.+--The Christian--"born from above"--is to exhibit a trait of character with the "high-born" Greek despised, and which Heine in modern times called "a hound's virtue." "The pride that apes humility" steals in under Chrysostom's description of this "lowliness." He says, "It is a making of ourselves small when we are great." +And meekness.+--"A grace in advance of 'lowliness,' not as more precious than it, but as presupposing it, and as being unable to exist without it" (_Trench_). +With longsuffering.+--The exact opposite of our "short-tempered"--_e.g._ "Is the Spirit of the Lord straitened?" means "Has the Lord become irritable?" (Mic. ii. 7). The word suggests to men by nature irascible that "slowness to wrath" recommended by St. James. +Forbearing one another in love.+--The brother who is tempted to anger is not to look down from the height of a lofty pride on those who try his patience, but in compassionate love, remembering his own frailty, must "suffer long and be kind." Ver. 3. +Endeavouring to keep the unity of the Sprit in the bond of peace.+--It is no easy-going indifference that is inculcated; they will have to "exert themselves," "give diligence" (R.V.), before that peace obtains which is the harmonious and frictionless working of each part of the machine. Vers. 4-6. +One body . . . and in you all.+--"Seven elements of unity St. Paul enumerates. . . . They form a chain stretching from the Church on earth to the throne and being of the universal Father in heaven" (_Findlay_).