THE SECOND INCARNATION. "And hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all."-EPн., i., 22, 23. THIS passage, if you remember the context and surely no Christian man that ever read it forgets it—is a glowing and rapturous recital of the results of Christ's incarnation, his holy life and obedience, his sufferings and his death. The apostle prays for his brethren that God will give them the spirit of wisdom, that the eyes of their understanding may be enlightened, that they "may know what is the hope of his calling, and what the riches of the glory of his inheritance in the saints, and what is the exceeding greatness of his power to us-ward who believe, according to the working of his mighty power which he wrought in Christ when he raised him from the dead, and set him at his own right hand in the heavenly places, far above all principality, and power, and might, and dominion, and every name that is named, not only in this world, but also in that which is to come; and hath put all things under his feet, and gave him to be the head over all things to the Church, which is his body, the fullness of him that filleth all in all." So that there is not only this retrospect of the glorification of Christ in his own person, but a glowing prophecy of a second and yet more glorious incarnation of Christ. There was a first coming, and there is to be a second coming of the Savior. He is supreme in heaven. He is also to be supreme on earth. It is something yet to come. For all things are to be put under his feet. Not put under his feet as held by absolute power, but brought into willing subjection. This is language borrowed from warfare, but translated into moral thought. There is to be the subjugation to Christ of all the elements of human nature and human society. The world, its population, its organizations, every element that can be developed from the great laws of physical nature and of human life, are yet to be perfectly subdued, and put under the complete control and inspiration of the Lord Jesus Christ. When it is declared that the Church is yet to fill all things, that the whole world is to be subject to it, and that Christ is to be the head of it, I do not understand it to be the Church as represented to us by its mere organization. I understand it to be the Church of the human race-the great Church of the universal humanity. Christ is the head of all who are in soul and mind vitally influenced by him, just as the body is influenced by the brain. There is no part of the human body that is not dominated by the brain. It is the controlling centre. The blood, the nerves, the tissues, the secretions, the very substance-matter of bone and muscle, all are directly, as well as indirectly, influenced by the nerve-centre-the great centre of life and being, so that there is no part of the human body that is not controlled by the brain. And the whole world is yet to be as perfectly controlled by the mind and will of Christ, as the human body is now controlled by the mind and will of the individual. The Church is yet to represent the race; and that whole race is to move as obediently, as instinctively, as spiritually and refinedly as the whole body of a cultivated man moves obedient to the cultivated brain. Christ is to fill all with himself-all governments; all laws; all policies under the government; all commercial and industrial organizations; all societies; all circles; all households; all individuals. All are to be filled with the mind, and will, and spirit of the Head; and Christ is to be the brain of the whole world. In other words, all physical economies and |