God shall supply all your need.' Let us answer, 'The
Lord is my Shepherd, I shall not want.'

FAREWELL WORDS

'Now unto our God and Father be the glory for ever
and ever, Amen. Salute every saint in Christ
Jesus. The brethren which are with me salute you.
All the saints salute you, especially they that
are of Caesar's household. The grace of the Lord
Jesus Christ be with your spirit.'--PHIL. iv.
20-23 (R.V.).

These closing words fall into three unconnected parts, a doxology,
greetings, and a benediction. As in all his letters, the Apostle follows
the natural instinct of making his last words loving words. Even when he
had to administer a bitter draught, the last drops in the cup were
sweetened, and to the Philippians whom he loved so well, and in whose
loyal love he confided so utterly, his parting was tender as an embrace.
Taking together the three elements of this farewell, they present to us
a soul filled with desire for the glory of God and with loving yearning
for all His brethren. We shall best deal with them by simply taking them
in order.

I. The Doxology.

It is possibly evoked by the immediately preceding thought of God's
infinite supply of all human need 'according to his riches in _glory_';
but the glory which is so richly stored in Christ, and is the full
storehouse from which our emptiness is to be filled, is not the same as
the glory here ascribed to Him. The former is the sum of His divine
perfections, the light of His own infinite being: the latter is the
praise rendered to Him when we know Him for what He is, and exalt Him in
our thankful thoughts and adoration. As this doxology is the last word
of this whole letter, we may say that it gathers into one all that
precedes it. Our ascription of glory to God is the highest object of all
His self-manifestation, and should be the end of all our contemplations
of Him and of His acts. The faith that God does 'all for His glory' may
be and often has been so interpreted as to make his character repellent
and hideous, but in reality it is another way of saying that God is
love. He desires that all men should be gladdened and elevated by
knowing Him as He is. His glory is to give. That to which He has
committed the charge of interpreting Him to our dim eyes and disordered
natures is not the attributes of sovereign power, or creative wisdom, or
administrative providence, or any o