p each
other's company, and even to take part in united religious work, and to
be constantly together as worshippers, aye, perhaps as ministers of the
Word and Ordinances of Christ, and yet never, or hardly ever, to
exchange a word about HIM, heart to heart; still less to "speak often
one to another," and share fully together their treasures of experience
of what He is and what He has done for them. The very dialect of the
Christian life has greatly lost in holy depth and tenderness, so it
seems to me, since a former generation in which this over-drawn fear
(it is a mere fashion) of "phraseology" was less prevalent. It ought
not so to be.

Let us each for himself come closer to our eternal FRIEND, converse
more fully with Him, "consider HIM" much more than many of us do. And
then we too shall discover that "our mouth is opened, our heart
enlarged," for holy converse with our fellow-servants, in that
wonderful interchange of souls which is possible "in the heart of Jesus
Christ."

"Oh days of heaven, and nights of equal praise,
Serene and peaceful as those heavenly days,
When souls, drawn upwards in communion sweet,
Enjoy the stillness of some close retreat;
Discourse, as if releas'd and safe at home,
Of dangers past and wonders yet to come,
And spread the sacred treasures of the breast
Upon the lap of covenanted rest." [8]

[1] _Sun episcopois kai diakonois_. I render the words as literally as
possible, not to discredit the distinctive functions of the Christian
ministry, but to remind the reader of the natural origin of the titles
by which Christian ministers are designated. And it is important here
to remember that our word _bishop_, while derived from _episkopos_,
cannot properly translate it _as it is used in the New Testament_. For
_episkopos_ is not used there as the special title of a superintendent
pastor set over other pastors. Such superintendents, however the
office originated, are found in the New Testament, and early in the
second century are called distinctively _episkopoi_: but the term so
used is later, on any theory, than the origin of the office. But I do
not purpose in these devotional chapters to discuss at length such a
question as that raised here. The reader should by all means consult
Bishop Lightfoot's Excursus in his Commentary on this Epistle, _The
Christian Ministry_. The views advanced in that essay were, as I
personally know, held by the writer to the l