For by him were all things created, that are in heaven, and that are in earth, visible and invisible, whether they be thrones, or dominions, or principalities, or powers: all things were created by him, and for him: And he is before all things, and by him all things consist. And he is the head of the body, the church: who is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead; that in all things he might have the preeminence. Col 1:16-18 The Plan of Redemption Suppose a large graveyard surrounded by a high wall, with only one entrance by a large iron gate which is fast bolted. Within these wails are tens of thousands of human beings, by one disease descending to the grave. There is no balm to relieve them, no physician there: they must perish. This is the condition of man as a sinner. All have sinned, and the soul that sinneth shall die. While man was in this deplorable state, Mercy, an attribute of Deity, came down and stood at the gate, looked at the scene, and wept over it, exclaiming, “Oh, that I might enter! I would bind up their wounds; I would relieve their sorrows; I would save their souls.” While Mercy stood weeping at the gate, an embassy of angels, commissioned from the court of heaven to some other world, passing over, paused at the sight, and Heaven forgave that pause. Seeing Mercy standing there, they cried, “Mercy, Mercy, can you not enter can you look upon this scene, and not pity? can you pity, and not relieve?” Mercy replied, “I can see;” and in her tears she added, “I pity, but cannot relieve.”—“Why can you not enter?”—“Oh!” said Mercy, “Justice has barred the gate against me, and I cannot, must not, unbar it.” At this moment Justice himself appeared, as it were to watch the gate. The angels inquired of him, “Why will you not let Mercy in?” Justice replied, “My law is broken, and it must be honored: die they or Justice must.” At this there appeared a form among the angelic band, like unto the Son of God, who, addressing Himself to Justice, said, “What are thy demands?” Justice replied, “My terms are stern and rigid. I must have sickness for their health; I must have ignominy for their honor; I must have death for life; without the shedding of blood there is no remission.”—“Justice,” said the Son of God, “I accept thy terms. On Me be this wrong, and let Mercy enter.”—“When,” said Justice, “will you perform this promise?” Jesus replied, “Four thousand years hence, upon the hill of Calvary, without the gates of Jerusalem, I will perform it in My own person.” The deed was prepared and signed in the presence of the angels of God. Justice was satisfied; and Mercy entered, preaching salvation in the name of Jesus. The deed was committed to the patriarchs; by them to the kings of Israel and the prophets; by them it was preserved till Daniel’s seventy weeks were accomplished; and, at the appointed time, Justice appeared on the hill of Calvary, and Mercy presented to him the important deed. “Where,” said Justice, “is the Son of God?” Mercy answered, “Behold Him at the bottom of the hill, bearing His own cross;” and then he departed, and stood aloof at the hour of trial. Jesus ascended the hill, while in His train followed His weeping Church. Justice immediately presented Him with the important deed, saying, “This is the day when this bond is to be executed.” When He received it, did He tear it in pieces, and give it to the winds of heaven? No: He nailed it to His cross, exclaiming, “It is finished!” Justice called on holy fire to come down, and consume the sacrifice. Holy fire descended: it swallowed His humanity; but, when it touched His divinity, it expired, and there was darkness over the whole heavens; but, glory to God in the highest! on earth peace, and good-will to men. (Christmas Evans) Redemption Incomplete Until Accepted by Faith in Christ "Suppose there were twenty traitors in the Tower lay condemned; say again, the prince should yield his father such satisfaction for some whom he would save, wherewith the king his father should be contented, and give him their pardon thereupon; here the thing is done betwixt the king and his son, yet till the prince send to them, write to the keeper to deliver such and such to him, they are in the state they were in, and so continue. So it is with God, Christ, and us: the redemption is all concluded betwixt God and His beloved Son; yet till this is effectually made known to our hearts, so that they believe on this grace of Christ, we are as we were, in hold, in the fear of our condemnation. We are justified through the redemption in Christ, but so that before it can be applied in us we must have faith in His blood, being set forth unto us in the word preached. Can we have the strength of bread without eating bread? No more can we have any benefit by the bread of life without believing on Him. In Christ by faith we have these things." (P. Bayne, B. D.) Who is the image of the invisible God This is the most exhaustive assertion of our Lord’s Godhead to be found in St. Paul’s Writings. This magnificent dogmatic passage is introduced, after the apostle’s manner, with a strictly practical object. The Colossian Church was exposed to the attacks of a theosophic doctrine which degraded Christ to the rank of one of a long series of inferior beings supposed to range between man and the Supreme God. Against this assertion Paul asserts that Christ is: I. The image of the invisible God. The expression supplements the title of “the Son.” As “the Son,” Christ is derived eternally from the Father, and of one substance with Him. As “the image” Christ is in that one substance, the exact likeness of the Father, in all things except being the Father. He is the image of the Father, not as the Father, but as God. The “image” is indeed originally God’s unbegun, unending reflection of Himself in Himself, but is also the organ whereby God, in His essence invisible, reveals Himself to His creatures. Thus the “image” is naturally, so to speak, the Creator, since creation is the first revelation God has made of Himself. Man is the highest point in the visible universe; in man, God’s attributes are most luminously exhibited; man is the image and glory of God (1Co_11:7). But Christ is the adequate image of God, God’s self-reflection in His own thought, eternally present with Himself. II. As the image Christ is the first-born of all creation, not the first in rank among created beings, but begotten before any created beings. That this is the true sense of the expression is etymologically certain; but it is also the only sense which is in real harmony with the relation in which, according to the context, Christ stands to the universe. Of all things in heaven and earth, of things seen and unseen, of the various orders of the angelic hierarchy, it is said that they were created: 1. In Christ. There was no creative process external to and independent of Him; since the archetypal forms after which the creatures are modelled and the sources of their strength and consistency of being eternally reside in Him. 2. By Him. The force which has summoned the worlds out of nothingness into being, and which upholds them in being is His; He wields it; He is the one producer and sustainer of all created existence. 3. For Him. He is not as Arianism pretended, merely an inferior workman creating for the glory of a higher Master; He creates for Himself; He is the end of all things as well as their immediate source; and in living for Him every creature finds at once the explanation and law of its being. For He is before all things, and by Him all things consist. III. After such a statement it follows naturally that the fulness, the entire cycle of the Divine attributes, considered as a series of forces, dwells in him. This not in any ideal or transcendental manner, but with that actual reality which men attach to the presence of material bodies which they can feel and measure through the organs of sense (Col_2:9). Although throughout this Epistle the word Logos is never introduced, it is plain that the Image of St. Paul is equivalent in His rank and functions to the Logos of St. John. Each exists prior to creation; each is the one agent in creation; each is a Divine person; each is equal with God and shares His essential life; each is really none other than God. (Canon Liddon) The Person of Christ I. As related to God. “Image.” Some interpret this of the essential image; others as setting forth Christ as God’s messenger, or as perfect man, in allusion to Gen_1:26. But there is a great difference between man made “in,” “after,” or “according to” God’s image, and Christ “the image” itself. 1. An image--
2. This suggests that
II. As related to the universe-- 1. He is Creator: from which it is clear that all things had a beginning, and that nothing exists that does not owe its existence to Christ; and therefore Christ is the lawful proprietor of all things. That there may be no cavil we have a particular enumeration of His works:
2. But if Christ be all this, then--
III. As belated to His Church. “Head.” 1. By Divine appointment; and as the natural head is the highest part of the body, so Christ has in all things the pre-eminence. 2. In respect of His wisdom. The head is the seat of mind. There are all the organs and mental phenomena: the eye to see. “In Him are hid all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.” 3. As regards to sustaining and spiritual support. The head is where most of the vital functions are which impart energy through the system, and diffuse pleasure or pain, joy or sorrow. So Christ transmits whatever supplies are required for the Church’s welfare; through Him the whole body increases with the increase of God. Lessons: We have a Saviour-- 1. Almighty. 2. Sympathizing. 3. Everlasting. (T. Watson, B. A.) The Dignity of Christ I Christ in his pre-incarnate state. This dignity is represented by two brief clauses dealing with-- 1. His relation to the God head, “image”. There is a distinction between image and likeness. Likeness represents superficial resemblance, as when two leaves from the same tree are said to be like each other; image indicates resemblance by participation in the same life by reproduction of essence. Likeness is that which is superficial and partial, image that which is essential and exhaustive. Our Lord is that representation of God which God could not but have. Whatever of glory dwells in the Eternal Father is eternally imaged in His Son. 2. His relation to the universe.
3. Now these separate clauses are dove-tailed into the clause preceding them, “the firstborn,” for that expression does not mean that our Lord is the first creature, either in time or in rank. The emphasis must be put upon both adjectives, “firstborn.” The primacy of Jesus Christ in the creation is the primacy of birth. He alone is born, not made; all other things are made, not born; and there is a very marked distinction between these two. Our thoughts are born of our intelligence; our works are the product of our hands. The things that we make are outside of ourselves; they may perish, and our being be not affected; but the thoughts that are born within us and of us are a part of our being; when you touch them you touch yourself. Our Lord’s place in the universe is that of the firstborn; His own being is rooted in the very being of God, as inseparable from Him as thought is from being. Therefore He is called the Eternal Word of God. Thought always precedes achievement, just as a great cathedral is born in the mind of the architect before the click of a chisel is heard. Even so is Christ the first born of creation as holding in His living thought all the realms and ages. Thus far the essential majesty of the Divine Christ. This is a glory that blinds us, but does not kindle nor transfigure us. II The apostle passes to the glory of Him who tabernacled in human flesh. As creation finds in Him its head, unity, and coherence, so also does the kingdom of grace. These are not two systems, joining each other as two circles might have their contact at a single point, or overlapping, but are one, because the sovereignty of each and both is invested in Christ. 1. In His relation to redemption Christ is “the beginning, the firstborn from among the dead,” not the first who came forth from the grave in rank or time. His relation to the kingdom of grace as to that of nature is birth, in Him the resurrection finds its original and eternal home. It is not merely said that He is risen, but that He is “the Resurrection and the Life.” 2. As He is said to be the source of spiritual creative energy, so also is it declared that the authority of spiritual control is vested in Him. He is Head of the Church, to whom alone our prayers are to be addressed, and through whom alone the answer of God can come to us. Between us and God there are no hierarchies of principalities and powers, no army of saints and martyrs. The way is clear through Christ. There is but one Mediator. Just as the head interprets, gathers up, and responds to the multitudinous demands of the body that are telegraphed along the nervous filaments of sensation, so also does Christ, as the Head of His Church, interpret her needs and respond to her prayers. The heart does not always pray as do the lips, and our wishes are sometimes very different from our wants: but the great Head of the Church knows how to interpret, and always pierces to the deepest need. And so when the strength of our hands fails us, and our wisdom is staggered by the problems that front us, a larger wisdom and a mightier hope come pulsing into our feebleness. 3. Great prerogatives are these, but they are not a temporary investiture. They belong to Him by eternal right, “for it pleased the Father that in Him all fulness should dwell.” Grace has in Him its eternal dwelling place. And so long as the redeemed shall endure will He be their loving and loved Head. For in Him both God and man find their sufficient and eternal reconciliation. 4. This great reconciliation is not merely problematical and partial, it is positive and universal. The tenses are in the past. We are living to-day, not in the dispensation of the wrath of God, but in the dispensation of His redeeming grace. God is sending forth His ministers, bidding all to repent, assuring them that the feast is ready, and that it is only waiting for the guests. The age of demoralization passed away eighteen hundred years ago. The age of reconstruction began when on the cross our Lord said, “It is finished!” That was the burial of the old, as it was the birth of the new; and ever since, and until the end of time, in spite of opposition and apparent defeat, all things have been and shall be working together for good, and surely, though slowly, advancing the cause of God’s eternal righteousness. III Practical inferences. 1. We have been led by the apostle to the most exalted conceivable position whence we can look out on the works of God and upon the history of the world. We have been led through all the grades of being, from matter in its crudest form to mind in its loftiest manifestation, and we have seen that in Christ the whole universe of created existence finds its unity and coherence, while the awful struggle of right against wrong, truth against falsehood, find in Him its consummation and ending. This is something that neither science nor philosophy can give. In Him all contradictions are solved between the seen and the unseen, the created and the uncreated, the sin of man and the righteousness of God. 2. If it be true that both creation and redemption find in Christ their living center, then it is also plain that only in proportion as we enter into the mind of Christ can we understand aright either the works of God, or the history of the race, or the revelation of His character and purposes in Scripture. 3. Here, too, is the only solution of the vexed question of Christian union. How shall that unity be brought about? Certainly not by creeds nor by forms. There is only one name, one sign, that can subdue us all, and that is the sign that must conquer the world, the flaming cross of Jesus Christ. When we bow before that, and all our faces are turned reverently toward the One on the throne, then shall enmity perish, and we shall be one, even as He and the Father are one. 4. The incomparable dignity of our Lord should awaken in us a three-fold attachment.
The Divine pre-eminence of “Christ” I. Christ’s pre-eminence-- 1. His supremacy in relation to God. “Image” (1) The supreme likeness of God. (2) The supreme representation of God. (3) The supreme manifestation of God. 2. His supremacy in relation to nature. We have-- (1) His dignity. “firstborn,” telling of His age, heirship, authority. (2) His creative and sustaining agency. All is made by Him and consists in Him. In His miracles He was the Divine Ulysses whose use of his love proclaimed him lord. (3) His consummating glory. Creation exists for Him as well as by Him. He is its end as well as its origin. 3. His supremacy in relation to His Church. He is-- (1) Its sovereign, “Head”; (2) Its force, “Beginning.” (3) Life, “Firstborn from the dead.” His risen life is the life of the Church. II. The explanation on His pre-eminence is his Divine plenitude. He is the Pleroma, the totality of Divine attributes and powers. 1. In Him are all the Divine resources. He is the fulness of wisdom, power, love. 2. In Him all those resources permanently “dwell.” Because He is thus full of God, He must in pre-eminence be fully God. III. The work of Christ in His pre-eminence and plenitude is the work of reconciliation. 1. Reconcile what? “All things.” 2. How? “By the blood of His cross.” (U. R. Thomas) The Glory of the Son There are here grand conceptions of Christ’s relations. I. To God. Paul uses language which was familiar on the lips of his antagonists. Alexandrian Judaism had much to say about the “Word,” and spoke of it as the Image of God. Probably this teaching reached Colossae. An image is a likeness as of a king’s head on a coin or a face in a mirror. Here it is that which makes the invisible visible. 1. God in Himself is inconceivable and unapproachable. “No man hath seen,” etc. He is beyond the sense and above understanding. There is in every human spirit a dim consciousness of His presence, but that is not knowledge. Creatural limitations and man’s sin prevents it. 2. Christ is the perfect manifestation of God. Through Him we know all that we can know of God. “He that hath seen Me”. The great fathomless, shoreless ocean of the Divine nature is like a “closed sea.” Christ is the broad river which brings its waters to men. Our souls cry for the living God; and never will that orphaned cry be answered but in the possession of Christ, in whom we possess the Father also. To creation. “Firstborn.” 1. At first sight this seems to include Him in the great family of creatures as the eldest, but it is shown not to be the intention in the next verse, which alleges that Christ was before, and is the agent of, all creation. The true meaning is that He is firstborn in comparison with, or reference to, all creation. 2. The title implies priority in existence and supremacy. It applies to the Eternal Word and not to His incarnation. The necessary clauses state more fully this relation and so confirm and explain the title. 1. The whole universe is set in one class, and He alone over against it. Four times in one sentence we have “all things” repeated, and traced to Him as Creator and Lord.
2. The language employed brings into strong relief the manifold variety of relations which the Son sustains to the universe. The Greek means “all things considered as a unity.”
3. His existence before the creation is repeated. “He” is emphatic, “He Himself”; “is” emphasizes not only preexistence, but absolute existence. “He was” would not have said so much as “He is before all things.” “Before Abraham was I am.” 4. In Him all things hold together. He is the element in and by which is that continued creation which is the preservation of the universe. He links all creatures and forces into a co-operant whole, reconciling their antagonisms, and melting all their notes into music which God may hear, however discordant it may be to us. To the Church. A parallel is plainly intended between Christ’s relation to the material creation and to the spiritual. As is the pre-incarnate word to the universe, so is the incarnate Christ to the Church. 1. Christ the Head and the Church His body. Popular physiology regards the head as the seat of life. So our Lord is the source of that spiritual life which flows from Him into His members, and is sight in the eye, strength in the arm, swiftness in the foot, color in the cheek, richly various in its manifestations, but one in its nature and all His. That thought leads to Him as the center of unity by whom the many members become one body. The head, too, is the symbol of authority. 2. Christ is the beginning of the Church. In nature He was before all, and the source of all. So “the beginning” does not mean the first member of a series, but the power which causes the series to begin. The root is the beginning of flowers, although we may say the first flower is. 3. He is head and beginning by means of His resurrection.
So Paul concludes that in all things He is first, and all things are that He may be first. Whether in nature or grace the pre-eminence is supreme. (A. Maclaren, D. D.) Christ and His Church Christ is the supreme Head of the Church—the new moral creation.-- 1. The Church is the body of Christ. “The body, the Church.” Much controversy has prevailed as to what constitutes the Church; and the more worldly the Church became, the more confused the definition, the more bitter the controversy. The New Testament idea of the Church is easily comprehended. It is the whole body of the faithful in Christ Jesus, who are redeemed and regenerated by His grace—the aggregate multitude of those in heaven and on earth who love, adore, and serve the Son of God as their Redeemer and Lord. The word ἐκκλησία contains two leading ideas: the ordained unity, and the calling or separating out from the world. Three grand features ever distinguish the true Church—unbroken unity, essential purity, and genuine catholicity. (Cf. Eph_1:22-23; Eph_4:15-16; 1Co_12:12-27). 2. Christ is the Head of the Church.—“And He is the Head of the body, the Church.” That the world might not be considered this body, the word “Church” is added; and the materialistic conception of a Church organism thus refuted. As the Head of the Church-- (1) Christ inspires it with spiritual life and activity. (2) He impresses and molds its character. (3) He prescribes and enforces its laws. (4) He governs and controls its destinies. (5) He is the center of its unity. Christ is the originating, fontal Source of the organic life of the Church.—In respect to the state of grace, He is the beginning; in respect to the state of glory, He is the firstborn from the dead. He gives to the Church its entity, form, history, and glory; except in and through Him, the Church could have no existence. 1. He is the Author of the moral creation.—“The beginning.” Christ has been before described as the Author of the old material creation. Here He is announced as the beginning of the new spiritual creation. The moral creation supplies the basis and constituent elements of the Church. In the production, progress, and final triumph of the new creation, He will redress all the wreck and ruin occasioned by the wrong-doing of the old creation. Of this new moral creation Christ is the source, the principle, the beginning; the fountain of life, purity, goodness, and joy to the souls of men. 2. He is the Author of the moral creation as the Conqueror of Death.—“The firstborn from the dead.” Sin introduced death into the old creation, and the insatiable monster still revels and riots amid the corruptions he perpetually generates. The Son of God, in fulfilment of the divine plan of redemption, became obedient unto death, even the death of the cross. He descended into Hades, and placed Himself among the dead. On the third day He rose again, “the firstfruits of them that slept.” He was “the firstborn from the dead”; the first who had risen by His own power; the first who had risen to die no more. By dying He conquered death for Himself and all His followers. He can therefore give life to all that constitute that Church of which He is fittingly the Head, assure them of a resurrection from the dead, of which His own was a pattern and pledge, and of transcendent and unfading glory with Himself in the endless future. The relation of Christ to the Church invests Him with absolute pre-eminence.—“That in all things He might have the pre-eminence.” 1. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Father.—He is “the image of the invisible God”; the Son of His love, joined by a bond to us mysterious and ineffable, and related in a sense in which no other can be. He is the first and the last; the only divine Son. 2. He is pre-eminent in the universe of created beings.—He existed before any being was created, and was Himself the omnipotent Author of all created things. The whole hierarchy of heaven obey and adore Him. He is alone in His complex nature as our Emmanuel. Mystery of mysteries; in Him Deity and humanity unite! 3. He is pre-eminent in His rule over the realm of the dead.—He entered the gloomy territory of the grave, wrestled with and vanquished the King of Terrors, rose triumphantly from the dismal battle-field, and is now Lord both of the dead and of the living. “I am He that liveth and was dead; and, behold, I am alive for evermore; and have the keys of Hades and of death” (Rev_1:18). 4. He is pre-eminent in His relation to the Church.—The Church from beginning to end is purely His own creation. He sketched its first rough outline, projected its design, constructed its organism, informed it with life, dowered it with spiritual riches; and He will continue to watch over and direct its future until He shall “present it to Himself a glorious Church, not having spot or wrinkle, or any such thing”! 5. He is pre-eminent in the estimation and homage of a ransomed world.—He is the central figure of all history; around Him all events group themselves, and by Him are stamped with their true character, significance, and worth. The dream of the ages, the teaching of figures and symbols, the shadows and forecastings of coming events, are all dismissed in the effulgent presence of Him to whom they all point, like so many quivering index-fingers. Christ has to-day the strongest hold upon the heart of humanity. His perplexed enemies admire while they reject Him; the ever-increasing multitude of His friends reverence and adore Him; and the era is rapidly advancing when to Him a universe of worshippers shall bow the knee and acknowledge that “in all things He has the pre-eminence.” [Preacher's Homiletical] The Heart Settled In Christ Living as we do, far down the stream of time, when long ago the name of Christ has associated itself to all that is the most classical in literature, the most refined in art, the most exquisite in poetry, the most generous in chivalry, and the most advanced in civilization; when the cross, no more the word of shame or the brand of ignominy, has become the banner of progress, and the crest of honor, it is very difficult for us to throw ourselves enough into the spirit of the age of St. Paul, to estimate the grandeur of thought, and the strangeness with which the words must have burst upon the world, that Christ the Nazarene, Christ the Crucified, should in all things have the pre-eminence. And yet the whole expansion of the world’s history is but the fulfilment of that vision of St. Paul, that his spiritual eye saw, when he contemplated Christ and the Resurrection, and said, "that in all things He should have the pre-eminence." I feel sure that no one who has been an accurate observer of life, has failed to notice the elevating and purifying influence of a true religion wherever it is received. Has it never occurred to you in life to know some mind of a rude and coarse texture brought under the power of the simple faith of the Lord Jesus Christ? You have, perhaps, watched the wonderful transformation. That intellect, once the dullest, has gone up, if not unto the very first class, yet certainly far beyond itself and above the ordinary rank. And that heart has taken a delicacy such as the best secular education rarely succeeds in giving. Christ is in him, and Christ, rising, raises the man to show that wherever Christ is, even in the poorest, darkest, lowest, most miserable sinner’s heart, He will have the pre-eminence. Many persons are looking a great deal into their own hearts, as if they would ever find peace by looking down there. The way to arrive at peace is to examine Christ, to magnify Christ, to take grand views of Christ, to find your evidences in Christ. An uplifted Christ is the sinner’s rest. [J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons, 8th series] No One Can Know the Depths of His Preeminence This compilation of comments and studies by numerous bible scholars gives a glimpse of what these verses hold, but as John Wesley stated, in the form of a question-no one can reach the bottom of the preeminence of Christ Jesus-our Lord.
"And - From the whole he now descends to the most eminent part, the church. He is the head of the church - Universal; the supreme and only head both of influence and of government to the whole body of believers. Who is - The repetition of the expression Col 1:15 points out the entrance on a new paragraph. The beginning - Absolutely, the Eternal. The first begotten from the dead - From whose resurrection flows all the life, spiritual and eternal, of all his brethren. That in all things - Whether of nature or grace. He might have the pre - eminence - Who can sound this depth?" [John Wesley] Comments are closed.
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On this page there will be information regarding Christian mediation, and weekly short meditations. More content will be added as the Lord leads.
The NightWatchman And it came to pass in those days, that he went out into a mountain to pray, and continued all night in prayer to God. Luk 6:12
And in the morning, rising up a great while before day, he went out, and departed into a solitary place,
and there prayed. Mark 1:35 Gander Story Poems
https://www.gander poems.org/ Resources
Madame Guyon - A Short and Easy Method of Prayer / Christian Audio Book (1 / 2)
https://youtu.be/eihZWpAk7y4?si=PQ-_J3Y6i8u-N2Ac Union With God By Jeanne Guyon Chapter 1 Of 7 https://youtu.be/d5AfKS2dFLg?si=VtWAeEurkAddTDpL The Practice of the Presence of God - audiobook Brother LAWRENCE (1614 - 1691)- https://youtu.be/rRAs_BK1NR8?si=hGAL4C829aH7DKMn Praying in the Spirit https://www.twosparrowsministry.org/the-prayer-closet Archives
July 2024
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