References The Epistle to the Romans References. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 69; ibid. (5th Series), vol. iii. p. 249. I.-IV. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 349. I. 1. H. R. Heywood, Sermons and Addresses, p. 138. R. W. Dale, The Epistle of James, p. 261. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 124. I. 1, 2. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 17. The Incarnation of God Romans 1:1-4 We are invited to turn our thoughts with special devotion to that great truth upon which the Gospel, as St. Paul here says, is founded, the awful and overwhelming mystery of the Incarnation of the Son of God the truth expressed in the beginning of St. John's Gospel 'the Word was made Flesh'. It must be, indeed, to Christians, their continual thought. I. Such an event as that can have nothing like it, or parallel to it, while this world lasts. The Gospel of Christ, which, as announced by His Church from the first, has made the Incarnation of the Eternal Son what St. Paul made it, the centre and heart of all teaching, worship, and obedience, the fulfilment and end of all that was old, the starting-point of all that was new the Gospel of Christ refuses, and must ever refuse, to compromise with any view of religion which puts this tremendous truth in any less than its paramount and sovereign place. II. The Incarnation was the turning-point in the history of this world; and as a matter of fact, we have before our eyes the consequences which have followed from it. In the good and in the evil, in what the world seems and what it is, in its tendencies, its motives, its efforts, in what is visibly on its surface and in its secret forces, in the depths of men's hearts and their strongest purposes, that awful Presence which was once visible in the world has made things different in it from what they ever were before. But I turn to another aspect of the subject. We have each of us, one by one, our concern with this great truth. To know and master what it means, to realise, as we say, what it is, and what it is to us, is the turning-point of each man's belief. R. W. Church, Pascal and other Sermons, p. 175. References. I. 1-7. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 46. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 136. I. 2. C. Leach, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 68. I. 3. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iii. p. 450; ibid. vol. vi. p. 96; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 410; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. pp. 170, 532. I. 3, 4. H. P. Liddon, Sermons on some Words of St. Paul, p. 1. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 31. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 468. I. 3-5. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 123. I. 4. E. A. Stuart, The New Commandment and other Sermons, vol. vii. p. 185. R. J. Campbell, New Theology Sermons, p. 31. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ii. pp. 174, 254; ibid. vol. vii. p. 25; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 277; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 39; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 424. I. 5. R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 404. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 81; ibid. vol. viii. p. 235. I. 5-13. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 29. All Saints' Day Romans 1:7 I. 'All' Saints. The festival of All Saints is one which ought to touch the hearts of all of us. We celebrate all those who have by the help of God lived holy lives and died in the faith of Christ, all who, like ourselves, have been tempted by the world, the flesh, and the devil, but by the strength of God have overcome, no matter whether they be rich or poor, old or young, powerful or weak No matter what their sect or calling, all are included in the great, broad love of Christ, if only they have done their best to live a saintly life. We look back on the past, and perhaps, with our small knowledge, our eyes only light on some few names conspicuous on the page of history. These were, we know, witnesses of Christ in the world; but were there none besides them? As you read the history of past wars, you come across well-known names, great generals, great admirals, men whose names were in their day household names in every mouth as heroes who had fought or won, but did you ever think, you that read their names, how weak and powerless they would have been of themselves without the common sailors and soldiers to back them up? Could a few generals, however well versed in the arts of strategy, win a campaign by themselves? No; it is the common soldiers and sailors who do their work simply because it is their duty. Their names die, they perish as if they had never been, but have they died in vain? It seems to me almost more heroic to be content to die unknown, simply for the sake of duty, than to struggle to the front and win a noble name. Both classes have done their duty, but the one seems to have some reward; the other none. Such are the men we commemorate today, common soldiers in the great army of God who have for centuries been doing battle against the armies of evil in the battlefield of the world. II. Our Calling. 'Called to be saints.' Let that be our lesson today. St. Paul is not writing to great, well-known people. The Church of Christ in Rome did not number many of the high and mighty in the world. Most of its members were of the low and despised class, many even slaves, but whether high or low, slave or free, St. Paul addresses them all alike as 'beloved of God, called to be saints'. And surely so are we. We are not called to be great; we are called to be saints. And what do we mean by saints? The word in the original Greek means 'holy ones'. We are called to holiness. 'How can I lead the holy life? With such temptations to evil, with so much wickedness all round me in the world?' Are you saying that? Well, then, All Saints' Day supplies the answer. You can, because others have done so. In fighting the battle against evil in your own hearts and in the outside world, you will not be alone. Some have done their work and have gone to their rest. Others, though perhaps unknown to you, are carrying on the work still. This is the communion of saints; the saints whose rest is won, and the saints who are working still are linked together in one common brotherhood and form one army, and their General is ordering the work, even Christ the Lord. III. The Tie which Binds All in One. What is wanted to make ourselves good soldiers in this army? Faith. That is what joins all in one. A belief in the goodness of their cause, a sure trust in the wisdom and goodness of their Leader. Faith is that power which enables a man to live and work in the sight of Christ, although to bodily sight his Leader is invisible. Every one who lives a holy life now, however poor and unknown, is really preaching faith, showing he believes there is something higher and nobler and more worth living for than this world or his own self. IV. A Plea for Holiness. And, lastly, reverence holiness in all. We are ready enough to honour it when accompanied by greatness, but do we not sometimes ridicule it and speak of it as a weakness? Perhaps it may be but a weak, a very weak, trial to rise, only a feeble effort to seek after God and holiness; yet holiness and goodness, like all other things, must have a beginning, and our ridicule and disdain may check it in the bud. We are all called to be God's saints. Shall we be ashamed of the name ourselves or speak slightingly of anyone who is trying, however feebly, to live according to his high calling? We are called to be saints, but do we belong to them? Year by year we join in the festival of All Saints, but some day or other a saints' festival will come when we shall not be here. Others will be joining in the hymn of thanksgiving, but our voice will not be heard. Will they then be giving thanks for us? Shall we be among that great multitude who, together with the saints on earth, make up the mighty Church of God? We ought to be there. It will be our own fault if we are not there, for we are all each one of us called to be saints. References. I. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2320. J. C. Story, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. p. 308. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 65; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 332; ibid. vol. xi. p. 439. I. 7-15. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 4. I. 8. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 247. I. 8-17. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 53. I. 9. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 147. A Bible Reading Romans 1:13 'I would not have you ignorant, brethren, that oftentimes I purposed to come unto you.' What have we to do with the Apostle's purposes? They were the events of the day, they were of no importance, they were lost in the political ambitions and strifes of the hour. No, they were not; we have a great deal to do with the Apostle's purposes. Here he is on common ground with ourselves a neighbour, a brother, a friend. He introduces us into the secrets of his love and his desire and his holy ambition. He talks small things to us; he enters into personal plans; he shows us his kind thoughts to the Roman Christians and other Gentiles. I. The expression occurs a second time in Romans 11:25 . What does he say there? He says, 'I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery'. What a different tone! The one neighbourly, the other profound, mysterious, muffled music. 'I would not, brethren, that ye should be ignorant of this mystery' get into the deeper things; get away from the surface and the frivolity of your piety, and sink deep and live among the rock-truths of God. II. The next time it occurs is in 1 Corinthians 10:1 'Moreover, brethren, I would not that ye should be ignorant'. The same formula, it must mean something. I would not that ye should be ignorant of history, especially, 'how that all our fathers were under the cloud, and all passed through the sea... and did all eat the same spiritual meat, and did all drink the same spiritual drink: for they drank of that spiritual Rock that followed them, and that Rock was Christ' What an interpreter, what a seer, what a man for piercing the thick covering of things and getting at the centre and the real and final meanings of the most obscure prophecies. 'I would not that ye should be ignorant, how that all our fathers' then we have fathers, have we? Yes, fathers, and they all did something that we have to do. Oh, I see, then there is an essential as well as an accidental unity in the development of the human race? Precisely. But how does it come, that we have lived so long and have not known about it until now? That is the mystery and the beauty, the music and the eloquence of the Bible. Paul rises to interpret what was done in the wilderness and the sea Paul would have us keep a gallery of historic examples. He would have us keep up point by point the organic nerve of history, the continuity of experience and the unity of testimony, till we all come blessed be God, the human family will not be complete until we arrive. Heaven will have vacant places until we come, and all the history of the world will receive explanation and illumination through our poor vanishing individuality. III. Where does it occur again? Some men never knew it occurred so often; they will then be surprised when 1 tell them that it occurs for the fourth time in 1 Corinthians 12:1 'Now concerning spiritual gifts, brethren, I would not have you ignorant'. I like to hear about these spiritual gifts, the gift of gifts. Can I have those spiritual gifts? Yes, and all the Church can have them. God has the remainder of the Spirit, the residue is His, and He will pour it forth as He sheds the rain. Well, I would not have you ignorant about spiritual gifts: there is a spiritual world, a world of the white ones, children of the dream, presences that flash upon us in visions, and we knew it not until we heard the beating of departing wings. I want to tell you about these, said Paul; there is great diversity of gifts, and some men can read the spiritual world more clearly than others can; let that be understood; there are differences, yet there is a common unity. IV. Where does it occur again? It occurs again in 2 Corinthians 1:8 : 'We would not, brethren, have you ignorant' How the formula recurs! What of? 'We would not, brethren, have you ignorant of our trouble.' We should like to hear about your trouble, and if we can assuage it we will. There are tears we cannot touch, but if we can touch yours there shall not be a tear in your eyes. 'Our trouble which came to us in Asia' and every where, 'that we were pressed out of measure, above strength, insomuch that we despaired even of life.' Now the feeling that I have after reading all these passages is that Paul was not the man to keep anything from us that he could give to the Church. 'Brethren, I would not have you ignorant I would not have you ignorant I would not have you ignorant. I am here in all my frankness to tell you about Christ and His Cross and the way heavenly.' Well, he came very near to that in his Epistle to the Corinthians when he used a formula not quite identical, but with identical meaning. He said, 'Behold, I show you a mystery; we shall hot all sleep, but we shall all be changed, in a moment, in the twinkling of an eve, the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.' Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. vi. p. 251. References. 1.13. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 149; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 307. I. 14. W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 10. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. i. p. 329. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 116; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 91. I. 14, 16. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 273. I. 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2286. The Glory and Power of the Gospel Romans 1:16 It was wonderful, indeed, that St. Paul could speak with such absolute confidence about this Gospel, calling it the great power of God, anticipating the time when the despised name of Jesus would be incomparably mightier than Caesar's, and when the truths which had their centre in the cross would have prevailed over all the magnificent pride and intellectual glory of that ancient world. Yes, it required a great prophetic vision to speak these words then: 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation, to every one that believeth'. I. It requires no prophetic vision now. We can hardly imagine any man, with his eyes half open, talking about being ashamed of the Gospel now. There are, perhaps, a few fierce and malignant unbelievers who think that the world of the future would get on better without it, and who would be glad, if they could, to sweep it away. But these are hardly sane men. An unnatural hatred has disordered their vision, or the love of evil has darkened their hearts. The vast multitude of men who live in Christian lands, even though the Gospel has little hold of them, think with a sort of pride of Christianity, and all who have yielded to its power never think about it save with a sense of glorying and exultancy. For the triumphs of the Gospel confront us everywhere. And everywhere the works of the Gospel are in evidence. You are not ashamed of Christianity. No. The grandeur of its works, the magnitude of its triumphs, the immensity of its power in the world, forbid that. II. But bring the thought of the text a little nearer home. Men may have nothing but respectful and reverent, and even proud, thoughts of Christianity, and yet have little hold upon the Gospel as regards themselves. St. Paul meant two things here first, that he gloried in the Gospel for himself, gloried in confessing it; and, secondly, that he had unlimited confidence in its power over others. First, he gloried in the thought that he himself was a Christian, that the Gospel had laid hold of him, and held him fast in chains of love; that its truths and promises and hopes had taken entire possession of him and formed the strength and joy of his life. They were nine-tenths of life to him, and the other tenth also. Secondly, St. Paul meant by these words, as he tells us, that, as a Christian worker, he had unlimited confidence in the Gospel, and in the Divine forces which are represented by the Gospel. He believed that they were the power of God unto salvation to every one that believed. The Gospel of Christ's love had won victories and would still win them. And, believing this, his ministry never failed to secure subdued and renewed souls for the Master's service. J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 97. The Power of the Gospel Romans 1:16 So wrote St. Paul to the little band of Christians crouching under the threatening shadow of the haughtiest despotism which the world has ever seen, where Imperial Home affected religious tolerance with a limitation which then, as now, tended to exclude any possible rival or anything which happened to be unpopular at the moment. Do we trace in his words a kind of challenge to his own courage, the accusation of an excuse, as in one who felt that a message so apparently hopeless, claims so tremendous as those of the Gospel, might reasonably be charged with folly in those who put them forward in such an atmosphere? He is assuring himself while he is encouraging his hearers, that his claims were not the dream of an enthusiast, or the folly of a fanatic. He knew what was meant by power, and the world had not yet seen the highest possible demonstration of it He could point to it, he could proclaim it, and lead to it And in a few centuries the Roman Empire itself would bow to it in the despairing cry of expiring Paganism, O Galilœe vicisti . I. As we have traced the suspicion of a sinking heart in the bold challenge flung by St Paul into the midst of Roman despotism, so we should do well in no way to minimise the strength of the evil which is arrayed against us, with which as Christians we have to contend, and to meet which Christ invests us with His power. In times full of anxiety such as these, when we are face to face with an organised conspiracy of evil seeking to engulph all that is most tender and beautiful in Christian life, we do well to remember that we can always count on the heart, which is naturally Christian, and the deep consciousness of humanity, which has never really given in its adherence to the sophistries which for the moment seemed to condone its weakness, and to deify its lusts. The testimony of mankind is too uniform, too solemn, too serious, to be lightly swayed from its real estimate of sin. There comes a time when the poor sufferer curses the platitudes which were destined to deceive him, and out of the intolerable burden of his pleasures and the utter degradation of his so-called nature turns with an intensity of longing to the Gospel and the stern comfort of its healing smart. Do not let us flinch, do not let us be ashamed of the Gospel of Christ when facing the modern estimate of sin. Deep down in his heart man is with us. He knows that the Gospel is right. He knows that sin is slavery, and that the Gospel is the good news of freedom. He knows that nature is a term which has been perverted to apply only to the uncontrolled appetites which wander outside the grasp of reason. And he bends his ear to listen to the gracious message which tells of One Who gives him power to live up to the fulness of his being, in that which alone can be called nature; where passion and desire exist under the perfect control of reason, and reason listens to the higher dictates of the Spirit. The Gospel brings a message of power to bear upon the godless opportunism of a luxurious age, and tells us that man was made to be a kind of firstfruits of God's creatures in the power of His might, Who was the great son of Man, Whom to know is to live, and Whom to serve is to reign. II. It is the power of God unto salvation. The words come home to us with a personal and intimate appeal. And many of us must add here also 'I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ'; for the old methods seem to be called in question, the old means of grace, as they are called, pushed on one side for appeals which are of power to men of culture, of recognised worth to men of strong will; which at least cannot be accused of credulity and which will pass muster in times of intellectual progress and general amelioration of the conditions of life. 'The power of God unto salvation.' Let us exhibit this in greater fulness and in greater strength. For a good Christian is in himself a gospel. 'They that fear Thee will be glad when they see me, because I have put my trust in Thy word.' The power of recovery is one of the most glorious blessings of the Gospel. History is full of its conversions; experience is again and again staggered to see Saul the persecutor now become Paul the servant of the Lord Jesus Christ. But even more than this, there is the grace which is given to us of using the past, even that from which we most shrink, so that it can better help us to attain to the great virtue of humility: 'I am not meet to be called an Apostle because I persecuted the Church of God' or it can give us something of the tenderness of the Good Shepherd, 'considering ourselves lest we also should be tempted'. It may be there is some soul going heavily, groaning beneath the burden of repeated failure; and he knows as yet nothing of the grace of salvation which is extended to him in the power of the Gospel. Christ came as the Second Adam, not to preach deliverance merely, but to give the power of recovery to a fallen world. He offers to you still the hand to extricate you, the power which will lift you, the power which will put you firmly on your feet There is a power and a virtue in His absolving Grace, which not only wipes out the guilt of the past, but gives us the power of recovery as a counterpoise to the dead weight which presses a man down, the weight of recurring falls, and of failure. 'O set me up upon the rock that is higher than I; for Thou hast been my hope, and a strong tower for me against the enemy.' W. C. E. Newbolt, Church Times, 18th December, 1908. Romans 1:16 I met but one human being that forenoon, a dark military-looking wayfarer, who carried a game-bag on a baldric; but he made a remark which seems worthy of record. For when I asked him if he were Protestant or Catholic 'Oh,' said he, 'I make no shame of my religion. I am a Catholic.' He made no shame of it! The phrase is a piece of natural statistics; for it is the language of one in a minority.... You may change creeds and dogmas by authority, or proclaim a new religion with the sound of trumpets, if you will; but here is a man who has his own thoughts, and will stubbornly adhere to them in good and evil.' R. L. Stevenson, * Travels with a Donkey. * It is an immense blessing to be perfectly callous to ridicule; or, which comes to the same thing, to be conscious thoroughly that what we have in us of noble and delicate, is not ridiculous to any but fools, and that, if fools will laugh, wise men will do well to let them.' From Dr. Arnold's * Letters. * References. I. 16. R. Barclay, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 59. J. B. Brown, The Divine Life in Man, p. 92. W. Pierce, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 247. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. ii. p. 176. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. iv. p. 349. H. P. Liddon, University Sermons (2nd Series), p. 242. J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 326. A. Maclaren, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 232. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 428. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 73. C. M. Betts, Eight Sermons, p. 14. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 54. E. M. Geldart, Faith and Freedom, p. 40. Bishop Arnett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 166. J. E. Watts-Ditchfield, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 1122. C. Ensor Walters, The Deserted Christ, p. 35. J. G. Greenhough; The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 97. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 286. I. 16, 17. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live by, p. 334. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 45. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 365; ibid. vol. ix. p. 194. I. 16-25. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 257. The Righteousness of God Romans 1:17 The two statements of the previous verse that the Gospel is the power of God to salvation, and that it proves itself to be so to every one who believes are further explained and confirmed by these words. I. What, then, is the righteousness of God? The phrase is capable of misconstruction, and, in fact, often has been misunderstood. The ostensible meaning might seem to be the righteousness which is a characteristic or attribute of God. But it cannot be said that this in any special sense is a revelation of the Gospel. It may more truly be described as the great theme of Old Testament teaching, the prophets never wearying of vindicating its claims, and of showing how certainly it will finally prevail. Moreover, it is impossible to see how the revelation of righteousness in such a sense could constitute the saving power of the Gospel. The righteousness of God, as is evident from the passage which St. Paul quotes from Habakkuk, as well as from other parallel expressions, is the righteousness of which God is the Author, which He provides and bestows, so that the man who acquires it becomes thereby a just or righteous man. Now, this is precisely what we need, and it supplies the essential condition of all fellowship with God, and therefore of holiness or victory over sin. II. The remainder of my text confirms the second statement of the previous verse, that the Gospel is the saving power of God to every one that believes. It is so because it is from faith to faith, a difficult expression if you take it word by word, but sufficiently plain in its general sense, which is that on our side everything but faith is excluded. This righteousness of which the Apostle has spoken is not due to our own works, which do not contribute to it anything whatever. When it becomes ours it is due entirely to faith faith which appropriates Christ, and by resting upon Him enters into it and invests us with all its prerogatives. And just as it is due to faith, so also it is designed to produce faith. Consider how the revelation of this righteousness, and its being offered to faith, opens an immediate entrance into a state of salvation. The radical error into which we all run in reference to our acceptance with God is that we must do something in order to secure it. So far from being an act or something to be done, it consists essentially in giving up the attempt to do anything whatever towards righting ourselves with God, and resting satisfied with what Christ has done. C. Moinet, The Great Alternative and other Sermons, p. 71. References. I. 17. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 281. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlviii. No. 2809. J. B. Brown, The Divine Life in Man, p. 122. A Scotch Preacher, The Strait Gate, p. 77. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. pp. 353, 416; ibid. vol. viii. pp. 81, 195; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 278; ibid. vol. ix. p. 189; ibid. vol. x. pp. 63, 328. I. 18. H. Howard, The Raiment of the Soul, p. 225. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 57. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p. 226. I. 18-32. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 66. I. 18- 3. 20. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 63. I. 19-32. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 276. The Power of God Romans 1:20 To apprehend the power of God we need not look at these coincidences, interferences, miracles, judgments, visitations, on which the ignorant and superstitious are prone to insist; not the violations of law, but the law itself, is the witness to the Divine power. To heal a disease, to restore a maniac, fills a crowd with surprise. But to preserve the delicate organisms of millions from succumbing to disease; to keep the fine tissues of the brain in order, so that sanity is the rule and insanity the exception; this is what should fill us with daily wonder and gratitude. The simple truth is, that the Force, which Agnostics are bound to assume, a vast Unknown, as the real explanation of all the known, is the God whom Christ revealed to us. But, since the everlasting power and divinity of God are so manifest, so overwhelmingly convincing, directly we come to reflect, whence has sprung the delusion that God's power is limited? It is essentially due to a diseased vision. Man is no impartial observer of God and His ways. His judgment is warped by shattering and useless resistance to the omnipotence of God. But remember, this perturbed judgment is the organ by which we are attempting to estimate God. Let us gather the threads of our argument into these two propositions. I. There is no evil in this universe except the perverted wills (probably confined entirely to this system), which in the exercise of their freedom have resisted the power of God. Resistance to Him produces unrest, discontent, paralysis. The sins which result from it involve us in perpetual suffering. II. When the will is reclaimed by Jesus Christ and brought into harmony with God, evil disappears, except so far as the eye has to contemplate the disorder of the wills which still resist. When the will is converted, restored, and in harmony with God, it beholds with unspeakable joy the infinite ocean of Light and Love; nor can it for a moment suppose that this dim shadow of human corruption will maintain itself for long in that victorious ocean. R. F. Horton, The Trinity, p. 113. Revelation of the Invisible Romans 1:20 Underlying the whole teaching of the New Testament is that deep and mysterious revelation as to the threefeld personality of the one God which is called the doctrine of the Trinity. It is hard to grasp, but unless we do believe and accept it in faith we must give up the doctrine of the Incarnation, the doctrine of the Atonement, the doctrine of the mission of the Comforter in fact, everything which makes Christianity precious to us, and that invests the sacrifice from the Cross with such unspeakable blessing and power. The eye, the ear, the tongue, these are organs that we all of us possess. With the ear we associate harmony; with the eye, beauty; with the tongue, speech. I propose, then, to take these three, harmony, beauty, speech, and to inquire: What do we understand by these terms; what is their meaning, their history, and significance? I. Harmony. Now harmony is revealed to us in the works of great musical composers as executed through the agency of skilled performers. Harmony in its essence existed long before there was a human composer or performer to give it body and expression, and it is impossible to conceive a time when harmony was not there, capable at any moment of manifestation. In the book of Job we read how that when God laid the foundations of the earth the morning stars sang together and all the sons of God shouted for joy. a. This conception of music as surrounding the Throne of God is, perhaps, the one of all others that has most impressed itself upon the minds of men. This is but another way of saying music is from everlasting; and therefore man, who was made in the likeness of God, came into being with music in his soul, but without power to give it adequate expression. b. This power has manifested itself slowly throughout the ages. It pleased Him who ordereth the course of human progress to delay until these latter days productions of the great musicians. But in the nature of things there is no reason for this. They were always in existence; they have been there waiting for men with high-strung souls to give them shape and make them henceforth a possession of joy to all their fellows so long as man shall walk the earth. c. Music may exist with all its possibility, but unless there be within a man the power to hear and appreciate melody, what advantageth it? What would be the use of singing men and women to a deaf man? The waves of rhythmic sound would be nonexistent. So, then, we have here three things harmony in its eternal essence, the source from which all music springs; harmony as it finds outward expression; harmony as it appeals inwardly to the hearer. And yet who can say that these three things, though quite distinct and different, are not at the same time one? And so, by an almost exactly parallel sequence of thought, we have: a. God the eternal source of all being, the author and origin of all things. b. God as manifested in time, in visible nature and in recorded history. c. God as revealed by His indwelling in the human heart. And we feel, do we not, that the Trinity in unity of theology, the Three and yet but One, has ceased to be altogether unthinkable. II. Beauty. Let us, then, pass to our second analogy. We are all of us conscious in our hearts of a something we call beauty. It is a something we cannot define. The sense of beauty which is felt but not seen we acknowledge to be an eternal reality; its prototype is not of the earth earthy, but cometh from heaven. But whenever we gaze upon a beautiful landscape, or beautiful sunset, a beautiful face, a beautiful work of art, we behold with our bodily eyes, and our spirits are thrilled by the actual presence of beauty realised by our sense at a particular time and a particular place. Observe, once again, that this beauty, however perfect, would be to us blank and void unless there were that within us which could comprehend it. The faculties must be cultured, sensitive, sympathetic, so that when we say that such and such a work is beautiful the assertion involves and predicates three things: a. The idea of beauty apart from all objects. b. The idea of beauty of objects that we actually see. c. The power in ourselves of perception. Yet may we not say that these three are one, not to be confounded yet not to be divided. III. Speech. Speech is the crowning gift of man that which gives him supremacy over the brute creation, that which marks him with the seal Divine. What magic is there not in a spoken word! And yet what is there to distinguish it from a mere unmeaning sound? It is impossible to say, for that which to one race is a mere sound becomes to another a symbol pregnant with signification. Nay, to him who is a student of language, in reality every word of every cultured human being is a living entity clothed upon with countless associations from the past. To the ordinary speaker, however, the word is nothing less than an implement for conveying thought at the particular instant that it is uttered. It is the direct product, the outward embodiment and expression under physical conditions of antecedent thought. And not only so. It serves a further purpose. It transmits the thought of the speaker and it transmutes it into the thought of the hearer. The thought is one, but its phases are threefold: a. We have the parent thought of the speaker. b. We have the same thought for a moment objectively expressed in concrete form through the medium of sound. c. We have the communicated thought that proceeds from both which passes through the air into the mind of the hearer. If we but grasp this, may we not, too, look on to read as with eyes opened to the richness of its spiritual meaning that wonderful declaration of the fourth Evangelist, 'The Word was made Flesh and dwelt among us,' and to perceive that the doctrine of the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and from, or rather through, the agency of the Son is no longer entirely inscrutable or remote; but that, as a spoken word enters into the ear and finds within the soul an intelligent response to the message that it brings from the speaker, so is it with the quickening impulse of the Holy Spirit upon our consciousness. Romans 1:20 Aspects of nature in different ages have changed before the eye of man; at times fruitful of many thoughts; at other times either unheeded or fading into insignificance in comparison of the inner world. When the Apostle spoke of the visible things which 'witness of the Divine power and glory,' it was not the beauty of particular spots which he recalled; his eye was not satisfied with seeing the fairness of the country any more than the majesty of cities. He did not study the flittings of shadows on the hills, or even the movements of the stars in their courses. The plainest passages of the book of Nature were, equally with the sublimest, the writing of a Divine hand.... The Apostle, in the abundance of his revelations, has an eye turned inward on another world. It is not that he is dead to Nature, but that it is out of his way; not, as in the Old Testament, the veil or frame of the Divine presence, but only the background of human nature and revelation. When speaking of the heathen, it comes readily into his thoughts; it never seems to occur to him in connection with the work of Christ He does not read mysteries in the leaves of the forest, or see the image of the cross in the form of the tree, or find miracles of design in the complex structures of animal life. His thoughts respecting the works of God are simpler and also deeper. The child and the philosopher alike hear a witness in the first chapter of Romans, or in the discourse of the Apostle on Mars' Hill, or at Lystra, which the mystic fancies of Neo-platonism and the modern evidences of natural theology fail to convey to them.' From Jowett's * Essay on Natural Religion. * The Sidonians agreed amongst themselves to choose him to be their king who that morning should first see the sun. Whilst all others were gazing on the east, one alone looked on the west But he first of all discovered the light of the sun shining on the tops of houses. God is seen sooner, easier, clearer in His operations than in His essence. Best beheld by reflection in His creatures. * For the invisible things of Him are clearly seen, being understood by the things that are made. * Thomas Fuller. References. I. 20. E. White, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 86. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 361. I. 20, 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1763, and vol. xxxviii. No. 2257. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 312. I. 21. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 184. R. W. Church, Village Sermons, p. 223. Romans 1:21-22 * (with 2:19) * A self-contented man is the hardened swelling on the breast of society. He is my sworn enemy. He fills himself with cheap truths, with gnawed morsels of musty wisdom, and he exists like a storeroom where a stingy housewife keeps all sorts of rubbish which is absolutely unnecessary to her, and worthless.... These unfortunate people call themselves men of firm character, men of principles and convictions, and no one cares to see that convictions are to them but the clothes with which they cover the beggarly nakedness of their souls. On the narrow brows of such people there always shines the inscription so familiar to all: 'Calmness and confidence'. What a false inscription! Just rub their foreheads with firm hand and then you will see the real signboard, which reads: 'Narrow-mindedness and weakness of soul'. Maxim Gorky. Reference. I. 21-25. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p. 240. The Divine Blessedness Romans 1:25 I. It is much easier for us to realise the blessedness of God when we think of His derivative rather than of His essential and eternal blessedness. Let us approach this mysterious and profoundly interesting subject from the easiest standpoint, that of the future. We project our vision through dim ages yet to come. The curse has gone from the universe, like an old dream of terror that troubled a long-forgotten night of childhood. No trace of it is left. All nations have been blessed in Him, and they stand before the throne of this solitary Potentate of love, and call Him blessed in their songs. But I may be reminded that if we look at God's infinite and unfathomable blessedness, from the standpoint of the far future, the subject is not without its difficulties. Is there no reservation in that blessedness? On the far-off confines of all this blessedness, is there not the smoke of a torment that ascendeth up for ever and ever? Well, in God's ripe summer-time evil will be insignificant beyond degree in comparison with good. 'But was not God the Father of these lost ones?' God could not be perfectly happy if He had left a single thing undone to save men. In respect of the damned even He has the blessedness of knowing that He has done for them all that infinite love and patience and resource could. II. Let us see if we can realise God's blessedness from the standpoint of the present. How can He be infinitely blessed whilst His watching Spirit is present in this world of unresting anguish? It may be asked, 'Is not God's present relation to pain a qualification of His blessedness?' (1) He lives in the presence of perpetual pain, it is true, but then He is ever exercising a ministry of pity and healing to pain, and there is no pause in the unseen work of that ministry: and the satisfactions it yields more than transcend the touch of possible grief that may be the germ of His sympathy. (2) And then God's blessedness can suffer no eclipse from contact with pain, because it is His will to make pain the vehicle for the manifestation of conspicuous tenderness. (3) And then God's blessedness is not overshadowed by human pain, even when rescue and healing from His presence tarry for awhile, because by pain God is teaching us sympathy with each other, and conformity to His own pattern of helpfulness and high beneficence. (4) And yet again, God looks upon pain from the standpoint of that wider epoch when sorrow and sighing shall have fled away; and pain so viewed cannot darken His ineffable gladness. But is not the present existence and activity of sin a qualification of the Divine blessedness? He looks into the future, and He sees the coming members of the race transformed into the holy image of His first-born son. III. Let us try and realise God's infinite and absolute blessedness in relation to the past We go back to the mysterious epochs when the worlds had not issued upon their courses. How can we reconcile the Divine blessedness with solitude? (1) Well, the beneficence of character that was the spring of all after triumph and achievement was there. (2) More still: the Son, who was to be the instrument for the accomplishment of all the Father's purposes, was already a willing instrument in the Father's bosom. And thus before all worlds God has been indescribably gladdened by the anticipation of a triumphant future of redeemed and regenerated life. He is blessed from all ages. References. I. 25. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 61. I. 28. W. G. Horder, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 363. H. Parnaby, British Congregationalist, 18th October, 1906, p. 273. I. 29. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 114. II. 1. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 57. II. 1-29. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 87. II. 2. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 69. II. 4. P. McAdam Muir, Modern Substitutes for Christianity, p. 3. J. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 157. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 97. J. H. Bell, Persuasions, p. 97. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1714, and vol. xlix. No. 2857. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 422; ibid. vol. ii. pp. 64, 65. II. 4, 5. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 141. II. 6. Ibid, pp. 23, 209; ibid. vol. x. p. 107. Judgment Romans 2:5-6 I. Belief in a Judgment is part of our faith in the sanity of the universe. Judgment is not an arbitrary enactment but an inevitable process: the sequel and corollary of our sense of responsibility. If goodness and right are anything more than words, there is Judgment to come out of all that is done on earth. Daniel Webster, the American, when asked what was the greatest thought that ever occupied his mind, replied, 'My personal accountability to God'. And I know of nothing so essential to the definition of a man as that sense of responsibility. Eliminate that, and man is not So delicate are the tablets of our soul, which we call memory, that nothing howsoever slight can ever be razed from them. Nothing dies from out the memory. When God says, 'Son, remember!' the memory will give up its dead, an unerring transcript of life. Was it not Plato who said that each judge of the dead 'will, with his naked soul, pierce into the other naked soul?' The idea is one with that which St Paul has enshrined in the text which the Revised Version has so transfigured: 'We must all be made manifest before the Judgment-seat of God'. We must be shown openly: each man discovered to himself. In that awful day of revelation each soul will know itself, and go to its own place, as if driven by inner necessity. For each soul seeing itself will, in the eternal light, judge itself by the standard of its own capacities. II. As we 'reason of judgment to come,' there is another illuminating idea in the New Testament, which I dare not omit; God hath committed all judgment to the Son of Man. Before Him we are to stand. We are to stand before One who knows what is in man: One who was bound up with mankind in all things: One who was tried in all points as we are. He will judge us with that human pity, mercy and love which make Him to our hearts the Christ. It will be Christian judgment. III. Finally, there is quite another side to the Judgment. That apostolic text, 'Whatsoever a man soweth that shall he also reap,' is generally read, I am afraid, as a menace, that nothing in heaven or hell can exempt a man from the harvest of his misdeeds. But it is a promise too a promise for the encouragement of right-doers; and the pledge of God is behind that promise. Ah! behind all the error and pain, passion and failure of life, there is that refuge the Judge of all the earth will see right done. B. J. Snell, The All-Enfolding Love, p. 161. References. II. 6, 8, 9. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 65. II. 6-12. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 129. The Grand Quest and the Lowly Path Romans 2:7 I. The grandeur of the Quest. 'Seek for glory and honour and incorruption.' What thrilling words these are when taken with their great meanings! Some would eliminate them from the vocabulary, and shut us up to more modest language. But take these words, properly understood, out of the vocabulary, and what will be the effect on character? The noblest character, the strongest and most beautiful life are impossible without the large ideas and hopes expressed in these terms. Take these great words out of the vocabulary, and what will be the effect on experience? Can the spirit within us live without them? 'No,' says the secularist: 'the spirit of man will not be content without these words: but glory, honour, and incorruption are found within the worldly life'. Axe they? 'Glory' have we that? Glory means solidity, reality, durability, and certainly we know nothing of these in the temporal sphere. 'Honour' have we that? When the soul is denied, we become like the beasts which perish, and the honours of life's short day are golden shoes, purple saddles, jingling bells. 'Immortality' have we that? Yes: fame. Fame! a death's-head crowned with a fading wreath. The fact is, we have not these things, only these words, if we are without faith in God, the spirituality of our own nature, and the eternal world. II. The simplicity of the Pathway. 'To them that by patience in well-doing seek.' There is something quite startling between the grandeur of the aim and the homeliness of the condition. 'Welldoing.'Not brilliant strokes in trade, war, or scholarship, but well-doing in ordinary life. What a blessing to know that God recognises patient merit, and that He reserves the major prizes for dutiful souls faithful unto death! (1) Heaven recognises the greatness of simple character. It is easy to overlook great character in humble guise, yet it is clearly seen by Him who appreciates it the most. We have all heard of the man who spoke prose for forty years without knowing it; but a fact of far greater interest is that scores of men speak poetry without knowing it nay, act splendid poetry without knowing it; and God shall surprise them with glory, honour, and incorruption beyond their most glowing dream. (2) God recognises the greatness of simple duty. In a lowly post, entrusted with commonplace offices, called daily to discharge the most menial service, we may express the noblest conscientiousness, the most exquisite feeling, sublimest principle and behaviour. (3) God recognises the greatness of simple suffering. Gordon flashed a splendid figure on the imagination of the world, but many such heroes are hidden in obscure life. Obscure life conceals illustrious heroism, known only to God, but it is known to Him, and shall not lose its recompense of reward. Let us not despise lowly station and the humdrum life. Let us believe in high truths, and at the same time in the divinity of fag. W. L. Watkinson, The Ashes of Roses, p. 198. References. II. 7. J. Edwards, Preacher's Magazine, vol. x. p. 276. D. C. A. Agnew, The Soul's Business and Prospects, p. 400. O. Bronson, Sermons, p. 33. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 203; ibid. vol. ii. p. 424. II. 8. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 452. II. 8, 9. Ibid. vol. ix. p. 439. II. 9. Ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 495. II. 11. J. F. Crosse, Sermons, p. 154. Romans 2:13 'Preach to these men as one may,' thundered Savonarola to the Florentines, 'they have got into the habit of listening well and yet acting ill. This habit has become a second nature, and they contrive to listen without obeying. And it is as hard to change this course of things as to change the course of the waters. Thou hast made a habit of always hearing the command? Then do justice, do justice Else thou wilt become like a rook on the steeple, that, at the first stroke of the church bell, takes flight and is scared, but afterwards, growing accustomed to the sound, perches quietly on the bell, however loudly it be rung.' Reference. II. 13. P. McAdam Muir, Modern Substitutes for Christianity, p. 33. Romans 2:14 The text of Butler's two sermons on 'The Natural Supremacy of Conscience'. References. II. 14. Bishop Butler, Human Nature and other Sermons, p. 28. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 429; ibid. vol. x. p. 176. II. 14, 15. Ibid. vol. vi. p. 267; ibid. vol. xi. p. 201. Romans 2:15 As Jowett, in his introduction to the Gorgias, observes, 'Men are not in the habit of dwelling upon the dark side of their own lives; they do not easily see themselves as others see them. They are very kind and very blind to their own faults; the rhetoric of self-love is always pleading with them on their own behalf. Adopting a similar figure of speech, Socrates would have them use rhetoric, not in defence but in accusation of themselves.... 'Under the figure there lurks a real thought, which, expressed in another form, admits of an easy application to ourselves. For do not we too accuse as well as excuse ourselves?... In religious diaries a sort of drama is often enacted by the consciences of men "accusing or else excusing them". For all our life long we are talking with ourselves.' References. II. 15. N. D. Hillis, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 328. Archbishop Magee, Sermons at St. Saviour's, Bath, p. 146. Romans 2:16 In a much-criticised passage in his Enigmas of Life, Mr. Rathbone Greg attempts to describe one of the retributive pangs falling to the sinful soul, which belong to the nature of the future world, namely, 'the severance from all those we love who on earth have trod the narrower and better path'. 'What,' he asks, 'can be more certain, because what more in the essential nature of things, than that the great revelation of the Last Day (or that which must attend and be involved in the mere entrance into the spiritual state) will effect a severance of souls an instantaneous gulf of demarcation between the pure and the impure, the just and the unjust, the merciful and the cruel immeasurably more deep, essential, and impassable, than any which time or distance or search or antipathy could effect on earth? Here we never see into each other's souls; characters the most opposite and incompatible dwell together upon earth, and may love each other much, unsuspicious of the utter want of fundamental harmony between them.... But when the great curtain of ignorance and deception shall be withdrawn "when the secrets of all hearts shall be made known" when the piercing light of the spiritual world shall at once and for ever disperse those clouds which have hidden what we really are from those who have loved us and almost from ourselves, when the trusting confidence of friendship shall discover what a serpent has been nourished in its bosom, when the yearning mother shall perceive on what a guilty wretch all her boundless and priceless tenderness has been lavished, when the wife shall at length see the husband whom she cherished through long years of self-denying and believing love revealed in his true colours, a wholly alien creature; what a sudden, convulsive, inevitable, because natural separation will then take place! One flash of light has done it all. The merciful delusions which held friends together upon earth are dispersed, and the laws of the mind must take their course and divide the evil from the good.' References. II. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxi. No. 1849. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 260; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 91. II. 17-25. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 325. Romans 2:21 Perhaps some of the most terrible irony of the human lot is this of a deep truth coming to be uttered by lips that have no right to it. George Eliot. Charles Lamb, writing of his cousin James, observes: 'It is pleasant to hear him discourse of patience extolling it as the truest wisdom and to see him during the last seven minutes that his dinner is getting ready. Nature never ran up in her haste a more restless piece of workmanship than when she moulded this impetuous cousin and art never turned out a more elaborate orator than he can display himself to be, upon his favourite topic of the advantages of quiet, and contentedness in the state, whatever it may be, that we are placed in.' Contrast the picture of the poor parson in Chaucer's Prologue: This noble ensample to his shepe he yaf, That first he wrought, and afterward he taught... Christes lore and his apostles twelve He taught, but first he folwed it himselve. 'His life,' says Macaulay of Steele, 'was spent in sinning and repenting; in inculcating what was right and doing what was wrong. In speculation, he was a man of piety and honour; in practice he was much of the rake and a little of the swindler.' Persons blessed with Mrs. Crookenden's description of temperament are not easily convicted of sin. Reproof usually presents itself to them rather as the result of an impertinence upon the part of somebody else, than as the result of misdoing on their own. Conscience, indeed, in them is magnificently altruistic active merely in respect of others. In respect of their own conduct it is finely tranquil. Lucas Malet. Romans 2:21 The world smiles when we complain of Russian aggression. The Asiatic subjects of the Queen of England are two hundred millions. The Asiatic subjects of Russia are forty millions. The right on both sides is the right of conquest. Froude's Beaconsfield, p. 244. Seneca's fame as a moralist and philosopher was due, perhaps, in the first instance to his position about the Court, and to his enormous wealth. A little merit passes for a great deal when it is framed in gold, and once established it would retain its reputation, from the natural liking of men for virtuous cant Those lectures to Lucilius on the beauty of poverty from the greatest money-lender and usurer in the empire! Lucilius is to practise voluntary hardships, is to live at intervals on beggars' fare, and sleep on beggars' pallets, that he may sympathise in the sufferings of mortality and be independent of outward things. If Seneca meant all this, why did he squeeze five millions of our money out of the provinces with loans and contracts? From Froude's Essay on * The Norway Fjords. * Reference. II. 21-23. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 420. Romans 2:24 This I well remember, that though I could myself sin with the greatest Delight and Ease, and also take pleasure in the vileness of my companions; yet, even then, if I have at any time seen wicked things by those who professed goodness, it would make my spirit tremble. As once, above the rest, when I was in the height of my Vanity, yet hearing one to swear that was reckoned for a religious Man, it had so great a stroke upon my Spirit that it made my heart ache. Grace Abounding, sec. 2. Religious ideas have the fate of melodies, which, once set afloat in the world, are taken up by all sorts of instruments, some of them wofully coarse, feeble, or out of tune, until people are in danger of crying out that the melody itself is detestable. George Eliot. References. II. 24. J. H. Jowett, The Examiner, 12th July, 1906, p. 676. II. 26, 27. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 384. II. 28. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lesson for the Christian Year, pt. i. p. 92. II. 28, 29. D. Martin, Penny Pulpit, No. 1602, p. 215. Romans 2:28-29 On the occasion of his momentous visit to Ulverstone and Swarthmore, George Fox describes his visit to the local church, where ultimately he was moved to speak. 'The word of the Lord to them was, He is not a Jew that is one outwardly, but he is a Jew that is one inwardly, whose praise is not of man but of God.' The text, which may be termed one of the Quakers' texts in the New Testament, was often upon Fox's lips. Romans 3:1-3 'The Jews,' says Heine, 'might well console themselves for the loss of Jerusalem and the Temple, and the Ark of the Covenant, the sacred jewels of the high priest, and the golden vases of Solomon. Such a loss is trifling compared with the Bible that indestructible treasure which they saved.' References. III. 1. H. S. Holland, Vital Values, p. 211. III. 1-8. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 114. III. 19. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 66. III. 2. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 13. III. 3. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 57. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 42. P. McAdam Muir, Modern Substitutes for Christianity, p. 3. III. 3, 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxviii. No. 2255. III. 5. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 11. III. 9. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. pp. 188, 193. III. 9-20. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 121. III. 10-12. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iii. p. 280. III. 10-18. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 421. III. 10, 19-24. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 69. III. 11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2545. III. 12. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 114; ibid. vol. xi. p. 287. III. 13-18. H. Bushnell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 365. III. 14. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 62. The Consciousness of Evil Romans 3:20 Here the Apostle speaks of the fundamental evil, sin, and of its emergence in our consciousness. Let us notice: I. The instrument of conviction. 'By the law.' Do you ask for a summary of this law? You have it in the ten commandments of Sinai. Do you ask for an exposition of it? Revelation at large is its paraphrase. Do you ask for an example of it? You have the supreme example in Jesus Christ. The law of which our text speaks is the law of inward truth, love, justice, purity, peace, and this is the instrument whose fierce light convinces the world of sin, righteousness, and judgment. Keats says, 'Axioms are not axioms until they have been proved upon our pulses.' No; only then does the profound meaning of the simple trite maxim come out. And the axioms of the moral law are not axioms to us, we do not appreciate their infinite depth and significance, until the Spirit of God has proved them upon our wounded conscience and our troubled heart. II. The consciousness of sin. (1) By the law as unfolded in revelation we discover the fact of sin. Renan has written, 'It may be said, in fact, that original sin was an invention of the Jahvaist'. What a strange misuse of language to speak of the sacred writers as inventing original sin! No; revelation did not invent the doctrine of original sin; that doctrine serious men have discerned in all ages, that doctrine the scientist finds deep down in the grounds of human nature. What revelation has done is to define the doctrine, to make clear its real nature, to express its characters, to discover its source, to bring it home to the conscience, and, thank God, to prescribe for it a sovereign remedy. (2) By the law as unfolded in revelation we discover the nature of sin. Sin, as against God, is the preference of our own will to the Supreme Will. Sin, as against society, is the exaggeration of our own personal rights to the prejudice of our neighbour. Sin, as against ourselves, is the preference of our lower to our higher nature. (3) By the law as unfolded in revelation we discover the strength of sin. (4) By the law as unfolded in revelation we discover the guilt of sin. III. A word to those who have no proper consciousness of sin. To have no consciousness of sin, no proper consciousness of it, is no proof of our integrity; much more likely is it a proof that our conscience has become benumbed and indurated by years of worldliness and disobedience. (1) We must come to the light that we may be reproved. (2) We must remember that the law does not give us deliverance from sin. (3) The redemption of our life is in Christ Jesus. W. L. Watkinson, The Transfigured Sackcloth, p. 149. References. III. 20. W. B. Selbie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 44. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 22; ibid. vol. viii. p. 22; ibid. (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 277; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 175; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 338. III. 21. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 342; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 148. III. 21, 22. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. i. pp. 1 and 20. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 131; ibid. vol. viii. p. 143. III. 21-30. Ibid. p. 62. III. 21.-IV. 25. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 130. III. 22, 23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlv. No. 2608. III. 22-25. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 83. Romans 3:23 So we come to the word which is in some sense the governing word of the Epistle to the Romans the word all. As the word righteousness is the governing word of St. Paul's entire mind and life, so the word all may stand for the governing word of this his chief Epistle. Matthew Arnold. References. III. 23. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 1. J. N. Bennie, The Eternal Life, p. 50. J. T. Parr, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 4. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 27. J. Vaughan, Fifty Sermons (9th Series), p. 160. R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, p. 13. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, p. 217. III. 23-26. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 241. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 257; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 335. III. 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 126. E. A. Stuart, The Great High Priest and other Sermons, vol. xii. p. 25. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 135; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 331. III. 24, 25. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 373. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, p. 260. III. 24-26. C. D. Bell, The Power of God, p. 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. liii. No. 3038. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. pp. 112, 358, 432. Romans 3:25 The happy period which was to shake off my fetters, and afford me a clear opening of the free mercy of God in Christ Jesus was now arrived. I flung myself into a chair near the window, and seeing a Bible there, ventured once more to apply to it for comfort and instruction. The first verse I saw was the 25th of the 3rd of Romans: Whom God set forth to be a propitiation, through faith, by His blood, to manifest His righteousness. Immediately I received strength to believe, and the full beams of the Sun of Righteousness shone upon me. In a moment I believed, and received the gospel. Cowper. References. III. 25. A. Moorhouse, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 264. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, p. 247. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 193; ibid. (5th Series), vol. x. pp. 103, 328. III. 25, 26. J. D. Thompson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 42. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 347; ibid. (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 277; ibid. vol. vi. p. 158. III. 25-28, 31. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 97. Romans 3:26 Justification... is a great and august deed in the sight of heaven and hell; it is not done in a corner but by Him who would show the world what should be done unto those whom the king delighteth to honour. It is a pronouncing righteous while it proceeds to make righteous. Such is the force of passages like the following: To show forth His righteousness for the remission of sins that are past, to show forth, I say, at this time, His righteousness. Who shall lay anything to the charge of God's elect? Who is he that condemneth? as if publicly challenging the world... and so again St. Paul, quoting Isaiah, Whosoever believeth in Him shall not be ashamed. In these and similar passages the great recovery or justification of the sinner in God's sight is not the silent bestowal of a gift, but an open display of His power and love. Newman's * Lectures on Justification. * References. III. 26. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 255. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p. 201. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 375. III. 27. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 429. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 83. III. 27-30. J. Denney, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 292. III. 27-31. Ibid. vol. lix. p. 233. III. 28. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 114. W. J. H. Price, Preacher's Magazine, vol. x. p. 36. J. T. O'Brien, The Nature and the Effects of Faith, pp. 77, 103, 127. III. 31. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 320. IV. For an Exposition of the whole chapter see Bishop Gore's The Epistle to the Romans, p. 155. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 423. Romans 4:3 In this word faith, as used by St. Paul, we reach a point round which the ceaseless stream of religious exposition and discussion has for ages circled.... It will at once appear that while it can properly be said of Abraham, for instance, that he was justified by faith, if we take faith in its plain sense of holding fast to an unseen power of goodness, yet it cannot without difficulty and recourse to a strained figure, be said of him, if we take faith in Paul's specific sense of identification with Christ through the emotion of attachment to him. Paul, however, undoubtedly, having conveyed his new specific sense into the word faith, still uses the word both in the specific sense of identification with Christ and also in all cases where, without this specific sense, it was before applicable and usual, and in this way he often creates ambiguity. Why, it may be asked, does Paul, instead of employing another term to denote his special meaning, still thus employ the general term faith? We are inclined to think it was from that desire to get for his words and thoughts not only the real but also the apparent sanction and consecration of the Hebrew Scriptures, which we have called his tendency to Judaise. Matthew Arnold, * St. Paul and Protestantism. * Compare the interesting discussion of this passage in Miss Wedgwood's Message of Israel, pp. 142-144. Friends of God Romans 4:3 The life of Abraham in the Bible begins with God speaking to him, and with Abraham believing and acting upon what God said. How God spoke to Abraham, or how he speaks to anyone, we may never be able to explain. The world has never been without men who are quite sure that they have heard God's voice. If there is a God at all, He is surely able to communicate with His creatures, to assure them of His presence, His interest in them, and His will on their behalf. He can impress them with such a sense of obligation as can only be understood as the will of God; He can inspire them with such sublime and solemn hopes as can only be understood as promises of God. What the text tells us is that when God has spoken and we have heard His word, there is only one thing for us to do, namely, to believe Him. That is the only right thing to do, and when we do it, we are made right with Him. It is not right to dispute God's command or to criticise His promise, or to try to make any kind of bargain with Him about either. It is not right to put anything into the scale against God's word, as if it might perhaps outweigh it. The only right thing to do, the only right attitude for the soul to take, is to recognise that in the word which God has spoken, whatever it may be, we are in contact with the final reality in the universe, and we invest our whole being in that. When we do so, God counts that to us for righteousness. And so it is. There is nothing in God's word artificial or unreal; the man is truly right with God for whom the word that God has spoken is the last reality in life. I. The word that God spoke to Abraham was characteristically a word of promise. It is put in various forms at different periods of his life. 'I will make of thee a great nation;' 'Unto thy seed will I give this land'; 'Look now toward heaven, and tell the stars, if thou be able to number them; so shall thy seed be'. If we put these in general terms, we may say Abraham had a Divine future held out to him in the word of God. When we are told he believed God, it means that that Divine future had a reality for him in comparison with which everything else was unreal. He left his country and his kindred for it; he renounced for it tempting openings which he saw around him, and the future which he might have carved out for himself. We must not forget that the life of Abraham was rich in natural possibilities. Abraham would have had a future in Ur of the Chaldees had he chosen to remain there, and to disbelieve the voice which said, 'Get thee out to the land that I will show thee'. No doubt a man of his power and enterprise would have had a future if he had chosen to settle in Sodom or in Egypt and to renounce a visionary prospect of inheriting Canaan. It is Abraham living out his long life still believing, still counting God's promises the final reality, which made and kept him right with God. He stood before God justified by his faith, a man with whom God was well pleased, a man who is called in Scripture the friend of God. II. Every one must have noticed how much there is in the New Testament about Abraham and his faith. The reason is that for those who wrote the New Testament, Abraham is the type of true piety, he is the ideal of religion. Every one who wishes to prove anything about the true religion says, Look at Abraham. Paul does it here in Romans and again in Galatians. James does it in the second chapter of his Epistle where he seems as if he were controverting Paul and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews, who is so unlike both, does it in the passage we read a few minutes ago. The reason why everybody who wants to prove anything about true religion says, Look at Abraham, is that in true religion there is one thing that never changes from Genesis to Revelation the attitude of the soul to God. And the true attitude of the soul to God is perfectly illustrated in Abraham. God may make Himself known more fully in one generation than another, His word may be more articulate, more explicit in its commands, more spiritual and far-reaching in its promises, but the one thing which it requires under the surface is that which it finds in Abraham, to be treated as the last and absolute reality in life; so to treat it is to believe in God in the sense which makes and keeps us right with Him, so to treat it is to take our place among the children of Abraham. III. The one condition on which this text has any interest for us is that God should have spoken to us, and in doing so, made an appeal for faith. It is the assumption of true religion always that God has so spoken. In the old Scots' Confession of Faith, drawn out at the Reformation, one of the most interesting chapters is headed 'of the Revelation of the Promise' The original form of the promise, the reformers tell us, is preserved in the third chapter of Genesis the seed of the woman shall bruise the serpent's head. This is the elementary form of faith, to be assured that good will eventually triumph over evil; nay, that man himself with the help of God will one day destroy the works of the devil. The promise, the Confession goes on to say, is repeated and made more clear from time to time, till at last it has been made perfectly clear to us in what Knox and his friends call 'the joyful day of Christ Jesus'. And that is what we have to understand. We may not know how God spoke to Abraham, nor how Abraham was sure that it was God who had spoken, but we know that God speaks to us in Christ. What we have to say to ourselves is, There is God's will, purpose, and promise for me. There is the Divine future which God holds out as my inheritance. There is the final truth about God, the final reality in the world, presenting itself to us, the sin-bearing redeeming love which calls us to itself, and which is able to save to the uttermost. The Apostles were not afraid to believe a word so wonderful as this, or if they were, faith triumphed over their fears. John looked at Jesus and said, 'We shall be like Him'. Paul said, 'We have worn the image of the earthly, and we shall wear the image of the heavenly'. That is the true utterance of the Christian faith. That is the height to which the heart can rise in men who have heard the voice of God in Jesus, and believe it without reserve. And do we not know in our hearts that these are the men who are right with God, the men who believe His word in Christ? James Denney, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxix. p. 296. References. IV. 3. C. S. Horne, The Soul's Awakening, p. 215. S. Cox, Expositions, p. 211. IV. 3-8, 9, 11, 13, 16-24. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 113. IV. 4. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 120. IV. 5. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi. p. 17. IV. 6, 7. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 83. IV. 6-25. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 206. IV. 7. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 172 ibid. vol. xii. p. 55. IV. 10. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 461. IV. 11. Ibid, vol. viii. p. 294. IV. 12. Ibid. vol. i. p. 144. IV. 15. Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 143. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 286. IV. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1347. IV. 16, 17. Ibid. vol. xxxvi. No. 2159. IV. 17. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 131. IV. 19. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 167. IV. 19-21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 733. IV. 20. Ibid. vol. xxiii. No 1367. IV. 24. Ibid. vol. xlviii. No. 2806. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 432. IV. 24, 25. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xl. No. 2357. IV. 25. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 204. R. M. Benson, Redemption, p. 183. E. A. Bray, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 40. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 467; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 407. IV. 28-30. Ibid. vol. i. p. 291. Simply to Thy Cross I Cling Romans 5:1 In these words the writer reaches a landing-place. It is a landing-place not only in his argument but also in his experience. It is his own triumphant declaration of his standing before God, his liberation from the past, and his security for the future. He has passed into a new world. He has entered a new life. But his experience is not, in his view, peculiar to himself. ' We are justified,' he says, writing to men and women he had never seen. ' We have peace with God.' ' We have access into this grace wherein we stand.' ' We rejoice in hope of the glory of God.' This is the only and the universal Christian experience. I. Every religious life begins in a sense of need. It may be, as it often has been in rare, young, unstained souls, simply a sense of the need of God. The balsam, the wine of predestinate wills, Is a jubilant pining and longing for God. It may be a desire for a greater purity and simplicity of life. That is a passion which often beats in young spirits who have been saddened by the world's sin, or startled by their own tempting thoughts of evil. It may be a discontent with low and secular and frivolous customs, and a craving after a deeper, truer, braver, more chivalrous life. Sometimes a devout and attractive personality throws a selfish character into relief, and at once rebukes and charms. Sometimes a sudden sorrow quenches the garish and dazzling sunshine. The cheapness and emptiness of a worldly life are seen, and the sense of need becomes a hunger of the spirit Or it may be that some sin, either some secret habit fastening on the will, or some sudden and hateful deed of evil, rouses the soul. It fills the heart, and even the face, with shame. It brings in a sense of weakness and helplessness, and the sense of need is felt in every brooding hour. Or it may be that the passions rise again and again in flood to mock at all restraint. For as rivers in sun-smitten countries often flow far down beneath their dry beds, so this hunger and thirst persist even when the life is profligate. Yet in whatever aspect it may present itself, this sense of need, created in us by God's Spirit, is the beginning of a religious experience. 'They that are whole need not a physician; but they that are sick. II. The second stage is the effort to satisfy this need. Some of the most striking passages in religious biography, in the records of men of all races and of all faiths, are concerned with this ardent effort to satisfy this sense of need. But this satisfaction is not enough. Setting the face Godward is not kneeling at His feet. A faith in God is not always a Christian faith. Peace of mind is not always Christian peace. Men and women who have been content with blunting the edge of their desire are not filled 'with all joy and peace in believing'. This second stage has only one sufficient ending, and that is at the cross. III. The third decisive stage is that peace with God, through our Lord Jesus Christ which is given only at the Cross. There are three paths, and I believe only three paths, to the cross. The records of religious life teem with illustrations of them. They are to be found in clear survey, where everything else which is Christian is to be found, in the New Testament. There are in the New Testament Scriptures three spiritual experiences which have been disclosed in clear detail. These are the spiritual experiences of Paul and Peter and John. God's way with these three great believers was not set down simply as a study for theologians. They were 'written for our learning that we through patience and comfort of the Scriptures might have hope'. They declare, I believe, the three great ways, by one of which every soul enters into peace with God. (1) When we take the experience of Paul and strip it of all that is accidental to him, his Hebrew birth and training and his peculiar environment, we find that he stands out as the type of men who have gone terribly astray. No man who has awakened to find that he has made his bed in hell, who has been haunted and tormented by the faces of those he has wronged, who has been smitten into despair by finding how far he is from goodness and from God, ever endured greater agony than Paul. He never forgot his own blasphemies. He never forgot the terrified faces of humble believers. He never forgot Stephen's seraphic peace in dying. That was one of the heaviest stones of his bruising. He never forgot the face of Jesus whom he had crucified afresh. He stands as the type of all men who have wanton lives, scarlet memories, polluted hearts and condemning consciences. * From such a gate of hell it is a short step to the cross. * (2) The spiritual experience of Peter describes the case of those who find themselves at the cross at a later stage. Young men and women often profess their faith in Christ quite sincerely without realising what it should mean. As they follow Christ He discovers them to themselves, and He discovers Himself to them. By a constant rebuke of fault and by an ever keener reproach of their low ideal, by the questioning of their impure motives and a chastening of their mistakes, Christ corrects and quickens these sincere and honest hearts. To every such young and simple believer there comes the day of awakening. The more honest he is the earlier it comes. He stands like Peter when he denied his Lord, realising that his need is not only to know Christ's word, not only to adore His character, not only to follow in His steps and in moments of high elation do Him chivalrous service. He hath become conscious that his need is the forgiveness of sins. It is a short step then to the Cross. As he turns to the Cross on which his guilt has been expiated he enters into a new realm. Christ has become not only Teacher and Friend and Master, He has become the Redeemer who bore his sins 'in His own body up to the tree'. (3) The third way to the Cross is mirrored in the experience of John. There are young and sheltered lives which have grown up amid the sanctities and in the obediences of a devout home. A godly lineage, a careful training, and the example of a winsome religious life have wrought out in them a natural piety. They grow up unspotted from the world. But as years increase, their growth in the grace and knowledge of Christ quickens their spiritual insight, and gives them keener sense of sin. The awful power of the world and the flesh and the devil dismays them as it dismays no one else. They are like John growing up in his young, unstained, moral beauty, seeing more clearly than others the glory of Christ and therefore feeling more keenly the chasm between them and Christ's perfect holiness. These are the saints whose confessions make us wonder, whose humility provokes amazement. It is a short step for these, also, to the Cross. Seeing right into the world's sin and misery, knowing their own heart and confessing its weakness and sinfulness in words that still our thoughts, they look up to find God reconciled and forgiving them in the Cross. The words of Christ are their music. The life of Christ is a solemn mystery. But the death of Christ is life and peace. With Paul and Peter they say, 'Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ'. W. M. Clow, The Gross in Christian Experience, p. 1. Faith the Way of Peace Romans 5:1 Of all phrases, of all theological terms which puzzle most the ordinary layman, I believe that this phrase, 'justification by faith,' is the most puzzling. 'Why,' says the layman, 'as far as I can see, St. Paul is wrong. In the City, on the Stock Exchange, a man is considered justified by what he does.' And so, again, from another point of view, it may be urged that this faith seems a far-away, unpractical thing. Religion is in a poor and miserable place if it is to be held with the heart, but not with the mind and intellect at all. Let us see, therefore, whether such objections as these are true or not. I. And first let us overthrow those very common and popular misconceptions about faith. Is the faith made so much of in the Bible really concerned merely with sentiment or feeling or imagination? If it has nothing to do with character or life or acts, then there are no words strong enough to be found with which to hold it up to contempt. But let us take two illustrations from real life of what faith is, and from them we shall glean some sort of idea why such a tremendous stress is laid in the Bible on the possession of it. Picture an explorer starting in his ship for the Arctic regions. He has picked his men with great care, and the great moment has come at last There is a crowd around, watching the start; the moment comes when the moorings are unloosed and the ship is launched upon her way. All this is an act of faith, and the act of faith carries whatever follows with it. Surely the whole voyage is planned in faith and worked by faith. Or, take another instance. A girl is sitting in her room on the last night before she leaves her home. She is to be married on the morrow, and all the unknown future spreads itself before her. What keeps her steady as she faces unknown duties? It is her faith in the man she loves. II. Now, if trust in the faithfulness of nature, faith in a human personality, however fallible, is such an ennobling thing, how are we to measure the inspiring power of faith in an overruling, living God? At least we may say this, that the greater the object of faith, the more ennobling the faith becomes, and that St. Paul is justified when first among the powers which mould the Christian character he places faith. III. But, if faith is so intimately concerned with character, and we can only know character as it is revealed in works, what is the meaning of the vivid contrast which St Paul draws between faith and works as the means of our justification before God? The answer lies in the fact that faith is the one great quality within us which is supremely capable of education, while any attempt to be justified by works is apt to lead towards a deadening satisfaction with our present condition. Bishop Winnington-Ingram, Under the Dome, p. 3. Romans 5:1 In his 'Notes on Art' in Horœ Subsecivœ, Dr. Brown thus describes a picture of Luther in the Convent Library at Erfurt 'It is Luther, the young monk of four-and-twenty, in the Library of the Convent at Erfurt... He is gazing into the open pages of a huge Vulgate we see it is the early chapters of the Romans. A bit of broken chain indicates that the Bible was once chained to be read, but not possessed it is now free, and his own.... Next moment he will come upon or it on him the light from heaven, shining out from the words, Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace with God, and in intimation of this, His dawn, the sweet pearly light of morning, shining in at the now open lattice, is reflected from the page upon his keen, anxious face.' References. V. 1. F. Ferguson, Peace with God, p. 77. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. i. pp. 40 and 69. W. B. Selbie, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 44. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 1. C. Perren, Sermon Outlines, p. 321. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 61. Archbishop Magee, Sermons at Bath, pp. 70 and 97. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 510, and vol. xxv. No. 1466. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 71; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. pp. 190, 355, 365. V. 1-5. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 125. V. 1-11. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 175. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. pp. 135, 141, 257; ibid. (5th Series), vol. i. p. 227; ibid. vol. viii. p. 157; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 301; ibid. vol. viii. p. 338. V. 1-12. Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 178. V. 2. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 143. V. 2, 3. Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 183. V. 2-6. S. A. Tipple, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 56. V. 3. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. pp. 225, 234, 244. Expositor (5th Series), vol. xi. p. 286. V. 3-4. H. D. Rawnsley, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 1104. Romans 5:3-5 St. Paul has not got much credit for poetic feeling amongst the many great poets of the Bible, and no doubt the passages in which he rises into poetry are somewhat rare; but of one of them, I suspect, we miss the beauty and force rather for want of such a mental history as that of In Memoriam to explain it, than from any want of pathos, depth, and singular precision of feeling in the passage itself. It would injure In Memoriam to give it a Biblical motto, for that would tend to classify a great modern poem in that dismal category of works known as 'serious reading,' and so to diminish its just influence; otherwise it would be hard to find a more exact and profound summary of its cycle of thought and emotion than St. Paul's reason (evidently an afterthought) for 'glorying in tribulation' 'knowing that tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed, because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts by the Holy Ghost which is given to us'. That is a true summary of the drift of * In Memoriam. * From R. H. Hutton's * Essay on Tennyson. * References. V. 3-5. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 123. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 248. G. A. Bennetts, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 69. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. pp. 252 and 261. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 239; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 356. Romans 5:5 Thursday, 3rd January, 1740. I left London, and the next evening came to Oxford, where I spent the two following days in looking over the letters which I had received for the sixteen or eighteen years past. How few traces of inward religion are here! I found but one among all my correspondents who declared (what I well remember at that time I knew not how to understand) that God had shed abroad His love in his heart and given him the peace that passeth all understanding. But who believed his report? Should I conceal a sad truth, or declare it for the profit of others? He was expelled out of his society as a madman; and, being disowned of his friends, and despised and forsaken of all men, lived obscure and unknown for a few months, and then went to Him whom his soul loved. Wesley's * Journal. * References. V. 5. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiv. No. 829, and vol. xxxii. No. 1904. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. iii. pp. 271, 280, 289, 301. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 93; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 204; ibid. (6th Series), vol. x. p. 177. V. 5-8. Ibid. vol. x. p. 324. V. 6. J. H. Jowett, Christian World, Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 230. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 446; vol. xx. Nos. 1184 and 1191; vol. xxiii. No. 1345, and vol. xxxix. No. 2341. V. 6-9. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 53. The Righteous and the Good Romans 5:7 In this chapter the Apostle is exhibiting the greatness of the love of Christ who died not merely for the helpless, who were likely to perish, but for the guilty, who deserved to perish. The substance of the Gospel is God's love for bad men. Now, that is a sublime truth, and always an entrancing theme; but let us turn aside from it, and fix attention upon the minor truth which is contained in this verse this contrast between the righteous and the good man. It may be that in common speech we confound the two, but in real experience, and in the teaching of the Bible, there is a difference between the two known and understood. I. The contrast here, then, is between the legally just and the humanly good, between the irreproachable and the noble, between righteousness or negative goodness and positive goodness. To the first we may pay respect to the second we are irresistibly drawn, and we cannot help it. The first we may admire, the second we love. Righteousness is a hard face, without a warm soul to soften and light it up. The righteous, like a starry sky on a December night, clear but chill, the good like June weather. There is in righteousness, perhaps, the seed-bed and promise of goodness, but we want more; we want to see the fruit in positive good-doing and warm, human well-being, for we all love the good man, and cannot well help it. In reading the New Testament we may have noticed that one of the great things that Jesus did was that He deepened the conception of goodness and illustrated it in its highest and warmest form. It is one of the main things that His Church must learn to do. Christ showed us that true goodness 'was a creature not too bright and good for human nature's daily food'. II. This plea, therefore, is for simple, essential, goodness. We live in a superior and supercilious age, but this question of goodness as a living reality is of the utmost and most urgent importance. We want to see the testimony and the power of simple goodness, for it is the greatest evangelist the world has ever known, or will know, the most eloquent preacher that ever lifted up a voice and cried aloud among men. It is goodness that compels men to love Christ. Sir Walter Scott had won for himself deathless fame, but as he lay dying, and his son-in-law waited by his bedside, he said to him, 'Be a good man, Lockhart, be a good man'. But how to be good, to follow the best, as we see it in Jesus Christ? It is the living Christ who makes men whole, holy, good; and simple faith that links man's weakness to His power and greatness and victory. D. L. Ritchie, Peace the Umpire and other Sermons, p. 100. The Cross the Proof of the Love of God Romans 5:8 God not merely 'commends' but 'proves' His love by Christ's death. It is the one evidence which makes that often-doubted fact certain. I. The Need for Proof that God Does Love. I venture to say that instead of the love of God being a plain, self-evident axiom, there needs very strong evidence to give it a secure lodging-place amongst our settled beliefs. (1) Do the world's religions bear out the contention that it is so easy and natural for a man to believe in a loving God? I think not Comparative mythology has taught a great many lessons, and amongst others this, that apart from the direct or indirect influences of Christianity, there is no creed to be found in which the belief in a God of love and in the love of God is unfalteringly proclaimed, to say nothing of being set as the very climax of the whole revelation. (2) If we have nothing but the evidence of Nature, it seems to me that there are two voices speaking there: one of which says, 'There is a good God'; and the other says, 'Either His power is limited, or His goodness is partial'. (3) The grim fact of human suffering, of wretched, hopeless lives, rises up to say that there is no evidence broad and deep and solid enough, outside of Christianity, to make it absolutely certain that God is love. (4) Conscience rises up and protests, when it is awake, against such a notion, apart from the cross. II. The Death that Does Prove the Love. How do we know, in our own happy experience, that love exists in another heart to us? Surely, by acts. Now there are but two things that I wish to say about this great proof of the love of God in act. (1) Christ's death proves God's love, because Christ is Divine. (2) Because it is a death for us. That 'for us' implies two things: one the voluntary act of God in Christ in giving Himself up to the death, the other the beneficial effect of that death. III. The Love which is Proved by the Death. (1) I look to the dying Christ, and I see there the revelation, because the consequence, of a love which is not sailed forth by any lovableness on the part of its objects. (2) That dying Christ speaks to me, too, of a Divine love which, though not turned away by man's sin is rigidly righteous. (3) I see a Divine love, which is bounded by no limits of time or place. 'Proves' is a cold word. It is addressed to the head. 'Commends' is a warmer word. It is addressed to the heart It is not enough to establish the fact that God loves. Do you look on the death of Christ as a death for your sin? Do you meet that love with an answering love? A. Maclaren, Triumphant Certainties, p. 275. Romans 5:8 It is not God but man that is changed by our Saviour's death; it is not necessary for our reparation that a change be wrought upon Him, but upon us, seeing that it is not God but man that has lost his goodness. Christ came into the world, not to make God better, but to make us better; nor did He die to make Him more disposed to do good, but to dispose us to receive it. Richard Baxter. There is a common saying that it is hard to forgive those whom we have injured. Certainly we are apt to imagine them to feel unkindly towards us. A sense of ill-desert banishes men from God the more effectually because they know it to be a true and right feeling, and know that if they condemn their sin God condemns it even more. Such is the effect of the moral ideal brought within the pale of consciousness. But the law reveals man to himself; it does not reveal God to man save partially and in one relation. He is more than law and justice and holiness. There is a mercifulness deeper than all. 'God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us.' Dr. G. P. Fisher in The Century Magazine, vol. xxxix. p. 789. See the striking illustration of this quoted by Hugh Miller in the seventeenth chapter of * My Schools and Schoolmasters. * In acknowledging a copy of Max Müller's Westminster Abbey lecture on Missions, sent him by his wife, Dr. Bushnell wrote: 'I read your little book right through at once.... We are half-tempted to say, as we read, Well, what more of Gospel do we want than simply to believe in the love, and take it as our Gospel to convert the world with, joining hands with all that will join hands with us, be they called by whatever name? So I said when I came to the end. But there was an afterthought, showing a difference. What can ever make up the Gospel we want but to have the love coming in the line of a forgivingness? It really does not come to be a salvation till the love is seen making cost, and coming after us as by sacrifice. It would not be difficult for even a heathen to believe in God as love; but to believe that He comes after us through painstaking and sorrow would be very far off ah! it is impossible!' References. V. 8. G. H. Morrison, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 212. O. Bronson, Sermons, p. 216. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 182. D. W. Simon, Twice Bom and other Sermons, p. 94. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 104, and vol. xxiii. No. 1345. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 346. V. 8, 10. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 143. V. 9. J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, p. 163. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 23; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 223. V. 9, 10. Ibid. (4th Series), p. 201. The Spiritual Biography of a Christian Romans 5:10 Paul sketches the biography of a soul that he may show forth the love of God. I. The Christian's Spiritual Past. 'We were enemies.' But has 'enemies' here an active or a passive meaning? Is it that we were hostile to God, or that God was hostile to us? Dean Alford declared for the latter view, and many of the best expositors concur. When the sinner, whom He loves, identifies himself with sin, then God is obliged to regard that sinner as an enemy. Angry with the wicked every day is the thrice Holy God. 'We were enemies.' The righteous hostility of God rested upon us. 'We were enemies,' too, in an active sense. And it is well often to summon that fateful past to our recollection. Now see the dawn break on the soul. 'We were reconciled.' Was the reconciliation on God's part or on ours? Grammatically, the words carry either suggestion. Sanday and Headlem, in their fine commentary on the Romans, say the reconciliation was 'mutual'. Doubtless: yet I conceive the uppermost idea to be that God surrendered His hostility. 'The death of His Son' was the death of His anger. II. The Christian's Spiritual Present. Our estate now is rich and bright. It is described in one golden expression 'being reconciled'. Of that blissful realization I would at present say but two things: (1) It is an assured state. John Wesley, who was one of the first of Greek scholars, says that this 'if means 'as sure as'. Our 'being reconciled' is absolutely sure. (2) If our spiritual present is a state of reconciliation with God, what a compensation that is for any earthly disadvantage! III. The Christian's Spiritual Future. We are now 'reconciled'; we shall be 'saved'. The word 'saved' carries here both an evangelical and an ethical meaning. We shall be delivered from 'the wrath to come'. Our feet shall stand within the gates of the New Jerusalem. By the risen life of God's Son 'we shall be saved 'from all moral evil, even here, and yet more abundantly in the great hereafter. It is 'by His life' all this is to be accomplished. Really, St. Paul says, ' in His life'. And Dean Vaughan's note is 'as our place of safety'. Hidden in the life of our glorified Lord, as our place of safety, we shall be absolutely and eternally 'saved'. St. Paul argues very boldly. He says: 'As sure as we were reconciled much more we shall be saved'. Mr. Spurgeon remarks that we are apt to put a 'much less' to it, and He is right But we must put, as Paul does, 'much more' to it. The living Lord makes our eternal salvation sure. Dinsdale T. Young, Messages for Home and Life, p. 139. References. V. 10. H. Arnold Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 164. E. H. Hopkins, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 770. J. Bateman, Sermons Preached in Guernsey, p. 188. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliv. No. 2587. Expositor (4th Series,) vol. vi. p. 30; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 75. V. 11. F. B. Woodward, Selected Sermons, p. 29. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1045, and vol. xliv. No. 2550. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (1st Series), pp. 158, 174. W. M. Clow, The Cross in Christian Experience, p. 152. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 450. V. 12. W. M. Sinclair, Christ and Our Times, p. 121. W. H. Evans, Short Sermons for the Seasons, p. 166. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 199. V. 12-14. Ibid. vol. vi. p. 419. V. 12-14 and 18-21. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 157. V. 12-18. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 134; ibid. vol. ii. p. 63. V. 12-19. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 335. V. 12-21. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 185. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 285; ibid. vol. viii. pp. 23, 25; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. pp. 49, 147. V. 14. M. W. Blagg, Christ: the Second Adam, Phi 1:18 , 35. V. 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1591. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 291; ibid. vol. viii. p. 24; ibid. (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 257; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 59. V. 15-17. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p. 285. V. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xliii. No. 2544, and vol. xlvii. No. 2744. Reigning in Life Romans 5:17 I. It is possible that there is a life to be lived in the common round and the daily task, so royal, so radiant, so blessed, that those who live it may be said to reign in life. (1) When you speak of reigning in life you have a conception at once of victory. There are a good many people who exist. Do you live? Have you the abundant life of Christ, the life that is more than victorious? (2) When we speak of reigning in life, we think also of a grace in life. Some one recently put an advertisement in one of our papers: 'Wanted a Christian companion, but she must be cheerful'. As if Christian companions Were not generally cheerful people. What is your life in this respect? Is there a consciousness with those who surround you in your daily life that religion is a bright, and blessed, and beautiful thing? (3) Then I think we associate the idea of bounty with those that reign. Are you able to give away much of your religion, or are you so occupied in keeping the little spark aglow that you have none to spare for others? II. If you are not living a royal life it is very necessary to find out the reason. (1) It may be because you do not realise that the abundance of God's grace is for you. There is no favouritism with God. Just as the spring flowers, the sunshine, and the pure air are for all as free to the beggar as to the sovereign, so God's abundant grace is for every man and woman, and there is nothing that anyone has ever had which you may not have if you will. (2) If we admit this, the reason why we do not reign in life may be because we do not distinguish between praying and taking. (3) But suppose that this yet doesn't quite touch your case. It may be that your hands are not empty. You need to have the empty hand if you would be filled. F. B. Meyer, The Soul's Ascent, p. 221. References. V. 17. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 203. V. 18. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v. p. 293. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. pp. 134, 135, 137. V. 18, 19. H. Alford, Sermons on Christian Doctrine, p. 54. V. 19. C. Perren, Outline Sermons, p. 301. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 86; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 124. Sin and Grace Romans 5:20 Sin and grace are the two great words of the Christian religion. They lie at the very heart of the Gospel of Christ. To fail in the understanding of the one is to miss the meaning of the other. Wrong views of sin always issue in false interpretations of grace. I. The Christian Doctrine of Sin. The Bible always deals with man as a sinful being. The fact of sin explains the process of Divine Revelation and the whole economy of Redemption. What is sin? We are on sure ground when we come to the Scriptures for the answer as to its nature and consequences. St. John defines sin as lawlessness. That is the final definition. Sin is the revolt of man against the authority of God; that is the essential fact. The particular point at which we trespass is a matter of small importance; that we should defy God's boundary at all is the offence. Man is judged not by his acts but by his heart. One leak will sink a ship, and one sin, whatever its form, separates the soul from God and sinks it in degradation and death. As sin is the sum of all sins, so death is the sum of all its consequences. 'The wages of sin is death.' Guilt, disorder, and desolation are the marks of the soul's death. II. The Christian Doctrine of Grace. Over against this terrible word 'sin' stands the greater word 'grace.' Grace goes over the trail of sin, tracks it to its innermost recesses, destroys its power, undoes its mischief, and turns its very weapons to its own destruction. What is grace? It defies definition. It is illimitable, infinite, eternal. It is illustrated but never defined. In this connection it is the overflowing mercy of God, without regard to merit on the one hand or obligation on the other. (1) The method of grace. Grace is peculiarly associated with the mediatorial work of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is in the sacrifice of the cross it finds its highest expression. Grace comes to us through Him. (2) How does the grace of God operate to the abounding over sin? (a.) First of all it secures the forgiveness of sin. (b) As pardon abounds over guilt, so sanctification abounds over the presence and effects of sin in the soul. Cleansing and regeneration restore man's nature to its true order, and death is swallowed up in life. The restored order in the man secures the restoration of the true order in the world. Personal regeneration is followed by social reconstruction. S. Chadwick, Humanity and God, p. 21. References. V. 20. J. D. Jones, Elims of Life, p. 77. J. Bateman, Sermons Preached in Guernsey, p. 138. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 37, and vol. xxxiv. No. 2012. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 404. V. 20, 21. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 370. V. 21. W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 254. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 330. VI.-VIII. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 349. VI. 1. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 305. VI. 1-11. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 171. VI. 1-14. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 204. No Compromise Romans 6:2 I. What did the Apostle mean by the Words Dead unto Sin? (1) He meant death of the Judicial Penalty of Sin beyond the power of sin to inflict its penalty upon us. The judicial idea runs through the whole Epistle. A criminal who has served his term of imprisonment for an offence against the law, at the expiration of his sentence is dead to that particular crime. The penalty will not be exacted of him twice over. Even so the Christian, who implicitly accepts Christ's finished work for him upon the cross, becomes dead to the penalty of all his past transgression. (2) Death to the Appeals of Sin unresponsive to its temptations. How still, how unmoved the dead are! Fill the dead hand of the miser with gold, and his fingers do not clutch it. Even so it is with the believer in Christ (3) Complete and final severance from the practice and love of sin. Death is a state from which there is no return. Even so in Christ Jesus the Christian is to regard himself as finally and irrevocably separated from the life of sin. II. Alive unto God. Then there is a positive side to Christian life. That is a truth which needs insistence in these weak and effeminate times. It was said of Mark Pattison that 'he spent all his life in the tents of compromise'. What a wretched life to live! Why should we try to get to heaven by what Dr. Robertson Nicoll finely called 'spiritual blondinism,' when there is the highway of the Lord always open to us on which the ransomed of the Lord journey with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads? Turn to the Apostle's words. What did he mean by them? (1) Obedience. The will has been yielded up to Christ in an intelligent, deliberate, and final act of surrender. (2) Fellowship. How sweet and refreshing is the communion of saints 1 Fellowship with God! What bliss it affords! (3) And, finally, as the result of daily responsive obedience to God and unbroken communion with God, the believer at last attains likeness to God. I cannot linger to name all the features of the Divine character which are reproduced in the Christian. Let me emphasise one only: 'God is love'. To be alive unto God, therefore, is to live the life of pure, self-sacrificing love. J. Tolefrae Parr, The White Life, p. 133. References. VI. 3. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 122. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 168. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 271. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 48; ibid. vol. vi. p. 252. VI. 3, 4. J. M. Witherow, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 131. C. Parsons Reichel, Sermons, p. 95. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1627. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 275. VI. 3-5. J. N. Bennie, The Eternal Life, p. 102. VI. 3- 6. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vi. p. 28. VI. 4. C. F. Aked, Baptist Times, vol. liv. p. 415. J. Keble, Village Sermons on the Baptismal Service, p. 246. B. J. Snell, Sermons on Immortality, p. 56. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2197. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 12. VI. 4-6. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 114. VI. 5. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 213. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 257. VI. 6. W. J. Knox-Little, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 228. H. C. Lees, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 769. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 882. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 265. VI. 7. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 468. VI. 8-11. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. No. 503. The Model of Our New Life Romans 6:4 Easter Day is like the wedding-day of an intimate friend: our impulse as Christians is to forget ourselves, and to think only of the great Object of our sympathies. On Good Friday we were full of ourselves full of our sins, of our sorrows, of our resolutions. If we entered into the spirit of that day at all, we spread them out, as well as we could, before the dying eyes of the Redeemer of the world; we asked Him, of His boundless pity, to pardon and to bless us. To-day is His day, as it seems, not ours. It is His day of triumph; His day of re-asserted rights and recovered glory; and our business is simply to forget ourselves; to intrude with nothing of our own upon hours which are of right consecrated to Him; to think of Him alone; to enter with simple, hearty, disinterested joy upon the duties of congratulation and worship which befit the yearly anniversary of His great victory. 'This is the day which the Lord hath made: let us rejoice and be glad in it'. I. 'Like as even so.' St. Paul's words will suggest to a great many minds a question which must here be answered. What is the connection, they will say, between the raising Christ's body from the dead, on the one hand, and our 'walking in newness of life' on the other? The answer is, that the source, the motive power of the two things of Christ's Resurrection, and of the Christian's new life is one and the same. They are equally effects of one Divine agency. They belong, indeed, themselves, to two different spheres of being. But that does not interfere with the fact of one common cause lying at the root both of one and the other. St. Paul glances at this truth when he prays that the Ephesians may know 'what is the exceeding greatness of God's power to usward who believe, according to the greatness of His mighty power which He wrought in Christ when He raised Him from the dead'. Why should God's power, as shown to us Christians, be according to the greatness of the power which He wrought at the Resurrection of Christ? Why? Because the same Divine Artist shows His hand in either work; because the Resurrection of Christ is in one sphere what the Baptismal New Birth or the Conversion of a soul is in another; because the manner and proportion of the Divine action here at the tomb of Christ, where it is addressed to sight and sense, enables us to trace and measure it there in the mystery of the soul's life, where it is for the most part addressed to spirit. II. Speaking roughly, then, there are three characteristics of the risen life of our Lord which especially challenge attention, as corresponding to certain features of the new life of Christians. (1) Of these the first is its reality. The Resurrection of Jesus Christ was the real Resurrection of a really dead Body. The piercing of our Lord's side, to say nothing of the express language of the Evangelists, implied the truth of His Death. (2) A second characteristic of Christ's risen life: it lasts. Jesus did not rise, that, like Lazarus, He might die again. 'I am He' so ran the message to St. John in Patmos 'that liveth and was dead; and behold I am alive for evermore, and have the keys of hell and of death.' For evermore. No new life upon the earth to be followed by a death of pain and shame no new victory over the tomb awaited Him. Sin was conquered once for all. Christ's triumphant life as Man with God the Father could not again be exchanged for a state of suffering. 'Christ being raised from the dead dieth no more: death hath no more dominion over Him, for in that He died, He died unto sin once, but in that He liveth He liveth unto God.' So with the new life of the Christian. It should be a resurrection once for all. I say, 'it should be'; for God's grace does not put force upon us, and what it does in us and for us depends upon ourselves. The Christian must 'reckon himself to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God, through Jesus Christ our Lord'. (3) A third note of Christ's risen life. Much of it most of it was hidden from the eyes of men. They saw enough to be satisfied of its reality. But of His eleven recorded appearances, five took place on a single day; and there is accordingly no record of any appearance on thirty-three days out of the forty which preceded the Ascension. And yet we cannot help asking, what was the risen Christ doing during these long absences from His disciples? Ah! what? Who can doubt? Certainly He needed not strength, as we need it, but communion with the Father was His glory and His joy. And who can here fail to see a lesson and a law for all true Christian lives? Of every such life, much, and the most important side, must be hidden from the eyes of men. It is a matter of the first necessity to set aside some time in each day for secret communion with Him, in Whose presence we hope to spend our eternal future. Doubtless our business, our families, our friendships, our public duties, have their claims: in many a life, such claims may leave a very scanty margin for anything beyond. But where there is a will there is a way: and time must be made for secret earnest prayer, for close self-questioning, for honestly facing all that touches our present condition, and our tremendous destinies, for planting our foot, humbly yet firmly, upon the threshold of Eternity. H. P. Liddon. Free From Death Romans 6:9 I. 'Christ was raised from the dead.' Then He was among them. It is a medicine good for all diseases. It is the light which turns what would otherwise be darkness and sorrow into brightness and joy. Do any men think that their sins cannot be forgiven? that they pass the mercies even of God? that the promises of the Holy Ghost were not meant for them? Christ was dead. Can anything be impossible after that? Can there be any sin that such a death will not wash away. II. 'Dieth no more.' All this was done once, that it might be done for ever. And as with Him so with us. 'It is appointed unto men once to die.' He will have us to do that which He did but not more. It is a very bitter cup, but then we can only swallow it once. These bodies of ours will be so put together at the last day that they cannot come to pieces any more. We shall be like our Lord in that also. We, being raised from the dead, shall never die again. III. Here, we are all in the dominion of death. But if God gives us grace to enter into His kingdom, then we shall be like unto our Lord, that is, shall be free from this dominion of death. Then, perhaps, we shall know better than we do now, how it has made bitter, how it has eaten into, how it has spoiled everything here. Here we shall never entirely lose it; there we cannot for a moment even fear it. J. M. Neale, Sermons in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p. 64. References. VI. 9-11. W. P. S. Bingham, Sermons on Easter Subjects, p. 15. J. H. Holford, Memorial Sermons, p. 56. VI. 10. J. C. M. Bellew, Sermons, vol. i. p. 1. VI. 10, 11. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 152. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 138. Romans 6:2 Am I wrong in saying that he who has mastered the meaning of those two prepositions now truly rendered ' into the Name,' ' in Christ' has found the central truth of Christianity? Certainly I would gladly have given the ten years of my life spent on the Revision to bring only these two phrases of the New Testament to the heart of Englishmen. Westcott. References. VI. 11. H. C. Lees, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 769. W. J. E. Bennett, Sermons at the London Mission, 1869, p. 21. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Seasons, p. 97. C. D. Bell, The Saintly Calling, p. 41. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 142. VI. 11, 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. li. No. 2933. VI. 12, 13. H. Howard, The Raiment of the Soul, p. 19. VI. 12-14. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 346. Alive From the Dead (An Easter Sermon) Romans 6:13 'Alive from the dead.' These words have the true Easter ring. The background of Easter is required to make clear their meaning. Good Friday lies behind us. Good Friday must always be sad, for the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ is not only the revelation of the love of God; it is also the abiding monument of the shame of our race its revolt against goodness, its betrayal of the best, its refusal of ordinary justice, its fickleness and cowardice, its love of self, and its enmity against God. No man who looks at the cross and seriously reflects what it means can fail to be bowed down with shame and penitence. We cannot separate ourselves from that fearful act The best men have said ever since, 'My sins helped to nail Him there'. We have wished that all our past, the good and bad of it alike, should simply go down into the grave with Christ, that the full force of our baptism should be realised and our old man, our former self, should be buried with Him. And we have learned that this is just what God grants to us in His wonderful forgiving love, that, as St. Paul tells us in this passage, we should be planted in the likeness of His death, and why? In order that we may be also with His Resurrection. I. Easter meets us with its Splendid Hope and its Thrilling Charity. He died unto sin once; He liveth unto God. 'Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.' 'Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.' Christ is risen. We are risen. Easter has many messages, but that is the deepest and the highest of all. Easter tells of immortality. It is a sure pledge that death, though strong, is not the strongest. It speaks tender words of consolation to those who have parted with their dear ones for a while. It promises that our training here will not be wasted, but is a schooling for the higher life. It assures us also that the great God in heaven has accepted the sacrifice of Him Who died for our sins and rose again for our sanctification, and it tells us that in the great conflict between evil and good the triumph must be with God. Christ is living, conquering, reigning. 'Alive from the dead.' II. If that is its Message, what is its Challenge? 'Yield yourselves unto God.' Let the past be past Let it lie buried in the grave of Christ. God looks on you as He looks on His only begotten Son, Who has taken your nature and carried it to the cross and to the grave, and He says to you in Him, 'This is My Son, Who was dead and is alive again. He has come back to be an obedient Son, to yield Himself to His Father's will.' 'Yield yourselves unto God, as those that are alive from the dead.' Is it all too mysterious? Does it even sound unreal? No; I appeal to your spiritual being, to its experiences, or else to its needs. I speak that which some of you have known once and, it may be, have lost awhile through carelessness or wilful sin, which all of you may know if you will ask, that the Holy Spirit may be given to you to take the things of Christ and show them unto you. III. What will it Mean for our whole Life, this yielding of ourselves to God? It will mean the study of the will of God, God's will which is revealed to us in the Holy Scripture, as it is disclosed by the providence which sets us our daily task, and which is personally known to us by the promptings of the Holy Spirit in answer to our prayers for guidance; understanding what the will of God is, studying it in order to do it, and so yielding ourselves as instruments with which He may be able to work His will. It will mean that in the broadest sense, but in the particular it may be something different for each of us. We cannot say one for another, we cannot foresee for ourselves, what it may involve. We cannot know what it may cost, this offer of our new lives to God. Here is where great faith is demanded of us. Can we trust Him to lay no greater burden on us than in the strength which He gives us we can bear? This is where we mostly fail; yet this is what He asks most from us. A father loves to be trusted by his son. It is our Father Who bids us yield ourselves to Him. Did ever any trust in Him who was confounded? References. VI. 13. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 240. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 443. VI. 14. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i. p. 103. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 901, and vol. xxiv. No. 1410. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 293. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 427; ibid. vol. x. p. 121. VI. 14, 15. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1735. VI. 15-23. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 226. VI. 17. J. S. Boone, Sermons, p. 334. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 381. Conduct, the Test of Character Romans 6:16 In our text we are taught to look to the general tendency of life for the test of character and condition. If we have yielded ourselves, in resolve and in act, as servants to obey, whether it be to sin or to righteousness, then his servants we are whom we obey. I. We are ready enough in our judgment of others, though often mistaken in our own conclusions about them. No doubt there are sins so obvious that 'they go beforehand unto judgment'. The profligate, the drunkard, the cruel and the sensual, the proud and the worldly, are condemned as those who have no inheritance in Christ with the sanctified. And our Lord teaches us, by His revelation of the severance at the last day, that the habitual negation of good, the non-doing of duty, is also decisive of character, and therefore of destiny. All this is known to God, and will be determined by Him; but again and again we are warned against attempting to assume His place by taking up the role of judge. Thus James says: 'There is one Lawgiver, Who is able to save and to destroy; who art thou then that judgest another?'And our Lord, in His Sermon on the Mount, says: 'Judge not, that ye be not judged'. We are often misunderstood. We offend others innocently and inadvertently, and they think and say evil of us. On the other hand, we are sometimes far too highly thought of by those who do not know us well. We have undiscovered faults, and perhaps unrecognised virtues. We are both better and worse than others think us to be. Good Thomas à Kempis said as truly as wisely: 'Thou art not the more holy for being praised, nor the more worthless for being dispraised. What thou art, that thou art; neither by words canst thou be made greater than what thou art in the sight of God.' II. But though all this and much more might be said of the judgment of a man by others, it does not lessen the responsibility resting on every one to judge himself. It was a pagan philosopher who left on record the immortal dictum: 'Know thyself. And it was an inspired Psalmist who taught us where to find illumination for this when he exclaimed, 'For Thou wilt light my candle; the Lord my God will enlighten my darkness'. And another Psalmist, conscious of self-ignorance, prayed: 'Search me, O God, and know my heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there be any wicked way in me, and lead me in the way everlasting'. The difficulties in the way of self-knowledge are greater now than in the Psalmist's days, because the rush of life is swifter, and noisier, and meditation is, to many, almost impossible. But still, they are fools who, through thoughtlessness, fail to see how they stand in relation to God for this we may know, and ought to know for our own good always. III. The Apostle further teaches us in this passage that character and habit tend to a consummation, 'whether of sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteousness'. (1) In the twenty-third verse we read, 'the wages of sin is death'. It is a solemn declaration. You may disbelieve it, or forget it, or refuse to consider it, but it abides true as ever. What it involves so far as life after death is concerned we do not know, except that all that is experienced here, whether good or evil, will be intensified there. But is there no death of the spiritual even on earth, the premonition of the eternal? There are those who so far make themselves the 'servants of sin' that their sensibilities are dulled, till they cannot feel and cannot pray. They have grieved the Spirit, and even quenched the Spirit. God and heaven, sin and salvation, have lost all meaning to them, and they already know what it is to 'sin unto death'. (2) God who begins this new work will carry it on, prompting us daily to the obedience which tends to righteousness. In other words, repeated acts of obedience to God's known will end in established character. Alfred Rowland, The Exchanged Crowns, p. 69. Romans 6:16-18 There is but one passion which cannot go astray, cannot be too great the passion for righteousness embodied in Jesus. Philosophy and love are here the same thing. No vague ideals are these, dressed up in fine words, drawing on tomorrow because they have had no yesterday, but ascertained and ascertainable experience. Life is an art too complex for any rule but one, and that is the Imitation of Christ. Dr. William Barry, in * The Two Standards. Romans 6:18 * Your liberty will be sacred, so long as it shall be governed by and evolved beneath an idea of Duty. Mazzini. References. VI. 18. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1482. VI. 19. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 149. VI. 21. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 373. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 36. VI. 21-23. Ibid. pp. 205, 207, 211. Romans 6:22 'By holiness,' says Mr. John Morley, 'do we not mean something different from virtue? It is not the same as duty; still less is it the same as a religious belief. It is a name for an inner grace of nature, an instinct of the soul, by which, though knowing of earthly appetites and worldly passions, the spirit, purifying itself of these, and independent of reason, argument, and the struggles of the will, dwells in patient and confident communion with the seen and the unseen Good.' References. VI. 22. F. Ballard, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 113. VI. 22, 23. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 203. Wages Or Gift? Romans 6:23 I. What is the 'eternal life' which is here spoken of? It is endless life, undoubtedly, but it is more than that When we read (as in the Authorised Version), 'The gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord,' we recognise, as Bishop Westcott says, 'A general description of the work of Christ, of what He has wrought for us, standing apart from us'. But what Paul really wrote was, 'Eternal life in Jesus Christ our Lord,' that is to say (to quote Westcott again), 'Life is not an endowment apart from Christ, it is Himself, and enjoyed in Him'. Now we see that the adjective 'eternal' is not quantitative only but qualitative also; it indicates not endlessness simply, but a certain kind of life, the best and highest kind, life in Christ, the very life of God Himself. But if this be so, 'eternal life' is not a gift for the bestowal of which we must look in the world to come. Not till then, indeed, can it be ours in its fulness, but in measure at least it may be ours here and now. II. How does this 'eternal life 'become the possession of man? The answer the astonishing answer of Paul is, that (to quote the Revised Version) it is 'the free gift of God'. Now that is a conception of salvation that nowadays is often lost sight of. Salvation, we think, is to be from within; it must be wrought out by ourselves, it will come to us only as the last result of long and laborious striving. And, of course, there is much in all this that is profoundly true. But it was not so that Paul conceived the Gospel of Christ. No word indicates more clearly the whole drift of Paul's thinking on this matter than the word 'grace'. By 'grace' are we saved; and 'grace' speaks not of the doing of man, but of the giving of God. If I could sum up in one sentence the difference between these two opposite conceptions of the Christian life I think it would be this: the one makes God the centre of religion, the other finds it in man. The whole colour and tone of character of our religious life will be determined by the choice which (consciously or unconsciously) we make between these opposite conceptions of the meaning of salvation. (1) Why is it that so many of us have so little gladness in our Christian life? We have talked and lived as if the whole responsibility of our salvation rested on our own weak shoulders. (2) Why is it, again, that we make so little progress in the Christian life? Self is at the centre where only God should be. (3) Why is it that so many today hesitate even to enter upon the Christian life? Is not one answer at least this, that they wholly misconceive religion? They are weary and overburdened, and religion seems to add new burdens. Christianity tells not of something that man must do, but of something done for man. G. Jackson, Table Talk of Jesus, p. 99. Romans 6:23 'For the present, however, consider Longchamp; now when Lent is ending, and the glory of Paris and France has gone forth as in annual wont. Not to assist at Tenebris masses, but to sun itself and show itself, and salute the Young Spring. Manifold, bright-tinted, glittering with gold; all through the Bois du Boulogne, in long-drawn, variegated rows; like long-drawn living flower-borders, tulips, dahlias, lilies of the valley; all in their moving flower-pots (of new-gilt carriages); pleasure of the eye and the pride of life. So rolls and dances the Procession: steady, of firm assurance, as if it rolled on adamant and the foundations of the world; not on mere heraldic parchment under which smoulders a lake of fire. Dance on, ye foolish ones; ye sought not wisdom, neither have ye found it. Ye and your fathers have sown the wind, ye shall reap the whirlwind. Was it not, from of old, written: * The wages of sin is death? * Carlyle's French Revolution, Book II. vi. Compare the description of the second last of Hogarth's series of pictures, in Mariage à la Mode, given by Dr. Brown in Horœ Subsecivœ ('Notes on Art' Distraining for Rent). That is the worst of the wages of sin. Sinners cannot pay them all however willing, however passionately desirous even they may be to do so. Those wages are always paid in part, of necessity must be, by the innocent in place of the guilty. Lucas Malet. References. VI. 23. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 182. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 223. E. J. Boyce, Parochial Sermons, p. 228. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xiii. No. 1868. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 250. C. Ensor Walters, The Deserted Christ, p. 61. Romans 7 Dr. Marcus Dods wrote at the age of twenty-six: 'Whatever Paul says of the law in the seventh of Romans I have found true of the ministry; no doubt it is holy in itself, but in me it has revealed and excited an amount of sin that has slain me. Other people with stronger natures may have, doubtless have, endured a great deal more, but I could not have endured more misery than I have done since I began to preach.' Early Letters, p. 179. Romans 7:1 Ever since the Epistle to the Romans was written, it has become a Christian commonplace that, in all moral experience, I am divided against myself; inwardly identified with a superior call that beckons me; outwardly liable to take my lot with the inferior inclination that clings to me. In such conflict, whatever be its issue, the real self is always that which votes for the good; conformably with Plato's rule, that no man, of his own will (though, possibly, of blind impulse), ever decides for the worse. If I choose aright, the previous strife is laid to rest, and my nature is at one with itself and its own ends. If I choose amiss, the storm within is fiercer than before; I rage against my own temptation; and if the fact be known, I am ashamed to walk abroad and carry about so false an image of myself. Martineau. We carry private and domestick enemies within, public and more hostile enemies without. The devil that did but buffet St. Paul, plays methinks at sharp with me. Let me be nothing, if within the compass of myself, I do not find the battle of Lepanto, passion against reason, reason against faith, faith against the devil, and my conscience against all. There is another man in me that's angry with me, rebukes, commands, and dastards me. Sir Thomas Browne. References. VII. 1. R. M. Benson, Redemption, p. 256. VII. 1-6. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 187. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, 236. Expositor (5th Series), vol. viii. p. 448. VII. 3, 4. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p. 79. VII. 4. Ibid. vol. vi. pp. 139, 347. VII. 6. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 427. VII. 7, 8. Ibid. vol. x. p. 369. VII. 7-25. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 203. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 245. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 198. Romans 7:9 Each man seems to learn for himself from the beginning, and discovers little by little, to his great discomfort, what should have been known long ago from such as Paul and Luther and Bunyan. And what is this? Why, it is discovered that the will has no power over the affections. While both were in disorder, while a man's will was half for God and half for independence from God, he did not find this out distinctly; he then blamed his entire nature. But now that his will is really subdued, he begins to discern how exceedingly little power it has over his affections, and to regard one half only of his nature as diseased. He desires to speak with meekness; but he finds himself excited and bitter, if not in word, yet in heart. He desires to be chaste; and his thoughts become impure. He desires to worship God in spirit; but his mind wanders into countless imaginations. He desires to be contented; and his heart swells with a foolish ambition. He desires to be humble; but he is mortified that somebody gave him too little honour. He desires to be simple; yet he said something to make himself admired.... But the single-minded soul is distinguished by the promptitude of its aspiration after better success, the moment that failure is discerned. Not merely is there vexation at the failure (which might denote mortified pride), but an instant breathing to God, 'Oh that my heart were as Thy heart, and that wholly!' and this instantly renews the soul's intercourse with God, so that complaint is not self-reproach. F. W. Newman. References. VII. 10. A. Ainger, Sermons Preached in the Temple Church, p. 239. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. pp. 135, 137. VII. 12. Phillips Brooks, The Law of Growth, p. 199. The Malignity of Sin Romans 7:13 I. Under the law sin shows itself as revolt against a personal God, and the transgression of a specific enactment. The commandment rests upon a fixed idea of authority, just, living, competent. We acknowledge no subjection to vanished dynasties of kings. In the promulgation of the law an eternal God plants Himself between sin and the soul it threatens to ravage and destroy. If sin gets its will and its way in us, it can only be through a criminal insult to the person, power, and prerogative of the Eternal. The very prohibitions of law provoke a temper of resentfulness by which the alienation of the heart from God may be measured. A profound and daring Scotch theologian has said: 'The tendency of all sin is to Deicide': and the implacable temper of an un regenerate man confronted with the demands of Divine law proves the truth of the terrible saying. II. The commandment shows the exceeding sinfulness of sin by putting all its typical forms into admonitory association with each other. It suggests that an organic unity binds together the varied developments of evil. Every wanton and selfish act lies against the honour of God and the common welfare of the race. The watchword of the law promulgated by Buddha, was 'All life is one, from that of the least to the greatest'. 'All sin is one' was the watchword of the law promulgated by Moses. Jesus traced all obedience to a root of love, and Jesus traced all disobedience to a counter principle. He who offends in one point is guilty of all. III. The law also brings home to us the heinousness of sin by illustrating the disaster wrought by it in the human soul. When the conscience has become mute, insensate, unresponsive, it is often necessary to reinforce its functions by an appeal to fear. Some minds can only be taught to appreciate the seriousness of sin through a foretaste of its bitter and distressing results. Death, the wages of sin, is inseparable from its work. Sin is an infernal machine put within us to work death, and it achieves at last the will of him who was a murderer from the beginning. The law was meant to show this. The tendency of the day is to make little of the sinfulness of sin, if not, indeed, to look upon the word itself as obsolete. It has been shrewdly said that the present generation needs to make a new pilgrimage to Mount Sinai. A solid evangelical theology rests upon a right interpretation of the grim, irrefutable fact of sin. The sombre reflections suggested by the Apostle's view of sin, and his explanation of the part played by the law in making us realise its guiltiness, are not intended to darken our lives but to make us feel our need of Jesus Christ. We shall never get back our faith in the grand fact of an ever-present redemption till we let the law do its proper work within us, by creating a just sense of the exceeding sinfulness of sin. References. VII. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1095. VII. 14. M. Biggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p. 116. VII. 17. W. L. Watkinson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 391. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 55. VII. 18. S. Bentley, Sermons on Prayer, p. 27. VII. 19. Archbishop Benson, Singleheart, p. 35. VII. 20. H. S. Holland, Vital Values, p. 107. VII. 21-24.-J. H. Jellett, The Elder Son, p. 239. VII. 21-25. Expositor (5th Series), vol. i. p. 306. VII. 22, 23. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1062. VII. 22-24. A. Bradley, Sermons Chiefly on Character, p. 58. Romans 7:23 When the Lorelei in Heine's poem is sitting on the rock combing her yellow hair with a golden comb, or singing to the magic harp, with the music of the Rhine for the contrabasso, we fancy she is too naive and pretty not to be as good as she looks. The boatman who steers that way, and is caught in the whirlpool, will have another story to tell. So it is with our æsthetic, scientific, curled and scented paganism, which cannot endure the harsh Christian doctrine, or its antiquated doctrine about the law of sin in our members. Dr. William Barry. Romans 7:23 Paul did not go to Adam and Genesis to get the essential testimony about sin. He went to experience for it. 'I see,' he says, 'a law in my members fighting against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity.' This is the essential testimony respecting sin to Paul this rise of sin in his own heart and in the heart of all the men who hear him. At quite a later stage in his conception of the religious life, in quite a subordinate capacity, and for the mere purpose of illustration, comes in the allusion to Adam and to what is called original sin. Matthew Arnold. One of my most formidable enemies was a vivid and ill-trained imagination. Against outward and inward evils of this kind there existed a very powerful love of truth and purity, and great approval of and delight in the law of God. The antagonism of these two forces between the ages of twenty and twenty-six went nigh to threaten my reason. At length my deeply wounded conscience was pacified by faith in Christ, and a life of great happiness commenced, which still continues. Smetham. References. VII. 23. Phillips Brooks, The Law of Growth, p. 311. T. Yates, The Examiner, 19th July, 1906, p. 697. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1459. Romans 7:24 When we read the lives of those men who have had the deepest spiritual experience, to whom, on the one hand, the infinity of duty, the commandment exceeding broad, and, on the other, the depth of their own spiritual poverty, has been most laid bare we find them confessing that the seventh chapter of Romans describes their condition more truly than any philosopher has done. With their whole hearts they have felt St. Paul's 'O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me?' Such are the men who, having themselves come out of great deeps, become the spirit-quickeners of their fellow-men, the revivers of a deeper morality. To all such there is a grim irony in the philosophic ideas when confronted with their own actuals. So hopelessly wide seems the gap between their own condition and the 'thou shalt' of the commandment. Not dead diagrams of virtue such men want, but living powers of righteousness. They do not quarrel with the moralists' ideal, though it is neither the saints' nor the poets'. They find no fault with his account of the faculty which discerns that ideal, though it is not exactly theirs. But what they ask is not the faculty to know the right, but the power to be righteous. It is because this they find not, because what reason commands, the will cannot be or do, that they are filled with despair. As well, they say, bid us lay our hand upon the stars because we see them, as realise your ideal of virtue because we discern it. Principal Shairp. References. VII. 24. G. C. Lorimer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 123. J. Johns, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 455. D. W. Simon, Sermons by Welshmen, p. 256. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 37. F. W. Farrar, Truths to Live By, p. 233. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 202. Romans 7:24-25 But, oh! this it is which presseth me down and paineth me. Jesus Christ in His saints sitteth neighbour with our ill second, corruption, deadness, idleness, pride, lust, worldliness, self-love, security, falsehood, and a world of more the like, which I find in me, that are daily doing violence to the new man. Oh! but we have cause to carry low sails, and to cleave fast to free grace, free, free grace! Blessed be our Lord that ever that way was found out. Samuel Rutherford. There have been many in all ages, whether nursed in Christianity or no, whether they have been left unacquainted with the New Testament or whether it has remained to them not an unknown or incredible but an unmeaning tale, to whom at some crisis of their lives the record of St. Paul's deliverance has come as life from the dead. The account of his case is also the account of theirs. A new man has been forming within them the sign of its presence being perhaps the more conscious antagonism of the old or a more wilful adherence to some mode of life or rule of action which has long ceased to satisfy but till it has received some assurance of Divine recognition and help, it is weak from ignorance of its proper strength, and is merely a source of inward unrest In the Gospel history, as interpreted by St. Paul, it finds the needed assurance. T. H. Green. References. VII. 24, 25. J. D. Thompson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 131. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p. 313. C. J. Ball, The Saintly Calling, p. 121. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 235. VII. 25. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 33; ibid. (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 89. VII. 26. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. v. p. 89. In Christ Romans 8:1 The words 'In Christ' have been very happily termed 'Paul's Monogram'. They were first used in the text as a definite description of the child of God, and it is interesting to see how Paul gradually worked up to it. He used different prepositions concerning the Lord Jesus in the Epistle to the Romans until he wrote the wonderful word 'in'. The two words 'In Christ' gave Paul a view which never passed away, and he began only to think of himself and of others, the loved ones round about him, as 'in Christ'. Being 'in Christ' guarantees four things: I. 'In Christ' guarantees no judgment. 'The difference between a believer and an unbeliever,' writes Rev. Marcus Rainsford, 'is this: the unbeliever has his judgment day in front of him, the believer has his judgment day behind him.' II. 'In Christ' guarantees no separation. III. 'In Christ' guarantees life. IV. 'In Christ' guarantees glory. 'And the glory which Thou gavest Me I have given them.' A. G. Brown, The Baptist, vol. lxxi. p. 538. 'There is therefore now no condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus.' Romans viii. i. James Smetham, in his Letters (p. 208), speaks of having read a sermon by Archbishop Manning. 'With this school of theologians there is no doubt a strong sense of the evil of sin. But it is like the sense of sin which the lost have in its fulness; Merlin with his hand on his aching heart, pacing for ever in enchanted forests, crushed, and haunted, and vexed for ever by dim unappeasable foreshadowings of doom whispers of the inexpiable, the irretrievable, the gone, the lost.... 'This is the mere enchanter's gospel. Oh, how different from the Gospel of our Lord and Saviour. I have had enough of the presentment of sin, enough of the miserable wandering in the mazes of the dark woods of moral metaphysics, enough of the terrible unrolling of the scrolls of doom. Analyse your sins? No, nail them to the cross. Weep tears of blood, sweat drops of oozing agony in secret chambers, in lonely walks? Oh no Jesus my salvation is; Hence my doubts, away my fears; Jesus is become my peace.' References. VIII. l. W. J. H. Price, Preacher's Magazine, vol. v. p. 129. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1917. Expositor (6th Series), vol. ix. p. 64. VIII. 1, 2. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 233. VIII. 1-11. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 271. The Laws of the Inner Life Romans 8:2 Let us glance at these contending forces that ever meet in the shock of battle upon the sacred battleground of the Christian life. I. The Law of Sin and of Death. The Apostle means to point out by this term the existence of an active principle of evil in the life; a principle of sin and therefore, of death; for sin is death in the germ, and death is sin in the fruit Paul recognises among the principles that make up the sum-total of human life a sinister force from the world of darkness everywhere present, whose tendency it is to counteract, thwart, and reverse all the upward movement of the world. This is the law of sin and death, and there is none other. Yes, we must admit it The Apostle is guilty of asserting that antiquated conception of 'natural depravity' which has now fallen into so much discredit The grave bearing of the doctrine of 'depravity' lies in this, that, until Christ comes into the life, the 'law of sin and death' is absolute monarch of the life, and holds its citadel as well as its throne; and, unless a 'stronger than he' depose him, the depravity must at last become 'total,' and the whole life be flung into that region where even the light is darkness. This leads us to the consideration of the 'redeeming force' in the Christian life. II. The Law of the Spirit of Life in Christ Jesus. The most natural way of maintaining the parallel between this clause and the one we have just considered is to interpret the word 'spirit' as meaning, not the spirit of God, but the new spirit in man. The Apostle is taking us to the region of forces that pervade human life, that form part of that life, and that determine its destiny by their interactions and oppositions. The Apostle manifestly regarded this force of spiritual life as a directly supernatural gift The law of the spirit of life is the strongest of all forces, and must prevail. John Thomas, Myrtle Street Pulpit, vol. ii. p. 135. References. VIII. 2. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 446. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life, p. 7. Christ Condemning Sin Romans 8:3 It is this last thought that I would bring before you Christ condemning sin. I think it would be wisest on our part to take the word simply as it stands, and understand it as we would understand it if we read it in our daily newspapers tomorrow. Christ condemned sin. I suppose if you were to read in the newspapers that a judge condemned any man, there would be three thoughts which you might say entered into that one expression. (1) That that man who was condemned had done something noxious to the law of the land. (2) That he had done something harmful to the community at large. (3) That he was responsible for the thing which he did. Now these three thoughts you may apply to this our text God has been condemning sin and trying to show men that sin is not only noxious to His own law, but that sin is harmful in itself. And yet men cannot see that sin is such a bad thing, men cannot see the evil of sin. Therefore God sent His own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and condemned sin in the flesh. How? I. In the first place, by setting over against sin the perfect character of Jesus Christ You can sometimes never find out how crooked a line is until you put a straight line beside it, you sometimes cannot see how filthy that linen is until you stretch it out upon the clean white snow. II. He condemned sin because by coming into this world He permitted sin to run to its very extremity. You begin to see at the cross of Christ what sin can do. III. Jesus Christ condemned sin in the flesh by showing you that sin is unnecessary, that you need not sin. Man has sinned not so much because man is weak as because man has refused a power which will give him deliverance from the sin. E. A. Stuart, The One Mediator and other Sermons, vol. xi. p.185. References. VIII. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xii. No. 699, and vol. xvi. No. 932. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 33; ibid. vol. ix. p. 265; ibid. vol. x. pp. 36, 41; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ii. pp. 167, 248; ibid. vol. vii. p. 43. Romans 8:3-4 From the people of the law arises the gospel. The sense of duty, when awakened, awakens not only the religion of the law, but in the end the other religious intuitions which lie round about it The faith of Christendom has arisen not from a great people, but from 'the least of all people' from the people whose anxious legalism was a noted contrast to the easy, impulsive life of pagan nations. In modern language, conscience is the converting intuition that which turns men from the world without to the world within from the things which are seen and the realities which are not seen. In a character like Shelley's, where this haunting, abiding, oppressive moral feeling is wanting or defective, the religious belief in an Almighty God which springs out of it is likely to be defective likewise. Bagehot. References. VIII. 3, 4. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 219. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2228. VIII. 4. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 181. Romans 8:5 How prompt we are to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our bodies; how slow to satisfy the hunger and thirst of our souls! Indeed, we would-be practical folks cannot use this word without blushing, because of our infidelity, having starved this substance almost to a shadow. We feel it to be as absurd as if a man were to break forth into a eulogy on his dog, who hasn't any. An ordinary man will work every day for a year at shovelling dirt to support his body, or a family of bodies; but he is an extraordinary man who will work a whole day in a year for the support of his soul. But he alone is the truly enterprising and practical man who succeeds in maintaining his soul here. Have we not an everlasting life to get? and is not that the only excuse at last for eating, drinking, sleeping, or even carrying an umbrella when it rains? Thoreau. References. VIII. 5-9. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 249. VIII. 6. Basil Wilberforce, Sanctification by the Truth, p. 119. Romans 8:7 No deeper cleft divides human spirits than that which separates the faith possible to men, for whom evil means a mere negation, a mere shadow, a form of ignorance, from that which regards it as an actual existence, a real antagonism to good.... Almost all other antitheses which divide human spirits either involve or spring from this contrast. Miss Wedgwood. References. VIII. 7. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 20, and vol. xxxii. No. 1878. Expositor (5th Series), vol. iv. p. 121. The Religion of Spirit Romans 8:9 Amid many definitions of a Christian here is St. Paul's definition. The Spirit of Christ is the one essential, the sanctuary and substance of our religion. We may differ in our historical and critical theories; but here we all worship. We all recognise the Spirit of Christ as the Holy and Divine Spirit 'The Spirit of Christ.' It escapes the limits of our formulas, but we all know what it is. Can there be a doubt as to the Spirit of Christ set forth in His teaching? And clear as His teaching is, that Spirit of Christ is yet more eminent in His life. I. The Spirit of Christ The one essential thing. We all know it, we all honour it as supreme, we all pray for it Then if the Spirit of Christ is all, the one essential thing, what right have we to speak or act as though we knew certain other essential things? What right have we to limit it and define His discipleship by any intellectual or ecclesiastical demands soever? None of us can imagine our Lord rejecting a man as His disciple because of an imperfect estimate of Himself. He bade His disciples count as friends all who were working in His spirit 'Forbid him not.' Are we to draw lines that the Master never drew? There must be differences in our ways of apprehending the facts of life and the truth of God. Let each bear his own testimony, let each hold the truth in the way that helps him to be a true man, let each love the truth that makes his heart burn within him. The Church of Christ is large enough to hold us all at our full stature. Only this I pray you remember, that however proud you may be of your orthodoxy or your heterodoxy, you are not saved by your changing beliefs, but by the unchanging love of God; not by your feeble hold of Him, but by His almighty grasp of you. II. Our relationship to Christ is shown, not by our claims of intimate discipleship, not by reiterated 'Lord, Lords,' but by the tone and temper of our lives. What makes us Christian is the Spirit of Christ in us. Our discipleship is shown by the fruits of the Spirit of Christ, 'love, joy, peace, long-suffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, meekness, self-control.' B. J. Snell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxii. p. 280. References. VIII. 9. Bishop Bickersteth, Sermons, p. 93. G. Campbell Morgan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 377. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xix. No. 1133. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 93. VIII. 9-11. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 432. VIII. 10. T. Arnold, Christian Life: Its Hopes, p. 131. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 41; ibid. vol. viii. p. 433. VIII. 10, 11. Ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 437. VIII. 10-23. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 261. VIII. 11. E. Bayley, Sermons on the Work and Person of the Holy Spirit, p. 87. Bishop Winnington-Ingram, A Mission of the Spirit, p. 217. J. B. Brown, The Divine Life in Man, p. 214. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. pp. 110, 280; ibid. vol. ix. p. 90; ibid. vol. x. p. 105. VIII. 11-26. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 350. VIII. 12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ii. No. 96. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 128. Archbishop Magee, The Gospel and the Age, p. 115. H. W. Webb-Peploe, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 800. VIII. 12, 13. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 189. VIII. 12-17. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 288. VIII. 13. H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 117. W. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches (2nd Series), p. 82. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. pp. 203-205; ibid. (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 191. Whit-sunday Romans 8:14 I. The Holy Ghost is the Fount and Spring, as He is also the Teacher, of Truth; He it is Who enables us to see the end of our being; to hear of a 'shedding of blood 'that can take away sin; of a 'House not made with hands, eternal in the heavens'; of a God Who is 'very pitiful, and of tender mercy'; and of things passing our power to conceive, 'which He has prepared for them that love Him'. It is He Who first taught Christians those truths and that language which many who are not Christians, save in name, venture to use If He had never been sent by Christ from the Father, no living man would have 'known the mind of the Lord,' or be able to speak of things which are freely given us of God. This, then, is the Christian's privilege the advantage of the spiritual over the natural man to feel that God is His Father, and that He is enabling Him surely, if slowly, to overcome the world by the renewing influence of the Holy Ghost which He has shed on him abundantly in Jesus Christ our Lord. II. These burning words the Bible puts into the mouth of every Christian. Whatever might have been the influence of the Gospel in Apostolic times, it plainly is not of this transforming and renewing power now. Not that the power of the Gospel itself is less, but that our hearts seem harder and our ears more dull of hearing. We listen to the same unchanging message of God's love to fallen man, of Christ's Redemption, of the means of grace, of faith, of Christian duty, but these things sound to many as 'idle tales'. They cease to stir the ground of men's hearts. Thus only the true Christian can dare to apply to himself that blessed language in which St. Paul and St. John describe the strength of the believer, the privileges of the regenerate, the comforts of the justified, the liberty of the redeemed, the assurance of the elect. III. The Holy Spirit will not abide in a defiled or a neglected temple. He will go and seek another home if He be not welcomed in ours. He will only abide in a holy place, 'with him that is of a contrite and humble spirit; to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones'. He cannot put up with 'proud looks and a high stomach,' with men who say, 'We are they that ought to speak; who is Lord over us?' It must be a pure and upright heart, a heart weaned from the world, with 'affections set on things above'. IV. The presence of that Holy Spirit is revealed by His fruits: 'Love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, goodness, faith, meekness, temperance'. 'Against these there is no law'; indeed, they render all law superfluous. Their animating motive is not fear, but love the love of Him 'Who first loved us'; an obedience issuing from the pure devotion of the heart toward a kind Benefactor, a Divine Being, Who can be touched with the feeling of our infirmities. These fruits must be manifested in each one of us: 'We have received the Spirit of adoption,' been made the sons of God, chosen out of the world, that we should 'show forth the praises of Him Who hath called us out of darkness into His marvellous. V. Be sure, if His light is not burning in your souls, it ought to be. If you have not found Him 'a very present help in trouble,' it is because you have sought after other comforters. If He bears not 'His witness with our spirit that we are the children of God,' it is because worldliness and disobedience have made us strangers to the feeling, as well as forfeited the title of 'sons'. Bishop Fraser, * Parochial Sermons. * References. VIII. 14. E. H. Eland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 390. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii. p. 309. C. Perren, Outline Sermons, p. 251. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons, p. 56. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 150. Bishop Winnington- Ingram, A Mission of the Spirit, p. 72. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxi. No. 1220. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 196; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 35. The Fatherhood of God Romans 8:15 I. ' Whereby we cry, "Abba, Father!" 'Here is a great conception: this whole world is the family of God. He made it; He loves it;. He watches over it. We are elevated by its beauty, amazed at its resources. We listen to the great Benedicite ever rising up from all Creation to the Throne of God. We watch the evolution of history; we see the tide of events in its ebb and flow, and yet silently and surely advancing towards an ordered end. Man finds constraining fingers placed upon his freedom, and in terror he cries out 'fate!' He is calmed and soothed, and murmurs 'Providence'. Man is for ever finding out new and unexpected treasures, and he builds his house where he hopes to stay and enjoy the good things he has found. But he has speedily to pass away, he is but an actor on the scene. He has to make way for others. It is a beautiful world, as it lies palpitating with life, full of the presence and love of God. And then we are conscious of shadows and disappointments, of blight and failure and shattered hopes, of remedies which mean pain, of correction which means frustration of purpose; and we are conscious here, too, of a beneficent Fatherhood, which knows how to meet failure and avert the consequences of sin. God is the Father of earth viewed as a Paradise; He is the Father of a world paralysed by the Fall. We move and live amidst the interlacing intricacies of Divine, creative love. We move also sustained and helped by the beneficence which knows how to turn evil into good, sorrow into joy, pain into pleasure, and by all the tortuous mechanism of man's misdeeds to work out the destiny of the great family, which he loves as a Father, heals as a Saviour, and strengthens as the Comforter. II. If we could accept this estimate of the world as the family of God all would be well for us. Day by day asking ourselves the great questions: 'Whence do I come?' 'Whither am I going?' 'How do I go?' and answering them all by 'God,' all would be well for us. But here the perversion of our life manifests itself. God is my Father, therefore He will not be hard upon me. I can take my ease, eat, drink, and be merry. He has given me all things richly to enjoy, as I saunter along the paths of life, careless of tomorrow, gathering rosebuds while I may. Joyous as the careless Greek amidst the sunny groves. If I sin, that is, if I follow too unreservedly the guidings of my nature, He will forgive me. There is no judgment, no hell, no fear. I shall stumble in some way or another into the right path. God is my Father, and life is sweet It is a blessed thing to live; let me eat and drink, for tomorrow I die. How quickly we learn to bend toward ourselves, as if they existed for us alone, all the powers with which God has surrounded us. We make ourselves the centre on which all things converge. If the sun shines, it is for our pleasure; if it is gloomy, it is to our annoyance. If God gives us health, it is for our greater amusement. Friends and opportunities as they come across our path are like ships freighted with treasures, which are bound for the harbour of our gratification. We may even take religion itself and look upon all its provisions as a sort of life insurance. It will all be well with us at the last, in spite of all catastrophes. If God is your Father He earnestly longs for your salvation and help. But the compassion of God is wider than your needs. There are men and women who are devoting their lives to rescue the fallen and bring back the lost sheep of His fold, and they do ask you for a trifle, which is to help them to carry out their anxious work, and they cannot get it Men and women who say that God is their Father will not own that that poor lost one is their sister, or this prodigal their brother. They will minister as far as they dare to the carelessness and sin which is responsible for their falls; but they will not help the fallen. In vain do we call ourselves the sons of God if we are doing nothing to fill up those vacant seats in the family circle, where angels wait with longing eyes, and heaven itself feels a missing note in the harmony of its joy, because of the sons and daughters of God, whom the elder brother selfishly forgets, or more selfishly still, repels from his care. III. The family of God! We are hearing much at the present time about unity. And when we remember Who it was Who prayed that 'they all may be one,' we feel that we may well thank God that He has put it into our hearts to wish for unity and yet we must remember that the unity which Christ prayed for was unity of a very solemn kind, a unity which was real, and which would be lasting because it was real; 'that they all may be one, as Thou, Father, art in Me, and I in Thee; that they also may be one in us'. We may unite on a false basis, on an artificial basis, on a basis which will dissolve under the stress of the first storm. But if we believe that this world was designed to be God's family, if we believe that this conception was damaged by the Fall, and is now further injured by man's selfishness, let us aim at making real once more the purpose of God. If once we can realise the conception of the family knit together by love of the great Father, unity will come as a matter of course. W. C. E. Newbolt, Church Times, 14th August, 1908. References. VIII. 15. Expositor (4th Series), vol. viii. pp. 266, 276; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 384. J. M. Neale, Sermons Preached in Sackville College Chapel, vol. ii. p. 117. W. M. Sinclair, Words from St. Paul's, p. 86. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (2nd Series), p. 30. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 232. J. Keble, Sermons for Sundays After Trinity, pt. i. p. 265. Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxiii. p. 369. Children of God Romans 8:15-16 St. Paul, in the earlier verses of the passage from which our Epistle today is taken, has been instituting a comparison between two conditions, the two conditions in which men can live the condition of a self-governed life, or the condition of a spirit-governed life. And then he passes to speak of the obligation of the high destiny of the Christian, 'If children, then heirs'. I. A Realisation of our Destiny as Sons of God, heirs of God, and joint heirs with Jesus Christ, ought to give to us a standing, a bearing which is not to be seen in a man of the world. You, St. Paul says, first of all, owe nothing to the flesh. As a matter of fact, St. Paul is so anxious about that point that he never finishes it He never comes back to say that you are debtors to the spirit. He takes that for granted. Then he goes on to consider what he means by sons of God. And when we consider that, we find ourselves compelled to ask, 'What does it mean to be a son of God?' and to look for our answer to the example of our Lord Jesus Christ Himself. All Christ's life was lived in a very constant sense of filial relation to God. The most constant expression on His lips were the words, 'My Father'. Despite all the disorder of sin, and the evil wills of men that seemed as though they raged around Him, in Him, the centre of it all, there is perfect peace, the perfect peace that comes of a consciousness of harmony and union with the will of God. He lived in perfect filial reverential obedience to the will of God the Father, so that He could continually speak of His great possession, 'My peace'. That is what is meant by filial relation for the Christian, the consciousness that God come what may, it matters not is one with us and we with Him, and then there may be that peace which can never be disturbed. II. That brings us to a very much Discussed Question, 'Have we a right to demand, may we expect, that we shall have what is called assurance?' It would be natural to admit that it is to be expected, for an unrealised relationship would be inoperative. For instance, it would seem of very little advantage to us if we were blind that there were many beauties of Nature all around us. To be operative for us, to be of benefit to us, there must be in us the power to perceive these things, and so it is reasonable to expect at the outset that, if this glorious relationship of which I have been speaking is really ours, we should have some consciousness of it which should fill us with joy. But, on the other hand, we should be careful that we should not demand the realisation of consciousness simply as a luxury of feeling. Gradually, possibly even at first, if we really grasp what it means to enter into the filial relationship to God which is here spoken of, the unity of the Spirit may bring to us a very signal joy and assurance of our sonship; but the adoption of the sonship of God may have its realisation in other ways. III. The Perception of Spiritual Things is a Growth with most of us. It does not come naturally to us to perceive spiritual things. The material seems far more real, but at the same time the spiritual will become more and more with us as we seek more to live in harmony with the will of God. One of the best things for educating the feeling is prayer not simply the prayer of asking for things, but rather the prayer of real communion with God. That will bring about a sense of sonship as nothing else can. But, whatever be your feeling about it, lay hold of this great truth, that, however we feel, this at any rate is true, 'As many as received Him, to them gave He power'. This is your right, your authority; and not the powers of hell, or earth, or darkness, can deny it to you if only you receive Him. Lay hold of the fact, and let nothing whatever disturb your grip of it. So increasingly the Spirit of God will reveal it to you, bearing witness that you are the sons of God. 'If children, then heirs.' But I cannot conclude without drawing your attention to the subtle suggestion conveyed there, 'if children'. It is not only by creation that we are sons of God, but rather by that adoption that comes to us through having received Him. That is the only way in which we can have the authority to be called sons of God, but then, 'If children, then heirs'. If I had the tongue of a Chrysostom I could not tell you all that that means. 'Eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have entered into the heart of man, the things which God hath prepared for them that love Him.' References. VIII. 15, 16. T. B. Strong, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 65. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxx. No. 1759. VIII. 15-17. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 274. The Witness of the Spirit Romans 8:16 There are few texts, perhaps, that are a greater perplexity to many earnest persons than this. I am constantly asked, What is the witness of the Spirit? I would set myself to answer this question as simply and honestly as I know how. I. To whom is this witness given? These words set before us the great truth that we need constantly to be reminded of, that true religion is the action of the Spirit of God upon our spirits. The only religion that can satisfy is the work of the Spirit of God in our spirits. Be sure of this, that creeds, however true, and forms of worship, however solemn or impressive or earnest, can never give you the religious life. We must be born of the Spirit. But note further that although this life is begotten of the Spirit of God, yet is He to be willingly received and submitted to. II. And now in turning to see what this witness of the Spirit is, let us be very simple. There is much significance here in the emphatic assurance with which St. Paul speaks. 'The Spirit itself beareth witness with our spirit, that we are the children of God: and if children, then heirs; heirs of God, and joint-heirs with Christ Jesus.' He bids us take it for granted and be quite sure that if we are the children of God this witness of the Spirit is ours. Since the realm of the religious life is in the Spirit, do not let us be always dragging it up into the region of the intellect, analysing and defining and perplexing ourselves about all sorts of mysteries. The witness of the Spirit is not to our spirits that we are the children of God. It is with our spirits that God is our Father. Not within is the gaze turned, but without not downward at self, but upwards at the Saviour. This is the great truth to which the Holy Spirit witnesses; not to our goodness, not to our superiority, but to the love and glory of Jesus Christ; to the greatness and fulness of His salvation; to the infinite loving kindness of our Father. III. In thinking of this witness of the Spirit let us remember that it is no less Divine because it moves on the ordinary and natural lines of spiritual influence. There are men and women who by their contact do help to create within us a new experience. Rest, peace, truth, love, hope are often imparted to us by contact with others. Their influence is at once distinct, yet indistinguishable. We cannot mark exactly the influence, how it came and how it wrought. Now it is in this quiet and natural way, for the most part, that the witness of the Spirit is given. M. G. Pearse, Naaman the Syrian and other Sermons, p. 122. Romans 8:16 Now we must with sorrow confess that this doctrine of the Spirit's dwelling in the heart of God's servants, is much discountenanced of late.... But what if the apes in India, finding a glow-worm, mistook it to be true fire, and heaping much combustible matter about it, hoped by their blowing of it, thence to kindle a flame; I say, what if that laughter-causing animal, that mirth-making animal, deceived itself, doth it thence follow that there is no true fire at all? And what if some fanatics by usurpation have entitled their brain-sick fancies to be so many illuminations of the Spirit, must we presently turn Sadducees in this point, and deny that there is any Spirit at all? God forbid! Thomas Fuller. References. VIII. 16. A. G. Mortimer, The Church's Lessons for the Christian Year, pt. iii. p. 32. H. D. Rawnsley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlviii. p. 155. J. Keble, Sermons for Ascension Day to Trinity Sunday, p. 259. E. Bayley, Sermons on the Work and Person of the Holy Spirit, p. 51. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 17. VIII. 16, 17. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 339. Romans 8:17 At this time also I saw more in these words, Heirs of God, than ever I shall be able to express while I live in this world. Heirs of God! God Himself is the portion of the Saints. This I saw and wondered at, but cannot tell you what I saw. Bunyan, Grace Abounding, p. 259. References. VIII. 17. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 463. R. Glover, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 54. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vii. No. 402, and vol. li. No. 2961. The Sufferings and the Glory Romans 8:18 If these words were spoken to me anonymously, I should say, Whose words are they? Sometimes the personality determines the value of the speech. Is this a rhetorician who in his opening sentence gives notice of the final thunder? Is he writing for a rhetoric book? Is this a poet, a maker of measured lines, who is setting his triumph, and his triumph over grief, to pentameters, and resorting to the poor trick of scanning? Who is this man, what right has he to speak? Is this one of the gang that set the Lord's agony to catgut, and mimic the grief of Gethsemane? Who is this man? Some men ought to vindicate their right to speak at all, and especially to speak on great tender subjects that plough the heart to its very depths. Read the text again; it is the sermon, it is the all, there is nothing outside of it. 'I reckon' I like that word. This man is going to speak considerately, he is going to calculate, he is going to put things together. Go on 'that the sufferings'. Then they are sufferings? Yes. You know they are sufferings; you are not treating them lightly, you are not passing over them as mere demisemiquavers, flashed from the fingers of an artist. No, they are sufferings, poor brother, O poor grieved soul. I know they are sufferings, I know that the blood is coming, I know that the nerves are quaking; yes, they are sufferings. I like this man; he reckons, and he reckons the right quantities and qualities of things. 'Of this present time.' What a fine contempt, what a remarkable reduction of the days and the centuries, and what we call the ages I He grasps them altogether, crushes them into a thimble, and throws the thimble away 'This present time,' this immediate throb, this poor punctuated piece of literature, that hardly is long enough to be literature, so little of it that it does not rise to the dignity of real and true speech, or grace. 'I reckon,' good, 'that the sufferings,' good, 'of this present time are not worthy to be compared.' There are some things you cannot compare. Do you know let me tell you this: there are some people who deliver long lectures on comparative religions. There are comparative religions, but the religion of the Cross is not one of them. I will not have my Lord's sufferings dragged into some place of weighing, where against the speculations of a thinker I have to put the sufferings of a God. I will not have it. 'With the glory which shall be revealed.' What is glory? Light. Yes. Morning. Yes, if in the summer-time. Splendour. Yes, yes. But that is a poor talking. Knowest thou that there is a light above the brightness of the sun. Paint that; come, you are great at painting; you do a little in water-colours paint the light that is above the brightness of the sun. You cannot. No man can imagine light. 'Oh,' you say, 'this will be a beautiful landscape in the summer-time; I can imagine the light upon this.' No you cannot; no man can imagine all the possibilities of light, all the possibilities of colour, all the possibilities of music. 'Not worthy to be compared.' They cannot be compared. I dare say if the man were gifted enough in analysis and in the science of numbers there might be some comparison between a dewdrop trembling on the petal of a rose, and a great wild Atlantic about which we have been praying; there might be just some proportion between the little white jewel of a dewdrop and that great, great imprisoned storm. But there is no comparison between anything thinkable and eternity. Pile together, if you will, ages and centuries and millenniums, and millions of millenniums, and when the last moment had ticked itself off you have not begun eternity. Eternity you cannot begin. Oh that transcendental 'cannot'. It gets away from the mere grammar and leads you into paths which the eagle's eye hath not seen. That is the text. Read it again, and often. It is a refrain. 'I reckon that the sufferings of this present time,' why, you have had none. I want to test that, I have marked the passages; let me see if that accusation is right. Now what right has this man to speak about sufferings? 'We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed' crisscrossed, all the roads come upon one another like so much confusion, and we cannot tell which is which 'but not in despair; persecuted, cast down, always bearing about in the body the brand of the Lord Jesus, the infinite scorching of His pain'. Ah, that throws light upon the text, 'I reckon'. The man who has been through all this reckons. He has right to reckon, he vindicates his position. 'I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared.' But who are you? what have you done;' (I speak as a fool), in labours more abundant than anybody, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequent, in deaths oft.... I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared.' Well, you have a right to reckon so. 'Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes, save one, thrice was I beaten with rods, once was I stoned, thrice suffered shipwreck, a night and a day I have been in the deep. 'Give it up, Paul! 'No, I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with what is coming the glory, the revealed glory.' Well, I dare not stop you; go on. 'In journeyings often, in perils of water, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren.' Oh, cease it! Thou dost make me ashamed in my very heart; my heart reddens, reddens with a deeper crimson when I think that I have hardly ever had a peril at all. Oh, ye great men, ye heroes of the faith, what say you? They all say the same thing. What is that? 'I reckon that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared.' 'In weariness, painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, fastings often, in cold and nakedness.' And why did he go on? 'The love of Christ constraineth us.' We see Christ, we see the cross, we see the glory, we see the resultant heavens. These are the men that I want to hear speak about religion; I do not want to hear the opinions of men who never had any religion. Who will you believe, the man who has been there, or the man who never walked one step in the direction of being there? Do not insult your best history, do not turn the sacred reminiscences of the Church into new blasphemies. You young hearts, I want you to take up your position, as God may enable you, with the heroes and the great men, and not with the people, of whom I have often spoken to you, whose faith is always sitting in a draught and catching cold. I want you to go out, to find your faith in the mission field, in heathenism, in the necessity and cruel pain of disappointed and weary lives. I love this testimony because it is the testimony of experience. I do not want a man to lecture to me about the Gospel; I do not want a new guide, I want the old Gospel, and the old Gospel spoken after it has passed through the blood of souls, and that passage we call experience. Oh, you young intellectuals you are no intellectuals at all if you do the thing I am going to speak about mock at what used to be called experience meetings. If an experience meeting is genuine, if it be built on apostolic lines, it is the grandest apology for Christianity that can be found. This man felt it, knew it, and he says, 'Come, all ye that fear God, and I will declare unto you what he hath done for my soul'. The personality is the power. So I come back to my first statement, 'I reckon'. I. This is deliberate, this is a calculation, this is not a climax with nothing in it, it is a climax that sums up a life. This grand Apostle seems to have a slate in his hand, and to be taking a pencil and putting down on the one side the suffering, and on the other one line the glory; the one in the plural, which is weakness, and the other in the singular, which is massiveness, which is strength, which is God. 'The glory.' This man is not speaking rhetorically, in transports of rapture, he is not a rhetorician, sacrificing everything to his three members. He is an accountant; yea, I would today call him a chartered accountant He has got the balance-sheet before him, and he has looked into all the vouchers, and he has signed the audit. He says, 'This is correct'. What is correct? That 'the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed'. II. This is a judicial statement He compares things, and then declares they are not worthy of comparison; he uses them, he does not abuse them. He sets against the great grace of God all the little aches and pains of this mortal sphere, and says they cannot touch that grace which is but concealed glory; that grace which is latent in summer, latent heaven. III. This is also, thirdly, a corroborated statement He did not say this once for all; he said the same thing before. He said, 'Our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory'. He will not let that word 'glory' go; there were times when he needed it all, every flash and sparkle of that morning he needed in some of the crises of his strenuous life. 'While we look not at the things which are seen.' What are the things that are seen? Miserable things, weighable things 'but at the things which are not seen,' with these poor eyes, 'for the things which are seen are of the nature of time, temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal'. He says the same thing over and over again; he lived upon it. Why, once he said, 'We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God'. You could not make that man poor, his riches were not to be handled by any possible thief. They were riches stored up in God. Joseph Parker. References. VIII. 18. R. J. Campbell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 369. H. Alford, Quebec Chapel Sermons, vol. iii. p. 374. W. M. Sinclair, Christ and our Times, p. 195. R. J. Campbell, A Faith for To-day, p. 137. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 382. VIII. 18-23. Ibid. vol. iv. p. 186. VIII. 18-30. Bishop Gore, The Epistle to the Romans, p. 298. The Sons of God Revealed Romans 8:19 Our text intimates, that at some future period in the history of the human race, there will be a public manifestation of the sons of God. I. When shall this Revelation take Place? The Bible teaches that, at the close of this dispensation of grace, there will be a gathering together of the whole human race, of all the ages, of all the nations, of all the countries on the face of the earth. Such a gathering has never taken place before, and will never take place again. They are to be divided into two classes, with an impassable gulf fixed between them for ever (Matthew 25:31 ; Matthew 25:34 ; Matthew 25:41 ). The great question which is of infinite and eternal concern to you and me is Where shall I be? II. What will be the Nature of the Manifestation? (1) It will then be revealed Who are the sons of God. (2) In that day there will be a revelation of what they are, as well as who they are. (3) The sons of God will be revealed in all their * completeness. * III. Why wait until the Resurrection for the Manifestation of the Sons of God? The covenant of redemption into which the Son of God entered with the Divine Father, included definitely three things: the salvation of every believing soul from all sin; the salvation of the body from the corruption of the grave; the reunion of the soul with its identical body when raised incorruptible and deathless. This is repeatedly affirmed, and pledged in covenant by Jesus Christ to every one that believeth (St. John 6:39-40 ; John 6:44 ). When every saint is perfected, when the Lord Jesus shall fashion anew the body of our humiliation, and conform it to the body of His glory, when He shall unite the imperishable body to the spirit to which it belonged, when His redeemed Church in all her completeness is gathered together, not one member wanting, He will exhibit her to a witnessing universe as the masterpiece of His handiwork, and as the noblest achievement of His infinite love. The great ultimate purpose of the Incarnation, of the Mediatorial system, was to form a spotless Church from among the children of men, to the praise and glory of God's grace. In the great day for the winding up of the economy of redemption, without this spotless Church the Redeemer would be incomplete. IV. Where will this Manifestation take Place? Many passages of Holy Scripture indicate that the solemn transactions of that great day will take place somewhere in space, over and above the earth, in the vicinity, and within sight of the world inhabited by man and redeemed by Christ. (1) The judgment is for man, for the human race. (2) The redemption of mankind has rendered necessary the day of judgment. (3) The Redeemer Himself will be the judge. Richard Roberts, My Jewels, p. 226. References. VIII. 19. C. Durward, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 197. E. Medley, ibid. vol. xlvii. p. 216. John Thomas, ibid. vol. 1. p. 4. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. pp. 179, 313. Romans 8:19-21 It was an ancient saying of the Persians, that the waters rush from the mountains and hurry forth into all the lands to find the Lord of the Earth; and the flame of the fire, when it awakes, gazes no more upon the ground, but mounts heavenward to seek the Lord of Heaven; and here and there the Earth has built great watch-towers of the mountains, and they lift their heads far into the sky, and gaze ever upward and around, to see if the Judge of the World comes not Thus in Nature herself, without man, there lies a waiting and hoping, a looking and yearning, after an unknown something. Yes; when above there, where the mountain lifts its head above all others, that it may be alone with the clouds and storms of heaven, the lonely eagle looks forth into the grey dawn, to see if the day comes not; when by the mountain torrent the brooding raven listens to hear if the chamois is returning from his nightly pasture in the valley; and when the soon uprising sun calls out the spicy odours of the thousand flowers the Alpine flowers, with heaven's deep blue, and the blush of sunset on their leaves then there awake in Nature, and the soul of man can see and comprehend them, an expectation and a longing for a future revelation of God's majesty. From Longfellow's Hyperion, vi. References. VIII. 19-21. Basil Wilberforce, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 104. Lyman Abbott, ibid. vol. xlvi. p. 6. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 264; ibid. (6th Series), p. 52. VIII. 19-22. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 80. Animal Sunday (On the Fourth Sunday after Trinity) Romans 8:20 As the months pass, bringing with them the various Sundays of the Christian year, it is difficult on this particular Sunday, the Fourth after Trinity, to refrain from speaking upon that theme of which the appointed Epistle is full, I mean the mystery of creation. I. Consider the Relation which Binds Man to his Environment. 'The creature,' says St. Paul, was made subject to vanity.' It is hardly necessary to say that the creature is creation, as indeed the Revised Version puts it this world in which man lives out his little life; and when St. Paul says the creation was made subject to vanity, he implies that to the reverend mind or heart there is in creation a certain element of failure, there is a streak of evil in the face of the good. It is just that sense of failure, of something which might have been, and yet is not, that creates for man his peculiar relation to the world in which he is situated. For indeed it might have happened that man would not be conscious of anything which binds him to the world at large. He might not have found outside in the world any reflection of the character which he discerns in himself, and yet the very expressions which we use of nature and of life are witnesses to the essential sympathy which is itself, we may reverently suppose, the evidence of the one Divine authorship. There is in life the brightness and the shadow, the calm and the storm, as there is in nature. The life of man, as the life of natural objects, passes from birth to maturity, to decay and death. The seasons of the natural world, spring, summer, autumn, winter, find their correspondence in the experiences of human life, but all these would not of themselves, as I think, create that peculiar sympathy of which the highest minds and the best are conscious in their relations to nature. There is in nature something which St Paul calls vanity, something of failure, something of falling below the ideal which seems set before it For the moment, the natural world, its beauty, its order, its beneficence, suggests the Divine that made it; and yet what storms and tempests, and what plagues and famines, what horrors and cataclysms, do from time to time mar the fair aspect of the natural world! It seems that the promise, so high, so great, is not fulfilled. I know not what account can be given of this contradiction other than St Paul's in the text, 'The creature was made subject to vanity'. II. What is Strange in Human Nature is not that it is so good or so bad, but that it is so good and so bad, capable of an elevation so sublime, and a degradation so abject Nature seems to speak, however silently, of something which has defeated her natural God-given object. The reason why the discords of creation touch us so powerfully is, that we feel them to be images of our moral condition. A great theologian of our own time has said that when he looks upon human nature in its height and in its depth he feels just as if he saw a boy of noble ancestry being brought up in surroundings which lowered him far below his natural level. Something has gone wrong with that boy. There is a flaw which has occurred in his life's story, and the flaw and that defect are the inherent sympathy between man and his environment. So St Paul uses the very same language about human nature and the natural world. 'The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain together until now. And not only they, but ourselves also, which have the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body.' Nay more, as St Paul sees the looking forward to the promise of redemption for man, so he sees also the promise of redemption for the natural world. 'The whole creation groaneth and travaileth in pain,' but it is waiting for the restitution of all things, for the redemption which shall unite it to the sons of God. III. Note now Man's Relation to those Creatures which Live so close to Him , and are so far Removed from Him the animals. Cardinal Newman has said in a well-known passage, 'The mystery of the animal creation is so profound that the animals themselves are hardly better known to man than the angels'. Is it not a fact, amazing, almost overwhelming, that the meanest, poorest, basest of mankind exercises wellnigh unlimited sovereignty over the noblest of those creatures, and yet that in all the ages the wisest of men have seemed to come hardly nearer to them in understanding of their nature than the veriest child. What do we know of their language, their means of communication, so much stronger than is ordinarily recognised; what of their conscience, for the germs of conscience beyond doubt lie within them; what of their future, whether they, like ourselves, shall be inheritors of the immortality which God reserves for His creatures? There is no doubt we owe them a vast responsibility. There is hardly any higher test of the dignity, the elevation of a people, than its attitude towards the animal creation. IV. The Creatures Living at our Doors are God's Creatures as we are ourselves. It is the safe and sacred rule of life, as far as may be, 'Never to blend our pleasure or our pride with sorrow of the meanest thing that feels'. We shall not be guilty of any of that want of thought which does more harm than deliberate evil purpose if we realise that all nature is the expression of the Divine Almighty Mind. There are mysteries, and there must be mysteries, because the human intellect is finite and God is infinite. Let us go our way in faith and hope and love, acting upon our duty so far as it is plain now, looking for the fresh revelations which shall spring in the coming years from the Word of God Himself. Romans 8:21 All liberty is not liberty; there are blessed chains which we must know how to wear lovingly, and which, when once they are broken, leave the soul in a fatal and desolating freedom. No, our mind is not made to think without control and without measure; our heart is not made to love without limits here on earth. We must wait for our full freedom till that happy time comes when our will shall be firmly fixed upon goodness, without the fear of wandering from it ever again. Until then, Lord, I give Thee back my liberty; I entrust it to Thy care. Do Thou Thyself appoint its limits. Give me chains. I desire them, I accept them, I love them since they come from Thy hand. I wish to be Thy captive. I wish to be the bondman of Jesus Christ ego vinctus in Domino . That means that I shall be chained to goodness, to peace, to the bitter joys of sacrifice here below, but to the immortal hope of better days to come. Lettres de l'Abbé Perreyve, p. 385. References. VIII. 21. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 202; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 493. The Pain of the World Romans 8:22 There can be little doubt that the pain of the world is one of the great standing difficulties in the way of a belief in a good God. It is useless to deny that there is a great mystery in pain and suffering, and a mystery which in this world we never shall fully understand. I. The first thing for us all to realise is that the thing which we quarrel with is not pain at all, but what pain produces. Pain is the great life-preserver of the world. But the real fact which, we sometimes think, makes it impossible for us to believe in the love of God, is not the pain, but what produces the pain the mortality of the body, old age, and gradual death. And so we must ask whether the presence of decay, old age, infirmity, and death does really demonstrate the carelessness or the callousness of God? And to answer that, we must ask one question more: Why was the world created at all? He created in order to produce more happiness, out of a pure and spontaneous desire to have more thousands and millions of happy people. If there were no decay and death, and no mortality, there would be a thousand times less happiness in the world than there is. We who have had to bury our fathers with lamentation still know that God's arrangement is for the best; that as the outward man decays, so the inward man is being renewed day by day, and that the happiest moment of the soul shall be when the new man receives the crown of perfection after the training of the rest of Paradise. II. And, if that is our answer to the theory that decay and death are an argument against the goodness of God, what shall we say to pain? Here also the answer is at hand. How were you warned and directed throughout the last illness? What was the best nurse you had all through that time? It was pain. And who gave it you? God gave it you. Pain was one of the guardian angels for your physical life, as we believe you have other guardian angels for your soul. III. See what a marvellous effect pain has upon the moral being. IV. Now let us consider what our religion can give us, not only in our own hours of pain, but in the hour of watching the pain of those whom we love. (1) It reveals to us the object which pain serves. (2) The knowledge of companionship in pain. V. But we should indeed misunderstand the Christian teaching about pain if we thought that because of these uses, because of this work of pain, we are to leave it unrelieved. One of the most blessed works of pain is to produce sympathy. Bishop Winnington-Ingram, Under the Dome, p. 128. Christian Knowledge Romans 8:22 St. Paul was no mean man. If ever a strong man lived, that man was St. Paul. And, more than that, he was a man who had sacrificed a great deal for what he had believed. Brought up at the feet of Gamaliel, Pharisee of the Pharisees, he lost all for the sake of Christ. Nor was he a mere enthusiast. For thirty years that man lived suffering all kinds of persecutions for his faith. And he was a man of no mean experience. He was converted by Christ Himself the only one after the thief. He was caught up into the seventh, heaven, and heard unspeakable things. And he could raise the dead. That is the man he was sure about his faith. I. He Knew Whom he had Believed. It is not enough that a man should know of his salvation, but you should know the grounds of your salvation. They do not rest upon us. You need not go searching within you to find the grounds upon which you believe your salvation. They are in Christ. We know of our salvation, and we know that our salvation rests simply and merely upon Christ. This is the grace of God given to us through faith in Jesus Christ the first thread which makes up the cord. St. Paul knew, not only of his salvation, but he knew upon what his salvation rested upon Christ. II. He Knew that all Things work together for Good to them that Love God. That amid all the provisions of life, however strange they may be, however unintelligible, through all the darkness and difficulty, and trouble, and pain, and through the tears, He sees all. There is a certainty for you! 'I know that all things work together for good to them that love God.' Go out into the world with that amid all the uncertainties of your life. You know not what a day may bring forth. What does it matter, if behind it all there is God and His love? III. He Knew that 'if our Earthly House of this Tabernacle were Dissolved, we have a Building of God, an House not made with Hands'. There is the third one, seeing right beyond into death. Do you know that if you die you have a habitation with God in the heavens, not made with hands? Did not the Lord Jesus say, 'I go to prepare a place for you'? And do you think that at the end of your life there awaits you annihilation, or that because, as they tell us nowadays, the brain ceases to act, the soul exists not the modern philosophy? Listen to St. Paul: 'We know that if our earthly house of this tabernacle were dissolved, we have a building of God, an house not made with hands'. There is a threefold cord to bind you by faith to God! IV. This Threefold Cord helps us in the three Great Troubles of Life. (a) Sin. We have got to face our sins. Here is the Saviour. 'I know Whom I believe.' And the Holy Ghost, Who shows us our sins, shows us at the same time our Saviour, so that, when the sense of sin would weigh us down, we should look to the Saviour, and being lost to ourselves be found again in Him happy in your Saviour. (b) Trouble. And then see how the second part of the cord is the remedy for all the troubles of life. It is all ordered for good to those who love God. (c) Death. And there is yet one more misery death. You have thought it possible, before long you may be dead and gone. You may be. There is always the shadow of the skeleton. We may be. Who knows? Ah, who knows? But what does it matter, if you know you have a habitation not made with hands, eternal in the heavens? If you know it, you can smile down into the grave. It has lost its terror. Romans 8:22 Mazzini, in his essay on Carlyle, uses this verse thus: 'Whatever we may do, the words, The whole creation groaneth, of the Apostle whom I love to quote, will be verified most forcibly in the choicest intellects, whensoever an entire order of things and ideas shall be exhausted; whensoever, in Mr. Carlyle's phrase, there shall exist no longer any social faith.' See Keble's lines on 'The Fourth Sunday after Trinity'. In this cottage opposite the violet bank they had smallpox once, the only case I recollect in the hamlet the old men used to say everybody had it when they were young; this was the only case in my time, and they recovered quickly without any loss, nor did the disease spread.... That terrible disease, however, seemed to quite spoil the violet bank opposite, and I never picked one there afterwards. There is something in disease so destructive, as it were, to flowers. Richard Jefferies. The whole creation groaneth and travaileth together. It is the common and the godlike law of life. The browsers, the biters, the barkers, the hairy coats of field and forest, the squirrel in the oak, the thousand-footed creeper in the dust, as they share with us the gift of life, share with us the love of an ideal; strive like us like us are tempted to grow weary of the struggle to do well; like us receive at times unmerited refreshment, visitings of support, return of courage; and are condemned like us to be crucified between that double law of the members and the will.... And as we dwell, we living things, in our isle of tenor under the imminent hand of death, God forbid it should be man the erected, the reasoner, the wise in his own eyes God forbid it should be man that wearies in well-doing, that despairs of unrewarded effort, or utters the language of complaint. Let it be enough for faith, that the whole creation groans in mortal frailty, strives with unconquerable constancy: surely not all in vain. R. L. Stevenson, * Pulvis et Umbra. * References. VIII. 22. R. J. Campbell, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 369; ibid. A Faith for To-day, p. 137. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 39. VIII. 22, 23. T. Arnold, Sermons, vol. i. p. 94. Spurgeon, Sermons , vol. xiv. No. 788. Romans 8:23 It is not merely what we have done not merely the posthumous fruit of our activity which entitles us to honourable recognition after death, but also our striving itself, and especially our unsuccessful striving the shipwrecked, fruitless, but great-souled tout to do. Heine. On this validity and value of aspiration, see also Browning's lines in Rabbi Ben Ezra, beginning, 'Not on the vulgar mass'. How happy is their condition who have God for their interpreter! who not only understands what they do, but what they would say. Daniel could tell the meaning of the dream which Nebuchadnezzar had forgotten. God knows the meaning of these groans which never as yet knew their own meaning, and understands the sense of these sighs which never understood themselves. Thomas Fuller. References. VIII. 23. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi. p. 179. Bishop Westcott, Village Sermons, p. 260. J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 185. Expositor (4th Series), vol. v. p. 361; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 278; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi p. 88. Hope Romans 8:24 This entry is longer than a Bible module can hold. The rest is at https://www.sermonindex.net/commentary/expositors-dictionary/ I Caught Myself Wishing Romans 9:3 'I caught myself wishing praying that I were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh.' Nothing brings us nearer the heart of St. Paul than that. His wish, it has been finely said, was a spark from the fire of Christ's substitutionary love. Moses was willing to perish with his people. 'If not I pray Thee blot me out of Thy book.' The Apostle caught himself wishing that he might die for them, if need were, the eternal death. I. 'I caught myself wishing.' How wonderful is this arrest of the soul by the self. Most commonly the current runs on, and the regal power abdicates for the time; but now and then the master speaks to the servant. 'Why art thou cast down, oh, my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?' 'I caught myself wishing' I discovered my ruling passion. How would it be with us if we had a sudden hand laid on us in the same way? If we compel ourselves to pause and look and see whether our life's stream is running, what would be the revelation? Would not the clasp be the clasp of justice to discover and reprove our guilt? Perhaps those who fancy that they were working from the highest motive would find they were dominated by the lowest. They would catch themselves wishing to be honoured, to be talked of, to be rich, to be popular. When we sharply pull up our thought, inhibiting it for the moment, what is it? Is it so that we should discover that the real longing and expectation of the soul are turned towards things poor and earthly, that we are possessed with a craving hunger seeking to satisfy itself with husks? But the Apostle caught himself wishing to be accursed from Christ for his brethren, his kinsmen according to the flesh. II. This was not the calm deliberation of his 'I reckon,' and it must not be judged as if it were. Suppose we knew but a part of the wish, and if it ran 'I caught myself wishing that I were accursed from Christ,' none of us could believe that St. Paul ever said it, for his words mean all they can mean. They mean a devotion to perdition, a parting final and fateful from the Lord Jesus Christ. Such separation could never be. Christ would take care of that, as the Apostle well knew when he came to himself from this strange and noble madness. But he meant that he was willing to make the supreme sacrifice for his brethren. It was, of course, an impossible prayer, but he came nearer Christ than ever in the very hour when he dreamed that he was ready for estrangement; his heart was aching up to the Master all the time, and the Master knew it. III. On what did this love, this vehement love for souls, rest itself? It rested on his love for Christ, and his knowledge of what Christ could do in and for the souls that were dying for want of Him. It is this passion of St. Paul that we need to revive in our churches today. There is very much that has weakened it. A failing sense of sin and peril and retribution, a dim understanding of what Christ was and is, make themselves but too evident in the Church of today. Indeed, for pictures of the retribution of sin it would be more profitable to turn to the trumpery novel of the moment than to many a sermon. It is from the world that some of the deepest words on sin and retribution come to us. But St. Paul had the mind of Christ. His passion for souls meant that he knew the desolating thirst of mankind and the Fountain of living waters that would quench its thirst. The gulf was deep between man and God, but trust in Christ would bring union with Christ, and pardon to the sinner, and life to the dead. So when St. Paul saw his brethren turning away from Christ, it was with a bewildered agony of mind, with a sense of desolation so profound, that it would have prostrated the failing spirit had it not been cast at the feet of the Lord Most High, the God Most Mighty, the Holy and Most Merciful Saviour. W. Robertson Nicoll, Sunday Evening, p. 67. Romans 9:3 What did Paul mean? Accursed from Christ? What could he mean save that he was willing to be damned to save those whom he loved. Why not? Why should not a man be willing to be damned for others? The damnation of a single soul is shut up in itself, and may be the means of saving not only others but their children and a whole race. Damnation 1... 'And yet, if it is to save if it is to save Robert,' thought Michael, 'God give me strength I could endure it. Did not the Son Himself venture to risk the wrath of the Father that He might redeem man? What am I? What is my poor self? 'And Michael determined that night that neither his life in this world nor in the next, if he could rescue his child, should be of any account.... He questioned himself and his oracle further. What could Paul mean exactly? God could not curse him if he did no wrong. He could only mean that he was willing to sin and be punished provided Israel might live. It was lawful then to tell a lie or to perpetrate any evil deed in order to protect his child. From Mark Rutherford's story of Michael Trevanion, in * Miriam's Schooling and other Papers. * You may do, for reward, something that on the outside looks like doing good, but it is not doing good, because the will is selfish your heart is set on your own pleasure and comfort, and not on a substantial good for its own sake. A man who really thought of nothing but getting safe to heaven would be as bad as a man in a shipwreck who thought of nothing but getting himself safe into a boat. There are a few such people, I daresay. But, of course, most people are better than they make out. When they speak of reward and punishment, they do not mean merely pleasures and pains; they mean, in part at least, the goodness which causes the pleasure, and the badness which causes the pain. We can see that true Christians have never thought the reward the chief thing. St. Paul was ready to give up his own reward, to be accursed from Christ, if that would save the soul he loved. And to go from great things to small, there is a fine scene in a novel which I once read. A young man is afraid to go to the rescue of some people in a flood, because he has a conviction that if he is drowned there, he will go to hell. And the old man, an old Scotchman, to whom he tells this, shouts out to him in reply, 'Better be damned doing the will of God than saved doing nothing'. This is the instinct of true religion revolting against the false doctrine of rewards; and I believe that this revolt has the sympathy of all true Christians. Prof. B. Bosanquet's Essays and Addresses, p. 111. At the close of the eighth chapter of his Life of General Gordon, Sir William Butler sums up his nero's feelings during the last siege of Khartoum. 'That this heroic soul had now come to look upon his life as a sacrifice to be given in atonement for the sins of his fellow-countrymen in Egypt is beyond dispute. "I feel that all these wrongs can only be washed out in blood," he wrote from Jerusalem in the end of 1883. A few months later, writing on 4th March from Khartoum, he uses these words than which there are none more memorable in all his life: "May our Lord not visit us as a nation for our sins, but may His wrath fall on me, hid in Christ. This is my frequent prayer, and may He spare these people, and bring them to peace."' In Cromwell's first speech to the Little Parliament of 1653 he uses the same passage in order to inculcate a gracious, unselfish bearing towards the various classes of people in the nation. 'I confess I have sometimes said, foolishly it may be: I had rather miscarry to a believer than an unbeliever. This may seem a paradox: but let's take heed of doing that which is evil to either! Oh, if God fill your hearts with such a spirit as Moses had, and as Paul had, which was not a spirit for believers only, but for the whole people! Moses, he could die for them; wish himself blotted out of God's Book: Paul could wish himself accursed for his countrymen after the flesh So full of affection were their spirits unto all.' References. IX. 3. A. M. Fairbairn, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 273. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p. 289. IX. 4. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 37. IX. 6-9. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 418. IX. 11, 12. J. Wright, The Guarded Gate, p. 55. Romans 9:13 'That meeting between the brothers,' says Dinah Morris in Adam, Bede, 'where Esau is so loving and generous, and Jacob so timid and distrustful, notwithstanding his sense of the Divine favour, has always touched me greatly. Truly, I have been tempted sometimes to say that Jacob was of a mean spirit. But that is our trial we must learn to see the good in the midst of much that is unlovely.' References. IX. 13. M. Biggs, Practical Sermons on Old Testament Subjects, p. 63. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. v. No. 239. W. Robertson Nicoll, Ten Minute Sermons, p. 289. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 158. Romans 9:15 James Guthrie, minister of Stirling, who was hung at the Cross of Edinburgh in 1661, had this epistle read to him before his death by his man-servant, and when the reader came to this verse, he cried out in tears: 'James, James, halt there, for I have nothing but that to lippen to!' Romans 9:16 See this verse discussed in Bunyan's Grace Abounding, secs. 58-60. References. IX. 16. G. Jackson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvi. p. 113. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. viii. No. 442. IX. 17. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 120. IX. 19. Ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 551. IX. 21. Ibid. vol. ii. p. 39. IX. 22. Ibid. vol. i. p. 23. IX. 23, 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. vi. No. 327. IX. 25. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxix. No. 2295. IX. 25, 26. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 87. IX. 28. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 121. IX. 30-33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxiii. No. 1961. IX. 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 571. X. 1. H. Arnold Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 331. X. 1-3. E. A. Stuart, His Dear Son and other Sermons, p. 121. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1899. X. 3. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvii. No. 2214. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iv. p. 186. X. 4. Bishop Creighton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 401. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1325. Expositor (5th Series), vol. v. p. 30; ibid. (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 92; ibid. vol. vii. p. 241; ibid. vol. viii. p. 135. X. 5-9. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxix. No. 1700. The Present Blessing Romans 10:5-11 Whatever difficulty the commentator may find in this adoption by the Apostle of the words of the lawgiver, the evangelical import of the passage is both clear and rich. The redemption in Christ is set forth with marvellous plainness and power. Note the three leading characteristics of His great salvation. I. It is marked by clearness. The ninth verse gives the true Apostles' creed, 'Because if thou shalt confess with thy mouth Jesus as Lord, and shalt believe in thy heart that God raised Him from the dead, thou shalt be saved'. It is a definite creed. All have heard of the lament of the dying German metaphysician: 'Only one man in Germany understands my philosophy, and he does not understand it'. But the message of Christ does not call upon us to grasp abstruse and incomprehensible speculations; only to accept simple, definite, historical facts. It is a short creed. It is a simple creed. 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness.' Here is the grand point too often overlooked. We approach religion as though it were a science to be dealt with intellectually, as other sciences are, whereas it is in a special sense the sphere of the heart. As we know God chiefly through our heart, so with the heart we must understand and appropriate the salvation which He has wrought out for us in Christ. II. It is marked by nearness. 'It is in thy mouth.' All the great words summed up in the one word 'salvation' are in our mouth, and have been in our mouth since our earliest days. 'And in thy heart' We need not gaze into heaven or peer into the abyss; God is already within us, seeking to effect the purpose of His will. The energy necessary to save and perfect lies even now latent, dormant within. The difficulty is not to find Christ, it is to avoid Him; the difficulty is not to get Him into our life, but to keep Him out. III. It is marked by freeness. Genius is for the few, whilst in the redemption of the soul the same Lord over all is rich unto all who call upon Him. In mythology we read of one of the gods fettering a terrible wolf with a thread of silk: with the softer, more ethereal thread of faith working by love Christ tames the wildness of our nature, and winsomely leads us along the lilied pathways of purity and peace. We do not offer a salvation far off, but here. We do not offer a salvation far off, but now. The poet speaks of running back to fetch the age of gold, but we need not traverse nineteen centuries to find Christ; He has annihilated time, and stands at our side mighty to save. W. L. Watkinson, The Bane and the Antidote, p. 187. References. X. 6. J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 108. X. 6-9. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. vi. p. 63. X. 7. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. pp. 245, 369; ibid. (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 222. Romans 10:9 See Augustine's Confessions, book viii. ii., and Clough's fine poem, * A Protest. * Belief and Confession Romans 10:9-10 With the mouth, Confession; with the heart, Belief. There are, says St. Paul, in the act of faith two moments, that of believing, that of confessing: they are two and not one. There is centre and there is circumference, there is fact and the name which echoes the fact, thought and the action which it genders, vision and the art which externalises it, a Belief in the heart and Confession with the mouth, communion held with God and this communion made known to oneself and to the brethren; lastly, there is the life of the soul, which is our faith, and there is the language whereby we live it, which is our creed. I. Creed enables the personal life, in religion but also in all else. The difficulties arise not over the private creed, but the public: it is here that a man's faith is gauged by his fellows, and is approved or reprobated. So let us ask what is the Creed, when recited in public and in common. Is it then still a language, still an instrument enabling life, but the life of a community. We will consider what it is that happens when the worshippers turn eastward and utter together, 'I believe in God the Father'. What are they doing? Loading the air with vibrations of sound? Charging the minds of listeners with vibrations of thought? Much more than that We are doing an act of will, and an act not of the private will but the public, the will of the Church of Christ It is our Father Whom I in the midst of the congregation declare, not my Father, as in my chamber. The thing which I will is that my fellow-believers throughout the Church Universal, and I myself with them, should be one in common sonship to the Father of all. 'I believe in Jesus Christ,' Who redeemed us. Again I declare and I will and purpose the redemption of the world by Jesus Christ, the Son, Who for us men and for our salvation became man. The Redeemer, whose day I rejoice to see, is the Redeemer of all living, yea, of the groaning and travailing creation. The Passion, which by declaring my belief in Him I consent to share, is a Passion not only of Christ in me, but of Christ in the Church; a Passion which puts to the cross, and racks and breaks and buries into life the whole organism of the Body of Christ The thing I will is that my fellow-members of His body, and with them I, should be made conformable to the death of Jesus, which is a death unto life. And when last I declare that 'I believe in the Holy Ghost,' Who sanctifies, I do not declare and purpose the enlightenment of my sole mind, as might some self-sent prophet, but of the collective mind of all who are in Christ; nor the kindling of my own heart's fire, but of the fire on the deep and wide heart of humanity summed in Christ, with my own spark kindled from it; nor a nerving only of my single will, but a massed will of the holy commonwealth. The unction of the Spirit is an anointing not of a believer's single head, but a dew that lights on all the breadth and length of the heavenly kingdom, like as the dew of Hermon which fell upon the hill of Zion. II. There is no question of re-writing, of modernising the creeds, as some would propose, offering us samples of how to do it, which do not attract. This must not be done, unless the life of the symbolism were at stake. It must not be done, because the life of the Church must be continuous, and this continuity requires fixity in the formula of the life: a watchword or signal cannot be changed, only because a new one might be convenient for a modern and for the moment. And it must not be done because an ancient speech is also consecrate, and has power, has a pure and holy and wholesome magic on the will of the commonwealth, and to change it would be to unnerve the sanctions of the creed. But, last, it does not need to be done, because there are some truths which can be told in words which do not need re-writing, which do not grow old, but have eternity, or what is, for any mortal man's interest, eternal. J. Huntley Skrine, Sermons to Pastors and Masters, p. 35. References. X. 9. F. Pigon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 356. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1898. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. p. 45; ibid. vol. viii. p. 345. X. 9, 10. W. P. Du Bose, The Gospel According to St. Paul, p. 45. C. Perren, Revival Sermons in Outline, p. 264. Romans 10:10 To a world distracted by hostile creeds and colliding philosophies, it [Christianity] taught its doctrines, not as a human speculation but as a Divine revelation, authenticated much less by reason than by faith. 'With the heart man believeth unto righteousness;' 'He that doeth the will of My Father will know the doctrine, whether it be of God'; 'Unless you believe you cannot understand'; 'A heart naturally Christian'; 'The heart makes the theologian,' are the phrases which best express the first action of Christianity upon the world. Like all great religions, it was more concerned with modes of feeling than with modes of thought. Lecky, History of European Morals, iii. References. X. 10. S. A. Eliot, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 23. H. Allen, Penny Pulpit, No. 1647, p. 217. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. ix. Nos. 519 and 520, and vol. lii. No. 3011. X. 11. Ibid. vol. xxxvi. No. 2145. X. 12. Lyman Abbott, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 123. X. 13. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iii. No. 140. X. 14, 15. Ibid. vol. xxxix. No. 2327. X. 14-17. C. S. Home, Relationships of Life, p. 139. Romans 10:15 The time had now arrived when it was necessary for Addison to choose a calling. Everything seemed to point his course towards the clerical profession. His habits were regular, his opinions orthodox. His college had large ecclesiastical preferment in its gift and boasts that it has given at least one bishop to almost every see in England. Dr. Lancelot Addison held an honourable position in the Church, and had set his heart on seeing his son a clergyman. Macaulay. Compare Earle's description in his Microcosmography of the career of a younger brother. 'If his annuity stretch so far, he is sent to the university, and with great heartburning takes upon him the ministry, as a profession he is condemned to by his ill fortune.' References. X. 15. H. R. Heywood, Sermons and Addresses, p. 138. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 1. J. Baines, Sermons, p. 86. Romans 10:16 The Roman senators conspired against Julius Cæsar, to kill him. That very next morning, Artemidorus, Caesar's friend, delivered him a paper, desiring him to peruse it, wherein the whole plot was discovered; but Caesar complimented his life away, being so taken up to return the salutations of such people as met him in the way, that he pocketed the paper, among other petitions, as unconcerned therein; and so, going to the senate-house, was slain. The world, flesh, and devil have a design for the destruction of men; we ministers bring our people a letter, God's Word, wherein all the conspiracy is revealed. 'But who hath believed our report? 'Most men are so busy about worldly delights, they are not at leisure to listen to us or read the letter; but there, alas I run headlong to their own ruin and destruction. Fuller. References. X. 16. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlviii. No. 2804. X. 17. W. E. Barton, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 83. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches, p. 228. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xviii. No. 1031. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 6. X. 20, 21. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. iv. No. 207. X. 21. J. Keble, Sermons for the Holy Week, p. 126. X. 25. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iv. p. 439. XI. 1. Ibid. vol. xi. p. 40. XI. 2. H. Jones, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 138. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 422. The Doctrine of Election Romans 11:5 The argument of the three chapters of the Epistle to the Romans, the reading of which we conclude this morning, is one of the most difficult of the Bible. It suggests problems concerning the moral government of God which perplex, if they do not appal, the mind which entertains them. I. Now it was one of those deep problems that confronted the mind of St Paul when he had surrendered to the victorious Christ and had been received into the fellowship of His disciples in the Straight Street at Damascus. Never for a moment did he waver in his allegiance to the exalted Nazarene or doubt the reality of the vision, to which from the first he had not been disobedient. But the blinding of his natural sight in the early hours of his new and startling experience was typical of that readjustment of focus which the strange and marvellous fact, thrust thus unexpectedly into his spiritual consciousness, demanded of the exclusive Pharisee when he found himself called to be a universal missionary to the nations. He had now to meet the prejudice which hitherto he had shared. If Jesus, with his subversive claim, were indeed the Messiah, as by his conviction no less than by his allegiance he was now bound to declare Him, why this obstinate rejection on the part of Israel itself? This is a problem which must present itself under various aspects in every age to the followers of the Crucified, when they are brought face to face, as we are in Manchester today, with the stubborn, persistent fact of the Hebrew race, which, thrusting itself into our commerce, our government, our social life, yet maintains the identity of its exclusive customs, its worship of the God of Abraham, its obstinate refusal of the cross of Christ. No one can ignore the Hebrew people. No one can deny to them a zeal of God which puts many Christians to shame, a genius for religion which makes it the crowning characteristic of the race. No attitude towards them is more unworthy of the philosopher or the historian than that antipathy which is the sad inheritance of centuries nominally Christian, and with which the Gentile has abundantly repaid the proud superiority of the Jew. II. If we are to understand the argument by which St. Paul vindicates the righteousness of God in His dealings with the chosen people, we must first of all be in sympathy with his spiritual apprehension of the power and love of Christ. Those whose faith is an inherited tradition rather than a living experience may well rise from the problems of the world's religious beliefs in the spirit of intellectual scepticism. God's purpose of love must first of all meet you, my brother, in the practical issues of your personal life before you can discuss its methods and its mystery in relation to the universal history of mankind. By the very limitations of your human destiny which involve you in the responsibilities for which God calls you to account, the sins for which Christ atones, the guilt from which the cross redeems, you are precluded from occupying the position of the impartial critic of the relations between God and His world. St. Paul only began to write the ninth chapter of the Romans when he had finished the wonderful eighth. 'The law of the spirit of life in Christ Jesus hath made me free from the law of sin and death.' Only when he had received the assurance for himself that to them that are in Christ Jesus there is no condemnation did the message of the redemptive love for the world shed the light of its benediction over the tangled story of the painful earth. So the rejection of God's ancient people is itself luminously explained by the Apostle, as evidence not of the caprice, still less of the impotence, of a faithless Creator, but of those unfailing methods which in every age have marked the progress of God's universal purpose of redemption. (a) And first there is the Divine method of selection. God works 'according to election'. God is choosing every day, every hour, every moment Two men are in one bed; two women grinding at the mill; one is taken, the other left. And it is this selective method of Divine working which St. Paul sees in the ancient history of Israel. God never gives away the mode in which He will be true to His own promises. He is able of the very stones to raise up children to Abraham. That is what he means when he compares the story of Jacob and Esau. Children of one birth surely they, at least, might claim an equal share in the blessing of Abraham. But, even when St. Paul wrote, the facts of history were irrefragable. And today the Bedouin scours the barren sand, the hand of the Israelite is on the forces which move the world. We are always telling our Lord God how He must fulfil His Word, and He is always disappointing our faithless and unfounded claim. (b) The second principle of Divine action upon which St. Paul insists is the old prophetic teaching of the remnant This again is universal in its application. The infallibility of majorities is no more a fact of the eternal order than the Divine right of kings. If Cæsar is not Divine, neither is the voice of the people the voice of God. A critical investigation of the contents of Christianity, an impartial view of the origins of the Church, reveal its character, not as a protest against the Hebrew polity, but as a true and legitimate expansion of the commonwealth of Israel. And what would Christianity have been without that spiritual genius which passed with the faithful remnant across the breach which Christ had made in the middle wall of partition which separated the Gentile from the household of God? A shallow estimate of missionary effort as a narrow commercial enterprise is content to measure values in the kingdom of God by repeating the unworthy statement that it costs £2000 to convert a Jew. Two thousand pounds! Why, it cost a miracle to convert St. Paul, but the work was cheap at the price. Millions have had reason to give thanks for the 'remnant according to the election of grace'. That remnant is the promise of the future which St. Paul himself greeted from afar. 'If the casting away of them be the reconciling of the world, what shall the receiving of them be but life from the dead!' (c) And lastly, the act by which God redeems is an act of grace. The power of the cross, its immense claim on the adoring gratitude of the children of men, is the wonder of the free favour of a loving Father which is there displayed. 'Not by works done in righteousness which we did ourselves but according to His mercy He saved us.' J. G. Simpson, The Guardian, 19th August, 1910. References. XI. 7. Expositor (7th Series), vol. v. p. 67. XI. 11. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 424. XI. 12. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 258. XI. 13. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. i. p. 79; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 236. XI. 15. G. C. Lorimer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. pp. 205, 220. XI. 16-21. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 359. XI. 17-24. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p, 16. XI. 22. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 174. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 130; ibid. vol. x. p. 177. XI. 25. Ibid. vol. vii. p. 268. XI. 25, 26. D. Heagle, That Blessed Hope, p. 90. XI. 26. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 141. XI. 29. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 426. XI. 32. J. Carter, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xvii. p. 367. Bishop Browne, Sermons on the Atonement, p. 1. The Depth of God's Wealth Romans 11:33 It is a familiar thought of the Old Testament that it is not possible to give anything to God, because everything is already His. While the contemplation of human wealth is apt to provoke envy, covetousness, and the evils into which the love of money leads, it is possible that the contemplation of the Divine wealth may enlarge our minds and liberate us from all the cramping and paralysing effects of greed. Nothing has a more salutary and sobering effect than to bring forcibly before the mind this universal ownership of God; to pass through the possessions of the world and to mark on each thing in succession the owner's name. Though the world and its contents is but a grain of His wealth, it is certain that everything here, without exception, belongs to Him. I. Now as this depth of God begins to be revealed to us, does it not invest with a certain absurdity our strident proprietary claims? The greater part of men seem to be entirely occupied in obtaining what can by no possibility belong to them; clutching at goods which prove to be inalienably another's; and involving themselves in the terrible responsibility of using what is not theirs. What's Mine's Mine, is the title of a noble book of George Macdonald's. The gist of the book is to show that the apparent truism is indeed a fallacy. The truth is exactly the opposite; what's mine is not mine, it is God's. II. Let us state this truth now emerging into sight a little more carefully. For any man to own anything without reference to God, the real Owner, involves a spiritual offence, which may easily develop into a spiritual disease; and the disease may soon be mortal. The effect of the love of money is seen in degradation, bondage, misery, crime, spiritual death. III. But there is also a mystery of love in this depth of the Divine wealth. Christ always laid stress on the thought that we should not be of anxious mind about material things. The heavenly Father will clothe and feed His children. What a lamentable illusion is that which custom, the unbelief of the world, and personal sin, have thrown around our eyes! A great part even of Christian people are constantly worried about ways and means, and have no faith in the depth of the wealth of God. How utterly misplaced is your anxiety, how essentially Godless is your worry! Look into the depth of the wealth of God, and have faith in Him. R. F. Horton, The Trinity, p. 57. Romans 11:33 When all is said and done the rapt saint is found the only logician. Not exhortation, not argument, becomes our life, but paeans of joy and praise. Emerson. 'I found it,' says Adam Bede in George Eliot's romance, 'better for my soul to be humble before the mysteries of God's dealings, and not be making a clatter about what I could never understand.' One truth discovered, one pang of regret at not being able to express it, is better than all the fluency and flippancy in the world. Hazlitt. Nowhere so much as in the writings of St. Paul, and in that great Apostle's greatest work, the Epistle to the Romans, has Puritanism found what seemed to furnish it with the one thing needful, and to give it canons of truths absolute and final. Now, all writings, as has been already said, even the most precious writings and the most fruitful, must inevitably, from the very nature of things, be but contributions to human thought and human development, which extend wider than they do. Indeed St. Paul, in the very Epistle of which we are speaking, shows, when he asks, Who hath known the mind of the Lord? who hath known, that is, the love and Divine order of things in its entirety that he himself acknowledges this fully. M. Arnold, * Culture and Anarchy. Romans 11:33 * We see His working and we sorrow: the end of His counsel and working both hidden, and underneath the ground, and therefore we cannot believe. Even amongst men, we see hewn stones, timber, and a hundred scattered parcels and pieces of our house, all under-tools, hammers, and axes, and saws; yet the house, the beauty and the use of so many lodgings and ease-rooms, we neither see nor understand for the present; these are but in the mind and heart of the builder as yet We see red earth, unbroken clods, furrows, and stones; but we see not the summer, lilies, roses, the beauty of a garden. Samuel Rutherford. Romans 11:33 When Richard Baxter was dying, someone reminded him of the good which his works had produced. He replied, 'I was but a pen in God's hands, and what praise is due to a pen? 'When extremity of pain constrained him to pray for release, he would check himself with the words, 'It is not fit for me to prescribe when Thou wilt, what Thou wilt, and how Thou wilt!' 'Oh, how unsearchable are His ways, and His paths past finding out! the reaches of His Providence we cannot fathom! Do not think the worse of religion for what you see me suffer.' When asked how he did, he replied * Almost well. * Dr. Stoughton, History of Religion in England, vol. v. p. 135. References. XI. 33. J. Budgen, Parochial Sermons, vol. ii. p. 142. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 320. Romans 11:36 The motto of Whittier's poem * The Overheart. * References. XI. 36. Archbishop Maclagan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 72. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. x. No. 672. The Living Sacrifice Romans 12:1 I. The Sacrifice God Requires. 'That ye present your bodies.' Our bodies, that is, the life of our bodies; for if we give our bodies as an offering, we give all that belongs to the body. The sacrifice God requires is that of the life. He demands a life devoted to Him. (a) The life may be given to business, but this must be given to Him, and so the employment of our hands and minds made holy. (b) The life may be given to science, but it must not be a Christless science. (c) The life may be given to theology, but it must not be a theology with God left out He will have the life or nothing. All the powers of mind, memory, will, which work through the bodily organisation; all the power of muscle, nerve, and brain. As Chrysostom strikingly says: 'Let not the eye see evil, and it is become a sacrifice; let not the tongue speak what is shameful, and it is become profitable; let not the hand do a lawless deed, it is become a whole burnt-offering'. II. The Sacrifice God Accepts. It must be (a) A living sacrifice. By some an antithesis is here found to the offering of the slain bodies of animals. But animals were brought and laid on the altar alive and then slain. The real meaning is, that the whole body, with the vivifying soul in it, is to be constantly made a sacrifice to God and His service. Our bodies may be brought as dead offerings. The eyes may be cast down in an assumed humility, 'the pride that apes humility'; the hands may be folded in prayer, but the heart far from God; the lips may move and the heart be silent. Thus all our works may be dead works. The sacrifice we are to present must be instinct with the soul of true piety and love of God. (b) A holy sacrifice. That which we bring to God we separate from all common and profane uses. In bringing our bodies as a sacrifice we engage ourselves to God's service, to obedience to His will and the furtherance of His honour. Heathens have offered their bodies to God in the most varied ways. The Fakirs in India think to do God an extraordinary service by depriving their bodies of proper care and nourishment, or covering themselves with mud, or crippling their limbs in an unnatural way. The Lord our God demands our body, but He is holy, and such our sacrifice must be. It must be unstained by wilful guilt This living, holy sacrifice is acceptable to God. Even heathen writers have had glimpses of the truth that the only sacrifice that can be well pleasing to God is the sacrifice of the heart, of the whole man, and that animal sacrifices were only acceptable as expressive of this higher spiritual offering. (c) A spiritual sacrifice. The words, 'which is your reasonable service,' have been often taken to mean that whilst the offering of animals was with natural unwillingness on the part of the beasts that were forcibly brought, the Christian's offering is that of a voluntary, reasoning agent It has also been supposed that we are to understand that there is only sense and reason in the offering of our bodies, our own selves to God, and the offering of other things instead of our own persons is wanting in all reason. But the true idea seems to be that of Chrysostom. The expression has reference to the ceremonial character of the Jewish and heathen cultus . From the Christian is demanded an inner spiritual service in the place of the external character, the merely mechanical nature of the Jewish and heathen sacrifices. This is the sacrifice God requires, the sacrifice He accepts, and that to which the Apostle earnestly exhorts. Some of the Fundamental Things Romans 12:1 Here St Paul tells us in brief what he regarded as essential features of our holy faith; not all of them, but at least three grand cardinal simplicities, which are a thousand times more important than the things commonly wrangled about. The three things are these: the winsome voice of our religion, the great motive to which it appeals, and the reasonable service which it demands. I. The winsomeness of its language. 'I beseech you' St. Paul struck the keynote there. It was his favourite word he loved to play on the gentler notes in presenting Christ to men. His preaching was predominantly persuasive, pleading, and tender predominantly. It did not leave out the severities. There was the voice of God's wrath in it sometimes, there were visions of the terrors of the Lord and of a judgment throne; but he was always most at home when he assumed the gentleness of a mother. 'I beseech you.' There is the sweet ring of that appeal in all his Epistles: 'I beseech you by the gentleness of Christ'; 'I beseech you by the compassions of Christ'; 'We beseech you, as in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to God'; 'I might be bold to enjoin thee, but for love's sake, I rather beseech thee'. We are told that in preaching he lifted up his hand. We can almost see that raised hand. It is never a clenched fist; it is never shaken in the face of a congregation; it is stretched out as if it would lay hold of people and sweetly constrain them. It quivers with emotion, and there is the sound of tears in his voice 'I ceased not,' he says, 'day and night, for the space of three years, to warn every one of you with tears.' II. We have in the word 'mercies 'the great actuating force and persuasive of Christianity. 'The mercies of God.' Our religion invites and provokes us to obedience and service, to pure and right living, in the name of all that has been done for us, and all that has been forgiven. We are to do the will of God, not for the sake of future reward, or for the escaping of future penalty, but because of the kindness, forbearance, immeasurable pity, and sacrificial love which have been bestowed upon us. 'I beseech you therefore,' says St. Paul. It is the conclusion of an argument; it is the consequence of certain thrilling antecedents. He has been narrating in the previous chapters that heart-moving story of Divine pity and condescension which is summed up in the words Incarnation and Redemption. He has caused to pass before us the whole drama, beginning with human guilt and helplessness, and leading up through the scenes of Calvary, to the victory over sin and death, to the manifestation of the sons of God and the assurance of life eternal. He has emphasised the cost in Divine love and suffering of our new liberty and strength, our joy and boundless hope And then upon the human heart-strings which he has set quivering with emotion and gratitude he plays this touching and subduing note: 'I beseech you, therefore, by the mercies of God'. And that is always the most powerful and constraining appeal of our religion. A Christian life is, above all things, the response of impassioned gratitude and obligation to God's sacrificial giving and forgiving. Whatever other fundamentals there are, the greatest of them is here: 'I beseech you, by the mercies of God'. III. And out of this come the nature and quality of the service which our religion demands of us. We are to give a 'reasonable 'service, a service which is the logical outcome of so much mercy and so much kindness. We are to offer a willing and a living sacrifice There is a sharp contrast suggested between the old Mosaic sacrifices and the new and better sacrifices which the regenerate soul lays at the Master's feet. In the one oxen and sheep were dragged and driven unwilling to the altar, and there slaughtered and presented as dead things. In the other there is the offering, not of a dead, unfeeling thing, but of a whole life, with all its affections and energies, doing the will of the Lord with the prompt obedience of love, and quivering in every nerve with the spirit of joy and willinghood. The mercies of God call for that one kind of service, and no other. It is the only service which could on any pretence be called reasonable. There has been so much willingness in the mercies that there must be willinghood in the poor return we make. Love must be answered by love, for any other answer only wounds it; any other answer is an insult. If you only feel the inestimable value of Christ's redemption and the magnitude of the mercy that has saved you, your whole life will be baptized and fired with the spirit of glad obedience, with righteousness, purity, and love, and you will endeavour to serve the Lord in everything, and so offer to Him that reasonable offering a living sacrifice. J. G. Greenhough, The Mind of Christ in St. Paul, p. 17. The Redemption of the Body Romans 12:1 Fundamentally our Lord's sacrifice was a sacrifice of the will, but He allowed that will to execute its purpose through the body, and so our Lord does penance with His human body for all those sins that you and I sinned with our body as the instrument of the will within us. If we are to partake in full and have our share in the twofold work of redemption, we must be in touch with Him. There are many ways in which we have it in our power to do penance as He did. I. There must be no Shirking of the Work of Repentance. It all brings us into closer touch with Him. II. We must keep in Subjection this Body, chasten its desires, and check its longings for unholy gratification. But is that the only way to glorify God with our bodies? III. There must be a Dedicating of all our Powers of soul, and spirit, and of body in order that, recognising the claim which God has upon us, we may yield ourselves, body, soul, and spirit, to His service Romans 12:1 Cromwell, in his first speech to the Little Parliament of 1653, speaks as follows: 'And truly the Apostle in the twelfth of the Romans, when he has summed up all the mercies of God, and the goodness of God; and discovered in the former chapters, of the foundation of the gospel he beseecheth them to "present their bodies a living sacrifice".... The Spirit is given for that use.' Romans 12:1 Religion is a submission, not an aspiration; an obedience, not an ambition of the soul. Ruskin. Religion is neither a theology not a theosophy; it is more than that; it is a discipline, a law, a yoke, an indissoluble engagement. Joubert. References. XII. 1. G. A. Sowter, From Heart to Heart, p. 176. W. F. Shaw, Sermon Sketches for the Christian Year, p. 18. H. Allen, Penny Pulpit, No. 1709, p. 711. W. H. Hutchings, Sermon Sketches (2nd Series), p. 88. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 117. Christianity in Daily Conduct, p. 117. F. B. Woodward, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 20. H. H. Almond, Sermons by a Lay Head Master, p. 165. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, pp. 224, 233, 241. A. P. Stanley, Sermons on Special Occasions, p. 1. John Watson, The Inspiration of Our Faith, p. 122. J. B. Brown, The Divine Life in Man, p. 139. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. pp. 42, 299. XII. 1-2. W. R. Inge, All Saints' Sermons, 1905-7, p. 181. Transformation Romans 12:2 The transformation here mentioned by the Apostle is a transformation all along the lines of the Christian daily life You will see in the second verse what is the aim of this transformation. It is that we may become like Christ. That was God's great design from the beginning. I. Now in what does this special transformation into the image of Christ consist? 'I beseech you, therefore, brethren, by the mercies of God, that ye present your bodies a living sacrifice' a sacrifice the reality of which shall be carried out in your daily life. You must be transformed. And why? In order that you may prove the will of God, that you may understand what the will of God is; so that you may be transformed into proving God's will, the good, the perfect, the acceptable will of God. And you can only do this as your mind, your perception, is renewed. No man is a real man until he becomes Godlike, because as he becomes Godlike he will find that God's will calls into play all those powers which God gives to him. II. How is this transformation to take place? 'We all with open face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the Lord.' Just as a man looks at the customs of the world and meditates upon the maxims of the world, and such a man gradually becomes worldly; so a man that gazes with an open face, without prejudice, with unveiled face, upon the glory of the life which Jesus Christ lived, and sees what a glorious life it was, baling already been born again by the Holy Spirit, will gradually become more and more transformed into the image of Christ, into that glorious life, that life which is centred in God. E. A. Stuart, The Divine Presence and other Sermons, vol. vi. p. 113. Romans 12:2 When Horace Bushnell was on his death-bed, his wife repeated to him this text: 'The good and perfect and acceptable will of God'. 'Yes,' the dying man replied; 'acceptable and accepted.' References. XII. 2. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 123. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas to Epiphany, p. 396. H. R. Gamble, The Ten Virgins, p. 63. Christianity in Daily Conduct, p. 259. J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. ii. p. 42. A. C. Tarbolton, Preacher's Magazine, vol. iv. p. 337. Archbishop Magee, Sermons at Bath, p. 212. Bishop Bethell, Sermons, vol. ii. pp. 134, 150. Bishop Percival, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 186. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 330. W. H. Simcox, The Cessation of Prophecy, p. 251. T. Vincent Tymms, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 115. R. Flint, Sermons and Addresses, p. 145. J. S, Boone, Sermons, pp. 42, 61, 74. G. Matheson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 241. A. Bradley, Sermons Chiefly on Character, p. 168. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 161. C. Brown, God and Man, p. 187. A. G. Brooke, The Guardian, 13th January, 1911. The Pre-eminent Christian Virtue Romans 12:3 How may we followers of Christ learn humility? I. In the first place, let me remind you, that humility is different to contrition. The man convinced of sin is contrite. But Christian humility is not of necessity connected with repentance and contrition. It is a habit of the mind as bravery is. It is a feature of character as generosity is. Humility thus understood is the secret of all beauty. It is also the secret of progress. II. The man who would learn humility must think (1) of God whose creature he is, and (2) of the great social order the society of which he is a member, which is slowly growing after the pattern of Christ. S. A. Barnett, C hurch Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 392. Romans 12:3 Bushnell writes of his experiences in London, that his visit 'was just the thing I wanted. It does not crush me or anything like that, but it shows me what a speck I am. Anything that makes us know the world better, and our relations to it, the ways of reaching mankind, what popularity is worth, how large the world is, and how many things it takes to fill it with an influence anything which sets a man practically in his place is a mental good.' References. XII. 3. C. S. Home, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 385. J. Keble, Sermons for Christmas to Epiphany, p. 376. Archbishop Benson, Living Theology, p. 149. XII. 3-5. Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 52. XII. 4, 5. Bishop Butler, Human Nature and other Sermons, p. 9. Archbishop Benson, Sermons Preached in Wellington College Chapel, p. 11. Christian Imperialism Romans 12:4-6 The ideals in which the Church must find its life are also the ideals in which every community, every city, every nation, and every empire must find their life. In proportion as a nation or an empire is converted into a Church will it attain to true national or imperial unity and power. For the empire as for the Church the conditions of true and permanent life and influence are those given in my text. This I venture to call the true Christian Imperialism, and from our text I desire to point out three things in relation to it, namely, its principle of unity, its law of relation, and its manifold opulence of power. I. Its Principal of Unity. 'One body in Christ' The Apostle Paul declared that all things in heaven and in earth are gathered into one in Jesus Christ And Jesus Himself said, 'And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all men unto Me'. The signal event toward which Christian purpose must move is, the transformation of the kingdom of this world into the kingdom of Jesus Christ. Scarcely a greater task can be conceived than that of teaching this peerless community of free nations that their mission in the world's van depends, not upon material might, but upon allegiance to the Word of God, which liveth and abideth for ever. England's greatness is upreared upon the faith that is in Christ, and if it lose that foundation, it will tumble to the ground like a house of cards. II. A few words will suffice to set forth the Law of Relation which is here given. As the ideal unity is found in Christ, so the law of mutual relation is completely known and felt in Him. In seeking this unity, we are led to realise that we, all the constituent members of these far-stretching dominions, are severally members one of another. He is indeed deficient in Christian sense who cannot powerfully feel that in ministering the word of God to the colonies we are ministering to ourselves to our own body, as it is in the text. Of a truth we are debtors to all the world, but our first obligation is to animate with the one pulse of Christian faith all the great organised dominion to which we belong. This is our Jerusalem, which is our first charge in the kingdom of Christ. The world will gain by our doing first things first. Go ye into all the world beginning at Jerusalem. III. From this diversity in spiritual unity flows Manifold Opulence of Power. 'All the members have not the same office.' 'Gifts differing accord ing to the grace that was given to us.' As God dowers His individual servants with diversity of gifts and graces and spiritual potencies, so does He dower His nations. John Thomas, Concerning the King, p. 200. Reference. XII. 4-6. John Thomas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 299. Romans 12:5 Speaking of the unparalleled hopefulness of humanity's prospects in Greece, during the years 470-445 B.C., when 'the tree of human life had burst suddenly into flower, into that exquisite and short-lived bloom which seems so disturbing among the ordinary processes of historical growth,' Professor G. G. Murray attributes this, among other tilings, to 'a circumstance that has rarely been repeated in history the fact that all the different advances appeared to help one another. The ideals of freedom, law, and progress; of truth and beauty; of knowledge and virtue; of humanity and religion; high things, the conlficts between which have caused most of the disruptions and despondencies of human societies, seemed for a generation or two at this time to lie all in one direction. In the main, all good things went hand in hand. The poets and the men of science, the moral teachers and the hardy speculators, the great traders and the political reformers all found their centre of life and aspiration in the same "School of Hellas," Athens.' References. XII. 5. T. Sadler, Sermons for Children, p. 99. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. ii. p. 283. H. H. Almond, Sermons by a Lay Head Master, p. 227. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 379. XII. 6-8. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 257. XII. 7. Archbishop Benson, Living Theology, p. 35. Romans 12:8 'I deliberately affirm,' writes Huxley in his autobiography, 'that the society I fell into at school was the worst I have ever known. We boys were average lads, with much the same inherent capacity for good and evil as any others; but the people who were set over us cared about as much for our intellectual and moral welfare as if they were baby-farmers. We were left to the operation of the struggle for existence among ourselves, and bullying was the least of the ill practices current among us.' Romans 12:9 When we do speak or converse together, it is with the utmost civility even apparent cordiality on her part; but preserve me from such cordiality! It is like handling brier-roses and may-blossom bright enough to the eye, and outwardly soft to the touch, but you know there are thorns beneath, and every now and then you feel them too. Anne Bronte, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, xxxi. References. XII. 9. H. S. Holland, Vital Values, p. 94. XII. 9-13. J. Bateman, Sermons Preached in Guernsey, p. 206. XII. 9-21. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 103. Romans 12:10 'If I had my life to live over again,' said Horace Bushnell, in his old age, 'there is one thing I would not do I would not push.' Romans 12:10 'I often wonder,' says Caroline Helstone in Shirley, 'whether most men resemble my uncle in their domestic relations; whether it is necessary to be new and unfamiliar to them, in order to seem agreeable or estimable in their eyes; and whether it is impossible to their natures to retain a constant interest and affection for those they see every day.' References. XII. 10. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 170. W. P. S. Bingham, Sermons on Easter Subjects, p. 226. Christianity and Business Romans 12:11 The word 'business' has a very wide application. It is literally almost synonymous with activity, but custom has gradually restricted it to activity in commercial affairs, until today it has a technical meaning. To be in business today is a phrase which is perfectly understood and equally definite. Moreover, it is an important word for this country. We have been called, you remember, a nation of shopkeepers, and the thought is not untrue to much of our national life. We have of necessity developed our business in all parts of the world. The growth of our Empire has been largely a matter of markets, the discovery of new and the protection of old. And this fact has been the secret of much of our most successful colonisation. Here is something, then, of the very essence of our national life, and it is of the very essence of Christianity that religion should have something to say to it It must have something to say. It claims the whole of life for its field. Therefore the two must be related. I. Think of the Contrast between these two , business and religion. What can Christianity have in common with business? The essence of our faith is unselfishness; the essence of business is 'Number one'. The atmosphere of our faith is communion; the atmosphere of business is competition. The contrast is all the more marked because Christianity has a business of its own. It has a claim upon the activities of men, and if there is anyone in this church who does not recognise this claim and see that Christianity means a duty to do in his life, let him or her find such a duty at once. For a Christian who professes allegiance to Him who was the pattern of industry from His youth, and ever told men of arduous service; for a Christian who professes allegiance to that Christ never to find a duty at his hand which his Christianity calls him to do, is to acknowledge himself to be spurious. A Christian without a business is a contradiction in terms. Christianity, then, has activities, and, at first sight, they are in complete contradiction to the activities of today. II. Moreover, the Apparent Hostility between Business and Religion is Accentuated by the Trend of Pulpit Teaching Today. On all sides denunciations of the evils of commerce greet you from the pulpit. It is a feature of modern Christianity that it concerns itself increasingly with commerce, and that it is largely hostile. God forbid that anyone should strive to justify that which is wrong. But there is another side. There are not few but many sterling qualities which may be learned and are in England today almost solely learned through business. And it has seemed to me that it might be well to compare this side of business with Christianity and to see what we Christians have got to learn today from those who follow their occupations in the world outside III. Now Observe the Relationship between Business and Christianity. (a) They are akin in complexity. A young man who is about to start on a business career may well be anxious. The problems of competition are always changing. The discovery of a new chemical, the invention of a new machine, may open two paths before a man. One leads to success and the other to failure, and the choice is difficult. The interaction of trades, one upon another, introduces new difficulties. No trade can be considered alone. We must look on each one for itself, but each one by the light of the big business concern the trade of the whole world. In all this, you see, is a strange analogy to Christianity. It is true that among Christians there is very little competition as to which would be the best. Competition here would be a boon to life. The man who asks, 'How can I be a good Christian?' and asks, 'How can I get on?' is met by the same kind of difficulty. The Christian, too, is in the midst of uncertainty. In that very moment that he thinketh he standeth he is warned to take heed lest he fall. He is also the victim of interaction. Brother reacts on brother, congregation on congregation, and church on church. And so in the body, too, our delicately planned abilities act and react on one another. (b) Religion is akin to business again in its differing standards. Christianity is not a code of casuistry, a dictionary of deportment It is a rule of life which tells a man to govern his life on certain principles, but the man has got to choose. He will find the different standards, and God will give him the guide and the power, but with these two a man has got to win through by himself. (c) And yet once more see how Christianity and business alike look at things from different standpoints. To one man his business is his life, but his next door neighbour regards his business as the veriest profession in the world. His partner does the work, but he would be very annoyed if you told him he was a lazy man. And the third man goes to business as to a disagreeable duty. So he slaves at it, a pathetic picture. Do you not see yourselves, religiously, somewhere there? Of all the points on which I have touched this one is pre-eminent, the keenness of the business man which ought to be reproduced in religion. But is it? Is the faith of Jesus Christ so real to us that if it were taken away it would be a sentence of death to us? If persecution came, should we care so much for Jesus Christ that we should stand it? The Relation of the Spiritual to the Worldly Life Romans 12:11 We take occasion from the text to maintain I. That the spiritual life is perfected through the worldly life. (1) When the Scriptures insist that the spiritual life is the real life, they do not imply that the worldly life is necessarily antagonistic to the spiritual. The Greek held that the aesthetic life was incompatible with vulgar toil. The Roman entertained much the same view of practical life; he considered it fatal to intellectual greatness and efficacy. Says Cicero: 'The occupations of all artisans are base, and the shop can have nothing of the respectable'. And this prejudice against trade and industry is even now far from being extinct. The Christian religion, on the contrary, breathes no word against manual and commercial callings. Christ gives no hint of asceticism; He lends no sanction to any merely ecclesiastical virtue. (2) On the contrary, so far from teaching that the spiritual life is antagonistic to the life of secular action, the New Testament teaches that the spiritual is directly related to the worldly life, and that the former is perfected by the latter. If we observe the intellectual life we see at once that men can never, except with extreme disadvantage, divorce themselves from tangible things. The painter who refuses to go to nature soon paints badly. This is true of the musician. He must not merely hear the note in his brain, he must exercise his senses and test his conceptions on string and pipe. It is thus, also, with the poet. He must cultivate close acquaintance with the actual world if his poetry is to be true and pure. All this is most true in relation to our spiritual life that life can grow only as it is elicited, exercised, conditioned by our worldly life. II. The worldly life is perfected through the spiritual life. It is often argued that the spiritual life is injurious to the worldly life. Secularists profess that the two lives are mutually exclusive. They conclude that just as we are occupied with a higher world we become incapable of making the best of this. Can it then be justly said that it has that consequence? Multitudes of spiritual men, full of religious enthusiasm, play their part in the heart of the busy world and yet excel in practical life. The whole material life of society here and now is secured and perpetuated by this spirituality. It is only in the grace of Christ grace at once so simple and so complex that we are able to live this dual life, to solve this difficult problem. W. L. Watkinson, The Blind Spot, p. 201. Romans 12:11 Each of us has a little cleverness and a great deal of sluggish stupidity.... Modern education is a beginning of many things, and it is little more than a beginning. P. G. Hamerton. The parts of our wealth most intimately ours are those which are saturated with our labour. Professor William James. Romans 12:11 Man in this world is like a traveller who is always walking towards a colder region, and who is therefore obliged to be more active as he goes further north. The great malady of the soul is cold, and in order to counteract this formidable illness, he must keep up the activity of his mind not only by work, but by contact with his fellow-men and with the world. De Tocqueville. In every action of religion God expects such a warmth and a holy fire to go along, that it may be able to enkindle the wood upon the altar, and consume the sacrifice; but God hates an indifferent spirit. Earnestness and vivacity, quickness and delight, perfect choice of the service and a delight in the prosecution, is all that the spirit of a man can yield towards his religion. Jeremy Taylor. Edward Fitzgerald and Tennyson were one day looking at two busts of Dante and of Goethe. 'What is there wanting in Goethe,' said Fitzgerald, 'which the other one has? 'Tennyson at once replied: 'The Divine intensity'. Religion (and indeed everything else) was no matter of indifference to him. It was θερμὸν τι πρᾶγμα , a certain fiery thing, as Aristotle calls love; it required and it got the very flower and vigour of the spirit the strength and sinews of the soul the prime and top of the affections this is that grace, that panting grace a flaming edge of the affection the ruddy complexion of the soul. Culverwell. References. XII. 11. W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p. 218. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 885. W. F. Shaw, Sermon Sketches for the Christian Year, p. 21. F. W. Farrar, Sin and its Conquerors, p. 38. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 62. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (2nd Series), p. 187. J. C. Lorimer, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 108. H. C. Lees, The Record, vol. xxvii. p. 799. J. W. Burgon, Servants of Scripture, p. 123. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 72. Apostolic Optimism Romans 12:12 That is a characteristic expression of the fine, genial optimism of the Apostle Paul. This apostolic optimism was not a thin and fleeting sentiment begotten of a cloudless summer day. It was not the creation of a season; it was the permanent pose of the spirit. This apostolic optimism was not born of sluggish thinking, or of idle and shallow observation. I. Now what are the secrets of this courageous and energetic optimism? Pre-eminent above all other suggestions, I am impressed with his vivid sense of the reality of the redemptive work of Christ. Said an old villager to me concerning the air of his elevated hamlet: 'Aye, sir, it's a fine air is this westerly breeze; I like to think of it as having travelled from the distant fields of the Atlantic'. And here is the Apostle Paul, with the quickening wind of redemption blowing about him, and to him, in all his thinking; it had its birth in the distant fields of eternity. II. I am profoundly impressed by his living sense of the reality and greatness of his present resources. His conception of life was amazingly rich in friendly dynamics! The Epistles abound in the recital of mystic ministries at work. The Holy Spirit worketh! Grace worketh! Faith worketh! Love worketh! Hope worketh! Prayer worketh! 'Tribulation worketh!' 'This light affliction worketh!' 'Godly sorrow worketh!' III. And, finally, in searching for the springs of this man's optimism, I place alongside his sense of the reality of redemption and his wealthy consciousness of present resources, his impressive sense of the reality of future glory. I think we have lost immeasurably by the uprooting, in so many lives, of this plant of heavenly contemplation. I cannot think that Samuel Rutherford impoverished his spirit or deadened his affections, or diminished his labours by mental pilgrimages such as he counsels to Lady Cardoness: 'Go up beforehand and see your lodging. Look through all your Father's rooms in Heaven. Men take a sight of the lands ere they buy them. I know that Christ hath made the bargain already; but be kind to the house ye are going to, and see it often.' J. H. Jowett, Apostolic Optimism, p. 1. Romans 12:12 The first thing that strikes me on hearing a misfortune having befallen another is this: Well, it cannot be helped. He will have the pleasure of trying the resources of his spirit. Keats. Why art thou troubled, when things succeed not as thou wouldest or desirest? Who is he that hath all things to his mind? Neither I nor thou, nor any man on earth. There is none in the world without some tribulation or perplexity, though he were Emperor or Pope. Who has the better lot? Surely he who is able to suffer something for God. Thomas À Kempis. References. XII. 12. C. A. Berry, Vision and Duty, p. 99. C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p. 219. J. H. Jowett, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lviii. p. 257. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxv. No. 1480. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 279. XII. 13. Ibid. vol. xi. p. 284. Romans 12:14 See Whittier's lines on Barclay of Ury. Romans 12:14 'Spinoza,' says Mr. Hale White, 'advises that every man should have certain sure maxims dogmata he calls them which should even be committed to memory, so that they may be ready whenever we need them: one of these dogmata is never to oppose hatred by hatred.' Reference. XII. 14. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 46. Romans 12:15 * * They who, deluded by no generous error, instigated by no sacred thirst of doubtful knowledge, duped by no illustrious superstition, loving nothing on this earth, and cherishing no hopes beyond, yet keep aloof from sympathies with their kind, rejoicing neither in human joy nor mourning with human grief; these, and such as they, have their appointed curse. They languish, because none feel with them their common nature. They are morally dead.... Those who love not their fellow-beings live unfruitful lives, and prepare for their old age a miserable grave. Shelley, Preface to * Alastor. * In the course of a letter written to a friend upon the choice of a profession, particularly that of a schoolmaster, Dr. Arnold of Rugby remarks: 'Another point to which I attach great importance is liveliness. This seems to me an essential condition of sympathy with creatures so lively as boys are naturally, and it is a great matter to make them understand that liveliness is not folly or thoughtlessness. Now I think the prevailing manner amongst many very valuable men at Oxford is the very opposite to liveliness; I think that this is the case partly with yourself; not at all from affectation, but from natural temper, encouraged perhaps, rather than checked, by a belief that is right and becoming. But this appears to me to be in point of manner the great difference between a clergyman with a parish and a schoolmaster. It is an illustration of St. Paul's rule: Rejoice with them that rejoice, and weep with them that weep. A clergyman's intercourse is very much with the sick and the poor, where liveliness would be greatly misplaced; but a schoolmaster's is with the young, the strong, and the happy, and he cannot get on with them unless in animal spirits he can sympathise with them, and show them that his thoughtfulness is not connected with selfishness and weakness. At least this applies, I think, to a young man.' Speaking of Japanese morality and manners, Professor Inazo Nitobe says: 'I cannot emphasise too strongly that manners and etiquette are valuable only as manifestations of a genuine culture of the soul, which pleases itself in imparting pleasure to others, and in avoiding giving pain. Politeness must conform to the precept to rejoice with those who rejoice, and weep with those who weep, or rather to rejoice with those who rejoice, and not let others weep when you weep.' Japan by the Japanese, pp. 274-275. For one shall grasp and one resign, One drink life's rue and one its wine, And God shall make the balance good. Whittier. References. XII. 15. J. G. Bowran, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 83. Bishop Butler, Human Nature and other Sermons, pp. 71, 87. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 167. Expositor (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 299. Romans 12:16 In train on way to Westminster. To so many people nothing is 'worth while' not worth while telling, not worth while writing, and yet the incidents of life are pretty similar to all the same sort of people to see and meet, the same troubles and cares and fears. To most men life seems one dull round, out of which little can be extracted; and why? Chiefly because they have a low opinion of small things. They don't see the dignity of the little. A neighbour is nothing. A man must be Sir Garnet Wolseley or Captain Nares or Charles Dickens to make them care to see him. Not so did Dickens find Sloppy and Kit and Smike and little Nell. James Smetham's Letters, p. 379. Romans 12:16 If we will exercise the needful restraint, if we will curb our conceit, and watch our tongues, and keep aloof from temptations to controversy, we may still have some experience of that fellowship with the saints which is necessary for our daily sustenance in the life of faith. T. H. Green. Romans 12:16 In the evening and next morning I preached at Cardiff. Oh what a fair prospect was here some years ago! Surely this whole town would have known God, from the least even to the greatest, had it not been for men leaning to their own understanding, instead of the law and the testimony. Wesley's Journal, 1749. The next entry is: 'At twelve I preached at Lanmais to a loving, earnest people, who do not desire to be any wiser than God'. Fifteen years later, during his visit to Scotland, he notes: 'There is seldom fear of wanting a congregation in Scotland. But the misfortune is, they know everything; so they learn nothing.' In 1869, during a debate on the Irish land laws, Mr. Gladstone observed sarcastically: 'I have this advantage for learning the Irish land question, that I do not set out with the belief that I know it already.' Manning thus describes some members of the Vatican Council: 'The main characteristic of these men was vanity intellectual and literary. They had the inflation of German professors, and the ruthless talk of undergraduates.' References. XII. 16. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons, p. 151. G. W. Brameld, Practical Sermons, p. 400. XII. 16, 17. J. B. Mozley, University Sermons, p. 208. Romans 12:17 The dull world has got the wrong phrase; it is he who resents an affront who pockets it; he who takes no notice lets it lie in the dirt. George Macdonald. References. XII. 17. H. H. Henson, The Value of the Bible, p. 96; Christianity in Daily Conduct, p. 149. Peace Within and Without Romans 12:18 Happy is he who enjoys the peace of God which passeth all understanding, won for us, and placed within the reach of every one of us, by the coming to the world of Jesus Christ But all Divine blessings have their earthward, as well as their heavenly side. The whole of life, not this or that part of it, is to be ruled by serenity. I. Our first glance at this striking precept is enough to show us that, unlike many others in Scripture, it is not absolute, but conditional: it points out an ideal which we are constantly to keep before us, although its perfect attainment here is not always possible. Fidelity to truth in an environment of error, fidelity to holiness in a world of sin, cannot but lead to collision and conflict. But we are never to arouse anger or hatred by our tempers, or by our unwise methods of attempting to do God service. That is the meaning of the command before us, and of its qualifications. In fact, the life on earth even of the Prince of Peace was one of conflict. It is our duty to rouse men's thoughts and their consciences, when they would prefer being left alone; and that disturbs peace. Further, there are occasions when you are bound to resist evil, instead of quietly submitting to it. II. Now let us see where it is needed, and how it may be displayed in the world, in the Church, and in the home. Like most good things, this temper is of slow growth, and needs more fostering in the Church itself than most people care to acknowledge. But the persistence of Christian teaching during all these centuries has not been without effect on society at large. (1) Think of our attitude towards war, for example. Little by little the old war-spirit is waning, and in the altered atmosphere of modern life it will still further diminish, just as the enormous calamities of the carboniferous period have dwindled down into the little mares'-tails of our ditches, because the atmosphere and environment of this country have become so changed. (2) Further, this message from God has its application to those of us who are seeking to advance truth and righteousness in the world. Above all others, we are to see that we are not provocative, but kindly and tactful. (3) There is another application which I wish to make of this principle, which is, in some respects, still more important, and is certainly more general, bringing responsibility on us all. I refer to the application of our text to life in the home-circle. Your home is your chief training-ground, where bad temper, snappishness, and disagreeableness, with other sins, are to be conquered, in God's strength; and where all the graces of the Holy Spirit, gentleness, goodness, patience, and meekness, are to be fostered and developed. A. Rowland, The Burdens of Life, p. 105. Reference. XII. 18. J. L. Davies, A Lent in London, p. 63. Romans 12:19 Has thy heart's friend carelessly or cruelly stabbed into thy heart? Oh, forgive him! Think how, when thou art dead, he will punish himself. Carlyle. 'Brougham,' writes Macaulay to Ellis in 1838, is persecuting Napier, 'with the utmost malignity. I did not think it possible for human nature, in an educated, civilised man a man, too, of great intellect to have become so depraved. He writes to Napier in language of the most savage hatred, and of the most extravagant vaunting. The ministers, he says, have felt only his little finger. He will now put forth his red right hand. They shall have no rest.... He will make revenge on Empson the one business of the remaining years of his life. Empson says nothing so demoniacal was ever written in the world.' Every religion that preaches vengeance for sin is the religion of the enemy and the avenger, and not of the forgiver of sin; and their god is Satan named by the Divine name. Blake. References. XII. 19. Expositor (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 406; ibid. p. 453; ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 421. XII. 20. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 142. The Invincible Strategy Romans 12:21 Such is the method by which God Himself, alike in nature and in His government, seeks to vanquish evil. The text contains the philosophy of Jesus Christ. Christianity is reproached because it has brought little that is new into the sphere of morals. Quite a gratuitous impeachment Our Lord's method of dealing with evil, for instance, is startlingly new. Before He came the world knew no other way of treating evil than by reprisal and retribution; pains and penalties were the only remedies known to the rulers and judges of the earth. The Incarnation disclosed to the world a new and an amazing thought: for the mailed fist it substituted the pierced Hand. Henceforth error and unrighteousness were to be antagonised by knowledge, long-suffering, sympathy, and forgiveness. I. In the treatment of personal evil we must follow the injunction of the text To overcome this or that failing, think of it as little as possible, and as much as you can about the corresponding virtue; weaken the bad side by strengthening the good. The thought of beauty leaves a stain of sweet colour on the soul: to think of greatness is to grow; to muse on purity is to suffer a sea change into the whiteness and preciousness of the pearl. In a word, the secret of perfect character is to look away from self to Him who is the supreme example and perfecter. A philosopher has said, 'Cultivate your defects in the shadow of your qualities'; which is, indeed, the very lesson we have sought to enforce, only to give the principle inculcated in this aphorism full expression and efficacy we must cultivate our defects in the shadow of Christ's qualities and grace. II. In dealing with domestic evil, that which we witness and deplore in our immediate neighbourhood, the text must furnish guidance. It must not be forgotten that it is chiefly in the gentleness of Christ that we circumvent and overcome evil. Great is the efficacy of kindness! Love looks little less than absurd as she steps down into the arena of strife and rage, and essays to 'fetter madness with a silken thread'; yet are her victories many and glorious. Great is the efficacy of endurance. Great is the efficacy of humility. Great is the efficacy of sympathy. Great is the efficacy of clemency. III. The effectual way to subdue public evil is the strategy of the text. (1) We do not really overcome evil by substituting one evil for another, or by setting one evil to drive out another. (2) We shall not overcome evil by the representation of it (3) We shall not overcome evil by legislation. (4) Evil is not overcome by denunciation. What this world awaits is personal, positive, constructive goodness. W. L. Watkinson, The Supreme Conquest, p. 218. The War Between Good and Evil Romans 12:21 This injunction places evil and good in direct conflict. The enemy is to be destroyed; the man is to be saved. The two injunctions taken together, and acted out, with the whole of the moral requirements and higher elements of the chapter, the Christian profession would thereby be marvellously brightened and strengthened, and the whole world beautified with light and glory. I. Notice the antagonism of the two great principles. There is no harmony whatsoever between them. They are as decided opposites as night and day, as hell and heaven, as Satan and God; consequently the antagonism between them is absolute and everlasting. (1) It began ages ago; some affirm in heaven itself in the actual presence of the Holy One; others, that our world was its first theatre, as death, the consequence of sin, existed before creation in its present form. Without speculation or controversy, it demonstrated itself in the Garden of Eden as it had never done before. (2) It has continued ever since. The conflict has not paused from the beginning, even during the twinkling of an eye. (3) It has raged everywhere. There is not a place where the struggle has not been known not a son or daughter of Adam who has not had to face it. (4) It is rampant now. Nay, the battle waxes hotter as the hour of final victory draws nigh. II. What is the right action toward these two antagonistic principles? (1) Evil is to be overcome. It is not irresistible, not invincible. God overcame it at the first by punishing the angels who kept not their first estate; and when creation was marred and cursed by it, He overcame it by setting Himself to redress the wrong inflicted by it. In love He sent His Son to make atonement And Jesus in His own life as well as in His own death overcame it. And all His redeemed ones are now achieving the same victory, and will continue to do so until the day shall come when evil will be utterly extinguished everywhere and in everything, except in hell and its people. It is our bounden duty, therefore, to act well our part in this greatest of all conflicts. We must be masters of evil, and not its slaves. And the sovereignty is attained when we bridle our natural passion, restrain malignant action, cherish no manner of unbelief, hold the truth firmly, and live holily in the sight of all men. (2) Good is the principle by which evil is to be overcome. In fact, it is the only means by which it can be subjected; not by sin against sin, passion against passion, foe against foe; but by truth against error, blessing against curse, love against hatred, holiness against unrighteousness. See it triumphing thus in Eden, on Calvary, in the Bible, in the conversion of souls, in the purity of believers, in the salvation of the world. Romans 12:21 Samuel Rutherford, in a letter to Marion M'Naught, writes thus: 'Put on love, and brotherly kindness, and long-suffering; wait as long upon the favour of and turned hearts of your enemies as your Christ waited upon you, and as dear Jesus stood at your soul's door, with dewy and rainy locks, the long, cold night. Be angry but sin not I persuade myself that holy unction within you, which teacheth you all things, is also saying, Overcome evil with good. If that had not spoken in your soul, at the tears of your aged pastor, you would not have agreed, and forgiven his foolish son who wronged you.' References. XII. 21. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 276. Bishop Welldon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liv. p. 116. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxii. No. 1317. Romans 13 Mr. Seebohm, in The Oxford Reformers, tells us that when Dean Colet was expounding this chapter, he used to 'take down his Suetonius in order to ascertain the state of society at Rome and the special circumstances which made it needful for St. Paul so strongly to urge Roman Christians to be obedient to the higher powers and to pay tribute also'. Romans 13:1 Meseemeth (if I may speake boldly) that it argueth a great self-love and presumption for a man to esteeme his opinions so far, that for to establish them a man must be faine to subvert a publike peace, and introduce so many inevitable mischiefes, and so horrible a corruption of manners as civill warres and alterations of a state bring with them, in matters of such consequence, and to bring them into his own countrie.... Christian religion hath all the markes of extreme justice and profit, but none more apparent than the exact commendation of obedience due unto magistrate, and manutention of policies: what wonderfull example hath divine wisdom left us, which, to establish the welfare of humane kinde, and to conduct this glorious victorie of here against death and sinne, would not do it but at the mercy of our politik order, and hath submitted the progresse of it, and the conduct of so high and worthie effect, to the blindenesse and injustice of our observations and customes? Montaigne (Florio). References. XIII. 1. Bishop Potter, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 24. G. Bellett, Parochial Sermons, p. 283. John Watson, The Inspiration of Our Faith, p. 239. C. J. Ridgeway, The King and His Kingdom, p. 91. XIII. 1-3. H. Scott Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxxix. p. 85; see also The Guardian for 3rd February, 1911. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 106. XIII. 1-7. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. ii. pp. 71, 261. XIII. 2. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 41. Romans 13:4 Paul's 'craving for some closer bond with the Gentile world, for some affinity with the keen philosophical intellect of the Greeks, and the stately jurisprudence of Rome, is shown in a hundred passages,' especially in Acts 17 , 'and not less certainly in that earnest respect for Roman legislation, which made him inculcate on the Roman Church the Divine sanction of all secular government, and speak to them of rulers as ministers of God, not bearing the sword in vain '. R. H. Hutton. References. XIII. 4. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iv. p. 81. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 137. Romans 13:7 In Boswell's Johnson it is told how the Doctor, when in Wiltshire, 'attended some experiments that were made by a physician at Salisbury, on the new kinds of air. In the course of the experiments, frequent mention being made of Dr. Priestley, Dr. Johnson knit his brows, and in a stern manner inquired, "Why do we hear so much of Dr. Priestley?" He was very properly answered, "Sir, because we are indebted to him for these important discoveries". On this Dr. Johnson appeared well content; and replied, "Well, well, I believe we are; and let every man have the honour he has merited".' References. XIII. 7. Bishop Alexander, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 401. S. Baring-Gould, Village Preaching for a Year, vol. i. p. 125. H. W. Webb-Peploe, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 86. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vi. p. 403. Our Rights and Duties Romans 13:7-8 I. Rights and duties spring up first in the family, and in the family the Commandments first treat of them. 'Honour' is the child's duty and the parents' right. Then from the family the Commandments pass on to lay down our duties and rights in the commonwealth. It is our God-ordained duty to respect the families of others, the lives of others, the reputation of others, the property of others. Thou shalt not kill, or commit adultery, or steal, or bear false witness, or covet; and as members of the commonwealth we obtain the same dues as we pay namely, the right to be shielded from the adulterer, the murderer, the thief or covetous man, and the false witness. In all civilised states these laws of God, set out in the second table of the Mosaic decalogue, have been made part of the law of the land. They stand as the firm basis of our civilisation. And because they are derived directly from the law of God we speak of them as 'sacred'; each of us, however humble or exalted, claims these sacred rights at our neighbours'hands, the right to life, the right to family honour, the right to preserve our character uninjured, the right to keep our own property. II. Let us now go on to ask what difference the Christian religion has made to these rights and duties. In the first place, Christianity here, as always, goes beneath the external action to the motive from which it springs, and dares to lay its command upon the human will. 'A new Commandment I give unto you,' said Christ, 'that ye love one another.' It is your duty to love one another. The duties you have already learned not to steal, or murder, or lie are only particular instances of this one great principle. If you love you will fulfil them all, inevitably and instinctively. 'He that loveth another hath fulfilled the law.' And then, secondly, Christianity supplies the reason for what would else have to be learned merely as a rule. Why should we love our parents or our neighbour? Because man is the child of God, and God is Love. By loving you are fulfilling the true law of your nature, and acting like your Father. You are made to love. And not only does Christianity give us the reason for this duty of loving, it supplies us also with its true measure. 'A new Commandment I give unto you, that ye love one another, as I have loved you, that ye love one another.' The love we owe to each other is love like Christ's it cannot be fully paid till we are like Christ, and have the perfect love of God. III. But the question will present itself, Is it not also true that our rights under Christianity increase, as well as our duties? Is not this universal debt of love owed by others to us as well as by us to others? May I not claim the love I pay? Certainly. And yet you will notice that the New Testament even more than the Old lays its stress upon our duties rather than our rights, and it gives us the reason for so doing that God loves whether He is loved or not; 'He is kind to the unthankful and evil'. And, therefore, 'it is more blessed to give than to receive,' more Godlike to do our duty than claim our right. And being more Divine, is it not also more successful? You think, perhaps, your child or your husband is ungrateful for all your care? You have a right to their affections. Indubitably; but will you extort them by rehearsing your sacrifices? Love on and love ever unselfishly, wisely, prayerfully in the Spirit of the Lord Jesus, and you will have your reward. For true love begets true love in return. IV. Let me turn once more from our rights to our duties. In the passage before us the Apostle speaks of our duty to the State of which we are members. He did not consider it the duty of the Christian Church in his day to upset the existing State and frame another on a new model and no one today who prefers a Socialistic State to that under which we at present live has a right to appeal to Christianity in support of his preference. I do not say he has not a right to his preference, but that he must not appeal to Christianity in support of it. The expression 'Christian Socialism,' though familiar enough, is as unmeaning as Christian individualism. But whatever our State is, the Apostle bids us render to all its members their dues. If we are under a foreign yoke, he bids us pay tribute; if we are self-governing, he bids us pay the customary taxes 'Tribute to whom tribute is due, custom to whom custom', And St. Paul is following here the express commandment of His Master. We cannot forget how in that last week of His life He finally alienated the people's goodwill, and changed their 'Hosannas' into cries of 'Crucify!' by the commandment to give tribute to Cæsar. Brethren, it is hard to enjoy paying taxes; we much prefer that other people should pay them. But it is not really harder than to pay with a glad heart and ready will the other duties we owe our fellow-citizens. I venture to say that no one can pay his taxes in a Christian spirit whose active duty towards his country is restricted to paying taxes, Our national duties, like our family and social duties, require for their right performance that spirit of love which looks not only to its own satisfaction and profit, but also to those of others; they require that touch of unselfish imagination which enables us to realise our kinship and common interests. Render therefore to all their dues; owe no man anything but the debt of love which, though you always pay it, you can never pay in full; and, in order that you may do this, put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil its selfish lusts. H. C. Beeching, The Guardian, 17th February, 1911. Reference. XIII. 7, 9. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi, p. 46. Fulfilling the Law Romans 13:8 The Apostle gives us brotherly love as the solution of all the problems of human life. I. Christian Principle. In the Christian code 'Love one another' is seen to be a fundamental principle. It is no mere precept of morality. Love is the fountain-head of all the virtues. We recall to mind the Master's words, 'A new commandment give I unto you, that ye love one another. By this shall all men know that ye are My disciples.' No duty is plainer than this duty of brotherly love. Love is the spiritual nature of God Himself. Nothing could be simpler in theory. As a matter of abstract morality all this is plain sailing. As St. Paul says in the text, we owe each other one duty only, that of brotherly love. But it is a duty almost without limit: it is coextensive with the whole of humanity, and it is bounded only in duration by the length of our own earthly life. II. Christian Practice. But here in this matter as in most others theory and practice are widely divergent. They do not run smoothly together. It is easy to learn that our Christian duty is to love our neighbour, but it is extremely difficult at times to do so. We find that individually the general run of our fellow-men have so many faults, so many objectionable features most of which we no doubt possess ourselves, although we are not conscious of the fact that we find it difficult to love them at all in any real sense. That is to say, without considering for one moment the defects of our own character, such as selfishness, which may make it for the time being almost impossible for us to love anything or anybody but ourselves, we find that our neighbour has so many objectionable traits that it is difficult to extend to him any true feeling of brotherly love. III. The Example of Jesus Christ. From the point of view of the unsightly defects in others, we must turn to the teaching of Jesus Christ for inspiration and spiritual advice. What are His words on this point? He says, Love even your enemies, bless even them that curse you, do good even to them that hate you, and pray even for them that despitefully use you, that you may be children of your Father which is in heaven. Strong words indeed! God, we must remember, hates only the sin and loves the sinner. We must endeavour to draw the same distinction, remembering at the same time the words, 'Judge not, that ye be not judged'. We do not know what another man's temptations may be, nor how we might fare if we had them to face ourselves. But we do know that all men are tempted to sin, and that few indeed consciously and wilfully sin with deliberate intent. Let us therefore strive to see our fellow-men as God sees them. While hating their sins as we hate our own, let us learn to love them as precious souls, for whom the Lord of glory died. Romans 13:8 'His economical maxims,' says Sir George Trevelyan of Lord Macaulay, 'were of the simplest: to treat official and literary gains as capital, and to pay all bills within the twenty-four hours. "I think," he says, "that prompt payment is a moral duty; knowing, as I do, how painful it is to have such things deferred."' 'Such is the charity of the Jesuits,' said Thomas Fuller, 'that they never owe any man any ill-will making frequent payment thereof.' How little we pay our way in life! Although we have our purses continually in our hand, the better part of service goes still unrewarded. R. L. Stevenson, * An Inland Voyage. * 'Duty' and 'debt' are the same word differently written, and both mean that which is 'owed'. I ought' is the preterite of 'I owe'. The French devoir is applied to pecuniary debt and moral duty. In Greek ὀφείλω and ὀφείλημα show the same association of ideas. Now what do we mean by a sense of duty, except a recognition of the claims of others, of neighbours, family, society, or God? In no respect do men differ more than in this sense of duty. J. Cotter Morison. Romans 13:8 But though the two who looked down on the scene neither knew it nor thought of it, with them in their little hollow was a power mightier than any, the power that in its highest form does indeed make the world go round; the one power in the world that is above fortune, above death, above the creeds or shall we say, behind them? For with them was love in its highest form, the love that gives and does not ask, and being denied loves. In their clear moments men know that this love is the only real thing in the world; and a thousand times more substantial, more existent than the things we grasp and see. Stanley Weyman, The Abbess of Vlaye, p. 208, describing Bonne and her crippled brother looking down upon the Peasants' Camp. Let our one unceasing care be to better the love we offer to our fellows. One cup of this love that is drawn from the spring on the mountains is worth a hundred taken from the stagnant wells of ordinary charity. Maeterlinck, in * Wisdom and Destiny. * References. XIII. 8. Bishop Gore, Christian World Pulpit, vol. liii. p. 36. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ix. p. 72. XIII. 8-10. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. v. p. 135. Romans 13:9 At a time when the Divine Commandment, Thou shalt not steal, wherein truly, if well understood, is comprised the whole Hebrew Decalogue, with Solon's and Lycurgus's Constitutions, Justinian's Pandects, the Code Napoleon, and all codes, Catechisms, Divinities, and Moralities whatsoever, that man has hitherto devised (and enforced with Altar-fire and Gal low-ropes) for his social guidance; at a time, I say, when this Divine Commandment has all but faded away from the general remembrance; and, with little disguise, a new opposite commandment, Thou shalt steal, is everywhere promulgated it perhaps behoved, in this universal dotage and deliration, the sound portion of mankind to bestir themselves and rally. Sartor Resartus, book ii. x. References. XIII. 9. Bishop Butler, Human Nature and other Sermons, pp. 116, 139. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 277. Romans 13:10 Bishop King of Lincoln, in his paper on Clerical Study, has the following passage on the development of natural gifts: 'I might give you an example of what I mean from the life of Von Moltke, one of the greatest characters, I venture to think, of this century. It was, if I remember rightly, from the oration delivered at his funeral that I got my information. The key to his mind, the preacher said, was an aptitude for topography; he had an eye for the lie of the ground; hills, rivers, woods, whatever was visible, he seemed to take them all in. This led him to practise sketching, and sketching accurately; this to studying surveying; while at Constantinople he made what we should call an ordnance survey of the country all round Constantinople for the Sultan; while at Rome, in attendance on one of the German Princes, he surveyed all the Campagna, and made maps and plans. This led him to notice any peculiar objects, an old tower or bridge, then he wanted to know who built it, where the people came from. This led him to read history and to consider the relation and connection of nations. This led him to study the languages of the different nations, of which he knew five, including Russian. Hence, when the French and German War broke out, Von Moltke knew the lie of the country, its resources, its history, the character of the people. And 1 cannot help reminding you how with all this accumulation of knowledge he preserved his magnificent simplicity and self-effacement, and tenderness of heart. On the wall of the little chapel, which he built in his grounds at Kreisau, over against his own coffin and the coffin of his dear wife, is a beautiful crucifix, and above it is the text, "Love is the fulfilling of the law". On the blank leaf at the end of his wife's German copy of the New Testament, which Von Moltke always kept on his dressing-table since his wife's death, he wrote his six favourite texts; the first and the sixth are the same, "My strength is made perfect in weakness!" Such was the inner tenderness of this outwardly iron man!' The Love and Wisdom of God, pp. 341, 342. References. XIII. 10. R. J. Campbell, City Temple Sermons, pp. 108, 122. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 250. Knowing the Time Romans 13:11 The Greek word here for knowing implies that it is not the knowing of intuition; it is the knowing of instruction. Knowing the time comes by the Word of God, as we read it in the Bible The one purpose for which this Bible is with us is just this, that we may see how seasons succeed seasons, until the final consummation, and so you will find, all through the Scriptures, references to the time. Learn this lesson, then, first of all. I. The Time is kept in Heaven. God is watching. Things are not happening by chance. Everything is ordered, everything is prompt, and punctual, and exact. God's watch keeps strict time Time seems to go very slowly; it seems as though God's clock went very slowly. In the days before the first Advent, when religion was at its very ebb, and Roman cohorts were stationed on the very threshold of the Temple area, and faint-hearted people of God began to fear that God had forsaken His people and forgotten His promises, even then there were a few who knew the time. There were Simeon and Anna looking for the consolation of Israel, the redemption of Israel, the kingdom of God, and, though the clock seemed to go very slowly, when the hour struck, when the time was fulfilled, God sent forth His Son. That was the first Advent And perhaps the time seemed to go very quickly during the days of Israel's visitation. Keep your eye on the clock of heaven, as far as it is revealed to us, and know the time as God reckons it. So we are told the time. II. The Night is far Past, the Day is at Hand. That is the time. Did you ever realise what a daring statement this was? It seems completely in contradiction to the Apostle's own teaching on other occasions, and the teaching of our blessed Lord. Compared with the old Jewish Covenant this is day and that was night, but a yet more glorious day is coming. If you think of that glorious day when we shall see His wonderful face, in comparison to the brightness of that day, this is only night. The day is coming. We see the day approaching. The streaks of dawn are in the sky. The absolutely new awakening of national life amongst the Jews, the marvellous swelling of missionary enterprise, the casting aside of denominational bonds, the longing to gather together in one all who love the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity, these are some of the rosy streaks of dawn. But there are heavy black shadows still on the horizon, reminding us that the night is not yet past. God has His eye upon the clock. When the fulness of time is reached and the hour strikes, we shall see that the delay, however trying, has not been wanton or unnecessary; we shall find the fulfilment is punctual and exact. And so I ask you to learn to know the time. The Lord has left this earth, He is coming again, He is very near, the day is approaching. III. What is the Time? a. For Satan and the host of darkness, it is the time of license. b. For the Gentile nations it is a time of ascendency. c. For the Church it is a time of testing. d. For the world at large it is the accepted time. Romans 13:11 By 'sleep,' in this passage, St. Paul means a state of insensibility to things as they really are in God's sight. When we are asleep, we are absent from this world's action, as if we were no longer concerned in it It goes on without us, or, if our rest be broken and we have some slight notion of people and occurrences about us, if we hear a voice or a sentence, and see a face, yet we are unable to catch these external objects justly and truly; we make them part of our dreams, and pervert them till they have scarce a resemblance to what they really are; and such is the state of man as regards religious truth. J. H. Newman. Romans 13:11 See Keble's Christian Year, on 'The First Sunday in Advent'. References. XIII. 11. A. T. Pierson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 328. R. W. Dale, The Epistle of James, p. 302. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xv. No. 857, and vol. xxiv. No. 1445. J. C. Lees, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 27. Penny Pulpit, No. 1642, p. 177. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 208. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 1. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. v. p. 15. Bishop Creighton, University and other Sermons, p. 62. J. Stalker, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvii. p. 221. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 101. XIII. 11, 12. W. C. E. Newbolt, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 948. XIII. 11-14. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1614. The Second Advent (For Advent Sunday) Romans 13:11-14 The second coming of our Lord Jesus Christ is set before us in these words. Observe, first, the practical character of the doctrine. It is sometimes said 'Of what practical use is this doctrine?' It is here, as everywhere, set before us as one of the most practical doctrines of God's Word: 'knowing the time'; 'the day is at hand'; 'therefore let us cast off the works of darkness, let us put on the armour of light; let us walk honestly as in the day'. Again, not only is it practical, but it is here put before us as a motive for holiness of life. If you knew the Lord would appear next week how would you spend the intermediate time? How holy, how prayerful, how watchful would you be! This is the view in which the Apostle sets this doctrine before us in these words. Again, it is clearly implied that we should inquire into and know the character of the days in which we live, and their bearing on the future: 'knowing the time'; 'for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed'. I. What is the Night. The present time is called night, and for three principal reasons: (a) We see so little now 'through a glass darkly'; there is mystery in everything. All our knowledge is a groping after light. All our helps in this direction are but dim tapers. (b) All wickedness is done in the darkness. For this reason men 'love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil'. Because we have not light to discover men's evil deeds and motives, we wait for 'the day' to declare them. (c) The influence of 'this present world' on the spiritual nature of man is to make him sleep, to distract his thoughts and affections from eternal things, and to fix them on what is unreal or transitory. The relation the present time bears to the future is the same as that of the night to the day. All wickedness, all uncertainty, all drowsiness, respecting Divine things, will end in the holiness, and clearness, and devotedness that will then characterise that time. II. The Approach of the Day. The expression of the Apostle would also seem to show the nearness of the event 'it is high time to awake out of sleep'. The streaks of morning already skirt the dark horizon. Its language is that of a man already awake calling out to his fellow-man who is lying asleep next to him: 'Up, the morning sun is beginning to dawn!' What is the 'salvation'? There are two spoken of in Scripture continually. Salvation through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, by which a sinner is saved, is not the meaning here. This a true believer has already. But this passage speaks of a salvation coming, 'Now is our salvation nearer'. This is salvation from the presence of sin, as the other is salvation from the guilt and condemnation of sin. The Armour of Light Romans 13:12 The whole verse is suggestive of and intended as an incentive to transparency and sunny openness and candour. 'Let us walk honestly as in the day' facing the sunshine and fearing nothing 1 And accordingly the idea of the text would appear to be that in this same qualification or grace we shall find our best defence against many things. Perfect truthfulness, the Apostle seems to say, is the grand protection for the soul. On such armour, impalpable as it seems, what is hurtful strikes in vain. I. In trying to illustrate this, let us begin at the centre of our life and work outwards. I believe then that it is a comparatively rare thing to find a man perfectly honest and true with himself. Anyone who wishes may find abundant examples of this in the ordinary life around him. How often, for instance, men contrive to misjudge themselves as to the work they should attempt and the place they should aspire to in the world. But it is even more important that we should notice how the tendency I am speaking of is too deep-seated in human nature to be confined to the ordinary life of men. It goes on with them into the life of faith as well too often to blight and mar everything there. By far the saddest instance is seen where men refuse altogether to be true to the light that is in them. II. Turn now to our relations with other men. Here, too, of course a Christian is called to be true: and if he is so he may expect to find himself protected against various ills not otherwise to be avoided. This is one of the most obvious of duties, not to say Christian duties; and as for the man who can easily and wilfully lie, I suppose we all feel that he must be capable of anything. Short of such deliberate untruth, however, who does not know how marvellously easy it is to be untrue? Do you not often, for instance, find it very difficult to convey by words exactly what you intend? And sometimes, too, your very silence may be misconstrued. Add to this that there are natures which have the misfortune to be constitutionally unveracious. In the midst of all this, now, how the genuine Christian character should gleam out upon men clothed in the armour of light! III. And this leads us, finally, to think of the highest of all our relations, that, namely, with God. Here also the armour of light is our sole defence against any ill and all the ill that otherwise might overtake us. Is it not clear that some sort of defence is necessary for any one who will venture into the presence of the Eternal Purity? The Father He is, but also He is a 'consuming fire'. How shall sinful men like you and me 'dwell with these everlasting burnings? By wearing always 'the armour of light' not otherwise. A. Martin, Winning the Soul, p. 149. Romans 13:12 'In order that passion may do us no harm,' says Pascal, 'we should act as though we had but a week to live.' Reference. XIII. 12. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 1. T. F. Crosse, Sermons, p. 21. H. M. Butler, Harrow School Sermons (2nd Series), p. 114. F. de W. Lushington, Sermons to Young Boys, p. 1. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 249. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Notes of Sermons for the Year, pt. i. p. 1. XIII. 12-14. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 149. Romans 13:13 In the tenth chapter of Eothen, Kinglake describes a visit he paid to the Franciscan Convent at Damascus. 'Very soon after my arrival I asked one of the monks to let me know something of the spots that deserved to be seen. I made my inquiry in reference to the associations with which the city had been hallowed by the sojourn and adventures of St. Paul. "There is nothing in all Damascus," said the aged man, "half so well worth seeing as our cellars;" and forthwith he invited me to go, see, and admire the long range of liquid treasure that he and his brethren had laid up for themselves on earth. And these, I soon found, were not as the treasures of the miser that lie in unprofitable disuse; for day by day and hour by hour, the golden juice ascended from the dark recesses of the cellar to the uppermost brains of the friars.' Romans 13:13 Dr. Arnold of Rugby, says Dr. Stanley, used to point out to his boys the distinction 'between mere amusement and such as encroached on the next day's duties, when, as he said, it immediately becomes what St. Paul calls * revelling'. * This was the passage which led to Augustine's conversion. In chapter 12 of the eighth book of his Confessions he describes himself as seated under a fig-tree in the garden, miserable and tearful, when the voice of a boy or girl was heard crying, 'Take and read, take and read!' Augustine interpreted this as 'a divine command to open the book' of Paul's Epistles which he had laid down not far away, 'and to read the first chapter I could find. I seized the book, opened it, and read in silence the first passage on which my eyes lighted. It was: Not in revelling and drunkenness, not in chambering and wantonness, not in strife and envying: but put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ, and make not provision for the flesh to fulfil the lusts thereof. No further would I read, nor was ought else needed. At once, as it were, at the end of the sentence, my heart was flooded with the light of peace, and all the shades of doubt removed. Then, putting my finger in the place or some other mark, I shut the book and told Alypius quietly what had occurred. Whereupon he informed me of what had happened to himself, of which I was ignorant; and he did so as follows. Asking to see what I had read, he went past my passage which I showed him, to the following words: Him that is weak in faith, receive ye. This he applied to himself, and told me all.' Putting on Christ Romans 13:14 Dress and character being closely connected, it was inevitable that men should use the one metaphorically of the other, and speak of God being clothed with majesty,' or of clothing themselves with humility. When so used no one has any difficulty in apprehending what is meant. In the Early Church, when a heathen professed faith in Christ and desired baptism he laid aside his ordinary clothing to signify his 'putting off the old man,' and, having passed through the cleansing water of baptism, he assumed a white garment to symbolise his putting on the new man. His former friends, who had been accustomed to recognise him by his dress, might now have passed him by and taken him for a stranger; and so were they to be at a loss to recognise in this man, clothed with meekness and temperance, their former acquaintance who had been wont to wear a haughty look, and had 'suited' himself in intemperate habits. The obvious meaning, therefore, of the words, 'Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ,' is, Assume the character of the Lord Jesus Christ. The putting on the new man is the counterpart of the putting off the old man, and what that is Paul explains when he says, 'that ye put off concerning the former conversation that is, concerning your former way of life the old man, and be renewed in the spirit of your mind.' Our old ways and character are to be laid aside, and therefore to put on the new man is to assume a new character and new ways. To put on the Lord Jesus Christ is to make our own His character. But is such a thing possible? Can a man alter the character with which he is born? Are we not as helpless as the clay in the hands of the potter; and the shape given us at our birth, must we not retain throughout life? Certainly there is much that seems to argue the impossibility of altering our nature; enough, at all events, to make it worth our while to look closely into the matter, lest we spend a vast amount of hope and effort on what is really unattainable. I. And first of all it will at once be recognised that there is in every human being something that does not change. What we call the man's individuality abides unalterably his from first to last. One man's natural qualities may be much higher and stronger than another man's, and religion does not bring these two men to an equality. The one remains of inferior quality, the other of superior, but each uses his nature for the best purposes. The one is clay, the other gold; and the material cannot be changed, although the form into which it is thrown may, and the use to which it is put. The clay may be fashioned into as exquisite a form, and it may be as serviceable in its own place, but clay it remains. We know that bad men are changed. New motives and new aims present themselves to men; their whole character is altered by coming into contact with persons who influence them powerfully; they seem to derive a strength from these persons which was not theirs before, and they become to all intents and purposes new men. That men do thus change is matter of everyday observation, and they change by some new persons or ideas entering their life. And there is no influence of this kind comparable to that which Christ exerts upon us. II. If, then, it is possible to assume a character different from our present or original character, how can we do so? How can we put on the Lord Jesus Christ? For experience tells us that mere imitation of Christ does not come to much. It must be an imitation rooted in conviction and prompted by love and hope. The grand peculiarity of Christ is that He demands our personal allegiance. He does not throw out doctrine and let who will receive it; He does not utter His views of things and leave them to work in men's minds. He forms a society, He calls men to Himself, and invites their trust, their love, their service. And experience tells us that until we give Him this, we give Him too little; too little for our purposes as well as for His. We all need to put on Christ: our own character is not sufficient; the character of Christ is sufficient Going into the world with our natural character uncorrected, we are unjust to God, to our fellows, and to ourselves. For a better thing is possible to us. What doth it profit a man though he gain the whole world and lose his own soul? And how do you lose your own soul? by making no effort to cleanse it. You lose your life by spending it on ends which prevent you from attaining the highest end. Other things you can afford to neglect: but be sure you are really gaining in likeness to Christ. That is the real prize of life. You do not know how much you miss by neglecting to cultivate some one grace; you do not know what new views of life you would have, what new strength for doing good, what new attachment to Christ, if only you set yourself resolutely to conform in every particular to the character of Christ Not without self-control and self-knowledge, not without pain, not without striving and sacrifice, can we make that character our own; but that character satisfies all the requirements of God and human life, and to be without it is to miss the chief end of our being. Marcus Dods, Christ and Man, p. 74. References. XIII. 14. T. Binney, King's Weigh-Home Chapel Sermons (2nd Series), p. 166. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxvi. No. 2132. H. Bushnell, Christ and his Salvation, p. 371. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 199. XIV. 4. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 137. Romans 14:5 'Do consider the immense strength of that single verse, Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind,' writes Dr. Arnold of Rugby. 'I am myself so much inclined to the idea of a strong social bond that I ought not to be suspected of any tendency to anarchy; yet I am beginning to think that the idea may be over-strained, that this attempt to merge the soul and will of the individual man in the general body is, when fully developed, contrary to the very essence of Christianity. Indeed,' he continues, 'so strong is the language of some parts of the New Testament in this direction, as to be an actual perplexity to me. St Paul's language concerning it, I think, may be explained, but the refusal of our Lord to comply with some of the indifferent customs, such as washing before meals, is, when I come to consider it, so startling that I feel that there is something in it which I do not fully understand.' References. XIV. 5. H. E. Ryle, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 363. T. Arnold, Christian Life: its Hopes, p. 23. Expositor (6th Series), vol. x. p. 279; ibid. vol. xii. p. 270. The Power of Association Romans 14:7 Man is by his natural genius a social being. From the beginning of things it was ordained by God that he should not live alone. The story of Eve's creation from one of the ribs of Adam has this everlasting spiritual truth underlying it. It is thus that the one is very closely bound up and intimately connected with the other. Man cannot live without his fellow-man, and, further, he cannot come into this world and live in this world without being first of all touched by or touching somebody else. I want to speak of the power of association as represented by the sense of touch. I. The General Principle. The power of association dominates the whole of human life. (a) In our troubles and sorrows is it not to the power of association that we make our appeal? We go to somebody and look for sympathy. Have some of you never experienced that wonderful sense of relief and ease and spiritual refreshment when you unburden some terrible trouble you have upon you into the ears of love and sympathy? It is so true that 'one touch of nature makes the whole world kin'. (b) In our joys. To what do we attribute our happiness? Is it not to the power of association that power which unites like with like, that mutual resolve of souls to stand by one another in fair weather or in foul? In all this there is the power of association, complete and beautiful. No man has yet lived who has found complete satisfaction in a self-centred life. True joy is to be found only in the power of association, and particularly in the gift of genuine and ennobling friendship. (c) In worship. The power of association is clear and unmistakable. Look at the elaborate ritual of the Jewish Church. All religion in the old worship of God appealed directly, materially, to the sense of touch. There is the catalogue of things clean or unclean to be used or abstained from, eaten or left alone; the elaborate rules for the cleansing of things and of people. In all these injunctions we find that everything needed to be without blemish, perfect, whole everything appealing to the sense of touch. What is the spiritual teaching of that? Simply this: that we must not give to God anything that is imperfect, only that which is whole. So also all the ritual of the Christian Church appeals to the power of association to touch and to quicken our spirits, to remind us where we are and what we are doing. II. Its Individual Application. If that be true of life generally, how does it apply to the individual soul? What are we as individuals doing to influence others by the exercise of this power of association? We feel the force of it upon ourselves. Do we appreciate the fact that we can exercise the same force upon other people? I want to remind you of the unconscious influence which every single soul here is possessed of, and which is working for weal or for woe in the world in which we live. (a) There is the unconscious influence of religious attitude that is to say, the way we look at our religion. It has a wonderful effect on other people. There are some people who mean the very best in the world, but somehow or other they go about the world so sadly, as if religion were a dreadful penance to them. Their most cordial greeting has a nip of the east wind about it. That is absolutely unchristian. (b) There is the unconscious influence of goodness of heart. How often little things are indicative of a man's character. Some small attention when we least expect it, some kind word in the midst of trouble, some generous thought anticipating a need, some manly shake of the hand these things influence many lives in a way undreamed of by those who have so acted. Hinges are but small things compared with the great doors that hang upon them, but it is upon the hinges that the door depends for the opening and closing thereof. A drop of oil may make all the difference to a great locomotive engine Is not this so, too, with the gigantic piece of mechanism called human society? We can all be lubricators of the wheels of life. Yes, voluntary influence does not always indicate what a man is, but involuntary influence always does. Our involuntary influence is as much the outcome of our character as the scent is the outcome of a plant's life. It cannot be imprisoned. Romans 14:7 Whittier, in his introduction to Woolman's Journal, calls attention to the fact that 'in his lifelong testimony against wrong,' the Quaker 'never lost sight of the oneness of humanity, its common responsibility, its fellowship of suffering, and communion of sin. Few have ever had so profound a conviction of the truth of the Apostle's declaration that no man liveth and no man dieth to himself. Sin was not to him an isolated fact, the responsibility of which began and ended with the individual transgressor; he saw it as a part of a vast network and entanglement, and traced the lines of influence converging upon it in the underworld of causation.' References. XIV. 7. J. T. Bramston, Fratribus, p. 190. XIV. 7, 8. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 92. T. Barker, Plain Sermons, p. 136. XIV. 7-9. H. D. Rawnsley, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliv. p. 212. J. Keble, Sermons for Easter to Ascension Day, p. 44. H. Bonar, Short Sermons for Family Reading, p. 235. Unto the Lord Romans 14:8 The text describes two complementary movements: the one of man towards the Lord, the other of the Lord towards men. 'Whether we live, we live unto the Lord; and whether we die, we die unto the Lord;' that is man's movement towards God. 'Whether we live therefore, or die, we are the Lord's,' that is God's movement towards man. The two movements together constitute what we call spiritual communion. I. Let us look at the movement of man towards God. A practical controversy was tearing the Apostolic Church. How far could a Christian believer retain the customs of his old life? The Apostle enunciates no petty regulation. He gives a large principle which the individual judgment must apply to every problem in the eternal life. What is the principle? Let us begin the statement of it in this way: Every act creates a certain trend. Every act contributes its quota in the determining of destiny. Now in many people, perhaps even in the majority, this final trend of action is unconsidered. And such limitation of views issues in what we call 'drift'. Now, in face of this peril here is the Apostle's counsel: Choose your drift. That is to say, intelligently and deliberately choose your end, and consistently hold to it. Let that end be 'the Lord'. And then choose your acts in relation to this end. We must live 'unto the Lord'. That is the Christian conception of life. And if this end dominates the life it will also dominate death. II. And now, look at the movement of God towards man. 'Whether we live, therefore, or die, we are the Lord's.' That is the complementary conception of Christian communion. 'We are the Lord's,' not merely labelled property; it is a father's possession of a child. It is, therefore, not an inert and passive possession; it surely suggests the outgoing of personality in yearning and protective regard. For what are the implications of the great word? They are to be found in the entire life and teachings of our Saviour. If we are the Lord's, then the Lord sees us. There is individual recognition of the individual life. Frederic Harrison laughs at the suggestion that the Almighty Ruler, who inhabits the awful and abysmal depths of stellar space, will have any discernment of me. I thought that a man's real greatness was to be estimated by his discernment of the least, and by the large use he makes of it. That certainly is the teaching of our Lord. 'He that is faithful in that which is least is great!' Our Lord has made it perfectly clear that the individual is not lost in the race, and that we all have personal recognition in His love. 'He calleth His own sheep by name.' And He not only sees me, He communicates with me. We live unto the Lord, and the Lord lives unto us. There is a holy commerce proceeding on the mystic highway between Him and me. J. H. Jowett, The British Congregationalist, 23rd July, 1908, p. 82. Romans 14:8 These were the last words that could be made out amid the dying ejaculations of Edward Irving: 'If I die,' he murmured, 'I die unto the Lord. Amen.' References. XIV. 8. T. T. Munger, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 104. A. Tucker, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 559. XIV. 8, 9. G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 225. Easter-tide Romans 14:9 Jesus Christ died on Friday and rose again on what we call the Sunday, and we have by the providence of God, ever good and large, gathered around an empty tomb, and then around a risen Lord. It would be beautiful, if in the hands of a true artist, to compare the Friday and the Sunday. They belong to one another; the Sunday would not be half so bright but for the Friday. Your joy would not be so exquisite if there were not an historic background of tears and sorrow and speaking silence. I. Now there is some great fight being fought this Friday. They have nailed His hands, and they have nailed His feet, and they have pierced His side, and the environment seems to vindicate and justify their villainy. It is all over; Job would withdraw his faith, and David would cease his song. Rest awhile, pause for a day or two; never hasten God; never try to force your own destiny; be great by being quiet. Now comes the day on which everything will be silent It must be so, because this is the third day that the Malefactor Himself indicated. He was always so bold. He did not say, I will rise in three centuries, when you will all be dead and no man will be here who could charge Me with My own words; He said, On the third day I will rise again. It was a fair challenge, square, complete. When was Jesus timid, cowardly, uncertain? When did He, if not prevaricate, yet seem to handle words with such tricks of magic as to perplex and bewilder those who heard them? Never. He said before the Friday, The Friday is coming, my friends, I warn you of it; I go to Jerusalem to suffer many things of the scribes and the elders and of the chief priests, and I go to be killed, and on the third day He knew that the hearts were breaking that loved Him, and that the third day was about as long as they could keep up at all even in solitude and secrecy and even under the apparent abandonment of their own faith in His personality and purpose. But on the third day they will give way. The soul can only hold on for a given time: if the next post but one does not bring that letter I shall die. 'As it began to dawn toward the first day of the week.' He did not keep them long waiting on that day, 'it began to dawn'; it is not said that it fully dawned, it predawned, it sent forth itself in a kind of mimic dawning; it would require the eye of an expert look-out on one of life's ships to see that dawning. But it is always so in Christianity, it is always after its fullest noonday beginning to dawn; it never exhausts its hope, its trumpet has always another bold tune in it. It seems sometimes as if the faith were overthrown, but 'it began to dawn toward' there was a great silent wondrous onward movement Enough! where God begins He continues, He completes. So there was that morning a hailing. Hail! It was one of the last words His own ears had heard but a few hours ago: 'Hail, King of the Jews! hail!' and He said, All hail! stop, stand still! this is a great day in Israel and in the world. II. So we meet on Resurrection morning. We know that Christ died, we may as certainly know that Christ rose. This is part of a great evolution, part of a great demonstration of Divine energy which no man can comprehend and which no man can arrest We can do nothing against the truth, but God hath been pleased to permit us to do something for the truth. What can man do? He can kill every minister of truth, but he cannot kill the ministry. When will we look at the right points? Is the missionary dead? Yes, but missions are still going on, and nothing can hinder their advance. Is not that the blood of a head that has been clubbed to death by Rarotongan savages? Yes, that is the blood of the martyr of Erromango. Is mission work therefore done? No, it is beginning to dawn toward You can kill the minister, but not the ministry. When I was but a boy I was preaching in a little village, and whilst I was talking, I have no doubt with great energy and possibly with some incoherency, a drunken brawling man shouted, 'We will stone you out of the town!' And I, at eighteen, said, 'You can easily stone me out of the town, but you cannot stone the truth out of the town'. You can kill the man, but not his work; you can crush the minister, but not the ministry; you can destroy the instrument, but not the music; you can cut off all the branches, but the root remains. Ay, but we can go down to the root too. Yes, to that root, but I am speaking about the root metaphysical, the Root of roots, the Thing, the Force, that cannot be got at, that no axe can find, and no digger can sink ground enough to discover the roots and all their fibres. So there is a root not to be touched, and out of that root there shall bud a stem more beautiful than flowers, more majestic than oaks and proudest cedars. III. 'Christ both died, and rose, and revived.' That word 'revived' comes in like a freshet into a channel that has been waiting for the rising of the river. All the channel has been so droughty, so barren, and all the land round about has suffered from it, but there is a freshet rising, and that freshet represents true revival, relifeing. And so Christ said before the Friday, 'I am come that they might have life, and that they might have it more abundantly,' like wave on wave, billow chasing billow, until death was ashamed and overthrown, was lost, was swallowed up in victory. Joseph Parker, City Temple Pulpit, vol. iii. p. 156. Romans 14:10 Paul does not mean that God will punish him, and that we may rest satisfied that our enemy will be turned into hell-fire. Rather does he mean, what we too feel, that, reflecting upon the great idea of God and on all that it involves, our animosities are softened, and our heat against our brother is cooled. From * Mark Rutherford's Deliverance. * References. XIV. 10. W. G. Rutherford, The Key of Knowledge, p. 200. F. E. Paget, Helps and Hindrances to the Christian Life, vol. i. p. 112. XIV. 10-12. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxvii. No. 1601. XIV. 11. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 137. XIV. 12. C. Perren, Outline Sermons, p. 306. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church's Year, p. 10. J. S. Bartlett, Sermons, p. 184. J. Keble, Sermons for Advent to Christmas Eve, p. 164. R. W. Dale, The Epistle of James, p. 246. XIV. 13, 14. W. J. Hocking, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xliii. p. 108. XIV. 14-21. Expositor (4th Series), vol. ii. p. 71. Romans 14:17 Using the language of accommodation to the ideas current amongst His hearers, Jesus talked of drinking wine and sitting on thrones in the kingdom of God; and texts of this kind are what popular religion promptly seized and built upon. But other pro-founder texts meanwhile there were, which remained, one may say, in shadow. This is life eternal, to know Thee, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom Thou hast sent. The kingdom of God is righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit. These deeper texts will gradually come more and more into notice and prominence and use. From Matthew Arnold's Preface to the popular edition of * Literature and Dogma. * References. XIV. 17. S. A. Tipple, The Admiring Guest, p. 76. R. B. Douglas, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lvii. p. 97. Expositor (4th Series), vol. x. p. 201; ibid. (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 154; ibid. vol. x. p. 100. XIV. 17-19. W. Walsh, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 260. XIV. 18. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 428; ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 276. XIV. 19. Ibid. (5th Series), vol. ix. p. 4. XIV. 21. F. B. Cowl, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 287. Penny Pulpit, No. 1487, p. 33, and No. 1548, p. 19. Romans 14:22 Whenever conscience speaks with a divided, uncertain, and disputed voice, it is not yet the voice of God. Descend still deeper into yourself, until you hear nothing but a clear and undivided voice, a voice which does away with doubts and brings with it persuasion, light, and serenity. Happy, says the Apostle, are they who are at peace with themselves, and whose heart condemneth them not in the part they take. This inner identity, this unity of conviction, is all the more difficult the more the mind analyses, discriminates, and foresees. Amiel. References. XIV. 22. W. M. Sinclair, Words from St. Paul's, p. 99. XIV. 27. Expositor (5th Series), vol. vii. p. 119. XIV. 31. Ibid. vol. iii. p. 261. Romans 15:1 'There's a text wants no candle to show't; it shines by its own light It's plain enough you get into the wrong road in this life if you run after this and that only for the sake o' making things easy and pleasant to yourself. A pig may poke his nose into the trough, and think o' nothing outside it; but if you've got a man's heart and soul in you, you can't be easy a-making your own bed an' leaving the rest to lie on the stones. Nay, I'll never slip my neck out of the yoke, an' leave the load to be drawn by the weak uns.' Adam Bede, in George Eliot's * Adam Bede. * All men need to have near them, allied in close association with them, either a force to strengthen their weakness or else a weakness which insists upon some demonstration of their strength. John Oliver Hobbes, in * Robert Orange. * References. XV. 1. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xii. p. 271. XV. 1-3. R. W. Church, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 263. J. Martineau, Endeavours After the Christian Life (2nd Series), p. 84. XV. 2. W. H. Stephenson, A Book of Lay Sermons, p. 191. F. W. Farrar, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlv. p. 337. Llewelyn, Davies, The Purpose of God, p. 116. XV. 3. Expositor (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 47. XV. 4. H. H. Henson, The Value of the Bible, p. 39. F. St. John Corbett, The Preacher's Year, p. 4. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xlvii. No. 2753. F. Bourdillon, Plain Sermons for Family Reading, pp. 11 and 22. R. Boyne, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xiv. p. 976. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. li. p. 353. H. Hensley Henson, ibid. vol. lxxviii. p. 371. F. D. Maurice, Sermons, vol. iii. p. 17. G. Body, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lii. p. 406. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Sunday Sermonettes for a Year, p. 5. R. W. Church, Village Sermons, p. 1. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons (2nd Series), p. 11. C. Parsons Reichel, Sermons, p. 193. R. C. Trench, Sermons New and Old, p. 267. H. D. Rawnsley, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 1104. H. J. Wilmot-Buxton, Notes of Sermons for the Year, pt. i. p. 7. Romans 15:5 Nature never hurries: atom by atom, little by little she achieves her work. The lesson one learns in fishing, yachting, hunting, or planting, is the manners of Nature; patience with the delays of wind and sun, delays of the seasons, bad weather, excess or lack of water patience with the slowness of our feet, with the parsimony of our strength, with the largeness of sea and land are must traverse, etc. Emerson. References. XV. 5, 6. J. M. Gibbon, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lix. p. 187. XV. 5, 15, 33. A. Maclaren, After the Resurrection, p. 229. XV. 7. A. P. Stanley, Canterbury Sermons, p. 172. XV. 8. Exspositor (6th Series), vol. ii. p. 411; ibid. (7th Series), vol. v. p. 361. XV. 11. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 117. An Old Testament Portraiture of the Saviour Romans 15:12 How infinite is Jesus! And with what almost infinite variety of depiction He is set forth in Holy Scripture! Here are four views rich in suggestion and most uplifting to the contemplator. I. The Scriptural Jesus. It is eminently characteristic of Paul that he delighted in the Jesus of the Old Testament. And it is very congenial to him that ardent lover of the Bible to say, as here he says, 'Isaiah saith'. Paul revelled in the prophetic delineation of the Saviour. The Christ of prophecy evoked all his intellectual and spiritual passion. The Old Testament and Jesus mutually enhance each other. It glorifies Him. How stately, pathetic, tender, winsome, is the Jesus of the Old Testament! And truly He glorifies it. I think little of the Old Testament when the Saviour is ejected from it. But when I see my Saviour there it becomes an astral book: old, yet ever new; remote, yet sweetly near. II. The Human Jesus. The primary allusion of Isaiah which Paul quotes is mysteriously profound. 'There shall be the root of Jesse' (R.V.). Some have explained this as meaning the branch which grows out of Jesse's root. But the Bible has a marked capacity for saying what it means, and meaning what it says. Otherwhere it declares Jesus to be a branch of Jesse. But here it says 'the root' and not the branch. And this is not the only place in which our Incarnate Lord is called the root of Jesse. You may always trust Scripture to differentiate between a root and a branch. 'There shall be the root of Jesse.' The origin of Jesse shall be historically originated. The Creator of Jesse shall be born in the latter days. But Jesse lived and died long spaces back. How can his 'root' come to 'be' in after years? Can the father of David's father be a descendant of David? This is indeed a great mystery the Creator described as He who 'shall be'! If any object to this view of the human Jesus as insuperably mysterious, I would urge that it is infinitely more helpful on the practical side than any merely humanitarian view of Jesus can be. I far prefer Isaiah's mysterious concept to the Unitarian Jesus. If I cannot comprehend it I feel it meets my needs. Only a Saviour-God can cope with my guilt and sin. If I am to have a human Redeemer He must also be Divine. A Jesus whose personality and birth I could readily understand would be a Jesus to whom I dared not believingly commit myself. Oh let us adoringly receive this so mysterious and so merciful Saviour, who is 'the Root of Jesse'. A darkness to the intellect, He is the Light of Life to the heart. Bengel aptly says, 'Divine worship is implied here as due to Christ even in His human nature'. Most truly it is. His human nature is Divinely miraculous. Late in time he cometh, but it is 'the root of Jesse 'who is born of the Virgin Mary. III. The Kingly Jesus. Isaiah, as quoted by Paul, further describes the Saviour as 'He that ariseth to rule over the Gentiles' (nations). He is a King then. He is the rightful if unacknowledged Sovereign of the nations. I told you the Jesus of the Old Testament is a stately figure. He is more; He is regal. 'He that ariseth,' in God's decree, and in the course of human history, is to 'rule over the nations'. The kingly Jesus pervades both Testaments with a delightsome pervasiveness. The Jesus of the Nativity was peculiarly the kingly Jesus. Gabriel, in his great annunciatory message to Mary, emphasised His kingliness, 'And He shall reign over the house of Jacob for ever, and to His kingdom there shall be no end'. A scholar has superbly retranslated that latter sentence, 'And to His kingdom there shall be no frontier'. A kingdom unlimited by remotest frontier! An empire universal! It was an inspired instinct which led the Magi to inquire, 'Where is He that is born * King?' * Jesus is the King of the nations. He arose at Bethlehem to be this. Of all the earth He is the predestinated Monarch. His rule is sadly retarded, and has long been. Sin and hell have set themselves to arrest it. Many of the nations do not submit themselves to their rightful King. Even the nations which are supposed to be His loyal subjects have a religion which is rather a veneer than a passion. But His rule is ultimately sure. He will do what He arose to do, 'rule over the nations'. We must always distinguish between the immediate outlook and the final outlook, or we shall be whelmed in depression. Jesus shall reign. The end is sure, though the way be rough and long. IV. The Believed Jesus. Isaiah adds that 'in Him shall the Gentiles trust'. Faith is the factor which unites men to Christ We are not obedient subjects of the Saviour-King till we trust in Him. Loyalty begins in faith. In that remarkable biography to which I have alluded we are told of a Bechuana convert, who said, 'Faith is the hand which receives the gifts Christ offers us,' and a great theologian declared it to be one of the finest descriptions of faith he had ever known. The nations shall yet put out their hands to receive the gifts Christ offers them. Have you put out your hands for those precious gifts? No other power but faith in Christ can perfectly renew the nations. It is not finally by legislative or other programmes, but by individual faith in the Saviour-God that the nations shall be transfigured. A new earth will only come by spiritual processes. Dinsdale T. Young, The Gospel of the Left Hand, p. 17. Joy and Peace in Believing Romans 15:13 It is a question that we ought seriously to ask ourselves, at the approach of a Communion season, if we are in possession of the joy and peace which form the benediction of our text Can we truly say that we know in our own hearts what the Apostle calls joy and peace in believing? Is this the deepest result of that religion which we profess and in which we have been bred? And is it so, not only on the Sabbath, and under the calming influences of the sanctuary, but amid the cares, the worries, the distractions that await every worshipper tomorrow? I. Contrast, for instance, joy and peace in believing with joy and peace in working. Most of us can say with perfect truth that we have experienced joy and peace in working. Not always, certainly, for sometimes work is wearisome, and sometimes it is ill-suited to our bent. And there are days, and sometimes there are years, when men are physically unfit for duty. But granting that, is it not the case that we have experienced joy and peace in working, and that if our work were taken away, much of our joy and peace would also go? Of working, we can say that in sincerity. What I want to ask is, can we say it of believing? Is there anything in our religious life that answers to that feature in our active life? II. Or think again of joy and peace in loving. There are few who have not had experience of that Perfect love casteth out fear, for fear hath torment. Think, for example, of the Christian home, that beautiful creation of the gospel. Imperfect though it must necessarily be, is it not the dwelling-place of joy and peace? And all the joy of it and all the peace, which are deeper and truer than any passing shadow, rest on, and are continually refreshed by, the presence in the Christian home of love. Deeper than all rebellion of the child, is the child's love for father and for mother. Mightier than any care or worry, is the love of the mother for her children. And that is the secret of the Christian home, however poorly it be realised; it is the sphere above all other spheres where there is joy and peace in loving. Now Paul does not speak of joy and peace in loving. He speaks of joy and peace in believing. And the one we know. We have experienced it. It has been ours in childhood and in manhood. But the question is, what about the other? Have we known anything of it at all? III. Think for a moment of the kind of people to whom these words were originally sent. They were sent to a little company of Christians, whose lot was very far from being easy. Separated from us by wellnigh two thousand years, we are prone to think of them as dim and shadowy. If our own woes grow dim with passing years, how much more those of centuries ago. Yet they had sorrows as intense as ours, and trials that were very dark and bitter, and they had hearts which were as full of sin as any that are throbbing here today. They were called to be saints, and yet they were not saints. They were just poor and faulty men and women. And some were slaves, and some were city merchants, and some were mothers in undistinguished homes. Yet Paul when he thought of them made no exceptions. Not one of them was excluded from the blessing. And not one of us within this church today is excluded from the blessing either. IV. The notable thing is that on the page of Scripture joy and peace are in the closest union. Wherever we light upon the one, we are not long in coming on the other. We sometimes say of inseparable friends that when you find the one you find the other. United in a comradeship of hearts, the one will not long be absent from the other. And so, remember, is it with joy and peace, as joy and peace move on the page of Scripture; the two are linked in a most holy wedlock, and whom God hath joined, let not man put asunder. (1) Sometimes it may be we lack this inward comfort because we have lost the wonder of salvation. (2) Sometimes, too, we fail in joy and peace because we meddle with things that are too high for us. We vex ourselves, and vex ourselves in vain, over the hidden things of the Almighty. It is our duty to cast our burden on the Lord, and the burden of many today is intellectual. It is our duty to honour Jesus Christ, if we would not have Him be ashamed of us. And we honour Him when amid all the darkness we believe that all is well for He is King; we honour Him not with a darkened heart, but with a believing full of joy and peace. The night is dark and we are far from home, but we are certain He is in command. And so we serve Him, and we help our brother, and for His sake we do the little we can do; and there we leave it till the morning comes. G. H. Morrison, The Return of the Angels, p. 65. Christian Hope (For Second Sunday in Advent) Romans 15:13 In today's Epistle we have a concise summary of the purposes of Christ's first Advent. I. To bring Hope. By 'patience and comfort' of the Scriptures which speak of Him. In what the Sermon on the Mount says of Him is all our hope. To Jew and Gentile alike. II. To bring Unity. To make us by His Spirit and example 'like-minded one to another'. a. Unity of thought ('like-minded '). b. Unity of feeling ('with one mind and one mouth'). c. Unity of purpose ('the glory of God '). III. To bring Joy and Peace in Believing. 'As this passage begins, so it ends, with Hope. Christ bring it: the Holy Ghost gives it, with joy and peace in believing. Romans 15:13 Principal Rainy quoted this text in his Moderator's address at the Union Assembly of the Scottish Churches in 1900. He said: 'Let us hope continually. We have been brought to this point remarkably; why should the Church of Christ stint her expectations? Without this gracious dispensation we cannot thrive. Not earnestness, not diligence, not sacrifices will supply the want of it. The whole New Testament is full of hope, as a disposition without which prosperity and progress are not to be expected. The very God of Hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we may abound in hope through the power of the Holy Ghost!' Romans 15:13 We continually hear of the trials, sometimes of the victories, of faith but scarcely ever of its pleasures.... Set to any work you have in hand with the sifted and purified resolution that ambition shall not mix with it, nor love of gain, nor desire of pleasure more than is appointed for you; and that no anxiety shall touch you as to its issue, nor any impatience nor regret if it fail.... Resolve also with steady industry to do what you can for the help of your country and its honour, and the honour of its God; and that you will not join hands in its iniquity, nor turn aside from its misery; and that in all you do and feel you will look frankly for the immediate help and direction, and to your own consciences, expressed approval, of God. Live then and believe, and with singleness of answer proportioned to the frankness of the trust, most surely the God of peace will fill you with all joy and peace in believing. From Ruskin's Pleasures of England, 2 'Since Saturday last,' writes Boston in his Memoirs, 'I have had most sensible experience of the solid joy and peace in believing God to be my God in Christ. I find it is a blessed means of sanctification. It strengthens to duty; for I have been helped in my work of visiting since that time. It nourishes love to the Lord; and consequently love to and desire of the thriving of His work in people's souls. It creates a sweet calm, and quiet of mind, in doubtful events;... it sweetens other enjoyments, and carries above things which at other times are irritating and create disgust. I have compared flashes of affection with a calm, sedate, tender love to the Lord; and I prefer the latter to the former, and have been, and am, happy in it.' Christianity... has not penetrated into the whole heart of Jesus. She is still in the narthex of penitence; she is not reconciled, and even the Churches still wear the livery of service, and have none of the joy of the daughters of God, baptised of the Holy Spirit. Amiel. I bent before Thy gracious throne, And asked for peace on suppliant knee; And peace was given not peace alone, But faith sublimed to ecstasy. Wordsworth. Live greatly; so thou shalt enjoy unknown capacities of joy. Coventry Patmore. References. XV. 13. Bishop Moule, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lv. p. 292. A. Tucker, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xviii. p. 33. W. H. Evans, Sermons for the Church's Year, p. 5. F. J. A. Hort, Village Sermons in Outline, p. 213. J. J. Blunt, Plain Sermons (3rd Series), p. 120. C. Bradley, Faithful Teaching, p. 187. Phillips Brooks, The Mystery of Iniquity, p. 187. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 30; vol. xii. No. 692; vol. xxiii. Nos. 1332 and 1384, and vol. xlv. No. 2626. XV. 15. Expositor (6th Series), vol. i. p. 139. XV. 15-21. J. Bunting, Sermons, vol. ii. p. 21. Romans 15:14 If a reverent ignorance is to be the last word of thought about religion, not only will Christ have died in vain, but science will have toiled to little real purpose. C. H. Pearson. Sanctification Romans 15:16 There are some who preach a salvation from sin's consequences; but you and I want to be delivered from sin's tyranny; that is much more than being delivered from hell, from the consequences of sin. Some people look upon salvation as a kind of lifebuoy by whose aid they may enter safely into the harbour of heaven; but salvation is far more than that. The salvation which God offers you and me is not only to free us from the penalty of sin the consequences of sin but also from the power of sin. 'He shall save His people, His redeemed ones, from their sins.' When we put our faith in Christ and Him crucified, we are saved eternally and completely, because 'He hath redeemed us with an eternal redemption'. But I want to live for Christ. I do not only want to die a Christian death, but to live for Christ here, to show forth in my life the power of Christ; I want Christ to be formed in me. This is sanctification, and the work of God the Holy Ghost The cross means for us not only deliverance from sin, but it means the gift of the Holy Ghost. I. The first work of the Holy Spirit in the redeemed soul is the work of cleansing, of purifying. It is the mission of God the Holy Ghost to come into the heart of the believer and purify the very 'springs of being' that have been poisoned by sin, so that out of us shall flow pure and life-giving streams, and we shall be a blessing to others because of the outflow of the Holy Ghost that dwelleth within us. II. But there is not only the thought of cleansing, there is the thought of strengthening. He is the Comforter. The word 'comforter' means one who stands by your side to strengthen you (the Paraclete) to help you. In the margin of the Revised Version the word 'helper' is used one ever at our side to help us in living the Christian life. We not only want inward cleansing, we want comforting, cheering; we want a champion some one has translated the word 'Paraclete 'as 'champion' one who stands for our defence. III. Again, there is not only the cleansing of the Holy Ghost, and the comforting of the Holy Ghost, but there is the gift of courage to witness for God. This is a special gift of the blessed Spirit. Think of what happened at Pentecost. Think of the cowardly nature of Peter, then look at him after the baptism of fire, after the cleansing fire had gone through his soul and burned out all the fear. It is no good talking religion unless you are living true. T. J. Madden, Church Family Newspaper, vol. xv. p. 244. References. XV. 16. L. D. Bevan, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lxx. p. 326. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 79. XV. 19. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxiii. No. 1332. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. pp. 231, 236. XV. 20. R. C. Cowell, Preacher's Magazine, vol. xix. p. 516. XV. 21. Expositor (4th Series), vol. vii. p. 365. XV. 22-28. H. S. Holland, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlix. p. 65. Romans 15:26 'The great problem of human life,' says Mr. P. G. Hamerton, 'is the reconciliation of poverty and the soul.' Macchiavelli once said that 'the kingdom of the clergy had been long before at an end, if the reputation and reverence towards the poverty of friars had not borne out the scandal of the superfluities and excesses of bishops and prelates'. Bacon, who quotes this in The Advancement of Learning, adds: 'So a man might say that the felicity and delicacy of princes and great persons had long since turned to rudeness and barbarism, if the poverty of learning had not kept up civility and honour of life. References. XV. 26. Expositor (6th Series), vol. viii. p. 390. XV. 27. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. viii. p. 332. XV. 28, 29. Bishop Cabrera, Christian World Pulpit, vol. lx. p. 77. XV. 29. J. W. Houchin, The Vision of God, p. 119. The Holy Spirit's Love Romans 15:30 The phrase employed by St. Paul in the text is to be understood as denoting, not the love which we bear to the Spirit, nor yet the love which is produced in us by the agency of the Spirit and which is called the fruit of the Spirit, but the love which the Holy Spirit manifests towards us. We shall limit ourselves on this occasion to four aspects of His love. I. His Restraining Love. Everywhere sinful men are acting under the dominion of base selfish passions; but men everywhere are conscious that those passions are not allowed to work their evil ways unchecked or unrestrained. In heathen as well as in Christian countries, the universal consciousness testifies that there are mysterious, mighty, persistent forces in active operation on the hearts of men, curbing, restraining, suppressing their malignant passions. Explain it as you please, ascribe to whatever agency you think fit, the fact is undeniable: for every man is a living witness of it. To deliver man from the thraldom of these usurping forces of evil we must have a spiritual agency of authority and power. The economy of redemption supplies such an agency in the Person of the Holy Spirit whose office it is to subdue and expel these ruling powers of evil. II. His Convicting Love. The gracious provision made by Christ Jesus is ample and adequate to meet the exigencies of a lost world; but when we proclaim its all-sufficiency, a formidable difficulty meets us at the very outset man does not feel his need of it. Blind to his peril, he fondly imagines that he can do without redemption. Logic can never lodge in any heart that conviction of sin which issues in genuine repentance. The economy of redemption provides for this difficulty by the appointment of the Holy Spirit as an abiding active Personality, to work upon conscience, heart, and will a conviction of sin. III. The Forbearing Love of the Spirit. Why is the sinner pursued in his wanderings, reasoned with in his rebellion, striven with in his obstinacy for years together? The only reason in the universe is the forbearing love of the Spirit, who is long-suffering usward, not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance. IV. The Condescending Love of the Spirit. The condescending love of the Spirit is revealed in His selection of the human heart with all its vileness as the material on which to show forth the might of His grace. Richard Roberts, My Jewels, p. 187. References. XV. 30. Bishop Wilberforce, Sermons, p. 79. W. P. Balfern, Lessons from Jesus, p. 157. XV. 30-33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xxxii. No. 1887. Romans 15:33 When Horace Bushnell was dying, he murmured one day slowly, and in great weakness, to those around his bed, 'Well now, we are all going home together; and I say, the Lord be with you and in grace and peace and love and that is the way I have come along home'. Reference. XV. 33. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. i. No. 49. Fellow-workers in Christ Romans 16:3-5 'Greet Priscilla.' 'Greet Mary.' 'Greet Amplias.' Salute Apelles.' 'Salute Asyncritus, Phlegon, Hermas.' And so on, and so on. And let us mark that these delicate courtesies come at the end of this tremendous Epistle, an Epistle which for sheer power of reasoning was regarded by Coleridge as unsurpassed in literature. I. First of all, I notice that Priscilla and Aquila have a common rootage with Paul. 'My fellow-workers in Christ Jesus.' The great Apostle and the more obscure disciples had a common spiritual soil; their souls were buried and enswathed in the same Lord. It is most heartening to recollect that Paul and John and St. Francis struck their roots into the same grace in which I stand. I may not share Paul's talents, but I can share his Christ. II. And then Paul and Priscilla and Aquila were one in a common service, My fellow-workers. The literal interpretation of the phrase might thus be given: these humbler workers brought their energy, and added it to the strength of Paul in the cause of the kingdom of Christ. Aquila added his little to Paul's greatness! Yes, and that is just the lesson which many of us have got to learn. We have energy which, if added to the energy of a greater man, will enable him to do greater things. (1) But Priscilla and Aquila were not only fellow-helpers of Paul in the way of encouragement and prayer; they did positive and individual service in the ways of their own life and labour. In Corinth they met the great Apostle, who found lodgings in their house. Many a time would the needles become still and silent as Paul told the story of Nazareth, and Calvary, and Olivet, and his own solemn experiences on the way to Damascus. Until at last the tent-maker's house became a sanctuary, and all three were on their knees together in adoration of a common Lord. (2) And then the eager disciples became ardent Apostles. Having heard the message they passed it on. (3) And then these two disciples became centres of Christian fellowship. 'The Church which is in their house.' I often wish we could recover the power of these meetings in the home. III. And lastly, Priscilla and Aquila were one with Paul in a spirit of common chivalry. 'Who for my life laid down their necks.' We do not know the particular occasion to which the Apostle refers, and it is not needful for us to know it. It is sufficient for us to know that Priscilla and Aquila were prepared to take risks in the service of the Lord. And what were the fruits of it? What the fruits always are. Holy boldness has the key to many a secret door. The disciple who bears much discovers much. J. H. Jowett, British Congregationalist, 17th September, 1908, p. 242. Romans 16:4 Now it was a time of great sufferings; and many Friends being in prison, many other Friends were moved to go to the Parliament, to offer up themselves to lie in the same dungeon, where their friends lay, that they that were in prison might go out and not perish in the stinking jails. This we did in love to God and our brethren that they might not die in prison. Fox's Journal for 1658. References. XVI. 4-16. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 405. XVI. 5. Ibid. (6th Series), vol. xi. p. 437. XVI. 7. Ibid. (4th Series), vol. iii. p. 367; ibid. (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 397; ibid. vol. x. p. 446. XVI. 7, 11. Ibid. vol. v. p. 94. XVI. 12. Expository Sermons on the New Testament, p. 189. Romans 16:13 My kind mother did me one altogether invaluable service; she taught me, less indeed by word than by act and daily reverent look and habitude, her own simple version of the Christian faith.... My mother, with a true woman's heart, and fine though uncultivated sense, was in the strictest acceptation Religious. The highest whom I knew on Earth I here saw bowed down, with awe unspeakable before a Higher in Heaven: such things, especially in infancy, reach inwards to the very core of your being. Sartor Resartus, bk. ii. ii. References. XVI. 14. Expositor (6th Series), vol. v. pp. 65, 423. XVI. 16. W. M. Sinclair, Christian World Pulpit, vol. 1. p. 321. Romans 16:17 In the second chapter of his Apologia, Newman uses this verse to justify his conduct towards his brother Francis. 'I would have no dealings with my brother, and I put my conduct upon a syllogism. I said, St. Paul bids us avoid those who cause divisions; you cause divisions; therefore I must avoid you.' He admits that his behaviour on this and other occasions laid him 'open, not unfairly, to the charge of fierceness,' but adds, 'It is only fair to myself to say that neither at this, nor any other time of my life, not even when I was fiercest, could I have even cut off a Puritan's ears, and I think the sight of a Spanish auto-da-fè would have been the death of me'. There were few warnings to his pupils on the entrance into life more solemn than those against party spirit, against giving to any human party, sect, society, or cause, that undivided sympathy and service which he held to be due only to the one party and cause of all good men under this Divine Head. There were few more fervent aspirations for his children than that with which he closes a letter in 1833: 'May God grant to my sons, if they live to manhood, an unshaken love of truth, and a firm resolution to follow it up themselves, with an intense abhorrence of all party ties, save that one tie which binds them to the party of Christ against wicked men'. Stanley's Life of Dr. Arnold, iv. References. XVI. 17-20. Expositor (6th Series), vol. iii. p. 3. XVI. 19. J. Bowstead, Practical Sermons, vol. ii. p. 115. XVI. 20. T. F. Crosse, Sermons (2nd Series), p. 213. Expositor (6th Series), vol. vii. p. 393. XVI. 21. Ibid. (7th Series), vol. vi. p. 78. XVI. 22. W. J. Henderson, Christian World Pulpit, vol. xlvi. p. 330. XVI. 23 Expositor (5th Series), vol. vi. p. 82; ibid. vol. x. p. 158; ibid. (6th Series), vol. i. p. 101; ibid. vol. iii. p. 234. XVI. 24. Spurgeon, Sermons, vol. xvii. No. 988. XVI. 25. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i.p. 33; ibid. vol. vii. p. 1. XVI. 26, 26. L. D. Bevan, Christ and the Age, p. 47. XVI. 26-27. Ibid. p. 33. XVI. 25-37. Expositor (5th Series), vol. x. p. 200. XVI. 26. L. D. Bevan, Christ and the Age, p. 63. Expositor (4th Series), vol. i. p. 34. XVI. 27. J. A. Alexander, The Gospel of Jesus Christ, p. 133. L. D. Bevan, Christ and the Age, p. 81.