(4) And, lastly, it follows from all this that the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord is a love which clings insepar- ably to its ohject. Whoever gives himself wholly to another with a perfect knowledge and understanding of what he is, can have no conceivable reason for finally renouncing him. Nothing in his own nature can urge him to do so, for this is precluded by the very fact of his self -surrender ; and nothing in the person for whom that surrender has been made, for that has already been considered and overcome. So it is with the love of Christ. If it had stopped at any point short of a complete sacrifice of Himself, then it might, so to speak, have retraced its steps. It would not have been irretrievably committed. But Christ has committed Himself. He is pledged to go the whole length which our complete salvation requires. So that there can be nothing in
ROMANS VIII. 38, 39 149
Him which at any moment can move Him to let us go. He has left Himself no place of repentance.
^ Passing the prison of one of our large cities early in the morning, I once saw what seemed to be a mother in a humble cart from a distant village, waiting at the entrance, for the release, perhaps of her son, that day from his term of bondage. There were the vacant seat beside her, the little basket of dainty food, the change of outer garments, and her tearful, eager glances at the door, all telling, very affeetingly, to how much love the prisoner was about to be liberated, and how readily he would be transported to his far-off home. There was only a step for him from exile and shame to the parent's resources, the parent's dwelling, the parent's arms, the parent's joy — all these anxiously waiting for the moment of his discharge.^
A poor lad once, and a lad so trim — A poor lad once, and a lad so trim, Gave his love to her that loved not him.
"And," says she, "fetch me to-night, you rogue,
Your mother's heart to feed my dog!"
To his mother's house went that young man —
To his mother's house went that young man, Killed her, and took the heart and ran. And as he was running, look you, he fell —
And as he was running, look you, he fell. And the heart rolled on the ground as well. And the lad as the heart was a-rolling heard —
And the lad as the heart was a-rolling heard
That the heart was speaking, and this was the word:
The heart was weeping and crying so small —
The heart was weeping and crying so small,
" Are you hurt, my child, are you hurt at all ? " *
II.
Powers that are Powerless.
" Who " or " What," demands the Apostle, " shall separate us from the love of Christ?" And in his reply he gives us two ^ Charles New. ' Jean Richepin, A Mother's Heart.
150 AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
catalogues of the various powers and influences which we fear as likely to weaken or to alienate our love from Him in whose love we live. In his first catalogue he enumerates " tribulation, distress, persecution, famine, nakedness, sword"; in his second catalogue he enumerates " death, life, "angels, principalities, powers, things present and things to come, height and depth." As we follow and consider his words, the first catalogue presents no difficulty to our thoughts; we feel, we acknowledge, that the rigours of pain, want, hunger, danger have often strangled love ; we forbode that, were we long exposed to them, our love might die. But the second catalogue is more difficult. We ask, for instance, How should "height" or "depth"; or, again. How should "angels" separate us from the love of Christ? And it is not until we perceive that St. Paul is indulging in one of those passionate and rhetorical outbursts which are characteristic of his style that his words shoot into light. But then, when we seize this clue and follow it, we understand that, in the rapture and exaltation of his spirit, he defies all heaven and earth to extinguish, or even to lessen, his love for Christ, or Christ's love for him; the very "angels and principalities" of heaven, supposing them capable of the endeavour, could not shake him from his rest; nor all the "powers" of hell — no vicissitudes of time, whether "present" or "to come"; nor aught within the bounds, the " heights and depths," of space. Strong in the love of Christ, he is more than conqueror over them all.
^ Observe the difference in order between the Authorized and Revised Versions. There is overwhelming manuscript authority for placing " powers " after " things to come." We naturally expect them to be associated with " principalities," as in 1 Cor. xv. 24 ; Eph. i. 21. It is possible that in one of the earliest copies the word may have been accidentally omitted, and then added in the margin and reinserted at the wrong place. But it is perhaps more probable that in the rush of impassioned thought St. Paul inserts the words as they come, and that thus "nor powers" may be slightly belated. When not critically controlled, the order of association is a very subtle thing.^