There may yet, says the Apostle, be some fresh transforma-
1 Milton. * A. Maclaren.
ROMANS VIII. 38, 39 163
tions. I know not what new environment; may yet confront me, what strange world, what undreamed-of surroundings, what play of forces more dread and solemn than I have hitherto experienced; but I fear not even that. For there is nothing here, nothing there, nothing anywhere about which I need to fret or trouble ; because, wherever I may be and whatever may happen, I shall have the love of God for my comrade and my portion.
2. As the former clause proclaimed the powerlessness of Time, so this proclaims the powerlessness of that other great mystery of creatural life which we call Space. Height or depth, it matters not. That diffusive love diffuses itself equally in all directions. Up or down, it is all the same. The distance from the centre is equal to zenith or to nadir. Here we have the same process applied to that idea of Omnipresence as was applied in the former clause to the idea of Eternity. That thought, so hard to grasp with vividness, and not altogether a glad one to a sinful soul, is all softened and glorified, as some solemn Alpine cliff of bare rock is when the tender morning light glows on it, when it is thought of as the Omnipresence of Love. " Thou God seest me " may be a stern word, if the God who sees be but a mighty Maker or a righteous Judge. As reasonably might we expect a prisoner in his solitary cell to be glad when he thinks that the jailer's eye is on him from some unseen spy-hole in the wall as expect any thought of God but one to make a man read that grand 139th Psalm with joy : " If I ascend up into heaven, thou art there ; if I make my bed in Sheol, behold, thou art there." So may a man say shudderingly to himself, and tremble as he asks in vain, " Whither shall I flee from thy presence ? " But how different it all is when we can cast over the marble whiteness of that solemn thought the warm hue of life, and change the form of our words into this of our text : " Nor height, nor depth, shall be able to separate us from the love of God."
Love which, on earth, amid all the shows of it. Has ever been seen the sole good of life in it,
The love, ever growing there, spite of the strife in it, Shall arise, made perfect, from death's repose of it.
And I shall behold Thee, face to face,
O God, and in Thy light retrace
i64 AN INSEPARABLE LOVE
How in all I loved here, still wast Thou ! Whom pressing to, then, as I fain would now, I shall find as able to satiate
The love, Thy gift, as my spirit's wonder Thou art able to quicken and sublimate
With this sky of Thine, that I now walk under, And glory in Thee for, as I gaze Thus, thus ! Oh, let men keep their ways Of seeking Thee in a narrow shrine — Be this my way ! And this is mine ! ^
IIL
A Persuasion that Prevails. " I am persuaded."
1. " I am persuaded," says the Apostle, and this is one of his great phrases. Wherever it occurs, it expresses, not merely an assured faith, a strong conviction, but a faith in something which is not obvious or indisputable, and a conviction which has been reached after many a doubt and many a struggle, after much questioning and long groping in the darkness. The Apostle has had to feel his way through the tangle out into the open. And thus, when he says " I am persuaded," he is proclaiming a con- viction which has satisfied his deepest need.
The assurance came to him, as it comes to every man who makes the glad discovery, out of his experience. He looked back along the road which he had travelled blindly, with bleeding feet and a troubled heart, and he saw that an unseen hand had been guiding him and shaping his lot and making all things work together for his good. And thus he was "persuaded." This is the surest, if indeed it is not the only, evidence of God. It is not the teleological or ontological argument that has compelled my faith. No, it is this — that I have found God in my life, and have seen there the operation of His grace and goodness. His wisdom and strength. I recognize, as I look back, that, when I thought I was wandering alone in the darkness, He was leading me all the time, and the experiences which were so painful and distressing at the moment have proved the most precious of all and have brought me enlargement and enrichment.
* Browning, Christmas Eve,
ROMANS VIII. 38, 39 165
2. It is a great thing to be able to use such words aa these with regard to the supreme verities. It is like having one's house built upon a rock instead of upon the shifting sand. It is like having one's course clearly marked upon the chart, and one's rudder and compass in perfect order, as compared with the man who has neither chart nor compass, and simply drifts. This explains why, on the scientific side of life, men in this age are so strong, and on the religious side so weak ; they are sure of their '^ science ; they are not sure, or at least not so sure, of their religion. Agnostics, that is what so many call themselves to-day — not atheists, not infidels. Few say there is no God. What they say is, " We do not know " ; and the uncertainty paralyses religious action. "I am persuaded," wrote the Apostle, and, being per- suaded himself, he has persuaded millions more; for your con- vinced men, the men certain of their ground, the men who can ring out, " It is so," " I know," " I do verily believe " — these are the strong men, the men who do most work, the men of widest, ■ most potent influence. For the masses are always attracted by confidence, and will embrace the wildest superstition, embark on the most Quixotic enterprise, if one who has absolute faith in his cause leads the way ; while what is in itself an unquestionable truth will hardly touch them if it is advanced with hesitancy or faltering. It is the men who, like St. Paul, can say, " I am persuaded," " I know whom I have believed," or, like Luther, " Ich kann nicht anders," " I cannot do otherwise," that move the world ; for if doubt is contagious, thank God faith is contagious too.