Thy love — to trust Thy mercy wide For him — for me."^ * Margaret Blaikie, Smigs by the Way, 26.
The Heart and the Mouth.
Literature.
Barrett (6. S.), Musings for Quiet Hours, 49.
Blake (R. E.), Good News from Heaven, 27.
Edger (S.), Sermons Preached at Auckland, New Zealand, ii. 153.
Finney (C, G.), The Way of Salvation, 313.
Gore (C), The Epistle to the Romans, ii. 51.
Harper (F.), A Yewr with Christ, 109.
Magee (W. C), Sermons, 1.
Moody (D. L.), New Sermons, Addresses, and Prayers, 318.
Murray (W. H.), The Fruits of the Spirit, 419.
Newbolt (W. C. E.), Counsels of Faith and Practice, 69.
„ „ The Gospel Message, 104.
Page-Roberts (W.), Liberalism in Religion, 75.
„ „ Conformity a/nd Conscience, 181.
Skrine (J. H.), Sermons to Pastors and Masters, 35. Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, ix. (1863), No. 520. Vaughan (J.), Sermons (Brighton Pulpit), xi. No. 1175. Christian World Pulpit, Ixvii. 273 (Henson) ; Ixix. 356 (Sime).
The Heart and the Mouth.
For with the heart man believeth unto righteousness ; and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation. — Rom. z. lo.
1. St. Paul's singularly free, but deeply inspired, manner of applying texts from the Old Testament is especially illustrated in this passage. The passages quoted from Isaiah about the Stone, which St. Paul applies to Christ (see ix. 32, 33), refer originally to Jehovah simply in one case (Isa. xxviii. 16). Jewish tradition had possibly already referred them to the Christ ; and certainly our Lord's use of Ps. cxviii. 22 — " The stone which the builders rejected " — as applying to His own rejection, made the reference more obvious. It is indeed in deepest accordance with the spirit of Isaiah ; and St. Peter (1 Pet. ii. 6), we notice, follows St. Paul in the use of them. Another passage (lii. 7) quoted in verse 15, about the feet of those who preach good tidings, is transferred, with added meaning, from the heralds of the redemption from Babylon to the heralds of the greater re- demption. Again, a passage from Ps. xix. quoted in verse 18 is transferred very beautifully from the witness of the heavens to the witness of the Gospel ; as if St. Paul would say, grace is become as universal as nature.
In the same way the language of this passage, cited from Deuteronomy, is taken from the Law to express the spirit of the Gospel. The calling upon Jehovah in Joel becomes in St. Paul's quotation the calling upon Christ. All this free citation, un- critical according to our ideas and methods, rests on a profoundly right apprehension of the meaning of the Old Testament as a whole. The appeal to the Old Testament, even if not to the particular passage, is justified by the strictest criticism.^
We can look upon the whole passage (x. 5-10) in the light of
^ Bishop Gore. 189
I90 THE HEART AND THE MOUTH
the view beld by St. Augustine, that the words of Moses, under- stood in their true spiritual sense, describe a righteousness which is essentially the righteousness of faith {de Nat. et Gratia, | 83). Moses is in fact describing a religion of the heart: "The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart, and the heart of thy seed, to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, that thou mayest Live." To one who thus turns with heart and soul to the Lord, obedience is easy : " The word is very nigh unto thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart." This, says St. Paul, is in substance " the word of faith, which we preach." St. Paul's explanation is not allegorical but spiritual ; it penetrates throTigh the letter of the Old Testament to its spirit, and that is the spirit of the Gospel.
2. The text contains two parts: Belief and Confession. This is the order — belief with the heart first, and confession with the mouth afterwards. But if we compare this verse with the pre- ceding one, it is noticeable that St. Paul has reversed the order. In verse 9 it is confession with the mouth first, belief with the heart afterwards. Verse 9 explains the quotation used in verse 8, " The word is very nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart," The order is suggested by literary association, not by theological formulation. As " mouth " is mentioned before " heart," St. Paul speaks of confession of Christ before belief in Christ, but in verse 10 he rearranges his statement in true logical sequence. Belief with the heart must come first, confession with the mouth is the natural resultant.
I.
Belief.
" With the heart man believeth unto righteousness."
There are three things to keep before our minds in considering this section : (1) Belief is with the heart. (2) Belief must have a definite object or centre. The centre of our faith is Christ and His Kesurrection. (3) Belief is productive of righteousness.
i. Belief is with the Heart.
1. It is important that we should lay particular stress upon St. Paul's meaning when he speaks of the " heart " ; for if we are
ROMANS X. lo 191
to understand this difficult passage, we must try to analyse the meaning of the terms used. When we talk about the heart of man we usually mean the affections or emotions, but to the Jew the heart represented the whole spiritual man. We gather from the Old Testament that the heart was the source of all moral action, the source of the affections and purposes, and a symbol even of the mind and the will. The whole moral nature was re- presented by the term. And so St. Paul practically affirms that man believes with the whole of his nature. Not only his intellect and emotions and affections, but the whole nature in all its scope and powers — all are taken up into this " righteousness of faith."