ROMANS — 16
242 IN FASHION OR IN FAVOUR
" acceptable," well pleasing (that is, to God) ; and " perfect," that is, ethically adequate or complete.
^ You wish to know what is the will of Grod which you must follow amid the dark perplexities of your life. Well, remember that the will of God is a living will. It develops from age to age. It moves within a world of constantly changing circumstances, and amid conditions which, like man's life upon the earth, never continue in one stay. It is one thing to be sure that Jesus Christ dealt with the various situations that confronted Him with the certain authority of a sovereign conscience. It is quite another to examine His teaching in order to discover a moral code, or a system of casuistry which will apply to every development of social and personal life. There are those who hope to settle each matter that comes to them for decision by opening the sacred volume and accepting the first text on which the eye falls as revealing the Divine Will. There is more reason in this method of consulting the oracles of God than in that attitude towards it, still far too popular, which seems to regard it as a sort of rehgious red book, where precepts of conduct are to be learned as though they were the details of drill. Why, even the old Hebrews were taught that the way in which God reveals His mind to His chil- dren is more intimate and spiritual than this. " The word is nigh thee, in thy mouth, and in thy heart." The Word of God is not graven on stone ; it is written on the tablets of the heart. Not outward conformity to a system, but the inward response to the self-revealing Spirit is that secret of the Lord which is with them that fear Him.^
2. To see the great importance of this declaration let us inquire, in the first place, what it implies. Now it implies two things.
(1) Our salvation is the will of God. — It is the will of God that we should be good, and holy, and acceptable in His sight ; that (to gather all into one word) we should be saved ; and that, if we are not saved, it is not because it is God's will to leave us to perish, but in spite of God's will, which would have us saved.
^ The will of God is not an eccentric will, like that of His wayward creatures, neither is it an arbitrary will, the will of one who is merely All-Power ; but it is the will of Him who is Holiness, Wisdom, and Love, just as much as Power. When, therefore, He wills our salvation. He wills it in a certain way : in the way of truth, and wisdom, and love. He wills, that is, first,
^ J. G. Simpson.
ROMANS XII. 2 243
that we should truly be ; that we should be not mere machines through which He works, but reasonalDle beings — beings who can choose ; who can love Him ; who can return love for love.^
^ He told me that in the loneliness of his own room he had been thinking of his sinful and wretched life, and feeling how impossible it was for him ever to be a difierent man, when all of a sudden, just like a voice in his soul, he heard the announcement that Christ alone can take a\yay the sins of a man. In a flash he saw that he had nothing to do but surrender; that he was not to strive, but to be grateful ; that God was only asking him to believe, not to struggle, not to build up the ruins of his life. " I simply gave myself to God," he said quietly. " I don't know how else to put it. I surrendered, laid down my arms, and felt all through my soul that I was pardoned and restored." That is nine years ago. For nine years this man has not only been immune from drink, has not only made a comfortable home for his children, has not only been a first-rate workman and a good citizen, but throughout those nine years he has been, in Sister Agatha's phrase, "a worker for Christ, beloved by all, and a hiding-place for many." If you could see the brightness of his face and feel the overflowing happiness of his heart, you would better reaKze the miracle of conversion. The man is a. living
joy-'
(2) It is given to us to make trial of this will of God — to experience it; to prove it; to find it working in us; to know that it is real, by its life within ourselves. This Will of God is on our side ; it is not in word and by accommodation, but indeed true, that He would have us perfect, acceptable, and blessed ; and if we wiU but seek to be renewed, we shall know that all this is indeed so, by His blessed power day by day renewing us ourselves.
^ The primary meaning of the word " prove " in our text is to recognize, discern, discriminate. Hence we find that to come thus into affinity with God is to evolve an organ of spiritual consciousness. We cannot even know one another except through aflanity. This is everywhere the key to intimacy with a person. It is this that conducts us behind the veil, and admits us to the adytum — the holy place of personality which is screened from the common gaze. The same law holds for the Divine. Love and loyalty and likeness to God will admit us to the secret place of His will. " The secret of the Lord is with them that fear him." ^