Certainly, if any one might reasonably give way to shame, Paul might, when he contemplated the preach- ing of the Gospel at Rome. For as Rome was the seat of wealth and science, the preaching of the cross was likely to be peculiarly offensive to them, inas- much as it poured contempt on all that was valued there, and required that they should place all their hopes for time and eternity on a poor despised Jew, who had suffered the most ignominious of all deaths from the hands of his own countrymen. But Paul was not ashamed of the Gospel ; nor had he any real reason to be so : for,
1. It is a revelation of God's grace to man —
[A wonderful mystery it is; a mystery which all "the angels of heaven desire to look into," and which, as an ex- pression of God's good-will to man, brings the highest possible glory to God himself. In it a way of salvation is provided for fallen man ; a way exactly suited to man's necessities, and at the same time displaying in perfect harmony all the perfec- tions of the Godhead. It exhibits the Father sending his only dear Son to take upon him our nature, and to " bear our sins in his own body on the tree." It represents the co-equal, co- eternal Son of God actually fulfilling that very office, and " reconciling us to God by his own blood." It sets forth also the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the ever blessed Trinity, undertaking to apply that salvation to the souls of men, and by his almighty power to render them " meet for the inhe- ritance" prepared for them.
Now I would ask, What is here to be ashamed of? Is that, in which all " the wisdom of God, and the power of God," are concentrated and displayed", an object which we should blush to acknowledge and confess ? Is that, which is the one theme of adoration and thanksgiving to all the hosts of heaven, fit to be disowned by man on earth, so that the very mention of it shall suffuse his face with shame? Shall sin, in all its varied forms, stalk abroad with unblushing effrontery, and this glo- rious mystery be veiled for fear of man's reproach ? Abhorred be the thought ! Let the man that has ever been ashamed of the Gospel, be ashamed of his own extreme folly and impiety : and let that which is so glorious in the eyes of all the hea- venly hosts, be henceforth glorious in our eyes ; and let us " count all things but loss for the excellency of the knowledge of it*."]
« 1 Cor. i. 24. x Phil. hi. 8.