hBve their recognized connection with the Hindoo temples. The m0ment mnn b~gin, to wornbip the man of genius and of passion, or begins to worship the ],,w0 r cr8a.tion os if endowed with independent attributes, by a natnral law he becomes ]r,wered in th;, scalo of being. "They that make them ( i.e. 'idols'] are like unto them • S0 is every one that trusteth in them" (Pa. cxv. 8). They dishonour themselves through licentious- ness after having dishonoured God by their ideas about divinities. 2. Bin tends fftill further to bec,me wnnatwral. (Vera. 26, 27.) In one respect, indeed,all sin is unnatural; 1 its ultimate issue is against nature. It becomes a mystery how minds get infatuated with it (Jer. ii. 12, 13). But what Paul brings out here is the outrageoll8 lenuths to which unrestrained licentiousness will go. When the sinner takes rope eno;uh, he 0 goes, as the apostle here shows, to the most debasing and disgusting lengths, beinc, worse in this matter of Inst than the beasts that perish. 3. Sinners tend still furt,;;. to be reprobate and reckless. (V ers. 2S--81.) The point of the Greek is very b€1!.utiful in ver. 28. It might be rendered thus: "And even as they reprobated (oil" iB01<[µ,,,ra,,) the idea of having God in their knowledge, God gave them over to a reprobate (a.361C1µov) mind," etc. The judicial element in the reprobate condition is strictly retributive. Since they will have nothing to do with God even in idea., he must reti1m their indignity and permit them to pass into the reprobate condition, i.e. the condition which he can- not approve of, but must loathe with his whole soul. The terrible catalogue need not be taken up in detail. It is headed by the generic term "unrighteousness" (&s,,.fa), indicating that the spirit of injustice pervades the whole. Society is going morally to pieces. And there can be no doubt about the truth of the dark picture in Greece, in Rome, and in other heathen lands. But then the sinners become reckless as well as reprobate. Even with the fate of others staring them in the face, they continue their desperate game, and despise the consequences. 2 III. JN THIS DEGRADATION WE MAY RECOGNIZE A REVELATION OF Drvn."E WRA.TH. This is the point of the passage. God is angry with the heathen who so degrade him in their thoughts, and all their inconvenient sin is his judgment against them. Pa.n.l does not assert the sufficiency or finality of present judgment, but simply asks us to recognize it as clearly from God. It comes about according to natural law, but it is not on that account any the less the sentence of the Lord who ordereth all. Sinners go from bad to worse. They are punished through their sins; these sins are not self- reformatory,8 but manifestly judicial. It is a vast subject, that of the Divine wrath; we do not understand it in its vast proportions doubtless; we may well exclaim with Moses, "Who knoweth the power of thine anger?" yet of its reality no impartial observer of man's sins and their consequences can be in doubt.' IV. THE HEATHEN DESERVE TO SUFFER THROUGH TREIB SINS BECA.USE OF THEIR MISUSE OF THE LIGHT OF NA.TUBE, (Vers. 18-20.) Now, what does Paul mean by saying they a.re inexcusable? Not certainly that "the light of nature" is sufficient for salvation, if properly used. But simply that with "the light of nature" they have no excuse for such a degradation of God, and deserve to suffer for it. What, then, does nature teach us regarding God? Now, if you observe the accuracy of the apostle's position, you will find him dividing this revelation about God into two parts-the revelBtion in our own human nature (ver. 19), and the revelation in the natural 'll""L,rld without (ver. 20). And he maintains the.t God has been speaking to us by both. Now, when I look within and analyze myself, I am conscious of the light of intelli;;ence and of conscience. Humn.n nature is certain of possessing these, if there is such a thing e.e certainty at all. When, then, human nature begins tho study of nature, it expects to find in nature the expression of thoughts like its own. As it has been very accurately said, " God utters hie mind in his works, and that mind is like our own. In fact, science would be impossible if it were not so. Science is the obserntiL'U and interpretation of nature by man. Clearly the world's Maker and the world's observer must have something in common, if the observer is to understand the Maker's meaning. A world put together by a Being utterly unlike me, whose notions of truth, of 1.1tility, of purpose, of beauty, bore no mBnner of relation to mine at nil, would be a we-rid I 1 Of. Woolsey's 'Rollgion of the Present n.nd the Future,' p. 87, eto. • On vor. 811, see n ohamoteristio sormon or Dr. South's, 5th folio edit., voL L p. 2~ • Of. Ian. i. 6, and Dr. Woolsoy's sormon upon i~ eit s11pro, p. 102. • Of. Dr. Dykes' • Sermons,' p. 20~. UOMANB, F 50 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL 'l'O 'l'HE ROMANS. [oH. n. 1-29.
could n<>ver understand, and could take no ple&sure "WhRtevor in enmining. It would be a chno.s 'l'rhere _I should fail !o trace eit,ber method or me~ning. But the re&l world we know. !1(18rch 1t at wh&t pomt you ple.'\Se, answers the mtellectmr.l demands of its hum&n i,tudent; it satisfies the re&Son and it gratifies the taste of its human observer. In it a man detecb! with joy another mind at work similar in its great features to his 0wn ; and this is at bott-0111, I expect, the secret of its fascination." l Let us, then, take up nature in this way, and we shall find it conveying to us clear evidenoe of God's '.' e~ernal power and Di~nity." The world without and within witnesses to his power; 1t 1s an effect, &nd he 1s the first and eternal Cause. We also attribute to him those qualitie~ by virtue of which he has become Creator of such a world; we grasp the idea of his Divinity (cf. Godet, '" loo.). In degenerating into their polytheisms, therefore, the heathen were misusing " the light of nature." Their degradation was quite inexcusable. They de.served the wrath to which God subjected them. V. WE OUGHT TO 00~--SIDER OUR GREATER RESPONSIBil.ITY tn.'DER THE LIGll'l' OJ!' OUR GB.RATER RETisLATION. God has added to the light of nature. He has given us the Bible. Our conceptions of God should be correspondingly elevated. But oh I if, not- withst.anding all this light, we degrade God in our thoughts and descend to real idolatry, the idolatry of money, of ambition, of success, our judgment must be intensified in comparison with that of the pagans. In particular, let us remember how God has assumed human form in the Person of Jesus Christ, and so enabled us to know him through the mild radiance of a perfect life. Let such a revelation have its full effect upon us, leaaing us to love God and worship him and serve him with our whole hearts. Jesus becomes the great Iconoclast, and before him every Dagon falls.-R. M. E.