The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 74

they do not want to have H while they live, yet, recognizing tbe importance of eternity o.nd the judgment, they wo.nt to have it before they die. Hence men who never think of religion in their hours of health and activity, will send for tbe minister when they o.re on a bed of sickness. Hence you have such cases as that of the great Emperor Oharlee V. of Germany, who had been a man of war and restless ambition almost all hie days, retiring into a convent for the closing years of hie life, and seeking within its cloistered walls that preparation for eternity which he had so long put off. But we want a religion not merely to die with, but to live by. After all, it ia but a poor religion which a man puts on as if it were to be bis shroud. What, then, is true religion? Where is it to be found? The answers are BO various and BO contradictory as to perplex the earnest seeker after truth. Old ecclesiastical systems contend that theirs, and theirs only, is the true religion, and in consequence of that belief, and in order to make others conform to it, they have persecuted, and imprisoned, and tortured, and burned those who differed from them. Then, in our own day, we have little com- panies of sincere and well-meaning people breaking away from all existing Churches, claiming for themselves that theirs only is the true religion, and excommunicating all others. But we come here as immortal souls, seeking after truth, and we turn from all human answers on the question of religion to the one infallible guide of faith and practice-the Word of God. That Word is the lamp to our feet, and the light to our path. I come, then, to this Divine Word; I come to the Father of my spirit; I come to Jesus, the Saviour and the Teacher of the world; I come to the Spirit of truth; and, as a humble and unworthy sinner, I ask this question- Wnat is true religion 1 The answer to that question is given by the apostle in the verses now before WL I. WHAT TBUE RELIGION IS NOT, 1. True religion is not observance of tM aacra- ments. "What I " some one may say, "you tell us that the sacraments are of Divine appointment, that a sacrament is a holy ordinance instituted by Christ, and yet yon tell us that religion does not consist in the observance of the sacraments!" Even so. Christ instituted the sacraments. But what for? .As a means to an end. .As the symbols, the outward signs, of spiritual truths. They are helps to religion. They teach us the foundation of all true religion-the death, the sufferings, the cross of Christ, as set forth in the Lord's Supper. They teach us the meaning of true religion-the cleansing and ptuity and change of heart, as set forth in the sacrament of baptism. But they are not in themselves true religion. If they were, would not more stress be laid upon them? St. Paul says here, " Circumcision verily profiteth, if thou keep the Law " (ver. 25); and again, "Neither is that circumcision, which is outward in the flesh" (ver'. 28). The outward ordiuance, though it signified, did not create or canse :i. change of heart. Observe the attitude of our Saviour himself towards the sacraments. We read that "Jesus himself baptized not, but his disciples" (John iv. 2). If the sacrament of baptism had such regenerating power as is attributed to it, the Saviour would surely have used it on every possible occasion. We may notice also how St. Paul speaks of baptism in the first chapter of 1 Corinthians. " I thank God that I ba.ptized none of you, but Crispus and Gaius; lest any should say that I had baptized in my own name. And I baptized also the household of Stephanas : besides. I know not whether I baptized any other. ~'or Christ sent me not to baptise, but to preach the gospel." St. Paul did not think that religion consisted in the observance of the sacraments, or be would have put the sacraments in the very forefront of his work. Yet how many are resting entirely on the saoraments I They have been baptized. They have been regular communicants at the Lord's table, and therefore they think they llI'6 Christiane. Ah I religion is something more than this. The sacraments will not save our souls. We need something more than the observance of sacraments, if we are to enter into the kingdom of God. 2. Religion does nol consist in CM o ~ of any outward forms. "He is not a Jew, who is one outwardly" (ver. 28). In the verses from the seventeenth to the twenty-fourth, the apostle shows how many who are called Jews, and make thoir boast in the Law, are among the chief transgressors of the Law. Through breaking the Law they had dishonoured God; so much so, that the Nam.i of God was blaspbernod among tho Gentiles by reason of their cond.uct (v~rs. :!3, :?!). Alt.hon~h St. Po.u 1 wns n Jew himself, he was a candid aud impartial observer of bum,\n lifo, 1111ct ho found tlrnt Jews, like other men, were guilty of dishonesty and impurity and other sins, They had tho Law, but instead of living up to it, they trusted to the SS THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [orr. n. 1-29,