~ived !I €'.6neral enlightenment through the Law . . Not only so, but they believed in their mission; they were t-0 be guides of the blind, lights· to those in darkness, correct-Ors (-•~•I/ff/>') of the foolish, teachers of babes, having at least the form (µ&p,po,rr,11) of knowledge and of truth in the Law. lu short, the Jews set themselves at the head of hum~nity as the qualified lMders and instructors of mnnkind. Now, it ie a great assumption for any men to make. Yet the Jews were not singular in their assumption. It is made daily by men with far less reason, perhaps, than they. The lenders of thought, "the men of light and leading," who profess to know how much is given us to master, and how much remains "unknowable and unknown," must accept of the l'e&'onable judgment of their less pretentious fellows, and, as superior persons, must be amenable to morals. By their fruits we shall know them. By their lives we shall be able to estimate the value of their principles. If they are benefactors of their species, if they promote the real welfare of mankind, well and good, If they are ~ndr:ances, then they cannot resist being condemned. It is this line the apostle adopts m this pa.."S&ge, II. 'l'HE PRETD.'"TIOUS TEACHERS WERE, AS A MATTER OF FACT, THE GREAT HIN- D&ANCE TO THE DISSEMINATION OF DIVINE KNOWLEDGE. (Vers. 21-24.) The first fact Paul dwells on is that these Jews preached too little to themselves. They fell into the error of teaching others what they did not feel inclined to practise themselves. And so he catalogues certain sins of which he knew them to be guilty. It would seem that they st.ole, committed adultery, were guilty in heathen temples of sacrilege, acd, in short, led such unworthy lives as t.o make God's Name a reproach and ground of blasphemy among the Gentiles. The morality of the teachers thus became the great hindrance t.o the acceptance of Divine truth. Now, there can be little doubt that the crimes of professed Christians constitute in heathen lands to-day a chief obstacle to the reception of the gospel ; missionaries meet this difficulty constantly. But we onght t.o apply tbe canon to the pretentious teachers of our time, and it will be found that their lives are morally defective when judged by the standard of the gospel they afiect to despise. The morality of a George Eliot, a G. H. Lewes, or a J. S. Mill, who afiected to be moral teachers of their time, will not bear any very close inspection; and e"en those of the same school, whose lives are outwardly blameless, fall far beneath the self-sacrificing enthusiasm which Christianity fosters, and in multitudes of cases secures. The test is snre and infallible. Men and women that are morally easy-going, that are practically selfish and indifferent iu large degree to the circumstances and suffering of their fellows, are unfit to be the teachers of their generation. .And their teaching is as sure to prove a failure in the end, as the teaching of Judaism was among the Gentiles. III. THE JEWS HAD A FALSE CONFIDENCE IN THE RITE OF OIRCUMCISION. (Ver. 25.) Their notion was that circumcision constituted something like the "hall-mark" on real silver, and distinguished them from all the mere electro-plating of the Gentiles, They thought that immoral conduct could not obliterate the value of the fleshly rite. This is the mistake made by all who lay undue emphasis upon rites and ceremonies, They fancy they have a value altogether independent of moral states and moral living. The apostle has consequently to draw attention to the fact that circumcision only profited one who kept the Law. It was then a sign of the covenant, and was taken along with the perfect obedience to the Law which had been rendered. But if a circum- cised person turned out a Law-breaker, the circumcision really passed into uncircum- cision. In other words, the Jew could break the covenant s~al by breaking the Law of the covenant. This is a very solemn and weighty truth. It has its applic11tion to the covenant signs of the Christian dispensation. It is perfectly possible for persons who have become members of the visible Church, by a course of reckless living to break their covenant sign, and to be in God's sight disfranchised. Let no undue value be assigned to ritai and ceremonies. They cannot be separated from moral states and conditions. IV. 'J.'BE JEWS IGNORED THE l'OS8r:BILITY AND EXI8TENOJII OF THE OIROUIIOISED lN BEA.KT. (Vers. 26-29.) If a. circumcised person may forfeit his position as in covenant with God by breaking the Divine Law, on the other hand, an uncircumcised ptrson, a Gentile, may so keep God's Law as U) be entitled to a position in covenant with him. His uncircumcision in such a Cl\llc, Paul maintains, should be counted or "r<:Ckonoo for circumci.iuu." Here the apo~tle is contending for the admlH8ion of (.it;nti.lt:a w the viMiblt; CJ:uirch without the 11ec1:ssity of circumcision, Many a Gentile, on. m.1-31.] THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 79
like Corneliue, or like the centurion in the Gospels, put to shame the Ieee earnest and Ieee devout Jews. The high morality of such men waa a standing condemnation (1tpwei) of the prctentioue Jew. Accordingly, Paul proceeds to affirm that the circum- cision of the heart, not the mere circumcision of the flesh, is the all-important matter. There is o. circumcision of the heart which checks the unholy tendencies within and secures the reality, of which outward circumcision is but the type. Of it God the Searcher of hearts, is the true Judge. He rejoices in it, and regards those whohave submitted to it as his true people. The circumcised in flesh may secure praise from men, but the circumcised in heart look for approbation to God only. It is for us all to seek the inward and spiritual circumcision, the true sign of membership in Gorl's invisible kingdom.-R. M. E.
EXPOSITION.