The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 97

In o.ccopting o.s scientific truthR what very often are pure speculations. If there is weakness anywhere, it would seem to be in disregarding the ~idence in nature that points to o. greo.t persono.l and inte1ligent First Cause, or the evidence in history that point• to a wise nod overruling Providence. "The fool bath said in bit, heart, There is no God." It is sin, o.nd not godliness, that is the evidence of a weak and depraved unrlorstnnding. III. A DEPRAVED WILL, "There is none that eeeketh aftu God" (ver. 11). Nowhere is the depravity of human nature more painfully shown than in the exercise of the human will. How many deliberately choose evil rather than good I How many, with the experience of others to warn them, deliberately choose impurity rather than purity, intemperance rather than temperance I Life and death are put before them, yet they deliberately choose death. 'l'bey reject the highest ideal of character, and follow poor and weak and wicked examples. 'fhey reject the inspiring hope of heaven and immortality, and only live for worldly pleasure or for worldly gain. They reject the fountain of living water, and seek out for themselves broken cisterns that can hold no water. To all such God appeals, in mercy, to make a. right exercise of their wilL "Turn ye, turn ye; for why will ye die?" IV. DEPRAVED SPEECH. 1. Untruthfulness. "With their tongue. they have nsed deceit" (ver. 13). Truth is essential to the well-being and happiness of society, to the very existence of commercial dealings. Yet how many there are who "use deceit• as a means of obtaining advantage or profit in hasineSl!, as a means of obtaining some desirable object of their ambition! We have society deceitfulness, commercial deceit- fulness, political deceitfulness. Against all such deceit the Bible sets itself. "Where- fore putting away lying, speak every man truth with his neighbour; for we are members one of another." 2. Slander. "The poison of asps is under their lips" (ver.13). The sin of evil-speaking is a very widespread one, and it hardly receives sufficient dis- couragement from Christian people. Men and women who would shrink from doing their neighbour a bodily injury, who would be shocked at the idea of taking his property dishonestly, think it no harm to injure his character and reputation. "The poison of asps is under their lips." "0 my soul, come not thou into their secret; unto their assembly, mine honour, be not thou united." 3. Profanity. "Whose mouth is full of cursing" (ver. 14). Here is a widespread evil of the present day. Everywhere one bee.re the profane use of the sacred Name. Just as the suicide act.a "As if the Everlasting had not fixed His oanon 'go.inst self-slaughter," the profane person nets as if it had not been written with the finger of God, "The Lord will not hold him guiltless that taketh his Name in vain." V. DEPRAVED LIFE. "Their feet are swi~ to shed blood: destruction and misery are in their ways: and the way of peace have they not known" (vers. 15-17). What a sad but true description of human life in its unregenerate and unchristianized con- dition I It is but the ordinary picture of what heathen nations were before the gospel entered into them. And where large communities throw off the restraints of religion, is it not what may be witnessed still, even in professedly Christian nations? Where there is no fear of the Law of God, there will be little fear of the law of man. Let the heart and conscience be godless ; let the reason and understanding fail to respond to the claims of the Divine Being and of his moral Law; let the will cease to be influenced by heavenly and upward motives; let men in their common speech be accustomed to speak lightly of sacred things and of their neighbour's character and reputation; and the step is but a short one to the disregard of human life and the disregard of human virtue. The nation that ceases to be influenced by the fear of God has entered on the broad way to its own corruption and decay.-O. H. I. Vere. 21-26.-" No difference." The Bible presents us with three pictures of man's condition and oharo.oter. They are very different, and yet they are all true pictures. There is the pioturo of man before the Fall, ll.'l he walked with God in primeval innocence of heart and sinless purity of life. There is the picture of man after the Fall, with the Divine imnge marred nnd stnined by sin. And then there is the picture of man renewed agnin-man o.n object of Divine mercy, man a subject of Divine grace, ma.n prepared  91 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [CH, m, 1-81.