The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 181

destroy tho ephemeral life of e. moth, hut to restore it is beyond human skill. The dis-- ciplos were assured of eternal life, yet they died; consequently the life they received was not to be measured in ordinary scales, nor to be probed by a material dissectin"' knife. Eternal life is a different kind of life from mere transitory existence; it passe'; unharmed through the crucible of animal death, for spiritual powers are untouched by earthly decay an<l corruption, Eternal life means the quickening of the moral nature its resuscitation from the sleep of trespasses and sins, And as ordinary life in i~ fulness involves freedom from pain and sickness, and a vigorous activity, so spiritual life, when fully realized, implies peace of mind and the power to do right. They are feeble Christians who do not know the joyous energy of children "with quicksilver in their veins," delighting to exercise their limbs and thus to develop their gro1vin"' 0 faculties. II. THIS BLESSmG RE0EIVED AS A GIFT. By a sinful course of action we merit death, as a soldier by his service earns his rations and his pay. We disobey the Law, and bring the sentence upon ourselves. But we have no power availaJ>le to procure for ourselves acquittal and favour. Much as the youth joys to see bis first-earned sovereign glittering in his palm, he could take no delight in the stripes which his disobedience brings upon him. Human weakness has been provided for in God's plan of salvation. He who breathed natural life into man coines again graciously to inspire his creatures with spiritual life. God knows the needs of his creatures, and the gift is pre-eminently suitable. The Romans loved the games of the amphitheatre; but when famine threatened the city, the curses were loud and deep against Nero because the Alexandrian ships expected with corn arrived instead with sand for the arena. And men like a beautiful present; let us not, therefore, hang ha.ck from accepting the royal bounty so adapted to our wants. Treat the gift with care, prize and use the treasure. III. THE BEABER OF THE GIFT. It comes "through Jesus Christ otlI Lord." He is the Channel through which new life streams into us, the envelope containing the promise of life. Life in the abstract we cannot comprehend; it is ever connected with some person or organism. " In him was life;" " Your life is hid with Christ in God." Life has been scientifically declared to consist in the harmonizing of our external and internal conditions. The chief condition on our part is sinfulness, on God's part righteousness; and it is Christ who reconciles us unto God, putting away sin by the cross, and investing us with the righteousness of the Holy One. In his words, example, and offices we find all help and blessedness. As the navigator pasl!ing through the Straits of Magellan into the Pacific connected its tranquillity with the southern cross gleaming in the sky above, so can we rejoice in the peace which Christ brings. It is not a creed we are invited to accept, but a living Person, with whom we may hold converse, and be instructed in perplexity and cheered when despondent. We have this earthly life as the period and opportunity of" laying hold on eternal life."--S. R. A. Vera. 1-11.-Justijication securing sanctification. St. Paul has been speaking in the previous paragraph of "grace abounding," and a very natural insinuation might be made that continuance, permcment abiding, in sin would be the condition of the most abounding grace. If, therefore, our pardon I\Ild acceptance are secured through Christ's obedience unto death, what motive can the justified have in warring with sin? Why not sin up to our bent, that grace may abound? It is this immoral insinuation that the apostle combats, and combats successfully, in the present section. He does so by bringing out the full significnnce of Christ's death to the believer. Now, the peculiar beauty of our Lord's history lies in this, that, as Pascal long a.,<10 pointed out, it may have, o.nd is intended to have, its reproduction in the experience of the soul. 'fhe salient facts of Christ's history-for example, his death, burial, and resurrection- get copied into the experience of the regenerated soul. The a_postle had e.xperienced this himself. At Dame.sous be had experienced (1) a burial ol the past; (2) t\ resur- rection into a new lifo; (3) a walking in newness of life.l This he believes to be the norm11l experience of the believer in Jesus, Let us see how these facts of Christ's history, death, burial, I\Iln resurrection, get duplicated in our experience. I. Oun DAl'TIBM INTO CURIBT IMPLIES A DAPTIBJI INTO HIS DEATH. The apostle 1 Of. Rouguipont'11 'La Vie Humaine,' pp. 88-9~ 178 THE EPISTLE ()]' PAUL TO 'l'RE ROMANS. [on. v1. 1-98,