the Sn'l'ionr. And !IO we are not only put out of oonoeit with ourselves In oonviotion and convendon, but kept ont of eelf-conoeit by the law of Christian progreee. In this section, as in other portions of bis Epistles, the apostle reVld&ls this law as that of anfagoo_Uffi.; The _impart.ed Spirit proves himself a militant Spirit. The epeoial tendencies m the wild heart. of man are met and controlled by the Holy Spirit and to this ""1lr within the Christi&n has to reconcile himself, In faot, he is not right until this campaign of the Spirit is begun. It will help us to the proper idea to look at the lsw of antagonism as it obtains in the larger sphere of Christianity, To speoial and undesirable t.endencies on the part of men, Christianity will be found to have presented such opposition as proved in due season vict.orious. A few leading illustrations must 511ffice, Take, for example, the case of those rude invaders who broke the power of imperial Rome to pieces. We call them" Vandals." Now, they were wandering soldiers, who loved war, but hared work. They were attached to military chiefs, and so were a constant menace to the peace of Europe. The problem for the Christianity of that early age was how to curb this wandering and idle disposition and settle the nomads in Europe. And the needful ant.agonism was supplied in feudalism, by which the soldien; were transformed into serfs and unit,ed to their chiefs by the mutual ownership of land. And it can be shown that from this feudalism modern patriotism properly so called has sprung. In Greece, for example, in pagan times all that pl!.Bsed for patriotism was lo,e of a ciiy. No man apparently had the comprehensive love which can embrace a whole land. They were Spartans, or Athenians, bnt not patriots in the wider sense. But in the wake of feudalism true patriotism. came, and vast nations were fonned at last who were ready to die for their fatherlands. Thus Christianity antagonized the selfishness which was so rampant in pagan times. But under feudalism aro5e serfdom, which proved to be only a shade better than pagan slavery. How did Christianity antagonize these evils? Now, the necessity for serfs under feudalism and of slavery under pa.,aanism arose from the mischievous and mistaken idea that work is degrading. Christianity, accordingly, in the dark ages, which were not nearly so dark as some men In&ke them,1 set itself to consecrate manual labour by the example of the monks. Devoted men in religious houses made manual labour, agriculture, and work of all kinds a holy thing, and so prepared the way for the industrial movement of later times. Gradually it dawned on the European mind that it is not a noble thing to have nothing in the world to do; that it is not a degrading thing to have to work; end that work ma.y and ought to be a consecrated and noble thing. Having thus ant.agonized the natural indolence of men, Christianity had next to combat his unwill- ingness t.o think for himsel~ and this was through the Reformation of the sixteenth century under Luther. The problem of the sixteenth century was to get men, instead of lea-ring t.o others t.o think out the plan of salvation for them, and as priests to undertake their salvation, to think the question out for themselves, and to have as their Advocate and Mediator the one great High Priest, Christ Jesus. Luther, in hie stirring treatise on the freedom of a Christian man (' Von der Freiheit einer Christen- Menschen '), brought out in his admirable way that every believing Christian is himaelf a priest; and so he enfranchised human minds and gave dignity to the r&ee.1 Now, tbi.s law of antagonism, which-we have seen on the larger scale in Christianity, will be found in individual experience. This is evidently the idea of the present section of the Epistle. And here let ue notice-- I. THE LAW OF Goo PROVING DELIGHTFUL TO THE CONVERTED SOUL. (Vere. 14, 22,). The apostle showa that he had attained to the conviction that " the Law is spiritual ; ' and he could say with simple truth," I delight in the Law of God after the inward man.'' This is a grand attainment. The renewed soul alone can say so, God's Law ill seen to enter into the very secrets of the soul, to discern the desires and motives of the heart, and to fnrnish the perfect standard. It supplies the ideal. Like the copper- plate copy at the bead of the echoolboy's writing-book, God's Law is a perfect ideal set to each struggling soul to stimulate attainment. 'l'he secret of progress in penman- 11hip is in having the perfect copy set, not in having the standard lowered, And so Gvd suPT,lies u11 in his Law with a perfect and ideal standard of attainment, and It
I er. Maitland'& 'Dark AgeA,' ~ - ' Bee ou this intere11ting subject Hebberd's 'Secret of Ohriatlanity,' pauim, OR. vm. 1-89,] THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROM.A.NB. 205