The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 220

.APPLIOATION, 1. Let the Christian rest in no inferior view of his position• f0r this assure.nee of liberty is one which every believer in the Lord Jesus is invited and ie warranted to take to himself, 2. Let those who are under condemnation by reason 0( ein remember tho.t there is one way of escape and acquittal, and only one• and let this be sought and found without delay. ' Ver. 2.-"The Spirit of life." What interest we always feel in life! Amon"' thin"3 earthly, the main distinction, to our minds, is that between the living and the°Jifele~. Among the snows of Alpine heights, the blue gentian flower is welc,,me to the eye of the mountaineer. Amid the hot wastes of the sandy deserts, sweet is the oasis of green shrubs and shady palm trees which spring up around the solitary fonntain. 'rhe child loves to watch the butterfly fluttering from bush to bush, the lizard peeping out and darting in among the heather and the ling of the common, the dragc,n-fly weavin?" its graceful dances over the sunny waters of the secluded pool Who does not find a calm delight in marking the grayling leap from the silvery brook, the heron lift itself in slow flight from the reedy banks of the tidal river, the hawk circle in the blue sky, the antlered deer bound into the lake and fleet through the glades of the forest? Amidst the loneliness of the ocean, what a relief to the mariner to witness the gambol of the sea-monster, or even to hear the cry of the wild storm-bird! .And, to the thoughtful mind, how far deeper the interest felt in the more complex, the ID.ore varied-the moral-life of men I Whether in the mountain or the plain, by the sea, in the well-tilled fields, or in the busy city where myriads throng and jostle, where,er human life meets the eye and ear, we feel ourselves in the presence of God's greatest works. Here is the spiritual realm ; here the moral conflict ; here the probation, the discipline, which regard eternity. For the interest of the life of man lies not in its picturesque or its pathetic aspect, but in the working of great principles, to i!sues dear to the very heart of God. The life of the body engrosses indeed much of men's energies and cares. Yet we all feel that it is the higher life-the soul-life-that is of supreme moment and deathless interest to man. There is a life of the spirit, which multitudes may disregard, but which to the Creator, and to all enlightened minds, seems the one great end for which worlds were made and man was fashioned. It is the office of religion to summon men's attention to this life, precious, beautiful, and immortal; to tell men that, unless they live this life, they live in vain; to assure them that the privileges and the probat-ion of earth have a view to this higher conscious, spiritual existence and growth. And Christianity comes to men, telling them of a Divine Saviour, in whom "was life,n and who ea.me "that we might ha,e life, and that we might have it more abundantly ; " telling them of a. spiritual agency provided by God to awaken them from the death of sin unto the life of righteousness; telling them of the presence a.nd the power among men of "the Spirit of life." It is the spiritual life, enkindled and sustained by this Divine Spirit, which is the aim and the reward of a Father's pity and a Saviour's love. Contra.sting with that death from which it is a deliverance, it is a preparation for that eternity which is the inlini,e scope for its development. Consisting in the exercise and growth of the highest o.nd noblest powers with which the Creator has endowed mankind, amidst the circumstances which Providence has arranged for their manifestation, it brings the dependent being to she.re the Divine nature, and fits it to inherit the heavenly kingdom, I. THE APOSTLE SPEAKS OJ.I' THE LIVmG SPmIT-the Spirit in whom is IUe. G..xl is spoken of in tho Scriptures as" the living God." The Holy Spirit is a Ii dug A.geut; not moroly conscious, but energetio. Ho hns knowledge: "The thiugs c1f Gc,d kn0wet h no mnn, but the Spirit of God." He works the work of God iu the lll:\teri:u w0rld: "By his Spirit God hnth garnished the heavens;" "'l'hou sendest forth thy Spirit; they are orcated." Ho is the Author of our conscious being: "The Spirit of God hath made me, nnd tho breath of the Almighty hl\th given me life." Ho is tho uuh·crs,u Presence of omniscient Doit.y: ",Vhithor shnll I go from thy Spirit?" He is t!:o 11owor thnt rniscd tho Uodcmnor, who was "put to dc:,th in the tksh, \,ut qui.:kenc,l by the Spirit." He is tho Diviuo Force of lifo to Christ's t~•llc1wtirs: "n~ that r:11s,cl up Christ from tho dcnd shnll nlso quickou your nwrt:1l b,,di,,s, by his Spirit ti1:\t dwclloth in you." In eo muoh of uaturo 119 fa ncccssibl,, to our l'bs,,rrnthm, lif.:i sprini;s 218 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO 'l'HE ROMANS. °[en, vm. 1-30.