The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 230

HOMILIES BY VARIOUS AUTHORS. Vera. 1-11.-The J°udgme:nt-day, and hO'ID to prepare for it. The apostle apeaks much in the-language of the Law. He himself was not only acquainted with the useful handicraft of tent-making or sail-ma.king, but he was also trained in the profession of the Lo.w-brought up at the feet'.of Ga.maliel. He had a considerable acquaintance, too, with the practice of the law-courts. From the brief references in the Acts of the Apostles to his personal history before his conversion, it would appear as if previous to that time he had been engaged as a public prosecutor of the Christians. .After he beoa.me a Christian, he was frequently called upon, for Christ's sake, to appear at the bar of Jewish and Roman courts of justice. On his first missionary visit to Europe he was dragged before the magistrates at Philippi, and a,,,"'Bin before Gallio at Corinth. Then, again, he stood before the Jewish council at Jerusalem; before Felix, Festus. and Agrippa at Cresarea; and, finally, before Nero himself at Rome. On the present occasion he is writing to residents at Rome. Rome at the time was the metropolis of the world, the centre of the world's legislation. To stand at C&!sar's jud.,,"lllent-seat WB!l to stand before the highest earthly authority then in existence, and t-o be tried by the greatest oode of laws which, with the exception of British law, the world has ever known. The laws of the XII. Tables, as they were called, which were the basis of all the Roman laws, were engraved upon twelve tables of brass, and set up in the comitium, or publio meeting-place, so that every one might be able to read them. Every educated Roman youth learned by heart these XII. Tables. It was to a people thus familil\r with the ideas and the prnotice of courts of justice that Paul, himself a well-trained lawyer, was writing. He keeps before their minds and his own the thought tho.t there is a higher than all human authority; that there is s judgment-seat more terrible than that of Cresl\l'; and that the o-reat concern of every human being is how he or she shall fare in that great dsy of ~eckoning-that day which bulks so largely in St. Paul's mind, whioh stands out so prominently before his mental vision, that he constantly spe1tks of it 1\9 "that day.n It is au iroportant subject, how to pre- tmre for meeting God in the judgment.  THN EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [on, vm, 1-30,