The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 235

tAat makes a1J life 'happy and blessed. Love to God sweetens every bitter cup, and light.en& every heary burden. For if we love him, we must know him, we must trust him. That is the threefold cord that binds the Christian unto God, and that keeps him safr• in all the changes and cil'('um~t.Rnces of life. In order to love God, we must know him and trust him. This knowledge and this trust can only come by the study of God's Word. This love can only come from a heart that has experienced the regenerating power of the Holy Spirit. The natural man is enmity against God. Cul- ti=te the love of God if you would hR.ve light for the dark places of life, if you would ha,e strength for its hours of weakness, and comfort for its hours of trial and sorrow. Then you will experience that "&11 things work together for good to them that love God."-C. H. I. '\"ers. 31---39.-The tJf'l.t!e'l'tainties and certainties of a new year: a new year'• sermon. St. Paul wns no narrow dogmatist. He was a man of profound sympathy and charity even for those from whom he differed. Yet there are some strong asser- tions in his writings. Nowadays it is almost considered a virtue to be in doubt, and a rash presumption to be sure of anything. In the revolt from superstition, men have gone into an unbelief that almost amounts to a superstition in itself. There was no superstition about St. Paul. He was a man of thoughtful m:nd, of wise judgment. But he did not think it either presumption or dogmatism to be firmly persuaded and convinced of certain things. It is no dogmatism to assert that the sun is shining, when its warm bright rays are flashing down upon us and around us. It is no dogmatism to assert the existence of frost, when the earth grows hard beneath its grasp, and we feel its icy breath upon our faces and in our throats. With all the uncertainties and unrealities of life, there is such a thing as certainty and truth. To St. Paul the love ef Christ was such a certainty. He had felt it, not as the frost, but as the warm sun- shine in his heart. He had yielded himself to its influence, till it became to him what the steam is to the steam-engine, till he could say, "The love of Christ con- straineth me ; " or again, "I live ; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me." There are few finer or more complete pictures of that love and its power than this eighth chapter of Romans present.s to us. Here St. Paul shows us the Christian, under the influence of that love, gaining the victory over sin and temptation, glorying in tribulation, receiving the Spirit of adoption, standing fearlessly before the judgment-seat in the irresistible conviction that he is a child of God, shielded and strengthened by the love of Christ ; and, as he gazes from point to point, from time to eternity, and sees the Christian secnre and safe at every point, his conviction, his rapture, increase in intensity till they carry him away in that grand ontburst, "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? . . . For I am persuaded, that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- cipalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ J eiru.s our Lord." Here are the uncertainties and the certainties of life con- trasted. L THE UliCEBTAINTIEB OF A NEW YEAB. 1. The new year may be a time of pros- perity. If it is God's will to give ns worldly prosperity and wealth, let us pray for grace and wisdom to 1188 them aright. Prosperity has its dangers. It comes in as e. aeparating barrier between the soul and God. Our Saviour, in one of his parables, speaks of the deceitfulness of riches, and tellii us that, along with the cares of this world., it is like thorns that choke the good seed of Divine truth, so that it becomes unfruitful Let not riches "separat.e us from the love of Christ," 2. The new year may be a time of trial. St. Paul felt convinced that no trials could separe.te him from that wondrous love. "Shall tribule.tion, or distress, or persecution, or fa.mine, or naked- ness, or peril, or sword? . . . Nay, in &11 these things we are more than conquerors through him that loved us" (vers. 35, 37). No trial, or the prospect of it, brings diamay or terror to 'the e.postle's bee.rt. " Come one, come all I W. rook shall ily From it.II 1bm bue as soon as I." Oonquerol'II I Yes, and more than conquerors of our trio.la! Wo do more than van. qaiah them. We tllrII t.hem, or rather the love of Christ turD.s them for us, into our ott. VIn. 1-39.J 'rHE EPIS'l'LE OF PAtJL rro 'tlIE ROMANS.