The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 257

to intercept the love of Christ are reltemted and prolonged. The words that follow e.re not empty terms, not visions of the night, but stern foes, combatants to be encountered by day. II. THE OONFIDE}."T BEPLY. The apostle answers his own query, Look at the particular things enumerated, and then appreciate the apostolic assuranoe. 1. The tria)s of life cannot defeat the purposes. of Christ's love. "Tribulation ancruisb, famine, nakedness," though they may becloud our path and awaken o. bitt:r cry, yet, inst.ead of being regarded as indications of abandonment, e.re rather signs of the pro,idential discipline which perfects sanctification. The good Shepherd is moved to greater compassion at the sight of the wounds of his dock. 2. The hostility of an uflhelieving world cannot dissolve this union. "Persecution, peril, e.nd the sword " do but liken the servant to the Master. Piety has thriven most in clays of ridicule and torment. Christian heroism cheerfully underwent the loss of goods, stripes, and imprisonment; it converted jails into holy fanes resounding with praise and prayer. " In that he suffered being tempted," he has proved himself "able to succour those that are tempted." 3. The apostle a,dva,nces in his enumeration. Neither "death," however grim its aspect, nor" life," with its snares and bewitchments, its competitions, its trifles, can succeed in detaching the pilgrim from the protecting love of his Guide, Nor can the ranged battalions of evil win the victory. Christ triumphed over them, and,conquers still. 4. So.finally the apostk sums up in the emphatic comprehensive assertion that neither the forces of time, "things present and to come," nor the forces of space, "height and depth," bewildering the imagination or depressing the soul, no, "nor any other creat.ed thing," above or below, personal or impersonal, animate or inanimate, known or unknown, shall defeat the loving purpose of Christ in the salvation of his people. "Many waters cannot drown his love, nor the floods quench it." m Tms C01'"""FIDENCE JUSTIFIAllLE. 1. The dignity of Christ's Person and the perfection of his charaaer f<fT'bidfear. His love falters not, is not fickle; it waxes, but never wa.nes. He does not undertake what he cannot accomplish, nor begin what is beyond his power to finish. The foes to our salvation were foreseen and measured from the first. To doubt it is to dishonour him. 2. The who"le trend of the redemptive scherM is against any supposition of abandonment by Christ. How infinite the price already paid I how steadily and surely the great design of salvation has marched through the ages, developing ever deeper wisdom and unfailing resources! We might wonder that man had not been left to himself in his rebellion and a new race created; but man's elevation having been promised and begun, every indication points to the ultimate fulfilment of our purest and brightest hopes. 3. Inn'll/fll,erable biographies amjirm (M apostles d,ecl,aration. May our life add another testimony I Look at the forces opposed to our steadfastness, and then, like Peter, we lose heart and begin to sink. Fix the gaze upon Christ, and our cheerful courage, our triYmphant conviction of his unshakable love, will of itself lend such vigour to our loyalty that every eppre- hension of disaster shall vani.sh.-8. R. .A. Vere. 1-11.-" Paradise regained." The last chapter, after bringing out the insufficiency of Law to sanctify, ends by declaring tbe sufficiency of Christ. Through him as our Deliverer from the body of death, we are enabled to enter upon an experience whi~h has been rightly denominated " Paradise regained." 1 In the first section, which we are now to consider, we have the victory set before us which the Holy Spirit secures over sin and over death. L TBE SPIBIT OF CmusT ESTABLISHES THE SOUL IN HOLINESS. (Vers. 1--4.) After what has been stated in eh. vii, it is seen that "there is not now any condemnation to them that are in Christ Jesus." The soul has died to Law in the death of Jesus Christ and, now risen, is married to another, even the risen Christ. And this better Huem'nd has put the soul under another and better law of life, what is called ln this passage "the law of the Spirit of life," and we are enabled by Paul's statements to see how it operates. And here it is well to premise that law and Spirit are not antitheses. The Spirit has, in fact, hie Jaw of operation, and it is this we have h~re set before us. 1. The Spirit emancipafa the soul from the law of sin. Law, that 1s, the Law of Moses, could never do tbis. It was weak through the flesh, and had not tho 1 Of. De Rouremont'1 'La Vie Humaine avec et saus Fol.' p. 164. 11n, vm, l--89,] THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 265