Ill. THE BELmVEB's SUPREME PEBBUABJON. (Vere. 88, 89.) In these verses the apostle exhausts the category and declares hie per~uasion thai not one of the things or persons embraced shall be able to separate the believer from the Divine love. Let 118 glance at them in order. 1. Death shall be no separating power. Bo far from this, the believer is enabled to rejoice in the fact that to die shall be gain; absent from the body, present with the Lord. The king of terrors will only usher the emancipated spirit into the near presence of his Lord. 2. Life shall prove no separating power. Even when it is flowing full and free, with all its garish and distracting shows, it will not be allowed to separate us from the love of Christ. Of the two dangers to our union with Christ, life is greater than death, but not so great as t.o defeat the loving power of J 011118. 3. Angels, principalitia, powers, shall prove no separating power. Thie must refer to the evil angels, to Satan and hie hosts; for the good angels are our helpers (Heb. i. 14). A risen Saviour is more than sufficient to meet and overthrow them all. 4. Things present, appealing to sense, shall also be unable to separate us from Christ's love. They are subtle and powerful foes, yet Christ can vanquish them. He can conquer the inclination to be over-occupied with such things. 5. Things ~ cr,me, appealing to fear, shall be unable to separate us from Christ. No possible combination of circumstances can perplex him. He is more than a match for all. 6. Height, depth, or any other creature, shall likewise be unable to separate us from the Lord's love. Neither space nor time, things physical or things metaphysical, shall be able to endanger our union with Christ.1-R. M. E.
EXPOSITION. CHAPTER IX. the Jews fn general, even more than e.ny others, were now e:ul.uded from thiB inheri- Ver. 1--cb. xi. 36.-2. The present posi- tance? The apostle has e.lresay, even in tion and prospects of the JfflDish nation con- the course of bis argument, po.need to meet sidered. certain supposed difficulties of this kind in Vers. 1-5.-(1) Deep regret e:r,pressedfor the short section, eh. ili 1-8; but now he the present ezclusion of the Jewish nation takes np the whole subject formally, e.nd from inherita111Je of the promises. This sec- considers it in all its bearings. tion is not necessary for the main argument First, in ob. ix.., be expresses his deep of the Epistle, which would have been com- sonow for the fact; but shows it to be not plete without it for e.n exposition of God's incoDl!istent either with God's faithfulness righteousness, eh. xii. following naturally to his promise, or with bis justice, or with the conclusion of oh. viii., and these inter- the Word of prophecy. vening oho.pters having no immediate con- neotion with the preceding or succeeding context. But it was e. subject too deeply Ver. 1.-I say the truth in Christ, I lie fixed in St. Paul's mind to be left un- not, my oonsoienoe e.lso bearing witness with me in the Holy Ghost. For similar noticed. And besides, who.t he ho.d said at solemn asseverations by St. Paul of the truth the beginning of his treo.tiee, and nfterw11rds of what was known to himself a.lone, cf. ah. implied, seemed to oall for some explano.tion i. 9; 2 Cor. xi. 31; Phil i. S ; I Tim. ii. 7. in the faoe of existing facts. For he had said The peculiar solemnity of this may be due (oh. i. 16), tho.t the gospel" was the power to the peculiar depth of his feelings on the subject. It is not necessary to suppose him of God unto so.lvation to every one tho.t to be moved by a fear of his patriotic en- believeth ; to the Jew first, aucl alao to the thusiasm being doubted, now that he he.d Gentile;" and throughout he has regarded it turned Christian, and argued so strongly ns the fulfilment of the peculiar promises ngainst Jewish monopoly of privilege But me.de to the Jews themselves, who were to it may have been so. For the force of I• Xpacrr&, of. 2 Oor. ii. 17; eh. xii. 19; Eph. luwe preoedenoe, though not monopoly, iu iv. 17; 1 Thess. iv. 1. It is not an adjura- the inhoritonoe of its blessings. Bow, thou, tion, but denotes the el,•ment in which he wo.e this view oonsistout with tho foot that moves e.nd speaks. SiUJiltuly, E• lli•v~aT• 1 or. Bauriu's •Sermons,' tome iii. p. 1 THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. [oH, rx.1-33.