The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 368

for tbl' ~x-isl influence of Christ.ians being felt by all around. .Not merely within the i'aie ?f Christian socil'ty, not merely amongst personal friends nnd aasociatee, but iu tbl' sight of all men, uprightness and honour should express the po,ver of religion, The advantages accruing to the world in consequence of such a practice 118 is here commended are manifest. The credit of religion will be promoted, and the favour of men conciliated towards doctrines so fruitfol of good works. Ohristio.nity and mor&lity will nppear as twin sisters, bringing congenial blessings to an ignorant and misguided world. IL PEACEABLENESS. The New Testament makes it evident that the intl'oduction of peace t-0 a; distracted and discordant humanity was one of the great ends of Christianity. Christ is the "Prince of peace;" his coming was the advent of peace; his kingdom is the reign of peace. From enjoyment of peace with God, and of peace of conscience within, the Christian passes to a wider sphere; cultivates peace as a mark of the Divine presence within the Church, and seeks its diffusion throughout human rociety generally. Amongst Christians there should prevail mutual forbeamnce, Eympathy, and co-operation. But in saying this we do not exhaust the reference of this passage.. "All men " are contemplated by the inspired writer. Men of all stations -superiors, eqnals, and inferiors; men of all characters-the litigious and quarrelsome as well as the meek and yielding-are all to be treated in the distinctively Christian temper. Sometimes opinions and interests conflict, sometimes natural temperaments differ; still the peace is t-0 be maintained. Yet the apostle, who was both a reasonable man, and a man who had large experience of life, mentions a condition. It may not always be possible t.o live peaceably. But the impossibility must not be upon our part; we must not make snch excuses as, "I could not keep my temper;" "I could not treat such and such a person with my usual self-possession." But there will sometimes arise an impossibility on the part of others. The enemies of religion may resolve upon breaking the peace I persecutors may rage and imagine a vain thing; a9 we see from passages in the life of our Lord and his apostles, and in abundance at later periods of history. Violent and unreasonable professors of Christianity may resent the exposure of their errors, or the rebuke of their sins and follies. There is a higher duty even than that of peaceableness; peace must not be sought at any price; we must not, for its sake, sacrifice conscience and displease God. Happy is the society in which this picture is realized I Let not our spirit and habits prevent or delay the delightful realization. Ver. 2L-Tne toay to vidory. Although the world is fnll of strife, and although the Scriptures constantly represent the good man as engaged in conflict, still we cannot regard warfare, either physical or moral, as the true occupation and the final satisfaction of man. The st.at.e of humanity is, however, BUch that only through the battling of opposed principles can true peace be gained and the ideal condition be reached. We are accordingly accustomed t.o think of resistance as the necessary incident and of victory u the hard-won end of the moral life. And, for us, the good man is the man who spendB his strength, and passes his time, in antagonism to error and to evil. L '.!.'HERE IS A GB.EAT OOliFLICT AliD WARFARE UPON EARTH CABBmD ON BETWEEN EVIL A.XII GOOD. Truth contendB with error, reason with superstition, conscience with passion, virtue with Tice, law with crime, order with turbulence, religion with infidelity, There are wani and fightings in which it may be said that light contends with darkness. But for the most part the campaign is not so simple, so intelligible; the combatants are not on the one side all good, nor on the other all evil ; opposing principles are dis- tributed irregularly through the armies. IL No11z CAlf BB liEUTBAL IN THIB STRUGGLE. Whether or not we consciously and deliberately engage in the moral war, it is ever raging. Not only so; we are con.strained to take a side. He who professedly withdraws from the moral conflict doe11 in reality side with the enemy of God. For to deem the war one of no interest, one which has no moral claim upon us, is to fail to respond to the trumpet-call of duty, rmd to decline the noblest of all careers--that of the soldier of the cross. "He that iB not with me,'' says our Lord, "is agaiDBt me.n IIL 'J'HB POBCBII OF EVIL ARE POWERFUL AND Oll'TEN VIOTORIOUS. Ohri11tians do ill t.o del!pise the power of their spiritual foe; for 11uch an estimate may lead them to OD, XII, l-21.] 'l'f-IE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO THE ROMANS. 367