The Pulpit Commentary — Romans — Section 400

would ho.ve us believe that Sunday closing is a failure. But it is thr:,ge who want such movements to fail that usually originate 1111ch a cry. There is no failure in the foroes of right. Failure is written on the forces of sin. Its night is far spent. (2) The clouds of mystery will soon be lifted. There are difficulties in reconcilincr religion and soience. Yet the difficulties are only apparent. They are only tempora.;y clouds. There are difficulties in God's providence that we ca.nnot understand. But by-and-by they will all be made plain. Every mystery will be solved. " Now we know in part ; but then shall we know even as also we a.re known." (3) The dark hrAkrs of pain and sorrow will soon be over. How dark is the hour of sickness! how dark the hour of bereavement I What shadows disappointment ea.uses to pass over our lives! But the night is far spent. "Weeping may endure for a night, but joy cometh in the mornin"." 2. "The day is at hand." The day of our Saviour's coming is rapidly drawine; near~r. Already wit may hear the sound of his cha.riot-wheels. Gradually his kingdom has been makiug progress in the earth, his truth has been gaining the victory over error. The Reformation shook off the dust of centuries from the Word of God. The discovery of printing had already prepared the way for the spread of the emancipated Bible. Old kingdoms that encouraged error and fostered ecclesiastical despotism have been falling. New nations have arisen to sway the destinies of the world-the _nations of the Bible-loving, liberty-loving, Anglo-Saxon race. Old wrongs have been redressed. Our King is coming. "The day is at hand." II. THE CHRISTIAN'& OALL. 1. .A call to activity. "Now it is high time t.o awake out of sleep" (ver. 11). It is plain that this exhortation is addressed to Christians, for the writer adds, "for now is our salvation nearer than when we believed." Many Christians are a.sleep. They are inactive and idle, and are doing nothing t.o prepare the way of the Lord. It may be addressed also to the unconverted. This very pa.s.sa.ge, the closing part of this thirteenth chapter, was the means of converting St. Augustine. 2. .A call to amendment. "Let us cast off the works of darkness" (ver. 12). Some works are literally works of darkness, as for example those specified in the thirteenth verse. Drunkenness and impurity are most practised in the night. " They that be drunken are drunken in the night." But "works of darkness" may be regarded as including all sinful works. Sin loves concealment. The Christian is to cast off every- thing that will not bear the light, to have no fellowship with the unfruitful works of darkness. •~ The day is a.t hand." How shall we a.bide the day of our Lord's coming if we do not, by Divine help, separate ourselves from sin? 3. .A call to conflict. "Let us put on the armour of light" (ver. 12). We are to wage war with our own tempta- tions, and with the evil that is in the world. Let our armour be the armour of light. Let us not fight the world with its own weapons-with hatred, or bitterness, or deccit. Let our weapons be good weapons-the wee.pons of truth, justice, love. They will conquer. Let us never do evil that good may come. 4. .A call to Christ-likeness. "Put ye on the Lord Jesus Christ" (ver. 14). That is to say," Be clothed with his spirit." Thie is the secret of strength. Like Sir Galahad, whose strength w.JS as the strength of ten because his· heart was pure, the man who is Christ-like in spirit will overcome all temptations, and will grapple victoriously with all difficulties. This is emphatically a call which the Christian needs to hear in the present age, when there is so muoh in the Ohurch as well as in the world that is contrary to the spirit of Christ. Let us, then, hear the trumpet-call of duty, and, e.s we go forth, let us bmce up our spirits with the inspiring thought that •• the night is f&r spent, and the day i:; at hand."-0. H. I. Vers.1-7.-0hristian submission. We now pass from ecclesiastical to civil relations. Because the Ohristiou has entered upon a new brotherhood in Christ, be do.?s uot oease to belong to tho old brotherhood of no.turo.l society. And as in the spiritual brotherhood humility o.nd love o.re the twin principles that should regulate nll our conduct, so in the no.turo.l commonwealth of the state there should be, aualL,gously, submission towards the powers, nnd a love-inspired justice towards privattl members of the same. In these verses is inoulcated the duty of conscientious submisoic,n to state o.uthoritiee. I. TUE BEABONABLENEBS 01' BUDIDStllON. 1'he submission to authority is spoken c)f 111 of a twofold oature-obedienoe to lo.w giiuere.lly, o.nd payment of e.11 dues. Aud  THE EPISTLE OF PAUL TO 'l'llE ROMANS. [ou, xm. 1-U,