unconscious of any fault.

But the law came in,

became heeded by me, with its voice, 'Thou shalt not covet' and my coveting started up into sin, became sinful, to me, and in my esteem. And, as we are ever prone to enjoy that which is forbidden, sin thus got life and zest for me, and I indulged in all manner of coveting, just because stolen waters were sweet, and sin wrought upon my human perverseness. Before this forbidding voice spoke within me, before the commandment came,' I lived; was alive and well; enjoyed a kind of innocence and freewill of my own; but after this, not I, but sin in me, lived and wrought its will. And the very prohibition which was for life, by waking up the sense of sin, and the desire for sin, killed me, set me lusting for that evil which is death, and slew my freewill and my former peace and joy. Yet notice, that it was not the commandment itself, but sin, the sinful principle in me, awakened into life by the commandment, that thus killed me: and the commandment only brought out that which was there before, but latent and dormant : brought it out, for good, and for the behalf and the life, of the better and worthier 'I,' the 'I' in conflict with sin, the complex man, the 'I Paul' of the time present.

And now, and from this point, the narrative of the past ceases, and the description of the present begins. In the Paul then writing to them, these motions toward sin remained; this conviction of sin through the law continued. In the breast of the Apostle, there was an uncertainty and a conflict what he did he knew not (not, allowed not : see in corrections below),-i.e., as Chrysostom admirably explains it, 'he was in the dark, staggered, and struck down, he knew not how.' He did not the good he wished; the evil that he wished not, that he did. And this new conflict is a testimony that it is not I, not the inner man, not the very person in his full personality, that do this sin, but another, even the living principle of sin within me. The real inner man delights in the law of God; but this other in the law of sin. And this produces a state of despair, yea, even of a living death, the consequence of the coming in of the law, holy as it is, and awakening sin within a man. How is Paul, how is any man, to get deliverance from this body of death? Thanks to God through Christ, the issue has been won, the deliverance effected. Condemnation has passed away for them that are in Christ (see corrections below).

The law of the Spirit of life has set them free from the law of sin and death. The law could not do this; it was a carnal commandment, working through the medium of the flesh, and could go no further; but God did it, by sending His Son in the likeness of that flesh of sin, and by making Him a victim for sin. Thus sin stands condemned in the flesh; thus, on the other hand, the demands of the law are fulfilled in us who walk, not after the flesh, but after the spirit; and thus, too, though the flesh is still subject to death by reason of sin, the spirit is heir of life by reason of righteousness, and shall, moreover, by reason of its being dwelt in by God's Spirit, bring up the mortal body also, in virtue of Christ's resurrection, and by the exertion of the same power of the Father.

This that

:

Well then, what is the inference? we owe nothing to the flesh, so as to induce us to live after it. To do so would be to die spiritually. Life is bound up with sonship in God's family; and they who are His sons are led by His Spirit, who is to them the witness of their adoption. This sonship also brings heirship with it; co-heirship with Him with whom we are now suffering—with whom we shall be hereafter glorified.

Then follows a digression—which, like others in St. Paul, is not really a digression, but ministers admirably to the main argument-on suffering, decay, death, as ordinances in God's creation, ministering to future glory, in which even creation itself shall partake. That we ourselves share in these, is no reason why we should ultimately fail of glory, or be separated from the love of God. This separation, indeed, nothing can effect; God has bestowed on us His own Son as a pledge that He will, with Him, freely give us all things. So that no present nor future evil, no power in heaven or earth, can separate us from the love of God in Jesus Christ our Lord.

And thus the mighty argument is brought to an end. The remainder of the Epistle is spent in the determination of various points of interest as related to the position of Jew and Gentile, in God's dealings, and in the church of the time. Meanwhile, however, the great argument is supplemented by the views of God's wisdom and love, and does not reach its final conclusion till ch. xii., where the Apostle gathers up all in general exhortations, grounded on this review of God's mercies to Jew and Gentile.

From that point, he begins giving directions for Christian conduct under various circumstances; directions grounded, no doubt, in the special composition and position of the Roman Church. Among these are, commands as to obedience to the earthly powers set over them: as to observance or non-observance of times and days, and the abstinence from certain meats: things, St. Paul rules it, absolutely indifferent in themselves, and to be arranged by the rules of charity and respect by one to the scruples of another. Even Christ pleased not himself: neither ought we to have regard only to our own sentiments and desires. Jew with Gentile, Gentile with Jew, ought to glorify God in common: both were contemplated in the mission of Jesus Christ, and spoken of in its prophetic announcements. And the Apostle himself was specially ordered to minister to the Gospel of God, in offering, as it were, as a priest, the Gentiles unto Him as an acceptable sacrifice. This to accomplish had been the object of his apostolic life and in pursuance of that purpose, he was in due time coming to them, after having carried the contributions of the churches to Jeru

salem.

Meantime, might God bless them, and