Class i 
 
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 COPYRIGHT DEPOSIT. 
 
TRANSPLANTED TRUTHS 
 FROM ROMANS 
 
TRANSPLANTED 
 TRUTHS 
 
 BY 
 
 ALVAH SABIN HOBART, D. D. 
 
 Professor of New Testament Interpretation in Crozer Theological Seminary 
 Author of 
 
 "Tillage of the Heart," " Our Silent Partner," " Seed Thoughts for Right 
 
 Living," "Transplanted Truths; or, Expositions of Great Texts 
 
 in Ephesians," "Transplanted Truths; or, Expositions of 
 
 Great Texts in Philippians and some Related Texts " 
 
 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE JUDSON PRESS 
 
 BOSTON 
 
 CHICAGO 
 
 ST. LOUIS 
 
 NEW YORK 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 KANSAS CITY 
 
 SEATTLE 
 
 TORONTO 
 
e>*' 
 
 J 
 
 -p° ,1" 
 
 Copyright, 1919, by 
 GILBERT N. BRINK, Secretary 
 
 Published March, 1919 
 
 APR 'I 1319 
 ©Ct A 5 1286 8 
 
PREFATORY WORD 
 
 The former volumes, " Transplanted Truths " from 
 Ephesians and from Philippians, have brought to 
 me so many words of appreciation of their helpful- 
 ness that I do not feel the need of any word of 
 explanation about this one. I have only to say that 
 no one is more likely to notice the every-day style 
 and the common-life illustrations that characterize 
 it than the author. But it has been, not only in 
 these books but in all my ministry, my constant 
 aim to speak to the " common people." The " com- 
 mon people " heard the Great Preacher of Palestine 
 gladly. It is to that audience I have tried to speak; 
 tried to interpret the truths of the Book into the 
 thought of these " common people." If some schol- 
 arly reader, interested in philosophy and higher 
 theology, complains at the simplicity of this book 
 this is my defense. 
 
 These chapters have been written to help the 
 common preacher to become an expositor of the 
 great epistle to the " common people." 
 
 v 
 
vi Prefatory Word 
 
 A large part of the work was prepared for lec- 
 tures at the summer school of the Kansas State 
 Convention at Ottawa University in the spring of 
 1 918. Owing to a disarrangement in the program, 
 not all of the chapters were actually delivered, and 
 those presented were in a greatly condensed and 
 modified form. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 Chapter Page 
 
 Introduction ix 
 
 I. The Gospel of God i 
 
 II. Every Man's Need of the Gospel 13 
 
 III. Every Man's Supply 25 
 
 IV. Justification $j 
 
 V. The Results of Justification 45 
 
 VI. The Great Compensation 58 
 
 VII. The Dictionary of Faith 67 
 
 VIII. Paul's " God Forbids " 78 
 
 IX. The Gospel of God in Pantomime and 
 
 Personification 92 
 
 X. The Bridge from a Good Theology to 
 
 a Better One 109 
 
 XI. A Victorious Defeat 122 
 
 XII. The Normal Work of the Holy 
 
 Spirit in the Christian 134 
 
 XIII. What About the Jews? 149 
 
 XIV. The Christian Liturgy 161 
 
 XV. The Christian and the State 173 
 
 XVI. The Requirements of Christian Fel- 
 lowship 185 
 
 vii 
 
INTRODUCTION 
 
 One of the essential things in the study of any book 
 is to know something of the times and the purpose 
 of the author. Another important element is the 
 style of the author. In the study of this chapter we 
 will try to get in touch with the situation and then 
 examine for a little the style of the author. 
 
 We are told at the outset that it is written by 
 Paul, "a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an 
 apostle — set apart to the gospel of God, which he 
 promised beforehand through his prophets." 
 
 This man who thus tells us his official standing 
 was a great-souled man. We read that when he 
 was a young man he was a very zealous Jew. His 
 family was one of more than common rank, for 
 his father, a full-blooded Jew, had obtained citi- 
 zenship in the Roman nation, and that cost much 
 money and was allowed only to such as gave 
 promise of being worth something to the Roman 
 Government. 
 
 His early boyhood was spent in Tarsus, a city 
 of Cilicia, and there he had opportunity to see the 
 idolatrous world, and to test his own faith. He 
 wrote of himself that as touching the ceremonial 
 law he was blameless ; which means that, as a boy, 
 living in a city where to be a Jew was like being 
 
 ix 
 
Introduction 
 
 a Protestant American in a Spanish or Austrian 
 Roman Catholic city, when other boys were at play 
 he kept the Sabbath ; when other boys were profane 
 he took not the name of God in vain ; when others 
 went to Roman shows, where men fought unto 
 death, he went to the synagogue. He was not one 
 of those Sunday School book boys who are " too 
 proud to fight/' and so good that they die early. 
 
 If the boy is father to the man we may be sure 
 that Paul stood up like a man when others abused 
 him. 
 
 Later he was sent away to Jerusalem to school. 
 He went to Gamaliel, one of the great theologians 
 of his time. It was like sending a boy now to some 
 noted school where only the best can go; and 
 there, as he says (Phil. 3 : 4-7), he was among the 
 best scholars in Hebrew learning, and during all 
 his course of study he did not slacken his zeal in 
 religion. 
 
 Then when he was a man he came into promi- 
 nence and was made a member of the Sanhedrim 
 That was the great Theological Court of the Jewish 
 Church, and here he was a man full of zeal and 
 determination, so that when Stephen was tried he 
 voted to have him stoned to death, and when this 
 was being done Paul was an official witness, and 
 held the coats of those who pelted Stephen with 
 stones until he died. And later still he went and 
 begged the privilege of being made an ecclesiastical 
 sheriff to hunt out women and children and drag 
 
Introduction xi 
 
 them to prison and to death that he might stamp 
 out entirely the whole force of what he verily 
 thought was sinful heresy. 
 
 But something happened to him. He was con- 
 verted on his way to Damascus. All his views of 
 Jesus changed, and from that time instead of being 
 a persecutor he was a preacher of Christ, a servant 
 of the Lord Jesus, as he calls himself. 
 
 But he did not become a mere non-persecutor. 
 His conversion did not take out his manhood. That 
 same devotion to principle and that same faith in 
 God which made him the dangerous enemy to the 
 church, were now simply transferred to a new cause, 
 and he gave to that cause the same loyalty he had 
 formerly given to the Jewish idea. 
 
 But since he was an apostle, a man sent out to 
 tell the Gentile world about Christ, he took the 
 people into his affections. After he had preached 
 and established churches, he carried them in his 
 heart. Daily he prayed for them, and gave thanks 
 for them. He wrote them letters of instruction 
 and comfort as occasions required. 
 
 The churches of Thessalonica and Galatia, Ephe- 
 sus and Corinth, Philippi and Colosse had a place in 
 his thought and care. This letter to Romans has a 
 special quality different from the others in that it 
 was written to a church he did not start, and with 
 which he had no acquaintance. The tone of the 
 letter shows us something of the recognition he al- 
 ready had among the churches. If he had been 
 
xii Introduction 
 
 just an ordinary disciple he would not have begun 
 by saying, I am an apostle. 
 
 Again he says, I am coming to see you and I 
 hope to have some fruit among you, and then to 
 move on into Spain where no one has been before 
 me, for I do not want to build on another man's 
 foundation. 
 
 But the striking feature of the letter is that it 
 is a doctrinal discussion of the central ideas of 
 theology. It is a formal argument all the way 
 through. There is no allusion to any prominent 
 special errors at Rome ; no case that needs discipline 
 as at Corinth ; no heretical teachers as among Gala- 
 tian churches; no false teaching or undue anxiety 
 about the return of Christ as at Thessalonica. 
 
 But he is setting forth in a systematic way the 
 fundamental teachings of the Christian soteriology. 
 It is impersonal and uncontroversial. 
 
 For this reason it has been the fountain of in- 
 structions in every century. Paul's writings were 
 such that since his day no man has written or can 
 write on the subject of theology with any degree 
 of fulness without taking account of him. 1 One 
 must either agree with him or refute his arguments. 
 Paul was the founder of systematic theology. But 
 he was not a dry theologian. His letters are alive, 
 and warm with affection. It is said that the golden- 
 mouthed preacher of Constantinople glowed with 
 
 1 " The distinguishing doctrines of Christianity can be traced to the 
 apostle Paul." — E. H. Johnson. 
 
Introduction xiii 
 
 the great climaxes of Paul's argument. Augustine 
 laid aside his dialectics to take up the profound 
 philosophy of redemption found in this letter. 
 Luther's electric batteries were charged with Paul's 
 teaching about justification. Calvin was saturated 
 with the great logical arguments of Paul. 
 
 Wherever the opinions of the church have been 
 in formation, or wherever they have been brought 
 into question, there Paul's arguments have been the 
 standard of correctness. 
 
 One writer has gone so far as to say that Paul 
 has eclipsed Jesus in the realm of theology ; and 
 others, as if they feared Paul's leadership, have 
 said we must " get back to Christ." 
 
 THE ROMAN CHURCH 
 
 No historical record remains to tell us when or 
 how the Church at Rome was started. It comes 
 into history all at once. Paul says " to the church 
 at Rome." Roman Catholics have claimed that 
 Peter founded it. But there is no evidence except 
 "Catholic say-so, and that is worthless in such 
 matters. 
 
 But it was there. It was evidently composed in 
 part of Jewish converts, and in part of Gentile 
 membership. 
 
 The letter does not attempt to separate them. 
 But the argument deals with questions that the 
 thoughtful would ask, whether they were Jew or 
 
xiv Introduction 
 
 Gentile. It deals with the five fundamental re- 
 ligious facts of life — such things as all men must 
 deal with: 
 
 First, The sense of God ; secondly, The sense of 
 deficiency in our life; thirdly, The divine way of 
 relief; fourthly, Inward satisfaction; fifthly, Re- 
 sultant duties. 
 
 Those five things must be considered by every 
 man who thinks about life with any seriousness, 
 and each one of these Paul discussed carefully. He 
 had very definite views about each one, and he sys- 
 tematically dealt with them all. 
 
 One might study Romans around those five 
 points, and one would find an almost complete body 
 of doctrine. 
 
 Paul seems to have thought out the whole sub- 
 ject. He states his view; then he proves it; then 
 points out its value; then replies to misconceptions 
 or false inference; then states the duties growing 
 out of it all. 
 
 HIS STYLE 
 
 In one of his letters he said, " I am all things to 
 all men, only always under law to Christ." He 
 met Gentiles on Gentile ground. He met the Jew 
 on his ground. He did not sneer at others, but 
 tried to lead them to better ground. 
 
 The modern doctrine of pedagogy that we must 
 find a point of contact — mental and moral contact — 
 and from that point lead minds out to better posi- 
 
Introduction xv 
 
 tions, he knew how to use, whether he formulated 
 it or not. 
 
 He reasoned with the argumentative. He stirred 
 the emotional by his outbursts of confidence. He 
 upset the extremist by his " God forbids." He 
 gratified the Jew by his habitual use of Old Testa- 
 ment writings. 
 
 But there is one very striking feature of his 
 style that needs attention lest he be made into a 
 mere peddler of logic, and that is his use of meta- 
 phors and similes. 
 
 In this connection we need to notice the law of 
 metaphors. A metaphor is a term borrowed from 
 one realm of things to convey an idea in another 
 realm. Thus we say, " Ye are the salt of the 
 earth." We mean that Christians have a function 
 in the realm of the mind or of the spirit similar 
 to the function of salt in the material world. 
 
 We say a man is a " pillar in the church." We 
 mean that he does in a spiritual way what the pillar 
 does in the material building. 
 
 We say Jesus is the Shepherd. We mean that 
 the relation between the shepherd of sheep and his 
 flock is like that which Jesus has to his people. 
 
 There is always a point of similarity between 
 realms. A little girl said, " a parable is an earthly 
 story with a heavenly meaning." That is, there 
 is a kind of parallelism carried on in the mind 
 between the " earthly story " and the " heavenly 
 meaning." 
 
xvi Introduction 
 
 In order to catch the meaning of a metaphor one 
 must be familiar with the thing that is used as a 
 metaphor, or he cannot get the meaning it is in- 
 tended to convey. 
 
 For example, in one of my classes I asked what 
 is the point of likeness in the metaphor, " Ye are the 
 salt of the earth." Most of the men said, " Salt 
 keeps meat from spoiling, and we must keep society 
 from moral corruption." But another one said: 
 " No. Salt makes things taste good, and we must 
 make the world livable." When asked for his reason 
 he said : " Jesus said, If the salt have lost its savor. 
 That belongs to the realm of taste." And then he 
 strengthened his argument by saying that they did 
 not salt meat in that place, they dried it in the sun. 
 
 Now without settling that question we can all 
 see that unless we understand the use of salt there 
 we shall miss the Saviour's thought. 
 
 At another time we were discussing the meaning 
 of leaven. I found several men who had no idea 
 of leaven, or of bread-making. They were brought 
 up in the city, and their mothers never baked a loaf 
 of bread — they bought it at the baker's. So all 
 they knew about leaven was that some one had 
 told them it was a form of corruption, and a symbol 
 of evil, and of course when Jesus said the kingdom 
 of heaven was like leaven in a measure of meal 
 they jumped to the conclusion that the church is 
 going to evil. If they had found the basis of that 
 metaphor they would have recalled how with a 
 
Introduction xvii 
 
 little yeast stirred into a pan of flour and left to 
 stand in a warm place overnight, the whole pan of 
 meal will become — not a pan of yeast or of rotten 
 flour, but a mass of light, promising dough ready 
 to be baked into wholesome and delicious bread. 
 Since the point of comparison is the transforming 
 power of the Christian gospel, they would have 
 seen the truth Jesus sought to convey. So we 
 must always look for the basis of a metaphor. 
 
 Another fact about metaphors is that speakers 
 pick up their metaphors from the mental atmos- 
 phere about them. Just now how full our speech 
 is of expressions that come from the war : " Over 
 the top," " over there/' " service flags and stars/' 
 " keep your alignment," " keep step," " firing-line," 
 "in the trenches," "at the front," "neutrals," 
 " Allies," and many more words that are picked 
 up and drafted into service, and made to do duty 
 at the front of the battle-lines of the conflict of 
 ideas. 
 
 Mr. Sunday is a most remarkable example of a 
 man who picks his metaphors to suit his audience. 
 In a parlor of some rich woman he speaks with 
 beauty and elegance. He goes into the railroad 
 shops and his tongue changes to the tongue of an 
 expert railroad man. To the baseball men he talks 
 about " bases," and " putting one over," and " foul 
 balls/' and " home runs," and " putting men out." 
 
 The only class of words he finds difficulty in be- 
 ing familiar with are theological terms — those he 
 
 B 
 
xviii Introduction 
 
 has not mastered very well. But when you want 
 to hear or read the only really accurate and satis- 
 factory description of the saloon-keepers get Mr. 
 Sunday's sermon on " Booze." 
 
 This choice of metaphors accounts for the great 
 difference in the books of the New Testament. 
 They are written with the words that the people 
 were familiar with, and with the metaphors that 
 were common among their readers. The writers 
 had certain great ideas they wished to convey and 
 they did just as we do. They picked out the meta- 
 phors and phrases that were familiar, and that 
 carried the biggest load of meaning right to the 
 mind and heart of the people. 
 
 This accounts for the fact that certain classes of 
 metaphors are found in one book, and not found 
 in others. Take the letter to the Philippians, for 
 example. This has no reference to temple or sac- 
 rifice, to judge or king, to prophet or church or 
 Scriptures. But it talks about fellowships and gos- 
 pel and bonds and sufferings. It is full of expres- 
 sions of his love for them. It exhorts to patience, 
 but it argues nothing. 
 
 Peter writes to Jewish converts scattered abroad, 
 away from their holy city and temple. They were 
 believers in Christ, but they were in great perplex- 
 ity because the glory they had expected to have 
 had not come. Instead of having a country and a 
 temple and a priesthood they were of the " disper- 
 sion " — the " scattered about " — so he says to them, 
 
Introduction xix 
 
 in metaphor big with meaning, " We are begotten 
 unto a living hope " — not like your old one that 
 has died out — " to an inheritance incorruptible and 
 undefiled that does not fade away " — as your 
 earthly one has faded — " reserved in heaven " — not 
 in Judea — " for those who are faithful." " Gird 
 up your loins and wait for the grace that will come 
 to you at the revelation of the Lord Jesus." You 
 are to be " living stones," built into a " temple of 
 the Lord." You are a " kingly race, a royal priest- 
 hood," " the very people of God." You see how all 
 those metaphors would touch sympathetic chords, 
 and convey understandable things to those Jewish 
 people. 
 
 If we turn to Hebrews we come into the fra- 
 grance of the incense of the temple. Here we find 
 "sin" and "sin offering," "altars," and "ap- 
 proaches," " great high priest," and days of " atone- 
 ment," " veil of the temple," and " priesthood like 
 that of Melchizedek." All the way through we are 
 listening to religious talk in the religious dialect of 
 Jewish Christians who were being taught that the 
 temple and the ceremonies were shadows of things 
 whose reality was now at hand. 
 
 If we go back to the Gospels we find Jesus says 
 almost nothing about temple or sacrifices. God is 
 not spoken of much as King, or Judge, or Avenger, 
 but " Our Father in heaven." In the view of Jesus 
 men are not subjects, nor soldiers, nor rulers, 
 neither great ones nor small ones, but brethren. 
 
xx Introduction 
 
 The metaphors come from the family life, and the 
 spirit is the family spirit. 
 
 I have dwelt upon this because I want to help 
 you to see that Paul's metaphors are not to be 
 taken as literal descriptions, or as doctrinal for- 
 mulas. They are forms of expression suitable to 
 those to whom he talked, and were chosen by the 
 same principle that Mr. Sunday follows when he 
 takes the words of the ballgame to tell the gospel 
 to the ball-players. One must get into the heart 
 of them or he will miss the teaching entirely. 
 
 ROME 
 
 Paul was writing to Romans at Rome. It was 
 the great legal center for the wide-reaching domin- 
 ions of the Empire. Roman minds had studied the 
 problems of ruling over various races and classes, 
 and had evolved a set of laws and a form of gov- 
 ernment that in many respects have been the model 
 for the nations since then. English and American 
 law is largely indebted to Rome. Courts and law- 
 yers, criminals and crimes, law and pardon, guilt 
 and innocence were all familiar words, and to Paul 
 punishments and prisons were all too well known by 
 experience. And so in writing to them he naturally 
 uses the words and illustrations that are legal in 
 character. When he spoke about sins and trans- 
 gressions, about justifications and redemptions, 
 about guilt and innocence, he was expressing the 
 
Introduction xxi 
 
 thoughts common to all men in words common to 
 Romans. 
 
 We may not expect, therefore, to find him deal- 
 ing with exact theological formulas, which we are 
 bound to accept and use, but he was putting his 
 thought into forms understandable by them. 
 
 I would press this truth further. If we are 
 bound to take metaphors in Romans as the formal 
 exact expressions of the relations of men to God, 
 why must we not take the metaphors in Hebrews in 
 the same literal way ? And, if we do, then we must 
 say that there is a temple, and a priest, and a holy 
 city, and tithes, and circumcision, and Gentiles out- 
 side the court. And when we come back to the 
 Gospels we must drop these and think of ourselves 
 as neither in Rome before the Judge, nor in Jeru- 
 salem at the gate of the temple, but in our Father's 
 family, perhaps like " prodigal sons " returned for 
 bread only, but finding forgiveness and a feast. 
 
 There are great spiritual values in these expres- 
 sions, and as Doctor Bushnell said : " We cannot 
 afiford to lose them. They fill an office which noth- 
 ing else can fill, and serve a use which cannot be 
 served without them. . . We can do without 
 them, it may be, for a little while, but after a time 
 we seem to be in a gospel that has no atmosphere, 
 and our breathing is in a gasping state. . . Our 
 very prayers get introverted and muddled. . . We 
 begin to sigh for some altar whither we may go 
 and just see the fire burning and the smoke going 
 
xxii Introduction 
 
 up on its own account, and circle about it with our 
 believing hymns." 
 
 Making these allowances for the metaphorical 
 uses we may find in Romans what becomes a frame- 
 work for our thinking. But we may not assume 
 that no other form of expression is good. What 
 we want is to know the way of life, marked out in 
 the way most understandable by us. But we shall 
 try to study his letter as if we were in Rome, for 
 in no other way can it do us any good. We shall 
 try, through his words, to see the common idea, 
 and to identify his thoughts with things in our 
 own experience, and if possible transplant them into 
 our thinking. 
 
CHAPTER I 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF GOD 
 
 " Paul, a servant of Jesus Christ, called to be an apos- 
 tle, separated unto the gospel of God, which he prom- 
 ised afore through his prophets in the holy Scrip- 
 tures." — Romans i : i, 2. 
 
 The first impressions of people are often regulative 
 of the later ones. Especially is this true of some 
 very sensitive individuals. They cannot tell why, 
 but they " feel/' as if by a sort of extra sense, drawn 
 or repelled by people on first acquaintance. Some 
 salesmen say that much of their success in " selling " 
 a new customer depends on the first impressions 
 made in the first few minutes of their acquaintance. 
 Military men say that in a large measure the vic- 
 tory of an onset is determined by the success of 
 the first contact with the enemy. It is also true 
 of books. The impression made by the introduc- 
 tory chapters determines whether one will read the 
 rest or not. 
 
 This is true in part of the book of Romans. But 
 it is not true that its favorable impressions are de- 
 pendent wholly on the first impressions. A study 
 of the arguments, and the defenses against error, 
 and the rich expressions of truth have, in many 
 
 1 
 
2 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 cases, overcome the impressions that men had when 
 they first began to read this great letter. 
 
 But this first sentence grips the attention at once. 
 Its grip tightens as we think about it. " Set apart 
 to the gospel of God!' This great-hearted, large- 
 minded man consecrated to the " gospel of God " ! 
 This letter, written with great care and closely rea- 
 soned argument, thought out in great detail to meet 
 the spiritual needs of the disciples of Christ Jesus 
 in Rome — to tell them about the "-gospel of God " ! 
 Surely the topic of it is attractive. 
 
 "Gospel"; let us examine this word a little. It 
 has been called the equivalent of " good news," but 
 that is not an accurate translation of it. The mes- 
 sage of Paul was not " news." He says it is a 
 message about things which God promised afore 
 through his prophets in the holy Scriptures. And 
 as he goes along with his letter he often quotes the 
 Old Testament as proof of his conclusions, and de- 
 clares that what he is now preaching is but the ful- 
 filment of the Old Testament promises. It was 
 not news in the sense of being fundamentally new 
 to his readers. All its ethical principles had been 
 known for centuries. The " man of God " as de- 
 scribed in Genesis does not differ in essentials from 
 the one drawn in Matthew. Abraham, transplanted 
 to America, would command our respect. The 
 Greek word is better represented by " good mes- 
 sage " than by " good news." The angel that an- 
 nounced the birth of the child in the khan at Beth- 
 
The Gospel of God 
 
 lehem said, " I bring you good tidings " — not 
 " new " ones. The only element of newness was 
 the fact that the long-looked-for had now arrived. 
 
 TRUTHS TO TRANSPLANT 
 
 The gospel of God is a "good message." Once 
 in my early ministry we had been holding some 
 special services hoping to lead men to accept 
 the Saviour. At the close of one session I ap- 
 proached a man who had been there, saying I 
 should be glad to help him to know the Christian 
 faith. He replied, " Oh, I am going to take my 
 medicine with the others." I said, " I do not quite 
 catch your thought/' " Oh," he answered, " I shall 
 go to hell no doubt, but I am not going to whine 
 about it." " But," I said, " I have not been trying 
 to send you to hell. I want to help you to heaven.'' 
 On further conversation I found that his idea of a 
 minister's duty was to tell men they were on the 
 way to hell; that the preacher's message is one of 
 condemnation rather than one of reconciliation. 
 They are not, in his view, set apart unto the glad 
 message of God but unto a sad one. 
 
 There is a sad side to life, and sometimes the 
 true friend must tell men that death and the judg- 
 ment await those who persist in disobedience to 
 God: that the judgment will at some time strip 
 away all masks, and all deceptions from sin, and 
 the souls will stand naked and alone before the 
 
4 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Judge who will sadly say, " I never knew you." 
 Jesus had to say that, and he wept when he said 
 it. But the main business of the minister is, like 
 Paul's, to declare to men the glad message, not 
 a sad one. 
 
 The gospel of God is a message of justification. 
 No message can be of greater import and value 
 than the one that tells us how to be right with 
 God. The old statements of doctrine say, " The 
 great gospel blessing is justification." Once have 
 that, and the way is open for God to pour out upon 
 us the riches of his gracious designs. Until we 
 are set right with him, he cannot do for us what 
 his love would prompt him to do. Note some of 
 the joyful things growing out of the message of 
 justification, good in any age: 
 
 " There is now no condemnation to them that are 
 in Christ Jesus " (Rom. 8 : i). 
 
 " Behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy " 
 (Luke 2 : io). 
 
 " Whosoever believeth on him shall not perish " 
 (John 3 : 16). 
 
 " Him that cometh unto me I will in no wise cast 
 out" (John 6 : 37). 
 
 " He hath anointed me to preach good tidings to 
 the poor. He hath sent me to proclaim release to 
 captives, and the recovering of sight to the blind; 
 to set at liberty them that are bruised, to proclaim 
 the acceptable year of the Lord" (Luke 4 : 18, 
 19). 
 
The Gospel of God 
 
 " Every one that asketh receiveth ; and he that 
 seeketh findeth; and to him that knocketh it shall 
 be opened" (Matt. 7 : 8). 
 
 " Like as Christ was raised from the dead 
 through the glory of the Father, so we also might 
 walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6:4). 
 
 " He will fashion anew the body of our humilia- 
 tion that it may be conformed to the body of his 
 glory " (Phil. 3 : 21). 
 
 " He who began a good work in you will con- 
 tinue it until the day of Jesus Christ " (Phil. 1:6). 
 
 " I will come again and receive you unto myself ; 
 that where I am, there ye may be also " (John 
 
 14 : 3)- 
 
 " God shall wipe away every tear from their 
 eyes ; and death shall be no more ; neither shall there 
 be mourning, nor crying, nor pain, any more " 
 (Rev. 21 : 4). 
 
 " Every knee shall bow and every tongue confess? 
 that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the 
 Father " (Phil. 2 : 9-11). 
 
 These are the notes of the melody that runs 
 through the Song of Redemption of which Paul's 
 letter was one solo with his own variations. Paul, 
 like the Psalmist before him, was no pessimist. 
 He sang no song in the minor key. His word was 
 " O taste and see that the Lord is good : blessed 
 is the man that trusteth in him." (Ps. 34 : 8). 
 
 This is one great special feature of the gospel of 
 God. Those who have it commend it to others. 
 
6 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Dr. Howard Furness, writing after a lengthy ex- 
 amination of spiritual mediums, said he found their 
 claims a species of fraud imposed on an uncritical 
 public; and that he wrote over the whole subject 
 the sentence that Dante said was inscribed over 
 Hades, " Abandon hope all ye who enter here." 
 
 Hume, the English philosopher, said to a friend, 
 " You have no idea to what lonesomeness my philos- 
 ophy has reduced me." The great scientist Charles 
 Darwin said : " I sometimes feel that there may be 
 in the universe a great being analogous to man back 
 of all things ; but then the feeling goes away, and I 
 shall die an agnostic." Such are the consolations 
 of the men who propound the solutions of life out- 
 side the gospel of God. But Paul rose above all 
 such and lived in the sunlight of the upper air, 
 above the mountains and above the clouds. 
 
 The gospel of God is an ancient message. Paul 
 says it was preached afore through the prophets. 
 In Galatians he wrote that it was preached before- 
 hand unto Abraham. (Gal. 3:8.) In the earliest 
 records it was stated that the promise was, In the 
 " seed of Abraham " all nations shall be blessed. 
 And Paul says that the " seed " to which reference 
 was made was Christ Jesus. 
 
 And still earlier it was said, " The seed of the 
 woman shall bruise the serpent's head." Vague as 
 that statement was, it contained the seed of hope 
 for the final victory of good over evil. The great 
 Messianic oratorio of prophecy began, not, like 
 
The Gospel of God 
 
 Handel's, with Isaiah's " Comfort ye my people," 
 but with that far-off hint in Genesis of coming de- 
 liverance. Then the angel of Jehovah took up the 
 message, " Thy seed shall be as the stars for mul- 
 titude/' Moses came in to say : " God will raise up 
 unto you from among your brethren a prophet like 
 unto me. Unto him shall ye harken." David 
 spoke of him as one who should have " dominion 
 from sea to sea, and from the river unto the ends 
 of the earth." Isaiah said : " He hath borne our 
 griefs, and carried our sorrows," " by his stripes 
 we are healed." 
 
 The angel sang at his birth, " Unto you is born 
 this day a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord " 
 (Luke 2 : n). And now Paul is chosen from 
 his birth to go and speak the gospel of God to all 
 the nations. 
 
 It gives an element of value to learn that Paul 
 was not giving a new theory of his own : not, like 
 so-called Christian science, a philosophy concocted 
 from the gathered fragments of worn-out and dis- 
 carded schemes; nor was his message the sifted 
 and refined residuum of truth that Greek or Roman 
 religions may have contained. He was telling them 
 of a glad message which originated with God and 
 had been unfolding in history for centuries. Each 
 singer in the great song of redemption had fol- 
 lowed his own part of the music guided by the 
 great leader, paying attention not to his fellow 
 singers but the notes and the baton of his leader. 
 
8 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Kingdoms had arisen, flourished, and gone into 
 oblivion since that song began. Assyria, Egypt, 
 Babylon, ancient Greece, and the flower of Rome 
 had all passed into forgotten history since the angel 
 spoke to Abraham the message of salvation by 
 faith. But the people who knew the joyful sound 
 continued and still continue to be the greatest proof 
 of the divine authorship of Paul's gospel. 
 
 Paul was not presenting himself as a soul- 
 physician administering a man-made cure for sin, 
 but he was administering a divine remedy under 
 the directions of the Great Physician. 
 
 This gospel antedates the ceremonial law of 
 Moses (Gal. 3 : 17), and it outlives it. The law 
 came in for a season (Gal. 3 : 19) and went out 
 when its work was done as flowers fall off when 
 the fruit sets, or as shells break when the eaglets 
 are hatched. (Heb. 8 : 13.) It will live when 
 
 The stars grow cold, 
 And the leaves of the judgment-book unfold. 
 
 The gospel of God is a Christ message. Christ, 
 who was humanly born of the seed of David, by 
 the holiness of his life and the fact of his resurrec- 
 tion, was declared to be the Son of God. The cen- 
 tral purpose of the message is to present this Son 
 to the world. Paul probably knew some of the 
 philosophy of his times. He could not have lived 
 in Tarsus as a boy, in Jerusalem as a theological 
 student, and afterward preached in many cities be- 
 
The Gospel of God 
 
 fore he wrote this letter, and not have become in a 
 good measure informed about the thinking of the 
 world. He knew well the ethical teachings of the 
 Jewish prophets and the requirements of the cere- 
 monial law ; but he passed by all these — not as un- 
 important or as destitute of some truth — but that 
 he might preach the Son of God. He wrote con- 
 cerning his work in Corinth, " I determined to know 
 nothing among you but Jesus Christ and him cruci- 
 fied/' He wrote to the Galatians that he had set 
 forth Jesus " evidently crucified." In his letters he 
 says that Christ is the " propitiation for our sins," 
 and that we are saved through " faith in his blood." 
 He is " our Lord and Master." He is the " Head 
 over all things to his church, which is his body." 
 It is the purpose of God to " gather together in one 
 all things in Christ." 
 
 Christ is the pattern man. " Put ye on the Lord 
 Jesus Christ " ; " Let that mind be in you which 
 was in Christ Jesus." He is made unto us " wis- 
 dom and righteousness." Paul gloried in the Cross 
 of Christ. He looked forward with anticipation to 
 the return of Christ, and if he died before that 
 event, he expected to depart and be with Christ, 
 which was far better. And all is to be crowned by 
 the resurrection and life with Christ. His gospel 
 is Christocentric. 
 
 We of this day, when the ethical element is justly 
 given an unusual emphasis, are in danger of sepa- 
 rating the ethical element prominent in Jesus' teach- 
 
io Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 ings from his person, and make that .a sufficient re- 
 quirement for our life and hope. This is not 
 Pauline. He would not take the livery of Christ 
 in which to serve the pride of his own heart. He 
 followed the teachings of Jesus, but he depended 
 on the help and inspiration from the person of 
 Christ to give him ability to do so. If men asked 
 him what they needed to do for salvation he re- 
 plied, not " Correct your life," as the mere moralist 
 says, nor " Turn over a new leaf," as some re- 
 formers say, nor " Quit your meanness," as Sam 
 Jones used to say, nor " Right about face," as Mr. 
 Moody used to say — all of which is right, but not 
 sufficient ; but " Believe on the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 and you shall be saved." All those other things 
 were involved in his reply as the rose is involved 
 in the rosebud. Once in Him, and these follow. 
 Paul had no message for men who were not " in 
 Christ" except to urge them to get into him by 
 faith. His gospel was the gospel of the Son of God. 
 And the gladness of his message grew out of that 
 fact. 
 
 We can well afford to magnify Christ and let 
 our devotion and loyalty to him work out our de- 
 liverance from minor troubles about theology and 
 ecclesiology. 
 
 The gospel of God is a world message. Paul 
 says his commission was " unto obedience of faith 
 among all nations." That is, he sought, and the 
 purpose of his apostleship was to bring it to pass, 
 
The Gospel of God n 
 
 that people from among every nation should be- 
 come obedient to God. But it is to be noticed that 
 he does not say a fear-obedience, nor a ceremonial- 
 obedience, nor a reasoned-out obedience, but a faith- 
 obedience. That is, men would have >obedience to 
 the teachings of Jesus because they have such faith 
 in him that his word becomes their law by a sort of 
 spiritual instinct. 
 
 This idea is worth transplanting. One writer has 
 said : " The highest life formed in us by the Spirit 
 of God and directed to ends outside ourselves is, 
 ■ To do right because God requires it ; to trust 
 Christ because he deserves it; to love the brother 
 whoever he is.' " 1 The first of these is no doubt a 
 sound principle, but it is not the highest aim. Mr. 
 Ruskin once said that if we keep on doing right we 
 shall come to like doing so, and until we do we are 
 in an immoral stage. Paul aimed at obedience 
 growing out of faith in Christ. Those who have 
 had experience in this kind of obedience are satis- 
 fied that his way is the best ; that on any utilitarian 
 basis Christ's way offers the best justification. But 
 we are bound to follow it before that justification 
 appears. But the great truth just now in mind is 
 that the gospel of God is for all nations. Nothing 
 is made more emphatic in Paul's life than the out- 
 bursting interest he had in all nations. His first 
 call was to go unto the Gentiles (Acts 9 : 15), 
 
 " E. H. Johnson, in " Highest Life," p. 68- 
 C 
 
12 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 and the last we hear of him he was seeking to get 
 where no others had preceded him with the mes- 
 sage. He would preach the unsearchable riches of 
 Christ to the Gentiles. This feature of the letter 
 should have our careful thought. The more one 
 thinks about it the more certain he becomes that a 
 message that is not for all is not worth much for 
 any. If a man were to preach that he had a mes- 
 sage from God suited only for the Anglo-Saxon 
 race, it would be at once discredited. For God 
 is one not two. He is not double-faced or two- 
 sided. And he is God of Jews as well as of the 
 Gentiles. Therefore the message of salvation from 
 him must be for all mankind. This was the teach- 
 ing of Jesus when he said : " Go, and disciple all 
 nations; preach the gospel to every creature." 
 
 It follows, then, that until our own hearts have 
 become interested in all men to the extent that ac- 
 cording to our opportunities and abilities we are 
 ready to give them the gospel of God, we are not 
 in full harmony with the gospel itself. Our own 
 hearts need attuning to the key in which the song 
 of salvation has been written. 
 
 To gather up then the great ideas of this, letter : 
 
 The gospel of God is a glad message. 
 
 It is a message of pardon. 
 
 Tt is an ancient message. 
 
 It is a Christ-centered message. 
 
 It is a message for the world. 
 
CHAPTER II 
 
 EVERY MAN'S NEED OF THE GOSPEL 
 
 " That every mouth may be stopped." — Rom. 3 : ig. 
 
 In a former study it was shown that Paul puts his 
 thought in systematic and logical form. His great 
 proposition as stated in Chap. 1 : 16 is, " The gos- 
 pel is the power of God unto salvation to every one 
 that believeth!' The way in which he goes on to 
 discuss it shows that the emphasis in his thought is 
 expressed by reading it, " The gospel is the only 
 power of God for salvation to every one that 
 believeth." That is, if men do not find salvation in 
 that way they will not find it. He then proceeds 
 to make them see the truth of his statement. His 
 argument may be skeletonized as follows : 
 
 1. He assumes that men need salvation. 
 
 2. They must obtain it either by their own merit 
 or in some other way. 
 
 3. Then he goes on to show that on the basis of 
 personal merit they do not have any hope. This 
 conclusion is stated in the text. Up to the twenty- 
 first verse of Chapter 3 his whole aim is to show this 
 to be the true situation. 
 
 I shall try to follow his line of thought carefully, 
 and then consider some of the permanent ideas that 
 
 13 
 
14 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 may be transplanted into our times and the field 
 of our needs. 
 
 He says ( i : 18), " The wrath of God is revealed 
 against all unrighteousness of men who hinder the 
 truth in unrighteousness!' That is, those men who, 
 because of their iniquities, suppress the true idea of 
 living, are the objects of divine displeasure. Stated 
 in the dialect of the courts of Rome, conceived of 
 in the terms of government, all subjects have their 
 peace and safety only when they keep the laws. If 
 they violate them, or come short of them, they be- 
 come at once automatically more or less the objects 
 of governmental prosecution. Sooner or later they 
 will come before the judge. 
 
 But he recognizes that there are three classes of 
 people, each one of which classes, while admitting 
 the justice of the principle he has declared, never- 
 theless by one reason or another seeks to excuse 
 itself from the application of the law. 
 
 First, there is the mass of people in Rome, and 
 in all the outside world, who might say of them- 
 selves — as many people now say about the same 
 class — " These pagan people did not know, and 
 therefore they are not condemned. " 
 
 This view Paul squarely denies. For him the 
 very conditions of the people bore testimony to the 
 displeasure of the God of nature. They were not, 
 as some men say, in a process of evolution toward 
 a knowledge of God in which they slowly disen- 
 tangled themselves from natural superstitions. He 
 
Every Man's. Need of the Gospel 15 
 
 thinks of it as the result of a process of devolution. 
 With swift pen he describes their journey. They 
 are not ignorant ; " because that which may be 
 known of God is manifest in them ; for God mani- 
 fested it unto them. For the invisible things of 
 him since the creation of the world are clearly 
 seen, being perceived through the things that are 
 made, even his everlasting power and divinity ; that 
 they may be without excuse ; because that, knowing 
 God, they glorified him not as God, neither gave 
 thanks; but became vain in their reasonings, and 
 their senseless heart was darkened. Professing 
 themselves to be wise, they became fools, and 
 changed the glory of the incorruptible God for the 
 likeness of an image of corruptible man, and of 
 birds, and fourfooted beasts, and creeping things." 
 It was for these things that " God gave them up 
 in the lusts of their hearts unto uncleanness, that 
 their bodies should be dishonoured among them- 
 selves; for that they exchanged the truth of God 
 for a lie, and worshiped and served the creature 
 rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. 
 For this cause God gave them up unto vile pas- 
 sions ; for their women changed the natural use 
 into that which is against nature ; and likewise also 
 the men, leaving the natural use of the woman, 
 burned in their lust one toward another, men with 
 men working unseemliness, and receiving in them- 
 selves that recompense of their error which was 
 due." 
 
16 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 And not only did their sins return physical ruin, 
 but the whole mental and moral nature was cor- 
 rupted and, " even as they refused to have God in 
 their knowledge, God gave them up unto a repro- 
 bate mind, to do those things which are not fitting ; 
 being filled with all unrighteousness, wickedness, 
 covetousness, maliciousness; full of envy, murder, 
 strife, deceit, malignity ; whisperers, backbiters, 
 hateful to God, insolent, haughty, boastful, invent- 
 ors of evil things, disobedient to parents, without 
 understanding, covenant-breakers, without natural 
 affection, unmerciful; who, knowing the ordinance 
 of God, that they which practise such things are 
 worthy of death, not only do* the same, but also 
 consent with them that practise them." 
 
 That record and those conditions were the con- 
 tinuous evidences — the loud-speaking witnesses — 
 that the God of the world had attached sad conse- 
 quences to ingratitude and neglect of him. His 
 displeasure was not written on the skies, nor in 
 the books of prophets; but men received in them- 
 selves, as they went along, the just recompense of 
 their deeds; and these were the sure witnesses to 
 divine displeasure : testimony that their conduct was 
 against the constitution of things. 
 
 Then he addresses himself to another class, the 
 moralists of the city. There were many of these. 
 Seneca was one. Stoic philosophers abounded. 
 Seneca's writings contain much that ranks with 
 Christian teaching. Some have thought he had 
 
Every Mans Need of the Gospel iy 
 
 some acquaintance with Paul. But Seneca, and his 
 companions in morals, practised things that cannot 
 be mentioned in public. To them Paul speaks : 
 Since you say that knowledge of the divine way is 
 necessary, all the more are you guilty, for " thou 
 art without excuse, O man, whosoever thou art that 
 judgest: for wherein thou judgest another, thou 
 condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest dost prac- 
 tise the same things. And we know that the judg- 
 ment of God is according to truth against them 
 that practise such things. And reckonest thou this, 
 O man, who judgest them that practise such things, 
 and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judg- 
 ment of God? Or despisest thou the riches of his 
 goodness and forbearance and longsuffering, not 
 knowing that the goodness of God leadeth thee to 
 repentance? but after thy hardness and impenitent 
 heart treasurest up for thyself wrath in the day 
 of wrath and revelation of the righteous judgment 
 of God; who will render to every man according 
 to his works ; to them that by patience in well-doing 
 seek for glory and honour and incorruption, eternal 
 life: but unto them that are factious and obey not 
 the truth, but obey unrighteousness, shall be wrath 
 and indignation, tribulation and anguish upon every 
 soul of man that worketh evil, of the Jew first, and 
 also of the Greek ; but glory and honour and peace 
 to every man that worketh good, to the Jew first, 
 and also to the Greek, for there is no respect of per- 
 sons with God. For as many as have sinned without 
 
18 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 law shall also perish without law; and as many as 
 have sinned under law shall be judged by law; for 
 not the hearers of a law are just before God, but 
 the doers of a law shall be justified ; for when Gen- 
 tiles, which have no law, do by nature the things 
 of the law, these, having no law, are a law unto 
 themselves ; in that they shew the work of the law 
 written in their hearts, their conscience bearing wit- 
 ness therewith, and their thoughts one with another 
 accusing or else excusing them; in the day when 
 God shall judge the secrets of men, according to 
 my gospel, by Jesus Christ." 
 
 Then he writes to another class — to the ceremo- 
 nialistic Jews — and says : " But if thou bearest the 
 name of a Jew, and restest upon the law, and glo- 
 riest in God, and knowest his will, and approvest 
 the things that are excellent, being instructed out 
 of the law, and art confident that thou thyself art a 
 guide of the blind, a light of them that are in dark- 
 ness, a corrector of the foolish, a teacher of babes, 
 having in the law the form of knowledge and of the 
 truth ; thou therefore that teachest another, teachest 
 thou not thyself ? thou that preachest a man should 
 not steal, dost thou steal? thou that sayest a man 
 should not commit adultery, dost thou commit adul- 
 tery? thou that abhorrest idols, dost thou rob tem- 
 ples? thou who gloriest in the law, through thy 
 transgression of the law dishonourest thou God? 
 For the name of God is blasphemed among the Gen- 
 tiles because of you, even as it is written. For cir- 
 
Every Mans Need of the Gospel 19 
 
 cumcision indeed profiteth, if thou be a doer of the 
 law; but if thou be a transgressor of the law, thy 
 circumcision is become uncircumcision. If there- 
 fore the uncircumcision keep the ordinances of the 
 law, shall not his uncircumcision be reckoned for 
 circumcision? and shall not the uncircumcision 
 which is by nature, if it fulfil the law, judge thee, 
 who with the letter and circumcision art a trans- 
 gressor of the law? For he is not a Jew, which is 
 one outwardly; neither is that circumcision, which 
 is outward in the flesh; but he is a Jew, which is 
 one inwardly ; and circumcision is that of the heart, 
 in the spirit, not in the letter ; whose praise is not of 
 men, but of God." 
 
 And then to drive home his charge he brings the 
 testimony of the Jewish Scriptures against them. 
 These prophets whose writings they were accus- 
 tomed to read and respect, he says have told the 
 same story about Jewish people. 
 
 " There is none righteous, no, not one ; 
 
 There is none that understandeth, 
 
 There is none that seeketh after God ; 
 
 They have all turned aside, they are together be- 
 come unprofitable; 
 
 There is none that doeth good, no, not so much 
 as one; 
 
 Their throat is an open sepulchre ; 
 
 With their tongues they have used deceit: 
 
 The poison of asps is under their lips ; 
 
20 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness : 
 Their feet are swift to shed blood : 
 Destruction and misery are in their ways : 
 And the way of peace have they not known : 
 There is no fear of God before their eyes. ,, 
 
 It is evident then that on the basis of personal 
 merit no one is justified. " Every mouth is 
 stopped " ; all have " come short," and hence all 
 are under condemnation. 
 
 So far then we have followed his argument. 
 Look back over it, and transpose it into modern 
 key ; what does it say to us ? 
 
 We are all judged by the light we have zuithin 
 our reach. You noticed as you read the charge 
 against the Roman common people that he said, 
 " that which is known of God is manifested in them, 
 so they are without excuse." The invisible quali- 
 ties of God are manifest. Those Roman moralists 
 were guilty in double degree because they claimed to 
 know, but did not do ; and so the Jewish people were 
 superlatively guilty, because they had the light of 
 nature and the light of philosophy crowned with the 
 light of the God-given law. None was condemned 
 without being guilty of " holding down the truth." 
 
 The very essence of sin is in the attitude of heart 
 toward God. The vital principle of it — the poison- 
 ous root of all — is not some violation of a com- 
 mandment, not the commission of some dishonor- 
 able act. It is not lying, or stealing, or swearing. 
 
Every Man's Need of the Gospel 21 
 
 These are bad, but one may stop all these and not 
 touch the root of evil. Dan Crawford, in his book, 
 " Thinking Black/' tells about a native who had 
 been stealing. The penalty was to have the hand 
 that stole cut off. But the negro said, " It was not 
 my hand that stole, it was my heart." The essence 
 of sin is in the attitude of heart toward God. See 
 how the best teachers have shown this. David said, 
 " Against thee and thee only have I sinned." 
 When Jesus came he taught that he that hateth his 
 brother is a murderer, and he that lusteth is an 
 adulterer. So here Paul locates the trouble in the 
 heart. Who " knowing God, did not glorify him 
 as God, neither were thankful." Out of that root 
 grew the things that blacken the chapter. The ger- 
 minal evil is in that unthankful attitude. From 
 that first step dowmvard the course leads with in- 
 creasing ease and speed to utter godlessness. It 
 is not difficult to see how such an attitude contains 
 the possibility of all wickedness. If one does not 
 in his thinking exalt into the rightful superinten- 
 dency of his life the Being that has created and 
 keeps us — does not glorify him as God (and the 
 word " God " is the symbol of goodness and au- 
 thority) — then there is no responsibility to any one 
 or anything outside oneself. That means that our 
 fleshly desires and our human ambitions are the only 
 regulators of our conduct. It is a short step from 
 that to the worship of the creature, and the sur- 
 render of life to the strongest passions. 
 
22 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 I am not saying that every man who is ungrate- 
 ful is low and licentious; but I say that unless a 
 man puts the authority of God over his life he has 
 no chart, or compass, or safe pilot on board his ship. 
 To deny the authority of God is treason. To refer 
 all things to the inner self is practical atheism. 
 General Grant, when he was lying on that dying 
 bed at Mt. McGregor, with the dawn of the next 
 world already appearing, wrote an article about his 
 feelings concerning the war; and in it he wrote, 
 " I am glad to live to see the North and the South 
 united " — and then as he reread his page he crossed 
 out the word " glad " and wrote over it the word 
 " thankful." That was a great change. Thankful 
 is a pregnant word. It implies the giver and the 
 gift. No man can be " thankful " to a tree or to 
 " Nature." Out of that word there shines the face 
 of God, the Father Almighty, and if there be 
 no gratitude, there is no God glorified as God, and 
 hence there is the root of all moral anarchy. 
 
 Our criticism of others is the measure of our 
 responsibility. " Wherein thou judgest another 
 thou condemnest thyself." " Reckonest thou this, 
 O man who judgest them that practise such things, 
 and doest the same, that thou shalt escape the judg- 
 ment of God ? " There is in our country a very 
 high idea of what the Christian church ought to be 
 and to do. The whole community is instructed, 
 and is correct in its judgment. It is a good condi- 
 tion to have. It makes great things possible. But 
 
Every Mans Need of the Gospel 23 
 
 that high estimate is the standard by which the 
 community must be judged. I have often wished 
 that I could daily live as nobly and as kindly as the 
 saloon-keepers say I ought to. I confess that I 
 owe them considerable for the high demands they 
 make upon me. But much as I owe them, their 
 estimate of my duty will be a stone about their 
 necks when they go into the waters of judgment un- 
 less they conform to it themselves. Our standard 
 for others becomes God's standard for us. 
 
 Judged by these tests no man has a flawless 
 record. Making all allowance for our necessary 
 ignorances, it yet remains true that, judged by the 
 holy law of God, or by the relations that we have to 
 him, we all belong to the " shortcoming " class. 
 We may struggle against our sins, but in vain. 
 The lament of Paul is ours. " For we know that 
 the law is spiritual ; but I am carnal, sold under sin. 
 For that which I do I know not: for not what I 
 would, that do I practise; but what I hate, that I 
 do. But if what I would not, that I do, I consent 
 unto the law that it is good. So now it is no more 
 I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in me. For I 
 know that in me, that is, in my flesh, dwelleth no 
 good thing: for to will is present with me, but to 
 do that which is good is not. For the good which 
 I would I do not, but the evil which I would not, 
 that I practise. But if what I would not, that I do, 
 it is no more I that do it, but sin which dwelleth in 
 me. I find then the law, that to me who would do 
 
24 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 good, evil is present. For I delight in the law of 
 God after the inward man; but I see a different 
 law in my members, warring against the law of my 
 mind, and bringing me into captivity under the law 
 of sin which is in my members. O wretched man 
 that I am ! who shall deliver me out of the body of 
 this death? I thank God through Jesus Christ our 
 Lord. So then I myself with the mind serve the 
 law of God : but with the flesh the law of sin." So 
 that every excuse we might raise is vain. There is 
 not a day of our life of which we can say, I will 
 trust my future on the record of that day. It does 
 not become us to assume an injured air and simply 
 resent the accusation. It is not man's judgment 
 of us. If it were, it would have little weight. 
 Paul said : " It is a small thing that I be judged 
 of you, or of man's judgment, yea, I judge not mine 
 own self. For I know nothing against myself. 
 Yet am I not hereby justified. But he that judgeth 
 me is the Lord " (i Cor. 4 : 3, 4). This judgment 
 is passed upon us in view of the facts as our own 
 consciousness must see them. 
 
 Every mouth is stopped, and on a legal basis all 
 are guilty before God. No personal merit, and no 
 inherited status, can avail. On the basis of law we 
 are under condemnation. The consequences are 
 being experienced now, and the final results, though 
 delayed, are sure. If we go trusting to any merit 
 of our own, we go out under the skies a company 
 of guilt-laden men and women. 
 
CHAPTER III 
 
 EVERY MAN'S SUPPLY 
 
 "Justified freely by his grace through the redemp- 
 tion." — Rom. 3 : 24. 
 
 After Paul has shown that en the basis of personal 
 fulfilment of law every one comes short, and " every 
 mouth is stopped," and " every one guilty before 
 God," he comes in his imagination where he sees 
 before him a world needing help, and finding none. 
 But God — his God and the world's God — does not 
 leave mankind to their fate. God's desire to have 
 men right with him is far greater than any man's 
 desire to be so. Men are estopped from complaint, 
 because while they know, they fail to do. But 
 God's mouth is not estopped from a word of coun- 
 sel and hope for every man. During all the ages 
 there has been a way to have the account settled 
 between the man and his Maker. This way has 
 been contained in the law-books of the Old Testa- 
 ment and in the writings of prophets. Romans 
 were familiar with these. (See Acts 15 : 21.) And 
 then, as if he saw that his readers were in an ex- 
 pectant frame of mind, waiting to hear more defi- 
 nitely what "way" was thus pointed to by the 
 Scriptures, he continues, " justified freely by his 
 
 25 
 
26 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 grace through the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus." 
 
 In that sentence is contained the soteriology of 
 the New Testament crystallized. If we take any 
 one of its several ideas, and trace its origin, and 
 its purpose, and its effects, we shall find that it 
 contains what accounts for all that is said about the 
 various phases of the Christian life. Since this 
 statement is a general one and not limited to Ro- 
 mans, we may consider it as if it were written di- 
 rectly to us. There are four elements. These let 
 us examine separately. 
 
 "Justified." We are met here by two quite di- 
 verse views of what Paul meant. One view is that 
 to be " justified " meant " to be made just." It is 
 said that the phrase might be translated "being 
 righteoused." That is, we are made good people 
 " freely by his grace." The kindness of God so 
 works upon us that we forsake our ingratitudes and 
 our wrong-doings, and become grateful and obe- 
 dient. This view makes " justification " to be a 
 subjective improvement in life. 1 
 
 The other view is that to be " justified " is not 
 to have an improvement in our life, but in our rela- 
 tions to God. It amounts to our word " acquitted." 
 The " justified " man is one whom the judge de- 
 clares to have met the requirements of the law, so 
 that now so far as the law is concerned he is guilt- 
 less. In explaining this men have gone beyond 
 
 1 See BushnelPs " Vicarious Sacrifice." 
 
Every Man's Supply 27 
 
 the statement of Paul and have said that men are 
 justified because Jesus bore the guilt and " penalty " 
 of our sins, and therefore men are released from 
 the law in the same way that they are released from 
 a debt when another man pays it. 
 
 A not infrequent illustration of that view is the 
 case of Mr. A, a drafted man, who has furnished 
 a substitute, and the substitute has been killed. 
 They say the draft law has no claims on Mr. A, 
 for constructively he has died. He is legally dead. 
 For myself, while admitting that these illustrations 
 express some truth, I think that the more thor- 
 oughly one studies them the less will he be satisfied 
 with them. It appears to me that the true inter- 
 pretation lies neither in making men just, nor in 
 substitution of Christ and the imputation of our 
 guilt to him and of his death to us. I would state 
 my own view like this : 
 
 Paul is writing to Romans whose common mode 
 of thinking and speaking is in the terms of a court. 
 Whatever idea he seeks to convey must be con- 
 veyed in language they would understand. The 
 idea he was seeking to convey was that under a 
 regime of law and personal merit men are all crim- 
 inals. But, he says, there is a way whereby the 
 relations to God of these criminals can be restored, 
 and that is by faith in Christ. He does not at- 
 tempt to explain, nor to philosophize how the death 
 of Christ secures that end. His one aim is to get 
 them to accept Christ: and he does not enter into 
 
28 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 discussions about " imputation " of guilt or of right- 
 eousness. His thought is, " O ye who, when you es- 
 timate your personal merit, see and feel yourselves 
 hopeless, know that your relations to your God 
 can be so adjusted that you will stand acquitted." 
 That must be our emphatic message when we try 
 to reproduce his thought. 
 
 But while Paul does not discuss the philosophy 
 of justification here, we find ourselves instinctively 
 doing so, and it will not be extraneous if we con- 
 sider that matter for a little here. 
 
 As I conceive it, the view of Doctor Bushnell, 
 summarized above, fails to be in harmony with 
 Paul's thought in this particular: Paul in his allu- 
 sions to justification always speaks of something 
 that has an immediate effect. When men have 
 truly believed in Christ, something has been done 
 that settles the past and opens the way for a new 
 order of life. In the sixth chapter we get that 
 idea. " We are buried with Christ by baptism into 
 his death — that like as Christ was raised up from 
 the dead ... so we also should walk in newness of 
 life." That is his explanation of the symbolism of 
 baptism. It is not a gradual dying to the old rela- 
 tions that is symbolized, but an accomplished death. 
 We do not bury people alive even though they are 
 feeble. These people were conceived of as being 
 dead to their old relations and therefore to be 
 buried. 2 
 
 2 See also Rom. 5 : 1 and 8 : 1. 
 
Every Man's Supply 29 
 
 It is true that a real justification will open the 
 way to a real transformation of character — that is, 
 to an actual " righteousing " — but it seems to me 
 that Paul's invariable conception of justification is 
 that it is an accomplished transaction, not a pro- 
 gressive life. If we take Bushnell's view, we find 
 that the facts of life contradict us ; for the believers 
 are still very far from being actually " righteoused." 
 
 On the other hand, I cannot see anything under- 
 standable or acceptable in the theory that my guilt 
 and my penalty were placed upon Christ, or that 
 Christ's holiness is imputed to me in any way that 
 involves a substitution of his holiness for mine, or 
 of his suffering for what was due to me. That 
 view of the theory of atonement finds no foothold 
 in my consciousness or my reason. Some years 
 ago in a Southern State a very wicked negro was 
 sentenced to be hung for murder. He had a very 
 pious brother who was a preacher of the gospel. 
 This brother wrote the governor, saying that his 
 criminal brother, if hung, would lose his soul, but 
 if he could be spared, he might become a good man, 
 and he, the brother, therefore asked to be allowed 
 to take his brother's place on the gallows, for he 
 was a Christian and a saved man. Now if the 
 governor had assented, he would not only have 
 been without legal warrant for doing so, but pub- 
 lic sentiment would have cried out against him as a 
 murderer. There could not have been a transfer 
 of guilt or penalty. 
 
30 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 What would be ethically wrong among men can- 
 not be right in God. I should be compelled to give 
 up all my faith in Christian doctrine were it de- 
 pendent on what to me is morally impossible. But 
 my faith is not thus dependent. In my own think- 
 ing there is a kind of imputation, confirmed by 
 every-day experience which is our heritage in 
 Christ. 
 
 I knew an English workman in Cincinnati who 
 by careful economy and constant industry kept a 
 comfortable home. One day a young man from 
 London came to him, bringing a letter from a for- 
 mer companion in the choir of the London church, 
 saying, " This is my son, help him for my sake, and 
 the sake of old times." He took the boy in to 
 home and heart. He proved to be worthless and 
 lazy. But that workman, hoping to save him, shel- 
 tered and fed the son for his father's sake. That 
 is, he imputed to the son the character of his father. 
 Within the halo of love that surrounded the father 
 this young man seemed to be worthy. The fa- 
 ther's worthiness became the son's worthiness by 
 the imputation of association. 
 
 So I take it, one may, without violence to reason 
 or experience, think of the worthiness of Christ 
 as being a sort of overshadowing worthiness for 
 all who by faith associate themselves with him. In 
 that sense he becomes our righteousness, the halo 
 about him glorifying us. He suffered for our bene- 
 fit, but not in our place. He bore our sins in the 
 
Every Man's Supply 31 
 
 way he bore our sicknesses as recorded in Matthew 
 8 : 17. With this view I can see the meaning 
 of all the passages that are really connected with 
 the subject, although they may not directly dis- 
 cuss it. 
 
 And with such a view comes great comfort of 
 soul. When one feels, as one must often feel, 
 how unworthy he is, he thinks, " I do not stand 
 alone, I am associated by faith with one whose 
 worthiness overshadows me." And when one asks 
 himself what the future may have in store for him, 
 he does not begin to reckon up his own merits, but 
 he thinks, " What the Father thinks of the Son, 
 and what he will do for him, measures what he 
 thinks of me and will do for me." And what Jesus 
 has undertaken to do with me may be reckoned as 
 already accomplished. So that potentially I am 
 " made complete." 
 
 So without ethical violence we urge all to seek 
 by faith to be so united to Christ that through this 
 kind of imputation they may be now justified. 3 
 
 " Freely!' We have a use of the word " freely " 
 that conveys the meaning " abundantly." Probably 
 this use comes from the fact that we usually take 
 
 3 " Following the example of St. Paul, and St. John, and the writer 
 of the Epistle to the Hebrews we speak of something in this great 
 sacrifice as ' propitiation.' We believe the Holy Spirit spoke through 
 these writers, and it was his will that we should use this word. But 
 it is a word which we must leave it to him to interpret. We drop 
 our plummet into the depth, but the line attached to it is too short, 
 and it does not touch the bottom. The awful processes of the divine 
 mind we cannot fathom. Sufficient for us to know that through the 
 virtue of one sacrifice our sacrifices are accepted, the barrier which 
 sin places between us and God is removed." (Sanday, " International 
 Com. on Romans," p. 94.) 
 
32 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 abundantly what we can get without cost. But the 
 meaning here is not that. It is equivalent to " with- 
 out cost." It is in the Greek " dorean!' We have 
 the same word in Matthew 10 : 8, where Jesus tells 
 his disciples as they go out to preach, " Freely ye 
 have received, freely give." That is, this message I 
 have given you costs you nothing, give it to others 
 without cost. In another place (John 15 : 25) we 
 read, " They hated me without a cause," that is, 
 with nothing to justify it. Again we read in 
 Acts 2 : 38, " Ye shall receive the gift of the Holy 
 Spirit." Under these and many other such there 
 is one common idea, namely, that the thing given 
 was given entirely without reference to any sort of 
 compensating return either before or after the gift 
 was made. I emphasize this because it is after all 
 the very essential point in all Paul's argument, as it 
 is in our day the most difficult to see correctly. The 
 original source of the gift is stated to be the grace 
 of God. Out of his own kind and loving heart 
 there sprang " as acorn springs from oak " the way 
 of life as Paul taught it. Or to use the phrase of 
 Philip Doddridge : 
 
 Grace first contrived the way 
 
 To save rebellious man; 
 And all the steps that grace display 
 
 Which drew the wondrous plan. 
 
 It was necessary for this fact to be driven home by 
 all and by every means because it was a time when 
 
Every Man's Supply 33 
 
 the idea of the opposite belief prevailed. In all the 
 idolatrous world and in all the polytheistic world 
 the notion held sway that the gods were to be pro- 
 pitiated in some way. Their favor was to be ob- 
 tained by some sort of gift or some — what we in 
 modern politics call — " pull " with the more power- 
 ful one. " All their rule was not one of justice or 
 beneficence, but of caprice. Their favor was pur- 
 chased by hecatombs, 4 and their hatred incurred by 
 acts that had no moral quality that should give of- 
 fense to an upright judge." If any one had in any 
 way incurred the displeasure of the god or if he felt 
 the need of something from the god, he must take 
 some kind of gift to the god. There were no free 
 passes. Homer relates in the Iliad how the priest of 
 the god, Phoebus Apollo, went to the Greek chief- 
 tains to ask for his daughter who had been taken 
 from him in war. He offered a large ransom, but 
 was insolently refused. But after a quarrel among 
 the chiefs, Agamemnon yielded and 
 
 . . . bade upon the sea 
 Launch a swift bark, with twenty chosen men 
 To ply the oars, and put a hecatomb 
 Upon it for the God. 
 
 —Bryant, "Iliad" Bk. I, line 185. 
 
 At the end of the journey the offering was pre- 
 sented and the messengers said : 
 
 * Offerings of one hundred beasts. 
 
34 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 O, Chryses ! Agamemnon king of men 
 
 Sends me in haste to bring again this maid to thee, 
 
 And offer up this hallowed hecatomb 
 
 To Phoebus for the Greeks, that so the God 
 
 Whose wrath afflicts us sore may be appeased. 
 
 — Ibid., line 550. 
 After the sacrifice and the feast they 
 
 Sang to appease the God ; they chanted forth 
 
 High anthems to the Archer of the skies. 
 
 He listened to the strains and his stern mood 
 
 Was softened. TU .-, r „■ „ 
 
 — Ibid., line 595. 
 
 That fairly represents the polytheistic thought of 
 gods. Among the Hebrews that conception had a 
 very strong hold. It is recorded that when Saul 
 was in a hurry to go out to fight the Philistines he 
 did not think it safe to go until he had " entreated 
 the favor of Jehovah." He was so eager about it 
 that he did not wait for the priest but made the 
 offering himself. On this account the prophet told 
 him that he had " done foolishly," and that his king- 
 dom would not continue. (1 Sam. 13 : 13.) When 
 Jonah was in the ship tossed in a storm, the sailors 
 said to him: "What meanest thou, O sleeper? 
 Arise and call upon thy God, if so be that he will 
 think upon us and that we do not perish " (Jonah 
 1:6). In the Psalms provided for the temple 
 worship we have expressions like the following: 
 
 "Who shall sojourn in thy tabernacle? Who 
 shall dwell in thy holy hill? He that walketh up- 
 
Every Man's Supply 35 
 
 rightly and worketh righteously ; . . . He that doeth 
 these things shall never be moved " (Ps. 15 : 1-5). 
 " Their sorrows shall be multiplied that give gifts 
 for another god. Their drink offerings will not I 
 offer, nor take their names upon my lips" (Ps. 
 
 16: 4 ). 
 
 " Bring an offering, and come into his courts " 
 (Ps. 96 : 8). 
 
 " I was also perfect with him, and I kept myself 
 from mine iniquity. Therefore hath Jehovah rec- 
 ompensed me according to my righteousness, ac- 
 cording to the cleanness of my hands in his eye- 
 sight " (Ps. 18 : 21, 24). 
 
 " The Lord strengthen thee out of Zion ; remem- 
 ber all thy offerings, and accept thy burnt sacri- 
 fices " (Ps. 20 : 2, 3). 
 
 " Blessed is he that considereth the poor. Jeho- 
 vah will deliver him in the day of evil. He will 
 preserve him, and keep him, alive, and he shall be 
 blessed upon the earth. Jehovah will support him 
 upon the couch of languishing" (Ps. 41 : 1-3). 
 
 We are not to understand that this taint of poly- 
 theistic character dominates the Psalms ; for it does 
 not. But the traces of it are seen in them. 
 
 In the historical books of the Old Testament we 
 have one continuous record of the struggle of the 
 best men to shake off from the nation this notion 
 that God is more to be served by men as a condi- 
 tion of his favor than men are to be blessed by him 
 as a result of their unbounded faith in him. 
 
36 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 As an example : " I have had enough of the burnt 
 offerings of rams and the fat of fed beasts. I de- 
 light not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or 
 of he goats. When ye come to appear before me, 
 who hath required this of your hands, to trample 
 my courts ? Bring no more vain oblations, incense 
 is an abomination unto me" (Isa. 1 : n-13). 
 
 Or note the words of Malachi : " A son honoureth 
 his father, and a servant his master: if then I be 
 a father, where is mine honour ? and if I be a mas- 
 ter, where is my fear? saith the Lord of hosts unto 
 you, O priests, that despise my name. And ye say, 
 Wherein have we despised thy name ? Ye offer pol- 
 luted bread upon mine altar. And ye say, Wherein 
 have we polluted thee? In that ye say, The table 
 of the Lord is contemptible. And when ye offer the 
 blind for sacrifice, it is no evil ! and when ye offer 
 the lame and sick, it is no evil ! Present it now unto 
 thy governor ; will he be pleased with thee ? or will 
 he accept thy person? saith the Lord of hosts. And 
 now, I pray you, entreat the favour of God, that he 
 may be gracious unto us: this hath been by your 
 means: will he accept any of your persons? saith 
 the Lord of hosts. Oh that there were one among 
 you that would shut the doors, that ye might not 
 kindle fire on mine altar in vain ! I have no plea- 
 sure in you, saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I 
 accept an offering at your hand" (Mai. 1 : 6-10). 
 
CHAPTER IV 
 
 JUSTIFICATION 
 
 In Paul's time the matter had been much refined. 
 All connection with polytheistic religion was gone 
 from Israel. And it does not appear that they 
 considered God as a being of half pagan character, 
 having sensuous qualities that must be ministered 
 unto. He was a spiritual being, dwelling in all 
 the heavens, and ruling over all the earth. But the 
 idea possessed the leading teachers of the nation 
 that the observing of ceremonial commands, and 
 the performing of various acts of worship, all un- 
 der the regulation of the ceremonial code, were 
 necessary for Israel to retain the favor of God, as 
 well as for Gentile peoples to come into the charmed 
 circle of his favorites. To put it in the words of 
 Paul, they considered that salvation was obtained 
 by " works." And " works " meant things done to 
 please God and to fill up certain essential require- 
 ments of holiness. The man who did these 
 " works " abundantly had a better standing with 
 God than the man who did them sparingly. 
 
 The idea of propitiating God by such things was 
 much more refined than the idea of feeding the 
 gods, but at the core there was a common error, 
 namely, God gives his favor in return for things 
 
 37 
 
38 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 done to him. There is a certain " quid pro quo " 
 about it in both cases. 
 
 In a much more refined degree the same idea 
 now is too common to make Paul's teaching un- 
 necessary. We often hear people say, "I do not 
 know what I have done to merit such misfortune." 
 " I have served the church many years, and why 
 should I now suffer ? " "I have given my tenth, 
 and yet I am in hard luck." " If you give a tenth 
 you will be prospered. " " The Lord loveth a cheer- 
 ful giver." And the implication is, he does not 
 love the other kind of givers. A common argu- 
 ment by Roman Catholics is : " Our religion is the 
 truest because it is the hardest. It costs us more 
 to be good Catholics than it does you to be good 
 Protestants." Others say, " If I turn over a new 
 leaf and begin to do what I ought, I will be all 
 right." These and similar things all have the error 
 that Paul combated tainting much that is otherwise 
 good about them. 
 
 With this as a background, let us now see what 
 Paul's idea is. He is not discussing the value of 
 " works " as a part of the Christian life. He wrote 
 to the Ephesians that they were " created in Christ 
 Jesus for good works, which God had foreordained 
 that they should walk in them" (Eph. 2 : 10). 
 
 He is talking about "justification"; that is, 
 about how men who were sinful before God were 
 to have their relations to him set right preparatory 
 to having their living right. It was the same kind 
 
Justification 39 
 
 of question that the prodigal must have asked be- 
 fore he returned to his father. " What/' he 
 thought, " shall I be required to do, or what shall 
 I say to get my father's consent to work on the old 
 farm again ? " That is a very different question 
 from the one he would ask after he was restored 
 to his father's bosom and was at work on the old 
 farm. Then it would be, " How can I gratefully 
 serve so loving a father, who has so graciously for- 
 given me all my ingratitudes ? " He was not re- 
 stored for the sake of his good works, but he 
 sought to do good works because he had been re- 
 stored. His idea was, " I am not worthy to be 
 called thy son, but if you will let me be a servant 
 I will work for my board." His father freely for- 
 gave him and restored him. " Justified him freely 
 by his grace." 
 
 The justification is not of works; it is free; but 
 not so the sanctification. This latter costs effort 
 and sacrifice and suffering perhaps. But justifica- 
 tion is God's act on his own terms, and the terms 
 are " freely by his grace." 
 
 Although the Jewish leaders in Paul's time were 
 students of the Old Testament they blindly over- 
 looked the greatest fact in those prophetic books of 
 which they were so proud. " Ho, every one that 
 thirsteth, come ye to the waters, and he that hath 
 no money; come ye, buy and eat; yea, come, buy 
 wine and milk without money, and without price " 
 (Isa. 55 : 1). " He will feed his flock like a shep- 
 
40 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 herd, he will gather the lambs in his arms, and carry 
 them in his bosom" (Isa. 40 : 11). " The Lord 
 is my shepherd; I shall not want" (Ps. 23 : 1). 
 These are but examples of hundreds of passages 
 uttered during several centuries by prophets in suc- 
 cession having the central thought that Israel was 
 the people of God because he chose them for his 
 own. They were to obey him and love him, it is 
 true, but the initiatory act was by him, and that 
 initiation grew out of his grace, not out of their 
 goodness. " Propitiation " cannot therefore mean 
 to make him kindly disposed, for he " sent his Son " 
 to save the world when in spirit and act the world 
 was hostile. 
 
 And in these days it will not be thought irrele- 
 vant to glance at the world outside of the Bible. 
 All the things of God are of grace; that is, they 
 come to us without price. For example: How 
 much rent does the farmer pay God for the use of 
 the infinite forces of nature? He sows a little 
 wheat, and at once earth and air spring to his ser- 
 vice. While he sleeps they work for him. They 
 perfect his crop. When it is ripe he harvests, 
 grinds, and eats it. 
 
 How much does the gardener pay for the ex- 
 quisite taste and tireless industry of the forces of 
 chemistry and light that fashion and color and per- 
 fume the flowers that beautify his garden? 
 
 These astonishing activities of electricity, which 
 are revolutionizing the commerce of the world — 
 
Justification 41 
 
 how much rent to God do they pay who thus draft 
 these forces as willing helpers for themselves ? 
 
 Nay, how much do any of us pay to God for the 
 life forces that make our hearts throb and our 
 functions continue — for our life itself ? 
 
 All these are freely given to us. We neither 
 can, nor are we asked to pay for them. 
 
 Earth gets its price for what Earth gives us; 
 The beggar is taxed for a corner to die in, 
 The priest has his fee who comes and shrives us, 
 We bargain for the graves we lie in ; 
 At the devil's booth are all things sold, 
 Each ounce of dross costs its ounce of gold; 
 For a cap and bells our lives we pay, 
 Bubbles we buy with a whole soul's tasking: 
 'Tis heaven alone that is given away, 
 'Tis only God may be had for the asking ; 
 No price is set on the lavish summer; 
 June may be had by the poorest comer. 
 
 — Lowell. 
 
 In matters of our relation to the one God all 
 have the same conditions. As rain falls without 
 cost, as sun shines on us gratis, so justification is 
 freely given us out of the grace of God. No man 
 has any more need to pray that God will be kind 
 to him than he has to pray that God will let the 
 sun shine in his windows. What he has need to 
 do is to open the window. " God so loved the 
 world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that 
 whosoever believeth on him might not perish " 
 (John 3 : 16). He is not to be made propitious; 
 
42 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 he is propitious. He is not to be persuaded ; we are 
 to be persuaded. We are not to ransom ourselves ; 
 he has ransomed us. 
 
 " Through the redemption/' Two great ideas are 
 compressed into this one word " redemption/' The 
 word itself is related closely to the slave-market. 
 It brings to mind a kind man going into the mart 
 for slaves and by exchange or purchase securing 
 the liberty of some one held in bondage. The real 
 emphasis is not on the method by which he secures 
 the freedom but on the fact that he secures it. 
 Both the onlooker and the slave himself, in the joy 
 of the freedom attained, might not even remember 
 how it was secured. It would not matter who had 
 owned the slave, nor what he did with the money. 
 So in this case it is not worth while to inquire to 
 whom the " redemption " value was given, nor what 
 became of it afterward. It is the freedom from 
 condemnation that interests us. It is the " redemp- 
 tion " that Christ secured rather than the one from 
 whom he secured it. 
 
 Paul has said that the justification is without cost 
 to us, but not so to him that secured it. It is free 
 to us through the redemption that he wrought. 
 
 The specific effect of that " act of redemption " 
 in the divine economy no one knows. It has been 
 discussed pro and con for nineteen centuries with- 
 out settlement. But that it removed all that stood 
 in the path of a free justification for us none deny. 
 And without that " act of redemption " Paul 
 
Justification 43 
 
 thought — and all who accept him still think — -that 
 no justification could be attained. 
 
 Christ Jesus was set forth — exhibited openly — 
 before the world as the " propitiation " for our sins. 
 He by his whole life from birth to ascension accom- 
 plished what was necessary to make the justification 
 free to us although with great cost to himself. 
 
 The great majority of writers on the subject feel 
 constrained to say that the death of Christ had a 
 substitutionary character, that the blood — standing 
 for the death — of Jesus was a vicarious penalty for 
 the sins of the world. Their arguments have great 
 weight. It is quite possible that Paul, who had 
 been brought up with the sacrificial ideas always 
 before him, had this conception or one that took 
 that direction. There is, however, enough on the 
 other side to give me confidence to say that I can- 
 not find any basis in my own heart nor any sure 
 ground in Paul's language on which to base that 
 view. I am in this matter an agnostic. 
 
 I prefer to understand propitiation to mean 
 the meeting-place for men and God. When men 
 differ and fall out a reconciliation is brought about 
 by meeting at the house of a friend. When nations 
 war and then seek peace, conference is had on 
 some intermediate or neutral ground. 1 So I think 
 
 1 In 1807 a raft was anchored in the middle of the river Memel 
 at Tilsit. Napoleon went out to it in a skiff from the south, and 
 Alexander the Russian czar came to it from the north, and there 
 the treaty of Tilsit was made and signed which united France and 
 Russia against England. — (Poultney Bigelow, " German Struggle for 
 Liberty," Vol. I, p. 92.) 
 
44 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 the old sacrifices were not substitutionary. They 
 were confessional. " A remembrance of sin " was 
 made. They were consecrative in that they were 
 the symbol of surrender. And in them God and the 
 sinner met together to secure peace. So it seems 
 to me the sinner comes to Christ, yields life and 
 faith to him. God on the other side is " in Christ 
 reconciling us to himself." Christ is therefore the 
 " hilasterion " — the meeting-place — where we may 
 be reconciled to God. 
 
 Thus we have the Gospel of God stated in Roman 
 forms of speech : " Being justified freely by his 
 grace, through, the redemption that is in Christ 
 Jesus, whom God set forth to be a propitiation for 
 our sins." 
 
 As at the outset of this chapter I said it is the 
 gospel in crystal, so I repeat we have here what 
 constitutes for the one who sincerely accepts it a 
 whole body of Christian doctrine and a flowing 
 fountain of Christian hope. 
 
 May all who read this come to possess it. 
 Quite likely my explanation may not satisfy all. 
 But it is not necessary to agree with me. The 
 important thing is that men accept Christ as their 
 leader, teacher, helper, redeemer, Saviour. He will 
 fill for each what the real need now is, and will 
 crown his work for them, we believe, by a glorious 
 resurrection and an inheritance of eternal life 
 beyond. 
 
CHAPTER V 
 
 THE RESULTS OF JUSTIFICATION 
 
 "Therefore being justified by faith, we have peace 
 with God through our Lord Jesus Christ: by whom also 
 we have access by faith into this grace wherein we 
 stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not 
 only so, but we glory in tribulations also: knowing that 
 tribulation worketh patience; and patience, experience; 
 and experience, hope; and hope maketh not ashamed; 
 because the love of God is shed abroad in our hearts 
 by the Holy Ghost, which is given unto us. For when 
 we were yet without strength, in due time Christ died 
 for the ungodly." — Rom. 5 : 1-6. 
 
 In central Vermont, when a farmer sees breaking 
 out from the ledges of rock in his pasture white or 
 whitish veins, he at once thinks of marble. It may 
 be that his farm is but the covering of quarries 
 that will make him rich. So he bores or blasts 
 down into the earth to discover whether his con- 
 jectures are well founded. Some men have found 
 fortunes thus lying in wait for the man who would 
 discover them. When I see one of Paul's " there- 
 fores " I am reminded of such men. It tells me 
 that under the word there lies a truth well worth 
 studying for. It tells me that he has laid a train 
 of thought preparatory to his word and that 
 now the treasure is ready to be uncovered. Such 
 
 45 
 
46 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 a case is here in this passage. Up to this point he 
 has been stating the way of being justified. It is 
 by faith in Christ. Now the sinner is conceived of 
 as one whose account has been settled with the 
 Judge. What follows from this settlement? Being 
 justified by faith — that is having been justified — 
 what are the results? He replies in the words of 
 this passage. Let us examine it 
 
 " We have peace with God!' We find two mean- 
 ings ascribed to this by scholars of merit. One, as 
 given in the Roman Catholic and in the Bible 
 Union versions, makes it read " Let us have peace/' 
 as if it were an exhortation to be at peace. 
 
 This does not meet my view of the whole passage. 
 It would not be consistent, after a man has been 
 discharged by the judge, to say, " Now be at peace 
 with him." The peace is already declared. 
 
 The other view makes it read — as in the King 
 James and in the Standard versions — " We have 
 peace with God " ; and then Paul goes on to mention 
 some of the results of that peace. 
 
 It is also to be noted that the peace he speaks of 
 is the peace of relations to God, not the peace of 
 heart that is meant by Paul in another place where 
 he says, " The peace of God that passeth all un- 
 derstanding keep your hearts and minds" (Phil. 
 4:7). That kind of peace is ours to seek for, 
 but it is not what is in his thought here. Rather 
 is this the thought : Heretofore the sinner has been 
 unwilling to do what his Creator and Father de- 
 
The Results of Justification 47 
 
 sired him to do. In greater or less degree he was 
 in a disobedient frame of mind. Technically he 
 was a rebel at war with God. His life was an 
 endeavor to go contrary to the current of God's 
 plans for him. He was trying to row up the stream. 
 But now he has swung into the current and moves 
 with it unresistingly. Now his war is ended. He 
 has accepted the way of God and walks in it. In 
 that sense he is at peace with God. It is God's 
 purpose that all men shall become followers of 
 Jesus. To him every knee is to bow, and every 
 tongue confess that he is Lord. Until one has done 
 that, he is in an antagonistic attitude to God. When 
 he has done that, he is at peace. Instead of being 
 a company of those whom God is seeking to recon- 
 cile, Christian people are become a company of 
 those who are reconciled to him and his way. 
 
 And how rich are the associations of that word 
 " peace " ! I remember how in '65 when our boys 
 were away in the army the word came that the war 
 was over. Lee had surrendered. Then, as if by 
 common instinct, all the village went out into the 
 street. The sextons rang the church-bells. The 
 country people came hurrying into the village. The 
 boys kindled a big bonfire. The village orators 
 made speeches of rejoicing. Peace had come! If 
 we should hear such a word now the whole world 
 would be moved with gratitude and praise. 1 
 
 1 Since these words were written, all the world has been thrilled 
 by the news of peace, and all the world has sung songs of praise. 
 
48 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 While that is more outwardly expressive, it would 
 not be more inwardly blessed than the rest that 
 comes to a man's soul when he yields at last to the 
 invitations of the gospel and commits himself to 
 Christ as his Lord and his Saviour. There remains 
 much for him to learn and much to overcome ; but 
 the antagonism is gone, the anxiety is over. He 
 has taken the yoke of Christ upon himself and he 
 has found his yoke easy and his burden light. He 
 has found " rest unto his soul." He has peace 
 with God. 
 
 "Into this grace." Something more than the 
 word to " cease firing " has gone forth. There is 
 reconstruction to be accomplished now. Paul had 
 a sort of geographic imagination. " Into this 
 grace " — as if we were in a sort of enclosure, sepa- 
 rate from the world, protected from the cold winds 
 of fear and the reach of danger. Overhead bend 
 the blue skies and radiant glory of God's favor. 
 It is a gracious place to be in. Paul's suggested 
 idea is that now being at peace with God, we are 
 the recipients of many spiritual blessings that can 
 be had only " in this grace." If any one hesitates 
 to see the exceeding value of being thus " enclosed 
 in his grace," let him look about among his more 
 intimate friends, and ask whether those who are " in 
 this grace " do give evidence of having blessings 
 that are not among the other class. Are their ideals 
 of life higher and more refined? Do they have a 
 calmness in the presence of troubles or danger that, 
 
The Results of Justification 49 
 
 other things being equal, others fail to possess. 
 Have they a hope that is an anchor to their souls 
 when storms arise on the ocean of their life that 
 holds them stedfast? I think such an observation 
 will satisfy the inquiring mind that there are bless- 
 ings of that sort reserved only for those who are 
 " in this grace." And we may bring it closer home. 
 In the case of you who have come " into this 
 grace " is it not true that you have had blessings 
 since you came into it that were unknown to you 
 before? Does not life seem to you more worth 
 living? Are there not compensations and conso- 
 lations for you as you walk through hard places 
 that w r ere wholly unknown before you came " into 
 this grace"? 
 
 "Access by faith!' How do men get " into this 
 grace " ? " Access by faith," says Paul. It is by 
 the submissive committal of ourselves to Christ 
 that we are thus favored to enter the enclosure. It 
 is the same idea that Jesus taught when he said: 
 " I am the way, and the truth, and the life; no one 
 cometh unto the Father but by me " (John 14 : 6). 
 It is the same that Peter preached to the troubled 
 souls in Jerusalem at Pentecost : " Repent and be 
 baptized in the name of Jesus Christ . . . and ye 
 shall receive the gift of the Holy Spirit " (Acts 
 2 : 38). Faith in Jesus is the doorway to all the 
 complete blessings God has in store for us. Not a 
 philosophy to be understood; not a holiness to be 
 attained by self-discipline ; not a theology to be mas- 
 
50 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 tered and confessed; but faith in Jesus. This was 
 Paul's view in Corinth where he determined to 
 know nothing but Jesus and him crucified. ( I Cor. 
 2:2.) It was the same when the jailer at Philippi 
 sought light. (Acts 16 : 31.) If any man is seek- 
 ing to come " into this grace " the only way is faith 
 in Jesus. In Antioch the disciples held meetings 
 day after day and preached to the people. Paul 
 came there and for a whole year taught much 
 people. But as they went home from the sessions 
 they were asked what he had talked about, and they 
 said, " About Christ." When men were planning 
 to go and hear him they said, " Let us go and hear 
 this man talk about Christ." So persistent were 
 the disciples in this that people said, " These people 
 are Christians, they talk nothing but Christ." With 
 us there is much after faith, but faith is funda- 
 mentally necessary as a condition of entering " this 
 grace." 
 
 " We rejoice In the hope of the glory of God! 9 
 However rich may be the " earnest of our inheri- 
 tance," and however luscious the " first-fruits," the 
 great bulk of " this grace " remains in the region 
 of hope. The present may be ever so blessed, the 
 future has much more in store. Peter expressed 
 it in this fashion, " God hath begotten us again 
 unto a living hope, by the resurrection of Jesus 
 Christ from the dead, unto an inheritance incor- 
 ruptible, undefiled, and that fadeth not away, re- 
 served in heaven for you who, by the power of God, 
 
The Results of Justification 51 
 
 are guarded, through faith, unto a salvation ready 
 to be revealed in the last time " ( 1 Peter 1 : 3-5 ) . 
 " We are saved in hope," wrote Paul. " But hope 
 that is seen is not hope ; for what a man seeth, why 
 doth he yet hope for it? But if we hope for that 
 which we see not, then do we with patience wait for 
 it " (Rom. 8 : 24, 25). But we hope for the " glory 
 of God." Some read this to mean that we shall see 
 the glorious royal state of God. As Jesus said, 
 " The Son of man shall come in his glory and all 
 the angels with him" (Matt. 25 : 31). Others 
 read it to mean that we shall see the " splendor in 
 which he lives " (Beet). Another, " We shall share 
 in God's glory" (Weymouth). Another, "We 
 shall attain the glorious ideal God has for us" 
 (Twentieth Century). Jesus said, "I desire that 
 they may be with me where I am, that they may 
 behold my glory which thou hast given me " (John 
 17 : 24). But he also said, " The glory which thou 
 hast given me I have given them " (John 17 : 22). 
 So I think we may say that Paul's idea includes 
 both the vision of God's spiritual splendor, and also 
 the sharing of it ourselves ; as John wrote, " We 
 shall be like him, for we shall see him as he is " 
 (1 John 3 : 2). 
 
 But how impossible it is for us to conceive or to 
 express in any satisfactory way the spiritual glory 
 for which we look. It must be one of character 
 as well as of body. Put together all the highest 
 virtues in perfect proportions and in- full measure ; 
 
52 Transplanted Truths: from Romans 
 
 give us the patience of Job, the faith of Abraham, 
 the courage of young David, the insight of Isaiah, 
 the zeal of Amos, the enthusiasm of Peter, the ten- 
 derness of John, the energy of Paul, and fuse them 
 all together with love like that of Jesus, and you 
 have the kind of individuals we should be. But the 
 future will not be a set of individuals. It will be a 
 society. When the writer of Revelation sought to 
 give us an idea of the coming glory, he told of a 
 city coming down from God out of heaven ! Then, 
 with figures that are impossible in fact, he sought 
 to tell how that night and sickness and sorrow and 
 sighing and death are all banished ; while song and 
 love and praise and usefulness are everywhere. 
 Such are the sketches in metaphor of the glory of 
 God for which we hope. As it has been left to our 
 imaginations, we are at liberty to use them to the 
 full. The only limit is that we must not allow any 
 sin to mar our picture, for the glory of God is the 
 beauty of holiness. 
 
 The religion of Confucius is one of memory; that of 
 Buddha one of extinction; that of the Stoic one of en- 
 durance; that of the Epicurean one of forgetfulness. The 
 religion of Christ is one of hope. He regenerates the very 
 word. In classic use its meaning was " Expectancy of evil 
 or good." In his use it means only future good. It has 
 a sure foundation. We are not saved because we hope 
 we are. It is not founded upon experience or personal 
 attainment. Christianity is founded upon a fact. The 
 true hope is in the risen Christ. Criticism, scholarship, 
 hate, ridicule, have stormed around that" stone rolled from 
 
The Results of Justification 53 
 
 the door of the sepulcher, but there it still lies bearing upon 
 it the gospel of our hopes. 
 
 The risen Christ is the assurance of a completed service, 
 of an accepted sacrifice and a present spirit. If Christ be 
 not risen, we may as well pull down our churches and go 
 to work again building towers of Babel. Our hope is not 
 in that we help God, but that God helps us. " While I live 
 I hope " is the proverb of humanity. " While I die I 
 hope" is the triumphant chant of grace. 
 
 Eternity we recognize as our inexhaustible treasure- 
 house, and through our hope, as through a window, we 
 catch glimpses that inspire. Its thought is inspiration; its 
 gleam is strength. The golden age is not back yonder, 
 but ever before us. We keep our eye on the sun and 
 the shadows of earth are kept behind us and our eyes 
 glow with the sunlight. When hope fails, the man dies. 
 (Rev. Wallace Radcliffe.) 
 
 " We exult in tribulation." Some one may say : 
 " Yes it is very well to tell about the glory that is 
 coming, but here and now the Christians have per- 
 secution and adversity. They have too much re- 
 ligion to enjoy the world and too much world to 
 enjoy religion." " No," says Paul, " we are not 
 cast down by such things. On the other hand we 
 exult — we triumph in the midst of tribulations. 
 There are fountains open in the heart that overflow 
 with help and consolations even when we are suffer- 
 ing persecutions." 
 
 All the history of the church has borne witness 
 to that. When in 1536 near Antwerp in Germany 
 William Tyndale was being burned at the stake for 
 printing the Bible for his fellow countrymen, he 
 
54 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 forgot his sufferings and prayed, " O Lord, open 
 the king of England's eyes." When in 1555 in Ox- 
 ford, England, Bishop Latimer was burning at the 
 stake he said to Ridley who was burning beside 
 him : " Play the man, brother. To-day we shall 
 light a fire by God's grace that I trust will never be 
 put out." Thousands upon thousands have had the 
 same kind of help when they have been in circum- 
 stance of trial. It is the common faith of the 
 church to-day that grace will be given for every 
 occasion. And this optimism is needed greatly. 
 
 The war is bringing out a large demand for Christian 
 men who are " good fellows " to go to France in the service 
 of the Young Men's Christian Association. They are to 
 be stationed in the Association centers, to assist in main- 
 taining the morale of the army, to serve the soldiers' needs 
 in little attentions that army life cannot confer. These 
 men are expected to assist in keeping the soldiers clean 
 and capable, to encourage and participate in the field 
 sports, and to furnish a good example for the men in 
 practical and manly Christian living. General Pershing 
 has so far recognized the value of this service that he 
 has asked for four thousand such leaders who are above 
 draft age and physically fitted for the hardships of army 
 life. 
 
 In all parts of the country men of the type desired have 
 been responding to the call, and doubtless still more are 
 wanted and will be wanted until the war is ended. It 
 should not be difficult for a Christian nation to furnish 
 them in ample numbers. The modern, hale-fellow, out-of- 
 doors, glad-he-is-alive variety of man is desired, and the 
 United States for some years has been growing this type 
 of citizen. 
 
The Results of Justification 55 
 
 The old-style variety of long-faced, melancholy, de- 
 pressing type of Christian has been " going out " for many 
 years. It has been sensed that the religion of Christ 
 requires no immolation of live manhood or womanhood; 
 that a Christian should be a cheerful optimist, with more 
 reason for being glad and for distributing gladness than 
 the unbeliever. Religion does not require of its adherents 
 that they deprive themselves of all human characteristics; 
 that they put on sackcloth and ashes and go through life 
 sadly bewailing their lot. On the contrary, the Christian 
 promise should case-harden them to trouble and make 
 them cheerfully ready for whatever the future may bring. 
 
 It is this spirit that General Pershing is conferring 
 upon his soldiers, a spirit that even now makes them no- 
 ticeable among their brethren of other nations in the 
 field. It is this spirit that keeps American troops fine 
 and fit and cheerful in any circumstances, and hardens 
 not only their will to victory but their physical bodies to 
 endurance. — Seattle Post-Intelligencer, 
 
 " Tribulation worketh steadfastness." The reason 
 for the exulting is that the very tribulations that 
 look so formidable from the outside are active in 
 the production of qualities that more peaceful cir- 
 cumstances fail to develop. First of all is steadfast- 
 ness. That is a great word. We speak of home- 
 stead, that is the place of the home ; bedstead is the 
 place of the bed; steadfast is place-fast. That is, 
 one sticks to his place and his faith. One does not 
 know whether he has steadfastness until he has faced 
 some storm that would drive him from his anchor- 
 age. But when he has faced and defeated tribula- 
 tion, he knows his own heart, and others know it. 
 
56 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 This steadfastness works approval. Mr. Moody 
 used to mark passages in his Bible " T & P " ; 
 that meant " tried and proved." So the man who 
 has suffered for Christ's sake marks his faith 
 " T & P "— " tried and proved." 
 
 "And approval hope; and hope maketh not 
 ashamed." That is, a hope that will not disappoint 
 its possessors. It might be said that : " It is well 
 to keep up a cheerful mind in all this trouble; bet- 
 ter than to despair ; but after all it is only an opti- 
 mistic speculation. We do not know what the real- 
 ity of the future may be. It may all turn out to be a 
 beautiful mirage, or a rainbow made by faith shin- 
 ing through our tears. How do we know ? " We 
 know by the fact that now in this present life we 
 have the first-fruits, the beginning of what is prom- 
 ised. " Well, what is that? Pray tell." It is this : 
 The love of God is already shed abroad in our 
 hearts. We have now the most evident and satis- 
 factory results. We love God whereas we used 
 to fear him. We war against the evil desires of the 
 flesh which once we served. We cherish a hope 
 which once was a stranger to us. Our tempers are 
 softened ; our tongues are being tamed ; our bitter- 
 nesses are getting sweetened ; our ambitions are get- 
 ting more spiritual; our vision of ourselves is en- 
 larged and uplifted. We love to read the teachings 
 of Jesus. We delight in the company of such as 
 worship God. Indeed, in all that is permanent 
 about us we may say without exaggeration we are 
 
The Results of Justification 57 
 
 " new creatures in Christ Jesus." Such are the 
 things that guarantee our hope is founded in truth. 
 That hope will not put us to shame. 
 
 Such then are the results of being justified by 
 faith. We have peace with God, access to God's 
 favor, hope of glory, triumph in persecutions, first- 
 fruits that give us satisfactory assurance. 
 
 It will be of great service to us if we not infre- 
 quently take time to consider and estimate these 
 results. 
 
CHAPTER VI 
 
 THE GREAT COMPENSATION 
 
 "As in Adam all die, so in Christ are all made 
 alive." — i Cor. 15 : 22. 
 
 Xenophon reported Homer as saying that Ulysses 
 was a " sure orator " because he framed his reason- 
 ings on things that are acknowledged by all man- 
 kind. It may not be said that Paul always did that ; 
 but he framed his reasonings on things that were 
 acknowledged by those to whom he wrote. The 
 passage we are studying now is one that gives great 
 perplexity to many because it rests upon an idea of 
 sin and death that finds hostility in many minds. 
 The old doctrine of the New England catechism 
 that " In Adam's fall we sin-ned all/' awakens 
 more hostility than almost any other doctrine of 
 the church. I wish to consider this disagreeable 
 doctrine as given in this chapter. 
 
 There are two facts to be recognized preliminary 
 to an understanding of the passage. First, Paul 
 had a very fertile imagination that he used actively 
 in illustrating his thought. It has been said of 
 Henry Ward Beecher that an abstract, obscure 
 idea passed through his mind became luminous by 
 his concrete illustrations. Paul was an expert in 
 58 
 
The Great Compensation 59 
 
 that art. It will help us to an understanding of 
 this to recall some of his figures. Writing to the 
 Corinthians, and wishing to explain his method a 
 little, he says, " I have fed you with milk and not 
 with meat " (1 Cor. 3:2). Wishing to show them 
 that there should be no jealousies among teachers, 
 he says : " I planted, Apollos watered ; but God 
 gave the increase. He that planteth and he that 
 watereth are one" (1 Cor. 3 : 6, 8). Changing 
 his figure, he says : " Ye are God's building. I laid 
 a foundation, others build thereon. But a day is 
 coming when the fire will test the work of each " 
 (1 Cor. 3 : 9, 10, 13). When he would tell of the 
 moral effects of faith in Christ, he says, " The 
 fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace," etc. (Gal. 
 5 : 22). When he would tell how the law of Moses 
 influenced men to take Christ, he said, " The law 
 was a schoolmaster to lead us to Christ" (Gal. 
 3 : 24). And perhaps the most striking instance 
 of a semidramatism is found in his attempt to teach 
 the triumph of Christ over death. He pictures 
 Christ as fighting the enemies of his reign in the 
 open. One after another of the hostile agencies is 
 defeated; for " He must reign until he has put all 
 enemies under his feet." And now there remains 
 only one more. That is Death — " the last enemy." 
 All other forces have been defeated — annihilated 
 is the word. Christ stands the master of the world 
 except that Death the dread monster remains to 
 contend with him and to defeat his plans. Then 
 
 F 
 
60 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 the trumpet sounds, and Death is forced to own the 
 victor. 
 
 The powers of Death have done their worst, 
 But Christ their legions hath dispersed. 
 Let shouts of holy joy outburst. 
 
 The Prince of life with Death has striven, 
 To cleanse the earth his blood has given, 
 Has rent the veil and opened heaven. 
 
 One cannot follow his picture with care and an ac- 
 tive imagination without having a thrill of personal 
 triumph that leads one to say with Paul, " O grave, 
 where is thy victory? O Death, where is thy 
 sting?" 
 
 The second fact to be considered is that figures 
 of speech must not be taken as theological formulae. 
 They are the clothing of ideas, not the ideas them- 
 selves. 
 
 In this passage (Rom. 5 : 12-21), Paul, to a 
 large extent, dramatizes the situation. He has been 
 teaching them that we are justified by our vital asso- 
 ciation with Jesus. 1 In that associational way his 
 excellence is imputed to us; his obedience — even 
 unto death — is in some way made to declare the 
 righteousness of God in passing over our sins; so 
 that he is not subject to the imputation of indiffer- 
 ence to sin when he justifies sinners. The whole 
 of this teaching rests upon the idea that Christ un- 
 
 1 See page 30. 
 
The Great Compensation 61 
 
 der some view both in his suffering and his obe- 
 dience represents us. 
 
 But that representative idea is the one that Jews 
 of his day and many Americans of our day dislike. 
 The most subtle antagonism to the gospel makes its 
 last defense on this point of imputation. Paul said 
 he sought his " own righteousness." The Jews 
 sought " to establish their own righteousness " and 
 did not " subject themselves to the righteousness 
 of God" (Rom. 10 : 3). The whole desire for 
 " works " was based upon the subtle, semiuncon- 
 scious desire to be independent of God. This same 
 subtle antagonism growing out of a mistaken pride 
 of personality finds expression in such w r ords as the 
 following, from a teacher of Christian theology who 
 is — doubtless without hostile intent — led away by 
 his philosophical bent into statements that are 
 wholly adverse to Paul's teaching. He says : " Man 
 is true to the end of his being only in a rational 
 ^//-guidance. . . We cannot rationally think that a 
 rational being can have an end in view that is not 
 ^//-perfecting " or " that he should find a law out- 
 side himself. . . Nor would it be ethical to find 
 the principle of one's faith and conduct outside one- 
 self." That is religious anarchy. It is not uncom- 
 mon to hear Roman Catholics argue that their re- 
 ligion is more likely to be true because they make 
 greater sacrifices for it than others. If there w r ere 
 pilgrimages to be made or heavy burdens imposed, 
 many would accept them if, in so doing, they could 
 
62 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 only have the assurance that they were earning their 
 salvation. 
 
 This dislike of being in the halo of anybody's 
 goodness and thus being recipients of grace was, 
 in the minds of those to whom Paul wrote, a great 
 hindrance ; and to all such as now hesitate his word 
 is equally unwelcome. But it is worth while to hear 
 what he says : 
 
 He calls up in memory the history written in 
 Genesis, and with which his readers were all fa- 
 miliar, for Moses was read in all their synagogues. 
 (Acts 15 : 21.) Here is Adam in the dawn of hu- 
 man history standing alone before God. He is 
 given a command and great privileges. He sins, 
 and as a result death becomes his penalty. But 
 Adam is the Begetter of the human race. Their 
 moral and physical constitution they inherit from 
 him. Their station in the created world they get 
 from him. Whether it be for good or for evil, this 
 is the fact everywhere evident. " In Adam all 
 died " by the operation of the same law that makes 
 it certain that in Adam all are men and not mon- 
 keys, and no monkeys are men. " Every seed after 
 its kind " is a sentence written all over the earth. 
 If Adam became a sinner his descendants are sin- 
 ners by nature. 
 
 " But," says some one, " all men sin for them- 
 selves and they are penalized with death for that." 
 No, death is not the penalty for breaking law. 
 " Why not? " says the objector. Because under the 
 
The Great Compensation 63 
 
 regime of law there can be no sin imputed before 
 the law is given; the law cannot be retroactive. 
 And yet men died during all the ages from Adam 
 to Moses before the law was given. And they did 
 not die for disobedience of some special command, 
 after the manner of Adam. They must therefore 
 have been penalized because they were the children 
 of Adam. And all his children are included in the 
 penalty. So it is evident that the principle of being 
 represented by the great Begetter of our race in 
 his sin is a living and active one all through the 
 ages. Every dying child bears witness to that fact. 
 It is not by personal disobedience that death is 
 passed upon all men, but by reason of our great 
 Begetter Adam's sin. So the principle of heredity 
 is established by Paul after the fashion of Ulysses, 
 appealing to what every one must acknowledge. 
 Paul so far is a true reasoner. 
 
 " But," says some one, " this is a hard saying. 
 Does it seem to be just that the children should 
 suffer for the sins of the parents? Did not Jere- 
 miah, when he saw the happy state of Israel, say 
 that ' In those days they will not say, The fathers 
 have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth 
 are set on edge : but every one shall die for his own 
 iniquity. Every man that eateth sour grapes, his 
 teeth shall be set on edge ' "? (Jer. 31 : 29, 30.) 
 
 This is the objection to-day to what is called the 
 doctrine of " original sin." A large part of the 
 objection is due to a misunderstanding of the doc- 
 
64 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 trine; but the Pauline idea does have the root of a 
 great antagonism in it. It seems to us unjust, and 
 therefore untrue. For this very reason I think 
 Paul makes a long and detailed statement of the 
 compensations for Adam that God gives us in 
 Christ. He uses the Genesis story, and the confir- 
 matory testimony of all observation not as an 
 example, but as a parallel to certain things in the re- 
 ligious realm. It is " an earthly story with an heav- 
 enly meaning." But in using it one must not forget 
 that it is an illustration rather than an argument. It 
 shows a truth in the physical realm to miniature a 
 similar truth in the spiritual realm. So he says, " As 
 in Adam all die, so in Christ shall all be made alive 
 again " (i Cor. 15 : 22). That is by no means say- 
 ing that as many as in Adam die shall be alive 
 in Christ. It is not a matter of numbers. It is the 
 principle of heredity he is setting forth. On the 
 same principle by which all those whom Adam be- 
 gat shared in his death, all those whom Christ be- 
 gets will share in his life. 
 
 So far the comparison is good and complete. But 
 then Paul goes on to show that while in that par- 
 ticular the cases have a common principle, in the 
 gospel scheme in other particulars the case is far 
 better. He reverses the figure entirely, and con- 
 trasts the good received by grace of heredity with 
 the sorrow received by inheritance from- Adam. In 
 Adam it was one sin and many sinners ; in Christ it 
 was one act of obedience and many made righteous. 
 
The Great Compensation 65 
 
 In Adam it was unto condemnation; in Christ it 
 was unto justification. If physical relation to Adam 
 brought forth death, much more will faith relation 
 to Christ bring forth life. If justice in God toward 
 Adam brought penalty of death, much more will 
 the grace of God bring forth riches of good. 
 
 In every way those who are begotten by Christ 
 find the operation of the law of heredity working 
 abundantly and superabundantly above its working 
 in the lower realm in which Adam was the begetter. 
 
 If Jesus Christ — as we are taught — was slain 
 
 From the foundation of the world, it was 
 
 Because our evil lived in essence then — 
 
 Coeval with the great, mysterious fact. 
 
 And he was slain that we might be transformed, — 
 
 Not into Adam's sweet similitude — 
 
 But the more glorious image of himself, — 
 
 A resolution of our destiny 
 
 As high transcending Eden's life and lot 
 
 As he surpasses Eden's fallen lord. 
 
 — /. G. Holland, Bitter Sweet. 
 
 So if at any time one is disposed for a moment 
 to antagonize the doctrine of heredity let him recall 
 this argument of Paul and see that, mysterious as 
 it may be, nevertheless the compensations are ex- 
 ceeding abundant. So that, as Paul here says, 
 " Where sin abounded, grace did much more 
 abound ; that as sin reigned in death, so might grace 
 reign through righteousness, unto eternal life, 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
66 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 If then any man feels that he is unfortunate in 
 having a natural disposition that brings him into 
 trouble, let him claim " this grace " in which he 
 may " stand, and rejoice in the hope of the glory 
 of God." 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 THE DICTIONARY OF FAITH 
 
 "The steps of that faith of our father Abraham." — 
 Rom. 4 : 12. 
 
 After Paul has set forth his idea of justification 
 in Romans 3 : 21-26, and added the declaration that 
 the door is wide open both to Jews and Gentiles 
 (Rom. 3 : 30), he knows that some of his readers, 
 or some who would hear his letter read in the meet- 
 ings of the disciples, would at once begin to examine 
 the matter critically. He had been preaching in all 
 sorts of places, sometimes in synagogues, at other 
 times in market-places, then again in the precincts 
 of idol temples ; and just as political speakers among 
 us learn by experience what sort of questions men 
 ask, and what objections they may raise, and reply 
 to them by shaping their addresses beforehand, so 
 Paul inserted in his letter replies to the objections 
 and questions he felt sure would be in the minds 
 of the Roman people to w T hom he wrote. 
 
 One of these objections likely to come from the 
 Jewish part of the church was this : " If you say 
 that the door is open to all alike, what was the 
 special advantage that Abraham, our honored an- 
 cestor, possessed ? " His reply may be stated in this 
 
 6 7 
 
68 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 form : As far as personal " works " go toward jus- 
 tification he had nothing to his advantage, for we 
 have shown that by works of law no flesh will be 
 justified in His sight; and that on the basis of merit 
 all men are " shortcomers." The Scripture itself 
 tells us that it was his faith, not his " works," that 
 was counted to him for righteousness. That state- 
 ment must stand unmodified. If he had been 
 justified because of his ethical or ceremonial per- 
 fectness he would have had a right to claim justifi- 
 cation as a legitimate reward for his excellence, just 
 as a man who has completed a contract has a right 
 to demand his pay. We do not consider that a 
 grocer is under obligation to us because we pay for 
 the goods he has sold us. Payment is his due and 
 our duty, not our grace. David had this in mind 
 when he wrote : " Blessed are they whose iniquities 
 are forgiven and whose sins are covered. Blessed 
 is the man to whom the Lord will not reckon sin." 
 Abraham, therefore, was the recipient of " grace " — 
 that is, of promises that grew out of the gracious 
 disposition of God, not out of the demands of jus- 
 tice, or as a reward for his deeds. The word " for- 
 giveness " carries that idea as its central message. 
 But some one is saying : " Yes, but that forgive- 
 ness was granted because he was circumcised as a 
 saving ceremony. He assented to the ceremony 
 and all that it implied, and as a return he was for- 
 given." Paul would reply : " No, he was accepted 
 before that. And the ceremony was accepted and 
 
The Dictionary of Faith 69 
 
 observed as a seal of the forgiveness he had already 
 received." All ceremonies — baptism and the Lord's 
 Supper, for example — are expressions of what has 
 already taken place, not the means of making it take 
 place. They are " outward signs of an inward 
 grace." If a man knowingly observes the sign who 
 has not the things signified, he commits a forgery, 
 tells a lie. 
 
 Then Paul proceeds to explain why this was so 
 arranged. It was done so that Abraham might be 
 the father of all who believe — of all " who walk in 
 the steps of that faith " which he had before he ob- 
 served the ceremony. 
 
 We have in this passage, therefore, two truths 
 worth transplanting into our gardens of thought. 
 
 First, we get a dictionary of faith. 
 
 Since faith has been given so great a prominence, 
 it is important that we know what it is. 
 
 The terms " father " and " son " are very fre- 
 quent terms in the Bible. They get their meaning 
 from the fact that fathers send down to their sons 
 some of their strongest peculiarities, and sons re- 
 semble their fathers in the same. We see the physi- 
 cal likeness in many ways. I once heard a little 
 girl ask her Sunday School teacher the meaning of 
 the beatitude, " Blessed are the peacemakers, for 
 they shall be called the children of God." Her 
 teacher replied, " When you see some little girl 
 on the street, you say, I know who that girl is be- 
 cause she looks like her mother." So peacemakers 
 
jo Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 are called " children of God " because in their dis- 
 positions they are — like God — peacemakers. This 
 explains the use of the terms in the Bible. Satan 
 was called the father of some lying Jews because 
 they resembled the great father of lies. Those that 
 have exceptional sympathy and tact in comforting 
 people in their sorrows are called " sons of conso- 
 lation." James and John because of their enthusi- 
 astic energy were called " sons of thunder " (Mark 
 3 : 17). Eli's sons were called "sons of wicked- 
 ness" (1 Sam. 2 : 12). Others, "children of the 
 Evil One." The pious were called " children of 
 God." Jesus was the " Son of God " par excellence. 
 They that are of faith are " children of Abra- 
 ham " children, not by generation, but by simi- 
 larity ; there is such a spiritual resemblance between 
 the faithful and Abraham as exists between chil- 
 dren and parents. 
 
 Because of this we see that Abraham's faith is the 
 pattern faith for us. If we desire to know what 
 faith is we look to him for the definition. He is our 
 dictionary of faith. 
 
 This kind of instruction is very efficient in many 
 things. Faith, like other spiritual qualities, is hard 
 to define verbally. They are abstract matters ; and 
 few people deal in abstract goods. Concrete exam- 
 ples of them are easily understood. For example, 
 we all get a good conception of forgiveness when 
 we read the story of the Prodigal Son. (Luke 15.) 
 We know what treachery is when we read of 
 
The Dictionary of Faith Ji 
 
 Judas. (Matt. 26 : 47.) Courage is made plain 
 when we read how Peter and the other apostles 
 facing the same Council that had but a week before 
 condemned their Master to the cross, said, " We can- 
 not but speak the things we have seen and heard " 
 (Acts 4 : 20). Love for men finds its definition in 
 Paul standing handcuffed and fettered before Fes- 
 tus, and, forgetting his own case, saying, " I would 
 that not only thou, but all that hear me this day, 
 might become such as I am — except these bonds " 
 (Acts 26 : 29). So also faith finds its beautiful 
 definition in the life of Abraham. We have a re- 
 ligious song that is called " The Gospel According 
 to You," which points out that in a certain way 
 every Christian is a dictionary of Christianity. In 
 this sense we may speak of the " Gospel According 
 to Abraham." For his version of it Paul certifies 
 when he says, " They that are of faith are children 
 of Abraham," and tells us to walk " in the steps of 
 that faith " which Abraham had. The study of 
 Abraham's life becomes therefore, as Paul suggests, 
 a helpful agency in the furtherance of our religious 
 education. 
 
 Not that the actual deeds of Abraham are to be 
 copied, for that would be impossible. But the moral 
 principles and religious faith are to be adopted by 
 us as our guides and example. From the records of 
 his life as given us in the Book we may construct 
 a fair notion of the actual Abraham and let that be- 
 come an influential standard for us. 
 
J2 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Secondly, reading this dictionary we find in its 
 definitions the following elements: 
 
 The origin of his faith. There is a mystery about 
 the earliest steps of his faith as there is about our 
 own. We do not know why our hearts turn from 
 an attitude of indifference and perhaps hostility to 
 God to one of faith. An old-fashioned evangelist, 1 
 when he came to tell his " experience " to the church 
 in which he sought membership, said, " In some 
 way, and I do not know in what way, I fell in love 
 with God and with his people." In some way, and 
 we do not know in what way, we also* fall in love 
 with God and fall out of love with what is not godly. 
 Men do not seek Christian things until in some de- 
 gree and for some reason they feel out of sorts 
 with themselves. The well do not seek the doctor. 
 No man builds a new house unless he is in some 
 measure dissatisfied with the old one. No man 
 adopts a new way of doing business unless he can 
 better himself. If a man has no sense of sin, he 
 will have no desire to seek a Saviour from sin. 
 But the origin of that spiritual discontent lies below 
 the realm of our own self-knowledge. 
 
 Isaiah said : " Look unto the hole of the pit from 
 which ye were digged. Look unto Abraham your 
 father. I called him alone and blessed him " ( Isa. 
 5i : *, 2). 
 
 James wrote, " Of his own will he begat us by 
 the word of truth " (James 1 : 18). 
 
 1 Elder Chamberlain, of New Berlin, N. Y. 
 
The Dictionary of Faith 73 
 
 John wrote, " We are born, not of blood, nor of 
 the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of 
 God" (John 1 : 13). 
 
 And Paul himself wrote that he became a man of 
 Christian faith when it " pleased God to reveal his 
 Son" in him. (Gal. 1 : 15, 16.) 
 
 There seems to be a complex agency: moral 
 truth taught from childhood, later a knowledge, 
 more or less full, of the historical Christ, all ani- 
 mated and supplemented by the quickening power 
 of what we call the Spirit of God. 
 
 Abraham heard a call to come out from his home 
 and kindred. (Gen. 12 : 1.) So we are cut loose 
 from our kindred so far as they lead us to neglect 
 of our religious duties. We must recognize that in 
 matters of the soul every man must give account of 
 himself to God. He must be separate — not neces- 
 sarily in work or place or family, but in the essen- 
 tial experiences of religious life. Separate in duty, 
 in hope, in aim, and in destiny. Not to be isolated, 
 but to walk with God and with his people. 
 
 He "went out, not knowing whither he went" 
 (Heb. 11:8). " Get thee out of thy country, and 
 from thy kindred, and from thy father's house, unto 
 a land that I will show thee " (Gen. 12 : 1). It is 
 an instructive picture we have in the account: the 
 old patriarch, with his family about him, mounting 
 the camels and starting away from the place of his 
 birth. One sees in imagination the neighbors com- 
 ing for a parting interview. They ask him where 
 
74 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 he is going and why. He replies : " I do not know 
 where, but to a land that God will show me. I have 
 no map, no plan, but guidance as I go along." This 
 is the pattern faith. When any man submits him- 
 self to Christ, he does not know what experiences 
 he may meet in the line of his Christian duty. He 
 cannot tell his own ambitions, for he has none yet. 
 He expects guidance. He is going to things that 
 God will show him. With Professor Gilmore he 
 sings : 
 
 He leadeth me ! O blessed thought ! 
 
 O words with heavenly comfort fraught ! 
 
 Whate'er I do, where'er I be, 
 
 Still 'tis God's hand that leadeth me. 
 
 We all go by a way we have not known before. 
 Most ministers say that if they had known the per- 
 plexities to be found in the places they accepted, 
 they would not have dared to accept. But feeling 
 that they were where the Master put them, they 
 have leaned upon him and gone forward, in joyful 
 obedience, to good successes. 
 
 His faith saturated his daily life. His was not 
 simply a desire to get somewhere, but to be some- 
 body. The record shows how carefully he culti- 
 vated the ethical quality of his life. He kept him- 
 self from the canker of covetousness. When Lot, 
 his nephew, sought more than was really his due, 
 Abraham said : " The land is too small for us both. 
 Now you take the part you like best, and I will 
 
The Dictionary of Faith 75 
 
 take the rest." So he saw Lot take the fertile val- 
 ley while he remained in the hills. When the 
 herdsmen of Abimelech strove with his own, he 
 said, "Let there be no strife between us" (Gen. 
 13 : 8). He valued neighborly kindness and peace 
 more than pastures for sheep. That disposition de- 
 thrones King Mammon in many hearts. 
 
 He was a man of prayer. (Gen. 12 : 8; 13 : 4, 
 18.) When he first came to Palestine he built an 
 altar and called on the name of Jehovah, and 
 named the place " The House of God." Later in 
 life he sought it out and made it a place for wor- 
 ship, seeking the blessing of God on his family 
 and himself. 
 
 He was given to hospitality, as we see in the rec- 
 ord of his entertainment of the angel at Mamre. 
 (Gen. 18 : 1.) 
 
 He taught his family the rudiments of religion. 
 It was written of him, " I know him, that he will 
 surely command his children and his household af- 
 ter him, and they will keep the way of the Lord, to 
 do justice and judgment" (Gen. 18 : 19). 
 
 He was not u too proud to fight" (Gen. 14; 
 17 : 9-18, 23-27). When the neighboring tribes 
 had attacked Lot and carried him and his household 
 off as prisoners, and taken his goods as booty, Abra- 
 ham at once armed his servants and pursued the 
 rascals, fought them, defeated them, brought back 
 his nephew, and all his goods. He was no molly- 
 coddle. If he was not always in a state of prepar- 
 G 
 
yb Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 edness, it did not take him long to get into it when 
 the proper occasion arose. 
 
 But he sought no gain from war. (Gen. 14 : 23, 
 24.) The legitimate spoil from the enemy he gave 
 to others who had suffered from such incursions 
 before, but for himself he said : " No, not even a 
 shoe-string for me. I fought not for territory, nor 
 for ambition, nor for royal prerogatives, but for the 
 sake of the oppressed, to give them liberty and to 
 ' make it safe ' for them in property and life." 
 
 He was obedient in the highest degree. (Gen. 22 : 
 1-12.) It had been promised to him that "in 
 Isaac" his seed should be called, and that they 
 should be as numerous as the stars of heaven. But 
 one day he was told that he should go up and offer 
 Isaac as a burnt sacrifice to God. He made no ar- 
 gument about it, but in silence took the boy and 
 laid him on the altar, ready to the last minute to 
 obey the command which not only took his beloved 
 son of his loved Sarah, but took the very one in 
 whom all the promises were centered, for if Isaac 
 died how could he have a numerous progeny? In 
 the book of Hebrews it is written that " by faith 
 he offered Isaac." Doubtless he did make the full 
 surrender in his heart. But the writer of Hebrews 
 adds, " accounting that God was able to raise him 
 from the dead ; from whence also he received him in 
 a figure" (Heb. 11 : 19). 
 
 He was a covenant-keeping man. (Gen. 14 : 22.) 
 For him agreements were more than " scraps of 
 
The Dictionary of Faith JJ 
 
 paper." They bound him sacredly to fulfilment, and 
 those who knew him trusted him implicitly. 
 
 It is in these great virtues, both of conduct and 
 of faith, that he is given us as our example — our 
 dictionary of faith — the steps of whose faith we are 
 encouraged to follow that we may be ourselves spir- 
 itually children of Abraham and heirs with him of 
 the promises. 
 
CHAPTER VIII 
 
 PAUL S GOD FORBIDS 
 
 As we follow Paul's thought through this letter we 
 see that his method was to lay down great principles 
 and establish them with proofs taken at times from 
 history (Rom. 4 : 1-25), again from observation 
 (Rom. 1 : 18-32), and again from his own expe- 
 rience. (Rom. 7 : 7-25.) 
 
 Then he considers the questions that his readers 
 would be likely to ask and the objections they might 
 raise. 
 
 Since human nature has not changed, the same 
 questions are now asked and the same objections 
 raised. For that reason a careful study of his 
 replies will be helpful to us. 
 
 Nine times in this letter he writes the same Greek 
 phrase which in our version is translated as " God 
 forbid." 1 Each case is connected with an almost 
 necessary inference from his statements, but which 
 one feels at once is erroneous. Although the logical 
 situations as he faithfully develops them seem to 
 heap up a weight of compelling warrant, he repudi- 
 ates these inferences with his vehement " God 
 forbids." 
 
 1 An exact translation would be, " Let it not be so." But the 
 phrase carries an element of seriousness about it that makes " God 
 forbid " a fair equivalent for it. 
 
 78 
 
Paul's " God Forbids " 79 
 
 In chapter 3 : 4, after saying that the Jews had 
 broken faith with God, he says, in substance : " Shall 
 their lack of faithfulness excuse Him from being 
 faithful? God forbid." 
 
 In chapter 3 : 6, he says : " If sin furnish a back- 
 ground upon which the grace of God shows itself, 
 is not God unjust to punish the sinner who thus 
 helps him to show off to advantage his great grace? 
 God forbid/' 
 
 In chapter 6 : 2, after saying that God's plan 
 is intended to glorify the grace of God, he raises 
 the question : " If sin makes grace to abound, why 
 not make the practice of sin the daily order of our 
 lives that grace may have a fine opportunity to 
 shine out? God forbid." 
 
 In chapter 7 : 7, after showing that the invariable 
 effect of law is to awaken in human hearts antag- 
 onism that leads to sin and condemnation, he asks : 
 " Is not a law that thus awakens sin a sinful thing 
 itself? God forbid." 
 
 In chapter 9 : 14, after having said that before 
 the sons of Rebecca had done either good or evil — 
 even before they were born — God had said that the 
 elder should serve the younger (which was in those 
 times a dishonor to the elder) — he asks: " Is God 
 then unjust in putting the dishonor upon Esau? 
 God forbid." 
 
 In chapter 11 : 1, after showing that Israel as a 
 nation had been rejected, he asks : " Has God then 
 cast off his people ? God forbid." 
 
80 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 And in chapter n : n, when he had reminded 
 his readers that Israel had fallen, he asks : " Was it 
 God's intent that his nation should be at last lost ? 
 God forbid." 
 
 Each one of these queries is natural. We should 
 raise the same ourselves. We might not so 
 promptly reply as he did, " Let it not be so." In 
 each one of these there is a germinal error from 
 which there has grown a part of great theological 
 systems wrought out with patience and logical 
 skill. For men have said : " Why should Paul for- 
 bid us to follow the logical trend of his statement? 
 Are not the rules of logic binding upon us? If we 
 accept a statement, are we not bound to accept all 
 its logical consequences? And if the logical conse- 
 quences are unacceptable, does it not show that the 
 statement was erroneous ? If these statements lead 
 to unacceptable conclusions, must they not be re- 
 vised?" 
 
 George Eliot somewhere wrote that the doctrine 
 of justification by faith is an encouragement to sin. 
 
 In every age since Paul's time Antinomianism 
 has had a large following. Hyper-Calvinism has 
 found disciples in the most intellectual circles. The 
 president of the college from which I graduated 
 said to me at one time, " I suppose I am at heart a 
 hyper-Calvinist." 
 
 Human logic has said, " If God elects some men 
 to salvation, then he by inference elects others to 
 be lost." 
 
Paul's " God Forbids" 81 
 
 When apparent evil comes to good men some 
 have said, " There can be no overruling Providence 
 or these men would not suffer." Others have said 
 with Job's unprofitable friends, " The goodness of 
 the men was not genuine." 
 
 When riches come to wicked men while poverty 
 remains a guest at the table of the good the com- 
 plaint of the Psalmist echoes, " In vain have I 
 cleansed my heart, and washed my hands in inno- 
 cency, for all day long I have been plagued, and 
 chastened every morning" (Ps. 73 : 13, 14). 
 
 When the love of God has been presented men 
 have become universalists, saying that love cannot 
 allow a soul to be lost. 
 
 When evil seems to be dominant men have said 
 with an English philosopher, " I would be ashamed 
 to make a world like this." 
 
 As I was speaking one night in a schoolhouse 
 upon the case of the Amalekites, a man in the au- 
 dience rose and said, 
 
 " May I ask a question ? " 
 
 " Certainly," I replied. 
 
 " Did you not tell us the other night that God is 
 good?" 
 
 " I certainly did." 
 
 " Well, how do you harmonize that with this com- 
 mand to kill all the women and children of the 
 Amalekites ? " 
 
 A little boy asked his mother, 
 
 " Mother, is not God good and powerful ? " 
 
82 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 " Certainly, my son." 
 
 " Why then does he not kill the devil and be done 
 with it?" 
 
 A man exhorted by the deacons of his church to 
 resume his walk with the church replied, " I know 
 I am a wandering sheep, but I expect the Good 
 Shepherd to come and bring me back." But he 
 did not so much as turn his face toward the fold 
 from which he had strayed. 
 
 These are samples of the reasonings that appear 
 along the line of Christian history as often as weeds 
 appear in a garden. For this reason let us examine 
 some of the replies that Paul made to such things. 
 
 In chapter 6 : 2, in rejoinder, when some one 
 says, " Let us sin that grace may abound," he says, 
 " How can we who are dead to sin continue 
 therein ? " That is, How can we conclude for any 
 reason that it is our duty to sin? But why may 
 we not do so? Because the very fundamental aim 
 of the Christian life is to get rid of sin. It was 
 for that reason we became disciples of Christ. Any 
 idea that interferes with that must be discarded as 
 absurd. Logic or no logic, that purpose to get rid 
 of sin must be kept dominant. 
 
 In chapter 9 : 11, to the saying that God was un- 
 just in his dealings with Esau, the reply is : " God's 
 righteousness is fundamental. It is the major 
 premise of all reasonings. Nothing can be true 
 that discredits his character. If therefore we say 
 that he dealt unjustly with Esau we discredit him, 
 
Paul's "God Forbids" 83 
 
 and that is religiously absurd, and must be er- 
 roneous." 
 
 In chapter 7 : 7 the premise is : " God's law is 
 just." Any view that disputes it is erroneous. 
 Even if the law appears to produce sin it must be 
 explained in some other way than by impugning 
 God's justness. 
 
 So through all these cases we find that he does 
 not answer directly the objections. They are log- 
 ically unanswerable by logic alone. He makes his 
 appeal to great " Unquestionables " — great " Fun- 
 damentals " that are taken as major premises — 
 things so firmly embedded in the hearts that they 
 cannot be disturbed. 
 
 To transplant this method is our true refuge from 
 the imperfect reasonings of distrustful hearts. 
 " Let God be true though every man a liar." Let 
 God be just though every man a sinner. Let Christ 
 be crowned in our hearts though every other 
 teacher be discredited. So the blind man in the 
 gospel story (John 9), when he could not reply to 
 the questions put to him by the Pharisees, affirmed: 
 " I do not know whether Jesus is a sinner or not. 
 One thing I know, whereas I was blind, now I see." 
 When they pressed him further, he fell back on a 
 " fundamental." " If this man were not from God 
 he could do nothing of this kind. Since he has done 
 it he must be from God." 
 
 So we must come back to the idea that such things 
 as the gospel of God does in human hearts and in 
 
84 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 society can only be done by the truth, and hence 
 these things of the gospel are true and come from 
 God. 
 
 What are some of these " fundamentals " ? 
 
 God is himself the sum and source of all good- 
 ness. The very name " God " implies a being " than 
 whom no greater or better can be imagined." If 
 " God " be not good then our minds would create 
 for us a being that is good. If " God " be not all 
 powerful then we will create in our thinking a being 
 that is so. In any direction of wisdom, power, and 
 love that we may think, out at the end of the line 
 of our thinking God is found as the ocean is found 
 beyond our vision. He surrounds our thought like 
 a boundless sea. He is king of kings. He is father 
 of the fatherless. He is the standard of all justice. 
 He is the fountain of all mercy. He is the fire of 
 judgment against all iniquity. " Out of his mouth 
 cometh wisdom and understanding." He knows 
 the end from the beginning. We cannot better ex- 
 press our idea of him than in the words of the 
 prophet Isaiah (Isa. 40 : 12-17) : 
 
 " Who hath measured the waters in the hollow 
 of his hand, and meted out heaven with a span, 
 and comprehended the dust of the earth in a mea- 
 sure, and weighed the mountains in scales, and the 
 hills in a balance? Who hath directed the Spirit 
 of Jehovah, or, being his counselor, hath taught 
 him? With whom took he counsel, and who in- 
 structed him, and taught him in the path of justice, 
 
Paul's "God Forbids" 85 
 
 and taught him knowledge and showed to him the 
 way of understanding? Behold the nations are as 
 the drop of a bucket, and are accounted as the small 
 dust of the balance. Behold he taketh up the isles 
 as a very little thing. And Lebanon is not suffi- 
 cient to burn nor the beasts thereof sufficient for a 
 burnt-offering. All the nations are as nothing be- 
 fore him, they are accounted by him as less than 
 nothing, and vanity." 
 
 God is revealed in creation. If there is a " class 
 who have contracted toward religion a repugnance 
 that makes them overlook the fundamental verity 
 contained in it," 2 or if they adopt the idea that " the 
 Power which the universe manifests is utterly in- 
 scrutable," 3 or if, with Mr. Wells, they hold that 
 the Creator is a " veiled being," and rest in the 
 name that Professor Huxley gave to himself — 
 agnostic — then for all practical purposes they are 
 atheists. If the reader of this has come to such a 
 place, I am unable to help him untangle his feet 
 from the net of these troublesome inferences. 4 
 
 But if Paul were to be asked about this I think 
 he would say that if we are agnostic about the 
 " veiled Being," it is our fault, for the " invisible 
 things of God are clearly seen in the things that are 
 made" (Rom. 1 : 20). 
 
 He does not say " are reasonably inferred," but 
 
 2 Spencer, " First Principles," sec. 5. 
 8 Spencer, sec. 1 6. 
 
 * An excellent discussion of this will be found in " Reconstruction 
 of Religious Beliefs," by W. H. Mullock. 
 
86 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 they are " seen." That is, some ideas of greatest 
 value do not come to the soul through the door of 
 reason. They are not brought to us over the mail- 
 route of logic, nor even by the aeroplane of ecclesi- 
 astical authority ; but they come by the wireless sys- 
 tem of intuition. They vibrate through the universe 
 from the throne and are available for all who will 
 be responsive to them. Does a man know that he 
 loves his only son because his reason tells him so ? 
 Does he know that a landscape is beautiful, or that 
 Niagara is grand or that thunder is reverence- 
 inspiring, or that a bright sun thrills him with 
 vigor — these and many more great experiences, are 
 they the product of reason, and do we wait the 
 processes of logic before we know them? To ask 
 the question is to answer it. These fundamental 
 conceptions are intuitions. Reverence for the Be- 
 ing that made us, confidence in the goodness of 
 the author of goodness, faith in a being of infinite 
 power and unfailing wisdom are the multiplication- 
 table of all thinking on morals or religion. Logic 
 may confirm and clarify them, but they exist in 
 large measure independent of logic. 
 
 "I am with yon always" It is said by many 
 that the world is getting worse and worse ; that the 
 church is corrupt ; that wickedness is rampant ; that 
 the idea that the gospel of God has power to redeem 
 the world is contradicted by the facts of history and 
 the observation of the open-eyed. These say that 
 the church is not only failing to be victorious, but 
 
Paul's " God Forbids " 87 
 
 that the Saviour taught us it was to be so. His 
 word about the pervasive methods of the gospel 
 are twisted into a prophecy that the leaven of evil 
 would utterly " spoil the meal." 
 
 There is no use in arguing with such errorists. 
 No idea can be gotten out of any mind except by 
 the door it went in at. And this idea did not go 
 in at the door of reason. It went in either through 
 an unjustifiable fear, or spiritual laziness, or great 
 lack of an intelligent faith. 
 
 But we fall back on the " fundamental " that 
 Jesus sent out his disciples with the purpose of 
 preaching to the world, and with the promise that 
 he would be with them even unto the end. To 
 say that with such a commission and such a guide 
 the church is to fail is too absurd to need refuting. 
 
 For the church to fail would be for him to fail. 
 The true church is his body, so Paul said; and is 
 that body to rot out with evil diseases ? No ! Be- 
 cause he is the Christ we believe he will win the 
 love of the world. Every victorious people will 
 bring the crowns of their victory and lay them 
 down at his feet and say, " Thou art worthy to re- 
 ceive the honor." 
 
 By what processes it may be brought about no 
 man knows. We know that he has told us what 
 to do, and has said that every knee shall bow to 
 him. If he has additional agencies to promote the 
 victory, they will be set at work as they are needed. 
 If the time be long or short, a day is with him as 
 
88 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 a thousand years and a thousand years as one day. 
 His kingdom does not run on time-tables like a 
 railroad. Its Superintendent acts as the farmer 
 does. He plants his corn or cuts his wheat when 
 the time is ripe for it. Things are done in " due 
 season," in the " fulness of times." 
 
 If we sometimes are discouraged by the fact that 
 some evil rich seem to be more the favorites of 
 God than some saintly poor, we are not to infer 
 that God has forgotten. We are not to sing the 
 song of doubt. 
 
 Evil has won in the horrid feud 
 
 Of ages with the throne. 
 Evil stands on the neck of good 
 
 And rules the world alone. 
 
 There is no good; there is no God; 
 
 And faith is a heartless cheat 
 That bares the back for the devil's rod 
 
 And scatters thorns for the feet. 
 
 We fall back on the " fundamental " that God is 
 God and God is true. We sing the song of faith : 
 
 Evil is only the slave of good, 
 
 Sorrow the servant of joy. 
 And the soul is mad that refuses food 
 
 From the meanest in God's employ. 
 
 The fountain of joy is fed by tears 
 And love is lit by the breath of sighs. 
 
 The deepest griefs and the wildest fears 
 Have holiest ministries. 5 
 
 5 Holland, " Bitter Sweet." 
 
Paul's" God Forbids" 89 
 
 If men point to the world war and say, " What 
 good is the victory of democracy over kaiserism to 
 those who have given their life in securing it ? " 
 we say that all the New Testament teaches us that 
 the hope of the world is in the resurrection, that is, 
 in the continuance of life in another world. And 
 that the fruitage of a right life here will be gath- 
 ered there. If there be no future life, then the 
 Christian is most surely destined to disappoint- 
 ment. But, after all, the consciousness of being 
 right even at great cost of inconvenience or suffer- 
 ing or even death is worth more in the soul's market 
 now, as it was in Moses' time, than all the riches of 
 Egypt. 
 
 The Bible is reliable in matters of religion. If 
 men say that there are errors in the Bible and 
 therefore it is not to be trusted, we say that it has a 
 current of ideas running through it that have never 
 failed to »bring peace to the soul. And on that great 
 " fundamental " we fall back. It tells us of a God 
 whose ways are ways of pleasantness and whose 
 paths are paths of peace for the soul that seeks not 
 to satisfy curiosity but guidance in life and hope 
 in the future. Any inference contrary to that we 
 put into the class of " inadmissibles." 
 
 Christian experience can be trusted. If at some 
 time of spiritual drouth one is tempted to say that 
 there is no certain proof of the gospel of God suffi- 
 cient to warrant our full dependence upon it, we re- 
 ply that the most certain and real things of life 
 
90 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 are the changes that take place in the chambers of 
 our own consciousness. We know that when we 
 trust and obey Christ the most fully we have the 
 best experiences of life. We know that in such 
 time we have the greatest strength to resist evil, 
 the greatest comfort in our many sorrows, the high- 
 est ambitions for life, the greatest courage to meet 
 difficulties. We know also that after we did ally 
 ourselves with Christ our likes and dislikes ex- 
 changed places. The pages of the Bible took on a 
 new interest, the companionship with the best peo- 
 ple of our own time and the regard for the best 
 people of past times became more agreeable. We 
 think of these changes with gladness. So we say, 
 Whatever questions may be raised, this we know: 
 faith in Christ always works good and not evil. 
 God forbid that we should close the fountain of 
 comfort and peace to ourselves and to others. 
 
 And so we might go through the whole list of 
 perplexities and find that the solution is not in 
 tracing out every root of mistake, or correcting 
 every unwarranted inference, but in drowning the 
 perplexity of small things in a sea of faith in the 
 " fundamentals." That was Paul's method. 
 
 Herbert Spencer concluded very illogically that 
 because we cannot know God fully, or even grasp 
 any of his attributes completely, therefore God is 
 absolutely unknowable. But if that were true we 
 cannot know anything about anything. For what 
 subject is there of which we can say that we know 
 
PauFs" God Forbids" 91 
 
 all about it in any single direction? We do know 
 many things about God. We know that he is good, 
 and wise, and reliable in all his ways. So when we 
 meet with things in our thinking or in our lives 
 that are beyond our depth, we fall back on our con- 
 ception of him and do as the Psalmist did, " commit 
 our ways unto God, trust also in him." 
 
 Life's mysteries are solved by life, 
 And doubts that rise in anxious strife 
 Before the love of God decline. 
 
 We seek in worldly phrase to paint 
 The Unknown God to finite eyes. 
 Our logic kills our charity, 
 Our wisdom widens mystery, 
 Our altars bear no sacrifice. 
 
 Faith born of love and fed by hope 
 Sees God where reason's eye is dim, 
 And reason led by faith will prove 
 So strong that doubts will never move, 
 Nor clouds disturb our trust in him. 
 
 H 
 
CHAPTER IX 
 
 THE GOSPEL OF GOD IN PANTOMIME AND 
 PERSONIFICATION 
 
 PANTOMIME 
 
 One of the interesting elements of Paul's letters is 
 the raciness of his style. He has an active observa- 
 tion, an analytic mind, and a vivid imagination. 
 His metaphors come from several sources because 
 he was observant. The life of the soldier, the scenes 
 of the court-room, the work of the carpenter, the 
 activities of the farmer, were easily pressed into 
 service to help him convey his thought to his read- 
 ers. His use of these agencies is a fruitful study. 
 In this chapter I wish to notice his explanation of 
 baptism, and his allegoric presentation of the gospel. 
 
 Pantomime is a series of actions staged to express 
 ideas without any words. In its simplest form it 
 may be no more than a system of sign language 
 such as American Indians use among themselves. 
 But in its maturer stages it is a more formal and 
 complex set of actions. It might be called a " silent 
 sermon. " 
 
 This way of communicating ideas was very com- 
 mon in the prophetic days. As an instance we may 
 read in Jeremiah 19 : " Then said Jehovah, Go and 
 92 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 93 
 
 buy a potter's bottle, and take of the elders of the 
 people, and of the elders of the priests; and go 
 forth into the valley of the son of Hinnom which 
 is by the gate Harsith, and proclaim there the words 
 that I shall tell thee. . . . Then shalt thou break the 
 bottle in the sight of the men that go with thee, 
 and thou shalt say unto them: Thus saith Jehovah 
 of hosts; even so will I break this people and this 
 city as one breaketh a potter's vessel that cannot be 
 made whole again." 
 
 Another may be found in Ezekiel 4 : 1-3 : " Thou 
 also, son of man, take thee a tile, and lay it before 
 thee, and portray upon it a city, even Jerusalem: 
 and lay siege against it, and build forts against it ; 
 and cast up a mound against it; set camps also 
 against it, and plant battering rams against it round 
 about. And take unto thee an iron pan, and set it 
 for a wall of iron between thee and the city, and 
 set thy face toward it, and it shall be besieged, and 
 thou shalt lay siege against it. This shall be a sign 
 unto the house of Israel." 
 
 Israel understood the meaning of such things 
 with double certainty. 
 
 In a much more elaborate and dignified way the 
 temple service was ordered as an object-lesson. 
 The very sacredness of the temple precincts began 
 the lesson. Then the priest clothed in white, with 
 his breastplate of beauty and elegance, coming in 
 silence to offer the blood of the sacrifice, and then 
 going in solemn march to the inner sanctum swing- 
 
94 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 ing the censer of burning incense, while the people 
 waited in expectation until he returned from the 
 symbolic presence of God in their behalf — that was 
 impressive indeed. When the queen of Sheba came 
 and saw it, she said : " The half had not been told 
 me. Happy are thy men, and happy are these thy 
 servants that stand before thee continually." 
 
 One cannot think carefully of the temple or the 
 tabernacle, and fail to see how wisely the use of 
 ceremonial pantomime was utilized to impress truth 
 about God and salvation. 
 
 As language improved and general culture in- 
 creased, the need for pantomime lessened. In the 
 New Testament we have but little of it. The high 
 priest rent his clothes when Jesus was before him 
 (Mark 14 : 63), the apostles shook off the dust 
 from their feet as they left cities that had mis- 
 treated them (Acts 13 : 51), the Jews threw dust 
 into the air to express their disgust and anger. 
 (Acts 22 : 23.) Jesus made a dignified use of this 
 expressive agency when he gave the ordinances of 
 baptism and of the Lord's Supper. 
 
 Paul is replying to the supposed question of some 
 man that has heard the statement that the Christian 
 way of life was originally intended to exalt the 
 grace of God : " Well then, Let us sin that grace 
 may abound." I have spoken of a part of Paul's 
 reply in the chapter on " Paul's God Forbids." 
 But he is not satisfied to leave the matter. He 
 brings another argument into use. He says: 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 95 
 
 " Know ye not that so many of you as were bap- 
 tized into Christ, were baptized into his death? We 
 were buried therefore with him, through baptism 
 into death, that like as Christ was raised from the 
 dead by the glory of the Father, so we also should 
 walk in newness of life" (Rom. 6 : 3, 4). Taking 
 this passage in connection with other teachings of 
 Paul and of Jesus, I am obliged to think that Paul's 
 idea here is not that baptism was a channel of 
 grace. It was not procurative of any change in 
 relations of the soul to God by reason of any mi- 
 raculous operation. It was an act to be performed 
 by the believer and the baptizer for the purpose of 
 showing in pantomime the fundamental ideas of the 
 "gospel of God." It certainly is an impressive 
 ceremony when administered as it was intended, in 
 serious view of its meaning. A believer — one who 
 has committed himself to Christ because he feels 
 the need of a new life, and knows that only in 
 Christ he can have it — he therefore having heard 
 the apostolic preaching about baptism — comes to the 
 administrator and says : " I have joined myself to 
 Christ. I want to follow his instruction and be 
 baptized. I want to confess my union with him 
 and my trust in his atoning death and triumphant 
 resurrection by the ceremony he designated/' 
 
 Then the administrator and the believer — as in 
 the case of Philip and the eunuch (Acts 8 : 38) — 
 go down into the water together, and the adminis- 
 trator buries the believer in the water, and then 
 
g6 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 raises him from the water, and they go out to the 
 shore or out of the baptistery. Probably at the first 
 all was in silence — no sermon dulled the impression 
 it made — though it is customary now for the com- 
 pany of believers to sing some suitable hymn like 
 the one written by Rev. George W. Bethune, be- 
 ginning, 
 
 O thou who in Jordan didst bow thy meek head, 
 And whelmed in our sorrow didst sink to the dead, 
 Then rose from the darkness to glory above, 
 And claimed for thy chosen the kingdom of love, 
 
 Thy footsteps we follow, to bow in the tide, 
 And are buried with thee in the death thou hast died, 
 Then wake in thy likeness to walk in the way 
 That brightens and brightens to shadowless day — 
 
 And then he is sympathetically welcomed into the 
 fellowship of the church. 
 
 This pantomime I say makes a great impression, 
 and tells a great gospel, even the " gospel of God!' 
 
 It is a great pity that certain views about the 
 form of the ordinance * and about the miraculous 
 effect of it should have been so much discussed and 
 so bitterly maintained, that the simple beauty of the 
 act itself as a teaching ordinance has been generally 
 overlooked, or, if not, finds it difficult to be looked 
 at with entirely unprejudiced eye. 
 
 1 1 received the rite of immersion when I united with the church 
 of Christ. But I am not now concerned to discuss either the ques- 
 tion of the form of the ordinance, or whether it may legitimately 
 be changed. I am only opening this passage to view it in its con- 
 nection. 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 97 
 
 I am now concerned, however, only with the act 
 as a part of Paul's reply to the question, " Shall we 
 sin that grace may abound ? " From his point of 
 view the message of this ordinance was a complete 
 answer to the question asked, and to the suggestion 
 that men sin for the sake of showing the grace of 
 God to better advantage. 
 
 Let us see what the argument of the pantomime 
 really was. What did it say to the thoughtful 
 onlooker? 
 
 It said four things: 1. It declared a fact of ex- 
 perience. 2. It confessed a faith. 3. It recorded a 
 vow. 4. It expressed a purpose. 
 
 The fact declared was that the believer had so 
 united himself to Christ that he considered Christ's 
 death as in some way his own death. Christ had 
 died for him. If the pantomime had stopped in the 
 first section it would have said: This man is dead 
 with Christ, and his funeral is over. He admits 
 that under God's law he is a condemned man, and 
 Christ has taken a place with him as a condemned 
 sinner, and has gone to the cross because of this 
 association. 
 
 I am not saying that all the believers saw this 
 clearly or that any of them understood it fully. But 
 I am saying that Paul so interpreted the matter. 
 And that interpretation is in accord with his teach- 
 ings all the way through his letters. 
 
 " I dead with Christ ! Christ dead with me ! n 
 that was the message. 
 
98 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 It confessed a faith in Christ. The fact that a 
 believer had come to baptism was at that time — 
 much more than now — an open acknowledgment 
 that he was a Christian believer. It was not popu- 
 lar then. It carried no social prestige but the con- 
 trary. It generally brought reproach and contempt 
 from the elite of the world. But this man says: 
 " I am one of his followers. I belong among his 
 people. If they are dead to the old life, so am L 
 If they are ready for burial, so am I." 
 
 It made a vow. In the Roman empire when a 
 man entered the army he took a vow to be loyal 
 and to be brave. That vow was made with the 
 sanction of religion. Some god was invoked to wit- 
 ness it and to hold him to it. That vow was called 
 in the Roman tongue a sacramentum, from which 
 our word sacrament comes. From the first the act 
 of baptism was considered as a vow — a sacra- 
 mentum* in which the believer pledged in solemn 
 way his fealty to Jesus and his people. Henceforth 
 he was a citizen of the Christian kingdom. There 
 was no double allegiance. He was to be a stranger 
 and a pilgrim here. He was to look for a " city 
 that hath foundations, whose builder and maker is 
 God." 
 
 When the children of Israel came out of Egypt 
 and crossed the Red Sea, it is said, they were 
 " baptized unto Moses in the sea and in the cloud." 
 That is, they were visibly cut off from Pharaoh, and 
 visibly shut in with Moses. That was taken as a 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 99 
 
 sort of pantomime showing that after that there 
 was no obligation to Pharaoh but only loyalty to 
 Moses. So men are " baptized unto Christ" 
 
 It expressed a purpose. As Christ was raised 
 from the dead by the glory of the Father, so we 
 also should walk in " newness of life." 
 
 Newness of life. If we think of the life of Jesus 
 after his resurrection, we shall see how new it was. 
 It was life of spiritual victory. He had conquered 
 the last enemy. 
 
 Such, I take it, was the thought of the Christian 
 as he came up from the water. He had entered into 
 new relations. The old things had passed away. 
 Old allegiance, old hopes, old ethical standards, old 
 associations, old sins, gone. He was a " new crea- 
 ture in Christ Jesus." That view is the only one 
 that will interpret Paul's many allusions to the 
 Christian life consistently. Newness of life was 
 the purpose. 
 
 With this exposition of the pantomime in mind, 
 ask yourself if there is in it any answer to the 
 suggestion that we " sin that grace may abound." 
 If a man's profession in baptism is not a mere farce, 
 a counterfeit, a sham, how can he say or think, " I 
 will sin that grace may abound " ? 
 
 He is dead to all that old regime of sin. Ideally 
 he has no more to do with it than a dead man has 
 with his old associates. 
 
 I am not saying that actually such is the case with 
 us or with the early Christians ; but ideally it must 
 
ioo Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 be true. If we have any lower ideal we shall fail 
 to reach the goal of the Christian life. 
 
 PERSONIFICATION 
 
 Although Paul's pantomime of baptism would 
 seem to be a sufficient reply to the suggestion that 
 we sin for the sake of giving the grace of God an 
 opportunity to magnify itself, he was not satisfied 
 to leave the refutation of so subtle a suggestion, 
 which would have serious results on life, to that 
 alone, but he proceeds to present the truth in 
 another way, that is, by personification of the sin. 
 
 To catch the full force of his argument it will 
 be helpful to consider the nature of personification. 
 It is a figure of speech in which things that have 
 no personality are mentally and for the time being 
 assumed to have it. Thoughts are ascribed to them, 
 words are put into their mouths, as if they were 
 intelligent beings. For example, in i Corinthians 
 15 : 55 Paul says, as if death could hear him, 
 " O death, where is thy victory? O death, where is 
 thy sting?" 
 
 One of the most vivid cases of personification in 
 our modern times may be found in the preaching of 
 America's greatest negro preacher, John Jasper. 2 
 "He escorted the Christian to the court of death, and 
 demanded of the monster king to exhibit his power 
 to hurt. It was wonderful to see how he pictured 
 
 2 See W. E. Hatcher, "John Jasper," p. 176. 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 101 
 
 the high courage of the child of God, marching up 
 to the very face of the king of terrors and demand- 
 ing that he come forth and do his worst." He 
 cried out : k '* Grave ! Grave ! " " YYhars yer vict'ry ? 
 I hur you got a might}- banner down dar, an' you 
 t'rrorizes ev'rybody wat comes long dis way. Bring 
 out your armies an' furl fo'th your bann'rs of 
 vict'ry. Show your ham an'' let 'em see wat you 
 kin do." But in tones subdued. Grave replies : 
 " Ain't got no vict'ry now. . . King Jesus pars'd 
 through dis country an' tor' my banners down." 
 
 This figure gives great additional force to a state- 
 ment. It calls the imagination into use and thus 
 makes the truth vivid. It is such a way of expres- 
 sion that Paul chose in this passage. He thinks 
 things that pertain to a strong tyrannical owner of 
 slaves who serves himself with them until he is 
 satisfied and then puts them to death. While Paul 
 thus speaks about such a tyrant he is really telling 
 about " this body of sin " as he calls it, and is thus 
 indirectly describing our experience with it. Notice 
 how there runs through the chapter the allusions 
 to this tyrant. Verse 6, " bondage to Sin M ; verse 
 7, " released from Sin '" ; verse 10, " died unto Sin " ; 
 verse 12, " let not Sin reign " ; verse 14, " Sin shall 
 not have dominion '" ; verse 16, " of Sin unto death " ; 
 verse 17. " ye were servants of Sin"; verse 18. 
 " made free from Sin " ; verse 20, " ye were ser- 
 vants of Sin " ; verse 22, " now being made free 
 from Sin": verse 23, ''the wages of Sin is death." 
 
102 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 His thought is that sin so permeates and controls 
 this body that it becomes the very agent of the 
 tyrant Sin to bring us to death. Our natural un- 
 aided struggle against the tyrant is unsuccessful. 
 But Jesus came and took a place with sinful men 
 and as a sinner, and with them, as a sinner, he 
 was made subject to death. Sin is represented as 
 having fought out the contest with Christ, as he 
 does with us, and obtained a temporary victory over 
 him. As a sinner he was, under the law, con- 
 demned, and Death was the executioner of the law. 
 " He died unto. Sin." After that, Sin had no more 
 to do with him than the sheriff has with the man 
 who has been executed. " Death has no more do- 
 minion over him." As in the pantomime of bap- 
 tism the death and funeral of Jesus was sym- 
 bolized, so now Paul says that Jesus has " died 
 to Sin " 
 
 But note the surprising thought of Paul. Christ 
 does not remain dead. He is raised from the dead. 
 What effect then has that on Christ's relation to 
 Law and Sin? Suppose that some great general of 
 the German army was put to death by the command 
 of the Kaiser and buried. But the United States 
 had a man who with skill unequaled went there 
 and resuscitated the dead man and gave him health 
 and strength again. To whom does he now owe 
 allegiance? Germany or the United States? Paul 
 would say : " In that he died, he died unto the 
 Kaiser once for all ; but in that he liveth, he liveth 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 103 
 
 unto the United States." So he says that " Christ, 
 who has died unto Sin, liveth unto God." 
 
 But when Sin and Death fought out the conflict 
 with Christ, it was as when David fought out the 
 battle with Goliath. He fought as the representa- 
 tive of mankind. His victory was their victory. 
 This is Paul's thought in 1 Corinthians 15 when, 
 after having told of the coming resurrection of the 
 dead, he cries out in triumph, " O Grave, where is 
 thy victory?" When Christ was raised, the initial 
 victory of God over Death and Sin was gained. 
 
 Now in this place, having the same idea in mind, 
 he says, " If we died with Christ, and were with 
 him buried (as our baptism portrayed), we believe 
 that we shall live again as he did." Such being the 
 case, " let not Sin therefore reign in your mortal 
 bodies . . . for Sin shall not have dominion over 
 you." " Seeing that you were emancipated from 
 Sin you became servants of righteousness." It is 
 not that you were set free from all restraint. You 
 are only freed from a cruel master to become the 
 servants of a kind and holy one. Whereas in 
 your former condition you had only death for your 
 wages, in the service of this new Master, who died 
 to obtain you, you have your fruit unto righteous- 
 ness, and the end everlasting life, which is " the free 
 gift of God." 
 
 Thus, while Paul was only seeking to refute an 
 error, we have the gospel indirectly shown in a 
 new way. Christ is the one who having become 
 
104 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 our fellow sinner and example, died. We who are 
 united with him by faith share his death and his 
 victory over death, and should like him live unto 
 God. In Paul's view the death of Christ was not, 
 as some say, a mere accident of his mission, nor 
 was it, as others say, simply the natural result of 
 preaching righteousness to an unrighteous genera- 
 tion ; but it was a part of a predetermined plan hav- 
 ing for its outcome the loyalty of believers to God. 
 As Paul wrote to the Corinthian church, " He died 
 for all, in order that they that live should no longer 
 live unto themselves, but unto him that died for 
 them" (2 Cor. 5 : 15). 
 
 As a conclusion from his reasoning he says, 
 " Therefore reckon yourselves as dead unto Sin." 
 That is, think of yourselves as now having no fur- 
 ther relations to the tyrant Sin. You used to pre- 
 sent your members to him for his service. Do so 
 no longer, but, on the contrary, present them unto 
 God for his service. 
 
 After this somewhat careful study of the com- 
 plex passage let us come to consider its practical 
 value. 
 
 I notice first the peculiar advantage of thinking 
 about the Christian system of teaching in this pan- 
 tomimic and personified way. It is imaginative. 
 It may not be taken as either philosophic or theo- 
 logical in form. To do that is to involve us in un- 
 thinkable situations. But if we take it to be — which 
 it evidently is — a way of presenting truth so as 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 105 
 
 to make it vivid and impressive, it is rich in mean- 
 ing and effect. It would be difficult to state the 
 subtle and mystical facts about the case more un- 
 derstandably than by these methods of expression. 
 They take hold of the imagination and the memory 
 at once and never let go. All inner experiences are 
 dependent for their expression upon things that 
 are outer. Jesus could not give his teaching with- 
 out the parables and metaphors. And these doc- 
 trinal truths demand some concrete framework to 
 give them power and stability. 
 
 But what are the truths from this passage that 
 are worth transplanting? The first, I should say, is, 
 u Reckon yourselves to be dead to Sin!' 
 
 There is a great fund of practical wisdom in 
 that exhortation. " As a man thinketh in his heart, 
 so is he," says the old proverb. All the great ac- 
 tions of moral life are first enacted in the mind. 
 Having been rehearsed there, they are compara- 
 tively easy of performance in life. A boy of my 
 acquaintance was arrested for stabbing his play- 
 mate. I went to talk with him in the prison. I 
 found that he was accustomed to read with avidity 
 all the murder news of the daily papers. He had 
 come to " reckon himself " as a brave man ready to 
 kill his enemies. 
 
 In traveling, many of us have learned to set aside 
 a liberal amount of money for the journey, and 
 then we have no unpleasant streaks of economy as 
 we are called upon to pay the various charges on 
 
106 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 the way. We consecrated the whole amount before 
 we started. We " reckoned " it already spent. Mr. 
 Froude, in his history of England, tells how Sir 
 Thomas More, when he was summoned to come 
 from his home in Chelsea to London to take an 
 oath of acknowledgment of the supremacy of the 
 king of England over the church of England, parted 
 with his family and went to his boat that was to 
 take him to London. Before giving the boatman 
 the signal to start he sat down in the boat with his 
 arms folded for a while. He was deciding whether 
 to yield or not. He knew that if he did not yield 
 to the king, he would never return to his home. 
 After a few minutes he started up and said, " / 
 thank our Lord, the field is won" He then and 
 there " reckoned himself dead " under the law of 
 England. There was no more struggle about the 
 case. He refused to take the oath of submission. 
 He was imprisoned for two years in the Tower, 
 then taken to the block and beheaded. The his- 
 torian says of him : " His execution was the world's 
 wonder . . . for the preternatural composure with 
 which it was borne . . . Never was a Christian's 
 victory more grandly evidenced than in that last 
 scene lighted with its lambent humor." 3 
 
 What we think of ourselves is always an impor- 
 tant factor in what we make of ourselves. If a man 
 thinks he is a nobody, he is more than half sure to be 
 such an one. If he has a great respect for himself, 
 
 3 Froude's " England/' vol. II, p. 376. 
 
Gospel in Pantomime and Personification 107 
 
 quite likely he will become one whom others will 
 respect. The soldier who thinks of himself, not as 
 a mere individual, but as a representative of Ameri- 
 can honor and courage, is already greatly fortified 
 against the allurements of army life. 
 
 Paul drafts this psychological fact into service: 
 " Reckon yourselves " as having died to Sin. Think 
 of yourselves as having forfeited all hopes based 
 upon your individual merit. Label yourself as one 
 who, without Christ, is condemned. But do not 
 stop there. " Reckon yourself " also as alive unto 
 God. Decide each question of duty as one who 
 owes no allegiance except to God. This attitude of 
 mind will be your great defense against almost 
 every species of temptation. 
 
 Of all the subtle temptations that come to the 
 churches or the individuals, that is the worst which 
 says : " You cannot succeed because you are a sin- 
 ner from of old. You must wait on the second 
 coming of Jesus to deliver you from Sin. Bear it 
 with patience as inevitable." Such is not the tone 
 of this letter. " Sin shall not have dominion over 
 you. He may bother you, he may tempt you; but 
 you are not his servant, and he is not your master. 
 Live and continue to live in newness of life and in 
 enjoyment of daily victories over Sin." Such is the 
 counsel of Paul in this chapter. 
 
 And the truth to preserve is, " Know ye not that 
 his servants ye are whom ye obey ? " 
 
 Probably every one knows what it is to half 
 
10S Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 think, " Well, I can do this evil thing, or cherish 
 this wrong feeling, or say this unkind word, and 
 it will be forgiven me because Christ is a forgiving, 
 gracious Lord." The fact is that we all need to 
 be brought up sharp with a round turn when we 
 have such suggestions. " Know ye not," says Paul, 
 " that his servants ye are whom ye obey, whether 
 of Sin unto death, or of obedience unto righteous- 
 ness ? " Every time we submit to an evil prompting 
 of the " old man of sin " we are for that time, and 
 to that degree, servants of Sin. And Jesus said we 
 cannot serve two masters. We may stumble; we 
 do make mistakes ; we often lack strength to do ; 
 but to allow ourselves to do wrong is to reenlist 
 under the old master, and to nullify our sacrament 
 of baptism, and to break away from the one whom 
 we have undertaken to serve. 
 
 Again we are asked to compare the results of 
 the former way of life with the Christian way. 
 " When ye were servants of sin, zvhat fruit had 
 ye? . . The end of those things is death!' Mem- 
 ory tells us that all which we obtain by sinful deeds 
 or words or thoughts, passes away and leaves us no 
 permanent good. We watch the outgoing of those 
 who have lived unto themselves in fleshly pleasures, 
 and see that they have to anticipate only death, 
 without hope. Surely the " wages of sin is death/' 
 
 But, on the other hand, the gift of God to those 
 that, because of having through Christ Jesus died 
 to Sin, have been raised with Christ, is eternal life. 
 
CHAPTER X 
 
 THE BRIDGE FROM A GOOD THEOLOGY TO A BETTER ONE 
 
 " Having died to that wherein ye were held." — Rom. 
 7: 6. 
 
 Those who have become acquainted with Jewish 
 people know how tenaciously they cling to the re- 
 ligious ideas in which they are brought up. It is 
 a rare thing to find a Jew who has become a Chris- 
 tian believer. In Brooklyn, N. Y., there is a section 
 in which sixty thousand Jews live. A Christian 
 missionary has worked among them many years. 
 He has distributed the New Testament, translated 
 into their language, among them in large numbers. 
 They hear him preach. Some of them admit they 
 like the gospel teaching ; but few break away from 
 their Jewish church. Paul found that same sort of 
 faithfulness to their national religion among the 
 Jews in Rome. 
 
 And no wonder; for while the ethical life he 
 taught them was outwardly not much different from 
 theirs, inwardly it was almost the opposite. The 
 fundamental ideas were in part even contradictory. 
 They " worked " for salvation ; he taught it was a 
 gift. They thought ceremonial sacrifices were nec- 
 essary; he taught that these were all done away. 
 
 109 
 
no Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 They believed that the race of Israel had special 
 privileges ; he taught that the wall of partition was 
 broken down, and that all who had faith were chil- 
 dren of Abraham. They thought Jerusalem was 
 the place where the truest worship was to be made ; 
 he taught that it made no difference. One can 
 scarcely imagine a more radical change than for a 
 consistent Jew to become a hearty, thoroughgoing 
 Christian. 
 
 And the reason was not a reproach to the Jew. 
 He clung to the " law " because he thought it was 
 a God-given law binding upon him. 
 
 This section of the letter takes up that phase of 
 their difficulty. Paul does not condemn them as 
 wrong in intention, but he seeks to give them rea- 
 son for changing — to bridge over their difficulties — 
 to bridge the way for them to accept his teaching, 
 and not condemn what both he and they understood 
 to have been a God-given law. 
 
 His " bridge " is this : " Under God's appointment 
 you are released from the old regime in order to 
 share in the new one. There is no imputation of 
 evil intent on your part in the old relations and the 
 old theological views ; but they were temporary and 
 incomplete. Better things are now being offered to 
 you." 
 
 Then, as an illustration of the principle to which 
 he appeals, he says : " In your laws it is provided 
 that while a husband lives the wife is bound to him; 
 but if he dies she is at liberty to marry again. The 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better in 
 
 legal dissolution of the old bond carries with it the 
 right to enter a new one/' x 
 
 The wife in this figure represents the Christian 
 convert from the Jewish faith. The law of mar- 
 riage represents the obligation of the Jew to be 
 faithful to his church and God. But now T the ob- 
 ligation to the " law " is dissolved because under 
 the figure that he has just been using the law has 
 ceased to have any force, for the Jewish convert 
 has " in Christ " been put to death, and the law 
 therefore has no further relation to him. 
 
 While the old covenant was valid, Jews were 
 bound by it; now they are at liberty to accept the 
 Christian faith, not as an antagonistic one, but as a 
 legitimate successor appointed by the Lord. 
 
 If they accept Christ, they are not to think of 
 themselves as spiritual adulterers, but as belonging 
 to the faithful and honorable " Bride of Christ/' 
 united to him under the blessing of God in bonds 
 never to be broken. 
 
 Although this piece of argument in its actual 
 form has no application to us Gentiles, it involves a 
 principle that has to-day a great value and wide 
 application. There are many people now who have 
 
 1 The illustration Paul uses here is not carried out fully. He ap- 
 pears to confuse himself; for while in the first part he speaks of the 
 husband's death, in the latter part he speaks of the woman being 
 dead to the law. One is likely to ask why he did not say: "The 
 man is bound to the wife as long as she lives," and then continue: 
 " Since the law is now done away with, he is at liberty to marry 
 again." I take it that he could not use the figure in that way be- 
 cause at that time it was not true that a man was bound to the 
 woman as long as she lived. Under the law of that time he was at 
 liberty to divorce or to have two wives. Hence he could only use 
 the figure in connection with the woman. 
 
H2 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 been brought up in, or have for themselves come 
 to have very great faith in, some particular church 
 or some particular theory of religion. For a time 
 it was satisfactory to them. But now they have 
 seen a new light. The old view fails to meet their 
 needs. And yet they have been committed to it 
 long and sincerely. It looks to them like turning 
 traitor to friends and God to accept some other 
 view. But there is an inner sense of desire to be 
 fully committed to a larger (as they think) and 
 better conception of life and its relations. 2 
 
 To such Paul's argument has a value. It is a 
 " bridge " for them to pass over to new views with- 
 out doing violence to their sense of honor or of 
 duty. If God has unmistakably shown a new way 
 to be his way, it implies that the obligation to the 
 old is dissolved. I suppose that every one would 
 feel justified if he knew that it was God's will for 
 him to pass from any view into a newer one. But 
 the difficulty lies in obtaining the will of God on the 
 subject. 
 
 I think we may find light on this matter if we 
 consider for a little the possible channels through 
 which we may expect to receive the divine instruc- 
 tion. 
 
 Suppose, for example, that we know by study that 
 a certain mathematical process will give us accurate 
 and correct results on a problem in engineering. 
 
 2 Recent books like " The Inside of the Cup," " The Soul of a 
 Bishop," " The Invisible King," reveal a great questioning about 
 important matters. 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better 113 
 
 It has been tried by others, and we have tried it our- 
 selves and found it correct. Would it be any more 
 satisfactory if we had seen it written on the sky 
 some evening? 
 
 Or suppose that it has been demonstrated be- 
 yond question that a certain medicine is a specific 
 for chills and fever; thousands have tried it with 
 curative results. Would it be any more satisfac- 
 tory or effective if we had found the prescription in 
 the Bible? 
 
 Certain regulations about food and water and air 
 are unmistakably demonstrated to be sane and safe. 
 Would they be any more authoritative if they were 
 carved in stone by the finger of God and set up at 
 every crossroad? 
 
 If a man accustomed to any kind of medical 
 treatment found that a different one was equally 
 or more effective, would he feel bound to the old? 
 A physician who objects to improved methods and 
 new medicines is at once discounted as being nar- 
 row and second class. 
 
 We all agree that in any of these and many 
 thousands of other similar cases nothing would be 
 a surer test than being true to the facts. 
 
 But is not the same reasoning forceful in the 
 realm of ideas as well as in the realm of the physi- 
 cal? Suppose for example that a man has held to 
 the sanctity of the Bible because he thought it was 
 all written by men whose hands were directed by 
 angelic hands, so that in every sentence we have 
 
H4 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 not only the " word " of God but the " words " of 
 God. He has held that view and has sought to 
 conform his conduct and his hopes to what those 
 angel hands had written for his instruction. But 
 more careful study of the facts makes it certain to 
 him that different men wrote, not as they were di- 
 rected by angels, but as they were " moved by the 
 Spirit of God." How is he to know which view to 
 take? Does he not say that he must follow the 
 truth as he has been able to see it? And if he is 
 satisfied that his later view is true is he not as com- 
 fortable under it as if he had heard a voice from 
 heaven telling him of it ? And is he not as faithful 
 to God as he was before he made the discovery that 
 angels did not hold the writers' hands ? 
 
 A great part of our conduct is regulated by cer- 
 tain ideas we have about the teaching of the Bible. 
 Suppose that after years of belief in the duty of 
 parents to baptize their children, it becomes evi- 
 dent to us that such a ceremony is not called for, 
 are we as much bound now to omit it as we were 
 formerly bound to have it observed? 
 
 Suppose that a man has been accustomed to fol- 
 low Mr. Beecher's teaching and thinks he was a 
 more safe leader than Bishop Joyce or Cardinal 
 Farley, is he not as much at liberty to follow him 
 as the converts of Paul were to follow him instead 
 of Gamaliel ; and if a man has followed Calvin, may 
 he not become a disciple of some other teacher? 
 
 I think Paul's principle would say to him, " If 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better 115 
 
 God has shown you a new way as plainly as he 
 showed you the earlier one, you are not only at 
 liberty to follow it, but you ought to follow it." 
 
 All this rests, however, on the idea that the 
 TRUTH is God's voice. In that way he makes his 
 will known. If in any department of life or of 
 thinking we can know the TRUTH, we know the 
 will of God. Jesus said, " I am the way, and the 
 truth, and the life." We who would know God's 
 will must seek the TRUTH, and when we find it, 
 we are not " spiritual adulterers " if we embrace it 
 and follow it boldly. 
 
 But to say this is not to say that we are to drop 
 every idea we do not fully understand and take up 
 with everything that looks like truth. It becomes 
 us to be very careful not to follow " every wind of 
 doctrine " that blows across the plain ; nor follow 
 every will-o'-the-wisp that comes along with a glib 
 tongue and a sweet voice. It becomes us to weigh 
 carefully and judge fairly. But when we have done 
 that and are convinced that we have a truth, then 
 we are at liberty to accept it, confess it, and live by 
 it, no matter what others may say about our dis- 
 loyalty. " We are dead to that wherein we were 
 held." 
 
 I would notice, -however, that this is not dishon- 
 oring what was the truth to us in earlier days. It 
 is true in every department of life that men make 
 progress. We all do as Paul did. When he was a 
 child, he spoke as a child, he thought as a child. 
 
n6 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 When he was a Jewish student under Gamaliel, he 
 thought as a Jewish student. But when he saw 
 Jesus in a new light, he followed the new light as 
 faithfully as he had followed the earlier dawn of 
 truth. We are taught to grow in grace and in the 
 knowledge of God. But we cannot grow unless we 
 acquire new ideas. That is, they are new to us. 
 We are only gaining a fuller view of Truth than 
 we had before. It is impossible for us to make any 
 advance if we feel bound so closely to the earlier 
 ideas that we feel guilty to leave them behind and 
 take up larger ones. If the Jews had been thus 
 bound, they could never have admitted the Gentile 
 converts into their fellowship. Peter at one time 
 felt bound thus ; but Paul " withstood him to the 
 face because he was to be blamed " (Gal. 2 : 11-13). 
 If Paul had felt thus bound we should have had no 
 apostle Paul. He would have said to the vision he 
 had on the way to Damascus : " I cannot be dis- 
 loyal to my old views. The old ceremonial law was 
 God-given, I must not discard it." 
 
 If Luther had not found this " bridge," he would 
 have remained in the Roman Catholic Church, and 
 the Reformation would not have been effected in 
 his vicinity. If William Tyndale had not found it, 
 we should have had our Bible in no language but 
 poor Latin, and that in the hands of poorer priests. 
 If Knox and Cromwell had not found it, we should 
 to-day be under state church autocracy which damns 
 Germany and the world. All the people of the 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better 117 
 
 Congregational, Baptist, Methodist, and Presby- 
 terian churches owe their positions in the religious 
 world to the exercise by their early leaders of the 
 right to cross this " bridge " from old views of 
 long standing and great excellence in many respects 
 to new ones of better excellence. 
 
 Our only serious question must be, " Does God 
 sound the advance ? " And when we listen for the 
 reply we hear only this : " God is TRUTH and 
 TRUTH is God's voice. Therefore seek the 
 TRUTH with courage." That is the "bridge" 
 from our earlier position to maturer and wiser 
 ones. When TRUTH beckons, take her hand and 
 cross the " bridge." 
 
 I am sure some one may say : " This is a subtle 
 way of inoculating readers with new theology or 
 what has been called with great disgust German 
 theology. It is a species of spiritual adultery itself." 
 
 But I must protest that I have no new theology 
 and no old theology to present at this time. What 
 I would like to do is to have men see that there is 
 no life and no growth in grace unless we are at 
 liberty to be married to a new truth when we see it 
 to be such. 
 
 It will not be considered a strange statement if 
 we say that the Christian world to-day is far better 
 informed about the meaning and the value of Jesus' 
 teaching than the first disciples were. We read 
 how in the very first years of the gospel the Jewish 
 converts were only half brought over to the Chris- 
 
n8 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 tian position. James said to Paul when he came 
 to Jerusalem, " You see, brother, how many thou- 
 sands of the Jews have believed, and they are all 
 very zealous for the law" (Acts 21 : 20). Yet it 
 is the same law that here in Romans Paul says the 
 Christians are freed from. (So also in Gal. 5:1.) 
 All those people to whom the letter to Hebrews 
 was sent, or for whom it was written, were held 
 in a strong bond to the temple at Jerusalem. Un- 
 less they had felt at liberty to leave that behind 
 they would have remained in a narrow view of 
 things. 
 
 If we go back to the Old Testament times we find 
 the prophets, who were the real deliverers of Israel, 
 were counted as heretical and unsafe. Amos was 
 against the dead formalism of Israel. Malachi was 
 against the priests. (Mai. 2.) And this not because 
 either priest or people was intentionally wrong but 
 because a narrow and blind devotion to things-as- 
 they-used-to-be prevented them from seeing things- 
 that-might-be with advantage. 
 
 Jesus was the arch-enemy of religion if the Phari- 
 sees were to be taken as judges. Yet he was only 
 leading men's minds out to larger things. 
 
 So it seems to me we are to claim liberty to think, 
 and liberty to learn. I do not say liberty to make 
 oneself foolish; nor liberty to exchange well-tried 
 truths for crude speculations; but liberty to learn 
 TRUTH; then courage to confess TRUTH and 
 follow it. When some man broaches a view that is 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better 1 19 
 
 new we may not wisely call him disloyal to the 
 King, but we may ask him for his reasons. If 
 they are good we may join him in the blessing 
 of it. 
 
 But some one may say : " We have the Bible as 
 the standard of Truth. We cannot invent new 
 ideas or discard any that the Bible contains. No 
 one is at liberty to depart from that." Suppose we 
 admit the full force of that statement ; then we are 
 brought to the place where we must inquire what 
 the teaching of the Bible is. Here is a man, for ex- 
 ample, who has sincerely believed that the world 
 will get better and better until all the nations have 
 as a whole come to honor Jesus and to walk in his 
 ways. But after a time of study, and after reading 
 some of the books of men, he is sincerely convinced 
 that he has seen only a part of the truth; he has 
 been like the man to whom Jesus gave sight — at 
 first he saw " men as trees walking," now he thinks 
 he sees clearly. And he is certain that evil is to 
 corrupt the church and the world until Christ comes 
 and reigns on earth for a thousand years, and then 
 the earth that now is will be destroyed by fire, and 
 a new earth on a better plan will be established. 
 Suppose, let us say, that he is sincerely convinced 
 that such is the truth; then he must have liberty 
 to think so, and to conform his action to his thought. 
 He must also take the risk of having his building 
 perish like " hay, wood, and stubble," or being like 
 gold tried in the fire. (1 Cor. 3 : 10-15.) 
 
120 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 But the crucial thing is that in determining what 
 the Bible teaches he seeks the TRUTH. And in 
 seeking it he must use his own judgment. That 
 judgment is human at best. He may therefore fall 
 into conclusions about the teachings of the Bible 
 that are not correct conclusions. Being only human 
 judgments they are not assuredly infallible. A cu- 
 rious instance of this is found in the reasoning 
 about the depravity of man. It was said that, be- 
 ing depraved in all his being, his reason is not safe 
 to follow. Therefore men valiantly defended the 
 doctrine of depravity and condemned the conclu- 
 sions of human reason as unsound of a necessity. 
 But they overlooked the fact that their own reason, 
 in so concluding, was unreliable, and being itself 
 depraved its conclusions about depravity might be 
 wrong. 
 
 So we conclude that in many things, in which 
 experience is not able to decide which is correct, 
 we can only give liberty, and take liberty to think 
 and act; being careful not to underestimate the 
 testimony borne by the church through ages of 
 trial in the furnace of life to the great fundamental 
 facts and principles of the common Christian faith, 
 namely: Christ Jesus the authoritative representa- 
 tive of God; who came to earth; took our form; 
 and as such died; was buried; raised from the 
 dead; now sitteth on high; to whom it is the part 
 of wisdom and duty to commit ourselves as our 
 Teacher, Guide, and Saviour, in full confidence that 
 
The Bridge from a Good Theology to a Better 121 
 
 those who thus commit themselves will be given a 
 resurrection like unto his and will be with him in 
 a future world that is to be revealed in due season. 
 Being, for good reasons, released from allegiance 
 to any other views we are free (using the figure of 
 Paul) to be " joined to another and bring forth 
 fruit unto God." 
 
CHAPTER XI 
 
 A VICTORIOUS DEFEAT 
 
 "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord." — 
 Rom. 7 : 25. 
 
 This seventh chapter is a notable one; a field of 
 many great discussions and small agreements. In 
 the section included between the fourteenth and the 
 twenty-fifth verses the discussions have been es- 
 pecially earnest. Paul is describing a serious re- 
 ligious experience of some one; and the inquiring 
 have been asking, Who is the some one? Is it 
 Paul's own spiritual biography used to illustrate 
 and explain his teaching? Or is it a supposed case 
 introduced to throw light on his teaching? And if 
 it be either one or the other, does it relate the ex- 
 periences of a man " regenerate " or " unregen- 
 erate " ? If we say " regenerate/' are we satisfied 
 to say that such an one is "miserable" and 
 " wretched " as in verse 24? If we say " unregen- 
 erate," how shall we account for his saying, as in 
 verse 25, that he serves the law of God with his 
 mind, but that with the flesh he is servant to the law 
 of sin? 
 
 While these are interesting questions for the stu- 
 dent of religious psychology, I shall pass by them 
 122 
 
A Victorious Defeat 123 
 
 that we may consider rather the helpful message of 
 the section. 
 
 First, let us get a perspective of the passage. He 
 says, " I am carnal, sold under sin," like a slave 
 bought at the auction block, by a master unrelent- 
 ing and strong. I battle for liberty, but I am al- 
 ways defeated. I despair of getting my liberty. 
 The chains of this living death seem to be riveted 
 on. Wretched man that I am! Who can deliver 
 me from the bondage? Then, as if he saw some 
 strong deliverer come to his rescue, he bursts out 
 with the text, " I thank God through Christ Jesus 
 our Lord." 
 
 The apostle introduces this illustration because 
 he rightly assumes that it is the experience of all 
 serious-minded people to have a similar battle, and 
 he would lead them to have a similar victory. 
 
 But it is of importance to note the origin of the 
 battle. He says, I was " alive once without the law." 
 That is, there was a time when he was not having 
 a battle. He felt secure. No evil threatened him. 
 But when the " law came " he died. I take it that 
 he means when he came to see what the law of God 
 really demanded, then he saw how much he lacked, 
 and then his battle began. For he knew the out- 
 ward requirements of the law from his youth, but 
 its inner demands he had not seen. 
 
 There are some of those who read this that do 
 not see that his words are suitable to their condi- 
 tion. And there is no suitableness — now. There 
 
 K 
 
124 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 was a time when much that is here said was not 
 suitable for Paul himself. Until he was awakened 
 to the high demands of God, he was not conscious 
 of any great deficiency in himself. A young man 
 once said to me as I spoke to him about his relig- 
 ious needs, " Really I do not need the gospel." 
 It is not until one has begun a serious attempt to 
 be thoroughly good in deed and thought that these 
 sayings have much pertinency. When the condi- 
 tions arrive they will be suitable. 
 
 There are four stages in this biography: 
 First, the battle. When a man begins seeking 
 to be " right with God " his battle starts. We all 
 know what it is to be more or less conscious at 
 times of being a sort of citadel which is being be- 
 sieged by two distinct and opposing parties. We 
 seem to stand between the two, and are called upon 
 to decide which shall have possession of us. This 
 is not a conception born in Jewish training, nor is it 
 a dogma of theology; it is simply a psychological 
 fact. 
 
 In recent years many books have been published 
 dealing with the psychology of religion. 1 The 
 central fact in them all is the recognition of 
 what one has called " the divided self." No mat- 
 ter how well we have been brought up, nor how 
 solidly established our habits have become, every 
 
 1 Such as James, " Psychology of Religious Experience/' and 
 "The Will to Believe"; Cutten, "Psychological Phenomena of 
 Christianity"; Pratt, "Psychology of Religious Belief"; Davenport, 
 "Primitive Traits in Religious Revivals"; Coe, "Religion of a 
 Mature Man." 
 
A Victorious Defeat 125 
 
 little while we find the other kind of habits trying 
 to break into our lives. Even when we think we 
 have permanently mastered one set of tendencies 
 so that we can keep our acts and words in line with 
 our ideal, we come to see that there remain in the 
 heart, like the old habits of thought which immi- 
 grants retain after they have learned the ways of 
 a new country and have become loyal citizens un- 
 der its government, motives and susceptibilities that 
 we are ashamed of. They lie dormant much of the 
 time, but on occasion they spring up like ambushed 
 Indians to take us prisoners. Then the injunction, 
 " Let him that thinketh he standeth take heed lest 
 he fall," finds an application to us. 
 
 The New England Primer — the book on which 
 for one hundred and fifty years the children of 
 New England were religiously nourished — had in it 
 a dialogue supposedly between a youth and Jesus 
 and Satan. Satan says among other things : 
 
 If thou wilt but be ruled by me, 
 
 An artist thou shalt quickly be; 
 
 In all my ways which lovely are 
 
 They're few with thee who shall compare. 
 
 Then Christ is represented as making his plea for 
 the youth's life : 
 
 Wilt thou, O youth, make such a choice, 
 And thus obey the Devil's voice? 
 Curst sinful ways wilt thou embrace, 
 And hate the ways of truth and grace? 
 
126 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 The youth replies : 
 
 Thy ways, O Christ, are not for me ; 
 They with my age do not agree. 
 
 Then, after another plea by Christ, the youth re- 
 plies : 
 
 Amazed, Lord, I now begin. 
 
 Oh help me, and I'll leave my sin. 
 
 This quaint, and in some ways disagreeable, form 
 of presenting it does after all put the truth in story 
 fashion that every one of us has the choice to make 
 between two strange and dissonant elements that 
 press us to accept their supremacy in our lives. At 
 times these " voices " seem to be distinctly from 
 some one outside the inner chamber of our souls. 
 At other times they seem to be hardly distinguish- 
 able from ourselves. Sometimes we are surprised 
 and ashamed to find springing up from within 
 thoughts and ambitions and semimotives that would 
 make us despise others if we knew they had such. 2 
 
 We battle with tendencies to do unethical acts; 
 but these tendencies are by no means the most 
 troublesome. We find an unreadiness to accept 
 fully the teachings of Jesus. We ask " why " to 
 everything he counseled us to do. Objections arise 
 to almost every requirement of duty to God or man. 
 Agnosticism puts in its protest against almost all 
 
 2 Bunyan. 
 
A Victorious Defeat 127 
 
 the positive ideas of religion. A thinking man is 
 obliged to reason away unreasonable things. We 
 fight dispositions that are unduly sensitive, and are 
 always watching for slights. Personal pride makes 
 us unhappy when we are criticized. A spirit of in- 
 dependence holds us back from admitting that we 
 are dependent on Christ. We face a dislike to the 
 whole doctrine of grace. Fear of poverty disputes 
 with charity. Greed of gain struggles against mis- 
 sionary duty. The deceitfulness of riches and the 
 cares of the world choke the good seed of the word 
 until it brings no fruit to perfection. It is not 
 against flesh and blood that our battle is fought 
 but against spiritual wickednesses. 
 
 The voice of Christian fellowship calls to us, 
 and it is drowned by the claims of denominational 
 feeling. We desire the approval of others, but 
 loyalty to truth calls on us to scorn their approval. 
 Love of pleasure would lead us to underestimate 
 the value of usefulness and sacrifice. A whole 
 phalanx of things attack us from both sides, each 
 seeking to gain control of the " I myself.'' If one 
 had eyes to visualize the heart of man, he would 
 see it as a kind of battle-field in which the tide of 
 victory swings now one way and now the other, 
 each important point being fought for over and 
 over again. 
 
 The universality of such a conflict is witnessed by 
 the hymns we sing and the prayers we unitedly 
 utter. 
 
128 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Rev. George Heath crystallized and immortal- 
 ized our common warning in the hymn: 
 
 My soul, be on thy guard ; 
 
 Ten thousand foes arise; 
 The hosts of sin are pressing hard 
 
 To draw thee from the skies. 
 
 O watch and fight and pray; 
 
 The battle ne'er give o'er; 
 Renew it boldly every day, 
 
 And help divine implore. 
 
 In the General Confession of the Church we 
 read : 
 
 Almighty and most merciful Father; We have erred, 
 and strayed from thy ways like lost sheep. We have fol- 
 lowed too much the devices and desires of our own hearts. 
 
 And in the Litany we join again and again in 
 the prayer : 
 
 From all blindness of heart; from pride, vainglory, and 
 hypocrisy; from envy, hatred, and malice, and all un- 
 charitableness, 
 
 Good Lord, deliver us. 
 
 From all inordinate and sinful affections; and from all 
 the deceits of the world, the flesh, and the devil, 
 Good Lord, deliver us. 
 
 From all false doctrine, heresy, and schism ; from hard- 
 ness of heart, and contempt of thy Word and Command- 
 ment, 
 
 Good Lord, deliver us. 
 
A Victorious Defeat 129 
 
 All these bear witness to the time-long struggle 
 of evil and good so much within us that we some- 
 times think we are only the prize for which they 
 contend rather than a party interested in the con- 
 tention. 
 
 Secondly, the defeat. " I find a law in my mem- 
 bers, warring against the law of my mind, and 
 bringing me into captivity under the law of sin 
 which is in my members. . . The good which I 
 would, I do not; and the evil which I would not, 
 that I practise." If we were not thoughtful we 
 should say that Paul accused himself either unjustly 
 or insincerely. But when we delay our speech while 
 we take a look into the depths of our own hearts, 
 we are made to see that his story is our story. Who 
 is the man that can say he carries out all his reso- 
 lutions for good? The failure is so universal that 
 " New Year's resolution " has come to be a syno- 
 nym for short-lived success, that lasts over a sun- 
 rise or two, and then goes to the waste of life. 
 Some day when health is good, and the sun is 
 bright, and the surroundings favorable, we seem 
 to have made a good success. But as soon as the 
 sun goes down and the darkness comes on, a careful 
 inspection of the day's life shows marks and scars 
 and blemishes that despoil us of our comfort. " In 
 the practical life of the individual, we know how his 
 whole gloom or glee about any fact depends on the 
 remoter schemes and hopes with which it stands 
 related. Let it be known to lead nowhere, and 
 
130 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 however it may be in its immediacy, its glow and 
 gilding vanish." 3 Luther said to a friend who had 
 wished him long life, " Rather than live forty years 
 I would give up my chance of Paradise." Louis 
 Stevenson, the most confirmed and persistent opti- 
 mist of his day, whose writings at times contain the 
 very elixir of hope, said : " Whatever else we are 
 intended to do, we are not intended to succeed. 
 Failure is the fate allotted; our business is not to 
 continue to fail in good spirits.'' 
 
 The Preacher of Ecclesiastes said repeatedly, 
 " All is vanity and vexation of spirit." 
 
 The man regarded by the world as the happiest 
 man has the inmost consciousness that he has not 
 attained his aim in holy living, that the goal still 
 beckons him from far ahead. 
 
 We need not to make any argument to others or 
 to ourselves to bring us into an understanding of 
 this phase of the battle. We know that by the 
 works of law of any kind neither ourselves nor 
 others are justified. We all come short. The good 
 in us is defeated. 
 
 Thirdly, the despair. Paul says, " O wretched 
 man that I am, who shall deliver me ? " And his 
 thought is that on the basis of his own doings or 
 merit he cannot find a deliverer. 
 
 We must not forget here that he is trying to 
 teach, and in doing so he is supposing a case. That 
 is, he is neither telling his own actual condition at 
 
 3 James, "Varieties of Religious Experience,'* p, 148. 
 
A Victorious Defeat 131 
 
 that time, nor exactly his condition at any other 
 time. He is practically saying, " If I were to think 
 that my justification, that is my standing before 
 God, is dependent on my own merit — my own actual 
 keeping of any law — I should be obliged to say, 
 O wretched man." And his idea is that any man 
 then or now that rests his hope on his own actual 
 goodness rests it on a foundation of sand. And 
 there is for him no other foundation. Of course 
 Paul knew that at the time he wrote, but he states 
 the case of a man who might try to stand on that 
 legal basis or who might — as it was called in 
 another letter — " fall from grace " and land on the 
 lower platform of law. 
 
 Probably few now feel the poignancy of that 
 despair as he did or as some have since then. The 
 days of camp-meeting experiences are not now upon 
 us. But the most self-examining ones among us in 
 the calmest moments of self-scrutiny can have no 
 hope for any peace if they look for it in them- 
 selves alone. " This sadness lies at the heart not 
 merely of every positivistic, agnostic, or naturalistic 
 scheme of philosophy. Naturalism fed on cosmo- 
 logical speculations puts men in the position of 
 people living on a frozen lake, surrounded by im- 
 passable cliffs, and yet knowing that little by little 
 the ice is melting and the inevitable day drawing 
 near when the last film will disappear and they all 
 be drowned." 4 
 
 * Professor James. 
 
132 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Fourthly, the victory. " I thank God, through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." Paul now turns to the 
 relief that the gospel gives to men such as he has 
 been describing. And this is the jewel of the text. 
 Out of all the despair, whether great or little, the 
 message of Christ brings us rejoicing. To all that 
 labor and are heavy-laden Christ offers rest of soul 
 if they will commit themselves to him. 
 
 This is the victory of defeat. If the hopeless 
 struggle to be flawless in oneself does actually lead 
 men to a faith in Christ such that not only are their 
 relations to God set right, but a new power is intro- 
 duced into life that gives them a gradual but surely 
 gaining saintliness ; and if that faith could not have 
 been gained in any other way than the despair by 
 which it was brought, it is a victory indeed. 
 
 The theory of Paul — and the facts of life con- 
 firm it — is that until men are rendered hopeless in 
 themselves they will not value the gospel of Christ ; 
 and therefore the law came in that sin might 
 abound. But where sin abounded grace did super- 
 abound. The whole scheme of salvation was by 
 him conceived as a well-formulated scheme to bring 
 men into those relations to their Father in heaven 
 which would be joyous and of the family sort; 
 that we might be "bound with golden chains 
 around the throne of God," or as Zinzendorf said, 
 "be chained to the chariot of Christ with chains 
 of love." Or as a philosopher has said, " These ex- 
 periences may be after all the best key to life's sig- 
 
A Victorious Defeat 133 
 
 nificance, and possibly the only opener of our eyes 
 to the deepest levels of truth." 5 
 
 Certain it is that we all lack the motive power 
 to do what we know we ought to do. And we 
 have thoughts and emotions that we know we ought 
 not to have. But we are powerless to change the 
 fountain out of which they come. If our wills can 
 be reenforced by something, and if some resolvent 
 of evil can be gotten into our hearts, we shall be 
 able to do, and to think, and to feel as we ought. 
 What the gospel of God does is to make us indebted 
 to him for his grace and to Christ for his love ; and 
 thus gratitude and affection are made to reenforce 
 our wills and change our hearts. It is this entirely 
 reasonable view that in the last analysis of reflec- 
 tion justifies the way of the gospel, and the system 
 of salvation by grace, and it is this which inspires 
 the universal hymn : 
 
 O, to grace how great a debtor 
 
 Daily I'm constrained to be ! 
 Let thy grace, Lord, like a fetter, 
 
 Bind my wandering heart to thee. 
 Prone to wander, Lord, I feel it; 
 
 Prone to leave the God I love; 
 Here's my heart; Lord, take and seal it; 
 
 Seal it for thy courts above. 
 
 5 Professor James. 
 
CHAPTER XII 
 
 THE NORMAL WORK OF THE HOLY SPIRIT IN THE 
 CHRISTIAN 
 
 Henry Ward Beecher once said of the eighth 
 chapter of Romans : " It is the greatest feat of 
 moral philosophy that has ever been performed in 
 this world. It is deeper, more comprehensive, and 
 therefore more difficult in the form in which it 
 stands than any other part of the Scriptures. Its 
 difficulties arise from the number and importance 
 of the truths which pour into it ; for like the Ama- 
 zon it drains a continent, and every drop that falls 
 upon the farthest mountain or along the valleys 
 finds its way hither. So I might say the Bible 
 forms a watershed on either side, and that it all 
 runs into the eighth chapter of Romans." 
 
 There is much in the chapter to warrant this 
 description of it. But Mr. Beecher found much of 
 his difficulty because of a misconception he had of 
 the whole drift of the apostle's thought. He at- 
 tempts to read the chapter as if only two elements 
 were involved in it ; one which he calls the " animal 
 nature " — " his animal appetites and passions " — 
 and the other which he calls the " higher nature," 
 " by which he becomes a son of God." This concep- 
 tion will not harmonize with the language of the 
 134 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 135 
 
 chapter, because it does not harmonize with Paul's 
 underlying thought. 
 
 There are in the chapter, not two, but three ele- 
 ments or agencies; those which Mr. Beecher men- 
 tions, and a third most important one, namely, the 
 Spirit of God — the Spirit of life. 
 
 Whether we can identify in ourselves the work- 
 ings of this third agency or not, we cannot read the 
 apostle's words with any understanding unless we 
 have this third agency in mind. 
 
 I desire to pass by other themes that lie near the 
 surface of the chapter and to try to transplant some 
 of the leading ideas about this Spirit of God as it 
 operates in the Christian life. 
 
 And first, we n^ed to get some fairly clear idea 
 about this Spirit of God. It is not an easy thing 
 to do so. John said that as the wind bloweth, and 
 we cannot tell whence it cometh or whither it go- 
 eth, so is every one that is born of the Spirit. But 
 I think we can all remember times when we seemed 
 to be acted upon by something in us but not of us — 
 an unsought sense of our own sin ; or a new and 
 clearer idea of the goodness of God ; or a strange 
 modification in our hearts of our feelings toward 
 people whom we had not liked; or an unwonted 
 peace of heart in the midst of trial or sorrow. 
 These experiences are such that we can only ac- 
 count for them by assigning them to an intelligent 
 and kindly Some One acting in us for our good. 
 That agency is the Spirit of God. 
 
136 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 This chapter deals with the Christian life as it is 
 lived under the influence of that divine Spirit — that 
 Spirit of life. 
 
 Let us consider what its activities are. At the 
 end of chapter six it was written that we are 
 emancipated from. Sin and become servants to God, 
 and have in his service the gift of eternal life 
 through Jesus Christ our Lord. The next chapter 
 is given to answering some queries that might 
 arise (ver. 7, 13) ; and at the end of that section 
 he says that one who tries to work out his own jus- 
 tification finds a law within his members so strong 
 that he is constantly brought into captivity to the 
 law of Sin. (Ver. 23.) This is so common with 
 him that in his despair he cries out, " Who shall 
 deliver me from this body of death ? " Then recall- 
 ing the gospel message, its plans and provisions, he 
 answers his question, saying, " I thank God through 
 Jesus Christ our Lord." 
 
 Now in this eighth chapter he returns to the 
 thought at the close of the sixth, and says, " There- 
 fore there is no condemnation to them that are in 
 Christ Jesus." That is, the law of Sin, the tyranni- 
 cal master they have been under, can now work no 
 sort of condemnation to them. And for this reason, 
 namely : those who are by an earnest faith " in 
 Christ," have the Spirit-of-life — that is, the life- 
 giving Spirit — given them from God, and that 
 Spirit sets them free from the law of Sin. 
 
 This freedom has two aspects. One is, that it 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 137 
 
 changes the regime under which men are to live if 
 they are " in Christ/' so that they are measured by 
 a new standard. The old way having failed, a new 
 way has been presented, and they are thus set free 
 from the old one. 
 
 But the other aspect is that by the reenforce- 
 ment of their own spirits by the " Spirit-of-life " 
 they are able to win in the struggle against Sin. 
 This aspect is expressed by some as if the passage 
 read, " The power of the Spirit-of-life has set us 
 free from the power of Sin." The passage has 
 been discussed very earnestly; some taking it as 
 only theoretically, potentially, ideally true, others 
 insisting that it is actually true that the Spirit-of- 
 life, not only in theory but in fact, gives actual free- 
 dom from Sin. 
 
 I can but think that both are true. The first cer- 
 tainly is ; and that would not have any value if the 
 other were not its culmination. 
 
 I find, then, the one great truth which we are en- 
 titled to keep for ourselves is that the Spirit-of-life 
 will give us daily lives triumphant over the tyrant 
 Sin. 
 
 And that this is not a mere " minister's theory " 
 is evidenced by the men and women who are living 
 witnesses of its actuality. Many former drunkards, 
 now sober, are unmistakable walking testimonies to 
 the power of this Spirit-of-life to free men from the 
 drink habit and power. The John Bunyans, the 
 John Newtons, the John B. Goughs, the Colonel 
 
138 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Hadleys, the Francis Murphys, the Professor Gil- 
 mores, the long line of men who march in the col- 
 umns of the Salvation Army — all join in a trium- 
 phant chorus that says : 
 
 Sought by thy mercy, Lord, 
 
 Saved by thy power, 
 Led by thy gracious hand, 
 
 Kept every hour. 
 Thine shall the honor be, 
 
 Thine evermore; 
 Thy name we glorify, 
 
 Thy name adore. 
 
 If there were no other testimony than that of the 
 victors over the rum power in this " body of sin " 
 it would decide the value of this Spirit-of-life. 
 
 Listen to the noisy profanity and vulgarity that 
 flows from the company of worldlings, and note 
 how it ceases when the Spirit of God takes posses- 
 sion. Every profane man become prayerful is a 
 star witness to the emancipating power of this 
 Spirit. 
 
 x\nd here is a company of men changed from 
 selfish, greedy, penurious, unhappy men into un- 
 selfish, generous, rejoicing supporters of the mis- 
 sionary and the charitable work of their communi- 
 ties. Summon them all, and let them tell the secret 
 of their change. They will say, " It came when 
 we committed ourselves to Christ. ,, 
 
 In looking over a whole community, if we see a 
 margin of good in one over that of another we find 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 139 
 
 it is due to the average lives of the Christian be- 
 lievers there, and that is due to this Spirit-of-life 
 imparted to them and working in them in response 
 to their faith in Christ Jesus. 
 
 Outside of that circle the old struggle remains. 
 The sense of doing what one does not approve, the 
 weary, daily consciousness that the Law of Sin is 
 master of the field, that he has only been driven 
 back to the " old Hindenburg line/' and there de- 
 fies us. There is no victory until the " Great Ally " 
 comes into the conflict. 
 
 There is a great exhortation and a great word 
 of hope for each of you who is struggling alone, 
 seeking righteousness perhaps with a real zeal, but 
 subject nevertheless to daily defeat; this says you 
 can come in as conquerors ; it is within your reach 
 to say : " Thanks be to God through Christ Jesus 
 our Lord that he has given me victory to-day over 
 a temper that has been my master : he has lessened 
 the demands of my fleshly appetites and passions, 
 and helped me to harness them into a good service ; 
 he has given me a better vision of my fellow men 
 so that I have taken pleasure in doing them good ; 
 life has been worth living to-day ; 
 
 Lord, if I may I'll serve another day." 
 
 We have seen the trees stripped of their leaves 
 by the frosts and storms, the fields whitened with 
 the winter's snow, the brooks frozen up so they 
 did not sing, all the life and joy seemingly gone. 
 
 L 
 
140 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 But the spring suns, the warm rains, change the 
 face of Nature; earth puts on her robes of living 
 green; the brooks begin to sing again; and the 
 birds respond with their love-songs. No more won- 
 derful change can be imagined than that from De- 
 cember to June. This is a likeness of the change 
 that comes over the moral world when the gospel 
 comes in its power. The fear of God gives place to 
 the cry, " Our Father " ; bitterness yields to love ; 
 passions make way for peace; new songs are put 
 into men's mouths; new purposes in their hearts; 
 new hopes, new ambitions — all things new. 
 
 " They that are after the Spirit do mind the 
 things of the Spirit." 
 
 The word " mind " has a great fulness of mean- 
 ing. It comes from a word that means " to think." 
 It contains the idea of thinking and then aiming 
 at the conclusions of the thinking. To be like- 
 minded with Christ is to have the same aims as he. 
 To be money-minded is to have money-getting the 
 dominant motive in life. The apostle says, " Mind 
 not high things, but condescend to men of low es- 
 tate." That was written to guard against the de- 
 sire to be in what we moderns call " society," 
 whether it be good or bad. " Let that mind be in 
 you, which was in Christ Jesus." That is, regulate 
 your lives by the same dominant motives and aims. 
 
 What is here said is that if men are truly com- 
 mitted to Christ, he will give them the aims and 
 motives that are agreeable to the Spirit of God. 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 141 
 
 We all know how really decisive our inner aims 
 in life are. Our deepest ambitions stand ready all 
 the time to become the decisive factor in decisions ; 
 they are the " balance of power " in close issues. If 
 a minister's aim is to be a great scholar he will de- 
 cide between two pastorates for the one that will 
 give him time for scholarly research or proximity 
 to a university. 
 
 If he has an ambition for notoriety, or to be- 
 come a great orator, he finds this ambition tugging 
 at his heart like a piece of steel on the magnetic 
 needle, influencing his judgment and his tastes. If 
 his chief ambition is to " get a crowd," he almost 
 unconsciously imitates the speech and antics of a 
 Billy Sunday. 
 
 A minister said to me one day, " I am just crazy 
 to make money." I noticed that when he got the 
 morning paper he did not, like most readers, turn 
 to the big headlines of the news columns, but at 
 once to the records of the stock-market. Although 
 he knew this was not a suitable ambition he did not 
 seemingly have control of the deeper currents of 
 his own life. 
 
 The same is true among all Christians. Their 
 " minds " — that is their deepest aims — determine 
 the course of their lives. And for this reason they 
 are often troubled because they know their ambi- 
 tions are not of the highest grade. 
 
 It seems to me the encouragement of this passage 
 is that if we truly commit ourselves to Christ the 
 
142 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Spirit of God will work a change in the " fontal 
 affections " — in the deepest aims — so that they will 
 be brought into harmony with the right things. We 
 shall find it true that they that are " of the Spirit " 
 will have the " mind of the Spirit " and will aim 
 at such things as are in full harmony with his 
 mind. 
 
 And I think it will not be confined to having the 
 same kindness of spirit, but it will include the same 
 breadth of vision. It will lead into what lies be- 
 hind the expression " Thy kingdom come." It will 
 enlarge the field of sympathy to take in what the 
 Great Commission included. It will give not only 
 the vision and the kindliness but the patient cour- 
 age also. In no small degree it will give us the es- 
 timate of our fellow men that he had, and the same 
 high faith that they can become his disciples. 
 
 This may not be expected to come as a miracle of 
 immediate healing. It will come by various means ; 
 chiefly through the channel of better views of the 
 truth. In all his works he honors the mental and 
 moral constitutions he has given us. 
 
 Another truth contained in the section is that the 
 Spirit gives us the sense of being " children of 
 God"; witnesses with our spirit that we are such. 
 It is an inner testimony. I once read this as if it 
 was a conclusion of our intelligence. An aged 
 Methodist preacher said to me: " No, friend! It is 
 a direct testimony." As I have studied Scripture 
 more, but especially as I have studied Christian ex- 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 143 
 
 perience more, I am convinced that the preacher 
 was right. There comes into the heart a convic- 
 tion that we are the children of God when we can- 
 not and do not try to give a logical reason for the 
 conviction. The Spirit witnesses with our spirit. 
 The testimony of logic will confirm the witness. 
 It certainly will dispute a mistaken testimony. 
 Reason is not dethroned; it is put where it belongs. 
 The fact is that when we have Christ we for the 
 first time are able to join in spirit and in truth in the 
 prayer, " Our Father in heaven." We have then 
 no fear of the throne. We come boldly to the 
 throne of grace. We say from the heart, " Father." 
 In reading the Psalms we notice how far short of 
 the Christian attitude their address to God is. We 
 find him regarded as the Lord many times, as God 
 generally, then as Shepherd, as Strong Tower, as 
 Shield and Buckler, as Deliverer, as King; but no- 
 where do we find men coming to the throne in 
 prayer as to a Father. It is in the highest moments 
 of our own religious life that we utter that first 
 word of the Lord's Prayer as the instinctive ex- 
 pression of our feelings. 1 
 
 " He maketh intercession for us according to the 
 will of God." We never get beyond the need of 
 prayer. The more we know of the honor conferred 
 upon us, the more we pray to be worthy of it. It 
 is the most saintly who are most prayerful. This 
 prayer is not for victory over sins so much as it is 
 
 1 Maclaren, " The Mind of the Master," chap. XII. 
 
144 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 for wisdom and strength to use ourselves to the 
 best advantage. The missionary prays for the peo- 
 ple to whom he goes; the pastor, for the people 
 over whom he is placed as the spiritual teacher; 
 the business man, that he may know how to conse- 
 crate his talent to the good of the community; the 
 parent, that he may bring up his children as he 
 ought. It is for such things that we feel our insuffi- 
 ciency. And if we knew that we could have, down 
 to the smallest detail, everything we should ask 
 for, it would stop the fountain of prayer at once; 
 for we should be afraid to ask lest we should ask 
 amiss. It is on account of such things that we 
 welcome the promise that the Spirit intercedes for 
 us according to the will of God. 
 
 We have sometimes heard children cry. But 
 they could not express their wants in words; nor 
 could we interpret their cries ; but the mother knows 
 what is the mind of the child's spirit and responds 
 to it. So I think our heavenly Father understands 
 the groanings that come often from our hearts 
 which are the only available expressions of our de- 
 sires. When I was a small boy I was intimately 
 associated with a very godly man. I rode much 
 with him, and often slept with him ; and it used to 
 be a mystery to me why he often groaned aloud 
 when we were riding along. I knew it was not 
 physical pain, but I did not know how to account 
 for it. Later in life I learned that it was his great 
 spiritual yearnings ; for he was a man of such spirit 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 145 
 
 that he was in prayer for others. Such is what, I 
 conceive, the apostle had in mind. These groanings 
 are not the groans of fear, nor even of repentance, 
 but they are the yearnings of God's Spirit speaking 
 in ours — " God working in us to will and to do " — 
 longings for more wisdom and more power to do 
 good. 
 
 The culmination of all these operations of the 
 life-giving Spirit is to be realized in this : " He that 
 raised up Christ from the dead shall give life also to 
 your mortal bodies, through his Spirit that dwelleth 
 in you!' 
 
 The full meaning of this statement appears only 
 in connection with what has gone before. In verse 
 10 he has said, " The body is dead because of sin, 
 but the spirit is life because of righteousness. " 
 Christ makes the spirit righteous by giving us the 
 mind of his Spirit. So that we have a living spirit 
 in a dying body. What he says implies the idea 
 that he will do for the body what he has done for 
 the spirit. He has already given. life to the spirit; 
 he will later give life to your bodies also. That is, 
 the redemption will not be completed until the body 
 itself is freed from the death that is upon it because 
 of sin. In verse 23 he says, " We who have re- 
 ceived the firstfruits of the Spirit, even we groan 
 within ourselves, waiting for the adoption, namely, 
 the redemption of the body." 
 
 This promised victory over death is the culmi- 
 nating blessing of the Christian life. 
 
146 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Rev. Thomas Armitage, for many years pastor of 
 a large church in New York City, said to me dur- 
 ing his last weeks of life : " I have always in preach- 
 ing tried to get back of the texts to see what was 
 the conception out of which they grew. But I 
 have always been unable to see why the Scriptures 
 speak so lightly of death. It seemed to me that 
 death is the king of terrors. It breaks up our 
 plans] it disappoints our hopes; it separates fami- 
 lies; it robs us of friends. But since I have been 
 sick I have come to see that death does not touch 
 with its finger anything that is of value to me." 
 
 It may be we are late in seeing this truth. But it 
 is in this text very plainly stated. Paul was strong 
 in faith to say, and we are encouraged by the same 
 Spirit to say : 
 
 Death with thy weapons of war lay me low; 
 Strike, King of terrors. I fear not the blow. 
 Jesus hath broken the bars of the tomb; 
 Joyfully, joyfully, I will go home. 
 
 I have been greatly surprised to find some very 
 intelligent people who were troubled about the con- 
 ditions of the next world. They had the idea that 
 we are to be disembodied, specterlike beings; and 
 they shrink from that. And no wonder. Even 
 the Greeks and the Romans dreaded Hades. It 
 was in their conception a sort of subcellar abode, 
 a region of gloom where neither light nor darkness 
 prevails. 
 
The Normal Work of the Holy Spirit 147 
 
 I have been still more surprised to find in litera- 
 ture ideas like Bryant's : 
 
 . .-?• Yet a few days and thee 
 
 The all-beholding sun shall see no more 
 
 In all his course. Nor yet in the cold ground, 
 
 Where thy pale form was laid with many tears, 
 
 Nor in the embrace of ocean shall exist 
 
 Thy image. Earth that nourished thee, shall claim 
 
 Thy growth to be resolved to earth again. 
 
 And, lost each human trace, surrendering up 
 
 Thine individual being shalt thou go 
 
 To mix forever with the elements. 
 
 Whatever others may hope for in the world af- 
 ter this, the Christian has the " blessed hope " of a 
 resurrection. It was this hope for which Paul said 
 he was called in question. (Acts 23 : 6.) It was 
 this which he said is the culmination of all our 
 other hopes, for if Christ be not raised, then we 
 have no hope (1 Cor. 15 : 12-19), but if the Spirit 
 that raised him from the grave to glory, and to 
 honor above every name that is named, dwells in 
 us, it will be an easy matter to put endless and 
 heavenly life into these mortal bodies. 
 
 There are questions about the conditions of the 
 new life that are yet unanswered, but that we shall 
 have bodies suited to our new conditions is certain. 
 That they will be as much better than these as the 
 butterfly's body is better than the body of the worm 
 from which it comes, is not unlikely. " It is not 
 yet made manifest what we shall be. We know 
 
148 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 that, if he shall be manifested, we shall be like him ; 
 for we shall see him even as he is " (1 John 3:2). 
 
 Alas for him who never sees 
 The stars shine through his cypress-trees ! 
 Who, hopeless, lays his dead away, 
 Nor looks to see the breaking day 
 Across the mournful marbles play! 
 Who hath not learned, in hours of faith, 
 The truth to flesh and sense unknown, 
 That Life is ever Lord of Death, 
 And Love can never lose its own. 2 
 
 2 Whittier, " Snow-Bound. " 
 
CHAPTER XIII 
 
 WHAT ABOUT THE JEWS? 
 
 "And so all Israel shall be saved." — Rom. n : 26. 
 
 Paul's teaching in the first eight chapters has been 
 a systematic treatment of the divine plan of salva- 
 tion. He has said it comes only through faith in 
 Christ Jesus. He has told about the excellencies 
 of the plan; he has replied to the erroneous infer- 
 ences that men might make ; and then he has burst 
 forth in that exultant passage : " I am persuaded 
 that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor prin- 
 cipalities, nor things present, nor things to come, 
 nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other 
 creature shall be able to separate us from the love 
 of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord" (Rom. 
 
 8 : 38, 39). 
 
 Then he turns his thought toward the Jews. He 
 knew that many of them were in Rome, and that 
 they would hear this letter, or hear about it. They 
 would raise the question : " What about us ? You 
 have done away with our ceremonies ; you have de- 
 nied the actual safety even in our good ethical con- 
 duct; you have said we are all under condemna- 
 tion. What about God's word to Israel? Has 
 he forgotten his covenant? Or does he think it 
 
 149 
 
150 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 a temporary affair to be set aside at his plea- 
 sure? " 
 
 In what constitutes in our version chapters 9, 
 10, 11 of his letter Paul deals with this matter with 
 much care and fulness. 
 
 Although it has little or no application to us, it 
 is nevertheless an interesting and important matter. 
 Many people exalt it into almost a vital matter. 
 It has become more closely related to us in America 
 because of the great numbers of Jews among our 
 citizenship. In the latest census, about 2,000,000 
 are reported; 143,000 families are connected with 
 their 1,800 congregations. 1 
 
 This people is growing both in numbers and 
 in influence. They are loyal to the government, in- 
 dustrious and prosperous in business. Drunkenness 
 is rare among them. Their zeal for their own re- 
 ligion is great. And more than all, they are in- 
 cluded in our commission to preach to all men the 
 riches of Christ. For these reasons a study of 
 Paul's discussion will be enlightening. 
 
 It must be noted at the outset of the study that 
 Paul was writing to those who knew the prophetic 
 books well. And he knew them well. The ques- 
 tion was not one of curiosity, but one of great im- 
 
 1 According to the American Jewish Year Book just issued there 
 are 1,500,000 Jews in New York City. This is nearly one-half the 
 total number in this country, and makes New York the largest Jew- 
 ish community ever gathered in a single municipality. < Other fig- 
 ures for the city are 2,200 Jewish congregations; 180 religious schools 
 with 41,403 pupils; more than 100 Jewish recreational and cultural 
 agencies; more than 1,000 mutual aid societies; 965 lodges; 193 
 economic agencies, and 164 philanthropic and correctional agencies. 
 
What About the Jews? 151 
 
 portance to them. We may therefore expect that 
 he would put into his reply all that was vital, and 
 inferentially what he left out has little importance. 
 
 Reading his discussion carefully, we note that 
 there are several ideas that are made emphatic. 
 
 The word of God has not come to nought. From 
 outward appearances one might be led to think it 
 had. For it is plain that the great mass of the 
 descendants of Abraham were not believers in 
 Christ, nor even included in the Jewish church. 
 There were the descendants of the ten tribes that 
 made up the northern kingdom of Israel after the 
 secession movement under Solomon's son. Then 
 outside of them were the descendants of Esau. 
 There must therefore be some line of demarcation 
 between the inheritors of the promise to Abraham 
 and those who were not his heirs, between those 
 who were called children and those who were not. 
 To lay a foundation for his argument he says, 
 " They are not all Israel that are of Israel/' That 
 is, the name " Israel " belongs only to a part of the 
 natural descendants of Israel. In another instance 
 also the same statement is made, " Neither, because 
 they are Abraham's seed, are they all children " (of 
 God). It is only with a part of Abraham's de- 
 scendants that the covenant was made. Only a part 
 can claim any promise. If therefore the covenant 
 does not fail with this selected portion it does not 
 fail at all. The members of the other portion, what- 
 ever may be their status, are not involved in the 
 
152 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 covenant that Paul is here discussing. It is this se- 
 lect portion that he calls the " true Israel," or the 
 " children of God," or the " children of promise." 
 
 This selection was made by God himself. This 
 he shows by citing the case of Isaac, of whom it was 
 written, " In Isaac shall thy seed be called." That 
 is, not all of Isaac's descendants, but some out from 
 among them. It was not at that time shown what 
 part of his descendants would be thus honored. 
 
 Later in the history it is recorded that " before 
 they were born, and before either had done good 
 or evil," and therefore not by reason of any merit 
 in him, it was said, " the elder shall serve the 
 younger." That indicates the portion of the 
 " seed " of Isaac that will be honored — the younger 
 of these two sons of Isaac — that is, Jacob. 
 
 The same idea from another standpoint is set 
 forth in a quotation from the record concerning 
 Pharaoh : " For this very purpose have I raised 
 thee up, that I might show in thee my power, and 
 that my name might be published abroad in all the 
 earth" (Rom. 9 : 17). And again the words to 
 Moses, " I will have mercy on whom I will have 
 mercy and I will have compassion on whom I will 
 have compassion" (Rom. 9 : 15). 
 
 Thus Paul has made it plain that both the selec- 
 tion of the " seed " and the direction of things 
 among the outside world are made by God alone. 
 
 This idea runs all through Paul's writings. In 
 chapter eight he says : " Whom he foreknew, them 
 
What About the Jews? 153 
 
 he foreordained to be conformed to the image of 
 his Son, that he might be the firstborn among many 
 brethren. And whom he foreordained, them he 
 also called; and whom he called he justified; and 
 whom he justified he glorified. " The whole process 
 from creation to glorification is thus conceived of 
 as animate with God's purpose as a tree is controlled 
 by the purpose to bear fruit. 
 
 In Ephesians he has the same idea : " Having 
 foreordained us unto adoption as sons, . . accord- 
 ing to the good pleasure of his own will, . . having 
 made known unto us the mystery of his will, ac- 
 cording to his good pleasure which he purposed in 
 himself'' (Eph. 1 : 5, 9). 
 
 If one were to sift out from Paul's life and 
 writings all that is confessedly dependent on the 
 idea that God was directing, there would not be 
 enough left to be worth preserving. 
 
 Because some were disposed to make this superb 
 faith in God an excuse for their sins did not deter 
 him from speaking the truth about it. To him 
 God was all in all. And unto him were all things. 
 
 God's will must be accepted as right. Some one 
 would naturally raise the query whether it was fair 
 in God to select for his favor a part of mankind 
 and leave the others out. We all appreciate the 
 force of such a query. Paul answers it by an ap- 
 peal to their sense of the fitness of things. " Shall 
 the thing formed say unto him that formed it, Why 
 didst thou make me thus? Has not the potter a 
 
154 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 right over the clay, . . to make one vessel unto 
 honor and another unto dishonor?" 
 
 "Who art thou that repliest against God?" 
 This reply does not at once meet the case of a man 
 who makes the inquiry. It has the unwelcome 
 flavor of an autocratic smothering of the question, 
 as if to ask it were a sort of lese-majeste, as the 
 French would call it. No one of the hundreds of 
 writers on this part of the chapter has failed to 
 discuss the difficulty supposed to reside in the ac- 
 ceptance of the full sovereignty of God. This 
 shows that there is a sort of necessity to discuss it. 
 But Paul was not writing to unthoughtful people. 
 He expected they would go deep into the case. 
 Does not the mind of man of natural necessity fall 
 back on the sovereignty of God as the solution of 
 all things? Does not the very idea of God imply 
 autocratic determination ? Would any one be satis- 
 fied to think that there is no control, no plan, no 
 sure " divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew 
 them how we will " ? Whatever Paul's mind might 
 have seen in the case, he had such a high and 
 worthy idea of God's grace that he was willing to 
 trust in his autocratic control with comfort of mind, 
 assured that only loving-kindness was back of it all. 
 He would join with the poet Cowper in saying: 
 
 Judge not the Lord by feeble sense, 
 
 But trust him for his grace ; 
 Behind a frowning providence 
 
 He hides a smiling face. 
 
What About the Jezvs? 155 
 
 It seemed to him also that the Christian people 
 who were the recipients of God's great grace were 
 the ones most obligated to trust the sovereignty 
 of God without cavil or mistrust. 
 
 With whom did he make the covenant? If all 
 are not " Israel " that are the natural descendants 
 of him, who are? If not all that have Abraham's 
 blood in their veins are included in the select com- 
 pany, who are included ? He says only the " chil- 
 dren of promise." But what is meant by a " child 
 of promise " ? He means one who has his special 
 blessings and his place in this select company by 
 reason of a promise that God has made and ful- 
 filled by introducing into the natural order of things 
 his own supernatural help. In the case of Isaac, 
 his mother was long past the age at which women 
 bear children, but a child was promised and was 
 born according to the promise. In the case of 
 Jacob the natural order of men would have made 
 the elder to rule, but in this case the elder is to 
 serve the younger in accordance with a promise 
 and the introduction of a special help later on. 
 
 It is such as these with whom the covenant is 
 made. They are " Israel." 
 
 But now Paul begins to look for the larger mean- 
 ing of the promise. He would define the matter 
 more fully. What are the limits of this company 
 of selects ? In the larger sense " they that have 
 faith like Abraham are children and heirs accord- 
 ing to promise." " We, as Isaac was, are children 
 
 M 
 
156 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 of promise " (Gal. 4 : 28), " which contains an alle- 
 gory " about spiritual things. This broadening of 
 the limits of the company, he says, was foretold by 
 the prophet Hosea when he said, " I will call that 
 my people, which was not my people; and her be- 
 loved, that was not beloved. And in the place 
 where it was said, Ye are not my people, there shall 
 they be called sons of the living God." Peter had 
 the same idea when he said, in his address at Pente- 
 cost, " The promise is unto . . . even as many as 
 the Lord our God shall call." 
 
 What about the men of real faith among the 
 Jews not believers? There were then and are now 
 many Jews of such sort as Nicodemus and Joseph 
 of Arimathaea ; and many priests ; and thousands of 
 whom James said, " They are all believers, but are 
 very zealous for the law " — such as are here said to 
 be " zealous for God, but not according to knowl- 
 edge." If these are the " remnant " of which the 
 prophets spoke (Rom. 11 : 4), and are "children 
 of God by faith," and hence in the covenant, why 
 are they not believers ? And if they are not, what is 
 their status ? He says, " Blindness in part has hap- 
 pened to them." They see the unity and holiness 
 of God, but they do not see that Christ is the Mes- 
 siah. As Paul verily thought he ought to oppose 
 Christ until he saw the truth about him more fully, 
 so these are failing to get the full benefit of their 
 covenant with God because they are in part blind 
 to it. The fault does not lie in their faith but in 
 
What About the Jews? 157 
 
 their knowledge. They cling to the ceremonial, 
 and to the national idea that Jerusalem must be the 
 place for perfect worship of God. They are not 
 yet open-eyed to the wider mercy of God that 
 takes the Gentiles into the select company whenever 
 they have faith. 
 
 They are not cast off. God is still their God. 
 They have stumbled, but they have not fallen. Nay, 
 their stumbling is a part of the divine plan for 
 being merciful to others. What appears so myste- 
 rious will be found to have had a glorious termi- 
 nation. 
 
 The Epistle to the Galatians and the one to He- 
 brews were written to open the eyes of these 
 faith-posse'ssing but partly blinded " heirs of the 
 promises " to the riches of their possessions. The 
 apostle prays that the eyes of their understanding 
 may be opened, that they may know the riches of 
 their inheritance, the hope of their calling, and the 
 power of God toward them. (Eph. 1 : 18-20.) The 
 writer of Hebrews attempts to show them how the 
 ceremonial law was only a shadow of good things to 
 come, but that now the real thing is at hand. 
 (Heb. 10 : 1.) 
 
 But this blindness is not permanent. For a time 
 these people are cut off from the full blessings of 
 God's covenant. When the fulness of the Gentiles 
 has accepted Christ, then these will be led to see 
 that Christ is after all the one whom God sent to 
 be the Messiah, and will turn to him in great num- 
 
158 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 bers. So, as it is written, " all Israel will be 
 saved." They will be grafted again into the great 
 olive tree of God's church, and though later in the 
 history, will not be deprived of any part of the 
 blessing. 
 
 Such then is Paul's reply to the question, What 
 about the Jews? Summed up it is- this: By the 
 determinate counsel of God, a typical covenant was 
 made with a select portion of Israel. This class 
 was composed of those who were influenced and 
 helped by the supernatural power of God; in the 
 exercise of his own good pleasure he enlarged it 
 to include all who in any time or place would in 
 faith accept his help. A part of them have been 
 slow in seeing the fulness of the blessing, but later 
 will have their eyes open and then be welcomed to 
 the kingdom. 
 
 Into what are they to come? This is an impor- 
 tant question. When they are "grafted in again," 
 what is to be their condition? They are to come 
 into the same things that others came into. They 
 differ in no particulars whatever from Gentile con- 
 verts to Christ. In Ephesians the apostle writes, 
 " God hath broken down the middle wall of parti- 
 tion between us," and all belong to the kingdom, 
 nay, more, they are " members of the household of 
 faith," built into the temple of God for his habi- 
 tation. They were in sin " together " ; they will be 
 " quickened together," " raised up together," made 
 to "sit together in heavenly places" (Eph. 2 : 
 
What About the Jews? 159 
 
 5,6). " There is neither Greek nor Jew, circum- 
 cision nor uncircumcision, barbarian, Scythian, 
 bondman, freeman, but Christ is all, and in all " 
 (Col. 3 : 11). All believers come in at the same 
 door of mercy. It leads to the same level of honor. 
 It is not higher nor lower. " The same God who 
 is rich toward all that call upon him " is God of 
 both. " That with one accord ye may with one 
 mouth glorify the God and Father of our Lord " 
 (Rom. 15 : 6). 
 
 It is a noteworthy fact that every mature Chris- 
 tian individual passes psychologically through the 
 very steps that are recorded in the history of Israel. 
 First, a dim confused idea of God, then a sense of 
 duty to be his obedient people, then a growing sense 
 of the sinfulness which must put a veil over our 
 faces, then a knowledge of his grace in providing 
 a Messiah, and then the sense of being in full 
 harmony with him and the object of his constant 
 care and thought. As through all the history, 
 mingled with many misconceptions, there runs a 
 deep sense of God guiding in some way toward a 
 better state of things, so in the individual life. 
 It is to this latter consciousness that the Christian 
 is to come. And to this the remnant are to come, 
 for all of that faith-possessing Israel will be saved. 
 
 As a necessary inference, then, there is no call 
 for the Christian Jew to go back to Jerusalem any 
 more than for the Gentile. There is no room for 
 the temple, for they that worship God worship 
 
160 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 neither at Jerusalem nor Gerizim, but anywhere in 
 spirit and in truth. (John 4 : 23.) There is no 
 room for sacrifices, for Christ was the reality of 
 which the sacrifices were the shadow. (Heb. 10 : I.) 
 There is no circumcision, for " neither circumcision 
 availeth anything, nor uncircumcision, but a new 
 creature" (Gal. 6 : 15). 
 
 If there is any racial feeling that prompts Jews 
 to go back to Jerusalem, it is their privilege to do 
 so. If they can unite in the formation of a sepa- 
 rate nation, it woulcl doubtless be admitted into the 
 family of nations. But all this would have no rela- 
 tion to the Christian faith. To endeavor to put 
 the Christian future of a Christian Jew into the 
 earthly conditions and the narrow bounds of Pales- 
 tine is as futile as to try and put the luscious apple 
 back into a blossom. 
 
 The writers of the New Testament all agree in 
 presenting the teaching that the whole Jewish re- 
 gime of both ceremonial and national character is 
 done away in Christ. It is not to be dishonored, 
 not " outgrown," but " grown out of." When the 
 birdlings are soaring in the sky, why rebuild the 
 nest in which they were hatched? 
 
 This brief survey gives us full sympathy with 
 Paul when thinking of the matter he wrote : " O 
 the depth of the riches both of the wisdom and the 
 knowledge of God! How unsearchable are his 
 judgments, and his ways past finding out ... To 
 him be the glory for ever " (Rom. 11 : 33, 36). 
 
CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN LITURGY 
 
 In the Metropolitan Museum in New York City 
 there is a rare collection of pottery, gold and silver 
 jewelry, and precious stones. The jewelry shows 
 the most delicate workmanship. The stones were 
 cut by masters in the art. Thousands of dollars 
 would not now buy the bare precious metal, while 
 the value to the archeologist and the historian is 
 inestimable. This wonderful collection was found 
 in the island of Cyprus, in the Mediterranean, in 
 the decade preceding the year 1876, by General 
 Cesnola. It was found in the depths of vaults cut 
 in the rock underneath a temple that was destroyed 
 six hundred years before Paul was in Cyprus on 
 his first missionary journey. (Acts 13 : 4.) These 
 treasures were votive and thank-offerings made by 
 devout worshipers in the temple. They bear a mute 
 and touching testimony to the sense of gratitude 
 those people felt for mercies they ascribed to their 
 gods, and their desire to make some worthy expres- 
 sion of it. 
 
 This is a common trait in all races and ages. 
 Among the Jews it was cultivated and provided for 
 by a liturgy containing both sacrifices and thank- 
 offerings. 
 
 161 
 
162 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 The psalmist said : " What shall I render unto 
 Jehovah for all his benefits toward me? I will take 
 the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the 
 Lord. I will pay my vows unto Jehovah. Yea in 
 the presence of all his people" (Ps. 116 : 12-14). 
 The people sang to one another : " Enter into his 
 gates with thanksgiving and into his courts with 
 praise" (Ps. 100 : 4) ; "Ascribe unto Jehovah the 
 glory due unto his name: bring an offering, and 
 come into his courts" (Ps. 96 : 8). Mary was 
 moved to pour out the precious ointment upon the 
 head of Jesus as her expression of her gratitude. 
 (Matt. 26 : 6.) We notice in our day that the 
 time when men are most ready to make generous 
 contributions to charities and missions is after a 
 great sense of spiritual awakening. This has been 
 taken advantage of by covetous preachers who have 
 left the regular pastorates because they expected to 
 get great financial returns. The appropriate feel- 
 ing is capitalized by unworthy men. But the abuse 
 of it by some does not invalidate the right use of it. 
 When a man realizes the mercy of God to him 
 there springs up at once the desire to make some 
 sort of return for it. As it is boorish for children 
 to receive gifts and not say " Thank you," so it is in 
 larger matters a kind of spiritual boorishness, a 
 lack of religious courtesy, not to desire to say a 
 great " Thank you " to the Giver of spiritual gifts. 
 A clear view of any of God's attributes awakens 
 response in the heart of a well-brought-up Chris- 
 
The Christian Liturgy 163 
 
 tian. A sight of his holiness arrays us against sin. 
 A sight of his wondrous works in earth and sky 
 so impressed the Indian that it 
 
 . . . bowed 
 His spirit with the thought of boundless power 
 And inaccessible majesty, 
 
 and led him 
 
 In the darkling wood, 
 Amid the cool and silence, to kneel down, 
 And offer to the Mightiest solemn thanks 
 And supplication. 
 
 The justice of God awakens the fires of right- 
 eousness in men. His mercy moves us to compas- 
 sion. All feel the need of some suitable expression 
 of gratitude. The Romans had reason to be per- 
 plexed over this matter. Paul had taught them 
 that circumcision, which was a pledge to keep the 
 whole law of the temple, was not important. They 
 were taught that the death of Jesus was the reality 
 of which the sin-offering was the shadow ; and now 
 that he had come the shadow was of no use. The 
 city of Jerusalem was of no importance to the Chris- 
 tians at Rome. Paul might have a remnant of racial 
 pride, and a sediment of his former reverence to- 
 ward the holy place, but he did not teach others to 
 esteem Jerusalem or its temple as important. They 
 came to the sabbaths and to the Passovers with no 
 part to take. They saw the offerings of others and 
 
164 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 had none of their own. No doubt there was mental 
 perplexity, and some heart-lonesomeness. " What 
 are we to do? What is our liturgy? What do you 
 give us in place of the other service we were glad 
 to render ? " 
 
 He begins this section of his letter with the 
 words : " Present your bodies living sacrifices, holy 
 and acceptable to God, which is your reasonable 
 liturgy," or as the revision has it, your " spiritual 
 service V 
 
 Let us notice at the outset the exhortation in 
 detail. 
 
 "Present your bodies/' that is, bring them, in 
 thought, and turn them over to God. Settle it in 
 your heart that your bodies are no more in your 
 absolute possession than the offerings in the tem- 
 ple were in the possession of the offerer after he 
 had presented them at the temple. 
 
 " Your bodies/' that is, all the powers of your 
 bodies; the sum total of the faculties with which 
 your bodies are endowed. It includes the power 
 of hands. It contains the affections of the heart. 
 It turns over the workings of your minds. 
 
 "Living sacrifices!' Here is the great idea of 
 his exhortation. The sacrifices of the old ritual 
 were to be dead ones. They were to be burned on 
 the altar. They went up in smoke or were dissolved 
 in the fragrance of incense. These sacrifices of ours 
 
 1 The Greek word is latreian; see also Rom. 9:4; Heb. 9:1; 
 where the word is translated " service." 
 
The Christian Liturgy 165 
 
 are to be used in practical service of the Lord's 
 kingdom. This is an important word in his teach- 
 ing. It is very common to limit the meaning of the 
 word sacrifice to only one part of its meaning. 
 People seem to think that the mere act of going 
 without is a sacrifice. In Syria there was a class 
 of men who are called stylites. They stood up in 
 public places for years, getting their food from those 
 who thought it a great honor to minister to such 
 holy devotees. Their error was that they thought 
 " going without " was a sacrifice ; that to waste 
 energy by standing up for no good purpose was a 
 service to God. This error is not wholly out of 
 fashion now. Thus a woman gives up the God- 
 given function of wifehood and motherhood, think- 
 ing to be holier than the common woman by living 
 in a convent. Men give up the duty of citizens and 
 fathers to retire into monasteries and live apart 
 from the temptations of the world. In lesser degree 
 women in the churches " give up " social functions, 
 thinking it is a sort of holy action to " give up " 
 something they like. Surely this is not the wish 
 of God, it was not the thought of Paul, that bodily 
 powers are to be dwarfed, mutilated, shriveled, and 
 then brought to God as a sacrifice acceptable to 
 him. Suppose a woman should come and say, 
 " Lord, here is my voice, I have denied myself the 
 pleasure of singing " ; or a man should say : " Here 
 is my body ; for thy sake I have refused to cultivate 
 my muscles ; and I have stopped reading and think- 
 
1 66 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 ing; I laid them all on the altar of religion." It is 
 not irreverent to say that God would reply : " Yes, 
 your talent for music you did not use for the com- 
 fort of men; you hid it in a napkin; your bodily 
 strength entrusted to you for my service you abused 
 and neglected until now you are a walking drug- 
 store instead of a temple of the Holy Spirit; your 
 mind, which was to be trained to see and know my 
 glorious power in the universe, is shriveled and 
 weak ; now do you come and offer to me that faded, 
 shelf-worn kind of remnant as a sacrifice ?" These 
 are not" living sacrifices "; they are only the husks 
 with the ears lost out. No ! this is not what is re- 
 quired of an intelligent and faithful disciple. He 
 is to cultivate all his powers of body and mind 
 thoughtfully ; and put his powers, according to his 
 best judgment, into the work that his Master has 
 set all his people to do in this world, making his 
 kingdom to come in all places. 
 
 " Which is your reasonable liturgy." That is, in 
 view of all that has been given us and done for us 
 by our Lord and Master, the most rational way to 
 serve him is not simply to sing praises — though that 
 is a part of the service — but to enlist in the prosecu- 
 tion of his great work — not of " making the world 
 safe for democracy," but — of making democracy 
 fit for the world, and making the world safe for 
 democracy. We are not able to do it all: we are 
 only junior partners in the task; but our part is a 
 necessary one, and our duty is to do it faithfully. 
 
The Christian Liturgy 167 
 
 If this examination of Paul's thought makes any 
 serious impression upon us we are prompted at once 
 to ask: " How can we fulfil the exhortation? What 
 in detail are the specific things that we can do ? " 
 
 There are many lines in which our minds natu- 
 rally run out in reply to this query; but we shall 
 do well if we follow the lines that the apostle him- 
 self followed. 
 
 There is no very marked order in his treatment, 
 but some lines of division are found. The twelfth 
 chapter has two sections, one concerning the rela- 
 tion of the individual to the whole church, the other 
 concerning Christian love. Then in the thirteenth 
 chapter he speaks of the duties to the state. 
 
 In a general statement he says we are not to 
 take the world or its fashions as our guide or 
 model. But as our ideals of life are to be conformed 
 to Christ's ideal, we are to let them and not the 
 fashion of the world shape our outward conduct in 
 a good and acceptable manner. 
 
 Then he speaks of our relation to the church. 
 Xo paraphrase can add much to the beauty or force- 
 fulness of this exhortation. The important basis 
 of it is the idea that the individual is a part of the 
 body of Christ. That is, no one is to think of his 
 gifts as to be used for himself alone or his own 
 glory. The individual is not to be isolated from 
 the rest of the church. He is not to be a sort of 
 bushwhacker, fighting according to his own no- 
 tions, be they ever so brave, but to think of him- 
 
i68 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 self as one of many and to coordinate his work 
 with theirs. This statement has in it the central 
 principle of the best sociological spirit. 
 
 But some of its condensed statements will gain 
 in force if we look carefully at them. 
 
 " Be not more high-minded than you ought to 
 be minded/' is a fair translation. That is not by 
 any means an exhortation to think little of one's 
 self. No man has a right to underestimate his own 
 value in the community, and in his church. Every 
 man has a value to all the others. But let him 
 think it out soberly and according as God has given 
 him faith. " If our work is to preach, then our 
 preaching must correspond to our faith; if it is to 
 minister to others, then we must devote ourselves to 
 our work. The teacher must devote himself to his 
 teaching; the speaker to his exhortation. Those 
 who distribute charity must distribute with gener- 
 ous hearts ; those who do acts of kindness must do 
 them in a cheerful spirit." 2 
 
 In a school for teachers in New York State one 
 of the teachers was receiving a kind criticism of 
 her work, and she was exhorted to " put more joy 
 into it." This is what Paul meant by " doing with 
 cheerfulness." It is not an infrequent thing to hear 
 even ministers say, " I've got to preach next Sun- 
 day," as though it was an irksome task. The man 
 who has not joy in preaching is only fifty per cent 
 efficient. The man who doles out the " poor fund " 
 
 2 Twentieth Century New Testament. 
 
The Christian Liturgy 169 
 
 of the church as if he was sorry to part with it, is 
 not doing his work as he ought. It ought to be 
 true that, while the church is sorry that any one 
 needs financial help, there is such a great tone of 
 gladness that the church is able to minister to the 
 need that it sweetens the bitter waters of mortifica- 
 tion on the part of those who receive the help. 
 
 "Diligent in business" ; so the common version 
 reads. But that is as inaccurate a rendering as one 
 can make; for the original has no reference to 
 " business " as we use the word. The Revised 
 makes it read, " in diligence not slothful." Better 
 than either of these is, " When earnestness is called 
 for, be not slow to supply it." It is said of John 
 Adams' wife that at one time when he was going 
 away on some public business, she said to him, 
 " John, do not shilly-shally." That is a fair repre- 
 sentation of Paul's thought. Do not shilly-shally 
 in any thing that it is duty to do. Jesus put it in 
 good phrase when he said that the great command- 
 ment is, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with 
 all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and with all 
 thy mind" (Matt. 22 : 37). 
 
 " Take thought for things honorable in the sight 
 of all men." The Christian life is not an unearthly 
 one. It is founded on the deepest experiences and 
 instincts of men. To go contrary to the universal 
 moral ideas of mankind is surely to go against the 
 Christian morality. Christian morality is never con- 
 tradictory to natural morality, but in many things 
 
170 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 carries natural morality to its best development, and 
 then goes beyond. But the great power of Chris- 
 tian ethics is in the new motives and the enlistment 
 of the affections for the help of the intelligence in 
 doing the right. 
 
 The " man of God " is a constant quantity for 
 many centuries back. Whatever may be the age of 
 the Old Testament writings, the ideal man has not 
 changed much since the Scriptures were written. 
 
 The thirty-first chapter of Job does not need 
 apology in the light of the New Testament. And 
 even in the Jewish extra-biblical writings the ideal 
 does not fall below. For example, in the Testa- 
 ments of the Twelve Patriarchs we read : " Keep, 
 my children, the law of God . . . not playing the 
 busybody with the business of thy neighbor. But 
 love the Lord and your neighbor. Have compas- 
 sion on the poor and weak . . . offering gifts to the 
 Lord with thanksgiving." And again, about for- 
 giveness it was written, " If a man be shameless and 
 persisteth in his wrong-doing, even so forgive him 
 from the heart and leave to God the avenging." 
 
 "The precepts of the peoples before Moses' 
 time," said Dr. Howard Osgood, " would go far 
 toward making a reverent, clean-minded, gently 
 spoken, diligent, discreet, respectful, independent, 
 straightforward man ; far from pride of place or of 
 knowledge, as well as from the viler forms of life. 
 He would be supremely careful of his home, his 
 wife, and children, to guard them from foes within 
 
The Christian Liturgy 171 
 
 and without, that they might live soberly and truth- 
 fully, with an eye upon that day when they must lie 
 in the valley." 
 
 "Avenge not yourselves. . . Vengeance is mine; 
 I will recompense, saith the Lord" This needs es- 
 pecial thought just now when the natural sense of 
 injury and the natural resentment are roused against 
 almost every form of cruelty and dishonor as prac- 
 tised by the Germans against nearly all the world. 
 Just what is the duty of the Christian people to de- 
 mand of the government concerning the leaders of 
 the barbarities it is not easy to say. But we need 
 not be careful about saying that we may not do any- 
 thing for vengeance. We may need to do some se- 
 vere things as a preventive or as an exhibition of 
 public abhorrence of such things as have been per- 
 petrated by the leaders, but we need to suppress 
 and pray against the spirit of vengeance. That be- 
 longs to God, and he will not fail in justice. 
 
 Such then are the outlines of the kind of life 
 that Paul thought becomes those who are justified 
 by faith through the grace of God. It has been 
 written of Lieutenant Farre, a noted artist in 
 France, who enlisted in the aviation service, that he 
 invented a system of recording as he flew the colors 
 and scenes about and below him ; and then after he 
 went to earth again he painted from these sugges- 
 tions a noted set of pictures. 3 
 
 8 See "Ladies' Home Journal," Sept., 1918. 
 
 N 
 
172 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 These " notes " of Paul, sailing in the higher 
 realms, if taken as sketches only and filled out 
 in daily life, will give us the most perfect men 
 and women the earth knows. Let each one of 
 these short exhortations of this chapter alone be 
 filled out in a natural and logical way, and we 
 shall have the ideal human life. Its beauty has 
 never been discredited. Its usefulness has not 
 been denied. It was said by Mr. Herbert Spencer 
 that probably a " rationalized version of the Chris- 
 tian creed " would at the end of the evolutionary 
 process be finally adopted. And when this process 
 is finished it will be found that all its essential fea- 
 tures were here given to the world. 
 
CHAPTER XV 
 
 THE CHRISTIAN AND THE STATE 
 
 "Let every soul be in subjection to the higher pow- 
 ers." — Rom. 13 : i. 
 
 This subject, always important, has had an extra 
 interest owing to the world war that has been in 
 progress and the demands made on the citizens for 
 money and for men to carry it on. Many people 
 were much perplexed concerning their duty. We 
 have been taught, and we have approved the teach- 
 ing, that war is sinful. We have been in hearty 
 agreement with General Sherman's statement that 
 " war is hell. ,, We say it with no taint or tint of 
 irreverence. il War is hell." For hell in the last 
 analysis is simply the ripened fruit of somebody's 
 wrong-doing. As we get first-fruits of the heavenly 
 harvest in the happiness that comes to us when we 
 do right, so we get an earnest of the ultimate hell 
 in the preliminary results of wrong-doing. 
 
 It may be the wrong-doing of a state in which we 
 are so interwoven that we share in the suffering 
 without individual choice of wrong-doing. The 
 Civil War in our country in 1861 was the result of 
 the wrong-doing of the States in permitting slavery 
 to exist as it had. Or, it may be the wrong-doing of 
 
 173 
 
174 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 a little coterie of mortals called the " royal family " 
 whose ambitions lead them to make war for mere 
 selfish satisfaction. In 1913 Baroness Sutten of 
 Austria was in this country speaking in behalf of 
 international peace. In one of her addresses at 
 Drexel Institute, she said : " Why do they say of 
 Austria or Germany that ' she ' has declared war ? 
 The ' shes ' have nothing to do with it. War comes 
 from a few lords and dukes and the Krupp family." 
 In such cases the common people have little to do 
 but suffer the evils of war, not its guilt. Neverthe- 
 less these few and the Krupp family brought on a 
 war, and the war is the hell into which their wrong- 
 doing has crystallized. 
 
 This war came from the shameless violation of 
 solemn treaty agreements; from the infamous con- 
 duct of German soldiers who in Belgium abused 
 women, slaughtered babies, and pillaged homes; 
 from the impudent forbidding of our ships to sail 
 the seas that are the property of all; from the 
 unparalleled crime of sinking hundreds of non- 
 combatants in the Lusitania; and the threats to 
 come here and enforce hypocritical cant about rul- 
 ing by " divine right." These were the causes of 
 this war. Whether America was right or wrong 
 in doing so, the people of America — including the 
 " shes " — were very unanimous in deciding that we 
 ought to go to the rescue of the weak and the de- 
 fense of ourselves. 
 
 In spite of the impulse to gt), we in some quiet 
 
The Christian and the State 175 
 
 moments, as we read the reports of losses and were 
 made to feel the cost in many ways, have reviewed 
 the case and asked : " Were we right in entering 
 the war? Have we any Christian principle that 
 warrants it? Are we showing lack of faith in the 
 teachings of Jesus that when one smites us on one 
 cheek we should turn the other also? Or that we 
 should love our enemies and do good to them that 
 despitefully use us ? Or the teaching of Paul him- 
 self in this same letter, ' Overcome evil with 
 good'?" 
 
 Jesus is called the Prince of Peace. How can his 
 ministers, standing in Christian pulpits, on the 
 Christian Sabbath, with the Christian book in their 
 hands, encourage Christian people to go and help 
 kill the enemies? or even support with prayers and 
 money those who do? 
 
 Those who ask these questions are not pro- 
 German; nor are they lacking in what is called 
 patriotism, or courage. Their question is whether 
 there is a law superior to the law of the state and of 
 society, and if so does it forbid them to war ? 
 
 We may not expect Paul to answer all the ques- 
 tions we of this day may desire to ask of him. He 
 was writing to Romans in the time of the Csesars. 
 He did not attempt to say what are the ethics of 
 war 7 nor what are the duties of Christian citizens 
 if a foreign people invades their country with hos- 
 tile intent ; nor what we ought to say about stand- 
 ing armies and large navies; nor what is the duty 
 
176 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 of the Christian citizen about enlistment in time of 
 war. Of these and other questions growing out of 
 our intricate and complex civilization he said noth- 
 ing directly. If one is looking for a " Thus saith the 
 Lord " on this matter, he will find but little if any 
 satisfaction. 
 
 But while this is true, a closer look at his writ- 
 ings discovers evidence that in his mind were cer- 
 tain ideas which, allowed to have their full force, 
 would go far toward giving a reply to our modern 
 questionings. 
 
 There were in his time three leading opinions 
 about the relation of Christians to the state ; and to 
 all of them Paul was addressing his word in this 
 section. 
 
 One class held that civil governments were under 
 the direction of demons. This world belongs to 
 Satan, and the Christians have no business meddling 
 with its government. They are aliens living in a 
 foreign country for a while. They have no more 
 to do with the governments than an American has 
 when he lives for a time in Turkey or China. They 
 quote Peter as saying, " I beseech you as strangers 
 and pilgrims. ,, 
 
 Another class regarded the Roman government 
 as an unholy usurpation of power; and they felt no 
 moral obligation to do more than to submit until 
 an opportunity arose to throw off the yoke that so 
 grievously galled them. They were the ones who 
 asked Jesus if it was lawful to pay tribute to Caesar. 
 
The Christian and the State 177 
 
 A third class, to which probably Paul might be 
 said to belong, thought the time of the Saviour's 
 return was near at hand. He wrote, " The night is 
 far spent, the day is at hand" (Rom. 13 : 12). 
 " The time is shortened, that henceforth those that 
 have wives be as though they had none, and those 
 that weep as though they wept not" (1 Cor. 7 : 
 29, 30) . " Establish your hearts ; for the coming of 
 the Lord is at hand" (James 5:8). If such was 
 their expectation, the character of the government 
 was of little account. The main thing was to be 
 safe while they remained. So Paul wrote to Tim- 
 othy : " I exhort therefore, that . . . supplications, 
 prayers, intercessions, thanksgivings, be made for 
 . . . kings and all that are in high place ; that we 
 may lead a tranquil and quiet life in all godliness 
 and gravity" (1 Tim. 2 : 1, 2). 
 
 Add to these differing views of the state the fact 
 that the state itself — which meant the aristocrats 
 of power — regarded the Christians with a degree 
 of suspicion lest they were a group of malcontents 
 disposed to deny the authority of the emperor. 
 
 In the presence then of such elements, Paul 
 wrote, " Let every soul be in subjection to the higher 
 powers." And then he goes on to give his reasons. 
 These reasons are of perpetual validity. 
 
 First, " the powers that be " — that is, civil govern- 
 ments — u are ordained of God!' Not that God had 
 specially organized the Roman government, but the 
 Creator wrought the need for civil government into 
 
178 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 the very constitution of society. As this is the great 
 major premise of Paul's thought, it will make his 
 teaching clear if we consider the statement he 
 makes. Every nation must have some form of 
 government to give it either unity or safety. A na- 
 tion is a group of people so organized that some 
 one or more of its citizens represent it and speak 
 for it. Whether it be for mutual welfare or for 
 safety from enemies, there must be those whose 
 business it is to speak for the nation, and to direct 
 its affairs, and provide for its continuance. We 
 see the value of government if we suppose all gov- 
 ernment to be taken away. Then we have an- 
 archy — that is, no archon. Russia is an example of 
 what happens when there is no ruling body. Every 
 man takes upon himself the task of avenging his 
 injuries, of collecting his dues, of defending by 
 force his home. Even the anarchists at the out- 
 set deny their creed by electing a Lenine or a 
 Trotsky to lead them in their fight for anarchy. 
 The Jews well knew the results of such a condition, 
 for their books told them of a time when there were 
 no judges in Israel, but every man did what was 
 right in his own sight. (Judg. 21 : 25.) 
 
 Every community in every age has been obliged 
 to frame some sort of government. Three families 
 cannot live together without something in the na- 
 ture of a government. Superior wisdom or strength 
 always puts some one at the head of the others and 
 gives him the duty to speak and act for the others. 
 
The Christian and the State 179 
 
 It is for this reason we say God ordains the 
 " powers that be." 
 
 When a nation becomes large, and occupies a 
 great territory, the necessity for government be- 
 comes all the more imperative. 
 
 And with the increasing numbers the demands 
 on the government become more numerous and 
 complex. In our own enlarging country, how many 
 things are now demanded from the government that 
 formerly were not considered any part of its 
 responsibility. 
 
 There are common roads to be laid out, built, 
 and maintained. There are schools to support and 
 direct. There are legislatures to elect and support. 
 Charitable institutions are to be supported. There 
 are franchises to be regulated, sewers and water 
 systems to provide for, health measures of a public 
 character to inaugurate. Then the rights of the 
 public for railroads and commerce are to be defined 
 and maintained. In addition to these honorable and 
 laudable tasks there is the necessary one of restrain- 
 ing crime and policing the land. One has only to 
 think of these things to see that a strong and wise 
 government is a necessity for the comfort and 
 safety of the people. It is ordained by the One who 
 created us as we are. We cannot overestimate the 
 value of such a provision. 
 
 But this implies that the government must be 
 supported by the people. Whether it is as credit- 
 able as it ought to be or not, the " power that is " 
 
180 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 must be sustained. It is always better than no 
 " power." It is a principle of law that a right to 
 be implies a right to defend being. A government 
 that has a right to be has the right to support and 
 defend itself. There must be taxes to pay the men 
 who do the special work the government needs to 
 have done. There must be the recognition of the 
 authority of the officials in the realm of their duties. 
 There must be places of business where people can 
 find the men they seek to speak the governmental 
 word of counsel. 
 
 Thus far men will not differ. But the inference 
 must go further. The right to be implies the right 
 to defend itself against enemies within or without. 
 However much we may shrink from it, no nation 
 that has a right to be can be denied the right to 
 defend itself with force of arms if need be. No one 
 who lives in the protection of the police can dispute 
 the right of the police to use force in protecting 
 citizens from abuse or robbery. It needs but an in- 
 crease of danger to justify the increase in the 
 police force. 
 
 If the danger comes from outside — that is, if 
 another nation seeks to damage or destroy or sub- 
 jugate it — then the police force becomes an army, 
 and war ensues. There seems to be no doubt that 
 the inference is necessary from the admitted divine 
 ordination of government. In that sense God or- 
 dains war. In that sense it is not against Christian 
 principles to engage in war for self-defense. 
 
The Christian and the State 181 
 
 " Wherefore we must needs be in subjection " to 
 government, not only for fear of its punishments, 
 but " for conscience sake." 
 
 Another inference is necessary : 
 
 "For this cause pay tribute also!' That is, the 
 Christian should assume the share of the cost of 
 the government that is assessed upon him by the 
 " powers that be " — that is, by the official persons 
 who have charge of such matters. 
 
 It is not his privilege to refuse because he does 
 not like the tax, nor because he thinks it unneces- 
 sary. It is levied by the appointed officers and 
 their demand is the demand of the whole govern- 
 ment. Probably few will seriously question the 
 duty to pay that kind of tribute. 
 
 There is another tribute as justly due as taxes, 
 that is, obedience to such regulations of life and 
 food as the governing authorities require. Con- 
 servation in certain foods has been asked for. Re- 
 strictions have been put upon the use of sugar, 
 wheat, meats, and fats, in order that the armies and 
 navies of the country and the Allies (and these for 
 the time being are as our own armies) may be well 
 supplied. Autoists are required to save gasoline 
 because it is needed at the front. Railroad travel 
 has been limited in several ways because the mili- 
 tary necessities have been so great. Coal, which is 
 diverted in greatly increased quantities to manufac- 
 turing and to naval use, must be used in sparing 
 measure. All these are parts of the tribute that 
 
182 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 every citizen owes to the government. The Chris- 
 tian man is under obligation to be the obedient loyal 
 citizen. 
 
 But another tribute is as surely due as taxes. 
 When war is declared it is the duty of the citizen 
 to assume the share of danger and perhaps death 
 that the government costs. One can no more deny 
 the right of the government to call men to the 
 army than he can deny the right to ask him for 
 taxes. In America we have so long been free from 
 war, and what little we had made so light a demand 
 upon us, that we have not realized what our excel- 
 lent government with all its privileges and safety 
 costs. Of late it has all come in a bunch. Millions 
 of men and billions of money are necessary. Much 
 as we shrink from brutalizing ourselves to meet the 
 brutality that is arrayed against us, it is a part of 
 the cost of our liberties. And we can find no argu- 
 ment to sustain our refusal to meet the demand 
 upon us, because the " powers that be " are or- 
 dained of God and because we claim to be obedient 
 in special measure to the ordinance of God. 
 
 It follows that one who begrudges these tributes, 
 or who seeks to avoid his share of the burden, is not 
 only piggish and disloyal, but irreligious as well. 
 
 There are two objections to the conclusion that 
 have great weight. One is that the law of God is 
 superior to any obligations of the state. It is 
 pointed out that the apostles in the first days of 
 the Church were commanded by the State not to 
 
The Christian and the State 183 
 
 preach the Christian facts — the crucifixion and res- 
 urrection of Jesus. But they refused obedience, 
 saying they could not but speak the things they 
 had seen and heard. Martyrs in several ages have 
 died rather than submit to the dictates of the state. 
 And we are accustomed to laud the devotion and 
 faith of the martyrs. 
 
 That there is some force in this is true. But it 
 is to be noted that these martyrs did not refuse any 
 obedience to the state that was within the prov- 
 ince of the state, nor did they do anything which 
 lessened the welfare and authority of the state as a 
 civil power. As a matter of fact, the Christian 
 people have been in all ages just what Paul taught 
 that they should be, " in subjection to the powers 
 that be " in all civil matters. 
 
 And the reply may also be made that the law of 
 God on these matters is not explicit. Admitting 
 that the law of God is above the state, how are we 
 to know what the law of God in this matter is ex- 
 cept by legitimate inferences from the fact that 
 governments are ordained by him? Legitimate in- 
 ference from a principle becomes an explicit law. 
 
 The other objection is made by those who say that 
 the law " Thou shalt not kill " supersedes all other 
 laws both by its wording and by the dignity with 
 which it is accompanied. If people do in their 
 hearts believe this and are not using it as a cover 
 for their hesitancy to go into the army, we say the 
 burden of showing that the law against killing does 
 
184 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 supersede the one that says " render to the gov- 
 ernment its dues " is on them. " To God the things 
 that are God's and to the government the things 
 that belong to government " remains in force. 
 
 If such people would be consistent, they should 
 refuse to accept any of the protections that organ- 
 ized government gives in which force is used and 
 behind which the sword of punishment is found to 
 be in operation. 
 
 So, unpleasant as the task is, loyal service in the 
 armies and navies of the nation in defense of them- 
 selves or others is not against the Christian teach- 
 ing but rather by the strongest inference is required. 
 For the existence and authority of such are divinely 
 ordained. 
 
CHAPTER XVI 
 
 THE REQUIREMENTS OF CHRISTIAN FELLOWSHIP 
 
 This section of the letter deals with a very long- 
 lived tendency, and a perpetual duty. It discusses 
 the " terms of membership " in the Christian 
 churches. It seeks to instruct concerning who should 
 come in to them and what is due to them after they 
 do come in. It was suited to certain conditions in 
 Rome; but it states the principles regulating the 
 matter in so broad a way that we find them suited 
 or suitable to our day and circumstances. 
 
 The church at Rome as we have seen was com- 
 posed of those who had come from the Jewish 
 church, and those who had come from the idola- 
 trous part of the community. That is, some of the 
 people had been brought up in the strongest Jewish 
 faith. All their lives they had been accustomed to 
 observe special days of religious observance, and 
 to abstain from certain foods that others used freely. 
 We recall how fault was found with Jesus because 
 he healed on the Sabbath day. To the Jewish lead- 
 ers that was an open insult to Jehovah, for around 
 that day most of the ceremonies of religion clus- 
 tered. To ignore that was to strike at the whole 
 system. We recall also how Peter is represented 
 as sayfng to the Lord, when on the housetop at 
 
 185 
 
1 86 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Joppa he was bidden to eat from the conglomerate 
 collection of animals in the sheet let down from 
 heaven, " Lord, I have never eaten anything com- 
 mon or unclean." 
 
 On the other hand, there were people who never 
 had known anything about these days or these re- 
 strictions in food. They had been accustomed to 
 days, but they were feasts, not fasts. They ate all 
 the more liberally on those days. 
 
 These two so very diverse classes were to live 
 together in the church. It would be impossible for 
 them to do it and not find many occasions for mu- 
 tual faultfinding. The Jewish portion would think 
 that the Christian faith was only the finished house 
 built on the Jewish foundation. They would insist 
 that the foundation should not be disturbed. The 
 others would insist that, as they had received all 
 the spiritual blessings without ever having gone to 
 Jerusalem, or having paid any attention to the cere- 
 monies their brethren thought so much of, such 
 ceremonies could not be of much importance. They 
 would refuse to take on any such burden for them- 
 selves. 
 
 At the center it was a conflict between the ten- 
 dency to lean upon ceremonies, and the opposite 
 tendency to do without any. And along with these 
 there was the disposition of some to think the others 
 were not as good as themselves, and an insistence 
 that all should think as they did about these matters. 
 
 There is plenty of similar conditions now. For 
 
The Requirements of Christian Fellowship 187 
 
 example, in the matter of admission into the church 
 of Christ, some insist that one must assent to certain 
 theological statements; others, that all must have 
 a certain ceremony called baptism ; others, that they 
 must " tell an experience " ; and if these require- 
 ments are not met to the satisfaction of the minister 
 and two or three older members they are not to be 
 received. 
 
 So about the Lord's Supper. Some admit only 
 those who have been to confession and received ab- 
 solution from the priest; others admit only those 
 who have been confirmed by the bishop. In some 
 churches members must go to the minister the day 
 before and get a " token " from him which admits 
 them to the Supper. Some give the invitation, " All 
 ye who do truly and earnestly repent of your sins 
 and are in love and charity with your neighbors . . . 
 draw near in faith and take this holy sacrament 
 with comfort." And still others say, " All who are 
 members in good standing in sister churches of 
 like faith and order are invited to remain to the 
 Lord's Supper." In all these various forms and 
 regulations there is the same spirit that troubled 
 the Roman church : namely, the tendency to refuse 
 full fellowship to those who are not in agreement 
 on minor points of doctrine or practice although 
 they are sincere believers in Christ Jesus as Lord 
 and Saviour. 
 
 A similar difference exists in the ideas of con- 
 duct. In India for example, where the converts 
 
i88 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 have come from great degradation of religious 
 teaching, it is impossible for them to have a high 
 standard of ethics. The missionaries are obliged 
 to admit on a level much lower than we in this 
 country think is admissible. One missionary told 
 me that he insisted on two things, namely, they 
 must observe the Sabbath and attend the services, 
 and the other, they must not attend feasts to idols. 
 This accomplishes an open separation from heathen- 
 ism and secures the continuous instruction in Chris- 
 tian truth. With these secured, the higher grade 
 of living is attainable. In this country we have 
 those who come from circles where the use of wine 
 is common; others with whom the use of beer is 
 as common and as innocently indulged in as are 
 tea and coffee with us. This latter is especially true 
 among the German people. It raises a question 
 with many whether these with a much lower stand- 
 ard of life should be admitted to the church. 
 
 It seems to me that Paul's words exactly fit the 
 case : " Him that is weak in faith receive ye." 
 
 This becomes possible and practicable when it is 
 remembered that the great objective of the gospel 
 is to have men accept Christ. Once they put them- 
 selves into submission to him, he will work in them 
 the changes needed to lift their lives to the Chris- 
 tian level. Men are transformed by the renewing 
 of their minds. They grow in grace from children 
 unto maturity. Until men have faith in Christ they 
 cannot receive the help needed ; but when they ac- 
 
The Requirements of Christian Fellowship 189 
 
 cept him all the forces of truth and of association 
 and of hope unite to make them what they should 
 be. If they have faith, all the rest is in process of 
 attainment. If a man's God is Christ, then " to his 
 own Lord he standeth or falleth." " And he shall 
 be made to stand, for his Lord hath power to make 
 him stand." " So then each one of us shall give 
 account of himself to God." So we say, " Credible 
 evidence of faith in Christ is the only, but vital 
 prerequisite for membership in the church." 1 
 
 It is worthy of notice that recently there has 
 emerged from the depths of the religious sentiment 
 of the country a very marked sympathy with this 
 teaching of Paul. Not long since a very prominent 
 Baptist layman 2 sent forth an address on " The 
 Future of the Christian Church." Passing by the, 
 as I think, too extreme views both of the so-called 
 inefficiency of the churches and the force of what he 
 calls the Religion of the Inarticulate, I notice that 
 he sees very clearly the truth that Paul here utters : 
 that the church should welcome all who have faith. 
 His words, from some of which I dissent, are : 
 
 It should be called the Church of the living God. 
 
 Its terms of admission would be love for God, as he is 
 revealed in Christ and his living spirit, and the vital 
 translation of this love into a Christlike life. . . 
 
 It would pronounce ordinance, ritual, creed, all non- 
 essential for admission into the kingdom of God or his 
 Church. . . 
 
 1 Mathews, " Social Gospel," chap. I. - John D. Rockefeller, Jr. 
 
190 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 Its object would be to promote applied religion, not 
 theoretical religion. . . It would encourage religion seven 
 days in a week rather than speculation about the hereafter. 
 
 This note is often found in the pulpit as well as 
 the pew. It comes from the unconscious logic of 
 the heart in those who have found Christ a helper 
 and friend. Freely they have received and freely 
 they desire to give the message. 
 
 But the apostle does not stop with this much of 
 instruction. He goes on to speak of what is re- 
 quired of us as well as of those asking admission. 
 
 "Let us not therefore judge one another any 
 more!' This echoes the word of Jesus himself, 
 "Judge not that ye be not judged." I take it that 
 he means, " Do not assume the attitude of a judge 
 of the people." It is not our task to separate the 
 sheep from the goats. This cannot mean that we 
 are not to pass judgment on conduct. We could 
 not call one thing any better than another without 
 passing judgment on the poorer kind. To say that 
 such and such actions are unchristian is very differ- 
 ent from saying that such a man is not a Christian. 
 All Christians in the state of their earthly imper- 
 fection do things that are unchristian. It is not 
 uncommon to hear ministers say from the pulpit 
 that the man that does so and so is not a Christian. 
 Such statements violate the apostolic word and the 
 Saviour's own command. 
 
 One may point out the error in the conduct, and 
 seek by various ways to make it appear, as it is, out 
 
The Requirements of Christian Fellowship 191 
 
 of harmony with the Christian ideal; but to pass 
 judgment on the person neither does him good nor 
 fulfils the instruction given us. 
 
 But the apostle goes further still. Not only are 
 we to teach the brother the right way and to re- 
 frain from judging him, but we are to refrain our- 
 selves from doing things that are right for us if they 
 do harm to him. 
 
 Destroy not him with thy meat for whom Christ 
 died, I may have such a faith, and so intelligent a 
 judgment about things material and ceremonial that 
 were I alone in the world, or even among those who 
 were like myself free from ceremonialism, I could 
 do them without sin; but if I by my conduct en- 
 courage another to do what he thinks is wrong I 
 become a wrong-doer, because I do damage to my 
 brother. For example, one might think it entirely 
 without harm for him to drive his auto for a rest 
 and recreation on the Sabbath. But others have 
 such an idea of the Sabbath that it appears to them 
 wrong to have any sort of pleasure-rides. While 
 they have that idea, it is sin for them to go on 
 pleasure-rides. It is evil for that man who does it 
 with a sense of doing wrong. Sin really consists 
 in having a disobedient attitude toward God. Even 
 when the judgment is in error so that things right 
 appear to be wrong, they become sin to him, for he 
 goes against his idea of right. If therefore our do- 
 ings break down his spirit of obedience to what he 
 thinks is right, or if our act makes it easier for him 
 
192 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 to disobey, then we are doing him an almost irrep- 
 arable injury; for the safety of any man lies in his 
 loyalty to his own best convictions of duty. The 
 man who is easy to persuade against his sense of 
 right is always in mortal danger of becoming a dupe 
 and then a slave to sin. (James 1 : 15.) 
 
 This has especial application in the matter of 
 "temperance." It is perfectly certain that many 
 people use wine at meals without the least discern- 
 ible damage to themselves. It is certain that Jesus 
 was not a teetotaler. At that time the issue was 
 not raised. It is equally certain that if Jesus were 
 here now he would be among the teetotalers. He 
 would see that the influence of rum is so almost 
 universally evil that he would, because of his inter- 
 est in mankind, take his place among those who 
 would not " for meat's " sake destroy one of those 
 for whom he would give his life. This is only the 
 same spirit that Paul speaks of when he says Christ 
 made himself of no reputation and suffered death on 
 the cross for mankind. (Phil. 2.) 
 
 There is, however, a subtle question in this con- 
 nection. Suppose, for example, that a man uses 
 wine, and never has any approach to intemperance. 
 He has no scruples about it in his conscience, and 
 thinks it is a weakness in others that they take such 
 strict views of it as to think it sinful. He thinks 
 they have a sort of holy superstition. He sin- 
 cerely desires to have them rid of it. If he yields 
 to their weakness, does he really help to disabuse 
 
The Requirements of Christian Fellowship 193 
 
 them of the error as much as he would to openly 
 oppose it and show by his own case its error? In 
 other words, is the best way to make men strong 
 against an error to join them in it or to oppose it 
 firmly ? That was the argument put to me once by 
 a wealthy woman at her own dinner-table because 
 I declined to take the wine that was served. I 
 found the effective reply was to ask her what she 
 would think of me if her son was weak in that line 
 and she was fearful about him, were I to come there 
 and drink wine with him. " Oh/' she replied, " that 
 would be different." Yes, different; but in what 
 way different? In this — she loved her son, she did 
 not love the men on the street. To deny herself 
 for her son's sake would be easy because she loved 
 him, to do it for others' sake was not easy because 
 she did not love them. After all, it is the love we 
 have for our fellow men that decides these cases of 
 casuistry for us. "Let us follow after things 
 whereby we may edify one another." " It is good 
 not to eat flesh, nor to drink wine, nor to do any- 
 thing whereby thy brother stumbleth!' 
 
 Then Paul goes on to another truth full of serious 
 implications. " The faith which thou hast have to 
 thyself before God." 
 
 But, he adds, " Happy is the man that does not 
 condemn himself in what he approves" That is, 
 while a man may do things with a clear conscience, 
 it may be that his judgment is in error and that he 
 ought to have a conscience against them. Happy 
 
194 Transplanted Truths from Romans 
 
 is the man whose decisions show that he has an 
 enlightened judgment as well as a clear conscience. 
 Here the apostle shows how clear his ethical ideas 
 were. Conscience is not with him a " discerning 
 faculty " ; it is steam in the boiler, not wisdom in the 
 pilot ; it pushes, but it does not steer ; it says u Do 
 right/' but it waits on judgment to know what 
 right is. 
 
 So then, we are to admit all who have faith in 
 Christ, and then with mutual forbearance and un- 
 failing love seek to edify one another. 
 
 In this way we shall have real fellowship — that 
 is, real partnership in this Christian business of 
 making Christ's kingdom come among men. 
 
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