of joy, sentences of death; bets won and bets lost; bravos for a wound or a fall; bravos for those who kill well and those who die well.

But enough. It suffices to know how largely spectacles, most of them utterly brutal and cruel, entered into the Roman life, and were cared for by the state, and to find at the same time in Paul's letter, written from Rome, no denunciation of them, to have an additional and striking demonstration of the truth that it was not directly against institutions, however evil, but against the evil heart of man, from which they sprang, that St. Paul directed his efforts.

I have adduced these extreme cases of wrong and evil in customs and institutions, against which St. Paul makes no direct assaults, in order to demonstrate the fact, strikingly and convincingly, that the Apostle aimed at reforming evil within, even in the hearts of those who administer evil organizations, and practice and profit by evil customs. St. Paul, after the Master, refused to interfere in the sphere of civil or social wrongs, which it belonged to the state or the family to regulate. But this by no means debarred him from denouncing the sins of heart which gave rise to such wrongs, and from exhibiting the evil effects of such sins in just such cases as he refused to interfere with or adjudicate. Even a wise human father will rather exhibit to his children the evil of the bad temper and passions from which their dissensions rise, and leave them to adjust them on the principles which he has inculcated, rather than settle them himself as an arbiter and judge. When one came to Jesus asking him to compel his brother to divide the inheritance with him, the Saviour, without pausing to inquire into

the right or wrong of the request, abruptly refused interference, saying, "Man, who made me a ruler or a divider over you?" Yet if both those brothers had become true disciples of Christ, the most absolute justice would have been accomplished; for the one would not have withheld what was due, and the other would not have desired what was not just. Hence the Saviour, adopting the divine method of regulating the evils of the world, struck directly at the root of the dissension which had arisen between them, when he added, "Beware of covetousness." This example of the Master was followed by Paul and all the Apostles.

How sublime-nay, how evidently divine-is this procedure! He enjoins men, if subject to unjust laws, to obey them while they exist; but he enjoins rulers to make just laws and to govern justly. He tells the poor to be patient in poverty; but at the same time he tells the rich to relieve it. He bids the wife to obey the husband; but at the same time enjoins the husband so to love the wife as that her obedience may be spontaneous and joyful. IIe bids the slave to obey his master; and at the same time enjoins his master to treat him justly, kindly, and as a brother in the Lord. And that which is a most striking proof of the divine character and mission of the Gospel is that it reforms the world by the singular method of making all classes act against their worldly interests and their passions. It engages the master in the interests of the liberty of the slave, at the same time that it reconciles the slave to bondage. It enables the poor to avoid coveting or demanding the possessions of the rich, and the rich to give of them cheerfully and joyfully to the poor. Its revo

lutionizing principles are simply these: immense patience on the part of those who suffer; disinterested and voluntary sacrifice are the part of those who enjoy.

These are not abstractions: they teach us to commence the removal of evil from the world by removing it first from our own hearts; and they bid us to be diligent in the most efficient way in diminishing human wretchedness, by promoting divine purity and joy; and at the same time to be patient in the midst of the sorrows and wrongs which fall on others, and peaceful under the trials which befall ourselves.

LECTURE IX.

ST. PAUL'S POSITION IN REFERENCE TO ESTABLISHED CUSTOMS AND INSTITUTIONS.

For perhaps he therefore departed for a season, that thou shouldest receive him forever;

Not now as a servant, but above a servant, a brother beloved.PHILEMON, 15, 16.

WE have shown that St. Paul did not directly attack established evil customs and institutions, nor even perversions of institutions which were divine. He taught truth and duty. He attacked evil in the heart. He gave laws and directions for the right ordering of the kingdom of God. He fenced it off from all that did not belong to it. He taught in it the duty due in every divine institution, and in every sphere in life. He would not make the church the direct agent in beating down any established customs and institutions; but he inculcated principles which, by the grace of God, transforming the evil heart out of which all evil customs come, would undermine and displace all the structures of iniquity, and all the habitations of cruelty in the world.

This course of procedure is the more noticeable from the fact that he lived in an era of the world's history when crime was organized and established, and when it would seem to human view as if good

could find no place in which to be planted, unless this gigantic growth of evil should be first cut down. All wisdom, except that which was inspired, would have commenced with lopping off the branches and hewing at the trunk of this world-wide upas tree of evil. The wisdom that is divine directed itself to evil in its seeds and in its roots.

There is another principle of the divine procedure with established customs and institutions which it is necessary that we should understand, before we can study intelligently the course of St. Paul in reference to the slave Onesimus. Divine wisdom does not only abstain from attacking some of those customs and relations, which are evil in their origin and in themselves, but it even enjoins the relative duties which they involve, so long as they continue to exist.

This principle had been already sanctioned by inspiration, speaking through John the Baptist. Nothing could be more adverse to the spirit and precepts of the Gospel than war. It is a guilty perversion of the purposes for which governments were established. Inspiration traces it directly to the lusts that war in our members. (James, iv. 1.) And yet when the soldiers came to John the Baptist, demanding of him what shall we do? (Luke, iii. 14,) he did not say, "Refuse to fight-abandon your trade of blood-leave the army-endure scourging or crucifixion rather than be the hired murderers of Cæsar;" but he said to them, "Do violence to no man, neither accuse any falsely, and be content with your wages." Here the duties of a relation whose origin is evil is enjoined. Government is divine. Magistracy is of God. The coercion of evil is the