25.) And the words proved truthful too of them to whom they were written, and of their brethren in all lands during the three centuries of heathen persecution. The records of the early Church rarely speak of cowards who denied their Lord for fear of death. They are full of the acts of "the noble army of martyrs,"-the thousands who were "more than conquerors" through Him who loved them. These are they whom St. John saw in vision in the Apocalypse (vi, 9): “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the word of God, and for the testimony which they held."

The persuasion of the Apostle, which he proceeds to express, proved to be well-grounded: "I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, —nor powers,—nor height nor depth,-nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

Neither death nor life,"-neither death threatened nor life offered. It was a custom common with the heathen persecutors to threaten all forms of fearful death to the faithful, and to tempt them to deny Christ in the midst of their sufferings by seductive promises of life. But neither threats nor promises of men shall separateus from our love of God; no! "nor angels nor principalities,"―neither angels nor archangels. The Scriptures teach us that there are different ranks or

orders among the heavenly host, and also among the evil spirits, the fallen angels. Satan is called by the Pharisees "the prince of the devils :" he is often called by our blessed Lord,-"the prince of this world;" and St. Paul designates him," the prince of the power of the air." (Eph. ii, 2.) The same Apostle writes (vi, 12), that "we wrestle not against flesh. and blood, but against principalities, against powers, against the rulers of the darkness of this world, against wicked spirits (margin) in high places." The "angels and principalities," in this passage of the Epistle to the Romans, are those wicked spirits," the devil and his angels," principalities and powers,—against whom "we wrestle."* They shall not tempt us (says the Apostle) to fall away from God. No! "nor things present nor things to come,"-neither present evils, nor any possible calamity to come ;-"nor powers,' -rulers and kings and magistrates,-no Pilate nor Herod,—no Felix, nor Festus, nor Cæsar; "nor height nor depth," neither heaven above nor hell beneath,— "nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate

* Our blessed Lord, in His last persecution, recognised the agency of the evil one, saying to the Jews, "This is your hour, and the power of darkness" (St. Luke, xxii, 53);—and when we still speak in our Litany of "those evils which the craft and subtilty of the devil or man worketh against us," we refer (as the following words show) to the "persecutions' which, even in an age tolerant of all heresy, may yet arise against the one faith" of the Church of the Apostles.

us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

We are now able to look back upon this passage,from verse 18 to the end of the chapter, and see (what we must see in order to its comprehension) how that in it the Apostle offers to the Roman Christians topics of consolation under "the sufferings of this present time,"--which were then the persecutions of their enemies, and concludes by exhorting them, with eloquent earnestness, to remain faithful unto death to that God and that Saviour who most assuredly will remain faithful unto them. (1 Cor. i, 9; 2 Tim. ü, 13.) I said, "by exhorting them to remain faithful:" the fact is rather that the Apostle assumes that they need no such exhortation. Shall anything tear or tempt us away from the God who gave us His Son, from the Son who gave Himself for us? No! nothing. Already we are through Him more than conquerors. We despise the powerless efforts of devil or man to sever betwixt us and our God.

We cannot help feeling that the argument of this Epistle has here reached its close.

The Apostle has demonstrated the proposition with which he started: That the Gospel is the power of God unto salvation to every one that believeth :-and to that demonstration there is nothing necessary to be added.

APPENDIX A.

NOTE. In the course of our study of this Epistle I have often warned my fellow-students to confine their attention, as much as possible, to an inquiry into the meaning which the Apostle's words must have conveyed to the persons to whom they were addressed, and not to confuse that inquiry unnecessarily by considering, at the same time, in what relation we stand to the truths which he unfolds to them. In the following sermon I have endeavoured to throw some light on this latter inquiry and to indicate the principles which the Scriptures afford for our guidance.

HAGGAI ii, 5.—“According to the word that I covenanted with you when ye came out of Egypt, so My Spirit remaineth among you: fear ye not."

THESE are the words of God to His ancient people by one of the last of the Prophets: "My Spirit remaineth among you." I might easily have found words of similar signification in the books of Joshua, and the Judges, and Samuel, and in the earlier prophets but I purposely choose a text, conveying this plain assurance, out of one of the last of the prophets, to show you how, even to the end, God was faithful to

:

the covenant made with His people when He brought them out of Egypt, and how His Spirit still remained among them in spite of their manifold rebellions against Him.

We can easily understand the necessity for this assurance. First of all, in the days of Haggai, a thousand years, very nearly, had elapsed since God had brought Pharaoh's bond-slaves up out of Egypt, and gave them freedom and made them His people, and made a covenant with them. Now although a thousand years is to God as one day, yet to any nation of mortal men a thousand years form a very long period of their history. They find it hard to look so very far back, and to realise their own personal concern in matters that happened so very long ago. If the very same persons who were in Egypt and passed the sea into the wilderness had continued to live and retain their faculties a thousand years, (supposing such a possibility for the sake of argument,) even them time would have severed from the miracle of their deliverance by an almost impassable gulf. They would have needed the continual reminder," God brought you up out of Egypt." But when we consider that all the generation whom God personally delivered, except two persons, died in the wilderness, and that their children and children's children,—even five and twenty gene