pay, saith the Lord. if he thirst, give him of fire on his head. with good.

ishment which he will inflict upon the wicked, and which will be much better adapted to his case than any penalties of yours. "Do not anticipate the ways of God, allow time and space to his righteous retributions." It is written. Deut. xxxii. 35. A free quotation. Even the elder covenant thus raised the standard of a high reference to God in all injuries, rather than to indulge in petty personal revenge in the treatment of our enemies.

20, 21. The first verse is the description of the method of the duty, and the second the generalization of the principle. "The sweet revenge" of the Christian is to do good unto his foe until he is ashamed of his illconduct and turns and repents of it and asks forgiveness. Thus the best revenge is taken by not revenging yourselves, but by treating your enemy in the kindest possible manner.

Coals of fire on his head. The Greek of coals is the word from which anthracite is derived. The sense of the illustration is a little obscure. The intention is obvious to express the giving of pain, for in such imagery the Orientals speak of that act." "Coals of the will" are equivalent to "cutting jests that give pain." The only question is what sort of pain is meant, the punishment of God, made more severe by your kindness, or the sinner's own shame. Tholuck, Olshausen, and others, incline to the latter idea, and "consider the coals of fire as an image for that tormenting sense of shame, which in the end forces the adversary to supplicate forgiveness, inasmuch as no heart, how

ever hard, can permanently resist a love so uniform, patient, and everywhere forgetting and subordinating self." 2 Esdras xvi. 53; Prov. xxv. 21, 22.- Be not overcome of evil, &c. The only possible conquest we can make of evil is by the superior instrument of good, of error by truth, of darkness by light, of hatred by love, of sin by holiness. It is by the power of a positive principle alone we can overcome all weakness and evil, and by the expulsive and exclusive energy of a new and holier affection that we can drive away the evil spirits that haunt us, and introduce the peace of God, which passeth all understanding. Even heathen Seneca had a glimpse of this truth, when he said, "Pertinacious goodness conquers the evil."

This beautiful chapter of Christian piety and ethics is capable of being viewed in several distinct lights.

1st. It is in itself a very strong proof of the superhuman origin, the Divine authority, and the happy tendency of the Christian revelation. For we can find no passage in an uninspired writer, either in ancient or modern literature, so condensed, so qualified, so commanding in its air of authority, yet so gentle and humane in its tone of love and sympathy, so comprehensive in its rules of duty, so high and unyielding in its standard of obligation, yet so practical as it respects the wants and weaknesses of mankind. We can in short devise no reason why these books of the New Testament have

"So got the start of the majestic world,
And borne the palm alone,"

except that they were written by those who acted under special commission and authority from Him of the Infinite Reason and the Infinite Love.

2d. Here is also an interpretation of what Christianity is; here is its portrait taken by one of the "old masters." If we wish, therefore, to understand Paul's doctrines, as developed in the previous parts of the Epistle, we must read them in the all-illuminating light of Paul's duties, which are laid down in this and the succeeding chapters. We thus learn the consistency of his system, and see that while faith was one of its poles, pointing to God and heaven, good works was the other pole, pointing earthwards, and touching with its attraction all human relations. Thus contemplated, the hard and obscure passages of this Epistle melt away in sunlight, and we see with wonder and admiration from what depths of the spirit these practical directions are drawn, and to what heavenly heights they reach in the kingdom of God.

3d. As a sketch of the moral fruits of the Gospel, a hand-book of daily duty, this chapter is beyond all price. If we wish to know whether we are really Christians or not, here is the judgment-seat. If we wish for information wherein we are in doubt, or impulse wherein we are weak, here is knowledge, and here is inspiration. If we desire to know what would be the state of human society under the full stress of Christian influences, we have but to imagine all the virtues and graces here laid down, in full play and harmonious concert, to understand the blessedness of that church and kingdom which Jesus

came to found on earth, and the perfection of that spiritual and social being which has been put within human reach even here below. With faith, love, and hope taking the lead, and producing all their luxuriant and beautiful branches, blossoms, and fruits, we have before us the veritable and majestic tree of life," which bore twelve manner of fruits, and yielded her fruit every month; and the leaves of the tree were for the healing of the nations."

CHAPTER XIII.

The relations of Christianity to civil society and the institutions of the state have been much misunderstood. For while, on one hand, passages like the one before us are cited as proofs that the Gospel has nothing whatsoever to do with politics, unless it be to enjoin passive obedience to the existing powers, on the other hand, it is declared to be identical with republicanism. It is difficult for the world, from its low stand-point, to comprehend so exalted a system, and not fall into the most contradictory theories respecting its connection with the present state of things, on one side, and with the infinite possibilities of progress on the other. But there are some considerations which may serve, at least, to show that the Apostle and his compeers did not love their country less because they loved Christianity more, and that they inculcated no slavish subserviency to tyrants, however they might counsel peace, contentment, and acquiescence in unavoidable evils. The Gospel is a radical cure for every political and social, as well as every moral, abuse

and sin. It puts the axe of reformation at the root of the tree, and cuts up every plant and shoot of evil growth. But its method of attack leads to its misconception as an instrument of social and civil regeneration. Because it does not, in so many words, denounce war, slavery, despotism, intemperance, gambling, and kindred evils, it is hastily inferred by some moralists that Christianity has no specific and deadly hostility to them, and does not work with direct agency for their overthrow. These critics overlook the fact, that the Gospel goes to the fountain-head in the human heart, whence are all the issues of life, and aims, by purifying that, to cleanse all its streams. Whereas, if the method of reformation had been by direct attack upon specific evils, instead of laying down a platform of exhaustive and universally applicable principles, the disappearance of one set of social wrongs would have been but the signal to the onset of a new flock, feathered and colored after the fashion of the hour. No; the method of the Saviour and his Apostles subverts the whole kingdom of evil itself, not so much by special prohibitions as by the creation of an opposite and exclusive kingdom of God. It is superfluous to say, Do not make war, Do not keep slaves, after you have said, Love your neighbor as yourself, and, Do unto others whatsoever you would that others should do unto you; for the greater comprehends the less. The preoccupation of a new affection gives assurance that a Christian will not rob, steal, lie, nor murder. But if, instead of proceeding on this truly philosophical mode of overcoming evil with good, the specification of crimes and vices had been in form, and not in their interior spirit and root of evil, the compend of morals

would have been larger than the Code of Justinian, and would soon have become obsolete. But now the spiritual magazine is perpetually charged, and the warfare of eternal principles against the shifting phenomena of depraved passions and appetites is never remitted. No evil can escape with impunity. The Gospel sickle sweeps into its ample bend every stalk and straw of the multitudinous growth of sin. By reforming on the basis of principles, it reforms permanently the immoralities and evil institutions and customs of society, and hastens the coming of that great day when the will of God shall be done on earth as it is done in heaven.

Truly understood, then, this passage gives no encouragement to the theory of the divine right of kings, to the vindictive character of punishments inflicted by the magistrates, or to the cruel and arbitrary caprices of slavery and despotism. For one most important qualification which the Apostle interposes in his reasoning is, that the powers are presumed to be a terror to evil works, not to the good, which characteristic takes them of course out of the category of irresponsible and tyrannical domination, and assigns them a place among the beneficent and heaven-sanctioned agencies and restrictions of God's moral government over men. For when Paul speaks so decidedly of the duty of obeying the civil authorities, and says the magistrate beareth not the sword in vain, it has been incredulously asked, whether he could mean that the existing Roman emperor, Nero, was " ordained by God," or was "a minister of God for good,” or that those who resisted the tyrant were to be condemned as "resisting the ordinance of God," or that the sword, in his case, was not "borne in

vain," and worse than vain, "that sword with which Nero ripped up the body of his own mother, that sword for whose blow Nero avowed the wish that his country had but one neck, and under which, be it observed, St. Paul himself afterwards suffered martyrdom for resisting the ordinances of Nero, not to violence, but in obedience to the service of his higher Master, in preaching the doctrines of salvation through Christ?" But, in reply to these interrogations, it should be considered, that Paul is supposed to have written this Epistle to the Romans about the year 58, and that Nero became emperor only four years before, in 54; that he was then very young, and that he had not as yet displayed to their full extent those cruelties and barbarities which have since made his name a horror and a shame in the annals of the human species. Besides, Paul lived remote from Rome, and there were no mails, telegraphs, or steamers in those days to convey to the distant provinces of the empire the news of the capital. The Apostle, too, was arguing upon general principles, and not upon the subjection due to any particular ruler or emperor. He wished to turn the thoughts of the Christian body away from temporal ambition or worldly policy, and teach them that their true kingdom was not of this world, and that their true course was to show themselves good subjects of the respective governments under which they lived. It was indeed only by this pacific policy that the Christian faith could win its way in the world, or be preserved from the intrigues and corruption of politics. The grand seat of its power was not primarily in its direct external moulding of the manners, customs, or laws of society, but its dominion was over the heart. Still,

there can be no question that its ultimate power is to be developed in the entire regeneration of society, as well as of the individual soul. The kingdom within is to give form to the kingdom without, and the kingdom without to give energy and reality to the kingdom within. The private life and character of Christians can only attain their purest manifestation on the large scale, when the institutions of society and all external circumstances that bear upon them are in accordance with the standard of Christ; while, on the other hand, all attempts to reform things without regenerating men will prove a total failure. Action and reaction, reformation and regeneration, faith and good works, piety and morality, civilization and Christianity, are mutual parts of the same heaven-ordained whole. What God hath joined together, let not man put asunder.

1. Let every soul, i. e. every person.- - The higher powers. By these are meant the magistrates, of whatever rank, to whom subjection was due in the state. The proposition was a general one, that Christians, because they were disciples of a Heavenly Master, were not therefore released from their allegiance to the civil authority; indeed, that they were most distinctly bound to be good citizens, because the very purport of the state and of the church agreed in this respect, when their respective functions were properly discharged, that they both were a restraint upon evil works and an encouragement to good ones. Ordained of God. The same doctrine is taught in Titus iii. 1 and 1 Pet. ii. 13, 14. The origin of civil society is in the Divine Providence, which has determined the powers and circumstances of man and appointed the sphere of the social relations for most

Wilt 3

important purposes of culture and discipline of the immortal faculties of our being. This broad and general truth is laid down by the Apostle without necessarily indorsing monarchy as of divine right, or giving any countenance to tyranny or slavery, or even making in republics the voice of the people synonymous with the voice of God. General statements of truth must, of course, be taken with reasonable qualifications. For, both in the case of Paul and that of Peter, we know that the duty of obeying God rather than men was distinctly avowed, and that they both finally sacrificed their lives to a martyr's glorious death, rather than obey the iniquitous decrees of the Roman authorities at the expense of their religion. The magistrates were the higher powers, but there were higher powers than they, to whom they yielded uncompromising fealty, even truth, and Christ, and God. For all the genuine authority of the state was derived from these higher sources, and, unless exercised in harmony with the moral government of God, it was to be repudiated as having violated the single condition on which it was entitled to respect and obedience. "The right of revolution," therefore, as it has been called, is not taken away by the Apostle in this passage, when it is properly limited, for he was himself an actor in the most stupendous revolution that was ever enacted; one that finally changed the faith of the Roman empire from Paganism to Christianity, and one that brought the Apostle and his fellow-disciples into collision with the civil government, and involved not a few of them in martyrdom.

2. Damnation. This is usually as

sociated in men's minds with punishment hereafter; but the better rendering is always condemnation, for that covers the whole ground of the original word, and leaves the question of the time and duration of the penalty and discipline necessary for the wrong-doer in the same indefiniteness in which the Apostle places it. The idea of the verse is, that civil obedience is a Christian duty, because government is of providential origin and authority, and they, therefore, who prove refractory subjects, will expose themselves to condemnation and punishment. These words of caution were needed by the converts from among the Jews, who were inclined to refuse to pay tribute to Cæsar, and who were but too prone to embark in rash and ruinous insurrections, such as finally drew down on them the vengeance of Rome and overthrew the Jewish temple and city and nation in irretrievable de

struction.

3. The ground is here stated on which obedience to the civil power could be conscientious and reasonable. When the functions of government were rightly discharged, and the evil were restrained and punished, and the good were encouraged, the ruler became "a minister of God," and was to be obeyed and aided as such in the maintenance of his authority. We see here, therefore, the allimportant qualification which limits the general proposition of the previous verses. The rulers are officers of God, and are to be cheerfully obeyed as such, as long as they fulfil their true offices of promoting the great moral purposes of the Divine government itself; but when they abandon that high position, and lend