less resistance, and to lull their consciences to sleep after they have committed it. It will not be, therefore, to bring forward a difficult and vexing question, which might never have harassed the minds of my hearers, if I had not dwelt upon it; it will be rather, with God's assistance, to endeavour, not indeed to explain what cannot be explained, but to show how the practical mischief, and the disturbance of mind arising from it, may be most effectually removed.

[Never could there be a better instance of the mischief of taking the chapters of our present Bibles separately from one another. The ninth chapter never should be read apart from the tenth and eleventh. The three, in fact, are properly one chapter,-one part of the whole Epistle, standing distinct from what goes before and what follows it,-a part interrupting the general subject of the Epistle, and put in from peculiar circumstances existing at the time when it was written. "Put in from peculiar circumstances," and therefore not only of no use to us, but absolutely mischievous, if we take it simply as applicable to ourselves, in the same sense in which the general part of the Epistle is applicable.

But when I speak of this or other portions of Scripture, not being simply applicable to us, I am very far from meaning that they are of no use to us, except as a matter of mere curiosity. I mean, that it takes more trouble, and requires more thought and knowledge to apply it, because it applies not literally, but by analogy. For instance, our Lord's parable of the good Samaritan is literally applicable to us now just as much as to those who first heard it; it teaches to all ages one

simple lesson, that every man in his need has a claim. upon our kindness. But the parable of the labourers in the vineyard, having respect to the particular state of the Jews at that time, is applicable to us only by analogy. It becomes mischievous if we take it simply to ourselves, and say that if we turn to God at the eleventh hour, that is, in our old age, we shall receive the same reward as if we had served Him all our lives. For the parable was spoken, not about individuals, but about nations; not about rewards in heaven, but about certain privileges on earth; not as furnishing a general rule of God's government, but as illustrating his dealings in one particular and extraordinary case. What it teaches us is, not to conclude any thing from it as to God's rules of rewarding men, but not to murmur at these rules whatever they are; never to complain that our neighbour is as well off as we, though less deserving for we know not how God deals out His earthly good things; we must leave it to His wisdom to do as He wills with His own.

I have not idly referred to this parable of the labourers; for the likeness between it and these chapters of the Romans is very considerable. They, like it, speak not about individuals, but about nations; not about rewards in heaven, but privileges on earth; not as teaching us a general rule of God's spiritual government, but removing beyond question His dealings, when it is plain by the evidence of facts, that so and so He has dealt. And the lesson conveyed to us is nearly the same also; not, when others are blessed, to murmur that they have not laboured sufficiently; not, when we are punished, to lay the blame upon God, saying that our sins

were His doing,-for that we are but the creatures of His hand, and act but as He has decreed that we should act.

These chapters, then, relate, not to individuals, but nations; not to rewards in heaven, but to privileges on earth; not as teaching us that God always acts in a particular manner, but as showing that when others are raised to our level, or we are made to suffer, we may not, in either case, impeach God's justice, and least of all may we lay our sins to His charge, and say, "Why doth He yet find fault, for who hath resisted His will?"

First they relate to a national question, not to the salvation of individual souls; to the Jews and Gentiles respectively as a body, and as in some measure opposed to one another: not to particular Gentiles now, in the concerns of their own souls with God.]

There is a proof of this, I think-a proof that the Apostle is speaking of the Jews as a nation-to be found in the eleventh chapter. After mentioning the blindness and hardness of heart that had befallen them, he adds, "Have they stumbled that they should fall? God forbid; but rather through their fall, salvation is come to the Gentiles, to excite them to jealousy." And he then goes on to speak of a time when all Israel should be brought back again; or, in his own words, when all Israel should be saved. Now if he is speaking here of a nation, we can easily understand the force of this consolation: nations do not die, but go on through many generations of individuals; and in the consideration of this their long life, their blessings in one age. may be looked upon as making up for their misfortunes in another. But if St. Paul were speaking of the re

jection of individuals from the hope of eternal life, what he says would be no longer applicable. What comfort or what compenstion can it be to one man who is cast into hell, to be told that his countrymen in some future age shall be redeemed to everlasting life? In this matter, each man's fortune, whether for good or for bad, is fixed by his own personal fate, and the happiness or misery of his posterity can do nothing to alter it. The question which St. Paul asks, "Have they stumbled that they might fall ?" would, in fact, require a different answer, according as we suppose him to be speaking of the nation of the Jews, or of the particular persons who make up that nation. If the former, then, as a nation never dies, its stumbling in one generation might be abundantly made up by its recovery in another; and so it may be said to have stumbled only for a time, not that it might fall, but that it might rise again the brighter. But if he speaks of particular persons being rejected, then they must have stumbled in order to fall; for how could they be raised up by the redemption of their posterity? Their stumbling must have been final, as they died in their blindness, and could not derive any benefit from the light which was to be vouchsafed after many centuries to a distant generation of their people.

But if the Apostle is speaking of the Jews as a body, and of the Gentiles as a body, it is clear that he is not speaking of election and rejection with respect to heavenly rewards, but to earthly advantages or privileges, which may be either improved or forfeited by misuse. And thus in the eleventh chapter, it is said expressly to the Gentiles who were elected, "Thou standest by faith, be not high-minded, but fear; for if God spared

not the natural branches, take heed lest He also spare not thee." And of the Jews who were rejected, it is said no less plainly, "If they continue not in unbelief they shall be grafted in; for God is able to graft them in again." It is quite plain, then, that he is not speaking of election to that glory from which none can afterwards fall; or of being cast out to that darkness from which none can again recover.

Such, then, is the direct subject of these chapters ;— not universal, but relating to particular circumstances; -not speaking of the present, but of the past. Yet for us, and for our children after us, it contains an eternal lesson; and that lesson it now remains that I endeavour to develope.

First, that we murmur not when we see others endowed with our advantages who, we think, deserve them less. In these things God is above our questioning; and if we question Him we shall receive no other answer than this: "Is it not lawful for me to do what I will with my own?" Not that His will is arbitrary, but that the reasons on which He acts are not made known to us; "the Judge of all the earth will surely do right:" but we must take His dealings now as those of the Lord of all the earth, satisfied that if we humble ourselves before Him as such now, we shall hereafter be convinced of His righteousness, when with His power He will also reveal the secret things of His judgments to those whom He receives into glory.

Secondly, that when we suffer, whether in mind or body, we complain not as though we were hardly treated ;-above all, that we do not charge God with our sins, and say, that we were fated by His foreknowledge to do as we have done. To him who makes such