The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1895-03-16
LESSON STORY.

Until one has gained some mastery of
the first eleven chapters of Pauls Letter,
he can scarcely feel the moral power and
mighty urgency of the didactic utterances
in the concluding four chapters.
What is the central meaning of Pauls
Letter to the Romans? ave are war
ranted," says Thomas Erskine,-the best
expounder of this Letter we have found
among Christian scholarship looking on
the epstle as substantially and essentially
a treatise on ethics; that is, an exposition
of the principles which lead to a right
moral state in man."
The same discerning scholar shows what
Paul in this Letter makes his appeal for
right-living: "The basis and root of all
human righteousness must be the assur-
ance that God is indeed our Father, and
can never cease to be SO; that he loves us
not because we are worthy of his love but
because he is our Father, and that his
eternal purpose toward US is purpose of
infinite love, to draw us out of all our
uuwcrthiness into perfect filial trust, and
so into perfect participation of his own
righteousness"
This master mind among modern Chris
tan scholars gives this furthar exposition
of the apostles ethical basis: "The belief
that it is the purpose of God to draw all
men to true righteousness, and that this
purpose will most surely be accomplished
in the case of every individual, was in the
mind of Paul a most important help
towards possessing the faith which justi-
fies or makes a man righteous. And this
for an obvious reason. He believed that
mans righteousness consists in, or at least
isproduced by, absolute filial trust in the
fatherly love of God; and he saw in this
purpose the strongest demonstration of
that love. He probably also thought that
no one in whose mind turks even the
shadow of a suspicion that he may some
day, by the force of temptations so separate
himself from God as to be finally lost, can
possibly maintain this perfect filial trust in
him."
In short, according to this most scholar
ly and natural Interpretation, Paul in his
Epistle to the Romans deliberately shows
the moral power and absolute rightness of
the injunction of Jesus: Be ye therefore
Psr7Sct, ez,en as y0Hr Father zOhfch is in
Aeaven is perfect. Imitation of God is
made the rule of duty.
The motive which the apostle presents
for rightdoing is contained in the propo-
sition: The Right is to be chosen not SIM
ply as the safe thing and the best thing,
but as the strongest thing in the universe.
Do,I avb0rtc bic raaJarc 70 ,ba0ca tho
righteous side and live the righteous life,
because the universe belongs to God and
this world belongs to Christ,-therefore
Right must prevail.
Our lesson-passage is section of Pauls
hortatory application of his argument. 1t
has been selected as involving true teach
ing on the subject of temperance.
1. Faithful Love of Man is ODE
dience to GOd,-vs. $40.
one no man anyt}itng, Sa0e TO kovs one
another. Otherwise: Owe no man any
thing but love. Endeavor to pay every
debt, yet do not imagine that the debt of
human love can ever be cancelled.
What do owe to the procession of hui
man beings | see passing in the street?
Strangers and acquaintance, rich and
poor, good and bad, old and young, white
and colored,-a representative human pro-
cession. What is my debt to this crowd?
By the human legal standard owe no one
of them anything. have certain pride
in saying, II owe no man a dollar" But
by the Divine standard what is my deb&
| do not know how to measure it. Every
member of this procession possesses in his
body the same kind of dust that exists in
my frame. Every one possesses the same
kind of life that pulses through my arteries
and veins We have common earthly
origin; we shall come to common earthly
end. believe also that every one of these
passing people is child of my Father and
brother or sister of my Master. AS be-
lieve myself to be an heir of Immortality
and perfection, so believe every one is
living an endless life and will attain to
moral publication. What now is my debt
to these brothers and sisters of my hui
manity and fellow-sharers of my immortal
life9 If the need come, am debtor to my