eously be turned upon himself; and it be said of him in the language of the apostle, therefore thou art inexcusable, O man, whosoever thou art that judgest; for wherein thou judgest another thou condemnest thyself; for thou that judgest doest the same things.'

Romans ii, 1-12. This passage requires almost nothing in the way of verbal criticism. The term for despise' in the 4th verse needed not to have been so rendered as to denote an active contempt -but rather a mere disregard and negligence of the opportunity, which God in His forbearance had afforded to sinners, for returning and making their peace with Him. The term 'patient' again, in the 7th verse, signifies, both here and in other places of Scripture, something more active than the mere virtue of patience under suffering. They who bring forth fruits with patience, are they who do so with perseverance. They who run their race with patience, are they who persevere in so running. They who maintain a patient continuance, are they who maintain a persevering continuance in well-doing.

The whole passage is so plain, that it scarcely admits of elucidation even from a paraphrase. But let the following be offered to you.

Therefore, O man, thou art without excuse, whosoever thou art, that judgest; for, in judging another, thou condemnest thyself-seeing that thou who judgest doest the same things. And we are sure, that God's judgment is according

to truth, against those who commit these things. And dost thou think, O man, who judgest them that do such things, and doest the same, that thou shalt escape God's judgment? Or do you despise His goodness and forbearance and long-suffering, inadvertent of this, that it is His goodness which affords to you a season of repentance? But, instead of this, do you, after your hard and impenitent heart, treasure up to yourselves wrath against the day of wrath, and against the day when the righteousness of God's judgments shall be rendered manifest? God will render to every man according to his deeds-to them who by a course of perseverance in well-doing seek for glory, honour, and immortality, eternal life; but unto them who of contention and obstinacy do not obey the truth, but obey unrighteousness, will be rendered indignation and wrath tribulation and anguish, upon every son of man that doeth evil, of the Jew first and also of the Gentile; but glory, honour, and peace, to every man that worketh good; to the Jew first and also to the Gentile: for there is no respect of persons with God on that day, whatever apparent preference He may make of one man over another, and of one people over another in the present stage of His administrations. He will then judge every man according to the light that was in his mind, according to the law which spake its authority to his conscience, and which he himself recognizes to be of rightful obligation.' may be remarked that 'tribulation' simply de

It

notes affliction; and is the same here in the original, as in the passage, we are troubled on every side'and that 'anguish' signifies the affliction from which there is no hope of our being extricated; and is the same in the original, as in the passage, that "though troubled on every side we are not distressed.'*

At the outset of this chapter, the apostle appeals to a principle which is vigorously at work in every bosom; and, from its felt and conscious existence within us, would he press upon our belief the reality of the same principle, as residing in the Godhead-as applied by Him to every creature who is capable of exersing it in his own mind; and leading to a result, that will be verified on the great day of the winding up of this world's administration. By nature we are slow to selfcondemnation; and, beset with the engrossments of our passion and our own interest, we see not in ourselves the criminality of the same things which we reprobate in others; and conscience either passes no verdict at all, or in such a faint and gentle whisper that it is not heard, when it takes a rare and a feeble cognizance of our own character. But the self-love, which deafens the voice of conscience in its application to our own case, lays no such barrier in its way when it pronounces on the case of others. And hence the familiar spectacle, of, not merely an adverse judgment, but even of a wrath and an indignation in the mind of

* 2 Cor. iv, 8.

one man against the vanity or the dishonesty or the calumnies of another, to the evil of which he is blind or insensible when exemplified in an equal degree upon his own person.

man.

Now this very judging of others, proves that there is in him a capacity for this exercise. It shows that there is a moral light and a moral sense still residing in his bosom. It proves a sense of the difference between right and wrong; and that when a certain veil is lifted away from the materials of the examination, so as to bring his mind. into a more unclouded discernment of them-then, there is in that mind a conscience, which can operate and pronounce aright, upon what is meritorious and what is blameworthy in the character of Should that man be himself, and should this circumstance throw a darkening shroud over the field of examination, it surely is no palliation of his sinfulness, nor does it render him less amenable to the judgment of God, if this shroud which hides his own character from his own eyes be drawn over it by his own selfishness. You cannot allege his blindness in mitigation of the sentence that is to go forth against him, if it be a blindness which has no place in reference to the faults of other men; and only gathers again over the organs of his moral discernment, when the hand of his own partiality sets up a screen between the eye of his conscience and the equal or perhaps surpassing faults of his own character. The mere fact that he can and does judge of others, proves that a law

of right and wrong is present with him. The fact that he does not so judge of himself, only proves, not that he is without the light of moral truth like the beasts that perish-but that he keeps down that truth by unrighteousness; that when its voice is so stifled as to be unheard, it is he himself who stifles it; that his blindness is not the natural incapacity of an animal, but the wilful and chosen and much-loved blindness of a depraved man. If you see one of our species judging certain things in the conduct of another, infer from this that he knows of a code to which by his own voice he awards a moral authority. If you see him not judging in the same way of the same things in himself, consider this as a wilful suppression of the truth, which does not extenuate, but which in every way heightens his guilt, and turns his moral insensibility, not into a plea, but into an aggravation. And if there be not a country in the world, where this twofold exhibition is not to be witnessed -if, even among the rudest wanderers of the desert, there is the tact of a moral discernment between what is fair and what is injurious in the character of man-if in the fierce contests of savages, you see them simply capable of being alive to the injustice of others, while in the wild and untamed rapacity of their natures, they experience no check from the sense and conviction of their own-then be assured, that, on the great day of account, will it be found, that there is a law which can reach even unto them; and a retribution of