We recited the words of the Epistle, and gave thanks to Him who had there triumphed in His saints over life and death, over beasts, and men, and demons. Then we thought of the inmost factors in that great victory; Truth and Life. They "knew whom they had believed"—their Sacrifice, their Head, their King. He whom they had believed lived in them, and they in Him, by the Holy Ghost given to them. Then we thought of ourselves, in our circumstances so totally different on the surface, yet carrying the same needs in their depths. Are we too to overcome, in "the things present" of our modern world, and in face of "the things to come" yet upon the earth? Are we to be "more than conquerors," winning blessing out of all things, and really living "in our own generation" (Acts xiii. 36) as the bondmen of Christ and the sons of God? Then for us also the absolute necessities are—the same Truth, and the same Life. And they are ours, thanks be to the Name of our salvation. Time hath no more dominion over them, because death hath no more dominion over Him. For us too Jesus died. In us too, by the Holy Ghost, He lives.
[139] Read ἀσθενείᾳ.
[140] So we venture to render κατὰ Θεόν.
[141] Confessiones, v. 8.
[142] See a noble poem by James Montgomery, The Lot of the Righteous.
[143] See e.g. xi. 2; Acts ii. 23; 1 Pet. i. 2, 20.
[144] Συμμόρφους: μορφὴ is likeness not by accident but of essence. The Greek here is literally, "conformed ones of the image, etc."; as if their similitude made them part of that which they resembled.
[145] Let us banish from the idea of "predestination" all thought of a mechanical pagan destiny, and use it of the sure purpose of the living and loving God.
[146] Δέ: the "but" of logic. He is proving the security of the prospect of glory.
[147] Ὅς γε: the particle deeply underlines the pronoun.