July 30

For I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us.—Romans 8:18.

IN what went before, Paul requires of the spiritual man the correcting of his habits, where he says, Ye are not debtors to live after the flesh, that such an one, for instance, should be above lust, anger, money, vain-glory, grudging. But here having reminded him of the whole gift, both as given and as to come, and raised him up aloft with hopes, and placed him near to Christ, and showed him to be a joint-heir of the Only-begotten; he now leads him forth with confidence even to dangers. For to get the better of the evil affections in us, is not the same thing with bearing up under those trials, scourges, famine, plunderings, bonds, chains, executions. For these last require much more of a noble and vigorous spirit. And observe how he at once allays and rouses the spirit of the combatants. For after he had shown that the rewards were greater than the labors, he both exhorts to greater efforts, and yet will not let them be elated, as being still outdone by the crowns given in requital. And in another passage he says, For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory: it being a deeper sort of persons he was then speaking to. Here, however, he does not allow that the afflictions were light; but still he mingles comfort with them by the compensation which good things to come afford, in the words, For I reckon, that the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared, and he does not say, with the rest that is to come, but what is much greater, with the glory which is to come. For it does not follow, that where rest is there is glory; but that where glory is there is rest, does follow: then as he had said that it is to come, he shows that it already is. For he does not say, that which is to be, but which shall be revealed in us, as if already existing but unrevealed. As also, in another place he said in clearer words, Our life is hid with Christ in God. Be, then, of a good heart about it. For already hath it been prepared, and awaiteth thy labors. But if it vexes you that it is yet to come, rather let this very thing rejoice you. For it is owing to its being great and unutterable, and transcending our present condition, that it is stored up there. And so he does not say barely the sufferings of this present time, but he speaks so as to show that it is not in quality only, but in quantity also, that the other life has the advantage. For these sufferings, whatever they are, are attached to our present life; but the blessings to come reach themselves out over ages without end. And since he had no way of giving a particular description of these, or putting them before us in language, he gives them a name from what seems to be specially an object of desire with us,—glory. For the summit of blessings and the sum of them, this seems to be. And to urge the hearer on in another way also, he gives a loftiness to his discourse by the mention of the creation, gaining two points by what he is next saying, the contempt of things present, and the desire of things to come, and a third beside these, or rather the first, is the showing how the human race is cared for on God's part, and in what honor he holds our nature. And beside this, all the doctrines of the philosophers, which they had framed for themselves about this world, as a sort of cobweb or child's mound, he throws down with this one doctrine.

"In hope of that immortal crown, I now the cross sustain;

And gladly wander up and down, And smile at toil and pain:

I suffer out my threescore years, Till my Deliv'rer come,

And wipe away his servant's tears, And take his exile home."