ROMANS i. 16: "I am not ashamed of the Gospel of Christ."

THESE words of Paul are worthy of his resolute and
disinterested spirit. In uttering them he was not an
echo of the multitude, a servile repeater of established
doctrines. The vast majority around him were ashamed
of Jesus. The cross was then coupled with infamy.
Christ's name was scorned as a malefactor's, and to
profess his religion was to share his disgrace. Since
that time what striking changes have occurred! The
cross now hangs as an ornament from the neck of beauty.
It blazes on the flags of navies, and the standards of
armies. Millions bow before it in adoration, as if it were
a shrine of the divinity. Of course, the temptation to
be ashamed of Jesus is very much diminished. Still it
is not wholly removed. Much of the homage now paid
to Christianity is outward, political, worldly, and paid
to its corruptions much more than to its pure and lofty
spirit; and accordingly its conscientious and intrepid
friends must not think it a strange thing to be encoun-
tered with occasional coldness or reproach. We may

-95-