Sketches from the Life of Paul (1883) — PDF Scan 313
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306 LIFE OF PAUL . hatred from those who are unwilling to submit to the conditionsof reform. It isno easy mattertoovercomesinfulhabitsand practices. The work can be accomplishedonlywiththehelpof divinegrace;but many neglectto seek such help,and endeavorto bring down thestandard to meet theirdeficiencies, insteadof bringing themselves up to meet the standard of God . Such was the effortof these men who were so severelydealt with for theirsins. They were endangeringthe purityof the believers,and itwas necessarythata firm,decidedcoursebe pursued to meet the wrong and hurl itfrom the church. Paul had faithfullyreprovedtheirsin, -the viceof licentiousnesssoprevalentin that age, but they had refused to be corrected. He had proceededaccordingto theinstructionsof Christregardingsuchcases,but theoffendershad givenno tokenof repentance,and he had therefore excommunicated them. They had then openlyapostatizedfrom thefaith,and unitedwith itsmost bitteropponents. When theyrejected the words of Paul,and set themselves to hinderhislabors,theywere warringagainstChrist; and itwas by the inspirationof the Spiritof God , and not as an expressionof personalfeeling, thatPaul pronounced againstthem that solemn denunciation . On his second voyage to Rome , Paul was accompaniedby severalof his formercompanions; othersearnestlydesiredtosharehislot,but he refusedto permitthem thustoimperiltheir lives. The prospectbeforehim was far less favorablethan at the timeof hisformerimprisonment. The persecutionunderNerohad greatly lessened the number of Christiansin Rome ,