ry opportunity for
hearing of it (x. 14-21). But God has not rejected them entirely or
finally (xi. 1-10); and if their fall has led to the preaching of the
gospel to the Gentiles, how much more happily fruitful will be their
reception into the Church (xi. 11-15)! We may hope for this ultimate
acceptance of the gospel by both Jew and Gentile because of the
original holiness of the Jewish stock. The Gentiles are grafted into
that: just as we may be cut off from it if we sin, so the Jews more
easily may be grafted in again if they will (xi. 16-24). St. Paul now
shows how the hardening of the Jews and the disobedience of the
Gentiles alike have served the purposes of God. Israel as a nation
shall be saved by the Messiah. The chapter closes {167} with words of
reverent admiration for the wonderful workings of the Divine Providence
(xi. 25-36).

After this long doctrinal argument, St. Paul insists upon certain
practical duties (xii.-xv. 13). We may notice in xiii. 2 ff. the
emphasis which is laid upon the dignity of the civil government, a
dignity which was immeasurably degraded ten years later by the wanton
persecution of the Roman Christians. And xiii. 13 is a verse ever to
be remembered by the Church as the verse by which God brought Augustine
from free thinking and licentious living to be numbered among the
saints. In xiv. begins some considerate advice about certain
Christians "weak in faith." They seem to have formed a party, but not
a party which can be identified with any other religious clique
mentioned by the apostle. Their vegetarianism and their observance of
particular holy days have suggested the theory that they were
Christians who followed the ascetic practices of the Jewish sect of
Essenes. The theory that they were Gentiles who affected the customs
of the Pythagoreans has commended itself to other writers. On the
whole, the number of Jews in Rome supports the theory that these were
Jewish Christians. St. Paul deals very tenderly with these total
abstainers from meat and wine. He evidently does not put them on the
same level as the sectaries of Galatia or Colossae.

The Epistle closes with various references to personal matters,
including the expression of a desire to visit Spain and Rome (xv. 34).

{168}

ANALYSIS

Salutation and introduction (i. 1-15).

(1) DOCTRINAL.--The subject of the Epistle. How is righteousness to be
attained? Not by man's work, but by God's gift, through fai