ld in Sodom? Thus Paul says that creation groaneth
and travaileth while waiting for the revelation and the glorious
liberty of the children of God.

18. "And not only so," he adds, "but ourselves also, who have the
firstfruits of the Spirit, even we ourselves groan within ourselves,
waiting for our adoption, to wit, the redemption of our body." We
pray, we cry with great longing, in the Lord's Prayer, "Thy kingdom
come," meaning: "Help, dear Lord, and speed the blessed day of thy
second advent, that we may be delivered from the wicked world, the
devil's kingdom, and may be released from the awful distress we
suffer--inwardly from our own consciences and outwardly from the
wicked. Afflict to the limit these old bodies of ours so long as we
may obtain others not sinful, as these; not given to iniquity and
disobedience; bodies that can never know illness, persecution or
death; bodies delivered from all physical and spiritual distress and
made like unto thine own glorified body, dear Lord Jesus Christ. Thus
may we finally realize our glorious redemption. Amen."

19. Paul uses a peculiar word here in the text, which we cannot
render by any other in our language than "travail." It carries the
idea of pains and pangs such as a woman knows in childbirth. The
mother's ardent desire is to be delivered. She longs for it with an
intensity that all the wealth, honor, pleasure and power of the world
could not awaken. This is precisely the meaning of the word Paul
applies to creation. He declares it to be in travail, suffering pain
and anguish in the extremity of its desire for release. But who can
discern the anguish of creation? Reason cannot believe, nor human
wisdom imagine, the thing. "It is impossible," declares reason. "The
sun cannot be more glorious, more pleasing and beneficent. And what
is lacking with the moon and stars and the earth? Who says the
creature is in travail or unwillingly suffers its present state?"

The writer of the text, however, declares creation to be weary of
present conditions of servitude, and as eager for liberation as a
mother for deliverance in the hour of her anguish. Truly it is with
spiritual sight, with apostolic vision, that Paul discerns this fact
in regard to creation. He turns away from this world, oblivious to
the joys and the sufferings of earthly life, and boasts alone of the
future, eternal life, unseen and unexperienced. Thus he administers
real and effectual comfort to Christians, p