When we look at any plain ordinary human being how little we suspect what a vast multiplied world he is, and how in many things he is like the huge globe on which we are walking. Like the globe, a man is played upon by certain laws and forces on the outside, and then has a hidden world of laws and forces within himself, resembling the secret giant forces inside the earth. The external portion of the earth is operated upon by light, heat, cold, darkness, wind, rain, electrical currents, and the far away magic of celestial bodies, and waves of fine stellar magnetism that break in ceaseless silent music upon the shores of our world. Then far down in sub-marine and subterranean regions, there is a standing army of laws and forces in the form of central gravitation, liquid fire, geysers, the feverish heart of volcanoes, deep ocean currents, the potent chemistry in the soil, out of which spring forth forests and harvests, and then that ceaseless unnoticed vibration through the crust of the planet, like the soundless pulse of a sleeping infant, as the world is rocked in its soft cradle of ether around the sun. Only think that our God, each of the three Divine Persons, are incessantly present in all these enormous and complex forces, living separated from these things, yet pervading, infolding, upholding, and perpetuating them with intelligent love and wisdom. Well this plain ordinary looking man that we meet any hour on the street, and take so little notice of him, is a vaster world, with a more complicated make-up, and a sublimer destiny, than the world we walk on. He also is played upon on his outer life by laws and forces manifold; civil law, natural law, social custom, what others think of him, poverty, and wealth, natural scenery, religious institutions, church forms and ceremonies, the blistering criticisms of his fellows, the hatred of those who may be a thousand miles away, and the soft soothing streams of sympathy from friends, that fall like cooling showers upon his parched soul; these and other outward influences act on him from without. But down in his inner being, like the planet, there is another world of laws and forces which he carries as a constant cargo on board himself wherever he goes. These inner forces take in his conscience, which must deal with questions of right and wrong; his moral affections, his proclivities, and choices, his air castles, that are woven out in the secret loom of thought, and the central springs of action in the soul; all correspond with the hidden forces inside the earth. There are two kinds of legalists, that is people whose religion is made up of serving God by set duties, and forms, and obligations of righteousness. The outward legalist is one that is led and moulded by outward forces in the visible church, and the cords of power from other people, which resemble the tow-boat, as explained in the previous chapter. Now we are to consider the inward legalist, that is one who endeavors to serve God by those higher laws that enter his inner life, and take hold upon the conscience, and the deep purposes of his will. He resembles the row boat, because a vessel that is propelled by oars has its moving force on board, within the vessel itself; and therefore takes higher rank in navigation than the canal boat which is pulled along by an outside force. Having gone the first stage of our great voyage on the spiritual canal boat, let us now transfer to a good row boat, and seize the oars, and ply them vigorously across the river or harbor. In this stage of our journey we will row through the waters of the seventh chapter of Romans, which in the main describes the row boat legalist, the conscientious church man struggling to serve God by adjusting his inner nature to divine law. Of course this spiritual row boat is not really a salvation craft, that will come in the next chapter, but it may serve as a preliminary step in revealing the helplessness of legal religion, and bring us where we can get on board of a higher type of vessel which will carry us into regeneration.

1. The row boat has in it an individuality, and a wider range of action, and a variety of motion, which distinguish it from the towboat. When we board the row boat we leave the canal mule, the long hawser, the narrow canal banks, and locks, for a larger space of water, and a more independent action. This fact is beautifully carried out in the case of a soul that has been moved religiously only by some church ceremony or sacrament, or pulled along by some slow, plodding, ecclesiastical mule, when it begins to think for itself, and have an awakened individual conscience, and cuts loose from the narrow tyranny of tradition, and forms and exercises its own inward moral energies, and begins to seek after truth for itself, and read God's Word for itself, to find out the way of life. It is the dawn of a supernatural day when a soul begins to realize its own private personal accountability to God, and to find out its individuality of conscience, and form deep silent purposes to serve God for itself and not for another. This is pictured in the little row boat, where the occupant plies the oar himself, and learns to adjust his muscle to the waves or the current, and to turn the craft at will, darting hither and thither across the river or harbor. When the great Daniel Webster was once questioned as to what he considered the greatest thought he had ever had, he replied it was his personal accountability to Almighty God. There are multitudes of machine made religionists, swayed only by outside authority, and like canal boats, pulled along by the rope of red tape; but when any such get under conviction for real righteousness, there breaks forth an individuality of conscience, and personal praying, and thinking, and striving for the right, and in sailor phrase "they cut the shore line,'' and begin "paddling their own canoe.''

2. The row boat Christian, in contrast with the tow-boat, has the moving force on board within itself and not in some foreign creature. In this stage of our journey, the law has entered within the soul, and taken hold of the conscience, producing a sense of guilt for wrong doing, and aroused it to a sense of righteousness. While the person in this state does not know the Holy Spirit, yet it is by God's Spirit, that the divine law is applied to the conscience, awakening a fear as to future destiny, and presenting powerful motives as to conduct, drawn from eternity. Up to this time most of the motives have been of an earthly and temporal consideration, but now eternal things are to be considered, and the motives to action are more powerful, and penetrate into the secret fountains of conduct. This operation of divine law begins to stir the will to an amendment of life, "the ceasing to do evil, and the learning to do well." This action of the will toward righteousness corresponds with the man in the row boat, who takes firm hold on the oars to propel the vessel in the right direction, though it be against wind and tide. In this state, where the inner faculties are aroused to religious obligations, and to earnest effort to quit sinning, and do good, there is opened up a whole list of religious duties. The doing of these duties is not justification, or the new birth, but will prove a step in that direction, by showing the soul that great double truth, the necessity of righteousness on the one hand, and its utter inability on the other hand to produce that righteousness. It is this twin truth of the soul's duty and the soul's helplessness, that makes it in the end throw down the oars of legal struggling, and get on board of the sail boat, which is a type of the regenerated state. The awakened conscience sees the duties of prayer, of obedience, of love, of forgiving others, of faith, of good works, of keeping the commandments, but like the man in the seventh of Romans, it knows not how to accomplish those duties, and thus like the oarsman, it rows hard against the current of a sinful nature, and the strong winds of previous habits. I do not say that the soul in this row boat state sees the life of holiness of heart, for that will come later in its journey, but it sees the demands of righteousness. Holiness is the likeness of God in the heart, but righteousness refers to conduct, to the outflow of right moral principles in daily life. When men are first awakened they have not sufficient discernment to apprehend holiness of heart, because their knowledge is nearly all external, and they simply apprehend the outward actions of life, and the claims of God's law on outward conduct. Not having the new birth, a tiresome struggle ensues, like the ardous rowing of a skiff across a swift river.

3. The strength of the oarsman is brief, and quite limited, which shows that though the row boat state of religion is superior in many ways to the canal boat state, yet it is not adapted to a long voyage; and fittingly represents that a truly awakened soul, after making a desperate pull to land itself in salvation, will soon have to quit its own righteousness, and give itself up to Jesus as the only Savior. If the oarsman should faint, or drop his oar over-board, or go to sleep, his navigation stops; for there is no store house of energy in the little craft to keep up the motion, and everything depends upon the limited resources of human muscle and will. This exactly sets forth the limited strength of an awakened sinner to do right. The soul, when first awakened, thinks it can do wonders; it thinks it can break off its sins by signing a pledge, or by a stalwart determination, and practice the good with ease; but in every instance this self conceited dream of our own strength is soon exploded, and like the disciples rowing against the storm in the darkness, we soon have to cry out, "Lord save I perish." Now if our trip on the row boat is so short and limited, of what use is it in our great spiritual voyage to take the row boat at all? For the same reason that while the law does not save the soul, it is essential to arouse the conscience, reveal righteousness, and show us the necessity of a Savior, So the row boat state is essential to call forth individuality of conscience, the choice of right, the action of the will; and by exhausting our energies at the oars, we will more gladly confess our nothingness, and lostness, and accept of a free passage on a stronger vessel, the sail boat, wafted by the winds of heaven, which now heaves in sight, with banners of free grace streaming from the masts, and a welcome call from the captain to all those in the row boats who are weary with struggling against their sins, to get on board for a voyage to the heavenly country.