[230] From this point to the close of the chapter the writer has used, with modifications, passages from a Sermon (No. iii.) in his volume entitled _Christ is All_. CHAPTER XXIX _CHRISTIAN DUTY: MUTUAL TENDERNESS AND TOLERANCE: THE SACREDNESS OF EXAMPLE_ ROMANS xiv. 1-23 [Sidenote: Ver. 1.] =But him who is weak=--we might almost render, =him who suffers from weakness (τὸν ἀσθενοῦντα), in his (τῇ) faith= (in the sense here not of creed, a meaning of πίστις rare in St Paul, but of reliance on his Lord; reliance not only for justification but, in this case, for holy liberty), =welcome into fellowship--not for criticisms of his scruples,= of his διαλογισμοί, the anxious internal debates of conscience. [Sidenote: Ver. 2.] =One man believes,= has faith, issuing in a conviction of liberty, in such a mode and degree as =to eat all kinds of food; but the man in weakness eats vegetables= only; an extreme case, but doubtless not uncommon, where a convert, tired out by his own scruples between food and food, cut the knot by rejecting flesh-meat altogether. [Sidenote: Ver. 3.] =The eater--let him not despise the non-eater[231]; while the non-eater--let him not judge the eater; for our (ὁ) God welcomed him to fellowship,= when he came to the feet of His Son for acceptance. [Sidenote: Ver. 4.] =You--who are you, thus judging Another's domestic (οἰκέτην)? To his own Lord,= his own Master, =he stands,= in approval,--=or, if that must be, falls,= under displeasure; =but he shall be upheld= in approval; =for able is that (ὁ) Lord[232] to set him= so, to bid him "_stand_," under His sanctioning smile. [Sidenote: Ver. 5.] =One man distinguishes (κρίνει) day above day; while another distinguishes every day;= a phrase paradoxical but intelligible; it describes the thought of the man who, less anxious than his neighbour about stated "holy-days," still aims not to "level down" but to "level up" his use of time; to count every day "holy," equally dedicated to the will and work of God. =Let each be quite assured in his own mind;= using the thinking-power (νοῦς) given him by his Master, let him reverently work the question out, and then live up to his ascertained convictions, while (this is intimated by the emphatic "_his own_ mind") he respects the convictions of his neighbour. [Sidenote: Ver. 6.] =The man who 'minds' (ὁ φρονῶν) the day,= the "holy-day" in question, in any given instance, =to the Lord he 'minds' it; [and the man who 'minds' not the day, to the Lord he does not 'mind' it][233];= both parties, as Christians, in their convictions and their practice, stand related and responsible, directly and primarily, to the Lord; that fact must always govern and qualify their mutual judgments. =And[234] the eater,= the man who takes food indifferently without scruple, =to the Lord he eats, for he gives thanks= at his meal =to God; and the non-eater, to the Lord he does not eat= the scrupled food, =and gives thanks to God= for that of