We believe that in Rom. 7 the Apostle gives us the exercise of a quickened soul not knowing deliverance. It is, to use a figure, a man who has got out of a morass describing his feelings when he was in it. Do you think Paul was a "wretched man" crying out for deliverance, when he penned his epistle to the Romans? Most certainly not. He was a happy man rejoicing in full deliverance. But he is describing the exercises of a quickened soul still under the law and having no power against sin. This is not proper Christian experience. Can a Christian never do right? Must he always do wrong? Can a Christian say, "How to perform that which is good I find not"? The fact is, in all this part of the chapter, you do not get the Holy Ghost in His indwelling power. There is new life, but there is no power -no consciousness of victory. All this you have in chapter 8 which is proper Christian experience. But our space forbids our going further into this profoundly interesting, though sadly misunderstood, passage of Scripture. We believe that many of God's beloved people have never got out of Rom. 7; and while we must admit that we should much prefer being honestly in chapter 7 to being falsely in chapter 8, yet we do not and cannot admit that chapter 7 is the proper place for one who ought to know the enfranchising power of these words, "There is therefore now no condemnation to them which are in Christ Jesus." It is very good for the soul to pass through Rom. 7, but it is not for the glory of God that he should stay there. If it is right for all to remain in chapter 7, then for what end did the Holy Ghost pen chapter 8?