^ A well-known theologian has argued against the identity of consequence and punishment in the following words : " Two men are equally guilty of drunkenness and profligacy. But one of them is a man of robust constitution : he has wealth and leisure. He sins and sins flagrantly; but he shoots in the autumn, hunts in the winter, and spends his summer in his yacht on the coast of Scotland or of Norway. The other has weak health, and is compelled by his circumstances to lead a sedentary life. The one, notwithstanding his vices, lives till he is seventy, and is vigorous to the last ; the other is the victim of miserable diseases, and dies an ignominious death long before he is fifty. Where is the equality in the 'visible' penalties of sin? The eternal laws appear to receive the bribes of the rich and to trample on the helplessness of poverty." Such an argument is specious, but misleading. The consequences of sins against bodily health are of course counteracted by attention to the laws of bodily health. And if the sinner does not transgress these laws he will not suffer in his body. But this merely brings out more conspicuously the much-neglected fact that the chief punishment and con- sequences of sin must be looked for in the character. All outward disaster, all disease and wretchedness that sin works in the hfe, are but the outward sign of the ruin it works within. It is there the gravest consequences are found ; there, in the callousness, the carnality, the cruel selfishness, the wholly degraded nature of the sinner that the true character and the lasting consequence of sin are to be seen.*
^ Single sins indulged or neglected are often the cause of other
' A, W. PottR. ' Marcus Dods.
444 SIN THE DETECTIVE
defects of obaraoter, which seem to have no connection with them, but which after all are rather symptomatic of the former, than themselves at the bottom of the mischief. This is generally acknowledged as regards a sceptical temper of mind, which commonly is assailed by argmnent in vain, the root of the evil lying deeper, viz. in habits of vice, which, however, the guilty parties strenuously maintain to be quite a distinct matter, to relate to their conduct, and to have no influence whatever upon their reason or their opinions.^
^ Some time ago a man came to see me whose nobler spirit had been awakened. He told me that he realized the beauty and the truth of the ideal ; that a great longing had been born within him to reach to it, and to follow its gleam ; but that the more he tried, the more was he conscious of an incapacity, which seemed to clog his feet, and fetter him to low things. He wanted to run the race and gain the prize, and he was trying to break himself free from the past, and lay aside every weight ; but there seemed to be a weight which he could not lay aside ; which clung to him ; hampered his feet; tripped him up; baffled him; until he was almost despairing. What is the explanation of this experience ? I found as we talked together that my friend had been in past years guilty of consistent sin ; not gross sin in our worldly sense, but consistent sin ; he had gradually formed a habit of choosing the lower ; he never seemed to be any the worse for it ; nobody ever found him out ; but all the time, in the silence and in secret, his sin had been finding him out ; and now it had foimd him.*
Soon, the broken law avenged itself; For, oh, the pity of it ! to feel the fire Grow colder daily, and the soaring soul Sunk deep in grosser mire.*
5. But it is always possible to evade the lash of conscience and ignore the loss of character as long as sin is spoken of generally. It is necessary to have the memory fixed on some particular sin, to have the attention drawn to some particular habit.
I'm willin' a man should go tollable strong
Agin wrong in the abstract, fer thet kind o' wrong
Is oilers unpop'lar an' never gits pitied,
Because it's a crime no one never committed ;
But he mus'n't be hard on partickler sins,
Coz then he'll be kickin' the people's own shins.*
» J. H. Wcwnian. * E. W. Lewi«.
' Sir Lewis Morris, Poems, 48. * Eu.ssell LowolL
NUMBERS XXXII. 23 445
(1) Take drunkenness. This sin always finds the man out. He may take never such pains at the commencement to be unnoticed and unseen. I believe all drunkards commence with very quiet tippling. Ah yes, but it is a sin that will find him out. It brings its own punishment. The sin looks out of his bloodshot eye, and grasps his hands until they tremble as with palsy.
^ Of all the evils that oppress, and outrage, and destroy mankind, are there many, are there any, greater than intemper- ance ? For proof turn to our gaols, asylums, police courts, lodgmg- houses, newspapers, streets, and our churches — yes, and our churches. It is an evil very great, very common, very real, very ruinous. It is an individual, a social, a national evil. It is an evil which produces an amount of misery, and poverty, and wretchedness, which no figures can possibly set forth. It injures the body, it blunts the finer feelings of the soul, it clouds the intellect, it ruins the health, it unfits for daily life. It brings poverty, it blights the home. It destroys peace of mind and the prospects of heaven. It dishonours our national name, it wastes our national wealth, it cripples our trade, it feeds our gaols and asylums. It kills directly 60,000 and indirectly 120,000 every year. It transmits its evil influence to succeeding generations, for the children of drinkers are injiu-ed in health. It is the chief highway into " darkest England." ^