(2) Conviction of sin is necessary. — "He shall convince the world of sin." The first outstanding characteristic of the whole Gospel message is the new gravity which it attaches to the fact of sin, the deeper meaning which it gives to the word, and the larger scope which it shows its blighting influences to have had in humanity. Apart from the conviction of sin by the Spirit using the Word proclaimed by disciples, the world has scarcely a notion of what sin is, its inwardness, its universality, the awful- ness of it as a fact affecting man's whole being and all his relations to God. All these conceptions are especially the product of Christian truth. Without it, what does the world know about the poison of sin ? And what does it care about the poison until
^ Bishop Moule, From Sunday to Sunday, 190. ST. JOHN (2) — iq
226 THE SPIRIT AND THE WORLD
the conviction has been driven home to the rehictant conscious- ness of mankind by the Spirit wielding the Word ? This con- viction comes first in the Divine order.
^ I do not say that the process of turning a man of the world into a member of Christ's Church always begins, as a matter of fact, with the conviction of sin. I believe it most generally does ; but without insisting upon a pedantic adherence to a sequence, and without saying a word about the depth and intensity of such a conviction, I am ready to assert that a Christianity which is not based upon the conviction of sin is an impotent Christianity, and will be of very little use to the men who profess it, and have no power to propagate itself in the world.^
^ I remember seeing, in my early childhood, the dear and beautiful subject of the following incident, the aged widow of a farmer in my father's parish. My mother took me to visit Mrs. E. one day in her farm-kitchen. It was, I think, in' 1849. I still see the brightness, the sweet radiance, of that venerable face ; it shone, as I now know, with Jesus Christ. At the age of about eighty-one, after a life of blameless kindliness, so that to say she had " never done harm to any one " was from her no unmeaning utterance, she was, through the Holy Scriptures, convinced of sin. " I have lived eighty years in the world," was her cry, " and never done anything for God." Deep went the Divine work in the still active nature, and long was the spiritual darkness. Then " the word of the Cross " found its own way in her soul, and "believing, she rejoiced with joy unspeakable." Three or four years of life were yet given her. They were illuminated by faith, hope, and love in a wonderful degree. To every visitor she bore witness of her Lord. Nights, wakeful with pain, were spent in living over the beloved scenes of His earthly ministry : " I was at the well of Samaria last night " ; " Ah, I was all last night upon Mount Calvary." In extreme suffering an opiate was offered, and she declined it ; for " when I lose the pain I lose the thought of my Saviour too." At last she slept in the Lord, gently murmuring, almost singing, " Eock of Ages," with her latest breath.-
2. The sin of which the world has to be convinced is the sin of unbelief. The Spirit convinces men of sin " because they believe not on me." He shows them that unbelief is sin. It is the root of sin. The greatest sin that men can commit is the rejection of Christ. The message of the Gospel is so framed that no apology
* A. Maclaren, The Holy of Holies, 274.
• Uishop Moule, From h'unday to isunday, 191.
ST. JOHN XVI. 8-1 1 227
shall be able to extenuate the act of refusing it. Men shall never say that it is too hard to be understood ; for its sublimest revela- tions have in them a simplicity that makes them intelligible even to illiterate persons, and appreciated by children. They shall never say that the doctrines of the Gospel are unreasonable ; for the light which it throws upon intricate social problems, the complete and unanswerable replies that it gives to questions unsettled before, the plain and sober goodness and the eminent reasonable- ness that lie at the root of its laws, all of which qualities men can understand, shall prove to them that they ought to accept those supernatural features which are beyond their comprehension. They shall never say that its purpose is unnecessary ; their own hearts and life shall tell them, and the condition of the world around shall cry aloud in their ears, that sin is an unconquerable power ; that the sources of crime, disorder, and social debility are as prevailing as they are pestilent; that no remedy of human preparation has ever succeeded in effectually checking them ; and that it is the business of all men, unitedly, personally, and constantly, to endeavour to remove them ; when, therefore, the Gospel of Jesus presents itself to a despairing world as another hope of deliverance, a last hope, men shall never be able to object to it as unnecessary. Finally, they shall not decline to accept it because it can point to no witnesses or examples of its power. These shall always be at hand, comprising a mighty and ever- accumulating argument, a vast " cloud of witnesses," spreading themselves over the world, not like distinct and eccentric meteors to dazzle and perplex, but like a dawn coming from that quarter of the horizon where men expect the day — a mild, genial, useful glory, the luminous ordinance of God Himself. So convincing did the Holy Ghost make the Gospel, and does still make it, defending it by every proof that can tell upon the convictions of men. Wherever Christ is preached, hearers shall be condemned because they believe not on Him. Possibly they may not be convinced, certainly they shall be convicted.