^[ I shall be reminded what a tragedy of misconception and misconduct man at large presents : of organized injustice, cowardly violence, and treacherous crime ; and of the damning imperfections of the best. They cannot be too darkly drawn. Man is indeed marked for failure in his efforts to do right. But where the best consistently miscarry, how tenfold more remarkable that all should continue to strive ; and surely we should find it both touching and inspiriting, that in a field from which success is banished, our race should not cease to labour.2
4. The sense of sin, which in previous generations was so acute and full of torment, seems to have recently lost a good deal of its edge and insistence. Men are not troubled as they used to be with a sense of the awful reality and devastating nature of the evil in their hearts. And there are teachers who defend this attitude. Sir Oliver Lodge, for instance, has said, in one of his many recent excursions into the realm of theology, that the man in the street does not trouble himself much about his sins nowa- days ; and he seems to justify this change of front. Another leading thinker has even more boldly said in effect that sin is only a mistaken and misleading search — as it were, in the wrong direction — for the larger life, i.e. for God ; or in other words, that it is only an attempt to realize one's possibilities on the wrong plane of effort and experience. This has shocked many people because of the blunt and vivid way it was put, and well it may. None the less it expresses the unspoken idea of a great many thinkers. The old Puritan attitude of fear and shame and sorrow at the thought of evil, the conviction that it is an offence in the sight of God, at which He is infinitely pained in His heart, and which rouses His loving but awful indignation — this has given
1 Hooker, Works, iii. 493. - R. L. Stevenson, Pulvis et Umbra.
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way to the notion that sin, after all, is only an incident of develop- ment, that it is one of the necessary conditions of ethical progress, and that, this being so, God cannot be angry with us if we go wrong on our way towards getting into the right road. This attitude is combined with a theory that, since God is omnipotent, He will see to it that in the end every sinner is somehow or other brought back to Himself. Men who sin may be going out of their way to find Him, but find Him they will in the end and at last. Otherwise God can never be all in all.
TJ As a matter of fact, the higher man of to-day is not worrying about his sins at all ; . . . his mission, if he is good for anything, " is to be up and doing." x
^[ Said a woman to me last week : " I cannot feel that my heart is desperately wicked ; have I to ? " 2
^[ I knew a man once who lived a scandalously immoral life, and when he tired of it committed suicide quite deliberately. He left behind him — for he was a man of letters — a copy of verses addressed to his Father in heaven, in which he told Him that he was coming home to dwell with Him for ever. That was an extreme instance perhaps ; but extreme only because this man, being well-educated and accustomed to express his thoughts in verse, was moved to put on record his absolute lack of any sense of sin.3
5. A misconception as to the real nature of sin, and what it consists in, is one reason why many have little or no consciousness of it ; why they are not quickened to repentance and confession ; why we hear so often such statements as these, " I am no worse than others," " I have never committed any crime," " I do not feel that I am a miserable sinner " ; or the proud thanksgiving of the Pharisee, " God, I thank thee I am not as other men are." In all such cases God's standard of requirement is fatally misunderstood ; the length and breadth of His law are not discerned ; the love and purpose of His heart are most inadequately conceived. Once let the light of heaven shine out in all its native brightness, and the darkness of earth will be revealed in striking contrast. He who has felt the love of God, and has recognized Him as a Father, must have felt also the baseness and guilt of sin — must, ere long, have said, like the Prodigal, "I will arise and go to my
1 Sir Oliver Lodge, in Hiblcrt Journal, April 1904, 466. 3 T. R. Williams. 3 R. Winterbotham.
268 JUSTIFICATION
father, and will say unto him, Father, I have sinned against heaven and in thy sight, and am no more worthy to be called thy son."
T[ I have never yet met the man who disputed the fact of his being a sinner ; but I have met with many who admitted it, and yet lived on in the world as gaily as if it entailed no further consequences. When I proceed to inquire how this can possibly be, it always strikes me, as the chief reason, that men do not give themselves leisure — to reflect. All around me appear to labour under an indescribable distraction of mind. I cannot otherwise account for the decided manner in which they admit many pro- positions, and yet do not draw from them the conclusions that are obviously manifest. Since the hour in which I first clearly appre- hended the one truth that / am a sinner — against God, I likewise perceived, as clearly, that there is no business in life so important as to recover His favour, and become His obedient child. Before that discovery, it always seemed to me as if my life had no proper aim. It was then, for the first time, that I became aware for what purpose I was living. No doubt I had a certain object, even before, but it was one of which I felt ashamed, and therefore did not acknowledge even to myself. It was, in truth, to enjoy the things of this world, and to be honoured in the eyes of men. And to thousands at my side, although they too are ashamed to confess it, this is the sole wreath for which they strive. If, however, they would take time to reflect, the mere perceptions of the under- standing would show them the folly of their conduct. For, supposing our joys and hopes to have their centre in this world, what a painful thought that we are every day withdrawing further away from it ! whereas, if eternity be our end and aim, how pleasing to think that to it we are every day advancing nearer ! x