I. NOTE THE INFLUENCE THE SIN OF ONE MAN MAY HAVE ON THE LIFE AND DESTINY OF MANY OTHERS. Nothing is saicl about the effect of Achan's trespass on his family, except that it involved them with himself in the same miserable encl. We are not tolcl whether h_e hacl any associates in crime. Probably he hacl. Men are seldom able to keep clark secrets like this locked up long in their own bosoms. But however this may be, we canno( well confine our thoughts to the mere par- ticipation in punishment. We are reminded of those bearings of human conduct which are at work long before the final issues stancl revealed-the near, as well as remote, effects of wrong-doing. Men cannot sin alone any more than " perish" alone (eh. xxii. 20). Consider that great law of moral action and react.ion that underlies all the superficial forms of social life, ancl which is to it very much what t11e laws of chemical affinity or of attraction and gravitation are to nature. By this men are held together, linked one •with another, cemented into one living and organic whole. By virtue of this we are continually gi,ing and receiving impulses. And it is as impossible that we should act without producing effects on others, as that the smooth surface of a lake should be broken and there be no undulations spreading to the banks. This influence will be for good or ill according to a nrnn's personal character. Our words and deeds, charged with the moral quality of our own inner life, tend thus inevitably to awaken something like them in others. Every good man diffuses a moral influence that assimilates all around him to his own goodness. Every bad man stands in the midst of human society the moral image of the deadly upas tree, blighting and withering every fair thing that comes within its shadow. "Ephraim is joined to idols: let him alone l" Go not near him. For your own sake " let him alone l " So with e,ery single act of trans- gression. '\Ve may not be able to trace its moral issues; only know that it achls to the ever-accumulating sum of the world's evil. So far as its power reaches it is another contribution to the building up of Satan's lringdom among men, another blow struck at the kingdom of truth and righteousness. Moreo.-er, sin cannot always be hid, tl..iough men seek the darkness for tlie doing of their dark deeds-though the me- morials of their guilt be carefully concealed, like the "costly garment," &c., of Achan beneath the ground-yet God's eye " seeth in secret;' and He will sooner or later "reward it openly." "For nothing is secret that shall not be ma(le mani- fest," &c. (Luke viii. 17). "Be sure your sin will find you out" (Num. n:ri.i. 23). And as its influence spreads far beyond the place of its birth, so its penalty will fall on the innocent as well as the guilty. All this may seem out of harmony with the present dispensation of grace. But not so. Christianity does not alter the funda- mental laws of moral government. These considerations clothe the sinner with guilt independently of the intrinsic quality of his deed. They deepen the shadow that rests on the path of the transgressor. II. THE RELATION OF THE PEOPLE TO AcHAN'S SDI, The crinie of this one man is imputed to all Israel on the principle of the organic unity of the nation. As the body is so.id to be diseased or wounded, though the malady may lie only in one of its members, so his trespass destroyed the moral integrity of the whole nation. We are reminded of certain ways in which a community may be implicated in a. wrong actually done by only one of its members. (1) When tho sin does but give definite expression to a spirit prevailing more or less through all. Distinct forms of practical evil often bring to light principles that are secretly leavening a whole society. It is very possible that Achan's solitary trespass was imlicative of a spirit of insubordination, or of selfish gree,l among the people, that would have utterly subverted th~ Divine purpose if it ho.(1 not been thus sternly rebuked nt the begin- ning. Upon this principle of fellowship of spirit Christ said that "all the righteous blood shed on ti.\o earth " should come on that generation (Matt. xxiii. 35) ; a.nil Peter charged tho multitudo on the clay of Pentecost with having slain " the Holy One and the Just," though many of them can have hacl no 1_1,ctual po.rt in the trnns- !,'Tession (Acts ii. 23; iii. 14, 15). (2) When the ':llany conmve at that sm 1 or share the profit of it. Men sin by proxy, and thus thmk to secure the end w1tliout rn- volving themselves in the wrongful means tho.t lead to it. But to consent to reap 11,ny part of the profit of an i_niqu.itoua transaction-to place yonrseli' willingly in 120 THE BOOK OF JOSHUA.
any sort. of connection with it-is to share its guilt. Indeed, the moml sense of mankind declares that there is a special criminality, an added element of baseness and meanness, belonging to him who has such indirect interest in the wrong-doing of others. The question of so-called "national sins" arises here. A national sin is one committed in the name of a nation by its representatives, or on which the State sets the stamp of its authority and license. If Acban's sin bad been connived at by J osbua and the elders it would have been a national sin. (8) When those who are aggrie-ved by the sin fail to bear faithful witness against H. The guilt of this " trespass" rest,ed on all Israel until, by public condemnation, it was wiped out (2 Cor. -vii. 11).-W.