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Gift of
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...BY...
Frederick A. Noble, D.D.

The Divine Life in Man
l2mo, doth, $1.25
Discourses on Philippians
l2mo, cloth, $1.25
Our Redemption: Its Need, Method
and Results
i2mo, cloth, $1.25
Sent post free on receipt of price
Fleming H. Revell Company
Publishers

Our Redemption
Its Need, Method and Result

FREDERICK A. NOBLE, D.D., LL.D.
Author of "Typical New Testament Conversions"
"Divine Life in Man" "Discourses on Philippians.''

Fleming H. Revell Company
Chicago, New York & Toronto
Publishers of Evangelical Literature

Copyrighted 1897, by Fleming H. Revell Company.

TO MY MOTHER,
WHO, THOUGH WORN AND WEARY
WITH THE BURDEN OP AGE,
AND PATIENTLY WAITING HER SUMMONS,
CHERISHES THE SAME TENDER INTEREST
IN HER FIRSTBORN
AND THE SAME DESIRE FOR HIS WELFARE
AS IN THE OLD DAYS WHEN HE WAS A CHILD
AT HER KNEE

CONTENTS. BOOK ONE.
REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN AND ITS
CONSEQUENCES.
I. The Fact and Obound of Sin  13
II. The Univebsality op Sin  35
III. The Self-Reqistby and Disclosure op Sin . . 59
IV. The Punishment of Sin  79
BOOK TWO.
HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED.
V. No Poweb of Self-Reooveby fbom Sin . . . 105
VI. Difficulties in the Way of the Fbee Pabdon of Sin 123
VII. The Atonement made by Chbibt fob Sin . . 141
VIII. The Human Condition of Salvation fbom Sin . 163
BOOK THREE.
REDEMPTION IN THE NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK IT
FURNISHES.
IX. The Redeemed Sinner Nourishing His own Spibi-
tual Life  185
X. The Redeemed Sinneb in His Daily Walk . . 205
XI. The Redeemed Sinneb in His Wobe fob the Kingdom 225
XII. The Redeemed Sinneb in Heaven . . . 255

OUR REDEMPTION

"Sin is lawlessness." — 1 John 3: i.
"Sin is lack of conformity to the moral law of God, either in act,
disposition, or state." — Strong.
"The older Fathers, the apologists, Justin Martyr, Tatian and
Theophilus of Antioch as well as Irenseus, Clement of Alexandria,
Anthanasius, the two Gregories, Chrysostom, Cyril of Jerusalem
and Methodius defined sin as opposition to the holy will of God,
and affirmed that such an iniquity involved death as its necessary
consequence." — Doertenbach.
"The Gospel presents us with the Scriptural idea of sin, provok
ing God's wrath and establishing between God and man a state of
enmity; and the idea points very urgently — at least in a moral uni
verse—to some awful interposition which shall bring relief. But
the Biblical idea of sin is a vitally distinct thing from the impov
erished modern conception of anti=social vice, in which man and
not God is the insulted and offended person, and by which the pro
tection of individual rights and the well»being of society are held to
be of more account than the reign of peace and purity within the
soul. The idea of sin pointB to a Divine Redeemer; the idea of
anti-social vice points to an improved system of human education.'
— Canon Liddon.

OUR REDEMPTION.
BOOK ONE.
¦Re&emptfon fl&a&e iRecessars Se Sin.
I.
THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN.
On the threshold of any attempt one may make to
arrive at true and comprehensive notions of sin two
questions arise and demand answer.
The first concerns the fact of sin. Is there in reality
any such thing as sin? Is there any evil actually cor
respondent to what thoughtful men mean when they
use the word sin?
The second concerns the ground and nature of sin.
Why is sin sin? We laugh at men because their actions
are ludicrous. We shrink from men because we dislike
them. We pity men because they are unfortunate and
miserable. We also blame men. We take blame to
ourselves; and without any misgiving or hesitancy we
blame others. What is it in certain acts and attitudes
of men which render them morally offensive? Not
foolish merely; not uncongenial merely; not pitiable
merely; but morally improper, so that we are forced by a
kind of necessity of our being to call them wrong?
These are the questions. As will be seen they open
the way to matters fundamental. Too much pains can
not be taken to find right answers to them. Indeed, if
13

14 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
there were only a somewhat clearer apprehension on
these points, there would be less fog in the religious
atmosphere; and other truths, vital to the moral and
spiritual well«being of men, would be held in more con
sistency and announced with more boldness. Let it be
clearly in evidence that sin is not a fiction, but an awful
reality; that sin in every article and form of it is a lifting
up of the hand against God; and then the revelation of
the wrath of God against all ungodliness and unright
eousness of men, and Christ dying an atoning death on
the cross of Calvary, and the need of the strivings of
the Holy Spirit, and the retributive woes of all unpar
doned transgression, will also stand some chance of
being considered realities.
Addressing our thought now to the fact of sin, or
whether there is anything which in strict propriety can
be called sin, we find ourselves face to face with a sub
ject about which one would think there need be no em
barrassment in coming to quick conclusions. In regard
to many propositions there is room for question and
doubt. Here it looks as if there could be but one
opinion. Men of tainted lives, or of cynical disposi
tions, have been ready to deny the existence of virtue.
How any man can be so blind as not to see that there is
a certain something in human hearts and in human con
duct correspondent to the word sin passes all compre
hension. Nevertheless there are those who rule sin out and de
clare there is no such thing. Sometimes they do it
through positive assertions. Sometimes they do it
through the systems, philosophical and other, which
they adopt.
One writer says: " I think no sin can make an indeli-

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 15
ble mark on what I call the soul." This statement holds
in it three significant assumptions. The first is that
there is no inherently bad tendency in us. The second
is that there is no moral condition which may be char
acterized as a state of sinfulness, even after there has
been the commission of what some people call an act of
sin. The third is that from the nature of the case there
can never be any permanent defilement or scarring of
the soul. What the majority of men are accustomed to
consider sin, and to deprecate and denounce as sin, is
thus resolved into an outcome of circumstance and or
ganization. It is not sin but sins. Nor are sins sins;
they are only mistakes. They are the natural issues of
ignorance and inexperience. They are the weak stum
blings of a child learning to walk. There is no sin.
This out=and=out denial of the fact of sin by a repre
sentative writer is implied by logical necessity in many
of the schemes of men and the universe which are sent
forth from time to time. Sin falls into place as a part
of the plan. It pertains to our human finiteness. It is
mere " defect," — that is, it is a lack of some moral good
which ought to be possessed and in due time will be. It
is mere "negation "; that is, it is a limitation of power
which cannot be helped. It is " the necessary condition
of virtue," — that is, it furnishes the antagonism through
which alone virtue can be developed. This view of sin,
or this view only slightly modified, is the view involved
in all systems of materialism, in pantheism, and in the
doctrine of evolution, so far at least as this doctrine is
held by the agnostic wing of evolutionists. Huxley
more than intimates that the acts which pass under the
name of sins are only the " ape and tiger promptings "
which men have brought with them out of the low

16 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
estate of animalism from which in the course of the
ages they have emerged. Even Christian evolutionists
are not altogether patient with this word sin. Prof.
George Harris of Andover in his work on "Moral
Evolution," puts in a plea for the substitution of the
word "degeneration" for "sin, vice and crime." He
gives his reasons for this, but the suggestion is more
significant than the reasons.
If, however, sin is only a defect, a negation, a mere
limitation of finite being, and especially if it be a req
uisite condition of virtue, then the worst that can be
said of it is that it is a necessary evil. To speak of a
state or a condition of sinfulness, or to associate with it
the guilt which is commonly supposed to attach to an
act of sin, would be absurd. It is fit to talk of blind
ness, feebleness, and of imperfect development; but not
of sin and sinfulness. "This discord which we call sin"
is simply a " phantom " with which we allow ourselves
to be tormented quite unnecessarily.
That such speculations can be made to seem at all
plausible, least of all a solid ground to rest on for one
who has ever realized to himself anything of his own
free moral agency, has a strange look. Yet, in one way
and another, the mischievous influence of these con
tentions is widely diffused. Avowals of unbelief in the
fact of sin, as it is announced in the Scriptures, are met
almost everywhere. They reach us through pulpits, not
all of them counted liberal either, through books,
through public platforms, in the columns of magazines
and newspapers, and in very many private conversations.
Muller, in his work, " On The Christian Doctrine of
Sin," says, in a foot-note: " We cannot, indeed, include
Goethe among those . . . who have brought them-

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 17
selves to estimate greatness by mere power, and to re
gard morality as only the idea of power in disguise, and
who from this starting=point look down with haughty
self=importance, or the complacency of superiority, upon
what they are pleased to call the 'vulgar' moral judg
ment concerning such phenomena, as very narrow and
ignorant; genius, in her happy hours, revealed to him
more of the real nature of sin than to any other modern
poet of Germany. But there is certainly a tendency in
his view of the world to regard power and activity as the
essence of morality. . . . Power is not, indeed, made
the exclusive test of good and evil, but somehow good
is always made to appear wherever there is power; and
the prostration of power, the barrenness of life, is evil."
So there is a tendency to soften the offensiveness of sin
and to erect other standards by which to judge good
and evil.
But no denials, no mollifying explanations, no confus
ing theories of God and man and nature, can avail to
dislodge the fact of sin from the moral world. Sin is
here. It is here a dark and dismal reality, a stain on
character, a hindrance to spiritual growth, a source and
evidence of guilt, and a mischievously regnant force,
with the results of its bad work to be seen everywhere.
Ample proof of this is to be found in three sources.
It is to be found in our own consciousness. Through
experience we feel and know the fact of sin. We are
sure we are not as pure as we ought to be. We are sure
our past lives have not been as righteous as they ought
to have been. We are sure we are not working as we
ought for the realization of high and holy ends. There
is something in us which testifies to guilty divergence
from the right, and to guilty disregard of the loftiest

18 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
ideals. We may be fortunate in our temperaments, or
our environments may be favorable, and the temptations
with which we have been assailed may have been less
fierce and hot than those which have struck some oth
ers; but we know, if we know anything, what alien ten
dencies there are in us and how easy it is to go aside
from virtue.
It is true that " the exceeding sinfulness of sin," as
the apostle realized it, is very rarely appreciated. Not
many see it in such loathsomeness, and are so impatient
for deliverance from its destructive power, that they
cry out in agonized utterance: " O wretched man that I
am; who shall deliver me out of this body of death?"
Yet the feeling is general that somehow each for him
self has erred and come short of the glory of God. No
confession seems to us so appropriate, no petition so
pertinent, none goes so far toward gathering up the
various phases of the conviction of ill=desert which is
felt in human hearts, as that old prayer: " God be pro
pitiated to me the sinner." In those moments which
come to us all, when our minds are not so much at work
of their own motion, as wrought upon by silent and
mighty influences from above, and life takes on an un
wonted hue of sacredness, it is well=nigh impossible to
escape the reproach and burden of the thought that we
are out of the way — not clean of heart and hand, and
not the children of the light we were made to be and
might have been — but out of the way. In such moods
we are not encouraged, we are mocked, by utterances,
come from what source they may, which make little of
sin. The same is true when we have wrestled with some
temptation — with pride, avarice, ambition, a degrading

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 19
appetite, an envious disposition, an indignation which
is in danger of passing over into a confirmed hate, an
impulse to take sharp revenge for some real or fancied
wrong — and have been thrown in the encounter. In
such hours the disbelievers in sin may talk to us as pret
tily as they will; but in spite of all they say, we shall
refuse to be persuaded that there is not something wrong
in our hearts. The sense of duty we have and cannot
help having; the inward difficulties we meet in trying
to do duty; the defeats we encounter when we would
rise into large and royal masteries; the peculiar charm
which things sensuous have for our souls; the facile way
in which we come under bondage to objects and aims
which are of the earth earthy, are demonstrations con
clusive to our own minds that there is something the
matter with us beside mere weakness. Men may assure
us that these delinquencies and over=reachings and way
ward strayings for which we reproach ourselves are only
mistakes, but we shall not fall in with this interpreta
tion of the facts. It does not match the solemn witness
of our own consciousness to say that in all these things
we have only blundered. We know better. We know
we have sinned.
There is a further testimony in this same line, though
distinct enough to stand out by itself, which ought to
have not a little weight in the estimation of candid
minds. It is the testimony found in the fact that the
most spiritual and devout souls in all these ages have
been most positively certain of sin and have had the
deepest sense of the pollution and guilt of sin.
If we turn to the Bible we find the story of a succes
sion of lives running on through the centuries. No
where else is there to be found such another grouping of

20 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
names and characters and events. In no other collec
tion of writings have such pains been taken to give us
deeds just as they were done, words just as they were
spoken, and lives just as they were lived. We have
the accuracy of sun=picturing. The men who are thus
brought before us differ widely in their native endow
ments, in their culture, and in their circumstances.
Some of them are patriarchal chiefs; some of them law*
givers; some of them generals; some are kings; some
are seers and preachers of righteousness; some are
priests; some are apostles; some are poets singing to us
songs whose key-notes have been caught in moments of
supreme spiritual ecstasy; some move in the foremost
circles of their time and are conspicuous for their cul
ture and wisdom; some move in the humblest walks of
life, and when they emerge from their obscurity they
remain just long enough to make their sign and then
sink back again out of sight ; some of them speak to us out
of the calm of a sweet and secure peace; some of them
bear their witness with awful threats hanging over them
and front to front with gravest perils; some of them
take their places before us and put their sentiments on
record while yet experience is small and revelations
have been few and the human race is only a little way
on in its career; some of them come forward only aftei
prophet has followed prophet in uttering his voice, and
vision has succeeded vision, and the world has been il
luminated by the words of Him who came to be the
light of men; but whoever they are, however unlike, and
whenever and wherever they deliver their messages,
they are at one touching the sense of their own sinful
ness. In their prayers and supplications; in their con
fessions, so frequent and pathetic; in their psalms and

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 21
discourses; in their rituals of worship and in their state
economies; in their personal wrestlings with evil within
and without; in their appeals for obedience and purity;
in their protests and warnings against wrong=doing; in
statements of what they conceive to be the actual rela
tion of human souls to God, as in their statements of what
they conceive these relations ought to be, there is always
an implication, and often a profound conviction of sin.
Sin might be a " phantom " to others, but to these
men it was something besides a mere specter. These
men felt sin in their own hearts. They fought sin
in their own lives. They feared sin, many of them, as
they feared no other enemy on earth. To them the
pang of death seemed small in comparison with the
consequences which they felt sure must wait on sin.
In depths and straits of bitter temptation they cried
out against sin. They were distressed often to tears,
when they fell under the power of sin, and the echoes
of some of their wails and lamentations will never
die out of the ear of humanity. In highest strains
of poetry and eloquence, or in the simple language of
devout thanksgiving they celebrated their victories over
sin. Is it quite conceivable that these men, one and all
— Abraham, Moses, Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah,
Ezekiel, Jeremiah, Daniel, Habakkuk, Malachi, Paul,
Peter, John — were utterly deluded and knew nothing
of what they affirmed? Was Jesus, too, mistaken?
Why did He begin His ministry with that significant
word"Kepent"? To ask this question is to advance to another proof of
the fact of sin and sinfulness in the hearts of men.
Jesus uttered the word " repent " because He saw that
men everywhere were under sin and needed to repent.

22 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
This is what is to be seen still — sin all up and down,
and men everywhere rolling it as a sweet morsel
under their tongues. On every hand is something mor
ally offensive. Vileness, depravity, wickedness, crime,
challenge our attention at each turn. It is not the
shrieking of an hysterical rhetoric, but sober truth to
say the whole creation groans through the ill=doing of
bad men. War, with its garments rolled in blood; su
perstition with its idols; intemperance with its victims;
avarice with its tricks and frauds; caste, before which
the dearest human rights are as nothing; the number
less and nameless iniquities which infest society and
breed physical and moral distempers, and spread their
contagion all abroad; the refined and ingenious sys
tems of deception which are devised; the gross inequali
ties and tyrannies which manage to receive the sanction
of legal enactment; the social and civil injustices
which have to be endured; the multiplied and outra
geous dishonesties that are practised; the unholy ambi
tions which are cherished; the maneuvers resorted to
by base and cunning politicians to secure place; the
thefts which in one form and another are committed
against public treasuries; the disregard of oaths and
other sacred obligations, and the frequent betrayals of
trust with which good men are shocked; the low stand
ards of morals adopted by so many both in their homes
and in their business relations; the mutual alienations
and domestic bickerings and social discords which
flaunt themselves before the public gaze; the incendi
ary flames, the thefts, the midnight robberies, the mur
ders, the innumerable wrongs which burden and im
pede our humanity, — what are all these but shock
ing and unanswerable testimonies to the reality of

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 23
an evil spirit — a wily and malignant force which
works not for righteousness but for unrighteous
ness and hate and cruelty — which has somehow
found its way into the heart of man? Let one walk
whither he will, and determine as he may to see
nothing but the true and the beautiful and the good,
yet right there before him and everywhere will stand
the facts, obvious and obstinate as facts always will be,
and by no policy or procedure to be ignored, telling the
story of sin, and with an irresistible logic demonstrat
ing the power of sin in the world.
Mere infirmities, mistakes, stumblings, is it once more
affirmed? But are they? Is that the sober judgment
of mankind on the moral quality of the dispositions and
acts just enumerated? Are these stealings, these per
juries, these social vices and villainies, these slaughter
ings of the innocent, just infirmities, mistakes, stum
blings, and nothing more?
What are the terms with which the world designates
those who invade private rights, and violate the sanc
tity of homes, and break laws which are for the com
mon good? Do we feel it is enough to call these trans
gressors simply " erring members " of society, " mis
guided enthusiasts," men who have " slipped " in trying
to secure their own "highest development"? Not at
all. They are unhesitatingly characterized as persons
who have gone wrong and are justly to be blamed and
punished. When men are brought before judges and
juries to answer for their misdeeds, the question is not
whether they think they have been foolish and made
serious mistakes or not, but whether they are guilty or
not guilty. In these evil doings the State sees some
thing besides mental aberration; it sees a quality of

24 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
wickedness, and it does not hesitate to bring home to
the lawless the charge of guilt, and to visit the guilt,
when it is proved, with penalties. The words men use
in characterizing conduct, the distinctions running
through all languages whereby the good and the bad,
the pure and the impure, the just and the unjust, the
godlike and the ungodlike, are set over against each
other in sharp contrast, are built up on the same basis.
That men are sinful is a conviction that has worked its
way into all communities and races, and into all forms
in which the thoughts and feelings of men come into
manifestation. Not only, therefore, on looking abroad, do we see
things going on in every day life which justify the
charge of sinfulness in man, but we discover that the
settled opinions and institutions and modes of speech
and common procedures of mankind recognize and re
volve around the idea that sinful acts, or such acts as
involve the moral nature in guilt and render the indi
vidual chargeable with these acts Undeserving, may be
committed and are committed far and wide. That
there is sin in the world is not merely an assertion of
the Scriptures and an article in the Confessions of the
Church, and an occasion and warrant for the interposi
tion of God in Christ, but it is a fact generally recog
nized and admitting of no successful denial.
But why is sin sin? What is there in any given act
which justifies us in designating it by the peculiar and
dreadful term sinful? What gives to a feeling or a
deed this bad quality? On what ground do men expose
themselves to the charge that they are sinners?
There are two answers to this question, each supply-

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 25
mental of the other, and both together so clear and ade
quate that they would seem to leave nothing further to
be desired.
The first answer is that sin is sin because it is the vi
olation of the law of God. In other words intelligently
to transgress the law of God, whether this law be the
unwritten moral law which has its certification in the
reason and conscience of men, or the revealed moral
law of the Old Testament and the New, is to commit
sin. God is perfect. His law is perfect. His law re
quires nothing, it forbids nothing, which is not in har
mony with the ultimate demands of absolute right and
supreme wisdom and infinite love. It is to God's law
that we owe obedience. It is to God's law that we are
bound to conform. For us and for the universe, this
law is above and behind all other laws. It has its seat
in the bosom of God where it is cherished forever. It
has its source as a positive commanding rule in the
eternal reason of God. It registers its requirements
with less or more distinctness on the tablets of every hu
man soul. Paul speaks of " the invisible things " of
God — " even His everlasting power and divinity " being
brought home to the understanding of men " through the
things that are made." He speaks of Gentiles who
" show the work of the law written in their hearts."
He goes even further and avows that the most vicious
and depraved and reprobate have knowledge of the
righteous judgment of God. What the apostle affirms
has universal confirmation. Men everywhere know
there is a difference between truth and falsehood, be
tween justice and injustice, between right and wrong.
Over us all and binding on us all is this law of God.
It has manifold applications. It covers all thoughts,

26 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
all emotions, all words, all deeds. It is mandatory and
says: "Thou shalt." It is prohibitory and says: "Thou
shalt not." It is the power and wisdom and goodness
and justice and holiness of God — the infinite perfectness
of God — in incessant and uniform operation for the reg
ulation of the lives of creatures who have been made in
His own image.
The second answer is that we are so constituted, in
tellectually, morally, spiritually, and have in us such
possibilities and aptitudes, and are beckoned on by such
a high destiny, that to falter and go astray and do the
unworthy when we might do the worthy, is to sin.
Were it thinkable that there is no Moral Governor over
us to whom we owe allegiance, and no moral law which
we are bound to obey, and at the same time thinkable
that our own natures and destinies should remain pre
cisely what they are, these very natures and destinies
would still put the stamp of sinfulness on those acts
which the law of God and the constitution of the hu
man soul now alike stamp with sinfulness. For a man
to be recreant to the type of his being, — to be false to
the ideal which is in him, not because he has thought
it out and set it before him simply, but in virtue of his
creation in the divine likeness, is not to make a mistake
alone, it is to sin.
Thus the law of God and our own human constitutions
unite in demanding pure and righteous living and high
and holy character, and in stamping all departures from
this demand as wrong to the point of sinfulness.
The law of God is the demand of our nature: for it is
what we are made to expect and need. It is the ulti
mate reach of our powers; for while we cannot in good
morals stop this side the law of God we cannot go be-

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 27
yond it. It is the goal of our search: and our con
sciences have peace and joy only in its fulfilment.
When we pause to study the matter in the light of our
own intuitions and experiences we see that the law of
God is what we are under, and what in view of our powers
and possibilities we ought to be under. It is not the law
of God pointing one way, and the reason and conscience
of man pointing another way; the two converge, and
both alike insist on righteousness in heart and life.
On the one hand, then, the law of God is holy, just
and good. It is what the Psalmist calls it — " perfect."
We cannot conceive of a higher standard; we cannot
conceive of a better rule of conduct. It is the outcome
of the Perfect Mind, and is therefore ideal. All the
workings of this law are in the direction of the abso
lutely pure and true and right. It wins the homage of
men and constrains the reason and the moral sense just
in the ratio in which there is advance in holiness.
On the other hand, man, in virtue of this law which
is over him, and which makes its voice heard in his
soul, is constrained by every conceivable obligation to
cherish and possess what is pure and true and right.
If this obligation does not rest on a man what obliga
tion does? If a man is not bound to aim at the pure
and true and right at what is he bound to aim? When
a man knows that any given requirement has its incep
tion in what is pure and true and right, that it falls into
line and harmonizes with all best ends, he knows that
he incurs guilt if he does not meet the requirement.
To strive after perfection, to realize to oneself his
own best conception of being and of life, is something
incumbent on every free moral -agent. It is not as
sumption to say this, — it is what a man's own soul says

28 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
to him. The more one reflects and the more one comes
under moral influences the more will this be felt. A
man is sensible that he has demeaned himself and done
wrong when he refuses to bow reverently to the pure
and the true and the right, and to yield his aspirations and
powers to the highest uses and ends of which he has
knowledge. Of course the motive in all actions has to be con
sidered. In the mere mechanical part of an action
there can be no sin. A thing cannot Bin. If there is
to be sin there must be will, some purpose, some aim,
some feeling. Even children are able to distinguish
between the moral qualities of actions done with good
or bad intent, or intentionally or accidentally done.
Men who have any intelligence or heart in them never
fail to make these simple distinctions.
Here is a watchman, discreet and conscientious, who
has charge of a factory. At midnight he is going his
rounds of observation. His foot slips, or he is taken
suddenly ill and falls and his lamp is broken; and, quick
as a flash a fire is started and the flames spread and
the property is consumed. Here is a man who thinks
he has been wronged; he cherishes a grudge; he deter
mines on revenge; he forms his plans and watches his
opportunity, and when the street is still and the night
is dark, he takes his bundle of shavings and creeps
stealthily to some least exposed part of the building,
adjusts his kindling materials — made as inflammable as
possible, so that they will be most likely to do fatal ex
ecution — applies the match, and then before the light
has grown lurid against the clouded sky, he slinks
away and the flames do what he bids them. In effect
the same thing has been done in both these instances.

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 29
The same element of destruction has been employed.
The loss is the same. But one of these men is the
object of everybody's pity; the other is an incendiary.
Men go to the one with their tenderest commiseration;
if they could lay their hands on the other while their
indignation is yet at boiling point it would require the
presence of much sober second thought to keep them
from lynching him on the spot. What makes the differ
ence? Why is one counted unfortunate and the other
criminal? It is simply and solely the motive behind.
No doubt much which may seem to be grievous sin in
the estimation of men may be only trivial in the sight
of God; for the measure of intelligence which one pos
sesses, the high or low development of conscience, the
circumstance of race and religion and civilization, are
all taken into account by the loving heavenly Father,
and His condemnation will never run beyond ill=desert.
No doubt, too, much which may appear to be only
slightly offensive in the judgment of men may be ex
tremely offensive in the thought of God; for when
everything is considered He sees that the conduct ought
to have been better. In any event all this can be con
fidently left to God. He will do right.
All the same, not to do God's will, so far as we know
it, is to sin.
Putting these two facts together, the fact that the law
of God is a perfect law, and the fact that man is so con
stituted that he must aim at and conform his life to a
perfect standard, or miss the true end of his being, it is
easy to see how sin is incurred through transgression.
To depart from the law of God is to depart from the ab
solute right. A thrust at the law of God is a thrust at
moral perfection. An infraction of the law of God is a

30 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
voluntary violence done to one's own soul; for it is not
law merely which has been broken, but an eternally
right and fit law. To love God with all the heart and
soul and mind and strength has a moral propriety.
When a man declares, therefore, that he does not
know why he is bound to do what God in His law re
quires him to do, and why he is guilty of sin if he does
not do what God in His law insists on his doing, the
ready reply is that the obligation does not rest merely
on the fact that something authoritative has been im
posed by a Being claiming a right to control, — a right
surely which belongs to God, — but it grows out of the
unimpeachable moral suitableness of the claim to obedi
ence which is set forth. It is not alone that God is
supreme governor and lawgiver, and as such is entitled
to our unquestioning allegiance, but that the law of
God is perfect, which lends its awful emphasis of crim
inality to the transgression of the law. It is a law
which makes for righteousness, for pure and elevated
and symmetrical character, and for the well=being of all
mankind. The law of God is a law which, in every
element and end and operation of it, so far as it is pos
sible for us to comprehend its nature and working is
justified by the supreme reason of the universe.
Let no man, then, venture to belittle an act of trans
gression. To break God's law is to sin. It is a mistake, it
is a weakness, it is a blunder and all that; but it is some
thing more terrible than these things — it is a sin.
When a man takes the Ten Commandments and deliber
ately runs counter to what they say he shall do or shall
not do, he sins. When a man takes the Sermon on the
Mount and crumples it up and disdainfully casts it aside
as so much rubbish to the void, and goes striding on in

THE FACT AND GROUND OF SIN 31
the selfishness and pride of his own heart,' he sins.
When a man takes the moral requirements which he
finds written out in the constitution of his own soul, and
through indifference or for pleasure or gain tramples
them in the mire, he sins. When a man is unjust, he
sins. When a man is false and treacherous, he sins.
When a man is impure and base, he sins. When a man
is hard and overreaching, he sins. When a man who
can pay them refuses to pay his honest debts, he sins.
When a man holds out the temptation of a bribe to a
public official, or when a man allows his hands to be
tainted with a bribe, he sins. When a man revels in
vulgarity, or rolls his volley of oaths out on the clean
air, he sins. When a man lies, he sins. When a man
oppresses his fellow-men, and scorns the lowly, and
heartlessly stops his ear to the cry of need, he sins.
When a man steals, embezzles, forges, misleads the
young, betrays the trust of the innocent and confiding,
he sins. When a man is so intent on selfish ends that
means are nothing to him, and he cares not how many
tears fall and how many hearts are wrung with agony,
if only he can accomplish his purpose, he sins. When
a man conceives and fosters hate; gives way to feelings
of envy and jealousy, utters that which is bitter and
slanderous, he sins. When a man drops his life down
into the ranges of appetite and passion, and lets all the
fine spiritual possibilities of his nature run to waste, he
sins. When a man lifts his own will up in opposition
to the divine will, he sins. When a man declines to
walk square at the front of all the light he has, and to
match his life against the highest standards, he sins.
So long as the constitution of the soul remains what it
is, and the system of moral government under which we

32 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
are — and in which there are such marked and uncom
promising distinctions between the true and the false,
the pure and the impure, the right and the wrong, —
remains what it is, to transgress will be sin. There is
no other designation for it which just fits it and fills it
out than this designation of sin. We may do our best
to evade the harshness and humiliation of the word, but
exactly that is what our wrong=doing is — it is sin. It is
what was in the thought of the Psalmist when he cried
out: " Against Thee, Thee only have I sinned." It is
what shaped itself into confession on the lips of the re
turning prodigal: "Father I have sinned against heaven
and in thy sight." It is what forced itself with the
energy of a swift conviction into the mind of Peter when
he began to realize somewhat more fully the nature
of Jesus: " Depart from me, for I am a sinful man."
It is a sad and awful thing to look in on the soul and
see just what it is; but happy is the man who does not
try to blind himself to the exact facts of his condition.
Thrice happy if, on discovering in what defilement and
bondage and guilt his sin has involved him, he is able
to say with the great apostle: " I thank God, through
Jesus Christ our Lord."

XCbe ^Universality of Sin.

" If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves and the
truth is not in us." — 1 John 1 : 8.
" For all have sinned, and fall short of the glory of God." — Rom.
3: 23.
"Being darkened in their understanding, alienated from the life
of God because of the ignorance that is in them, because of the
hardening of their hearts." — Eph. 4: 18.
" There is a fact of experience as old as history, as widely spread
as the human race, and more intensely, irresistibly, importunately
real than all the gathered experience of art and policy and soience,
— the fact which philosophers call moral evil and Christians sin.
It rests upon no questionable interpretation of an eastern allegory.
Webreathe it, wefeel it, we commit it, we see its havoc all around
us. It is no dogma, but a sad, solemn, inevitable fact. The animal
creation has a law of its being, a condition of its perfection,
which it instinctively and invariably pursues. Man has a law of
his being, a coni-ition of his perfection, which he instinctively tends
to disobey. And what he does to=day, he has been doing from the
first record of his existence." — Illingworth in Lux Mundi.
"All men are sinners . . . Modern literature is full of confes
sions of this sad yet incontestable fact. Listen to Lord Byron as,
in language quite as strong as that of the Bible, he teaches this
doctrine: ' How beautiful is all this visible world I
How glorious in its action and itself I
But we who name ourselves the sovereigns, we
Half dust, half deity, alike unfit
To sink or soar, with our mixed essence make
A conflict of its elements, and breathe
The breath of degradation and of pride,
Contending with low wants and lofty will
Till our mortality predominates,
And men are — what they name not to themselves
And trust not to each other.1
The fact stands undeniable. All men are sinners," — Stearns,
34

II.
THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN.
" Total depravity " is perhaps one of the most unfor
tunate phrases which was ever introduced into the
language with which men carry on religious discussions.
It is needlessly offensive, and this in itself in dealing
with a matter of such grave import as the sin of the
human heart, is a consideration not to be lightly set
aside. Then it does not mean what it seems to mean, but
has to be explained and qualified until the explanations
and qualifications quite conceal, or if they do not work
mischief to this extent, blunt the edge of the tri'+h
which lies at the core of this old traditional statement
of the moral condition of mankind. Men are not just
as bad, and just as bad in every particular, as they can be;
and it is not right, and still less is it expedient, to use
speech which seems to imply a belief that they are.
Here is the fact, the one central and dreadful fact
which there is no successful gainsaying — men are sin
ners. This means that they are out of line with God;
that they are alienated from the life of God; and that
they are making, not God's will, but their own wills,
the regulative standard of aim and action. This, for
substance, is what it is to be sinners; and men are sin
ners because indictments like these can be lodged
against them.
To say this would seem to be enough without employ-
35

36 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
ing words which, while they state a main fact that is
profoundly and painfully true, make some incidental
statements which, according to any generally accepted
exegesis or candid theological teaching or observation
of the world, are not true and have to be withdrawn.
Now this charge of sinfulness, or of inward and cen
tral disharmony with God, is one to which all men are
exposed. Not a few men, exceptionally hard of heart
and notoriously wicked, but all men, — all men up to the
moment when they have been wrought upon and
changed into new creations by the grace of God, are
sinners. In form, at least, most thoughtful men acqui
esce in this charge. As was made clear in previous
statements, there are those who deny the fact of sin,
and reduce all transgressions to mere mistake and folly,
but the large majority freely admit that they are sin
ners. The trouble, indeed, is that these admissions are made
somewhat too freely, or if not too freely, with too little
sense of their import. For few words fall from our lips
more readily than those which involve us in guilt be
fore God. At the same time there are no facts which
large numbers of men appear to confront in such an
easy, jaunty temper as this fact of their disregard of the
Author of all being, and their disobedience of the di
vine law, and their disloyalty to the Moral Governor of
the Universe. The words of confession have glib utter
ance on the tongue, but the convictions for which they
stand, or ought to stand, work only small disturbance
of the moral sensibilities. Men will say: "Certainly
we are sinners; we never question it." But having said
so much, there is the end of it. The awful reality of it
does not awaken, does not burden, does not torment the

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 37
soul, and destroy all peace of conscience. Not unfre-
quently the statement is turned off as a joke, and on all
sides saluted with laughter. The fact that there is a
defilement in the moral nature of man as he comes into
the world, and develops in his life, which must be
cleansed; that there is an abnormal tendency in the af
fections which must be corrected; that there is a wrong
bias in the will which must be rectified; and a long list
as well, even in the best of persons, of wrong thoughts
and misdeeds to be taken into the account, has a con
spicuous place in the creeds men construct, and also in
the vocabularies of ordinary conversation; yet uncount
ed numbers of people fall in with the prevailing currents
of opinion and move on in their thinking and planning
and doing just as if to be thus radically and actually
wrong and in moral misadjustment with God were a
thing of slightest moment. A wart on the finger, a de
rangement in digestion, a failure in the harvest, a false
figure in the ledgeft:=column, a miscarriage in financial
schemes and operations, the sinking of a boat, the burn
ing of a store or factory, a temporary loss of reputation
in money or social or political circles, will often occa
sion more real anxiety than any thought of sin.
Just now both the gravity of sin and the universality
of sin, or the two facts that sin is sin, and that all men
are sinners, seem to rest only lightly on the average con
science. Some think the reason for this is to be found in the
unwonted stress which of late years has been laid on
the divine love. Not that this love, when rightly viewed,
can be spoken of too enthusiastically. But it has been
so presented, so some claim, as to give the impression of
a love that is mere easy=going good nature before which

38 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
such courses of wrong=doing and folly as we can run in
to here in a brief earthly career can be of only small
consequence. Some think it due to a changed sentiment touching
God's estimate of what ought to be and of what surely
will be, the outcome of unforgiven sin in the world be
yond the grave. If such transgressions as may be com
mitted here are not to seal the doom of the soul in the
future; if transgressions are not acts which involve
guilt but are only mistakes and shortcomings incident
to the limitations of our present sphere, then it is not
strange that sin, on the part of many people at least,
should be considered a matter to be adjourned to a more
convenient season. Why dread it so keenly; why
agonize over it as if one were in the grip of a deadly
monster; why shrink from it with such a sense of
shame as if its touch were pollution; why look upon it
as something unutterably offensive to God, if sin is not
to be followed up by any signal disapprobation, and
sinful and sinless are to fare substantially alike in the
Hereafter? Some think it is due to a growing sense of the dignity
of man. Man is too lofty a creature; his regency is too
wide; his faculties are too august and splendid, for it to
be in keeping with his self-respect to think of himself as
far out of the way, and especially as a moral ruin. He
stretches out his hand and touches the stars. He
plays with the lightnings and makes the subtle forces
of electricity do his bidding. He sounds the depths of
the sea. He goes down into laboratories and stands
side by side with nature while she dissolves and re-
combines her elements, He harnesses fire and water
and compels them to work together and drive his ships

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 39
and draw his vast trains and set the wheels of his mills
in motion. He composes immortal poems; he delivers
sublime orations; he paints pictures of enduring glory;
he chisels marble into forms which are the wonder and
charm of the ages; he constructs sciences and leads
armies and builds cities and states. Shall a being en
dowed and equipped after this magnificient fashion ac
knowledge any serious distemper of soul, and fall on
his knees and cry out for deliverance from the pang and
burden of what can be called nothing less than a body
of death?
Some think it is due to the fact that in our modern
preaching so little emphasis is laid on the holiness and
justice and goodness and matchless perfection of the
law. The law which the prophet and lawgiver of Israel
formulated in the ten words, and the sweet singer mag
nified in the undying characterizations of the nineteenth
Psalm, and our Lord interpreted and exalted in His
Sermon on the Mount, is not properly set forth. The
sweep and grandeur of the law are not exhibited. The
claims of the law are not insisted on. Men break the
law without any apparent consciousness of what they
are doing, for the reason, so it is asserted, that it has not
been made clear to them that the law is the expression
of the Divine mind, and as such is at once the voice of
infinite wisdom, of infinite righteousness, and of in
finite love, and hence is infinitely sacred.
But be the reasons for this indifference to sin, or for
making light of sin, what they may, both the fact of sin
and the universality of sin remain. Of all the millions
of earth there is not one, who has reached years of
moral responsibility, who does not need, unless he has
already received it, to receive the Divine forgiveness of

40 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
his sins, and to have his heart made over anew by the
grace of God in Christ. "If we say that we have no
sin, we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us."
So, too, do we deceive ourselves when we accept the
conclusion that sin through the commandment is not
"exceeding sinful." It is not necessary to be gross and
monstrous sinners in order to be sinners at all; nor is it
necessary to commit gross and monstrous sins in order
to be exceeding sinful. " For whosoever shall keep the
whole law, and yet stumble in one point, he has become
guilty of all."
There are three broad inferences touching the moral
and spiritual condition of men in general which the
facts seem to warrant.
The first is that there is a sinful tendency in men
which they bring with them when they come into the
world and take their place in the ranks of life. Call it
"original sin"; call it "native depravity "; call it "he
redity," or the lingering trace of animalism still to be
found in the human species; call it what one will, the
tendency is in men, and in virtue of it men are wrong
in their inclinations, and they go wrong in their actions.
The second inference, already anticipated in this last
statement, is that there is a steady drift to be discerned
in the conduct of men, which shows plainly that if they
are not held in check, or in some way restrained and
guided by higher influences than those which originate
in their own unaided purposes, their gravitation will be
downward. The third is that this sinfulness with which all men
are chargeable, and which makes itself evident in so
many ways in the practical living of men, has for its
pith disregard of God. Men are wrong at the center.

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 41
It is the fountain which is defiled. We are bound to
accept and love and reverence and obey God. It is a
duty manifest and unquestionable, here and there and
everywhere, and in all things, to do God's will. To this
end men must know God's will. To this end again, men
must search and study. In a spiritually healthy soul,
instinct and reason and desire and aspiration would
unite to lead one out after God. As it is, how content
multitudes are to remain without God!
What, now, are some of the reasons or proofs to be
brought forward in justification of this charge of a sin
fulness or a disharmony with God which amounts to
guilt in all men? What is there in the line of what we
are told in Revelation, or see in the conduct of others, or
know and feel in our own experience, to justify us in
the conclusion that there is no human heart without its
inborn tendency to sin, and no morally responsible life
without its record of sin? If there be such a fact as sin,
— such a derangement in the relation of the race to God
under present and actual conditions that guilt is in
volved, it is because some men are sinners. With the
fact admitted that some men are sinners, on what
ground may we infer, or rather must we infer, that all
men are sinners?
From the nature of the case much that was said con
cerning the fact of sin in the preceding chapter has a
direct bearing on this point, and might be brought for
ward again in substantiation of the charge of a sinful
ness in all men. The testimony to sin found in the
consciousness of men, and in the increasing readiness
with which men just in the ratio of their spirituality of
mind and heart confess their sinfulness, and in what is
going on amongst men in the world, is a testimony of

42 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
widest reach and might well be left to settle the case.
The proof already adduced goes to show not only that
there is sin, but that all men are in the toils and under
the power and guilt of sin.
But there are some additional considerations, or these
same considerations in different aspects, which easily
lend themselves to this sweeping charge against our hu
man nature.
Observe, then, as an evidence on this point not to be
lightly set aside, the restraints which have to be pro
vided to keep men from breaking out in open trans
gressions. There are many very wicked things which many
people do not do. This probably is one of the explan
ations of the deceptions men practice on themselves in
regard to their real moral character and standing with
God. Sin is associated with sinful acts, and sinful acts
are thought to be only the graver kinds of disobedience.
But as these men do none of these things to a degree
of conspicuousness which attracts attention, as they do
not lie in any wholesale way, nor steal, nor bear false
witness, nor neglect their families, nor betray trusts,
nor oppress the poor except as others do, nor rob their
fellows, nor commit murder, it does not seem to them
that they ought to be taken very severely to task.
Especially so, when it is remembered that on the other
side they are truthful as the world goes, kindly, provi
dent, trustworthy, in every respect good citizens, and
according to all social standards eminently respectable.
But in the face of this defence, may it not be affirmed
that there are multitudes in which it is not inward prin
ciple, but outward and up^buttressing considerations
which keep back from violating moral obligations? It

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 43
is one of the helpful factors in conduct of which men
in the rush and whirl of business appear often to take
but little notice, but there are whole systems of moral
support in the very organization of civilized life. If
these supports were removed many who now stand
would go down in wreck and ruin. Men are often like
buildings with crumbling foundations and tottering
walls. They stand; but it is the shores and props which
hold them up.
Here are parents. How often men walk correctly out
of regard for their parents. How the treasured coun
sels of a venerable father, and the remembered looks of
a sainted mother, have come in to turn the balance when
good and evil were in the scales, and it was a question
which should be allowed to kick the beam. There are
men and women not a few in all the generations who
have been preserved in integrity through their tender
reverence and love for cherished parents.
Here are wives. It is said of Jacob in the sacred
narrative, that he " went his way and the angels of God
met him." To how many men have their wives, faith
ful and true, been as the angels of God! From how
much crookedness and flagrancy have men been saved
by the holy influence of wives! Into how many paths
of profligacy and corruption would men walk were it
not that at the opportune moment they are held back
by the silken cords of domestic affection!
Here are children. Every man knows that his name
and fame, whatever they be, must descend to his chil
dren as an inalienable inheritance. If he is a drunk
ard, a gambler, an extortioner; if he is corrupt and
criminal and recreant in any way, they who come after
him must walk under the shadow and bear the burden

44 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
of this transmitted infamy. This is part of what Bacon
meant when he said that he who has wife and children
has given hostages to fortune. He has certainly come
under sacred bonds to behave well in the world. Chil
dren are conservative forces, and they bind to morality.
So business relations and social relations perform for
men the same office of beneficent restraint. Men think
of things that they would do if the way were clear; of
schemes and projects they would enter were there no
possibilities of exposure and no sharp penalties attach
ing to exposure. But partners — this one holding back
that one to=day, and that one this to=morrow; the good
opinion of the community; the circles in which one de
lights to move, tether them to moral behavior. Men
are like great steamers lying out in a roadstead. They
have, engines in them, and the fire is burning, and
every little while one may hear the impatient wheels
splash against the water; but the boats are held steady
in their moorings by the mighty anchors which are out
side of them. Only let men get out from under these
regulating influences; only let them escape, so far as
possible, the reach of this combination of forces which
constrain to moral propriety, and see how quick, in the
majority of instances, bad impulses will creep to the
front, and rule the hour!
How many men there are in the country who will do
things when they visit a city which nothing would in
duce them to do in their own neighborhoods. How
many men there are who will do in New York or Wash
ington or San Francisco what hardly any amount of
temptation would mislead them to do in the communi
ties where they are known. How many men there are
who will do on the continent of Europe, when hidden
away in the midst of peoples and institutions and Ian-

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 45
guages and customs unlike those of the homeland,
which they would blush to think of in America. Send
men out on the frontiers of civilization, and see with
what ease in many cases their moral characters will go
to pieces. Many a man fancies he has virtue of the
genuine sort, when a mere change in latitude will be
enough to overcome it.
These are symptoms of what is in man. They are
the revelations of himself to himself. For it is not
what a man does, but what a man wants to do, and
would do, if only he could do it safely, which settles the
question of his standing before God. If I would lie, if
it were not for the fear of being detected and exposed,
and so am restrained from lying not by principle and
hatred of falsehood, but by prudential motives simply,
what am I in the sight of God? If fear of the law and
the estimate in which I shall come to be held are the
only considerations which keep my hands out of my
neighbor's money till, what am I in the sight of God?
It was searching instruction, but it was wholesome, and
went to the heart of the ethics of the situation when
our Lord said that a look might make a man an adulterer,
and that hatred might enroll one among murderers,
though no blood should stain his hands.
It shows the power and value of the strange some
thing which we call Public Opinion; and the power and
value of those subtle influences which spring out of
society relations; and the power and value of the home
around whose hearth=stone and altar and family board
parents and children feel the drawing of a common
bond of love, that there is weight in them to control as
they do the chafing passions and criminal impulses of
the lower side of the nature of man.
At the same time it discloses the real spiritual condi-

46 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
tion of the soul, when in so many instances it is these
considerations, and these alone, which inspire rectitude,
and hold one to purity and righteousness. It is not
imagination, it is fact, that the human heart is deceitful
above all things and desperately wicked. No man is
pure till God purifies him. In no soul is there a true
heavenly atmosphere till the Holy Spirit has shed it
abroad. At this point, turn the thought about a little, and see
how the sinfulness now under consideration is made
manifest in the strength of the bonds through which
men will break in order to gain their ends and gratify
their wishes. It has just been said that blood ties, that
the social circles in which we move or wish to move,
that business considerations, that regard for the good
opinion of our fellow=men, are a kind of moral police,
and that what they furnish for us in the way of motive,
operates with great effectiveness to hold us in the paths
of a circumspect and upright life. Our pride, our am
bition, our avarice, our affections, our foresight of evil
and disastrous consequences, are often the strongest
allies of external rectitude. For if it were not for the
shame and defeat and ultimate loss, and the heart-
achings and bitter cryings of those we love, and the
misery sure to follow, every little storm of temptation
which arises would carry whole fleets of what seem full*
rigged and staunch moral characters to the bottom. As
it is, notwithstanding all the restraints which friendship
and personal interest; all the restraints which the mem
ories of the past and the hopes of the future — reverence
for the dead and care for the living; all the restraints
which the here and the hereafter can throw about them,
multitudes appalling to contemplate, break away and

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 47
sweep headlong down into the abysses of open degrada
tion and crime. Appetite clamors, passions swell and
swirl in the bosom, impulses grow hot and imperative,
and, unchecked by any thought of reputation, or inter
est, or family, or friends, or the state, men walk the
burning ways in which the appetites and passions and
impulses beckon, and are lost. Like Absalom they re
volt in spite of all appeals of wisdom and interest and
affection and patriotism. Like Esau they sell their
birthright for pottage.
Nor are these exceptional instances. Men with large
brains, men brilliantly educated and of kindly disposi
tions, and remarkable social aptitudes, men of recluse
habits, of wealth, men who are the inheritors of illustri
ous ancestral renown, and whose future glows with the
radiance of noon=day, men who might breathe an atmos
phere perfumed with all delights, wander off into prodi
gal recreancy and wild riotings. If it were the ignorant,
the low down, the cramped and fettered and bondaged,
and they alone, who are accustomed to break out in
these immoral mutinies, we could easily generalize and
say it is lack of learning — they are not properly in
structed; or it is their degradation, their poverty, their
bad environment, which is the seat of all their reckless
ness and lawlessness and wrong=doing. But the expla
nation of this wayward and wicked conduct does not lie
on the surface; nor is it confined to any one class in
society. It runs through from top to bottom. These
liabilities are in all men; and no rank nor order ever
escapes without furnishing examples in every generation
of an evil inherent, and sometimes mightily regnant, in
human nature.
Dear George Herbert has a little poem in which both

48 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
the restraints which hold men back from -wrongdoing
and vice and the restraints through which they break in
order to secure some coveted end or indulgence, are ex
hibited in his own quaint way. The poem is called
" Sin." "Lord, with what care hast thou begirt us round!
Parents first season us; then sohoolmasters
Deliver us to laws; they send us bound
To rules of reason, holy messengers.
Pulpits and Sundays, sorrow dogging sin,
Afflictions sorted, anguish of all sizes,
Fine nets and stratagems to catch us in,
Bibles laid open, millions of surprises,
Blessings beforehand, ties of gratefulness,
The sound of glory ringing in our ears;
Without our shame, within our consciences;
Angels and grace, eternal hopes and fears;
Yet all these fences, and their whole array,
One cunning bosom-sin blows quite away."
This fact of an evil tendency within us, and of the
slight coaxing often required to induce us to yield to
the tendency, is humiliating; but it is still a fact and
better be recognized. For would it be possible for any
man to look up into the benignant faces of a fond
father and mother, and especially a fond father and
mother whom the years have sanctified; would it be
possible for any man to stand front to front with a wife
whose agony of soul utters itself in every tone of the
voice, in every turn of the eye, in every line of the face,
in every yearning prayer; would it be possible for any
man to look down upon the group of tender innocent
children who meet him with gladness at the door, and sit
with him at the glowing fire, and from his hands receive
their daily bread, and then to go from these scenes and

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 49
associations down into the mad whirl of drunken revelry
and from revelry into habitual besotment and every
sort of vice and crime, if there were not a certain evil
something in him, now showing itself in stubborn defi
ance of right and duty, and now in wild rebellious out
breaks against whatever is high and holy, which is in
him, not because he is morally peculiar, but because he
shares in a possibility which is common to mankind?
How else than on the basis of the recognition of this
evil something in the heart of man are we to explain the
ease with which single individuals and whole communi
ties can be carried down and the difficulty that is en
countered in trying to carry them up? Why so many
work houses and reform schools and prisons and peni
tentiaries? Why these horrible recitals day by day in
the columns of the newspapers of thefts and arsons and
riots and assaults and robberies and murders? In what
other light can history be intelligently read, or current
life interpreted? If it were as hard work to educate
men to crime as it is to virtue; if it cost as much of pa
tient faithful training to make villains as it does to make
saints; if it took them as much across the grain to get
men into vice as to get them away from vice, there
would be no inventions nor appliances within the reach
of anybody by which such astounding results of unholy
cunning and audacious wickedness could be accom
plished. What do we read? "One sinner destroyeth
much good." Just one does it, because it is so easy to
win men into destructive ways.
There is a power in association for good as well as
evil. One benevolent man inoculates a whole commu
nity with the spirit of an ampler generosity. One man
putting on a brave front in face of actual or threatened

50 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
disaster inspires others with hopefulness. When the
one becomes two, and the two, four, and they all work
together, their own enthusiasm swells, and good results
on a wide scale are sure to follow. But it is the upward
propulsion and not the downward which taxes the brain
and nerve sympathy. The downward is easy. Just one
man, as for substance the passage has it, if he be indus
trious and skillful in iniquity, can lead more souls
astray in a single year than a good man can save in a
lifetime. It is because there is so much evil in the
heart to co=operate with him.
In crowning proof of the universal sinfulness here
asserted consider our Lord's view of men and His
method of dealing with them.
From first to last the Bible's estimate of man is that
he is sinful. It has been taken for granted that this is
too evident to be seriously questioned by anybody.
Hence no passages to this effect have been quoted. But
the position taken by Jesus with reference to the moral
condition and needs of men was so impressive and con
vincing that it calls for special emphasis.
His presence here on earth as the Son of God was in
itself the implication of a lapsed and condemned hu
manity, and He defined His mission to be seeking and
saving the lost. This sinfulness of every human soul is
the dark background of the instruction He imparted, of
the warnings He uttered, of the sweet and tender ap
peals He voiced, and of His death on the cross. To be
rid of this sinfulness, whether in the form of pride
or covetousness, or hate or unholy ambition, or pro
nounced opposition of will to God, or in the form of open
transgressions, lies, extortions, oppressions, thefts, adul
teries, murders, He made a condition of admission to

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 51
the kingdom of heaven. No man was bad enough to
be excluded from the kingdom, if only he would believe
in the Christ, and turn from his wrong=doing; but no
man was good enough to enter the kingdom without a
renewal of the heart. " Except your righteousness shall
exceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees
ye shall in no wise enter into the kingdom of heaven."
This much may be admitted, While Jesus recognized
the need of a moral and spiritual change in all alike to
qualify them to be true children of the light and fit cit
izens of the kingdom, He at the same time recognized
grades in guilt and offensiveness. He saw a more or less
of bad in the bad, as He saw a more or less of good in
the good. In other words, what was and is patent to
everybody could not be otherwise than open to His di
vine vision.
But such rare qualities as many men possess, and
such excellencies as many men illustrate, in the estima
tion of the Great Teacher and the Savior of the world,
did not set aside and nullify the ground for the charge
of a universal sinfulness in man.
There is a passage in Luke which appears to be con
clusive on this point. For in it we see how Christ
never lifted His eyes from the fact that one may do
many good deeds and yet be a sinner in the sight of
heaven. Notice just the way in which the matter is
put. " And as ye would that men should do to you, do
ye also to them likewise. And if ye love them that love
you what thank have ye? for even sinners love those
that love them. And if ye do good to them that do good
to you, what thank have you? for even sinners do the
same. And if ye lend to them of whom ye hope to re
ceive, what thank have ye? Even sinners lend to sin-

52 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
ners." Here are men who love, who do good, who are
helpful with their possessions — so much is cheerfully
conceded by our Lord, still they are " sinners." Being
sinners they must go very much deeper down than any
love and goodness and helpfulness so far shown by them
can reach before they will be able to escape the charge
in the thought of Jesus of being sinners.
The parable of the Pharisee and publican is classic
teaching on the point of the sinfulness of men in gen
eral, and especially of men who in a spirit of self*
righteousness are disposed to think they are without
sin. Follow the words along for a little: " The Phari
see stood and prayed thus with himself: God I thank
Thee, that I am not as the rest of men, extortioners,
unjust, adulterers, or even as this publican. I fast
twice in the week; I give tithes of all that I get."
There it is— a schedule of deeds and qualities which
in themselves are by no means to be despised. Were all
members of churches in condition to match this record
in cleanliness and fidelity and religious devotion, the
outlook for Christianity would be brighter than it is.
No grinding severity, no injustice, no degrading license
in the life; fasts observed twice a week; a tenth of all
gains turned over to religious uses! A man of prayer,
too; for there he was, as our Lord has drawn his por
trait, in the temple offering his thanksgivings! It is a
bead-roll of good works which, in a certain way, any
body might count off with considerable satisfaction.
On the surface of it it really does seem like carrying
matters to an extreme to challenge the acceptability of
such a man,
But Christ did it. Christ drew this outline, and He
put in all these very surprising specifications that it

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 53
might be clear to all eyes how empty such deeds and
attitudes can be of any acceptable moral value; and how
the men who are least disposed to call themselves sin
ful are most likely to be radically wrong.
While the Pharisee was going through with his de
votional " performances," and parading his own excel
lencies and making much of his worthy doings, and not
once thinking how offensive everything about him was
to God, there was another figure engaged in prayer. He
stood " afar off," and " would not lift up so much as his
eyes unto heaven, but smote his breast, saying: God,
be propitiated to me, the sinner." It was a confession
of sinfulness — this prayer which the publican offered —
and a plea to God to be gracious to him because he was
a sinner. No wonder it is written that this man, rather than the
other, went down to his house — "justified." He had not
attempted to cover up his sin; he had not tried to belittle
his sin; he had not denied his sin; but he had opened
his heart wide and acknowledged all. He saw and felt
his sinfulness; he confessed the truth of what he saw
and felt; and on the ground of what he knew to be his
ill=desert he asked God to be propitiated toward him.
His petition reached the Divine ear and comfort came
to him.
The publican needed to make the confession he did,
and to take the attitude of humiliation he did; and he
knew it. But — he did not need to do this any more
than the Pharisee with all his outward correctness of
life, needed to do it. Both of these men alike stood
there under condemnation. One was conscious of it;
the other was not. But the unconsciousness of the
Pharisee, and his disinclination to look at himself in

54 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
the true light, and to put a right estimate on his spiri
tual condition and character did not alter the fact of his
sinfulness. The sinfulness was there in his heart; and
no shutting his eyes to it, and no thanking God that he
was not as other men, would ever cleanse it out of his
heart. The more men pretend they are without sin and
need no forgiveness, the nearer do they approximate to
the character of the Pharisee whom Christ created only
to condemn.
Turning from the general teaching of our Lord and
the instructions He communicated through parable, ob
serve the way in which He forced the fact of a sinful
ness in each and all alike upon the consciences of cer
tain individuals of high standing and character who
came to Him for light on the question of their own
personal relations to God and what they must do in or
der to be right with God.
Here is the instance of Nicodemus. By general con
sent this " ruler of the Jews " was a candid, sincere,
intelligent, and upright man. There is no civilized and
self=respecting community in which such a man would not
be held in esteem. He would be invited into all best
circles. He would be honored with all high trusts.
Yet our Lord was under necessity of saying even to him :
" Ye must be born anew," or " born from above."
He was not in the kingdom, nor fit for the kingdom, till
he was "born from above."
Recall the young man and the answer he received
from Jesus about inheriting eternal life: "Thou know
est the commandments: Do not commit adultery; Do
not steal; Do not bear false witness; Defraud not;
Honor thy father and mother." How quick was the
reply and the self 'justification. " All these have I done
from my youth."

THE UNIVERSALITY OF SIN 55
Not a bad showing. Not one of us would hesitate to
call a man with this kind of record a good citizen. He
would be pointed out as an example of fidelity and
righteousness. Everybody would be saying: "That is
the kind of man we want for mayor, or for representa
tive in the legislature, or for member of Congress, or to
serve on our important charitable and civic commis
sions." It is a touching circumstance that Jesus was especial
ly drawn to this young man. " Jesus, looking upon
him, loved him." Nevertheless there was a moral de
fect in him. There was a something in him which
needed to be changed. He had this clean record. He
had this kind of commendable moral quality. He had
this attractive bearing and disposition. The heart of
the Son of man went out to him with a peculiar tender
ness. All this, however, was not enough. He was wanting
in the love and loyalty to God which are essential to a
right standing with God. Like Nicodemus he was a
most admirable man, but there was a something in him
which ought not to be in him, and he could not be a
true child of God and an assured heir of the blessedness
of the life eternal till that something was out of him.
Be it Nicodemus, therefore, — a man in every way so
careful and circumspect and cultivated and reputable,
with whom our Lord deals; or be it the young man with
all his admirable qualities, the conclusion is still forced
upon us that no man is so clean by nature that he does
not need to be cleansed, and that no man is so like God
in will and spirit and aim that he does not need to be
made more like Him by the renewing grace of the Sa
vior of us all.
There is just one other word which seems to demand

56 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
utterance. It is a word at once of appeal and warning.
We must not r/ermit ourselves to be sel£=deceived, nor
permit others to deceive us, touching this fact of our
sinfulness before God. There is a startling amount of
deceitfulness in sin. There is no grasping the subtle
refinements of evil of which the human heart is capable.
There is no numbering the ways in which we may go
astray from righteousness. From first to last there
should be no cessation of most vigilant watch lest we
fall into the fatal blunder of thinking or saying we are
without sin. No man understands his own moral and
spiritual condition, or has a right estimate of his rela
tions to God, or knows anything of the blessed life of
fellowship with God, until that which is inmost in his
nature and is central to his aims and wishes, has been
revealed in the clear light which the Divine Teacher
sheds on all character.
How fit the cry: " Search me, O God, and know my
heart; try me, and know my thoughts; and see if there
be any way of wickedness in me, and lead me in the
way everlasting." How suitable the confession:
" Father, I have sinned against heaven and in Thy sight ;
I am no more worthy to be called Thy son." How bless
ed the assurance: " If we confess our sins, He is faith-*
ful and righteous to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse
us from all unrighteousness."

XTbe SelUTRcQistxy ano disclosure of Sin.

" Be sure your sin will find you out." — Num. 32: 23.
" There is nothing covered up that shall not be revealed; and hid,
that shall not be known.'' — Luke 12:2.
" Kvery moral action leaves its impress on moral character." — Goulburn.
Deeds are irrevocable. Their consequences are knit up with
them irrevocably." — Robertson.
" All several sins, all used in each degree,
Throng to the bar, crying all; ' Guiltyl Guilty! ' " — Shakespeare.
58

III.
THE SELF-REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN.
In the old Greek Mythology there was a divinity who
was regarded as the living impersonation of the Retrib
utive Sentiment of the universe. They called this divin
ity Nemesis. It was her office to pursue evil=workers
and avenge outraged justice. She was the impulse of
righteousness, as it spontaneously expresses itself in
the most sensitive human souls, projected as far to
ward the infinite as finite conception could carry it, and
then, for the purpose of being made a wholesome dis
suasive from crime, clothed with divine attributes and
placed among the gods. On the whole, perhaps, this
Nemesis is the severest notion ever formed by the un
inspired mind of the hot indignation with which heaven
beholds and follows transgression, Through her there
was heard the sharp, clear voice of celestial resentment
against wrong=doing. Through her expression was given
to the divine wrath which wickedness is certain to
arouse. To do evil wasi to invoke her sure displeasure.
No immoral outbreak could escape her vigilant watch;
and with relentless fury she gave chase to all who dared
to violate the divine will.
This impersonation of a thought or conviction which
somehow took such a strong hold on the Hellenic mind
has more than a mere literary or historic interest. It
goes to show that there is, in the first place, a real and
59

60 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
deep sense of guilt in the hearts of men; and then, in
the second place, it goes to show that the idea of retribu
tion for guilt is universal. In that long=gone time
when the idea of a Nemesis was taking shape in words,
thoughtful men felt, as thoughtful men feel now, that
wrong=doing awakens divine displeasure; and that no
criminal, whatever his crime can escape detection and
punishment. Our sin will find us out. Nothing is
covered up which will not at some hour and in some way
be uncovered. Nothing is hid which will not, sooner or
later, be made known.
But this thought which lies latent in all minds, that
men cannot escape the consequences of their bad deeds,
and which has had formulation of one sort and another
in the myths and idolatries and speculations and poet
ries of the world, and which was developed so distinctly
and fully by the wonderful people who enriched man
kind by the contribution of such great names as Phid
ias and Aeschylus and Socrates and Plato to the shining
lists of those who were not born to die, has its complete
and unequivocal announcement in the Scriptures. It is
in the Scriptures that we discover the doctrine of a
righteous retribution consistently articulated and in un
hindered play. It was attached as penalty to that first
prohibition: " In the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt
surely die"; as it was exemplified in the quick expul
sion of our first parents from the garden. It was illus
trated in the most terrible remorse of him who was driven
forth, a fugitive and a vagabond in the earth, crying as he
went: "My punishment is greater than I can bear," or
as it is otherwise translated: "Mine iniquity is greater
than can be forgiven."
From beginning to end the Bible is crowded with

SELF'REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 61
passages in which it is avowed that there is no hiding
of sin, no escaping from the record of sin. To be guilty
of sin is to let loose upon one's own soul a Nemesis
which will pursue it and torment it, and give it no peace
until there is some sort of infliction of pain correspond
ent to the wrong done. " O Lord, Thou hast searched me,
and known me, — Thou understandest my thought afar
off. — Whither shall I go from Thy spirit? Or whither
shall I flee from Thy presence? If I ascend up into
heaven, Thou art there; if I make my bed in sheol behold
Thou art there. If I say, Surely the darkness shall
cover me; the light about me shall be night; even the
darkness hideth not from Thee, but the night shineth as
the day."
There is no getting away from God, and no escaping
the eye of God. There is a registry of every sin, no
matter how gross nor how slight the sin may be in the
estimation of men, — there is a registry of it. At the
right time there is a disclosure of every sin, no matter
how humiliating and overwhelming the disclosure may
be, — it comes out.
To make this clear it may be said, to begin with, that
there is a law of our nature in accordance with which
whatever a man thinks or feels or does will write itself
into his organism and ultimately tell the story to the
world. There is a reflex influence in action, whether
physical or mental or affectional or spiritual, which can
neither be avoided nor evaded. Be it as reward or re
tribution, whatever springs out of the soul is sure to re
coil in some real and measurable way upon the soul,
No thought entertained, no wish felt, no fact accom
plished, ever leaves a man just exactly as it found him.
Something is added to the record; there is a definite

62 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
trace left behind. As in all well=conducted business
houses a copy of every letter or order that is issued is
kept for future reference, so by a fine and unfailing
mechanism of nature the soul contrives in the very act
of its emission, to secure in imperishable shape a per
fect transcript of whatever is sent forth in the way of a
thought or a word or a purpose.
Starting at the lowest point of this registry and dis
closure, everybody knows how intimate is the relation
between the quality of the food used and the quality of
the brain and muscle and fiber developed. Not all are
agreed as to the specific article of food which is best for
securing a specific result; but all are agreed that the
connection here spoken of is very close. When one be
holds bloodshot eyes, overloaded veins, cheeks flushed
with the red rage of ungovernable passion, and other
such indications of the brutishness of the lower animals,
there is need of no further evidence that appetite rules
the man, and is securing all the indulgence in eating
and drinking that it craves. Too sparing a provision
for the wants of the animal economy, along with exces
sive drafts at the same time on the mental energy will
just as certainly betray itself in the sensitiveness of a
thin valetudinarian habit, or what has been described as
" The countenance sicklied o'er with the pale cast of
thought." People with discerning eyes do not need to have the
police officials tell them that certain men who seem to
be regular and abstemious through the secular days of
the week give unchecked license to all the coarser incli
nations from the time they shut up their stores and
offices on Saturday night until they open them again on
Monday morning. It is all clear enough to one who

SELF*REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 63
knows anything of human nature, or who has had any
experience in the study of the ways of the world.
Many a young man who thinks his carousals are known
only to himself and a few boon companions, through
eye and countenance and general demeanor, is pro
claiming his iniquity as from a housetop. With bated
breath and multiplied injunctions of secrecy one will be
told that such a man or such a woman is gradually
losing self=control through overindulgence in drink;
but the fact has all along been manifest; and no assump
tion of correctness and no bravado and no diplomacy
has enabled the guilty victim to keep it out of sight.
To the unpractised eye these things may not be patent,
nor even to the most skillful observer in all their grada
tions; but they are none the less real; and the law which
underlies them, and which is susceptible of demonstra
tion in so many instances is always and everywhere at
work. On the broader plane of national life all this becomes
eminently conspicuous. Macaulay, it will be remem
bered, accounts for the uniform success of the English
over the Irish on the ground that a potato=fed nation
can never contend successfully with a corn=fed nation.
Improve the physical condition and habits of a people,
and this will insure advancement all along the line of a
people's social life. Better bodies, better thoughts,
more courage, more manliness, a higher tone in general,
other things being equal, will characterize those who are
not pinched by extreme want. So when peoples give their
lives over to ease and luxury and licentiousness they be
come enervated, and go down in the scale of all command
ing qualities. In either case, whether the movement is
forward or backward, the result is due to the working

64 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
of the same law. The way men live and the things men
do, register themselves and come into disclosure, less
or more clearly, in what men come to be. Neither for
individuals nor for nations is there any breaking of this
connection in actual life.
In the same way the general drift of a man's medita
tions will score itself into the record of his life and char
acter. One need not be too inquisitive in order to find
out what has been the particular scope of a man's read
ing, and what the mental standing and habits of his
associates, and under what kind of discipline and culture
he has been reared. Invite him to your table, take him
into your parlor, walk with him under the evening
shades and through the green fields or on foreign shores,
talk with him on the questions of the hour, look in on
him at his place of business, or observe him anywhere
when he is acting out with freedom his own inclinations
and the whole story will be related. It will be in the
language used, in the opinions entertained, in the
breadth or narrowness with which great questions are
viewed, in the admirations expressed, in the purposes
avowed, and in the inquiries submitted. What was in
the mind and heart of the man has come out and lies
there on the surface of his personality.
How often we say, after having had only a few mo
ments conversation with him, judging just from the
words employed and the interests exhibited and the way
matters are looked at through his eyes, that the man is a
minister, a lawyer, a physician, a merchant, a farmer,
a mechanic, an artist, a naturalist, a politician, a quack,
or a hobbyrider of some sort. It is not necessary to
wait and see in what language he speaks, — from the gen
eral make-up of the man it can be decided with almost

SELF'REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 65
unerring accuracy whether he is a Frenchman, or
Englishman, or German, or Irishman, or American, or
Scotchman, so surely have internal and external influ
ences shaped him. Emerson says they claim in England
to be able to tell a dissenter by his walk. Not a bad
sign by any means by which to know a man — by his
walk. The most of what we read we seem to forget, and do
forget, — so rapidly in this whirling age do we rush from
paper to paper and from book to book; yet there is
nothing with which the mind comes in contact from
which it does not receive definite and abiding impres
sions. In looking at the outside, persons not exception,
ally acute and well trained may not be able, most likely
will not be able, to interpret aright every indication
which appears on the exterior, though in multitudes of in
stances it is hardly possible for any body to miss the cor
rect conclusion. Even a tree will reveal the soil and
climate in which it has grown and the prevailing winds
which have blown against it. But take this same tree and
6aw it into sections, and then one may know, with a
pretty close approximation to accuracy, what is its age,
when it was shriveled with drought, when it was replen
ished with rain, when the fire scorched it, and which side
of it was best fed with light and moisture. It was only
soft rays of the sun which fell on it daily; it was only
the minutest particles of moisture, only the least atoms
of nutriment, which were distributed to it at any given
time; still not one of these rays and particles and atoms,
so far as we can judge, was ever lost. Each is there, a
living force through the influence and power of nature's
laws, in the mature and robust tree.
Men reveal much here and now and even to casual obser-

66 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
vation; but when God cuts them through and through for
judgment; when He brings them to final account for
the deeds done in the body, even the most transient
thoughts and meditations will be found ingrained in the
soul. Men are taking up and carrying along with them
in their own characters a complete and enduring record
of their lives.
In the highest departments of the soul this law of reg
istry and disclosure works after the same fashion. The
prevailing temper of the heart will show itself outward
ly. Men cannot gather grapes of thorns nor figs of this
tles. The Marah fountains will give forth only bitter wa
ters until the tree, shown of the Lord, is cast in for their
sweetening. A bad man will show signs of his badness
in his conduct. A morose man will disclose his morose-
ness in his mere casual judgments. If the moral sense
be low it will be put in evidence in corresponding prac
tical angularities.
If a man be conceited in spite of all efforts to the
contrary, he will publish his conceit. If a man be su
premely calculating and stingy, it will crop out in his
manners and methods. If a man be habitually loving,
eye and hand and face and step and tone will conspire
to announce it. If a man have large faith, and is famil
iar with his closet, there will be testimony to the fact in
his whole being. In short, to suppose that a man can
think with all the energy of his soul on certain themes,
and yet reveal no trace of the thinking in his intellec
tual and moral life; that a man can fix his affections on
given objects, and yet withhold himself from assimila
tion to these objects; that a man can do anything right
along, and yet be something quite other than the doing
would naturally lead to, is to fly in the face of all the

SELF*REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 67
most palpable laws of the human constitution. Think
ing, speaking, acting, register themselves on the tablets
of the soul, and go into the character. By these pro
cesses and through these methods of activity — our
thinking and speaking and acting — we are securing and
preserving, as in stereotyped form, the sure record of
ourselves. Our yesterdays are all in us and a part
of us.
To the eye of God, who, with unerring certainty, can
trace back history and detect causes in effects, it will
only be necessary to hold up our characters, as we have
made them, in order for Him to see at a glance the
whole story of our, lives. All our obstinate disobedi
ences, all our wilful perversions of the truth, all our
neglects of duty, all our self=indulgences and pride, all
our evil choices, all our lies and prevarications, all our
dishonesties and deceptions, all the oaths which have
rolled from our lips, all the slanders we have uttered or
insinuated, all the unholy and bitter emotions we have
cherished, all the mean and groveling impulses we have
entertained, all the contempt and enmity and hatred
which have found shelter and encouragement in our
souls, all the injustice and crime of which we have been
guilty, all the dishonor we have put upon the Holy
Spirit in resisting and grieving Him, will be written
out and disclosed in the moral and spiritual quality for
which our names will have come to stand when we ap
pear face to face with God in the final judgment. In
his own being each sinner is illustrating one of the
most fearful senses of that most fearful passage in
which the apostle speaks of one's treasuring up for him
self wrath in the day of wrath. Just this is what he is
doing — gathering into his own soul all manner of explo-

68 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
sive materials. Until a man can run away from him
self, or change the laws of cause and effect, as they are
now operative in moral realms, he cannot avoid the
registry and disclosure of his ill-doing. His sin will
find him out. The terrible record will be wrought into
him, as deep and imperishable as his own personality.
Each sinner will be a swift and unimpeachable witness
against himself. To open the heart will be to open
the books which cannot be falsified. It is startling to
realize this, but so are we made.
Changing now our point of view, and looking at the
subject in a light which discovers to us what is volun
tary rather than involuntary on the part of the sinner,
it is to be observed that it is one of the strong instincts
of the soul to go forth and tell the story of its own sins.
Even though it did not carry within itself the accumu
lated testimony of its wrong=doing, the heart of man
would feel an almost irresistible impulse to make clear
and full confession of whatever guilt it might be con
scious. There is no risk in venturing the opinion that
no man ever appreciates how wrong wrong is until he
has committed it, and the awful burden of actual trans
gression is on his soul.
Supposed selMnterest leads men so far as they can to
hide their iniquity. For fear of the immediate conse
quences they try to elude detection. They flee away
into darkness, or they wrap themselves about with over
strained airs and protestations of innocence; but the
consciousness of iniquity is something under which no
man is ever at ease. It is a weight on the soul from
which the soul struggles to be free. There is that
which makes us want to tell, and in certain circumstan
ces compels us to tell the story of our misdeeds and
crimes.

SELF*REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 69
Probably this thought was never more accurately and
forcibly expressed than in the memorable passage from
one of Mr. Webster's great speeches: "The guilty
soul cannot keep its own secret. It is false to itself, or
rather it feels an irresistible impulse to be true to itself.
It labors under its guilty possession and knows not
what to do with it. The human heart was not made for
the residence of such an inhabitant. It finds itself
preyed upon by a torment which it does not acknowl
edge to God or man. A vulture is devouring it, and it
can ask no sympathy or assistance either from heaven
or earth. The secret which the guilty soul possesses
soon comes to possess him, and, like the evil spirit of
which we read, it overcomes him and leads him whither
soever it will. He feels it beating at his heart, rising
to his throat and demanding disclosure. He thinks the
whole world sees it in his face, reads it in his eyes, and
almost hears it working in the silence of his thought.
It has become his master. It betrays his discretion; it
breaks down his courage; it conquers his prudence.
When suspicions from without begin to embarrass him,
and the net of circumstances to entangle him, the fatal
secret struggles with still greater violence to burst
forth. It must be confessed. It will be confessed.
There is no refuge from confession but suicide, and sui
cide is confession."
This is a classic statement of the workings of guilt in
the human heart. Like pent up fires these smothered
convictions of guilt are forever trying to force their
way out of the soul.
How many instances there are where hardened
criminals have voluntarily acknowledged their guilt,
and thrown themselves into the hands of the authorities
because they could not longer bear the silent goadings

70 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
of conscience. To endure lifelong imprisonment, or
even to meet an ignominious death, seemed to them less
terrible than to try to stand up another moment under
the pressure of an unconfessed crime.
Here is a bit of personal history drawn from experi
ence in the inquiryroom and told in my hearing by the
man to whom the confession was made. "I want to
see you alone," he said, as he approached the gentle
man who was conducting the meeting. The request
was granted and the man proceeded as follows: " You
see my hair; it is as white as snow, but I am only thirty*
two years old. When I was twenty I committed a
crime. I did not realize it then as I do now; but I
have been wretched' and miserable ever since; and now
I am tormented beyond what I am able to bear. I can
stand it no longer. I must throw off this crushing
weight or die."
Then he went on and gave an account of what he
had done. His father lived at a county seat, and
owned and managed a newspaper, from which the fami
ly derived its support. The father suddenly died, and
left this newspaper establishment — all the property he
had — to be conducted by this boy. Naturally enough
the property began to run down in the son's hands.
What should be done? To save something for the
mother he loved, and for her household, he resolved to
set fire to the plant and burn it up, and in this way
secure the insurance. He did it. The money came
into his hands. No suspicions fell on him. He had
come to have a home of his own. A wife and children
gathered about his board. But for twelve long dreary
years his soul had had no peace. Things were growing
worse and worse with him. As often as he looked into

SELF'REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 71
the face of his dear ones, or thought of the friends who
trusted him, conscience smote him. His heart ached
and life was becoming insupportable. As he concluded
his painful narrative he broke out: " What can I do? "
"Can God forgive me?" "Is such a thing as pardon
possible?" He , had thought he said of surrender
ing himself to the officers of the law, and nothing but
the sorrow and disgrace which the step would bring to
his family had kept him from doing it. Something
then and there must be done. What should it be?
This was the counsel given to the man: "Confess
your crime to those immediately concerned. Make a
clean breast of the whole business. Then count up the
interest on the money fraudulently obtained and add
it to the principal and pay the whole of it— principal
and interest together — straight over to the company you
wronged. The moment you have sincerely settled in
your mind to do this, and have resolutely gone about
it, you may ask God to take this burden from your soul
and He will."
To assure the man these words of precious promise
from the Book were repeated to him: " Let the wicked
forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts;
and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have
mercy on him, and to our God, for he will abundantly
pardon." The wretched man did what he was advised
to do and peace came to him.
But at what incalculable cost did this man do this
wrong deed! He sinned; and he vainly thought he
could do so and have done with it. He could not.
The better instincts of his soul forced him into con
fession. He must confess or die.
There is a spirit of communicableness among the

72 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
profligate and abandoned which has its explanation,
no doubt, not so much in indifference to social and
other consequences, nor in a disposition to make parade
of desperate achievements, nor in a wish to exhibit
one's fearful hardness of heart, and perversity of will,
as in an instinctive struggle for some sort of relief by
constraining others to be sharers in the burdensome
secret they have to carry. One would imagine that a
man who had stolen a horse, or burned a house, or
robbed a bank, or betrayed innocent womanhood, or
committed murder, would never allow so much as a
whisper of it to escape him in the most silent retreats
of his most solitary wanderings. One would conjecture
that he would be afraid to sleep save in the remotest apart
ments lest his restless heart should constrain him to mut
ter the fatal secret in his dreams. On the contrary these
men never seem quite at ease until they have dropped
a hint of their wickedness to somebody. Detectives
reckon confidently on this disposition or tendency in
criminals; and many of their clews are first obtained
through what would commonly be regarded as uninten
tional and impolitic hints, but which are in fact the
outcome of this necessity the soul is under to find
some measure of easement for its heavy burdens. To
keep a guilty secret locked up in the breast year after
year and unto the end is a task to which few are found
equal. Acting a part, passing for what one is not, trying to
keep the outside of the sepulcher white while within are
dead men's bones, are feats possible to a certain extent;
but they are not easy, for they bring one right into
pronounced conflict with all the best elements of his
own being. It is true that there are many wrong=doers

SELF*REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 73
who die and leave the world without confessing their
wrong=doing. But it is also true, and true forevermore,
that the inclinations and inward propulsions are toward
confession. Nor is it to be overlooked that there is a day approach
ing, when judging from all present indications and
probabilities, this feeling of the soul which comes into
exhibition in a more or less pronounced way now, but
which is yet held in check by a thousand considerations
of fear and prudence, will have spontaneous and free
expression. We may succeed in keeping our mouths shut
against compromising and criminating acknowledge
ments here, and even go so far as to pretend we have no
sense of sin and no burden of guilt to cast off; but
when our souls stand forth in the full blaze of the light
which, like an X ray infinitely increased in penetrating
power, shall illuminate all the recesses of our being, and
the instincts and impulses which impel to the opening
out of the wrong we have done are re=enforced with
charges out of the book of the everlasting remem
brance, the whole bitter account will have recital. In
the unobstructed presence of Him, who with a single
glance can search us through and through, violated
conscience will have its supreme hour, and not to speak
then will be to undergo severest torment.
A still more conclusive argument for this registry and
disclosure is found in the fact that God is bent on ex
posing all sin. Sin is a wrong done directly to God.
Sin is a mischief and a menace to the moral universe.
God hates sin. There is no sin, and there can be none,
which is not offensive to God. There is no sin, and
there can be none, which does not challenge and invoke
His opposition. He will not fail to uncover sin and

74 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
drag it out into the light, that it may be seen and ab
horred by all holy beings. God will suffer no sin to be
hidden. This is the only inference possible. Over and over
again the Scriptures avow it. The human constitution
— a divine handiwork and so made that it gathers up
and carries along sure traces of whatever excesses and
delinquencies there have been in the life, puts this in
evidence. The instincts which have been wrought into
the soul, and are a part of it, and which can be over
come only by a constant prudence and the most careful
watching and while circumstances are favorable, and
which constrain us to make open declaration of any
iniquity of which we may be consciously guilty, testify
to the same fact. It is in all moral drifts. These
Scriptures, these human constitutions, these instincts,
these moral drifts, utter God's thought. They reveal
God's purposes. They work in the line of God's will.
They make it clear that there is nothing covered up that
shall not be revealed; and hid that shall not be known.
The question asks itself: Is a man ever so foolish as
when he fancies he can sin and not have his sin brought
to exposure?
Poor Achan thought, when he saw among the spoil a
goodly Babylonish mantle, and two hundred shekels of
silver, and a wedge of gold, that he could take these and
hide them away in the earth, and nobody would ever
come into the knowledge of it. It was a bitter mistake.
God was against him. Humiliation and death were the
swift penalties of his wrong=doing.
Poor Gehazi looked upon it as a piece of sheer im
providence and an unpardonable stretch of generosity
for his master to spare Naaman the Syrian and accept

SELF--REGISTRY AND DISCLOSURE OF SIN 75
absolutely nothing of all the great captain had brought
to reward him for his services. So with a heart full of
covetousness and a mouth full of lies he ran after him
that he might secure some of his treasure. His scheme
was successful. He got even more than he asked —
two talents of silver, instead of one, and two changes of
garments. He hid these rare possessions away in the
house, and then went in and stood before the prophet
as if nothing had happened. He had run on his wicked
errand; he had told his lie and gained his bad end; and
the whole transaction was locked in the secrecy of his
own bosom. What a miscalculation! God was against
him; and He gave to the prophet the prudence to watch
him, and the insight by which he could read his
thoughts, and this cunning servant who had seemed to
be so successful in his wicked plan — who was sure he
could put on a bold face and lie it out to Elisha as he
had to Naaman, went from the interview to which he
was summoned, not only detected, but " a leper as white
as snow." His sin had found him out.
Thus it is far and wide, nothing escapes registry.
Nothing will escape disclosure. Here and everywhere,
now and forever, God, and all the laws of the universe
are committed to the uncovering and punishment of sin.
" Full many a light thought man may cherish,
Full many an idle deed may do;
Yet not a thought or deed shall perish,
Not one but he shall bless or rue.
The world is with creation teeming,
And nothing ever wholly dies;
And things that are destroyed in seeming,
In other shapes and forms arise.
And nature still unfolds the tissue,
Of unseen works by spirit wrought;

76 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
And not a work but hath its issue
With blessing or with evil fraught.
And thou mayst seem to leave behind thee
All mem'ry of the sinful past ;
Yet, 0, be sure thy sin shall find thee,
And thou shalt know its fruit at last."

ttbe iDunisbment of Sin.

" Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh, in which all that are in
the tombs shall hear His voice, and shall come forth — they that
have done good, unto the resurrection of life ; and they that have
done evil, unto the resurrection of judgment." — John 5: 28-29.
"And these shall go away into eternal punishment." — Matt. 25: 46.
"At the time of Christ the punishment of the wicked was cer
tainly regarded as of eternal duration. ... In our view an im
partial study of the Word of the Lord, recorded in the gospels,
leads to the impression that His teaching in regard to reward and
punishment should be taken in the ordinary and obvious sense." —
Edersheim. "Punitive justice displays itself in the established connection
between sin and evil, in consequence of whioh the sinful will that
rebels in act against the Divine law must be compelled through
suffering to acknowledge that law and to humble itself before its
ma j esty." — Neander.
"Things are saturated with the moral law. There is no escape
from it. VioletB and grass preach it. Rain and snow, wind and
tides, every change, every cause in nature is nothing but a dis
guised missionary." — Emerson.
" This moral law points to God as giving and defending it, and
when we look to Him we are constrained by our moral nature to
regard Him as a moral being who hates evil and punishes it. The
conscience of man not only approves of the good but disapproves
of the evil, and declares that the evil is deserving of punishment.
Besides, an abhorrence of evil is an essential element in holy exer
cises of will. If we follow out the intimations given by these facts
of our moral constitution, we must believe that God hates sin and
that, as upholder of the law and governor of the world, He ought to
punish transgression." — McCosh.
"Sin cannot escape a due punishment. A hatred of unright
eousness and, consequently, a will to punish it are as essential to
God as a love of righteousness." — Charnock.
78

IV.

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN.
It would be difficult to lay too much stress on the
solemnity with which the question of the punishment
of sin should be approached and discussed. If the
permission of sin holds in it elements of mystery which
baffle us, the punishment of sin holds in it an element
of tragedy which awes us. Only a mind given over to
the hardness of utter indifference, or self=abandoned to
extreme frivolity, can possibly contemplate the pain and
shame which must follow the infliction of penalty for
violated law, without a sense of profoundest compas
sion and tenderest sympathy. Jesus weeping over Jeru
salem discloses the becoming temper in which to con
sider the woes of those who have refused to heed the
divine invitation, and in sheer wilfulness have gone
astray in folly and sin.
Once at Niagara, when such venturing was more en
couraged than it is now, and one on the American side with
the help of guards and cautious stepping could do it,
the impulse seized me to creep out from rock to rock
until I was far into the stream and on the very brink of
the Fall. Not daring to stand and look over, I lay down
and worked my way forward inch by inch, and in this
manner brought the immense abyss of raging waterfall
into view. It was a scene never to be forgotten, The
vast volume of the current pouring incessantly over
79

80 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
the jutting edge of the mighty cataract; the cavern
ous spaces behind; the thunderous roar drowning all
other voices into silence; the terrific shock making
everything tremble; the whirl and confusion of the mad
eddies; and the clouds of heavy spray dashed angrily
into the air, combined to make an impression to which
no speech is equal. It was a solemn grandeur in whose
presence one could only be still. It was a new syllable
with which to help spell out the power and majesty of
God. The experience has an interpretative value in this
connection. For similar, though inexpressibly deeper
and more appalling, must be the feelings of any sensi
tive person who takes his stand on the rim of this other
abyss and contemplates the retribution which awaits
the incorrigible sinner in the life to come.
Not a task to be over=eagerly sought therefore, is this
which is now in hand. To take the words of the Great
Teacher which bear on this point, and to find in them, as
one must who makes an honest attempt to lay bare their
real meaning, images and f oreshadowings of a desolation
which is not only difficult to be measured in language,
but hard to be conceived even, — uncovering of depths
of misery which grow deeper and deeper as the words
are studied and pondered, is no pastime. Greatly to be
pitied is the man who can talk glibly and loudly of the
destiny of lost souls. In the whole range of the con
ceptions of the human mind there is nothing to be com
pared with it in awfulness. All other darkness seems as
day in presence of the endless darkness. All other sor
rows seem as anthems of joy and shouts of victory
when set over against the sorrow of going away into
what our Lord calls eternal punishment. To be defeated

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 81
in life till failure comes to be looked upon as the ex
pected issue of all one's endeavors; to be smitten and still
smitten with every sort of earthly pang; to be cast out of
human friendship and trodden under foot of disdaining
men; to be forced to bear heaviest crosses; and to tread
the winepress of threescore years and ten disabled and
alone, — what are these things — what are all hardships
and intensest agonies possible to be crowded into the
little space between cradle and grave, when thought of
side by side with perpetual and hopeless exclusion from
God! The suggestion of such an issue of our life on
earth — such a possibility even, might well bring any
serious minded person to pause.
Hence it is not to be wondered at that there is back
wardness in speaking on a theme which has so much of
terror in it, — especially when the disposition is so gen
eral in the public mind to hear only what is pleasant and
agreeable. Shrink as much as he may, however, and hesitate as
long as he will, one who occupies the responsible posi
tion of a religious teacher, and means to be faithful to
the instruction, and all the instruction to which Jesus
gave utterance, must have somewhat to say on the ques
tion of the future toward which impenitent and unpar
doned sinners are pressing. There is a vitally impor
tant message still undelivered; there are alarming li
abilities to which sin exposes the soul which have not
been been disclosed; there is a note of warning which
ought to be borne in on all transgressors of the moral
law which has not been sounded; the divine sense of the
offensiveness of all wrong=doing has not been properly
exhibited; the Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments
have not been fairly and fully interpreted, until what

82 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
Christ and the inspired apostles have to say on the
punishment of sin hereafter has been clearly shown.
In considering this subject there are three main ques
tions to be submitted and answered. As these are set
tled every minor problem is settled.
The first has to do with the certainty of the punish
ment of sin after death. Is it a fact that sin will be
pursued and punished beyond the grave?
The immortality of the soul is here assumed. There
are theories of life which reduce everything to a ma
terial basis. Death is the end. Of course there can be
no punishment if there is nothing to punish.
The exceeding sinfulness of sin, as it has been pre
viously set forth, is here recalled. There are those, as
we have seen, who take the ground that sinning is a
matter of so little consequence to God, or in God's estima
tion, that it will make small difference in the standing
of the soul in the life to come whether one has been
what is called a sinner or not. On this supposition it
would be idle to talk of punishment, for there would be
no guilt.
Taking up now this question of the certainty of the pun
ishment of sin after death, it is to be observed that
there are many facts lying within range of the present
economy which readily lend themselves to the support
of the doctrine of future retribution. There are ante
cedent probabilities, analogies, and instincts of the soul
which do much to prepare the way for accepting what
the Word of God so unequivocally avows on this sub
ject. First of all, there is such a thing as punitive suffering
in this present world. Men break laws, and the conse-

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 83
quences of these violations pursue them — often to very
trying and humiliating extremes of suffering. Men sin,
and they experience pain — pain in body and mind and
heart. They do the things they ought not to do; and
they leave undone the things they ought to do; and just
in the ratio of their appreciation of duty and of their
sensibility to shame for having done wrong, they are
distressed in conscience. If disobedient to a criminal
extent they have to answer for it to the state, and to
endure whatever the state sees fit to inflict. In any
event they are made to feel the righteous indignation of
the intelligent and virtuous, and to encounter the dis
trust of the best public opinion.
All this may be but the natural result of transgres
sion, as the fears and inward pangs of a murderer be
fore he is arrested, or even suspected, are the natural
results of his crime, and no part of the penalty which
God will impose at the judgment. At the same time
such facts are enough to make it evident — more than
evident — irresistibly conclusive— that within certain
limitations, at any rate, God does not hesitate to follow
up sin with misery.
Even if what we experience in the way of pang for
misdoing under the moral government of God in this
world, be not punishment in the technical sense of the
term, still to all intents and purposes punishment is
what it is. It is a foretaste of punishment. It is a dis
tinct prophecy of punishment. The bad deed done
tears and torments the soul. Till the soul is morally
dead — atrophied — through trespasses and sin, to do
things unkind and wrong will be to invoke suffering.
No man can measure in forms of thought, no man can
rise to the conception of the woes which are actually felt

84 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
in living human hearts at this moment in consequence of
the guilty ways into which they have been betrayed.
If a man is intent on finding facts to justify the infer
ence that there cannot be such a thing as punishment in
the hereafter, this is a bad world to do it in. For here
the drift is all the other way.
In addition to this there is a conviction, very pro
nounced, in the souls of a vast majority of mankind,
that sin ought to be punished. We say of ourselves
that we ought to do this, and we ought to do that, or we
ought not; and when we fail to follow on in the line of
realized obligation, then we turn, impelled by our own
moral sense and say that we ought to suffer. We go
through the same process with regard to others. If in
our judgment they are right, we approve; if in our judg
ment they are wrong, we condemn. We cannot help it.
Only there is this difference between the judging of our
own conduct and the conduct of others. If we are wise
we always judge ourselves with unsparing severity. If
we are Christians we always soften our judgment of
others with the grace of sweet charity. But wrong we
condemn; and the wrong=doer we say ought to suffer.
We say of a thief: " He deserves to be punished." We
say of an incendiary, of a forger, of a traitor, of an assas
sin: " He ought to pay the penalty of his crime."
We pity men in their extremities and sore distresses;
we try to help them when set upon and overborne by
temptation; we do our best, if true to the Master, to
emancipate men from all bad influences; but the feeling
is in us, deep and strong as life, that when men have
done wrong — have done wrong with their eyes wide
open and wilfully — it is but just that they should be
made to suffer for it. The soul is so organized that
without a violent wrench it cannot feel otherwise.

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 85
We go further. We have such a sense of the deep
meaning which has been lodged in the word " ought,"
and such a sense of the sacredness of justice, we are
quite sure that sooner or later all wrong=doing will have
to undergo penalty.
We do not hesitate to believe that when a man has
filled up his days on earth with iniquity; when he has
plunged into every vice and crime open to him; when
he has led others astray, and choked the channels of
virtue, and sowed misery and wretchedness all along his
career as the enemy sowed tares; and then has passed
out of life without amendment or repentance, he has
gone to meet his just deserts in the rewards of a right
eous retribution. There is a bar at which he must
answer for his misdeeds and his guilt.
It is worth remembering that all the great and cher
ished dramatic literatures are constructed on this the
ory. It was not a conception of the Hebrew mind
merely that sin is to be punished in the unseen world;
it was a Greek conception as well, and fundamental in
Greek philosophy and tragedy and mythology. It is in
Plato and Aeschylus and the whole system of Greek
thought. The simple fact is that men with a positive sense of
justice can but accept the idea that there is a difference
in the future of the righteous and the wicked. It is re
pugnant to every notion we have of right dealing that
Cain and Abel, that Judas the betrayer, and James the
Just, that Nero who reveled in corruption and gloated
over the misery he could cause, and Paul who was ready
to spend and be spent in the service of God and man,
that Aaron Burr with his revolting record, and David
Brainerd with his saintly soul, should alike enter into
an immediate and equal share in the felicities and glo-

86 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
ries of heaven. Infidels and Atheists may chatter on
unto the end, and unbelieving scientists who think they
can live by bread alone, may pour out the vials of their
contemptuous pity on all such views and feelings as are
here set forth, but the notion that sin ought to be pun
ished and will be punished, will abide in the human
soul. Now in support of these probabilities — so many of
them — and of these foreshadowing convictions which
somehow seem to be instinctive with men, and of these
inferences to be drawn from a general observation of
the working of society, touching the certainty of fu
ture punishment, the Scriptures come forward with
statements many in number and of almost every variety
in form. These statements are the final authority. We
cannot go beyond them. If we are wise we shall not
venture to stop short of accepting what they bring us.
They are true to the situation. God knows. He is at
home in both worlds — this and that. The Son of God
knew; for He came to us from the Father. Prophets
and apostles inspired by the Holy Spirit knew; for that
they might have a higher and more distinct knowledge
to communicate to men was the object of their inspira
tion. In the light of what we are told, therefore, there
can be no doubt that there is punishment in store for
unrepented and unforgiven sin in the world to come.
Were there but a single express assertion to this ef
fect, that would close the case. Everybody knows, who
knows anything about the Bible, how many of these
assertions there are. Without going back to the proph
ets or forward to the apostles, take just these two pas
sages from the lips of Him who spake as never man
spake: "Marvel not at this; for the hour cometh, in

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 87
which all that are in the tombs shall hear His voice, and
shall come forth, — they that have done good, unto the
resurrection of life; and they that have done ill, unto the
resurrection of judgment." " And these shall go away
into eternal punishment."
Much is said in these times about going back to Christ,
and not permitting even inspired apostles to interpret
His words to us when we happen to think they ought to
be interpreted differently. Well, here we are, back to
Christ; and this is what He says!
The second question to be asked and answered in deal
ing with this subject has reference to the nature of the
punishment to be inflicted on impenitent and unpar
doned sinners. What is this punishment? In what
does it consist?
It is a fact familiar to all students of the Word that
the punishment of the wicked is set forth under different
images. No one statement is deemed sufficient. What
ever there is with which men in this life are acquainted
which is capable of suggesting desolation and distress is
laid under tribute by those who have given us authorita
tive descriptions of the condition of the lost. As
heaven is pictured under a diversity of colorings, and
everything which is attractive to the heart in its loftiest
moods is employed to awaken enthusiasm in the quest
for heaven; so the abode of the condemned is not left to
such representations of it as may be made by any single
stereotyped phrase, or any single metaphor; but what
ever is best fitted to startle men into though tfulness and
compel them to feel that there is no calamity like that
of coming short of the approbation of God, is freely used.
These terrific forms of speech, these amazing images,

88 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
these figures so surprising in their boldness, are drafted
into service for the simple reason no doubt that what
they state cannot be overstated.
Hence we have such dark word pictures as " flaming
fire," " furnace of fire," " lake of fire," " everlasting fire
prepared for the devil and his angels," " the wine of the
wrath of God," " wailing and gnashing of teeth," " dark-
nesB," " outer darkness," " blackness of darkness," " pits "
or " chains of darkness," " gehenna," " where their worm
dieth not, and the fire is hot quenched," " the smoke of
tlieir torment ascendeth up forever and ever," " second
death," " everlasting destruction from the presence of
the Lord."
These expressions, it would seem to be needless to say,
like a very large number of the expressions to be found
in the Sacred Writings, are not literal, but figurative.
There is no real " lake of fire," and no real " worm that
dieth not," and no real ascent of " the smoke " of the
" torments " of the condemned, and no real " wailing
and gnashing of teeth." These representations are no
more real than is the " City " which John saw with its
foundations garnished with all manner of precious
stones, and its jasper walls, and its gates of pearl, and
its streets of gold. In depicting both the happiness of
the happy and the misery of the miserable, inspired
writers used language in the same free way in which un
inspired writers use it. They had to do so to be under
stood. There are direct, positive and literal statements
in the Scriptures concerning the fate of the wicked; but
not all the statements made are of this kind.
Still when it has been frankly admitted, not to say
claimed, that a bald literalism of interpretation cannot
be insisted on, — that figures of speech, in other words,

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 89
cannot be pressed into the place of the things they are
designed to represent, it must not be thought even for
a moment that this is any abatement of the reality and
severity of the punishment set forth in the terms and
under the imagery of the Scriptures. This struggling
rhetoric which lays hold on material forms is only the
shadow of which the indignation of God against sin is
the substance. Could there be such shadows cast, —
would Jesus Christ and those who learned what they
knew of life and death, of the here and the hereafter,
from His lips or from His inspiration, have consented
to become responsible for the words attributed to them,
were there not some dreadful reality behind to explain
and justify it all?
Coming now to the heart of the question concerning
the nature of future punishment, and reducing all fig
ures of speech to their lowest terms, and giving to all
direct and positive statements of our Lord and the
apostles only so much force as must be permitted to re
side in them if they are to have any force at all, what
do we find? We find it central to all the teaching, and
implied in all the teaching, and a necessary inference
from all the teaching, that one item or constituent of this
punishment will be enforced exclusion from God and from
all participation in the blessedness of those who are ac
cepted of God. Be other penalties and woes what they may,
unforgiven sinners will be shut out from God. They will
have no share in the immediate fellowship of God.
No doubt there will be an element of regret and re
morse in the punishment to be experienced in the world
beyond the grave. " Son remember." One's own fac
ulties, it may be, will be turned into instruments of keen-

90 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
est torture. As reason and recollection and conscience
often recoil on us here, and smite us for some foolish
and wicked deed, so it may be there; and these inward
pangs may be the bitterest we can know.
Or, this not being true, or only partly true, it is among
the possibilities, or perhaps we should say probabilities,
that souls which have persisted in sinning and reveling
in sin through all this present life, will become so wedded
to sin and so hardened in sinful character, that they will
be abandoned of God to the endless love and fellowship
of sin. In all character there is a tendency to fixed
ness. Holiness tends to fixedness in holiness. Wicked
ness tends to fixedness in wickedness. It is this tend
ency, this tendency in its ripe results, which is recog
nized in the words: " He that is unrighteous let him do
unrighteousness still," or " yet more "; " and he that is
filthy, let him be filthy still," or " yet more." Having
cherished sin until sinning has become the settled habit
and disposition, it may be the dreadful destiny of lost
souls to be allowed to continue right on in their in
fatuation with sin.
We are hardly up to our own convictions of moral
requirements, and are certainly a good way short of be
ing up to the impression which even a casual reading
of the Scriptures must make on our minds until we have
admitted a retributive element into this punishment,
Intimation of this has already been given in remarks
made and in passages quoted. " Indignation and wrath,
tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that
doeth evil," are words with some sort of retributive
energy in them.
Phillips Brooks takes the ground that in the very
nature of the case, since God is what He is, — what He

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 91
is in Himself, and what He is to human souls — men
cannot disobey without being made to feel the punitive
presence of the divine hand. Speaking to this point,
in his sermon on, " An evil spirit from the Lord," he
says: " So long as God is in the universe, every soul
that is in the universe must feel His power. No space
can be so wide, no time so long as to exhaust His influ
ence. He that obeys must feel the ever present God in
joy. He that disobeys must feel Him in pain every
where and forever. These are the terrible necessities of
obedience and disobedience. We may state it — the
Bible often does state it — judicially. We may speak of
God's vengeance. It may seem to be the angry revenge
of one who has been insulted and ignored. We may
picture to ourselves His wrath. With realistic fancy we
may imagine to ourselves the flames of His anger con
suming rebellious souls, which yet are so like Him who
punishes them that they can never die. Such pictures
have their power, as the crudest, coarsest representations
of the essantial truth that to the disobedient God must
come in suffering, as He comes to the obedient in joy.
The essential truth of heaven and hell is ineradicable in
the universe. But greater and truer than any picture
of angry vengeance, more solemn, more sublime, more
impressive to the fear of a reasonable and thoughtful
man, there is the mighty image of God standing in the
center of all things. And all things have to touch Him.
And as all things touch Him, according to their charac
ter, He becomes to them blessing or curse. He is the
happiness of obedience and the misery of disobedience
throughout His world. He looks with sympathetic joy
or with profoundest pity on the souls He judges; but
the judgments both come from Him. The right=hand

92 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
and the left=hand are both His. Burning there like the
sun of all the world, He must be a comforting and guid
ing light, or a consuming fire — one or the other — to
every soul."
These are words mighty in their awfulness. Whether
we accept them in all their terrific import or not; and
whether we accept other conjectures which the Scrip
tures seem to warrant concerning the nature of the pun
ishment of the stubbornly disobedient or not; it would
appear to be a neccessity to accept so much as has al
ready been affirmed, this namely, that one item or con
stituent of this punishment will be enforced seclusion
from God and from participation in the blessedness of
those who are accepted of God. It may be more than
this; it may be other; but it cannot be less. "Depart
from me," " cast out," " these shall go away " are phrases
too specific and significant to mean less than enforced
seclusion with all that this enforced seclusion involves.
The righteous, we are bound to believe, will gravitate
more and more into the likeness and joy of God, and
their satisfaction in Him and what He has provided for
them will be an increasing satisfaction. The wicked,
we are bound to believe, will gravitate more and more
away from the likeness and joy of God; and their satis
faction in Him and all that His name stands for in
the line of love and light and wisdom and glory and
measureless blessedness will steadily decrease. As has
been said, there may be other pangs in the distress of
lost souls; but to miss finding God — to be made in His
likeness and yet to have no fellowship with Him; to be
made for Him and yet never to be His; can only be con
templated by any thoughtful person as an infinite calamity .
The third question which has to be considered has to

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 93
do with the duration of punishment. How long will
the punishment of those who go out into the next world
impenitent and unforgiven continue?
Here we fall back upon the Word of our Lord. Fall
ing back upon this Word we find it sweeping in upon us
with an unutterable stress and depth of meaning. For
this word is the awful word " Eternal," " And these
Bhall go away into eternal punishment."
Recall this other saying of Jesus: " Whosoever shall
blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgive
ness, but is guilty of an eternal sin." " Never forgive
ness," — and " eternal sin," — these are the amazing
phrases used by our Lord. So far as it is possible to
express the thought of absolute eternity in human lan
guage, that thought is here expressed.
Before carrying the discussion any further forward,
however, and lest it may be said that an endless punish
ment seems out of all proportion to the ill=desert of any
sinning which may be done within the limits of an
earthly life, it may be well to pause long enough to notice
two or three quite incontestable facts which lie inside
the range of present observation.
First, there is such a thing as long and severe suffer
ing inflicted on men in consequence of transgressions
which it took but a moment to commit. How many
men there are who are overweighted and hindered all
their after lives because of words spoken and deeds done
in the impetuosity and inexperience of youth. It is in
vain for one to say, " I did not think; I was wild and
reckless; " or " If I had known as much as I do now I
should not have done it." The thing was done and it
became a net spun over him from whose meshes there
was no escape.
It seems hard to be held responsible and made to pay

94 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
forfeit unto the end of life for what may have been done
in just a single throb of time. But, so it is. The mis
takes and follies and crimes of a man stick to him and
follow him. They cast their blighting shadow forward
over coming years. After the lapse of decades, in re
mote and unexpected places, items from the bad record
leap into the light. The man who struck a blow in the
heat of passion, who betrayed innocence, who gave way
to some sudden temptation and pilfered and robbed,
through methods and on occasions never anticipated
finds himself face to face with the avenging fates. This
is common experience.
Nor does the mischief cease when a man dies. The
recreancies and dishonesties of a man seize on his
memory and taint his name. The lies and tricks of
Jacob, the adulteries of David, the denials of Peter, the
severities of Calvin, good men though they were and
great, will pursue them and tarnish their earthly fame
to the latest generations. By one single act of treachery
Benedict Arnold blurred the pages of a brilliant past
and burdened his name with immortal infamy. If men
only lived longer, or if their records were only less
ephemeral, we should witness still more startling illus
trations of this law. For good or ill every yesterday of
ours is in us to-day. To=day projects itself forward into
the latest to=morrow we shall ever know.
When it is affirmed, therefore, that it is inconsistent
with the character of God to inflict severe and long=con-
tinued penalties on men for transgressions which are
committed in a moment, and in a moment, too, when
experience is small and the reflective powers are unde
veloped and it is impossible to foresee the disastrous
consequences which will be sure to flow from the act, it

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 95
is enough to reply that so far as our experience goes,
and our observation, this is precisely what God is doing.
We are in God's world here and now; we are living un
der God's laws here and now; but so far as natural laws
operate, and social laws operate, the birthright once
sold, even though it be sold for a mess of pottage, is sold
forever. It is to be observed in the second place that it is the
tendency of sin to perpetuate its evil consequences, and
sweep out destructively far and wide. Sin is not con
tent to involve a single individual in the catastrophe it
brings on, nor a single generation, nor a single century,
but it strikes down through the ages. A single sin often
leads to effects on a people or on humanity which are
appalling to contemplate. When will England be rid
of all the evil consequences of her Jameses and her
Charleses? When will the United States cease to feel
the fatal influence of that first slave-ship which was
permitted to sail up the James river? If a man stop
for a little to think what sin is — how destructively it
works, how it perpetuates its influence, with what a grip
it clings to its victims, it will cease to seem strange that
the effects of it inhere in the soul, and are carried for
ward into the next world.
There is nothing in all this to prove the endless dura
tion of future punishment; for everything here is within
limitations of time and spacei But there is enough to
furnish a successful appeal in support of the probability
of what the Bible has to say on this point. The actual
on=goings of things as they now are create a strong pre
sumption of the literal truth of the endlessness of the
punishment of unpardoned sin.
Professor Fisher says: "There is a terrible reign of

96 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
sin, though all sin is contrary to the will of God; there
is a development of sinful character, a hardening of the
heart, a persistent resistance — 'how often would I
. . . but ye would not,' ' woe unto thee Chorazin,
woe unto thee, Bethsaida'; there is a stern, tragic side
to nature and to human life. We stand within a sphere
where results are not worked out by dint of power, but
where freedom under moral law, with all its perils, as
well as possibility of good which freedom involves, is
an essential attribute of our being. No speculation on
the problem of the theodicy can have the certainty that
belongs to the law which is verified by conscience and
experience: ' Whatsoever a man so weth, that shall he
also reap.' "
This is what we see and feel and surely know.
Resuming here the argument from Scripture it is to
be remarked:
That the doctrine of the endless duration of future
punishment is taught in words and phrases which have
this specific meaning. Something has been said on this
already. It is only necessary to add, perhaps, that these
expressions — "eternal," "forever" and "forever and
ever," — occur in the New Testament something like a
hundred and fifty times. In some instances the word
" eternal " may have, and unquestionably does have an
ethical element in it; but it is just as evident that " eter
nal," like "forever" and "forever and ever," has in it
also what is popularly called a time element. It is in
tended to measure or expresss duration. All that seems
to be left one to say is that if these words and phrases
do not mean " endless " when applied to the punishment
of the wicked, then their meaning in such instances is
evidently exceptional. For in every other case this is

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 97
the plain import of the language. When used with
reference to God the meaning is "endless." When
used of the happiness of the righteous the meaning is —
" endless." Is it quite conceivable that in the fifteen
different instances, or records of instances, when the
authors of this kind of phraseology applied it to the
wicked with a view to expressing the duration of the
punishment they must endure the word uniformly took
on an altered significance? Our Lord says: " And they
shall go away into eternal punishment; but the right
eous into eternal life." Here we have exactly the same
form and construction — exactly the same word to qualify
" life " as to qualify "punishment." Is it not clear that
Jesus means to affirm that the duration of the one is
equal to the duration of the other? Not neaning this,
what does He mean?
If Christ does say this, and if He means to say this,
who are we to gainsay His statement? Are we wiser
than He? Are we more loving than He? Are we more
sensitively organized, and have we finer feelings than
He? On the contrary is it possible for us to read the
story of His life — what He was and what He did and
what He bore, without realizing that our interest in hu
manity and our pity for the weaknesses and sufferings
of men are as nothing beside the interest and pity with
which His divine heart was moved?
But this is not the whole of the story. It is Christ
who holds up this doctrine of the endless duration of
future punishment most frequently, and in the most
awful aspects. A distinguished Greek professor in one
of our educational institutions, as a result of a careful
re-reading of the Gospels, and a thorough reexamina
tion of the teachings of our Lord as they bear on the

98 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
question in hand, has placed this impression on record:
" The teaching and preaching of Christ on this subject
is so much bolder and stronger than that of orthodox
pulpits, so much more strenuous and alarming, as well
as positive and authoritative than even that of the
prophets and apostles, that it is explicable only on the
supposition that it proceeds from a different point of
view, from a higher and of course truer stand=point,
nearer to the throne of God, and in fuller sympathy with
His law and justice, nearer also to the retribution of
eternity, and with a clearer view of the ill=desert of sin
and the fatal consequences of rejecting the Gospel."
This is the conclusion to which a competent and loyal
scholar was forced to come. Jesus has furnished us our
highest conception of the love of God. In clearest
tones Jesus has also told us how God hates sin and will
punish it.
It is to be added that the endless duration of future
punishment is either taken for granted or implied in the
whole ecomony of the Scriptures. Appeals are made,
invitations are pressed, warnings are uttered, on the
basis of an awful doom awaiting men if they remain
away from God and reject the offers of salvation through
faith in Jesus Christ. This is made the ground for the
coming to us of the Christ. "For God so loved the
world, that He gave His only=begotten Son, that whoso
ever believed on Him should not perish, but have eter
nal life." As has been well said by another: " Christ's
advent, His teaching, His life, His sacrifice, His death
— He connected all with the peril that betided men; and
the whole example of Christ was a silent testimony to
the reality of that fear whi ch brooded like dark thun
derclouds over the whole horizon of the future."

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 99
But as this fact of a solemn doom awaiting men who
refuse to be saved by the grace of God in Christ is taken
for granted and lies in the background of the disclos
ures which are made to us in the Word, so it is implied
in every variety of Scripture teaching. In all Scripture
representations the two states of the good and bad in
the world to come are set before us in contrast — the one
in light, the other in darkness; the one in joy, the other
in sorrow; the one in presence of God, the other away
from God. There is to be a judgment, and the object
of the judgment is to discriminate between the pure and
the impure, between those who have been obedient and
those who have been disobedient and in every way dis
loyal to God,
We are told that except our righteousness shall ex
ceed the righteousness of the Scribes and Pharisees, we
are in no case to enter into the kingdom of heaven. If
not into heaven, where? We are told that if we are not
born from above we cannot see the kingdom of God.
What shall we see? We are urged to enter in at the
strait gate; since wide is the gate and broad is the way
that leadeth to destruction. What is this destruction?
It is asserted, calmly, directly, unhesitatingly, that one
who believes on the Son hath eternal life; but that one
who believes not, or does not obey the Son shall not see
life, but has the wrath of God abiding on him. What is
this wrath of God? The caution comes to us in very
sharp and definite terms not to permit ourselves to be
deceived; for there are whole classes of people who are
not to inherit the kingdom of God. What is their in
heritance? So it is all the way through. In the background, in
the assumptions, in the implications, in the direct and

100 REDEMPTION MADE NECESSARY BY SIN
positive teachings, there lies, not the shadow of the fact
merely, but the fact that souls may be lost forever.
There is no escaping this solemn inference,
Even Whittier, loving and tender and hopeful as he
was, believed a human soul might be lost. He had the
largest faith in the compassion of God. He was sure
God would use to the utmost His infinite resources of
love and wisdom to win every wanderer back into His
fellowship. But for all this he felt forced to accept the
fact that one might stray into hopeless alienation from
the Father. Speaking of our condition in the future
life, he said: " I am not a Universalist; for I believe in
the possibility of the perpetual loss of the soul that per
sistently turns away from God, in the next life as in
this. But I do believe that the Divine love and com
passion follow us in all worlds, and that the heavenly
Father will do the best that is possible for every crea
ture He has made. What that will be must be left to
His infinite wisdom and goodness." Having said this
he referred to his poem called " The Answer," as con
taining in few words his belief in this matter. In this
poem we read:
"Though God be good and free be heaven,
No force divine can love compel;
And though the song of sins forgiven
May sound through lowest hell,
The sweet persuasion of His voice
Respects thy sanctity of will.
A tenderer light than moon or sun,
Than song of earth a sweeter hymn.
May shine and sound forever on
And thou be deaf and dim.
Forever round the Mercy«seat,
The guiding light of love shall burn,

THE PUNISHMENT OF SIN 101
But what if, habit=bound, thy feet
Shall lack the will to turn?
What if thine eye refuse to see,
Thine ear of heaven's free welcome fail,
And thou a willing captive be,
Thyself thy own dark jail? "
In conclusion it is to be said that one may recoil from
these intimations of nature and these revelations of
Scriptures. One may wish the fact otherwise than it is.
One may feel that it ought to be other than it is. One
may persuade his own mind into the belief that it is
other than it is. But this alters nothing. To recall the
words of Phillips Brooks: " The essential truth of
heaven and hell is ineradicable in the universe." It is.
No unbelief, no protests, no sentiment of ours can ever
get this " essential truth " out of the universe. It is
for each individual to recognize the facts as they are and
to adjust his thought and life to them. In view of the
question as a whole, as in view of other questions which
involve hard and dark and bewildering problems, we
may fall back on the assuring conviction that here and
there, in time and in eternity, in this world and in every
world, the Judge of all the earth will do right.

BOOK TWO.
Dow IRebemption f s Secureo.
NO POWER OF SELF-RECOVERY FROM SIN,

"And thou, when thou art spoiled, what will thou do? " — Jer. 4: 30.
" By the works of the law shall no flesh be justified in His sight;
for through the law cometh the knowledge of sin." — Rom. 3 : 30.
" No man cometh unto the Father but by me." — John 14:6.
" Evil originates in the soul." — Plato.
" Sin, gathering head, shall break into corruption." — Shakespeare.
" How helpless guilty nature lies
Unconscious of its load!
The heart, unchanged, can never rise
To happiness and God." — Anne Steele.
" The religions and the philosophies of the world alike had failed
to supply true moral guidance to man. The trial had been made
under favorable conditions. Greek and Roman are names repre
sentative of two great peoples — among the greatest which the
world has known. If subtlety of intellect could have led man into
a knowledge of God, the Greek would not have fallen short of the
truth. . . . The sterner qualities which marked the Romans in
the earlier days of the Republic seemed to have in them promise of
a full and noble development. But if such hope there ever were it
was doomed to bitterest disappointment. Greece and Rome had
both done their utmost, and the result was failure — complete, disas
trous, humiliating. The world in its wisdom knew not God. And
in the absence of God it had no check on passion, no restraint on
vice, no stimulus to virtue." — Rogers. 104

BOOK TWO.
f)ow IRebemption fls Secureb.
V.
NO POWER OF SELF-RECOVERY FROM SIN.
In passing from the various topics which have been
up for discussion in connection with the general subject
of sin, to a consideration of the methods and conditions,
if there be any, by which we may escape from the dis
astrous consequences of sin, we encounter a new series
of questions. These questions, like those which have
been before us already are not specluative merely, but
are intensely practical and personal.
One of these new questions is now to engage our at
tention. It is this: Has the sinner who has become in
volved in the defilement and bondage and guilt of sin
any power of self=recovery? In other words, can the
sinner without help from the outside, work his life clear
of the effects of transgression? Is there any energy,
latent or other, remaining in the sinner whereby he may
secure, and possibly merit, the restoration of the divine
favor which was forfeited by wrong»doing? May not
the sinner mend his own mischief? Having stumbled,
even so seriously, may he not rise again and walk erect?
If conditions are required to effect reconciliation with
God, are they not such that it is within the competency
of the sinner, through his own acts of will and reformed
105

106 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
conduct, to meet and fulfil these conditions? May he
not somehow atone for the dishonor he has done to the
Divine Being in breaking His law? Is there not a re
cuperative force lodged in the sinner's own nature?
In all these ages men have tried to think that this
question, no matter how phrased, might be answered in
the affirmative. Through a moral blindness which has
rendered them in some measure incapable of seeing
themselves in their true character; through a conceit of
ability which has made them feel that no task can be
too high for man's doing; through a pride of heart
which has led them to scorn outside assistance, multi
tudes of men have chosen to depend on what they have
called their own resources for salvation. Misconceiv
ing the method and terms of God's grace to sinners, and
belittling their own guilt in transgression they have
thought it safe to rely on efforts they themselves could
make, independent of any aid to be derived from a pro
pitiatory sacrifice, for regaining such standing in the
righteousness of God as may have been lost.
Of late this view has had very substantial re=enforce-
ment in the doctrine of Evolution.
There are those who claim that Evolution is not in
consistent with the fact of a fall of man in sin, nor
with the fact of salvation from sin through supernatural
intervention. Books, essays, lectures, discourses, are
put forth from time to time in the interest of this claim.
When a period sufficiently long has elapsed to verify
suppositions, to correct angles of vision, and to intro
duce into statements such modifications as may be found
necessary, perhaps this is the truth which will finally
emerge. It is hard to see how the law of Evolution, as
announced by thoroughgoing Evolutionists, can have

NO POWER OF SELF'RECOVERY FROM SIN 107
full force without making Christianity a product of Ev
olution, and thus necessitating a somewhat radical change
in the conception of Christianity. For all this the ulti
mate and full=orbed truth may lie in this direction.
But meantime, the doctrine of Evolution, as it is ap
prehended and set forth by the section of Evolutionists
who care nothing for the faith of Christ, and utterly
repudiate the supernatural, tends to strengthen the con
fidence of very large, if not increasing numbers, in their
view of a principle of progress inherent in the soul
through which all highest moral triumphs will be assured
in the end. Man, so it is asserted, was not created in
in the fulness of his manhood; he started as an animal
low down in the scale of existence, and has crept up
through long and tedious stages of struggle into man
hood. Man did not fall from a state of innocence; only
gradually did he develop into a consciousness of the dis
tinction between right and wrong. The fine intellectual
and spiritual faculties he possesses are powers into
which he has grown or unfolded. To these same ener
gies, it is added, to which he owes so much, he may
trust for perfect development.
Is this a well=grounded opinion? Whether advanced
by the old humanitarian or the modern Evolutionist, or
both in one, are there facts to justify this position? Is
there anything in our own mental and moral condition,
anything in revelation, either in the earlier or later
forms in which divine truth has been disclosed to us
and the divine will made known; anything in the ar
rangement of the world about us, even though on the
physical side of nature there may be much in the latest
assumptions of science which will hold good; anything
to be seen in the triumphs of single individuals or the

108 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
forward march of the race to lend substantial support to
the notion that a man who has once sinned and by sin
ning has put his soul out of harmony with God and
under condemnation of the moral law, is still sufficient
unto himself, and without the help of an objective atone
ment can wipe out the stain and throw off the bondage,
and work free of the guilt which sin has caused?
It is not to be denied that this confidence has some
warrant in the analogies of the physical system. The
body will not stay ill if it can help it, There are ar
rangements for repairing damages inwrought in our
system. They are a part of the system. They belong
to it in its original structure. They are self=acting. Or
dinarily one might not suspect the existence of such
remedial powers in the human body. Ordinarily there
is no call for the exercise of these powers. But when
occasion arises they spring at once into vigorous oper
ation. When a bone is broken, when the flesh is torn,
when the connection between an artery and a vein is
destroyed, as by the amputation of a limb, there is dis
covered to be a curative force or impulse lying in the
back=ground which comes immediately to the rescue.
Medical men rely on this, and their help consists largely
in giving nature a fair chance to do her work of restor
ation. Take for example a fractured bone. The most of us
are fortunate enough to have escaped this sort of acci
dent. It is to be hoped that no reader of these pages
may ever know by actual experience what it is to feel a
bone snap suddenly in twain. But if such a thing
should happen, it would be found that there is a dis
position in the two severed pieces to unite again. The
system holds in itself and carries along with it, just as

NO POWER OF SELF-.RECOVERY FROM SIN 109
long as there is any fresh and vital energy remaining,
both a provision and a tendency which look toward the
knitting of these bones together.
Nor is this all. As one of our writers has said:
"Among the most delicate of all the arrangements of
the human system " is that which involves the " separate
and peculiar forms of process for the formation of new
bone in a manner quite distinct from that in which the
bones are originally formed, and are made to increase;
a method of secreting bony matter, and of conveying it
to the broken parts, and of depositing it there," exactly
as needed. Without wise and careful assistance in ad
justing the fractured parts, much of nature's efforts at
self-healing would prove abortive. The best results
would not be reached. But the provision and disposi
tion to work back to wholeness are clearly in the system.
Paley, whom it is no longer fashionable to quote, but
who has said some things which will be likely to hold
their own under all assaults, in his Natural Theology,
has called attention to many curious and suggestive
facts in our make=up. He speaks of one bone so placed
that when it is broken it is impracticable to re=unite the
parts. The parts do not " knit " easily. What is then
done? Does nature retire and make no effort at restora
tion? On the contrary a cartilage is formed between
the separated sections, and in this way the usefulness
of the bone is continued. Nature has an expedient for
every emergency, and she never rests until she has tried
at least to restore the wounded or broken parts.
Take for another example the fact just indicated of
the re=establishment of the circulation between the ar
teries and the veins when a limb has been severed from
the body. It may be doubted whether any man, not

110 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
already familiar with the scheme of anatomy, could have
been led to believe in the possibility of this simple but
astonishing arrangement. Often, under an operation,
an artery has to be taken up and tied to prevent a
patient from bleeding to death. But the arresting of
the flow of the blood in an artery would be equally fatal
with leaving it open if there were not some method
still by which this blood could be conveyed around to
the heart and lungs again. The unimpeded circulation,
the traversing of the blood out to the surface and then
back again to the center, must be kept up, or death en
sues. Once more what does nature do? Does she make
no effort to establish this connection and thus save life?
Instead of pausing defeated and resting in a helpless
and hopeless inactivity, the obstructed blood starts in
and plows out foritself a new channel, and in this way
secures the free circulation which is needed.
As we are told in the books there is a method — a very
marvelous method, too — of outgrowth for the blood
vessels already formed. It is not by force of extension
and assimilation that this new and necessary condition
of things is brought about, but it is an orderly and
living outgrowth. It is as if there were a kind of re=
constructing instinct, not to say intelligence, lying
latent in the system, and ready to act whenever an
emergency may arise.
What is true in these particulars is true all through.
The body is full of self=healing provisions;
These facts put two other facts clearly in evidence.
The first one is, that in the original constitution of the
body there was an anticipation of derangement. The
second one is, that when derangement takes place, and
there are damages to be repaired, immediate efforts are

NO POWER OF SELF'RECOVERY FROM SIN ill
put forth, within the system itself, to restore the tone
and energy of the parts effected.
Again the question recurs: Is there anything cor
respondent to this in the soul? Is there the same ten
dency and the same success in the re=uniting or knitting
of moral fractures as in the case of broken bones?
When a man has hurt his soul by disobedience and way
wardness; has weakened and deranged his spiritual na
ture by indulgence of appetite and passion; has blunted
his moral perceptions and feelings by selfishness and
pride and hate and all manner of bad and vicious living,
is there a provision for self-healing?
Beyond any question there is restlessness to be dis
covered in the soul when one has gone wrong, a quick,
sharp, or it may be heavy pressure of pain, and a pro
nounced conviction, especially in persons of exceptional
moral sensitiveness, that one has been exceedingly fool
ish as well as wicked in sinning, which lie in the line of
the analogies furnished by the physical system when
injured or thrown into derangement. On the basis of
this restlessness and pain and personal conviction of
folly and wrong, there are often very sincere regrets
experienced in view of what one has been led to do, and
strong resolves formed to go back to God, and live a
life of rectitude; but nothing like the spontaneous and
diligent recuperative tendency to be seen in the diseased
or marred body appears. There is sorrow over conse
quences; but there is no prompt and general rallying of
faculties to throw off the moral ill health and disorder
which sin has brought in. Plato says: "The penalty
of evil=doing is to become like the evil."
On this point an appeal may be taken safely to con
sciousness. The average man the world over knows

112 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
and can define his own feelings. He is aware what his
dispositions and judgments are. He is alive to what
he is doing — to what he wants to do, and what he means
to do and to become. If sin is hateful to him, he does
not need to have the fact brought to his attention by
any outside party. If in his soul he is trying to avoid
sin, and to get altogether free from sin and its fatal
entanglements, he understands it. If as often as he
sins, his faculties, intellectual, moral and spiritual, take
alarm, and array themselves in selfedefense, and resort
to all means within their power to work back toward
holiness, this is something within his own cognizance.
There may be mental operations and spiritual exercises
carried on below consciousness, though this is hard to
conceive; but these operations and exercises are surely
not of this unconscious order. One's broken bones
may "knit", the blood suddenly arrested in its flow may
plow out new channels in which to course, while the
person most nearly concerned remains entirely uncon
scious of what is going on within him; but not so the
operations of the will and the rational faculties. The
average man knows what thoughts are stirring in his
mind, what emotions are filling his heart, what he is
aiming at, what dominant motives are impelling him,
and what aspirations he is cherishing.
Now it is within bounds to say that the average man
is not conscious of any self = corrective or self=healing
tendency in the moral constitution. He is conscious of
being wrong; he is conscious of being unhappy; he is
conscious that his steps have taken him out of the path
of righteousness, and turned his face away from the
light; he is conscious of having done something which
tends to thwart hi? true destiny j but be is not conscious

NO POWER OF SELF--RECOVERY FROM SIN 113
that his ill=treated and sorely bruised moral nature has
recoiled from sin and set about the task of appeasing
the law which was broken in sinning and repairing the
damages wrought upon the soul through the act of
transgression. Even in Christian lands and under the
accumulated influences of a Christian civilization men
do not turn to God, so the most intelligent and sincere
after the most searching and careful self=examination
are forced to admit, until they have first felt the movings
of the Holy Spirit on their minds and hearts. Men
hunger; but it is not the bread which is cooked in the
ovens of their own conceit and imagination— it is only
the bread which comes down out of the heavens that can
satisfy them. Men come into peace; but it is not a
peace which is generated in the laboratory of their own
souls; it is peace through believing in the Crucified
Christ. No man was ever cured of sin who was simply self=
cured. No man was ever pardoned of a wrong done to
God or his fellows without going deeper into the matter
than simply forgiving himself.
This is the testimony of experience. This is what
consciousness with uplifted hand affirms. Men have
two natures — a higher and a lower. Often, always in
deed, until one has gone up so far that the higher rules
with an undisputed sway, or so far down that the lower
dominates without further protest from the higher, there
is a fierce struggle between these two natures. But the
higher never wins, even though it be higher, without
aid from the outside. This is what Socrates would have
said. This is what Paul did say. This is the word of
the Great Teacher: A new right life needed, but this
new right life to be found not in ourselves nor through

114 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
ourselves, but from above. This is the truth to which
consciousness in all devout and grandly victorious souls
bears willing witness.
This inference which is found to be true when tested
by individual consciousness is likewise justified by a
study of the history of the race. Looked at in the
mass and traced through the ages there is no indication
of a self^restoring tendency to be discovered in men.
If there were any such recuperative force in souls
the outworking of it somewhere in the centuries and
among some of the many peoples of the earth would
surely appear. We should see old Assyria mounting
from stage to stage in power and splendor instead of
rising to great heights of dominion and holding her
own for a period and then slackening her grasp on con
trol and rotting into decay. We should see swarthy
Egypt, the prolific source of science and art and the
home of mystery, not the ward of one of the " Powers "
which had no existence until centuries upon centuries
after her mighty Pharaohs had been entombed in the
Pyramids, but an independent and thrifty and pro
gressive nation. We should see Greece, always small
in territorial possessions, but limitless in the extent of
her intellectual reaches and conquests and of immortal
renown, moving on from culture to culture with some
thing of the rhythmic tread of her own great epic and
tragic poems, rather than dwindling into the insigni
ficant fraction of a state to be scorned and overrun by
" The Unspeakable Turk," and kicked back and forth
like a football by kings and premiers engaged in their
heartless game of international diplomacy. We should
see Rome still the mistress of the world, not in virtue of
her ambition and her arms, but in consequence of the

NO POWER OF SELF-RECOVERY FROM SIN 115
progress of her thought and the natural development of
her moral ideas. We should see Japan and China and
India clothed in garments of light and resplendent in
their conquests of righteousness.
But so far from advancing through a regenerative
energy lodged in their own natures, and coming into
more and more of what is true and beautiful and good
in life, the spectacle presented by nation after nation is
moral retreat and lapse. People do not even hold their
own in the upward struggle, With capacity in them
for wonderful achievements in statesmanship and war
and art and literature and all forms of learning, and
with all the advantages these achievements may be sup
posed to afford, peoples yet fall back into stupid igno
rance and impotency. This falling back is a large part
of the pathetic record of the past.
The simple fact is that communities and races, like in
dividuals, are under necessity of having the truth
which renews the moral nature made known to them by
some sort of revelation or missionary service, and then
of having conviction of sin and the purpose to be free
' from sin wrought in the soul by the Divine Spirit. It
is from the outside, almost always, too, in the two
fold sense just indicated, and not from the inside, that
the help comes. The gospel was carried into Italy; it
was carried into Germany and France; it was carried
into Scandinavia; it was carried into the British Islands;
and the gospel, accompanied as it was and always will
be by the influence of the Spirit, became the regenera
ting agency of these various tribes and kindreds, and
the formative impulse and principle of their civilization.
If these mighty nations, Germany, France, England,
the United States and the rest of them, are to move on

116 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
in the line of an unfaltering progress, throwing off the
bad and taking on the good as the years roll past, it will
not be in virtue of energies native to the minds and
hearts of these peoples; but in virtue of what they take
into their minds from God.
In dealing with sin, therefore, something more is
needed than just leaving the soul to the operation of its
own laws and tendencies. Neither the defilement of
sin, nor the cruel bondage, nor the unquestionable guilt,
can be escaped and amended by this process. Sin does
not wear itself out and come to an end through sheer
exhaustion. Sin grows by what it feeds on. Sin is
cumulative. "One mischief entered brings another in;
The second pulls a third, the third draws more,
And they for all the rest set ope the door;
Till custom takes away the judging sense,
That to offend we think it no offense."
Because of the infinite love of God in Christ, the
Prodigal who turns back finds the Father waiting with
open arms to receive him. But how few the poor
wretched wanderers who ever come to themselves and
think with sincere and earnest longing of the love and
peace and joy and plenty they abandoned when they
deliberately separated their lives from God! There may
be more than we think. Fondly let us hope so. Bui
from what we are forced to see and know of men and
women, it is quite as likely there may be less rather than
more. Sin infatuates. Sin takes the soul captive; and
when once it has its victim within its grasp it does not
easily let go its hold. Sin wears the body out, and the
brain out, and the life out; but it does not lose its own
longing for indulgence. If sin is to be handled effectu-

NO POWER OF SELF*RECOVERY FROM SIN 117
ally there must be a corrective energy brought in from
the outside.
Practically this is everywhere recognized. When
signs of unusual depravity begin to show themselves in
a boy; when he lies without scruple, and steals if he
can, and drinks and swears and gambles, and manifests
all the most aggravated symptoms of a dissipated and
vicious life, no wise and loving parent ever trusts to a
mere recuperative tendency in the boy's soul. No wise
and loving parent folds his hands and says: " His soul,
if only he is left alone and a little time is given, will
work itself clear of all this madness." Instead the wise
and loving parent brings in all the pressure he can
master from the outside. Appeals are made to the boy's
better nature, to his self=respect, to his pride of man
hood, to his regard for those who love him, to his inter
est in standing well with his fellows and to his pros
pects for the future, to his reason and conscience. But
this is never felt to be enough. Friends, associates,
teachers, ministers, employers, women of culture and
tact — all who are supposed to be able to exert even the
least bit of restraining and guiding influence, are
besought to do what they can to hold back this boy from
perdition. Prayers are offered and the intervention of
God with His wisdom and grace is invoked. It is felt
to be necessary to resort to all these means and methods,
if the life is to be saved from moral destruction. It is
necessary; and profoundly grateful may any father or
mother well be who succeeds in restraining a wayward
boy by the use of all these resources.
The true objective point in this whole matter of sin
is to bring men under the power of God, It is to in
duce men to feel their need of God, and then to open

118 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
their souls to God. This is the way and the only way
in which men can become new creatures. This is the
way and the only way in which proud thoughts can be
brought into captivity, and imagination and the high
things which exalt themselves against the knowledge of
God be cast down. This is the way and the only way
in which men can come into possession of what the
apostle has boldly called " the right to the tree of life."
Before men can be saved, and in order to be saved, they
must come into the attitude where in all sincerity they
can say: "The Lord is my Helper."
So we come back to the question which was asked by
the faithful old prophet: "And thou, when thou are
spoiled, what will thou do?" Sin is a spoiler — a ruth
less destroyer. The soul which has sinned is already
spoiled. If no help is brought, or no help is found, it
will remain spoiled.
What then ought we to be doing? Quite likely we
are doing nothing. If it were a broken bone or a sev
ered artery, what haste, what care, to heal and restore!
But a broken soul — a moral nature disturbed and dam
aged and dissevered from its true self because dissevered
from God is left as if it were the most trifling matter
in all the universe! A broken soul, a marred moral
nature, is left as if that were all that is necessary to be
done ! The bone must be set, the artery must be taken
up and tied, but the soul — the broken soul — the wounded
soul — will come out all right if just left alone! What
criminal folly!
What ought we to be doing? There is a way of
restoration for us all. No matter how broken and
bruised, there is a way into moral and spiritual sound
ness. Some men trust blindly to the mercy of God.

NO POWER OF SELF'RECOVERY FROM SIN 119
We can trust in the mercy of God, because this mercy
has expressed itself in an atoning Christ. Only our
trust must not be blind; but it must have in it the in
telligence and purpose which lays hold of the offered
Savior in just the way He is offered.
What ought we to be doing? Some men seem to
think repentance is enough. Repentance avails because
there is an atoning Christ in which it can center. Only
there must be repentance; a real, genuine, godly sorrow
for sin, and a prompt and faithful turning from sin.
What ought we to be doing? Some men seem to
think it enough to perform good works. The more good
works the better. Good works are indispensable. But
it is the Great Teacher Himself at whose feet the wisest
have been sitting for 1800 years and more who has said:
" And this is life eternal, that they should know Thee
the only true God, and Him whom Thou didst send,
even Jesus Christ."
What ought we to be doing? There is no restoration
for us in ourselves. Our own righteousnesses are as
filthy rags. The lapse of time will not help us. To=
morrow will have no abundance beyond to=day. To*
day is the accepted time. If we are ever saved it will
be because we commit our souls unto the Lord, and
trust everything to the grace of God in Christ. Christ
is the ground of our hope; and He is this ground be
cause He is the Son of God, and loved us and gave
Himself for us. This is what is to be made clear and,
pressed home with all possible earnestness and energy
before the discussion is ended.

Difficulties in tbe Mas of tbe free
parbon of Sin.

"How can man be just with God." — Job 9: 2.
" Apart from shedding of blood there is no remission." — Heb.
9: 22.
"Now once at the end of the ages hath He been manifested to
put away sin by the sacrifice of Himself." — Heb. 9: 26.
" Whatever pardon is granted must be pardon through punish
ment. Mere repentance never expiates crime, even under civil
government. The truly penitent man never feels that his repent
ance constitutes a ground of acceptance; the more he repents, the
more he recognizes his need of reparation and expiation. Hence
God meets the demand of man's conscience as well as of His own
holiness when He provides a substituted punishment. God shows
His love by meeting the demands of holiness and by meeting them
by the sacrifice of Himself." — Strong.
"The atonement originated in the love of God. He meant to
establish His kingdom in this sinful world. But sin stood in the
way of this end of His plan and works. The establishment of the
kingdom is impossible without the restoration of sinners. The
first step toward complete salvation is forgiveness. The door to
the kingdom is reconciliation. But God is not merely love; He is
holy love. Love is not weak, careless good*nature; there is in it a
principle of self-preservation and self-assertion, a righteousness
which guards it from all that would lower its dignity and sacred
ness. God cannot with due regard to His own holiness pardon the
sinner out of hand; atonement must be made for his sin. Yet the
sinner cannot make atonement for himself. He is not only guilty
but helpless. He cannot take the first step toward righting the
wrong he has done to God. He has nothing to offer to God as an
atonement." — Stearns. 122

VI.
DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF THE FREE PAR
DON OF SIN.
The progress of the discussion has now brought us to
the point of considering whether or not there are any
obstacles in the way of the unconditional pardon of sin.
If men are sinners, and if to commit sin is to incur
guilt, and if there is no power of self=recovery lodged
in the soul of the sinner, can there be, taking into ac
count all the interests involved, a free, out=and=out
forgiveness of sin?
Two preliminary observations will launch us into the
depths of this question.
In the first place very grave obstacles to the unquali
fied and unconditional pardon of sin are what we should
naturally look for! If our previous conclusions are well
founded, sin is primarily defiance of God. Sin is the
breaking of the perfect law of God. Sin is a folly and
wickedness wrought against the sacred rights of one's
own being. Sin is the setting in motion of influences
which sweep out in vast circuits of misery and involve
humanity far and wide and all through. Poison work
ing subtly in the system; diseases perpetuating them
selves from generation to generation; storms which
leave wide swaths of desolation in their tracks; volcanic
forces which upheave and overturn, are types of the
mischievous working of sin. Everywhere there is
wretchedness and woe because of sin. The tears, the
123

124 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
distresses, the pangs, the sorrows, the overthrows and
tragic failures under which humanity groans, are at
once the bitter fruit and the unimpeachable testimony
to the exceeding sinfulness of sin. The awful shadow
of sin is over the life that now is and the life which is
to come. No man with any speech or thought at his
command can fitly set forth the measureless calamity
which has come upon the world through sin.
Is it to be supposed that an offense of this gravity
can be passed over lightly? Had we only this knowl
edge of the appalling effects of sin — this knowledge
without any preconceived theories, and with no famil
iarity with the way of salvation through the crucified
Christ, should we not say at first flush, that there must
be some satisfaction rendered before this vast wrong can
be swept into forgetfulness? A mere disposition to
pardon we should not deem enough. Pardon on con
dition of penitence we should not deem enough. The
man who has been despoiled of his treasure may say:
"I will not prosecute; I freely acquit the criminal."
The man who has stolen may say: " I am sorry "; and
he may go so far as to add that he will not do so any
more. Still there is something in these cases not met
by this attitude either of the wronged or the wrong*
doer. There is a demand of justice not covered. It
would never occur to us to suppose the guilt of sin can
be canceled in this easy way.
It is to be added in the second place, that as a matter
of fact this is the sentiment of mankind. The idea of
the necessity of expiation for guilt is universal. It is
not in place now to consider whether there is any
ground for this feeling. The fact asserted, and the only
fact asserted, is that this feeling appears everywhere.

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 125
There are those who are at great pains to rule expia
tion out of the atonement. To say, however, that the
element or idea of expiation has no place in the sacrifice
of Christ, but that it belongs exclusively to the rites
and ceremonies of heathenism, is to admit the existence
of the notion and its dominancy in the thought and over
the consciences of men. Whether there be anything
expiatory in the death of Christ or not; whether such a
Scripture as this: "Apart from shedding of blood there
is no remission," has any expiatory meaning in it or not;
it is beyond question that men instinctively and uni
versally have felt that when they have done wrong they
ought to do something and must do something to atone
for the wrong.
Men may be wide of the mark in their methods of
expressing this feeling. They may be fanatical and
even cruel in the offerings they lay upon the altar of
sacrifice. There may be no merit whatever in the at
tempts they make to appease the wrath they have
aroused by their crimes. Still there can be no mistake
as to the motives which lie behind these acts of sacrifice;
nor can there be any mistake either as to the significance
which is in them. In all expiatory acts men confess
their sense of the necessity of something more than
even the sincerest penitence in order to divine forgive
ness. This is a root common to the trunk of pagan and
Christian sentiment. It is the voice of humanity. It
never has been the feeling, nor is there any likelihood
that it ever will be the feeling, that men can lie and
steal and defraud and murder and mount into all refine
ments and go down and wallow in all grossness of
iniquity, and with their bad counsels and bad examples

126 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
sweep soul after soul away into darkness and death,
and then go on — on here and on forever — just as if they
owed nothing to the offended majesty of the law and
the Law=Giver. The man may have a very incomplete
and even wrong idea of God who thinks of Him as
One who requires some sort of an atonement to be the
basis on which He forgives sin; but the man who thinks
this has a very wholesome idea of himself. Nothing is
so foolish, and nothing in the long run is so unsafe, as
for a man who has offended to try to belittle his offense.
The love of God is infinite, and the forbearance of God
must be the marvel of marvels to all rational beings
throughout the universe; but to fancy that we can be
bad because God is good, and that to break His law is a
thing which can be easily overlooked, is to make for
ourselves " beds" which are " too short" for us, and to
try to cover ourselves with " coverings" which are "too
narrow." With the way thus opened it is now in order to indi
cate some of the more obvious of the obstacles to the
free remission of sin.
To begin with law is nullified and brought into re
proach, if pardon is granted as soon as an offense is
committed, and on no other ground than that the
offender is sorry for what he has done and wants
pardon. There might as well be no law. To all intents
and purposes there is no law. So far as penalty is con
cerned, the innocent and the guilty stand on the same
plane. It is not the breaker of the law who is made to
suffer, it is the law that is crucified. Justice is over
thrown. Equity is rendered impossible. All the ma
chinery of administration is reduced to contempt. With
such a reckless scheme of promiscuous pardons as was

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 127
recently illustrated by the Chief Executive of Illinois
put into general operation how long could government
be carried on?
We get our notions from this matter, and draw our
examples from the methods and policies of men in the
management of their own public affairs. We are obliged
to do so. But the principle, so far as the vindication
of law in the punishment of crime, or the dishonoring
of law in the indiscriminate pardoning of crime is in
issue, is substantially the same in the divine and the
human government. Law must be upheld. Law in its
excellent sovereignty must be maintained.
For what is law? Law is the wisdom of eternity. Law
is the crystallized thought of God. Law is the fine com
pliment the Infinite One pays to the dignity of His
rational creatures. Law is the subtle cord with which
the King, immortal and invisible, holds all out=lying
realms to His throne. Law is the certification to the
soul of duty. Law is the point of contact where the
moral instinct in man comes into recognition of the
moral requirements of God. Law is the hand of Su
preme Authority laid on every head, in severity to re
strain from evil deeds, and in gentleness to encourage
in courses which have in view what is holy, just and
good. Law must not be wounded, nor tarnished, nor
emptied of its power, nor set aside. Whatever is done
in the interest of compassion, or to relieve souls brought
into the straits of approaching judgment, must be done
without compromising the majesty of the law. What
Shakespeare makes one of his characters say about law
is true of law always and in all realms.
"We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it np to fear the birds of prey,

128 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
And let it keep one shape, till customs make it
Their perch and not their terror."
Laws not enforced cease to command the respect and
obedience of men and are no longer laws.
This is to be emphasized because we have no right
view of the question in issue until we realize the sacred
ness and enduring sacredness of the law of God. It is
no more a characteristic of our own times than of
former times — perhaps not so much so; but it is the
misfortune of men in general that sentimentalism is so
much with them and righteousness is so little. The
public opinion of the world is never penetrated to the
extent it ought to be with the notions of justice and
rectitude and duty. Our theories are too much fibered
with mere inclination.
We readily recognize the necessity and beauty of
law in physical spheres. With what a pardonable en
thusiasm do our men of science talk about the reign of
law in the material world. Not a few rise up in protest
against miracles, and the possibility of miracles, because
they have such a conception of the dignity and uni
formity and inviolability of the laws which are found
operative in nature.
But somehow the idea possesses us that law is of less
consequence in the sphere of morals than in the sphere
of suns and stars. We have a fancy that infractions of
the law can be overlooked more readily and penalties
more safely remitted in the higher departments where
thought and will and desire come into play than in the
departments where chemical affinities and the attraction
of matter and vegetable growth are concerned. In fine,
God's law, and the honor of God's law, as we find this
law in moral government, do not lay hold on our regard

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 129
with sufficient vigor. We do not exalt God's law
enough. There can be no indifference, however, on the part of
Him who has made the law and who is behind it, to
transgressions of the law. Nor will there be any par
doning of the guilty under the law, except on the basis
of considerations which will leave the law uncompro-
mised in dignity and energy. To do this would be to
set influences at work which would lower the tone of
all rightful authority.
This is not mere speculation. There are instances
under all the forms of our human administration of law
when the interposition of the pardoning power seems to
be required and justified. There are uncertainties about
the case. There are mitigating circumstances. There
are promises of amendment. The statute under which
the convicted man suffers may have been passed with
out due thought. There may be bearings of the law
not contemplated at the outset. Hence it may seem
better to give way and exercise executive clemency. At
the same time it is impossible, even under circumstances
the most clearly warranted, to extend pardon to the con
demned without in some measure weakening law. This
is the outcome if pardons are frequently granted. Un
der the free and indiscriminate use of the pardoning
function the administration of justice is rendered not
only ineffectual but contemptible. Crime is encour
aged by a mawkish sympathy with criminals.
It is a settled principle, so far as such matters can be
settled, with lawyers and legislators and prison discipli
narians, that it is not so much the severity of the penal
ty as the certainty of the infliction of the penalty which
is the chief deterrent from crime. Not that there are

130 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
to be no pardons. Not that every law is to be as strict
and vigorous as possible. But the law must be sure, or
else lose its hold on the respect and fear of men. Every
pardon is a practical avowal that law is not so terrible as
it was thought to be. Every pardon says that if one
man may escape, then there is a possibility that another
may escape, and that wrongs of all sorts may be done
with impunity.
Every pardon, moreover, is a confession either that
the law is defective, or that the administration of the
law is not trustworthy, or that the condemned person
is not so guilty as he was thought to be. Were pardons
to be multiplied until every offender should become an
object of clemency, law would be simply a farce, and
each person in the community, if such a lawless con
course of individuals could be called a community,
would be left to do what might chance to be right in
his own eyes. This would be chaos come again.
The problem, therefore, is to pardon the sinner with
out compromising the dignity and force of the law the
sinner has broken. Anybody who has any appreciation
of the law can see how the sacredness and force of law
stand in the way of the unconditional pardon of sin.
If law is needed in the moral universe, law must be re
spected and honored.
There is another obstacle in the way. Unless pun
ishment is inflicted there is no suitable expression giv
en to the ill=desert of transgression.
What is punishment? How shall it be defined?
Webster says: It is "the suffering in person or prop
erty which is annexed by law or judicial decision to the
commission of a crime, offense, or trespass." It is
" suffering," and it is suffering " annexed by law " to

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 131
crime, or the suffering which grows out of the violation
of law. The Century Dictionary puts it thus: " Pain,
suffering, loss, confinement, or other penalty inflicted on
a person for a crime or offense, by the authority to
which the offender is subjected." It is "penalty";
and it is penalty " inflicted " by " authority." Still
another definition which has been given is: It " is evil
inflicted by a lawgiver, or under his direction, to show
his sense of the value of the law, or of the evil of vio
lating the law." It is an "evil," — something painful
and from which one naturally shrinks. It is an evil
which is " inflicted," and inflicted by authority. There
is a purpose in it; it is to show the " value of the law,"
or to make clear " the evil of violating the law." This
indeed is the idea common to all the definitions. Pun
ishment is distress or disability or humiliation imposed
on one by the proper authority or authorities because
he has done wrong.
Suffering falls into three classifications.
There is the suffering which we call calamity. Men
are not visited by it for their reformation; because often
they are swept out of existence by it. Nor do men
suffer in this form on the ground especially of their
guilt; for they may be no worse than others. "Think
ye that these Galileans were sinners above all other
Galileans because they have suffered these things?"
" Or those eighteen upon whom the tower in Siloam fell,
and killed them, think ye that they were offenders above
all the men that dwelt in Jerusalem?"
There is the suffering which we call chastisement.
It is disciplinary. The intent of it is to purge our mor
tal grossness out of us; to improve, to purify and to
sanctify our souls. It is compassionate and fatherly.

132 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
It is an evidence of love. Whom He loveth He chas-
teneth. There is the suffering which we call punishment.
This is punishment proper. It is distress or disability
or humilation inflicted on men to mark displeasure. It
is not accidental suffering, like the suffering in which
one is involved in a railroad disaster or a cyclone or a
burning building. It is not morally medicinal suffer
ing, — not this, at any rate in primary intent. It is
suffering inflicted on one because he has done wrong
and is guilty.
Here the thought doubles back on the first statement
made to the effect that punishment is designed to be
an expression of the ill=desert of transgression, and
that unless punishment is inflicted there is no suitable
expression given to the ill=desert. There is a miscar
riage of justice. There is a suppression of righteous
indignation. There is confusion in the value of holi
ness and unholiness. There is a toning down, or per
haps it would be better to say, a wiping out of the dis
tinction between right and wrong. There is a violence
done to our moral instincts. Conscience has seemed
to mislead us.
On this point we need clear vision. There will be
less difficulty in seeing our way by and by if we see
clearly here. Some things, too, which seem perplexing
so long as our notions of punishment are wrong, or even
vague, become wonderfully simple and satisfactory the
moment our notions are right.
There are four distinct conceptions, not to go so far
as to say theories, of the object in view in punishment.
It is held by some that it is the main design of punish
ment to restrain others from the commission of crime.
Terror is to be struck into the hearts of those who

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 133
would otherwise yield to temptation by the examples of
those who are made to suffer for their offenses. Doubt
less this is one of the indirect effects of punishment,
and a ground on which punishment may be justified,
It is held by some that it is the main design of pun
ishment to protect the community. There is no sort of
question that the people at large — the body politic —
ought to be protected against the ravages of the de
praved and vicious. Every community has a right and
is in duty bound to protect itself against the criminal
classes. To do this it may properly and justly inflict
punishment. It is held by some that the main design of punish
ment is to reform the criminal. Everybody will admit
the desirability of reforming criminals. Everybody
will admit that no reasonable pains are to be spared to
make good men out of bad men, — good men out of the
bad men whom we are forced to shut up in our prisons.
Criminals, of whatever grade, are to be treated with ail
the humanity which may be safely shown; and they are
to be helped just as far as may be with counsel and
sympathy. If they come out from their confinement
in penitentiaries better than they went in — with better
ideas and aspirations, it should be an occasion of devout
gratitude to God. It is one of the hopeful signs of the
times that we are learning to despair of no man or
woman. It shows spiritual progress that so many are
willing to make all needed sacrifice to " rescue the
perishing." It is held by some that the main design in punish
ment is the satisfaction of justice. Punishment is the
expression, in an authoritative way, of the disapproba
tion which ought to be felt toward ill=desert.
This has already been set forth, by implication at

134 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
least, as the correct view. Punishment rests on an im
movable foundation where it is made to rest on Tight
ness. This is the conclusion to which reason and con
science would seem to bring us. It is reassuring to
know that able men who have made this question a
subject of profound study have found their minds led to
this position.
The late President Woolsey of Yale College, — a man
revered and beloved by all his pupils, and held in the
highest esteem by the world at large both for his ability
and character, — advances an opinion on this matter which
ought to be as convincing as it is explicit. Searching
for the basis of " the punitive power of the state," and
so of course speaking with special reference to punish
ment under the laws and within the sphere of the state,
after examining and setting aside other theories Dr.
Woolsey in his "Political Science," says: "The theory
that in punishing an evil=doer the state renders to him
his deserts, is the only one which seems to have a solid
foundation. It assumes that moral evil has been com
mitted by disobedience to rightful command; that
according to a propriety which commends itself to our
moral nature it is fit and right that evil, physical or
mental, suffering or shame, should be incurred by the
wrong=doer, and that in all forms of government over
moral beings there ought to be a power able to decide
how much evil ought to follow special kinds and in
stances of transgression. Or, in other words, the state
has the same power and right to punish which God has;
it is, in fact, as St. Paul calls it, a minister of God to
execute wrath upon him that doeth evil."
This unquestionably is the true conception of punish
ment, and the real object and justification of punish-

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 135
ment. Punishment grows out of ill=desert. It is
warranted on the ground of ilbdesert. Under a perfect
moral administration it would be the perfect measure of
ill=desert. It is the stern voice which tells to the wrong*
doer just how wrong he has been, and what he deserves.
The martyr suffers misfortune, and we respect and
cherish his memory; but the criminal suffers justice and
the instinctive judgment of mankind is that the crim
inal ought to suffer. In the presence of a great and
atrocious crime this is always and everywhere the
response of the moral sensibilities.
The application of this to the point just now under
discussion is readily made. If pardon is to be granted
to the sinner there must be some way devised whereby
fit expression may be given to the ill-desert of sin; or
else all our notions of right and wrong are overturned.
Somehow it must be made to appear that sin is not an
insignificant affair; but an offense to God, and an
indignity to God's law, and a menace and a mischief to
the moral universe. There is a difference between
obedience and disobedience, between holiness and
unholiness, between doing what God wants to have
done, and doing what He does not want to have done,
and this difference must be emphasized by putting such a
stamp of disapprobation on disobedience and unholiness
and wrong=doing that all eyes shall see how God hates
sin. The ill=desert of sin must be expressed in terms
and after a method which will leave no doubt in any
rational mind of the utter inconsistency of sin with
moral purity and enduring joy.
Does it not begin to dawn on us that the necessity for
an atonement lies down deep in the nature of things?
The difficulties encountered and the obstacles to be

136 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
removed or overcome before there can be pardon of
guilt are not few and insignificant; they are many and
weighty. All along the line there are to be adjustments,
accommodations, equivalencies carefully made and main
tained. It will not do to override law. The majesty
and sacredness of law must be preserved inviolate. It
will not do to come short in the punitive measurement
of ill=desert. The arrangements must be such that if
the sin is forgiven it shall be none the less in evidence
that to trangress God's law is an unutterably grave
offense. To say this is not to affirm that God is all sovereignty
and no Fatherhood. Fatherhood requires law, order,
obedience, purity, as much as sovereignty. Rules can
no more be dispensed with in a home presided over by
a loving father than in a home whose head is a tyran
nical father. The most benevolent as well as the most
despotic state requires forms of government and fidelity
to what government requires.
To say this is not to affirm that God has more regard
for law than for souls. Law is in the interest of souls.
It is for the good of souls that we should have such laws
as we do have and that these laws should be enforced.
The welfare of souls is the objective point. God has
made souls in His own image; and He has made all
things to work together for the good of souls who keep
in harmony with His thought and will. Souls, we are
bound to believe, are more to God than the law of gravi
tation, or the law of the tides, or the law of heat, or any
other law of the physical world; but these laws are not
suspended even to save life. If men get into line with
these laws they are helped by them and carried forward
in their plans; but if they get in the way of these laws

DIFFICULTIES IN THE WAY OF PARDON 137
they are smitten and overturned. The moral laws of
God are not the expressions of despotism but of benev
olence; and an important element of their sacredness is
their infinite goodness.
Recall the Psalmist's sublime tribute to the law:
"The law of the Lord is perfect, restoring the soul.
The testimony of the Lord is sure, making wise the
simple. The precepts of the Lord are right, rejoicing
the heart. The commandment of the Lord is pure, en
lightening the eyes. The fear of the Lord is clean,
enduring forever. The judgments of the Lord are true
and righteous altogether."
Recall the Sermon on the Mount. What is this Ser
mon on the Mount? With what admiration we bow be
fore its matchless words! How it dissects us! How it
sweeps us from our feet! How interior its reach and
how faithfully it probes the heart! What exalted con
ceptions it gives us of the possibilities of life; and what
demands it lays upon us to be pure and true and clean
in the inmost recesses and to the very core of our na
tures! But what is the Sermon on the Mount? It is
the Law interpreted. It is the Perfect Law perfectly
interpreted. It is this — just this and nothing other.
There are men who seem to spare no pains, but rather
to strain points and stretch their rhetoric to the utmost
of extravagance, in order to relegate the law of God to
some subordinate place in the divine administration of
the affairs of souls; while at the same time they exalt
the Sermon on the Mount into the sum and sub
stance of the Gospel. But the Sermon on the Mount
is the Perfect Law perfectly interpreted; and every
word in commendation of it is a word, conscious or un
conscious, in commendation of the Law.

138 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
The law of God cannot be broken with impunity. To
break the law of God is to incur ill=desert. The sense
and measure of this ill=desert must somehow have ade
quate expression. Ill=desert must be punished; or, if it
is not punished, it must be dealt with in a way to satisfy
the righteousness of God, and to maintain the sacred
ness of the rules which have been framed for the proper
government of rational creatures, and to preserve the
moral order of the universe. There must be punish
ment, or atonement. The question of questions is: Can
there be atonement for sin?

ttbe atonement flbabe b£ Cbrist for Sin.

"Christ died for us."— Rom. 5:8.
" Sin conditions the work of the Incarnate Lord Himself. Not
only does Christ set Himself to re=erect the true standard of charac
ter: He devotes Himself also to dealing with the actual ravages of
moral evil. He touches its intrinsic nature, its source in the will,
the inviolable law of its retribution; He reveals the destructive po
tency of its effects; He labors as the Good Physician to remove its
temporal penalties; He provides, in His atoning sacrifice of Him
self, the one and only countervailing remedy." — Ottley in Lux Mundi.
" Die he or justice must ; unless for him
Some other, able and as willing, pay
The rigid satisfaction, death for death.
Say, heavenly powers, where shall we find such love?
Which of you will be mortal to redeem
Man's mortal crime, and just the unjust to save?
Dwells in all heaven charity so dear? " — Milton.
"Now, if you should Bay: 'How can it be any satisfaction to di
vine justice that our sins should be punished in the person of an
innocent substitute, to whom, by a sort of legal fiction, our guilt
has been previously imputed?' the answer is: Yon are entirely mis
representing the case. You are not taking into view all the ele
ments of the problem. Long before we were born, in the depths of
a past eternity, God, foreseeing our fall, laid the burden of our re
demption on His own well=beloved Son. He made to Him a promise
of eternal life for each and all of His believing people, upon condi
tion of His accomplishing to the satisfaction of the Father the
work given Him to do. Is not thiB implied in the words of Jesus,
when He said to His Father: 'Glorify Thy Son, that Thy Son also
may glorify Thee. As Thou hast given Him power over all flesh,
that He should give eternal life to as many as Thou hast given
Him?'"— Balfour.
" The prevalent opinion no doubt has been that the atonement
is simply a historic fact, dating back some nineteen hundred years;
and that only the purpose of it is eternal. But Johann Wessel, the
great German theologian who died only six years after Luther was
born, got hold of the idea that not election only but atonement is
an eternal act. This, it seems to me, is both rational and Scriptur
al. Eternal election, profoundly considered, requires eternal atone
ment for its support. Both are eternal, as all divine realities are
eternal." — Hitchcock.
" God's plan is one: Christ is the Lamb slain from the foundation
of the world; and even creation itself is built up on redemption
lines." — Orr. 140

VII.
THE ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN.
That Christ came to seek and to save that which was
lost and somehow bore our sins in His own body and
died a sacrificial and atoning death on the cross is
fundamental to the teaching of gospels and epistles
alike. When the apostle states the simple fact that
Christ died for us, he states the fact around which
revolve and upon which converge all the other facts
essential to salvation which are described to us in the
Word of God.
Indeed, take the crucified Christ out of the Bible, and
we are robbed at once of all that is most vital and
precious in Old Testament and New. There remains
a rare volume of oriental literature and a magnificent
system of ethics, but the chiefest thing is gone. Leave
us the crucified Christ though depriving us of all else,
and there is still light for our darkened thought, and
hope for our burdened hearts, and a sure way unto
salvation. The crucified Christ is the core of it all. Range as
wide as we will, gather up as many details as we may,
follow prophecies down into their fulfilment, trace his
tories back to their sources, fathom the purposes, ex
haust the secrets of all types, and we are brought at
last face to face with the one supreme fact of Calvary.
Human nature in its needs and manifestations under
sin means a Christ, and Christ means the cross. For
141

142 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
us this is the Truth of all truths and the Fact of all
facts. It is not to be denied that Christ is much other to
us than a Redeemer. He touches men with helpful
healing contact at numberless angles. The world will
never know, until all things are revealed in the light
of eternity, how much it owes, on the plane of its simple
everyday life, to the brief ministry of Him who went
about doing good, and who spake as never man spake.
Saying nothing of His blood, and looking at His utter
ances just as we look at the utterances of the few who
have risen into imperishable fame, it will be found that
Jesus is the Peerless Philosopher of the ages. Saying
nothing of His blood, and observing only the purity
and symmetry of His walk, the sweet patience with
which He possessed His spirit, the heroic way in which
He bore His burdens, the uncompromising courage with
which He discharged all duties, it will be found that
Jesus furnishes the highest standard for the conduct of
life of which the world has any knowledge.
At the same time in reference to what seems to lie
outside His atoning services to mankind, there are these
two remarks to be made.
In the first place, both His instruction and His
example miss their highest value without the large
and crowning benefit which comes from His death.
For grant, what has just been clairr.ed, that in His
words He plu.cks and brings to us the flower of all
knowledge, that in His perfect demeanor, in the midst
of friends and foes alike, under favoring circumstances
and also under perplexities and temptations and trials,
He illustrates for us the ideal of daily conduct; yet of
what service would it all be to us without atoning blood

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 143
to wash away the defilements that are in us, and to
emancipate our souls from the dominance of sin? If
knowledge is to be of advantage to one, he must be in
condition to use knowledge. If a perfect example is to
be of worth, one must somehow be possessed of ability
to imitate the example.
Not until we can say, each of us with the apostle, " I
thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord," have we
that in us by which we are able not " to will " merely,
but also "to perform that which is good." It is the
blood of Christ shed on the Cross of Calvary which
makes the knowledge He brings, and the holy walk He
illustrates of any practical utility to men. Our " cleans
ing" is with "blood." "Peace" is through "blood."
"Entrance into the holiest" is by "blood." "It is by
the blood of the Lamb " that men "overcome" or are
able to " overcome."
In the second place, both the teaching and the con
duct of Christ run into and lose themselves in the
larger fact of His death. As has been said— insisted
on rather — Jesus taught a good many truths of surpass
ing value, but nothing for a moment to be compared to
this — that the Son of God was here to die that a world
lying in wickedness might live. Contemplate His dis
courses — what fell from His lips by the way=side, in
synagogues, in private retreats, upon the ear of throngs,
upon the ear of His own disciples, bitter questioners,
chance hearers along dusty thoroughfares, by the sea, at
the well, everywhere the sum and substance of it all is
that He is here in the world to be a Way to the Father,
and that He becomes this Way, and makes it a safe and
sure Way by laying down His life in sacrifice for sin.
The atonement was to turn on this sacrifice. The hour

144 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
of surrender on the cross was the hour for which He
came into the world. His purity and His obedience —
valuable as they are as examples to the world — found
their highest merit in the fact that through this keeping
of Himself sinless He could become a sin=offering for
the world.
Study the matter as we may, therefore, put whatever
stress we choose on this thing which He said, or that
thing which He did, or what He was even, we are brought
round to the death of Christ, as the true conclusion and
explanation of it all. The essence of the Gospel, and
the power of the Gospel, and the glory of the Gospel,
and the purpose of the Gospel, lie right there, in that
one all=embracing fact — " Christ died for us."
It is not enough, however, to establish the truth that
Christ's death, in contradistinction to His teaching, or
His example, or both together, is the central idea of all
the Scriptures. We must pause long enough to see
what it is that gives to the death of the Son of man
import and value above all other deaths.
Ordinarily it is the life, and not the death, especially
of a good man, through which the world is blessed.
There are men, too many of them, who could die, and
the world would be the better for it. The thieves and
cutthroats and villains who infest our great cities, and
prey on innocence and drag down purity and burden
thrift and spread moral contagion abroad might be
spared with immense advantage. They are to be pitied
— these victims of their own bad passions and lusts;
and it would be a glorious thing could they only be
turned about and saved; but so long as they are what
they are, they are a menace to society.
But when a good man goes down — a man whose name

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 145
stands for culture, for holy interests, for valuable ex
perience, for great skill in the advancing of truth and
the defense of virtue — particularly if it be right in the
midst of his years, when the fruit already garnered
Beems to be only the foretokening of large, rich har
vests yet to be garnered, his death is always counted a
misfortune. The passing of such an one is not only a
private, but a public loss in the estimation of the world.
Something very peculiar then, is this death of Christ.
Not only is it a death which runs out of the ordinary
course of things, but right counter to the ordinary
course of things.
What is this peculiarity? Why is this death of Jesus
so unlike other deaths? Why is it invested with a mean
ing and worth infinitely above all other deaths? To go
still further, why is there a significance or value in this
death which lifts the life of Jesus into a place of power
which could not possibly have attached to it had not
the life found its consummation and crowning in just
this death?
The all=sufficient explanation is contained in the
words already quoted: "Christ died for us." His
death was vicarious and it was expiatory. It was in
place of those who had incurred guilt before God. It
was the Sinless for the sinful.
In a sense all martyrs to the truth and to holy causes
die vicarious deaths. In their death they serve truth
in a way to be of lasting benefit to those who come after
them. They buttress up some cause whose overthrow
would have been a misfortune to mankind. The story
of their heroic dying stirs enthusiasm, the example of
their fidelity breeds new and higher fidelities, in the
succeeding generations. No genuine martyr is there

146 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
who has taken the true measure of his hour, and has
given his life, whether in the dungeon or at the stake
or on battle=field, for a principle that was worthy of the
sacrifice, of whom it might not be said that he died for
others. The ashes of Huss and the scattered dust of
Wycliffe have fertilized all humanity. This is a fact
creditable to our human nature. It is the out=cropping
of one of the highest qualities God has lodged in the
soul. Paul notes and acknowledges this. He says it is
hard work to get men up to the point of dying for the
righteous; but for good men, or for that which is good,
some will consent to die.
But this "for us," means both more and other when
applied to Christ on the cross than when applied to
Socrates, or Polycarp, or Cranmer, or Warren on Bunker
Hill. This "for us," takes the death of Christ out of
the category of all other deaths.
The vicarious element has its prefigurement in all
life. Nature is full of the types of it. All forms of
existence round about us in some measure foreshadow
and illustrate it. It may be questioned whether there
is another doctrine which can summon to its ready sup
port so many striking and conclusive analogies. What
we see and know and experience of the actual relation
ship of soul to soul, of generation to generation, of land
to land, is enough to predispose us to the acceptance of
the fact of an Atoning Christ.
At the same time what we see is simply analogous
and not identical. The dying of Christ for mankind is
not all one with the dying of a mother who surrenders
her own life in giving birth to a child, or the dying of
a soldier who lays down life on the field of battle that
the nation he loves may be preserved, or the dying of a

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 147
reformer who has foresight and fidelity above the ap
preciation of his age, and lifts up protest against
iniquity and gets smitten down for it, or the dying of
one generation who fall overtasked by efforts to build
up homes and establish institutions for the welfare of
coming times. It is vicarious — this death of Christ —
in the sense that in some very practical and essential
way He took our place and received our stripes and
bore our sorrows and bent under our burden of guilt.
The men who have points to make, and would be glad
to have a doctrine like this of the vicarious dying of
Jesus Christ, which plays such havoc with their natural
istic theories and necessitates a way of salvation so
humbling to pride and self=righteousness once for all
overturned, meet us with their nice criticisms and say
that the phrase " for us " does not mean " in place of,"
"instead of," but only "for the benefit of." As a matter
of fact this is not true. The scholarship of the world is
not on the side of this criticism.
Dr. Strong, president of the Rochester Theological
Seminary, one of the ripest and ablest theologians and
soundest teachers of our time, in speaking of this
phrase, "for us," says: "for" in the sense of "instead
of " is never confounded with ' for ' in the sense of ' in
behalf of,' ' for the benefit of "; and then adds: " for is
the preposition of price, bargain, exchange, and this
signification is traceable in every passage where it
occurs in the New Testament." In this position he is
fully supported.
But suppose that it could be successfully established
in a passage here and there that the words " for us "
have this limitation and mean only " in behalf of," or
for "the benefit of," what then? The general teaching

148 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
of Scripture is in no wise changed. The whole drift of
the Gospels and Epistles is still toward the same conclu
sion of a peculiar vicarious and expiatory element in
the death of Christ.
The single word " ransom " may be used in illustra
tion of this claim. In both Matthew and Mark we
read: "To give His life a ransom for many." In the
First Epistle of Paul to Timothy, the same thought is
repeated: "He gave Himself a ransom for all." The
significant and vicarious idea, especially in connection
with the proposition here again brought forward —
" ransom " — " ransom for " — cannot be eliminated
from this word by any fair process of exegesis or argu
ment. Meyer says: "That which is given as a ransom
takes the place — is given instead — of those who are to
be set free in consideration thereof." In speaking of
this " ransom " and of this " for " he says still further
that this language "can only be understood in the
sense of substitution in the act of which the ransom is
presented as an equivalent to secure the deliverance of
those on whose behalf it is paid"; and he declares that
this "view "is "confirmed by the fact that in other
parts of the New Testament this ransom is usually spo
ken of as an expiatory sacrifice." It would be difficult
to quote a higher authority. It would be still more dif
ficult, authority or no authority, to escape the unequivo
cal meaning of these terms. A man may refuse to be
lieve this doctrine of Christ taking our place and dying
a vicarious sacrifice on the cross if he will; but no man
can banish it from the New Testament.
In addition to what has already been brought for
ward, take such statements as these: "For He hath
made Him to be sin for us who knew no sin, that we

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 149
might be made the righteousness of God in Him."
" Christ hath redeemed us from the curse of the law, be
ing made a curse for us." Is it possible to get anything
else out of these statements than the vicarious dying of
our Lord — the Christ? In some very fundamental and
vital way — in some way which can be said to be in place
of sinners — instead of sinners, in the deepest sense pos
sible for sinners, the Son of God gave up His life on
the cross, He died for the ungodly. He was set forth
to be a propitiation through faith in His blood. He
shed His blood on Calvary that men who were under
condemnation might be justified by faith in His blood.
He died for us.
What now was accomplished for sinners by the vica
rious and expiatory dying of Christ on the cross?
What new possibility was opened to sinners, and what
new hope, by the death of our Lord?
To ask this question, as everybody can see, is to pre
pare the way for the announcement of a theory of the
atonement. Well, why not?
It admits of no question that there are a good many
people who are decidedly opposed to any attempt to re
duce the service rendered by Jesus Christ in behalf of
sinners through His life and death to a formal state
ment. These men and women are loyal to the truth,
and their faith and devotion and general usefulness are
beyond debate; but they are impatient with what they
call theories, and especially impatient with any well-de
fined and nicely articulated doctrine of the atonement.
They accept the fact of the atonement, so they tell us;
but the why and the how and the wherefore of it they
quite ignore. In some instances they even go so far as
to intimate that in their judgment it is an impertinence

150 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
for anybody to venture to theorize on a subject so mys
terious and sacred.
In utterances of a very recent date, and made, too,
with not a little assurance, some of us have heard the
Gospel of John disparaged and remanded to a place of
trustworthiness and authority subordinate to the Syn
optic Gospels on the ground that John appears to have
had a doctrine of Christ, and to have written the story of
Him with a positive notion in his mind of the nature and
character and mission of Christ. As is well known, this
is the ground of much of the modern opposition to Paul
— he has a philosophy of salvation. The contention is
that we must have no theory of the work of Christ.
But is this position quite rational? Is it in keeping
with the spirit of inquiry which in all other spheres and
with reference to all other objects of investigation seems
so commendable?
There is no fact of any sort which does not represent
an idea and involve a theory on which it has been pro
jected into the fact=world.
If there is a star in the heavens there is some ground
in right reason for its being there and some law by
which its movements are governed and some object to
be subserved by its continual existence. To study the
stars with a view of finding out just as much as it is
possible to learn in regard to them is not only legiti
mate, but in every way praiseworthy.
If there is a spire of grass in the field, or a leaf on
the tree, or a flower in the garden, it is because there
was first of all a thought around which matter became
organized into these forms and ends to be furthered by
their creation. It is proper and in every way helpful to
push to the utmost the search into the laws and condi-

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 151
tions and uses of planMife, and to lay bare just as many
of the secrets of the plant=kingdom as may be discover
able. If there are men in history, like Abraham and Moses
and Isaiah and Paul and John, who fill each a unique
place, and who speak to us in the terms of the moral
imperative, and who seem in their words and deeds to
furnish evidence of a very close and special intimacy
with the Heavenly Powers, we may be sure it is be
cause these men had their places fitted for them, and
were fore=run with a providential purpose, and fore*
charged with messages which it was their business to
deliver. To make a study of these men in their careers
and characters and claims and to come to some sort of
definate conclusion about them is due to our own in
telligence. Here is Jesus Christ. He had His place in the ranks
of our humanity. But His life was unlike the life of
any other of which we have record. He began His ca
reer on earth in miracle and He ended it in miracle.
He was conceived by the Holy Ghost and born of the
Virgin Mary. He rose from the dead and ascended into
heaven. He assumed an unique attitude and put forth
unique claims. " Even as the Son of man came not to
be ministered unto, but to minister, and to give His
life a ransom for many." "And I, if I be lifted up,
will draw all men unto me." A unique attitude was as
sumed for Him, and unique claims were put forth in
His behalf. "But God commendeth His own love
toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ
died for us." " And He is the propitiation for our sins;
and not for ours only, but also for the whole world."
Now does it fall within the limits of the thinkable

152 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
that Christ was here, living the life He did, teaching
the lessons He did, maintaining the character He did,
and dying the death He did, without an idea or
theory or deep moral reason and necessity exist
ing and preexisting in the divine mind for His
being here, and living in the way in which He did
live and dying in the way in which He did die?
Face to face with the cross, it is not only proper but it
is an instinct of the average intelligence, to ask after
this idea or theory or deep moral reason and necessity
and to keep asking until there is some sastisfactory
ground on which to rest: Why His sufferings?
Hence our question once more; What was the vital
and indispensable service rendered to sinners by the
vicarious and expiatory dying of Jesus Christ on
Calvary? Loyalty alike to the Scriptures and to human reason
seems to me not only to justify but to require this
answer: The death of Jesus Christ on the cross was
the satisfaction of the element of righteousness in the
divine nature which is offended by every act of trans
gression and which demands that all sin shall be
punished. This answer is central and it lies back of
all other answers. The ground of the atonement is to
be found in the holiness of God; and the first and
highest function of the atonement is to meet the re
quirements of this holiness. The ethical principle in
God is eternal and it creates a demand which cannot be
evaded. " Whom God set forth to be a propitiation,
through faith, by His blood, to show His righteousness
because of the passing over of the sins done aforetime
in the forebearance of God; for the showing, I say, of His
righteousness at the present season that He might

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 153
Himself be just, and the justifier of him that hath
faith in Jesus."
This is by no means an exhaustive statement of the
ground and object of the atonement. The death of
Christ on the cross is viewed from many standpoints
and under a variety of conceptions or figures. Besides
the forms of presentation already indicated the death of
Christ is spoken of as a great moral transaction, de
signed to appeal to men and to constrain them by the
love which it brings into exhibition; as a legal act in
which obedience to law is exemplified in its highest
qualities; and as a sacrifice made in the interest of a
mutual reconciliation of God and men.
The matter with the larger number of the theories of
the atonement is, not that they are wholly wrong, but
that they are only partly right. But partly right they
surely are; for they hold in them an element of truth
indispensable to a clear and complete view of the signifi
cance of the cross.
The Unitarian Theory that Christ was a Martyr, —
the noblest one who ever surrendered his life to the
cause of humanity, but yet only a martyr — and that
His redemptive efficiency lies in the example of His
fidelity to conscience, has a measure of truth in it, and
so of value. For Christ does help immensely by the
matchless showing of loyalty to truth and duty which
He made when He gave up His life on Calvary.
The Moral Influence Theory in which it is denied
that the sufferings of Christ were necessary to the re
moval of obstacles to the pardon of sin existing in the
divine mind, but only to the removal of obstacles in
the mind of the sinner, holds in it a ground of appeal
which is of great worth. There are prejudices in the

154 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
minds of sinners which can be put away only by this
great persuasion of the Christ dying in humiliation and
agony to convince them of the inexpressible love which
God feels for them.
The Governmental Theory, or the theory in which it
is insisted that the government of the universe cannot
be maintained, and law preserved in its authority,
unless the pardon of offenses is accompanied by some
exhibition of the high estimate which God sets upon
moral order and the importance of securing and keep
ing moral order by magnifying the sacredness of every
ordinance He has established and every commandment
He has imposed, has a support in the nature of things
and in right reason which it would seem impossible to
overturn. But even this Theory, much as there is in the
facts to justify it, does not go far enough. It is valu
able, but it falls short of the whole truth.
It is only when we go a step further and ground
the doctrine in the holiness of God, that we have
a final and conclusive reason for the sufferings of
Christ on the cross. God is love. His love is infinite.
Woe unto us all, if it were not so. But there is an eth
ical element in the nature of God with which sinning
men here on earth, and rational creatures throughout the
universe have to reckon. In the Sufferer on the cross
we have the Supreme Example of fidelity to duty; we
have the Supreme Expression of the divine interest in
the welfare of human souls; we have the Supreme Tes
timony to the sacredness of law and the necessity of
moral order; but the final word has not been said until
due emphasis has been laid on the principle of right
eousness in God, and the need there is of meeting and
satisfying this principle if sinners are to be freely par
doned.

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 155
There is still another question of vital importance.
It is not whether the atonement made by Christ on the
cross is limited or unlimited as against narrow concep
tions of the doctrine of election ; for passages like, " God
so loved the world" and " whosoever will " would appear
to settle that controversy beyond all doubt; but it is as
to the reach and influence of the atonement in the basis
it furnishes for the free pardon and the full pardon of a
penitent sinner.
There are those who believe that one who has gone
wrong, whether in Christian or in pagan lands, and who
has come to see and regret his wrong=doing and has
turned in sincere repentance to the Father and implored
the divine forgiveness, will receive this forgiveness.
Unquestionably this was the view of the Psalmist when
he wrote: "There is forgiveness with Thee that Thou
mayest be feared." Isaiah held the same opinion: " Seek
ye the Lord while He may be found; call ye upon Him
while He is near; let the wicked forsake his way, and
the unrighteous man his thoughts, and let him return
unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him, and
to our God, for He will abundantly pardon." Nineveh
repented and was spared. The prodigal came to him
self and set his face toward the father he had left
and the home he had forsaken and was jubilantly wel
comed. How is this to be reconciled to the fact that there can
be no forgiveness save on the basis of the satisfaction of
the ethical element in the divine nature such as is af
forded in the atoning death of Jesus Christ? Simply
by remembering that Jesus Christ is the " Lamb slain
for the foundation of the world." This is the concep
tion of John in the Apocalypse. It is also the con
ception of Peter: "Knowing that ye were redeemed,

156 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
not with corruptible things, with silver and gold, from
your vain manner of life handed down from your fa
thers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ; who
was foreknown indeed before the foundation of the
world, but was manifested at the end of the times for
your sake, who through Him are believers in God, which
raised Him from the dead, and gave Him glory, so that
your faith and hope might be in God." The transac
tion on Calvary was in time — in the fulness of time;
but the essential offering of the Son in sacrifice was be
fore time. The cross and the sacrifice on the cross lay
back in the thought of God from all eternity. There
never has been and there never will be a sinner for
given except on the ground of the vicarious and expia
tory death of Jesus Christ. On this basis no penitent
sinner ever has been or ever will be denied forgiveness.
This discussion is fitted to yield us some inferences,
and if we are wise and in downright earnest it will be
made to yield us some inferences, of the deepest practi
cal moment.
The service rendered to us as sinners by the death of
Christ on the cross can hardly fail to bring us a fresh_
sense of the measureless love of God.
Here we have it put into words: "God commendeth
His love toward us in that while we were sinners Christ
died for us." Everywhere the coming of Christ and the
dying of Christ are referred to the love of God. This is
the source and inspiration of it all — " God so loved." A
man who can stand and gaze on Calvary, and not see
love of the warmest and divinest mold, is both blind
of eye and hard of heart. Nowhere else does God ever
write " love" in letters so large.

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 157
The service rendered to us as sinners by the death of
Christ on the cross may well impress us with a profound
conviction of the holiness of God.
God is love. He is also just. He is also righteous.
He is also pure. We misread God, and we trifle with
an attribute of His nature which we cannot afford to
disregard, when we underestimate His holiness. There
is not an element in God which is not by the constitu
tion of His being opposed to corruption and wrong*
doing. God punishes; but He never punishes in pas
sion; it is the moral reaction of His own divine charac
ter against transgression. There would have been no
Calvary had there been no moral quality in God which
is offended by moral evil. Christ must needs suffer.
Christ dying on the cross emphasized a holiness which
is the same yesterday, to=day and forever.
The service rendered to us as sinners by the death of
Christ on the cross emphasizes in a way and to a de
gree not to be misunderstood the divine estimate and
abhorrence of sin.
The Scriptures declare sin to be exceeding sinful.
Calvary certifies to this view. Calvary is not man's es
timate of sin, but God's. Calvary was an. exhibition of
man's sin, for with "wicked hands" Jesus was taken
and slain; but the Son of God suspended there on the
cross and pouring out His soul unto death, was a divine
testimony to the enormity of the offense committed in
breaking divine law.
Men look down into their own hearts, but they do not
see anything very bad in them. They marvel that any
body can see anything very bad in them. But one sin
covers up another sin; transgressions fade into forget-
fulness; excitement follows excitement; and in a little

158 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
while the whole moral nature becomeB overgrown with
the moss of self=complacency. Besides this looking
down into their own hearts by men is not always as
thorough as it might be. There is always some ready
justification or excuse for anything that has been at
all out of the way. Men try themselves by their con
sciences; but their consciences as likely as not have
been inflamed and warped by passion. They try them
selves by their reasoning capacity, or by their feelings
and tastes; but men are often made blind through self=
interest, or prejudice, or association, and in such cases
the results of the investigations made into their own
characters will hardly be trustworthy. Men who look
into their own hearts to test their sinfulness are like
travelers at sea who think they can ascertain their po
sition and progress by looking down into the hold of
the ship in which they are sailing. They must look
away at the stars, they must throw over the log, before
thay can find out where they are, and what their direc
tion, and how fast they are moving forward. One
needs to be very wise and very humble to see himself as
he is.
So it is not by looking at themselves, though self=
examination, if conducted in the right spirit, is always
helpful, but by looking away to the dying Christ, that
men come into a right estimate of sin, or such an esti
mate, in other words, as God puts upon it. When men
look into their own hearts and write out the story of
their sinfulness, the story is written in water. On the
cross the story is written in blood. The nail=rent
hands, the pierced side, the bleeding brow, the bowed
head, the bitter cry: " Why hast Thou forsaken me! " —
these are the under=scorings of the awful tale which the

ATONEMENT MADE BY CHRIST FOR SIN 159
death of Christ tells us concerning the real nature and
offense of sin. Sin can only be made a small affair by
making the cross a small affair. If there was any ne
cessity for the cross this necessity measures God's
thought of the sinfulness of sin. The cross is an X ray
turned in on the soul to reveal its actual sinfulness.
The service rendered to us as sinners by the death of
Christ on the cross furnishes the highest of all testi
monies to the value of man.
How little we think of it — this testimony which is
given to the value of man in the cross. How little it
accords with our common thought to yield to this testi
mony all the weight which belongs to it. Yet in no
other light does man seem so large. Measured by no
other standard does the dignity of his nature take on
such commanding proportions.
Multitudes and multitudes of men as we judge, ap
pear to be utterly worthless. They are worthless so far
as this world's purposes are concerned, and so far as
any good they themselves are likely to get out of it is
concerned. They are nothing to themselves. They are
nothing to their families. They are nothing to society.
They are nothing to the state. In many instances, in
deed, they are worse than nothing; for they are trials to
be endured, they are burdens to be borne. But into
what majesty every soul rises, to what height every soul
towers, with what wealth does every soul seem to be im
mediately invested, when the illumination of the cross
falls on it, and we reach our estimates by the suffering
and shame the Son of God was willing to endure that
the way might be opened for each soul to be saved.
There he is, at midnight, in the middle of the street,
intoxicated to prostration and stupidity. To all appear-

160 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
ances he is a mere lump of filthy clay. To wife and
children he is a source of perpetual anxiety and sorrow
To the community he is a nuisance. To the state, try
ing to run its race of industry and development with
success, he is so much positive overweight. But —
Christ died for him! For him? Yes, for him! Lift
him up tenderly — for who shall limit the worth of that
whose value is expressed in the blood of Christ! Look
at her! She has brought the woe of woes to her
mother's heart. She has smitten her own life with
desolation. The pure shun her. But Christ died for
her! Then speak to her tenderly. For down under all
that disgusts, down under all the loathsome grime of
sin, there is a spark of immortality struck out from
God's own eternal being, and face to face with the
cross no man shall dare to count her soul other than
precious. Look at them. They are a great surging
reckless crowd. Their mouths are full of blasphemies.
Their tongues are glib with all deceits. Their feet
stray into every path but the right one. Their hands
are skilled in all iniquities. They trample down all
moral restraints. They sway with the whole force of
their being against what is holy. They smother con
science. They heed not the voice that speaks to their
souls in heavenly accents. But Christ died for them!
What becomes, then, of our canons of taste ! our political
economy estimates! our intellectual and social measure
ments! Well may we stand back and look reverently
upon even the rudest masses of our humanity; for there
is a testimony to human worth in the blood of the cross
no man can set aside. The things in men from which
we turn in sorrow and disdain are only as nothing in
comparison with the things in men which God saw when
He gave His Son to die for the world.

TEbe Ibuman Conbition of IRebemption.

" What must I do to be saved?"— Acts 16: 30,
" Oome unto me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." — Matt. 11: 28.
"If any man would come after me, let him deny himself, and
take up his oross, and follow me." — Matt. 16: 24.
"Sin is what stands in the way of salvation. Ceasing to sin is a
necessary condition of salvation. As it is a turning from sin to
holiness, it is called conversion, turning. In this view and to
this extent the change is wholly moral — voluntary change. The
man himself has power to make the change, and no other being
can make it for him. Sin is man's free action; so also is obedi
ence; and so the change from sin to obedience. Thus the Scriptures
everywhere hold the sinner responsible for the change." — Fairchild.
"The salvation of men is the supreme difficulty of God. . . .
Jesus Christ said: Ye will not oome unto me that ye might have
life. The great difficulty is to do right in any way. Now, if you
could show that it is so natural and easy for men to do right in
every other way that they ought to accept the gospel if it were
true, I would say you had urged against this divine testimony a
very powerful argument. But the whole head iB sick, the whole
heart faint. Through and through, up and down we are wounds
and bruises and putrefying sores; the right hand is crippled and
the left hand withered; and the head is guilty, the heart irregular
and the foot skilled in going backward. What wonder when the
grand climax, the sovereign appeal, is reached to surrender to God
and love Him that we come upon the supreme difficulty 1" — Parker.
"' 0 Jerusalem ! Jerusalem!' cried He in a louder voice, tremb
ling with sadness, ' it is thou, the city of the temple, the city of the
great King, who killest the prophets and stonest those whom God
sends unto thee. Thou art still true to thine evil repute! How
often, oh! how often, mother of many children, would I have
gathered them all around me safely from the dangers before them;
as the careful hen calls together her brood when the shadow of
evil falls near, and spreads her wings over them, and guards
them from every harm! But thou wouldst not let me do thee this
service. For what shall come on thee thou must thyself bear the
blame. The divine protection I would have given thee, thou hast
refused and lost, nor will I appear in thy desolation as thy helper.
Thou wilt not see me till I come to set up my kingdom in thee,
and receive thy homage, no longer to be denied, as the Messiah,
the blessed, who comes in the name of the Lord!' " — Geikie,
162

VIII.
THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION.
After all that has been done by God through the
sacrifice of His Son Jesus Christ to open the way f' r
the free and full pardon of sin and the return of the
sinner to the fellowship of the Father there is yet on the
human side an indispensible condition to be met if ons
would know the joy of deliverance from the guilt and
corruption and bondage of wrongdoing and have a
restored standing in righteousness. In the divine wis
dom it seemed good that men from the outset should be
endowed with freedom of will. Liberty to choose be
tween the right and the wrong, the true and the false,
the good and the bad, was a perilous gift to bestow; but
it was bestowed, and the privilege of exercising it has
been maintained from the beginning until now. In all
God's dealings with men respect has been shown and is
still shown to this power which they possess of accept
ing or rejecting what is offered them. Hence the Scrip
tures are full of moral precepts, appeals addressed to the
reason and the conscience, entreaties, warnings, and
startling exposures of the consequences of transgression;
but the attempt is never made to override the will and
compel hearts to be right from force. As men are con
stituted in their natural and moral natures this would be
simply impossible.
If a man, therefore, would have share in the salva-
163

164 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
tion which has been wrought out by the sacrifice of the
Son of God on the cross, he must exercise volition to
this effect. He must call his own faculties into service
and believe in Christ as Christ is presented to him. He
must meet the proffered boon of redemption half way
and accept Christ as Christ is offered to him. He must
fall in with the gracious invitation. and follow Christ in
the way in which Christ leads. For this is the uniform
style of statement: "God so loved the world, that He
gave His only=begotten Son, that whosoever believeth.'
" Come unto me all ye that labor and are heavy laden.'
" Whosoever will, let him come." " Follow me " It is
all as free as the air, But on the part of each individual,
there must be the "believing," the "coming," the "fol
lowing," the " willing," or all is in vain.
But before proceeding further let us pause right here
and note exactly the object which is to be kept in view.
It is salvation. It is getting rid of sin and getting right
with God.
First of all, then, it is not a question whether one has
settled and standard views on all the possible problems
of religion. Every now and then a man will be heard
saying in substance: "It is clear to me that I am a sin
ner; I know well enough that I need to be purified,
reconciled, saved; and there is no doubt in my mind
that Christ is the Savior of the world, and that He will
be my Savior, if I will only put my trust in Him — but."
Reaching this point — this " but " — there usually fol
lows a long recital of difficulties which grow out of
certain statements made in the Bible narratives, and
difficulties involved in certain philosophical theories
and preconceptions, with the frank admission at the end
that there are a great many things in this world which

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 165
are not understood at all, or, at best are only imperfectly
understood. This is what might be expected. The man who has
no difficulties, who is not harrassed with doubts, who
sees nothing in all the universe that does not perplex
and baffle him, is either dead or has not yet been born.
Living men must question; and to questions often come
only puzzling answers. This vast sphere; these august
realms which open out to thought cannot be traversed
and explored by finite intelligence in a moment. Being
is a sea of infinite sweep and majesty; and no man has
surveyed it in all its richness and sounded it in all its
depths and measured it in all its forces. Life and the
revealed facts of life are not to be dissected by a few
inthrusts of the knife, no matter how skilful one may
be in vital anatomy.
Theology lays bare an endless variety of problems.
So does history; so does providence; so does the immor
tality of the soul; so does science; so does the idea of
morals; so does art, mind, matter, organization, force.
The pebble, the dew-drop, the lily, the star; there are a
thousand things in each of them to baffle search. When
a man takes his stand on any fact of God or nature, and
begins to meditate, there is no numbering of the paths
into which he may turn his feet. They go this way and
that; and it is impossible to walk in any one of them
without finding it sooner or later blocked with mys
tery. Many things have to remain unexamined even.
Many things are thought to be thus and so; but the
foundations on which they hold their place in the mind
are simply convictions, or conjectures, and not clear
demonstrations. Of only a few things can men say
with positiveness: "We know." There are many

166 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
secrets which belong to God, and must be left with God,
There are many matters, incidental and subordinate,
on which men may agree or disagree, without in the
least affecting the question of personal salvation. In
deed, getting men of different constitutions and sur
roundings and education, and of different generations,
to see all facts in the same light is out of the question.
That good men differ essentially on many points of re
ligion, and yet remain good men — all alike having the
root of the matter in them, shows that these differences
are not fundamental. As a point in actual experience
and observation, the most of these differences, like
Arminianism and Calvinism, lie wholly outside of the
main central issue. One may have settled notions on
them or not, just as he can, the main question is still of
salvation. The more one knows and the clearer one's views the
better. But a doubt here, an unsettled opinion there, a
positive disagreement in another place, is of no practical
consequence. The pertinent question, the vital ques
tion, the supreme question, is that of salvation of the
soul. Men out of Christ are like shipwrecked sailors.
There are many facts about the sea they would like to
understand. They would like to know the laws of storms,
the specific gravity of salt water, the length and height
of waves, the sweep and swiftness of currents, the depths
beneath them, the forms of life floating about them, the
mysteries which lie at the bottom; but they are in no
mood to stop and study these questions. The one thing
they have to do, and the one thing they intend doing, is
to get ashore if they can. Once ashore, with foot on firm
land, they can explore and investigate all they please;
but not till then. This is what they feel. Let a ship

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 167
heave in sight, and a rescuing line be thrown to them,
and how quick do they lay hold of it. So should one
lay hold of Christ. He will give the poor tempest*
tossed soul harbor in the divine love. He will give
the soul anchorage in a secure salvation.
If, therefore, there be passages in the Scriptures
whose meanings are difficult to understand; if there be
facts declared which are quite beyond our comprehen
sion; if there be articles in Christian creeds about
which one does not have settled convictions, or against
which his mind dissents even; while at the same time
there is a sense of sinfulness, and a clear apprehension
of Christ as the Savior of sinners, these unsolved
problems and mental difficulties should have no in
fluence at all in keeping one from accepting Christ at
once. Then again this is not, primarily, a question of secur
ing ease and rest for the conscience. It is true that
coming into the faith and life of Christ is one of the
effectual ways of getting relief from the inward pressure
and pang which a consciousness of sin produces. But
peace is the fruit of the Spirit. Peace follows salva
tion, and is not salvation itself. It is the resultant of
a saving trust.
Two facts will make this clear.
In the first place this secret sense of satisfaction does
not always come from even the most sincere and earnest
believing. Generally it does; but not always. The
instances are not few in which men have put all their
trust in Christ, and have lived in a way to make it
evident that they were in Christ and that Christ was
in them, and yet have not known much about the peace
of God.

168 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
Take a man with a tender and sensitive conscience,
with a moral sense so delicate in its organization that it
flutters under the least variation from the line of a right
life; and it will be very hard for him to carry himself
straight through the temptations of his own heart and
the trials and besetments of the world in such way as
not to suffer a great deal of unrest. Only recently it
was said to me in substance; " It does not seem to me I
can have come to Christ in the right way, and that I can
have been accepted of Him, because I do not have the
tranquillity and joy of soul I was led to expect." Yes. But
salvation is one thing, and the outcome of it is another.
The outcome of it in immediate experience of glad
ness — that may, or may not, follow all at once.
On the other hand, as a second fact, there may be
remarkable peace of conscience, where there is no ac
tual salvation. This is the peace not of life but of
death. Conscience is a strange capability. There are times
when it cannot be put to sleep at all unless it is done in
the right way. Then again it can be hushed down with
little effort. It can be outraged into silence. It can be
worried and teased until it gives up protest in despair.
It can be overborn by dissipation. It can be stifled in
a rush of gross worldly activities. It can be lulled into
stillness by the sedatives of easy=going philosophy and
fair plausibilities adroitly administered. It is with an
annoying conscience as it is with pains in the body.
There are medicines which can render one oblivious for
the time being to the sense of suffering. Those medi
cines do not cure the disease. They only make one
forget for a few pulse beats that anything is the matter
with him. Not easy is it to benumb the moral sense,
or so effectually to check its energy, that it will not be

TBE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 169
liable on occasion to break out in awful violence, as did
the conscience of Judas when he realized what he had
done in betraying the Master. But dangerous experi
ments can be tried with the conscience. Fearful im
positions can be practised on the conscience. The
conscience can be reduced to an alarmingly low ebb.
When it has been so reduced, and the Holy Spirit has
ceased any longer to act in concert with the moral rea
son to produce right moral convictions, it is altogether
possible that one may have no more trouble with these
inward monitions and pangs. But one is not on this
account saved. He has the semblance of peace, but it
is not peace, and he is still without salvation.
Here it is to be said again that salvation is not to be
too closely identified with ease and rest of soul.
It ought to be noted and urged still further that the
question in hand is not a question of uniting with the
church. It may lead to this; it probably will. In the
way of subsequent duty it may necessitate this; it prob
ably will. The disciples of our Lord are not to hide
their light under a bushel; they are to let it shine.
They are not to conceal their joy, and they cannot if
they would; they must publish it. They are not to
remain in affiliation with the world; they are to come
out from the world. They are not to stand by with in
different hearts and idle hands while others are bearing
the heat and burden of the day; they are to toil in the
vineyard. They are to be witness=bearers; they are to
be living epistles known and read of all. They are to
deny themselves and take up their crosses and follow
Jesus. Genuine disciples feel it to be one of their first
duties to render testimony to Christ by a public belief
in Him.
But salvation lies altogether back of this outward

170 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
acknowledgement. It is destinct from it. It is ante
cedent to it. It is not whether one shall unite with the
church or not; be baptized or not; partake of the Lord's
supper or not. It is a matter which is purely personal
and of transcendent importance. It is something which is
to be wrought out in the secret chambers of the will,
between the soul and God. It is not at the outset a
question of anything public; it is a question of being
saved by Christ. Shall He be permitted to do His grac
ious work of cleansing the soul from the defilements of
sin? Shall He be permitted to take the name and
write it in His book of life? That is the question.
Having shown in this way what the question is, there
is still another line of discrimination to be indicated.
It is not merely to make clear that it is salvation and
not some mere incident or preliminary or attendant of
salvation and there stop; but it is to set forth what is
essential as distinguished from what is not essential in
securing salvation.
It is one of the eminent values of the Bible, as it is
one of its perennial satisfactions, that so much of its
teaching comes to us in concrete form. Great needs,
great questions, great truths, great decisions, great mis
takes, great victories, take on human shapes, and have
expression in actual persons. In this way we see facts
illustrated, problems solved, duties defined, perils ex
posed, opportunities used, and issues settled through
living men and women. We get our instructions in the
way of life in object lessons as well as by precept.
It so happens that in the Scriptures we have the rec
ord of the processes and experiences through which not
a few have passed in finding their way into the salva
tion of Christ.

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 171
The Philippian jailor is a notable instance. In his
question we have not an abstract question, such as a
political economist or a philosopher might ask; not an
imaginary question, such as a novelist or a dramatist
might put into the mouth of one of his characters; but
a question which has really leaped out of a human soul
and found voice through human lips. It is a question
made vital with the pulses of a living throbbing heart.
Hence we may be sure it is a question which covers not
a factitious, but a real need, and is of universal perti
nency. In answer to such a question, asked in such
circumstances, there must be light for us all.
The Apostle Paul is another notable instance.
There can be no possible question about the genu
ineness of the conversion of Paul. There was a change
in his pursuits, a change in his feelings and temper, a
change in his associations, a change in his character,
and a change in the whole purpose and current and out
flow of his life, to testify to the radicalness of the trans
formation he had undergone. In virtue of this change
he did things which he neither would have done nor
could have done without it. He had experiences, he
mastered and expressed thoughts, he accomplished re
sults, he set influences in motion, he became and remains
a moral force in the world, not possible to one who has
not opened his heart to God and into whose heart God
has not entered.
There are a thousand answers to atheism, but one of
the best is this man Paul who is a greater enigma than
all the stars if there be no God to influence and mold
life. But while these cases are concrete and actual, and
thus afford us the advantages which come from the con-

172 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
templation of real struggles and triumphs, they yet pre
sent a certain kind of embarrassment. For it is some
times thought — is thought more often, perhaps, than we
are aware, that no conversion is genuine and no salva
tion is adequate unless in finding it there has been a
substantial repetition in detail of what has occurred in
the instances of these persons whose stories of renewal
are told to us in the Scriptures, or in other narratives of
God's dealing with souls in their initial religious expe
riences. This, however, does not follow; and we are to be at
pains to distinguish between what is vital and ought to
be common to all, and what is merely individual, and
without significance save to the men and women imme
diately concerned in the experience.
The circumstances, for example, in which one becomes
a disciple of Jesus and a child of God are of very little
consequence. They do not belong to the essence of the
change, which, at the bottom is a change from disloyalty
to loyalty, and may vary as the conditions and surround
ings of life vary. It is not when, nor where, nor how,
that is the vital thing. It is not amidst how many on=
lookers the great transformation may have been wrought.
It is whether the man has really become a new creation.
This is the searching and decisive question.
All the rest is exceedingly interesting and instructive
as well. With a wonder always fresh we pour over the
story of the conversion of the man just named. The
manifestations and displays made in connection with
the experience he passed through while on this mem
orable journey to Damascus, breathing out threaten
ing and slaughter, and madly intent on the destruc
tion of all believers in the Nazarene, have a fascination

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 173
for us from which we have no wish to escape. The sud
den light shining about him and his associates, the fall
ing to the earth, the voice speaking to him and giving
directions as to what he should do, the eyes open but
seeing no man, the three days of fasting — this is all
marvelously attractive, and it is full of lessons, also;
but it belongs not to the substance, but to the inciden
tals of the change. We can conceive that this impas
sioned unbeliever and fierce persecutor might have
been brought over out of his incredulity into faith, and
out of his hate and bitter opposition into love, by a
thousand other methods just as effective and impressive.
Or we can conceive that the change might have been
accomplished in him as quietly and as gradually as the
night, passing with noiseless step through the gateway
of the morning, is changed into the day.
But all this is of the outward, and not of the inward.
It belongs to the incidents, and not to the substance of
the salvation men are to seek. A man may think he
must see lights flashing out of the heavens, and hear
voices, and be overcome and prostrated to the earth,
before he can be thoroughly renewed in the image of
Christ; or he may mourn that there was not more of
this sort of striking accompaniment to which he can
point in connection with his own regenerating; but
there is nothing in this at all essential. The salvation
found may be real, even though there be no hint of this
outward demonstration.
As the circumstances in which one is brought into
the faith are not essential, but may be varied as the
circumstances of our individual lives, so the emotions
one may feel, and the experiences one may pass through,
in becoming a disciple of Jesus Christ and a loving obe-

174 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
dient child of God, may vary endlessly, and yet be gen
uine. For these emotions and experiences, in so far as
they are at all peculiar to individuals, are not of the
substance, but of the incidents of conversion and salva
tion. Paul had one kind of experience; but Abraham
had another kind of experience; and Jacob still another;
and Daniel still another. So far as we know Peter and
James and John came by the easy and simple process
of just following the Lord as He invited them into the
kingdom. There were no outward demonstrations;
there was no sudden smiting with blindness; there was
no falling to the earth; there were no days in which
they could not eat and drink; they were called and fell
into line and followed.
Few things have been more mischievous than the im
pression abroad in the world, nobody knows exactly how
— that each man's experience in becoming a Christian,
must be the exact duplicate of some other man's experi
ence. We are glad to know, and it helps us to know,
with just what emotions the souls of Anselm, and
Thomas A Kempis, and Madame Guyon, and Mary
Lyon, and Nettleton, and Finney, and Bushnell, and
Payson, and Spurgeon, were stirred when they were
coming to a final decision of the question whether they
would yield their hearts to God or not. But if our own
experience — so far as emotions are concerned — does not
happen to run in the same grooves as the experience of
any one of these persons it does not at all matter. The
genuineness of our conversion and the reality of our
salvation do not depend on the emotions which may ac
company this moral and spiritual transformation. Any
change wrought by the renewing grace of the Divine
Spirit, and any decision reached under the influence of

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 175
the renewing grace of the Divine Spirit, may be real,
even though what one has to tell about it may be totally
unlike the account given by any other person who has
ever lived.
The simple fact is, God suits His ministries of graces
to individual souls, and to times and seasons. His ap
proaches to souls are through a thousand avenues. He
works upon souls by a thousand methods. His aim in
it all is to bring men into fellowship with Himself, and
so make them better; but He does not suppress and
override our individuality, and insist that all experiences
shall be of the stereotyped pattern, so that when we
have the narration of His dealings with one soul, we
have all. Far from it. It is variety of method with
unity of result.
What, then, are the things essential to be done on the
human side, and by each individual for himself, if sal
vation is to be secured? There are some things which
may or not enter enter into the experience of finding
salvation; what are the things which must be, if one
would be saved by the grace of God in Christ?
To begin with there must be a recognition of depend
ence on the Holy Spirit and a yielding to His guidance.
Whether the initiative in the great business of turning
from a life of alienation from God to a life of fellowship
with Him, belongs to God or the human soul; whether,
that is, God comes out after us before we realize our
need of His help and companionship, and flashes light
into our minds and awakens desires in our hearts; or we
awake to the situation and cry out for God, and grope
for His hand to lead us and to hold us, is a question of
small practical consequence. For in whichever of the
two ways the correct answer may lie, our dependence is

176 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
still on the Spirit. It is the Spirit who works convic
tion of sin. It is the Spirit who guides into the
truth. It is the Spirit who renews the moral nature.
No man comes to God except he be drawn by the Spirit;
but, on the other hand, God draws — is all the time
drawing one to Himself — by the Spirit. The vital thing,
the indispensable thing, is yielding to the Spirit. If
the soul is ever endowed with a new divine life it must
be by the Spirit. But the Spirit again does not do His
final and blessed work in any man till He is permitted
to do it. It is for the man himself to say, even to God,
whether he will open the doors of his nature for the Di
vine entrance. We may be old or young, but that is of
no consequence. We may be in the midst of throngs
or out alone under the stars, but that is of no conse
quence. We may be in the quiet of ordinary times,
when religion is not pressed save in ordinary ways,
upon public attention, or in the whirl of excitement and
agitation, when everybody is talking on matters of faith
and duty, this is still of no consequence. We may be
much aroused or little aroused — fully conscious of what
is going on within our souls, or only vaguely aware of
it, and so far as the point now up is concerned, it will
make no difference. But we shall never get out of sin
into an acceptance with God; shall never get out of the
old state into a new creation in Christ, without sub
mitting to the Spirit, and coming under the power of
the Spirit. It is not merely that one is to come into a
condition of spiritual=mindedness, so that he finds sat
isfaction and profit in dwelling on spiritual themes, and
in controlling his spiritual nature; but he is to come
into subjection to the Spirit, and under the power of the
Spirit. He is to surrender to the guidance and indwell
ing of the Spirit.

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 177
Another condition to be met is that there must be a
sincere repentance, or a true godly sorrow for sin, and a
resolute turning to righteousness. This is imperative.
But observe what this means. True repentance has
in it these two elements — an element of sorrow, and an
element of right=about=face. The root thought in the
word repentance, whether as used in the Old Testament,
or by John the Baptist, or by Jesus, or by the apostles,
is of pain. There is regret in it, or a sense of humilia
tion and shame. But growing out of this, or along side
of it, or immediately following it, there must be a prac
tical change, — a turning about from the wrong to the
right, — or the repentance amounts to nothing more than
a little gush of sentimentalism. If one has been lying,
he must stop lying. If one has been drinking, he must
stop drinking. If one has been cheating, he must stop
cheating. If one has been giving way to base forms of
self=indulgences, he must stop giving way to base forms
of self=indulgences. If one has been profane and coars9
in speech, he must stop being profane and coarse in
speech. If one has been a scorner, he must stop being
a scorner. If one has been hard and cruel and extor
tionate, he must stop being hard and cruel and extortion
ate. If one has been walking his ways in defiance of
God, shutting his mind and heart against God, refusing
to acknowledge God, and to let Him have any influence
in guiding his life, he must stop all this and change at
once. When a man says: "Oh, I know my course is
wrong, and I am so ashamed of it, and so sorry for it! "
and yet keeps right on doing just as he has been doing,
what does it all amount to? That is not repentance.
Repentance has the sting of regret in it, has sorrow in it,
but it also has purpose in it, and in virtue of this pur
pose the man turns round and faces the other way.

178 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
Of what value would Peter's tears have been if he
had kept right on denying His Lord? Of what value
to himself or the world would Paul's experience have
been when he was smitten down on the way to Damas
cus if he had continued breathing out threatening and
slaughter against the disciples, and persecuting them,
with all his might? Of what value would the new
emotions which swelled in the breast of Zacchaeus have
been if he had not followed up the impulse which pos
sessed him with the promise of restitution for all his
hard over= exacting ? It is right=about=f ace — abandoning
sharply all iniquity — all sin — or the repentance is not
worth the breath it takes to pronounce it.
In this way a man can very easily test the genuine
ness and thoroughness of his repentance. " I am so
sorry I swear occasionally." Yes, but have you stopped
it? " I am so sorry that I yielded to temptation, and
let appetite dominate me," Yes, but have you stopped
it? "I am so sorry that I lifted my hand against God,
and refused to come under His guidance." Yes, but
have you stopped it? Have you withdrawn your hand
of opposition? Have you consented to come under His
guidance and to be obedient to His will? If not, the
sorrow signifies no more than the prating of an infant.
It is an expression of pain, but not of purpose. There
is nothing moral in it; nothing hopeful, nothing revolu
tionary. For true repentance is revolution; and the
worse a man is the more completely it revolutionizes
him. In addition to this, there is to be the apprehension
and acceptance of Christ as a personal Savior.
This is the turning=point in every instance. Is the
man ready to surrender his will to the divine will, and
to take Jesus Christ as He is brought to him in the

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 179
gospels, and make Him his way and truth and life? If
so, then salvation is his; if not, not. It is not whether the
man is ready to surrender his will to the divine will,
and fall in with some theory of Christ, or some human
view of His atoning work; but whether he will accept
the Christ as He has come into the world from God,
and make Him his Redeemer and sole trust for salva
tion, It was to this point of acceptance that the jailor
had to come. It was to this point that Paul had to
come. It was to this point that Zacchaeus and the
woman at the well had to come. It is to this point
that all must come.
This is the main consideration. Whether we have
much feeling or little feeling, or no feeling at all, if we
believe on Jesus Christ and accept Him, God will save
us. This is what He says: and when God says a thing,
that ought to end debate.
But how many and varied are the assurances to this
effect! These are our Lord's own words: "Come unto
me, all ye that labor and are heavy laden, and I will
give you rest." This is the promise. It is in black and
white. Were Christ to go back on this promise in a
single instance He would not be Christ.
But Christ clinches this promise with the still further
statement: "Him that cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out." If there is any form of speech, any combina
tion of words, by which that statement can be relieved
of ambiguity, and made more distinct and stronger,
what it is passes my knowled ge. " Him that cometh
to me I will in no wise cast out." He shall be welcomed
into fellowship. He shall be received into the fold.
He shall be cleansed from all unrighteousness. He
shall be saved.
Hear what Paul says: "Faithful is the saying, and

180 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
worthy of all acceptation, that Jesus Christ came into
the world to save sinners." " Faithful the saying "
— " worthy of all acceptation " — " to save sinners." What
kind of " sinners"? Great ones as well as little ones?
Sinners whose records had been filled up with atrocious
crimes as well as humiliating and degrading vices?
Sinners who had permitted their opposition to God to
sweep on to the point of audacious blasphemy and
defiant rebellion, as well as sinners who had besotted
their moral natures by self=indulgence and low gross
living? Verily. For does not the apostle spring for
ward to add these immortal words of confession: " Of
whom I am chief"? Whether it be a fact or not that
Paul was the biggest sinner who ever lived, this was the
way it seemed to him, and the way he felt about it, — if
he could be saved, anybody might be saved. Saving
him after what he had said and done against Jesus was
pledge that He would save anybody who would look to
him for salvation. Pharisees, publicans, sinners of all
sorts, may have access to Him if they will, and be
purified from all iniquity.
This, then, is our confidence, a confidence awakened
not by feeling, but by faith in the faithfulness of God.
It is the confidence which has its support, not in per
sonal experience alone, nor chiefly, but in the assurance
that God's promises in Christ are yea and amen, and
that when He says He will do a thing, the thing will be
done. So far as the matter of one's salvation is concerned,
therefore, the whole question turns on one's personal
attitude toward God in Christ. Does the man want to
be saved? Is he ready to accept salvation through Him
who says He came into the world to seek and to save

THE HUMAN CONDITION OF REDEMPTION 181
that which was lost, and who died on the cross that He
might open the way of salvation for all? This is the
question. It is the only question. Sooner might we
look to see every law in the universe break down in a
fatal collapse, than to see God come short of meeting
the expectation of the poorest and meanest sinner who
ever lifted an eye to Jesus for pardon and peace. If
the worst characters in the city of Chicago, if the heart
less extortioners and thieves and gamblers and cut=
throats and pimps and harlots, and other disreputable
men and women who infest our community by the
thousands, and who coil about the young like deadly
serpents, or sting them like poisonous asps, and who
undermine virtue, and despoil life of its fairest triumphs,
were to flock to Jesus Christ at this moment, in one
solid body, with sorrow in their hearts for the past, and
with desire to live true manly and womanly lives in the
future,— He who told the story of the Prodigal's return
and greeting, would save every one of them! The ques
tion is: Is one willing to be saved — that is all. If one
will come to Jesus he may be assured of a welcome.
It all comes round at last to one simple question, and
one simple answer. The question is: "How to be
saved?" and the answer is: "Believe on the Lord
Jesus Christ."
Other answer to this there is none; for other way
than this there is none. As this is a very simple and
a very plain way; so, also it is a very short way. One
need not be long about it. It is God who saves, — saves
by His grace through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ;
and God can work quick. He has but to speak and it is
done. In the same hour in which the Philippian jailor
heard Paul tell the story of the cross, this startled offi-

182 HOW REDEMPTION IS SECURED
cial repented and believed and was baptized. He took
the salvation which was offered to him then and there.
He did not wait — he did not dare to wait; nor did he
wish to wait. Why should he wait? Here was salvation
— why not take it at once?
Why shall any man wait? Why shall a hungry man
wait when bread is offered to him? Why shall a thirs
ty man wait when waters are gushing at his feet? Why
shall a drowning man wait when a rope is tossed to him
and stoutest arms are ready to pull him to land? Why
should a condemned criminal wait when the messenger
holds a pardon in his hand? Why shall a wayward wan
derer, all begrimed with sin and worn=out and wasted and
miserable in a fruitless struggle to get on without God,
wait, when, with all his waiting he cannot help himself,
nor in any wise mend matters; and when, too, God is
just as able and just as willing to save now as He will
or can be at the end of countless millenniums? On the
day of Pentecost they did not wait. Peter held up the
crucified Christ, and thousands found salvation. Just
so soon as any man will consent to believe and accept
Christ, just so soon will he find salvation.

BOOK THREE.
IRebemption Un tbe flew Spirit anb ©utlooft
Ut jfurntsbes.
THE REDEEMED SINNER NOURISHING HIS OWN
SPIRITUAL LIFE.

"I write unto you, my little children, because your sins are for
given you for His name's sake." — J John 2: 12.
" Knowing that yon are redeemed, not with corruptible things,
with silver and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down
from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb without
blemish and without spot, even the blood of Christ.'' — I Peter 1:
18, 19.
" For this is the will of God, even your sancti fication." — / Thess.
4: 3.
" Ye therefore shall be perfect, as your heavenly Father is per
fect."— Matt. 5: 48.
" The universal experience of the church of Jesus testifies that
His people improve in holiness and ripen in conformity to God
in proportion as they abundantly enjoy the sanctified opportuni
ties of the appointed means of grace. Frequency in private and
social prayer, sincerity and freedom in religious conversation, con
stancy and interest in studying the Word of God, habitual partici
pation in the public institutions and privileges of the gospel are
the instruments by which the divine Spirit habitually animates, en
lightens and sanctifies the servants of God in their progressive sub
mission to the Lord's will. Upon the operation of these instru
ments under His blessing their growth in grace is made to depend;
and in the degree in which they are employed with a true and as
siduous heart do the children of God grow in personal piety and go
from strength to strength, toward the presence and kingdom of
their heavenly Father." — Tyng. 184

BOOK THREE.
"IRebemption in tbe flew Spirit anb ©utloofc
Ut jfurntebes. IX.
THE REDEEMED SINNER
NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE.
It is hard to maintain an even balance in anything.
God knows how to adjust centripetal and centrifugal
forces in a way to secure the movement of the earth
and of each star in the whole planetary system in just
the right orbits. But with men in their thoughts and
actions it is the law of the pendulum, — the swing is
first to the one side and then to the other, and always
past the center of rest. In seeking certain objects or
ends, other objects or ends of equal importance are
quite likely to be overlooked. The eye trained to see
afar becomes less quick and sensitive in its vision of
things near. Eager and absorbing interest in outward
concerns often leaves neither time nor strength nor in
clination for any wholesome introspection. Character
gets built up in one element while other elements
alike vital are too often neglected.
In the line of this thought the time seems to have
come for raising the question whether more attention
185

186 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
than is at present given to the subject by the disciples
of our Lord ought not to be concentrated on the culti
vation and development of the inner spiritual life.
Just now, as has been the case, indeed, through the
larger part of our century, the stress is placed on exter
nal activity. It is no longer monasteries but mission
boards. It is not monks retreating to dark and dismal
caves, or shut up in the seclusion of cloisters, and med
itating themselves into mental and moral dyspepsia,
but aggressive Churches and Sunday=schools and
Christian Associations, and Endeavor Societies and
Social Settlements and Salvation Armies and Reform
ers of all sorts. It is not nuns fenced in behind thick
walls and the barred windows of musty convents, but
good wholesome flesh=and=blood women, angels of mer
cy, ministering help and consolation on battle=fields,
purifying fever=breeding slums, guarding the unsuspect
ing and innocent, and bravely rescuing the imperiled.
As has been said so often the age in which we live is
an intensely practical age, and the Christianity of the
time is intent on tangible results. Most believers pre
fer to be with Jesus when he is going about doing good
and working miracles of healing rather than when, in
the solitude of the night and the remoteness of the
mountains, He is alone with God. It accords better
with the public pulse to fall in with James and talk
about works than with Paul and talk about faith. The
Thomas h. Kempis of our day is Judson in Burmah,
Moffatt in Africa, Paton in the New Hebrides, Blodget
in China, Davis in Japan, Spurgeon in London, Brooks
in Boston, and Moody and Booth stirring men and
women everywhere to holy zeal. The nuns our period

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 187
likes best are not those who have put on the dress of an
order and taken the vows of chastity and poverty and obe
dience, but Elizabeth Fry and Mary Lyon and Florence
Nightingale and Clara Barton an d Frances Willard, and
whoever else in this modern era has been trying or is now
trying to do something to soften the hard lot of our hu
manity. The day for Simeon Stylites on the top of his
column yonder there at Tallanissa is forever past. The
demand is for loving and faithful service. The great
apostle's idea of spending and being spent in forms of
usefulness which will help to open hearts to divine in
fluence and bring alienated lives back into loyalty to
truth and righteousness and promote the interests of
the Kingdom of Jesus Christ, is the dominant idea in
all theories and plans where Christians are at work.
This is as it should be and indicates progress. Too
much thought cannot be expended in efforts to lead
men and women to Christ and to improve the condition
of society. Of wise attempts to induce individuals to
accept salvation which is offered to them, or to persuade
communities to apply the principles of Christianity to
the management of their affairs, there cannot be too
many. Better a hundred more than one less. Such at
tempts are healthy. They are in line with the mind and
method of the Master, and are in every way promising.
At work, all at work, and all, all the time at work, ought
to be the motto of the church till the earth is filled
with the knowledge of the glory of God as the waters
cover the sea, and every heart is renewed, and the na
tions far and wide are exalted into fellowship with the
Father. Nevertheless this more rational and healthy view of

188 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
Christian duty is not without its special liabilities and
perils. While it is difficult to put too much emphasis
on outward activity, it is not at all difficult to put too
little emphasis on the condition of the soul. There may
be a deal of running to and fro on the errands of the
Master, a deal of this running for a time at least, while
only the slightest pains are taken to keep the heart in
vital and faithful communion with the Lord. People
have been known to become so intent on cultivating
other people's vineyards as quite to forget their own
little garden plats. As business men sometimes get so
absorbed in their daily tasks that they give no thought
to what they eat and how long they sleep and whether
or not they have suitable relaxation; so workers and
witnesses for Christ are exposed to the danger of think
ing their occupations justify them in going straight on,
and never pausing to turn an eye inward in searching
self=examination, or to pour over the Word in earnest
quest for light and motive force, or to linger long, it
may be, in the quiet and refreshing retreat of the closet
It requires both kinds of activity — the inward, reflect
ive, meditative activity which is carried on between tha
soul in the deeps of its personality and God, and the
outward activity which is concerned with doing things
which shall be to the glory of the Father and the good
of His earthly children, to make a full, round, robust
Christian character. Under the present pressure in
outward practical directions, the soul suffers in its in
ward peace and poise and growth. The disciples of our
Lord as a whole are not devoting sufficient care to the
nourishing of their spiritual life and to securing advance
in likeness to Christ.
Besides these sentiments and influences within the

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 189
circles of believers which set so strongly toward results
which can be weighed and measured, there are outside
tendencies which make it necessary to lay exceptional
stress on the meditative element in religion in these
modern times, especially by all whose lots are cast in
our great cities.
There is the rush of business. Whether the times be
active or dull the wheels of life turn rapidly. Men have
caught the impulse of the machinery they have in
vented, and, like the engine in the power=house, or a
fast=mail train, or an ocean racer which now speeds
from land to land across the Atlantic inside of six days,
they hurry on, eager, impatient, unresting, so as not to
be a moment late anywhere. In the push of competition,
muscles are strained to the utmost, nerves are taxed,
and brains are set on fire with excitement. It is hard
to be in business, and not to be in it to the full of
energy. Then there are the attractions of social life and varied
amusements. Entertainments of all sorts crowd to the
point of distraction. If one has a nature which inclines
him to free and easy ways, and to jovial companionship,
opportunities are open on all sides for the gratification
of his desires. Even if one is disinclined to move out
into gay circles, the pressure of temptation to yield will
be strong. Reactions from the steady grind of daily
tasks are rather toward something light and merry than
towards any very serious introspection and sober think
ing. Just this one fact of the facility we enjoy for
getting about, so that one can be here and there and
everywhere within a radius of many miles, at any given
time without much difficulty, adds greatly to the forces
which draw men and women abroad. Night is turned

190 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
into day, and neighbors at a distance are as if they
were at the next door, and entertainments can hardly be
too remote to be easily reached.
Were we to go back to what are sometimes called " the
good old days " when streets in great cities, like London,
and still more recently in New York, were all ill=paved,
or more likely not paved at all, and full of sloughs, and
people abroad after dark had to depend for light on
lamps hung out by citizens in front of their houses and
shops, or suspended in the steeples of the churches, or
on lanterns carried in their own hands or by servants
going on before them, we should find this condition of
things in itself operating as a decided restriction on
being out so much, away from books, and away from
home, and away from opportunities for reflections per
sonal to one's own soul and the relations of the soul to
the great hereafter.
But as it is the whirl and pressure of business are
only equaled by the whirl and pressure of pleasure;
and both add immensely to the influences which take
our Christian people abroad from themselves. Hence
this note of warning at what seems to be a moment im
peratively demanding the turning of the eyes inward,
and this plea for a wise and scrupulous attention to the
fostering of a right life in the soul.
If reasons are sought why all disciples of our Lord
ought to be intent on nourishing their own spiritual life
they will be found in large numbers. One of the first
is gratitude to Christ for the salvation which He wrought
out for them on the cross and which has been received
by believers through faith in His name.
This is the motive which prompted John to write to
those whom he called his " little children," and which

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 191
he was sure it would do them good to have laid on their
hearts; that their " sins " had been " forgiven" for " His
name's sake." Sinners forgiven through the grace of
God in the crucified Son of God, so it seemed to him,
must carry with them such a sense of delight and obli
gation that they would never again consent to lapse into
the defilement and bondage and guilt of transgression.
" My little children, these things write I unto you, that
ye may not sin." "Hereby know we that we are in
Him; he that saith he abideth in Him ought himself
also to walk even as He walked." " Every one that hath
this hope set on Him purifieth himself even as He is
pure." There is to be a constant watchfulness and a
constant measuring of the inner life by the standard of
the divine life; and an incessant struggle to be pure as
Christ was pure and to walk as Christ walked. It was no
part of John's thought that a man can get on and win
high spiritual victories without self=examination and
meditation, as it was no part of his thought that a man
can have been pardoned and saved by Christ without
coming into such a feeling of indebtedness to Him that
he will wish to have every pulse and fiber and tendency
of his being in accord with Christ.
Peter was moved by the same feeling when he wrote
those great and significant words: "Knowing that ye
were redeemed, not with corruptible things, with silver
and gold, from your vain manner of life handed down
from your fathers; but with precious blood, as of a lamb
without blemish and without spot, even the blood of
Christ." Men so " redeemed," he was sure — " redeemed "
" with precious blood," " even the blood of Christ,"
could not help finding in the nature and cost of this re
demption a ground for keeping their own hearts clean

192 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
and sweet and the enclosures of the soul swept of evil
and the whole inner life in accord with the life of the
Son of God.
In the letters of Paul there is a constant appeal to
this fact of salvation through the sacrifice of Christ as a
reason for the utmost care in holding mind and body
alike to high standards of purity. "Ye are not your
own; for ye were bought with a price." " Know ye not
that your body is a sanctuary of the Holy Spirit?"
" We are a sanctuary of the living God." " Let us
cleanse ourselves from all defilements of flesh and spirit,
perfecting holiness in the fear of God." From begin
ning to end the eye is fixed on Christ and the necessity
of being inwardly as well as outwardly like Him. As
often, therefore, as a man thinks of his salvation, and
how it has come to him, he will feel under a sense of
moral constraint to be sincere and true and spiritual to
the inmost core of his being, and to be open in all the
inlets of his soul to divine influences and heavenly fel
lowships. Another reason why one should be at pains to nour
ish one's spiritual life, lies in the fact that it is only in
this way that progress in the knowledge of God and
things divine can be secured, and the full satisfaction
and comfort of religion be found.
The body which is not fed, or even which is not prop
erly fed, ceases in a little while to have any health or
strength or symmetry in it. The mind which is not
fed, or kept in wholesome activity, through a generous
supply of fresh and interesting facts, or of great themes
on which to meditate, is certain to shrivel and lose all
its native vigor. It is the same with the spiritual na
ture. Like the body, like the mind, the soul must be

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 193
watched and cultivated, or it will become lean and
flabby, and cease in no long time to find joy in God.
In all spheres of activity the men who grow, and who
find delight in service, are the men who are alive to all
the facts and laws and problems and possibilities of
their several departments. What the inventor wants is
the secret which thus far has just eluded him. What
the historian wants is the connecting link — now missing
— between some important events in the development of
a custom or law or institution in the career of a people.
What the astronomer wants is an explanation of some
slight disturbance or variation he has discovered in the
movements of heavenly bodies, but which are so remote
in space that they are quite out of the reach of the most
powerful telescope. It is this persistent reaching out
for the thing which is as yet beyond him that keeps any
man alive, and holds him in the line of progress, and
fills his heart, with hope and gladness.
As Christian men and women it is the things which
are still above us and beyond us — the higher and deeper
truths of God, the choicer and ampler revelations of
Jesus Christ, the finer and sweeter ministries of the
Spirit, a clearer and more rewarding insight into the
disclosures of the Divine Word — which ought to quicken
our enthusiasm, and for which we must struggle if we
are to grow and be glad.
The Apostle Paul had it exactly when he wrote:
"Brethren, I count not myself yet to have apprehended;
but one thing I do, forgetting the things which are be
hind, and stretching forward to the things which are
before, I press on toward the goal unto the prize of the
high calling of God in Christ Jesus."
To do this is to nourish one's own spiritual life; but

194 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
unless one nourishes one's own spiritual life he will not
do this. One will have no inclination to do it unless
one is eager to be filled with the fulness of God, and to
know even as also one has been known.
" Oh, empty us of self, the world, and sin,
And then in all Thy fulness enter in;
Take full possession Lord, and let each thought
Into obedience with Thee be brought;
Thihe is the praise, and Thine the will, that we
Be wholly sanctified, O Lord, to Thee."
Another reason for nourishing one's own spiritual life
is the greater usefulness which this course promises.
As a matter of fact it is only by doing this that one is
likely for any length of time to be useful at all. It is
unquestionably true that wise and faithful work done in
the name of Christ and for the progress of the Kingdom
of Christ among men, is one of the important ways in
which growth in grace and knowledge and a larger, finer
character are secured. All through this is not only ad
mitted, but insisted on. Work of some kind is essential
to moral and spiritual soundness. But there will be lit
tle or no work where there is little or no secret commun
ion with Christ. There will be no fruit if there is no
abiding in the vine. Unless the fountain-heads are
guarded the streams will run low, or dry up alto
gether. A mind kept all the time upon the mind
of Christ and in living fellowship with Him is the
source of motive supply and the inspiration of helpful
and patient doing. When a man is too busy in the
work of the Lord to turn the eye inward, and to study
the Word with regularity and diligence and to pray, it
will not be long before the hands will fall to the side
and the feet will grow weary and the spirit of consecra-

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 195
tion to witnessing and working will flicker and expire
like a candle burned to its socket.
How now is one to nourish one's own spiritual life?
There are many specific answers to this question, each
one of which would go far towards assuring it. But
there is a general answer that includes practically all
that the various specific answers contain or imply; and
this general answer is all that it seems necessary to bring
forward. It is cultivating fellowship with God. " En
ter thou into thy chamber and shut thy doors about
thee." It is retiring often and habitually into the still
places where God is found, and the mind is illuminated,
and the soul is replenished out of the divine fulness,
and the whole spiritual nature is quickened. There is
no other way than this, or its equivalent, to hold the
soul in poise when there is so much to disturb in the
round of daily activity. There is no other way to guard
against the disturbing and benumbing influences of
buying and selling and getting gain. There is no other
way to withstand successfully the allurements of pleas
ant surroundings, and the temptations to go too far in
the way of seLMndulgence. There is no other way to
keep all the faculties keyed up to the best doing. It is
in retirement with God that fresh fountains of light,
and love and joy are opened. It is when one goes
away to be alone with God that He whispers His
secrets into the ear of the soul. It is in these mo
ments of precious experience, when we have entered
into our chamber, and have shut the doors about us,
that He girds us with strength, and comforts and encour
ages us, and makes it seem possible to go on still, bear
ing our burdens and doing our work.
It makes little difference what one's occupation may

196 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
be, and in what sphere of thought and activity he
may be most interested; whether he be concerned in
active business, or in scientific investigations, or even in
religious movements, if the hidden springs of his life
are not in God, and if he does not make it a rule to be
often alone with God in quiet and sincere medita
tion, the eye will be very sure to grow dim to celestial
splendors, and the heart will be less and less responsive
to the broodings of the Spirit, and spiritual realities
will fall away out of thought, and life will grow dull
and hard.
Through his absorbing pursuit of science, and his neg
lect of God's call, Darwin, an honest man, an eminent
man, and in many respects a magnificent man, confessed
that his spiritual nature had suffered an atrophy which
was complete. He had once been accustomed to join in
the worship of the sanctuary; and he had been free to
admit a divine element in the Christianity which could
take a rude Patagonian and make a self=respecting, in
telligent, and cultivated man out of him. But this fine
sense of things divine dropped out of him. His soul
could no longer be startled by any of the awful consid
erations of life, death, and eternity. The Heavenly
Father, the Redeemer, the comforts possible to troubled
souls all came to be to him as if they were not.
Playing with a few pebbles on the shore of an infinite
wisdom, he heard no murmur from the quiet deep of
God's love, no far off thunder of His justice and abhor
rence of sin, and he saw no beams of a glory unutterable
flashing in from beyond the horizon of his scientific
researches. Few things in this world are sadder.
George Mc Donald says of one of his characters: " It
is hardly to be wondered at that he should lose the finer

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 197
consciousness of higher powers and deeper feelings, not
from any behavior in itself wrong, but from the hurry,
noise and tumult in the streets of life, that penetrating
too deep into the house of life, dazed and stupefied the
silent and lonely watchers in the chamber of conscience,
far apart. He had no time to think or feel."
Many are they whose " finer consciousness " has dis
appeared from the assets of the soul, or from the forces
which regulate and elevate life, by the same pro
cess. They have let this world drive out thought of the
world to come, and they have preoccupied and filled
the chambers of the soul with other guests, until, as
with the Child Jesus at the inn, there is no room
left for God.
There is no doubt at all there are many things God
wants to do in us and through us; but there are also
many things He wants to say to us — to say to us first, —
in order that He may work in and through us. One
who enters into his chamber, and shuts the doors about
him, has a chance to talk with God, and lay his needs
before Him and learn His will. His words become not
only audible, but intelligible in this kind of sacred se
clusion. We never know just what God will say to us
in any interview. Were we to be alone with Him to-day
perhaps this is what He would say to some of us:
" What shall it profit a man if he gain the whole world
and lose his own soul?" To others of us perhaps this
is what He would say: "Seek first the Kingdom of
God and His Righteousness." But we should all of us
find this great assurance verified: " Draw nigh to God,
and He will draw nigh to thee." His new coming in
this way means peace and new knowledge and positive
uplift.

198 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
As has already been said, we should not any of us
think it advisable to go away into the seclusion of mon
asteries and convents to find God and live holier lives.
At the same time we need somehow to penetrate into
the secrets and to lay hold on the deep things of God
after the surprising fashion of some of those old mystics
and anchorites. Who that has ever read the " Imita
tion of Christ " in a mood of sympathetic appreciation
would not give much could he only come into some of
the experiences of the presence and love of Christ which
are there revealed? What a wealth of deep sweet know
ing, in what a coinage of choicest language, is there
given to the world!
" If thou desirest true contrition of heart, enter into
thy secret chamber, and shut out the tumults of the
world. In thy chamber thou shalt find what abroad
thou shalt often lose. The more thou visitest thy cham
ber, the more thou wilt enjoy it. In silence and in still
ness a religious soul advantageth itself, and learneth the
mysteries of the Holy Scriptures."
There is no better way than this of entering into our
chamber, and closing the doors about us, so that we can
be alone with God and talk with Him, to get away from
our unworthy and prodding and consuming thoughts.
How mean a mean thing looks when one is face to face
with God! How hateful hate becomes when contem
plated in the warm crystal atmosphere of the love of
God! How out of place all pride and stubborness!
How the holding of the soul where the steady look of
God can come in upon it, melts it, as the look of Jesus
melted Peter, into shame and contrition for all evil
deeds and the thoughts of ill which inspired the evil
deeds! In these moments of retirement with God we

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 199
are able, as has been well said, " to realize the littleness
of the frets and annoyances of the way, while it is such
seasons also which fit us to rise with fresh incentives
for holy duty, and resolutions for a nobler life." These
moments of retirement with God are moments of puri
fying and inspiration.
" The quiet of a shadow=haunted pool
Where light breaks through in glorious tenderness,
Where the hushed pilgrim in the shadow cool,
Forgets the ways' distress.
Such is the hour, this silent hour with Thee!
The trouble of the restless heart is still;
And every swaying wish breathes reverently
The whisper of Thy will."
This is one of the secrets of getting wholesomely away
from ourselves. It is within the shut doors of the
chamber of communion that we secure the displacement
of what is selfish and petty and a hindrance to spiritual
growth by letting in God in His sweet fulness. We go
into our chambers troubled, but we come out in peace.
We go in weak, but we come out strong and resolute.
We go in with our faces darkened with shadow of earth=
clouds, but we come out with faces aglow with the light
which fell on the prophet in the Mount, and which was
round about the Son of God in the great hour of the
Transfiguration. We go in humiliated and ashamed
because of our many shortcomings, but we come out as
those who have been lifted to their feet by a Divine
Hand. In the nourishing of our own spiritual life by quietly
and patiently waiting on God till the ear shall have
learned the fine art of catching the still small voice,
and interpreting it, it would be well for us if, now

200 REDEMPTION W NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
and then, we could arrest the bustle of our acti
vity, and hush the clatter of our machinery, and sit
at the feet of the Quakers. How much old George
Fox, with all his faults, could tell us about keeping
the mind cool amidst the heats and vexations of
affairs, and getting strength from on high to allay
all blustering storms and tempests. How much he
could tell us about committing our ways to the guid
ance of the Spirit, and letting Him lead us up into
stillness and patience and staidness of mind. God
is a God near at hand. God is a present help in
time of trouble and need. But it is only by pressing
very close to Him and keeping the mind sweet and open
to divine influence that we experience His presence.
There is no hour and there are no circumstances in
which God is not the greatest necessity. Life is strug
gle, but with God's help, it may be victory — and a vic
tory all the more complete, if we pause and take a little
time to learn more perfectly the will of Him who leads
us, and who supplies us with suitable armor for the con
test. The chamber of stillness is a place of new conse
cration and a pledge of service. The breath of God
penetrating the soul, the sound of His still small voice,
His message tenderly communicated, the renewed ap
prehension of truth and fervor of love, send one who
has been earnestly waiting upon God in his chamber
out into the world again as one divinely appointed and
anointed for splendid service.
In the chamber of stillness, with the doors shut about
one, God's will gets magnified, the human will falls into
submissiveness, and the soul becomes eager to do the
bidding of God. The soul is nourished, and it grows in
grace and knowledge.

NOURISHING HIS OWN SPIRITUAL LIFE 201
The idea is to be much in retirement with God, and
much in the active service of God. Too much of the
chamber of seclusion, and the closed doors, might make
one morbid, or indifferent to the woes and needs of hu
manity, or develop into a fine selfishness. Too much
work undertaken and carried on, without sufficient time
given to the preparation which comes from bringing the
soul into fresh and vital contact with God, will soon
come to be a mere surface affair, and more than likely
will degenerate into noise, and fill the hearts of the
workers with self=conceit and pride. What we are to
see to is that in doing the one we do not leave the other
undone. "When prayer delights thee least, then learn to say:
Soul, now is greatest need that thou shouldst pray.
Crooked and warped I am and I would fain
Straighten myself by Thy right line again."

^be IRebeemeb Sinner in "Ibis 2>ail£ Malfe.

" For hereunto were ye called; because Christ also suffered for
you, leaving you an example, that ye should follow His steps; who
did no sin, neither was guile found in His mouth; who, when He
was reviled, reviled not again; when He suffered, threatened not;
but committed Himself to Him that judgeth righteously." — 1 Peter
2: 21-23.
" He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself to walk even as
He walked."— 1 John 2: 6.
"We have no right to expect that God will keep His promises
unless we keep His commandments. . . . Christ will refuse to
be a Savior if He is not acknowledged as a Prince. . . . I long
to see the day when the faith of the church shall be so strong that
the promises of God will be the adequate consolation of all Chris
tian people in their earthly sorrows, and when the great hope of
immortal glory will fill their heartB with perpetual gladness and
their lips with perpetual song; when the church will be inspired
with a more fervent love and thankfulness in the presence of the
cross of ChriBt; when worship will cease to be a weariness, and
when in prayer all Christian men will approach God with perfect
confidence in His power and willingness to answer them. But I also
long to see the time when the church will discover in the teaching
and example of Christ the outlines of a far diviner morality; when
the noblest natural ethics will look poor and dim compared with
the ideal of perfection for which the church will strive and which
in the strength of the Spirit of God it will largely fulfill; when the
equity, truthfulness, frankness, courage, industry, patience, tem
perance, self=sacrifice, public spirit, gentleness and charity of those
who bear the Christian name will be a perpetual demonstration of
the presence and power of the Holy Ghost." — Dale.
" If God indeed vouchsafe supernatural assistance, should not
our virtues correspond to such aids and have a supernatural cast?
Shall we content ourselves with the cheap, easy*going virtues
of men of the world — amiability, integrity, uprightness, gen
erosity? Has not our Judge already asked us in His Holy Word:
'What do ye more than others?' Must we not expect Him to repeat
the question for each of us individually when we stand before His
judgment-seat at the great day of account?" — Goulburn.
204

X.
THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK.
A Christian man is one of whom it must be possible
to say these two things: First, he believes in the Lord
Jesus Christ; Second, he tries to follow the Lord Jesus
Christ. It is not enough to believe merely. One may
believe even to trembling, and yet not be a disciple. Nor
does one succeed any better who endeavors to live the
life of Christ without faith in His name.
The initial point in any obedience which is to be a
truly Christian obedience will be the identification of
the human life with the divine life of the Son of God
through the act of faith. It is quite possible to do
certain things after the manner of Jesus, while at the
same time denying and refusing Him as the Christ; but
it is not possible to project the life along the line on
which He walked, and to make it a characteristically
Christian life, without accepting Him and listening to
His instructions and catching His spirit and abiding in
His love. The two go together. There must be believ
ing; there must be following; and it takes both to make
a Christian. Our present concern is with the following of Christ;
and it will be the object of this chapter to indicate some
of the traits which will mark a man who sincerely be
lieves in Christ, and who feels that he has been saved
from his sins by the precious blood- which was shed on
Calvary. 205

206 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
It is obvious that any imitation of the example of our
Lord, if the imitation is to be real and of any value,
must begin with the spirit by which a man is actuated.
This thought has had previous enforcement, but it
needs to be specially urged in this connection. There
must be a likeness to Christ in thought and feeling and
aim and aspiration or the likeness will be only seeming.
Without the spirit of Christ one cannot be like Christ.
Hence the exhortation to have in us the "mind" that
was in Him. In no genuine sense is there or can there
be any taking up of His example, any following of His
steps, any walking as He walked, unless the soul be
first informed with His thought.
At this point there is occasion for care. Robertson
in one of his incisive and luminous sermons has called
attention to an important difference to be observed be
tween Christ as a model and Christ as an example. A
model is something to be copied. When the outlines
have been drawn correctly, and all the details have been
filled in, the imitation of the model is complete. An
example is something whose spirit is to be caught and
illustrated. A man who imitates Luther or Cromwell
or Washington as a model can be only a second-hand
man at best. A man who catches the spirit of Luther
or Cromwell or Washington, and aquits himself in his
own circumstances as each of these did in his, imitates
him as an example and is helped by the imitation.
Now one might follow Christ in an outward literal
way; might reduce his physical condition to such straits
of poverty that the foxes and birds could be said to be
better off; might be a wanderer from place to place;
might descend to the most menial offices; might attract
to himself the lowly and the ignorant and the outcast;

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 207
might speak to men in the very words which fell from
the lips of Him who spake as never man spake; might
bring down upon himself the scorn of the proud and
awaken the opposition of the powerful; and still not
walk as Christ walked. For all this might be without
the least approximation to any inward resemblance.
One would say at once on looking on such an exhibition
with any true discernment, there is no real Christ=like-
ness in it.
So also one might live a life which should be like the
life of the Son of man in hardly any outward aspect of
it, and yet have it a life full of His purity and love.
There might be in it the self=denial, the lowliness of
heart, the tender patience, the uncalculating devotion
to the welfare of others, which were shown by Jesus.
In such a life He might be the inspiration of every
thought and the motive of every deed. In an instance
like this, there would be an actual imitation of the
example of Christ. He would not be copied so closely,
but He would be followed more closely. The life would
have more of His life in it. It would yield more of His
fruits. Primarily, therefore, these are the questions: "Is the
image of Christ on the soul?" "Has the sweet spirit of
Christ penetrated and molded the inner life?"
The trouble is we are too much inclined to settle this
by mere external and arbitrary tests. But it is not
whether one is rich or poor, well instructed or ignorant.
of high social position or no position at all. A man
may come to be worth millions, and yet remain humble
and sympathetic and serviceable because his heart has
been touched by the sweet compassion of our Lord. A
man may not be worth a cent in the world, and yet be

208 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
sensitive and exacting and proud to the last degree. A
man may be learned, and yet under the influence of
Christ remain, like Jonathan Edwards, or President
Woolsey, as simple and confiding as a child. A man
may know nothing, and yet be full of assumption and
conceit. One may speak in Christ's name, and in His
name do many wonderful works, and yet be a castaway.
Hence the need of frequent return to the questions:
" Has our inner life been brought under the power of
Christ? " " Arethesprings of our activity in Him? " " Do
our souls live and breathe in the atmosphere of His pur
ifying and constraining love? " " Do we do things or re
frain from doing things, speak or keep silence, give or
withhold from giving, help or refuse to help, because we
conceive such conduct to be well=pleasing in the sight
of the Master?" "Are we wont to keep Him habi
tually in mind, and to make the brief formulary — ' For
Christs' sake,' a controlling factor in our lives? '
These are the test=questions ; and they can hardly be
asked or answered too often or too seriously.
At the same time there are certain specific ways in
which the mind or spirit of Christ will be quite sure to
show itself if it be in one. Not necessarily, let it be
said again, as to form and manner; but very necessarily
as to fact.
There are certain respects — important and vital — in
which for substance a man's life must conform to the
life of Christ in his daily walk, or he is not walking as
Christ walked.
The first of these points is the closeness with which
Jesus kept to the Father. Jesus came very close to
men; but He never suffered Himself to be separated
from the Father.

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 209
If one makes a study of His obedience, or His works,
or His prayer=life— three sure tests — this is what will be
discovered: A union constant and intimate and beauti
ful between the Son and Him who sent the Son. He
came into the world to do God's will. While yet a
youth He felt that He must be about His Father's busi
ness. When drawing near unto the end He could say
of Himself: "I have glorified Thee on the earth; I have
finished the work which Thou gavest me to do." The
words which He had given to the disciples, so He tells
us, were the words which had been given to Him by
the Father. He was wont to withdraw from men that
He might refresh His spirit by being alone with God.
Like Enoch, only in a higher realization of the exalted
privilege, He walked with God. It is impossible to con
ceive of a life in the flesh with more openness in it to
ward God; with more of communion in it with God;
with more of conformity in it to the will of God; of a life,
in short, more under heavenly illuminations, and nearer
to the sources of the divine wisdom and sympathy and
succor, than the earthly life of the Son of man.
For us all there is the force of an imperative in this
feature of the example of Jesus. We cannot be like
Jesus; we cannot be thought to be following in His
steps and illustrating His spirit, unless we keep very
near to God.
There is a great dissimilarity in men as respects their
regard for God. The thoughts of some men turn easily
to God. God and the ways of God are favorite themes
of meditation with them. They are devout souls. They
feel awe of God. They reverence the name of God.
They hear God and they see God everywhere. They do
not have to force themselves to prayer; they fall readily

210 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
and habitually on their knees. They feel orphaned and
miserable when astray from God. They want all clouds
out of the sky, and all distances closed up, so that they
can have free and uninterrupted communion with God.
They have a good deal of what Wordsworth in one of
his poems calls " natural piety."
There are others who are disinclined to think of God.
They find it a task to bring their souls into communion
with God. Only reluctantly do they yield to spiritual
influences and come into devout habits. They are not
spiritually»minded. They look on the stars, the flowers,
the landscape; they listen to music; and in it all they
are glad. But they do not care to go back behind these
manifestations and think of them as having their source
in God, and in a marked way voicing His goodness.
Books and songs and sermons and interviews which dis
close an ardent longing for God are not to the key of
their disposition. It is only by utmost struggle that
they can rise up into the mood of the Psalmist when he
said: "As the heart panteth after the water brooks, so
panteth my soul after Thee, O God."
But whether it be hard or easy to be devout and rev
erent and obedient; hard or easy to have a side of our
nature always open to God; this closeness of union with
God is something needful to us if we are to imitate the
example of Christ. It is to be cultivated until it be
comes a habit of the daily life. It needs only to be
said of any man that he is living at a great distance from
God to convince us that he is not Christ4ike. On the
other hand if the walk be close with God, then the
Christ4ikeness is admitted at once.
Then, too, a man who would walk as our Lord walked
must live a clean, sweet life. Cleanness and sweetness
must mark his daily intercourse with the world.

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 211
No words are needed to set forth the sinlessness of
Jesus. He committed no sin, neither was guile found
in His mouth.
Something is called for, however, to overcome the
feeling, entertained by many, that it is no use to try to
be like Jesus in His purity. He is thought of as the
divine One who by His divinity is lifted above us in
His ready discernment of the right and true; and in
His desires and inclinations, and in His power of resist
ance, to such a degree that it is in vain to attempt to
imitate Him. In one sense all this is correct; but it
leaves two vital facts out of view.
The first one is that Jesus was actually tempted in all
points like as we are, yet without sin. He kept Him
self sinless by not yielding to sin. He did this not
alone when He was led up of the Spirit into the wilderness
to be tempted; but all through. As often as He was be
set; as often as any provocation came to Him to turn
aside from the straight path of duty; as often as He was
tried by being misunderstood and misinterpreted; He
put the temptation aside and walked on in His own se
rene way. He was never overcome by evil. He was
never betrayed by His own heart. He could not be
led into a wrong act.
The second fact which this statement that it is in vain
to attempt to be like Jesus leaves out of the account,
is that we are required to be like Him. It is not a suf
ficient answer to say that it is no use to try to climb to
this lofty height; for just this is what is laid upon us.
We are to keep ourselves from all defilements. We are
to be blameless and harmless and without rebuke in the
midst of all perverseness. This is one of the high ends
Christ had in view in coming to us.
If we stop to review the situation a little we shall see

212 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
that Christ through His life and death accomplished
three things for us. First, He took away the stains and
guilt of all who believe on Him. Second, in what He
said and in what He did He showed men how to live.
He is the Light of the World. Third, He made it pos
sible for men to secure the grace and strength they need
in order to live upright and wholesome lives.
This is what he seeks and demands in His disciples.
He seeks and demands lives that are not crooked, nor
darkened with grossness, nor stained and compromised
with any form or degree of corruption. " Be ye holy,
for I am holy."
Paul speaks of Christ as One " Who gave Himself
for our sins, that He might deliver us from this present
evil world." When he used this language and stated
this object had in mind by our Lord, the apostle no
doubt had two thoughts before him. One is this large
system of evil into which we are born, and by which we
are held, and along whose currents we are carried to
destruction unless rescued by the grace of God in Christ.
The other thought is that of deliverance from the cor
rupt courses, habits and tendencies which are in us by
nature, and which check our upward and forward move
ments. It is to put into us a new principle of life and
give us new directions and aims, and make us new cre
ations. This is what is set before us, and required at
our hands; and it is what we are helped to realize, — de
liverance from this present evil world.
Now with the light he has and the aid from God, a
man who has named the name of Christ can be honest;
he can be truthful; he can hold his slanderous tongue
in check; he can be temperate and keep his body under;
he can restrain his feet from paths of vice; he can be

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 213
kind in his judgments; he can put sixteen ounces into
every pound of weighable merchandise he sells; he can
give thirty=six inches to every yard he measures off to
a customer; he can make his cans and his oil barrels
hold just what they pretend to hold; he can keep the la
bels on the articles in which he deals from lying; he can
withhold his hand from the adulteration of foods; he can
be sincere and open and straight=forward. It is at once
a lame and disgraceful apology for a man to make, and
a sign that the lowest stages of moral flabbiness have
been reached, when in view of the standards set up for
him in Christ, he is all the time whining out, " Oh, I can
not!" "I cannot! " It is simply not so, he can.
There will be failures enough and more than enough
through the infirmities of our poor human nature. But
they ought not any of them to lie in the region of our
common morality. It is a shame when the daily walk
of a nominally Christian man suggests Christ, not by
conformity, but only by contrast. A follower of Christ
who will lie and cheat and defraud and connive at
wrong and backbite and give loose rein to low and gross
forms of self=indulgence and swing back and forth with
the tides of the world! No, he is not a follower of
Christ. There are weak Christians; and being weak
Christians they are entitled to sympathy and pa
tience. But this is not weakness; it is wickedness.
The man who does these things is still in the gall of
bitterness and the bonds of iniquity. He is still a lost
soul. Again, a man who is to walk as Christ walked will be
loving and helpful. In one way or another he will be
largely a servant of humanity. He will be a minister of
good in his day and generation.

214 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
In the first place he will bear his own burdens in a
manly way, and do his own appointed work with all fi
delity. A man who means to be loving and helpful
after the example of Jesus will never shirk nor slight
his own personal tasks. This is a thought worthy of
our most serious attention. For how much of the fric
tion of society would be overcome; how many grounds of
vexation and complaint would be removed; how much
of reproach would be taken away and carping criticism
arrested; if only each man were to meet faithfully his
own responsibilities and do his own work, whether the
highest in human estimation or only the lowest, as in
the open light of eternity!
Is there not on all sides a sincere longing for the time
to come when men and women shall see that honest
faithful work is one of the ways of showing love and
doing good in the world? If nails and pegs could be
driven; if stitches could be taken; if seeds could be
sown and harvests gathered; if wool and cotton and flax
could be spun and webs woven ; if bars and bolts and
screws and shafts and springs and all the cunning hand
icraft of the artificer could be wrought; if goods could
be bought and sold on our counters; if railroads could
be run and ships navigated; if newspapers could be edi
ted and instruction given, and lectures delivered, and
books made, under the inspiration of the idea that one
can really be useful and helpful to humanity by being
true in his own place and putting conscience into every
throb of the brain and every movement of the hand, it
would mark a wonderful advance for the race.
In the second place, if one has it in mind to be loving
and helpful after the example of Christ, he must needs
go abroad from himself and take a warm and deep in-

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 215
terest in the welfare of others. It is written of Him:
"For Christ also pleased not Himself." He made His
life a toil and a sacrifice. He had a work given Him of
the Father which called for the highest de gree of self=
denial and self ^surrender; and He did it. "I have fin
ished the work which Thou gavest me to do."
The disciple who would be like the Master must turn
his thought outward. He must be eyes to the blind;
feet to the lame; wisdom to the foolish; and strength to
the infirm and weak. He must have a hand which is
ready not merely to shut in on what he can get, but to
open out with what he can give. He must have and
cultivate the altruistic temper.
This is a great world of ours. It is full of want and
woe and wickedness. A large number do not know what
to do. They make but an awkward business in trying
to live. A large number are bent on mischief. Take
it all in all it is bitterly true that the whole creation
groans and travails in pain. It is only by planning and
toiling and suffering as Christ did, in a true vicarious
spirit, that things will improve.
Two duties, therefore, are clearly incumbent on all
who would enter into this vicarious spirit of Jesus and
walk as He walked.
To begin with one must be ready to take hold with a
willing mind and a prompt hand of whatever comes to
his knowledge that has in it any promise of helpfulness.
This was the habit of Jesus. He answered calls. He
healed those who were brought to Him, or pressed their
way into His presence. He did always the thing which
was close at hand.
In this busy age men say they have no time to go out
and look up cases of distress and waywardness, or to

216 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
give to special organizations. They say further that
even if they had time they are wanting in the peculiar
temperament and experience which qualify one to do
these various sorts of Christian work well. But given
the disposition to be helpful so far as opportunities are
presented, and one need never step out of the tracks of
his ordinary daily life to be eminently useful. Let a
man help, counsel, encourage, lift up, influence for good,
as he can, and in a little while he will find that he has
rendered a vast amount of service in the same line as
our Lord.
In addition to this, however, one must seek to be help
ful. Christ came into the world to do a specific work.
To this end was He born. When here He went about
doing good. Nobody was so low down that He did not
sympathize with him. Nobody was so far away that He
did not desire his return and welcome him back. No
body was so hopelessly lost that He did not try to save
him. He was tender and pitiful. He sought the lost.
In the light of these facts is it not evident that if a
man would be like Christ he must feel that he has some
share in the regeneration of humanity? Take a man
who is indifferent to the welfare of his fellows; who
makes everything revolve around his own comfort and
advantage; who never asks: "What can I do to serve
and to save men? " " How use my skill, my money, my
experience, my influence, my standing in the community,
to lift men into a nobler manhood?" and will it not be
seen at once that he is not living as Christ lived, and
helping as Christ helped? To be like Christ one must
go out of himself.
It remains to add that walking as Christ walked in
volves very much patience and forbearance.

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 217
It is the instinct of the natural man to give blow for
blow; to answer railing with railing; scorn with scorn.
Some men have a very keen sense of personal dignity.
It is easy to sting them into madness. They flash quick
at any slight; or at any imputation which seems to imply
a question of their motives or conduct. They are
suspicious to a painful degree. They are always on
the watch for offenses. They torture words into mean
ings they were never meant to convey. They miscon
strue and magnify playful speech and insist that there
must have been more meaning in it than appeared on
the surface. They keep themselves in a ferment all the
time over fancied slights. They are exceedingly uncom
fortable people to get along with.
Some men cannot bear even a momentary discrediting
of themselves. If in the discharge of their duty they
have to suffer and endure reproach, they straightway fill
the air with the loud wail of their complaints. It never
seems to occur to them that it is possible for anybody to
suffer and be silent.
Some men are naturally quarrelsome. They are always
in a hurry to seize any occasion there may be for dis
pute. They are like John Bright's juryman, and are
never able to agree with themselves even. They are
never in their element unless in some sort of a wrangle.
The difference between a man who has positive opinions,
and stands up in a manly way and says what he thinks,
and a man who is simply captious and grumbling, and
who is all the time pecking at this and pecking at that,
and keeping everybody about him in a state of chronic
irritation, is something they can never comprehend.
They appear to think it shows originality in thought,
independence, and a commendable determination not to

218 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
be led about by the nose, to be always in opposition and
all the time finding fault with everybody and everything.
Some men there are who lose heart and fall to fretting
if they are baffled in their plans. If their efforts at
philanthropy do not succeed at once they become mis
anthropic, and make the welkin ring with avowals that
nobody can be found who has any heart in him.
Hence for one reason and another there is a good deal
of impatience in the world. It is in ourselves. It is in
others. When we turn to Jesus, however, we find an example
of patience and forbearance which is sublime. There
was no thinking of evil with Him. There were no
flashing strokes of resentment. There was no haste in
self=vindication. There was no indignant answering of
every accusation brought against Him. When He was
reviled, He reviled not again. When He suffered He
threatened not. He was brought as a lamb to the
slaughter; and as a sheep before her shearer is dumb, so
He opened not His mouth.
In a rushing, blundering and wicked world like this
in which we live, there will always be much to vex
earnest and righteous souls. Many things will go wrong
through the incompetency and shiftlessness of men;
many things through the perverse dispositions of men.
We shall suffer sometimes from open injustice; some
times from the honest misconceptions of our friends;
sometimes from neglect; sometimes from the envies and
jealousies of those who do not suspect their own hearts
capable of entertaining such feelings. But in the midst
of it all there is just one course for us if we are to walk
as our Lord walked, and that is to be tenderly forbear
ing. In the face of all wrongs and oppositions, and all
taunts and provocations, and all misconceptions of our

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 219
spirit and aim — still to be tenderly forbearing. To be
defeated utterly in our efforts to help; to be rudely dis
appointed in our hopes, and smitten down by the very
hands which ought to hold us up, as He was, and still
to be tenderly forbearing.
After all this is the better way. As one can be like
Jesus in his daily walk only as he is patient and for
bearing, so it is through this patience and forbearance
that life can be made to yield the best results. It will
not be an easy thing for a man who is naturally im
patient to subdue himself into a man of patience; nor to
hold quiet under misjudgment and misrepresentation
and cruel prejudice. Still it is always worth all it costs
to be patient. Patience will sweeten the bitterest cup.
Patience will soften the hardest blow. Patience is
power. Patience is comfort. Patience in the soul is
like ballast in the ship; it enables one to lie by and ride
out the storm. Patience is the golden shield which par
ries the stroke of every malicious shaft. Patience is
the harp through which the shrill winds become music.
Patience is the oil which calms down the troubled
waters. Patience is the Angel of God that walks with
us through all the trials and sorrows and disappoint
ments we are called to experience, and
"Gently whispers: Be resigned;
Bear up, bear on, the end shall tell
The dear Lord ordereth all things well."
The way to get the mastery of hot tempers and hold
them in check; to stifle anger and keep it from violent
outbreaks; to subdue pride and extinguish envy; to
bridle rash tongues and restrain vengeful hands, is to
cultivate patience until to exercise patience shall have
become a fixed habit of the soul.
We need to sit at the feet of Jesus for a great deal of

220 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
instruction. Few things would be of more service to us
in the practical ongoings of life than to learn of Him,
how, on the one hand, not to give offense — and how, on
the other hand, not to be easily provoked.
The view here presented of the relation of the believer
to the example of Christ yields two or three inferences
which it will be well not to try to escape.
It is in the duty of a man who has confessed Christ to
try to walk as He walked. It is an unspeakable priv
ilege; but it is also a duty. " He that saith he abideth
in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked."
This walking as Christ walked is a lesson to be
learned. A man does not leap into the high art of it at
once; he must reach it by stages. There is a true phi
losophy as well as wise counsel in the injunction: " Cease
to do evil, learn to do well." We are to stop square in
our sinning. From every iniquity we are to break off
at once. If we are profane, if we are false, if we are
licentious, if we are dishonest, if we are intemperate, if
we are cherishing evil thoughts, if we are following evil
ways, we are to make an end of it without a moment's
waiting. But to know how to do well takes study and
care. One will never do well after the example of Jesus
without giving the matter the profoundest thought of
which he is capable, and trying and still trying unto the
end. A man who has this great lesson to learn cannot
begin to learn it too soon.
Christ in His earthly life furnished the highest ideal
of a true manly walk. It is good for every man, and
for every man all through his career, to have some
standard of perfection toward which he struggles. This
is the New Testament thought. In Jesus such a standard
is presented. If one would be such a man as George
Herbert describes — a man

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HIS DAILY WALK 221
— " all symmetry,
Full of proportion, one limb to another,
And all to all the world besides."
he has only to be like Jesus in his thought and life.
Jesus is the Typical Man. Jesus takes in all the attri
butes of a complete manhood. He realizes our highest
conception of manhood. To attain " unto the measure
of the stature of the fulness of Christ" is to be — A Per
fect Man.

Hbe IRebeemeb Sinner in "Ibis Udorft for tbe
Iftingbom.

" For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge,
that one died for all, therefore all died; and He died for all, that
they which live should no longer live unto themselves, but unto
Him who for their sakes died and rose again." — 2 Cor. 5: 14-15.
" And Jesus came to them and spake unto them, saying, All
authority hath been given unto me in heaven and on earth. Go ye
therefore and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them
into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Ghost;
teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you;
and lo, I am with you alway, even unto the end of the world." —
Matt. 28: 18-20.
" The problem of restoring original and eternal beauty to the
world is solved by the redemption of the soul. The reason why
the world lacks unity and lies broken and in heaps is that man is
disunited with himself." — Emerson.
" The sin and ruin and despair that were in the world when our
Savior came, which gave way to a celestial peace and righteous
ness wherever His gospel was preached, still remain and brood
over the nations and call for a divine Redeemer." — Judson Smith.
224

XI.
THE REDEEMED SINNER
IN HIS WORK FOR THE KINGDOM.
One who believes in the Lord Jesus Christ may be
hindered by circumstances and ability from doing what
he would like to do in winning souls and advancing the
Kingdom; but in his theories and sympathies he must
acknowledge no limits except those which have been set
for all His followers by Him who came to seek and to
save that which was lost, and who died an atoning death
on the cross, not for the few, but for " the world."
Whether interpreted by the simple fact of His be
ing here on this globe and in our human form at all,
or by the spirit He manifested towards those who were
low down in ignorance and far away in unrighteousness,
or by His express and uniform teaching, or by the ten
der aggressive impulse in the direction of those who
were without He imparted to His disciples and which
has been caught up and perpetuated by those who have
come into most intimate fellowship with His " mind "
in all the subsequent generations, there can be no doubt
that He who was at once the Son of God and the Son of
man carried the whole human race in His heart, and
that it was a vital part of His plan to have the earth
filled with a saving knowledge of His truth, and all wills
brought into loving subjection to the will of the Father
through faith in the Son. 225

226 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
We erect our distinctions; and we call some of the
work which is to be done in the interest of the King
dom " home " work, and some of it we call " foreign "
work. There is no harm in this so long as we do not
yield to the prejudices of a narrow partisan temper and
set one kind of work in one department over against
another kind of work in another department in a bitter
and mischievous antagonism. It is a convenient dis
tinction and a convenient way of distributing labor.
Our Lord seems to have accommodated Himself to this
kind of disposition or tendency when He said: "Ye
shall be my witnesses both in Jerusalem, and in all
Judea and in Samaria, and unto the uttermost part of
the earth." The work might be divided up and in por
tions of it limited in form and sphere.
But it is not two works, but one; not two interests,
but one; not two kingdoms, but one. The business in
hand is as near to us as our next door neighbor and as
wide as humanity. It is to reach all men everywhere.
It is to bring all men everywhere — all classes and con
ditions and races — Anglo Saxons, Celts, Indians, Afri
cans, Chinese, Japanese, into the faith of Christ.
Turning to the wider aspect of this subject, since it
may be justly inferred that the greater includes the less,
and dealing with the work of the redeemed sinner from
the standpoint of what ought to be accomplished for
the unevangelized nations, it will be found that there
is abundant warrant for the proposition just announced.
It will be found in the first place in the direct com
mand of Jesus Christ.
Our Lord said to His disciples — said to them, too, in
circumstances to clothe His words in a sweet but awful
sacredness and with a binding force of which they can

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 227
never be divested,— that they were to be His witnesses
unto the uttermost parts of the earth and to make dis
ciples of all the nations. For one who acknowledges a
duty of loyalty to the Master, this would seem to take
the question of the attitude which one may assume in
regard to carrying the gospel to all peoples quite out of
debate and settling it forever. Christ says it — what
more is required? Just now in many of our theological
circles the popular watch=cry is — " Loyalty to Christ."
Be it so. Nothing could be better. Only in illustrat
ing this loyalty let it be remembered that in terms not
to be mistaken nor evaded Jesus laid the service of ac
quainting the world with the way of salvation through
faith in His name on His followers.
If a man says that he does not believe in Christ, and
therefore rests under no sense of obligation to do what
Christ declares He wishes to have done; or if a man
says he believes in Christ, but prefers to put his own in
terpretation on His directions, and to pick and choose
which ones he will follow and how far, his position, if
not commendable, is yet intelligible. One can see how
he has reached the place he occupies.
But when one avows his faith in Christ, and in all
sincerity means to be true to Christ in what He re
quires of His disciples, it is difficult to understand on
what grounds or by what process of reasoning, he can
escape taking the whole world into his thought and
sympathy. The saving grace of the gospel is for all.
Jesus became incarnate, lived and taught and died and
rose again that all might have share in His salvation.
He charged His disciples to carry the good tidings of
His redeeming love to all nations with the view and in
the expectation of making all nations His followers and

228 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT A ND OUTLOOK
securing by them the observance of His rules of life.
Were there no other constraining motive, this alone,
that Christ has imposed the duty on all who accept Him
ought to be sufficient to bring every believer into line,
and into line up to the high level of his resources and
opportunities, in this large work of winning the world
to the faith.
Especially is this so when one thinks of the way
in which simple loyalty ought to be reinforced and
warmed by a feeling of gratitude. One who has ever
been deeply conscious of the exceeding sinfulness of
sin, and of the disability and condemnation into which
he has been brought by sin, and at the same time real
izes what it is to have been redeemed from sin and re
stored to the favor of God by the sacrifice of Christ on
Calvary, will count it, not alone a thing morally proper,
but one of the supreme privileges of life to meet the
requirements and execute the wishes of him to whom
the indebtedness is and ever must be so manifest and
measureless. Unless — a supposition which would seem
to be contradictory in terms — one who has been saved by
the blood of Christ has lost all sense of the cost and value
of his salvation, gratitude can hardly fail to quicken
loyalty and spur to endeavors looking to the extension
and upbuilding of the kingdom which are as outreaching
in their sympathies and as all-inclusive in their scope
as the commands of our Lord. This is the Great Teach
er's own argument. " If ye love me, ye will keep my
commandments!" One of the most important and im
perative of all His commands is: " Go ye therefore, and
make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into
the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy
Ghost, teaching them to ob serve all things whatsoever I
commanded you,"

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 229
Another ground on which to justify and encourage a
practical interest in the larger work of the kingdom is
found in the needs of the nations which are yet without
a knowledge of Jesus Christ. These needs are the re
sults of sin, and like all the results of sin they are deep
and appalling.
The Parliament of Religions had many things to
commend it, but one of the incidental disadvantages was
the question it raised in some minds concerning the
lost condition of the race. Under one influence and
another there are those — never, perhaps, at any previous
time so many as now — who take the ground that men
are not away from God and under the condemnation of
law in any such sense and to any such degree that Chris
tian people are required to feel a special burden of anx
iety about them.
But this need which has its source in sin exists, and
it is at once an all=sufficient justification of attempts to
reach the ends of the earth with the gospel and a de
mand to make these attempts which can no more be
silenced without complying with it than can the cry of
humanity or the voice of God.
"Unless," as another has said, "the guilt of the pagan
world can be proved, the missionary enterprises of the
Christian Church, from the days of the apostles to the
present time, have all been a waste of labor. Nay, more,
if the sin and ill=desert of the entire human race, in all its
generations, cannot be established, the Christian relig
ion, involving the Incarnation of God, is an attempt to
supply a demand that has no existence. Both theoreti
cal and practical Christianity stand or fall with the doc
trine of the universal guilt of man. It is no wonder,
therefore, that Paul enters upon a line of argument to
demonstrate the ill=desert of every human creature

230 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
without exception, and to prove that before an unerring
tribunal, and in the final day of adjudication, every
mouth must be stopped, and all the world become guilty
before God."
What is the apostle's charge? Writing to an asso
ciation of devout believers which had somehow sprung
up at the very center of the world's progress and power,
he asserts that men in the mass have obscured the light
originally given, have put away the knowledge of the
true God, have invented base and revolting sins, and
have descended in the scale of corruption and degrada
tion till whole multitudes are lower down in self=indul-
gence than the brutes.
Facts justify this indictment.
The subject of a sinfulness in whose guilt and degra
dation and bondage the whole human race is involved
has had treatment in an earlier chapter in this volume.
But a few additional facts of the same general import of
those already adduced will have pertinency here, and
aid in deepening the conviction of the need there is that
all men in all lands should be taught the way of life
through faith in Christ.
The Rev. Dr. S. J. Humphrey, for many years one of
the district secretaries of the American Board, and a
man of well disciplined mind, wide knowledge and dis
criminating judgment, when in active service published
a collection of testimonies which he called The Night
Side of Missions. These testimonies were gathered
fresh from the field, and from such competent witnesses
as Colonel Davis of Japan, the late lamented Alexander
Mackay of Africa, Mr. Jones and Mrs. Capron of India,
Mr. Beach and Miss Haven of China, Dr. Frank Gates
of Turkey, and others of other lands equally qualified

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 231
to form intelligent and trustworthy opinions of the
actual moral condition of these various peoples. It
was sad reading; for the statements made concerning
the gross immorality and corruption of all these unevan-
gelized communities were uniform. Lying, indolence,
licentiousness, indifference to humanity, the utter ab
sence of anything like a home life as we conceive it,
were shown to characterize society in all sections and
circles which are without the gospel.
Take the single instance of Japan.
Japan, as everybody knows, has sprung with a won
derful alertness into the fellowship of the active, self*
reliant and aggressive peoples of the earth. It is quite
clear how this result, in part at least, has been brought
about. If the ports of Japan had not been forced open,
and if Christian impulse had not been given to some of
the most receptive and energetic of the people, and if
representatives of the best thinking and the best life of
the land had not gone abroad to gather instruction and
inspiration from people who had accepted the Christian
faith and were fostering Christian institutions, even
though imperfectly, this old Empire, far remote in the
seas, would have remained stationary.
But for all this the moral and spiritual deficiencies of
the Japanese are shocking. Men and women visit that
country, and are invited here and there and treated with
exceeding courtesy by all whom they meet. After a few
weeks spent in these surface observations, they come
back and entertain their friends and the clubs with
glowing accounts of the beauty and sweetness of do
mestic life and social life among these charming Ori
entals. Alongside these representations, however, place
the evidence furnished by one who knows.

232 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
Dr. Davis, to the delight and profit of many, wrote
in English a brief biography of Mr. Neesima. In this
biography there were two paragraphs bearing on the
domestic life of this rare man. The first one read as
follows: " Soon after Mr. Neesima came to Kyoto,
he met Yamamoto Yaye, a sister of the blind Counselor
of the Kyoto Fu. Meeting her again and again at her
brother's house, he became acquainted with her, and
the intimacy ripened into affection, and in the autumn
of that year they were engaged." The second one was
to this effect: " In the letters he wrote us from America,
while there in 1885, it was very touching to see how
much he felt the separation from Mrs. Neesima, and
how he also remembered to ask us to help her bear her
loneliness." Could anything be purer or more fitting than the
sentiment expressed in both these statements. Mark
the sequel. When the book was to be translated into
the Japanese language that it might be read by the
Japanese people, these two paragraphs had to be left
out for the reason that there are no forms of speech in
in the Japanese tongue in which these simple and
sweet ideas can be conveyed without giving the im
pression of licentiousness.
In making this public Dr. Davis well said: "Com
ment is unnecessary. I have stated the facts, and while
I believe there are true unions here, with heart affections,
these facts were a revelation and an astonishment to
me, and revealed a condition of society, which, after a
residence of nearly twenty years, I did not fully
realize." " After a residence of nearly twenty years,"
bear in mind.
Yet our keen=eyed and nimble Pucks who girdle the

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 233
earth not in forty minutes, but in six months, and
whose stay on the Island is probably less than twenty
days, and who d6 not know a syllable of the language,
and who see life only in the most hurried, outside way,
come back to us brim full of exact knowledge of the
situation, and with the most confident testimony that
the morals of Japan are about all that could be de
sired! The simple truth is that the pagan peoples, one and
all, Japan, China, India, and the others of them, sit in
the region and shadow of death. The millions of
the Dark Continent are so stupid, many of them, and
coarse and grossly animal that some have been disposed
to deny them a place in the ranks of humanity. When
Fidelia Fiske took her place among the descend
ants of the old Persians, this was the cry the situation
wrung from her heart: " I felt pity for my poor sisters
before going among them; but I was moved to anguish
when from actual contact with them I realized how very
low they were. I did not want to leave them, but I did
ask: ' Can the image of Christ ever be reflected from such
hearts?'" The world turns back in admiration to the
achievements of the Greeks in learning and art.
But with all the Greeks did, and with all they came to
be, there was nothing in the vocation of licentiousness
to startle the moral sense of the Athenian civilization.
The nations have gone out of the way. Even if they
had the disposition, they are without the power of self=
recovery. Like bodies which have lost their centrip
etal force, they fly every moment further and further
from the center of light. All humanity needs Christ.
If, however, the needs of these pagan peoples are
such as to call for efforts the most energetic to reach

234 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
and save them, their value in God's sight and the pos
sibilities which are lodged in the souls of each and all
of them furnish another reason of the most positive
and commanding sort for trying to lift them up
into the light and purity of the glorious gospel of the
Son of God.
The tendency with us is to underestimate souls.
We weigh them in the wrong scales. We judge them
by the wrong standards. We look at them in the wrong
light. We allow the indifference and scorn we feel for
those who are impure and unworthy and base and crimi
nal to shape our opinions concerning the intrinsic worth
of men in general. The better way is to judge all by the
estimate we place on the select few. Fathers and moth
ers should value children, not from the standpoint of
the coldness and disdain, perhaps, with which they
look upon the ill=clad, unwashed and bad»mannered
urchins of the ally; but by the tender love with which
they regard the little ones who gather at their own
firesides and tables, and fill such a large sacred place
in their hearts. This is the way in which to climb up
to God's thought of the preciousness of children.
For intrinsically all children of all parents the wide
earth over are of equal value. Children who play to=day
on the banks of the Ganges and the Lena, and who go
in and out of rude Mongolian huts, or who are ex
posed to neglect and cruelty because selfishness or
blind superstition is more than a match for parental
instinct, have in them all the high possibilities of
those who gladden our own home circle. It is the
same with children grown to adult years. No partiality
of kinship, no fondness of affection, no closeness of
association, can by any possibility impress on one

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 235
too deep and earnest a conviction of the worth of a
human soul. All that the warmest love can feel toward
the most cherished object is but a feeble approxima
tion to the divine thought of the essential value of
every human being.
To our self=complaisant pride this may not seem so.
But unless we have everything wrong,— wrong views of
our own natures, wrong views of God, wrong views of
Christ, so it surely is. Here and now, for social pur
poses, for civil purposes, for educational purposes, for
the purposes, of industry and science and art and good
order, men low down in the ignorance and degradation of
barbarism, or far astray from good morals are not to be
compared with those who are the rare ripe products of
centuries of faith and culture and all the splendid
privileges of a Christian civilization. But estimated
by the mental and moral faculties with which they are
endowed and of what can be made of them, there is no
difference. Placed side by side in the gateway of
eternity, the highest in all his wealth and culture and
the lowest in all his want of culture, but stripped of
everything which good fortune or earthly partiality has
power to confer, and with the full light of heaven play
ing upon them, what is there in these souls in the
way of difference to be compared for a moment with
the august facts of their nature in which there are no
differences? Not to accept this is to degrade ourselves
and belie God. The human soul has in it sublime
possibilities and is of transcendent worth.
Many names and many groups of names might be
cited both in proof and in illustration of this inference.
The accounts of missionary operations in the Sandwich
Islands, in the New Hebrides, in Micronesia, in Japan,

236 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
in Madagascar, in South and Central Africa, in Egypt,
in the various provinces of China, in India, in Persia,
in Turkey, in Mexico, and wherever the story of the
cross has been told, are rich with examples of what the
rudest and lowest specimens of mankind may become
when the great truth of the redeeming love of God in
Christ has fairly taken effect in their lives, and they
have caught the impulse under which the dominant
races of the world have been elevated into refinement
and power.
Consider an instance like this of the Indian who
came in the latter part of his life to be known as the
Rev. Peter Jones.
He belonged to one of the most degraded Indian tribes
of Canada. Out of curiosity he was led one day to at
tend a religious service held in the forest. His mind
was quickened; his heart was touched; and he became
conscious of a need which his paganism could not meet.
Salvation through faith in Christ was explained to him
and he embraced it. At once all things became new
The love of God, as he realized it in the Son of God,
kindled an intense love in his soul for others. His hear*
went out to his people, and he was filled with an intense
desire for their conversion and uplifting. Helped by
friends he secured an education, became a preacher of
the gospel, and in virtue of his energy and whole=souled
consecration to his work, hundreds of his associates in
barbarism were won to the better way.
It was not alone, however, his rude Indian associates
who recognized his abilities and acknowledged his in
fluence. His capacity was so marked and he became so
cultivated in all the graces of attractive public speech,
and, better than all else, he somehow found his way

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 237
into such a deep and thorough knowledge of the precious
meanings of the Scriptures, that many of the most in
telligent Christian men in Great Britain and America
delighted to listen to his words. Withal he mastered
the fine art of gentlemanly conduct. He knew how to
behave; and when admitted into the presence of Victoria
he charmed both the queen and her court by his intel
ligence and fine Christian courtesy.
Another illustration of the possibilities which are in
men, even those which seem to be most deficient in
promise, and of what can be made of them through the
renewing energy of the gospel, is found in Samuel
Crowther, the slave boy who became bishop of the
Niger. This boy was born in one of the most degraded and
savage districts of Africa. Of course no exact date can
be fixed for his birth, but the opening of his eyes on the
light was not far from 1810. At the age of about twelve
he fell a victim to the man^stealers, and experienced the
usual barbarities which attended this horrible business.
In the distribution of captives this little fellow became
the property of the chief of the tribe which had captured
him. In a little while he was sold to a Mohammedan
woman who took him to the coast in order to dispose of
him to the Portuguese traders. Before the bargain was
effected the boy was forced to submit to a careful
examination of his points as a horse might be. At
length the transaction was closed, and along with one
hundred and eighty=six others, he was hurried on board
a slaver, and with the rest thrust down into the deadly
hold. The wretchedness of the whole miserable com
pany of them was such that they would gladly have
welcomed death.

238 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
Two English men=of=war became their special provi
dence; for cruising along the shore they caught sight of
the slave»ship, gave chase, overtook and captured her,
and liberated all these poor bondmen. The young slave*
boy, now no longer a slave, was taken to Sierra Leone,
put under the care of a teacher in one of the missions
there, and set in the way of an education. He showed
wonderful diligence and aptitude in learning. He was
taken to England when about seventeen years old where
he spent a year in study. Returning to Sierra . Leone
he became connected with an educational institution
which had just been put on its feet, and there completed
his preparation for his life»work. He gave himself
through teaching and preaching and in many other
efficient ways to the salvation of his people. His capa
bilities and character were so commendable and his suc
cess along his chosen line was so great, that on St.
Peter's Day, in 1864, at the Cathedral of Canterbury in
England, Samuel Crowther was consecrated a bishop
and assigned to the Episcopal jurisdiction of the Niger.
He was equal to the duties of his office, and was
worthy to stand in the line of the apostolicsuccession
to which God, long before any bishop's hand had been
laid upon his head at Canterbury, had assigned him.
In the great missionary conference in London in 1888,
there was no member who was treated with more respect,
who carried himself with more propriety, who appre
ciated more keenly the significance of the occasion, and
who spoke more to the point or with more courage. At
twelve a slave=boy; at fifty a bishop; at seventy-five an
honored and efficient member of one of the most im
portant missionary gatherings of modern times!
The simple story of Jemmy Beman yields the same

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 239
inference — surprising possibilities lodged in every hu
man soul. He was a Fuegian. His race is by general
consent amongst the lowest and least hopeful of all the
inhabitants of the globe. The climate into which his
birth introduced him is one of the most trying in the
world. Snow falls every month in the year and is all
the time in sight on the mountains. Glaciers stretch
from the heights to the sea. Sailors describe Terra del
Fuego as one of the most dreary and horrible regions
of which there is knowledge. The people wear no cloth
ing until they reach an advanced stage in youth, and
they have no homes or shelter of any kind. Their diet
is repulsive and their feasts are marked by filth. But
this lad, taken to England, was made acquainted with
the habits of civilized life, became a Christian gentle
man and went back and spent his days in disinterested
labors for his people.
The name of Joseph Hardy Neesima can hardly fail
to have suggested itself as an exceedingly brilliant
example of the capacity for thinking and forming lofty
plans and bringing about magnificent results which lies
back in pagan minds and needs only opportunity and
wise stimulation in order to bring it out into full de
velopment. While yet in his teens he one day read the words:
"In the beginning God created the heavens and the
earth." Already he was longing for God and he said
to himself at once: "This is the God I want." He
traced the sentence he had read to the Bible, and the
Bible to America. In secret he formed his plans to
leave his country, thou gh in violation of a law that was
punishable with death, and find the light his soul craved.
The concealment on ship=board, the strange providence

240 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
which led his steps into one of Alpheus Hardy's vessels,
the kind reception he received into the family of this
man who was at once a Merchant Prince and a Christian
Philanthropist, the nine years training at Phillip's
Academy, Amherst College and Andover Seminary, the
invaluable services he rendered to the Japanese Em
bassy when it visited this country and Europe, the
ordination to the ministry which was given him in
Boston at the close of his educational course, the return
to his native land mentally and morally equipped for
a mighty work in behalf of Christian education, the
founding of the Doshesha college, and the tremendous
influence which through the college and many other
ways he came to exert on the Japanese gr vernment and
people — all these are familiar and cherished facts.
Neesima, the run=away Japanese lad, joins hands with
Jones the low=down American Indian, and with Crow-
ther the slave=boy of Africa, and with Beman the de
graded Fuegian, and with uncounted numbers of others
in demonstrating the sublime possibilities and the
measureless value of human souls.
In addition to all other considerations it is to be noted
that it is in accordance with the genius of Christianity
to go out of itself and carry light and cheer and help
wherever they are most needed.
The Church of Jesus Christ, by instinct and of neces
sity, is a missionary organization. It is a city mission
ary organization; it is a native=land missionary organi
zation; it is a foreign missionary organization. It is a
missionary organization whose work is near and far,
and amongst all who are out of the way in sin. When
ever the church is alive it is aggressive, and in its ag
gressiveness it sees no limit in its aims short of all

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 241
mankind. All the great commands and the great exam
ples of the New Testament take us out in altruistic di
rections. To go out in serviceableness is the logical
outflow of love for our Lord.
It is a pitiable conception of the mission of Jesus, and
it is a still more pitiable conception of following Jesus,
to circumscribe our sympathies and interests by the
bounds of our own personal needs or of the personal
needs of the little circle in which we may chance to
move. Things near ought to be done, and done with
all the more alacrity and energy because they are near;
but things afar ought not to be left undone. Were all
men and women who have named the Name which is
above every name, true to the spirit of Jesus, there
would not be a community on the face of the earth so
degraded and offensive, nor so remote and inaccessible
that some Paul or Philip or Judson or Carey or Duff
or Livingstone or Blodgett or Booth or Schauffler or
Armstrong would not speedily find his way into it with
the glad message of life and light.
One of the early writers assures us that within a little
more than a century after our Lord's passion there were
Christians in every country known to the Romans.
Tertullian speaks of districts inaccessible to Roman
arms that were subdued by the power of the gospel. In
an almost incredibly short space of time the glad tidings
of great joy were proclaimed not only to Jews, Greeks
and Romans, but also to Britons, Gauls, Spaniards,
Hindus, Arabians, Persians and Scythians. There are
facts to warrant the statement that within a decade and
a half after the Ascension, all Persia, all parts of Assyria,
Armenia and Media, the region about Babylon to the
very gateways of India, came in some measure under

242 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
the power of Christianity. This is the way in which
the faith of Christ interpreted itself to the men who em
braced it at the outset. It was alive with aggressive
energy. So whether we feel the full force of the injunction of
Christ or not; whether we feel the degradation and
needs of the pagan nations or not; whether we feel the
value of souls and realize what sublime possibilities are
in them; if we feel Christianity we cannot help going
out of ourselves to the aid of others. It is at once the
spirit and glory of Christianity. So far from turning
aside when pride and prejudice and ignorance and im
morality are to be encountered, these are but so many
voices calling as in accents of infinite compassion to all
adherents of the Lord to move straight forward to help.
This is the explanation of the conquests which Chris
tianity made in the region round= about the Mediter
ranean Sea and in Northern Europe and in Great
Britain, — men were constrained by the faith that was in
them to go out of themselves and beyond their own
circles. Much is said in these days about the exclusiveness of
the churches, and the drifting away of the churches
from the masses. It is affirmed that cultivated people
and rich people and people of good standing in society
have taken possession of the churches, or if not of all
of them of the leading churches, and converted them
into clubs and made them the centers of fashionable
coteries. There may be instances, doubtless there are,
where this accusation has some ground. But the blame
does not attach to Christianity. It belongs to the im
perfect apprehension of the truth and the incomplete
consecration to the will and spirit of the Master on the

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 243
part of those who are taken to be the exponents of
Christianity. Christianity does not go to a man at home or abroad
and say: "You have wealth; you may become a dis
ciple of Jesus;" or, " You have social position; you may
become a disciple of Jesus;" or, " You have a large mind,
well cultivated and richly stored with knowledge; you
may become a disciple of Jesus;" or, " You are strong,
self=reliant, forceful, able to hold your own and make
headway against opposition; you may become a disciple
of Jesus;" or, "You have moral rectitude, you are
free from the more flagrant vices which shame and bur
den our human nature; you may become a disciple of
Jesus;" or, "You are of the right age or the right
temperament or the right party; you may become a dis
ciple of Jesus." Never; never, at any rate if it be
Christianity and not a sham. Never, if it be Christian
ity, and not a little dainty nosegay of aesthetics. Clubs
in their pride of exclusiveness may speak in this
fashion, but not Christianity. Christianity stands front
to front with man and appeals to him on the basis of his
manhood alone.
Christianity does not pass by wealth. It would be
glad to number amongst its sincere and earnest votaries
all the Rothschilds and Goulds and Vanderbilts and
Morgans and Rockefellers and Fields and Armours and
Astors there are. It does not overlook men and
women of high social position. There is not a true dis
ciple of Jesus Christ anywhere who would not be glad
to see the " Four Hundred " of all our great cities leave
their miserable rivalries and social dissipations and de
vote their energy and influence to causes worthy of their
own capabilities and the divine approbation. It does

244 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
not ignore the gifted and cultivated. It loves to recite
the list of its great scholars and orators and poets and
artists. No day passes in which earnest prayers are not
offered for the conversion of men like IngersoU and
Spencer, and for the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
all literary circles and institutions of learning. It does
not exclude for a well=balanced temperament and a well=
ordered life. Everybody who loves the Lord wants the
Samuels and the Nathaniels and the Timothys and the
Channings and the Rutherfords to come into the fel-
fowship. But if Christianity does not pass by these classes
neither does it pause at these classes. " Come " — that
is the sweet invitation which is addressed by our Lord
to all men everywhere. It is a word for kings on their
thrones, for philosophers in their seclusion, for artists
and scientists and poets and orators and authors, no mat
ter how exalted in ability and excellence. It is a word
also for the poorest and most abandoned wretch on the
earth. It is a word for the unfortunate creatures whose
haunts are in the slums. It is a word for the tramp.
It is a word for the prisoner locked in behind his prison
bars. It is a word for the wild savage on the plains and
for the ignorant and despised negro toiling away in his
lonely field of rice and cotton. It is a word for the Chi
naman, who, in his bondage to superstition and idola
try plots assassination and joins in destructive raids
against those who come to tell him better truths than he
knows and to open to him higher forms of life. It is a
word for " The Unspeakable Turk," who to the strain of
lawlessness and cruelty he received from his Tartar an
cestry has added the wild fanaticism and quenchless
determination of the Moslem faith, and who thus for a

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 245
double reason finds satisfaction in using torch and sword
and murderous bludgeon to lay waste the property and
destroy the lives of those whose mission to his land is
one of love and light and joy to all the people. It is a
word for all lands and races. It is a word for every secT
tion of humanity. It is God's word to every human
soul. Being God's word to every human soul, it has
been and is and must continue to be no small part of
the business of men and women redeemed by the grace
of God in Christ to utter this word in the ear of all the
race. This labor for people far away, even at the end of the
earth, as well as for people near at hand, is not without
ample rewards and self=defensive advantages.
To help others in legitimate ways is to promote our
own welfare. To be indifferent to others is to invite fu
ture disaster. Ships now plow all waters. Commerce and
trade stretch out their hands to all countries. Moral
standards act and react on people. Industry and thrift
stir industry, but low forms of thought and life any
where tend to depress forms of thought and life every
where. It would be better for this nation if all the
states of the nation were as far advanced in intelligence
and moral worth as are the Commonwealths of Massa
chusetts and Iowa. It would be better for our republic
were the republic of Mexico made up of a population
like the sturdy men and women of old Scotland. Were
Turkey elevated to the plane of Christian principles, it
would lift all Europe to higher levels. Save China or
save India to Christian truth, and the salvation of all
the people who now know Christ would be more secure.
There was a time when the solidarity of the race had
little practical significance. That time is past. Our

246 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
scholars, our teachers, our explorers, our merchants, our
promoters of industrial enterprises, our missionaries, are
everywhere, and peoples and interests are intermingled
the wide world over. Were the leading manufacturers
and merchants of the leading Christian nations only
eagles, up in the heights taking wide surveys of things,
and not moles burrowing in the ground, there would
not be one of them who would not be a generous giver
for the futherance of foreign missions.
Even the material gains are not few which have come
back to the Christian nations in return for their efforts
in behalf of the non=Christian peoples and races. Mis
sionaries have helped commerce by civilizing savages
and elevating them into consumers of manufactured
goods. During the fifty years that foreign missionary
activity was kept up on the Sandwich Islands less than
a million and a quarter of money was spent. In other
words, the entire cost was far inside the cost of just one
iron=clad. But there have been single years — one of
them as far back as 1867 — when the Sandwich Islands
bought articles of merchandise to the value of nearly
$2,000,000; and the bulk of these goods came to them
from the United States. These islands have repaid
over and over again to the manufacturing and mercan
tile classes of the civilized world all the money that
ever was spent in their evangelization.
But this is to state the truth only in part. The whole
truth is that Christianity, through the agency of Chris
tian missions, did in this instance, as it has done in
numberless other instances, a service to business inter
ests which business interests would never have done in
their own behalf. As was intimated a moment ago, com
merce is blind to its own welfare. Commerce proceeds

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 247
on selfish maxims. If left to itself it will often work its
own speedy ruin. Mere traders came near utterly depop
ulating the Sandwich Islands. Mere traders go to the
heathen with only the vices and diseases of the civilized
world, and their influence is often both cruel and destruct
ive in all its tendencies. They go into Africa with slave*
chains and rum. They go into China with opium. They
go to Alaska to steal and destroy. They go to the far
islands to cheat and debauch. Missionaries, through the
influence of their teaching and their consecrated lives>
hive the bees and set them to making honey for the
markets. The traders come along and overturn the
hives and rob them of their gathered treasures, and leave
the future to look out for itself. This is commerce —
Italian commerce, Spanish commerce, German com
merce, Dutch commerce, English commerce, American
commerce. Missionaries make mouths that want better
food. Missionaries make backs that want better cloth
ing. Missionaries make families that want better shelter
and more conveniences. Missionaries make civilized
states; and mills and plows and printing presses and
telegraphs and railroads follow in their track.
Nor is this all. Missionaries have introduced new
raw material to be worked up into articles of trade, and
opened new sources of supply. It was an African mis
sionary who discovered African India-rubber, and
brought it to the attention of the public. It was an
other African missionary who opened the way for the un
covering of the diamond-fields of Cape Colony. It was
a couple of missionaries who made the world acquainted
with the medical qualities of quinine. It was mission
aries like Father Hennepin, working in co-operation
with explorers and traders, like La Salle and Joliet, who

248 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
opened the way into the whole vast region of the North
West in which so many millions now have their happy
homes. Were this view to be' broadened to include the con
tributions which missionaries have made in the depart
ments of geography, ethnology, philology, botany and
other spheres of knowledge, it would be readily seen
what vast stores have been added by these men to the
wealth of the world's intelligence. It is only neces
sary to mention the names of Carey, Bridgman and Liv
ingstone, and recall the services they rendered by
learning and discovery, to make good this position.
Many native languages have been reduced to writing by
the missionaries. These missionaries have also trans
lated the Bible in whole or in part into more than two
hundred and fifty different tongues or dialects of peoples
who else would have had no knowledge of the Scrip
tures. Professor G. Frederick Wright, of Oberlin, not long
since brought to public attention through the pages of
the Bibliotheca Sacra, one of the most remarkable in
stances of the influence exerted by a missionary, toil
ing on his foreign field, upon foremost minds working
at their tasks at home, of which we have knowledge.
It is the instance of Dr. John T. Gulick, of Osaka, Ja
pan. As is well known Dr. Gulick was born of mis
sionary parents in the Sandwich Islands. This for a
while was his field of labor. Later he was transferred
to Japan. Through his incidental studies he came to
be a recognized master in those lines of thought which
converge on the doctrine of evolution. His " proposi
tions," so Professor Wright affirms, are " a far=reaching
argument both for Darwinism and for Theism, for they

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 219
rule chance out of the problem and reveal a law whose
source is invisible but all=powerful, and which can be
no other than the eternal, omnipotent fountain of all
orderly movement." Prefixed to an article furnished
by Dr. Gulick, and published in Nature about eight
years ago, are the following words by the late George
H. Romanes. Mr. Romanes was the editor of Nature
and one of the very ablest expounders and advocates
of his theories which Mr. Darwin left behind him. "I
cannot allow the present communication to appear in
these columns without again recording my conviction
that the writer is the most profound of living thinkers
upon Darwinian topics, and that the generalizations
which have been reached by his twenty years of thought
are of more importance to the theory of evolution than
any that have been published during the post= Darwin
ian period."
This is remarkable testimony. But the aim in bring
ing forward the fact disclosed in these statements is not
merely to emphasize the ability and learning of one of
our missionaries and to make just recognition of his
services to science, but to say that it was mainly
through the influence of Dr. Gulick, the missionary at
work in a far off land, that Mr. Romanes, the scientist,
struggling with his profound problems at Oxford, in
England, was led back from the cold and barren and
comfortless negations of atheism into which he had drifted
to a substantia] recognition of the faith of Christ.
Thus is there a back and forth play of reciprocity
even in our foreign missionary operations. Thus it
must be more and more.
We have reached a period in the world's progress
when we not only may but must receive somewhat from

250 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
these countries and races to which our missionaries go,
and in the midst of which they labor. In a new sense
humanity has come to be a unit. We may say, if we
will, that we care nothing for China, but in the inter
play of thought and sympathy which characterizes our
modern times, and in the oneness of interest which tel
egraph and swift=speeding ships and railroads have cre
ated, the atmosphere of the Celestial empire is mingled
with the air Americans are forced to breathe. We
may say, if we will, that we care nothing for India, but
the thought of India is penetrating our literature as
never before, and is affecting strange modifications in
the voices of some of our pulpits. In the long run the
Christianity of America can be saved only by saving
the world.
But over and above all these considerations and com
pensations is the thought that in acquainting men and
women with Christ and winning them into the faith we
are saving souls from death and covering a multitude
of sins. We are aiding in restoring the image of God,
and increasing the number of glad full lives and
adding to the moral and spiritual wealth of the uni
verse, What a gospel it is then, this gospel of Jesus Christ!
Did anybody ever hear of such a plan or scheme for the
benefit of mankind? Was there ever a commission
given by anybody else like the commission given by
our Lord to His disciples? Were there ever such prom
ises of help made to anybody else as were made to
those who should carry this commission into execution?
Were there ever such glorious results achieved by any
other agency as have been achieved by the simple telling
of the story of redeeming love through faith in the cruci-

WORK FOR THE KINGDOM 251
fied Savior? Was there ever a worthier fellowship of
men and women engaged in any enterprise than those
who answer to the roll=call of missionaries from the days
when Paul left his native land and set foot on European
6oil, to these later days of Carey and Judson and Liv
ingstone and Hamlin and Gulick and Davis and Gates
and Fidelia Fiske and Ada Haven, and all the other
resplendent names of consecrated workers both at home
and abroad whose crowns will shine with the brightness
of heavenly glory forever and ever?

Ube "IRebeemeb Sinner in "Ibeaven.

"And I heard a voice from heaven saying: Write, blessed are the
dead which die in the Lord from henceforth; Yea, saith the Spirit,
that they may rest from their labors." — Rev. 14: 13.
"In my Father's house are many mansions; if it were not so I
would have told you. I go to prepare a place for you. And if I
go and prepare a place for you, I will come again, and receive you
unto myself, that where I am, there ye may be also." — John 14 : 2, 3.
"And there shall be no more curse; but the throne of God and of
the Lamb shall be in it, and His servants shall serve Him, and they
shall see His face, and His name shall be in their foreheads, and
there shall be no night there; and they need no candle, neither light
of the sun; for the Lord God giveth them light, and they shall reign
forever and ever." — Rev. 22: 3-5.
" I think of those who have gone on, not as buried in the dust of
death, not as sleeping in the darkness and the silence. I think of
them as ascending the starry heavens and standing before God and
hearing the Master's voice of welcome and acclaim and joining in
the worship of angels and of saints." — Storrs.
"Behold the hosts
Of Christ's triumphal march and all the fruit
Harvested by the rolling of these spheres." — Dante.
"Suffice it if— my good and ill unreckoned
And both forgiven through Thy abounding grace —
I find myself by hands familiar beckoned
Unto my fitting place.
Some humble door among Thy many mansions,
Some sheltering shade where sin and striving cease,
And flows forever through heaven's green expansions
The river of Thy pence."— Whlttler.
'Ten thousand times ten thousand
In sparkling: raiment bright,
The armies of the ransomed saints
Throng up the steps of light;
Tis finished, all is finished,
Their fight with death and sin;
Fling open wide the golden gates
And let the victors in."— Dean Alford.
254

XII.
THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN.
Dr. S. Wells Williams, the author of " The Middle
Kingdom," in the opening of his second volume, takes
occasion to refer to the difficulties one labors under in
trying to convey correct ideas of the habits and customs
and notions of a foreign people to those who have never
seen them. The difficulties, of course, will be in the
ratio of the unlikeness; and in instances where the dif
ferences in views and training and methods of life are
as marked as they are between the extreme eastern and
western nations of the earth, these difficulties will be
very great.
He quotes a French writer who says: "The habit we
fall into of conceiving things according to the words
which express them, often leads us into error when read
ing the relations of travelers. Such writers have seen
objects altogether new; but they are compelled, when
describing them, to employ equivalent terms in their
own language in order to be understood; while these
same terms tend to deceive the reader who imagines that
he sees " the objects described " under these designa
tions as he has been used to see them, when, in fact
they are quite another thing.™ To these words of an
other he adds: "This confusion of terms and meanings
proves a fruitful source of error in regard to an accurate
knowledge of foreign nations, and a just conception of
their condition. For instance, the terms, a court of
255

256 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
justice, a common school, politeness, learning, navy,
houses, as well as the names of things like razor, shoe,
cup, bed, pencil, paper, are inapplicable to the same
things in England and China; while it is plainly impos
sible to coin a new word in English to describe the
Chinese article, and equally inexpedient to introduce
the native terms." A Chinese razor, for example, picked
up by a stranger, might be taken, so he says, for an
oyster knife, or a wedge; but its use determines what it
is, and there is no way but just to call it a razor.
Hence the wise suggestion is made that in reading of
these eastern countries one should always qualify his
conclusions by remembering that a fact communicated
under cover of any given word or phrase may not be
quite the same thing to men looking at it from the
standpoint of different modes of thought and civiliza
tion. If this be true with respect to imparting and receiv
ing knowledge concerning a remote people, who, not
withstanding their many points of divergence, have yet
so much in common — birth into the same lot of human
ity, residence on the same globe, life under the same
earthly conditions, the same organs and faculties, the
same general needs and hopes and fears — how much
greater will be the embarrassment when the outlook has
to be upon another world, and the conditions and cir
cumstances of life are wholly changed!
Complaint is often expressed, and it is sometimes
made a ground of criticism, because more is not told us
in the Word of God about the soul after death. But is
it at all certain that more could be told us? We are
under the limitations of the present system. Our souls
are full of prophecies and longings. The universe is

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 257
about us and we are conscious of it. The light of the
eternal spheres breaks through and we walk in it.
When, however, we undertake to reduce experiences to
definite forms of expression, to gather up and formulate
our knowledge, to indulge in imagination, to evolve con
jectures, to reason about the way things are to be when
this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this
mortal shall have put on immortality, we find everything
coming to us, as it must, under earthly types and simil
itudes. This is a characteristic of all the revelations made by
God to men — they are accommodated to men. He
speaks to the inhabitants of the earth in their own lan
guage. Angels make their appearance in the guise of
human beings. The supreme manifestation of God was
through an act of incarnation. The Word was made
flesh and dwelt among us. The air, subtile, tenuous,
always alive with motion, just breathed out, gives us our
conception of the Holy Spirit. We think of the sorrows
we dread and the joys we anticipate in the world to
come under material imagery. The redeemed have a
" place." " I go to prepare a place for you." So also
do the lost. Judas went to his own "place." Heaven
is a "country," — a heavenly country; a "kingdom," — a
spiritual kingdom; a " city," — a celestial city. We look
forward to a building — a building of God, a house not
made with hands, eternal, in the heavens. Things with
which we are familiar are spiritualized and projected
into the future. We do our best to translate the unseen
into terms of the seen, and to paint etherial figures with
earthly pigments.
As a matter of fact very little attempt is made in the
Scriptures to furnish the details about which specula-

258 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
tive minds are always so curious, and minds the most
devout are often so deeply exercised. Jacob in his
dream saw a ladder with foot on the earth and top
reaching to heaven, and on it the angels of God ascend
ing and descending. From above it came a voice; but
it was a voice guiding and encouraging him to dis
charge of his earthly duty. It disclosed none of the
mysteries of the world which is beyond the stars.
Paul was opulent in visions and revelations. God
bent down very close to him. Whispers which the
most of us never detect were audible to his sensitive
ear. He was caught up into the third heavens; mar
velous things greeted his quickened senses; but the
words he heard were unspeakable. This sudden and
special uplift of his soul into celestial light enabled him
to add nothing to the stock of the world's knowledge of
the details of heaven and the heavenly life. Earth has
no speech nor language suited to this kind of communi
cation. Even had the power — the supernatural power —
been given to the great apostle to tell what he had
heard, men could not have apprehended his disclosures.
Through the grace bestowed for the experience — so se
vere — of his hour of martyrdom, Stephen saw the heav
ens opened, and looking in, he beheld the glory of God,
and Jesus standing at the right hand of God. What
he might have tried to add had not the angry mob rush
ed upon him and hurried him to his death, we may not
conjecture. But he gave no hint of anything other
than just the heavens opened, and the glory of God
shining through, and the Son of man at the right hand
of God. The dead who were brought to life again came
out from the mysterious and awful shadow which for a
little time had enveloped them with sealed lips.

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 259
Jesus, who surely might have gone into particulars
and thrown light on many of the questions which arise
in the mind concerning the mode and occupation and
environment of life in the world to come, had it been
deemed expedient or possible for anybody to do so saw
fit to confine what He had to say on the subject to gen
eral statements. Both in the gospels and epistles pic
tures the most attractive are thrown on the canvas; but
they are of the impressionist order, and the filling in is
left to inference.
It doth not yet appear what we shall be. We know
what we are now. If we believe in Jesus Christ, we are
the children of the Father, redeemed and assured of
everlasting blessedness. We know for substance to
what we are to come — we are to be like the Son of God.
We know, too, where we are to be, — we are to be where
He is.
Would it not be well to rest content in this? Instead
of being impatient because so little is disclosed, ought
we not to be profoundly grateful that so much is made
known? For though there be not enough to satisfy our
over=eager inquisitiveness, there is enough to warrant
faith and to be a ground of hope, — enough to stimulate
effort and to set the whole being on fire with the deter
mination to win heaven. There are things which the
eye has not seen, nor the ear heard, and which have not
entered into the hearts of men, prepared for those who
love God; but some of these very things have been re
vealed through the Spirit; for the Spirit searcheth all
things, yea the deep things of God. Certain general
laws governing life in the heavenly world, and many
distinct foreshadowings of what are to be the exemp
tions and privileges of souls in the future state are

260 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
brought to us in the Word, and in these revelations we
can trust.
Two questions here confront us. The first is a ques
tion of What and the second is a question of When.
What, then, are some of the beliefs we are entitled to
hold, and some of the inferences we are justified in
drawing, and some of the hopes we may properly cher
ish, in view of what is certified to concerning life, and
the conditions and opportunities and occupations of
life, in the realm which lies out beyond the Valley of
the Shadow?
First of all we may stand secure in the confidence
that there is such a life.
Above and beyond us there is a heaven. There is a
Father's House, and in that house there are many rooms.
This earth is one of them. When we disappear one by
one from the circles of this sphere on which we have
been moving, it is not to drop into the darkness of non=
existence; it is not to go nowhere; it is not to wander
unguided through infinite spaces of desolation; but it is,
if we have been made fit for the high and rapturous ex
perience by faith in Christ and the renewing energy of
the Divine Spirit, to advance into realms whose possi
bilities are measureless and which are resplendent with
the glory of God. To a ransomed soul death is not so
much death as birth. To one who has been made right
by the blood of the Redeemer and whose heart is athrob
with heavenly pulsations, life here is not so much life
as waiting for life. Blessed are the dead who die in the
Lord. We do not see them any more with our mortal
eye. It is not because they have ceased to be; but only
because their business called them hence and they have
journeyed away into another country.

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 261
This immortality of the soul is an inference of reason.
At any rate, men like Socrates and Plato and Cicero and
others of the olden time who followed the guidance of
nature in laying down premises and drawing conclusions,
were fully persuaded of the great doctrine of the con
tinuation of our present conscious individual life in
other spheres of existence. Bishop Butler who recog
nized the Old and New Testaments as products of in
spiration, and who saw God manifested in Christ, and
life and immortality clearly brought to light in the dis
closures He made to the world, was yet persuaded that
reason does yield the inference of the endless existence
of the soul. But the case which Bishop Butler made
out from analogy never seemed to me to be quite so
strong and convincing as that of Ralph Waldo Emerson.
For though Emerson set aside largely the authorities in
which Butler trusted for confirmation of his views, he
insisted with an energy quite beyond Butler's that the
fact of the immortality of the soul must be accepted as
bed=rock of all our thinking.
At the same time beyond this simple though august
inference it is only" a little way that the reason can
conduct us. If we wish for further information, —
something on which to base rational conjecture as to
the life our blessed ones are living, what their fellow
ships and employments and satisfactions, we must turn
to those pages which are illuminated with beams of
heavenly radiance, and which show us things to come.
It is sometimes seriously discussed whether the .old
Patriarchs and their Hebrew successors believed the
soul to be immortal, and whether they had any expecta
tion of seeing God and being with God in the future
world. In Genesis there is a story of one who was

262 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
born back in the early ages. This story, like a pre
cious jewel, has flashed its light down through all the
centuries. It runs thus: "And Enoch walked with
God, and he was not, for God took him."
What is this but a clear recognition of the doctrine
of continuous existence and heavenly inheritance?
Enoch was a man of God. He believed in God. He
was faithful to God. He lived in relations the most
intimate with God. He pleased God. God wanted to
reward him. So He just took him and lifted him
gently, as a mother might her babe, into His nearer
presence. God took him. His taking of him was not
in punishment; nor was it the annihilation of the man.
It was in love and sweet approval. The likeness in
which we are to be satisfied was conferred without his
falling asleep in death. He did not see death. He
lived right on in his life with God. He lives right on
still. He knows, as it is not possible to know on earth,
what fulness of joy there is in the presence of God, and
what pleasures there are at His right hand. Enoch is
witness to faith in immortality.
But even though there were no hint of a blessed life
with God from Genesis to Malachi, the New Testament
is full both of the statements and the implications of it.
Heaven is a possibility near at hand and open to all who
will consent to the conditions on which it may be en
tered. Christ was here to utter His word and lay down
His life that no man might miss it. He brought life
and immortality out into the clear light. The promises
He made and the motives to obedience and faith and
love and holiness He presented and pressed, rest largely
on the realities of a future life.
As with Jesus, so with all the inspired writers and

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 263
speakers. There is no air of misgiving in what they
say about the hereafter of redeemed souls. They are to
be with God. They are to be received of the Lord
Jesus Christ. They are to behold the glory of the Son
of God. They are to serve Him forever and ever.
Nor are these mere speculations and fancies. As has
been already intimated, the soul answers back affirma
tively to these assurances of an existence continued
beyond the grave. We hear the leaden thud of the sod
on the casket, and we know we have committed dust to
dust. It looks as if death were the end of all. But
there is a voice speaking to us from out the unseen
which says: " I am the Resurrection and the Life," and
we walk away confident that it is well with the soul
whose trust has been in the Eternal Son.
The heavenly state of the redeemed is one of freedom
from the infirmities and besetments and hot passion*
feuds which so largely characterize and imperil life
here. The infelicities of our present condition, — the things
which mar enjoyment, which hinder the most rapid pro
gress and balk the bravest endeavors to do worthy
deeds, will be encountered no more. There will be no
sickness and pain and death. The scenes in these up
per chambers where we tread softly through anxious
days and nights, ministering with what skill and pa
tience and tender love God has given us to stay the
burning fever, or to check the violent cough, or to re
lieve the severe and ominous distress, in some one most
beloved ; or where at length, amid sobs and heartaches and
fruitless beseechings that it may not be, the soul passes
on, leaving only an empty and decaying tenement, will

264 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
never be repeated in the bright world to which we go.
No mourning processions will wind their slow way
through the streets of the celestial city. There shall be
no more death; neither sorrow nor crying. There will
be no more unsupplied wants. They shall hunger no
more; neither thirst any more.
These statements, of course, are figurative fore=cast-
ings of one side of the blessed future of the redeemed
soul. It may be difficult to conceive of a conscious
active existence for human beings under these condi
tions of complete exemption from all want and weak
ness. Still the Scriptures make it evident that some
how all impediments to a free full life are to removed.
We are not to be straitened. We are not to be hampered
and hindered by the burdens and disabilities which
often prove so disastrous here. The envies, the
jealousies, the sadly mixed ambitions, the aims which
are only partly good, the worry and fret of life, the
mean rivalries which cramp the faculties and confuse
the judgment, the appetite that is clamorous, the flash
ing temper, the obstinacy of will which is so often mis
taken for conviction of conscience and fidelity to princi
ple, the pride which hurts one's own soul a thousand
fold more than it can ever hurt others, the suspicion
which is groundless but which creeps easily into the
mind to the marked discomfort and loss of the one who
cherishes it, the misconceptions which are such a pro
lific source of misery to men, will all be distempers of
the past, and the soul, no longer overweighed and with
wings no longer crippled, will be at liberty to mount
aloft and disport in an atmosphere suited to the highest
functions of intelligent beings.
To crown all, there will be no sin in heaven. The air

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 265
is sweet with the breath of God, and every thought is in
keeping with the spotless purity of the place.
It is a great multitude who are there, and they have
come up out of all nations and kindreds and peoples and
tongues. Once they were sinners, polluted and guilty
before God; but they are sinners no longer. Their
souls have been cleansed into whiteness by the blood of
the Lamb. They have been justified and restored by
Jesus. There is nothing in them which is not holy.
This, it is true, is a negative view of heaven. It is to
think of heaven with special reference to what is not
there. At the same time does it not make heaven seem
wonderfully attractive to contemplate it as a realm
where all evil is eliminated?
If we could only think of our present sphere as still
peopled with immortal beings; not an impure thought,
not a wrong purpose, not a deed of darkness to be laid
to the charge of any single soul, how inexpressibly fair
this green earth would look! How all the skies would
smile, and all the landscapes glow with the beauty of
God! Heaven is the sphere of opportunity for the unfolding
of all the best powers and possibilities which are in the
soul. There are three distinct lines along which men strug
gle; three distinct forms which their aspirations assume;
three distinct objects to be gained, which constrain
them to look forward with eagerness to the heavenly
life. The first is knowledge. With large numbers of the
worthiest men and women the ruling passion is to
know. The main force of their lives is spent in a quest

266 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
for wider and more thorough information. They are
never so happy as when they are seeking knowledge.
They are never so impatient as when baffled in efforts
to obtain knowledge. They are never so elated with a
sense of victory as when they succeed in mastering
knowledge. Their enthusiasm for knowledge is a fire in
the bones, and it is often consuming.
Heaven in all its conditions and appointments is
suited to this yearning for knowledge. This is one of
the high expectations we are permitted to entertain.
"Now we see through a glass darkly; but then face to
face; now we know in part; but then we are to know
even as also we have been known." It is this thought
of the facilities which heaven will afford for solving
mysteries of the soul and of the universe, and for ac
quiring clear and accurate knowledge on many vital
questions which now perplex and baffle us, that makes
some men, not merely reconciled to death, but eager to
cross the line and enter upon the experiences of the
Great Beyond.
In speaking of John Foster another has said: "He
felt in this world that he was under restraint; that the
great secrets of the spiritual universe were hid from
him; that death would break down the barriers, and give
his mind free scope to plunge into the mysteries of
truth. His sublime soul was like a courser panting to
leap the barriers; like an eagle dragging at its chains,
and longing to soar above the clouds." Like Paul and
many another, he wanted to get over into the full and
unobstructed light.
Do the best we can while on earth to lay up knowl
edge, we shall doubtless begin our life in heaven very
low down. We shall be like men going abroad to France

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 267
or Germany or India or China, only vastly more so, who
have but imperfectly learned the alphabet of the lan
guage of the people among whom they are to dwell.
Wonder upon wonder will break upon us. Mystery
after mystery will salute us. Vistas of which we have
had no previous conception will be disclosed to us. New
truths will challenge us at every turn. But the end
less ages will be ours, and our knowledge will grow
through all the cycles.
The second is purity. As knowledge is the control
ling aim with a certain class of minds, so to be pure as
our Lord is pure is the supreme end with another class.
They live in such consciousness of their own sins; they
have such a deep conviction of the exceeding sinfulness
of sin — they see so much of sin and the ill effects of sin
all about them — they put such stress on the injunction
to come out from sin and walk before God in full integ
rity of heart — they have such a high estimation of the
privilege of moral cleanness, that all the emphasis of
their energy comes at length to be laid on endeavors to
be holy. Nothing seems to them to be of so much con
sequence and so much worth to character as the achiev-
ment of holiness. They like to grow in knowledge; but
they like above all things else to grow in the grace of
clean hearts. They want no burdens nor stains on the
conscience. Heaven is the place where all highest thoughts of ho
liness are realized. Heaven is a kingdom of holiness.
It is not merely that there is no sin there; but in all its
conditions and laws and methods and on-goings, heaven
is a realm of positive purity. All its inhabitants are
pure. All its occupations and associations, and all its
interchanges of ideas and feelings, tend to the steady

268 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
development of purity. Motives to purity will be great
ly multiplied, and impulses to purity immensely aug
mented. It is proper to anticipate that the process of
becoming a partaker of the divine nature, and of pass
ing into the likeness of Christ, will go on forever; but
this will mean an endless advance in purity.
" Here faith is ours, and heavenly hope,
And grace to lead us higher;
But there are perfectness and peaoe
Beyond our best desire."
The third is happiness. The desire of happiness is
instinctive. From Aristotle to Taylor the writers have
been neither few nor insignificant who have held that
choices are determined by a nice calculation of the
bearing of the action on one's own happiness. This
position, of course, is seriously controverted; but it ad
mits of no question that enjoyment is a large and po
tent element in the motives by which men are influenced.
They set high store by contentment, satisfaction, bless
edness. This is the refrain of the Psalms, — the pleas
ures which are to be found in the service and fellowship
of God. One has only to read the story of St. Augus
tine to see what, emphasis lofty spiritual natures are in
the habit of placing on the delights of the divine life.
Even our Lord is represented as having endured all for
the joy that was set before Him.
But who may venture to enumerate and set forth, in
anything like the glow of attractiveness which belongs
to them, the unalloyed joys of souls redeemed and sanc
tified in heaven? Heaven is the sphere of happiness,
the crowning and endless opportunity of joy.
There will be the joy of looking into the face of the
Father, and joining with the hosts who have kept their

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 269
first estate in His worship. There will be the joy of
meeting the Son in open vision, and clasping the hand
that was pierced for our salvation, and expressing to
Him the love and ascribing to Him the honor which is
due for what He did for us in coming into the ranks of
our humanity and manifesting God to the world and
dying for all mankind on the cross. There will be the
joy of direct and unhindered communion with the Spirit,
and the opening out of the vast realms of truth into
which He will guide.
There will be the joy of an unceasing progress in
knowledge and pure character. Every normal aspira
tion will have its suitable object. There will be beauty,
such as was never on land nor sea, for the eye; and
music beyond the skill of the imagination of all the
masters for the ear; and a fit satisfaction for every fac
ulty. There will be the joy of congenial and rewarding ac
tivity. It is not to be wondered at that men whose lives have
been one unrelieved round of drudging toil, or who have
been enforced wanderers in the earth, driven hither and
thither, perplexed, tormented, and persecuted unto the
death, should think much of the rest which remaineth
unto the people of God. Dear burdened souls, over
weighted and pained by burdened bodies, have a right
to think of heaven as a place of release and refreshment.
But heaven is not a place given over to idleness.
Saints in heaven do not sit with folded hands and va
cant minds, as if it were enough to listen to the strains
of soft=flowing harmonies and breathe balmy airs and
indulge in the sweet illusion of aimless dreams. Such
delight would wear itself out and turn to weariness even

270 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
in Paradise. There are employments suited to the lib
erated faculties and the higher and more refined condi
tions of a purely spiritual existence. Enoch and Abra
ham, Moses and Joshua, Samuel and Elijah, Isaiah and
Daniel, Paul and Timothy, Hannah and Deborah, Mary
Lyon and Fidelia Fiske, work on still in the service of
God. His servants shall serve Him. It is a conviction
of mine that David and Dante and Milton strike their
harps and sing in unison with the angelic choirs. Bun-
yan who filled the world with his brave dreaming is
dreaming yet of the measureless grace of God in Christ.
A peculiar satisfaction, too, we are bound to believe,
attaches to work done by the servants of God in the
heavenly world. Here work whether of head or hand,
exhausts; but there they run and are not weary; they
walk and are not faint; they toil, but their toil is a glad
recreation. Souls as full of enthusiasm and energy as
Luther and Wesley, as Spurgeon and Finney, move to
and fro on the errands of God, so we may be sure, never
tiring in thought, never ceasing in activity, and never
desiring to pause and lay aside their burdens. Inves
tigations will go on; new realms of truth and beauty
and life will be opened; new duties, sweet and august
and manifold, it may be, will be imposed; and there will
not be a soul in the whole vast multitude who will not
have something ennobling to do.
Then there will be the joy of intercourse with souls
elect and the choicest spirits of the moral universe.
What a fellowship it will be! What interchanges there
will be of ideas and experiences! We shall sit down
with Abraham and Moses and Samuel and John. We
shall hear the story of his life right from the lips of the
Great Apostle. We shall meet that little group from

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 271
the household of Bethany, and listen intent as they tell
of the ways and the life of Jesus when He was here
upon the earth. We shall strike hands with the true
and brave and tender of all ages. It will be a society
radiant with the divine light and warm with the pure
love and alive with the life of the Eternal One.
Southey had a conceit that heaven is the home of gen
ius. It was his notion that within the walls of the Ce
lestial City all the gifted sons and daughters of our race
abide and hold communion. No. It is not large
brains but pure hearts which condition seeing God. It
is moral and spiritual qualities which count in the di
vine estimation. Whoever is poor in spirit is an heir
of the kingdom. Among the happy immortals there will
be many from the ranks of the lowly, — many who passed
in this world for simple=minded folk, as well as many
whose capacities were larger, and whose parts in life
were conspicuous. But large or small, possessed of ten
talents or only one, whoever is there experiencing the
joy and sharing in the victories of the heavenly life, will
be there because of what Jesus Christ, the divine
Redeemer, has done for him. The ground of their
glorying will be the cross, and their everlasting
indebtedness will be to Him who loved them and gave
Himself for them on Calvary.
This brings us to our second question, which is:
When is the great hope to be realized?
A careful study of the Scriptures seems to leave little
doubt as to what the answer ought to be. The dead
who have gone out from us in the faith of the Son of
God have passed into immediate and everlasting blessed
ness. They have ceased from their labors not only, and

272 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
folded their hands in rest, and experienced the peace
and quietude of which undisturbed sleep is the beauti
ful emblem; but they have entered upon an exalted joy.
" Blessed are the dead which die in the Lord." It is
not merely that they shall be, but they " are."
To this every other teaching must be brought into
accommodation. If there are figures employed which
seem to point in another direction, if there are passages
which appear on the face of them to be inconsistent with
this doctrine, if there are theories which involve a more
complicated and dramatic arrangement, it is for them to
yield and be reconciled to this large central teaching.
For this teaching is the main current of the stream of
teaching, — all else is tributary or eddy. This is the
great trunk thought of the New Testament; all else is but
branch or waving foliage. They do not wait; they do not
linger by the way; but they are advanced at once into
blessedness. They enter into the positive bliss of the
heavenly life. In the process of dying those who have
been made new creatures in Him who is the resurrec
tion and the life put off the mortal and put on the im
mortal; they put off the corruptible and put on the in
corruptible; they lay aside the natural body and they
put on the spiritual body; and they are henceforth and
forever more with the Lord. They are blessed. They
are in the image and fellowship of the heavenly.
The " Westminster Catechism " teaches this, only it
goes beyond and teaches somewhat more. To the ques
tion: " What benefits do believers receive from Christ
at death? " answer is made: " The souls of believers are
at their death made perfect in holiness, and do immedi
ately pass into glory." This is the part of the answer
which has warrant in the instructions of Jesus and the
apostles. There is no escaping it unless one chooses to

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 273
turn back on some of the plainest words of Scripture.
Two points are here made. One is perfectness in holi
ness. It is not a heaven only in part attained; but a
heaven in the fulness of its purity and light and joy.
The other is the immediate introduction of the soul into
glory. It is not a sleep, with the powers and faculties
all reposing in unconsciousness, and continuing on in
this condition through nobody knows how many ages.
Not a heaven once more only in part attained. But a
heaven in the fulness of its purity and light and joy.
Immediate introduction into glory! The teachings
of Scriptures on this point seem to me to be clear and
explicit. Take the assurance of Jesus to the dying thief,
" To=day shalt thou be with me in Paradise."
This word " Paradise " is used three times in the New
Testament. It is used in the instance just given of the
assurance of Christ to the dying thief. It is used by
Paul in his account of being caught up into regions
where he heard unspeakable words, which it is not law
ful — not possible — for a man to utter, and which he
calls in one clause the " Third heaven," and the other
"Paradise." It is used by John in Revelation: "To
him that overcometh will I give to eat of the tree of life
which is in the midst of the Paradise of God."
Now people who have points to make, or prejudices to
embarrass their conclusions, may insist on a difference
between the places indicated by these words " Paradise "
and "Heaven;" but' the average mind, looking at the
matter in the white light of an honest purpose to get at
the exact meaning inspiration put into them, will be
more likely to consider "Paradise" and "Heaven"
merely interchangeable terms of speech.
" The Paradise," says Plumptre, in his remarks on

274 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
what our crucified Lord declared to the penitent thief by
His side, " of Eastern lands was essentially the kingly
garden, that of which the palace was the center." " In
the figurative language in which the current Jewish
belief clothed its thoughts of the unseen world, the Gar
den of Eden," which was also spoken of as " the Para
dise of Delight," the Garden of Eden took its place
side by side with " Abraham's bosom as a synonym for
the eternal blessedness of the righteousness."
It is the same, therefore, as if Jesus had said: "To=
day shalt thou be with me in the eternal blessedness of
the righteous." Had He said, "Heaven"; had He
said " Abraham's bosom"; had He said, "With me in
the eternal blessedness of the righteous," the popular
apprehension of His words would have been exactly
what it was when He said " Paradise." He meant to
tell this sharer with Him in the agonies of the crucifix
ion, whose heart had been softened by what he saw, and
who had come into a sharp and sincere sorrow for his
sins, that his penitence and his faith opened for him an
immediate entrance into the highest joy of the King
dom. His faith was an overcoming faith, and he was to
be permitted, through the infinite riches of the grace of
God in Jesus Christ, who was there on the cross making
expiation for the sins of the world, to partake of the
fruit of " the tree of life which is in the midst of the
Paradise of God." He was not to be kept back. He
was not to be detained for an indefinite period in some
outer court. The door was swung wide, and he was to
enter at once.
Take again the statement made by Paul. The matter
in debate in his mind was whether it was more desira
ble, the Lord willing, to go hence or to remain in. the

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 275
body. " But I am in a strait betwixt the two, having
the desire to depart and be with Christ." This is why
he felt that going would be such a gain. " For to me to
live is Christ, and to die is gain." Dying would be
" gain " to him because it would bring him into this
closer and more intimate and open communion with
Christ. For him personally it would be " very far bet
ter." There was no notion in his mind of a long inter
vening sleep between laying aside the earthly and tak
ing on the heavenly. To be absent from the body was
to be present with the Lord. Through faith he was
with Christ in a daily fellowship. The life he lived
was a life of faith on the Son of God. But so soon as
he had escaped the bondage of the body, and these
earthly limitations, he was to come into an ampler ex
perience of his Lord, and know Him as no man can
know Him in the flesh. The conception everywhere
present to the mind of the apostle, and dominating and
illuminating all his ideas of the life to come, was that
to the disciple death is an open door right into the pres
ence and joy of the Redeemer.
Two questions arise at this point to the embarrass
ment of many persons who otherwise would gladly ac
cept the conclusions here drawn.
There is the question of these earthly bodies.
What becomes of them? How adjust the notion of
the completeness and freedom and perfect happiness of
those who have already become saints in light to the
notion that the bodies which are supposed to be essen
tial to final perfection of being, and to which in process
of the ages, these embodied spirits are to be re=united,
are reposing in the dust?
It is here that the answer in the Catechism begins to

276 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
limp. The question, let it be remembered, is: "What
benefits do believers receive from Christ at death?"
The portion of the answer already considered and com
mended is: "The souls of believers are at their death
made perfect in holiness, and do immediately pass into
glory." But the conclusion of the answer is: "And
their bodies, being still united to Christ, do rest in their
graves till the resurrection."
Reading this, one naturally turns to the proof texts to
see what support the idea has in Scripture. The first
passage given is: "For if we believe that Jesus died
and rose again, even so them also that are fallen asleep
in Jesus will God bring with Him." Not so much as
the faintest reference to these eartly bodies, and to what
is to become of them. Another passage is: " Our friend
Lazarus is fallen asleep; but I go that I may awake him
out of sleep." Still no light on the destiny of these
earthly bodies. A third passage is: " But if the spirit of
Him that raised up Jesus from the dead dwelleth in you,
He that raised up Christ Jesus from the dead shall
quicken also your mortal bodies through His Spirit that
dwelleth in you." Here is a foreshadowing of the truth
— the quickening or renewing of these mortal bodies —
but nothing to justify the assertion that our earthly
parts are united to Christ after death, and rest in their
grave till the resurrection, and then come forth to be
re=occupied by the spirits which have been absent from
them through all the period intervening between death
and the final consummation of all things.
This is all the satisfaction we get in the way of proof*
texts. Other passages might have been quoted which
would lend more color to the declaration set forth in the
statement from the Catechism now under consideration;

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 277
but even these passages would merely have lent color to
the doctrine, and not substantial support. For the dec
laration does not seem to me to be the doctrine of the
Scriptures. The instruction which goes to the heart of this ques
tion is that which we have in the fifteenth chapter of
the First Epistle of Paul to the Corinthians. " But
some one will say: How are the dead raised? and with
manner of body do they come? Thou foolish one, that
which thou thyself sowest is not quickened except it
die; and that which thou sowest, thou sowest not the
body that shall be, but a bare grain, it may chance of
wheat, or of some other kind; but God giveth it a body
even as it pleased Him, and to each seed a body of its own."
This is analogy, simply; but it has all the force of a dem
onstration. Men in dropping seeds into the earth do not
drop in the forms in which these seeds are to be bodied
forth when they have germinated and grown to maturity.
On the contrary from the seed itself, until there had been
observation of the shape it would take in actual develop
ment, no man could predict just how it would unfold,
and how it would look in the fulness of its life. Having
said this, and having also said that there are different
bodies and different glories attaching to different bod
ies, the apostle goes on to affirm : " So also is the resur
rection of the dead. It is sown in corruption, it is
raised in incorruption; it is sown in dishonor; it is
raised in glory; it is sown in weakness; it is raised in
power; it is sown a naturalbody; it is raised a spiritual
body. If there is a natural body, there is also a spirit
ual body." What is all this but the same as saying that
as there is a natural body suited to the needs and exi
gencies of life on earth, so there is a spiritual body

278 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
suited to the higher and holier requirements of life in
heaven? In his Second Epistle to the Corinthians Paul returns
to this thought: " For we know that if the earthly house
of our tabernacle," or " bodily frame," as it is in the
margin, " be dissolved, we have a building from God, a
house not made with hands, eternal, in the heavens."
Here is the repetition of the idea of two bodies — one
natural the other spiritual — one answering the purposes
of a career under earthly conditions; the other meeting
the conditions of a career of boundless freedom and im
mortal life. Unbroken continuity of being, conscious
personality, an individual identity which is never lost,
immediate introduction into the presence of Jesus and
joy unutterable in communion with Him — these are the
conceptions which run like golden threads through the
web of all the teaching of the New Testament on the
state of those who have died in Christ. But when we
come to the question of the resurrection of these earthly
bodies it is safer to assume that the Scriptures do not
teach what they popularly have been supposed to teach.
Riding back, on one occasion, from the old cemetery
in New Haven where so much sacred dust reposes, in
company with Dr. Bacon, I said to this eminent man;
" How do you reconcile the statement in the Apostle's
Creed concerning the resurrection of the body with what
Paul says of the two bodies — the natural and the spir
itual, and the dissolution of the earthly house, and the
re=clothing of the soul with the habitation which is from
heaven? " His prompt answer was: " I do not attempt
to reconcile it; for I do not believe it can be or ought
to be reconciled to it. It is not this old mass of flesh
which rises, but the soul; and when the soul which was

THE REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 279
once dead in trespasses and sins has been made alive in
Christ, and rises in Him in the world to come, it finds a
body — a spiritual body, awaiting it, just as when that
same soul was brought into this life it found a body, a nat
ural body awaiting it." This may not be the exact language
used, but it is the substance of it. With the old body
it is earth to earth, dust to dust, ashes to ashes, and we
are through with it. The mortal puts on immortality.
" The soul goes forth, not unclothed, but arrayed in its
glorious spiritual body, bearing the known and loved
features of this life with their expression only intensi
fied by the perfection they will have attained in putting
on immortality." God giveth it a body as it hath
pleased Him, and it will be worthy of Him and of the
redeemed soul.
There is the question of final judgment.
Not a few Christians hesitate to accept the doctrine
of the immediate introduction of those who have died
in Christ into the glory and joy of heaven, and espe
cially this phase of it which seems to imply the full
and complete outfitting of the soul with its spiritual
body, on the ground that there is to be a far=off and
final judgment on which all things must wait in abey
ance, so that there can be nothing conclusive, nothing
perfect, until this august consummation has been reached.
But does not the fact so clearly taught by the Great
Teacher and the inspired Apostles, that those who die
in the Lord have immediate clothing upon with their
spiritual bodies and immediate introduction into the
glory and joy of heaven, throw a flood of light on this
whole matter of a final judgment? Does it not further
suggest that if we have any notions, concerning the final
judgment which seem to conflict with this doctrine of

280 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
immediate introduction into the glory of heaven, and
the immediate occupancy of the new spiritual body,
these notions better be modified, and brought into line
with the more apparent truth?
The point of difference lies right here; whether the
last judgment is an event now in progress, or is a defi
nite future event in which the eternal destiny of men
and of angels shall be finally determined and publicly
manifested. This latter is the general Church doctrine.
Catholics, Greeks, and Protestants, hold it in common.
Dr. Hodge, in his "Systematic Theology," stoutly main
tains this position; but he also has this to say in view
of the difficulties with which all such questions are
beset: " How far the descriptions of the process of the
last judgment, given in the Bible, are to be understood
literally, it is useless to inquire. Two things are re
markable about the prophecies of Scripture, which have
already been accomplished. The one is that the fulfil
ment has, in many cases been very different from that
which a literal interpretation led men to anticipate,
The other is, that in some cases they have been fulfiled
even to the most minute details. These facts should
render us modest in our interpretation of those predic
tions which remain to be accomplished; satisfied that
what we know not that we shall know hereafter."
Wiser and more pertinent words it would be difficult to
find. But in all humility, in all deference to high author
ities, and in loyalty to every utterance of the holy
Scriptures, and to all they teach, the opinion is yet ven
tured that the processes of the final judgment are now
going on. Judgment comes at death. As a recent
writer has said: " Death to the Christian is the laying

THT REDEEMED SINNER IN HEAVEN 281
down of the natural body, and resurrection is standing
up — anastasia, — in the spiritual body, occurring at
once, in the very moment of death, as Paul expresses it,
' in the twinkling of an eye.' " Just this is what we
have been affirming.
Now along with this process, there is carried the ver
dict of final judgment. The believer in Christ goes into
heaven, and he goes into heaven to abide there forever
and ever, because he has been judged worthy to go into
heaven. In making these statements there is no disposition to
argue the case, but simply to announce the conclusions
which force themselves on my understanding, and in
which my mind rests. Men write out their future
destinies in the deeds done in the body. Their just
awards are ready for them at any moment. There is no
delay. There is no occasion for suspense. For the
disciples of Christ to be absent from the body is to be
present with the Lord. It is to be present with the
the Lord without any fear, without any misgiving or
solicitude, without any limitation of privilege; but in
fulness of life and joy. " I go to prepare a place for
you. And if I go and prepare a place for you, I come
again, and will receive you unto myself; that where I
am, there ye may be also." With what new emphasis of
confidence and joy may we repeat the words: "Blessed
are the dead which die in the Lord from henceforth."
So then, for these dear beloved ones, who have gone
hence in the Lord we may well dismiss all anxiety, and
while saluting them through tear=dimmed eyes and with
trembling voices in terms of tender farewell, hail them,
also, with congratulations. They have reached the
" Mount Zion " of their holy dreams and aspirations.

282 REDEMPTION IN NEW SPIRIT AND OUTLOOK
They are happy dwellers in the " City of God." They
walk the streets of the " New Jerusalem," white=robed,
crowned, and with exultant songs of victory on their
lips. They see no longer through a glass darkly, but
face to face. They are children of the Father, at home
with Him, and with the Elder Brother, and the innum
erable company of glad ones who have been redeemed
from their sins, and all that is sweet and beautiful and
glorious in the upper Kingdom is open to their eager
souls. We journey on, pilgrims yet, with staff in hand,
often weary and footsore; but they have entered in
through the gates, and drank of the waters of the im
mortal fountains, and eaten of the fruit of the tree of
life which is in the midst of the Paradise of God, and
they have seen— Jesus.

THE
DIVINE LIFE IN MAN
And Other Sermons
. . by . .
Rev. Frederick A, Noble, D. D.
Pastor Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, 111*
izmo% cloth. $1.25.
"The volume must take its place beside those of William M. Taylor
and Phillips Brooks as among- the most valuable contributions to homi-
letical literature which the closing- half of this century has produced."
— Bibliotheca Sacra.
"While these discourses are strictly evangelical, they are replete
with the best and freshest thinking- of the day. The author has read
widely and thoroug-hly and has a comprehensive and strong- grasp of
historical, literary and scientific facts."— The American Journal of The
ology. "The book was written when its author was enthusiastic, and he is
enthusiastic now that it is written. It awakens enthusiasm when you
read it. It is a work which Benson, Wesley, Fletcher, Bishop Thom
son, Melancthon, would have welcomed, and which all tender soul-
winners will welcome. It reminds us of Bushnell's Sermons for the
New Life.*' — Editorial tn North-western Christian Advocate.
"The sermons are sufficiently numerous and varied to grive a very
fair conception of the g-eneral character of Dr. Noble's ministrations,
and they indicate a very high order of Christian service. They are full
of careful thought, profoundly evangelical in tone and spirit, steeped
in Scripture truths and suggestions, clothed in accurate and refined
diction, bright and sparkling in many of their sentences, and, withal,
full of an outspoken manliness which does not shrink from calling by
their true names elegant' vices and fashionable sins/1 — The Evangelical
Magazine,, London.
"Dr. Noble's sermons are full of earnestness and purpose. They.
are scholarly and spiritual. And they are practical sermons, too. Tbey
lie out of the beaten track of the bulk of modern preaching. You in
stinctively feel that here is a master in the field of Christian thought;
and that is not all. These discourses show a familiarity with other de
partments of knowledge which gives to the preacher who can wisely
marshal his facts an immense power in the pulpit. The intellect is
stimulated in reading these sermons; the spiritual appetite is whetted,
and the grandeur of the Christian religion is demonstrated.1' — The
Christian Commonwealth^ London.

"This volume affords evidence that the free churches of the old
country have no monopoly of the cultured Nonconformist. These ser
mons are the work of a man who knows books and knows life as well.
Their style is sincere and natural, their thought elevated but practical.
One of the discourses, lhat on "Bad Mothers," is full of the pathos of
humanity." — The Home News, London.
"Dr. Noble is a preacher of great power and attractiveness. The
fifteen sermons collected into this volume show the various sides of his
presentation of the Gospel. One cannot read his sermons without being
made sensible of his breadth of thought and strength of grasp and
height pf aspiration." — Herald and Presbyter.
"These are strong sermons, packed full of fresh thought, expressed
in chaste and forceful language." — The Homiletic Review.
"These discourses are scholarly and very logical, and evidence a
warm devotion to Christ, with an optimistic outlook over the Christian
world."— The Occident.
"Intellectual force, solid convictions, downright earnestness, are
manifested throughout. His sermons are both instructive and stimu
lating, and the volume will certainly profit those who read it," — The
Sunday-School Times.
"There must be considerable demand for sermons, judging from the
number of volumes of sermons annually published. If all were as
strong in thought and as interesting in style as this volume of Dr.
Noble's, it would be no wonder." — Christian Work.
"We commend the volume to our readers. It will remind many of
them of the great preachers of a generation whose names still linger
among us."— The Congregationalist.
"All the sermons are great through the presence of the Eternal that
is in them and because of their close practical application to life."—
The Advance.
"Faithful, strong sermons, which make their points, leave their im
pression, and are well worth reading carefully."— The Independent.
"Valuable book. It is a volume it does one good to read. Christian
Endeavorers should have it in their libraries." — The Religious Herald.
"Method is incisive and suggestive. Texts and titles aside from
the beaten path. Bright, fresh and readable. Abounding in evangeli
cal truth presented in a clear, scholarly and forcible manner." — Zion^s
Herald. "Dr. Noble .... has for many years been reckoned one of the
leading preachers of Chicago  The sermons indicate the
secret of his power to be loyal adherence to the authority of revelation,
with capacity for apt illustrations through the fruitage of generous
culture. The last sermon, on 'The Increasing Christ,' is highly, but
not unintelligently, optimistic." — The Watchman.
"I have been struck with the vigor and frankness with which the
most important themes are here discussed. The trumpet has no uncer
tain sound. . . . The sermon on 'Christianity in the Light of The
Parliament of Religions' has a tonic quality well suited to the times.
The next one on 'The Divine Interest Personal to Each of Us,' an
entirely different theme, is not less fresh, but is in a vein of feeling suited
to the topic." — Professor George P. Fisher^ of Tale Theological Seminary.
"The personality of the preacher reveals itself in these discourses.
He is intensely in earnest and bent on attaining his purpose. The ap
peal is chiefly to the reason and the conscience, by means of convincing
arguments and abundant and varied illustrations."— Rev. Dr. Franklin
W. Ftsh, of Chicago Theological Seminary.

"It is refreshing- to find a workman who does his work so thoroughly,
with such conscientious care from first to last. There is a sweep aid
comprehensiveness in the first of these sermons that make one feel that
he is getting into a large place." — The Rev. Dr. John Henry Barrows.
"Professor Fisk did just the right thing in using the book with his
senior class. It was a high compliment, but one well deserved." — Dr.
James W. Strong, President of Carleton College.
"Will repay reading and rereading many times. The words come
from a deep experience of joy and sorrow in which the author has
walked with the Master, and they bring us the truths which we specially
need in our daily life." — Gen. John Eaton, Ex- Commissioner of Education ,
Washington, D. C.
"Sternly practical, deeply spiritual, and intensely fascinating." —
C. H. Balsbaugh, Author of "Glimpses of Jesus.''9
"Is a valuable contribution to Christian thought. It is the message
of a thinker and preacher to men seeking the truth. Many great prob
lems and questions which trouble men are here treated in a masterly
way."— Rev. H. T. Sell, Author of "Supplemental Bible Studies" and "Bible
Study by Books."
"'The sermons are manly, strong, earnest, sympathetic, attractive."
— Dr. E. F. Williams, Author of "Christian Life in Germany."
"Christian workers will get many a good hint, especially in the ser
mon on 'Bringing Men to God.' We are especially impressed with the
courageous and tremendous blows against public and private iniquities
and shams. Wecould not keep our seat on reading 'A Difference Between
Them.' It would be health to the marrow of thousands of ministers if
they could read it." — Dr. H. A. Bushnell, Pastor Congregational Church,
La Grange, III.

Discourses on Philippians*
-BY-
Rev. Frederick A. Noble, D. D.
Pastor Union Park Congregational Church, Chicago, III.
Z2mo, cloth. #r.sj.
"It is vigorous) outspoken, and keeps clear of perplexed paths. It
takes the broad, common ground of catholic Christian truth. There
are frequent Latimer-like touches of plain English homespun in these
sermons, which are immensely attractive, especially as they present
the pith of the subject in a warm, common-sense way, which has humor
enough in it to smooth their path into the reader's heart. They are
models of expository preaching."— The Independent.
"Some of these sermons, especially that on 'Christ's Condescension
and Exaltation, reach a majesty of utterance, which is manifestly born
of some fresh and deep revealing of the beauty, the glory, the blessed
ness of the gospel of our Lord. Some show a rare spiritual insight, as
that 'From Anxiety through Prayer to Peace.* There are not infre
quently, in many of these discourses, passages of great beauty, not
patched on for ornament, but growing naturally out of the pressure of
the thought and the answer of the heart."— The Advance.
"The style is remarkably like that of Alexander McLaren in that
expository preaching of which he is an acknowledged master. Indeed
the volume reminds us in many ways of our great English preacher. It
is one of the very best examples of scholarly, popular exposition that
has recently appeared." — 7 he Standard.
"Interesting, not simply here and there, but from the first page to
the last. One finds it difficult, having begun the book, to lay it down.
, . . The evangelical tone which characterizes these sermons
throughout refreshes one like a breath from the hills As a book for
spiritual stimulus it will rank high in devotional literature. It only
needs to be known in England to become popular among preachers."—
The Christian Commonwealth, London,
"It is almost an ideal course of exposition for popular purposes, in
dicating very wide research and careful thinking in the preparation,
for there is scarcely a difficult or perplexing passage that is not fairly
faced and boldly dealt with, while every sermon isdistinct and complete
in itself, and all are full of vigorous and often trenchant remarks on
the present application of the familiar truths."— The Christian Magazine,
London. "A volume which is extremely satisfactory, both in its exposition of
the text and in its application to the topics that are uppermost in the
minds of the present generation." — The Bibliotheca Sacra.
"A good sample of what expository preaching ought to be. It Is
conceived and executed in the spirit of Frederick W. Robertson's 'Lee-

tures on the Corinthians.' The epistle discussed is addressed to what Is
regarded the apostle's favorite church, and furnishes a very delightful
book."— The Evangelist.
"Though this is a volume of popular expository discourses, it is
characterized throughout by careful statement based on scholarly study
and research. Critical commentaries have been consulted, and their
conclusions are sometimes agreed with, sometimes dissented from. The
exposition gains in value from this independence of view-point. But it
is not for their critical element, but for their fine devotional spirit and
intensely practical aim, that these discourses will be most valued. The
grand verities of the 'faith once delivered unto the saints' acquire a
fresh beauty and power under the touch of Dr. Noble."— Zion's Herald.
"Here is a specimen of Bible-study wouth observing and pondering.
It embodies the results of careful, sober and intelligent critical can
vassing of the text, full acquaintance with its historical setting and
sympathetic grasp of the apostle's whole sweep of feeling and thought.
The discussion is thus lifted above the petty niceties of verbal criticism
andsaved from the impertinence of mounting one's own opinions upon
a violently abstracted fragment of apostolic utterance. Expository
preaching of so noble and genuine a type is relatively rare, and greatly
to be longed for."— The Watchman.
"While the author makes no show of learning, no one can fail to see
that every sentence and word in the epistle, both in themselves and in
their setting, have been carefully considered, and that men of the first
rank who have written on the epistle have been consulted and their
opinions conscientiously weighed. Nevertheless, the conclusions
reached and the opinions expressed are those of an independent thinker.
One of the striking features is the unity of these discourses. Another
is their lucidity and their practical bearing upon affairs of to-day.
Others are felicity of illustration, aptness of quotations, an attractive
literary style, a manly reverence in the treatment of the Scriptures,
profound faith in Jesus Christ and in the work of the Holy Spirit, and a
confidence in the final triumph of the principles of the kingdom of God
which it is a comfort to share." — The Congregationalist.
"The Christian who has not studied this epistle thoroughly will find
Dr. Noble's volume a mine of suggestion. Besides this, the book should
serve as a model for preachers who are feeling about from Monday
morning to Saturday evening for subjects on which they may address
their congregations. The selection of a single epistle for consecutive
exposition will relieve the minds of such preachers and keep them not
only in abundance of material for pulpit work, but also in good habits of
study."— The Interior.
"As specimens of practical preaching these sermons can be highly
commended. We have found them exceedingly profitable. They are
instructive throughout and intensify the reader's interest in the epistle
of which their author treats. Such preaching cannot fail to build up
those who are so favored as to sit under it." — New Tork Observer.
"Displays Dr. Noble as a lucid expositor, with a notable gift for
applying Paul's teaching to present-day needs, and a quite unusual faculty
of unforced illustration."— The Christian World- Pulpit, London.
"To those who know Dr. Noble as a preacher the reviewer need only
say that these sermons are in his very best style."— The Presbyterian

"Very delightful reading. "—Herald and Presbyter.
"The sermons are evangelical and practical, and they will repay a
wide reading by intelligent and cultured people. "-—Dr. Ezra H. By-
inglou, author of "The Puritan in England and New England."
•'They abound in evangelical truth, are full of fresh thought, and

are chaste and forceful in diction. The discussion of the themes sug
gested by the epistle is adjusted to the problems presented in the life ol
to-day, and this gives to the sermons a practical character which adds
distinctly to their value." — Baptist Outlook.
"It is characterized by abounding evangelical truth earnestly pre
sented, with an admirable feeling for the tender love, deep yearning and
triumphant joy of this beautiful and heart-touching epistle, written
while its author was in cruel straits of imprisonment, chained by the
wrist to a soldier, and under the burden of heavy solicitude, yet so glo
rious with divine comfort and peace.'' — The Christian Advocate.

Either of the above sent postpaid to any address on receipt of price.

Fleming H. Revell Company

N«w York: 158 Fifth Ave.
Chicago: 63 Washington St.
Toronto: 154YongeSt.

', iiiii