THE KING’S BUSINESS 971 It was Sir Oliver Lodge, who is quite old enough to have known better, who said what may be called a very foolish thing: “The higher kind of man does not bother his head about his sins today, still less about
Consciousness
of Sin.
their punishment. His mission, if he is good for anything, is to be up and doing.” The Bible strictly contradicts such a statement. It is the man who is most conscious of his own sin in relation to God’s holiness who has promise of greatest usefulness. Saul of Tarsus was not bothered much about his sins, consequently he did nothing that counted for much. But Paul, the Apostle, deeply conscious of his sinfulness, turned the world upside down for God. While satisfied to be called the chief of the Pharisees, Paul did nothing worthy of recording, but when self-styled the “chief of sinners,” he made a record worthy of the attention of Heaven. The fact is that the nearer a man gets to God the more he realizes his own sinfulness and the more useful he becomes. The assassination of one man is claimed to have been “Behold How Great the cause of this great world war. If this single event a Matter a Little was not the underlying cause, it acted as the match Fire Kindleth.” thrown among the nations already greatly susceptible to the combustion of racial jealousy and commercial hate. The murder of one man was an insignificant thing to bring about such dire havoc. But have not big doors been made to swing on small hinges before this? Was not the Thirty Years War caused by the throwing out of a window of a royal palace of two men? Was not the Seven Years War brought about by the shooting of a few soldiers? So this great world war, which now involves about twenty-five nations and peoples; that has caused the sinking of almost 2000 merchant and 150 man-of-war ships; that has devastated great areas in Belgium, Servia and Poland; that has made a wilderness of once flourishing parts of France, Austria, Germany and Turkey; that has laid upon the shoulders of the present generation, yea, and many generations to come, vast financial burdens; that has resulted in the slaughter of millions of men, women and children; that holds in captivity some two or more millions of men, and incapacitated by brutal wounds over four millions more; a war that covers practically the whole world—Belgium, France, Russia; in African jungles, in the mountain passes of Caucasia, among the highest peaks of the Alps, in Karpathian defiles, in the traditional cradle of the human race, even on the site of the Garden of Eden, and where the Tigris and Euphrates mingle their waters before entering the Persian Gulf-—all this fire of destruction started by so small a matter! So is it with sin. . All the tears shed by the race since Eden, and which have since then been flowing down the ages like one great and ever increasing river; all the groans uttered since the heart pang of Eve over the death of her son which have been gathering throughout the centuries like some monstrous thunder clap; all the broken hearts which since the first sin have been piling up like some great Alpine or Himalayan range of mountains—all this, and more too—yes, much more to follow, is the result of that seemingly small sin of dis obedience in the Garden of Eden. Yet, how strange, tragic, unbelievable— men still love sin. Romans 5 :12; James 3 :6.
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