T HE K I N G ’S B U S J N E S S as “transgression’—“Where there is no law, neither is there transgression”— “trespass,” “stumbling,” “going astray.” The generic name for sin, a missing of the mark, points in the same direction, with special glance at the moral end (cf. Rom. 3:23). , Moral law prescribes to the. agent at once what he ought to be, and what he ought to do; and sin arises from short coming or disobedience in either respect. When moral law is spoken of in this connection with sin, the word “law” is to be taken with all the spirituality and depth of meaning which Christ’s revela tion imparts to it. Only thuS is it the Christian conception. The law in the natural conscience is much; as develop ed and illumined by centuries of Chris- ian training, is more. The law in the Old Testament is a great advance. With all its Jewish limitations, how high does it rise, in its insistence on righteousness, above the standard of ordinary Christian aspiration and attainment even at the present hour! How changed a spectacle, e. g., would society present, if only the Jewish Ten Commandments were honest ly and universally obeyed among men! “Thy commandment is exceedingly brbad,” said the Psalmist. St. Paul, speaking from experience, declared: “The law is holy, and the commandment holy, and righteous, and good.” It is cus tomary to speak slightingly of the De calogue—the “Ten Words.” “Ten Words” truly! But look at these “Words” as they are set in the revelation of God’s character and grace in the history; re gard them no longer as isolated pre cepts, but trace them back, as they are traced in the law, and by Christ, to their central principle in love to God and to one’s neighbor; view them as they dilate and expand, and flash in ever-changing lights, in the practical expositions and applications made of them; learn, as St. Paul did, that the law they embody is not a thing of the letter, but of the spirit, touching every thought in the
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the result, a serious alteration—a weak ening down/sometimes almost an oblit eration-—of the idea of sin itself. But alongside of this, in singular con trast with it, is to be traced, often in the most unlooked-for quarters, the other tendency—a deepened sense of sin, a feeling, even if it be in the temper of rebellion, of sin’s awfulness, of its tragedy, of its irresistible seductiveness, its deceitfulness, its certain disillusion- ments (“apples of Sodom”), of the relent less Nemesis which dogs it, the hell of remorse it brings to its victims—the bit ter desire and craving, too, for atone ment which awakens, often, when it is too late. Which of these two tendencies is the stronger, or which is more likely for the time to prevail, it is difficult, in the ex isting readiness to break down existing sanctions, to predict; but, despite super ficial appearances to the contrary, one would like to believe it is the latter. There can be no question, at any rate, as to which is the deeper, and which it is one’s duty to ally oneself with to the utmost. The Christian believer, in a word, can look this thought of the day in the face. If Christianity is worth anything, it does not need to shirk looking facts in the face. It will not profess to furnish a perfect solution of the problem of sin. Only Omniscience can do that. It is but parts of God’s ways we can trace. Our seeing is through a glass darkly. But the subject may be set in a light which brings it more into consistency with itself, with faith in God, with human experience, and with the other truths of the Christian revelation. A first aspect in which sin appears to the natural conscience, likewise in Scrip ture, is as transgression of moral law. “Every one that doeth sin,” says St. John, “doeth also lawlessness, and sin is lawlessness.” “Sin,” says St. Paul, “is not imputed where there is no law.” Hence the common description of sin
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