[February 14th, 1864.]
The operations of our moral nature are more mysterious than any other element of our constitution. By the senses we are in communion with the external world. By our reason we are in connection with truth, or with the intelligent world. By our social affections, with our fellow-men. By our moral nature, with God. This, so to speak, is the point of contact between the soul and God. Here we recognize the idea of law, of responsibility, of liability to punishment. Of this department of our nature we can give less account than of any others. It is not under our control; that is, we cannot give it laws or decide how it shall act.
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The conscience is not the will. We cannot will to approve or disapprove. We cannot will to feel remorse, or not to feel it, any more than we can will to suppress pain.
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Neither is it under the control of the reason; that is, we cannot argue ourselves into the conviction that sin is not sin, and virtue is not virtue. We cannot persuade ourselves that we are not responsible for our character; or that the remorse which we feel is unreasonable or unfounded.
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Though in this sense independent of the understanding, it can only act under its guidance, that is, ignorance of the moral law prevents its exercise. Without the law, sin is dead. Men live in sin without knowing the extent of their sinfulness. As this ignorance is never total, there is no man free from the sense of guilt; but the inactivity and insensibility of conscience is in proportion to that ignorance. Paul coveted without knowing it was wrong. He persecuted Christ, thinking thereby he did God’s service.
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The moral nature is the seat and source of the greatest blessedness and exaltation, and of the greatest degradation and suffering of which we are susceptible. Every man carries within, the elements of heaven or hell. We have within us principles of evil, which are like a nest of sleeping scorpions which may sting the soul to madness; and which a ray of light may excite to vigorous activity.
As we are sinful, and as sin includes guilt, pollution, and power; how can we be delivered from it?
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Not by the power of the will. The will is totally powerless to remove guilt or its consequent remorse, or pollution; or to counteract the power of sin.
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Not by the force of reason, not by knowledge, not by truth, and certainly not by error.
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Not by self-inflicted penances or active observances.
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Not by rites or ceremonies. Not by the power of the Church, nor by the influence of our fellow-men. No man can redeem his brother.
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Not by the wisdom or power of angels. The angels doubtless deemed the pardon of sin and the restoration of a sinner as much an impossibility as undoing the actual, or recalling the past.
What is impossible with man is possible with God. What the law could not do, God has done by sending his Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, and thereby condemned sin in the flesh. This teaches, 1. That the person sent was God, the Son of God, a divine person, and that it was necessary that he should be divine, if he were to do what no creature could do. 2. He was like sinful men, like them in being of the same nature and subject to the same infirmities. 3. That he came as a sacrifice for sin. That is, a. That he took our place. b. That our sins were laid upon him. c. That he bore the penalty due to them. 4. It teaches that this was a judicial condemnation of sin, i.e., of sin in us.
This is the way in which the Scripture teaches that the blood of Christ cleanses from sin. It removes the guilt of sin, as it satisfies divine justice. And as it satisfies justice, it removes remorse, which is the clamoring of the conscience for the punishment of sin. And it removes all sin. No matter how numerous or how aggravated, there is no difficulty and no difference. We have all sinned and come short of the glory of God, and the difference between one sinner and another is, in this matter, of no account.
- In cleansing from guilt it cleanses from pollution. By restoring us to the favor of God.
a. By restoring us to the favor of God, wherein is our life. b. By securing for us the Holy Ghost who regenerates and sanctifies the soul, so that it ultimately becomes as pure as the angels of God.
- It destroys the power of sin, by introducing, or securing the introduction of a new principle of life, which being the life of God, is stronger than the principle of evil, and ultimately triumphs over it.
As the blood of Christ is the only means of cleansing sin, it follows, 1. That our first duty is to apply for its healing and cleansing power for ourselves, and that daily. 2d. That we should make known this fountain for sin and uncleanness to our fellow-sinners. In one form or other these are the inferences which flow from every subject which comes up for consideration.
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