Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1850-06-13
The nature Of Sin and Redemption,

The nature OF sin as voluntary and
! prolonged apostacy from God should de-
ter our literary men from dealing with it
after the fashion Of mere theory. 1t is not
stone of stumbling to our speculation
merely it is milestone hung about the
necks Of all of us, and weighing US down
in conscious discord with the universe
| and ourselves. The confession of sin is
universal and the deeper spirit of our
own age, with all its levity and indiffer-
ence, is tossed to and fro by the heavy
groundswell. Il look into mine heart,'
says nationalist theologian of last CEN
tury, "and acknowledge that l have to
charge myself before God with all the
sins against knowledge that l have de-
scribed. Whose is not ready with the
same confession, let him lock again into
his own" None of our non- Christian
writers Of the earnest school would refuse
this language. 1t is not speculation that
can heal such wounds nor can any one
who has found the remedy see without re-
gret, arguments, evidences, and other ap-
piances of the reasoning faculty, demand
ed by such inquirers, and presented by
Christian theorists as all in all. As sin
began with an act of the creature and was
met by an act Of Incarnate Love, it is only
by renewe ed act in the human soul, tha,
it can be encountered and overcome
This is the act of self f-connexion with that
supernatural economy which the Gospel
has brought nigh. There is freedom only
in this higher region; and the transition
into it is something in which mind and
heart, will and personality, must lie en-
gagged as in mortal struggle. Christiani-
ty reveals its great secret only to those
who ask it F.; helps only those who, in their
deepest nature, accept its conditions Of
help. Speculation scorns this straight
gate but the city of God has no other
opening. Lying down without its walls,
it wraps itself in its own wintry mantle !;
but it can neither exclude the chilly blasts,
nor bring health to that diseased frame,
for which a cure is only to be found with
in. 1t is by an effort of will that the
Christian deliverance is TO be realized /;
a will returning to its lowly attitude to-
wards the Infinite Being, submitting to the
hardest sentence on the past coming both
from His inward and outward voice, and
re-uniting itself with His will, on the
ground of true Mediation. and in the
strength of a Heavenly influence. The
will must return by the world-old path
way of Atonement and Grace, which is
the same yesterday, and to-day, and for
ever. 1t must throw itself into this new
atmosphere, and make the attempt to
breathe it plunge into this new element
of life, and strike about in it as the swim
mer spreadeth forth his hands to swim
, BY such voluntary transition alone Can
i>.- terrific. den,hs of an eternal discort
; between the Infinite and the nnHe us
escaped and even as matter Of specnla'
ton, those who have thus become as little
children, know more Of the mystery o
evil, than the philosophers who have
wrestled with the problem all their life
long. Let our literary inquirers, then
abandon their intellectual pride and diIet
,an,ism, and submit to have the practica
: evil of sin healed in the same manner a:
bodily disease by practical remedy
Let them ponder the great words OF one o
themselves, jacob, who had reached a
least the court of the Gentles -" Mich
weise, nich: tugendhatt, nicht go'tselie
kann der Mensch sich vernunflelner mus:
dahinauf bewcst werden und sich bewe
e gen, organizirt werden und sich organic
iren." And let them accept the sam
words at once translated and transhgnret
at the hands of one who, of all the chill
I, dren of men, knew most OF the mystery o
sin, and of the method of deliverance,-
II "Work ont your own salvation with fea
> and trembling, for it is God who worket|
in you to will and to do of his good pleas
urc."
# THE DEcESpANrs OF RonEr BURNs.-