The Opelousas journal. [volume] (Opelousas, La.) 1868-1878, 1873-11-21
The Sin Against the Holy GhO'
BY THE REV. r. H. RIVERS, D. D.
From the Nashville Christian Advocate

In discussing this subject I take for
granted the following principles: /.
God is immutable. This truth being
| admitted, he is always willing to par
don the trusting penitent-that is If we
admit his willingness ut one time, he is
| willing at all times.
2. Any change in the relationship be-
! tween man and God must result from a
! change in man, and not from n change
| in God. This is a necessary sequence
Of the immutNbility of God. God il
angry with the wicked every day, and
now the wicked man of yesterday has
become the penitent and believing man
, Of to-day. God loves him now because
the man has changed. Had he re-
manned wicked he would have been the
object Of Gods wrath still. The prin-
| ciple that evOkes the love of God did
not exist until the exercise of repen-
tance and faith. Gods. love of com
piacency or appreciation is like stream
flowing in a certain channel; when a
| change comes over a wicked man, who
/ is at distance from this Rtream, so
/ that he places himself in it, then he be-
comes the object of the divine love.
The stream has not changed its direc-
ton, but man has changed his position
! 3. If, then, man has ever committed
| the objectionable sin, it is not because
! God has changed toward the sinner,
| but the sinner has changed toward God.
| The objectionable sin is not committed
| SO long as the sinner can comply with
| the conditions OF salvation. It is com
mitted whenever the conditions of sal
| walton cannot be complied with by an
| intelligent moral agent. God is al
ways willing to comply with his terms.
| He has obligated himself to save the
| penitent. He has nowhere promised
to save the impenitent. II, then, any
! man has become so hardened in sin,
and so lost to duty as to be unable to
repent and believe, he can never claim
forgiveness for his sins. The failure
| to receive forgiveness is not because
God has refused pardon to the penitent,
but because the sinner cannot claim the
| divine promise, as he has placed it out
| of his power to become penitent be-
liever. -.',s.
| /. There are certain constitutional
urally respond to the calls of the Spirit.
| Man has religious constitution. He
has soul which hungers for God, Just
as he has natural hunger for food.
| And God as certainly satisfies the hun
ger of the soul as food satisfies natural
hunger. Now, if man has so perverted
the powers of his physical nature as
that he cannot eat healthful food, he
must die. Death does not result from
| the lack of food, but from the failure
OF the vital powers to receive and di-
gest the food. The fault is not in the
food, but in the digestive organs. So
when man has so perverted his religious
nature as that it cannot respond to the
| Holy Ghost, he must die.
5. The neglect or perversiOn of any
| faculty of mind or of body will, sooner
or later, destroy the action of that fac
| ulty. If q man refuse to use his hand,
| it will become powerless. If he shut
out all light from the eye, for o length
of time, he will become blind. If he
refuse to use his feet and legs in walk
ing, he will soon be unable to walk.
| It he refuse to use his memory. memory
will fail, and 80 with all the faculties.
Now man has religious faculties. He
has conscience and the power of re-
pentance and the faculty for faith; and
it must follow that if these faculties be
| capable of use, the man can never re-
.pent, and must of course die, without
pardon.
6. The objectionable sin is that sin
which eradicates the religious prin-
ciples which so weakens and destroys
the religious constitution that the sin
ner is forever incapable of repentance.
He cannot be impressed by the Holy
Ghost. He cannot come to God with
repentance and faith. The fault is not
with God; it is with the sinner. It is
called the sin against the Holy Ghost
because it is the peculiar Office of the
Holy Ghost to convince, to reprOve, to
regenerate. When, then, the mind is
closed to conviction, the conscience to
reprOof, land the heart to regeneration,
the sinner has committed the sin against
the Holy Ghost, n .# r>,..".
IbelieVe that the sin against the Holy
| Ghost is, in the main, no specific sin
It is sometimes one sin, and sometimes
another. It is the sin unto death. Just
as men who violate all the laws OF
healths for Lifetime, may, by an ap-
parently small transgression of those
laws, bring on death, so men, who have
for lite been violating all the
laws of God, may, by, an apparently
small transgresslon, close the moral
| and religious nature to all the operations
of the Holy Spirit. lido not object tC
| the idea that, in the time Of our Savior
men committed the objectionable sin
by attributing the works Of Christ tc
the devil, That was enough. to forever
close the heart to all divine influences
/ The sin that closes the heart to these
| influences, so that the sinner has nc
talent for repentance and faith, is and
must be the unpardonable sin. Their
| the Savior says: Take the talent
from him" .....'.. 81. 5.'
L