Morning journal and courier., 1888-10-15

less, sin and punishment, mans fatal inner
 itance of death; no gospel here to make 8
 man whole, BIO inspiration to put new heart
 into sinner, no balm SO much as to assuage
 the smart of the first sting of conscience in
 the least child. This truth of judgment un- interfered with by God; we may rejoice in It as once the prophet did-but we turn from it; there is reaction of real life from it, not Of mere feeling; the logic of real life will not rest satisfied in it. Surely something must in- thing true, loving, bene6cent may some time come in between sin and it's punishment; this much of hope, this much of Gospel at ! least breathes and lives in the heart of na- | ture. That prophets representation of 8 | silent Jehovah seeing justice done, his arm motionless to rescue-yes, we own its truth; ! rejoice ye heavens, justice and righteousness 1 are around his throne; but is it not the l righteous Father who sits upon the throne? | Is not the eye of holiness looking out from 8 deep heart of loveG If man finds it difficult | some times to punish, shall God find it less | hard than man9 If nature puts some bene6- | cent obstacle between sins and their punish ! nents shall the God of nature do no more? | If down here amid our human imperfections | of government and law there are inventions | of other, kind1ier powers, and some be0in- ! nings of grace, shall there not be found in ! the heavens above some order of salvation, \ some greater power of intercession?
 ! Thus are we driven to another passage of the ! scriptures. open the book of Psalms reading | in the midst of recital of the sins of Israel ! these words: Therefore he said he would destroy then, had not Moses, his chosen, stood before him in the breach to turn away his wrath lest he should destroy them" What | does this mean? A man-Moses, his chosen standing in the breach between men and \ the punishment of their sinsI An interven- | tion which the Lord respected. Moses his chosen, Moses, one of the people, standing for them all, and the punishment about to ! break turned away. What new principle is ! this? Read the whole psalm, go over the enc ! tire history as it is told in the Old Testament \ and this representation of punishment turned I away is seen to be no isolated, strange thing; | there is in this Bible the record of 8 whole \ series of interventions, a succession of inter- | sessions, 8 revelation of 8 divine purpose to ! interfere between men and the punishment I of their sins. Jehovah, whom the prophet ! saw with motionless hand and silent mercy while justice hastened and doom broke upon | the nation, is seen with arm outstretched to \ save, and the word of the Lord goes forth | over earth's mountain-tops and filling the val- | ley like a song: will forgive their iniquity and I will remember their sin no more. Hear and your soul shall live. But how can this be? The soul that sinneth,
 it shall die. Can truth be duaI9 Can God contradict himself! I open again the Bible, this time at the beginning of Luke's gospel,
 and read these words: For thou shalt go be- \ fore the face of the Lord to make ready his ways; to give knowledge of salvation unto | his people in the remission of their sins. These were words just before Christ. With these words we begin to come out into light
 and haven, from between these two truths
 which have been shutting us in. We reach | the full reconciliation, we are in the final
 harmonizing truth of redemption when we open the gospels and read once more: Be-
 hold the Lamb of God that taketh away the | sin of the world.
 | Salvation ia the remission of sins. He
 that taketh away the sin of the world. Such
 is Gods intervention. Such is the divine in-
 tercession. Such is the only salvation. Not
 an obstacle merely to punishment. Not re
 mission simply of penalty. Not taking
 away of all punishment. That is what VIC
 have seen often to be false and harmful ir
 sins. We would take away the just
 punishment; Gods mercy goes deeper
 the Lamb of God which takett
 away the sin of the world. Gods interfer
 ance are with mems sins, and then, as
 consequence, with their punishments. The divine intervention saves men from punish
 ment in proportion as it saves them from
 sin. It is 8 remission of sins. Gods grace I is not content with effort to cut the chord be. | tween sin and punishment; it cuts through I the band which holds man to sin, frees him ! from that body of death, and then whatever | consequence of his past transgressions cease | to be punitive, cease to be sufferings of re- ! morse and despair, become chastisements, ! discipline for the new virtue, parts of Gods good will in his specification. I am not say- ing this is all of the atonement Christ's atone | ment for men has transcendent relations to God himself; but the truth we need to see is in this, that God in his practical method of saving men from punishments does it by saving ! them from their sins. And you men can | verify this practical principle of Gods inter vention in your dealings with your fellow men. Somebody in your employ, or under your power to punish, steals, or commits some breach of faith.
 You would like on many accounts to shield hlm; but you hesitate to do it. You feel keenly tho appeals of friends, the claims of others. You would like to be merciful, to lift your hand, and stop the course of justice. But you dare not do it. Why noti Go to the bottom of it-why notl I condense in the answer the experience of others as have heard them give 1t. Once, so the testimony runs, had such case; l yielded, and let the offender off. It did not save him. A short time, and again he fell. And more than that. l interfered in pity; and others in my employ afterwards fell into the same had courses. I should not dare be merciful again. The reason then why often we can not interfere is because by our intervention we cannot hope to save men from their sins
 
 prove in such cases remission of sins On the contrary, our failure to punish might oc- casion more sin. It is dangerous for us to do what Gods mercy will not do, by inter- venrion give sin further opportunity, another lease of life.
 Surely it is the practical principle of Gods atoning love, whatever OUT theory of the atonement may be, it is the practical l method of its working that God saves us men from punishment as He saves us from sin. It is safe for us to remit iua~ I tices to initiate the divine forgiveness in the remission of punishment, only in so far as we can have reason to believe we are following | Gods method in this practical principle of grace, and by our charity saving men from their sins. I think we need to consider this | more deeply than we usually do. We are
 not initiating Gods method in Christ if we l are content simply to remove suffering by our charities, and have no further thought in 1 charity which does not look beyond the re. | lief of suffering toward the cure of sin. To take of the burden of punishment without striking at the sin is hurtful to society, and l is not the method ot the Gospel. I do not mean of course that some particular charity l may not be content simply to touch some wound, to relieve some suffering. But mean that in all our charities, in our whole ' thought and plan of charity, we need to fol- low the divine method of atonement, and not 70 lnCerLer0 OeLWeen men ana Lh6lE Just punishments, except we seek also to go farther and deeper and intervene between men and their aims. And no charity less thorough than this can do anything else but make 8 moral confusion of its work, ,and hurt society in proportion as it delays the punish ment of God.
 The truth now spoken has direct bearings upon us individually in our personal salva- ton. For that salvation is not worth the paper on which man may write down his creed, it is not worth the reality of any future heaven to any man of us, if it be not a salvation in the remission of sins, not merely in the remission of any punishments which we may deserve, but of the sins which make
 us deserve them. If in the church of God. by it's services, in it's helpful comradeships we are not being saved from our personal sins, from the lusts of the flesh, from ill-tem- pers, from moral cowardiee and feebleness. from covetousness and any wrong use of
 money, from baekbitjng and uncharitable- ness, from smsllness of heart and unreason ableness of judgment, from pride and false sensitiveness and spiritual ineffciency; if we are not being saved as citizens, fathers, nF0t of1 oI,s