The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1888-07-14

tions, it is almost invariably concerned
with the determination of what is
wrong, and never in the deciding as to
what is right. And this at once makes
clear to us where mistake may be pos
sible. 1t is in the application of the
unvarying principles of morality, re-
vealed by conscience, to the details of
life, that men go astray.
In no department of our mental life
can you compel man to judge correct
ly by telling him that he ought. In
mathematics and in science, amid the
processes of reasoning required, error
slips in again and again, and men are
constantly obliged to give up cherished
opinions when the mistake is discover
ed. Nor is it otherwise in matters of
morality. Men who will judge lazily,
or act without judgment at all, accept
ing mere current opinion, or following
the impulse born of acquired habit, are
pretty sure to act wrongly. For, not
only is there possibility of wrongful
judgment, but, when we bear in mind
how much malice and hatred, how
much selishness, has found its way
into these natures of ours, and how
prone we are to consider that as right
which we are most inclined to do, then
we have to say that, not only is there
possibility, but strong probability, that
mistaken judgments will be made.
And when once they are made, their
progress in the wrong direction becomes
fatally rapid. For, what a man correct
ly or incorrectly judges to be right, he
will experience self-approbation in do
ing, and, on the other hand, shame and
remorse in doing that which he has
disapproved.
The existence of such sentiments as
shame and remorse, or even the sense
Of well-doing, are not therefore any
final evidence as to the goodness or
badness of an action. In short, relig-
ion, from the simple distinctions Of
right and wrong to the highest act of
worship, does not found upon such a
transitory, changing basis as feelings
or sentiments. Whatever else it is,
religion must always be mans reason
able service. From this, we shall
easily perceive the necessity of moral
education, and its special sphere. The
old Greeks were accustomed to hold
two apparently contradictory PROPOSE
tiOns: That virtue cannot be taught,
and that virtue must be taught. Virtue,
in the sense of the eternal distinctions
between right and wrong, needs not to
be taught. These flow from the
nature Of the Almighty, and are given
to US, not made by US. Virtue, in the
sense Of personal attainment, personal
subsection to the law which conscience
reveals,-this we can and must teach.
But, when education has done its
work, when false sentiment has been
exposed, when man has put aside all
mere opinions and recognizes the duty
of submission to the pure law revealed
within, what shall we say then? Is it
enough to know what we ought to do
in order that we may straightway be
able to perform the same? Perhaps it
was so with man at the first, perhaps
it was SO with us years ago; but how is
it with us now? Conscience presents
the naked law to the soul, but lol the
will is enfeebled, and is powerless to
carry it into practice. We can echo
the language of the great apostle in this
very epistle, when he tells US how, with
his better self, he recognizes and con-
sents to the law which is holy, and
just, and good; whilst another law has
| become established in his lower self,
warning against the other, and bringing
it into captivity; so that the evil he
disapproves, that he does; and the good
he would, that he cannot do. Habit
has become a second and stronger
nature; how shall its chains be broken?
The affections have become depraved
| so that do not and cannot love that
which 1 would. We too, when we have
thought what we might have been, as
contrasted with what we are,-we too
could cry, "Oh, wretched man that l
ami who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?
In such an hour of helplessness, and
perhaps despair, may God give you
grace to turn to the old, simple Gospel
of the Lord Jesus. In him, the cruel
fed redeemer, salvation is only to be
found. God in Christ not only freely
forgives our transgression, but, better
than this, he gives us life and strength.
The law says, ''This do, and thou shalt
enter into life;" it says to you day by
day, keep innocency, and do the thing
which is right; for that shall bring you
peace at the last" But Jesus gives us
what the law could not-he gives US
power wherein we are weak, deliverance
to the captive, life to the dead. And
which of us needs not this power, this
deliverance? AS you feel your need,
so bow more humbly at the foot of the
cross. His strength is perfected in our