Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1889-11-24

say that? There is nothing here to indicate
that the man had any feeling Of repentance,
nor even of religion. That we have to put
in ourselves. We know, at least, that the
man had faith enough to. bring him to the
feet OF Christ. And we know that Christ
| forgave his sins.
Whether the paralytic was surprised or
| not we do not know There is no record of
| it. But the scribes were surprised. The
scribes sat in that upper room where they
had been listening to the prophet OF
Galilee, and when they heard Him say "thy
sins be forgiven thee" they were both sur
prised and shocked. behold, certain Of
the scribes said within themselves, this man
blasphemeth. Who can forgive sins, they
thought within their hearts, but God only?
Christ met this question with plain asser-
ton. ''The Son of Man." he said, "hath
power on earth to forgive sins" This as
sertion he further emphasized by the healing
of the paralytic's body. And then he left
them to draw what inferences they might.
TRUTHS FOR MEN TO LEARN.
God does not force His truth upon the
minds OF men. He might have written it
across the sky; He might have taken away
the clouds of the sunset and hung illuminated
texts in the place of them; He might have
had the thunder chant the Nicene creed. Not
so has God dealt with US. There is no
truth in all the teachings of theology which
God has made 80 plain but that man may
miss it. There is no doctrine which can be
set beside the proposition that two and two
make four, and we can say here are two
axioms. One is as evident as the other.
There is no problem in divinity which can
be proved as problem in arithmetic can.
This is partly on account of the nature of
theological truth; it is beyond the limits Of
measurement by foot-rule. It is like human
love; it cannot be weighed in balances, nor
tested by chemicals. This is partly, also,
on account of the nature of the human mind.
God who has given US minds, means us to
use them. God sets certain facts before us,
as was done here in this room in Peters
house where the Scribes were, and then He
leaves us to make out what the facts mean.
1.-THE Son of Man hath power on earth to
forgive sins"
There are two great truths which Christ
came especially to emphasize among us:
That we need forgiveness, and that we may
be forgiven.
The value of the second of these truths
rests, of course, upon the first. For unless
we need forgiveness it matters little whether
forgiveness is possible or not. 1 am afraid
that the need of forgiveness is not always
felt as we ought to feel it. Somehow in
these days we are inclined to emphasize
what we may perhaps call the good nature
Of God. We ourselves look, for the most
part, leniently upon sin. The consciousness
of our own weakness impels us to make al
lowances. Sin is
A GREAT MISFORTUNE.
Sin always means loss to the sinner. But
God is our loving and compassionate
Father. Surely He will not be very hard
upon His erring children. That is COM
mon way of regarding sin to-day. And it
takes rather for granted that forgiveness is
so easy that God, looking upon sin and
knowing all the strength of temptation, for
gives men without their asking This atti-
tude toward sin, this unformulated theory
| of forgiveness, is due to the excessive
preaching of the wrath of God which pre-
vailed a generation or two ago. That
emphasis is being followed by season OF
| reaction. There are no birthstone corners"
| in these days. Sermons are preached no
longer upon "sinners in the hands of an
angry God," so that the mouth of hell
seems open beside mems feet. And that is
| well.
Nevertheless there is a truth which is
taught as plainly in the Holy Scriptures as
the truth of Gods love, and that is the
truth Of Gods wrath. We think of
Christ so often as the teacher of the
love of Goo that we forget sometimes
that He said anything about the wrath
of God. But He did. There are not
anywhere in the two Testaments sterner and
palmer words about the attitude of God
toward human sin, and about the certain
and fearful punishment which Will inevita-
bly, oVertake the impenitent, than proceeded
from the lips of Christ.
Sometimes some sin shows little more
! clearly than usual how hard the heart Of
man can be; sometimes, perhaps, ore dear to
us is touched by il, and we are filled with
strong indignation. We feel for the NOM
ent that unless there is such fact as hell
somewhere in the plan of God, something is
very wrong about it, and we begin to under
stand then Just how God feels toward all
sin, toward the sin which He sees, and per-
| haps no one else sees, within your heart and
mine. Why, so fearful is the sinfulness of
sin, and so unspeakably urgent is the need
! that somehow we be forgiven for it that the
cross was set up and Christ died
upon it. Christ died because the
destiny of the soul depends upon whether it
! can get forgiven for its sin. God does love
Us, infinitely. But God hates sin, infinitely.
We are all touched by sin. We
ALL NEED GODS FORGIVENESS.
And when Christ said 1.-THE Son of Man
hath power on earth to forgive sins," He
taught that the forgiveness of sin is possible
In one sense it Is not possible. There is no
forgiveness which can make the sinner ex-
actly as he would be If he had not done the
sin. Because sin degrades the soul Every
sin carries the soul farther from God. Every
sin makes it Just so much harder for the
soul to appreciate spiritual things, to enter
into the joy of God. Forgiveness does not
mean that the sinner is made, in relation to
his own soul, as if he had dpeVer sinned. He
must still pay one penalty for sin. The
penalty of the spiritual loss which every sin
entails. Though even this may be turned
into blessing. The man by struggle against
sin may gain strength which, without that
struggle he could never have. Even sin
may be transmitted into blessing. But this
is what forgiveness means: 1t means that
the sinner is made, in relation TO God, as if
he had never sinned. It means that the
barrier which sin sets up between the soul
of man and the love of God is thrown down.
Forgiveness means that our sin is 30 put
away, that God, who hates sin, nevertheless
loves US. This, Christ has made possible.
We may be forgiven.
"Thy sins be forgiven" He said more
than once to penitent sinners, while He
lived among us. "This is my blood which
is shed for you and for many Tor the remis-
sion of sins" He said the night before the
cross. Go teach men that their sins may be
forgiven, preach the remission of sins, He
said to His apostles when, after His resur.
rection He sent them out to teach His
truth to men. That by the sacrifice of
Christ's death We have forgiveness, is the very
central truth of the whole Gospel. Explain
| it as we may, construct about it whatever
doctrine or theory we please, here is the
| truth. GOD 80 loved the world that He