Nevada County picayune., 1889-12-18
RELIGIOUS COLUMN.
Edited by GEO. A. GARDNER.
SIN AND ITS PENALTY.

Lust when ii hath conceived bringcth forth sin, and sin when it hath finished bringeth forth death - James l. h.
 There is one dark plague spot ill the universe of God, from which have flowed all the trouble and suf- fering and death which make up the background of life's panoramic pc ture From this prolific source come all the wrongs and expressions, the thefts and robberies, the seliishness and rapacity, the war and eruelties, the suffering and death, which mark the records of human history, and blight the happiness of untold mil l lions of earth's tecming population. Surely the cause of all this catalogue of evils must be q terrible monster, a ! hideous. double distilled curse, a ! foul blot upon fair creations face. ! The reader need not be told that sin 1 is this terrible monster, for everyday 1 experience and observation disclose i it's existence and the worldwide spread of it's ravages,
 The inner consciousness of every man attests the truth that sin has en- tered into the world, and is the real cause of all our woe and death. Sin in it's analysis is the transgression of the law-the law of right, of justice, of love. This world would have con tinued paradise, had man never transgressed the law; and suffering and death would have been forever unknown, but for the introduction of sin. As sin IS the subtle, powerful and malignant foe of all holiness and happiness. it behooves Us to inquire carefully into it's nature and final consequences. The process hy which it is produced, as well as it's ultimate effects, are forcihly set forth by the apostle James in the verse at the head of this article. We learn from this that all sin originates in lust or unlawful desire; that when this unlawful desire is indulged it
 bringing forth sIn. and that persistence in sin inevitably leads to death.
 The moment the temptation to do wrong is yielded to by the heart, that moment sin is conceived in the heart, though the overt act of l transgression, for want of a suitable opportunity, may never be com mitted. God looks on the heart, and the motive or intention governs the moral quality of words, thoughts and
 actions in all cases. Letit be under ! stood, too, that temptation is not sin-our Savior himself was tempted, yet without sin. The sin consists in yielding to temptation, or as one of i the inspired writers calls it, giving place to the devil, The heart, the invisible place of the will, the emo i tions and the thoughts is the birth place of moral character; or rather the potential and responsible agent is invisible to man, and in the secret chambers of the heart molds and con cocts the purposes and plans which evolve it's final destiny.
 In the very nature of things, all sin is voluntary and therefore ayoid- able, otherwise there could be no 1 justice in the inhiction of punish mcnt. Laws and penalties necessa- rily presuppose and imply the abso- lute freedom of the human will, the ability to obey or GiSobey, the un- 1 fcttercd freedom of choice. We have thus briefly reviewed the pro- cess by which sin is commtted-that ] it is willful violation of tine divine law-that it is exceedingly offensive 1 to God, and that it is subversive of all order and happiness, It now re- mains to point out its ultimate pen alty The expressive language of ] Holy Writ leaves no doubt on this subject. James says in the emphatic quotation above, that when it is fin ished it bringeth forth death. Paul says the wages of sin is death. A 1 greater than James or Paul said, if ye believe not that am He ye shall 1 die in your sins.
 Moses and Ezekiel under the law l proclaimed the same fearful truth. The Prophets tell us, the soul that siuneth it shall die. David in the Psalms and Solomon in the Proverbs reiteratcs in various ways the same awful truth, and human reason cor roborates the doctrine, from a con sidcration of the natural and incvita- ble consequences which follow the persistent violation of law Death then is the natural and inevitable re- sult-dcath of both soul and body. So,called orthodox theology assigns a scholastic and tropical meaning to the term death, by which il is con verted to an endless life of suffering in some dark dismal place, beyond