St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1890-03-23

either. In the second sermon have
shown that man Is under law, the
natural law and the positive law. In
the third sermon / have shown that
while man is not under physical COM
pusi0n to choose between good and
evil, else he were not free, yet he is
under moral influences making for good
and for evil, because he is in state OF
probation; that the influences for good
were the first and most powerful In his
existence, and that he is we'll equipped
to oppose successfully the influences that
make for evil, if only he will. The out
come of these considerations is that man
is not forced to sin, but that sin is, as
defined in the chatechism, free trans
gresSiOn of the law. In the fourth ser
mon l asked If there is remedy for
sin. answered that there is remedy
evil to be remedied, is in mans power,
and is to be found where sin itself Is to
be found, in the free will of man. If sin
is the free choice that man makes of
evil, it is evident that it can be undone
only by the free choice that he makes
of the contrary good. If sin were some
thing forced on man by some power
without, | understand that it could be
lifted off from him only by some other
exterior power. But sin is not i'm
posed Oh man by any external agent;
it is the act of his own be-
ing, the choice Of his own will:
therefore it can be driven out of his
being only by contrary act, his former
choice OF evil can be undone only by
second choice of good. 1t is with the
SOUPS disease as with the body's dis
ease. The constitution of the sick man
must be relied on mainly to eXpel the
disease; nature must do the work; the
physician with all his appliances can be
nothing more than an aid to nature. A
wise mother, who knows how to make a
man out of child, will get the child to
confess its fault, and will condOne the
punishment for the Self-accuSation; she
helps rational nature, the soul, to throw
off the disease that fastens upon it.
Sin is a turning away from God;
the remedy or the undoing will be
a turning back to God. What turned
away must turn back, the free will of
man. st. Thomas Aquinas, the great
ut is impossible that God should for
give sin to the sinner unless there comes
change in the sinners will" Now,
the sinners will is in his own power;
there is no physical force that can take
away the freedom of his will, compel it
to the right or to the left, to good or to
evil. Ii he never recalls his evil choice,
if he lives in it, if he dies in it, he re-
mainss forever turned away from God
and damns himself. He needs no one
to damn him. No one does damn him.
He damns himself; he is the jury that
gives the verdict on himself. God is
the judge who but ratifies the verdict
in pronouncing the sentence. /
am not forgetting Gods grace
in the process of healing sin.
could not forget or ignore it and give
true account of the matter. But Gods
grace is not physical, compelling force
that blots out free will; it presupposs
and concurs with mans free will. Ii L
insist on the part that free will has i'll
the undOing Of sin, it is for this reason,
that, whereas, have shown that sin is
your choice, now wish to show that re-
pentance or the undoing of sin is your
choice. There is Scriptural warrant for
this truth in abundance. l might quote
texts by the hour. but more pleasing
and powerful proof is to be found
in three wonderful conversions from
sin related in the sacred volume,
the conversion Of David, the conversion
of Mary Magdalen, the denial and re-
pentauce of St. Peter. These three
stories. than which there are none more
dramatic and affecting, are the concrete
Illustration of the two propositions
which have occupied us so far this Lent:
firstly, that sin is the free choice of evil;
secondly, that the remedy is the free
choice of good; in other words the rem
edy Of sin is sorrow for SIN, sorrow isSu-
ing in a changed will.