The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1893-03-26

Robert S. Barrett at st. Luke's Cathe-
dral, Atlanta, on Sunday, March 10.
The church was packed to it's uttermost,
chairs having to be placed in the aisle
to accommodate the people.
The subject of the discourse wae:
1.-THE Tragedy of Sim" From the be-
ginning to the close OF the remarkable
sermon there was the most profound
attention.
THE TRAGEDY OF SIN
Romans, 6, %: "The wages of sin is
death; but the gift of God is eternal life
through Jesus Christ our Lord"
The demonstration of anatomy does
not enjoy dissecting putrescent sub.
ject. He does it for science and hui
manity. Any right thinking preacher
approaches the subject of sin with dis
taste. 1t is for the good of humanity
that he speaks. For our attitude to sin
will decide our attitude to all religious
truth, and affe CT our whole N oral and
spiritual thinking.
The very word sin suggests all that is
pitiful and tragic, all that is horrible
and hateful in the world. Sin is stern
and stubborn fact. Deny it and it still
confronts you. Explain it away and it
still demands solution. Leave it out of
your theory of life and its horrid pres.
ence mocks your theory. Say it is an
"unreality which seems real to belief"
and while you speak you feel the I'M
reality OF any theory or theology that
ignores the most common and constaot
and terrible fact of human experience.
No; sin Is no illusion. Sin Is a fact.
Coma ianco rrcn0uizoa tho fact 81 @;
Seif-blame testifies to its reality-blame
for misdeeds and blame for unfulflled
dreams. In the midst of words of human
praise the vision OF unresched ideals
saddens and reproaches US.
2. But though sin is reality it is not
q thing. Sin is condition. 1t has no
separate existence. You cannot form q
conception of sin as distinct from free
moral agent. 1t is because man Is free
and knows he is free thathe knows him
self to be sinner. The possibility OF
Sin is based on the freedom of tho soul,
which we call Will. When the human
will opposes the Divine Will, that is sin
When self usurps the throne of God,
that is sin. Consequently sin is selfish
ness; and sel1shness is treason. This
is what God takes cognizance of-the
condition, rather than the conseq uences
OF the condi ton; the alienated soul,
rather than the particular acts, tho re-
bellious will rather than its deeds; sin
rather thansins. Herein God differs from
human law. When the pot of passion
boils over then human law takes cogni-
zance, not before. God sees the iugredi-
ents seethiDg in the pot. Thus with muir.
der--the law sees it only in the crimson
blood and ghostly corpse;G God sees boil
ing In the heart the deadly Ingredients
OF hate and greed. whatsoever hateth
his brother is a murderer" SO with
adultery. Society takes cognizance of
the sickening scandal; but God sees the
poison in the heart, sees the fire burn
and the cauldron boil and tie poison
seethe, and eXultant demons, witch
like, join hands around the charmed
pot, and add their odious portions. Sin
Is not objective, it is not something out,
side, it is not some unclean, evil thing
cling!ng to the soul. But it is the soul
in an attitude of defiance.
8. This is what we mean by guilt.
we maan this prop ietorship of sin,
this ownership of sin, this &C tual identity
with it. The sin is mine. l am in.
volved. am guilty. 1 have forfeited
Innocence. There is blot on the
escutcheon.
And just as long as I am in this con-
dition Of alienation, just so long as self
is my G ID, just so long will all that
grows QUITO this condition BIO mine.
Nothing can separate me from it. Moth
ing can take away my guilt in this con-
dition. My deeds are part of me. They
are woven into the very warp Of my
being. They are deep.cut into the
foundations of my soul. The flowers of
the inidels rhetoric can hide it but for
a ir1n q :,Lsz
cover 1T always. Beneath flowers and
mud the sin is still engraved into the
very adamant of fact Macbeth NAV
incarnadine the seas and his wife use
all the perfumes of Arabia, but the fact
remains indelible, imperishable. Re-
cent discoveries have revealed the car
cases OF prehistoric animals thrown out
at the foot of Siberian glacier. These
animals have been preserved unknown,
unseen, unchanged for untold centuries,
beneath the frozen mud and solid ice of
the never hasting, never resting, ever
moving glacier. And when at last
tnese long preserved carcasses came out
10 the light and warmth and sun, they
sent forth their horrid stencil. Thus
sin may DO buried under the mud of
m aterlalism, aud be frozen in indiffer-
ence anc hidden in oblivion for years
ana centuries and cycles; but the on
moving glacier Of time will al last re-
veal it to the light OF the Judgment day,
and then will it stink In the nostrils of
God and angels and all the assembled
multitudes
4. No. only does sin involve the
soul in guilt, but also in slavery.
This is the very reverse OF what
the sinner expected. He wished
mi M RI h
He wished to be free. lie wished to
throw off restraint. He claimed a right
to license. lie claims irrespcn ,ible use
of Gods lnanR To hi,,n-lifo ,in,n nd