St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1903-07-22
what is the Message About Sin and
Salvation?

Address by Rev. DR.. S. 6. Barnes at the
Congregational convention at Burling-
ton, June 10, 1soa.]
To give in twenty minutes anything
like a complete statement Of the doc
times of sin and salvation is hopeless
task no literary hydraulic press is equal
70 such feat ofcompression. Nor could
any skill in the selection OF details meet
the case; many other details, equally inn
nortant, would have to remain unstated.
Nv purpose is different from either of
these. | wish to lay down the general
proposition that truths 60 in pairs; that
they were sent forth as were the disciples,
two by two; that each truth needs it's
complement, needs it for safety as well as
for fulness; and to illustrate this propo-
sition BY considering two contrasting
theories of sin and salvation, with no
thought that these two theories exhaust
the field, with no purpose of saying all
about these theories themselves that
might we'll be said. They will be used
simply to enforce the fact that halftruths
are unsatisfactory and even dangerous,
and to this end the contrast between
them will be heightened, to make it more
clear that what God has joined together
man should not put asunder.
First then, let us look at theory often
spoken of as characterizing a past age,
though it is held today more largely than
many suppose. In this theory God is the
main thing and all definitions start from
him. Accordingly sin is transgression
of the law of God, or want OF conform
itv to that law. And that is regarded as
an ultimate statement. God has right
to command what he pleases, to attach
to obedience any reward he pleases, to
punish disobedience in any way orto any
extent that he pleases. The will of God
is the fact beyond which reason makes
no attempt to go. According to this
theory, the evil of sin is Enthusiastically
in the future penalty attached to sin by
the divine law. Selfdestructive sins, like
drunkenness, carry with them obvious
evils of another sort. But the sober and
moral man, who obeys the laws oil earth
lv success, suffers no obvious loss here
and now from his being non-religious.
Indeed, religion calls for selfdenial, for
the giving up of many things naturally
desirable, and for this selt-denial the
Christian is to be repaid in the next
world. 1t is only as we look beyond
this world that the evil Of sin becomes
plainly manifest; there it means the loss
of heaven and the condemnation of hell,
these being related, not to the nature OF
things, but to the declared law of God
II the moral but irreligious man had
simply to do with the nature OF things
if God were not law.maker and judge. i
the Creator dealt with him only through
the laws of cause and effect, as man sees
them here, this goddess man would bt
we'll satisfied with his goddess life. But
it is quite impossible for ever to reckon
without God he must face hisjudge, ant
to this sinner the most awful word o
Scripture is the summons, Prepare tt
meet thy Cod" In the lurid light o
Judgment, he sees what sin is.
The strength of this theory is in it
profound and vivid sense of God, not tn
God of nature and in nature, where he il
to many not much more than a dehnit
force; but the God of law, the persona
God, that sooner or later lays his heav.
hand upon every soul; God not to b
summed up il formulas, but tremend
Gus being before whom questions die. be
cause anything like intellectual rebellion
is impossible. Out OF this springs pro
found sense of guilt which is always
wonder and often an admiration to thos
whose experience follows other lines, ant
what is more to the purpose, this sens
of guilt has common root with a pro
found sense of the divine holiness, a rar
ture of humility and passion OF ador
alton as the soul accepts Gods pardo
which are Significantly lacking elsewhere
But its weakness is obvious to US c
these days. For one thing we have littl
respect for law as law. We make lay
ourselves, and unmake it when it doe
not seem right. We do more than that
selecting among laws those we are will
ing to obey, and leaving Others to nor
enforcement, even when we have officiall
sworn to enforce them. All obligation
are held subject to obvious reasonable
ness. And to this temper the old fol
mula, "Thus saith the Lord" or its oil
equivalent, THUS saith the Bible" is b
no means the end of controversy. Wha
ii the Bible does say that certain di
tressing penalties will follow godlessness
Is such punishment reasonable? is tt
Bible a reasonable book in it's presents
ton OF Gods law and Judgment? Th
age has many who question everything
Nor does it meet the spirit of shrew
bargaining, characteristic of our tim
If the worldly mans life really pays be:
for this world. and if the main thin
hereafter is not to get left out of heave1
the ideal life is one that is worldly unit
the time to die, and then becomes othe
worldly in time to prevent the door
heaven being shut in its face. There
here no thought of worldly life bein
already essentially a lost life; there is
thought of heaven being more or less
its heirs, according to previous prepar
ton for the use OF its possibilities; the
is only the thought of losing ones so
in the sense of being condemned to he
The single drop of bitterness in Il
scheme is that one cannot be sure
repenting just before one dies; but, ii tn
could be guaranteed, the scheme wou
be held to be absolutely perfect.
And this suggests capital defect
the theory when used as the whole trut
1t can hardly be called superficial vle'
but it certainly does not 60 to the be
tom of things. The eyes are blinded
the vision of God, so that they see not
ing beyond the published will OF 20
But the ultimate fact is not that VI
torbids thing, and therefore it is wron
God torbids it because it is wrong
begin with, it is wrong in itself, a.
hf