The Penn's Grove record., 1908-09-18

of him, and he need not be ashamed
of hinSn1f

Va sL
The shame of being found out may,
of course, induce this better feeling,
and be the beginning of a nobler and
more stable moral life, It is one of
the blessed functions Of punishment
to offer us this point of departure as
q house of Israel through the shame
OF ldolatry reached a loathing of #
n a ultimately made 1t impossible in
Israel. Welcome the retribution
which brings us acknowledges; well
come the detection which makes us
ashamed and makes us distfust 6ur-
selves at last; welcome the punish
ment which gives repentance of sin;
welcome the exposure which finds us
out because 1t makes us at last find
out ourselves! All true knowledge is
self-kncwledge. All true exposure is
self-exposure. The true judgment is
self-Judgment. The true condemna-
ton is when a man captures and tries
and condemns himself. Real repent
ance means shame, the shame of self
that he should have permitted him.
self to fall SO far below himself; and
have dimmed the radiance of his own
soul. Long after others have for
gotten, 1t may still be hard for a man
to forgive himself. Long after others
have forgotten, he may still remen-
Der. To this sensitive soul, to this
vitalized conscience there ma be even
wounds hidden to all sight but his
own sight-and Gods. AS the thief
is ashamed when he is caught, the
house of Israel is ashamed, at last,
not because of the mere exposure, but
because of the ingratitude and wick
edness and folly that made an ex-
posture possible and necessary. We
need to have the law written on our
hearts, to, conform to that and not to
a set of outward social rules; we need
to walk not by the consent of men
but by the will of God; we need to
see the beauty of Christ's holiness,
and then our sin will find us out,
though no mortal man has found it
out.
CAS- the thief is ashamed when he
Is found out, SO the house of Israel
will be ashamed" Shall be-must
be! We are only playing with the
facts and forces of moral life If we
imagine it can be otherwise. Real
and ultimate escape from this self
exposure is impossible. There is no
secrecy in all the world. Murder
will out" is the old saying, or old
superstition, if you will. The blood
cries from the ground. 1t will out in
some form or other, though not al
ways by the ordinary detectives art.
Retribution is a fact of life, whether
it comes as moralists and artists of
all ages have depicted or not. Moral
life writes itself inoelib1y on nerves
and tissues, colors the blood. 1t
records itself on character. Any day
may be the judgment day, the day of
revealing. declaring patiently what is
and what has been. The geologist
by a casual cut of the earth can tell
the story of the earth's happenings
by the strata that are laid bare, de-
posit on deposit. The story of our
life is not a tale that is told and then
done with. 1t leaves its mark on the
soul. 1t only needs true s%elf-knowl-
edge to let us see it all. 1t only needs
awakened memory to bring it all
back. 1t only needs the fierce light
to beat on it to show it up as it was
and is. There is nothing covered
that shall not be revealed ana hid
that shallnot hemadakp TA~
fore whatsoever We have spokelAi in
darkness shall be heard in the lEht,
ard that which We have spoken in7the
a in closets shall be proclaimed
upon the ho~usetops." Ashamed &hen
he is found out! If to be undetkcted
is the only defense, it is to gJmble
against a certainty. Found ont We
shall be, as we stand naked i'll the
revealing and self-revealing light,
Then shall we begin to say 10 the
mountains, Fall on us. and IN the
hills, Cover u.s."
Rock of ages, cleft for me,
Let me hide myself in Thee.