The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1919-05-08

out of bed, would instantly close with
the Offer" expresses many a mans
wish. Yet God did not breathe wheels
into man but living soul, preferring
the risk of wrong to the impossibillty
of moral growth. Loyalty to an idea
and an ideal can never be the charac
teristic OF machine. The adding ma
chine is errorless who ever heard of a
man falling in love with his adding ma
chine? God is mans lover not his man.
ipulator. This precious first pair had
sense of shame after the act. They
knew themselves responsible for the
thing done and God charged them with
its responsibility IN the penalty visited
upon them. If they themselves were
not responsible for the choice God was
unjust in blaming them for it. Re-
sponsibllity can only accompany free
dom. Sin is always personal thing.
1t is made in the choice of the will.
Mans own soul is the factory where
alone it is produced. Not evil. for that
is external. and God made. Mosquitoes
and men, germs and genius came from
the same hand. When man chooses
to make pet of his mosquito and al
low it to carry his fever germs to others
he becomes sinner, if it can be proven
that he is not insane. Sin is the willed
act of free person.
THE MATERIAL.
No factory can run without raw ma
terial The saloon will cease business
when boys are no longer furnished.
Germany clothed herself in paper be-
cause there was no wool for her looms.
James points to desire as the stuff out
of which sin comes Physical craving
for the forbidden fruit is one of the ele
ments involved in the garden test. The
eager curiosity to find out for ones
self what lay in the experience is an
other. Self-assertion that leads one
towards the prohibited thing as the
challenge of it is felt is a third. Social
influence that makes my act relate
itself to other lives so that my wrong
causes all wrong doing to be easier. all
right doing harder, is fourth pictured
here. These four motives" writes
DR.. Curtis, physical desire, cosmic
curiosity, the personal spring towards
self-assertion, and social infiuence-are
not only good, but absolutely essential
to the development of man. and to the
progress of society. Every one of
these four motives becomes bad when
1t urges moral person to disobey God,
or to violate any moral ideal" Sin al
ways is presented in the guise of
larger good than the one possessed. Its
materials are normal desires misdrect-
ed or intrinsic good misused. Christ
was asked to make bread, to throw
himself upon Gods upholding. to Sc
cure His Kingdom. Each was good but
it ran back in each case to the securing
these things for himself in the assertion
of personal will against the Father
will. Right things wrongly used are
sins raw material.
THE PRODUCT.
Various words express the fact of
sin in the language of the book. The
most common means to miss the mark
as the arrow flies wide of the target
Transgresslon is a stepping across the
line. Iniquity or un-equity marks the
up and downness of our life's walk.
Wickedness is plain crookedness in
stead of the straightness of high honor,
guile is thickness and lawlessness is
anarchy in the Kingdom Of God. Al
ways selfishness enters into it SO that
sin becomes the assertion of my own
will against the good of all. The sinner
puts his own desire first, God and man
can look out for themselves. | is the
My letter IN his alphabet and it is not
strange that his spelling does not con-
form " the dictionaries of God and
Good will He has become Hun in
spirit tho he lack the power to follow
to conquest for his own ends. He may
wear broad cloth or rags, he may con-
form to social custom or break every
convention; literate or illiterate. intelli-
gent or ignorant. blue-blooded or plain
red, if he seeks to crown self he has
assaulted the throne of Gods kingdom
in this world. 1t is not the size of his
act primarily, that is measured by his
power; it is the attitude of his will that
has made him a menace to the peace o.
Coils world.
THE PRICE.
There are wages to be paid. Ger
many has discovered that the robber
who knows no interest other than his
own must meet the consequences of his
act. Death inheres IN sin. Separation
follows self-assertion. They were cut
off from their old garden communion by