VIII. SIN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. (Preached at Racine College, Septuagesima Sunday, 1867.) "For if we would judge ourselves, we should not be judged.”—1 COR. xi. 31. SEPTUAGESIMA Sunday marks one of the less observed but most important changes in the Christian year. The very name shows the alteration. Heretofore the Sundays have dated from Christmas and the Epiphany. They have looked back to the Manger at Bethlehem and the star of the wise men. Now they look forward to Lent and Holy Week and Easter. In round numbers, Septuagesima Sunday is the seventieth day before Easter. You notice the change in the very character of the services. No longer do the words of the Evangelical Prophet sound on the ear, but the sterner warnings of Jeremiah. The Collect prays that we may be delivered from our offenses: the Epistle speaks of "keeping under the body, and bringing it into subjection," and the Gospel closes the story of the laborers in the vineyard with the solemn warning: "So the last shall be first and the first last; for many be called, but few chosen." The shadow of Lent begins to fall upon us. Alleluias pass from our lips, and are lost in the memories of Christmas-tide. The angels that sang at Bethlehem have gone away into heaven; the wise men have returned to their own country another way. No more is heard the voice of weeping in Ramah, for the Holy Innocents are at rest with Jesus. Simeon and Anna are no longer in the Temple, for they have departed in peace. Faded and dead are the Christmas greens. The time of merriment and of dancing, the time of music and of laughter, are past and over, and the words of the Apostle sound on the ear like the blast of a trumpet: "Know ye not that they which run in a race, run all, but one receiveth the prize? So run, that ye may obtain.” It is in unison with such thoughts as these that I begin to-day the series of subjects upon which, with careful thought, I purpose to dwell during these coming weeks of preparation for Lent and the fasting and abstinence which are to follow. The subjects of sin and its consequences, of repentance, pardon, and forgiveness, will be brought before you. And much it needs, my brethren, more and more does one feel, how here lies the solution of most of our difficulties, the answer to half our doubts and suggestions. This is the reason of trouble and anxiety and distress of mind, and ill temper and fretfulness. This it is which keeps boys from Confirmation, and men from the Holy Communion. This is the reason why, so often and in so many things, "many are called, but few chosen." The subject of sin and its consequences becomes the most practical one into which I can enter. Every one before me, I care not who or what he is, is sinner, and is more or less liable to the consequences of sin. I do not mean simply that each one of you was conceived and born in sin; I do not allude to the fact that some few of you are still in that sad condition which you received from your natural birth, and have never been washed in the Blood of Jesus, first applied in the regenerating waters of Baptism; but to this, that each one before me is an actual sinner. Nor is it needful for me to particularize in what respect you have sinned. Each one of you can recall acts of sin committed: sins of the noonday and of the night; sins of word and thought and deed; sins that you have flaunted in the face of men; sins that you blush to remember; sins that others have seen and talked about; sins which none beheld save the watchful eye of the angels and the awful glance of the Eternal Judge. You are guilty, and you know it. Some of you remember single acts of sin-a lie, an oath, an act of disobedience; some of you can recall habits of sin; some of you can remember long-continued habits. Some of you could tell of sins against light and knowledge, and warnings and entreaties, and grace given. Some of you could tell of sins done with the sevenfold gifts of the Spirit in your hearts. Some of you in speaking of your sins would tremble, and blush, and shrink from the gaze of others, and hide your heads in anguish; some of you could mention them without a tremor of the voice, or a flush upon the cheek, or a tear in the eye, as though they were the sins of another. But whatever the state you are in, from the smallest child to the oldest man, from the youngest scholar to the priest who ministers at the altar-brethren, we are all sinners. What, then, are the consequences of sin? First of all, it is a law of God's providence which never fails, as sure as the relation of cause to effect, that somehow, in some way, here or hereafter, or both, punishment follows sin. It matters not what the sin is, be it little or great, sin of commission, omission, negligence or ignorance-of each and all are the words of the Lawgiver true: "Be ye sure your sin will find you out." Mark you, I am speaking now of the law of natural religion. In the Kingdom of Grace it is true that the Blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin, but that cleansing only takes place when the Blood of Christ is applied to the soul, and only fully takes place when that blood is fully and efficiently applied. How this may be, it will be my duty to show you by and by. But this one law I desire to impress upon you, that punishment must follow sin. The Bible is full of such instances. I need only allude to them. Cain murders Abel, and becomes a fugitive and a vagabond. Ham is guilty of an act of filial impiety and is cursed, himself and his descendants. Lot chose to dwell in Sodom, and his wife was changed into a pillar of salt for looking back on the sin she was bidden to leave. Esau sold his birthright for a mess of pottage, and despised his goodly heritage, and found no place for repentance—that is, for recovering his lost estate-though he sought it carefully with tears. Rebecca tempted her son to lying and false swearing, and then bade him go away for a few days until his brother's wrath should be over, and never saw again the son of her love, and for the sake of whom she had sinned. Moses. smote the rock in anger and in presumption, and never saw, save in the distance, the Promised Land to which he had so wearily journeyed. What is the whole history of the Jewish people, but the story of God's visitation upon sin? Nor does it end with the Old Testament. Ananias and Sapphira lie unto the Holy Ghost, and fall down dead in the presence of the Apostle. The people shouted at the speech of Herod, "It is the voice of a god and not of a man"; and because he gave not God the glory the angel smote him. He was eaten up of worms, and died. St. Paul says of those Corinthian Christians who received the Holy Communion unworthily, "For this cause many are weak and sickly among you, and many sleep." What is true of sacred history is equally true of profane. You have only to read the story of nations and of kings to find over and over again repeated the terrible law that punishment follows sin. Nay, what does our everyday experience prove? Murder and lust, cruelty and wrath, blasphemy and dishonesty, meet their due reward. Awhile the judgment tarries, awhile the sentence pauses, for a while space is given for repentance; but evermore are the words of the Psalmist true: "I myself have seen the ungodly in great power, and flourishing like a green bay-tree. I went by, and lo! he was gone. I sought him, but his place could nowhere be found." And ever are the words of the poet true: "Though the mills of God grind slowly, Yet they grind exceeding small; Though He stands and waits with patience, The objection may possibly arise in your minds, that such cases as I have mentioned are cases of great and crying wrongs; but, while the law is true of such instances A |