pose of Atonement is to create an objective ground on which Remission of sins may be granted to the penitent. But on this theory-if I understand it-the Remission of sins is impossible, unless, indeed, the familiar phrase is to receive some new and alien meaning.'

For it is alleged that whenever the eternal Law of Righteousness is violated, the law inflicts "the amount of penalty-visible and invisible-to the veriest jot and tittle, which the deed of violation deserves." It is not from the hand of God that the wicked receive the punishment of their wickedness, nor is it from the hand of God that the righteous receive the reward of their righteousness." Punishment or reward, visible or invisible, or both, dispenses itself, and in the amount in which either is merited." God simply looks on. The vast machine of the moral universe is self-acting. In no proper sense is He the Moral Ruler or Judge of men.

The old difficulty of the scribes,-" Why doth this man thus speak blasphemies? who can forgive sins but God only?"-reappears in a new form. If God Himself speaks of forgiving sins, this theory raises the objection that "the justice of the universe

is

a tremendous fact, an eternal and necessary fact,"

It is only fair to Dr. Young to say that in other parts of this volume he speaks of God as forgiving sin, without any attempt to impose any unusual sense on the words. It is no part of the design of these Lectures, however, to criticise Dr. Young's able treatise ; and I have quoted the passages which appear in the preceding pages, only because they express very clearly a tendency of modern religious thought which is very hostile to the doctrine I have to illustrate. On Dr. Young's argument and apparent inconsistencies,

see Note R.

I

which God Himself cannot set aside; and that the Divine authority, whatever its limits, is as powerless to forgive sin as it is to reverse or even to modify the eternal and necessary distinction between good and evil.

The functions of God in relation to the eternal Law of Righteousness and the government of the moral universe. are, on this theory, precisely similar to our own. All that He can do for the sinner is to make such appeals to the sluggish conscience and the corrupt heart as shall restore to the one its authority and vigour, and inspire the other with a hatred of sin and a love of goodness. God has resources for this great work which we cannot command; but His work is the same in kind as that which is being done by all who are striving to make men better. He is just as unable as we are to say, "Thy sins be forgiven thee." The penalty "must come down. It lies in the essential nature of things that it must come down. Ever and ever, justice inflicts an inevitable penalty, and exacts the completest satisfaction."2

To prevent misapprehension, it may be well to state most explicitly, at the very commencement of this discussion, that I do not regard the Remission of sins as being absolutely identical with escape from the penalties of sin. Sin is sometimes forgiven, although some of the penalties of sin are not recalled. But the Remission of sins must be understood to include the cancelling of at least the severest penalties with which 2 Ibid. page 119.

The Life and Light of Men, page 115.

unforgiven sin is justly visited; and the theory of Dr. Young, therefore, which asserts that the penalties of sin, "to the veriest jot and tittle," are uniformly and necessarily inflicted, involves the conclusion that the Remission of sins is impossible.'

It is difficult, I think, to reconcile this theory with the actual facts of human life. From the dawn of speculation men have been perplexed by the apparent confusion and irregularity in the affairs of the world which obscure those august moral laws whose authority is declared to be so steadfast, and whose penalties are alleged to descend in the very moment of transgression, and to be uniformly exacted "to the veriest jot and tittle." The penalties of sin, both "visible and invisible," which are alleged to be universally and relentlessly inflicted to the veriest jot and tittle," are constantly evaded, escaped, or alleviated.

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:

Two men are equally guilty of drunkenness and profligacy. But one of them is a man of robust constitution he has wealth and leisure. He sins, and sins flagrantly; but he shoots in the autumn, hunts in the winter, and spends the summer in his yacht on the coast of Scotland or of Norway. The other has weak health, and is compelled by his circumstances. to live a sedentary life. The one, notwithstanding his vices, lives till he is seventy, and is vigorous to the last; the other is the victim of miserable diseases,

I The theory that the penal consequences of sin are justly and necessarily remitted when sin is followed by adequate repentance, is not touched in this Lecture. It rests upon a conception of punishment to which a reply is attempted in Lecture ix.

and dies an ignominious death long before he is fifty. Where is the equality in the "visible" penalties of sin? The eternal laws appear to receive the bribes of the rich and to trample on the helplessness of poverty.

An Englishman is guilty of vicious excesses, and as soon as the penal suffering comes upon him he receives relief from the affluent and merciful resources of modern medical science, and with care and temperance he may escape from pain, and practically recover all his physical health. An inhabitant of a barbarous island in remote seas is guilty of precisely the same excesses, and the moral blame which attaches to him is less, because of his inferior moral advantages; but his strength is rapidly wasted by disease and suffering, and in a few years, perhaps in a few months, a horrible death avenges his crime. Where is the equality in the "visible" penalties of sin? The eternal laws appear to be strong to punish the ignorant, but in the struggle with science they suffer defeat.

By fraud skilfully contrived, and as skilfully concealed, one man creates a fortune. With wealth, the temptation to dishonesty disappears; he spends his money generously, and wins universal honour and affection for integrity and charity. The penalties "visible and invisible" with which society would justly have visited his offence, penalties so terrible that to most men the severest physical torture would bring less anguish,— are altogether escaped. Another man is guilty of the same fraud, contrived and concealed with equal skill. But at a critical time the engines of an American

steamer break down in the middle of the Atlantic, and his American remittances are a fortnight late; or a clerk on his way to the post-office is knocked down by a cab, and his Australian letters miss the mail; and then comes the fatal discovery. He is ruined for life, ruined in fortune and ruined in reputation. He is the object of universal indignation and scorn. His friends fall away from him. He cannot look his own children in the face. After he has exhausted the sentence which human laws have inflicted upon him, he spends the wretched remainder of his days in some foreign city, where his name and his evil deed are unknown, and sinks at last broken-hearted into an obscure grave. Where is the equality in either the "visible" or the "invisible" penalties of sin? Where is the certainty with which these penalties are exacted? The eternal laws appear to be thwarted and deceived by human. cunning, and to be indebted to accident for the vindication of their authority.

Among the outcasts of every great city, and sunk to the very lowest depths of moral degradation, you may find men whose evil fortune and evil character are the natural and almost inevitable result of a solitary sin committed so long ago that it has been forgotten by nearly every one but themselves. They drank too much, or they told a lie, or they used a few pounds belonging to their employer. For that one offence they were punished with the loss of an honourable position and an adequate income, which would have been theirs for life. They lest their character, and