The Reason of It

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Mar 5, 1894

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 20, No. 18.

The Reason of It.—There is a cry ever and anon from our great religious weeklies for a revival of religion, for a deeper work of grace, for more of a sense of the unworthiness and sinfulness of sin. The Advance of January 11 thus voices this sentiment:—

Is there not need of more of this sense of sin to-day? Paul said: “It is a saying worthy of all acceptance that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners, of whom I am chief.” Deeply sensible of his own sins and of the fallen and sinful condition of the race, and with a great view of Christ’s power to save men, he went out into the darkness and abominations of heathenism to proclaim his message. . . . It is hard to think of great power in preaching which does not connect itself with sin, loathsome, deep, and dreadful, and with the gospel as an effective and glorious remedy for that sin. It may be said that the deeper down men have gone in their views of human sin and need, the higher up they have reached in their apprehension of God’s willingness and power to save.

But is there not a cause? God’s Spirit convinces of sin through his law. Said Paul, “Nay, I had not known sin, but by the law; for I had not known lust, except the law had said, ‘Thou shalt not covet.’” Rom. 7:7. “Sin is the transgression of the law;” but many Protestants have been driven from the law because of their unscriptural position on the fourth commandment; and, if they refer to it at all, they are “partial in the law.” The presentation of the law is a part of the gospel message which the Comforter brings home to the soul.