p. 6 | Note and Comment

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 21, 1907

Note and Comment

THE following striking statement is taken from the Lutheran Witness:—

The consciousness of guilt in sin appears to be fading from our minds. We are conscious of sin, we know that there is evil and wrong, but the guilt is measured by a lowered standard. We see sin in the world, and in some of its forms regard it as of exceeding enormity, but it does not affect us with an overwhelming sense of guilt. We know there is sin in ourselves, but there is not that crushing sense of its guilt that in former days entered so largely into Christian experience. There is not the apprehension of the wrath of God which a clear conception of the nature of sin would create. We have become accustomed to looking at it as imperfection, an inheritance from our ancestors, an infirmity of our nature, a violation of the common laws of living, as a something wrong and disquieting, but without the sense of deep personal guilt. We think of sin as toward ourselves rather than as Godward.

The reason for the condition above set forth is found in the prevalent teachings concerning the law of God, which seek either to set the law aside entirely or to interpret it in harmony with human wishes.