Sin

Pacific Press Publishing Company · Oakland, California · Jun 22, 1904

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 30, No. 25.

“Sin.”—In his “Essays for the Day,” Dr. Munger declares that great authors often choose sin as their theme, “because it is the greatest theme.” He then asks, “Why is it great?” And thus he answers: “Because it is a violation of the order of the world, and is the defeat of humanity. It throws human nature wide open to our gaze; we look on the ruin, and see man’s greatness; on his misery, and so uncover pity, which becomes a redeeming force. Thus it opens the whole wide play of human life in its highest and deepest relations. Nothing so interests men as their sins and defeats. Tragedy is born of them, and tragedy fixes evermore the steady gaze of mankind.” And all sin’s greatness, all that makes it worthy of notice, lies in the righteous law of which sin is the perversion or transgression. “The strength of sin is the law.” Its power is perverted power. It is using life to enact the tragedies and horrors of the universe. Praise God, the theme in the world redeemed by the Conqueror of sin, will be redeeming love.