OUT OF HARMONY WITH GOD.
By Frederick A. Noble
We fail to realize what an unspeakable disaster it is to be out of harmony with God. The exceeding sinfulness of sin grows out of the fact that sin is a violation of the will of God. But the mischief of sin, so far as we are concerned, is that it takes us out of harmony with God. It puts us in misadjustment to the laws and aims and wishes of God. The moment a man sins, it begins to effect a separation between his own life and the life of God; and the longer he continues in sin, the wider the separation becomes. It is sin which has made the whole creation groan and travail in pain together until now. Poverty, sickness, distress, disappointment, pain, are evils to be mitigated as far as may be; or if they can not be much softened, to be borne with resignation and patience; but sin is a calamity from which every man is bound to make good his escape. Hence, there is no exigency so pressing as this which grows out of wrong-doing; and no peril so near and appalling as this which hangs over one in virtue of alienation from the Father; and no need so imperative as the need of reconciliation to God. Not to be God's children is to be the saddest of orphans. —Frederick A. Noble, D.D.