THE CONSCIOUSNESS OF SIN.
THE consciousness of sin implies a sinner who stands at the bar of his own moral nature in the character of a prosecutor, and, as he stands there, is self-charged and self-indicted. He is his own accuser and his own judge, and brings in a verdict of guilty against himself. And, in the matter concerning which he accuses and condemns himself, he admits no possible excuse for what he has done or omitted to do. It is unqualified accusation and unqualified condemnation. He looks upon himself as wholly in the wrong. He has no apology to offer, in the validity of which he believes for a moment. That others have done the same thing, does not mitigate his sin, nor alter its character in the slightest degree. That he was tempted to sin, does not silence his own accusation against himself, and does not modify his judgment, since he knows that he ought to have resisted the temptation, and is blameworthy for not doing so. The fear of punishment accompanies his sense of personal guilt, and prophesies evil against him. No one need to tell him that he is wretched and unhappy: he feels all this. He stands a self-accused and a self-condemned culprit at the bar of his own conscience, and sees himself as such. He is so intimately his own companion that he cannot escape the sight. This is not an overdrawn picture of the experience of men when the distinct consciousness of sin becomes a fact in their souls. This consciousness attests its truth. Millions have had this experience, and all men have in them the elements out of which it may arise. Human character, as actually developed in this world, taken in connection with the human faculties, lays the foundation for this experience; and when the thoughts of the soul are deeply stirred with the great questions that relate to God and man, and with the sad and awful delinquencies that mark human conduct, then the experience comes with uniformity and certainty. It is not the peculiarity of any special class of sinners. It belongs to them all when the requisite conditions are present. We thus see, from the very nature of law, and the constitution of the human mind, that the relief of forgiveness to sinners must come from some source without themselves. Man being a sinner against God, and being conscious of the fact, being condemned by himself and condemned by the law of God, it necessarily results that there is absolutely no help for him in himself. He is pressed with a want which he cannot meet, is the subject of a discomfort which he cannot soothe, and exposed to a peril which he cannot avert. God must come to his relief, or there is no relief for him. When he shall hear the sunset gun of life, and leave this world, if retaining the consciousness of sin, nothing but the blackness of despair will be before him, unless he finds help in God. His condition, without this help, is one whose awfulness no language can adequately describe. It is freighted with the elements of hell. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the God who speaks to sinners in the Bible, the God who sent his Son to be the Saviour of the world, that no one in Christian lands need, except by his own fault, live or die in this condition. The gospel of Christ is a gracious plan to effect a permanent reconciliation between the just and holy God and sinful man, and places them in the relation of eternal harmony with each other. This is the fundamental idea of that "great salvation" wrought out by Christ in behalf of sinners. Although it does not necessarily save any soul, since it may be rejected—in which event it will not save at all—yet it makes pardon and salvation possible to all, and always real to the believer. "Christ died for our sins according to the Scriptures." In him "we have redemption through his blood, even the forgiveness of sins." "Who is he that condemneth? It is Christ that died, yea rather, that is risen again, who is even at the right hand of God, who also maketh intercession for us." God in Christ is a sin-pardoning God, our friend and our helper, doing for us what we cannot do for ourselves. Hear that, ye men and women self-accused, self-condemned, and smitten with the woes and fears of conscious guilt. Go, preach that, ye ministers of Christ. Proclaim the glad tidings far and wide. Sound them in every ear. Carry them to all lands. This sinning and suffering race, absolutely helpless for its own relief, wants just what God through Christ offers to it. There is no philanthropy equal to the one that preaches him, and no gratuity equal to that of the gospel.—Independent.