SINAI NOT EXTINCT by Theodore L. Cuyler

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jun 10, 1889

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 15, No. 22.

SINAI NOT EXTINCT.

By Theodore L. Cuyler

SOME people imagine that Sinai is extinct. Certain pulpits seem to be pitched so far away from the sublime mountain that its august peak is no longer visible, and its righteous thunders against sin are no longer audible. With this class of rose-water ministers, the theology of law is voted obsolete and barbarous, the world is to be tamed and sanctified entirely by a theology of love. They preach a one-sided God—all mercy and no justice—with one-half of his glorious attributes put under an eclipse. Even sinners are not to be warned, with tears and entreaties, to flee from the wrath to come. They are to be coaxed into holiness by a magical process which makes nothing of repentance, and simply requires a "faith" which costs no more labor than the snap of a finger. This shallow system may produce long rolls of "converts," but it does not produce solid, subsoil Christians. Sinai is not an extinct mountain in Bible theology. Not one jot of its holy law has been lowered or repealed.

In one very vital sense, no Christian is "free from the law." It would not be a "happy condition" for him if he were so, any more than it would be a happy condition for New York or Chicago to disband their police, and to let loose their criminals into the street. So far from being a kindness, it would be eventual cruelty to any man or any community, to place them beyond the reach of the just penalties of divine law. This is especially an unfortunate time in which to preach a limber-backed theology, which has no stiffening of the word "ought" in its fiber, and which seldom disturbs men's consciences with the retributions of sin. Society will not be regenerated with cologne water. We need more of the sacred authority of law in our homes, more reverence of God's law in our hearts, more law preaching in our pulpits, and more "law work" in the conversion of souls which are to represent Christ by keeping his commandments.—T. L. Cuyler.