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The Forgiveness of Sins Seven Sermons By Joseph Hammond, LL.B, B.A.
Vicar of St. Austell and Hon. Canon of Truro Author of Church or Chapel?an Eirenicon; The Christian Church What is it? English Nonconformity and Christ’s Christianity, &c., &c.
Second Edition
REGIS
BIBL. MAT
London COLLEGE
Skeffington and Son, Piccadilly, W.
MDCCCXCVI
Preface.
THE following Sermons on The Forgiveness oy Sins were preached in the Pari-h Church of St. Austell during Lent, 1894. They are now published in. the hope of extending their use fulness. I have even ventured to think that some of the Clergy might consider them not unworthy of being reproduced enbloc to their congregations. If they have any merit, I think it will be found to lie mainly in the sharp distinction which I have drawn between Forgiveness and the conveyance and assurance of Forgiveness things which, it has seemed to me, are often confounded.
As there are seven sermons, and only six Sundays in Lent, I may be allowed to suggest to anyone who proposes to read them in
Church, that the first might be used on Quinquagesima Sunday, or on Ash-Wednesday, as a kind of introduction to the course, or the last might be reserved for some Sunday after Easter.
I should like to add that, as I had a some what different congregation each week, I thought it well to repeat from time to time the cardinal ideas which I wished to enforce.
And, as other congregations change, no less than mine, I have retained these repetitions in the revision.
Vicarage, St. AusteH,
Epiphany, 1896.
Contents.
i.
THE PREACHING OF SIN AND ITS PARDON.
ACTS xin. 38. PAGE
“ Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.” i
II.
THE KNOWLEDGE OF SIN.
S. LUKE v. 8.
“ I am a sinful man, O Lord.” 16
III.
THE PARDON OF SIN.
PSALM xxxn. 5.
“I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my sin.” 33
Vlll.
IV.
THE ABSOLUTION OK REMISSION OF SINS.
S. JOHN- xx. 23. PAGE
“ Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.” 51
V.
THE ONE BAPTISM FOR THE REMISSION
OF SINS.
ACTS n. 38 (Revised Veision),
“ Repent ye, and be baptized every one of you in the name of Jesus Christ unto the remission of your sins.” 71
VI.
THE BLOOD SHED FOR THE REMISSION
OF SINS.
S. MATT. xxvi. 28 (Revised Version).
“ This is My blood of the covenant, which is shed for many unto remission of sins.” 9 r
VII.
THE SIN WHICH HATH NEVER
FORGIVENESS.
S. MARK in. 29, 30 (Revised Version).
“ Whosoever shall blaspheme against the Holy Spirit hath never forgiveness, but is guihy of an eternal sin: because they said, He hath an unclean spirit.” 109
SERMON I.
The Preaching OT Sin and its Pardon.
ACTS xm. 38.
“Be it known unto you therefore, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins.”
JHE Forgiveness of Sins, the subject on which I am to speak to you during this present Lent, is one which it can never be either unnecessary or inappropriate to consider at any time of the Christian year, and before any congregation assembled in the Church. It cannot be in appropriate, not merely because of its paramount importance; not merely because we all have and always have sins which need forgiveness; not merely because, unless and until they are
2 The Preaching of Sin
forgiven, all our worship is vain and all our work unprofitable, 1 but because this is a subject which, whether it is discussed in the pulpit or not, is persistently pressed upon our attention in the prayers; because sin and the forgiveness of sins are the very first things of which we hear both at Mattins and Evensong. If the minister of Christ does not frtach about these things, still he must always speak, and the congregation must always hear about them.
There is not a day in the year when the Church passes them by. Not merely do we publicly profess our belief in “ the Forgiveness of Sins “ in the Creed; not merely do we ask, for forgiveness every time we say the Lord’s Prayer or the Lesser Litany, but we find our selves confronted with these questions at the beginning of each Service. The opening Sentences which we hear so often, and hear, if not with indifference, at least without realizing their import, are recited to remind us of our sins; of our sins and of the conditions on which they will be forgiven. The Exhortation, again, starts with the statement that “the
i Compare Article XIII.
and its Pardon.
Scripture moveth us... to acknowledge and confess our... sins and wickedness,” and this “ to the end that we may obtain forgiveness of the same.” The General Confession, still speaking of sin, engages us to an open acknowledgment of our sins, both of omission and of commission, and puts a cry for their forgiveness into our lips, whilst the Absolution brings us a message of forgiveness; it proclaims a present pardon to all who “ truly repent, and unfeignedly believe “ God’s Holy Gospel. It is abundantly clear, therefore, that no man can join in our daily offices, not even Bishop or Archbishop, without proclaiming himself a sinner, without pleading for forgiveness and this all the year round, in Advent as well as in Lent, at our greatest festivals as on ordinary days. In the Jewish sacrifices there was “ a remembrance again made of sins every year”; l in our Christian services there is “ a remembrance again made of sins every” day.
And what is true of the Order for Morning and Evening Prayer is also true of the Divine Service, of the Order of Holy Communion. We
iHeb. x. 3.
4 The Pleaching of Sin
can no more escape the subject of Sin in the latter case than in the former. The Invitation is addressed to those, and those only, who “ do truly and earnestly repent them of their sins”, the Confession requires both priest and people to acknowledge and bewail their manifold sins and wickedness,” and, like the General Confession, it puts a prayer for the forgiveness of these sins into their mouths; the Absolution, the Comfortable Words, the Prayer of Humble Access, the very Praytr of Consecration, all speak of sins and the pardon of sins. There is an impression abroad, I believe, that “ Communicants set up for being better than other people,”
but the service flatly contradicts this outrageous idea; it insists all the way through on the many sins of those who are about to communicate, or have communicated. The only difference it recognizes between them and other worshippers is this that it requires from them additional and ampler confession of sins, and more earnest and importunate prayers for forgiveness. We can no more get away from the subject of sin at our Celebrations of Holy Communion than at other times; on the
and its Pardon.
contrary, we hear more about it then than ever.
And here let me turn aside for a moment to observe that, in putting these confessions and prayers into the lips of her children, and in thus keeping the thought of SIN for ever before their eyes, the Church only prays and worships as her Holy Lord has taught her to do. It can hardly be said that she gives greater prominence to the subject than HE did, for He inserted a petition for the forgiveness of sin into the Prayer which He prescribed to His disciples. That Prayer is remarkable for its brevity, but it comprehends a cry for pardon; of its seven petitions, one speaks of our “ trespasses “ against God and man. And it is not in the Lord’s Prayer alone that our Saviour has spoken of sin, and taught us to cry to God for its forgiveness. The Publican’s prayer contains but one petition, and that is for the remission of sins. And these prayers of our Redeemer are in strict accord, it need hardly be said, with all the spirit and aims of His religion, a religion which was introduced to the world by the preaching of a “ baptism of repentance for the
6 The Pleaching o* Sin
remission of sim” l a. religion which is to be propa gated in the world by preaching “ repentance and remission of sins, 1 “ in Christ’s Name among all the nations. 2 If the Church puts the subject of Sin in the forefront of her services, it is only because the Saviour, and the Scriptures which testify of the Saviour, do the same.
It is therefore clear that, since our services always speak of sin, and are exclusively framed for the use of sinners, it cannot be inappropriate for our sermons to treat of the same topic.
But I must also ask you to observe that it cannot be unnecessary for them so to do. I have showed that they may discourse of sin at any time; I now add that they must, at least occasionally, do so, and that, whenever they do so, no man can say that such teaching is need less. For it is to be remembered, that as every congregation consists exclusively of sinners we can never divide our congregations, as I believe the Puritans used to do, and as I under stand some preachers do still, into “ saints and sinners “: Churchmen are always required to proclaim themselves “sinners,” and nothing
1 S. M irk i. 4. 2 S. Luke xxiv. 47.
and its Pardon.
else so in every congregation, there will be some oppressed with the consciousness of sin, and yearning to be freed from its burden. We must, therefore, speak of sin, because we have to tell men how they are to be saved from their sins. But not only so, in every congregation there will be some, who, though they profess and call themselves “ sinners,” do not realize the meaning of the word; some, in fact, who have no real conviction of sin, no desire for pardon, no clear perceptions of the way of forgiveness. And their condition is far more pitiable, because much more dangerous than that of those who are conscious of sin, and crushed beneath its load. These latter, at least, know that they are sick, and that they need a physician, 1 whereas, the former are sick, but fancy that they are whole. For their sake, therefore, in order that their eyes may be opened; in order that they may be brought to penitence, and so brought to pardon, it is necessary that the pulpit should, from time to time, re-echo Christ’s and the Church’s doctrine of sin. And, whensoever the pulpit does re-echo
1 S. Luke v. 31.
8 The Pleaching o? Sin
that doctrine, no Churchman can justly maintain that such teaching is superfluous, for no one can condemn the doctrine of sin in the pulpit provided, of course, that it is CHRIST’S
doctrine of sin that is preached there without, at the same time, condemning it in the services.
But whether we are agreed or not, that to speak of sin can never be inopportune or unnecessary in the Church, we shall, I think, be agreed that there can be no more appropriate subject for the season of Lent. For what is the very purpose of Lent; why was this season instituted? What is its character and keynote? To these questions only one answer can be given. Lent is set apart because of sin; set apart for the contemplation of our own sins, for self-examination, that we may realize them; for self-humiliation, that we may renounce them. The object of all the Lenten discipline, of all the Lenten services, is to produce penitence, penitence for sin. I spoke just now of the “ keynote “ of this holy season. Would you know what that is? You have only to turn to the Lenten collect, the collect for Ash-Wednes day, which is to be said in the Church every
and its Pardon.
day of the forty, and you will see in a moment that the subject of Lent is sin sin, penitence for sin, and the pardon of sin. It is addressed to One Who doth “forgive the sins of all them that are penitent”; it asks of Him “perfect remission and forgiveness.” Can any one, in the face of these words, words which we are taught to say day by day, as long as Lent lasts, still doubt what Lent exists for? But if there should be any such person here, then let me refer him to the special service the Commination service provided for the first day of Lent.
The drift and design of that service is distinctly stated in the opening preface, “ To the intent that being admonished of the great indignation of God against sinners, ye may the rather be moved to earnest and true repentance “; and how thoroughly the rest of the service keeps these aims in view, those of you who are familiar with it know very well. Where else will you find such a solemn charge on the subject of sin, such an effort to bring our sins home to us, such pathetic confessions of sins, such importunate prayers for forgiveness?
And the Gospels and Epistles for this season
io The Pleaching of Sin
yes, and the Proper Lessons too all have the same idea in view; all treat of sin, or temptation to sin, or the propitiation for sin. I repeat, therefore, that whether the subject of sin is appropriate for consideration at all times or not, it is certainly pre-eminently suitable for consideration during the annual Missiontide of the Church (when she makes a special effort to bring her children to penitence), the season of Lent.
But you will perhaps wonder why I should spend so much time in justifying the choice which I have made of this subject. I have thought it necessary to say thus much because I cannot but know, that to the generality of minds at least, such a topic must necessarily be unpopular, if not actually painful. It can never be popular, because it treats, so to speak, of disease; because it tells of our demerits and misdoings; because it humbles us and makes us unhappy. To a serious mind instructions on sin cannot be otherwise than distressing, just as the study of disease, or rather, I should say, the discussion of the diseases under which they are themselves labouring must be terrifying, especially to men who fancied themselves
and its Pardon.
in perfect health. I have therefore thought it well to remind you that, in treating, as I have to do, of the diseases of the soul, I am only echoing the voice of the Church yes, and the voice of the Church’s Head. And I may also remind you at the same time, that I only speak of these diseases because I am able to tell of the remedy for them. My subject is not sin, so much as “the forgiveness of sins.” It would be altogether useless and profitless for us to harass you with any doctrine of sin, if we were not also prepared at the same time to exhibit its cure; to speak of the provision made by Almighty God for its full and free forgiveness. It is true that the doctrine of sin must break us down, but there is another doctrine the doctrine of grace which builds us up. We only bid you mourn in order that you may be comforted because you must mourn before you can be comforted. 1
And this brings me to the course, the method which I propose to follow in dealing with this subject. In my next sermon, I must tell you what I would spare you if I could; what I would fain pass over if I dared that all have
i S. Matt. v. 4.
12 The Pleaching of Sin
sinned, and therefore that you have sinned.
I shall do what in me lies to bring your sins home to you; I shall speak of what sin is, and suggest how we may have committed it. If I can, though only in part, “ bring your sins to your remembrance,” l I shall feel that one portion of my task has been fulfilled. In the third address I shall ask what, in view of our “ manifold sins and wickedness,” is to be done.
We shall see that sin carries with it the idea of punishment, of wrath and retribution, and we shall consider what we can do or must do to escape it. We shall ask, among other questions, whether we can undo it, or compound for it, or expiate it. This will bring us to the subject of forgiveness, when I shall tell you of God’s provision for the pardon of the penitent; of the.conditions on which and the grace by which we -nay hope to receive the remission of our sins.
I shall then turn to a different branch of the subject, namely, the assurance of our forgiveness, for I shall hope to show that God’s forgiveness and our realization of His forgiveness are two entirely different things. This
1 I Kings xvii. 18.
and its Pardon. 13
will require me to speak of the two Sacraments and of the message of Absolution. It would be strange indeed, if the forgiveness of sins could be discussed in the Church without any reference to that “ Absolution or Remision of sins” which is so prominent a feature in our services, and that “ one Baptism for the remission of sins “ which is so essential an Article of our Creed. The Absolution accordingly will be the subject of my fourth sermon, the Sacrament of Baptism of the fifth, and the Holy Communion of the sixth.
I trust by this arrangement, not indeed to bring the “ forgiveness of sins” before you in all its many aspects and relations, but to leave nothing out which it is necessary for your comfort and salvation that you should know. I venture to hope that these discourses will at least guard you against some popular errors, and guide you to a sober and scriptural faith, and that none of you after hearing them, will remain in any doubt as to what God does and requires for our forgiveness. If you are at all uncertain at the present moment as to what you “ ought to know and believe for your soul’s health “ about the remission of sins, I trust that you will remain
14 The Pfeaehing of Sin
so no longer, but will be able to say with a peace and a joy perhaps unknown to you before, “ I believe in the forgiveness of sins.”
But before I proceed further on this course of instructions, I must not fail to remind you that for the right understanding of this subject, something more is needed than the study of the Bible or the expositions of the pulpit. It is quite true that the priest of God is to preach “ repentance and remission of sins “; true that as long as the world lasts he must echo the ancient message, “ Be it known unto you, men and brethren, that through this man is preached unto you the forgiveness of sins” 1; but it is equally true that such preaching will fail of its object unless it is made effective and brought home to the heart by the supernatural power of God the Holy Ghost. I will not only ask you to consider that this is the dispensation of the Holy Spirit; that the “ other Comforter,” “the Spirit of truth,” which our Lord promised to His Church to guide it into all truth, has come to take our Saviour’s place and to carry on His work, 2 but I will ask you to remember
1 Acts xiii. 38. 2 S. John xiv. 26; xv. 26; xvi. 13.
and its Pardon. 15
*
that the subject of sin is part of His special province. You will no doubt recollect what our Lord Himself said of the Spirit’s work, when the promise of the Comforter was made, “ He shall convict the world of sin.” l And so we find that on the day of Pentecost, when the Holy Ghost was given, one of the very first results was this, that “ many were pricked to the heart.” 2 Yes, it is the prerogative of God the Holy Ghost alike to convince of sin, and to comfort the penitent. It is for this reason, no doubt, that the forgiveness of sins is mentioned in the Creed soon after the mention of the Holy Ghost; that it is classed among the works of the Holy Ghost. And so we are continuously reminded that here we have to do with a superhuman power; that the Spirit of God alone can open the blind eyes and shew us ourselves and make us to know and realize our sins. I will therefore beg you, as you hear these addresses week by week, and in your daily prayers, to ask for the gift of the Holy Ghost, that you may both know your sins and learn the way to be saved from them.
i S. John xvi. 8. 2 Acts ii. 38.
SERMON II.
The I^nouuledge of Sin.
S. LUKE v. 8.
“I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
| OR those who believe, as you do, that the Bible is true, and who see in its statements a revelation of the mind and will of God, no long or laboured proof will be necessary in order to show that all men have sinned. 1 Why, these very words are Bible words; it is the language of inspiration that “all have sinned, and come short of the glory of God “; that “ both Jews and Gentiles are all under sin “; 2 that “ there is none righteous, no not one.” 3 It is certain that “ the Scripture,”
as S. Paul reminds us, “ hath concluded all
1 Rom. iii. 23. 2 v. 9.
8 Psalm xiv. I; hii. 1-3; Rom. iii. 10 - Job
The J^noijaledge of Sin. 17
under sin,” and history does much the same.
I may therefore spare myself the trouble of demonstrating what no instructed Christian denies, namely, that, according to God’s Word, every man born into this world has the taint of sin and the tendency to it, and that every man who has lived and laboured in this world has committed many actual sins and transgressions.
If this be denied and it has been denied, both in ancient and modern times it can only be done in the teeth of God’s Holy Word. 1
But I must remind you who hear me, the children of the Church, thatjyow are committed to a belief in the depravity of man in a way which others outside the Church’s pale are not. For this doctrine is so interwoven into our various standards and services Mattins, Litany, Baptism, Catechism, Confirmation, and the rest that no Churchman can by any possibility get away from it. If others are free to say that they have no sin, you at least are not. The moment you said anything of the kind you would find yourself at issue with the plain
1 “The Christian Gospel has absolutely no meaning or power apart from the assumption that men have sinned.” (Dale, p. 216.)>
B
i8 The n ouulede of Sin.
teaching of the Church; the moment you did this you would find yourself unable to take your part in the services. The Churchman, consequently, is under a double compulsion, that of the Scripture, and that of the Prayer Book (which, indeed, is but the echo of Holy Scripture) to “ acknowledge and confess his manifold sins and wickedness.” If we have no sins we may as well burn our Bibles and Prayer Books, for we certainly cannot use them.
But it is needless to say that, between recognizing as, an abstract truth that “ all have sinned,” and that we ourselves are sinners, are verily guilty before God of many and various breaches of His law, there is a very wide difference. And not only so, but there is a very wide difference between knowing and allowing that we ourselves have sinned sinned by word and thought and deed and in any degree realizing the number and the enormity of our transgressions. A man may be very well aware that he has “ sinned and done wickedly “ the prisoners in our gaols must be aware of that, if they ever reflect on their conduct and yet may have no real conviction of sin, no sense of the
The ^nouuledge of Sin. 19
guilt which he has incurred, and the danger to which he is exposed. It must now, therefore, be my aim, with the help of God’s Holy Spirit, to bring your sins to mind, to help you to feel them, and the sinfulness of them. A great statesman 1 has said that there seems to be much less sense of sin in the land and in the Church than formerly, and a thoughtful writer 2 remarks, that “ among the Christian people with whom he has lived the consciousness of guilt has not in very many cases been strongly developed.” I am much afraid that this witness is true; indeed, I should be much surprised if it were otherwise. But if this is so, it is an additional reason for such a course of sermons as this, an additional incentive to the effort which I am now to make. Believing, as I do, that every man is in danger who does not know himself to be a sinner, and who does not earnestly seek the forgiveness of his sins, you will not wonder that I should strive to convict \-ou of sin. I am well aware that that is a painful process, but there is no help for it; it is the first step towards salvation. “ If we say
i Mr. Gladstone. 2 Dr. R. W. Dale.
20 The Knowledge of Sin.
that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves; but if we confess our sins, He is faithful and just to forgive us our sins, and to cleanse us from all unrighteousness.”
But before I enter on this task, there are two ideas more or less prevalent at the present day, prevalent at least among those who do not bow to the authority of Scripture, which demand a brief notice.
And the first is, that whilst we men appear to be free agents, and able to do almost as we like, we are really nothing of the kind, but are under an invisible constraint, under a necessity which compels us to act exactly as we do. In other words, that we can only do what we were fated and ordained to do; that all our life, and every detail of our conduct is predetermined and appointed and arranged by an unseen power or powers. This was the belief of the Marcionites, Manichees, and other early heretics, and this belief has its representatives at the present time men, too, who cite statistics to support their view. Now, if this were so, if men are absolutely mere machines, insensibly but unceasingly fulfilling the will of another,
The K^ouuledcje of Sin. 21
then there can obviously be no such thing as sin, ior how can we be blamed for doing what we cannot help doing? But is this so? Well, I shall not debate this question. I shall not attempt to prove either that we are free agents (which indeed I could not prove), or (which would be easy enough), that Holy Scripture everywhere regards us as such, 1 and that because a shorter and simpler course is open to me.
Let us allow, for the sake of argument, that we have not free will; that men act, however unconsciously, from necessity. Still, that does not prevent us from dealing with one another just as if we were free; indeed, we are compelled so to do. Here is a man who has committed a crime, say a theft, or a murder. I wonder what the judge and the jury would think, if he pleaded this law of necessity; if he excused himself on the ground that he was compelled, by fate, to act as he did. They would make short work of his philosophic speculations.
They would say, “We are not going to discuss the question whether you are really a free agent
1 “This freedom is assumed and implied in the whole substance of the Christian Gospel.” (Dale, Christian Doctrine, p. 179.)
22 The P^noxjUledge of Sin.
or not. One thing is certain, and that is quite enough for us, that we must deal with you as such. For the sake of society, for the security of life and property, we must hold you account able for what you have done. We should soon have a pretty state of things, if every thief or every cut-throat could shelter himself behind the plea that he had only done what he was fated to do. Free or not, we must hold you responsible for this crime. If you were riot free when you did it, we are very sorry for you, but we must hang you all the same. Nor can you consistently object to our hanging you, if (as you tell us is the case) men are not free agents. For if you were fated to do this deed, then we were just as much fated to call it a crime, as our law does, and to punish you accord ingly, as the law directs.” Yes, such would be and must be our answer, and will anyone tell us why the Eternal God may not take the same view of the same transactions? Why may not HE say to sinners, what we should say to felons, namely, that if they were under the necessity to sin, He is under a necessity to punish them for it; and that even if they were
The I^nou-tledge of Sin. 23
not free agents, He must, for the sake of society, for the general good, requite them as if they were.
And a similar answer may be made to those who hold the doctrine of heredity or atavism, as it is called; who contend that men are not to be blamed or punished for what they do, because sin is a sort of disease their characters and dispositions are inherited from their forefathers. Now, it is quite true that we are very much what our ancestors have made us, but that does not excuse our misconduct in the eye of the law, nor is it held to palliate our crimes.
It does not excuse us, because the law says that if we have a bad nature, from whatever source it comes to us, we must overcome that evil nature or we shall get into trouble, and experience says the same. A man, or a child, who has inherited a passionate or quarrelsome disposition is not excused on that account, but he suffers the consequences of his disposition.
People say that if he has inherited it, that is a reason for guarding against it, but no excuse whatever for giving way to it. Indeed, I have known parents punish those faults which were
24 The J^nouuledge of Sin.
inherited more severely than other faults, in order to teach their children where their special danger lay. No, we do not and we cannot exonerate any man from blame because his faults, or vices, are inherited. We cannot do it, because “ heredity does not destroy the moral consciousness,” 1 “ it is not fate”: a man is as free to correct these errors as to commit them. Nor can God do it either. He will take our parentage into account, will make large allowance for the tempers and tendencies we have brought into the world with us, but He will not acquit us of sin on the ground that we have inherited the evil and corrupt nature of those who went before us.
I have thought it well to deal briefly with these two fallacies, because, as you will have observed, they do away with sin altogether; they say there is no such thing. If these teachings are true, it is not when we “ say that we have no sin,” but when we say that we have any sin, that “ we deceive ourselves and the truth is not in us.”
I do not believe, however, that this is your
1 See Denney. Studies in Theology, pp. 0092.
The I^nouuledcje of Sin. 25
danger. You have no doubt whatever as to your being free agents, 1 and you are also well aware that you are to blame, and not your parents only. You are too conscious, more over, of your own shortcomings and misdoings; you have too many painful recollections of evil words that you have said, or evil deeds that you have wrought, to say that the Book which brands you as a sinner is all a lie. No, your danger is not to deny your sin, but to make light of it, to minimize it, to make excuses for it. And my duty is to prevent your so doing, if I can.
And why is it that men such as you, Church goers, Communicants, treat their sins so lightly?
It is principally because they do not realize what sin is. They think that it is much the same thing as crime, and being guilty of no crimes they are quite comfortable about their sins.
Now, I am very far from saying that our Church people have committed no “crimes.”
It is quite true that, with rare exceptions, they
1 “No philosophical demonstration of the theory of Necessity has ever seriously shaken this conviction.” (Dale, p. 180.)
26 The Kftouulede of Sin.
have not violated the law of the land, but are there no crimes that do not fall under the sentence of our tribunals? The law does not account it a crime to take one example to beguile a woman of the pearl of her chastity, but a shameful crime it is in God’s sight never theless. And we cannot flatter ourselves that all Church-goers are innocent of this great offence, or indeed of many more.
But what if you are not guilty either of this or of other crimes? Why, all that we can say is that it would be a shame if you were. With the training and teaching we have had, with our advantages, our environment, is it any credit that we have not committed these flagrant sins? So far from flattering ourselves because we have been preserved from deadly sin, we should rather remember that in our case such sin would have been doubly inex cusable and heinous.
Or, to put it in a different way, are not our peccadilloes, as we term them, our (so called) “little sins,” as criminal in the sight of God as the felonies and brutalities and adulteries of other men who have not eny oyed our advantages?
The Knowledge of Sin. 27
Have you ever reflected why other men are felons and you are not? Is it not because you have been taught and watched and sheltered as they were not? If you had been born and bred as they were, in an atmosphere of vice and crime, is it not probable that you would have been as abandoned as they, and if they had had your education, your nurture, might they not have been as virtuous or as respectable as you?
A magistrate, one of the best men I have ever known, once said to me that he seldom sat ort the bench and viewed the prisoner at the bar without reminding himself that if he had had that man’s training, and that man had had his advantages, their positions would in all probability have been reversed the prisoner would have been the magistrate, and the magistrate the prisoner.
You see, then, that if we are to estimate our sins aright, if we are to weigh them as they will be weighed hereafter, we must view them in the light of our opportunities and environment.
Where much has been given, much will be required. Of its the Everlasting Judge may justly expect ten times as much as of many
28 The J^nouuledcje of Sin.
others. The sin depends for its quality, its guilt, on the person who committed it, because for one man there may be much excuse, for another none. And what excuse can there be for our sins? We cannot plead ignorance; no one can say of us, “ They know not what they do.” We cannot pretend that we were never warned. We shall be reminded of our mother’s prayers, perhaps of our father’s example, of our teachers and pastors, of their many admonitions and entreaties, of the land in which we lived, of our open Bible, of our Baptism, our Confirmation, our Communions all our Church privileges.
Of us it may be said, “ Wherefore thou art in excusable, O man “; and on us the sentence of “many stripes “ may be pronounced.
But in appraising our sinfulness in the sight of God, we must not only consider who and what we are, but also what God has been to us, the God against Whom we have sinned. For, of course, it is a much more shameful and wicked thing to insult or outrage a father or a benefactor, than a common person. Even the Jewish law recognizes this “ He that curseth his father or his mother, let him die the death.”
The Knowledge of Sin. 29
But if so, what shall be said of our sins? They are so many outrages or affronts levelled at our most loving and gracious and glorious Father, against One Who in a thousand ways has been our benefactor. They are so many blows struck at our Saviour, at the One Who suffered shame and spitting, the agony and the obloquy, for uSr Of us and our sins it is said, “ They crucify the Son of God afresh and put Him to an open shame.” Yes, we nail again to the cruel crossthe gentle Sufferer Who died for our sins Who “bare our sins in His own body on the tree.”
We affront and grieve the Holy Spirit, the ever-blessed Comforter. This is the most shameful and hideous feature of our sin that it is done against the good God Who has been so gracious to us. Of course, it is committed against the God of infinite purity and righteous ness; against One Who regards sin withunspeakable loathing; it is committed against the Creator of heaven and earth, against “the blessed and only Potentate, the King of kings, and Lord of lords.” But that is not the worst.
It is committed against our Father, Saviour, Comforter. Your sins, whatever they have
30 The J^ncxjuledcje of Sin.
been, have been wrought against Him Who made you, Who has fed you, clothed you, kept you, redeemed you, adopted you, blessed you.
But I daresay you still feel no great compunction or alarm about your sins; they have been, as you think, so much less than many other people’s that you are almost comfortable about them. Then I will ask you to weigh two or three further considerations. First, I will ask you to remember that “ Whosoever shall keep the whole law, and offend only in one point, is guilty of all.” l That is to say, he is guilty of disobedience, of violation of law, of.defying God’s will. He who breaks one commandment has not thereby broken all the.commandments, but he has violated that law of which all these commandments are parts.
Secondly, I must remind you that most of your sins are sins of omission. That is why we say, ““ We have left undone what we ought to have done,” before we speak of what we have done.
Much of our complacency about our sins arises from forgetting that the sins of Christians are largely negative sins wasted time, misused
1 James ii. 10.
The Knowledge of Sin. 3 1
talents, neglected opportunities, undischarged duties. The Bible speaks of sins as “ debts.”
For how many days and } 7 ears do you owe your Creator? You are His servant, a steward of the time and talents He has entrusted to you; have you not wasted your Lord’s goods? You think you have few sins because you cannot recollect any crimes, and He says you owe ten thousand talents, because of ten thousand wasted days and hours. We owe God every moment of life, for every moment He keeps us alive.
Think then of your omissions. And think, lastly, of what we read about God’s judgment.
“He will bring every work into judgment, with every secret thing.” He will even “ make manifest the counsels of the hearts.” “ There is nothing hid that shall not be revealed, nor secret that shall not be made known.” “ Every idle word that men speak, they shall give account thereof in the day of judgment.”
“ By thy words thou shalt be justified, and by thy words thou shalt be condemned.” You think that God is merciful, and you think rightly. But God is no lessjttst than merciful.
He is “ of purer eyes than to behold iniquity,”
32 The Knouulede of Sin.
and He “will by no means clear the guilty.”
If you will consider these things, dearly beloved, honestly and patiently and prayerfully, as men who must give an account, you will come, under the teaching of the Holy Ghost, to the heartfelt confession, “ I am a sinful man, O
Lord,” and to the earnest cry, “ God be merciful to me, the sinner.”
SERMON III.
The Pardon of Sin.
PSALM xxxn. 5.
“I said, I will confess my sins unto the Lord, and so Thou forgavest the wickedness of my’s in.”
E were agreed, I believe, last Sunday, that there is not one of us without sin, and, indeed, without many sins, There is none righteous, no, not one” not the Lord Archbishop, not the impassioned mission preacher, not the incorruptible magis trate. We may, and we do, differ in many respects, but in this we are all alike, that “we have sinned and done wickedly “; that we have resisted God’s will, violated His law, broken His commands. We saw that, even if we have not committed any crimes, if we are innocent of what the world calls heinous sins,” we are
c
34 The Pardon of Sin.
still sinners, if only because of our omissions, because of the things we have left undone, the debts we owe to God for wasted hours and misused talents and slighted grace. We have not been and done what God intended us to be and to do; we have set aside His will in favour of our own, and this is the essence of sin. 1 No, I did not speak to much purpose last Sunday so far, at least, as you are concerned if I did not wring from you the confession, “ I am a sinful man, O Lord.”
And the sad and shameful thing, as we saw, is, that all this sin, of whatsoever sort, has been committed against One Who is so good and patient, so infinitely kind and compassionate.
I do not say that our sins have not injured othei’s; on the contrary, we often work harm, and we sometimes bring ruin to our neighbours by our misdoing; still, the injury we do them is as nothing compared with the dishonour and wrong which we do to our Maker. Hence it was that David, although he had done an irre parable wrong to Bathsheba, and had actually
1 See Denney, Studies in Theology, p. 92. Card. Newman desciibes wilfulness as “the cardinal sin of the human heart.”
The Pardon of Sin. 35
killed Uriah, cried, “ I have sinned against the Lord.” Every sin against self, or against our fellow-man, is also a sin against the Most High, and therefore against the Infinite Love, against the Fount of all goodness and pity and power. It is this that makes sin so exceedingly sinful.
Now this and more which I urged upon you last Sunday, is what no man can realize without heartfelt sorrow. Whether you realized your sinfulness I cannot say you certainly could not, and did not, without the operation of God’s Holy Spirit but this I can say, that if you did, it has filled you with profound sorrow. What else could it do to discover that you had lifted your hand against your Father, to find that you had wronged and wounded One so gracious and so true? Indeed, if you have now for the first time grasped the thought of your sinfulness, you will feel, for the time at least, as if nothing else in the world was worth sorrowing about nothing by the side of your sins. Worldly trials, temporal losses, even bereavements, what are they compared with this burden? As someone has written
36 The Pardon of Sin.
Weep not for broad lands lost, Weep not for fair hopes crossed, Weep not when friends grow cold, Weep not when joys wax old; Yet weep, weep all thou can, Weep, weep, because thou art A sin-defiled man.”
But the discovery that we are, really and truly, “miserable sinners” in God’s sight, that we are “ verily guilty “ before the Searcher of hearts, begets another emotion, as well as sorrow; it creates in us a godly fear, a deep anxiety and alarm. For we remember that the Being against Whom we have sinned is not only good and kind, but is just and holy and inflexible. He is “of purer eyes than to behold iniquity.” l He hates sin hates it with a hatred which we cannot comprehend. It is therefore inconceivable that He should take no account of it; in other words, that He should “ clear the guilty.” It would not only be weak, it would be wrong in Him so to do. If He were to make no distinction between the righteous and the wicked, if wrong-doing is to go unpunished, then who will trouble to do right if it suits him
l Hab. i. 13.
The Pardon of Sin. 37
to do wrong? No, the Judge of all the earth cannot pass over sin; to do so would be to put a premium upon it; it would be an indirect encouragement to it. But if so, then he cannot pass by our sins, and the less so as He has said that He will not said it in His revelation of Himself, again and again. You must be quite clear on this point, that gentle and merciful as Eternal God is perhaps because He is merciful sin excites His fierce anger, and sinners, such as we are, lie under His heavy displeasure.
Hence we find everywhere throughout the Scripture, what our Prayer Book calls “sentences of God’s cursing against impenitent sinners.” No one who has read his Bible which it seems to me comparatively few people do in these days can doubt that “ indignation and wrath, tribu lation and anguish,” are denounced against “ every soul of man that worketh evil”; 1 no one can be ignorant that “ the wages of sin is death.” “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”
Well then may we tremble and fear before Him; well may we dread the judgment to come! For this is how the matter stands: We
1 Rom. ii. 9.
The Pardon of Sin.
have sinned, and the sentence of death, of everlasting destruction from the presence of the Lord, 1 is denounced against the sinner.
What, then, are we to do to avert this terrible doom, the loss not only of heaven, but of life, of our own selves? Can it be averted, and if so, what steps can we take? Can we offer any ransom? “ What must we do to be saved “yes, saved from the guilt and punishment of sin?
Well, one thing is clear and certain, namely, what we cannot do. We cannot undo our sins, cannot alter them, cannot obliterate them.
Nothing can alter them. They have been committed, and not. even Omnipotence can recall or efface them. The past is irrevocable; like Pilate, what we have written we have written, and what we have done we have done. But cannot we make some satisfaction, some reparation or payment for them? What if for the rest of our time we live blameless lives; what if we also “go mourning all our days “? Will not that be accepted as a compensation? How can it be? For if, from this day forth we
1 2 Thess. i. 9.
The Pardon of Sin. 39
commit no fresh sin to the day of our death which is much more than we can promise to do still, that would be no expiation, no set-off against the sins which we have committed.
Innocence in the future will not make up for guilt in the past. Nor would it be any atonement if, in addition to this, we gave up our lives to the service of God and man, if we consecrated every hour to works of charity and mercy. It would be no payment, simply because it would be no more than our duty. We owe all our lives, all our powers and faculties to the service of our Creator; it is a poor thing, therefore, to say, “ I will give the last half of my time as a satisfaction for wasting the first half.” God is entitled to the whole. When we have done all the things that are commanded us, we are to say, “ We are unprofitable ser vants: we have done that which it was our duty to do.” *
So that it is clear that no man can by any means redeem his soul, or give to God a ransom for it; 2 quite clear that we “ must let that alone for ever.”
1 S. Luke xvii. 10. 2 Psalm xlix. 7.
40 The Pardon of Sin.
But is there, then, no resource, no deliverance? Yes, there is one, and only one: the God against Whom we have sinned can forgive.
He can take pity upon us, and, “ moved with compassion,” can freely forgive us our debts.
Payment is out of the question, but pardon, free and unmerited pardon, we may possibly obtain.
What if He, Who “ might the advantage best have took,” has “ found out the remedy “?
And this brings us to the very heart of my subject; we now approach the forgiveness of sins.
And here we are confronted with an objection which has been raised quite recently, and by one who perhaps knows more about it now, for he has passed to his account. 1 lie tells us that it is something like cant to talk about for giveness; that to crave it is to want that justice may not be done; it is to desire to creep out of the righteous consequences of our errors. Yes, we are told that to ask for forgiveness is pure selfishness, and to grant it is pure weakness.
Let us see whether this is so.
But first I must point out to you that no
1 Mr. Cotter Mo ison.
The Patron ^ Sin. 41
man who has any belief in the Bible could take this ground. We cannot declaim against all forgiveness without denouncing the forgiveness of which the Scripture speaks so constantly.
For, full as the Bible is of the doctrine of sin, and much as it has to say about the penalty of sin, it is equally full of a doctrine of pardon.
It is therefore impossible to challenge the morality or justice of forgiveness without at the same time arraigning the counsels and promises of God. None of you, I feel sure, can have any doubt on this point. If this new view is correct, then the parable of the Prodigal Son, for example, is misleading, and the Lord’s Prayer is mischievous.
But it is not needful for me to appeal to the Bible, or to shelter myself behind its authority, in order to overthrow this novel teaching. A shorter course is open to me: I appeal to your selves. For if it is idle to expect that God can or will forgive man can or will release him from any of the consequences of his sins, then it must be as absurd or as injurious for us to forgive one another. If our Heavenly Father may not forgive us our trespasses, then as little
42 The Pardon of Sin.
may we forgive our children, however dear and penitent and heart-broken they may be. Plainly, if it be wrong in God to pardon, it cannot be right in us, who are made in the image of God.
So that, if this new doctrine is true, you must never ask or hope for any clemency for your misdeeds not even from your dearest friend and you must never extend any pardon to others not to the wife of your bosom, not to the child of your heart; it is weak, if not wicked so to do.
Aye, but human nature sternly refuses to listen to this cold and cruel philosophy; it rebels against it and tramples it under foot.
Fallen as our nature is, it is not so hard and implacable as to deny forgiveness in any and every case; it absolutely declines so to do.
You may preach as much as you like against it, but we shall go on forgiving all the same.
Here is an illustration an extreme case. Not so long ago there was, I believe, a picture in a London exhibition which attracted much attention, the picture of a ruined, broken hearted girl, with shame and misery stamped on every feature, and it was entitled “ Betrayed.”
The Pardon of Sin. 43
And it was stated as a fact that the artist who painted it was the cold-blooded wretch whohad ruined this poor child, and then had drawn her suffering and dishonour from the life. Now, whether this was really so does not matter for our present purpose; I will ask you to suppose that it was so, and further, that it was your daughter or your sister that had thus fallen.
Let us further suppose that, scorned and cast adrift and ready to perish, she sends to you from her garret entreating your forgiveness you see she does not know that it is immoral to forgive anyhow, she asks for one word of love and pity. Do you mean to say that you would refuse it? No, you would not, unless you were as cold as stone; you could not, if the poor thing confessed her error and implored your pity and pardon. No father worthy of the name could do such a thing; he would take her back, soiled as she was, would cherish her till she died, w r ould leave nothing undone to mitigate her sufferings. It is in vain you tell him that he is doing harm by his weakness, he will do it all the same; many men have done it But that is not all. What if the betrayer, the
44 The Pardon of Sin.
destroyer too, sent to you from his dying bed, imploring you to say one word of mercy before he passed away. What if he acknowledged how vile he had been, and proclaimed himself quite unworthy of your notice; what if he said that he could never forgive himself, but still would fain die at peace with all men; that he wanted nothing from you but your bare forgiveness, do you mean to tell me that you would refuse it? Well, you might do so, but you would only dishonour yourself if you did.
But I do not think you would; I think you would say that if the poor wretch was truly penitent, you were not going to harbour resentment against him to the very gates of death.
Yes, even in so extreme a case as that you would probably forgive, and the more magnani mous you were, the more likely you would be to; forgive, and the more freely you forgave, the more all good men would honour and respect you. And yet we are told that it is idle to expect forgiveness; idle to dream of escaping a single consequence of our sin. But it is not so.
That we, “ being evil,” nevertheless forgive, that we cannot help forgiving, is a proof that the
The Pardon of Sin. 45
Heavenly Father, Whose thoughts are so far ab we our thoughts, will do the same. There was true logic in what a dying man, who had almost broken his wife’s heart by his cruelty, said once, “ I think God will forgive me because my poor wife has forgiven me, has forgiven all.”
The idea was, you see, that God could not be less merciful than man. It would put God to shame if His creatures were more compassionate than He
But enough of this objection. I must now remind you and this is a thing which few of us realize that God loves to forgive; that He never cherishes a grudge, as we do; that His “ nature and property is always to have mercy.”
I must remind you that not only is the Blessed One a thousand times more ready to forgive than we are, but that He is also a thousand times more anxious to forgive than we are to be forgiven. We constantly speak as if it were difficult to persuade God to pardon us, as if we had to wrestle and to pray before He would yield, whereas the difficulty is entirely on our part; it lies here, that we do not really care to be forgiven. He is always ready, always wait-
46 The Pardon of Sin.
ing to be gracious; He knocks at our door, rather than we at His. The Shepherd goes after the lost sheep, not the sheep after the Shepherd. If forgiveness is not granted us, it is only because we are not ready for forgiveness; only because we put obstacles in the way. But this brings me to my last point What are the conditions of forgiveness? When, and on what terms does the Almighty and Most Merciful God pardon the sins which we can never alter, and for which we can never atone?
Now, I have spoken of “ conditions, but really and truly there is but one the very same on which we ourselves forgive others. God, for Christ’s sake, forgives sin, when men are penitent for their sins. He asks for nothing more.
I do not mean to say, of course, that we can be forgiven without faith, but I must ask you to observe that true penitence involves andpresupposes faith, or at least the measure of faith which is necessary to salvation. The belief that God is, and is the Rewarder of them that seek Him, 1 is included in real penitence. A man
i Ileb. xi. 6.
The Pardon of Sin. 47
cannot be sorry that he has sinned against God if he does not believe in a God; nor will he be sorry that he has sinned against One Who is hard as iron, and does not listen to the penitent’s cry. If I do not therefore insist on faith, on belief in God, as one condition of pardon, it is only because such faith is implied in real and scriptural repentance.
Nor do I forget that confession and obedience, as well as faith, are necessary to forgiveness, but each of these, like faith, is involved in a genuine repentance. That is no repentance at all which does not carry with it the acknowledgment of the wrong done, and the fixed resolve to do better. No man can be sorry for his sins who is too proud to own to them, or who means to sin again, or who denies forgiveness to others.
And when I say that penitence is all that God demands from us, I do not overlook what He has demanded from our Saviour; I do not forget what the Son of God has done and suffered for our pardon; but it does not concern me to discuss that at this moment. Every Churchman surely knows that “ He is the pro-
48 The Pardon of Sin.
pitiation for our sins “; l that our sins are forgiven us “ for His Name’s sake “; 2 that remission of sins is to be preached in His Name, 3 and so forth. But I am not treating of His atonement now; I shall refer to that here after. I am now speaking of what God requires of us, and I repeat that all that He demands from us is penitence penitence, and all that that implies. Do you need proof of this?
Then let me remind you that all through the Old Testament pardon is promised to the Jews on their repentance. The baptism of John, again, was a “ baptism of repentance for the remission of sins.” 4 Our Lord’s mission was to call sinners to repentance; 5 and He ordained that “repentance and remission of sins should be preached in His Name unto all the nations.” G
During His lifetime His Apostles “preached everywhere that men should repent, “ 7 and on the Day of Pentecost S. Peter’s message was, “Repent and be baptized every one of you,.
for the remission of sins.” 8 A little later it takes this shape, “Repent and turn again, that your
1 I John ii. 2. 2 Ib. ii. 12. 3 S. Luke xxiv. 47.
4 S. Mark i. 4. 5 15. ii. 17. 6 s. Luke xxiv. 47.
1 S. Mark vi. 12. R Acts ii. 38.
The Pardon of Sin. 49
sins may be blotted out.” x I might easily multiply these quotations, but I will content myself with two more; I will remind you that the man who did repent, who merely cried, “God be merciful to me, a sinner” this man “ went down to his house justified “; and I will also remind you that Christ has taught us, if our brother sin against us seven times a day, we are to forgive him as often as he repents.
I conclude, therefore, and I conclude on the plain warrants of Holy Writ, that we who have sinned, if we will repent, shall forthwith receive remission of sins. Not because there is any merit or virtue in repentance, but just because impenitence hinders forgiveness, it makes it impossible. God cannot forgive the man who is impenitent, for that man will presently sin again. He cannot forgive, much as He longs so to do, because there is an obstacle in the way.
Repentance removes that obstacle; it opens the door to the exercise of God’s forgiving grace.
The moment we repent we are pardoned.
I do not say that pardon is forthwith conveyed to us; that is another matter, as I shall
1 Acts iii. 19.
D
50 The Pardon of Sin.
show you in a future sermon, but I do affirm that in the counsels of God, the man who repents is forthwith forgiven. The anger of God against sinners is turned away from him; the doom of the sinner is no longer denounced against him; in the view of God he is justified.”
He is penitent that is enough. And this, let me remind you, is the teaching of the Ash Wednesday Collect, the Lenten Collect, we may call it. Its message is that Almighty God forgives “ all them that are penitent,”
And this message I would leave with you to-day and what a gospel message it is! that there is “perfect remission and forgiveness”
perfect, not partial; present, not future forgiveness for the repentant soul. There is not one of us can humbly and heartily “ confess his sins unto the Lord “ and this we cannot do without the help of the Holy Spirit: repentance is God’s gift l not one can truly repent without immediate pardon. How immediate, how sure and certain it is, my text testifies. “ I said, I will confess my transgressions unto the Lord and Thouforgaverf the iniquity of my sin! “
1 Acts v. 21; xi. 18; 2 Tim. ii. 25.
SERMON IV.
The Absolution of Remission of Sins.
S. JOHN xx. 23
“ Whosesoever sins ye remit, they are remitted unto them; and whosesoever sins ye retain, they are retained.”
|N the three preceding sermons I have spoken of sin and of its forgiveness.
I now enter on a different part of my subject: I have now to speak of the conveyance and assurance of forgiveness; of those means of grace which are ordained of God as instruments whereby we receive the remission of sins, and as pledges to assure us thereof. And the first of these, which alone I can consider to-day, is the message of ABSOLUTION.
But I am reluctant to pass away from the subject of Forgiveness, properly so called, with-
52 The Absolution
out a brief review of what we have already learnt on this great question, and a brief reference to one or two main points. And there is the more reason for this, because, no doubt, some who are here to-day have not been present before when this question has been considered, and there is perhaps no doctrine of our religion which it is more necessary for them to under stand.
I. We have seen, then, in the first place, that all men are sinners; we have also learned, as I hope, by the teaching of the Holy Ghost, Who alone can “ convict the world of sin,” 1 that we ourselves are sinners, “ miserable sinners “ in God’s sight. We often confess ourselves to be such, we of the Church at any rate: we confess it at Mattins and Evensong, in Litany and Communion Office. If we are not sinners and great sinners, we are constantly saying in the presence of God what is distinctly untrue.
But I can hardly believe that any of you dream of denying that you have sinned; sinned by omission and commission; sinned by thought, and word, and deed; sinned in your best deeds
IS. John xvi. 8.
of Remission of Sins. 53
<