of law, though there can be of a creature’s character and inclination.  Heaven and earth shall pass away, but the commandment of God can never pass away.  The only other mode, therefore, by which duty and inclination can be brought into agreement, and the continual sense of restraint which renders man so wretched be removed, is to change the inclination.  The instant the desires and affections of our hearts are transformed, so that they accord with the Divine law, the conflict between our will and our conscience is at an end.  When I come to love the law of holiness and delight in it, to obey it is simply to follow out my inclination.  And this, we have seen, is to be happy.

But such is not the state of things, in the unrenewed soul.  Duty and inclination are in conflict.  Man’s desires appetites and tendencies are in one direction, and his conscience is in the other.  The sense of duty holds a whip over him.  He yields to his sinful inclination, finds a momentary pleasure in so doing, and then feels the stings of the scorpion-lash.  We see this operation in a very plain and striking manner, if we select an instance where the appetite is very strong, and the voice of conscience is very loud.  Take, for example, that particular sin which most easily besets an individual.  Every man has such a sin, and knows what it is, Let him call to mind the innumerable instances in which that particular temptation has assailed him, and he will be startled to discover how many thousands of times the sense of duty has put a restraint upon him.  Though not in every single instance, yet in hundreds and hundreds of cases, the law of God has uttered the, “Thou shalt not,” and endeavored to prevent the consummation of that sin.  And what a wearisome experience is this.  A continual forth-putting of an unlawful desire, and an almost incessant check upon it, from a law which is hated but which is feared.  For such is the attitude of the natural heart toward the commandment.  “The carnal mind is enmity against the law of God.”  The two are contrary to one another; so that when the heart goes out in its inclination, it is immediately hindered and opposed by the law.  Sometimes the collision between them is terrible, and the soul becomes; an arena of tumultuous passions.  The heart and will are intensely determined to do wrong, while the conscience is unyielding and uncompromising, and utters its denunciations, and thunders its warnings.  And what a dreadful destiny awaits that soul, in whom this conflict and collision between the dictates of conscience, and the desires of the heart, is to be eternal! for whom, through all eternity, the holy law of God, which was ordained to life peace and joy, shall be found to be unto death and woe immeasurable!

II.  In the second place, the sense of duty is a pain and sorrow to a sinful man, because it demands a perpetual effort from him.