The conviction of sin, with what it includes and leads to, is of more worth to man than all other convictions.  Conviction of any sort,—­a living practical consciousness of any kind,—­is of great value, because it is only this species of knowledge that moves mankind.  Convince a man, that is, give him a consciousness, of the truth of a principle in politics, in trade, or in religion, and you actuate him politically, commercially, or religiously.  Convince a criminal of his crime, that is, endue him with a conscious feeling of his criminality, and you make him burn with electric fire.  A convicted man is a man thoroughly conscious; and a thoroughly conscious man is a deeply moved one.  And this is true, with emphasis, of the conviction of sin.  This consciousness produces a deeper and more lasting effect than all others.  Convince a community of the justice or injustice of a certain class of political principles, and you stir it very deeply, and broadly, as the history of all democracies clearly shows; but let society be once convinced of sin before the holy and righteous God, and deep calleth unto deep, all the waters are moved.  Never is a mass of human beings so centrally stirred, as when the Spirit of God is poured out upon it, and from no movement in human society do such lasting and blessed consequences flow, as from a genuine revival of religion.

But here again, as in reference to the eternal state, there is no realizing sense.  Conviction of sin is not a characteristic of mankind at large.  Men generally will acknowledge in words that they are sinners, but they wait for some far-distant day to come, when they shall be pricked in the heart, and feel the truth of what they say.  Men generally are not conscious of the dreadful reality of sin, any more than they are of the solemn reality of eternity.  A deep insensibility, in this respect also, precludes a practical knowledge of that guilt in the soul, which, if unpardoned and unremoved, will just as surely ruin it as God lives and the soul is immortal.  Since, then, if man be left to his own inclination, he never will be convinced of sin, it is plain that some Agent who has the power must overcome his aversion to self-knowledge, and bring him to consciousness upon this unwelcome subject.  If any one of us, for the remainder of our days, should be given over to that ordinary indifference towards sin with which we walk these streets, and transact business, and enjoy life; if God’s truth should never again in this world stab the conscience, and God’s Spirit should never again make us anxious; is it not infallibly certain that the future would be as the past, and that we should go through this “accepted time and day of salvation” unconvicted and therefore unconverted?