Man is not straitened upon the side of the Divine mercy.  The obstacle in the way of his salvation is in himself; and the particular, fatal obstacle consists in the fact that he does not feel that he needs mercy.  God in Christ stands ready to pardon, but man the sinner stands up before Him like the besotted criminal in our courts of law, with no feeling upon the subject.  The Judge assures him that He has a boundless grace and clemency to bestow, but the stolid hardened man is not even aware that he has committed a dreadful crime, and needs grace and clemency.  There is food in infinite abundance, but no hunger upon the part of man.  The water of life is flowing by in torrents, but men have no thirst.  In this state of things, nothing can be done, but to pass a sentence of condemnation.  God cannot forgive a being who does not even know that he needs to be forgiven.  Knowledge then, self-knowledge, is the great requisite; and the want of it is the cause of perdition.  This “reasoning together” with God, respecting our past and present character and conduct, is the first step to be taken by any one who would make preparation for eternity.  As soon as we come to a right understanding of our lost and guilty condition, we shall cry:  “Be merciful to me a sinner; create within me a clean heart, O God.”  Without such an understanding,—­such an intelligent perception of our sin and guilt,—­we never shall, and we never can.

[Footnote 1:  SHAKSPEARE:  Hamlet, Act iii.  Sc. 4.]

[Footnote 2:  MILTON:  Comus, 597-599.]

SIN IS SPIRITUAL SLAVERY

John viii. 34.—­“Jesus answered them, Verily, verily I say unto you, whosoever committeth sin is the servant of sin.”

The word [Greek:  doulos] which is translated “servant,” in the text, literally signifies a slave; and the thought which our Lord actually conveyed to those who heard Him is, “Whosoever committeth sin is the slave of sin.”  The apostle Peter, in that second Epistle of his which is so full of terse and terrible description of the effects of unbridled sensuality upon the human will, expresses the same truth.  Speaking of the influence of those corrupting and licentious men who have “eyes full of adultery, and that cannot cease from sin,” he remarks that while they promise their dupes “liberty, they themselves are the servants [slaves] of corruption:  for of whom a man is overcome, of the same is he brought in bondage.”

Such passages as these, of which there are a great number in the Bible, direct attention to the fact that sin contains an element of servitude,—­that in the very act of transgressing the law of God there is a reflex action of the human will upon itself, whereby it becomes less able than before to keep that law.  Sin is the suicidal action of the human will.  It destroys the power to do right, which is man’s true freedom.  The effect of vicious