MORAL CONSEQUENCES OF SINGLE SINS.
NUMBERS xxxii. 23. "Be sure your sin will find you out."
H[ is one of those passages in the inspired writings, which, though introduced on a particular occasion and with a limited meaning, express a general truth, such as we seem at once to feel as being far greater than the context re(luires, and which we use apal from it. Moses warned the Reubenites and Gadites, that, if they, who had already been allotted their inheritance, did hot assist their brethren in gaining theirs, their sin would ind them out, or be visited on them. And, while he so npoke, He who spoke through him, God, the Holy Spirit, conveyed, as we believe, a deeper meaning under his words, for the edification of His Church to the end; riz., He intimated that great law of God's gover,mnce, to which all who study that governance will bear witness, that sin is ever followed by punishment. Day and night follow each other hOt more surely, than punishment cornes upon sin. Whether the sin be great or little, momentary or habitual, wilful or through infirmity, its own peculiar punishmeut seems, according to the law of nat.ure, to foow, as far as out experienee of that law carries us,sooner or later, lightcr or leavier, as the case may be. We Christ.ians indeed are under a Dispensation of grace, and are blessed with a certain suspension of tlis awful law of natural religion. The lflood of Christ, as St. Jolm says, is of sueh wonderful eeaey as to "eleanse us from M1 sin;" to interpose between out sin and its lmnishment, and to wipe out the former belote the latter has overtaken us. Tlis inestimable benefit is applicd to out souls in various ways, aeeording to God's inscrutable pleasure; and so far as this is tle case, it supmsedes or reverses the law of nature whiel lins annexed snffering to disobedienee. But, lmwever eçetually and extensively if is applied, sti experienee assures us that it is hot yet vouehsafed to us in full measure and under a eireumstmees. I is an undeniable fact still, that penitents, however truly sueh, are not seeured from the present eonsequenees of their past offenees, whether outward or inward, in mind, body, or estate. And we know that there are cases in whicl Christians fall away and do hot repent again. Nay, we have reason for sa,ing that those who sin after graee given, are, as such, in a worse state tlmn if they lad hot reeeived if. Great, then, as are out privfleges under the Gospel, they in no degree supersede the force and the serious warning of the words in tle text. StiH it is truc, and in many frigltfM ways, nay more so even than belote Christ died, that out sin finds us out, and brings punishment after it, in due course; just as a stone falls fo the earth, or as tire burns, or as poison kills, as if by the necessary bond of cause and eflct. The text leads us fo consider the consequences of a single sin, such as a breach of their engagement would have been in the Reubenites and Gadites; and to naïrow the subject, I shall speak only of the moral cousequences. Let us then consider the influence which single sins, past or present, may have on our present moral character in God's sight; how great it may be, will be plaiu ri'oto such reflections as the Ibllowing:- And first of all, it is natural to reflect on the probable influence upon us of sins committed in out childhood, and even infancy, vhich we never realized or have altogether forgotten. Ignorant as ve may be when children begin fo be responsilfle beings, yet we are ignorant also when they are not so; lor ean we assign a date ever so early af which they certainly are hot. And even the latest assignable date is very early; and thenceforward, whatever fliey do exerts, we cannot doubt, a most momentous influence on their character. We know that two lines starting af a small angle, diverge to greater and greater distances, the thrther they are produced; and surely in like manner a sotrl living on into eternity may be infinitely changed for the better or the worse by very slight influences exerted on if in the beginning of ifs course. A very slight deviatio, at setting out may be the measure of the difference between tending fo hell and tending fo heaven. To give due veight to this thought, we should recollect that children's minds are iml»ressible i1 a very
4o A[ora! Coiscicuccs singular way, snch as is no common afterwards. The passing" occurrences whieh mee them, these, whether from their novelty or oflxer cause, res upon tbeir iraaginat.i,n, as if flmy had duration; and days or hours, Imving fo them the semblance, nmy do the work of years. Any one, on casting his thoughts back on his first years, may conviace himself of this; the character, which his childhood bears in his menmry as a whole, being traceable to a few external circumstances, which lasted through a vcry small portiou t»f it, a certain abode, or a visit fo some particular place, or the t)resente -f certain 1)ersons, or sonle one spring or summer, —circumstances which he at first cannot believe fo have becn so transitory as on examination he finds they certainly were. On the other hand, let if be observed, that we are certainly ignorant of a -eat deal that goes on in ns in infancy and childhood; I meau our illnesses and surferilgs as children, which we are either hot conscions of af the rime, or at any rate forger soon afterwards;—which yet are of a very serious nature, and while they must lmvc a moral cause, known or unknown, must, one would think, have a moral effect also; and while they suggest by their occurrence the possibility of other serious things going on in us also, have moreover,n natur,nl tendency fo aflct us in some way or other. Mysterious as if is that infants and children should surfer pain, surely if is hot less so that, when they corne to years of reason, they should so forger if, as hardly fo be able fo believe, when told of it, that they themselves were the very sufferers; yet as sicknesses and accidents then happening permanently affect their body, though they recollect nothing of them, there is no extravagance in the idea that passing sins then contracted and forgotten for ever afterwards, should so affect the soul as to cause those moral differences between man and man which, however originating, are too clear to be denied. And with this fearful thought before us of the responsibility attaching fo the first years of our life, how miserable is it fo reflect on the other hand that children are commonly tated as if they were not responsille, as if if did not marrer what they did or were! They are indulged, humoured, spoiled, or af best neglected. Bad examples are set them; things are done or said before them, which they understand and catch up, when others least think it, and store in their minds, or act upon; and thus the indelible hues of sin and error arc imprinted on their souls, and become as really part of their nature as that original sin in which they were born. And what is true in infancy and childhood, is in its degree true in after life. Though our earliest years have especially the characteristic of being impressible by outward things, and of being unconscious or forgetfifl of them, yet af particular seasons afterwards, when the mind is excited, thrown out of ifs ordinary state, thrown for a whfle out of its subjection to habit, as if into that original unformed state when if was more free fo choose good and evil, then in like manner it takes imlo'essions, and those indelible ones, and withal almost unconsciously, after the manner of childhood. This is one reason why a rime of trial is often such a crisis in a man's spiritual history. It is a season when the iron is heated and
42 [or«l Cozseqztcezccs malleable; one or two strokes serve fo fashion i as a weapon for God or fi_,r qatan. Or in other words, if a man is then tken at mmwares, an apparently small sin leads fo consequences in years and ages to corne so feart'ul, that one can hardly dare contemplate them. This may serve to make us understand the shortness and apparent simplicity of the trial which is sometimes represented in Script,tre as sealing the fate of those who succumb to it; Saul's trial, for instance, or Esau's; as ou the other hand, iudefinitely great results may follow t'rm oue act of ol,edience, as Joseph's in resisting his mastcr's wife, or ])avid's in sparing the life of Saul. Such great occasions, good or e'il, occur a.ll through lire, but Csl,ecially in youth; and it were well if young 10ersons would realize that they do occur and are momentous. Alas! what would they give afterwards, when they corne to repent (hot to speak of that most awful season, the future judgment, when they stand before God, and are shortly to enter heaven or hell), hot to have done what in a moment of excitement they did—to recal the blasphemous aw)wal, or the guilty deed—to be what they then were and now are hot, free to serve God, free from the brand and the yoke of Satan! Hov will they bitterly bewail th,-tt fascination, or delirium, or sophistry, which marie them what they need hot have been, had they used against it the arms which Christ gave them! tut to return:—fo these single or forgotten sins, such as I have described them, are hot improbably fo be traced the st.range inconsistencies of character which we often witness in our experience of life. I mean, you meet ontinually with nen possessed of a number of good points, amiable and excellent nen, yet in one respect perhaps strangely perverted. And you cmmot more theln, or succeed af all with them, but must leave them as you find them. l'erhaps they are weak and over indflgent towards others, l»erhaps they are harsh, perhaps they are obstinate, perhaps they are perversely wedded to Solne wrong opinion, pel'haps they are irresolute and undecided,—some fault or other they have, and you lainent if, but cannot lnend it, and are ol,]iged to take them for what they are, and be resigned, h,,wever you nmy regret, lXIen are SOlnetimes so good and so great, that one is led to exclaim, Oh that they were only a little better, and a little greater! This indeed is all the difference between being a true saint of God, and a second rate or third rate Christian. Few men are great saints. There is always a SOlnething; I ara hot speaking of wilfifl or adlnitted sins— sins against the conscience (they of course exclude a man altogether from any hope), but of a defect of view a.nd principle, a perversion of character. This is the COlnlnon case even with the better sort of Christians; they are deformed in stature, they are hot upright, they do hot walk perfectly with God. And you cannot tell why it is;—they have ever lived religiously,—they have been removed from temptation, had good training and instruction, and they fiflfil their callillg, are good hnsbands or wives, good parents, good neighbours,—still wheu you corne to kuow theln wel], there is in them this or that great inconsistency. This consideration lnoreover tends to accourir for the strange way in which defects of character are buried in a man. He goes on, for years perhaps, and no one ever discovers his particular failings, nor does he know them himself; till at length he is brought int.o certain circumstances, which bring them out. Hence men turn out so very differently from wbat was expected; and we are seldom able to tell beforehand of amther, and scarcely ever dare we tromise for ourselves, as regards the future. The 1)roverb, for instance, says, power tries a man; so d riches, so do various changes of life. We find that after a.ll, we do not kmw him, though we have been acquainted with him fir years. We are disal)pointed, nay sometimes startled, as if he had a]most lost his identity; whereas perchance it is but the coming to ]ight of sins conmlitted long before we knew ]lim. Again: single sins iudulged or neglected are often the cause of other defects of character, which seem to bave no connexion with them, but which after ail are rather symptolnatic of the former, than themselves af the bottom of the mischief. This is genemlly acknowledged as regards a sceptical retaper of mind,,a'hich commonly is assailed by argument in vain, tire root of the evil lying deeper, riz., in habits of vice, which however the guilty parties strenuously maintain to be quite a distinct marrer, to relate to their conduct, and to bave no influence whatever Ul)on their reason or their opinions. And the saine thing perhaps holds true in other cases; softness of lnind and mammr and false refinement may sometimes be the result of allowing ourselves in impure thoughts; or wanderings in prayer may have some sultle connexion with self-conceit; or passionateness may owe its power over us to indulgence, though without exeess, in eating and drinking. 1 mn hot conneeting these several sins together as if in the way of cause and effect, but stating a connexion which somerimes holds in marrer of faet, however we aeeount for it. Now I wfll proeeed to consider the existence of single sins, and the state of persons labouring under them, in another point of view. I sup1)ose there are few persons indeed, if any, but have some besetting sin or other, some infirlnity, some temptation; and in resisting this lies their trial. Now a man may be very religious all ut this one infinnity, and this one indulged infirmity may in eonseqtence be producing most distressing effects on his spiritual state eonsidered both in itself and in God's sight, without his being aware of if. Suppose, for instance, that a man is naturally resentful and unforgiving. He may, in spire of this, bave a geat nmnber of excellenees, very high views, very deeply seated principles, very great points, geat self-devotion to God's service, great faith, great sanctity. I can fancy sueh a persou ahnost arguing himself out of Ms owu conviction, that he is fostering the secret sin in question, from his eonsciousness of his own integrity, and his devotional spirit in the general round of his duties. There are sins whieh when committed, so aeutely distress the mind, that they are far less dangerous to it tlmn their intrinsie heinousness would otherwise make them. Never must we undervalue of course the extreme misery and guilt of evil thoughts whieh are often indulged by the young; still afterwards they fill a person with remorse, and are clamorous for his repentance,
46 A[ora! Cozsequc«ccs and before he repents they so burden him, hat he bas no ese, no satisfaction. He cannot go about his ordinory duties as before: and, while all this is felt, great as is their sinfidness, they st-ike no secret blow, but iii a certain sense counteract their own effects. But far different is it with covetousness, conceit, ambition, or resentment, which is the particular sin I ana speaking of. It lnay have ten thousand palliations; it lnay be disguised by fait names; it affects the conscience only now and then, for a moment, and that is all; the pang is st,.u over. The pang is momentary, but the case and satisfaction and harlnony of mind, arising from the person's exact performance of lais general duties, are abiding guests within hiln. Whatever lais duties are, this consciousness is with him: he is honest, just, temperate, seFdenying; he mixes with others, and is perhaps meek and lwly, unassunfing and affectionate, or, if need be, firm, clearsighted in lnatters of prineiple, zealous in conduct, pure in his motives. He enters God's house, and lais heart responds to what he secs and hears there. He seems fo himself to be able to say, "Thou, God, seest me!" as if he had no secret fault at all in his heart. He prays as cahnly and seriously as before; he feels, as before, lais heaoE drawn upwards by his Lord's history, or the l'salms of David. He is conscious to hilnself that he is not of this world. He humbly trusts that there is nothing in this world (through God's ace) that can tglnpt lais heart from his God and Saviour. Do you hot sec how lais imagination is affected by all this? he is in the main what he thinks he is; he thinks himseF devoted to God in all active services, in all inward thoughts;
and so he is. He is hot wrong in flfinking so; but in spire of all this, he bas just one fault in a different direction,—there is a fault out of sight. He forgets, tlmt in spire of this harlnony between ail within and all without for twenty-three hours of le day, there is one subject, now and then recurring, which jars with his mind,—there is just one string out of tune. Some par- iculr person has injured him or dishonoured him, and a few minutes of each dy or of each week, are given to the indulgence of harsh, unforgiving thoughts, which at first he suspected were what they really are, sinflfl, but which he has gradully learned to palliate, or ra.ther account for, on other principles, to refer to other motives, to justi" on religious or other gxounds. Solomon says, "Dead flies cause the oiltlnent of the pothecary to send forth a stinking savour; so doth a little folly him that is in reputation for wisdom and honour." Alas! who can pretend to estimate the effect of this apparently slight trnsmession upon the spiritual state of any one of us? Who c.n pretend o say wh,t the effect of itis in God's sight? What do the Angels think of it? What does our own guardian Angel, if one be vouchsafed us, who bas vatched over us, and been intimate with us groin out youth up; who joyed to see how we once grew together with God's trace, but who now is in fear for us? Alas! what is he real condition of out heart itself? I)ead bodies keep their Vl'lnth short time; and who can tell but a soul so circumstanced may be severed from the gxace of the 0rdinances, though he partakes theln outwardly, and is but existing upçm Eccl. x. 1.
4 8 Ioral Coizscq«tcl«ccs und exlmusting the small treasure of srengh nd fife which is laid up wihin him? Nay, we know lm so really is, if tire sin be delibeme and wilfitl; for word of Seripure ssures us ha sueh sin shuts us ou from God's presence, and obstrues he chammls by which He gives us graee. Consider ag'ain, how miserable a ealamiy nmy from such a cause be infliced on a whole Church. The intercessions of the gins are tire life of the Church. The altos and good works, the prayers and fastings, the purity, the sric eonseieniousness, the devotion of truc bclievers, high and low, are our safety and protect, ion. When Saa.n then would affiic her in any of ber branches, he begins doubtless by atemptiug o rob her of that in which her strength lies. He has gined point whenever he can entangle religious persons some deliberate sin, when he can rouse their pride, inflame their resentment, aEure their covetousness, or feed their ambitious hopes. One sin is enough: his work is done, when he can put one single obstacle in their road; and there he leaves if, satisfied. And let it be obsewed, this applies both to the case of individuals and of tire Church itself at a given time. For what we know, at this very rime Satan may lmve succeeded in attaching some sin upon us as a people, which is workhg out destruction, in spite of whatever good points we may really have besicles. Love of the world's good tlfings, for instance, may be sucient to ruin many graces. As to individuals, the case of Achan is quite ia pot, as you must weE recollect. His one s, secreting from among the spofls of Jericho a goodly Babylonish gar- of Sinle Sins. 49 men and some gold nd silver, brough defea upon he forces of Israd, and next death upon himself, and death UpOl1 his sons and his daughters. Let us hot think that God's providence is materially different nov, because we do hOt hapl_,en to sec it. The chief diflçrence between His dealings 4th Jews and with Christians is surely but this: they were visible fo the one, to the other invisible. We do hot sce the effects of tlis wrath now as then, but they are as real, and more terril,le as being proportioned to fle greatness of the privileges abused. And here I will notice another instance, as it may be considered, of a disobedience in one particular only, which sometimes consists with nmch excellence in other respects; that of sepa.ration or alienation from the Church. XXen we COlne across persons who have seceded from fle Church, or who actively oppose her, or who disbelieve some of her doctrines, it may sometimes happen that we sec so much of good prciple and right conduct in them, as tobe perplexed, and fo begin to ask ourselves whether they can be very -ong in theh" optons, or whether they themselves gain any harm from them. Now here let it be observed, I ara speaking of those who go cmmter to the truth, when they might have known better. Again, I would hot have you forget that the higher gifts of grace are altogether unseen, as well as the inflictions of God's ath; but st let us speak of what is seen in those who dehberately oppose the Church. I say our imagination is likely to be affected by what appears in theln of faith and holiness; and much more the imagination of the persons themselves, who often bave no doubt whatever that they are in God's f,vour. I repeat, I ara speaking of those whom (Iod secs to be wilfifl in their separation; and though we eannot know who are sueh, and therefore ean t)ro - nounee judgment absolutely on no one, yet I would have ail those who are thrown with persons who, being separatists, may be such, to hear in mind that theh" seeming to ],e 1,,ly and religious ever so much, does not prove they are really so, supposing they have this one secret sh, chargeahle upon them in God's books. Just as a man may he in good health, may have his arms and hands his own, his head elear, his mi,,d active, and yet nmy just have one organ diseased, and the disease hot at once appear, but be latent, and yet be mortal, bringing certain death in the event, so lnay it be with them. As, in the instance just now taken, a man may be upright and noble-minded, wih a single purpose and a high resoluteness, kind and gentle, self-denying and charitable, and yeg towards one cerf.aih individual may eherish feelings of revenge, and thereby show that some prineit)le short of the love of God rules his heart,—so may it be with those who seem o be good men, and wfl%lly leave the Chureh. Their religious exeeilenees, whatever these nmy be, are of no avail really against this or any other wilful sin.
To conclude. I lmve suggesed but one or two houghts on a very large subject, yet through God's mercy they may be useful. They must be useful, if they lead us fo be frightened at ourselves. "Who can undersand his en'ors?" says holy Daid. "Cleanse Thou me from secret fattlts." And how awful is the of text, "Your sin will find you out!" Who tan undertake to say for himself wlmt und when lmve been his wflful sins, how fi'equenfly they recur, und hw contimmlly in consequence he is falling from gmce t What need bave we of u cleansing and a restoration day by dy Whut need have we of drawing near fo Goal iith and penitence, to seek from Him such pardon, such assurance, such strength, s He wfll vouchsufe fo bestow Wlmt need have we to continue in His presence, to remuin under the shndow of ]Iis tlmne, fo nmke use of all the means and expedients He allows us, fo be steudfst in His Ordinances, and zealous in His precepts, lest we be found shelterless nd helpless when visits the earth t hIoreover, wlmt constant pmyers should we offer up to Him that He wonld be merciful fo us in the dreadful dny of judgment It will indeed be u feurful moment when we stand before Him in the sight of men and Angels, to be judged accortSug to out works! It wfll be fearful for ourselves and for all our t¥iends. Then the day of grace wiH be over; prayers will hot avail then, when the books are opened. Let us then plead for ourselves and for each other while it is called to-day. t us pray Him, by the merits of IIis cross and passion, to bave naercy on us, to bave mercy on all we love, on a.ll the Chumh; fo pardon us, to reveal to us our sins, to give us repentance and amendment of lire, to give us present grace, and fo bestow on us, according to the riches of His love, future blesse(hmss in His eternal ]ingdom.