The Three Hour Sermon on God, Sin and Salvation

Take for example the case of murder. What is written in the laws of the state?

" Whoever kills a man is a murderer."

But the law of God says, " Whoever hates his brother is a murderer."

Do you not see the great difference between these two laws?

One refers to the actual killing of a man, the other takes the simple hating as murder. A great difference indeed! But, do you know why hating men is counted as murder in the law of God? I will tell you the reason. Why do men kill their fellowmen? Do they kill them simply for fun? No, indeed. They kill because they hate. Hating comes before killing. Do you see that hating is the cause of killing? If you hate a man intensely and your feeling oversteps a certain point, then the killing comes as the result. Thus, you see, hatred is the cause and murder is the effect. In order to make the point clearer I will give an illustration.

Hatred might be compared to an egg, while murder is the chicken coming out of that egg. Chickens come out of eggs. But can you see the chicken in the egg? Do you see any jumping bird within the round shell of an egg? No, nothing. If you break an egg you can only find the yolk and white that is all, nothing more. But if you give that egg to a hen and let her sit over it a certain length of time a little chick will come out of it.

When you want chickens to come out of eggs you do not put the chick into the egg beforehand, as jugglers do when they bring pigeons out from an empty box. To bring out chicks from eggs you do not need such tricks. Who ever put a chicken into an egg in order to bring it out? No one would think of making such a foolish attempt. Just lay the egg under a hen long enough and the chick will come out beautifully and naturally.

Now, as the result of this reasoning we come to the conclusion that from the first there must have been a chicken in the egg. Otherwise it could not have come out although you may have kept the egg warm ever so long. It is an unchangeable law of nature something can not come out of nothing. Certainly there was a chicken in the egg from the beginning, though we could not see it with our bodily eyes. The egg contains within itself all the elements required to form the chicken.

I said that hating is an egg from which the bird of murder will hatch out. Try it now by setting this egg of hatred not untfer a hen but in your own heart, and see whether the bird of murder will hatch out or not. I do not see any birds of murder flying among us tonight; but are there not eggs of murder among us? Have you not these eggs in your hearts, which, if hatched, will surely bring forth murder?

Well then, I will ask you another question. Have you never hated any one in your lifetime? Have you never had any feeling of jealousy or envy? Have you never been angry with other people since you were born into this world? I am afraid there may be some here who have been guilty of such sins this very day. I am afraid there may be some young people here who have been fighting or knocking down other fellows since this very morning.

Perhaps some women have said, " Oh, yes, men might have such dreadful things as the eggs of murder in their hearts, but we women do not shelter such things in our hearts."

But, ladies, I am sorry to say you also have such eggs and germs of sin in your hearts. I am afraid that there may be more of these germs and eggs of evil in women's hearts than in men's hearts.

Do you not know it is always women who do ushinotokimairi? That is, who go at midnight with burning candles upon their heads to the shrine of certain gods, praying to them to kill those people whom they hate? Is it not our old mothers-in-law who treat young brides so unkindly, even cruelly? Is it not a fact that we find unkind natures more often among women than among men? I am afraid these eggs are more plentiful in women's hearts than in men's.

But not women alone, men and women all have these eggs and germs of evil, keep them warm a little while, and the evil birds will fly out suddenly from their hearts.

I confess I also have these eggs. But mine have been kept in my heart only as eggs, without being hatched, because I have not yet had occasion to keep them warm. I have not yet had such hard experiences in my own life as to hatch these eggs. If I had had such experiences perhaps from my own heart the birds of hate would have flown out before this. I say therefore that nothing on earth is so dangerous as the secret evil thoughts of the human heart.

In the human heart we find not only eggs of murder but hundreds of other kinds of eggs eggs of stealing, eggs of adultery, etc. Why do men steal? Do they steal for fun? They steal because they covet other people's property. If they did not covet they would not steal. Therefore, coveting is an egg of stealing. Don't you see it? You see how plenteous are the eggs of stealing among us.

The state law says, "One who violates a woman should be condemned as guilty of adultery." But God's law says, " One who harbours an.impure thought toward a woman should be condemned as guilty of adultery." The law looks at the outward conduct the bird, while God looks at the inner thought the egg.

Policemen are bird-catchers. What do you think policemen are doing day and night? Are they not trying to catch these birds of evil? When a thief or a murderer is at large the people call for the police to go after him and catch him. But it is not an easy thing to catch a bird. They have wings, you know. I can not catch even a sparrow. If I run after him he will fly away. It must be very hard too for the police to catch these other birds. Murderers and robbers are not easy to catch. Sometimes a policeman has to fight with them at the risk of his life. But how is it that although our policemen work hard and faithfully to catch these birds, the number of thieves and other criminals is not decreasing, but rather increasing?

You know our poem about the impossibility of exterminating the criminals of the country "Though the sands of the seashore might some day be exhausted, yet the seeds of thieves and robbers will never be exhausted." Why is this? Because though the police might kill the birds they can never smash the eggs; and while they are trying to kill one bird hundreds of eggs are being laid and birds are constantly being hatched, which the police can not prevent

If I should take somebody's watch the police will at once arrest me as a thief, because the bird has been hatched and flown out of its egg. But if instead of taking the watch I am simply coveting that of another man, and so laying eggs of stealing, as long as these criminal desires lie in my heart simply as eggs no policeman can lay his hands upon me.

If I should kill a man of course I would be arrested at once as a murderer. But as long as I am simply harbouring hatred and evil intentions toward another person, and not actually committing murder, though ten thousand police might surround me they could do nothing. No, the state laws can never smash a single egg. They are perfectly powerless against these eggs and germs of evil.

Now I say that although you might make your state laws ever so strict and ever so perfect yet you can never clear the country of these criminals by state laws alone. Because they can not smash the eggs. Then, by what law can we smash these eggs? Only by the law of God. State laws can catch the bird sometimes, but God's law alone can smash the eggs.

Now, my friends, Christianity teaches this law of God. It is the aim of the Christian religion to smash all these evil eggs, for if you smash the eggs then no more evil birds can be hatched. If the birds are hatched out, of course the state law must catch them; but if eggs of evil are laid in the human heart Christianity must crush them by the law of God. So you see these two kinds of laws must work together to clear the country of all these sins and crimes.

Viewing sin from this standpoint I believe I have convinced you that sin is universal in this world. I do not think any one can say now, " I am not a sinner," or " I have no such eggs of sin in my heart," or " I am perfectly free from all such imperfections."

But I say every man is a sinner because he harbours these eggs or germs of evil in his mind. I am speaking about sin with reserve. If I were to go on and speak about sin more freely I would say that we have not the eggs only, but that we have the birds too. Our country is full of these birds. Can't you see them the dreadful birds of adultery, theft, murder, etc., flying all over the country? How numerous they are!

Let me mention a few of the conspicuous ones flying around us at the present time. I will take first the sin of adultery. What about this sin? Do men simply look at women with evil and impure desires? Is that the extent of the sin of adultery in this country? Look at these impure women who are called prostitutes, dancing girls and waitresses. Who are they? What are they doing? I am ashamed even to speak of them in such a respectable audience as this; but I can not help it. I must say they are women who are selling their virtue. They are the very instruments of the sin of adultery. They are the ones who are defiling our whole community. They are dragging down our young people into the depths of impurity. They are the very ones who are breaking the hearts of mothers and wives and destroying the happiness and sacredness of homes all over our country. No plague is so pernicious and destructive as the plague of prostitution, which is not only defiling our young people but the whole community, old and young, high and low, educated and uneducated. What social gathering or what social dinners are there in this country where these women are not invited and made to sing and dance and do all kinds of improper entertainment? And you know because of the presence of these impure women our respected and honoured ladies can not take part in such social gatherings. If men who are in high places do such things how can the young people help imitating them? Fathers set bad examples to their sons by freely mingling with these bad women.

Many men keep these women as concubines, not only secretly, but sometimes openly and brazenly in their own homes, under the same roof with their wives and children. All the sacredness of our homes and the purity of sexual relations are being destroyed by the presence of these evil women in the country. I have heard that at the present time there are several hundred thousand of these women in our country of Japan and it is said the number is increasing. I feel that it is high time for the patriots of this land who have the welfare of this nation at heart, to stand up and stem this tide of iniquity. It is the duty of our statesmen and politicians who care for the real and true honour and prosperity of this nation to bestir themselves and put an end to such disgraceful and wicked institutions.

But I appeal especially to our women to rouse themselves and start a crusade against these wretched brothels. It lies in their hands and in their power to stop these wicked practices, if they are sufficiently awakened to their duty and their responsibility.

I know that our Y.W.C.A. and W.C.T.U. and the Purity Society are all doing very good work. We are very grateful for their excellent service. But, if I may express my opinion a little more freely, I am not yet satisfied with them. I don't think they are yet determined enough to accomplish their end. They are not yet earnest enough to stake their lives upon the accomplishment of this great work for the purification of society.

Now, my friends, unless the social relations of our countrymen and countrywomen are thoroughly cleansed it is impossible to have a clean nation. We all know that a nation is founded upon its homes, and homes are founded upon the relation of husbands and wives. If this relation is defiled, as at the present time, how can you expect to have clean homes? If you have not clean homes, how can you raise clean children? If you can not bring up clean children how can you expect to have a clean and wholesome people? And without a clean and virtuous people how can you have a clean and great nation?