The rise from a bestial to a moral plane involves the acquirement of a knowledge of both good and evil. The moral conscience thus developed plays the same role in the moral world that the consciousness of pain does in the physical. As this consciousness of pain is a monitor to warn us from physical danger, so the moral conscience is our monitor to keep us from moral evil. And the higher this moral conscience is developed, the more sensitive it becomes, the higher will its possessor rise in the moral scale. This is the law which Paul tells us is written in the hearts of all men, "their consciences meanwhile accusing or excusing them." This may seem a strange philosophy. But it comports with the facts of nature and life. The mystery of evil is not solved. But at least we have a rational, working hypothesis upon which to deal with it, as will further appear as we proceed.
SIN
Evil, at least in the physical world, exists separate and apart from sin. We will not speculate upon the metaphysical differences that may, or may not, exist between moral evil and personal guilt. But I wish to record briefly the views I ultimately arrived at concerning the nature and consequences of sin.
According to the orthodox doctrine, altho sin is defined in the New Testament as the "transgression of the law," it is something more than this;—a direct personal offence against God; and that therefore its penalties are punitive and vindictive, designed to vindicate the person of God against insult and injury by disobedience to his law. Punishment was therefore believed to be administered judicially, according to the extent of the offense, that the sinner might be made to suffer purely for suffering's sake, measure for measure. I long ago abandoned this doctrine. I accept fully the New Testament teaching that "sin is the transgression of the law,"—not the law of Moses or any other penal code,—but the great universal, immutable law of Nature in the moral world. That God is the author of this law does not make its violation any more a personal offense against God than the violation of a State statute is a personal offense against the Governor, or legislature, or the judge that administers it. God cannot be personally sinned against. If so He is neither infinite nor immutable. To constitute a personal offense the person offended must take cognizance of it, which necessarily involves a change of mind toward the offender,—otherwise it is not an offense. The same condition would be involved in a second change of mind toward the offender, upon his repentance and forgiveness. Neither is consistent with any idea of infinity or immutability. Neither does God ever punish sin. Sin is its own punishment, and it operates automatically. No sin was ever committed that the sinner did not pay the penalty in full. From this there is no more escape than there is from the law of gravitation. If I put my hand into the fire I cannot avoid being burned. If I take poison I cannot avoid the consequences. The fact that there may be an antidote for the poison in no way destroys the truth of this fundamental law.
"The moving finger writes, and having writ
Moves on; Nor all your piety nor wit
Can lure it back to cancel half a line,
Nor all your tears wash out a word of it."
Jesus illustrated this law fully and beautifully in the parable of the Prodigal Son, and I can do no better than quote its substance here. This young man left his father's house. This was not a personal offence against his father, altho the father may well have conjectured what would be the result. He was of age and had a right to go. He spent his funds in riotous living, and as a consequence was reduced to want and suffering, his punishment for his sin. To thus waste his funds was sin, He punished himself by his own conduct. His sufferings became so intense and severe that he resolved to abandon his present surroundings and return home at any cost, even to becoming a menial servant in his father's house. Here we get a clear view of the purpose of punishment, not as vindictive, but remedial and corrective. The young man suffered until his sufferings accomplished their end in correcting and changing his life. As soon as this was done his punishment ended. Just so with all punishment for sin. It will continue until its remedial and corrective purpose is completed and no longer, whether in this life or some other. When the young man returned home his father received him, not as a servant, but a son. But remember, his wasted fortune was not restored. "Was he not freely forgiven?" Yes; but forgiveness does not blot out nor restore the past; nor absolve one from the natural consequences of his own acts already committed. It simply means a new opportunity and a new start, but with the handicap of the consequences of the past life. The returned prodigal was forgiven. He had the opportunity to begin life anew as a son, just as he was before. But his material resources represented in his squandered fortune, and the time he lost while squandering it, were lost forever! Be as diligent and frugal as he might, he could never, thru time or eternity, reach that attainment which he might have reached, had he used the same diligence and frugality from the start, in the use of his natural inheritance as his operating capital.
Hence, one sins, not against God, but most of all against himself, by violating the law of his own being, and of humanity. And the consequences of sins committed can never be escaped, in this world or any other. If this kind of gospel had been preached to humanity during all these past centuries of Christianity,—instead of a gospel that teaches that no matter how vile, wicked and sinful one may be, nor how long he may thus live in sin, if, in the last hour of life he will only "believe in Jesus," at death he will go sweeping thru the gates of heaven into eternal glory on a complete equality with the noblest saints and purest characters that ever lived on earth,—this world would now be much better than it is.
"Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap," whether divinely inspired or not, is as eternally true, certain, and unescapable in the moral world as are the stars in their courses. Man sins against society in transgressing those natural laws of social relations that bind society together. But even in this, while society suffers from his sins, the sinner himself must ultimately suffer for his own sins above all others.
The question has often been asked me, "If a man cannot sin against God, but only against himself and society, by what standard, gauge, or measure am I to determine what is right or wrong?" I think the Golden Rule answers that question completely. All sins are either personal or social or both. A man may, by some sort of self-indulgence or abuse or by his own secret thoughts sin against himself only, from which he alone must suffer. He may also sin against society by doing some evil to or against some one else or against society as a whole, from which both he and others may suffer. A simple rule of conduct may be this: In view of any proposed course of conduct, word or act, these questions may be asked: "What may be the result? Will it in any way injure me, or any one else? Is any possible evil consequence, either to myself or any one else, likely to come of it?" If the answer is in the affirmative, it is wrong; otherwise not. These are my simple views of sin.