terrible sin. It would be idle to deny this, and waste of time to bring evidence for phenomena which have been observed in all time and in every place. It is one of the cruces of an inquiry into the moral government of the universe to find happiness (i.e. the outward conditions of happiness) and misery (i.e. the outward conditions of misery) allotted without the smallest regard to the moral deservings of the righteous and the sinful. The sinner may revel in to-day's sin and its most pleasant fruits; in four generations off, his posterity may begin to smart for his villany. The righteous man may be all his life-time a miserable, oppressed, careworn and sorrowful creature; he dies; and ages yet unborn will reap the harvest of his good deeds and their days will, through his righteousness, be made pleasant upon earth. In the presence of facts such as these, does it not read like a grim jest or like some fairy tale for children that "God rewardeth every man according to his work."? We shall find it true for all that. Punishment awaits every sin and reward every virtue; with unerring aim the shafts of Heaven strike home, and with unfaltering exactness the smiles of Divine approval are meted out to every act that deserves them. We ask, then, what is God's punishment of sin? It is surely not to be found in the stream of earthly sorrow and temporal misfortune which runs its crooked course in the valleys of human lot. It is still less to be found in the horrid visions of eternal torture which priests have conjured up to scare the souls of the guilty. But it is to be found in the very Judgment Hall where every sin is instantly detected, tried and condemned. It is in each man's own heart alone that the scourge of Divine wrath must fall. It is remorse, self-accusing, shame-stricken sense of guilt, from which the sinner cannot escape. Man is so constituted that no matter how he has been brought up, no matter what eccentric rules have been drilled into him as divine commands, his conscience is ever loyal to what is right, or seems to be right, and will never let him swerve from that path without a warning voice, never spare him its sharp and bitter sting for every wilful sin. My text does not say will God reward every man according to his work at some future day or in some far-off world but "Thou rewardest " here and now, in the very moment of contracted guilt. No one can violate his sense of duty without secret shame and more or less bitter regret. It would be an evil day for mankind if ever they lost the sense of sin as an act of ingratitude or disobedience against God. Deep down in our hearts lies the feeling of David when he had so basely wronged and then murdered his faithful servant Uriah, "Against Thee and Thee only have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight;" and I say nothing could replace this as a motive to holiness, if we were to come to believe that God did not care whether we did right or wrong, or that sins against our brethren were not also and supremely sins against our Father in Heaven. But Remorse is not merely a barren sense of guilt against Heaven's decrees; it is deepened to an intense severity when we witness the injury which our sin has inflicted on those we love. No human heart could look upon the pile of woe heaped up by its own sin without bursting with grief and shame. If all the little acts of meanness and self-indulgence; if all the cold neglect, and cruel withholding of sympathy; if all the unkind words and looks which wither up the souls of those dependent on our love and regard; if all the hard dealings which are manifest in our business and various pursuits; if all the tyranny of self-will and domineering temper; if all these things were arrayed against us-not one by one-but in a mass, and we were made to look upon the woe of mental and physical torture they inflicted; who among mortal men could bear the sight without inconceivable and inexpressible anguish and shame? Remorse is God's punishment for sin and that alone. Yet, stay, is there not something else near akin to it that we had not thought of. Remorse is God's merciful warning and correcting of our misdeeds. But if we repeatedly sin against our conscience, we weaken its power to reprove, we stifle its heavenly call, and perhaps at last drive it from the throne of justice. Remorse then grows more and more feeble, more and more easy to bear, and the soul once racked by the tortures of guilt becomes hardened and turns to stone, heedless at last of the pangs of those whom its cruelty has ruined. So if we heed not God's chastening by remorse He punishes us by allowing us to become even worse and more debased; till we sink down in the deep mire of our own impurity and revel in that which has despoiled us of our own humanity, "glorying in our very shame." What cure there is for that awful stage of human corruption is known only to Him who made us all, and who called us into life with a holy purpose which cannot be defeated. This is not the time to enquire what that far-reaching Love of His can do for a lost soul. Yet we may well believe that this is His extreme resource of discipline to teach men the awful evil of sin and to make them hate it. I have never found so great a horror of sin as in those whose lives have been shockingly debased by a long course of profligacy and crime. But this much we do know for certain in regard to sin and its real punishment. That every sin is punished by remorse, so long as remorse will do any good; and that when the sinner has placed himself beyond the reach of that most merciful, because most just penalty, he is made to drink the very dregs of that loathsome cup which he had mixed to quench his frenzied thirst. The inexorable law of Divine retribution is indeed merciful because it is just; because its severity is exactly measured to each sin in its turn; because, moreover, it cannot by any possibility be evaded; and because it is removed by a whole heaven from the old notion of rewards and punishments, of bribes and threats, and is designed to make men hate evil because it is evil, and to love goodness for its own sweet sake. Would to God this age and generation might learn for the first time some lessons out of that Book which has so long been to them a blind, deaf and dumb idol; and come to look at right and wrong from the stand-point of those Hebrew Psalmists of old, when they said "With my whole heart have I sought thee, O Let me not go wrong out of thy commandment." "Make in me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me." "For in keeping Thy commandments (not for keeping them, but) in keeping Thy commandments there is great reward." CARTER & WILLIAMS, Printers, 14, Bishopsgate Avenue, Camomile Street, E.C. Reductio ad The Athanasian A SERMON, PREACHED AT ST. GEORGE'S HALL, LANGHAM PLACE, REV. CHARLES VOYSEY. DEUT. VI. 4.—" Hear O Israel, the Lord our God is one Lord." A S a matter of fact the attention of many orthodox persons has been lately directed to the work we are endeavouring to do in this place; and consequently I have thought it right not to pass over the opportunity offorded by Trinity Sunday for a fresh exposure of the doctrine which this day is designated to com memorate. I cannot pretend to be saying anything new or even interesting to my regular congregation, since one and all of you must regard the subject as one of the mouldiest and most withered of the dead leaves of the orthodox faith; and it is difficult even for me to summon sufficient interest in the controversy to deal with it in a spirited manner. Still, as I am about to address much more the religious world outside of us than you who have long since discarded the dogma, some pains must. be taken to state the orthodox view in its integrity, and to show that it is not a profound mystery before which the human reason must bow in solemn silence, but a very ordinary and Rev. C. Voysey's sermons are to be obtained at St. George's Hall, every Sunday morning, or from the Author (by post), Camden House, Dulwich, S.E. Price one penny, postage a halfpenny. palpable contradiction which devout piety, no less than common sense, would indignantly reject, if permitted a moment's reflection. It will moreover do some good if we can bring home to the minds and hearts of our orthodox friends what it is they and we are to be damned eternally for disbelieving; what that "Catholic Faith" really is, "which except a man believe faithfully, he cannot be saved." In the course of these observations I shall be compelled to use the weapons of sarcasm and ridicule. So long as any object or dogma is a matter of religious veneration to my fellow-man, I would not in addressing him personally speak of it in terms of contempt or scorn. Yet, while this reserve is only ordinary politeness in private intercourse, the case is somewhat altered when one is addressing no one in particular; and if an obligation rests upon one to expose an absurdity, it becomes a duty to fulfil it, if possible, in a thorough and trenchant manner. The Athanasian Creed is moreover widely repudiated and even detested by orthodox persons, and so if its clauses be held up and sarcasm, there is little chance of offence being taken by those who have done the same thing themselves. Now, what does the doctrine of the Trinity profess to do? It is an attempt to maintain the absolute oneness of God, together with a belief in three Beings, each of whom is "by himself God and Lord." It is indeed a remarkable phase in Christian theology, and was no more the work of one mind or one generation than the elevation of Jesus of Nazareth to Divine honours. It is manifestly a compromise; and in my opinion was thus developed : First of all there was the original unshaken belief in the one Supreme God taught by the Jews, and believed in and taught by Jesus himself. Whatever various attributes were ascribed to Him, faith in His existence as Supreme God, never suffered even a moment's eclipse. Next came an enthusiastic regard for the person of Jesus, which developed into two prominent streams of theological thought. One, the Pauline, grew out of the Alexandrine philosophy and led to the identification of Jesus with the Logos, or Personified Word of God-the agent by which |