appointed orbit; the insect, the bird, the beast all live in strict
accordance with their instincts; but, unlike them, man possesses freedom
of will and power of choice. This freedom, if rightly exercised, is a
noble possession, but, perverted, it is an instrument of destruction.
The lower animals cannot sin because the law of their lives is within
them, constraining them to act in accordance with its dictates. Upon
man, free to choose, God imposed law. With freedom of will he received
the gift of conscience, which, enabling him to distinguish between right
and wrong, invested him with responsibility, and made disobedience sin.
That he can sin is his patent of nobility, that he does sin is his ruin
and disgrace.

The effect of sin is separation from God, who can have no fellowship
with evil, for sin is the abominable thing which He hates, and on which
He cannot even look. A breach, altogether irreparable on man's part, was
made between man and his Creator when the first transgression of the law
of God took place. The impulse of every sinner, which only Divine power
can overcome, is to flee from God. Hence arises the necessity for
reconciliation, and for the intervention of God to effect it. That the
unity thus broken may be restored, expiation must be made by one
possessing the nature of the being that had sinned, and yet, by His
possession of the Divine nature, investing that expiation with
illimitable worth, so that all sin may be covered, and every sinner find
a way of escape from the power and the penal consequences of
transgression. These conditions meet in the Lord Jesus Christ and in Him
alone. That God might, without compromising His attributes, be enabled
to bring man back into fellowship with Himself, He spared not His own
Son, and the Son freely gave Himself to suffering and death for the
world's redemption.

In the felt necessity of atonement, which has associated sacrifice with
every religion devised by man, we have evidence of the universality of
sin. All feel its crushing pressure, and fear the punishment which,
conscience assures them, is deserved and inevitable. The heathen
confesses it as he prostrates himself before the image of his god, or
immolates himself or his fellow-man upon his altar; and the Christian
feels and confesses it as, fleeing for refuge, he finds pardon and
cleansing in the blood of Jesus Christ.

Sin is original or actual, the former inherited from our parents, the
latter, person