from sin that obscures the
clear outline between its own domain and that of righteousness, like the
mist that rises from the sea and mingles shore and water in one
undefined cloud. But let it rise off the one and the other is at once
distinctly marked out; and so in the conviction of sin there is already
involved the conviction of righteousness. The blush of shame that
suffuses the face of the sinner as the mist-dispelling Sun of
righteousness arises upon him is the morning flush and promise of an
everlasting day of righteous living.

For each of us it is of the utmost importance to have a fixed and
intelligent persuasion that righteousness is what we are made for. The
righteous Lord loveth righteousness and made us in His image to widen
the joy of rational creatures. He waits for righteousness and cannot
accept sin as an equally grateful fruit of men's lives. And though in
the main perhaps our faces are turned towards righteousness, and we are
on the whole dissatisfied and ashamed of sin, yet the conviction of
righteousness has much to struggle against in us all. Sin, we
unconsciously plead, is so finely interwoven with all the ways of the
world that it is impossible to live wholly free from it. As well cast a
sponge into the water and command that it absorb none nor sink as put me
in the world and command that I do not admit its influences or sink to
its level. It presses in on me through all my instincts and appetites
and hopes and fears; it washes ceaselessly at the gateways of my senses,
so that one unguarded moment and the torrent bursts in on me and pours
over my wasted bulwarks, resolves, high aims, and whatever else. It is
surely not now and here that I am expected to do more than learn the
rudiments of righteous living and make small experiments in it;
endeavours will surely stand for accomplishment, and pious purposes in
place of heroic action and positive righteousness. Men take sin for
granted and lay their account for it. Will not God also, who remembers
our frailty, consider the circumstances and count sin a matter of
course? Such thoughts haunt and weaken us; but every man whose heart is
touched by the Spirit of God clings to this as his hopeful prayer:
"Teach me to do Thy will, for Thou art my God: Thy Spirit is good; lead
me into the land of uprightness."

But, after all, it is by fact men are convinced; and were there no facts
to appeal to in this matter conviction could not be attained. It does
se