109 SERMON VI. GOD MARKING INIQUITY. PSALM CXXX. 3, 4. " IF THOU, LORD, SHOULDEST MARK INIQUITIES, O LORD, WHO SHALL STAND? BUT THERE IS FORGIVENESS WITH THEE." THERE are seasons when every man, whose heart has been in any degree convinced of sin, beholds his iniquities with feelings of regret and consternation peculiarly vivid. Times of trial, times of affliction, but above all, times of prayer, when he is led into closer communion with his God, are pre-eminently among those seasons. Sins, which at other periods but little affect him, which he can pass over almost without a sigh or a thought, are then brought up in terrible array before the soul, and for a few moments the man is almost lost in astonishment at his own audacity and blindness. While, if he carry on the feeling, if he turn from looking inward to looking upward, from thinking of what he knows of himself to what God knows of him, he is unable to find expressions sufficiently strong with which to describe his own perversity and worthlessness. He feels as if such a being as himself could have no right to pray; as if one who had sinned so often, so long, so wilfully, were adding to his guilt, by presuming thus to come before God; and he is almost tempted to doubt whether utter silence, utter neglect of all prayer, would not more become him, than any language, however contrite or however humble. Reflections of a very similar nature to these, appear to have been passing through the mind of the Psalmist when he penned the words of the text. He was evidently, in the opening verses of the psalm, addressing the Almighty, during some period of deep affliction, in earnest, fervent supplication; he says, "Out of the depths have I cried unto thee, O Lord; Lord, hear my voice; let thine ears be attentive to the voice of my supplication:" and then, as if oppressed by the weight of his numberless transgressions, borne down by the burden of his many sins, he exclaims, "If thou, Lord, shouldest mark iniquities, O Lord, who shall stand?" Then, again recovering himself from this overwhelming consciousness of guilt, he adds, his very prayer, as it were, gasping for breath, "But there is forgiveness with thee." The deep feeling of utter sinfulness and worthlessness, so strikingly displayed by the Psalmist, does not merely mark a particular stage of religious feeling, it lies at the very root of religion itself; there is no vital godliness without it, it is its universal accompaniment. Let us then meditate, for a short time, upon the expressions before us, in the hope, and with the prayer, that by God's grace they may work that in us, which they so clearly and so touchingly evidenced in the holy and devoted David. I. First, then, let us learn what is implied in the words before us, viz. :— That the Lord is a God who marks iniquity; and, II. What is directly asserted, there is forgiveness with thee." "But I. There is not a more awful consideration than that which we learn by implication from the text. Whether we consider God as a Being of infinite power, or of infinite purity, the thought is equally solemn, equally appalling. That there has been One, standing over us ever since we were born, and marking in pages, which we cannot obliterate, every sinful action, every unholy word, every false, and profane, and unchaste, and uncharitable thought; and that as time goes on, this marking goes on also; that there is an eye never closed, an ear never dull, a hand never wearied, all engaged in this great work. We look backward, perhaps, through a long vista of departed years, and although we have a certain undefined, and indistinct consciousness, that many sins are mingling there, we have forgotten most of their peculiarities, and much that added inconceivably to their guilt, while He who marks iniquity, has forgotten nothing; He sees every trace and lineament every as clearly and as distinctly, as in the first hour of their commission, they were seen and felt by ourselves, and the effect of this knowledge of the Most High is, that it is impossible for man, sinful, helpless man, to stand before God. For although the Psalmist makes a question of it, asking, "Who shall stand?" it is just one of those questions |