The Law--Guilty or Not Guilty?

"Cursed is every one that continues not in all things which are written in the book of the Law to do them." Unconverted man, are you guilty, or not guilty? Have you continued "in all things that are written in the book of the Law to do them ?" Methinks you will not dare to plead, "Not guilty." But I will suppose for one moment that you are bold enough to do so. So then, sir, you mean to assert that you have continued in "all things which are written in the book of the Law." Surely the very reading of the Law would be enough to convince you that you are in error. Do you know what the Law is? Why I will give you what I may call the outside of it, but remember that within it there is a broader spirit than the mere words. Hear thou these words of the Law — "Thou shalt have no other gods before me." What! have you never loved anything better than God? Have you never made a god of your belly, or of your business, or of your family, or of your own person? Oh! surely you do not say you are guiltless here. "Thou shalt not make unto you any graven image, or any likeness of anything that is in Heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth." What! have you never in your life set up anything in the place of God? If you have not, I have, full many a time. And I wot, if conscience would speak truly it would say, "Man you have been a mammon worshipper, you have been a belly worshipper, you have bowed down before gold and silver; you have cast yourself down before honor, you have bowed before pleasure, you have made a god of your drunkenness, a god of your lust, a god of your uncleanness, a god of your pleasures!" Will you dare to say thou have never taken the name of the Lord your God in vain? If thou hast never sworn profanely, yet surely in common conversation you have sometimes made use of God's name when you ought not to have done so. Say have you always hallowed that most holy name? Have you never called upon God without necessity? Have you never read his book with a trifling spirit? Have you never heard His gospel without paying reverence to it? Surely you are guilty here. And as for that fourth commandment, which relates to the keeping of the Sabbath - "Remember the Sabbath-day to keep it holy," - have you never broken it? Oh, shut your mouth and plead guilty, for these four commandments were enough to condemn you! "Honor your father and your mother." What! will you say you have kept that? Have you never been disobedient in your youth? Have you never kicked against a mother's love, and striven against a father's rebuke? Turn over a page of your history till you come to your childhood: see if you cannot find it written there; ay, and your manhood too may confess that you have not always spoken to your parents as you should, or always treated them with that honor they deserved, and which God commanded you to give unto them. "Thou shalt not kill," you may never have killed any, but have you never been angry? He that is angry with his brother is a murderer; you are guilty here. “Thou shalt not commit adultery." Mayhap you have committed unclean things and are here this very day stained with lust; but if you have been never so chaste, I am sure you have not been quite guiltless, when the Master says, "He that looks on a woman to lust after her, hath committed adultery already with her in his heart." Has no lascivious thought crossed your mind? Has no impurity ever stirred your imagination? Surely if you should dare to say so, you would be brazen-faced with impudence. And have you never stolen ? "Thou shalt not steal" you are here in the crowd tonight with the product of your theft mayhap, you have done the deed, you have committed robbery; but if you have been never so honest. yet surely there have been times in which you have felt an inclination to defraud your neighbor, and there may have been some petty, or mayhap some gross frauds which you have secretly and silently committed, on which the law of the land could not lay its hand, but which, nevertheless, was a breach of this Law. And who dare say he has not borne false witness against his neighbor? Have we never repeated a story to our neighbor's disadvantage, which was untrue? Have we never misconstrued his motives? Have we never misinterpreted his designs? And who among us can dare to say that he is guiltless of the last — "Thou shalt not covet?" for we have all desired to have more than God has given us; and at times our wandering heart has lusted after things which God has not bestowed upon us. Why, to plead not guilty, is to plead your own folly; for verily, my brethren, the very reading of the Law is enough, when blessed by the Spirit, to make us cry, "Guilty O Lord, guilty."