Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from Our National Sin: A Sermon, Preached on the Day of the National Fast, September 26, 1861, in the South Reformed Dutch Church, New York City
Of sin, in this its essential character of finite rebel lion against the Infinite, we may say it belongs to man as man. It is no mere fortuity, which may or may not occur. To err is human. By nature, there is none loyal to his Maker; no, not one. Contempt for the Divine authority may, therefore, be pronounced to be the easily besetting sin of our race, as such. In one form or another, we are rebels, all of us. But for each individual, besides this generic de pravity, which is in him like poisoned blood, there is also some specific infirmity peculiarly his own; some one form of spiritual disloyalty, towards which he gravitates with a special momentum; some one sin out of all the catalogue of human offences, which he com mits with the most fatal facility and frequency. It may not be known to the world. It may not be known even to himself, by reason of moral blindness. It may be known only to God. But, in either case, it is his easily besetting sin; stamping its burning seal upon his inmost character, even though it may set no mark of shame upon his brow. As thus of individuals, so likewise of nations. Nations are not mere masses and aggregates Of popula tion; they are organisms. Each is endowed with a sort of moral personality, and has a determinate char. Acter of its own. Individuals may be born and die, generations may come and go; but the national pulse beats on without arrest, and the millions of the present find their destiny arbitrated by the millions of thepast. The whole, in this case, is something more, and other, than simply the sum total of all its palts. It is an indivisible, organic whole, planting itself astride the generations and the centuries, and standing face to face with a wakeful Providence, whose retributions are none the less righteous, and often all the more impress ive and salutary, because they do not come at once. SO France is suffering today for having exiled her industrious Huguenots nearly two hundred years ago. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.
