[To TRH EDITOR OR TRH "sescrkvoa."1 Sin,—Whether it has been
altogether the fault of theologians or not, the hatred of theological terms, and particularly of the unhappy word "sin," is always very evident in the lay free-lance. Sometimes it is even amusingly evident. Men who would detest wrong-doing as much as, or more than, any of us, and who would bitterly reproach themselves if they had deliberately yielded to the seductions of their lower natures, had injured others, or had damaged some good cause they had at heart, will yet burst out with tempersome irritation against the notion of "worrying about their sins." One sees at once that it is temper pure and simple that forces these indignant and contemptuous expressions to their pens, and the temper is roused almost to foaming point by this unfortunate little word. It is to them as is a red flag to a bull.• Call a man's sins by any other name, and the best clerical and lay minds are perfectly at one in their detestation of them. They quite equally repudiate what they consider to be " wrong," or " bad," or " cruel," or " blackguardly," or " caddish," or in any way contemptible and unworthy of their highest ideals. And the reflection that they bad degraded themselves or injured others by any evil acts or words would equally cause them sorrow, or if serious harm had been done by them, acute misery. It is simply nonsense to say it would be otherwise, and if Sir Oliver Lodge assured me he could sin with impunity, and get over it in a minute, I should not believe him. He knows far tdo well the irrevocableness of the damage done by evil-doing to our own and others' characters to be able to treat it lightly when he calmly thinks it over. Indeed, the latter part of his article in the Hibbert Journal for April is dead against any such superficial treat- ment. He is also too deeply interested in the cause of righteousness not to be " worried" if he, fears he might in any way have hindered it; and he loves too well the God whose character he vindicates not to feel just as keenly as any orthodox religionist (perhaps more so) deep sorrow and contrition if he ever rebelled against the dictates of his con- science, and consciously opposed the " Revelation of Divine and Fatherly Love." Even the language of the penitential Psalms, or the self-reproaches of the returning prodigal,
• Mr. Leeky is an amusing instance of this in his remarks on war in his " History of European ?Amnia"
Sir, &c., C. SHIITTLEWORTH.
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