whom this fact is acknowledged and deplored. Prof. Edwards A. Park, in
setting forth the current religious perils, ably says: "One source of
danger is the neglect of the pulpit to enforce the divine law. In former
days the pulpit was an echo of the voice of conscience.... Our most
illustrious preachers gave a wonderful majesty to their discourses by
following the example of the Master, and giving prominence to the law, its
precepts, and its threatenings. They repeated the two great maxims, that
the law is a transcript of the divine perfections, and that a man who does
not love the law does not love the gospel; for the law, as well as the
gospel, is a mirror reflecting the true character of God. This peril leads
to another, that of underrating the evil of sin, the extent of it, the
demerit of it. In proportion to the rightfulness of the commandment is the
wrongfulness of disobeying it....

"Affiliated to the dangers already named is the danger of underestimating
the justice of God. The tendency of the modern pulpit is to strain out the
divine justice from the divine benevolence, to sink benevolence into a
sentiment rather than exalt it into a principle. The new theological prism
puts asunder what God has joined together. Is the divine law a good or an
evil? It is a good. Then justice is good; for it is a disposition to
execute the law. From the habit of underrating the divine law and justice,
the extent and demerit of human disobedience, men easily slide into the
habit of underestimating the grace which has provided an atonement for
sin." Thus the gospel loses its value and importance in the minds of men,
and soon they are ready practically to cast aside the Bible itself.

Many religious teachers assert that Christ by His death abolished the law,
and men are henceforth free from its requirements. There are some who
represent it as a grievous yoke; and in contrast to the bondage of the
law, they present the liberty to be enjoyed under the gospel.

But not so did prophets and apostles regard the holy law of God. Said
David, "I will walk at liberty: for I seek Thy precepts."(779) The apostle
James, who wrote after the death of Christ, refers to the decalogue as the
"royal law," and the "perfect law of liberty."(780) And the Revelator,
half a century after the crucifixion, pronounces a blessing upon them
"that do His commandments, that they may have right to the tree of life,
and may enter in through the gates into the city