t adorn the doctrine; but your sanctified fruit
must have the seed in itself, which drops and takes root, and
reproduces itself in the world around you. Remember my last word,
'Herein is your Father glorified that ye bear much fruit'; fruit now
and fruit always; so that, like the trees planted by rivers of water,
you shall 'bring forth fruit even in old age'.

_Oh, help us, Lord, throughout our time
To test ourselves, by help divine,
To see what fruit we bear;
What promise are we making Thee,
As ripened souls we wish to be,
When harvest home draws near._

XVIII

The Inward Laws

'_I will put My laws into their hearts, and in their minds will I write
them. Their sins and iniquities will I remember no more._' (Hebrews x.
16, 17.)

The beginnings of religion lie in the desire to have our sins forgiven,
and to be enabled to avoid doing the wrong things again. It was so with
David when, in the fifty-first Psalm, he not only cried, 'Have mercy
upon me, O God, and blot out my transgressions', but 'Wash me, cleanse
me from my sin'.

Sin is a double evil. On the one hand, it creates a record of
wrongdoing which has to be faced; on the other, it creates a disease in
the moral system and spiritual make-up of a man. This disease creates
desires for the evil thing, and so warps and weakens a man's force of
resistance that when the temptation is presented, the inward craving
asserts itself, and makes the man _want_ to go into the temptation.

To deal with this complex character of sin is a greater problem than
human ingenuity and skill are equal to. God, however, has solved the
problem Himself, and His plan of Salvation is addressed to both aspects
of evil. It includes, first, the forgiveness of sins; and then the
introduction of a new governing force and the power to live according
to the will of God. Both these things are set out in the verses quoted,
although the order of statement is reversed.

Let me use two stories to illustrate the separate points. The one
relates to a little boy who, having done wrong in his home, had been
dealt with by his mother. Referring to it afterwards, the boy said,
'Yes, I knew mother had forgiven me for the wrong; but I saw in her
face, although she did not frown, that she remembered all day what I
did in the morning'. There are many, no doubt, who forgive in that
fashion; but it is not God's way. He says, 'Their sins and their
iniquities will I rememb