L.—Our responsibility as men is never connected in the Scriptures with our having been born into the world fallen children of fallen parents, or a person might retort that it was his misfortune and not his fault that he was so born. But we are responsible for our deeds, and it is for these that men will have to render an account, for so 2 Cor. 5:10, Rom. 14:10-12, Rev. 20:12, Eccl. 12:14, and many other passages plainly teach. We are also responsible to believe the gospel, to fear God, to obey His command, to repent and to receive as Savior and Lord the One whom God so graciously sets forth in His holy Word. Nor will it do to plead as an excuse for sin and unbelief that we inherit an evil nature which obliges us to do wrong. Such a plea is of no avail. It is an old device which the Lord indignantly rebuked in Jeremiah's day: "Will ye steal, murder, and commit adultery... and burn incense unto Baal, and come and stand before Me... and say, We are delivered to do all these abominations?" (chap. 7: 9). It only aggravates our sin to say so. The truth is, the will is all wrong. Men love darkness rather than light, because their deeds are evil (John 3:19). Oh that they would hearken to the living God, who is speaking from heaven to them with every desire for their eternal blessing. In receiving the Savior they would receive strength to turn from their evil ways, and the light of another world would dawn upon them of which Christ, risen from the dead, is the Sun and Center. Then their sophistries and excuses would vanish as mist before the clear shining of the day.
C. S. L.—The sin that assails and so often overcomes you can only be vanquished in the power that flows from Christ. It is well that you hate it and well that its indulgence causes you bitter anguish afterward. Such falls show the evil of "the flesh" and how unable you are in your own strength to war against it successfully. But we often give to "the flesh" an occasion of attack through our not walking in the Spirit. Clear enough we may be on the doctrine of deliverance from the power of sin, but practical deliverance is found alone in Christ. Read attentively our paper on "Backsliding" in the present issue, and write to us again.