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SCREAMING SIN AND FATHOMLESS FAVOR
A Sermon by Dr. Walter A. Maier
Fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. — Prov. 14:9
ON a certain Monday morning, not so long ago, the four morning newspapers of
New York City devoted an aggregate of 16,000 words to present summaries of
forty-one sermons that had been preached on the preceding day from the pulpits
of that metropolis. A close examination of these sermon summaries reveals the
astounding fact that with but one exception the word sin was used neither directly
nor indirectly. A visitor from Mars, reading these newspaper items, listening to the many
“inspirational” sermons of our day, or taking the current issue of a well-known magazine and
finding in the index an article on “The Vanishing Sinner” would doubtless come to the conclusion
that here on this North American continent and in our large metropolitan areas the Utopia of the
golden age had been found in which sin was outlawed and crime tabu. Indeed, sin is the most
unpopular of all subjects for discussion today, when people love to dwell lingeringly on the inherent
goodness of man or try to disguise the hideousness of sin, sugar-coat its bitterness, and explain
away its vicious nature under the masquerade of dishonest phraseology. Thus today psychological
theories are often substituted for the Ten Commandments. In our current vocabulary a man who
uses profanity and abuses the high and holy name of God is said to show “bad taste.” A
“racketeer” whose ruthless machine gun sweeps down an innocent pedestrian suffers under a
series of “complexes.” A child that refuses to obey its parents is coddled as a “self-expressionist.”
Young people who disregard the requirement of premarital chastity claim to enjoy the “new
freedom of our new age,” while those who do observe this chastity are said to suffer from
“inhibitions.” It’s Not Our Fault, a recent book, is one of the latest literary attacks on the stark
reality of personal sin..........................
A Sermon by Dr. Walter A. Maier
Fools make a mock at sin, but among the righteous there is favor. — Prov. 14:9
ON a certain Monday morning, not so long ago, the four morning newspapers of
New York City devoted an aggregate of 16,000 words to present summaries of
forty-one sermons that had been preached on the preceding day from the pulpits
of that metropolis. A close examination of these sermon summaries reveals the
astounding fact that with but one exception the word sin was used neither directly
nor indirectly. A visitor from Mars, reading these newspaper items, listening to the many
“inspirational” sermons of our day, or taking the current issue of a well-known magazine and
finding in the index an article on “The Vanishing Sinner” would doubtless come to the conclusion
that here on this North American continent and in our large metropolitan areas the Utopia of the
golden age had been found in which sin was outlawed and crime tabu. Indeed, sin is the most
unpopular of all subjects for discussion today, when people love to dwell lingeringly on the inherent
goodness of man or try to disguise the hideousness of sin, sugar-coat its bitterness, and explain
away its vicious nature under the masquerade of dishonest phraseology. Thus today psychological
theories are often substituted for the Ten Commandments. In our current vocabulary a man who
uses profanity and abuses the high and holy name of God is said to show “bad taste.” A
“racketeer” whose ruthless machine gun sweeps down an innocent pedestrian suffers under a
series of “complexes.” A child that refuses to obey its parents is coddled as a “self-expressionist.”
Young people who disregard the requirement of premarital chastity claim to enjoy the “new
freedom of our new age,” while those who do observe this chastity are said to suffer from
“inhibitions.” It’s Not Our Fault, a recent book, is one of the latest literary attacks on the stark
reality of personal sin..........................
