with which he has been entrusted, first: but when the Lord God says "The wages of sin is death" and "the soul that sinneth it shall die" we are offended at His severity, and feel sure that He doesn't mean it. Ecclesiastes 8:11 puts our attitude exactly, "because sentence against an evil work is not executed speedily, therefore the heart of the sons of men is fully set in them to do evil". Paul clinches the whole matter in Romans 2:1-10. God's long-suffering is meant to lead us to repentance, but, as in Pharaoh's case, we take advantage of it and imagine that God does not mean what He says. The few times when judgment has immediately fallen, as with Adam, or Achan, or Ananias are forgotten in the ocean of God's forbearance. Yet God means exactly what He says, and in the last judgment all the world will be found to be guilty before God. It is easy to imagine how hopeless we should feel if we knew that God did not really mind sin, and did not intend ever to put an end to it. The worst nightmares of unbelieving but far-seeing scientists would be upon us!

It is good if here we emphasise again the reason for the Majesty which surrounds the Law. It is because the Law of Love is the custodian of the world's happiness. It is the one and only possible way whereby we can live together in happiness. It is because the law-breaker threatens the peace of society that the judge puts him where he can do so no longer! Christ came into this world "to magnify the Law and make it honourable" (Isaiah 42:21). "Think not", he said, "that I am come to destroy the Law or the Prophets: I am not come to destroy, but to fulfil. For verily I say unto you, till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." (Matthew 5:17-18). Jesus defined Love as law-keeping (John 14:21), and sent out His Apostles to teach their converts "to observe all things