appreciate God's mercy, unless he first feel his justice as manifested in the holy law. Love in the soul is produced by the joint influence of the justice and mercy of God. The integrity of the eternal law, therefore, must be for ever maintained.[34] [34] The preceding views are confirmed, both by the character of the moral law, and by its design and exposition, as given by the apostles of Christ. The moral law, or the rule and obligation of moral rectitude in the sight of God, which is revealed in the Scriptures, and interpreted by Christ as obligatory upon the thoughts and feelings of the soul, is not only in its nature of perpetual and universal obligation, and adapted to produce conviction of sin in every soul that is sensible of transgressing its requirements; but the Scriptures expressly declare that it was designed to produce conviction of sin in the soul, in order to prepare it to receive the gospel. The moral law is set forth in the Scriptures as holy, just, and good in its character; and whatever may be its effects upon the soul itself, that its character is such no intelligent being in the universe can doubt, because it requires of every one perfect holiness, justice, and goodness; it requires that the soul should be perfectly free from sin in the sight of God: and, as we have seen, God ought not to allow one sin; if he did, the law would not be holy, nor adapted to make men holy. But the more holy the law, the more conviction it would produce in the mind of sinners. If the law extended only to external conduct, men would not feel guilty for their wrong thoughts, desires, or designs; and if it extended only to certain classes of spiritual exercises, men would not feel guilty for those which it did not condemn; but if it required that the soul itself--the spiritual agent--the 'I' of the mind--should be holy, and all its thoughts and feelings in accordance with the law of love and righteousness, then the soul would be convicted of guilt for a single wrong exercise, because, while it felt that the law was holy, just, and good, it could not but feel condemned in breaking it. When Christ came, therefore, every soul that was taught its spirituality would be convicted of sin. One of two things men had to do, either shut out its light from their soul, and refuse to believe its spiritual and perfect requirements, or judge and condemn themselves by those requirements. And while the law thus showed sin to exist in the soul, and condemned the soul as guilty and liable to its penalty, it imparted no strength to the sinner to enable him to fulfil its requirements; it merely sets forth the true standard, which is holy in itself, and which God must maintain; and, by its light, it shows sinners their guilt, condemns them, and leaves them under its curse.