regarded as sin in one age or country may be imposed as a moral or religious duty in another. It is a sin to disbelieve the Koran in Arabia, and a sin to believe it in America. It is a sinful act to disbelieve the Christian Bible in this country, and a moral and religious duty in Japan. It is blasphemy and atheism to disbelieve in Jehovah and Jesus Christ in this country, but a still greater blasphemy and sin to believe in them in Arabia. And thus all human actions are modified by the circumstances under which, and the locality in which, they are committed. CHAPTER XLVI.--TRUE SALVATION, OK THE RATIONAL VIEW OF SIN. We will now attempt to show what reason, science, and God's eternal Bible teach as the nature of sin and its consequences. The orthodox world represents sin to be a personal affront against a personal God. But we take a broader, and, we think, a more rational view of the matter. We believe that no act of ours, whether good or bad, can possibly affect an infinite, omnipresent, and impersonal Deity in any way whatever. Nothing we can do can either offend or gratify such a being. He is infinitely too far removed from our little narrow sphere of action. But every thing we do can and _does affect ourselves_, and generally our friends and all connected with us. Every wrong act we perform inflicts an injury upon our moral consciousness, and a wound upon our sense of right, and inflicts a lasting injury upon our moral dignity, if it does not create a painful sense of wrong. And, when once committed, no repentance, no forgiveness, no prayer, no atonement, no pardon, can do any thing toward arresting the baneful effects, or toward healing the wound it has inflicted upon our moral consciousness, or the injury it has inflicted upon others. Hence we never ask for forgiveness, nor rely upon any atonement by men, animals, or Gods to cancel the effects, or mitigate the wrong, or alleviate the injury in the case. When you put your finger into fire, and burn it, you violate one of God's laws written upon your own constitution,--the law of self-preservation; and it inflicts a wound which the longest and loudest prayer ever uttered can do nothing towards healing. The effect will remain until healed by the working of nature's inherent laws. A similar effect is produced by every wrong act you inflict upon yourself or your fellow-beings. It inflicts a wound which is beyond the reach of prayer, pardon, repentance, or forgiveness. It most work ita natural cure, as in the case of physical injury. All bodily suffering comes through the mind, and hence affects the mind as well as the body; and every moral wrong we commit inflicts punishment or suffering upon the moral feelings. Hence it will be seen that sin does not have to wait for God to point out the penalty or punishment, but contains its own punishment, which no power in heaven or earth can arrest, avert, or set aside. This is evidently the only true doctrine respecting the punishment for sin;