That Jesus should have seen in the world evil that needed to be remedied, that he should have tried to remedy the evil he saw, does not, in itself, difference him from good and wise men who have observed the facts of human life and have deplored human miseries. All the great teachers and reformers have recognized evil in the world, and many of them have distinctly recognized this evil as moral evil. The doctrine of Jesus is peculiar in this; all the evil that is in the world is moral evil, and all moral evil is, at its root, sin, and sin, considered as a quality in man’s character, is a state of being that is out of harmony with God; considered as a fact, it is life in violation of God’s law. The bad man is, in his spirit, at enmity with God; in his life he breaks God’s law. He loves evil because evil is in him; his life is wicked because his heart is bad. And Jesus comes to take away sin; to deliver men from it, its penalty, and its power. Said the angel to Mary: “Thou shalt call his name Jesus, for he shall save his people from their sins.” In the view of Jesus sin is the one evil; deliverance from sin is deliverance from all evil; it is salvation. He struck at sin as the root of all possible evil; he recognized no evil that was in man’s circumstances, as if his evil came out of fate or in some way invincible by him; it is all of sin. Wherefore Jesus does not set about bettering man’s circumstances, by direct effort improving the sanitary, economic, political, or social conditions of life; he works upon man himself. Whatever improves man’s condition is, in the doctrine of Jesus, to be desired; but it is not enough to make man comfortable; he must be made good. He teaches that all that is truly good and needful will come to men who are delivered from sin, and that no real good can come to him whose sin remains in him. First, last, all the time, Jesus makes deliverance from sin the one thing needful--the chief good. As his manner was, he does not argue about it; he states his doctrine positively, “with authority,” as one knowing the whole truth of the case. There is no qualifying word to tone down his statements and to leave place for retreat from possible mistakes. His doctrine he taught and illustrated in every possible way. It is in his more formal discourses, his briefest comments on men and things, his most occasional conversations and most incidental remarks. His doctrine is in all his efforts to do men good, as it is in every warning and every promise. And there is never a shadow of doubt, a suspicion of hesitation. From his first word to the last, from the beatitudes to the prayer on the cross, it is always the same thing; man’s trouble is all in his sin; his only salvation is deliverance from sin.