The Seven Deadly Sins

As the subject of this book may, by its novelty in Protestant religious literature, attract the attention of preachers desirous of leading their flocks to fresh fields and pastures new, it may be mentioned that its history, as a theological topic, is given in ZOCKLER’S Das Lehrstuck von den tiieben Hauptsilnden, and that each of the seven sins is discussed with great acuteness and comprehensiveness in AQUINAS’ Summn (Secunda Secundce). The order varies in different writers; I have adopted that of the scholastic catchword SALIGIA, composed of the initial letters of the words Superbia, Avaritia, Luxuria, Invidia, Gula, Ira, Accidia.

JAMES STALKER.
GLASGOW, March 1901.

In war it is a great advantage to possess a thorough knowledge of the country. Soldiers fighting on their own ground are able to attack when not expected, to draw the enemy into ambushes, and to vanish when hard pressed without paying the penalty of defeat. It is of equal importance to possess accurate information as to the numbers of the opposing side, their strength in the different arms, and their material equipment. The lack of such know ledge may involve even for the victors an enormous expenditure of life and treasure. These rules are no less true of spiritual than of physical warfare. If we are to cope with the A

tempter, we must not be ignorant of his devices, and we must know the nature and the extent of the forces which he is to bring into the field. For this reason it has been one of the tasks of theology to enumerate the sins by which the human soul is beset, to search into their subtlety, and to expose their methods of attack; and, as the result of many centuries of observation, seven sins have been especially noted as the leaders and chieftains of those that war against the soul — pride, avarice, luxury, envy, appetite,anger,and sloth. These seven sins are nowhere all mentioned together in any single passage of Scripture, although, of course, they are all often mentioned separately; and it is open to any one to question whether there are not others entitled to the bad pre eminence of being called the deadly sins; but the selection of these for this position is a conclusion reached, after centuries of discussion, by some of the acutest intellects of the race. I may refer in subsequent chapters to the history of the process by which this conclusion has been reached, but meantime I invite my readers to the study of the sin which heads the list — Pride.

It may not seem obvious that pride is the primary sin; but this has been the pretty unanimous conclusion of those who have investigated the subject most deeply; and it will reward any one to think out for himself the reasons why they have come to this conclusion. It will be remembered that this was the first sin of which we have any know ledge, for it was pride through which the angels fell; and the outstanding feature of the character of the leader of the angels in that tragic drama, as Milton has depicted it, is arrogance. ‘Better,’ he cries, ’ to reign in hell than serve in heaven.’ In like manner, the sin of our first parents, which has brought woe to all their descendants, was pride; for the tempter whispered to them, ‘Ye shall be as gods.’ Besides, if any one reflect, he will perceive that in no other sin is the very essence of all sin so concentrated. The essence of sin is selfishness, and pride is the inordinate assertion of self; it would annihilate others, and it disdains to be prescribed to even by God.

The Latin name for pride, superbia, means aiming at what is above, and Chaucer says that the proud man is he who will always be swimming aloft. But the mere desire of what is above us is not pride. Not to desire what is above us would be not to desire any kind of improvement. Those, indeed, who aim at excellence will always be exposed to the charge of pride, but the accusation may be groundless. A learned man cannot help being aware that he knows many things which an ignorant man does not; and by the latter it may be supposed that he must be proud on this account: but the increase of knowledge may, on the contrary, be making him every day more humble. In a promiscuous company, if a woman refuses to join in an uncomely game, she will be reproached as proud; but her maidenly modesty is really beautiful and virtuous. It is impossible to display any constancy or zeal in religion without being accused of pride, as if one considered oneself better than one’s neighbours; indeed, there are those who call every one who will not join with them in riot and excess a Pharisee and a hypocrite, without more ado: but God himself has said, ‘Come out from among them, and be ye separate.’ There is such a thing as proper pride; and, when an accusation of pride is brought, the accuser requires to be judged as well as the accused.

In pride, justly so called, there is always an element of falsehood. It is a claim to merits which are not possessed; or, if we possess them at all, we deceive ourselves and attempt to deceive others as to the degree in which we possess them. We deny and ignore the claims of others, in order that our own may be preeminent. We hate those who esti mate us exactly for what we are worth; and arrogance, in its extreme manifestations, demands that all should suspend their own judgments and accept its self-estimate at the point of the sword. This falseness seems to me to be the distinctive mark of pride.

Many kinds of pride have been distinguished. There is, for example, that which is within, in the heart, and there is that which is without, in the clothing, the furniture, or the like; though, as Chaucer characteristically remarks, the latter betrays the existence of the former, as the wine in a tankard at the door of a tavern speaks of the wine that is in the cellar. Pride may be in thought, in speech, or in action. On speech it

1 See The Persone’s Tale, which discusses the Seven Deadly Sins very fully. has an extraordinary effect. There are people whose conversation is nearly all about themselves. As often as the conversation strays to other subjects, they bring it back, for whatever any interlocutor relates reminds them of something that has happened to themselves, and this immediately becomes the absorbing topic. They know how to bring the conversation round by the most circuitous routes, in order to return to this favourite centre. They think their devices are unnoticed, but every one perceives them, for pride is constantly overleaping itself: it tries to make self out to be great, and in the very act of so doing proves it to be little. It is no uncommon thing for a man to be labouring to convince people of his superiority, when his transparent vanity is making him the laughing-stock of the whole company. Boastfulness easily leads to exaggeration, and exaggeration to falsehood. It is no uncommon infirmity to be unable to speak the truth about oneself. Everything that has happened to us must be wonder ful, and everything we have done must be great. And, whilst thus we are puffing ourselves out, people are saying behind our backs, ‘You cannot believe a word he says.’

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