We look at Balaam, and think, how could a man purpose anything so
foolish as to go on seeking for an opportunity to break a law which he
knew to be irrevocable!
Yet what did he do but what every sinner does?
All sin is the breach of law which at the very moment of breaking is
known to be imperative.
All sin is thus the overbearing of conscience, or the sophistication of
conscience, and all sin is the incurring voluntarily of consequences
which at the moment are or might be known to be certain, and far
overbalancing any fancied 'wages of unrighteousness.'
Thus all sin is the overbearing of reason or the sophisticating of
reason by passion. Men know the absurdity of sin, and yet men will go
on sinning. 'A rogue is a roundabout fool.' All wrongdoing is a mighty
blunder. It is only righteousness which is congruous with a man's
reason, with a man's conscience, with a man's highest happiness. 'The
fear of the Lord,' that is wisdom.