Home
/
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
/
The sweetness of the Law
The sweetness of the Law
Feb 11, 2026 7:35 AM
menting briefly on Psalm 19, C. S. Lewis observes the description of God’s Law as “sweeter than honey” and “more precious than gold,” the kind of descriptions that occur again and again throughout the Psalter.

Lewis writes,

In so far as this idea of the Law’s beauty, sweetness, or pireciousness, arose from the contrast of the surrounding Paganisms, we may soon find occasion to recover it. Christians increasingly live on a spiritual island; new and rival ways of life surround it in all directions and their e further up the beach every time. None of these new ways is yet so filthy or cruel as some Semitic Paganism. But many of them ignore all individual rights and are already cruel enough. Some give morality a wholly new meaning which we cannot accept, some deny its possibility. Perhaps we shall all learn, sharply enough, to value the clean air and “sweet reasonableness” fo the Christian ethics which in a more Christian age we might have taken for granted. But of course, if we do, we shall then be exposed to the danger of priggery. We e to “thank God that we are not as other men”. This introduces the greatest difficulty which the Psalms have raised in my mind.

Comments
Welcome to mreligion comments! Please keep conversations courteous and on-topic. To fosterproductive and respectful conversations, you may see comments from our Community Managers.
Sign up to post
Sort by
Show More Comments
RELIGION & LIBERTY ONLINE
How Amazon is Like a Sweatshop (And What That Reveals About Flourishing and Justice)
Liberal and conservative, right and left, red state and blue state—there are dozens, if not hundreds of ways to divide political and economic lines. But one of the most helpful ways of understanding such differences is recognizing the divide between advocates of proximate justice and absolute justice. Several years ago Steven Garber wrote an essay in which he explained the concept of “proximate justice”: Proximate justice realizes that something is better than nothing. It allows us to make peace withsomejustice,somemercy,...
Video: Timothy P. Carney On The Threat To Liberty From Big Business
We’ve had our busiest Acton Lecture Series in institute history over the course of the first six months of 2015 – we’ve had more public events at the Acton Building in that period of time than we had all of last year, I believe; I’d venture to say that 2015 is already the busiest year in that regard in the 25-year history of the Acton Institute. We’ve had a bit of a pause in the events schedule over the summer,...
The Not So New Russian Orthodox Banking System
The Orthodox Church in Russia has proposed a banking model that corrects what it sees as the most serious of that global banking industry’s moral failings, says Rev. Gregory Jensen in this week’s Acton Commentary.However the system the Church purposes is unlikely to foster economic growth. It also overlooks the convergence of the free market with key elements of the Orthodox moral tradition. Banks require varying amounts of collateral from and charge different interest rates to different customers. Yes, the...
Children Press-Ganged into EcoService
Whether they’re old enough to believe in the EcoGospel, or Gaia, or man-made climate change or not, children are the latest weapon pressed into service by the eco-warriors. First, it was co-opting Pope Francis and Laudato Si, and now it’s kids. Will they stop at nothing? The Wisconsin Daily Independent reported this past Monday that a group calling itself Citizens Preserving the Penokee Hills Heritage Park is promoting its environmental agenda with a painting of a young Native American girl...
The Denver City Council’s Despicable Disregard for the First Amendment
If you want to sell chicken sandwiches as the Denver Airport you need to check your First Amendment rights at the gate. That seems to be the message sent by the Denver City Council to Chick-fil-A, a fast-food chain that is seeking to open a store at the Denver International Airport. The Council is considering turning away the popular franchisebecause pany promotes a Christian ethic in their business dealings. This offends the Council who is worried about how it will...
FLOW Gift Pack: Now Available on RightNow Media
The Acton Institute’s latest film series,For the Life of the World: Letters to the Exiles, was created to help Christians dig deeper into and examine the bigger picture of Christianity’s role in culture, society, and the world. The series is well suited to a variety of settings, whether a college classroom, small group, or church setting. To promote these types of explorations and exchanges, a special Gift Pack version of the series is now available via RightNow Media, an online...
Gleaner Tech #4: A “Drinkable Book” That Turns Raw Sewage Into Drinking Water
[Note: See this introduction post for an explanation of gleaner technology.] Lack of clean drinking water is one of the greatest public health problems on the planet. Around the world there are 750 million people—approximately one in nine—who lack access to safe water, and millions will die each year from a water related disease. But a new “drinkable book” may soon provide an inexpensive way for the poor to get potable water. While getting her PhD in chemistry, Theresa Dankovich...
Almost Half of American Voters Would Vote for a Socialist President
Earlier this summer a Gallup surveyasked respondents to answer the following question: Between now and the 2016 political conventions, there will be discussion about the qualifications of presidential candidates—their education, age, religion, race, and so on. If your party nominated a generally well-qualified person for president who happened to be _______________, would you vote for that person? The survey provided some interesting findings, such as25 percent of Americans would not vote for an evangelical Christian. In contrast, fewer people said...
Overcoming ‘Anti-Foreign Bias’ in Trade and Immigration
Many conservatives exhibit a peculiar tendency to be pro-liberty when es to business, trade, and wages, but protectionist when es to the economic effectsof immigration. It’s an odd disconnect, and yet, as we’ve begun to see with figures like Donald Trump and Rick Santorum, one side is bound to eventually give way. They’ll gush aboutthe glories petition, but the second immigration gets brought up, they seem to defer tolabor-union talking points fromages past. When pressed on this in a recent...
Giveaway: Win All 3 Books from Kuyper’s ‘Common Grace, Vol. 1’
Christian’s Library Press has released Volume 1 of its English translations of Abraham Kuyper’s most famous work, Common Grace, which is made up of 3 books (Noah-Adam, Temptation-Babel, Abraham-Parousia). The books are part of a larger translation project that you can read about here. The work presents a public theology of cultural engagement rooted in the humanity Christians share with the rest of the world, making it an extremely valuable resource for Christians seekingtodevelopa winsome and constructive social witness. The...
Related Classification
Copyright 2023-2026 - www.mreligion.com All Rights Reserved