Faith & Spirit Quote by Matthew Simpson

Guilt, Simpson suggests, is older than doctrine and sturdier than progress. By anchoring “human nature” to Adam’s first evasive move, he turns a theological origin story into a psychological baseline: the impulse to hide isn’t a quirky biblical detail, it’s the prototype of our moral reflexes. The line works because it smuggles a hard claim inside a familiar scene. Everyone knows what it feels like to dodge a conversation after you’ve hurt someone; Simpson simply gives that feeling a mythic pedigree.

The subtext is pastoral and strategic. As a 19th-century clergyman speaking to a culture steeped in Christian reference points, he’s not merely diagnosing shame; he’s framing avoidance as evidence. If you feel the urge to withdraw, that very reluctance becomes proof that a moral law has been violated and recognized. “Consciousness of wrong” matters here: it’s not fear of punishment, but an internal verdict that makes presence itself unbearable. The offender can’t tolerate the offended because eye contact implies accountability.

Context sharpens the intent. Simpson preached in an era obsessed with respectability, public reputation, and the policing of private behavior. In that world, “hiding” isn’t just spiritual flight from God; it’s social choreography: silence, absence, polite distance, the performance of not knowing. His sentence nudges the listener toward a remedy the church can offer: confession, repentance, reconciliation. Before grace can be received, Simpson implies, we have to admit we’re crouched in the bushes.