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“/ Am
7he Way,
The Truth, ana
The Life."
Origin of Things as Revealed in Genesis.
By DR. A. C. DIXON.
IV. SIN.
I stood last summer on a hilltop in the suburbs
of Geneva and looked down upon the continence of
the livers Rhone and Arve. The Rhone, as it comes
out of the lake, is as clear as crystal. The Arve,
flowing from the Alpine glaciers, is turbid. The
battle begins at once between clearness and turbid
ity, and you can see the line of cleavage between the
two rivers, until by and by the whole river is tur
bid.
The first two chapters of Genesis are like the
Rhone, clear as crystal; there is no trace of sin.
Into the third chapter the turbid Arve of sin flows,
and there begins the conflict between good and
evil, until by and by the whole river becomes tur
bid. This conflict continues through the entire Bi
ble, until in the last chapters of Genesis we find the
river 1 ‘clear as crystal,” proceeding from the
throne of God and of the Lamb.
Sin enters first of all through Satan’s calling in
question the fact of a revelation from God. “Yea,
hath God said ye shall not eat of every tree of
the garden?” He does not deny it; he simply
questions the fact that God has ever spoken. In
the second chapter we have what God said; a per
mission and a prohibition: “Thou shalt,” and
“Thon shalt not.” And now Satan suggests the
question as to whether God has ever spoken to
man. “Yea, hath God said?” “Are you certain
that he spoke to you at all?” Does God give a
revelation directly to man, or does He leave him
to find his own standard of right and wrong with
in himself? If Satan can convince the world that
God has given no direct revelation, that He has left
man simply to take care of himself and find his
own standard of righteousness, the first step to
ward permission, to sin is taken. And this first
question of Satan is to-day one of the fundamental
principles of religious infidelity, which questions
whether God has ever spoken directly to man;
whether, indeed, this story in Genesis has any his
toric basis; whether it did not come out of man’s
inner consciousness, so that the story must be read
from the earth upward, and not from God down
ward.
Look for a standard in man, and not for a reve
lation from God. And when you have denied that
God speaks at all to man, or that God in speaking
to man gives a revelation of the standard of right
and wrong, you have really given men permission
to do as they please.
Again, after calling in question the fact of reve
lation, Satan flatly denies the threat of revelation.
“Thou shalt not surely die.” The God of grace
is a God of love, mercy, and kindness. Accept the
revelation of God, but reject His threatening. Do
not believe the Bible when it speaks of retribution
for sin, when it declares there is a hell. Accept
the revelation of God’s goodness, mercy and kind
ness, but deny His threatening. Tn other words,
accept all that pleases, and reject all that dis
pleases you. It is plain that Satan is the author
of this method of interpretation.
The third step is an intimation against the be
nevolence of God. “God doth know that in the day
" "gall MbCT PIQI
The Golden Age for June 21, 1906*
ye eat thereof your eyes shall be opened, and ye
shall be as gods knowing good and evil.”
Now that Satan has called in question the fact
of revelation, and has induced Eve to reject the
threat of revelation, he goes a step further and in
timates against the benevolence of God, by saying,
in effect, “He does not have in view your good.
He knows that you will be as gods, knowing good
and evil, and He wans to keep you in ignorance.”
If Satan succeeds in inducing you to call in question
the fact of revelation, and then to deny the threat
of revelation, it will be easy to convince you that
God is not loving and kind, for the authority which
reveals His severity also reveals His goodness, and
to doubt one is to doubt the other.
Sin works out, first, through man’s physical na
ture; second, through his esthetic nature, and third,
through his intellectual nature. Eve saw that “the
tree was good to eat,” and whatever is good to eat
it must be right to eat. Whatever satisfies the taste
must be permissible. Whatever I enjoy, of course,
is right. Scores of people defend their course of
action on the ground that it pleases them. They
like it; it panders to their sensual tastes and phy
sical appetites, and hence they indulge.
More subtle still is the second temptation. “She
saw that the tree was pleasant to look upon.” Not
only was the fruit luscious, but the tree and the
fruit were beautiful. It is through the beautiful
in music, painting, form, and movement that Satan
appeals to the esthetic nature and often pollutes
the soul.
Just as subtle was the third temptation through
the intellect: “A tree to be desired to make one
wise,” and, of course, there can be no harm in
knowing more. Young men come to the great city,
and they decide that they must know. They are
ignorant. They have been raised on the farm. They
know the right and true and pure, but they do not
know the world. They justify themselves in going
to the theatre and “doing the town,” that they may
learn what they do not know. It is this desire for
the knowledge of evil which has damned more
young people, doubtless, than any other one thing.
In Heaven they know only good, and in hell only
the bad. Halfway between Heaven and hell we
have on earth the knowledge of good and evil. What
Satan desires, that he may make this earth a hell,
is that we learn the evil; and what God desires, that
He may make this earth a heaven, is that we know
only the good.
The first result of sin is shame, and sin always
brings shame. Linked with shame is a fear which
amounts to terror. “I heard thy voice in the
garden, and I was afraid.” If you are in harmony
with God, His voice gives peace. If you are living
in sin, the voice of God fills you with fear. This
may be the reason you do not like to read the
Bible. It is God’s voice speaking to you and filling
you with fear, because you are living in sin.
With shame and fear is developed selfishness.
Eve at once shifts the blame for her sin to Satan.
“The serpent beguiled me, and I did eat.” Adam
blames Eve. When you find people blaming others
for their sins, you may know that hey are under
Satan’s dominion. When a man is willing to con
fess his own sin, it is evident that God is at work
in his soul. The Holy Spirit convicts of sin; Satan
convicts of other people’s sins.
With shame, fear and selfishness comes wilful
separation from God. “Adam and his wife hid
themselves from the presence of the Lord among
the trees of the garden.” They seek to separate
themselves from God. This is death. And the
foretaste of hell is expressed in the words “These
shall go away into everlasting punishment.” The
smoke of torment begins to ascend even from
among the trees of the garden. Conscience and im
agination are on fire with shame and fear and sel
fishness.
But there is salvation. The serpent’s doom is
that he shall crawl in the dust, and the seed of the
woman shall bruise his head. The eye of faith
can see an Eden without a serpent, in which men,
reconciled to God and redeemed from sin, fear and
selfishness, shall be forever with the Lord.
Opening of Second Canadian Campaign.
By GEORGE T. B. DAVIS.
The closing revival campaign of Dr. Torrey and
Mr. Alexander before their summer period of rest
opened most successfully in Ottawa yesterday.
Scores of people stood up to accept Christ at the
first evangelistic meeting last night, while in the
afternoon the hearts of hundreds were stirred by
Dr. Torrey’s address on soul winning as the business
of every Christian.
The opening meetings were attended by unusually
large crowds considering the size of the city. About
3,000 were present at the afternoon meeting, while
at night the big structure was crowded with an au
dience of nearly or quite 6,000, with many unable to
obtain admission. The building in which the meet
ings were held is called Dey’s Rink, and is ordina
rily used as a skating rink or for hockey matches.
It is considerably larger than the rink in Atlanta,
and in both exterior and interior appearances it
closely resembles the armory used by the evangel
ists for their meetings in Plymouth, England.
Among those present at the afternoon meeting
were several from Government House, including
Lady Sybil Grey, daughter of Earl Grey, Governor
General of Canada.
Tn his first address to the people of Ottawa, Dr.
Torrey told them that he had found, after wide ex
perience, that soul-winning was the only thing
worth living for. He said:
“I have traveled the world over. I have been
right around it. I have been from Labrador on the
north to the sonthermost town south of the equator;
I have been in every latitude that is inhabited by
man, and I have been in every longitude there is.
And after all this search I have only found one thing
in the world that is worth living for—that is soul
winning. Thank God that is worth living for. I
wish I could live two hundred years to win souls.
I don’t know that I would care to live two years
for anything else.”
Large preparations have been made for many
weeks past for the meetings. The choir numbers 700,
while there are nearly 200 personal workers. As was
the ease in Toronto, there has been much fervent
prayer. One prominent physician and his wife
spent the entire night in prayer that God would re
move certain difficulties which threatened to mar
the success of the meetings.
“The Entrance
of
Thy\ Words
Giveth Light."
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