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similar to the character of God until it is holy.
God demands holiness to complement His holiness.
Nothing short of that can God tolerate, and God
must he satisfied in His demands before there can
be fellowship in service. We ourselves are like that.
We have to have it. We have to be sure of the
character of a person before we desire to have
fellowship and companionship with him.
So that when God made Adam and put him in the
Garden of Eden, He breathed into him the breath of
life. Adam was holy; without spot or blemish.
Our first parent was holy in God’s sight, and as a
holy being, he had holy fellowship, and having holy
fellowship with God he had daily companionship
with God; step by step God and Adam walked the
Garden of Eden.
HARMONY BROKEN.
May I illustrate to you with a simple illustra
tion which I have used before in my Bible Class?
You have seen two children at play with what they
call a see-saw. A plank is placed over some object
and balanced, perfectly balanced, end for end, until
it will move almost in perpetual motion so thor
ough is the balance; one child sits on one end,
another on the other. Now for to have absolutely
no friction of the see-siaw both children must have
the same weight; the actual number of pounds, and
it must also have the same motion of the body, and
when once they are complemented, each weighing
the same as the other, there is the perfect see-saw,
the almost perpetual motion of that plank. If those
Children are not of the same weight and put on a
perfectly balanced plank there comes friction and
though the motion is continued, it requires strain of
muscle; it is a struggle to keep it going. And that
is the history of the world for these thousands of
years. In the Garden of Eden man complemented
God; God, the holy character, man like unto Him.
In that beautiful relationship there was perfect
rythm in the Garden of Eden without a single note
of discord. The flowers blossomed without the toil
of man; the trees bore their fruit without being
cultivated except such care as brought forth no
trouble to man; there was no suffering, no sorrow;
there was a perfect see-saw, God and man comple
menting each other. The devil entered; sin was
injected; the harmony was broken; the see-saw
was unbalanced, and friction, suffering and sorrow
was the result. The world has moved amid the
toil and the suffering and the sorrow from that day
to this. That is the trouble, the see-saw is un
balanced. The harmony is broken. There are
discordant notes all about us. Man is out of touch
with God; God is not complemented; that rythm
has got to 'be restored. Man must complement
the holiness of God. The character of man must
simulate and satisfy the demands of God’s holy
character, or else there will never be a perfect
fellowship 'between God and the race.
But how is this to be done? Some man says,
“I am going to give God a chance to restore the
harmony for I am tired of this friction and this
discord. I am going to improve; I am going to
cut off this and that; I am going to be like God
would have me.” That is not getting at it. The
thing that has brought us out of fellowship with God
is something that is within us that we can not
extract. It is like an eating cancer at the vital
organs of one’s life; hidden from view, it may be,
but nevertheless reaching out its fingers and devel
oping in its grasp the very vitals of a man’s life.
That is what has put us out of harmony with God.
How can we get to it? The Apostle Paul in the
eighth chapter of Romans, the seventh verse, de
clares, “The carnal mind is at enmity with God.
It is not subject to His law, neither indeed can
be.” No struggle, no culture, no university equip
ment, no work, nothing can satisfy God until there
is reached that mystical, marvelous, and super
natural change that brings us back into fellowship
with Him. This word carnal here translated in this
eighth chapter of Romans is a wonderful word.
There are two Greek words from which it comes.
Both are translated carnal. Ido not know why our
language has not sufficient vocabulary to find some
other way of describing the meaning here, but we
have not, and so we are forced to adopt this one
English word to express the meaning of both the
original words. The first is the Greek word “sar-
The Golden Age for April 29, 1909.
kikos. ’ ’ That word ‘ ‘ sarkikos ’ ’ means this, ‘ 1 Being
under the mastery of the sinful appetites.” Then
there is another word which sounds much like it
though it is widely different in meaning. It is the
word “sarkinos.” This word “sarkinos” means,
“Having a susceptibility to sin.” The first word
means “Under the dominion or the mastery of the
carnal, the sinful no'ture”; the other word means
that we have the susceptibility, though not under
the mastery of this sinful nature. Now the word
used here by the Apostle Paul when he says the
carnal mind is at enmity against God, not subject
to His will, neither can be, is this word “sarkikos.”
The mind mastered, under the dominion of the
fleslhey appetite of sin, is at enmity with God, alien
from God, not subject to God’s laws, nor indeed can
be. That is true. No man can have two kings
at the same time on the throne of his heart, no more
than he can be the subject of two kings and be
loyal to both. There must be one or the other.
If a man’s king is the appetite that arises from
his fleshey nature; if a man’s king is sin, then there
will be no harmony with God, for his king sin has
put his out of touch with all heaven. How then are
we to be changed? In this seventh chapter of the
Epistle to the Romans, Paul uses this same word
carnal in another sense. He says, “I am yet
carnal.” If you would know what the Apostle
means there you will have to go to see which of these
two characters is used, and you will find in that
seventh chapter where he says, “I am yet carnal,”
he is using the Greek word “sarkinos,” which
means “I have yet, though I am saved, the nature
which may yield to sin.” He does not say that he is
under the mastery of sin. He says simply, “I am
saved, but I am not under the mastery; I am yet
in possession of a body and flesh that may yield
to sin,” and therefore the Apostle’s injunction
is to “Watch lest you fall.” So you can easily
see that the one thing that God is requiring of the
race and of the individual for restoration of divine
fellowship is the change from the “sarkikos,” the
sin-mastered nature, to the “sarkinos,” the nature
free from sin and yet susceptible to it.
THE ONE WAY.
“Yes,” but you say, “What is the process? How
do you arrive at it?” There is only one way and
that is to measure up to God’s requirement of holi
ness. But, my brethren, this world has never seen
but.one man since its beginning that could measure
up to that requirement. Not the most perfect man
you ever saw; not Abraham, nor Isaac, nor Jacob,
nor Joseph, nor Moses, nor David, nor Paul, nor
Peter. There is but one way, and that way is
Christ. And we find that way foretold by God at
the entrance of sin: “The seed of the woman shall
bruise the serpent’s head,” bringing man back into
harmony with God.
Go back to our figure. Here is the balance. God
is on one side and man, the first man, on the other.
The swing is perfect. Man fell in sin and the
see-saw is interrupted. God’s holiness can only
be complemented by a similarity of character, and
there was only one chance. Man has lost his chance
to complement God by allowing sin to enter, and
so it is necessary for God Himself to come from
heaven in the person of Jesus Christ, and balance
man’s end of the see-saw. The holiness of God
and the holiness of Jesus balance; between God the
Father and Jesus the Son there is no friction. God
is satisfied as He looks into the face of Jesus. And
your position just depends on yourself. There you
are, out of harmony with God, suffering all that
is incident to the life of flesh. If you wish to
participate of God’s holiness, come to Him and say,
“Jesus, blessed Master, I can not measure up to the
requirements, and I want you to take me; there
is no goodness in me to make your goodness any
heavier. Let me nestle in your bosom,” and in
Jesus there is the perfect satisfaction of all the
divine requirement; God and man reunited. When
you come Jesus’ blood washes away your sin, and
He lives His life out through you, and God is satis
fied.
The purpose of God is fellowship with man. God
created man that he might have companionship.
Man broke it. The world is groping in darkness
and sin and God is trying through every method
that the mind of man can conceive of to overcome
that tragedy enacted in the Garden of Eden. He has
been speaking to us all the while through His
Word, through His ministry, through His Spirit,
telling us that there is but one way, and that is in
and through Him who alone can satisfy the de
mands of God’s holiness.
Pardon me if I say to you that many of the
things we are rejoicing about today as evidence
of the superior advancement of the world of civili
zation are all nothing more nor less than sign-boards
pointing us back to what we might have had had
we never lost touch with the infinite. I somehow
believe that every telephone wire, every telegraph
instrument that we have today is, instead of a sign
board pointing to wonderful achievements, a sign
board pointing back to the distance that we are
from what we might have been had we not gotten
out of touch with the Infinite. Yonder in the Garden
of Eden in fellowship with God the laws of either
vibration were just as potent as today. Had we
not lost touch with God there would have been
characteristic of this age a system of communica
tion between heaven and earth and between men
that today we have to make up for the loss of by
artificial concoctions of the brain of man. Oh, what
this world has lost! And, oh, the simplicity of
the route by which we can get back into heart
and harmony with the purpose and the mind of the
Infinite Spirit. Oh, that it may be revealed to us
today!
•s n
Preliminary Program Southern Baptist
Education Association,
The annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Edu
cation Association will be held in the Walnut Street
Baptist Church, Louisville, Ky., beginning May 12.
There will be three sessions of the Association:
8 p. m., Wednesday, May 12, and 10 a. m. and 2 p.
m., Thursday, May 13. The six topics to be dis
cussed, with the name of the speaker who will make
the opening address, are as follows:
“The Denominational College and the Carnegie
Foundation,” President Arthur Yager, Georgetown,
Ky.
“Education Commissions,” R. H. Pitt, LL. D.,
Richmond, Va.
“The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and
the Colleges,” Prof. W. C. Carver, Louisville, Ky.
“The Course of Study in a Southern Baptist Col
lege,” President Henry S. Hartzog, Arkadelphia,
Ark.
“The Denominational College and the Secondary
Schools,” President S. P. Brooks, Waco, Texas.
“College Entrance Requirements,” Prof. Garnett
Ryland, Georgetown, Ky.
The local committee of arrangements consists of
Mr. W. 11. Harrison, chairman; Dr. W. W. Lan
drum, Dr. W. 0. Carver, Mr. A. Y. Ford, and Dr.
S. E. Woody. Opportunity will be afforded at the
meetings on Thursday for discussions from the floor,
and it is hoped that many educators will partici
pate in the consideration of the important questions
presented Some time before the date of meeting
a complete program will be published.
F. W. BOATWRIGHT,
President, Richmond, Va.
W. W. RIVERS,
Secretary, Conway, Ark.
it u
The Golden Age, Atlanta, Ga.:
Enclosed you will find $2.00 (two dollars) for
my renewal to The Golden Age.
I tried to persuade myself that I could get along
without it, but I was the first subscribed, having
sent in my subscription as soon as I read the pros
pectus and saw that our lamented Sam P. Jones
was to be one of the contributors, and although I
am a full-fledged Methodist, I still enjoy it so much
I find I cannot get along without The Golden Age.
It is all such good reading, and I enjoy Dr.
Broughton’s sermons very much. They are every
one good. Sincerely,
Rome, Ga. MISS BAMA HOSS.
NOT SO EXACTING.
“So you’re a butcher now?”
“Yes,” explained the former dry goods clerk.
“The ladies don’t try to match spareribs or steak.”
—Kansas City Journal.
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