121 way of atonement, and chose his own. He disliked the idea of blood, as many do today. He could see no reason for it. Nor perhaps can we. But God does not ask for our opinion. He simply states the fact: “Without shedding of blood there is no remission” ; “for it is the Blood that maketh atonement for the Soul” ; without explaining why. Nothing more was required, nothing less would suffice. But Cain has many fol lowers. Millions today are exceedingly busy bringing to God the fruits of the earth, and offering Him something He has never asked for. As well might a man who has been refused by an insurance company on ac count of his heart, assure them that he can sing and play the piano. And the preacher who leads men to suppose that no atonement is needed, or that, in any case, “a fair show in the flesh” is quite enough, has gone in the way of Cain. “And ran greedily—for reward—af ter the similitude of Balaam.” Money is not the only form of reward. There is the reward of popular applause and the favor of the worldly. And for that men will sometimes stifle their convic tions and become soothsayers, prophets of smooth things, ever ready to pipe to the tune that is paid for. “And perished in the gainsaying of Core.” What is “gainsaying”? Simply saying against. And what did Core (or Korah) say against, and against whom did he say it? In Numbers 16 we find that this man, with certain others, “famous in the congregation, men of renown,” gathered themselves together against Moses and Aaron. . Moses, through whom God spoke to the Israel ites, had been enjoined by Him; “Speak unto the children pf Israel, and bid them . . . do all My commandments, and be holy unto your God.” This com mand evidently caused great displeasure to Korah and his company, and through, their spokesman they said: “Ye take too much upon you, seeing all the con gregation are holy, every one of them,
THE K I N G ’S BUS I NES S let us make us a name.” And mankind has been trying to do so ever since. It was impossible then; it is impossible still. The controversy between atonement by blood or the fruits of the earth, and between attaining heaven by grace through conformity to God’s demands, or trying to escape future judgment and obtaining entrance to heaven by building a tower of man’s own devising, is al most as old as the human race. The “golspel of gore” was the cause of the first quarrel on record. Cain and Abel are representative of all Christen dom. “By faith (or belief in God’s Word) Abel offered a more excellent sacrifice than Cain,” and Cain slew him. “And wherefore slew he him? Because his own works were evil, and his broth ers righteous.” We have no warrant for supposing that Gain was an aban doned reprobate. His evil lay chiefly in the fact that he rejected God’s way pf atonement and brought something “nicer”— the fruits of the earth. And men have been bringing them ever since. But that which is of the earth is— earthy, and that which is born of the flesh is—flesh, and no human effort can make the one heavenly or the other spiritual. Today we have the same cleavage; those who offer God what He demands, and those who offer what they think ought to satisfy Him. Today the follow ers of Cain vastly outnumber the ad herents of Abel. Cain has triumphed. The fruits of the earth have won the day. In Jude we find a reference to three outstanding men, men who may be re garded as typical of, or as representing, great numbers of modern preachers— Cain, Balaam and Core. “Woe unto them, for they have gone in the way of Cain, and ran greedily after the errbr • of Balaam for reward, and perished in the gainsaying of Core.” ■What was the way of Cain? Simply this: that he tried to improve on God’s
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