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THE K I NG ' S B U S I N E S S
(5) Man, by sin, b rough t a curse upon th e earth , and when the Lord lifts th e curse from man, th e e a rth will blossom as a rose. (6 ) Cain is th e old man and Abel is th e new man. (7) The new man is created, afte r God’s image, in Christ Jesus. (8 ) Sin b rough t ruin, as seen in the old m an; grace b rough t redemp tion, as seen in th e new creation. Among th e legends of th e Talmud, th e sto ry is told th a t when fath e r Adam was driven out of th e Garden of Eden to till th e ground, he asked the angel who k ep t th e LESSON gate, “W hat shall ILLUSTRATIONS I bring back to God W. H . P ik e when I re tu rn ? ” The angel replied “B ring Him back th e face He gave you in th e garden, and I will le t you in .” Do no t seek to avoid th is fact, for no th ing of sin shall en ter the gates of L ight. T ransform ation By Degrees. Mr. Stevens, th e ho rticu ltu rist, is said to have produced a seedless and core less apple. If it takes twenty-five years of selection to make a spineless cactus or a coreless apple which is a th ing of th e earth— why grow im patien t if th e soul is no t tran sfo rm ed in a week? It tak es longer to grow ch aracter th a n cactus, and is w orth infinitely more. One can be saved from th e gu ilt and power of sin in an in sta n t; b u t a grow th in Christian ch aracter tak es time. In sta n t T ransform ation. A man rose in a m eeting and said, “ I came into a meeting when it was held in th e old church, and was a t th e tim e under th e influence of liquor. The mis sionary talked and prayed w ith me, and God heard th e p rayer and saved me. I have lo st all appetite for d rink .” This is an imm ediate change and thousands of them are w rough t daily.
The sceptre was placed In his hand. Man was p u t on tria l under th e most favorable conditions possible. Can he m ake good? W ill he make good? To fail is to drag posterity w ith him. Whenever men ta lk about th e possibil ities of un regenerate man, they need to come back to th e first th ree chapters of Genesis. God did His best and man, poor man, did his best bu t proved him self a m iserable failure. Do we believe th e account in Genesis? Of course we do. We cannot help our selves. There is no o ther way to account for man and th e world as we find it today. W hat do we find? A world w ith the curse upon it, tho rn s and th istles; man w ith a fallen natu re, sin fu l; earn ing his bread by th e sweat of his brow and eating it in sorrow ; sin, suffering, sorrow everywhere. How comes it? Man has never been able to solve th e riddle. There has never been b u t one explanation, and th a t has been found in God’s Word. The B ible tells th e story, and the Bible only. We be lieve it, and tak e it as th e Lord Jesus did when He held th e Book in H is hand and set His seal to it. We do not specu late abou t it, b u t su rrender to it. The old man, th e Adam man, will no t do. He can never be a t home w ith God, his C reator. There m ust be ano ther crea tion ; he m ust be born from above; he must be recreated. As it was w ith the old world described in th e second verse of Genesis, w ithou t form and void, in darkness, in chaos,— th e re m ust be God’s voice and God’s power exercised in bringing fo rth a new m an; he must be “ created in Christ Jesu s.” PRACTICAL POINTS (1) Man was God’s la st and best work. (2 ) Man was no t evolved from a mon key, b u t many a man has made a monkey of himself. (3 ) Through grg.ce God gave Adam the sceptre; th rough sin, it passed to Satan. (4 ) W hile on probation, m an became reprobate.
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