The Lincoln County herald., 1872-09-04
The Fall or Man.
who Adam, Eve and the Serpent are.

who Adam, Eve and the Serpent are.
tFrom the New York Times.l
Rev. Mr.. Jordan. of Brookline, Mass,
conducted the services yesterday 10 the
New Jerusalem Church, Thirty fifth
street, between Lexington and Park ave
nue., in the absence Of ksv. Chauucey
Giles. The text for the sermon was
"Now, the servant was more subtle than
any beast Of the field which the Lord
God has made, and he said unto the
woman: Yea. hath God said, ys shall
net cat of every tree Of the garden ?"
Genesis ill.,, /. The Scriptures represent
everything made by Gods direct will to
have been good. How, then, did the
disorder and evil existing among men
come into the world? !? The answers
given to this question have been founded
more or less ON the letter Of the Word,
but mainly on the ingenius Imagination
Of gifted men, in all Of which there has
been misconception Of the nature Of the
goodness into which men were created 10
the beginning. They we're born natural.
like the animals, but differing from them
iu having the capacity to become angels.
1t was necessary then, as now. that men
should be rogsneratsd, and they were
born in freedom to choose heavenly life
when presented, and God provided the
means Of making them know iu what
heavenly life consists. They were liable,
as we are, to many fallacies Of thought
arising from sensual appearances, and
this external life Of Appearances is sigui.
fed by the serpent. The record Of the
fall would be OF no more importance than
the narration Of the thousand circum
stances which 90 to make up what men
are, only that the fall is constantly re.
peated. AS, only that heavenly life Is
ours which We freely choose, SO no infer
nal death is ours unless We voluntarily
seek it, knowing it to be wicked. AS
man cannot be an angel from birth, SO is
be not devil by nature, and inherited
good or evil only affects him as he mako,
it his own by doing it: Every man has
to bo banisbed from some paradise which
by bis own sin he has become unfit and
unwilling to occupy. Our minds should
not 60 back to the infancy Of the race,
but should rather seek to discover how
the serpent b.guiles us, and how to avoid
bis seductions, or be preserved from their
danger. The serpent signifies that region
Of tho mind lying nearest the senses the
mental faculty, by which tho soul takes
cognizanco Of outward things, (it is the
soul which sees and hears, not the
eye and ear), and which is liable to dc
csivs if higher faculties be not employed
to auayize and classify the information
thus obtained. In this we have the key
to the mystery Of the fall, ana sec that
the serpent is no devil; for the sensual
faculty it represents is useful and i'm
portant element Of the mind as Is
shswn in the words Of the Savior, "Bs ye
wise as serpeuts." 1t is not because the
appearances of nature aud their own
phy hysical aud mental existence wore falls
cious that men fell, but because they
gradually closed their minds to the love
instilled from the Lord, which enables
them to perceive the truth, aud they pre-.
ferrsd the tallacies Of the senses to the
truth. The text shows how this evil
began: "And the serpent said to the
woman, yea, hath God said 20 shall not
cat Of every tree Of the gardeu?' This
question contains the very spirit Of the
fall. This is the beginning Of distrust in
the goodness and wisdom Of divine reg
ulations, and of confidence in ones own
knowledge and good intentions. 1t is
the initial step in wrong thinking which
becomes SO easily misstep in life. But
We are not to charge the wrong to the
serpent--to the appearance that life Is
our own. 1t is not the ssrpent who is al
fault bis suggestion is only of that
nature for which he is not responsible.
1t was the harboriug the doubt implisd
In the question, } and the love Of It that
caused all the sin and misery. So this
woman, who, 10 the spiritual sense, rep
reseuts our love Of sense, went on from
doubt Of God to confidence in self, and
won over her husband Adam, who de
notes the rational principle Of our minds
or, in other words, the doubling and the
ascendancy of self.love and merely sen
sual appearances In the man represented
BY Adam and Evs-for they repressn,
one mau-continusd until there was no
longer any genuine reason, but only q
power Of ingenious argument, based upon
what could be apprehended by the senses
as only the truth.
SoMrTIMr We bav. alI ouy nosssa