Nevada County picayune., 1889-06-19


 God hath made him liar; because he believeth not the record that God gave of his Son
 And this is the record, that God has given to us eternal life and this life iS in his Son:
 He that hath the Son hath life; and he that hath not the Son of God hath not ifc.-Il 10th llth and I2th verses The First Epistle General of John.
 Is man immortal? If a man die, shall he live again, and, if so, will he live forever?-are questions which have often agitatcd the human mind. Science and philosophy are utterly powcrless to solve these questions. Revelation sheds it's heavenly light, and the darkness of superstition dis appear before its celestial radiance.
 According to the testimony of the Bible. the first pair were endowed with the gift of conditional immortal ity, the condition of it's perpetuity being obedience to the Divine law under which they were placed; but, as the sacred history shows, they disobeyed the law, and thereby for feited the spiritual life with which they were endowed. and death with all it's woes entered into our world. The threat of death for disobedience was executed the same day, and the guilty pair were driven out of the garden, and cherubim and flaming sword were placed at the gate, in order to prevent further access to the tree of life, Jest they should reach forth their hand and eat and live forever" Thus they became nor tal and, as like begets like, they transmitted the same corrupt and perishable nature to their children ; so, in the expressive language of the Apostle Paul, 'Death hath passed upon all men, for that all have sinned,' and the whole human fam lly have become heirs of mortality, with it's sad and mournful train of evils and sorrows.
 Had no provision been made for their recovery, or restoration to ever- lasting life. all would have literally perished i'll their corruption; but God took pity on them, and gracious ly provided a ransom for all who would accept; "He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever belev- eth on Him should not perish, but have everlasting life. . It will be ob- served that the promise of everlasting life is restricted to those, and those only, who believe on the Son of God ; and all others will perish in their corruption, or, what is the same thing, will be hanished with ever lasting destruction from hepresence of the Lord, and from the glory of | His power. So that, immortality is only assured through faith in the Lord Jesus Christ; or, as the Apos- tie John expresses it, "This is the record, that God hath given to us eternal life, and this life is in His Son: He that believeth on the Son hath everlasting life he that believ- eth not on the Son shall not see life. y
 The dogma, that all men are im- mortal, that they inherit immortality as birthright from Adam, finds no support whatever from the inspired word of God. It remarkable, too, that it receives no support from human reason. when properly con. sidered for it may safely be main tained, that whatever the Scriptures distinctly teach, reason and common sense confirm by their testimony. Let us examine this question in the light of reason and experience. That "the wages of sin is death :" that sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death; - that the soul that sinneth, it shall die, are truths sustained by impartial history, experience and reason, as well as by the authority of Revelation.
 | Sin is a violation Of law-it is dis. organizing and revolutionary in its character, and destructive in its effects; and hence death, Tn its ob- vious and common sense import, is as natural and inevitable result as gravitatiOn or light. When God as sured Adam, that on the day he ate of the tree of knowledge of good and evil, he should surely die, He was simply announcing the inevitable re- suit of sin The reversal of this effect, or the hestowment of eternal life, is a gift, an unspeakable gift, conditional upon faith in the Son of God and, in it's arrest and repeal of the law of sin and death, it is Divine and supernatural and is not suscepti- ble of any scientific explanation or analysis Hence our Saviour says, in reference to the process by which it is accomplished, The wind blow eth where it hsteth, and thou nearest the sound thereof, but canst not tell whence it cometh or whlther it goeth; so Is every one that is born of the Spirit"
 But, it is urged, that the soul is indeStructible. that God himself can f, 'rb;. n ,bao. o.