Nevada County picayune., 1890-02-19
MAN-HIS NATURAL STATUS
 AND FUTURE DESTINY.
First Disobedience--The Penalty.

,rery tree of ,e garden thou iayest freely eat, bat ef ths trr gf the knowledge of good aud eS ti thou '2t ngt cal of ij. for u the dag that faos eaies' thereof fflga shalt sareiy die. tFeH- "A Ie and II-
 And when the woman that the tree was good for food and tha' i. was pleAsaRtt Co the eyes, aEd tree ts be ds-ired 70 make one wise she ioos of fhe fruit thereof and did et and gave also anto her husband HJrs her and he did rat--lticn ii 5
 The first chapter of Genesis gives Us q brief account of creation. the second informs Us that man was placed under law, and the third re- cords the story of his disobedience and miserable fall. The question propounded in our introductory arti- cle. will man stand the crucial test: is answered not only by the third chapter of Genesis but also by all the subsequent history of the race. The disorders and evils of the moral world. the sin and suffering and death. all attest and verify the scriptural account of mans apostasy. and it's sad consequences. The question which confronts Us at this stage of the investigation is. what is the penalty denounced, and what is mans status since the fall:
 Gods statement of the case is very plain and unambiguous-"In In the.day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" There is no ambiguity here. no resort to metaphorical lam guage. but plain and literal state ment of the inevitable result. The death pronounced was not only the death of the body. but the death ot of the whole man-body. soul aud spirit. From the moment that Adam sinned. the seeds of death were sown in his body. as we'll as in his soul and spirit, and hence, in every sense of the word, he began to die the same day in which he perpetrated the act of disobedience. Everybody is compelled to admit the fact of physical death. but some are disposed to deny the fact of moral death.
 { Our first appeal is to Scripture: You hath he quckencd who were dead in tresspasses and sins '-''let the dead bury their dead'-"the wages of sin is death" the soul 7 that sinncth it shall die"-''he that pursueth sin pursueth it to his own death she that liveth in sin is dead while she lives '-''as in Adam all die" Many other passages of similar import might be mentioned. but these are sufficient for the pur- pose. Our next appeal is to human ! experience. What mean the strifes and bloodshed, the cruelties and atrocities which stain the pages of history. Do they not proclaim the perversion of human nature. the sure signs and forerunners of moral and spiritual, as well as physical death:
 { Our general conclusion then is, that man not only exposed himself to bodily death by his first act of diso- 1 bedience, but that he also forfeited the immortal life with which he was endowed. and hence by nature is ut- terly destitute of immortal and eter- nal fife. Perhaps the most conylnc- ing proof that man lost his immortal ity by the fall lies in the reason which God himself assigns, that he was driven from the Garden. and Cherubim and flaming sword placed at the gate to guard the tree of life, ! lest man should eat of it and live for ever. The expulsion of man from the garden, and the precautions used to dcbar him from access to the tree were doubtless prompted by q merci- ful spirit on the part of our Heavenly Father: for had man been permitted to remain in the garden. with the 1 privilege of access to the tree of life, then the very calamity which is em- ! bodied in the creeds of popular the ologv would have resulted, viz The pcrpetuatiou of life of sin and sui suffering through eternity To pre- vent such 2 terrible calamity, there fore. our federal head and represen- tatiye was mercifully excluded from the garden. and denied the privilege of eating of the fruit of the tree of life. Jest he should live for ever,
 We have heretofore been consid- ering the effects ot sin-that it
 brought death into the world with all our woe that iJ wa, the cause of spiritual as well as physical death. We wish now to remark that God i, 1 immutable in his laws and in hi, character; that the penalty de- nounccd against sin m the Garden ] ha, never been changed, but is the same today and will remain the same to the end of time, Nose. toil the Israelities that life and death were set before them; Ezekiel re- i ipeated the same story. and the ApoS- tie Paul sets forth the same doctrine to the Gentle world. In the 5th chapter of Romans the Apostle Paul. who was specially set for the defence | o,f f,o C,psrel s,ptrastal fhn nffa.f-