St. Paul daily globe., 1892-12-26
Miss Sutton's Interesting Ser
mon at Grand Forks Yes
terday.
Death, She Tells Her Hearers,
Is Not a Divine
Law.
Some Interesting Deductions
From Her Seriptural
Lore

I Christ onr Lord. Rom. vii, %.
F Christian scientists are often crit
icised for making the assertion that
| death is not divine law 1t is argued
that since death comes alike to all and
is the natural ending of life, it must he
divinely inevitable.
But death does not come to all. for
neitherMoses nor Enoch nor Elijah died,
but were translated. Christian scientists
claim, and Scriptures bears them out in
the assertion, that death is law or con-
sequence of sin which may be avoided
by mans obedience to divine law. Life
has no ending. but Whittier was right
when ne sang, There IS no death: what
we call death is but transition" We
ali know this transition has been made
without passing through what is called
death, aud divine science teaches that
it should be SO, and will be. How can
death be the door to life? To lay OFF the
sense of sin and materiality is the
natural entrance TO holiness and spirit
uality. AS Paul states it, I'VE are trans
formed by the renewing Of our minds"
And if at death, mans mind is not
sufficiently renewed to reach
That Great Transformation
from the earthly to the heavenly, he will
find his surroundings after death as far
from the heavenly as before and will
learn there is but one way to become
ripe for the heavenly and that is to turn
from sensual material sense 10 spiritual
soulfulness and find himself the image
of perfect mind. This is passing from
| death into life"
When we say the sensual, the material
or evil OF any and all kinds are delu-
| Slons, that we must seek to know the
| spiritual and the good only. people say,
This is hard saying; VINO can hear
! (understand) it?" Yet. that good is
| true AID evil untrue; good real and
| evil unreal. all must learn. All must
unkn0w the evil aud know good only,
fer man is not only forbidden to know
| both good and evil, but it is inevitably
| decreed that if he knows both he must
"surely die" God is good, and all He
| made was good, and all His laws are
| good. Therefore, when we know truly
| we will know all to De good, and realize
| that the only Maker never made any
evil that we may know. The delusion
Of evil will vanish when the truth ap-
| pears, as delusiohs always do.
But to know God and ourselves truly
| we must accept the spiritually scientific
| account of God. man and the universe,
| as revealed III the first chapter of Gen
! GolSt anu JDc uISG i've NSISeS vi LilC SeC-
| Ond chapter as the real true VerSiOn,and
the second chapter, beginning with the
| sixth verse, we must regard as the un-
real. the untrue simply carnal minds
| version of what it does not and cannot
| understand-namely, Gods perfect Gre
| alton. The first account represents the
| Creator and creature in the true or di-
vine order of being, wherein all is good
there is no evil. Hence, as divine mind
| knows itself and man, there is no sill
| good only is known and Gods works
misunderstanding to be made either
| good Ur bad, and evil unknown. God is
| sail and in all.p TO know this is eternal
| life! Now, glance at
f. The Opposite Supposition
| as delineated in the second and third
| chapters. Here is a ''mist"-it covers
| up the whole truth, if we look iuto it
| believing. Here God is represented as
| making man of dust nothingneSS) in
stead OF rejecting him as His image.
| the reflection of spirit; that He placed
| him in garden of delight (Eden), III
| the midst of which He planted the tree
| of life and the tree of death. And
| what is the tree of death? The knOwl-
| edge of good and evil. "0f the tree of
| the knowledge of good and evil thou
| shalt not eat (partake) of it, for in the
day that thou eatest thereof thou shalt
| surely die"
The Scriptures declare that the law of
| sin is death. SO as long as we sin we
| are under the law of death and are
| liable to die. But when we become
| perfect, or so nearly so as to overcome
| this law, it will no longer be found
necessary to suceumb to death, tsbut man
will overcome it and pass into higher
! existence as naturally and panleSSly as
| Enoch and Elijah did. If they made
| the change in that way because they
! were perfect, it would be right; and if
| it is right for them it Is right for us.
| And if translation be contingent upon
| perfection, then we will attain to it by
| attaining to perfection; and, further. no
| one should deny that man can and
| should reach perfection, for Jesus said
| TO His deciples, "Be ye therefor per
| feet, even as your Father i'll heaven is
| perfect. Matt, ", 40.
As death is not divine law there is
no "time to die" except in human ex-
| pectation and that is the human thought
expressed in the Scripture. II there
were a certain time for each man, Wom
an and child to die, it would be sin to
try to save life or pray to God to save
the sick. Practically people DO not be-
| lieve God has appointed a special time
| for death, else they would not strive,
with medicine and other means, to pre-
vent death.
But, furthermore, if death were by the
| will of God, Jesus would not and could
not have raised the dead. He said he
| came to
Fulfill tile Law,
not to destroy it. But if death were
| Gods law he would have anuulled or
| destroyed law whenever he raised the
| mead to life. By the very act OF bring
! ing the dead back to life he fulfilled the
| law of life and overcome "Uhe law of
| sin and DEATH" He also stated that
| some who stood with him, undoubtedly.
| his disciples, should not die. Verify [ :
/ say unto you, there be some standing
| here, which shall not taste of death. till
| they see the Son OF Man coming in his
| Kingdom" Matt xvi, 80, also Mark iX.,
| l, and Luke iX., 81.
| The belief that God DEGREES death is
| one of the greatest producers OF what
| man terms death. | once sat at the bed
| side of aeonsumptive invalid, who OPP
| posed my understanding and demOnstra-
| tion of divine healing. She declared:
| ''God has appointed Inc certain time
| to die. You do not know bnt what this
| is my time, so it would be sin and bias
| phemy for you TO attempt, or expect, to
raise me from this bed by prayer" l
pointed to her table, covered with bot
| Ties of drugs. eXclaiming, Then how
/ dare you take that medicine!"
(, Jesus said that they who believe
(understandingly) upon Him should do
all His works. That includes raising
| the dead. But man will have a very
| different understanding of death, in all
| respects, than is generally accepted to-
| daU hpfnrp hA make that grand
demonstration. Yet Peter and Paul had
| that understanding. and did the work.
! And if Peter and Paul, then why not
we? They were to us examples of Jesus
| faithful followers. We are expected TO
discern and demonstrate the same truth
that they did.
Study the words of the text, "For the
| wages of sin is death, but the gift of
God is eternal life through Jesus Christ,
our Lord" Here is very plain state
ment of the origin of death OH the one
| side. and the origin of life on the other