St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1894-09-24
Leaven in Meal Brings New
Life Out OF the Sub
stance.
GODS KINGDOM IS LEAvEN.
Men Without This Leaven,
Though Good, Cannot Be
Christians.

il hiliEuOuu vi Nou IS Ike ItdScu.
This is one the many illustrations of
Christ's power over the common figures
of speech that men have spoiled. lost the
meaning of; and Christ has given
them a resurrection into a new and
enduring life by the way He has used
them. Elsewhere in the Bible leaven
means decay. petrefaction. Beware
of the leayen of the PLarisees'' is
hypocrisy. The Old Tes;amen: church,
before the time of the Passover required
of every householder that he take a
candle and go through the house. and
i'll every part of it make search for any
eayen that was there. and remove if,
for the time of unleavened bread was at
hand. Christ took this figure, as He
did many another. refined it, stamped
1t with His own superscriptton, passed
it into the current speech of the world
as a coin of divine value.
We are told that the kingdom of
heaven is like Ieaven. Leaven alone
no power. When you separate the
grain you kill it SO far as any inherent
life is concerned. That meal might he
kept a thousand years. possibly. but it
would never grow: You could not put
it into a, condition in which it would
grow without putting something entirely
foreign to it in ii. 1t is separated from
the life which inspired it i'll its original
growth as grain. All it would
do would be gradually to mould and
pass away into inpalpable dust: or. if it
received any moisture, to become putre-
fed. And you might put leaven by the
side of it, and that leaven would pe
absolutely valueless. 1t would lie there
until, coming into contact with the oXy-
gen of the atmosphere. it would gradu-
ally become purtefied. But take that
leaven and hide it in the meal properly
prepared and II will instantly produce
life, agitation, fermentation. an entirely
new substance; it will become a living
thing.
1t is absolutely essential that the
leaven he covered up. If it is left on
the surface it will putrefy; it will spoil
the dough. and it will spoil Itself. The
woman took leaven and hid it in the
meal, and instantly it began its work,
secretly, silently. But if you watch the
dough, after a little while you will see
the agitation OF fermentation going On
lnS!de-the gas working its way out.
expanding tine mass of dough antil after
a while it leavens the whole lump. And
what has happened? Why. the lump is
entirely different in kind from what it
was before. 1t has no new character
lstlcS, essentially; no new powers, but
every power is transformed; every par.
tlcle of meal that was put in there is
made over into the same sort of sub
stance that was introduced. II has all
become leaven, and you might take any
of it out of there at hat stage of its
development and put it into any other
mass of prepared meal and il would go
Oh leavening, %leavening, Just as long as
there was any dough to leaven.
Now. our Master says that the king
dom of heaven is like heaven. He came
preaching the kingdom of heaven. He
says: "FOr this purpose l calne into the
world. L am a king" How is il like
leaven? II il comes III contact with a
mans life, the external part of him, his
mere speech, his habits, his manners, it
may change them; it has lone it in a
great many cases. | have no
doubt that there are thousands of
men wOme in this world who,
because they have Christian habits and
use Christian speech; that is, have IA
Cnristianc ivliiZatiOn around them, think
they are Christian, call themselves
Christian. Unless That ~leaven. that
word of the kingdom, is covered up IN
the life, put at the center of the being,
there can be 10 transformation OF our
lives into the Kingdom OF heaven.
The world had become separated
from its original life, separated from
God. We were created i'll the image of
God. We were started in this world so
that we could grow OH as children grow
towards their father, in the likeness of
their father. And it was intended
thatwe should grow on through all
our life On earth into a nat
ural and perfect fitness for heav-
EN-, and that is the natural life
of every one of US. The sinful life is
the unnatural life; it is the abnormal
iifo. If ic .ba lfa with ,ubinh mn b,.,
10 business whatever; it is utterly for
eigh to us. 1t is a disease that has
gotten hold of our souls, and has no
more business there than disease has
in the system; and the whole effort Of
life ought to be to eradicate that moral,
that spiritual disease. which will
destroy, sooner OF later, the whole
spiritual life.
Scientists now tell us to an absolute
certainty that there is no such thing as
spontaneous generation: that is, a thing
giving life to itself. Everything must
have life given to it, whether it is an
animal. or a plant, oil a dead mass of
meal, or a dead soul, or a dead
mind; the life must be given to
it from without. No lite, human
lower animal. or vegetable. ever yet
Degat itself; it wa begotten of some |
other life. 50 it is with the kingdom of
God. The leaven must be put into the |
life. I'VE must be born again." Ye
must be born from above. There must |
be some way by which God. the one
perfect life, can put some measure of
His life into you and me, or else how
can We become Godlike?
Now. When you think of it for a mo- |
ment, you will see how necessary that |
must be. Is it possible that we can |
conceive of the infinite God with so
small that He cannot devise a |
way (and give power to it) to put the
best life possible into you and me?
Must He sit outside of this race and look
at our degradation, our helplessness,
our pitiabIeness in sin, our deafness as |
the meal, utterly unable to go down
through these obstacles, that to us ara
SO awful. AMI touch our souls with new
life? Why, it is incredible. We should
say of a man who made a ma
chine that he was not much of
an inventor If, after he saw where
the defect was in his machine. he had
nc power to correct it. Shall we say of
it with such marvellous and intricate
work of such great beauty-who could
put into a human body a mind with
memory. with imagination, with de.
SlreS, with conscience, inarvelS that no
man living Gun fathom, and the better
able he is is fathom them the more
marvellous they seem-the greater the
power Of his Imagination the more mar
velous that imagination is-the greater
his powers of reasoning the more
marvellous that reason is-shall we say
of God, who car put into us such powers,
that He is not able to put
into us the life that would
make those powers perfect? God
says, 81 can do 1t; | have done it," The
GIT of God 10 eternal life. ana that life
is in His Son. Whose hath the Son
hath life. Chri-t says, Al came that 70
might have life. II have 1t more