The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-02-13

made Of you. And this is what the Romans
saw when they looked in the glass
"And even as they refused to have God in their
knowledge, God gave diem UP unto a reprobate
mind, to do those things which are not fitting;
being filled with all unrighteousness wickedness,
covetousness, righteousness full of envy. murder,
STRIFE deceit malignity; whisperers, backbiters,
hateful to God, nsOlent, naughty, boastful, nven-
tors of evil things, disobedient to parents without
understanding, covenant breakers, without nat
ural affection unnerciful; who knowing the ordi-
nance OF God, that they which practice such
THU gs are worthy of death, not only do the same
but also consent with them that practice them.
BUT ONE Law FOR ALL MEN
''That has sometimes been treated as
though it were Paul's picture of human
nature. You know that it is not true as a
picture of human nature 1t does not an
swer to your nature 1t was a picture of
pagan society in the first century. 1t shows
what mankind had come to, when the only
force which they knew was the force of a
stronger will over them in despotic and
authoritative government. Law had broken
down absolutely and entirely. Society had
gone to decay. Then Paul imagines the
Jew rejoicing in this Indictment of the pa-
gan saying This is right, this is a true
picture OF paganSm this is just what we
have always said the heather are. And to
this imagined Jew Paul replies: You are
not to be saved by circumcision nor be-
cause you belong to Israel. There is not
one law for you and one for the pagans'
Men are asked what will become of the UNI
converted heather. Paul tells us-he told
the Romans then-'God will render to every
man according to his deeds, to them who by
patient continuance in well doing seek for
glory and honor and Immortality, eternal
life Wherever, Paul says, wherever a man
has honestly, sincerely, earnestly sought
the higher life, and where he has not done
1t by forms and ceremonies, but by patient
continuance in well doing, God rewards
him, God gives him what he wants Cod
pestoWS 1t upon him. There is nothing he
demands save the earnest and sincere de-
sire, and If the pagan has the desire he will
nave the life, and if you have not the de-
sire you will not have the life for the law
Will not save you. And you have had the
divine law. You have had it flashed on you
from Mount Sinai; you had it enforced by
divine sanction; you have had God follow
ING ing you IN HIS providence, rewarding your
obedience and Furnishing your disobedienee
You have had the divine law as the Ro-
mans have had the human law And what
has the divine law done for Won what SORT
of a man? Are you better than thew No
WI no wise. AS we have before proved both
Jews and gentiles, they are all under sin,
as 1T is written:
There is none righteous, no. not one:
There is none that UNDERSTANDABLE
There is none that seeketh after God:
lhey nave all turned aside, they are together
There is none that doeth good no NOT en- rnucb
one;
Their throat is an open sepulcher:
With their tongues they have used deceit:
Inc poison OF asps is under their lips;
Whose mouth is full of cursing and bitterness:
Iheir feet are swift to shed blood:
Destruction and misery are in their WAYS:
ana the way of peace have they not known:
1here is no fear of God before their eyes.
There is no one place in the Old Tesla
iHeht that contains all these passages It
seems as though Paul had picked out ali the
texts IN the Old Testament that condemn
the jews and bound them all together in
one great terrible scourge and with if nIiad
the backs of the Pharisees.
WHAT PAUL PROVED
thus by two object lessons Paul proves.
or undertakes TO prove that the world cam
not be made better by law. And yet still
think, we are trusting to this old expedient.
Still, we are looking to human law to rem
edy i'll. Is there drunkenness. We will put
prohibition in the Constitution Is there pro-
family and irreverence? We will put the
word of God in the Constitution Have we
made a law TO prevent immortality and it is
unenforced we will make law stfll harder
70 ENFORCE We go TO Congress, to state
Legislature. to municipal councils, thinking
by human Law we can set the world right
Or We go TO the divine and we put behind
our chancels In our churches the Ten Com
ma1dmentS and teach our children to repeat
them and put them before the eyes of men
Thou shalt not kill, thou shalt not steal.
thou shalt not commit adultery, thinking
that when they know there is a God who
has made those laws and that men will be
rewarded If they obey, they viii do right
But they still go on with the old evil wavs
Then we appeal TO conscience. the Jaw with
Ia as. and undertake 10 make men right by
closed the theater, destroyed the statue and
robbed the gallery Of Its paintings But lust
as soon as Cromwell died. not only dia sfhe
theater ara the statue and the picture come