The commercial. (Union City, Tenn.) 190?-193?, 1904-06-17

thoughtfully into the history of
man, as standing out before God,
glorifying him and they knew God,
and God taught them, but man
goes astray, his understanding is
blunted and his whole life before
God is rebellion against God. That
man in this is fool and it is the
fool that hath said mo God. "
How came him to say this! He
left God and the knowledge of God
and went into the world following
his own desires, those desires of
his heart, and so God gave him up
and to justify himself in his sins,
he says in conclusion, "there is no
! God" | say to you have good
deal more respect for that fool
than ever before. There are only
two positions before God in this
world. One position to bow down
before God accepting Him as our
Father, or to take the other side
and say there is no God" If a
man says there is a God, there is
every reason why he should honor
and worship Him, and if he does
not do this the only logical conclu-
sion is that he believes there is no
God.
Again | shall read from Eph.
4:17-20. This passage is compile
ment to the other and supplement
ary to some of its thoughts. The
18th verse begins: "That ye
henceforth walk" etc. In this
quotation Paul describes the Ephe-
SLAMS as they once were and what
they now are. Now being Chris
tian men, he describes their condi-
tion when in sin as Having the
understanding darkened, being
aIienated from the life of God
through the ignorance that is in
them, because of the blindness of
their heart" Heartlessness. Mans
heart became so hard that, that
hard heart of his led him to 90 to
the extreme step. Now what is
the extreme stepg An understand
ing that is darkened. Illustration.
Looking up to see God his heart is
so hardened, his mind and intellect
so blunted he cannot see anything.
He reaches the conclusion that as
he is unable to see anything there
is nothing to be seen and then be-
comes fool. In the same verse,
"Who being past feeling" etc.
This is the very extreme step
''past feeling" | cannot draw
darker picture than that, the un-
derstanding darkened, the heart
empty, and add to this that clause
that he is past feeling and you will
have mankind in the condition
that God sees him to, day. Put a
man in that position and you can
see at once how it was he said
''there is no God" Blunt my un-
derstanding so | cannot see and
empty my heart so cannot love
and put me into that last attitude
"past feeling" and | am very like
to see no God. This is how it is I
man can say no God.
We come now to why man said
"there is no God." / have already
touched upon this point "why" in
some passage of Scripture. Why
''there is no God" is also a result
of the condition of the heart, so |
wish first to speak of the expires
sion "heart" as used in the Scrip
ture. Physically it is that organ
in animal body which is the center
of the circulation of blood and
hence regarded as the seat of ami
NAL life. In the Spiritual sense it
denotes seat and center of our
Spiritual life. The soul as to the
fountain of thoughts, passions, ap-
petites, principles and endeavors,
or the inner man. Another word
about the heart. The word is
sometimes used when Just the ele-
ment of Joy is referred to. 1t is
used sometimes when sorrow alone
is expressed, and again when the
element of mind is alluded to. The
makeup of the word is not deter
mined always by a single use in
one particular passage but, as
whole word; as in the Sermon on
the Mount, Matthew 5. 1t says,
BLESSED are the pure in heart"
etc., meaning entirely the inner