The Penn's Grove record., 1904-04-01

tanned a precious promise, but here they
only strengthened a suggestion to do a
thing which was wrong. 1T is written
again" said Jesus, Thou shalt not tempt
or make trial of the Lord thy God"
Oh, if in the history of the past, so dis
figured by bitter contests for half truths,
the wisdom of this, 1T is written again."
Of Jesus had only been realized How Of
ten have the advocates Of a blanched Cal
vinism, or men who had become the RI
tuallstle enthusiasts for one particular
mode OF administering baptism. or with
one misht theory of the Inspiration of the
Blble-a theory, for example, which put
the Book OF Esther, which does not con-
tain the name of God, on an equal footing
with st. Johns Gospel, how often have
such misguided people cried out, 1T is
written" as if that were the end of all
controversy. Never can the true balance
and proportion of life be discovered in this
way. Again it is written" is Jesus for
mula. An isolated text does not settle the
matter. Every false teacher who has di-
vlded the church has virtually done so by
an 1T is written"
First, we must nave recourse to tine prin-
ciples of sanity and common sense; find
out If what we are tempted to do is in
sincere accord with what God has taught
us generally in His word and in common
sense, and, then decide. For Christ to
have cast Himself from the wing of the
temple into the abyss that yawned below
would have been to tempt God. I'VE do
not make experiments with those whom
we absolutely trust" When a man be-
gins by a prayer test. or any like thing. to
make experiments with God. he shows
that he lacks the subtle, spiritual quality
called faith which is the only means BY
which he can reach God. Therefore, it Is
the habit Of trust to calmly abide in God
mot tritie with or put Him to the test.
As long as Jesus remained within the
sphere of the revealed will of His Father,
He could trust Him. If He should break
or contravene that will, then He should
no longer feel He had a right to Gods
care. In other words, Jesus Christ. in
His second temptation, flushed with a
victory which must have given an impulse
to faith IN the Fathers power and suf-
hcieney, declares to us that it is necessary
to have a care for ourselves as well as
commit ourselves into the keeping Of God.
Because we are Gods children we may not
break the laws Of the world to which we
telong and expect Him to miraculously
interfere to prevent the consequences.
Contempt for nature and practical reason
IS a wretched policy to begin a religious
life with. We live under physical law.
under moral law, under spiritual law. To
fancy that because we have come to feel
the power of the spiritual and even the
supernatural. we are at liberty to fly in
the face of known physical laws, or sane
and widely received moral laws, is fatal
error, and for it men are always punished
in the end. God IS the source of all these
laws and we tempt the Lord our God
when we break them. We are not to rely,
either, 'too exclusively or presumptuous-
ly" upon the care of God. As far as our
practical reason serves US, we must also
take counsel of that, recognizing that faith
and self help, action and patieuce meet
IN equilibrium" and complete each other.
If Jesus. the exceptional and pre-emi-
nent object Of divine care. had yielded to
this Cast Thyself down" He would first
have broken away from us, His brethren,
who live under moral and physical law,
and second, He would have Substituted
for a life environed by nature, guarded,
guided, fed by it, participant in its forces,
because subject to its laws, a life divorced
from nature, hostile to it, refusing to
tempt God or to break away from our Id
man lot and world, showed us the sanity
and strength of a genuine trust in God.
1t is not nervous, fanatical or presumD-
tuous. ut neither courts nor shuns
death" 1t is prudent, wary, will not
o~verstep the limits of a sober faith, and
yet, when the will of God clearly demands
it in the path of duty, it bravely faces
death and dares all hell
MY AIlCuus, Tie mOQCIH SIN Ol pItcuulU-
ton turns up under many forms. Now it
appears in the guise of religious pride,
IN the purblind assumption Of some &C.
cleslastieal charlatan uttering with great
swelling words of vanity some ~oraeular
opinion which he claims to be of equal au-
thority with the teachings of the Son Of
God. You have it in the vaccinations Of
the mother Of Christian Science with
the systems slavish liberalism and prepos-
ferrous overelaims. The contempt for the
physical that the system breathes and
breeds, the refusal to give medicines out
of those stores which God has laid up for
us in leaf and plant and flower and min
eral, and which millions of educated men
have given their lives to make available,
the willingness to cast themselves or a
child over the precipiee, claiming the sane
ton of certain Scriptures as their warrant
for escaping destruction is, in the eyes of
most men and women to-day, a sin Of pre-
sumption. The system Is against the cor
porate common sense of the race, against
the proportion of faith; it discards doe
trines like the blessed truths of Christ's
deity and a%tonement, which have been
held by the overwhelming majority of the
members of the Christian church in every
age from the beginning. ct is written"
they cry. Yes, Christ teaches us to an
swer, and "again it is written: Thou shalt
not make the trial of the Lord thy God"
You have it-one h~esitates to allude in a
Christian pulpit to the vulgar sect-in the
sacrosanct polygamy of the Mormon, Of
which such an informing expose has been
made by a Congressional committee during
the past week. Not that the Mormon Is
the only adulterer; would God he were,
but he is the only man now before the
Christian public who claims a new revela-
ton of later and higher authority than
that made through The holy and sinless
Jesus, expressly sanctioning his lustful
creed.
81 as the chosen of God have had a Wis
ion which uproots and supersedes the NOR
atty taught by the Lord Jesus Christ; l
like Mohammed's about the family better
than Christ's, therefore l hear my pref
erence sanctioned by a voice from heaven.
Henceforth my revelation shall put me
above the law of the land. 0utwardly I
may have to comply, but / secretly will
ignore it." There J vs. not occurred In
modern times a more pestiferous example
of religious hypocrisy and delusion! And
when we remember that repeatedly in re-
cent years emissaries from Utah have pro-
claimed this accursed system here IN the
East, chiefly among simple minded rustics
and m~ountaineers, we realize the sin OF
permitting it thus long.
This country can never endure part
polygamist and part ~monogamist.
But, my friends, the capital SIN OF pre-
sumption is committed nearer at home
than this. There is self satisfied credulity
which makes men fancy that they can
break all manner of spiritual laws, cast
themselves down all sorts Of religious preci-
pices, take all kinds of risks il the af-
fairs of the soul at STAINS dictation, and
yet that somehow at the end they viii
come out without lossi 1t is not, too, the
ignorant about God, but those who have
had good opportunity to know Him and
obey Him who fall into this sin.
When any Christian man lets himself
OFF easily and airily from a plain duty to
God, or does a sin against light, he nears
the sin of presumption. When a man of
the world deliberately violates the express
will of God, our Saviour, year after year,
relying upon some vague hope of deliver
ance for which we have no divine warrant,
he is approaching the sin Of presumption.
Brethren, our safety lies in learning the
perfect humility and simplicity Of Jesus
Christ.
Keep back Thy servant also, from pre-
sumptuous sins; let them not have do