The Columbia herald. [volume] (Columbia, Tenn.) 18??-1935, 1907-05-31

Is inherent In holiness. and there
fore, holiness Is the only way to hap
piness- Peace. restfulness, and Joy
are effects which have for their caus,
holiness. Just as turmoil, strife and
unrest have for their cause sin. But
because a man is holy. 1t does not fol
low that we will have uninterrupted
peace in the world and among men
Christ said to his disciples: In the
world ye shall have tribulation, bat
In me ye shall have peace The
word peace in this passage means,
soul rest-tranquility which comes
from harmony with God and purity.
This doctrine OF personal holiness,
without which no man shall see the
Lord, was just as true before Adam
was created as II is today Before
man sinned, he had uninterrupted
peace and was completely happy. for
he was holy. But when he sinned.
he forfeited holiness, and with the loss
of holiness, his peace fed also, and
fear and misery came with sin. This
truth is imbedded in what men In this
day are so fond of calling the nature
OF things This doctrine is an es-
sential truth which is as old as God.
We may not like this doctrine, many
do not. Men have been mad at God
thro all the ages. for revealing this
truth. Because they cannot live in
sin, in the indulgence of their evil |
appetites and passions, and dies as they |
live and go to heaven. The sailor
don't like the rocks and boulders
which infest the seas, and make his
voyage unsafe and perilous, but they
are there nevertheless, and it is part
of wisdom to steer the ship so as to
avoid them. SO, the man who fights
this doctrine is not arrayed against b
the Bible alone, but against the ma
ture of things, and stands out against
the inevitable, and assaults the uni
verse. A man might say he would
build his house in the air without a
but the endeavor would be
The law of gravitation
forbids it. and that law is
nexorable. 1t is no more impossible
'r unreasonable to go against the law
If gravitation in building house than
o go against the law of holiness in
'uilding heaven. No foundation, no
Iouse. No holiness, no heaven. The
aw of holiness is as deeply imbedded :
n morals, as the law of gravitation
) in physics. And the man who defies
has the universe arrayed against a
i'm. Is
(3) If the doctrine of personal holt B
ess be true, and it Is true, as God p
true, then the doctrine of regenera- D
on is a forgone conclusion-is an ID
bsolute necessity Without regenera- Ia
on there cannot be moral or spiritual III
0lisess, for the possibility of holiness u
'sts upon the actually of regenera- !"
on. And the absolute necessity for al
in order to holiness arises tn
the moral deprayity of the human '"
cart. And this doctrine of regener- lh
ion was just as much necessity III
fore our Lord said to Nicodemus: VIZ
e must be borne again" as it was IT
it is today. 1t is an
sential part of the moral govern Pr
ent of God. And men who deny it
We as false a philosophy as they
We religion.
(D | want to notice in the next ter
ice that doctrine of future punish wh
mt Atheists claim that there is no tril
d. and therefore there is nohell. Inf Inc
s claim there Is God, but that He sor
too merciful and good to punish his De-
ing creatures who had no agency ish
bringing about their existence, and AM
tally none in bringing about their ella
,ravity, and therefore they discard mo
doctrine as the hallucination of The
isordered human brain. the figment The
a fated theology. But future pun don
ment is not a question of the ere;
roy of God at adj, nor of how man hat
lie to have an existence, nor how 1t e
become depraved. Sin makes hell him
Gods mercy cannot prevent it. EIDE
Their hell nor the punishment which todf
Inflicted in it's dark abode exist be- sam
Sc God in a fit of anger, exercised that
omnipotent power and scupped ton
a bottomless pit and ldndled in peri
profound depths flame of UNI the
nchable fire, and that He hurls a spaC
ain number of his unfortunate, queI
less creatures into 1t as an act An
Infinite melevolence. A thing he natu
not do at all. Sin makes It's Chri
hell, supplies its own fuel, kindles writ
own flames. Sin makes hell be. Nay