The Mankato free press. [volume] (Mankato, Blue Earth County, Minn.) 1879-1924, 1909-08-20
PEOPLES PULPIT.
Sin
Small Beginnings
Suggestions Craving De
sire-Yielding
tion-Destruction.
Standardization.

ooCs-.-.-.-s-.-.-s-s-s-s- s-s-s-s-.-s-s-s-s-s-sC
Mother Eve 1csire Tor knowledge
should have confined itself to the Di-
vine limitations; but she permitted it
to wander disloyally. Evidently she
turned over in her mind how wonder
| full must be the wisdom of God, and
| how she would like to possess as much
as the serpent suggested she might
have. if she would but disobey God
| and eat the forbidden fruit. We can
| imagine that she had qualms Of con-
science-that she hesitated to disobey.
But to even stop to consider the pleas
ures, the advantages. the desirability
of transgressiop was to leave her mind
open to a fresh assault. The serpent's
next move was to suggest to her rea
son why her Creator had forbidden the
eating of the fruit, namely, that God
knew that this would make them wise
as himself, and that he did not wish
for equals in knowledge. but desired to
Keep them in a condition Of mental
slavery through ignorance. Such a
suggestion should have been spurned
by Eve, and was, no doubt, rejected
at first. No doubt she brought forth
arguments to prove the merciful kind
nesses and generosity of the Creator
and that such an evil selfish and igno-
bic spirit as the serpent suggested
could not possibly belong to her Crea-
tor. But the wrong was in giving the
least countenance to these suggestions
of disobedience. They should have
been promptly set aside. Stopping to
eXpostuate or reason is merely open
ing the door for further Requirement.
In the language of our text. she was
drawn away by her own desire and
was enticed;" then. when desire had
conceived, the sinful act of eating the
forbidden fruit. resulted.
How does desire conceive? We an
swer. The mind entertains the desire.
warns it. vitalizes it, reflects upon
what advantages or pleasures would
result; enters into and enjoys those
forbidden pleasures mentally. Thus
Mother Eve reflected that no doubt the
forbidden fruit was specially delicious
to the palate. luscious; more than this.
that the enlightenment of mind would
bring to her vistas of thought far be-
yond anything she and Adam had ever
previously imagined. Thus her desire
for knowledge conceived and gradual
ly. perhaps in moments, perhaps in
hours. perhaps in days, developed more
and more the thought of the joys and
pleasures to result from the act of dis
obedience-until practically the whole
of life was absorbed in this one desire.
and everything else of her glorious and
proper blessings on every hand was
practically forgotten and ignored
Finally the irresistible moment came.
She took the fruit. She ate it; sin was
born. and the wage of death would
follow in due course.
The main thing to be noticed is that
the admission of evil desire into our
hearts, into our wills, is the beginning
of sin-the conception of sin. After
the conception it is only matter of
time until it shall be born, unless in
some manner that sinful desire be
Quenched, be killed. Even then it will
be with serious consequences that the
wrongly conceived sin will be gotten
rid of. The lesson is. as the Apostle
suggests in the text. the keeping of our
hearts, our minds, so the desires shall
not conceive therein. This means a
loyalty to God and to the truth and to
righteousness, about which the world
in general knows little. 1t means that
many kinds of desires and ambitions
may be begotten in the heart and lead
on to one kind or another kind of sin
full development. Let us then hearken
to the Lord, keep thy heart with all
diligence; for out Of it are the issues
of life" proverbs iv. 23).
Eternal life or eternal death is the
issue, not eternal happiness or eternal
misery. True, under Gods provision.
all who get eternal life will thereby
get eternal happiness; but all who fail
to get the eternal life or happiness in
Gods provision will get eternal death,
the Second Death, utter extinction.
AS ST. Peter declares, they shall be "as
brute beasts, made to be taken and
destroyed" Oh Peter ii, 12,. And st.
Paul says, They shall be punished
with everlasting destruction from the
presence Of the Lord"-not with ever
lasting torment I'll Thessalonians /, 81.
Divine Forgiveness of Sin.
We have seen how sin entered, and
that it's wage or penalty of Divine de-
cree is death-extinction. And we
have seen that mental. moral and
physical ilnperfections are merely ele-
ments of our dying process. If this
were all that the Bible had to tell us.
it would he valueless to us. for why
philosophize over fact if it could not
in any sense or degree be avoided? If
there were no hope. as the Apostle
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