The Mount Holly news. [volume] (Mount Holly, Burlington Co., N.J.) 1891-1942, 1909-09-14
The Value
of Toll.
Text, "In the sweat Of thy
face shalt thou eat bread" Gen
esis III, 19).
esis ill., III l0.

would be most favorable for you, that
your death sentence might bring you
the largest degree of knowledge and
! the largest degree of experience In the
most helpful manner.
Is II asked how the unfitness OF the
earth could inure to mans advantage
as a sinner and why the Lord placed
! the cherub with flaming sword to keep
the way to the Tree of Life? We re-
| ply that all Of the experiences of the
wisest Of mankind corroborate the
Divine decision that it was wisest
| and for the best interests OF Adam
and his children that the curse, the
/ sentence. should affect him In all of
his relationships of life and particular
Iv in respect to his earthly home
"Cursed is the earth for thy sake
Tborps and thistles shall 1t bring forth
unto thee"
Greed-SeIfishness- Meanness.
The battle for bread which started
when our first parents were thrust out
of the Garden of Eden and obliged to
labor for their sustenance Is battle
which has kept up ever since. 1t ha'
had the effect of developing more and
more in the human mind that evil
| quality called greed and Selfshness. 1t
has had the effect of making our race
ignoble. mean. Father Adam, as the
bread-winner of the family, surely had
noble and generous qualities of heart
and a great love for Mother Eve; yet
one could imagine that. as age ad
yanced upon him and he became six or
seven hundred years old. the toll con-
nected with his battle with the thorns
and thistles was the more. severe and
that this would, of necessity, make
him the more careful, the more frugal,
even, perhaps, to the extent of parsi-
mony and meanness. Similar expert
ences cultivated the same quality in
all of his children, and the habit so
grows upon us that, not merely are
those who have the barest of necessi-
ties impelled to be stingy and close,
but even those who come into posses
sion of fabulous wealth have this par
simony ingrained in their very being.
We may indeed see a blessing In the
Divine provision of this condition of
things. Were it not for selfish ambi-
tion and pride what would become of
the race under the reign of "the Prince
of this world"? If every man, upon
obtaining a competence, were to sit
down and be satisfied, where would be
the worlds progress? How could it
carry on the great projects of life-the
public utilities the public charities?
Some motive is necessary to keep in
operation the great human machine
we call civilization. Our Socialist
friends may tell us that Love and
| Benevolence should actuate the human
mind to all these things for the public
benefit. We are ready to admit that
such would be very ideal condition,
so far as the rich are concerned. But
why should we expect more Of the
rich than of the poor, as respects love
and willingness to lay down life and
pleasure and wealth and comfort for
their fellow men? Our Lord puts the
matter the other way, saying, He that
Is faithful in that which is least would
be faithful also in the greater things.
The poor man or woman who Is found
to be very generous and very helpful
to his friends and neighbors is thus
attesting that if he were wealthy he
would probably use his wealth for the
public benefit. But, alas! we find COM
paratively little of unselfish love, either
In the poor or the rich. And this being
true, love could not be the motive
power of the world under present con-
ditions.
Paradise to Be Restored.
We have already seen that it is nee
essary. in viewing the Divine dealings
with humanity, to keep in memory the
future outcome of Gods Plan. Other
wise the permission Of Six Thousand
Years of the reign of Sin and Death
would be entirely unreasonable to US,
Inconsistent with Divine Wisdom. JUS
tice, Love and Power. But keeping in
memory the fact that it is the Divine
Purpose to reclaim man from his fallen
condition of imperfection of mind and
physique, and that it is the Divine in
tention to make the entire earth a
Garden of n-Paradise-from this
standpoint, the permission of evil may
be clearly understood and appreciated
as q master-stroke of Divine Wisdom.
AS one illustration Of this, suppose
that Sin had not entered into the world
and the birth of humanity had been as
slow as in the case of Adams i'm
mediate children (whose birth-rate was
probably about one a century,, how
long would it have required to people
the earth? But in Adams fallen condi
ton, as a part of the result of the fall,
the sorrows and conception of mother
hood were greatly multiplied Genesis
iii, 16), so that during the period
Of Seven Thousand Years sufhciency
Of the human family will have been
born to properly fill it. Moreover, the
subduing of the earth has under Di-
vine Encouragement been accomplish
ed by conrict labor; for are not all
mankind convicts serving out a death
sentencef And Is not our Greater per
hitting man, for his own good, to bat
tie strenuously with the unfavorable
conditions prevailing In the earth? And
does not this battling serve to quicken
man In his mental qualities, even
though this quickening be chiefly along
selfish lines?
Furthermore, as we have heretofore
seen, the reign of Sin and Death
amongst mankind made 1t possible for
| God, on the one hand, to show the Sc
verify of his Justice in permitting us
to die thus, as a "groaning creation,
Travelling In pain" and it made posi-
Bile the exhibition of his Love in
the providing of the Redeemer. who
bought us with his precious blood
Further be it remembered it served as
the occasion for the testing Of Lucifer,
the proving of his disloyalty, when he
became Satan. the Adversary of God
Additionally it furnished the oppor
tune test OF the loyalty or disloyalty
of all the angels Of heaven as recorded
in Genesis vi. Jude vi and ii Peter ii,
4, as we have previously seen.
"The Mystery of God"
And now we come, dear friends, to
that feature of the great Divine Plan
which is so peculiarly interesting to us
Ito us who are Bible Students; to us
who are disciples of Jesus; to us who
have given our all to him; to us who
are trusting that he has accepted us as
members of the Body of Christ" as
members of the Bride, the Lambs Wife.
and his Joint-H in the Kingdom.
Without the permission Of sin there
would have been no such opportunity
as we now enjoy of experiencing a
''change" of nature from earthly to
heavenly-human to Divine. As our
Lord could not have left the heavenly
glory to become man and to suffer
md IN die tho Inst for tha unfust nm