Martinsburg herald. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1881-1920, 1910-06-18

attentive audiences. We report his
discourse from the text, Il. the LORD
thy God am a Jealous God, visiting the
iniquities of the fathers upon the chill
dren unto the third and fourth genera
ton Of them that hate me; and show
ting mercy unto thousands of them thai
love me and keep my commandments
deuteronomy V, 8, 10l. A report OF
the discourse follows:-
No one of experience can question
the fact that our text Is corroborated
by all our experiences In life. How
eve unjust some may claim 1t to be
that the children should inherit the
weaknesses resulting from parental
designations and violations of the Di
vine law, the fact emains that how
ever atheism may question the exist
ence Of a God or infdelity doubt the
inspiration of his Word. no n can
question the two facts of this text. a.,
that sin and its penalty can be inherit
ed and "a the fact that God Is merci.
full 10 such as sin and turn
to him and seek TO walk according 10
his direction. However these bless
ings upon evil doors and their children
and these blessings upon well doors
and their posterity may be termed
natural laws and laws of heredity, il
does not alter the fact, because he Al.
mighty is the one who made these
laws of heredity.
Under the delusion handed down to
us from the dark ages"-that God
had condemned 10 eternal torment all
the children Of Adam because of his
sin-we are all inclined properly
enough to feel rebellious against any
such matter and 10 assert that from
the standpoint OF human reasoning
1t would be entirely unjust to torture
the posterity Of Adam %eternally for
his transgression-"origina sin" Blu
as we get the eyes of our understand.
ing opened to see what is the real
penalty for sin. that 1t is death. eX
tinction. and hat our perfect parents.
fully Informed respecting the divine
will, were culpable. worthy Of death,
and when we learn further that what
ever is enjoyed by Adams posterity
I'm the way of life. however disad-
%vantageous the conditions. Is SO
much of divine leniency and mercy
and comes so much short of being
the full penalty, death. extinction
then we begin 10 see that life under
any conditions and disadvantages is
still a boon, better than extinction
In Wrath Have Mercy, Lord.
Recognizing the wrath Of God rs
manifested in the death penalty mot
In an eternity of t~orture) we can see
that the Scriptures everywhere de
clare that the wrath of God is resting
upon our race; that every member Of
it is subject TO this very penalty which
came upon father Adam and has been
entailed upon all of his posterity.
The Almighty Creator did not wait
for us to cry out for his pity and
compassion. but from the very be-
ginning, foreknOwing u fall into sin.
he had the plan arranged for II re
demption and ultimate recovery from
this condition of wrath, curse. death,
We are informed that our Lord Jesus
was the Lamb Of God slain from the
foundation of the world-in the Divine
purpose and arrangement-though only
now being made manifest to the
Church and shortly to the world. Thus
viewed there has been no injustice
practised against our race in permit
ting the children TO share with their
father Adam in his penalty. Rather
they had esteemed ii and do esteem II
better thar the sentence Itself, ana
furthermore in the Lords ~providences
the worlds present experiences in the
fall and later on In the recovery from
the fall In the hands of the great Re
deemer during the Millennial Age, is
TO prove 81 lesson. a schooling, in the
exceeding sinfulness of sin, which the
race as a whole will never forget and
out Of which many nOw the Church,
later on the world viii draw lessons
of wisdom and grace.
Looking still more deeply into the
Divine Plan as It is revealed in the
Lords Word for those who are his
psalm XIV. 14). we find a particular
reason why 1t was not only advisable
but necessary that this law OF heredity
should operate in our race, even though
It brought in its train a terrible list OF
experiences 10 our race. The reason
for this is based upon one element OF
the Divine character-Justice-the very
element which at one time we sup
posed was violated by this law OF
heredity. AS our eyes open to the
teaching of the Scriptures we perceive
that If God had not permitted his law
of heredity 10 operate, but had per
mitted each individual Of the race to
come forth to perfection and to stand
an individual trial such as father Adam
was subject to, II would doubtless
have NEAR 49, at least one-han Of