The Marion daily mirror. (Marion, Ohio) 1892-1912, 1912-03-11

l9tsslSgIS- -A922LllD s.s. hath appointed
Day in the which
He VIII Judge the world" (Acts xvii,
.31) He said;
Enroute TO your city, | visited Ath-
ems, As stood upon Mars Hill and
made d short address, my mind revert
ed to the account Of Saint Raul's
preaching there, and hive chosen
some Of Ills words on that occasion as
my text. As st. Paul made no impress
sion there Il is quite Improbable that |
made any. Indeed, the city today
might well' be described in the Ian
guagc OF eighteen centuries ago, as
wholly given up TO idolatry.
True, it is not today fashionable In
civilized communities TO worship inn
ages; and yet I'm another sense It is
still fashionable. There Is still great
worship Of man throughout the civil
lied world, but in different form
from that of old. No longer do we bow
before wooden images, but before in
ward images-the hinges of our minds,
our mental asprations-with some.
wealth and fame; with others, case
and pleasure and with still others, the
creed idols OF our forefathers, miseru.
BILE Misrepresentation OF the true God.
..,a. The Day Of Judgment.
Saint Paul on Mars Hill preached
Jesus, and the resurrection-7Jesus ns
the Redeemer from the death sentence
making possible the resurrection of the
dead by satisfying the demands OF Dl-
vine. Law, against the sinner-tbe rcsur-
rection as the means or agency through
which the blessing OF the Savlors
death will reach Adam and all the
families OF the earth AS we follow
Saint Paul's thought we will surely be
blessed by his view of the Gospel
Addressing the Centiles, the Apos-
tic explains that for long time God
had "winkcd' ut Polytheism and image
worship. but now" he says. "God
cominandeth all men everywhere TO re-
peut." Let us note the meaning Of
these words. How did God wink Mt
sin and idolatry? And does lie still
wink" Mt It? Aud why did He change
and when did lie begin to command all
men To repent?
The answer Is that for four thousand
years idolatry prevailed and God
"winked" at or took no notice of 1t.
He did not wink" at the idolaters' dy-
ing IN their ignorance and say to the
devils "rakc these poor creatures who
know no better! Ronst them to all
eternityw Nothing OF the kind. Our
forefathers merely imagined that and
by false reasoning convinced them
selves. and twisted some texts Of
Scripture which they did not properly
understand in support or this theory;
and then they handed it down to us to
our perplexity and 20 the testing OF
our faith in God.
God "winked" at idolatry and sin
for four thousand years in the sense
OF not noticing it. making no comment
on 1t, sending no reproofs, leaving the
heathen IN their ignorance. The only
exception 10 this was Gods dealings
with the little nation of Israel. no the
Jews He gave Law Covenant which
offered eternal life on the condition OF
their thorough obedience TO the Divine
law. the measure OF Il perfect mans
dJilHy which they were unable to com
ply with and hence they died the same
as did the heather. All went to the
Bible hell--to the tomb-to sheol TO
hddcs. the state or condition of death
an unconscious state, a "sleep"
Jesus the Redeemer.
God was in no haste to send the Re
Leemer: 4l29 years elapsed before
Jesus was born, and thirty years more
before lie hogan His ministry, Had
II been true, as some aver. that mil
lions, for all those centuries were blind
ly stumbling into eternal torture for
lack OF Divine revelation. we may be
sure that our gracious God would not
have left them without 1t, Who can
think Of just and loving God as
toinkiag at the going of millions Of His
creatures to eternal torture? But since
they merely "fell asleep" In death, He
rould very well "wlnk" at the matter
in view Of His future plans, which we
will consider shortly.
The fact Is that no real offer from
death could possibly be made until the
Redemption price had been provided
for the original sin under which they
were condemned to death This is the
Apostles argument, viz, that ''RoD God |
commandeth all men everywhere TO re-
pent," The noio implies that He did |
not command men previously to re-
p9nt and The reason why He did not
DO 80 Is manifest, Tor an The repenting |
they could do ana all the rlghteouf
living possible to them would not have |
saved them-they would have died any |
way. Aclcc there could have been 20