The Yakima herald. [volume] (North Yakima, W.T. [Wash.]) 1889-1914, 1912-02-21

Heaven is a prepared place for a pre-
pared people. 1t will not be ques-
ton Of getting through the gates in
spite Of st. Peter or any one else
The gates Of the city stand open day
and night All may enter who will
but none but the holy will want to
enter or remain there. Sin is the
/ great repellant that drives the i'm
penitent man away from God and
heaven. Love and loyalty, the fruits
of the new birth. draw the Christian
nearer and nearer. The sinner is ever
| saying "Farthest from God is best for
me-; the Christian, Nearer my God
to thee nearer to thee"
! The Two Hereditles
That which is born of the flesh Is
! flesh. and that which is born of the
spirit is spirit These words are our
Lords justification for what seems
| to be his radical, stern demand for
the new birth Nicodemus represents
the moralists of our day who say,
Pick UP man. give him good en-
vironment, educate him, develop him,
this will make Christian of him
| an heir of heaven But Jesus saws.
! The natural man is a natural man,
+ however cultivated and elevated, and
does not grow into spiritual man.
A new nature must be communicated.
A new life implanted. What il in
the parent will appear in the child
Inc stream of natural descent is ir-
resistable. The secret sins of some
ancestor will start a weakness or
curse which will emerge after two or
three generations, if not in the first
| Inc prophet put it: The parents
nave eaten sour grapes and the chill
| drens teeth are set on edge" The
| law of heredity is irresistible and Of
| ten terrible. The self-indulgence of
| parents today are a fearful draft on
| posterity, payable two or three gen.
| erations hence. On the other hand
as we inherit the disposition and ma
ture of our parents in the natural
| life, so we inherit the disposition of
our heavenly Parent in the spiritual
| life.
The Christian Is born from above
| born of the spirit. Thus only does
he inherit spiritual nature. That is
to say, birth from God gives him the
divine nature and eternal life.
This new nature tends to holiness
as strongly as the natural life tends
| to sin.
| Paul says, '"The carnal nature is
enmity to God; for it is not subject
to the law of God, neither indeed
can be. So then they that are in the
| flesh cannot please Cod (Rom ST.
| 81. But he says, Eye are not in the
flesh" i. e., dominated by the selfish,
| sinful nature, if so be that the spirit
| of God dwell in you. John says,
/ whatsoever is born of God does not
commit sin" Sin is no longer his
| element. If he falls into sin he es-
/ capes from it as soon as possible
! While he was unregenerate he lived
| in sin and loved it--now, regenerate
| he may slip into sin, but loathes it.
/ He cannot with Gods nature in him
/ drop into sin and earthliness without
| being miserable. So John says he
! cannot sin, because Gods seed re-
| maineth in him. 1t is apparent that
| the line of demarkation between the
/ natural and spiritual kingdom is
sharp and absolute and that the best
| specimens of the natural men are
but sweet sinners. One cannot pass
| by any process of refinement or clar-
| ification from the natural to the spir-
itual kingdom, as by no process of
enrichment can water be made oil,
| or by refinement can oil be made wa
ter; the two are distinct and must
| remain so forever
| Therefore, what hope is there for
| the weak and unworthy sinner?
'Alas!" says one, what is the use
of trying to be good. My whole ma
| ture is against me. If Nicodemus
cannot be saved who can be saved %
Hear Jesus, with man it is impos-
sible, but not with God, for with God
all things are possible"
You cannot get right doing out of
wrong being. You cannot get a spir-
| itual nature out of a fallen nature.
i But when we believe in Jesus, God
! puts new nature in us, and we are
born from above. The law of the
spirit of life in Christ Jesus makes
us free from the law of sin and
death.
| This is absolutely scientific, for by
no process can the mineral deviate
4 itself into the vegeta BILE, nor the veg
4 etable climb up in the animal king
/ dom. or the animal into the national
kingdom, but the vegetable can reach
i down into the mineral kingdom and
| transform its elements lifting them
u INTO higher nature. Thus also can
u the animal do with the Vegeta BILE
/ Neither can the natural man elevate
himself into the spiritual kingdom
but God can, nay, is waiting and anX-
ious to drop THE incorruptible seed
of the Word" into the penitent pray
4 ing heart, and all the magnificent
forces of the spiritual kingdom will
! begin to lift and draw and tug at
the sinner. dead in trespasses and
sins, until he will feel moving in him
= the energies of the divine life. The
| balloon filed with a lighter air tugs
/, at the ropes, straining to rise to its
native strata of rarer air. So the
, spirit of God would raise the soul
; into a diviner air of peace and JOY
and victory over sin and love of the
world, until the whole being strug-
giles to be free free the load of flesh
! and rise to seize the everlastins
prize.
, Does one say this is myterious.
2 Jesus affairmed it by saying, "wht
t-A l..