The Prince George's enquirer and southern Maryland advertiser. (Upper Marlborough, Md.) 1882-1925, 1916-11-10

dolorous sound like death knel.
One part of the text is filled with
the sunshine that kisses the roses ana
the lilies into bloom; the truth on the
other side is like the blackness OF
midnight. One side tells us about
wages; the other side speaks hope
fully of a gift. Wages or gift,
which?
Let us look at the somber side of
the text "The wages of sin is DEATH
Wages come to one in return for Ia
Dor given. They are supposed to be
the just compensation for services rem
dered. Sin here is represented as
paying wages. l presume some have
never thought Of sin in just that way
before. Sin has been considered as
something over which we have con-
troll; when the fact is, sin is master
of the one who commits it. This is
the truth Christ states when he says:
""Whosoever committeth sin is the
servant of sin" John $50.
Now the text tells us that the slave
of sin receives as his wage. death. The
Scriptures make clear what this wage
is. 1t is in the first place
Physical Death.
Contrary to the modern view that
the death of man is natural, the Scrip
lures teach that it is unnatural.
Man is, according to the Scriptures,
a triune being; body, soul, and spirit
1T 80 10 "a those
three that constitutes his complete
personality. The body, the soul, the
spirit is each a part of himself and
death which initiates man by sever
ing this union is physical conse-
uuence of sin: wherefore as by one
man sin entered into the world and
death by sin; and so death passed
upon all men, for that all have sinned"
Rom. 5:12).
Whatever else the modern view
may deny of the teaching of the Word,
it is in perfect agreement with this
statement of the universal reign OF
death over man. This is an obvious
fact that cannot be denied. But how
is the fact of universal death to be
explained? Biologists acknowledge
that death is one of the most diff
ficult problems in the whole range Of
physiology" They declare that on the
grounds of pure science there is no
ascertainable reason why living or
ganisms, apart from injury and vio-
lence, should ever die at all. Where
scientists fail to answer this question
the Scriptures positively affirm that
physical death is q consequence Of
sin.
But physical death is by no means
all of the wage sin pays. Awful as 1t
is, more terrible by far is the
Spiritual Death,
which, because Of sin, has passed upon
all men.
There is no truth against which man
more strenuously rebels than this one,
that he is spiritually dead; for If there
is one thing he believes about himself,
1t is that he is very much alive. And
so he may be in many ways, but not
spiritually. The verdict of the Word
of God is that he is dead through
trespasses and sins" (Ephes. 2:1-2).
Thus our Lord indicated when he said,
"Verily, verify, I say unto you. the
hour is coming, and now is, when the
dead shall hear the voice of the Son of
God: And they that hear shall live"
John 5 :25). 1t was not of the phys
ically dead Christ was speaking, for
shortly after this he spoke of those
who are in their graves as hearing
his voice and coming forth, some unto
everlasting life and some unto the
resurrection of damnation wv. 2S-29)
The truth as Christ presents it is that
as he has power to raise the physically
dead, and will; so he has power to
raise the spiritually dead; to quicken
whom he will.
But physical and spiritual death are
not all of the wage sin pays. They
are only the prelude to the full and
final wages of sin which is
Eternal Death.
Spiritual death has already taken
place in men. This is true of the en-
tire human race, but blessed be God,
spiritually dead men may live: For
the hour is coming and now is, when