Present Truth Practical.
By R. A. Morton
There was a time in the morning of creation when all things were in perfect harmony with the law of Heaven. The earth was luxuriantly crowned with beauty, and innocence rested upon every created thing. Every animated being was satisfied with life. The voice of crying was unheard, for there was no death there. Love was the life of everything and glory to God was the first impulse of all nature. It was in this world of beauty, this Eden of life and peace, that God placed our first parents. God gave them dominion over all this fair creation. God was their Father. He loved them. He cared for them as a father careth for his children. He told them his will. No calamity could befall them so long as they were obedient. They were surrounded with all things that were beautiful to the eye and pleasant to the taste. The Father gave them all but the fruit of one tree, which he reserved, that they might be tried. Of this they were not to taste. They were to respect their Father's claims. To take of this tree would be taking that which did not belong to them. It would be manifesting more love for self than for God. Yes, it would be stealing from the Father, and thus breaking his holy law in the most flagrant manner. The Father had told them the result of this. It was death. By one act, death's gloom would settle upon all things, and the mantle of the Father's glory would be withdrawn. The act was done. A pall of guilt came over man. The Father withdrew his immediate presence from him. Love of self, covetousness, and theft, declared the holy law of God broken, and the Paradise of Eden contaminated. “Whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is guilty of all.” James 2:10. Here was the first instance of sin. “Sin is the transgression of the law.” “The wages of sin is death.” Hence the law existed before sin and death. In all ages of the world there has been but one definition of sin; which is the transgression of the law. If the antediluvians were sinners, whom had they offended but Him whose law they had broken. If the Sodomites, whose unlawful deeds Lot hated, were sinners, it was because they had broken God's law. If we of this age are sinners against God, it is because we are condemned by his law as being covetous, and lovers of self more than lovers of God. Our first parents broke this law by being covetous. Dr. Dick says, under section, “Evils of Covetousness”:— “The covetous man is, to all intents and purposes, a thief and a robber. 1. He robs his Maker. 2. He robs the poor, the distressed, the widow and the fatherless. 3. He robs his family. 4. He robs society. “Covetousness destroys natural feeling and tenderness of conscience. Covetousness uniformly leads to falsehood and injustice. Covetousness leads to murderous wishes and even murder itself. “Covetousness has produced all the public evils, wars, and devastations, which have happened in every age of the world. “This vile affection may be considered as the first which was made in our world of sin or rebellion against God. Our first parents commenced their apostasy from their Maker by coveting the fruit of the tree of knowledge, which he had expressly interdicted under the highest penalty.” Thus with our first parents began rebellion against God by breaking his law. Here was the conception of sin. How awful have been its results! It has dwarfed man and driven him farther and farther from the Father, till in these last days there are those professing to be his children who declare that he has no law. Oh! woful condition! How blind! How far from the truth! It is his law that condemns the world. “Now we know that what things the law saith, it saith to them who are under the law; that every mouth may be stopped and all the world may become guilty before God . . . for by the law is the knowledge of sin.” Rom. 3:19, 20. How is the world condemned? By the law. Before whom is it condemned? Before Him whose law it is, who is God. No law could condemn the world in the sight of God but his own law. Before Paul concludes this comment on the law, he says: “I had not known sin but by the law, for I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt not covet.” But Paul was not the first who was found to be covetous. This dark stream of sin had its source far back in the garden of Eden. But what did the law do for Paul? It showed him his sin. He does not, therefore, conclude that the law is done away, and is not good, being a burden; but he says: “Wherefore [i. e., for the reason that it has shown me my sins] the law is holy, and the commandment holy, and just, and good.” Rom. 7:12. Again, in the fourteenth verse, “For we know the law is spiritual; but I am carnal, sold under sin.” With this burden of guilt pressing down his penitent soul, penitent because the law condemned him in the sight of God, he exclaims: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?” If the law which thus condemns the world is Christ's law, then Christ is against the Father, “For God sent not his Son into the world to condemn the world, but that the world through him might be saved.” John 3:17. Again, the world was condemned long before the Father sent his Son to die. It was this condemnation that caused the Father to send the Son to die. Condemnation came by breaking the law in the first act of rebellion. Christ did not come as a law-giver. He came to vindicate the justice and immutability of the law of God. Upon him our transgressions of the law were laid. They caused his death. Thus is shown the eternal duration of the law. But Jesus now mediates between an offended Father and the sinner. It is God that has been offended. It is his law by which the world is to be judged. The whole work of Jesus is that of a mediator. “If any man sin, we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ the righteous.” 1 John 2:1. Soon Jesus will finish his pleading. Soon he will come with the glory of the Father and all the holy angels, to unlock the gates of death and give life and immortality to the loved ones of all ages. Death, which is the wages of sin, and sin, which is the transgression of the law, will then be destroyed. The rebellious heart will forever cease to pulsate. The whole realm of God will be in harmony with the eternal principles of his law. The first four precepts of his law enjoin supreme love to God, who created all things. The last six enjoin love to his creatures. John says, “This is the love of God, that we keep his commandments; and his commandments are not grievous.” 1 John 5:3. In the description of the two classes that are to be living when probation's scenes close, we read concerning one class that they are to receive an antichristian mark, the consequence of which is that they shall drink of the wine of the wrath of God, which is to be poured out without mixture. The other class are to be keeping the commandments of God and the faith of Jesus. Rev. 14:9–12. The commandments of God are those proclaimed upon Mt. Sinai and engraven on tables of stone. These are they that constitute the law of God. This law is holy, just, good, and spiritual, says Paul. The Sabbath is one of its precepts; therefore it is holy. But the carnal-minded fight against it; for the carnal mind is enmity against God, and is not subject to the law of God. The Sabbath is called “holy, the honorable of the Lord.” The reason of its existence is immutable, and will be sung by the redeemed when there are no carnal dwarfs to oppose the authority of the Father. Rev. 4:11. A blessing of eternal endurance is promised to those who keep the Sabbath. It is based upon a reason founded in nature, and must exist as long as the reason lasts. Alex. Campbell’s comments on the Sabbath are to the point: “But, say some, it was changed from the seventh to the first day. Where? When? and by whom? No man can tell.” “No, it never was changed, nor could it be unless creation was to be gone through again; for the reason assigned must be changed before the observance, or respect to the reason can be changed.” “It is all old wives’ fables to talk of the change of the Sabbath from the seventh to the first day. If it be changed, it was that august personage changed it who changes times and laws ex officio.” “I think his name is Dr. Antichrist.”—Christian Baptist, vol. 1, p. 44.