MAIN HOMILETICS OF THE PARAGRAPH.— Genesis 3:1-7
THE FIRST GREAT TEMPTATION
It is well for the military general to study the plan and the history of great battles that have been fought in the past, in order that he may learn how best to order and arrange his troops in the event of war. So human life is a great moral campaign. The battle-field is the soul of man. The conflicting powers are Satan and humanity, good and evil. In the history of the first great temptation of our first parents we have a typical battle, in which we see the methods of satanic approach to the soul, and which it will be well for us to contemplate. It is well to learn how to engage in the moral conflicts of life, before we are actually called into them. Every day should find us better warriors in the service of right.
I. That the human soul is frequently tempted by a dire foe of unusual subtlety. “Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field.”
1. The tempter of human souls is subtile. He presents himself to the soul of man in the most insidious forms, in the most fascinating ways, and with the most alluring promises. He endeavours to make men think when in the service of God, that they are ignorant of the grand mysteries of the universe, that the tree of knowledge, of which they dare not eat, contains the secret of their lives, and that if they will, contrary to the Divine command, partake of it, they will step into the Supreme temple of wisdom. Hence the curiosity of man is awakened. A strange fascination takes possession of his spirit. He is led to violate the Divine behest. Or, the devil will tell men that in the service of God, they are deprived of liberty; and for the freedom of goodness he offers them the wild license of sin, and lured by this hope he gets them to eat forbidden fruit. Satan has many schemes by which to lead men contrary to the will of God, and in opposition to their own moral welfare. He can adapt himself to any circumstance. He can make use of any agency. He often comes to us when we are lonely. He has access to our most beautiful Edens.
2. The tempter of human souls is malignant. God had just placed Adam and Eve in the lovely garden of Eden. These two progenitors of the race were made in His image, were prepared for healthful toil, and for all innocent pleasure. They were happy in each other. They were supremely happy in their God. The new creation was their heritage. How malignant the person who can seek artfully to dim a picture so lovely, or destroy a happiness so pure. Only a fallen angel could have conceived the thought. Only a devil could have wrought it into action. He is unmoved by pity. His mission is the interruption of human enjoyment. And we see him fulfilling it on every page of human life and history.
3. The tempter of human souls is courageous. We almost wonder that Satan dared to venture into the new and lovely paradise which God had made for our first parents. Would not God expel him at once? Would not Eve instinctively recognize him notwithstanding his disguised appearance, and his bland approach to her. Might not such thoughts as these pass within his mind. If they did he would not long yield to them. Satan is bold and adventuresome. He will approach the first parents of the race, to seek their ruin, even though heaven may be their helper. He will tempt the Lord of the universe with the kingdoms of this world. He knows no tremor. He is best met by humility.
II. That the Tempter seeks to engage the human soul in conversation and controversy.—“And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden.” Life is a beautiful garden in which man must find work, and in which he may find pleasure. But there are trees in it which are environed by Divine and requisite restrictions. The forbidden plants are known to man. They are revealed to him by the Word of God, and by his own conscience. Hence there can be no mistake. Man need not be taken unawares. But in reference to certain phases of human life Satan seeks to hold controversy with the human soul.
1. He seeks to hold controversy with human souls that he may render them impatient of the moral restrictions of life. He does not seek to talk to Eve about the tillage of the garden, or about the many trees of which she was at liberty to eat, but only about this one tree of which she and her husband were forbidden to partake. In this we see the devil’s knowledge of human nature, and also the cunning of his fallen intellect. Men are far more impatient of their restrictions than they are mindful of their liberty, and hence are sensitive to any reference made thereto. Hence the great effort of Satan is to lead men astray not chiefly by questioning the theology of the Bible, but by directing their attention to the limits that it places upon their conduct. When you begin to question the right or wrong of any action, that is the first indication that Satan is seeking to hold a controversy with your soul, as you need never have a doubt as to whether you should eat the fruit of the forbidden tree. Never let the devil make you impatient of the laws of moral rectitude. When he reminds you of the one tree of which you may not eat, then show him all the other trees in the garden which are at your entire disposal. The restrictions of life are few, but they are real and far reaching. They relate to the destiny of the soul.
2. He seeks to hold controversy with human souls that he may insidiously awaken within them thoughts derogatory to the character of God. The woman in response to the serpent said that God had forbidden them to eat of the tree. Satan continues the argument from the same point. He states that God had told her a lie! Sin always commences here. The moment a soul holds controversy about the moral character of God, is the moment of its fall. The man who believes God to be untruthful, must and will be untruthful himself. We are good and safe in proportion as we reverence and love the character of God. Satan intimates to Eve that he knows as much about the tree as God did, and that she was justified in crediting his statement as much as the Divine. This is the one effort of the devil, to substitute himself to the human soul, in the place of God. He still seeks to make men worship him. 3 He seeks to hold controversy with human souls that he may lead them to yield to the lust of the eye. “For God doth know that in the day ye eat thereof, then your eyes shall be opened, and ye shall be as gods, knowing good and evil. And when the woman saw that the tree was good for food, and that it was pleasant to the eyes,” &c. This is the artifice of Satan, to get men to remove from the true basis of moral life. The true basis of moral conduct is, as Eve had just intimated, the Word of God. But now she is making desire the basis of her conduct. In the processes of temptation there are not merely the solicitations of the devil to lead the soul away from right, but there are also the brilliant appearances of the things we see. The tree is often pleasant to the eyes. Temptation always furnishes its dupe with an excuse. Eve saw that the tree was good for food. There is a gradual progress to sin. First you talk with the devil. Then you believe the devil. Then you obey the devil. Then you are conquered by the devil. Never make lust the basis of life. If you do you will fall irretrievably.
III. That the Tempter seeks to make one soul his ally in the seduction of another. “She took of the fruit thereof, and did eat, and gave also unto her husband with her; and he did eat.” Eve little thought at the commencement of her interview with the serpent, what would be its end. One conversation with the devil may eternally ruin a soul. He is a pleasing interlocutor. But he is false. We observe that he tempted Eve first. He probably thought that he would the more readily win the weak one to his design. And when the devil lures a man’s wife to evil, it is a bad omen for her husband. She will probably become his tempter. The domestic relationships of life are fraught with the most awful possibilities of good or evil to human souls. A wicked wife may be the moral ruin of a family. See the crafty policy of hell. Never join yourself in league with Satan to tempt another soul to evil. Satan is after all sadly effective in his work.
IV. That the human soul soon awakes from the subtle vision of temptation to find that it has been deluded and ruined. “And the eyes of both were opened, and they knew that they were naked; and they sewed fig leaves together, and made themselves aprons.”
1. That the human soul soon awakes from the charming vision of temptation. Temptation is a charming vision to the soul. The tree looks gigantic. The fruit looks rich and ripe, and its colour begins to glow more and yet more, then it is plucked and eaten. Then comes the bitter taste. The sad recollection. The moment of despair. To Adam and Eve sin was a new experience. It was an experience they would have been better and happier without. No man is the better for the woful experience of evil.
2. That the human soul, awakening from the vision of temptation, is conscious of moral nakedness. The tempter promised that Adam and Eve should become wise and divine, whereas they became foolish and naked. In the strange effort to become divine they became mortal. Sin always brings shame, a shame it deeply feels but cannot hide. How sad the destitution of a soul that has fallen from God.
3. That the human soul awakening from the vision of temptation, conscious of its moral nakedness, seeks to provide a clothing of its own device. Adam and Eve sewed fig leaves together to make them aprons. Sin must have a covering. It is often ingenious in making and sewing it together. But its covering is always unworthy and futile. Man cannot of himself clothe his soul. Only the righteousness of Christ can effectually hide his moral nakedness.
Jesus, thy Blood and Righteousness
My beauty are, my glorious dress;
’Midst flaming worlds, in these array’d,
With joy shall I lift up my head.
LESSONS:—1, To beware of the subtlety of the devil.
2. Never to hold converse with Satan.
3. Never to yield to the lust of the eye.
4. Never to tempt another to evil.
SUGGESTIVE COMMENTS ON THE VERSES
Genesis 3:1. The Serpent.
Almost throughout the East the serpent was used as an emblem of the principle of evil. Some writers deny that the evil spirit is to be understood in this narrative of Genesis. Yet not only did the East in general look on the serpent as an emblem of the spirit of evil, but the earliest traces of Jewish or Christian interpretations all point to this. The evil one is constantly called by the Jews “the old serpent” (Revelation 12:9). Some have thought that no serpent appeared, but only that evil one, who is called the serpent; but then he could not have been said to be “more subtil than all the beasts of the field.” The reason why Satan took the form of a beast remarkable for its subtlety may have been that so Eve might be the less upon her guard. New as she was to all creation, she may not have been surprised at speech in an animal which apparently possessed almost human sagacity [Speakers’ Commentary].
“Fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud …
… For in the wily snake
Whatever sleights none would suspicion mark,
As from his wit and nature subtlety
Proceeding, which in other beasts observed,
Doubt might beget of diabolic power,
Active within, beyond the sense of brute.”—Paradise Lost.
But to anyone who reads the narrative carefully in connection with the previous history of the creation, and bears in mind that man is here described as exalted far above all the rest of the animal world, not only by the fact of his having been created in the image of God and invested with dominion over all the creatures of the earth, but also because God breathed into him the breath of life, and no helpmeet for him was found among the beasts of the field, and also that this superiority was manifest in the gift of speech, which enabled him to give names to all the rest—a thing which they, as speechless, were unable to perform—it must be at once apparent that it was not from the serpent, as a sagacious and crafty animal, that the temptation proceeded, but that the serpent was simply the tool of that evil spirit who is met with in the further course of the world’s history under the name of Satan. When the serpent, therefore, is introduced as speaking, and that just as if it had been entrusted with the thoughts of God Himself, the speaking must have emanated, not from the serpent, but from a superior spirit, which had taken possession of the serpent for the sake of seducing man.… The serpent is not a merely symbolical term applied to Satan; nor was it only the form which Satan assumed; but it was a real serpent, perverted by Satan to be the instrument of his temptation [Keil and Delitzsch.]
It has been supposed by many commentators that the serpent, prior to the Fall, moved along in an erect attitude, as Milton (Par. L. ix. 496):
“Not with indented wave
Prone on the ground, as since, but on his rear,
Circular base of rising folds that tower’d
Fold above fold, a surging maze.”
But it is quite clear that an erect mode of progression is utterly incompatible with the structure of a serpent, whose motion on the ground is beautifully effected by the mechanism of the vertebral column and the multitudinous ribs, which, forming as it were so many pairs of levers, enable the animal to move its body from place to place; consequently, had the snakes before the fall moved in an erect attitude, they must have been formed on a different plan altogether. It is true that there are saurian reptiles, such as the Saurophis tetradactylus and the Chamae-saura anguina of South Africa, which in external form are very like serpents, but with quasi-feet; indeed, even in the boa-constrictor, underneath the skin near the extremity, there exist rudimentary legs; some have been disposed to believe that the snakes before the Fall were similar to the Saurophis. Such an hypothesis, however, is untenable, for all the fossil ophedia that have hitherto been found differ in no essential respect from modern representations of that order; it is, moreover, beside the mark, for the words of the curse, “Upon thy belly shalt thou go,” are as characteristic of the progression of a saurophoid serpent before the Fall as of a true ophidian after it. There is no reason whatever to conclude from the language of Scripture that the serpent underwent any change of form on account of the part it played in the history of the Fall. The sun and the moon were in the heavens long before they were appointed “for signs and for seasons, and for days and years.” The typical form of the serpent and its mode of progression were in all probability the same before the Fall as after it; but subsequent to the Fall its form and progression were to be regarded with hatred and disgust by all mankind, and thus the animal was cursed “above all cattle,” and a mark of condemnation was for ever stamped upon it [Students’ Old Testament History, by Dr. Smith].
The trial of our first progenitors was ordained by God, because probation was essential to their spiritual development and self-determination. But as He did not desire that they should be tempted to their fall, He would not suffer Satan to tempt them in a way which should surpass their human capacity. The tempted might therefore have resisted the tempter. If, instead of approaching them in the form of a celestial being, in the likeness of God, he came in that of a creature, not only far inferior to God, but far below themselves, they could have no excuse for allowing a mere animal to persuade them to break the commandment of God. For they had been made to have dominion over the beasts, and not to take their own law from them. Moreover, the fact that an evil spirit was approaching them in the serpent could hardly be concealed from them. Its speaking alone must have suggested that; for Adam had already become acquainted with the nature of the beasts, and had not found one among them resembling himself—not one, therefore, endowed with reason and speech. The substance of the address, too, was enough to prove that it was no good spirit which spake through the serpent, but one at enmity with God. Hence, when they paid attention to what he said, they were altogether without excuse [Keil and Delitzsch].
Wit unsanctified is a fit tool for the devil to work withal [Trapp].
1. The time of this temptation.
2. The place of this temptation.
3. The issue of this temptation.
The devil’s advice:—
1. It is freely given.
2. It is wofully misleading.
3. It is counter to the Divine command.
4. It is blandly proffered.
5. It is often taken.
It is the usual custom of Satan to tempt men before they are confirmed by habit in the course of goodness:—
1. Because he envies man’s happiness.
2. Because he hopes more readily to effect his mischief.
3. Let the newly converted prepare for him.
Satan contrives mischief against those who never provoke him.
No place nor employment can free us from the assault of Satan:—
1. He tempted our first parents in Paradise.
2. Eli’s sons in the tabernacle.
3. Christ in the wilderness.
Though Satan is the author of temptation he cares not to be seen as such.
Satan usually makes choice of those instruments which he finds fittest for the compassing of his own wicked ends.
Cunning persons are dangerous.
No advantage can assure a child of God from the temptations of Satan:—
1. Not holiness.
2. Not the experience of God’s mercies.
3. Not victories in past spiritual contests.
Satan:—
1. His power.
2. His malice.
3. His cunning.
4. His diligence.
The devil’s assistants:—
1. Our lusts within.
2. Our world without.
3. Our own moral weakness.
Solitariness is many times a snare:—
1. It yields advantage to temptation.
2. It gives the greater opportunity to commit sin unseen by men.
3. It deprives men of help by advice.
Satan’s main end is man’s destruction by turning away his heart from God.
It is usual with Satan and his instruments to pretend the good of those they intend to destroy:—
1. Consider the being who makes the promise.
2. Seriously consider whether it is a real good promise.
3. Contemplate under what condition they tender the things to us.
It is a dangerous snare for a man to have his eyes too much fixed upon his wants.
The nature of man is apt by the art and policy of Satan to be carried against all restraint and subjection.
Man’s fall is as needful to be known as his best estate.
The devil may give forth a human voice to dumb and speechless creatures.
It is the devil’s great plot in tempting man to destruction, to corrupt the mind.
Genesis 3:2. It is dangerous to talk freely to persons of whom we have no knowledge.
It is a dangerous thing to debate evident and known truths.
Blasphemous suggestions ought not to be heard without indignation:—
1. To manifest our zeal for God’s honour and truth.
2. To secure ourselves from a further assault.
3. To prevent the hardening of the soul against wicked suggestions.
The goodness and bounty of God to men is a sad aggravation of sin.
Creatures must vindicate God’s goodness, though Satan detract from it.
Man knows the innocent pleasures of life.
Genesis 3:3. When we remember the law of God, we must set before us the sanction annexed thereto:—
1. For God’s honour.
2. For our necessity.
3. For our victory.
When we recall the law of God, we should remember the giver of it.
It is hard to bring man’s heart to submit to, and bear with patience any yoke of restraint.
Whoever will not be entangled by allurements to sin, must not come near them.
The slighting of the curse of the law, makes way to the transgressing of the law.
Acknowledgement of God’s law will more heartily condemn the soul that sinneth.
The least doubt about the truth of God’s threatenings makes the soul more bold to sin.
“Neither shall ye touch it.” This is of the woman’s own addition, and of a good intention doubtless. For afterwards, when she had drunk in more of the serpent’s deadly poison, from gazing upon the fruit, she fell to gaping after it, from touching to tasting [Trapp].
THE FIRST LIE. Genesis 3:4
Sin entered our world by falsehood. As sin was thus introduced, so it has been very mainly sustained and propagated by lies; so says the Apostle John, and gives evidences of its truth.
I. At the author of this first lie. Satan—the devil—the deceiver—are the titles given him in Scripture, and Jesus says of him, He is a liar, and the father of lies, John 8:44. No doubt this was scenic or dramatic, with the tree in sight, as the conversation was held. Here is the earthly fountain of falsehood, and the author of the first lie.
II. The nature of the lie uttered. “Ye shall not surely die.” Observe, it was the direct falsification of God’s threatening, in absolute contradiction of God’s own Word. (Genesis 2:17.)
III. It was a most daring and presumptuous lie. The height of desperate effrontery. A challenge of the Almighty. Bold collision with the God and Creator of the universe.
IV. It was a most malignant and envious lie. There can be no doubt that Satan saw and envied, and then hated the first human pair in their innocency and blessedness; and now, serpent like, he fascinates, and throws his horrid spell with fatal accuracy over the ready listeners, and then inserts the poisonous and venemous iniquity and ruin into the soul.
V. It was a destructive, murderous lie. So Jesus connects the first lie with the murder it effected. It slew our first parents—destroyed their innocency—blinded their minds—defiled their consciences—and overspread the soul with leprous defilement and guilt; and, as God had said, death not only arrested our first parents, and bound them with chains and fetters as guilty and condemned before Him.
VI. It was the germ of all unrealness and deception that should curse mankind. Now crookedness, illusion and deceit began their career. The false in all its forms and shades is traceable to this first lie. All ignorance—all error—all superstition—all base fear—all inward treason of heart, took their rise here. It poisoned the moral blood, degenerated the race, and introduced every hideous deformity and foul impurity into the human family and species.
VII. It was a lying entanglement from which humanity could not extricate itself. Man could rush into darkness, but could not find his way back to light and day—he could fall, but not restore himself—he could die, by choosing to do so, but he could not resuscitate or raise himself again to life. The Divine image was effaced—the Divine Spirit exorcised—the soul in its original glory destroyed.
VIII. Jesus, the Divine Truth, came to deliver us from this lie and its results. He was immediately promised as the woman’s conquering seed—He came, and was manifested to destroy the works of the devil—He overcame him in the wilderness, cast him and his demons out of the bodies and souls of men—He overthrew him on the Cross, entered his domains of death, and opened a royal passage through the tomb, and opened the gates of the second paradise to all believers. Hence, observe—
IX. The Gospel is the delivering power from Satan’s falsehoods. Christ is the Author and Prince of truth—His Word is truth—He makes this Word His own power to salvation. This is the remedy for Satan’s falsehood and malignity. By the Spirit and Word of Truth. He regenerates, sanctifies, and makes meet for eternal glory. By this His saved people defy Satan, and overcome his machinations and lies. The kingdom of Christ is the kingdom of truth—this truth of Christ is to destroy the kingdom of Satan, and renew the world in true holiness, and bring down the Tabernacle of God from heaven to earth.—(Dr. Burns.)
Genesis 3:4. Once yielding to the tempter’s charm gives him greater boldness.
It is the devil’s method to draw souls from doubting God’s truth to deny it.
It is a strong delusion of Satan to persuade a sinner that he shall not die.
It is the initial property of the tempter to be a liar, to deny what God affirms.
The tempter deals in equivocations with double words and senses.
There is no truth of God so clear and manifest which Satan dare not contradict:—
1. Because he is a liar.
2. Because it concerns him to contradict fundamental truths.
3. Because he understands the corruption of the human heart.
Satan never makes use of God’s word, but for mischief.
Genesis 3:5. Satan in all his promises gives men no ground to build upon but his own bare word.
Discontent at our present condition is a dangerous temptation of Satan:—
1. Of unthankfulness to God.
2. Of disgust to our own heart.
3. Of envy with our neighbours.
Self love and seeking is one of Satan’s most dangerous snares.
Satan tempts us to sin, not only in our pleasures and delights, but also in our duties:—
1. Because then we feel most secure.
2. Because then he will corrupt our best endeavours.
3. Let us look carefully at the motive of our best duties.
The searching after the knowledge of unnecessary things is one of Satan’s snares.
The special end that Satan persuades wicked men to aim at is that they may be as gods:—
1. To excel alone.
2. To be independent.
3. To be commanded by none.
4. To give account to none.
It is Satan’s policy to draw men to depend upon the creature, for that which only God can give.
Satan’s preferments are abasements.
Hasty resolutions prove commonly dangerous in the issue.
The nearer things are to be enjoyed, the more strongly the heart is affected by them:—
1. Then let us fix our eyes on our mercies.
2. Try to make the future present to our vision.
3. Think of the shortness of this present life.
It is a strong temptation on man to persuade enlightening by sinning.
In all the light pretended, Satan intends nothing but experience of nakedness and shame.
Genesis 3:6. Man brought by Satan to unbelief is prepared for any wickedness.
Hearts slighting God’s word are given up to Satan to believe lies.
Hearts so seduced call that good which God calls evil.
Unbelief makes souls judge that meat which is poison and death by God’s word.
Unbelief stirs up lust in the eye, to that which we should loathe.
Forbidden things soonest stir up sinful desires.
Lust persuadeth there is wisdom to be had, where there is nothing but experience of evil.
The woman was first in the transgression, but the man equal.
Aggravated beyond all sin is the first transgression, being done wilfully, against such a God and such endowments.
Just is it with God to suffer men to fall, that choose it rather than steadfastness in his word.
Things usually appear to us as we stand affected toward them in our hearts.
It is dangerous to a man to fix his senses upon enticing objects.
Men are easily drawn to believe, and hope anything of that which they desire.
Man is an ill chooser of his own good.
It is not in the power of Satan to draw any man to sin without his own consent.
They that sin themselves are commonly seducers of others to sin.
One that is fallen into sin is many times most dangerous to his nearest friends:—
1. Because they are apt to communicate the evil.
2. Because they are powerful to prevail with friends.
3. In daily commerce.
THE MORAL ASPECT OF THE SENSES
Eden, whatever its geography, or physical characteristics, must be ever an interesting spot in the associations of humanity. Thither we trace our origin, our primitive greatness, our golden age, our ruin, and the first dawnings of redeeming love. Amongst the many suggestions with which this chapter is fraught, is the one contained in the text: The moral aspect of the senses.
I. That man requires a boundary for his senses. By prohibiting one tree, God declares that there must be a limitation to the gratification of the senses. This is a most important doctrine, and fearfully overlooked. But why should the senses be restricted?
1. Because an undue influence of the senses is perilous to the spiritual interests of men. The senses, as servants, are great blessings; as sovereigns, they become great curses. Fleshly lusts “war against the soul.”
2. Because man has the power of fostering his senses to an undue influence. Unlike the brute, his senses are linked to the faculty of imagination. By this he can give new edge and strength to his senses. He can bring the sensual provisions of nature into new combinations, and thereby not only strengthen old appetites, but create new ones. Thus we find men on all hands becoming the mere creatures of the senses—intellect and heart running into flesh. They are carnal.
II. That man’s moral nature is assailable through the senses. Thus Satan here assailed our first parents, and won the day. Thus he tempted Christ in the wilderness, and thus ever. His address is always to the passions. By sensual plays, songs, books, and elements, he rules the world. “Lust, when it is finished, bringeth forth sin.” This fact is useful for two purposes:—
1. To caution us against all institutions which aim mainly at the gratification of the senses. We may rest assured, that Satan is in special connection with these.
2. To caution us against making the senses the source of pleasure. It is a proof of the goodness of God that the senses yield pleasure; but it is a proof of depravity when man seeks his chief pleasure in them. Man should ever attend to them rather as means of relief than as sources of pleasure. He who uses them in this latter way, sinks brute-ward.
III. That man’s highest interests have been ruined by the senses, “She took of the fruit.” Here was the ruin. History teems with similar examples. Esau, the Jews in the wilderness, and David, are striking illustrations. Men’s highest interests—of intellect—conscience—soul—and eternity—are everywhere being ruined by the senses.—(Homilist.)
Genesis 3:7. It is a great folly in men not to foresee evil before it be too late to help it.
Even those who discover not beforehand the evils which the error of their ways lead them into, yet they shall in the end feel deep misery:—
1. To bring them to repentance.
2. To make them more watchful in the future.
3. To give them a sweeter taste of God’s mercy.
Sin is able to make the most excellent and glorious of all God’s creatures vile and shameful:—
1. It defaces the image of God.
2. It separates man from God.
3. It disorders all the faculties of the soul.
Men are more apt to be sensible of, and to be more affected by, the outward evils that sin brings upon them, than with the sin that causeth them.
Garments are but the covers of our shame:—
1. For necessity—to keep off injury from the weather.
2. For distinction—of sexes—offices—degrees—nations.
Most of our necessities are brought upon us by shame.
Sin makes men fools.
All the care that men take is usually to hide their sin rather than to take it away.
Sin makes men very knowing in misery.
Sin strips stark naked of spiritual and bodily good.
Sin is ashamed of itself.
Sin is foolish in its patchings.
ILLUSTRATIONS
BY
REV. WM. ADAMSON
Death! Genesis 3:1-7. A heathen exercised his genius in the formation of a goblet, in the bottom of which he fixed a serpent, whose model he had made. Coiled for the spring, a pair of gleaming eyes in its head, and in its open mouth fangs raised to strike, it lay beneath the ruby wine. As Guthrie says: Be assured that a serpent lurks at the bottom of guilt’s sweetest pleasure:—
“One drop of wisdom is far better
Than pleasures in whole bottomless abysses:
For sense’s fool must wear remorse’s fetter,
When duty’s servant reigns where endless
bliss is.”—Oriental.
Sin! Genesis 3:1-7. Anthony Burgess says that sin is a Delilah, a sweet passion tickling while it stabs. Eve saw that the tree was pleasant to the eye, and from its fragrance likely to be good for food, a delicious morsel. Dr. Cuyler forcibly illustrates this by reference to the Judas tree. The blossoms appear before the leaves, and they are of a brilliant crimson. The flaming beauty of the flowers attracts innumerable insects; and the wandering bee is drawn after it to gather honey. But every bee which alights upon the blossom, imbibes a fatal opiate, and drops dead from among the crimson flowers to the earth. Well may it be said that beneath this tree the earth is strewn with the victims of its fatal fascinations: Yet
“ ‘How can it be,’ say they, ‘that such a thing,
So full of sweetness, e’er should wear a sting?’
They know not that it is the very spell
Of sin, to make men laugh themselves to hell.”
Open Eyes! Genesis 3:1-7. Sometime ago passengers in the streets of Paris were attracted to the figure of a woman on the parapet of a roof in that city. She had fallen asleep in the afternoon, and under the influence of somnambulism had stepped out of an open window on to the edge of the house. There she was walking to and fro to the horror of the gazers below, who expected every moment to witness a false step and terrible fall. They dared not shout, lest by awakening her inopportunely they should be only hastening on the inevitable calamity. But this came soon enough; for moving, as somnambulists do, with open eyes, the reflection of a lamp lit in an opposite window by an artisan engaged in some mechanical operation, all unconscious of what was going on outside, aroused her from sleep. The moment her eyes were opened to discover the perilous position in which she had placed herself, she tottered, fell, and was dashed below. Such is the sleep of sin; it places the soul on the precipice of peril, and when the spell is broken it leaves the sinner to fall headlong into the gulf of woe. Thus—
“No thief so vile nor treacherous as sin,
Whom fools do hug, and take such pleasure in.”
Nakedness! Genesis 3:1-7. Their eyes were opened to see that they were not what they had been before. And we come to the same conclusion as we survey ourselves, that man is not the same creature with which God crowned the glorious work of creation. There is moral nakedness. He is like a creature of the air which a cruel hand has stripped of its silken wings. How painfully he resembles this hapless object which has just fallen on the pages of a book that we read by the candle on an autumn evening! It retains the wish, but is conscious that it has lost the power to fly:—
Soul, thou art fallen from thine ancient place,
Mayest thou in this mean world find nothing great,
Nor ought that shall the memories efface
Of that true greatness which was once thine own.”—Trench.
Watchfulness! Genesis 3:1. I have read of a monarch that, being pursued by the enemy, threw away the crown of gold on his head, in order that he might run the faster. So, that sin, which thou dost wear as a crown of gold, throw it away, that thou mayest run the faster to the kingdom of heaven. Oh! if you would not lose glory be on your guard, mortify the beloved sin; set it as Uriah in the forefront of the battle to be slain. By plucking out this right eye you shall see the better to go to heaven. By cutting off this right arm you will be the more prepared for Satan. In such case you may confidently expect aid, for—
“Behind the dim unknown,
Standeth God within the shadow, keeping watch above His own.”—Lowell.
Conditions! Genesis 3:1. No man is truly prosperous whose mortality is forfeited. No man is rich to whom the grave brings eternal bankruptcy. No man is happy on whose path there rests but a momentary glimmer of light shining out between clouds that are closing over him for ever. Satan makes many promises, but his conditions are equally numerous—and vastly more serious than his promises are precious. The Lord’s temptation in the wilderness: Fall down and worship me! Ye shall be as gods! Such are the promise and condition—the one false, because the other devilish. His promises allure, and if we do not consider the conditions, the chances are against our resistance.
“The simple boy—far from his father’s care,
Is well nigh taken with the gilded snare.”—Holmes.
Association! Genesis 3:2. Evil communications corrupt good manners! One day Robert’s father saw him playing with some boys who were rude and unmannerly. In the evening he brought from the garden six rosy-cheeked apples, put them on a plate, and presented them to his son, who was much pleased, and thanked his father. “But you must lay them aside for a few days that they may become mellow.” This was done, his father at the same time placing a seventh apple, which was quite rotten. To this the boy demurred on the ground that the decayed fruit would spoil all the others; but the father remarked: “Why should not the fresh apples make the rotten ones fresh?” Eight days afterwards the apples were brought forth—all of them equally decayed; whereupon Robert reminded his father of what he had said. “My boy, have I not told you often that bad companions will make you bad? See in the condition of the apples what will happen to you if you keep company with the wicked.” Exactly so was it with Satan. Eve held intercourse with him, but did not make him better:—
“The tempting fruit outspread before her eyes,
Filled her with rapture and complete surprise;
Nor hidden dangers will she wait to see,
But onward hastens to the fatal tree.”
Dread of Sin! Genesis 3:3. Holy fear is the doorkeeper of the soul. As a nobleman’s porter stands at the door and keeps out vagrants, so the fear of God stands and keeps all sinful temptations from entering. And if we only learn to fear God—i.e., to stand in awe and sin not—in the right way, we shall learn at the same time never to fear anything else. The righteous are bold as a lion.
“Fear Him, ye saints, and ye will then
Have nothing else to fear.”
Contamination! Genesis 3:4. In Adam all die. As the electric shock passes through the frames of all who are linked hand in hand, so passed the shock of sin’s magnetic power of death through all the human race. As the poison imbibed by the lips flows through every vein of the body—penetrating its every vital part till death ensues, so the sin committed by our first parents has flashed its virus through every member of the human race:—
“One little sin that mystic cup did fill,
And yet it poured on, and poureth still
The tainting horrors of all pain and ill.”—Alger.
Indecision! Genesis 3:4. Some months ago, says a New York writer, I met a young Englishwoman who came to this city to marry a young man to whom she had been betrothed in England, and who had come to this country two years previous to engage in business. She was to marry him at the home of a friend of her mother’s with whom she was staying. During the time she was making up her wedding outfit, he came to see her one evening when he was just drunk enough to be foolish. She was shocked and pained beyond measure. She afterwards learned that he was in the habit of drinking to excess. She immediately stopped her preparations, and told him she could not marry him. He protested that she would drive him to distraction; promised never to drink another drop, &c. “No,” said the young maiden, “I dare not trust my future happiness to a drunkard. I came 3,000 miles, and I will return 3,000 miles.” And she did. Had Eve but said: “No, I will not trust my future happiness to a maligner of God; get thee hence, Satan”—how different would this once fair world be now at this distant date! Yield to no offer, however tempting, which depends on, or is allied with, dishonour to God, disobedience to His statutes, or destructive to our immortal welfare.
“See yon tall shaft; it felt the earthquake’s thrill,
Clung to its base, and greets the sunrise still”—Wendell.
Gods! Genesis 3:5. If we are to credit the annals of the Russian empire, there once existed a noble order of merit, which was greatly coveted by the princes and noblesse. It was, however, conferred only on the peculiar favourites of the Czar, or on the distinguished heroes of the kingdom. But another class shared in its honour in a very questionable form. Those nobles or favourites who either became a burden to the Czar or who stood in his way, received this decoration only to dic. The pinpoint was tipped with poison—and when the order was being fastened on the breast by the imperial messenger, the flesh of the person was accidentally pricked. Death ensued, as next morning the individual so highly honoured with imperial favour, was found dead in bed from apoplexy. Satan offered to confer a brilliant decoration upon Adam and Eve; Ye shall be as Gods. It was poisoned: the wages of sin is death. As Bunyan says, look to thyself, then, keep it out of doors.
“’Tis like the panther, or the crocodile,
It seems to love, and promises no wile,
It hides its sting, seems harmless as a dove;
It hugs the soul, and hates when ’t vows most love.”
Vain Regrets! Genesis 3:7. A pointsman was on duty somewhere in America. The express was due; but instead of turning the points as he ought, and as day after day for many years he had done, he neglected his duty—the train rushed past in safety, as the engine-driver, guard, and passengers supposed. Alas! not so. In less time than you can read it all was a hopeless wreck, and not one of all that number in the train survived. And what of the poor pointsman, who that once (perhaps the only time) had neglected his duty? He rushed from the spot a hopeless maniac, and his incessant cry since that terrible event has been, “Oh! if I only had!” Nothing else has he said since; and probably for years to come that one sentence will ring through the room of the asylum where he is now confined.
“By the dark shape of what he is, serene
Stands the bright ghost of what he might have been.”—Lytton.