The Preacher's Monthly Genesis 3:1-6 Now the serpent was more subtle than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said to the woman, Yes, has God said… I. THE GREAT MORAL CONFLICT APPOINTED FOR MAN. In Eden and in every human history there is a collision between appetite and conscience, between right and wrong, between God's will and human wilfulness. Things know nothing of such oppositions. In self-governments and to wills they are inevitable. 1. That it was waged between powers both good in themselves for the exclusive rule and supremacy of the lower over the life. 2. It begins with a suggestion from without and from beneath. 3. We are assailed from the most unlikely quarters, and are injured by the most unlikely instruments. 4. The danger in this case arose from a lawless desire for knowledge, II. THE CONSEQUENCES OF MAN'S MORAL DEFEAT. Given the fact of sin, the fact of a fatal change in the condition and circumstances follows of necessity. 1. The harmonious and beautiful subordination of the powers of the human constitution is destroyed. 2. Native innocence is lost. 3. Sin shuts out the light of heaven and prevents the enjoyment of the vision of God. 4. Sin changes the face of nature to the guilty, and banishes the spirit from the regions of Divine joy. Men in the first consciousness of guilt dare not pray. (The Preacher's Monthly.) Parallel Verses KJV: Now the serpent was more subtil than any beast of the field which the LORD God had made. And he said unto the woman, Yea, hath God said, Ye shall not eat of every tree of the garden? |
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