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Press, Volume LII, Issue 9125, 8 June 1895, Page 2

SERMON. £J 1 ~LJ~L~I_ TAL X . SERIES No. 99. Subject—'«The Fall." *' Who changed the truth of God into a lie " and worshipped tho creature more " than tho Creator, who ia blessed for '* ever. I ' —Romans 1., 25. Stenographic Report op Mb Wortiiington's Bible Talk at the Temple of Truth, on* Sunday Evening, January 11th, 1894. The central statement about which nominal Christianity revolves, and upon which are dependent all constructions of creeds and all formulated statements of the so-called Christian theories, is that known as the " fall of man." Upon it is predicated every system of theology since Christ, and to it points every theory of philosophy which is based upon the ruin of man. I say, theologic and philosophic constructions, not Christ's construction. These have determined that the condition in which revelation found the world was a condition of ruin, and to harmonise that condition with the Cause that produced all things and to re-bind man to his God has been the purpose of religions, theologies and philosophies with what resulta the student may readily discover. if this is their cardinal doctrine that man's condition is one of rum, if the central thought or predicate of their statement is that man is lost, ruined, undone, and if that statement be a belief rather than a fact, we need not go further to find the cause of the disputes, inharmonies, and inconsistencies tliat rule wherever the interpretation of this thought has been attempted. They say that man is the product of Infinite perfection, and that he reflects that Eerfcction, and yet they find him at the ottom of an abyss, starless and hopeless, and they attempt to explain it by statements which are incapable of analysis. They say that Omnipotence did not push man out into the night of materiality, nor did he hurl himself into ruin, so they are obliged to introduce a third factor, a serpent, whioh tempted him. First, their statement is that nobody is to blame, that Infinite Omnipotence and Wisdom and Love produced man without volition on man's part, that the sum of all cause finished this sum of all effect and pushed it into the realm of entities, and let it be destroyed by an accident; an accident has come within the realm of Omnipotence and tricked, deceived and undone, the purpose of that Omnipotence. The moment the mind exonerates God, should not man be exonerated too, for if the T>ower that produced is not responsible for the so-called destruction of ita production, should not the product be exonerated from any guilt for that mistake ? So they introduce the serpent, a beast, a brute, an inert something, which they say stopped the elimination, destroyed the product, and undid the purpose of Omnipotence. Man, once pure, holy, and perfect, the reflection of the potentiality of God, the Divine likeness and image, became suddenly impure, unholy, base, carnal, wicked, and they call this supposed substitution " the fall of man." This story has lived through the pictorial statements of pagan religions for thousands of years ; it has appeared with Zoroaster, Confucius, and the Brahmins, proving that it contains a lesson that Omnipotence is trying to push through the material crust,, to the understanding of the peoples, to bridge this awful chasm between man's revelation and God's purpose. The question is : Does this doctrine cover a fact, or is it a mere statement of human belief ? Is it a fact, the product of abstract truth; or is it the invention of priestly necessity, a dogma brought from the chest of ecclesiastical diplomacy 1 When man endeavours to substitute his interpretation for that of God, the result is a condition of nebulous uncertainty, in which we take someone else's statement instead of the truth. This was the substituted pur pose of the priest, instead of the revealed truth of God. They have said that the Creator could make a thing perfect or imperfect if He chose, and it boots us not that we cannot understand the why and wherefore. This is measuring God by man's standards, an attempt to wall in Omnipotence by the little sphere of human reasoning. If Jesus Christ taught the truth, if His teaching was God made manifest in the flesh, to reveal the true secrets of roan's nature, then we turn from these interpretations, so literal, and hard and cruel, we turn our faces from wrath, vengeance, and Hate, to infinite Life, Love, and Truth, to that love which is undying as God, the revelation of which is Christ Himself. If you look at the genealogies of the man Jesus given in the Gospels, you will see at the end, " which was the Son of God" ; link by link the chain tbat connected Infinite Principle with Jesus the Christ is traced back to " the Son of God." It means that the original relationship between man and Infinite Principle was that of parent and child, of father and son, and that man is the son of Infinite Love. The old doctrine says that this relationship ceased at the fall, and man became the child of the devil or evil. An earthly parent may turn out his son from home, may repudiate the relationship, and deny the child with scorn, but the cold fact that one is the son and the other the father lives in the philosophy of Truth untouched by the denial. Centuries of falsehood and wrong interpretation cannot change the fact that when you trace back the genealogy of man, you eternally find at the other end of the chain, the Fatherhood of God, inseparable as God Himself, and no fall or departure can change that relationship, whicn is itself tho inherent utterance of Truth. If this statement be true, if once a child always a child, applies to the source of parentage, then it follows that this pretence of ceasing to be a child, this pretence of claiming that a fall in the dark, could alter or do away with this relation of Son and Father, is a mere statement of hu -an belief, one of the phases of carnal mind, the very serpent of appearances itself, a falsehood and a lie. In contradistinction to this infamous falsehood, in contradiction to this human belief, Jesus the Christ stands up and says " I came not to condemn the world, but to save the world." His prayer was "Oar Father," recoguising the unity of God and the brotherhood of man, destroying the whole fabric of the creeds that had built this horrible monster. There is not one sentence in all the sublime discourses of Christ, but that contradicts the statement regarding the fall ; Ho says that man has not changed his sonship to God, bo*, that Infinite Love searches for the oue, though the ninety and nine be saved, because within the radii of Infinite Love there can be found no other purpose, it is nob the will of God that one ot these little ones should perish, "I, if I be lifted up will draw all men unto mc." The Fatherhood of God, the brotherhood of man ; these were the burden of all Christ's teaching. 'If the God-principle be Truth, it is eternal, for abstract principle never changes : if tho original man is its product, man remains unchanged and untouched by the theories with which has filled the ear of credulous humanity. Tho belief that life began by carnal generation is one of the central beliefs that have built this falsehood about the fall ; the belief that the fleshly man is the only man is the contradiction of Infinite purpose and Divine revelation The assertion Chat man at firs; was like God, spiritually and morally, means nothing unless you understand what God is ; ami to say that man ia tho likeness of God and yet to be unable to get a statement, of being that will hold together while you analyse it, is simply to formulate babbling words without meaning. •The Being of God cannot bo imagined, it must h-i known, aud thu only iv degree as growth progresses. Io say ihat man is carnal aud hence fallen involves the statement that materiality can defeat spirituality, that the mortal, carnal, finite niau can undo the work of Omnipotent Principle, and the natural deduction from this is—that we have traversed the weary ways betuvt-n the carnal man and the spiritual manifestation oniy to be still subject to falls, ii involves fall after fall, a continuous helpltssness ; for, if mancould fall from spirituality, Omnipotence cannot «aye us from other falls. If this carnal man be the true man, then the identity of the spiritual man wai bit