March 12th.

Waiapu Church Gazette, Volume VI, Issue 8, 1 February 1916, Page 103

March 12th.

(First Sunday ill I^ettt.) Subject — „ ' SIN'S ENTRANCE INTO THE WORI,D. Main Scripture Reference : Genesis iii. Explain the story. Note " Yea hath God said " means " has God really' said ? " The Serpent suggests that God is envious. Eve's first mistake was m listening to such a suggestion. She ijttew God's love attd friends-hip — she should have refused to hear the Serpent

at all, whea he spoke disparagingly of God ; she forsook God's friendship and allied herself to the Serpent because his wicked suggestion aroused her lust for , the evil thing. She believed God was a liar and that the Serpent was telling the truth, because she longed for what God had forbidden. The majority of people who reject the truth and refuse to believe m God now, do so for the same reason. It is inconvenient to accept Christ as Master because He demands an. obedience which would include abstaining from the evil indulgences we are fond of. It is more pleasant, for the time being, to reject His claims and satisfy our hists. Ihe main reason why yovng people fight shy of Confirmation and why people neglect their Communions, is that they are not willing to live a life consistent with an open confession of Christ. The Devil constantly suggests to us, when we want to do anything that God says is wrong, that God is trying to deprive us of something good. He tells young people and old people that the restraints on our bodies which Christ puts upon us, which" our Godparents have promised we would observe, which we are asked at Confirmation to acInowledge, and which are expected of us if we make a. confession of Christ before men, that these restraints are too severe — " Has God really said ? " — he tries to persuade us ' that these restrictions are unnecessary and if the forbidden tree is there why not eat of it and be " free." Christ, on the other hand, tells us : " Take My yoke upon you and learn of Me, for My yokje is easy and My burden is light." To accept the v wages of sin " from the Deivil is to die, but to be a slave of God is to be perfectly free and that is true life. God does not prohibit anything that is really good for us. We are called upon as Eve was called upon to choose whether we will trust God " Whose service is perfect freedom," (" cvi servare est regnare.") or trust the Devil and become his slaves. These Iyatin words -really mean "to be (a slave of God is to be a king." If Eve had obeyed God she would have overcome the tempter and been a Queen — she obeyed the Serpent and became a slave. "It shall bruise thy head, etc." This passage is called the protevangelium—the first gospel— because m

its mystical meaning it foretells the victory of Christ over Satan. Eve sinned first m distrusting God's love ; wrong ideas of God are at the bottom of many sins, hence the importance of a right faith. Eve was not content with ruining herself, but she offered the forbidden fruit to Adam as well. Sin is not merely an offence against God ; it always results m some way m injury to others. When one member of the tody suffers or sins, the health of the whole tody is involved. Never say "If I do wrong, it concerns only myself." Adam's sin consisted m listtn'ttg to Eve's temptation when he knew God had forbidden them to touch the fruit. Human love is a gift of God — the love of a man for his wife is a type of Christ's love for the Church, but when a man loves his wife or anyone more than he loves God, and disobeys God to please her, he commits the same sin as Adam. Matthew x. 3)7, Ivuke xiv. 26. t ■■