ALL MEN ARE SINNERS AND ARE

LOST.

"There is none that doeth good, no, not one. Rom.

3: 10.

In the Bible we are told that, "Jehovah looked down from heaven upon the children of men, to see if there were any that did understand, and scek God. They are all gone aside, they are altogether become filthy: there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Psm. 14: 2). “We are all as an unclean thing, and all our righteousnesses are as filthy rags; and we all do fade as a leaf; and our iniquities, like the wind, have taken us away" (Isai. 64: 6). "The carnal mind is enmity against God: for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God" (Rom. 8: 7). "The natural man receiveth not the things of the Spirit of God: for they are foolishness unto him: neither can he know them, because they are spiritually discerned” (1 Cor. 2:14). "The heart is deceitful above all things, and desperately wicked" (Jer. 17: 10). "From within, out of the heart of men, proceed evil thoughts, adulteries, fornications, murders, thefts, covetousness, wickedness, deceit, lasciviousness, an evil eye, blasphemy, pride, foolishness" (Mark 7: 21). "As it is written, There is

none righteous, no, not one: there is none that understandeth, there is none that seeketh after God. They are all gone out of the way, they are together become unprofitable; there is none that doeth good, no, not one" (Rom. 3: 10).

By the deeds of the law there shall no flesh be justified in His sight." "For all have sinned and come short of the glory of God" (Rom. 3: 20, 23). Every man by nature is born a rebel, and continues in rebellion against God until he is converted. As a creature, he owes every instant love and obedience to his Creator. He is adding to his indebtedness to God every mo. ment of his existence. He can never pay any portion of that debt. His only hope is the forgiveness of sin in the way appointed by God, through repentance and faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. "He that believeth not, is condemned already" (John 3: 18). "He that believeth not the Son, shall not see life: but the wrath of God abideth on him" (John 3: 36).

None realise what they were by nature, more than the children of God do, when they are born again. Paul tells the "Saints in Ephesus," "And you hath He quickened, who were dead in trespasses and sins; wherein in time past ye walked according to the course of this world, according to the prince of the power of the air, the spirit that now worketh in the children of disobedience: *** and were by nature the children of wrath, even as others" (Eph. 2: 1, 3). And Paul, speaking of himself, says, "This

is a faithful saying, and worthy of all acceptation, that Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners; of whom I am chief” (1 Tim. 1: 15). "God commendeth His love toward us, in that, while we were yet sinners, Christ died for us" (Rom. 5: 8). Reader, do you believe what God says is the state of every man by nature? That it is your state; unless you have been convinced of sin by the Holy Spirit, and have been led to repent and to believe in the Lord Jesus Christ?

DEATH AND HELL.

"Where their worm dieth not, and the fire is not quenched." Mark 9: 48.

A CENTURY ago, in the churches, men were told of the law of God, and the holiness of God, and the justice of God, to convince them of sin, and to make them feel their need of the Saviour. The church in these days is as the children of Israel were, in the time of Isaiah; "That will not hear the law of the Lord: which say to the seers, See not; and to the prophets, Prophesy not unto us right things, speak unto us smooth things, prophesy deceits" (Isai. 30: 9). The cry now is, You must not preach the terrors of the law of God, you must preach only love. This is now being done so much that humanitarianism is taking the place of the Gospel. God is set aside; His word, His law, and His plan of salvation set aside; the first and great commandment, Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, is put aside; and in their place is preached, You must visit, feed, wash, clothe, educate, and give ethical culture to the masses, to elevate them; and so make them ready to receive the Gospel. They who do this are "ashamed of the Gospel of Christ: for it is the power of God unto salvation" (Rom. 1: 16). All these results in raising man always follow

the faithful preaching of the Gospel; and never precede it. This unfaithfulness of the church is not only lulling the world to continue in its false security, but has weakened the faith of many of the children of God; so that many of them are led to doubt what is said in the previous chapter concerning the total depravity of man; and to doubt what the word of God teaches concerning an eternal death and an eternal hell. The reader must bear in mind that the following extracts are from the Word of God. Whether we believe them or not affects our eternal destiny, but cannot alter that word. That word says, "The wages of sin is death; but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord" (Rom. 6: 23). "The soul that sinneth, it shall die” (Ezek. 18: 4). The first temptation of the devil was to destroy man's faith in the word of God. "The serpent said unto the woman, Ye shall not surely die" (Gen. 3: 4). Eve believed the devil, and ever since her descendants have been led by him and are his slaves. Adam and Eve by their creation were under the law of God. They were created holy, with the power and the use of a free will. They were put under a particular test of obedience; and charged not to eat of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil; with the penalty of, "in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die" (Gen. 2:17). In the original Hebrew it reads, "Dying thou shalt die." An everlasting dying; an everlasting death.