e Lord makes use of the
fruit of the righteous to induce sinners to seek him. In this way the
fruit of the righteous is a tree of life. How blessed and noble to be a
tree planted by the river of waters richly laden with righteous fruit.
Amen.

Redemption.

The authors of the dictionaries define the word _redemption_ as "the act
of deliverance, release, repurchase," etc. The redemption through Christ
is the deliverance or repurchase of man. Man in his original, primeval
state enjoyed unity and an affinity with God. Because of transgression on
the part of man this natural agreement between God and man was destroyed.
All creation--herb, and tree, beast and fowl, and man--was pronounced very
good by the Creator as he beheld it in review after creation. Gen.
1:29-31.

But because of Eden's sin the very nature of all things became changed.
The ground became cursed, and thorns and thistles sprang up. Gen. 3:17,
18. The nature of the beast creation, no doubt, became affected by man's
transgression. Gen. 6:7, 11-13. The transgression in Eden was the entrance
of sin into this world. Rom. 5:12. Previous to this, all in the world was
sinless harmony, and the earth itself uncursed by thorns and thistles. By
the entrance of sin man's nature became changed, and since the nature of
man became depraved there has not been a single individual born of the
flesh but has possessed a depraved nature, except the child conceived by
the Holy Spirit. The Psalmist says: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity, and
in sin did my mother conceive me." Psa. 51:5.

This same is true of every child. The nature of the child in its formation
in the womb is depraved. The moral condition of the parents may modify to
an extent, but never wholly change that nature. The child does not inherit
a depraved nature from its parents. It is not because the parents are
depraved that the child is conceived in sin, but because nature is
depraved. It required a supernatural conception to beget a pure child,
everything in nature being depraved. The child does not inherit either
physical or moral image directly from its parents. It is true, the child
generally bears a marked resemblance to the parent, both physically and
morally, but on the whole it is born in the image of Adam, morally and
physically. It is generally the case that if a parent have three arms, or
possess but one, his offspring will have two, receiving its physical image
from the first created man. Shou