Editorial October 8, 1904 Issue

Our Thought of Man

Many of those who are led to speak discouragingly of the apparent inadequacy of Christian endeavor to stem the tides of sin, find the explanation of present conditions in the fact that the terrors of the law are no longer preached, — that the doctrine of human depravity and fitness for hell which incited the earnestness and eloquence of an Edwards and a Finney is practically ignored by Christian leaders. They would commend the thought of a late writer who says it is time for us to wake up to the fact that we are fallen by nature, poor, imperfect, despicable creatures of the dust.

This raises an important question. Admitting the apparent blend of good and evil in human nature, how shall we think of man in order that we may help him to establish the good and cast out the evil? Shall we interpret and declare the human at its highest or lowest estate? Shall we accept the testimony of aspiration and revelation, and, maintaining man's divine sonship, make our appeal thereto, regardless of the seeming? or shall we emphasize the testimony of sense phenomena, assert man's degradation and depravity, and mould our address accordingly?

It would seem that no one could disapprove of Paul's counsel to the early Christians, when he said, "Brethren, whatsoever things are true, whatsoever things are honest, whatsoever things are just, whatsoever things are pure, whatsoever things are lovely, whatsoever things are of good report; if there be any virtue, and if there be any praise, think on these things;" and yet how apparent it is that this thought is altogether opposed to the idea of trying to annul the power of evil by intensifying the consciousness of evil. His comprehensive injunction can but mean that at all times we should maintain our highest concept of the truth, the noblest idea about everything, including man; that his real and eternal natural should always be recognized, — held aloft in thought. This does not mean that the adventitious and abnormal incidents of human experience are to be ignored, but that they are to be rated and disposed of for what they are, and not honored and classified for what they are not. "If we say that we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and the truth is not in us." To ignore evil is no less blameworthy than to make it real, i.e., God-sustained; both these courses contribute to evil's firmer fixture, its more undisputed domination.

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