In order to man's highest happiness, all his powers must be so called
into activity by education that each faculty may act with energy, but at
the same time in exact harmony with all of its kindred powers. There
must be no clash, no jar nor friction. No one power must be highly
exercised and cultivated at the expense of the rest, but each must be
brought out by its own appropriate food. Material food is for the
body--it can not feed upon thought, nor mind upon bread. "Man should not
live upon bread alone." This is an axiomatic truth endorsed by man's
two-fold nature. If you feed and exercise the body only you may acquire
the strength of an Ajax, but your countenance will be as stolid and your
eye as dull as the Hottentot's. Such a fellow would be of almost no use
whatever. Add to the education of the body the cultivation of the
intellect only; now the prospect is fearful, for the intellect always
works for its master, and in this case, the man being without moral and
religious training, the master Will be his animal desires. Can you
imagine the depth of infamy and pollution that is possible in this case?
The entire motive power that moves his intellect is carnal, sensual and
devilish. He now needs the sanction of a higher authority. The man is
but half educated. There are two groups of faculties in his nature that
are lying dormant. His moral and religious powers have not as yet been
brought into action--they have had no food nor exercise, and without
this there can be no development. These, as well as the intellect and
the body, must have their own appropriate food, which must be in kind
with their nature. Moral truth is for the moral powers. This directs us
in our moral relations and obligations to our fellows with whom we may
be associated. Religious truth is for our religious faculties. Now add
to all this the sanction of the authority of God, which is like the
balance-wheel in a watch, regulating and controlling every movement.
Man, thus educated, is prepared to act in harmony with his entire
nature. He can now reach a position of moral, religious, social and
intellectual grandeur worthy of his nature.
Reader, is all of this demanded by the elements of our nature? Then a
revelation of God to man of the knowledge of his being, wisdom,
goodness, power, authority and law was and is a necessity, without which
man must have remained in part uneducated, not perfectly developed.
Is the development of man's religious nature necessary in order to a
full, perfect and harmonious growth? Yes. There neither is, nor can be,
a harmonious growth while any one power is dwarfed by starvation.
Without the knowledge of God man's religious powers must remain dwarfed,
and these can not be fed without a revelation. Are these powers so many
empty buckets, never filled and never to be filled? No. Hence my
conclusion, that man's nature made revelation a necessity, rests upon
the bed-rock of truth. Let him who feels able try to shake my position.