The Hebrew psalmist sings of man:—“Thou madest him a little lower than the
angels.” A modern psalmist writing on this subject says:—“Man was made a
little higher than the brutes.” Man is a rare animal; he is the only
animal that can make a fire, but he is more than a brute. We do not know
how much less than an angel he is, for we do not know the dimensions of an
angel.
What we do know is, that this strange, rare being, called man, is capable
of doing a good deed, but is prone to do a bad one; that he has developed
virtues above the brute and vices below the brute; that he is better in
public than in private, and yet take him all in all he might be worse. We
have had the weakness of human nature preached until we have almost come
to expect man to be immoral and vicious, and are surprised if anyone
asserts that man is strong enough to resist temptation, and disappointed
if he does not come up, or down, to our expectations of vileness and
wickedness.
While we have faith in man in the minority rather than in the majority,
still we are inclined to think that most men are bad from circumstance
more than from choice. We trust to better conditions for better men, and
depend upon our best men to establish such conditions.
There is some criticism of virtue that vice offers which is as pertinent
as the censure of vice which virtue indulges in. We admit that there are a
great many sinners that are preferable to some kinds of saints, who are no
more to blame for their sins than their more fortunate fellow-beings are
for their saintliness. But we do not mean to say that every good man is a
villain in disguise, nor every rogue a righteous man who has not been
found out.
There are men and women whose goodness is looked upon as “flat, stale, and
unprofitable” because it is that kind that is good from favorable
circumstances, and not from the exercise of any strength of their own, but
such virtue is better than vice. We cannot afford to lose any power that
protects the world from evil, and we rejoice in all the favorable
circumstances that guard human beings.
Men are educated into bad habits through the constant assertion of human
weakness, and the publicity which is given to bad deeds. We can never
build man very high on the foundation of “total depravity.” It is to be
regretted that we think so meanly of mankind. We must start with a better
assumption of human nature than that held by Christianity.
We ought to emphasize man’s strength and give prominence to the good deeds
of men. It is not necessary to lie about human nature one way more than
another. Man has been painted worse than he is. We do not ask to have him
painted better than he is. We want a true likeness. Man will make the best
picture without any fictitious coloring.
We are aware that we have not yet outgrown our animal inheritance, that we
are still fettered to earthly things. Man can more easily deny his soul
than he can his stomach, but for all this there is greatness in him. While
man can fall to the lowest depths from which he sprung, he can rise to the
height which is visible in his purest hours. What we ought to do is to
encourage, all we can, the conditions most favorable to the development of
the noblest part of man. Every temptation to vice should be driven from
the public gaze. If man must fall, let him fall out of sight.
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People who rely most on God rely least on themselves.
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The original sin was not in eating of the forbidden fruit, but in planting
the tree that bore the fruit.
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The people who boast the loudest of carrying their cross are never around
when man cries for help.
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An audience composed of the best-dressed people in a town stands for "pure
religion and undefiled" to-day.