We note the picturesque rhetorical question here. They were
occasionally accustomed to see the dark-skinned, Ethiopian, whether we
suppose that these were true negroes from Southern Egypt or dark Arabs,
and now and then leopards came up from the thickets on the Jordan, or
from the hills of the southern wilderness about the Dead Sea. The black
hue of the man, the dark spots that starred the skin of the fierce
beast, are fitting emblems of the evil that dyes and speckles the soul.
Whether it wraps the whole character in black, or whether it only spots
it here and there with tawny yellow, it is ineradicable; and a man can
no more change his character once formed than a negro can cast his
skin, or a leopard whiten out the spots on his hide.
Now we do not need to assert that a man has no power of
self-improvement or reformation. The exhortations of the prophet to
repentance and to cleansing imply that he has. If he has not, then it
is no blame to him that he does not mend. Experience shows that we have
a very considerable power of such a kind. It is a pity that some
Christian teachers speak in exaggerated terms about the impossibility
of such self-improvement.
But it is very difficult.
Note the great antagonist as set forth here--Habit, that solemn and
mystical power. We do not know all the ways in which it operates, but
one chief way is through physical cravings set up. It is strange how
much easier a second time is than a first, especially in regard to evil
acts. The hedge once broken down, it is very easy to get through it
again. If one drop of water has percolated through the dyke, there will
be a roaring torrent soon. There is all the difference between once and
never; there is small difference between once and twice. By habit we
come to do things mechanically and without effort, and we all like
that. One solitary footfall across the snow soon becomes a beaten way.
As in the banyan-tree, each branch becomes a root. All life is held
together by cords of custom which enable us to reserve conscious effort
and intelligence for greater moments. Habit tends to weigh upon us with
a pressure 'heavy as frost, and deep almost as life.' But also it is
the ally of good.
The change to good is further made difficult because liking too often
goes with evil, and good is only won by effort. It is a proof of man's
corruption that if left alone, evil in some form or other springs
spontaneously, and that the opposite good is hard to win. Uncultivated
soil bears thistles and weeds. Anything can roll downhill. It is always
the least trouble to go on as we have been going.
Further, the change is made difficult because custom blinds judgment
and conscience. People accustomed to a vitiated atmosphere are not
aware of its foulness.
How long it takes a nation, for instance, to awake to consciousness of
some national crime, even when the nation is 'Christian'! And how men
get perfectly sophisticated as to their own sins, and have all manner
of euphemisms for them!
Further, how hard it is to put energy into a will that has been
enfeebled by long compliance. Like prisoners brought out of the
Bastille.
So if we put all these reasons together, no wonder that such
reformation is rare.
I do not dwell on the point that it must necessarily be confined within
very narrow limits. I appeal to experience. You have tried to cure some
trivial habit. You know what a task that has been--how often you
thought that you had conquered, and then found that all had to be done
over again. How much more is this the case in this greater work! Often
the efforts to break off evil habits have the same effect as the
struggles of cattle mired in a bog, who sink the deeper for plunging.
The sad cry of many a foiled wrestler with his own evil is, 'O wretched
man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?' We do
not wish to exaggerate, but simply to put it that experience shows that
for men in general, custom and inclination and indolence and the lack
of adequate motive weigh so heavily that a thorough abandonment of
evil, much more a hearty practice of good, are not to be looked for
when once a character has been formed. So you young people, take care.
And all of us listen to---