I remember a terrible
lecture which I heard as a little bewildered boy at school, anxious
to do right, terrified of oppression, and coldness, and evil alike;
given by a worthy Evangelical clergyman, with large spectacles, and
a hollow voice, and a great relish for spiritual terrors. The
subject was "the exceeding sinfulness of sin," a proposition which
I now see to be as true as if one lectured on the exceeding
carnality of flesh. But the lecture spoke of the horrible and
filthy corruption of the human heart, its determined delight in
wallowing in evil, its desperate wickedness. I believed it, dully
and hopelessly, as a boy believes what is told him by a voluble
elderly person of obvious respectability. But what a detestable
theory of life, what an ugly picture of Divine incompetence!
Of course there are abundance of facts in the world which look like
anything but love;--the ruthless and merciless punishment of
carelessness and ignorance, the dark laws of heredity, the
wastefulness and cruelty of disease, the dismal acquiescence of
stupid, healthy, virtuous persons, without sympathy or imagination,
in the hardships which they were strong enough to bear unscathed.
Pages:
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389