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Illustration
(M, C)
James Stewart wrote: "The history of mankind has been the record of an age-long endeavor to answer one stubborn question ... Where is real security to be found? Can some strategy be devised to save man from the chaos of his own contriving, some expedience to take away sin?"
Stewart outlines four answers: 1) the answer of the Jew -- "the blood of bulls and goats" -- the "whole elaborate sacrificial system, ... the device to purge the evil and break the vicious circle and set men free." This answer fails to see "that all the religious observance in the world without a changed heart matters to God not one iota."
2) the answer of the Greek -- "Why vex your soul about evil? The loveliness of nature would charm it away ... or the wit of the philosopher would rationalize it away." But "it is not possible for man's intelligence or his sense of beauty to take away sin."
3) the answer of the Roman -- "moralism ... law and order ... discipline." But "... can't we see that reliance on discipline, moralism, good works, call it what you will, tends inevitably towards that self-centeredness and satisfaction and pride which, more than any weakness of the flesh, is the basic human sin?"
4) "What then? ... rising out of the midnight of man's despair, smiting the darkness like a sudden dawn ... 'Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone.' "
-- Anton
James Stewart wrote: "The history of mankind has been the record of an age-long endeavor to answer one stubborn question ... Where is real security to be found? Can some strategy be devised to save man from the chaos of his own contriving, some expedience to take away sin?"
Stewart outlines four answers: 1) the answer of the Jew -- "the blood of bulls and goats" -- the "whole elaborate sacrificial system, ... the device to purge the evil and break the vicious circle and set men free." This answer fails to see "that all the religious observance in the world without a changed heart matters to God not one iota."
2) the answer of the Greek -- "Why vex your soul about evil? The loveliness of nature would charm it away ... or the wit of the philosopher would rationalize it away." But "it is not possible for man's intelligence or his sense of beauty to take away sin."
3) the answer of the Roman -- "moralism ... law and order ... discipline." But "... can't we see that reliance on discipline, moralism, good works, call it what you will, tends inevitably towards that self-centeredness and satisfaction and pride which, more than any weakness of the flesh, is the basic human sin?"
4) "What then? ... rising out of the midnight of man's despair, smiting the darkness like a sudden dawn ... 'Not the labors of my hands can fulfill thy law's demands. All for sin could not atone; Thou must save and Thou alone.' "
-- Anton
