Professing themselves to be wise, they became
fools. And even as they refused to have God in their knowledge, God
gave them up to a reprobate mind, to do those things which are not
fitting; being filled with all unrighteousness."[A] And then follows
the dark picture, from which we revolt but which the ancient
historians themselves justify.
[Footnote A: Romans i. 20-22, 28.]
On the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel at Rome is Michel Angelo's
marvellous painting of the creation of Adam. A human figure of
magnificent strength is half-rising from its recumbent posture, as
if just awakening to consciousness, and is reaching out its hand to
touch the outstretched finger of God. The human being became and
becomes man when, and in proportion as, he puts himself in touch
with God, and is inspired with the divine life. The lower animal
conformed mainly to the material in environment, man conforms
consciously to the spiritual and personal.
Any science of human history that does not acknowledge man's
relation to a personal God is fatally incomplete; for it has missed
the goal of man's development and the chief means of his farther
advance. And a religion which does not emphasize this is worse than
a broken reed. It is a mirage of the desert, toward which thirsty
souls run only to die unsatisfied.
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