September -- October, 1970
By G. H. Lang A. 1. Man is conscious of two worlds, an outer and an inner, a public and a private, an objective and a subjective. He is conscious also that these two worlds act and react upon each other, he is influenced by that world around and he in turn influences it. 2. He is further conscious that his own inner and private world is a triple realm, each of the three elements of which interact upon one another. In the one realm work thoughts, ideas, reasonings, plans. These thoughts upon various subjects arouse feelings, of love or hatred, likes or dislikes, affection or aversion. In the third realm of his inner life which man can distinguish he observes the will at work; he makes decisions for or against a proposed action or course. This triple and interacting world is termed the heart, because it is the centre of man's whole life, and out of it flow the issues of life, as the blood flows from the physical heart to all parts of man's body. 3. Man is further and painfully conscious that both the world around and the world within are in disorder. Something is radically wrong with both. The physical world and its forces now help him, now hurt him. The moral influences, also, of the beings he touches are now a blessing, now a bane, now they purify him, now corrupt him; and he thus influences others. 4. Moreover, the uniform experience of all mankind, continued through thousands of years, has proved man's personal and complete inability to reduce to order either the world without or the world within. The confusion and corruption of both are more awful today than ever. Each man knows that his thoughts are never absolutely right, true, correct, pure. He thinks wrongly, forms opinions that usually need correcting, has ideas that he knows are foul, or cruel, or unworthy. These he can never wholly exclude, or dismiss, or purify. He knows, too, that his feelings are more or less selfish, prejudiced, deceitful, and are all too likely to hurry him into actions he knows to be unwise or wrong. He is also aware that his will is inconstant, unreliable, too easily swayed by his desires or dislikes, and too often divided, distracted, that is, dragged in opposite directions. To right-minded persons all this is a cause of grief and deep solicitude: but what can be done? In his soberer moments man responds sadly to the cry of the old writer: "Wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me?" (Romans 7:24). |
