1.D 05. Special Reasons Studying Human Nature

Special Reasons for Studying Human Nature.

We need to study human nature, in the first place, because it illustrates the divine nature, which we are to interpret to men. Divine attribute corresponds to our idea of human faculty. The terms are analogous. You cannot interpret the divine nature except through some knowledge of human nature.

There are those who believe that God transcends men, not simply in quality and magnitude, but in kind. Without undertaking to confirm or deny this, I say that the only part of the divine nature that we can understand is that part which corresponds to ourselves, and that all which lies outside of what we can recognize is something that never can be interpreted by us. It is not within our reach. Whatever it may be, therefore, of God, that by searching we can find out, all that we interpret, and all that we can bring, in its moral influence, to bear upon men, is in its study but a higher form of human mental philosophy.

Now, let us see what government is. It is the science of managing men. What is moral government? It is moral science, or the theory upon which God manages men. What is the management of men, again, but a thing founded upon human nature? So that to understand moral government you are run right back to the same necessity. You must comprehend that on which God’s moral government itself stands, which is human nature.

But, again, the fundamental doctrine on which our labours stand is the need of the transformation of man’s nature by the Divine Spirit. This is altogether a question of psychology. The old theological way of stating man’s sinfulness, namely, “Total Depravity,” was so gross and so undiscriminating, and was so full of endless misapprehensions, that it has largely dropped out of use. Men no longer arc accustomed, I think, to use that term as once they did. That all men are sinful, is taught; but “what is meant by sinful?” is the question which immediately comes back. Instantly the schools begin to discuss it. Is it a state of the fibre of the substance or the soul? Is it any aberration, any excess, any disproportion of natural elements? Wherein does the fault lie? What is it? The moment you discuss this, you arc discussing human nature. It is the mind you are discussing. In order to know what is an aberration, you must know what is nor mal. In order to know what is in excess, you must know what is the true measure. Who can tell whether a man is selfish, unless he knows what is benevolent? Who can tell whether a man has departed from the correct idea, unless he has some conception of that idea? The very foundation on which you stand to-day necessitates knowledge of man as its chief basis.

Consider, too, how a minister, teaching the moral government of God, the nature of God, and the condition of man and his necessities, is obliged to approach the human soul. Men are sluggish, or are so occupied and filled with what are to them important interests, that, ordinarily, when a preacher comes into a community, he finds it either slumbering, or averse to his message, or indifferent to it; and, in either case, his business is to stimulate the moral nature. But how shall he know the art of stimulating man’s moral nature who has never studied it? You must arouse men and prepare them to be moulded. How can you do it if you know nothing about them? A man who would minister to a diseased body must have an accurate knowledge of the organs, and of the whole structure of the body, in a sanitary condition. We oblige our physicians to know anatomy and physiology. We oblige them to study morbid anatomy, as well as normal conditions. We say that no man is prepared to practise without this knowledge, and the law interferes, or does as far as it can, to compel it. Now, shall a man know how to administer to that which is a thousand times more subtle and important than the body, and which is the exquisite blossom of- the highest development and perfection of the human system, namely, the mind in its modern development shall he assume to deal with that, and raise and stimulate it, being ignorant of its nature? A man may know the Bible from Genesis to Revelation, he may know every theological treatise from the day of Augustine to the day of Dr. Taylor, and if he does not under stand human nature, he is not fit to preach.

Suppose a man should undertake to cut off your leg because he had been a tool-maker. He had made lancets, probes, saws, and that sort of thing, all his life; but he had never seen a man’s leg amputated, and did not know exactly where the arteries or veins lie. Suppose he should think that making surgeons tools fitted him to be a surgeon; would it (The surgeon must know his tools and how to handle them, but he must know, too, the system on which he is going to use them. And shall a man, charged with the care of the soul, sharpen up his understanding with moral distinctions and learned arguments, and know all about the theories of theology from Adam down to our day, and yet know nothing of the organism upon which all these instrumentalities are to be used? Shall he know nothing about man himself? The student who goes out to his work with a wide knowledge of theology and no knowledge of human nature, is not half fitted for his duty. One reason why so many succeed is, that although they have no formal instruction in human nature, they have learned much in the family, and in the school, and by other in direct methods, and so have a certain stock I might say an illegitimate stock of knowledge, but one which was not provided in the system of their studies.

If I might be allowed to criticize the general theological course, or to recommend anything in relation to it, I should say that one of the prime constituents of the training should be a study of the human soul and body from beginning to end. We must arouse and stimulate men, and seek to bring them into new relations with truth, with ourselves, and with the community.

Every man has a right to go to you, if you are a minister who has aroused him to a sense of his relations with God, and say to you: “ Now, my circumstances and temptations are thus and so: give me some sort of a chart for my future guidance.” But how can you, if you know nothing about human nature? You leave him to fumble his way along the best he can. There is no special chart for him at your hands. Every man has to run his ship in a channel peculiar to himself. There never were two men in the world that could follow each other like two ships being piloted into New York harbour. No two men are alike; therefore, each man has to adapt to himself that which is brought to him for his own special use and improvement. What many men need is that their minister shall be able to form such an analysis of their nature that he can suggest where such a development should be repressed, and where another should be stimulated, and tell the man how to use himself, socially as well as morally. Shall a man be born like a little child into the kingdom of Jesus Christ, and then be left to shift for himself as men mostly are, after being admitted into the church and talked to for a few weeks after the revival has spent its force? Shall they be left to return to their own uninstructed devices, and find their way, during the rest of their lives, as best they can? Thanks to the real intelligence of the community and to the heads of families, there is a great deal of progress made in this direction; but how far it arises from a true ideal of preaching and the administration of the truth in the hands of wise preachers, I cannot say,

How few ministers are there who can really comfort men, and how much need of comforting there is in this world! How the office of comforter has fallen into disuse! How much nobler woman is than man in the administration of this gospel-gift from Jesus Christ! Woman is ordained to perform many things much better than man, on account of her superior delicacy of organization and keenness of perception. Woman is a better instructor, from her very make and education, and as the moulder and trainer of children in the household is by far man’s superior.