2.–MAN AS HE WAS AND AS HE IS.

"Lo, this only have I found, that God hath made man upright; but they have sought out many inventions." (Eccles. 7:29.)

Let us now, in the light of God's infallible Word, see what the answer, in part at least, to the question, " What is man ?" is. It is well, at the beginning of our study, to get right views of Scripture teaching as to man, for these will go with us all through. Wrong views of man will distort our views of all other truth, for truth is a whole ; it hangs together-or, rather, fits together-like a wonderful piece of machinery. If one part is out of order, the whole is affected. So with Scripture doctrine,-a faulty or wrong view of man's condition will give a correspondingly incorrect one of Christ's work. Wrong thoughts as to man's nature, his constitution- materialistic thoughts, for instance,-affect in the gravest manner-rather, deny altogether-the solemn truths as to future existence. Satan here, as everywhere else, is seeking to introduce the "little leaven that leavens the whole lump." He is aiming at the person and work of the Son of God, at the destruction of men.

Man was God's crown on creation:all that preceded was to prepare the earth for his habitation. When the time | came for his creation, there is, as it were, a pause-a consultation :" Let Us make man in Our image, after Our likeness" (Gen. 1:26), thus distinguishing him from every other creature. But this pause, this break, only prepares for the more marked difference between man and all other creatures. The earth brings them forth, but "God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul." (Gen. 2:7.) Other creatures were living souls, but man only had his life breathed into him from God. This prepares us to expect the difference which is brought out in the other scriptures. But, first, it would be well to see how man's constitution is described in Scripture:"I pray God your whole spirit and soul and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ." (i Thess. 5:23.) Here we see he is a threefold being, composed of spirit, soul, and body. God is a Spirit:the angels are ministering spirits. Man, then, is, as to his spirit, akin to God and the angels, who are called the sons of God (Job 38:7). God is the God of the spirits of all flesh (Num. 16:22); He is the Father of spirits (Heb. 12:9). It is as having-rather, as being-a spirit that man is called the offspring of God; as in Paul's speech at Athens (Acts 17:28, 29), where the contrast with the body is insisted on. So, in our Lord's genealogy in Luke, Adam is the son of God. But what does this teach? The spirit is doubtless immortal,-"Neither can they die any more, for they are equal unto the angels." This immortality is entirely apart from any question of eternal life. Whatever his future, man will exist forever- must do so, because he was created in the image of God, is the offspring of God, is like the angels. The spirit is also the seat of the judgment-the mind; it is the man himself really :"What man knoweth the things of a man, save the spirit of man which is in him?" (i Cor. 2:2:)

But man has a soul as well as spirit. This includes his affections and feelings, and may be controlled by the spirit or, as in the beasts, by the body; for, in his body, man resembles the beasts,-" Man that is in honor and understandeth not (whose spirit does not control) is like the beasts that perish." (Ps. 49:20.) It is his body which makes man an inhabitant of the earth, and which fits him to be such, which also distinguishes him from the angels, _"Thou madest him a little lower than the angels." (Ps. 8:5.)
Having seen in some measure his constitution, we come back to man as he was. He was created in the image, after the likeness, of God,-that is, he resembled Him. We have seen this resemblance in constitution; but there was, in a measure, a moral likeness as well- such a resemblance as the creature can bear to the Creator. This was negative rather than positive. God is righteous:man was innocent. His righteousness is a positive, inherent characteristic. Man's moral character was rather negative; it consisted rather in the absence of evil than in the presence of good. Not that there was no excellence in him :surely, he was, as a creature, perfect; but it was creature-goodness, creature-perfection. His mind, his spirit, was mature,-capable of discernment and judgment, as we see from his giving names (doubtless names which described them,) to all the beasts. He was also capable of understanding and enjoying communion with God, as we see from the very charge given to him. His soul, his affections, had full scope for exercise both toward his help-meet-"bone of his bone"-and toward Him whose perfect goodness spoke everywhere; while, as to his body, he was a stranger to sickness, suffering, and death. It was a vehicle in which he could give exercise to the faculties of his mind and soul as an immortal being, yet an inhabitant of the earth. In dignity, he was lord over all; he had dominion over all. Such, in some degree, was man. Of the simplicity, happiness, moral elevation of that state we know but little. All was good, and God's benediction rested over all.

We come now to the second part of our subject. Man as he is. In passing to this we cross a narrow but deep and dark gulf. So deep that none can ever cross back ; that gulf is the fall. We have seen that man's innocence was negative – perhaps untried would be a better word,-that his goodness was that of the creature; hence unstable. He was like the angels, many of whom have fallen and thus shown what creature excellency is. Man was innocent, but untried:as yet there was a possibility of sinning. He was kept, as far as one with freedom of will could be kept, from all tendencies to evil. He was placed in Eden, the garden of the Lord, surrounded by all that spoke of wisdom, goodness, and care. He had occupation for his hands. He was in immediate communication with God on whose power and strength he could have drawn had he so desired. Every thing was on his side, in his favor, in the test that followed. Only one command was given, and the temptation was presented by the serpent (Satan allowed to take the form of a creature beneath man, and not of an angel of light), and that temptation of such a character that it might have been repelled at once-a temptation to doubt the good-and love of the One who had surrounded them with every blessing. The woman, man's helpmeet, listens to the tempter, and is beguiled-type of the danger of allowing the affections and feelings to lead-while the man with open eyes follows her, thus deliberately severing the link which bound him to God. His eyes are opened, conscience speaks, and man knows his true condition. He knows also his relationship to God, for he hides from Him at once. He receives the sentence now. Sin has come, and death by sin. Man was alienated from God, the breach was as complete as it was impossible to recover his former condition. The driving out from Eden was the natural result, and man has been there ever since, outside that happy place-the cherubim of justice ever between him and the tree of life. Such was the fall, and man is now just what the fall left him.

Let us now look at this condition. A positive factor has been added-sin. This is no mere absence of good, but a positive state-a state of lawlessness (i Jno. 3:4, where the correct translation would be, "sin is lawlessness"), where under the guise of being his own master, man is the servant, the slave of sin. His constitution has not changed, he is still spirit, soul, and body, but his nature has changed. What was once good, in subjection to God, is now alienated from Him; and this is seen in the whole man.
His spirit, his mind, is now the "mind of the flesh" (that which links him with the beasts, giving its name to the whole fallen nature), and as such it is "enmity against God, for it is not subject to the law of God, neither in-indeed can be." (Rom. 8:7.) The desires of the flesh and the mind are in direct and irreconcilable opposition to the will of God. (Eph. 2:3.) Man has not lost his reason, his faculties are clear, his judgment in exercise. We have but to notice the mental activity about us :activity devoted, not to God, but to self-interest, by men of science, by so-called philosophers, and even theologians, men with unquestioned powers of intellect devoting their faculties to Satan,-we have but to notice this to see that man has not lost his reason by the fall,- that it is by wisdom that the world knew not God. (i Cor. 1:21.) True it is that his reasoning faculties have become warped, and doubtless cramped and dwarfed by the fall, still they are there.

The same is seen in the soul, the affections are there, but they are "vile affections" (Rom. 1:); even true love centering on the creature, and leading man ofttimes to hate the One who is the source of all love. This is one of the saddest proofs of the fall, that the gentler qualities, amiability and the like, when tested, are found to be not inconsistent with deadliest hatred and determined rejection of Christ. The rich young man in Luke is a sad example of this. God is left out, and the world fills the heart, and His presence there would be an intrusion. This is why in the law the state of man is tested and shown by the command, "Thou shall love the Lord thy God with all thy heart." He must be the sole, not merely the chief object of the affections. He must control all else. Man's affections are completely alienated, and he sees in God one to dread, one to doubt, but never one to love.

Finally sin has entered in and death by sin. The body, once but the link with earth, and which would lead man to realize his dependence upon God, has now become the fruitful field from which spring disease and deformity and death. Death has stamped it for its own, so that its name is now "mortal body." (Rom. 8:2:)

This then is the nature which man now has-a sinful nature-which pervades and gives character to his whole being. Sin is no partial thing, reaching to some of the faculties and leaving others untainted ; it is a complete perversion of the whole man.

This too is the nature transmitted from father to son, as we read, "Adam begat a son in his own likeness, after his own image." (Gen. 5:3:) Such a state may well be termed death, in which there is no motion toward God whatever. But as in physical death corruption follows, so also from this state of alienation from God all forms of actual disobedience in thought, word, and deed flow. Man is born in sin, " shapen in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me" (Ps. 51:5) ; and we see it as soon it can manifest itself. "They go astray as soon as they be born, speaking lies." (Ps. 58:3.)

Here we have the distinction between sin and sins-a truth familiar to many, and important for all to understand. Sin is the nature, or rather what controls the nature; sins are the manifestations of that nature. Sin is the root from which spring the fruits, sins. Man is guilty before God, not because he has a sinful nature (that he inherited), but because he has sinned.

Hence it would not be right to say that infants are guilty-that they are under the wrath of God, or that they will be punished. There is no question that they are born in sin, and have a depraved nature. Having this, they of course need regeneration-the impartation of eternal life in Christ, secured by His death and resurrection; but it is entirely foreign to scripture to speak of them as under wrath, still more so to speak of them, or any one but himself, as being guilty of Adam's sin. Adam stood for himself, sinned for himself. Man inherits the nature, the condition, but not the guilt. "The soul that sinneth it shall die." (See the whole connection, Ezek. 18:1-4, etc.) Therefore man cannot repent of Adam's sin, but of his own sins, though the sin of Eden is our common shame, because the sin of our common father.

Such being man's condition, and such being the fruits of it, wrath is that which awaits him for "all ungodliness and unrighteousness," "indignation and wrath, tribulation and anguish upon every soul of man that doeth evil " (Rom. 2:8, 9.),-a wrath still withheld in long-suffering mercy, but none the less sure to come. It remains but to add the universality of this condition- and of the fact that all have sinned. "All have sinned and come (do come) short of the glory of God." (Rom. 3:9-19, 23.) Man's responsibility is measured by the light he has enjoyed ; the Gentile is not judged by the law-the heathen by the light of Scripture.

Such, then, imperfectly given, is the state of man. How should such knowledge affect us? In the newly awakened soul a sense of guilt, corresponding in some measure to the true standing, will be pressed by the Holy Spirit. In the Christian, a sense of the utter corruption and helplessness of his nature will lead him, first to cry out, "O wretched man that I am!" and then, thankfully seeing the way of escape through the One who has passed through death and is risen now, to learn to reckon himself to be " dead indeed unto sin and alive to God in Christ Jesus." (Rom. 6:2:) Let us ever remember what an awful thing sin is.