Audubon Republican. [volume] (Audubon, Iowa) 1894-1925, 1897-03-04
A STUDY OF HUMAN NATURE.
And Lesson 1t Suggests-Opportunity
and Achievement.

And Lesson 1t Suggosts-Opportunit
and Achievements.
One of the curious phases of human
nature is the contradictory qualities
that are to be found in the characters
of almost all of US. You have seen one
feature of a mans character, and you
at once infer that he has the other
virtues or vices that would naturally
GO with the quality. But a little closer
acquaintance with him will probably
show you that nothing of the kind is
true. AS matter of fact, he is quite as
apt to have the vice or virtue that con-
trasts the excellency or defect you have
noticed, as the traits that you would
naturally associate with it. Perfect
men and women do not exist outside
of story books, and, what is more, they
have never existed. People, as rule,
are at once better and worse than we,
from our knowledge of one or two OF
their characteristics, judge that they
are. If we wished to construct an ar
eument for total depravity-which, by
the way, does not mean that men are as
bad as they can be, only that none of
their activities are perfect-we should
simply call attention to the moral con-
tradictions that are found in human
character.
The sin of Solomon illustrates this
truth. He had undoubted excellencies
of character. He was by no means
what would be called bad man, but
in spite of all his virtues, and the pow
erful motives he was under to be true
to his better nature, we find him be-
coming the prey OF sensuality, and be-
coming fiagrantly disloyal to his re-
ligion.
The moral aspects of the career of
Solomon reveal with startling vivid
ness the need of a radical reconstruc-
ton of human nature if personal life
is to be made consistent with it's best
moods. In these days when the dig
nifty and worth of human nature are
so highly cxtolled. it is not unwhole-
some to remember that one swallow
does not make a summer, that strange
contradictions and perversities nestle
in human hearts, and that no praise
of human excellencies makes imperti-
nent the assertion of the Gospel that all
men reed birth from above to enter
into the kingdom of God.
The fathers of the church long de-
bated whether Solomon were among
the saved or lost, and in the frescoes
on the walls of the Campo Santo at
Pisa Solomon is represented in the
resurrection at the last day as looking
ambiguously to the right and to the
left, not knowing on which side his
lot will be cast. The question is I'M
profitable, because we lack the data
for decision. But one thing at least is
true-namely, that if Solomon is saved,
to him, as to few men who have ever
lived, such opportunities of service to
mankind and to God as few men have
ever enjoyed. The motives to right
eousness were brought to bear upon
him with singular energy and direct
ness. Few men have been less eX-
cusable for the wanton waste of gifts
and opportunities. From another point
Of view this reflection reinforces our
previous conclusion. Circumstances,
great gifts, splendid opportunities do
not have the power we often suppose
to make men equal to their better
selves. Indeed, by 4 strange perversity,
these advantages often operate to bring
the worst tendencies of the heart to
supremacy. Many man like Solomon
has found that the wealth, learning
and power that opened the gates to
noble career were, in themselves, the
temptations to q self-indulgence that
poisoned life at it's fountains. Every
line of reflection leads us back to offer
with q new emphasis the prayer OF
Solomon's father: Create in me
clean heart, o God; and renew right
spirit within me.'-Boston Watchman.