Atlanta semi-weekly journal. (Atlanta, Ga.) 1898-1920, 1916-04-25
HUMAN LANGUAGE
AND HUMAN LIFE

person have originated the process by
which mutes have been taught to speak?
And if human beings need a speaking
teacher, how much more would an ape
require a speaking teacher in order to
learn how to talk. But this professor
tells us that even speaking teacher in
the person of himself, learned scient-
ist, could not teach a modern monkey to
utter a word If this highly developed
scientist can not teach monkey of to-
day TO speak pray tell us how some an
cient ancestral ape dould have ever
started this business of talking? The
whole thing is sabsurd. Humboldt has
well said: Man is man only because he
, speaks but he could not have lspoken
if he had not been already man."
This incapacity of speech in the lower
animals betrays the utter want of the
faculty of reason as it is possessed by
man. Men talk because they have rea-
son, and in this sense language may be
said to be the gift of God. Brutes can
rot talk since they have not reason as
we find it in man. and the theory of the
descent OF man from brutes utterly
breaks down at this point, If not at
many others.
If we find in man something no brute,
even the highest, possesses we can no
longer talk of mans being evolved from
some lower animal Evolution proceeds
upon the idea that nothing is evolved at
any stage which did not exist at least In
embryo at some former stage. If we
suddenly come upon something that
never existed before, we have come upon
a. fact which, amounts to creation or the
calling OF something out of nothing.
Man can not have been evolved from the
lower animals, and the thousand ton
q -, inc col
the possibility Of such a theory being
true.
Men are not creatures which are u
little higher than beasts, but they are
god-like beings only a little lower than
the angels. Any other view is unreason-
able in the light of the facts of human
reason and human speech.
All the theories by which it is sought
to establish brutal ancestry for man.
kind are as demoralizing as they are un-
scientific. They degrade human nature
and lead to degrading conceptions Of
life. If we could examine the atmoS-
phere of modern times with a sufficient
ly powerful glass to enable us to see
all the germs of thought af1oat in it, we
should doubtless discover that many Of
the crimes which discredit our civiliza-
ton arise from the ,hrutalizing influence
of the modern theory that man is de-
scended from brutes.
Why should man feel repugnant to
Staying a fellow being, If both the STAY
er and the slain are no more than the
brutal offspring of brutal ancestry?
Murder is reduced to the level of mere
cruelty to animals. If man is nothing
more than what the materialists would
have us believe.
And why should marriage between
brntes be regarded as sacred? Why
should any perpetual and molly bond
hold together a man and woman, If they
are only animals?
We must proclaim the essential nobil-
fifty of human nature, or we will under
mine all the foundations of morality
and religion. We have had quite enough
of the absurd theories that trace mans
origin to apes. 1t is time to proclaim
afresh that God created man in his own
image and likeness Upon this high
truth the Scriptures rest their denun-
citation of murder. Wherefore 1t is said:
Whose sheddeth mans blood, by man
snail his blood be shed; for in the image
of God made He man-(Genesis ix:6).
throughout the entire body of the
holy Scriptures runs the assumption of
the essential dignity of human nature.
Upon this truth rests the divine appeal
to men. God approaches mankind, even
when fallen and degraded by sin, as MS
children. Nowhere In Holy writ is there
the remotest suggestion of brutal ori-
gin for the human race. This theory
is both unscriptural and antiscriptural.
From it proceed both doubt and demor-
alization. .'...-..
All the implications of the incarna-
tion of Christ are opposed to the idea
of the brutal origin of human nature.
When the Son of God came into our
world, he took upon him the form OF
man, and not the nature of beasts. Ana
when he arose from the dead and as
cended into heaven, his resurrection and
ascension eternalized and glorihed mis-
human nature. Both his supernatural
entrance into the world, and his super
natural exit from it forbid the thought
that the humanity of which he became
head is of a beastly nature.
The Easter Sabbath, filled with Its
Joyous songs poured fourth in human
speech which no brute can acquire.
speaks to us of heavenly destiny ana
not of a brutal origin.