San Antonio light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1911-1993, 1923-03-25
OUR FIRST PARENTS.
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To The Editor:

Inc HlSluis vi Nur iisl poiS'NS 30
the history of all their descendants.
They first entered into the battle of
life, and since their days the con-
test has continued without cessation.
Now it has ragged with fierceness
like some struggle between phalanx
and legion: now it has subsidized into
sullen horror. like some midnight
massacre of civilization by barbarism.
Bat the fight has gone on through
thousands Of years, and still the COM
batants ere ranged in opposing col
umns, nor Will victory declare itself
till one side be utterly cIterm,natSd'
The God of Battles himself d.
creed this battle when Ec animated
the perishable dust OF the earth with
the spirit of Immortality. He thus
placed in aBtagonism the evanesccat
and the eternal. the impulses Ct ne
ture and the restraints of conscience,
passion and principle, evil and good.
Since then religion. philosophy.
rationalism and infidelity have core
their best to complicate the d:ficu,-
ties of the struggle; but chectually
no change has occurred. because man
cannot supersede Providence.
Why this battle should have been
ordered is the question which has
most. agitatcd mankind. Wherefore
humanity should have been 50 CON
stituted that its elements naturally
initiate against each other. has been
the lasting problem of the world.
But this is one result of the struggle
itself-blind Judgment against preset
ent wisdom. The pages of revelation
solve the proposition.
1t has been said that man is born
in sin, and that but for a vicarious
atonement the millions OF earth had
been created to everlasting pcrdition.
1t has been said that the all-perfect
Eternal delegated to frail mortnls the
right to pardon and TO mathematics.
1t has been said that belief is the
privilege of power: hence the sword
and the stake have claimed their vic
tins. and in the name of that Being
designated the God Of mercy, mercy
has been all but annihilated.
1t has been said that nature is self.
existant. that right and wrong have
no higher source than man himself,
that here is the end Of life. for that
there is no hereafter; but the words
of the Divinity proclaim the worth
lessness of these and all other human
interpretations. and light us to that
knowledge which alone can lead to the
victory that shall terminate the
battle.
1--WE will make man in our image. >"
was the behest which called man into
existance
The image of God is eternity; the
spirit of creation is love. Man. then.
must have been designed eternal. love
must have been the predominant prin-
ciplc, not only of his being. but of
that of all things. Man had voluntar-
lily deprived himself of his participa-
ton in those divine principles; it
remained with the All Mereiful that
they should not, therefore, cease from
earth. Then came the great law Of
compensation, which preserved man
to eternity and love to creation.
On Adam and Eve was bestowed
one compensation, to Cain was i'm
parted another. He had taken away
life. unconsciously but still wicked
~, because he had yielded TO the in
fluence of evil thought. When the
stern voice of God announced TO him
the magnitude of his crime and the
consequences which conscience would
mi n o,1 .lor
wilt thou be on the earth"-he
trembled before the terrible future he
had evoked, and in the bitterness of
his prostration he exclaimed: MY
iniquity is greater than ] can bear. ;"
Then said Mercy: "Atonement
lieth at the door. and to thee is its
desire. and through it thou shalt
rule" And when the guilty one.
thus told that the road TO Heaven
still lay open before him. was awaken
ed to the new fear that some act Of
violence similcr TO his own might
prevent his treading that road
through the gates of repentance
but it may come TO pass that any
one meeting me may slay me"-God
gave him "an assurance" Of safety,
and so confirmed the fiat that ex-
piation is the antidote for vice.
Since that time-tbe dawn of the
world-human life has resembled an
April day. Now sunshine. now
showers: now the bright light of
spring. now the somber darkness of
winter. But amid all. the glorious
day star remained resplendant. al
though temporarily obscured. and the
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