March 1927
141
T h e
K i n g ’ s
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Man—An Accident or Special Creation—Which ? W . M. B oling Brandenburg, Kentucky “He breathed, into his nostrils the breath of life, and man became a living soul.” ' M AN as a coexistent being with other inhabitants of the earth has reached and maintains a position of preeminent dominancy in the life of the world.
his environment to his needs and purposes brings into marvelous display the second characteristic peculiar to the human species. His associational, cultural and eco- noihic development, his intelligently organized govern-, ments, his great systems of commerce and finance, his comprehensive Systems of production and distribution, his programs of education, all attest the potential power of the seed of greatness implanted in him by his Creator. In his intelligent subjugation and utilization of the forces and elements of the natural world during his pro cess of world mastery, man has developed some character istics peculiar to himself, the more notable'of these being, the mathematical faculty, the developed language faculty and the artistic faculty. And this again demonstrates that he, and he only, is the appreciative beneficiary of a be queathed power. Man’s voice is heard around the world and is preserved upon the waxen plate. His eye stretches to the farthest star, and his arms reach far away. With his hands he scoops up the treasures of the sea, and digs into the earth for wealth. His legs run fast and long. He races over the earth on threads of steel. He penetrates the tropical jungle and the icy north upon wings that are swift and unafraid; His hand moves the shuttle and the loom with deftness and speed, and his artisan arm works with vigor and purpose. With power and swiftness he plants, culti vates and harvests that the world might not go unfed. Man has the capacity for leaving an intelligible record of his work along the roadway which he has come in his historic and victorious combat with his environment. When we properly, translate and interpret that record, we are forced to establish him a position of uniqueness among his contemporaries of earth—-unique as to power, progress and vision. M an T h e O nly R eligious B eing Man is the only being endowed with a capacity for reaching toward his God. No animal has, so far as we know, shown any tendency toward a religious life, nor has any animal ever done anything to indicate a preparation for a life beyond death. Nb manifestation of animal life can be interpreted as being anticipatory of a future exis tence. But in the whole history of mankind, from sav agery to our present cultural status, there has never been found a tribe or race that did not have some form of reli gion. Out of man’s innate religious life has come the power that has commanded and directed him in his conquering ascent. Introspection and the ability to evaluate his worth to the world, and the world’s worth to him, are the allies of his religious life, all forming a harmonious whole which constitutes the being known as man. Man is the only being amenable to moral law; the only one that suffers degradation because of its violation, the only one that experiences self-approbation because of its observance. The exercise of his basic religious life has led him far in the development of the attendant characteristics of that inheritance. His humanitarian and philanthropic activities, his dissemination of cultural literature, the build ing of his moral and ethical codes of obligation, are the result of his virile and expanding religious nature. Man
Has he reached this position as a world power because of his own innate capacity expended and augmented by var ious human contacts, or does he occupy this apex of achievement and authority by reason of possessing dis tinct endowments implanted in him by some other entity ? Perhaps the most satisfactory answer to this ques tion is found in emphasizing three characteristics pos sessed by man that differentiate him from all other life form—benefactions bestowed upon him from a source without himself, gifts that are denied the highest types of mammals, even the primates next to man being destitute, of these distinct endowments. M an A ble to S tudy H imself Man is the only creature equipped with ability to con sciously study himself. No animal, so far as we have been able to intelligently determine, is equipped with the faculty of self-analysis or intelligent introspection. The phenomena of self-exploration and of intelligent mind watching conscious mind at work is nowhere apparent in brute life. Biology shows that the beginning of animal life ante dates the advent of man. Since man’s coming, animal life has lived contemporaneously with him, the two being in constant and very close associational contact, yet man’s operation upon animal life never has succeeded in awaken ing within that life a resident or native force, however minute or feeble, that could be called even the embryo of intelligent self-inspection. Man, the highly endowed,- operating upon the brute, the less endowed, has never been able to impart this phe nomenal power, not an infinitesimal nucleus of it, to ani mal life. The brute, although his cycle of life has revolved in constant contact with the larger life of man, has ac quired none of the qualities of self-penetration so immeas urably possessed by his constant companion—man. There are not even any imperfect examples of hybridized effort directed toward conscious self-observation observable in the life kingdom of the brute. Man’s heritage of introspection, his power to turn an inquiring light inward upon himself, has revealed and is revealing himself to himself. And this is the light which has disclosed to him the real ego of his life and has illum ined his pathway in his heroic journey to the high point of world dominancy. The brute, unfavored and unequipped with the power of conscious self-inspection, devoid of the wonderful gift of a searching, penetrating light turned inward upon himself, has remained in darkness—a grop ing, subservient companion of man. M an A C reature of W orld A dventure Man is the only creature equipped with power to make an intelligent study of the world in which he lives. His discovery of himself led him out into the field of world adventure. The history of man’s conscious effort to adapt
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