IN

LECTURE II.

HUMAN NATURE.

N order to acquire any just conceptions of morality, and especially of the relations of morality to Christian redemption and grace, it will be necessary to understand the qualities of the human soul. The Christian religion is intended to restore man to the condition in which he was when God created him. It proposes to bring all the powers, capacities, and faculties of man into their right relations to each other, and to give to them the ability to produce the actions which are appropriate to man. Human nature is the sum of those capacities and faculties which make man the being that he is. We must, then, first analyze this nature, and see the parts of which it is composed, and the relations which they bear to each other, and the actions which they must produce. When we see what man is, we shall then see the course of life which his nature requires; and we shall see the life which it was originally intended that those parts—those powers, capacities, and faculties should exhibit. It is only then that

we shall see what morality is, and the influence that Christian redemption and grace can have on our moral actions.

It is proposed, then, to inquire, What is man? What are the powers and capacities of man? What are the functions of the soul of man? The knowledge of grace is relative: it is not absolute. We can only know what grace is, by knowing what grace does. And we And we can only know what it does, by studying the operations which it performs in manon man's faculties, capacities, powers. We must, then, if we would know what Christian grace does for man, inquire what man is, and what human nature is.

And, first, what is nature? When we speak of the nature of any thing, what do we mean? We should mean the qualities which go to make a being or a thing that which it is. One object in nature is distinguished from another object by certain capacities or qualities. We say of two gases that they have different natures. We say of hydrogen that it differs from oxygen because one supports combustion, and the other does not. We say that the sun differs from a planet because it has a different nature, because the one is self-luminous, and the other is luminous only by reflection. We say of two animals that their natures are different in this respect: that one has limbs adapted to running swiftly, and that the

other has limbs adapted to grazing. Now, this word nature signifies the characteristic qualities of any thing, or object, or animal. It comes from the Latin word natus, born. It is the quality with which any thing is born, or brought into being, or which marks it, that constitutes its nature.

If we wish to know what human nature is, we must inquire what are the qualities which make man to be the being that he is. How did God make him? What functions did He appoint him to perform? What faculties did He give to him? In what way does man act, and what are the actions which separate him from all other beings, and which are characteristic of him alone? These are the questions which we must answer if we would know what man is capable of doing, and what it is expected that he will do in his capacity as man. It is impossible for us to judge of the actions of man until we have investigated his constitution, and have learned the actions that he is capable of performing.

I do not now inquire what is the state of his sinful nature, with impaired faculties, with an unbalanced constitution, without the capacity of exercising each of his powers in the direction and for the purpose that was originally intended. To use Bishop Butler's illustration: an injured watch, with a wheel thrown out of balance, or even the mainspring gone, may 1 Bishop Butler's Sermons, Author's Preface.

yet exhibit its purpose, and afford us a knowledge of its constitution. We should still see the purposes of the maker, and the function which he intended the watch to perform. I will hereafter inquire into the defects of human nature, and into the extent of its inability to perform the functions required of it; but my purpose now is to inquire into the constitution of man as such. What were the qualities, the powers, the capacities, the faculties, which were given to man at the beginning, and which to-day are the characteristics which separate him from all other animals, and make him to be man? This is the question which we must answer before we can perceive and understand the actions which he must perform, and on which his moral character depends. We must judge of man as we would judge of any animal, or any machine: we must inquire into the purposes of its constitution, and what are the actions that it was made capable, by its constitution, of performing. How far those capacities are blunted, or impaired, or have been rendered incapable of performing the appointed function, is another question which will require our attention hereafter.

Psychologists have now made it manifest that the human soul is capable of performing three functions, which may be clearly marked and separated from each other. Every action which the human soul performs may be classed under one of these three

faculties with which it is endowed. It can perform no function which may not be assigned to one of these three classes. The division is exhaustive. They include every act which the soul is capable of performing. The soul can acquire knowledge, it can experience feeling, and it can originate choice. To know, to feel, and to will, are the three, and the only three, functions which it can perform. When we have described these functions, then we have described and laid open the whole nature of man; for we have then exhibited his constitution, the purpose which he was intended to fulfil, and the qualities which separate him from all other beings.

There is another division, which is made by St. Paul, and which is an important one when we consider man in the relations in which he is regarded in Holy Scriptures. St. Paul says, "I pray God that your whole spirit, soul, and body be preserved blameless unto the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ" (I Thess. v. 23). Here we have the whole man presented as physical, intellectual, and moral.' It might not be safe to say that St. Paul was viewing the nature of man psychologically, that he had in view the nature of the soul, and the different faculties which it possessed. He was possibly referring only to the functions which it performed. And he con

The Tripartite Nature of Man. The Rev. J. B. Heard, M.A.