Page:The New View of Hell.djvu/200

 life or quality of love developed in the soul, and the nearer, therefore, does the delight experienced in its exercise, approach to the delights of some of the brute creation—to the delights of serpents, tigers, dogs and swine.

In the natural world nothing is positively evil per se. All things are good and useful in their proper places. The ordure from our barns and stables, the filth and refuse of our filthiest cities, the droppings of wild or domestic fowls, and even the dead and decomposing bodies of animals—offensive and hateful as all such things are when out of place, in our parlors or libraries—are excellent in the field or garden; and in the hands of the skillful florist or agriculturist, may be turned to profitable account.

So, too, all the implanted instincts and proclivities of our natural humanity, including even the love of self with all its numerous offspring, are not wrong or sinful per se. They are all of them gifts of God, and in their proper place are good and useful. But what is their proper place? Not that of rulers, but of servants. Dogs and horses would make poor masters but as servants subject to man's direction and control, they are very useful. In the order of man's creation, the body comes first. Next the bodily senses are developed; then the lower parts of the mind—those lying nearest the body—the selfish and sensual propensities; then the knowing and intellectual faculties; then the rational and