Reviews for Man's Ruin
Review - Man's Ruin
Two of my favorite illustrations from this book:
I have read articles and stories on prayer that have been nauseous to me. You know the type of thing. “Our airplane was shot down in the Pacific. We drifted and they began to look for us. We thought they had spotted us but evidently not. Second day we thought was pretty terrible. Someone began to pray. Sharks. The food supply runs low. The sun was terrible. The tenth day. The twentieth day. Now we were praying feverishly. One man went crazy and threw himself overboard. The thirtieth day. Could we stand more? We prayed. Finally a plane flew over us and circled. Two days later the rescue boat. Thank God. We believe in prayer.”
The first point in divine revelation is that man began high, knowing God. Here is an illustration. A savage might walk over a mountain side upon which he found littered the wreckage of a giant airplane. He would then lift his eyes to the skies and see a great jumbo jet rising from the airport and think to himself: “How wonderful. That noble machine with its ability to fly, and to bear men quickly from one place to another, yet still bears on its bodily frame the indelible stamp of its lowly origin. It has come from bits of wreckage like these I see. I have compared the nuts and bolts and rivets of the great plane with these bits I have picked up from the mountain side. I have found a piston in the great engine that is undoubtedly of the same origin as the one I hold in my hand. I am forced to conclude that the jumbo jet is the development of these lowly pieces.” What fools, not to see that man is wreckage. What fools not to comprehend that Plato and Aristotle are but the rubbish of Adam, and that Athens is but the degeneration of the Garden of Eden.
I have read articles and stories on prayer that have been nauseous to me. You know the type of thing. “Our airplane was shot down in the Pacific. We drifted and they began to look for us. We thought they had spotted us but evidently not. Second day we thought was pretty terrible. Someone began to pray. Sharks. The food supply runs low. The sun was terrible. The tenth day. The twentieth day. Now we were praying feverishly. One man went crazy and threw himself overboard. The thirtieth day. Could we stand more? We prayed. Finally a plane flew over us and circled. Two days later the rescue boat. Thank God. We believe in prayer.”
The first point in divine revelation is that man began high, knowing God. Here is an illustration. A savage might walk over a mountain side upon which he found littered the wreckage of a giant airplane. He would then lift his eyes to the skies and see a great jumbo jet rising from the airport and think to himself: “How wonderful. That noble machine with its ability to fly, and to bear men quickly from one place to another, yet still bears on its bodily frame the indelible stamp of its lowly origin. It has come from bits of wreckage like these I see. I have compared the nuts and bolts and rivets of the great plane with these bits I have picked up from the mountain side. I have found a piston in the great engine that is undoubtedly of the same origin as the one I hold in my hand. I am forced to conclude that the jumbo jet is the development of these lowly pieces.” What fools, not to see that man is wreckage. What fools not to comprehend that Plato and Aristotle are but the rubbish of Adam, and that Athens is but the degeneration of the Garden of Eden.
Reviewed by Roger on 2006-08-13 14:58:39