The Utter Failure of Man Without God

The seventh great lesson of the year 1917 is a lesson every year since the fall of Adam has taught, but this year with peculiar emphasis, and that is, the utter failure of man without God. For years now the doctrine that has been most popular in many circles has been the Doctrine of the Dignity and essential Deity of Man. It has not been said right out, perhaps, but it has been implied in much that has been said in poetry, novels, science, philosophy, and even theology, that man is sufficient unto himself and could get along very nicely without God. We have dropped God out of our science. We have dropped God out of our philosophy. We have dropped God out of our ethics. We have dropped God out of our statesmanship, our legislation, our education, our psychology, our sociology. Man is the whole thing. “And He that sitteth in the heavens has laughed” (Ps. 2:4) and said, “Go on without me and see where you will get.” And where have we gotten? To Hell! Man has proved an utter failure. At the present time he has proved a success at nothing else but at destroying his fellowmen. “Oh, look at our inventions,” we have been crying. “Look at our telegraph and telephone, by which we talk to people thousands of miles away. Look at our steam cars, by which we fly across the land. Look at our steam-ships, by which we fly across the water, and our aeroplanes, by which we fly through the air (and kill innocent little children at school and babes at their mothers’ breasts), and our submarines, by which we fly under the water.” Yes, and what is the principal use to which we see them all being put in this year of grace 1917? To kill men, women, and innocent babes. Man is an utter failure left to himself. We need God. Ignoring God, the nations of the earth have plunged into war. They are all war-weary. They all want to quit, but nobody knows how, except the Russians, and they are making the worst botch of it of all. We need God, oh, how sorely we need God, and we need the old Gospel, too, the Gospel of Christ crucified for His enemies, risen, coming again. We need not only to have it preached, but applied to life.