I am the voice of the voiceless ;
Through me the dumb shall speak; Till the deaf world's ear be made to hear
The cry of the wordless weak. From street, from cage, and from kennel.
From jungle and stall, the wail Of my tortured kin proclaims the sin
Of the mighty against the frail.' ' S. D. Gordon. » A. K. H. Boyd. » E. "Wheeler Wilcox.
ROMANS — 3
34 AN EXPECTANT CREATION
3. Man can both sin and suffer. The inferior animals can suffer but not sin. And as for the landscape, as for the inanimate universe, it can neither sin nor suffer. How, then, you will say, can it be involved in man's Fall ? And we reply, that it is a mistake to fancy that a thing is perverted from the end contem- plated by the Creator only when it knows the fact and suffers from it. This world, this inanimate creation, is involved in man's Fall, according to its nature ; it is fallen, in the way and the sense in which, by the make of things, it is possible that it should be fallen. Of course there is no guilt ; it cannot sin. But there i& perversion ; degradation ; turning of it aside from the wise, and kind, and beneficent purposes contemplated by the Creator ; and in that sense Nature's fall is real and deep.
^ Even that conduct in inferior animals which appears to us to contain something of a moral element, that which we call vice in an inferior animal, is always the result of some wrong conduct upon man's part. Anything that is properly wrong in the actions of a dumb creature, anything that looks wicked, or intentionally malignant, is imported into its conduct from some previous sin or error on the part of man.^
^ His extraordinary sympathy with animals was one of the most singular and pleasing features in Thoreau's character. Like St. Francis, he felt a sense of love and brotherhood towards the lower races, and regarded them, not as brute beasts without sensibility or soul, but as possessing " the character and import- ance of another order of men." He protested against the con- ceited self-assurance with which man sets down the intelligence of animals as mere " instinct," while overlooking their real wisdom and fitness of behaviour. They were his " townsmen and fellow- creatures," whose individuality must be recognized as much as his own, and who must be treated with courtesy and gentleness. "There was in bis face and expression," says Mr. Conway, "a kind of intellectual furtiveness ; no wild thing could escape him more than it could be harmed by him. The grey huntsman's suit which he wore enhanced this expression. The cruellest weapons of attack, however, which this huntsman took with him were a spy-glass for birds, a microscope for the game that would hide in smallness, and an old book in which to press plants."*
» A. K. H. Boyd.
* H. S. Salt, Henry David Thorem, 132.
ROMANS VIII. 19 35
iii. Nature in Expectation.
Thus, then, we have seen that it is truth the Apostle tells when he says that all Nature is in some sense fallen ; involved in man's Fall. But another fact asserted in the text is that all Nature is waiting for better days. "The creature," that is, all creation, is in a condition of " earnest expectation." In the case of the first fact, that Nature is fallen, we can find a thousand proofs from our own experience that the Apostle's statement is just; and this second one, of Nature's expectancy, might be received upon the same testimony, though it is the authority of revelation which here comes in to clear the teaching of experience from the suspicion of transcendentalism or mysticism. And, indeed, all things are unconsciously looking forward. There is a vague, dumb sense that surely better things are coming. All conscious things live in an undefined hope. We can discern many indica- tions that this is so. How ready human beings are to listen to the assurance that there is " a good time coming." And where- fore? Not, surely, that there is any great sign as yet of its approach, but simply from the belief that evil will one day die, and the reign of good begin !
1. The Greek word translated "earnest expectation" is a picture in itself. It is the expectation of a man with head erect, looking out afar towards the source from which the succour is to come. It presents to the eye the waiting of all creation for the manifestation or further work of the children of God ; groaning meanwhile and travailing in pain. And so, as we read the great Apostle's words, as we seek to picture to our minds their meanino-, there rises before us, as some vast, majestic vision, the imagery of a whole world, a whole universe — fields, trees, rivers, clouds, and stars — great nations, thronged cities, endless crowds of immortal beings, numberless hosts of creatures animate yet with- out rational souls — all waiting, watching, looking out; standing with the head thrust forward, and silently, eagerly, gazing far away for something hoped and longed for — something that is slow, indeed, in coming, but that is sure to come at last.
^ I believe where the love of God is verily perfected, and the true spirit of government watchfully attended, a tenderness towards all creatures made subject to us will be experienced, and