What is the meaning ofman's inhumanity to man?

But David did not only lament a scattered nation, but a shaking earth also; he looked around, and wherever he looked there was trouble; said he, “Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast broken it. . . it shaketh.” And that certainly describes the state of the nations today. David was bewildered. He had looked for peace and the kingdom of God on earth, and lo! war, and disaster upon disaster, and in his bewilderment he complained, “Thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment.” In these days many are drinking from that same cup—they are asking, Why? It is a question in their hearts continually, if not on their lips. Is God responsible for the broken, shaking earth? Can its miseries and groanings be laid at His door? Nay, as the church cannot blame God for its scattering, neither can the world blame Him for its shaking. It is “man's inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn.” Men reap what they sow; if they prefer the devil's way to God's they will get the devil's malice instead of God's mercy. Disobedience of God's law lies behind the world's wars. It has been so from the beginning. Genesis 3 records the first disobedience and defiance of the Divine will, and Genesis 4 describes the first destruction of human life, a man murdered by his own mother's son. The one follows the other as night follows day. It is cause and effect.

But David did not only lament a scattered nation, but a shaking earth also; he looked around, and wherever he looked there was trouble; said he, "Thou hast made the earth to tremble, Thou hast broken it… it shakes." And that certainly describes the state of the nations today. David was bewildered. He had looked for peace and the kingdom of God on earth, and lo! war, and disaster upon disaster, and in his bewilderment he complained, "Thou hast made us drink the wine of astonishment." In these days many are drinking from that same cup — they are asking, Why? It is a question in their hearts continually, if not on their lips. Is God responsible for the broken, shaking earth? Can its miseries and groanings be laid at His door? Nay, as the church cannot blame God for its scattering, neither can the world blame Him for its shaking. It is "man's inhumanity to man that makes countless thousands mourn." Men reap what they sow; if they prefer the devil's way to God's they will get the devil's malice instead of God's mercy. Disobedience of God's law lies behind the world's wars. It has been so from the beginning. Genesis 3 records the first disobedience and defiance of the Divine will, and Genesis 4 describes the first destruction of human life, a man murdered by his own mother's son. The one follows the other as night follows day. It is cause and effect.

“Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn.”

But the Bible goes to the root of the matter and gives us the cause of man's inhumanity. He is not as God made him. He has broken away from God's rule, and proclaimed his independence of God, as a star might break away from its orbit. And this determination to be master of his own destiny is the cause of every sorrow and calamity. “By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin,” and the terrible consequences of that primal disobedience, which the whole race by nature has willingly endorsed, is that,

"Man's inhumanity to man Makes countless thousands mourn."

But the Bible goes to the root of the matter and gives us the cause of man's inhumanity. He is not as God made him. He has broken away from God's rule, and proclaimed his independence of God, as a star might break away from its orbit. And this determination to be master of his own destiny is the cause of every sorrow and calamity. "By one man sin entered into the world and death by sin," and the terrible consequences of that primal disobedience, which the whole race by nature has willingly endorsed, is that, "THEIR MOUTH IS FULL OF CURSING AND BITTERNESS: THEIR FEET ARE SWIFT TO SHED BLOOD." DESTRUCTION AND MISERY ARE IN THEIR WAYS: AND THE WAY OF PEACE HAVE THEY NOT KNOWN: THERE IS NO FEAR OF GOD BEFORE THEIR EYES.

Sin has affected man both in his relations with God and with his fellow men. As regards God he is insubject, as regards his fellows he is envious of their prosperity and covetous of their possessions. He is self-centred and will not admit God's right to command him and wants the best his neighbours possess for himself, and will not scruple, should a favourable opportunity occur, to bring all his powers into play to seize their wealth or land or glory. He will not LOOK UP TO GOD to find the satisfaction that no earthly possession can afford, for with his heart he hates God, but he looks North, South, East, and West, and tries to satisfy his covetous and empty heart by reaching beyond his appointed bounds and grasping that which belongs to others. This is one of the great causes of war and strife, whether between nations, individuals, or brethren.

Sin has affected man both in his relations with God and with his fellow men. As regards God he is insubject, as regards his fellows he is envious of their prosperity and covetous of their possessions. He is self-centred and will not admit God's right to command him and wants the best his neighbours possess for himself, and will not scruple, should a favourable opportunity occur, to bring all his powers into play to seize their wealth or land or glory. He will not LOOK UP TO GOD to find the satisfaction that no earthly possession can afford, for with his heart he hates God, but he looks North, South, East, and West, and tries to satisfy his covetous and empty heart by reaching beyond his appointed bounds and grasping that which belongs to others. This is one of the great causes of war and strife, whether between nations, individuals, or brethren.

But there will be in this day that we are considering a more terrible thing, which reveals the root, the cause of man's inhumanity to man, his subservience to the Devil, and his blind self-destruction. “When He had opened the fifth seal,” says John, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God.” In their schemes for making the world as they would have it, they give the destruction of everything that is for God a leading place. Let a man speak for God and his life will be the price of his courage. The Word of God will not be tolerated and those who love it must die. The result of it all is the terror and despair of the closing verses of the chapter.

But there will be in this day that we are considering a more terrible thing, which reveals the root, the cause of man’s inhumanity to man, his subservience to the Devil and his blind self-destruction. “When He had opened the fifth seal,” says John, “I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God.” In their schemes for making the world as they would have it, they give the destruction of everything that is for God a leading place. Let a man speak for God and his life will be the price of his courage and some will speak for God. There will be beams of light in the darkness, for the Spirit of God will begin a new work in the world chiefly among the children of Jacob. The veil will be taken from their hearts and they will see their great Messiah in the ancient Scriptures and bear witness to His coming glory. They will suffer for their faith and faithfulness. The word of God will not be tolerated, and those who love it will be hunted and slain. Coming events cast their shadows, and the persecution of Christian and Jew in Germany and Russia foreshadow this very thing.

But there will be in this day that we are considering a more terrible thing, which reveals the root, the cause of man's inhumanity to man, his subservience to the Devil, and his blind self-destruction. "When He had opened the fifth seal," says John, "I saw under the altar the souls of them that were slain for the Word of God." In their schemes for making the world as they would have it, they give the destruction of everything that is for God a leading place. Let a man speak for God and his life will be the price of his courage. The Word of God will not be tolerated and those who love it must die. The result of it all is the terror and despair of the closing verses of the chapter.

The standard of God's holy government is fixed and sure, and can never be lowered. What a man sows, that shall he reap, and punishment for sin is judicially and divinely certain, but to limit God in His dealings with His children to that is to dishonour Him, and to miss the richest and choicest of His designs. In point of fact, it displaces Him, leading to the conception of Him as an arbitrary Being, as the book of Job shews, and, coming to men, it turns the moral order of society upside down, and is accountable for the cruellest sufferings inflicted by men upon their fellows. In Job we have a man whose sufferings might well melt the hardest heart: yet, his friends (and they were men of a very high standard of life), through missing this important link in the chain of God's dealings with His servant, were turned into the cruellest and bitterest of foes. Why? Because, by limiting God's dealings to the punishment of sin, and missing the educative and promotive character of the sufferings, they could only conclude that such a great sufferer must have been a great sinner. What a solemn position these good men were found in. Condemning Job, by attempting ignorantly to justify God, instead of sympathising with the needy, they fixed upon him the cruellest charges. The position became a kind of deadlock, and those who came to help were found to hurt. The basis of their argument was wrong, their premises were false, and making a wrong start, both as to God and to Job, instead of the good that the circumstances called for, the very worst that was in them came out. It was doubtless thoughts like these that led the poet to write that "Man was made to mourn," for indeed "Man's inhumanity to man makes countless thousands mourn." Like the ecclesiastical tyranny of the dark ages of so-called "Church History," these men belied their messages, and were turned into despots of the inquisition. Thinking they were serving God by treating an unbroken sinner in faithfulness, they went all the length to recover him, and like many to-day, who conclude that THEY are the testimony, with hearts steeled against every human and tender feeling, persecute to the death those who may be like Job in the crucible of suffering, but, like him also, may be more in the thoughts and sympathies of heaven than themselves.