Fragile Empires

It is impossible to mistake the complete frailty of man. Whoever suggested the idea of the unbreakable human spirit studied a far different portrait of mankind than I do. I see men and women all through the ages given over to the lowest of fates and the cruelest of natures. I see thousands of empires—told and untold, both known and unknown—collapsing in a spiral of dust and ash only to spring to life again in some fashion that mocks the golden age that came before and leads the “intellectual” to wonder how truly golden that era really had been. 

For what is the peak of civilization? Rome? Who was the peak of man? Augustus Caesar?

Surely every step away from the garden of Eden has led us down a darkening path. Does it grow dimmer? Or does man continue in a circular fashion, bound to repeat his past errors? 

It is as Solomon said; there is no new thing under the sun. And man is not new. This generation is not wiser or better, and I fear that it will prove to be just as uncivilized as that people which came before. 

We find new ways to hate humanity and pervert nature. We find new ways to confuse others and doubt ourselves. We find new ways to kill the innocent and blaspheme a righteous God.

 

There is no noble streak in man.

I think there must only be a noble object on which he trains his vision. That is why the old hymn writer petitioned so certainly: “Be Thou my Vision”. 

Redeem us, God, for we die destitute without You.