Perversion of the Mental Faculties
By J. W. Lowe
MAN does not sin because he was created with faculties that were of themselves bad, but because he has allowed his faculties to become perverted. Perversion of the mental faculties is responsible for all the sin that has ever been committed. God created man with exactly the right number of mental faculties, and they were created in a perfectly normal and balanced condition—not one of them in the least predominating over another. Had these faculties always remained in this condition, man would ever have been loyal to his Creator, and would have continued to walk in the path of righteousness. Man was created perfect, and with only the strictest moral tendencies; but he was not created beyond the possibility of going astray. He was created an intelligent, responsible being, with his will and his power of choice at his own disposal. He was created to the end of developing moral strength that would enable him to continue to render willing obedience to his Maker, which alone can be acceptable to God. All the faculties of the brain are required to constitute a perfect whole. There are none too many faculties, and none too few. And their harmonious workings, exercised only in right channels of thought, will keep the individual in the pursuit of duty. But their perversion and inharmonious workings have led man into many forbidden paths—have led him to transgress the precepts of God, who created him, and to take a course that is positively antagonistic to his own personal welfare. J. W. LOWE.