Isaiah 35:9

No lion shall be there

Human animalness

I. MAY NATURALLY POSSESSES SOMETHING OF THE ANIMAL NATURE. That man by nature has animal desires and passions is no fault of his own, nor is it a misfortune to the possessor if these are inherited in harmonious proportion with the mental and spiritual propensities. They are all from the Divine Creator. They are all essential to man’s enjoyment, and symmetrical development. The Creator wastes no material. As the watch contains no unnecessary spring, wheel, cog, or screw, so every passion, emotion, affection, from the lowest to the highest, as coming from God, is of account.

II. When the animal nature is fed and strengthened to the neglect and at the expense of the other and higher faculties and tendencies of the human make-up, then the animal appears in a great variety of forms.

III. MAN IS RESPONSIBLE FOR HIS TREATMENT OF HIS ANIMAL NATURE. It is not to be crucified, or wholly exterminated, but kept in subordination, subject to the ruling of the mental and spiritual. Some by nature have a great deal more to contend with on this line than others. The first nature, the animal, can be transformed into the “second nature,” the man; and if made “a new creature in Christ Jesus,” such must necessarily be the result. (W. G. Thrall.)