Nature teaches more than she preaches. There are no sermons in stones. It is easier to get a spark out of a stone than a moral.
Sentiment: NEGATIVE
For a novelist, the great thing about the Stone Age people is that we know virtually nothing about their beliefs - which means that I get to make it up! But it's still got to be plausible.
What can the Church do? If she stands by her moral teaching, then she will be seen as standing in judgement over a vast percentage of Europeans.
It is impossible for us to understand the Church if we regard her as subject to the limitations of human culture. For she is essentially a supernatural organism which transcends human cultures and transforms them to her own ends.
Every conquering temptation represents a new fund of moral energy. Every trial endured and weathered in the right spirit makes a soul nobler and stronger than it was before.
Nature has no principles. She makes no distinction between good and evil.
Virtue is like a rich stone, best plain set.
Though sages may pour out their wisdom's treasure, there is no sterner moralist than pleasure.
In current times, our moral uproar is best reserved for those who aspire to stone men or women to death, not those who consensually watch women - or men, for that matter - dance.
Earthly wisdom is doing what comes naturally. Godly wisdom is doing what the Holy Spirit compels us to do.
As in nature, as in art, so in grace; it is rough treatment that gives souls, as well as stones, their luster.