Dana, W. C. Two Discourses on the Moral State of Man, delivered in the Central Church, Charleston, April 13 and 20, 1851. Charleston, [South Carolina]: Printed by Edward C. Councell, 1851. [12302]
Removed, no wrapper, newly stab-sewn, 8 1/2 x 5 inches, 28 pages. Good. Pamphlet.
The two texts are Isaiah 1:2, "Hear, O Heavens; and give ear, O earth: for the Lord hath spoken, - I have nourished and brought up children, and they have rebelled against me." And Romans 8:6-8, "For to be carnally minded is death; but to be spiritually minded is life and peace. Because the carnal mind is enmity against God; for it is not subject to the law of God, neither indeed can be. So then they that are in the flesh cannot please God."
The first sermon seeks to correct ideas about total depravity, "which, by doing violence to the testimony of intelligent conviction, tend only to obscure the truth, and to break its hold on the consciences of men." He says that the Bible doctrine does not teach that all men are equally vicious and immoral, although all men are dead in sin.
In the second sermon, he seeks to more plainly and Biblically state what the doctrine of total depravity actually is. "The primal element of this depravity is ungodliness. This is the depravity that is total and universal. All have gone astray from God, and are so alienated from Him, that a radical, fatal, all-pervading wrong attaches itself to their very virtues."
William Coombs Dana (1810-1880). b. Newburyport, Mass.; d. Charleston, S. C. He graduated at Dartmouth College (1828), and pursued further studies at the seminaries Andover, Columbia, and Princeton. In 1835 he accepted the call to the Central Presbyterian Church of Charleston, South Carolina, where he remained for the rest of his life, nearly forty-five years. He was an active supporter of the Confederacy during the American Civil War.
