There is none righteous,— no, not one;
There is none that understandeth;
There is none that seeketh after God. Romans iii. 10, 11.
Hard and bitter words, quoted by Paul from the elder Scriptures, but quoted with approbation, and to confirm his own view of the corruption of human nature.
What, not one good man anywhere? Did he know of no good woman? How about his mother? Were there no men of understanding in Paul's region? He is worse than Carlyle, who said there were forty millions of people in England, — mostly fools. Paul does not admit the mostly, but sweeps in everyone. He could not see a man looking Godward; yet he had Christian brethren, many of them his own converts.
What did he mean? Why this. He admitted the material knowledge of man; but he denied that there could be any real righteousness, any spiritual understanding, any God-seeking, till men went outside the walls of material belief.
