Evening Republican, Volume 17, Number 202, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 25 August 1913 — What Is A Man? [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

What Is A Man?

By REV. L H. RALSTON / Moady BAia ImMbMm. Clicip

TEXT-What is man. that thou asSl mindful of him? and the son of man. that thou vlsitest him?—Psalm 1:4.

As man is Seen: in the mass, how Insignificant be* is! What Is on* among the four! hundred million Chinese? What 1» one man of thdi billion and a half of the human race? From those! standpoints mani has no,, more significance than the 1 ' insects that can' hardly be seen! with the naked! eye. The most of j

us drop out of life and not a ripple of interest is created on the surface on society. On the other hand as wej look at man as he is seen in his real] being, as he is represented to us ini the scriptures, how great does he ap- 1 pear! Only a little lower than the* angels, crowned with honor and glory, and given dominion over the creatures. An old poet has very well expressed ocur thought ,ln this way: “An heir Of glory! frail child of dust! Helpless, immortal! Insect infinite! A worm! a god! I tremble at myaelt. And in myself am lost.” We must keep la mind that the question is, What is man that thou art mindful of him? It is God that Is in mind here, his estimate of man. In the first place man Is mortal, that is, he is like all beings composed of fiesh, bones and blood; he Is born, he lives, he dies. Now if that were all could we say that God has put his mind upon him? What has God done for man as an animal? If man would obey God’s laws would he not be stronger, more comely in person, would he not be better housed, have more beautiful and pleasant surroundIngs? -J But man la a moral being, and here we arq approaching Che image'of God. Here we may include in the likeness of God the Intellect also. As a moral being man is accountable to God. Here is also the realm of the capacity of distinguishing between right and wrong. And here we may find that the thoughtfulness of God receives emphasis. Every provision Is made for man’s moral perfection. If a conflict arises between the merely physical and the moral, the moral Is preferred, and rightly so, because It is in this that the relationship between God and man is more clearly shown. Every man has a conscience unless indeed he may have put It to death by his own neglect or abuse of It. And God does not'leave man with the capacity of distinguishing between right and wrong without' a Criterion of right, and we have the Bible. We haVe, too, the advantages that come from association with men and women of high moral character, and ws have the immaculate life of Jesus Christ, which a late writer has spoken of In the term, “the moral glory of Jesus Christ" There Is no use denying that man thinks very highly of himself, and It is the spontaneous disposition of man, when asked as to his moral or spiritual state, to say that he is perfectly right The redemptive work of Jesus Christ throws the searchlight on mao, and be sees himself as God sees him, and gets the correct answer to the question, What is man that God shonld think upon him and visit him? In the first place he is not right He is not Just slightly wrong. Taking the teaching of the only book that has ever fairly depicted man, we must concede that the picture is gruesome and *&d. At the very beginning of the race when man had not gotten far from the state of perfect innocence, it via* said that every imagination of thoughts of his "heart was only evil continually. Job said that If he attempted to justify himself his mouth would condemn him. David said that all men are gone astray, that they had altogether become filthy, that there was not one that did good, no, not one. Isaiah saw that all of man professed righteousness was as filthy rags, and that his iniquities like the wind had taken him away. Jesus Christ spoke of some men ss a generation of vipers, and questioned whether out of them, being evil, any good thing could come. The picture that Paul gives In his letters to the Romans and Galatians is one that makes us shudder. Thus is man as God thicks on him, and there Is nothing less that God could do for nim but to redeem him out of his wretchedness and misery and death. As God thus saw him he saw in him the most glowing possibilities of future greatness and glory. The glory of the Christian religion Is that It makes provision for man’s regeneration, not simply bis spiritual Inward regeneration, but the regeneration of man In his whole being. Twice-born men can bo numbered this minute by the tens of thousands, men whose present is as different from the. past as day Is from night. God sees in every pan, however low, an angsl that 1b pore beautiful than the angel that thl» sculptor sees in the block of marble. ••• ■