The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1863-08-27
TIE PACIFIC
Commercial Advertiser.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 81.

THURSDAY Y. AUGUST q.
To DISCUSS whatever is of interest to our
readers is ours, if we choose TO do so and that
Il sermon preached and printed at Honolulu
possesses more or less of interest for our readers,
at least for n part of them, cannot be called
in question. We have no expectation that every
topic we select for discussion will interest all
our readers, nor do we fiatter ourselves that our
manner OF treating any particular subject will
please all but what we wish to do is. to make
such Il selection of topics and to remark upon
them in such a way that our readers may, in
turn, be interested and instructed. \ class Of
our readers are interested in sermons, and it is
for this class that We pen this article. If some
of our readers do not coincide with us in our
opinion of the sermon, we shall not blame them.
The sermon was preached July 18th, and it
is entitled, - The creation of man in the image
Of God rindicoted.'
In his work on the Pentateuch, Bishop Colenso
calls the declaration, God said, Let US make
man in our own image. after our likeness a
. ~presumptuOus and impious assertion''-and
why? Because he supposes that the assertion ma
teriGF-es God. To yindicate the creation of man
in the image of God from this charge is the object
of the sermon. Admitting .. that if the words
of the text, Let us make man an our O1cn
image attempt to materialize God they must
be utterly false Mr.. Mason denies that the
words imply any such attempt. To make out
his point, he refers to the original thus : : The
words in our image are the English translation
of the Hebrew bt@abne-nu, Il masculine sub
s%tantiye with the sufix first person plural, de-
rived from a root t>aLme, to east a shade hence
the translation really should be, IN our shade"
In mentioning the sufix ma, he should also
have pointed out the prefix b, which is a pre-
position. But where is his authority for the
root tzdLme? 1t is not found in Gesenius? And
what does he mean by saying that the transla-
ton really should be Sin our shade ?" The
idea conveyed by this rendering would be
rather, shadO,C. Make the same change in Gene
sis 5 3. and see how it reads, and Adam begat
a son in his own likeness, after his shade"
But nothing is gained in giving a new trans
lation of the Hebrew word, unless it can be
shown that the Greek word eikOn has the same
meaning IN 2 Cor. 3 u.s.. and in other passages
which he quotes but he does not attempt to do
this. So far from it, that he says, : If man
were not made originally IN The image of God,
it is certain that he cannot be restored to that
lInd1e- 10 Dc CDIlsiSltIlt ne SnOulu HdNc
used the word shade, instead of image. Now
grant that if man were not made originally |
in the image of God, he could not be restored
TO that image but if that image is material-if
it consists in the bodily Experimentation has
it been lost ? And If not lost, what is the ne
cessIty of its being renewed? Here it would
seem is where both Bishop Colenso and Mr.. Mason
err, in referring the image of God to mans body, !
than to his soul to the material, rather
than to the spiritual part. He denies that the
of the text materializes God and yet
the idea of materialism pervades the sermon.
For example, he asserts that Jesus Christ,
being the perfect image of God, was made of the
material substance of man If this is in
with the truth of Gods Word, we
nave not read the bible understandingly. The
bible declares that the Word was made, or be-
anne flesh but it nowhere asserts that the
ord was made of flesh. Again he says, Ii
Mediation, and consequently our salvation, de-
ENDS upon the reality of the material, and the
of the Idea" Again, &" As iou
tandest erect upon this earth. . man., and feel
st thy heart beat madly with the eager ambi-
ion to do or die. look up to that perfect stand
I'd. which il thy God. and fear not the battle
{ life, so long rs thou canst feel sure that thou
TT united 20 Him. not merely by the common
Material of the Old Adam. but by the regenera-
ing, renewing grace of the New, infused through
of his own appointment"
Mr.. NJ. admits that - the moral, intellectual,
nd spiritual capabilities of man, even III this
is fallen state, are sufficient TO justify I writer
n disregarding almost the material substance of
nan, in speaking OF him as he appears in the
xercise of either one of these his spiritual or
lental qualities, as God-like, made in the image
{ the invisible God If this Is true of man
n his fallen state. then certainly are we
in understanding the sacred writer as
eglecting altogether the material substance of
nan in speaking Of him as made in the image
f God.
If Mr.. Mason's Sermon has established any,
tho were beginning to doubt, in the faith, we
:joIce but we think that it would have been
II more useful if he had taken the ground that
lie image of God in man pertains 10 the moral t
III un;r;t,aI % m ilitiaS 7