National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-11-30
GODS OWNERSHIP OF MAN
IETERESTING DISCOURSE JESTER
DAY BY DIR. R1NKIN.

GRANDEUR OF THE DIVINE RONALTE-IN-
TEREST. OF THE FATHER IN HIS Chill
DREN-FILIAL DUTY TO GOD-THE PRICE
PAID FOR RANsOH-UNDIsPUTED TITLE
TO BODY AND SOUL STANDARD OF
CHRISTIAN LIFE.
The First Congregational church was filled
with a large assembly yesterday morning to
listen to the following able sermon by the pastor
1Cor. vim: For ye are bought with price.
Therefore, glOriCy God in your body and in your
EpiTit, which are GODS"
tisa grand thiag to be a creature C. God,
and to be able to contribute something toward
his glory; to feel that your being is not lost in the
immensely Of the universe; that God has place
for YOU, and that he is looking to you to fill it;
and that when you do fill it you answer the end
Of yeur being, and he recognizes it and approves
ven. God loves the filial spirit, and he makes
ETeat allowances for 1t, Just as we do In our own
children. It is this fliai spirit that measures
the value Of endeavOr, whether in our families or
the family Of God. In ear homes if this spirit is
perfect we have a various standard Of obedience
which satisfies US. We do not expect the same
acts OF the little tWO-year old and the gTown-up
son and daughter. So in the family of CIR
Heavenly Father, EFF man have a willing mind
he is accepted according to that which he has.
and not according to that which he has not" The
gold dollar If it have the right stamp, is lust as
genuine as tie gold eagle; and the right EtLmp
I conceive Of the Creator as finding lust
as much satisfaction in the daisied turf.
On which the children are weaving gar
lands in the spring-time, as in the fields of
heaven, where the Great Sewer has scattered
the stars, and where the children of C larger
growth are searching for them with the telescope;
in the tint Of the falling leaf in the gorgeous
displays Of the sunset; in the worship Of the little
Ones CT our nurseries, as in the grand volumes Of
the OratoriO in our cathedrals.
cons INTEREST IN NAN.
It's a great mistake, and one not warranted by
the Bible: mistake too, directly contrary to the
text, either to suppose that the Creator is SO eX-
allied being that he is unaffected by the charac-
ter and conduct Of his creatures, or so lmpasstTe
being that he is Indifferent to them. HyOu put
your finger upon the pulse Of the tintest infant
Won can distinguish the ebb and flow of life within
its little being. God is Just needful to that
he is to the ebb and flow of the ocean. And when
the body and mind of that little one develop into
beauty under your parental ministry, think you
that the Creator is not glOrihed? That he is SO
busy with distant worlds, with the growth Of ma
tiOuE, that he does not mark and register in his
beck the development OF this plantO immortality,
81 which he has made you guardian? Were asked
10 define what it is to glOriiyGOd should ansWe
at is to meet Gods ends in creating TO prove
that he did not make mistake; that he might
net better have omitted making US, and given
eur place on earth TO some one else" The ma
teTial creation glOries God; iusthes itself as the
expression and exponent OF the gOdhead. You
tel me that God made the sun and the moon and
the stars. say, "He s, can see the print OF his
fingers tEere-that they are his handiWOrk." You
tell me that God made the earth as saw it a few
weeks ago with its autumnal glOries on, decked
q for thanksgiving festival, each different tree
hanging out a banner with different device, and
ready for some triUmphal march; the woods, like
some vast cathedral, lighted through stained
windows Of crimson and green and gold, where it
IS not irreYerenc to say one might walk with God:
I answer, Yes. This was a thought OF my
Heavenly Father. This GlOrifes him." A man
may paint = little patch OF tia tree. an angle.
We may gather our bOughs and clusters by the
RTmful and Tarnish them, but they are like the
golden locks Of the dead, clipped off in our agony
20 save something as a mementO Of glory depart
ed. And yet the Creator brushes OF these deco
TatOns Of the landscape as the artist grasses work
OF which he is Weary-makcs way for the snow
pictures and the ice pictures, taking nature in
her yearly round. All this glOrihes God.
And GCd would have Us glOrify him in the same
manner. He would have the angels say Of us:
~ hat noble race is mankind! How kindly
aHectiCned, how pure, how gOdlike, how like
heaven is earth, even as in the petition. Thy will
be done. on earth as it is in heaven ," All the
glory recognized in creation is reflected back
10 the Creator. You walk through an art gallery.
Here and there your attention is arrested by
something eXQuisitely beautiful, evidently the
work Of a master, and the first impulse is to ask
the name Of the artist. Whose work is that?'
This is your involuntary inquiry. And you look
IN the corner for the artists cipher. You want to
pay him the tribute, the reverence which is his
due. There is, once and while, man OF woman
Of whose physical structure, Of whose figure,
carriage, features, we Instinctively say, = How
nCble!' 1t is said that it was never possible for
Daniel Webster TO appear on the streets of
Boston without being the observed OF all Oh
servers. There was something so Godlike in his
very port and mein. 1t is said, too, thai when
ThCTwa ldsder saw Powers bust of the great
statesman he exclaimed, that no mortal ever had
such head as that; it might do iyr Jupiter,
but it never sat on human shoulders. Whose
idea what it to make that magnificent man
grand, peculiar, massive, as some Of the noun
Iaibs Of his native State? There is once ahd
while man or woman whose spiritual nature
seems as though it were almost serlphc; as
though the glory Of the indWelIing spirit OF God
sbCne through 1t; as though that human spirit
were filed with ail-divne purity aai divine ten
soft light and sweet Udors. There is or ee and a
while man whose nature has caught SO much of
radiance from fellowship win the god
R p Tn? R Ris P Ras 62d Di rs 9s9
SO inWTeught within him that t is not irrev-
erent IN us-ior we cannot help ito think Of
words once applied tC the Lord Jesus: And we
OF the Father, full OF grace and truth" There
Jesus: that show they are his disciples; that
glOriN God just as the stars do with this differ
enee, that what material nature does inVOlun-
tarIy, they do voluntarily. And here is where
We pass into new department, into higher
sphere.
MEANING OF TIE TEXT.
The text IS not addressed to material nature
is not addressed to the ground, which was cursed
for mans sake, which brings forth thorns and
tEiStles, and yields harvest of cereals only after
The expenditure Of labor. According to the pro-
pEecy, In the sweat Of thy fcce shalt thou eat
bTeGd.' The text is addressed TO the only depart
ment Of Gods works that can appreciate it; to
the only department Of Gods works that can feel
motive or be swayed by motive; and to that de-
laTtment Of Gods works through whose aliena-
tion from God a curse has fallen upon the other
departments moan 10 man himself. For We
are bought with price: therefore ElOrify God in
your BODY and Your spirit, which are Gods e"
Notice, first, that the claim OF creation is here
waived. Il Is not said, For ye are the work Of
Coos hands" Ii is not said For in his hand
your breath is, and his are all your ways" 1t is
net said, For lie stretcheth out the earth
ever the empty. place., and hangeth the
he garnished The heavens 1t is not said the
Lord, lie Is God. II is he that bath made US, aud
rot we ourselves" Why not? Why docs not
N1OC make this appeal OF natural theology? Why
does lie not take his creatures out under the open
skies and say, Lift up your eyes on high and be-
hold who hath created these things that bringeth
cut their host by numbeTs?' That is a gospel
That is gone through all the earth, and its words
10 the end Of the world. The sun publishes It:
the moon and stars repeat it. It is in the seasOns
il is the birds and flowers it is sereOtyped in the
Cvery-vaTying round Of the year. These created
things were intended to bear the burden Of thu
Creators power and gOdhCad. They do hear il,
as We have already seen, they glOrify him. Why
does not the Holy Spirit employ this gospel in
the text? l reply that this gospel the gospel
creation, VAS published anteCedent to mans
apOstacy; was intended for man as he came fresh
from Gods hands, was intended for beings still
ca rapport with their Creator To men alienated
from Zoo, VINO did not desire to retain him in
their knowledge, the creation needed o new in
teTpreter. Men came 10 be afraid OF his tokens.
That which we know to be the movement Of or.
Derby society, OF intercourse under law. among
the heavenly bodies, they regarded as proof OF
the Divine dlspleaSuTe. They trembied At comets
and eclipScS, and hid themselves. lust as Adam
and Eve hid from the voice Of God, walking in
the garden at the close Of day: and they did this
because Of the inward sense OF guilt.
THE CREATION.
The Creator did not put his heart into
tie creation. 1t was not the embodiment OF |
Inc infinite love. The creation did not |
cost him a sacrifice. Il was rather his de- |
light 10 people space with worlds: TO bring tire
grandeur Of his infinite nature into exercise as
he laid the foundations Of the earth; rs
be set up the pillars Of the ornament; as he dl-
lighted il this exercise Of his OmnipOtence. of his
Infinite skiE. He delighted, too, in tie habitable
parts Of the earth, because that being be ere
Eted in his own image; that being who could mir
TOR eternity the surface OF his soul; That
being who could have fellowship with himself |
was there TO round out 3nd complete his little |
day OF life; to begin to be child of God; to |
;FCss the threshold Of eternal being But into the
material creation God did not put his Father
heart. Reading backwards FRAN the cross we /
can md II there. But we read gpt the page.
IaPpan SLOGdaTd, endowed with the highest of /
Intellectual giitS making his telescopes and cRlcu-
atlIE ecllpses- ia his college cOUrEe had learned
ne amer love in his native America: had laid /
himself upon tie missionary altar before he trans
ported DIS telescope to Mount Seir.arG pointed ont
% the ehiei astrUlpger OF DrOOmiah tie wonders 1
81 the sky. To hisc Saturn and Jupite- and We
rus and Mars, seen through the woaG -.us atuo-
pherc Of Persia woe new gospel O. the Gre !
ttoT's love. But rot 20 the Mussulman by his |
ode, for as yet he had not the key to that love
say. God did not DIST MS heart into h. craa.