The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1880-02-11
THE LITTLENESS OF MAN


with the mutitudes of creatures from the
lower to the higher organisms that have
swarmed on the earth in past ages, with
the universally of life at the present time
In the earth in the ocean, in the air.
The telescope continues to reveal new
depths in space occupied by great sys-
tens; the microscope continues to detect
organized life almost inconceivably mi
mute. And everywhere there prevails
the Reign of Law and the most perfect
order
Let us also consider the vast number
of human beings that have been swept
from the earth The population of the
globe is now some 100000, and in
a few years every single one of this vast
multitude will have mingled with the
dust Hundreds and thousands of mil
lions have appeared and passed across
the stage like the painted moths that
come and SO with the returning summers
And yet man continues to burst with
Pride, and every unit in the vast aggre-
gate of humanity struts upon the stage
with the ineradicable sentiment of his
Importance. We rarely meet one, no
matter how humble his position in life,
who does not conceive himself the centre
of interest in this vast system, and his
little individual relations matter of
profound concern in the cosmos We can
imagine bug crawling upon the hearth
fancying that all is directed for its es-
pecial benefit and stifening up with
pride in the presence of other bugs that
form the little circle behind the book
case to which it belongs.
Self-consciousness, self-worship, burns
IN the breast of every man, woman, and
child, and all indulge in that sentiment
OF selt-importance and self-satisfaction
which filled the bosom of the naked king
of Dahomey, when he asked the British
traveller, "What the king ub Great
Britain tink ub me?"
Never was there greater illusion, a
more thorough mistake. The king oil
Great Britain does not think anything OF
the king of Dahomey, and if the life OF
the reader of these lines were to termi-
nate when he lays down this paper, the
universe would not be moved any more
than the wooded hills and plains when
solitary leaf drops from its support
These things ought to teach us to walk
softly and to bear ourselves meekly as
we perform our part in life. The uni
verse or, if you choose, the world, was
not made for you, but this great globe,
and all which it inherit, was created. as
the Presbyterian Catechism has it. for the
GLORY OF GoD You are mere atom in
the vast design, and when you set out in
life with the idea of your own large pro
portions, and the purpose to make great
figure in society, you are falling into a
grave mistake that provokes only com
passion and amusement among higher
beings, if such are ever amused at human
vanity
You are not only mere infinitesimal
part OF the whole-like one of those mi
croscopio little animals whose skeletons
constitute the vast chalk beds of Europe
and which were so small that, according
to Ehrenberg, it takes 100000 of them
to make one cubic inch of ohalk-but Won
are In worse plight than this; you are
a condemned creatacre-a being desper-
ately wicked, and living (until you get
down in sackcloth and ashes) under the
wrath of God.
What will you do, when his wrath is
" kindled but little?"
You are greatfn only one aspect you
have an undying principle of life; and it
IS in your power to develop that until it
shall shine as the stars forever" On
any other line you are nothing-and
worse than nothing appointed to de-
struction, to condition of suffering and
degradation, which, if you realize in your
trans-mundane experience, cit were bet
ter. for that man if he had never been
born.
WE asked the ~ Y. Observer and the