Staunton spectator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1849-1896, 1882-05-09
Creation OF Man.
Extract from a Sermon Of Rev. W. E. Nuns,

Extract from Sermon of Rev. w. E. Munsey
HAN suas created in Gods image
There was a period however, remote
when there was no material thing-noi
a ripple of air, not a ripple of ether
not q particle of matter, not minim ol
water, nothing ponderable, tangible OF
intangible, visible or invisible, no ele.
mentary or monadic thing-an incon-
ceivable and indescribable nihiiity-
nothing. Being no material causes
there were no material effects; hence
there was no light as the result of ma
terial agency, but universal and abso-
lutte darkness filed all space-darkness
as black as the ebon pail of the dead,
black as hell's sable badge and pitchy
scowl; darkness unrelieved by the
briefest spark of feeblest glimmer
infinite as space. In it God only was,
and he filled it, and His Spirit If1oated
instinct with latent creative power upon
every Cimmerian wave which rolled
through the boundless and sbOttOmless
void.
But God resolved to commence q
grand and stupendous work, and in the
Iplenipotency of His friune God head,
Father, Son and Holy Ghost-for the
text reads, "In the beginning God cre-
ated the Heavens and the earth"-by
the almightinees of His overcoming
power, and the triumph of His invinci.
BILE "Let it be DONE commenced in the
darkness in the awful solitude of Him
self, He laid creations foundations
deep, wide, vast, solid, heavy, incum-
bent on Nights brawny back, and told
the conquered king that prostrate upon
the ruins OF his own shattered throne,
he must bear the ponderous load with
out quiver or grOan, and bear it for
ever. Worlds were made, mountains
vertebrated, with hearts of fire, with
granite bones and nerves of richest ore,
With flesh of softest mould, and clothed
with verdant turf fringed with forests
ers end tied there by rivers whose foun-
tain lakelets lay glittering upon their
bosoms like great medalions of solid
crystal, embossed with miniature inn
ages of their planetary sisters shining
away in the zenith. Thus arrayed and
| their huge waists girded with oceanic
zones, they whirled out into spece,
sought their appropriate orbits, and
commenced the run of their eternal cir
cults
In harmonious accompaniment were
the attendant moons circumvolving,
their primaries shaking from their ar
gentine locks sheeny silver rattling
down the sky and baptizing sea and
land with beauty. While from Gods
great anvil, with every stroke of His
mighty hammer suns sprang blazing,
and habited with fiery splendor and
dazzling msgnificence ascended to their
central thrones. And as Atlas of old
foR hvy To L.
heavens on his head and hands, so
imperial Night being conquered, and
forced by his conqueror to bear up the
foundations of all creation, his black
squadrons were utterly confounded and
fled, Light, Beauty and Glory, flung
their mantles of azure, gemmed with
stars, over their retreat to hide their
dusky forms, and singing angels over
powered the discordant thunder of their
panic, with lullabies over the cradle of
an infant universe. Order, full pano.
piled like Athene from the head of Zeus,
sprang from the mind of God, and
completed the work by the geometrical
adjustment of all creations parts and
hung the whole instinct with motion
and propless out in space magnificent!y
balanced.
But was creations work complete?
| 10 duuOuuC6 III 6O 10 I6buST DI0IHdluI0-
it was nearly finished, but not quite
creation had no crown. The work had
assembled in gradational gr. ndeur, and
sublimest method from nought to or
gapic being, but it lacked one piece to
magnifcently cap the whole, perfecting
creation as to architecture and design,
and connecting it in one solid system
with the spiritual above. Every line of
order, every thread of unity, every
chain of degrees had been carried up
the climax, but one piece was lacking
to fasten all the ends of the lines, and
threads, and chains, welding them to-
gether in itself, and ensuring the unity
and permanency of the whole. Crea
ton lacked its micrOcOsmical master
piece, man. Now, God called a coun.
ella formal convocation of the persons
of the adorable Trinity. Notwith-
standing creations stupendous scheme,
and the problems to solve in its build
ing, and though God in Trinity con-
ceived the scheme, and God in Trinity
executed it, yet such council appears
not to have been necessary before; but
now God in Trinity counselled: "Let
us make a man." they resolved: but
how?
The evening star gently opened
window of her splendid home in the
far-of Hesperian, and stepped out upon
a cerulean balcony balustered with sap
phire, her beautiful robe of ethereal
azure, with borders glinted with YER
million falling gracefully about her
lovely form, her fair brow wearing a
crown of diamonds, her luxuriant tress-
es of glittering gold dropping to her
silver sandals, her sweet, sweet face up,
turned, all the stars applauding, and
said: make him like me-" But God
said mo" Now, fair Selene, the gen.
tie moon, queen of the night, her robe
of hoary light fringed with aureate and
trailing in the oceans brine, escorted
by the consultations and coming in
royal procession along the sky, turned
her cold chaste face radiant with beauty,
and looked with her fine eye of con-
sciOus purity and unfeigned reverence
like me-" But God blessed her and
said mo"
Next Eos, the Latin named Aurora,
the superb goddess of the dawn, robed
in saffron attire embroidered with Grim.
son, opened the gates of the Orient with
her rosy fingers, and mounted her char
lot which came rolling along the amber
paved highway of the Levant, her
beautiful veil floating in the breath of
Eurus, and pinned upon her brow with
the star of the morning, and pearly dew
trickling down her cheeks, and sitting
through the air upon pastures floral and
green, and said, make him like me-"
But again God said mo" Next, gold
en-slippered Iris, the charming daugh-
ter of Thamus and Electra-Wonder
and Brightness-standin upon the arch
of the rainbow, f1inging kisses at the
rumbling thunder, and penciling blush
es upon the cheeks of the storm and
smiles upon the ugly face of the tenn
pest, the pattering rain dancing to the
music of her laugh, said, "Make him
like me-" But again God said mo"
Next, "Helios, the grand god of the
sun, and king of the firmanent, the
material type of the immaterial God,
arrayed in his imperial robes woven
with polychromatic woof into a warp
of splendid fire, whose sceptre was a
solid carbuncle tipped with flame, and
whose imperial crown threatened to
kindle the universe into one wide inex-
tinguishable conflagration, mounted his
burning chariot throne rolling upon
wheels oftorrid and amber and drawn by
steeds shod with lightning, whose quiv-
ering names dropDed golden frost. and