The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-12-25
MAN..

| (26-28) That man is a child of GoD is de-
clared on the very title page of revelation.
"We will make man in our own image, after
our likeness" Man is not only the last but
/ the highest, noblest created thing. He is of
different origin from every other living Great
ure. His higher being is distinguished by
the terms which describe the creative acts:
''And COP said, Let the waters bring forth
abundantly the moving creature that hath
| life. Let the earth bring forth the living
creature after its kind, cattle and creeping
thing, and beast of the earth after its kind
! and it WAS So" But 'GoD said, Let us make
man in our image" All other living Great
ures are brought forth by their mother earth.
Man alone springs from GoD, the Father.
The body of man, it is true, is formed from
the earth, but the man himself is a breath
of COP. He is a spiritual being, and of
heavenly origin. The Fatherhood of COP
was established when He created man in His
| own image. This was the real beginning of
| the kingdom of COP upon the EARTH and of
the revelation of COP in humanity. Man
was divinely endowed with powers that give
him dominion over all created things
(29-31) The food of man and beast is pre-
scribed. Man is to subsist on the grain and
fruits of the earth. The green plants and
grass were designated as the food of animals.
Does it appear from this that it was the pri-
NAL, creative will of COP that man should
not slaughter animals for food, or that ami
mails should not prey upon one another? Is
| the fact which now prevails SO universally in
| l. y 7
lent and painful destruction of life,-a pri-
mary law of nature, a divine institution
founded in the creation itself, or is it one of
the consequences of mans moral delinquen-
cy, the readjustment of his physical environ
ments to the fact of his living in transgres-
sion of the higher laws of his being? Ger
tainly it was not till after the flood, and the
extreme moral degeneracy of the race that is
| described as coincident with it, if not the
moral cause of it, that the present order was
authorized by the Word of COP. The fact
that no carnivorous animals existed at the
first, and will not exist in the complete moral
renewal and transformation of the world
into the true kingdom of COP, is plainly sug-
gested from the prophetic announcements in
Isaiah XII. 6-8; XIV. %; where the cessation of
sin in the heavenly state is described in fig
ures, at least, that imply the cessation of
slaughter and the eating of flesh, even by
animals. By any fair Interpretation of the
words employed, animals must be included
in the declaration of Paul to the Romans
! (viii. 22). True, the present order of things
is scientifically natural. But since science
does not pretend to have discovered all the
phenomena of nature, nor to be able to ex-
plain all the changes it has discovered, may
not the present order of things be the result
of change that has not yet been discovered,
and might not be scientifically explained if
it were? The present order does not seem to
be good, nor did it appear desirable to the
prophet and apostle that it should be perpet-
uated. But "GoD saw everything that He
had made, and behold, it was all very good"
"GoD made man upright; but they have
sought out many inventions" (Ecclesiastes
vi. 29). "The creation shall be delivered
from the bondage of corruption into the lib
erty of the glory of the children of GOD"
''The earnest expectation of the creation
waiteth for the revealing of the sons of GOD"