The record-union., 1893-10-16
THE GREATNESS OF MAN."
He Was Not Made for the Earth, But
the Earth for Him.
Synopsis OF the Sermon Delivered by
Rev. T. j. Horner. the Uni
versalIst Pastor.

At yesterdays services at Pythian
Castle Rev. T. J. Horner, in his sermon
before the Congregational Society, took
for his text Mark IL, q: ''The Sabbath
was made for man, not man for the Sab
BATH
Professor Henry Drummond has
famous sermon called "The Greatest
Thing in the World" meaning human
passion-love. Now. if that which is
common to humanity is the greatest thing
in the world, what must we say about
him to whom the greatest thing in the
world is common property, or may be
common property?
Shall we not say that he is the greatest
being in the world and, if the greatest
being, shall we not say that the world
was made for him and not he for the
world? And if the world was made for
man, is he not greater than the world?
Wonderful being is man! The stars
and the planets are meaningless aside
from mind. The universe was without
form and void until mind was developed;
then it took on the form of order and
beauty.
The morning stars sang together for the
first time when the human ear took in
sound and the human mind compre-
hended the difference between harmony
and discord.
The rainbow had no color until mans
eye caught the prismatic hues and gave
shem name.
Space and time are subordinate to him;
they exist alone in mind. He finds moth
ing in the universe greater than himself
except the universe as a whole with him
self as a part of it, and then his mind
tormulates the thought of God as the
Supreme mind will and heart of it all.
When thought descends to the particu-
lar man il Immediately becomes cramped
and narrow, because SO few have realized
what greatness is in man, and yet hui
manity is made up of individuals, each
potent with latent possibilities that make
him the promise OF something wonderful.
After all it is the attainment of the in
divIdual here and there along the line of
human history that gives US the evidence
of mans greatness.
Men should not think meanly of them
selves. If they do, others will also. We
should place the highest estimate upon
ourselves that we can possibly live up to
and then advance the standard as we
approach it. Man is to be judged by his
best achievements, not by his poorest.
1t is the hest in him that lives. 1t is the
greatest and best in him that is the meas
ure of his manhood.
In the past man has thought too meanly
of himself. His religion has magnified
God at his expense. Until quite recently
he has been taught to look upon himself
as worm. Queer idea, that God should
be father of nothing higher in the scale of
being than worm! How could a being
who looked upon himself as only fit to
crawl amount to very much?
This world is full of beauty, full of joy,
full of all that mans nature requires 10
develop the human soul into God-like-
ness; but man has been crawling around
in it, coveting its joys, but afraid to come
out into the broad sunshine of God love
and take what was provided for him
perchance he might be burned. Like
thief, he felt that what joy he did get was
stolen.
It is an old lie, friends, that stolen joys
are sweetest; that there is pleasure in sin;
that the devil makes his children happy
in this world that he may the more enjoy
their agony in the next Sin has never
yet produced pleasure, and never will.
Every law of mans moral nature teaches
him the opposite, yet SO long has he been
taught the other thing that it is hard for
him to realize that he can be good and en-
JOY life at the same time.
1t is hard for him to realize that the
Sabbath, much less the universe, was
made for man, and many still act as
though some great penalty attaches to
the enjoyment of life on that day.
The Worlds Fair is bewildering in it's
greatness, but man, it's maker, overpow-
ers by his greatness in the presence of
his works, Queer idea that he should
have been made to be burned
The world was made for man-not the
white, the black or the red man, but for
man, and it Is the duty of the govern
ment in the world to see that he gets it,
share and share alike. Instead of that,
our Government opens a new strip and
1. Il, Al /.
and, like wild animals, men rush in,
trampling down the weaklings in the
race and thinking of nothing but getting
all that their selfish greed can hold.
In our public school system the Gov
ernment is laying the world at the feet Of
our children. Accursed be he who would
destroy it
AS man rises in intelligence he desires
to perpetuate his greatness. He invents
letters. The greatness OF people is the
theme of that peoples literature.
HLiterature appeals to all hearts because
all hearts have the same yearnings for
greatness unattained. That literature
that lives longest is greatest, and comes
more nearly expressing what is common
to all lives. Shakespeare is great because
he is human. Burns will never die be-
cause in simple homely rhyme he un-
folds the story OF every heart. Man is
the theme of every truly great poem. His
form tests Ine peTIectlOn OF Inc sculptor s
genius and his passions inspire the
strains of music and of song
Last of all, his yearnings for commun-
ion with the infinite are the basis of all
religions. The sacred books of the world
are nothing more than the expression OF
the human soul in its search for the di-
vine. 1t is the humanity of the bible
that makes it great. Only those passages
in it that express the universal human
heart ara the most sacred. Ii WAS fha
man Jesus that left such an impression
on his followers that they founded a reli-
gion on his name. It is the human ele-
ment in Christianity that gives it its hold
upon the world to-day. The religion of
the future Will be a humanitarian reli-
gion. Man its greatest theme. Human
ity its greatest consideration. not forms
or ceremonies or hturgieS.
In these days man, like the prodigal, is
coming to himself and saying: Il will
arise" No longer a worm crawling in