The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-05-04
State Of Montana.

ture clusters around these two facts
like the filings of steel around a mag
net. The great fact of old Testament
history is, God created man in His
own image" Our ideas of God express
ed by such words as omnipotence, om-
niscience, omnipresence, we have gain
ed by the revelation of His being in the
Bible, or the manifestation of His glory
in nature. We think of Him as reign
ing In unapproachable splendor, in
glory, majesty, dominion and might
Made in the image of God, refecting
the attributes of Diety, possessing them
all, man is the similitude of God quail
itatfvely. God-like in achievements,
yet does he claim his highest eminence
by his constitutional alliance with God.
The central fact of the New Testa-
ment is, God manifest in the flesh"
AS the medium through which sod
manifests Himself 70 all created intel
hgences, greater honor has been con-
ferred on human nature than was ever
given to the angels about the throne
of God. The diamond gives value to
the setting and the lapiiary places the
most valuable stone in the most valu-
able setting. Deity in n,man nature
was the jewel of dtvinI.y IN the setting
of humanity. Col manifest in flesh,
was more than a revelation of God; IL
was revelation of man u man. The
more we know about God, the mere we
know about man, and the more we
know about man in VIII Om was en-
shrined the divine essence, the rore
we will know about 81 a. Deity man
fest in flesh, was humanity full orb ed
and shining with the splenior If God.
1t is a mischievous philosophy that
teaches that God is a divine inam,nence
in humanity as in the lily and the leaf.
In these He is an abstraction elusive
and unknowable; in man, God is cloth
ed with love and all spiritual grace
Measured by the central fact of the
New Testament Scripture the nature of
man in Jesus Christ excels that of the
angels, is above that of the heavenly
hierarchies and has reached the lofti-
est eminence, the throne of God
The interest in our study deepens
with the study of the Bible answer to
our question. 1t is a significant fact
that the question Is asked in the Old
Testament and in the New only as a
quotation from the Old Scripture. Each
time it is asked with reference to a
different answer and embraces the orr
gin, nature and destiny of man. It's
first occurrence is in the book of Job
and asked by him in the days of his
affiiction. Impoverished, bereaved of
his children, deserted by his friends
and smitten with boils in anguish of
y
self with sackcloth and sitting on the
ground in ashes, he voices the inquiry
of every sufferer across whose soul has
swept the wave of sorrow. and against
whom the terrors of God have set them
selves, as in battle array. What is
man that thou shouldest magnify him
and that thou shouldest set thine heart
on him and that Thou shouldest visit
him every morning and try him every
mn N a ga Ia mi "a
come trooping in and shut off the light
from the soul, turning every pleasure
into bitterness and every breath Is a
pain, then the cry of affliction takes
this form and complains of Gods
watchfulness. To Job, unenlightened
by a knowledge of the purposes served
by the ministry of suffering the ques-
ton remained unanswered, for not un-
til 1900 years later was the solution
reached in the moral development of
the Man through suffering. In vain his
friends sought to find in their philoso-
ply the reason for the humbling of the
spirit of Job; they reasoned from
wrong premises, for in their philosophy
every affliction was a punishment for
sin and every sufferer a criminal before
God. Conscious of the integrity of his
life, Job longed to appear before God.
saying: "Oh that I knew where l
might find Him that I might come even
to His seat. I would order my cause
before Him and fill my mouth with ar
guments; l would know the words
which He would answer me. and un-
derstand what He would say TO me-"
The question is asked again 500 years
later by the thoughtful king of Israel.
and this time with reference to the
place of man in the scale of graduated
being. Familiar from his boyhood with
the wonders of the night. he watched
the moon walking in brightness and
the stately procession of stars across
the field of heaven. With adoring won
der he saw an omnipotent God in the |
heavens above him, from whose hands |
fell suns and moons, and stars in the |
Of creation like golden grain
from the fingers of the husbandman.
From the contemplation of these. the |
Psalmist-K is led to think of him. |
self the subject of the creative hand, !
and exclaims, When / consider Thy |
heavens. the work of Thy fingers. the |
moon and the stars which Thou hast |
ordained. what is man that Thou art |
mindful of him, and the son of man
that thou visitest him? For Thou hast |
made him a little lower than the an
gels and hast crowned him with glory /
and honor" To him the heavens /
seemed worthy the supreme attention /
Of the Divine mind, and IL was a mat 1
ter of establishment that 50 much honor /
and glory should be bestowed on $50 /
small a creature as himself. and that /
God should take notice of and visit 4
him. Compared with the universe, man /
seemed so significant that the Psalm /
list was overwhelmed by the Divine no. /
tice. The heavens suggested thoughts I
Of his own insignificance and he won I
ders why the Divine mind is not Who'll {
" occupied with the government Of the
with which He has filled the
vast amplitude OF space. He recognized
the royal powers of man, the dominion
given him in the vast animal creation
as its acknowledged head and chief, yet
allied to the worm in weakness and In I
bondage to fear. These extremes of 4
nature were TO those of old wholly ir- /
and were not brought into
with the great plan Of .
existence until a thousand years later. 4
To the ignorant man the starry worlds +
all seem deranged for want of a per- 4