The Austin weekly statesman. (Austin, Tex.) 1883-1898, 1896-02-06
INTERESTING THERE
YESTERDAY MORNING IN
THE ASSEMBLY ROOM.
UNDER AUSPICES OF THE YIN. c. A
The Rev. DR.. Wright Delivered a Most
Eloquent Address and Was Follow
ed by DR.. Tgert of Nashville,
Tennessee.

| Christian association as a day of special
prayer for colleges. The day was oh.
served at the University by religious ser.
vices al II o'clock yesterday morning
Quite large crowd was in attendance
and the exercises proved most entertain
ing. The exercises were held in the as.
sembly hall under the auspices of the
Young Mems Christian association of the
University, Professor Galloway presid-
ing.
DIR. Solomon opened the exercises with
prayer, after which DR.. Wright, the
speaker of the occasion, was introduced
and took the following text as a basis
for his remarks:
Isaiah, 43:4-"Sincc thou vast precious
in my sight thou hast been honorable
and | have loved thee"
He spoke as follows:
One of the great questions of life is,
What does God think of us? What do
we amount to in His sight? On the one
hand man is exalted as if he were a fault
less, perfect being, as if sin meant moth
ing in the way of loss and degradation.
On the other hand man is deprecated
to that extent as to be regarded worth
| less. We are even made to sing. "What
1
we stand in the sight of God? He re-
veals to us through His Word that while
| we are in n state of sin and misery, yet
| it is not Il hopeless condition; that not
| withstanding all chat man has lost he
| has not lost a capacity for better things,
even for salvation and glory everlasting.
| Therefore God so loved the world that
He gave His only begotten Son that who
| sOever believeth in Him should not per-
| is a OF
| Young men like to hear about honor.
| No word is more pleasing to them. They
| are very sensitive as to their honor. To-
day desire to speak of the highest pos
| siblc honor, the honor that our Creator,
| God has put upon us and the further
honor He is ready to put upon us.
First-God made us in His own
| image, not dumb, driven cattle" In
telligence and spirituality are ours. Mind,
conscience, memory, Imagination, will,
| affection, spirit. We are intelligence, re-
| spOnsive, responsible beings, and are i'm
mortal, and therefore infinitely precious.
| God can communicate with us and we
can have fellowship with Him.
| Granted that we have lost much by
| sin, we have not lost everything. We
have lost knowledge, righteousness true
holiness, but there is reserved even in our
sin capacity for salvation. What an
| honor to be created in Gods own image!
Another element of honor:
SccOnd-GOd created us to glOrify him.
| The sun, moon and stars glorify God, so
does every bird that sings and every flow
er that blooms, but man is peculiar, re-
| sponsive way, viz: God says, BE We
perfect, for | am perfect; be We holy, for
| | am holy" and through His effective
method of restoration this is possible,
and He says: whether We eat or drink
or whatsoever We do, do all to the glory
| of God" How this elevates life. and
what an honor to be able to glorify God Z.
| Again man is honored:
FOurth-The eternal Son of God be-
| came man, taking on Him our nature.
| This elevates man as nothing else could
| This protects the dignity of humanity.
| | care not whether the theory of evolu-
| ton be true or not. 1t matters not, as
far as our honor and glory are concerned.
| "A human brain was behind Christ s
forehead and human heart was beat
ing in His breast, and He delighted to
call the meanest of mankind His breth-
rem Christ had deep respect for hui
mainly and pronounced an awful curse
| on any one who should speak contemptu-
usly of his fellow man by saying ''raca"
| Ir thou FOOL He honored the man"
that was in every man long before Robt.
| Burns sang "a mans n man, for a that"
Each and all were, before our Lord,
immortal spirits, and men felt that He
was n friend and true brother. and He,
the ideal man. has elevated our humanity
| to His throne on high and made it a
part of His glory forever. Evidently
| Christ thought men worth saving | do
| not wonder men who do not believe in
the preciousness of the human soul do
| not believe in the wOndrOus story of
| Bethlehem's Manager How can they?
| The mystery staggers their intellects, and
| the end seems unworthy of the means /:
but Christ thought so much of us that
| thus as the Great Shepherd the Son of
Man came to seek and to save that which
| to intimate that men were insignificant.
| He had deep respect for humanity.
| What an honor to our race that He
clothed Himself with our nature.
Another element of honor:
| Fifth-Jesus Christ died to save men.
He did not pass us by in our sin and
misery and ruin. Does not this show
that God puts high estimate upon us?
Think of the majesty of this Being who
gave His very life for you and me on
| Calvary's cross. The preciousness of
our nature and the honor God puts upon
us is shown by the price of our redemp-
ton. All that weary agony of body and
of soul: the bloody sweat. the crown of
thorns, the spittings and smitings, the
| m0cKlngS, the wounds lie suffered, the
| words He spake, are one long. deep tes-
| timony to the preciousness of the human
| SOUL and that man. even in his utmost
degradation, is worth saving. Such hon
or does the death of Gods Son put upon
| humanity.
Another honor is:
Sixth-The possibilities of humanity,
and mans capacity for growth for i'm
provement. for elevation, for glory here
| and hereafter. man has within, him under
| Gods grace, the possibility of the highest
heaven. We are awestruck when we
consider what man may become in the
limitless eternity stretching before us
all. Not that the Gospel condescends to
| fatter man. 1t alone dares tell him the
full truth about himself. 1t tells him
that he is n temple in ruins. but that out
of those very ruins Gods grace accepted
by him will re-create him Il glorious tenn
pie to shine in majestic glory. forever
resounding with the praise of God. Men
sometimes hate and deride the old doc
trine of divine truth because they think
| they put them down in the mire But
no! They tell man of his true condition
of shame and ruin, only to offer him the
only adequate remedy, and thereby TO
cyalt and honor and glorify him forever.
History is full of examples of men res
cued from the lowest depths and ex-
| allied by Christ's saving love to the high