The herald., 1897-07-12
ST JOHNS CHURCH
Rev. B. W. R. Tayler on the Text
"Lord, What Is Manpn

INCN. ID. w n. 1dyleT pTedCHeQ yeSler-
day morning at St. Johns church from
the thirty-third verse of the one hundred
and forty-fourth psalm: Lord, what is
man that Thou has such respect unto
him; or the son of man that Thou so
regardest him?" The Psalmist is only
| asking the question of all ages. Man is
not content to accept his existence as
fact without looking back of the great
forces which preceded that fact to find
| out its genesis. Like a silver thread rum
| ming through the dark fabric of life
there is apparent the unquenchable de-
sire of man to know these two things:
first, his origin; and, second, his des-
| tiny.
The Psalmist, when he asked this
question, had in mind the complexity of
mans character, the multiform mani
festations of good and bad which he saw
mankind was capable of. There seems to
be no limit to the virtue which mankind
may develop, nor to the vice which he
may practice. And yet the providential
care of God is exercised over the worst
felons that fill the haunts of viciousness
no less than over the devotee at His altar
shrine. God does not think hopelessly or
meanly of mankind. He knows that in
of living a virtuous life, and He knows
that in the most virtuous there is the
possibility of a fall into the seductive
clutches of vice. Our blessed Lord never
shrunk from contact with the vilest fell
ons of society. He spoke kindly, even
affectionately to the woman taken in
adultery. He permitted sinful woman
to lavish her caresses upon His sacred
her vi 70
of the precious perfume of spikenard. Is
1t not sometimes humiliating to us to see
how little the spirit enters into our es-
Inmates of humanity; humanity, which
perhaps might be less sinful, less guilty
of those excesses which sometimes Star-
tie community, were we possessed of
the spirit of Christ in our judgments and
| censures?
Those who are familiar with the vari-
Gus answers which the philosophers of
the present day have given to the uni
versal question, What is MANI" must
admit that there are three answers
which contain within themselves all the
answers which the world has ever given.
The first contemplates humanity as
cause wholly and completely lost, and,
even admitting a divine wisdom in it's
origin, nevertheless considers that it is
now, by it's own degenerate worthless
ness, wholly and irretrievably beyond
redemption According to this answer,
there is some little justification of such
a conception in certain phases of social
| life which fit before US There is plenty
of corruption, vice, degradation and in
! justice, plenty of that moral putres-
cence which thrusts it's communicating
effiuvium under the nose of the public.
But is there no regenerating influence at
work? Surely God is in the midst of
His people, stretching out His omnipo-
tent hand in many ways to correct
abuses which are only too apparent. The
second answer to the question is one
which deifies humanity. There is no
God but humanity" is its watchword.
Everything is to be simply humanita-
| rian. Religion is to be ehumanitarianism
systematiZ God is to be eliminated
from all considerations of life and it's
problems Humanitarianism is a cult
believed by its followers to solve the
problem of the future by breaking down
with the weapons of insolence the bar
riers of condition which God has created
between Himself and His creatures
There is, let us admit, a sense of fascina-
tion in such enthusiasm, incarnadined
though it be with the crimson of conceit
but its ultimate effect is to debase that
which it strives to exalt, for humanity
can only be enduring and effective when
the foot of man stands upon those un-
shaken foundations where rests the glis-
tening throne of God.
The true answer to the question,
What is MANI" IS given US in the infal-
| lible records of Gods word. 1t is that
| God made man in His image; that man
| lost the likeness when by his own delib-
crate choice he sinned against his Maker,
| and that God sent His own Son to re-
deem mankind and restore in him the
shattered image. Our blessed Saviour
| became man that He might show us the
| lineaments of God in the habiliments of
! humanity. Much as we may speculate
on mans origin and destiny, this much
is true--that man is a being so precious
| in Gods sight that his rescue from sin
and death is held to be worth the tre-
mendous sacrifice on Calvary Some
| times we are shocked or appalled, at
some event which seems to make the
very foundations of society totter and
shake. We are brought face to face with
| all the awful facts of mans vice and
frailty; but let US remember always that
no matter how wicked and sinful soul
may be, there must be in it something
of infinite value, since God would re-
deem 1t by sacrifice which was the
greatest sacrifice in the history of the
world. No matter how vile, degraded
| and unclean a soul may be, God loves it
with an affection infinitely deeper than
the affection of the tenderest mother,
and the blessed Saviour condescended to
| yield up His life for it upon the tree of
| shame.
Lord, What is man? Thou knowest
better than we do. Thou hast created
him; Thou knowest, therefore, the beg
carly materials of which he is made
Thou hast redeemed him; Thou knowest,
therefore, the sacrifice of redemption,
and will not suffer that redemption to
be non-effective. Thou sanctified him;
Thou knowest, therefore, how often he
needs Thy saving grace, Thy constant
help, Thy guidance, Thy love. We know
now the answer to the Psalmists ques-
ton: Lord, what is man that Thou hast
such respect unto him, or the SON of man
that Thou SO regardest him?"
UNIvERsALIsT CHURCH