The record-union., 1898-11-01

heal. Man has no sin that the grace
of God cannot erase. He is able to
save unto the uttermost. From the
uttermost depths to the uttermost
nights He can save.
| Jesus teaches US to reverence human
nature. We must never speak disdain-
fully of man, for in SO doing we speak
| disdainfully Of God in whose image
man was made. Jesus said that If
we undervalue the least and lowest OF
| humanity we undervalue Him, and II
we undervalue Him we undervalue
Him who sent Him. It is as though
| He said: I'VE all go together, God,
| Christ and the lowest man." The gos-
| pei of Christ will not permit US to
| think meanly of ourselves OF of others,
| because it reminds us of our holy ORR
gin and holy destiny Call not that
common which God has cleansed. The
cross of Jesus puts the stamp divine
on every human soul.
On the first page of the Bible is writ
| ten that magnificent sentence: God
| said, let us make man in our own
image after our likeness. And God
created man in His own image, in the
image of God created He him." That
| is our Magma Charta. That is the
| great charter Of mans sacredness,
mans dignity, mans worth the world
| over. Man is divine in his origin and
divine in his destiny. Sin is not mans
normal condition. Sin is a temporary
| blight on mans nature, and shall be
entirely removed. The command, BE
We holy, for I am holy" is prophetic
of mans true destiny and dignity. Be
| loved, now are we the children of God.
| We shall see Him as He is and be like
Him.
| Man is sacred because he is related
to God by a nature that no other Gre
ated being bears. He was created in
| Gods image. He possesses a living
soul. He has within him the possi-
| bilities of an Immortality Of glory
/ When the stars fade and fall, when the
heavens are rolled away as a SCROLL
when the angel stands with one foot
on the sea and one on the land, and
proclaims through the universe, time
was, but time shall be no more-then
mans life will have only begun. In
| the immensities of Gods great uni
verse, in the illimitable fields of space,
| you and / will have place and life.
It doth not yet appear what we shall
be. But as the lily is more beautiful
than the bulb from which 1t grew, as
| the oak is more majestic than the
acorn from which it sprung, as the
eagle soaring amid mountain peaks is
more glorious than the egg from which
it was Matched, SO and much more
majestically glorious and beautiful will
our resurrected life be over the life
we live here in the flesh. This ca
pability of illimitable development and
enlargement is the God-given birth
right of every human soul. It doth
not yet appear what we shall be. We
will come to our true selves, to our
full divine manhood, in another sphere.
AS we have borne the image of the
earthly, we shall also bear the image
of the heavenly.
am confident that we have put un-
due emphasis on the doctrine Of hu-
man depravity. We have heard more
sermons on mans depravity than on
his divinity. There is a leveling up
needed. We have heard SO much of
mans sinfulness, mans littleness,
mans degradation, that we have al
most overlooked his sacredness and
| dignity and worth. We have been
called poor, miserable sinners, 'un-
clean lepers," "groveling worms Of the
dust" so much that we have forgotten
that we are the children of God, heirs
to a throne and a kingdom whose glory
is transcendent and fadeless.
Human nature is deformed and de-
filed by sin, I know Sin is an awful,
hideous, hellish fact. 1t has wrought
unutterable havoc in the soul of man.
| The depths of foulness to which hu-
man souls have sunk are appalling.
| Out Of the heart of man, Jesus says
there proceeds evil thoughts, adulter-
les, foundations, murders, thefts, COW
etousness, blasphemy, all these things
come from within and defile the man.
rThe Bible speaks Of mans sin in Ian
guage that none can gainsay. The
| awfulneSs of sin cannot be too luridly
| pictured The wreck and ruin that
sin effects in the human soul no tongue
can describe. But while sin is an awful
fact, we must never forget the essen
tial inherent sacredness Gnd divine
ness of mans nature. The moral ma
ture of man may be dwarfed and mu-
tilated and defiled, but it is never
wholly destroyed. If we look, as
Browning teaches, we will find sin the
absolutest drench Of dark some stray
beauty beam to the despair Of hell"
The maniac among the Gardarene
tombs, dominated and driven by evil
powers, is not wholly demonic. The
divine in him cried to Jesus for help.
Help was given, and he was perfectly
restored What was divine in him
triumphed over what was demonic.
The outcast woman, who with tears of
penitence washed the feet of Jesus,
was not all foul. There was germ
of pure womanhood in her darkened
soul Jesus looked on her with COM
passion, saw the silver in the lost,
tarnished coin, and by his gracious
touch restored her to pure and beauti-
full womanhood Do we truly compre
hend and really believe the truth we
often sing?
Down in the human heart, crushed by
the tempter.
Touched by a loving hand, wakened by
Chords that were broken may vibrate
once more.
Let us believe in the divinity Of hui
manity. Let US cultivate the genial,
hopeful optimism of Jesus. Let us
learn from Him to look on man with
reverence and speak of him with affec-
ton. In the lost coins about us, let
us look not for the rust and tarnish,
but for the silver. Let US never forget
that those lost ones belong to the treas
ury of the Great King, and may be
restored. The soul may be dark, very
dark, but the deepest estrangement
from God is no proof Of the impossible