The record-union., 1898-11-01

was made in the image of God. and
Notwithstanding his degeneration, was
Of infinite worth in Gods sight
Jesus never taught any mean, mon
key theory Of human nature. He taught
that human nature, though marred and
SCARED by sin, was Gods nature still.
Humanity is closely allied to divinity.
In their essential moral attributes God
and man possess the same nature In
less there was essential likeness be-
tween God and man, man could not
love God, and God could not love man.
There is essential identity and kinship
OF nature between divinity and human
ity. To participate in Christ's human
ity is TO become partaker Of the di-
vine nature
The divinity of humanity is a truth
we need to understand more clearly
than we do. 1t is taught all through
this parable. The lost sheep is still a
sheep. The lost silver is silver still.
The lost son is son still-a son Of God.
The sheep that had wandered from the
fold had not lost it's original nature.
It belonged to and was owned by the
shepherd. The shepherd had never dis
owned it. The prodigal son had never
ceased to be a son. He was a diso-
bedient son, a wayward son, a sinful
and SHINING son, but still a son. The
father had never disowned or disinher-
tied him. My brother, listen. You
may be an irreligious man, you may
have wandered far away from the fold
of God; you may have renounced and
denounced the religion Of Jesus, but my
brother, God has not renounced you or
disowned you. You are still a child Of
God. You belong to God. There is
something divine in you. There is a
light in your SOUL kindled by the spirit
Of God, that God has not allowed to
go wholly out. That divine light in
your soul may burn low and falter, but
1t burns still, for God has not forsaken
you, though you may have forsaken
Him. The prodigal was never disowned
or disinherited by the father. Man
turns from God, not God from man.
The lost piece of silver may have
been tarnished. It may have lost much
of its brilliancy and beauty, but it never
| lost its original mineral character It
was silver still.
My brother, the truth is this; you
may be lost to yourself and to society.
You may be defiled by your sins. Your
character may be fouled by indulgence
in vice. You may have animalized and
brutalized your natures by swinish asso-
Citations as did the prodigal and as some
are doing to-day, but underneath this
mass Of corruption lies a soul made in
Gods image, a soul that may be eman-
cipated, regenerated and made beau
tiful with the beauty of holiness. That
soul Of thine is dear to God and He
will never cease to love it. He will
never cease His efforts to save it.
The shepherd sought the sheep be-
cause 1t was his own. The woman
sought the coin because it was her own.
The father welcomed home the prodigal
because it was his own son. The
shepherd felt the loss of the lost sheep.
The woman felt the loss of the lost coin.
The father felt the loss Of the lost son.
The truth that Jesus teaches us there
is this, God feels the loss of every soul
that is lost. The loss of soul is a loss
to God. He feels the loss and therefore
He puts forth effort to find and save the
lost It may be that the deepest and
divinest joy Of God is the joy of win
ming back the love of soul made in
/
presence of the angels Of God over one
sinner that repenteth. The value of a
soul could not be expressed in stronger
terms than that.
The shepherd felt that the lost sheep
was worth seeking. The woman felt
that the lost coin was worth seeking.
Thus Jesus teaches us that man-lost,
sinful, degraded though he be, is worth
| tn "a hTrr q n
| being is worthless. Jesus taught that
man was of infinite value in Gods
sight Man, in whatever condition you
find him, is of infinite worth to God
Jesus saw and knew the degradation OF
humanity, He knew that mankind
needed to be saved, but He knew also
that they were capable of being saved
and were worth saving In the worst
man, in the lowest woman, there is
something worthy an angels reverence
The redemption of their soul is pre-
cious. Their salvation and restoration
elicit the songs of the angel hosts
about the throne. There is joy in
heaven when sinners on earth return
to God.
| If you would know the worth and
sacredness of man, If you would rightly
of Calvary and behold the Son Of God
dying for mans redemption. The great
ness of the sacrifice argues and is proof
of the greatness and worth Of the OBJ
ject for whom the sacrifice was made
| The cross is a revelation Of the worth
of man as we'll as a revelation Of the
| love Of God. With the profoundes'
reverence we may say that man was
!
made for his redemption.
| Phillips Brooks, speaking to young
ministers on their~work, closed by say
ing that the first and highest qualif'
cation for the ministry was the right
value of the human soul. The
preacher he said, must discern in al
men and women some inherent pre-
ciousness for which even the marvel Of
the incarnation and the agony Of Cal
vary was not too great.
Jesus saw, as no one else, the in
herent preciousness of every human
soul His clear vision discerned the
magnificent and divine possibilities that
inhere in every human life. He saw
the def1lement Of man, but he saw
more. He saw the worth underneath the
defilement. A lady in Chicago saw g
handkerchief in the mud Of the street
Her quick eye detected its rare worth
She stopped and picked 1t up. After
ward when she had washed away the
| filth of the street from II, she had 8
handkerchief of the rarest quality. II
she had seen the dirt only, she would
have passed it by. Jesus saw the de-
| Element and degradation that sir
wrought in the human soul, but He
| looked deeper and saw the inherent
worth Of the soul and stopped from