The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1906-11-18

DR.. TALMAGE'S SERMON
c.c.c.C.O.o.O-ooc.o.c.c.O
FRANK DE WITT TALMAeE. D. D.
DE WITT TALMAeE, D. D.

and over every living thing that moveth
upon the earth And God say everything
that He had made, and, behold, 1t was
very good. And the evening and the morn
ing were the sixth day."
Now, what does the word Image" in
the great climax of Gods creation mean2
When God says:."I have made man in My
own image does it mean, as q great au-
thor suggests, that God intended to say
that He was only "a magnified MANI"
Oh, no." you answer; that is not the
meaning of that passage The catechism
tells us that God is a spirit, infinite, eter-
nal and Interchangeable. The idea of wor-
Shipping God as a physical body is ma
terialism little different from that of the
savage. If we do this, we can bow be-
fore any painted idol just as the heathens
have their hideous painted images, before
which they kneel" That is true. my
friend; that is absolutely true II we
are going to worship God simply as a
physical being. we are in exactly the same
position as some of the Asiatic worship
ers, who used to bring food every night
and lay it upon the altar of their idol
for their god to eat. Then because the
rats in the night came and stole the food
they thought their god ate 1t. Further
more they would not believe their idol
did not eat this food until northern con-
queror lifted his battleax and smote the
scurrying out of its ruins as they fee
from sinking ship. Thus when we say,
God made man after his own image"
we mean. Man was created after the
spirit of God" We are all ready to grant
that. One little drop of water is like unto
all the great waters of the nightly deep.
Thus, an inflnitesimal drop OF water,
man was created like unto the infiite
spirit of God. Now, let us study for lit
tie while in what sense man was created
In the image of God
The first godlilke quality which over
whelms the students of eschatology IL
the fact that man Is an immortal be-
ing. Though we may open the Bible
and write up the family records and say
my father was born January I, 1892. we
have no right to say that he died April
r. 1902. We may speak of a child as
having been born into this world on a
certain hour of certain day; but, once
born, that child will never die. He may
die to our sight, but he is not really
dead, but is translated to another life.
He will never die. He will live On, as the
monarchy OF European throne lives on.
No sooner did Queen Victoria of England
breathe her last than the Prince of Wales
became King. Aye, man shall live on
longer than that. He will live on
through the centuries and the millenniums
and the ages. He will live on until the
consultations of the heavens shall be
snuffed out. He will live on until the
very rocks under our feet crumble into
dust with age and the mountains above
us are incinerated and scattered to thu
four corners Of space. Still man will
live on. He will live forever and ever.
He will never die. When God created
man he made him immortal, as he is i'm
mortal
A Wonderful Fact.
This immortality of man Is the most
wonderful fact to me about man. for
when I try to fully grasp what that one
word Immortality means / feel as
though mighty mountain ranges were
towering one above another into endless
space. When l try to conceive that man.
with all his powers of love and hate, Joy
and suffering, will live on and on for
ever. then say, Now I realize why tho
salvation of man was so important that
Christ came here to suffer and die to
achieve It," Immortality! Oh, what a
world AS a bird 1t can fly swifter than
the light yet its wings never tire. Those
wings will continue to fly on forever
and ever. 1.-The wandering Jew" that
Eugene Sue pictures was condemned OH
account of a past sin TO live on until
he outlived all his generation He lived
on, suffering the agonies of>remorse, I'M
til he begged God to let him die But
man does not live on as did the great
character of the French novelist. II
man sins and is condemned for his sins.
he must suffer eternal punishment.
He may plead with God to let him die,
as the wounded soldied sometimes pleads
with his comrades to shoot him to end
his agony, but, may by his inherent ma
ture can never die. Man is immortal.
Man will live on and on forever
To prove to you that man is immortal
we do not have to turn the leaves CT
the Bible alone. We find that this in
finite truth is Unborn In every human