The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1908-03-03
DR., SCUDDER'S
BIBLE TOPICS
sin Gods Image" the Subject
of Fourth Sermon of
the Series.

Rev. Doremus Seudder, D. D., on Sun
day morning delivered his fourth dis
course on ''Old Testament Topics.
The title was "In Gods Image" ant
the reading lesson Genesis 2, 4-25. Fol
lowing is the sermon:
Genesis 2:7-And Jehovah God form
ed man of the dust of the ground, ant
breathed into his nostrils the breath OF
lifepan man became living soul.
"What is man, that Thou art mind
full of himl
Or the son of man that Thou visitest
hima
To this inquiry the authors of the
first and second chapters of Genesis
give a luminous and rarely suggestive
answer. "God made, - God created,
- God formed man" are some of the
expressions they use with reference to
the human structure. These verbs
"create, "make, - form, are
taken from the plastic arts and signify
'to cut, - ''to press or feel with the
hands, - to carve Other expressions
culled from Old Testament writers seem
also to show that Hebrew thinkers did
not consider that the construction of
man s physical frame was simple, easy
process.
81 am fearfully and wonderfully made.
Ny frame was not hidden from Thee,
When | was made in secret,
And curiously wrought in the / st
parts of the earth.
Thine eyes aid see mine uniformed 81 D.
stance;
And in Thy book were all my members
written,
Which day by day were fashioned,
When as yet there was none of them. -
If the Bible were a text book of
science, the thorough going evolutionist
might take some comfort from such a
passage as this.
''God formed Carved, fashioned)
man of the dust of the ground. - No
revelation was needed TO buttress the
phrase "of the dust or the ground. -
The solemnest human experience, death
and dissolution, told early man this and
led him to call the earth mother. But
how formed and by what power? The
HUW HdS tUoS1 GldDlC W Int AICOAO".
He never endeavered to answer it and
the steps in the wondrous process were
never disclosed until within a brief cen
fury. We know now that man Is body
was gradually, built up through count
less ages from simpler living forms. L
know of no more dramatic, clear, con-
else forthsetting of how science con-
ceives this story of the human frame
than that contained in Henry Drum
mond S .fAscent of Man. - Every in
telligent Christian of today should be
familiar with it. No novel is more de-
readable or appeals more
deeply to ones absorbed attention.
Now while the answer evolution -
satisfies the majority today as a reply
to the question "How was man IS body
it is of no help in solving
the problem ''by what power" Here
the wisdom of the world,' though
fresh from its volution-victory, finds
no way to win. Tt is speeches.. Reeve
lation must give reply or there can be
none 1t does give it. HGod formed
man. The sole force in mans crea-
ton was God. This disclosure was
not confined to the Israelite, any more
than its companion truth, the unity of
God, which was regnant in Zoroastrian-
ism Notwithstanding its dualism and
was reflected more or less dimly in other
faiths. The Hebrew s prominence lay
in the uneompromising clearness of his
"God created man, Here
again he claimed not to have made a
discovery but to have been the nearer
of Gods voice. And the religious con-
seriousness of the world sings . Amen
to this declaration. 1t asserts that the
of man s inner life estab-
lish the truth of this Genesis revela-
ton. 1t cannot be proved. No scien-
tifc demonstration of it is within the
reach of hope. But because God wills
pers it in your soul and mine as He
did to the ancient prophets of Israel
we know it to be true and this knowl-
edge is as certain as anything which
human mind can grasp.
This thinker of twenty-seven cen
turtles ago added to his description of
into his nostrils the breath of life.
The author of the first chapter of Gen
esis expressed the same idea thus:
God created man in His own image;
In the image of God created He him. -
There is something more than dust in
the human compound Read first these
words in the twenty-sixth verse of the
first chapter of Genesis. "Let us make
man in our image, after our likeness
Put alongside this from Genesis 2:7:
"And Jehovah God formed man. OF
the dust of the ground,
And breathed into his nostrils the
breath of life. -
The declarations balance "In our
image" may be taken to correspond to
dust of the earth,' latter our like
ness'' to parallel "the breath of life. -
The words in our image originally
mean Gin our shadow The idea is
that in the handful of ground
dust which God formed into a body for
man, the ancient Hebrew saw the very
shadow of God. Why not2 There is no
implication that God who is Spirit hath
a body but rather that even in man s
physical frame there is a forthshadow-
ing of goolikeness. II is true. Upright
like God s righteousness instead of on
fours with the higher animals, upward
looking and forward looking with con-
slant hope for better things, man S body
has divine possibilities. Let it yield to
the good and how wondrously God IS
Spirit dwelling within doth paint upon
its very features and carriage purity,
truth, kindness, love, power. "There IS
PhilliDS Brooks rouoing DOWN +ba