Omaha daily bee., 1909-09-11
Man is Not
Atom, Says
Rabbi Coin
Marvellous Mind Most stupendous
Manifestation Of Nature, Second
Only to Creator.

1T is the soul Of man that Is sublime;
II Is the nature Of man that is majestie;
II Is the mind OF man that Is marvellous.
That which comprehends the universe must
be as great rs. II not greater than, the
universe. Second only to the Power that
creates Is the intellect that understands,
the heart that feels. the soul that wor-
ships. and adorns."
These declarations were made by DR..
Frederick Cohn, RABBIT of Temple Israel,
in his opening lecture at the temple FRI
day evening. THE Supremacy of the Spirit
uAl." was the subject OF the rabbits lee
ture in which he decried those men who
seek to belittle man and call him but an
atom on the earth's surface"
Or. Cohn said in part:
Man is infinitely more than even the
most s~tupendous manifestation of nature.
His mind IL more than the mlghtiest
mountain-that scars above their summit,
that o'ertops their Hottest crags and deep
est anyons: that can even invent material
means by which their highest peaks are
scaled and their yawning abysses bridged
and safely orossed-the marvellous mind Of
man that has at last taught him how to
fly with wings like a bird, and how to
reach successfully the most distant, the
most dangerous, hitherto inaccessible por-
lions Of the globe, as the other day Cap
talns Cook and Peary almost simultaneously
announced that they had reached the North
pole"
Mans mind is mIghtier than the mount
aims, his soul is deeper than the sea; his
spirit is unfathomable. 1t is this that
makes him superior to the whole material
universe.
There are those who would decry and
belittle man. who d~elighttte urge his in
significance and even nothiness in
comparison with the mighty universe. They
point out the immensely Of the cosmos,
its almost inconceivable greatness, with
its infinitude Of space filled with world $
stretching out into endless number, the
smallest Of which is many times larger
than our globe, and they ask what is
man in comparison with the universe who
ia so little, like an ant or tiniest insect
ar infinitesmial creature upon the earth
Nineteenth century science sought to dis.
credit man, to annihilate him, but 1t IL
being recognized more and more that this
size-argument has been overworked.
That brilliant English writer, Gilbert
ChesteTton, in his Orthodoxy has dealt
1t some clever blows. and, as Prof. Foster
has remarked, The worth Of man is MOI
determined by the size Of the house h,
lives in.
The universe, be 1t ever so large, is bu.
mans house. his outward covering. II fit
him, even though in Emerson language 1
fits him closely 1t is but his materia
abode, the arena Of his earthly activities
the scenery, II you please, OF the divin,
drama Of his life. In the mind of man
the universe, wonderful as 1t Is, is com
pretended in a thought, and in deepes
analysis the whole cosmos shrinks an,
shrivels to but a phenomenon In conscious
nessi
Not in the world without, glorious an,
majestic as II is, with its skies Of lovelies
hue, its mountains rearing their snow
! crested crags to the heavens; it's seas, wit
their multitudinous waters; not In all ma
! ture, musical, mystical, magical; but Fl
human nature, in the world within, in tn
soul, in the wonderful heart Of man. II
the inexplicable life of the emotions witt
It's founts Of feeling. it's cataracts of pas
sion, its deeps Of prayer-there. in natur
at its best and highest, are joy and low
and light. and gertrude and peace, an
help for pain; all spiritual phenomena, a.
moral qualities, all expressions, variou
and beautiful Of the deepest and dIvinest 1
: man."