Evening bulletin. [volume] (Honolulu [Oahu, Hawaii]) 1895-1912, 1910-12-17

fee. It was the divinity in man that
set the old beast uses OF his power
beneath, us no more worthy of him,
and strOve against their doing as a
sin. For mans divinity did more
than dream uf making the animal
within him and the conditions of toll
and strife and struggle to exist sur.
rounding him the means of growth as
Gods child ought to grow. The
dreams became his ideals first dimly
seen then loved. then willed to be
his own. then wrought into the fabric
of an even nobler likeness to his
Heavenly Father And that struggle
10 fulfill an ideal which the divine in
him has ever been lifting higher, that
struggle ont of which is coming the
strength of character. the iron will
the godlike might of spirit which God
wants in his making of man.-that
struggle accounts for all the history
of sin, and points, at least to what
God means by it's existence.
Genesis is right; man was created
In the image OF God, and the faith Is
sound which says that likeness has
increased as the centuries have come
and gone. And today we men and
womcn,-who are sinless and per-
feet by the standards men hallowed
few thousand years ago,-we, to-
day, accuse ourselves of sin and inn
perfection because the divine in US
forever sets the ideal far ahead. In
stead of destroying my faith In mans
divinity. sin reveals to me the price
at which good and wise aud loving
God was willing to create His like
ness In Ills child. Sin shows me
that God counted mans divinity
worth all the "evil" of strife and
shame and strlncs II cost.
In his word of long ago were
wicked, shameless men.-and women
too. More hopelessly bad and out.
cast than today, for society was more
cruel to its sinners and made it hard.
er for them TO recover. And they
were SHINING on in sheer abandon to
their fate, despairing that any better
wny was possible to them One man
there was who had more faith In
them than that He was no shrcwd
man of tho world, this Galilean pro
phet He had not learnt TO set down
any child Of God MS reprObate He
believed their evil doing was not the
true expression Of their being, that
by inmost and understandable affinity
they belonged to diviner way of
life.
And In that sublime and simple
faith of his he called them to arise
with him and together they would be
Gods ministers on earth. And be.
hold, wicked men, abandoned women,
rose and went with him. and ont of
sinners and outcasts, saints and he
rocs came,
Where was the strength Of his an
peal? II was whore he believed II to
be- II was in them. The way of sin
was not their real way True they
had taken 1t, making alldoing the
very business of their lives: but II
was by letting low conditions, evil
habits oyermaster them, II was by
surrender to despair II was not by
the nature and constitution of their
being You remember how Jesus
said Of the prodiSal not in his riot.
ing and Drunkenness not acting the
beast. but repentant, and turning
homeward. acting the man again
"He came to himself" And you have
hut TO follow any who have ever
turned from wickcdness to be the dis
ciples Of such one as Jesus you
have hut to note their coming to
themselves, their Joy in the new life,
10 conclude as you compare 1t with
the unrest, the Indebtedness they