The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1913-01-07
RELIGIOUS
WORLD
5HE SUPREME sovEREIGNTTEs

Tic International Sunday School Les
SON for JanuaFy II Is. MAN the
Crown Of Creation" Genesis 1: 26.
n: 2: 4-25: Ps. B.
by WILLIAM 7. ELIIS.)
And little men Of little soul,
Rose up 70 buy and sell again
So, in impatience. cried the poet who
had met his beloved: TO him it SEEM
ed an a6ront that the petty trafic
VI everydaynesS should 90 on as u.s.
VA in the presence Of such a su-
preme hour as loves reunion. AL
lowing for the poets fancy, it does
still seem to all of US who are look
ers-on at life that men are a bit too
deeply engrossed in trivialities, with
out taking account Of the supreme
Ner1tles. 1t is wholesome and edu-
cational for us to think about the
themes that are elemental and eter-
nal
We spend much gray matter upon
men; out little upon man; yet to
know man Is to possess the key to
men. Here comes a Sunday school
lesson, in this new years course,
calling Us back to the very genesis
of things, to the creation Of nan
slpon the earth. Here is large room
for deep thinking. Without going
off into any Of the alluring by-paths
which curious speculation opens on
every side, let us look to the theme
schenectady, to see if we may no
learn how to hold our heads higher.
The High Birth.
Nowadays we are crowding out Of
our dictionaries such old phrases as
high born; we have learned that
we are all high born for we are the
creation Of God. who calls Himself
Father. That is the first big truth.
Man is begotten Of God. How long
God took over the task, and what
methods He used. we are not sure:
neither are we sure of the most fun
damental facts concerning the Gre
alton OF any child. But we are as
sured that this thinking, sentient
masterful creation called man above
all the rest of the natural order is OF
God.
~Ah. YOU are so great. and I am sc
small,
j tremble TO think of you, World, a,
all;
And. yet. when / said my prayer:
today,
A whisper inside me seemed to say
You are more than the Earth, though
you are such a dot.
You can love and think. and tn
Earth cannot"
we race the TWO supreme SONeT
eighties: the sovereignty OF God owe
man, which is the first n abiding
and final allegiance; and the sover
eighty Of man over all other created
things Man has mastered earth ant
Bir and fire and water and all livint
creatures: n at that he seems t
be but entering into the beginning O
his dominion. This is the day o
mans mastery Of the world. TIL
record of the first chapter Of Genesi
Is being written larger every day, witt
all its divine Implications:
And God said. Let US make ma
in our image, after our likeness
and let them have dominion over tn
fish of the sea-, and over the bird
Of the heavens. and over the cattle
and over all the earth. n owe
every creeping thing that creepetl
upon the earth. And God create
man in His own image, in the imag
OF God created He him; male and fe
male created He them"
Masters He made them, yet mad
masters. Man did not win his ow
sovereignty. II was conferred upo
him by the Supreme Sovereign. Nc
a p~rotoplasm self lifted above a
other protoplasms is man, but a so
Of the Highest, born to the purple
The inspired story gives man a plac
Of eminence which all false mythOlo
gies and sciences would deny to hin
The Family Likeness
Since mos OF us agree that ma
did not stray up into his place O
the earth from some lower order. b,
was set upon his feet by a diviE
will, we are ready to go on to til
next proof Of his unique characte
which is that he bears the fami'
likeness of God. In addition to e,
ercising God-likeA sway over all tt
rest Of creations man reveals h
origin by the spirit that is in hir
He proves his heredity by his cap;
city for divine things by his pow
of thought, by his soaring spiri
which can commune with JehOva
Himself, by his divinely begottt
compassion for his fellow beings, ar
by his inextinguishable eagerness f
religion. There is plenty Of old Ada
in man, but there is more Of G<
in him. The wise words of st. Augu
tine still hold true. 20 Lord. Th<
hat ma1a rs for T(hySeIf. and o.