River Falls journal. [volume] (River Falls, Pierce County, Wis.) 1872-2019, 1913-08-14


eye The most of
us drop out of life and not ripple OF
interest is created on the surface OF
society. On the other hand as we
look at man as he is seen in his real
being, as he Is represented to us In
the scriptures, how great does he APP
pear! Only little lower than the
angels, crowned with honor and glory,
and given dominion over the creatures.
An old poet has very well expressed
our thought in this way:
IAN heir of glory! frail child of dust!
Helpless, immortal! insect infnite
A worm! a god! tremble at myself.
And in myself am lost.
We must keep in mind that the
question is, What Is man that thou
art mindful of him? 1t is God that
is in mind here, his estimate of man.
In the first place man is mortal, that
is, he is like all beings composed of
flesh, bones and blood; he is born, ne
lives, he dies. Now if that were all
could we say that God has put his
mind upon him? What has God done
for man as an animal? If man would
obey Gods laws would he not be
stronger, more comely in person,
would he not be better housed, have
more beautiful and pleasant surround
ings?
But man is a moral being, and here
we are approaching the image of God.
Here we may include In the likeness
of God the intellect also. AS a moral
being man is accountable to God.
Here is also the realm of conscience,
the capacity of distinguishing between
right and wrong And here we may
find that the thoughtfulness of God
receives emphasis. Every provision
is made for mans moral perfection.
If a conflict arises between the mere
ly physical and the moral, the moral
is preferred, and rightly so, because it
is in this that the relationship be-
tween God and man is more clearly
shown. Every man has a conscience
unless indeed he may have put it to
death by his own neglect or abuse of
it. And God does not leave man with
the capacity of distinguishing between
right and wrong without criterion
of right, and we have the Bible. We
have, too, the advantages that come
from association with men and women
of high moral character, and we have
the immaculate life of Jesus Christ,
which a late writer has spoken of in
the term, "the moral glory of Jesus
Christ"
There is no use denying that man
thinks very highly of himself, and 1t
is the spontaneous disposition of man,
when asked as to his moral or spir-
itual state, to say that he is perfectly
right The redemptive work of Jesus
Christ throws the searchlight on man,
and he sees himself as God sees him,
and gets the correct answer to the
question, What is man that God should
think upon him and visit him? In the
first place he is not right. He is not
just slightly wrong. Taking the teach
ing of the only book that has ever
fairly depicted man. we must concede
that the picture is gruesome and sad.
At the very beginning of the race
when man had not gotten far from
the state of perfect innocence, it was
said that every Imagination Of the
thoughts of his heart was only evil
continually. Job said that If he at
tempted to justify himself his mouth
would condemn him. David said that
all men are gone astray, that they had
altogether become filthy, that there
was not one that did good, no, not
one. Isaiah saw that all of man pro-
fessed righteousness was as filthy
rags, and hat his iniQuities like the
wind had taken him away. Jesus
Christ spoke of some men as a gen.
Grafton of vipers and questioned
whether out of them, being evil, any
good thing could come, The picture
that Paul gives in his letters to the
Romans and Galatians is ore that
makes us shudder. Thus is man as
God thinks on him. and there is moth
ing less that God could do for him
but to redeem him out of his wretch
edness and misery and death. As God
thus saw him he saw in him the most
glowing possibilities of future great
ness and glory. The glory of the
Christian religion is that it makes pro-
vision fo- mans regeneration, not sim
plv his spiritual inward regeneration.
but the regeneration of man in his
whole being Twice-born men can be
numbered this minute by the tens OF
thousands, men whose present is as
different from the past as day is from
night God sees in every man, how
ever low, an angel that is more beau
tiful than the angel that the sculptor
sees in the block of marble.
In the history OF the human race
God has visited them in Judgment, in
mercy. In the person of Jesus Christ
God visited Jerusalem about nineteen
hundred years ago, and the saddest
moment in the history of Israel was
when she did not recognize the day of
her visitation, and to this day God is
visiting Israel in Judgment AS God
now sees man in his sinful condition,
and thinks on him, he wants to visit
him, and wishes to see in man his own
image now SO marred restored. To
show this thoughtfulness and desire
to visit man in mercy he made the
greatest sacrifice that 1t was possible
for him to make, even that Of his
son.