The reward is worked out according to the laws of their constitution. God has given to His human children a share in His wide rule.4. Privilege of approach to the Nest High. God is a person. The Psalmist has been contemplating the starry heavens. Walters.An atheistic leader of the French Revolution said one day to a Christian villager, "We are going to pull down your church tower, so that you may have nothing left to remind you of God or religion." (3)Excite the highest hopes regarding human destiny. W. Dale, M. IT IS, HOWEVER, IN HIS MORAL AND SPIRITUAL NATURE WHERE HIS IMPORTANCE IS MOST FULLY DISPLAYED. Sovereignty, supreme and absolute, is in the case of Jesus of Nazareth the goal and climax of all moral effort. The folly is evident when we consider that this outward, physical life is a very fragile and temporary affair, which has no certain lease of existence, and is liable to be pulled down at any time, liable to be snuffed out like a candle, while the inner spiritual personality is to go on living forever.(L. All the vague mass of emotion and feeling of this sort comes to its centre, and finds its realisation in the victory and the ascension of Jesus of Nazareth. Banks, D. D."What is man, that Thou art mindful of him? Man is represented as an improved animal or vegetable, differentiated in the long course of ages from earlier forms of life by a more perfect organisation and a more complete adaptation to his surroundings, but not superior in essence or endowed with higher hopes than the rudimentary organised beings who have preceded him in the gradual development of the universe. They would not then be quiet in having no certainty on earth concerning heavenly and eternal things. Beard, B. has God placed such love in man for his lost child, and will not He care for His children, lost children though they be? — The influence on religious faith and hope of what we call "nature" — of the sun and the moon, the stars, the mountains, and the seas — varies with different men, and varies with the varying temper and mood of the same man at different times. Our argument is briefly this: The material system, so far as it is open to our knowledge, surpasses all power of conception. 2. A fountain does not keep itself compressed in a ball of ice. In nature, first, God shows us His estimate of man. Further, it should be remembered that these men of science have elevated their abstract laws to the position of effectual causes of things, and so have Set aside the first great Cause, and, in their minds, supplanted the higher truth. The crowning proof of man's greatness and worth must be taken from God's own estimate. THEN, SHOULD WE NOT BE MINDFUL OF HIM?(W. He must have understood that man finds his true and proper life, his human heritage — even as God does — in the thoughts which visit his mind, in the choices which proceed from his will, in the feelings which glow within his heart, in moral activities and spiritual enjoyment.2. Thus they set aside the whole government of God, and turn the world into a desolate wilderness, and make the human race orphans, with no Father to guide, to help, to save. Though separated by the abyss of the ocean, nations bind themselves to the exchange of mutual obligations. It would be inconceivable if man were only an animal; it is not the outward man which can be seen with the eye, but the inward man, the unseen, the spiritual personality, which chooses and decides, which forms purposes and devises schemes to carry them out, — that is the man whom God visits, and whose prosperity is important. WHEN WE PASS FROM MAN'S OUTWARD NATURE TO HIS INTELLECTUAL, HIS SUPERIORITY IS MORE FULLY SEEN. INTELLECTUAL BEING. Is the soul, then, created by an immediate act of God? AND THIS REASONING APPLIES ALSO TO THE WORKS OF GRACE. Man is capable of wonderful growth. True, when we consider God only in the light of the most benevolent of beings, and man in the character of the most wretched, we may discover some reason why God should thus regard and visit His creatures; for there is an attraction between benevolence and misery. But has not this reason also presumed to assign to things themselves their own origin, their own preservation, their own destruction? When sordid ambition has spent its life; when the hand has gripped its last possession, then memory awakes either as a mocking spectre or as an angel of peace. Now all this should lead men to adore and give thanks to God for His grace and favour. Through reason man is able to distinguish between his immortal soul and his perishable body. By visible manifestations of His presence.2. Though separated by the abyss of the ocean, nations bind themselves to the exchange of mutual obligations. The universal testimony of mankind, when not biassed by the desire of conforming to any paradoxical theory, would declare that we do not call a man good or bad in the same way as we should a tree, or a plant, or a dog. I. "Fearfully and wonderfully made."II. The character of individuals not only makes up the aggregate character of a nation and the world, but they affect each other; while each is employed and controlled for the one grand purpose of created beings. Against both perversions the language of Scripture furnishes a standing protest, and if read aright a safeguard. But if reason be corrupted, there follows Superstition, as in the East; or Atheism, as amongst modern scientific men. THE MATERIALIST WILL BE CONTENT TO SAY, "WHAT IS MAN? 1. — Is he but a bodily organism? The microscope discovers to us miniature worlds, crowding under our eyes, countless in number, and each thronged with a dense population of its own.4. D.Look at these words in reference —I. They made gods of brutes, and became brutes themselves. For this proves that spiritual things are recognised as our highest good. Another maintains that "The brain secretes thought as the liver secretes bile." Attribute as you like all individual acts to some chemical or physiological causes, how do you account for the fact that at the bottom of all these individual acts a man is conscious of himself as centre and bond of union of all these acts? Whatever lives the life of consciousness and reflection, though never so feebly, is separated by an immeasurable gulf from that which simply exists, unwitting of its own existence. We were none the wiser after he left us. W. Dale, M. A.? And we may justly say of both: Lord, what is man, that Thou art mindful of him? The kingdom of nature. Because God comes near to us when he doth us good; mercy is a drawing near to a soul, a drawing near to a place. L. Moody.When the Prince of Wales visited America, people were very anxious to know what he came for. Through reason he is capable of investigating the powers of nature, and tracing them to their Creator. In God's moral universe His higher glories are displayed, because there He manifests His moral attributes. Think for a moment of the rapidity of thought: time and space are both annihilated by it. He is the grand sum and substance of the Psalms. The Psalmist thought of man's dominion over the beasts, birds, fishes of the sea. )That Thou visitest him.Some crises of human life and their moral lessonsE. The first is, that God is the Creator and Proprietor of the heavens. And it is equally at variance with the account of the Creation, which teaches the simultaneous creation of both soul and body. If we have learned something which the Psalmist never knew respecting the greatness of nature, we have learned something also which the Psalmist never knew concerning the greatness of man, for whom the world has been made. For Atheism is hastening to occupy the ground which Superstition long ago filled. What manner of persons should we be in all holy conversation and godliness!3. Moody. Man is distinguished in the scale of being by thought. But sin is a defect of the soul rather than a positive quality. We have, in consciousness, a witness that helps us to comprehend the conception of man as a spiritual being. When the history of this century is written no fact will stand out store conspicuously than this, that it has witnessed an extraordinary visitation of God in the revival of Christian faith, Christian worship, and Christian practice. (David J. Hill, LL. "(Samuel Fellows, D. D.)The greatness of manW. 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