Meet is the gift we ofiFer here to Thee,
Father of all, as falls the dewy night;
Thine own most precious gift we bring — the light Whereby mankind Thy other bounties see.
Thou art the Light indeed; on our dull eyes And on our inmost souls Thy rays are poured; To Thee we light our lamps: receive them. Lord,
Filled with the oil of peace and sacrifice.^
* S. McFulanth ' Prudeutius, translated by B. Martin Pope,
In the Image of God.
Literature.
Alford (H.), Quebec Chapel Sermons, iv. 35.
Banks (L. A.), The WorlcPs Childhood, 186.
Baring-Gould (S.), Village Preaching, ii. 9.
Bernard (J. H.), Via Domini, 41.
Brown (J. B.), The Home Life, 1.
Campbell (R. J.), Thursday Mornings at the City Temple, 1.
Church (R. W.), Village Sermons, iii. 64.
Clifford (J.), Typical Christian Leaders, 215.
Cobern (C. M.), The Stars and the Book, 78.
Coyle (R. F.), The Church and the Times, 175.
Dale (R. W.), Christian Doctrine, 170.
Gibbon (J. M.), The Image of God, 1.
Goodwin (H.), Parish Sermons, 5th Ser., 1.
Horwill (H. W.), The Old Gospel in the New Era, 53.
Hughes (D.), The Making of Man, 9.
Kingsley (C), The Gospel of the Pentateuch, 19.
Lefroy (W.), The Immmtality of Memory, 229.
Lewis (E. W,), Some Views of Modern I%eology, 169.
Maclaren (A.), Expositions : Genesis.
Matheson (G.), Leaves for Quiet Hours, 37.
„ Searchings in the Silence, 215.
Murray (A,), With Christ, 137. Orr (J.), God's Image in Man, 34. Robinson (F.), College and Ordination Addresses, 47, 53. Selby (T. G.), The Lesson of a Dilemma, 264. Weeks (G. E.), Watered Lives, 49. Woodford (J. R.), Sermons in Various Churches, 33. Christian Age, xrv. 212 (Vaughan). Christum World Pulpit, xvi. 218 (Williams); xviii. 17 (Brooke); xix,
369 (Vaughan) ; 1. 419 (Bliss) j Ivi. 4 (Parr). Chuirchman's Pulpit (Trinity Sunday), ix. 272 (Goodwin). Exposiior, 4th Ser., iii. 125 (Ferowne). Expository Times, iii. 410 (Pinches) ; x. 72. Preacher's Magazine for 1891, 145, 193 (Selby). Treavary (New York), xiii. 196.
In the Image of God.
And God s^d, Let us make man in our ima^e, after our likeness : and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth. And God created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; male and female created he them.— - Gen. i. 26, 27.
God made the light and the sun, and they were very good. He made the seas and the mountains, and they were very good. He made the fishes of the water, and the birds of the air, and the beasts of the field — all that wonderful creation of life, which, dull and unbelieving as we are, daily more and more excites our endless wonder and awe and praise — and He saw that it was all very good. He made the herb of the field, everything that grows, everything that lives on the face of this beautiful and glorious world, and all was very good. But of all this good the etid was not yet reached. There was still something better to be made. Great lights in the firmament, and stars beyond the reach of the thought of man in the depth of space, sea and mountain, green tree and gay flower, tribes of living creatures in the deep below and the deep above of the sky, four-footed beasts of the earth in their strength and beauty, and worms that live out of the sight and knowledge of all other creatures — these were all as great and marvellous as we know them to be ; these were all said to be " very good " by that Voice which had called them into being. Heaven and earth were filled with the majesty of His glory. But they were counted up, one by one, because they were not enough for Him to make, not enough for Him to satisfy Him by their goodness. He reckoned them all up; He pronounced on their excellence. But yet there was something which they had not reached to. There was something still to be made, which should be yet greater, yet more wonderful, yet more good than they. There was a beauty which, with all their beauty, they could not
46 IN THE IMAGE OF GOD
reach; a perfection which, with all their excellence, they were not meant, or made, to share. They declared the glory of God, but not His likeness. They displayed the handiwork of His wisdom, but they shared not in His spirit, His thoughts. His holiness. So, after their great glory, came a yet greater glory. The living soul, like unto God, had not yet been made. Then said God, " Let us make man in our image, after our likeness." There was made the great step from the wonder and beauty of the world, to the creation of man, with a soul and spirit more wonderful, more excellent, than all the excellence and wonders of the world, because it was made in the likeness of that great and holy and good God who made the world.
1. The foundations of the Biblical doctrine of man are firmly laid, at the very commencement of his history, in the accounts given of his creation. In this narrative of creation in the opening chapter of Genesis we have the noblest of possible utterances regarding man : " God created man in his own image." The manner in which that declaration is led up to is hardly less remarkable than the utterance itself.