* J. I. Vance, Tendency, 31.
PSALM VIII. 5 233
Let us make man like to God.
And the pine stood quivering
In the Eden-gorges wooded,
As the awful word went by;
Like a vibrant chorded string
Stretched from mountain-peak to sky!
And the cypress did expand,
Slow and gradual, branch and head;
And the cedar's strong black shade
Fluttered brokenly and grand ! —
Grove and forest bowed aslant
In emotion jubilant.^
5. There are evidently two thoughts struggling together in the mind of the Psalmist — the littleness and the greatness of man. In a mind apt to pensive reflections, alive to moral truths, and responsive to the impressions of God's great universe, the unscientific contemplation of any of the grander forms of nature produces that double effect. And certainly the grandest of them all, which is spread over our heads, forces both these thoughts upon us. They seem so far above us, they swim into their stations night after night, and look down with cold, unchanging beauty on sorrow, and hot strife, and shrieks, and groans, and death. They are so calm, so pure, so remote, so eternal. Thus David felt man's littleness. And yet — and yet, bigness is not greatness, and duration is not life, and the creature that knows God is highest. So the consciousness of man's separation from and superiority to these silent stars springs up strong and victorious over the other thought.
^ We are shown that no suffering, no self-examination, however honest, however stern, no searching-out of the heart by its own bitterness, is enough to convince man of his nothingness before God ; but that the sight of God's creation will do it.^
L
Man and Natuee.
1. Our knowledge of God, and our interest in God's works and ways, should begin, not with the beginning of the Creation, or * E. B. Brov/ning, Drama of Exile. ^ Euskin.
234 THE GREATNESS OF MAN
with the phenomena of the external world, but with the present relations of God to our own spirits, to ourselves personally and to mankind. What is God to us, and what are we to God? These are the questions which concern us most closely. If we can attain to a clear and firm faith on these points, we may be content to remain in some ignorance as to the mode of God's working in nature. The trust and love which are based upon our own spiritual relations with God will not depend upon our settling how the laws of nature are made to serve the will of God, but will overflow, as it were, upon the outward world, will be ready to accommodate themselves thankfully to whatever science may disclose to us.
Take the case of the Israelites themselves, whose sacred books the ancient Scriptures were. In what character was God first and chiefly known to them ? As Jehovah, the God of the Covenant, the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. The young Israelite was taught, as soon as he was able to learn, that he was the subject of a righteous King, whose laws he was bound to obey. By this righteous King his race had been called out and claimed. Jehovah had been the Friend and Guide of his fathers, and by a series of mighty acts had delivered the people of Israel, and made a nation of them. The absolute allegiance of every Israelite was due to a Lord who was not to be confounded with any outward or visible thing. "Worship of outward and visible things was a crime against the invisible Lord. Jehovah was the Lord of visible things, and He desired the children of the chosen seed to be also spiritually masters of visible things. He bade them serve Him and be true to Him apart from any relations with outward things ; and He then promised to reward with outward things those who in spirit were loyal to Him.
^ The books of the New Testament are the books of a spiritual Kingdom, a Kingdom revealed in Christ, and having for its sphere the spiritual natures of men. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, manifests and declares the Father. By His death and resurrection He founds a Kingdom in which men are brought near to their Father in heaven. The Apostles go forth to pro- claim this Kingdom, and their Master the Lord of it, and to invite men to enter into it and be thereby saved. The high spiritual and human importance of the Gospel would naturally make all questions relating to the physical world comparatively
PSALM VIII. 5 235
insignificant to those who were charged with the first pro- mulgation of the Gospel. Accordingly, in the New Testament we find scarcely a single allusion to the earliest history of the world or of mankind. If then we are to follow such guidance all difficulties and problems about the laws of nature and the antiquity of the world and of the human race are insignificant compared with the great truths of our relation to Christ and to the Father in the Spirit.^
^ There is nowhere for a moment any doubt in Christ as to what the true life of man is. He is here and now, a creature of Nature, like other creatures ; but his true life is not natural, like that of the fowls of the air, or the lilies of the field. He is essentially a moral being, with relations beyond nature, and wants, and aspirations, and duties which connect him with a Divine or supernatural order. From first to last this spiritual conception underlies the Gospels, and makes itself felt in them. There is no argument, because there is no hesitation. " Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?" The possibility of a negative answer is not supposed. The claims of the natural order, some have even thought, are unduly depressed. The spiritual life seems to overshadow and displace them. But this is only by way of emphasis, and in order to rouse men from the dreams of a mere sensual existence. " After all these things do the Gentiles seek " — those who know no better, to whom the meaning of the spiritual and Divine order has not come. But " seek ye first the kingdom of God, and his righteousness ; and all these things shall be added unto you." The spiritual must be held in its true place as primary ; after this the natural has also its place, and to be recognized in addition.^