36 AN EXPECTANT CREATION
a care felt in us that we do not lessen that sweetness of life in the animal creation, which the great Creator intends for them under our government.^
2. Why is creation waiting so earnestly for the revealing of the sons of God ? Because creation is subjected to vanity, that is, to instability, decay, corruption, from which it is to be delivered at the revelation in glory of the sons of God. To this vanity creation became subject not of its own will, i.e. not of its own doing or of its own fault. It was the appointment of the Divine Will. When man fell, God so ordained it that man's sin should affect also the brute creation, and inflict a blight on even inanimate nature. It was thus that the intense evil of sin was broadly marked, and that man reaped bitter fruit of his own transgression in the deterioration of that which otherwise would have been unto him only and altogether a beauty and a joy. Subjected, however, as creation is to vanity, it is still a condition of hope, for it is to undergo a regeneration ; it is to be set free from the bondage of corruption into the liberty of the glory of the children of God. And it is represented as being so conscious of this bond- age, and so longing for deliverance, that the Apostle speaks of nature as like a woman in the pangs of childbirth, " groaning and travailing in pain together until now."
(1) Creation longs to be delivered from the bondage of its own corruption. This deliverance depends upon the redemption of man; for, as the sins and degradation of the human race have cast their shadow of pain and desolation over the fair face of the earth, and the tares of evil in the heart of man have been imaged in the thorns and thistles of the field, so has there been also a wondrous sympathy in the upward path. Man's nature is redeemed from degradation through the mercy of God, and Nature around him shares in his elevation. " The merciful man is merciful to his beast," and societies for preventing cruelty to animals, and hospitals for the dumb creatures, attest the reality of this relationship. One of the first signs of improvement in a squalid house or street is the appearance in the windows of pots or boxes of plants which are evidently the objects of loving care. Even here and now we may catch glimpses of an age when the manifestation of the Divine Sonship in man shall not tolerate the
* J. Woolman, Jowncd, chap, xi
ROMANS VIII. 19 37
devastation of the face of the earth by war, or the wasting of its beauty and usefulness by folly or ignorance. And for this more perfect era, this Eden of peace and wisdom, creation waits, " groan- ing and travailing in pain together until now."
(2) But the expectation of creation is also that it shall yet become a good servant to the sons of God. Man is the head and king over the lower creatures, and creation longs for her head to be worthy of his place in the world. The earth is a storehouse full of things of use and beauty, which are designed by the great Creator to supply the intelligent needs of man. But in order that creation may thus be a good and gracious servant to our race, it needs eyes to see, ears to hear, wisdom to act. For how many ages has creation lain in travail with her choicest treasures in her womb, waiting the manifestation of the God-given skill of man to enable her to deliver them to the world! Generations gazed with stupid, uncomprehending eyes upon steam rushing from boiling water, and this creature of God waited until at last a man was enlightened to understand and use this mighty power, and with it to change the face of the earth.
^ Nature, ever since sin came into our world, has refused to give her strength. To man, fallen man. Nature has never gone forth in her fulness, — but then, when these " sons of God " walk this earth, she will put forth again, as at the first, her power, her loveliness, and her fragrance ; and there will be such a bursting in " the new heavens and the new earth " as was never seen and never conceived before.^
I came to lay my sorrow in the wood,
It had so heavy grown. And on my way the little speedwells stood
And claimed it for their own.
I came to let my tears in anguish fall.
They were too great to bear, And now the little speedwells hold them all,
I have no tears to spare.
There is no other sign, by flower or leaf.
To mark the road I came, This tiny cup of blue bears all the grief
I had not strength to name.^ » J. Vauglmn. • DoDie Badford.
38 AN EXPECTANT CREATION
(3) The highest reason why creation awaits " the manifestation of the sons of God " is that creation m.a.y praise its Maker perfectly, being itself made whole. The lower creatures, animate and in- animate, are faithful to their Maker, and dumbly praise and adore Him by their obedience to His laws ; but man, the master of the garden, who should be the spokesman of all this inarticulate life, the precentor of the world's Te Deum, is too often faithless and a blasphemer. So just as a fair strong body is ruined by the loss of its reason, so creation feels that, faithful to God as all the rest may be, man's unfaithfulness is a piteous blot on her fair fame, man's dumbness or discord robs of its dominant and most essential part her orchestra of praise. And so creation waits — waits for the perfected redemption of man's nature, to restore the lost unity of her life ; waits for man, as a son of God, to stand forth as her high priest, who shall interpret and offer up to Heaven her gratitude and love.