* Letters of James Smetham, 85.
The Crowned Christ.
atj
Literature.
Edwards (T. C), The Epistle to the Hebrews, 21.
Griffith-Jones (E.), Faith and Verification, 146.
Lewis (F. W.), The Work of Christ, 80.
Maclaren (A.), Sermons Preached in Manchester, ii. 170.
Norton (J. N.), Short Sermons, 136.
Sowter (G. A.), Trial and Triumph, 199.
Spurgeon (C. H.), Metropolitan Tabernacle Pulpit, xxv. (1879), No. 1509.
Westcott (B. F.), The Historic Faith, 59.
Wynne (G. R.), In Quietness and Confidence, 138.
British Weekly Pulpit, iii. 225 (A. Cave).
Christian World Pulpit, xl. 241 (J. Clifford); Ivi. 4 (J. T. Parr); Ixx.
166 (J. E. Rattenbury) ; Ixxii, 73 (A. Clayton) ; Ixxxii. 273 (G. C.
Morgan) Marylebone Presbyterian Pulpit, ii., No. 6 (C. Lorimer). Eecord, Feb. 6, 1914 (E. N. Pearce).
988
The Crowned Christ.
Bnt now we see not yet all things subjected to him. But we behold him who hath been made a little lower than the angels, even Jesus, because of the suffering of death crowned with glory and honour, that by the grace of God he should taste death for every man. — Heb. ii. 8, 9.
Ws have a comparison in this chapter between humanity un- crowned and humanity in Jesus Christ crowned. Humanity is a tender and beautiful plant, but it is flowerless apart from Jesus Christ. All the strength, the grace, and the beauty of the race express themselves once for all in Christ who is the flower of the race. And we see the meaning, the purpose and the sovereignty of the human race when we see Jesus crowned.
Following the writer's thought, let us consider, I. Man's unrealized Destiny.
II. His Sovereignty secured in Christ.
Man's unrealized Destiny.
"But now we see not yet all things subjected to him."
1. That man was made for sovereignty was declared by the Psalmist whom the writer quotes. " Thou hast made him " — that is, man — " a little lower than the angels. Thou hast crowned him with glory and honour. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands ; thou hast put all things under his feet." And this is not a doctrine peculiar to the Psalmist ; it is not merely the excitement and rapture of genius that ajffirm it. Eead the earliest pages of the Jewish Scriptures, and you will discover that in the record of creation it is said that man was made in the image of God, was appointed to have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the
I THESS.-HFT?, — 19
290 THE CROWNED CHRIST
cattle, and over all the earth ; and he was charged by God to subdue the earth, which had been made his kingdom.
^ Readers of Tennyson will remember the magic Hall of Camelot, with its four great zones or belts of sculptura On the lowest belt were represented beasts slaying men. On the next higher, men are slaying beasts, on the third are warriors, perfect men, while on the highest are men with growing wings ; and over all the ideal man beckoning upward to those beneath. A wonderful parable of the advancing man. To the writer of the 8th Psalm man had already tamed the beast, tamed its passions. He had made the ox the slave of agriculture. He had harnessed the fury of the fire, and found a way for his commerce in the seas. But while he thus felt how great was his place in the universe, nothing im- pressed him so much as that God thought about him and visited him. The greatest thing one can say is that man can hold communion with his God, that man can walk with the Eternal and have the atmosphere of heaven.^
(1) Man's sovereignty extends over the material universe. — Man is infinitely more than the last and the highest result of opera- tions entirely within the material. He is the last and the highest result of such operations, in certain senses ; but he did not be- come man by such operations and processes. He became man by an act of God, distinct from all other acts ; an act by which He did, in the mystery of His wisdom and the operations of His might, differentiate by infinite distance between man and everything that lay beneath him in the scale of creation. God's place for this man in the earth is that of dominion. He made him to have dominion over the whole earth ; over all that the earth yields in the mystery of its life ; over all that dwells upon the earth, having sentient life. Over all these He placed man, that he might have dominion over them. All beneath man is imperfect without him, and can be perfected only as he exercises his dominion.
^ I refuse to be reduced to the same rank, to be placed in the same order, as the cattle that browse on the hills, or the fish that people the sea. I assert my supremacy. I believe that I have received from the hand of God crown and sceptre, and that although other designs may be accomplished by the existence of the material and living things around me, they are intended to serve me. The sun shines that I may
' J. E. Ratteubury.