h Him and to Him are
all things: to Whom be glory for ever. Amen.'

[1] _Riddle of the Universe_.

[2] Appendix XI.

[3] _First Principles_.

[4] _Confession of Faith of a Man of Science_.

[5] _Riddle of the Universe_.

[6] Appendix XII.

[7] Schleiermacher.

[8] _St. Andrews Addresses_.

[9] Appendix XIII.

[10] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 110.

[11] Martineau, _Hours of Thought_, ii. p. 114.

[12] _Faith of a Christian_.

[13] _Creed of a Layman_, p. 203.

[14] _Religion of the Universe_.

{92}

IV

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY

'And God said, Let us make man in our image, after our
likeness.'--GENESIS i. 26.

'When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and the
stars which Thou hast ordained, what is man that Thou art mindful of
him? and the son of man that Thou visitest him? For Thou hast made him
a little lower than the angels and hast crowned him with glory and
honour.'--PSALM viii. 3-5

Thou hast put all things in subjection under His feet. For in that He
put all in subjection under Him, He left nothing that is not put under
Him. But now we see not yet all things put under Him. But we see
Jesus Who was made a little lower than the angels for the suffering of
death crowned with glory and honour, that He by the grace of God should
taste death for every man.'--HEBREWS ii. 8, 9.

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IV

THE RELIGION OF HUMANITY

The position which Religion, and especially the Christian Religion,
assigns to man, to man as he ought to be, is very high. He is made in
the image of God, he is a little lower than the angels, a little lower
than God, he is a partaker of the Divine Nature. But as the corruption
of the best is the worst, there is nothing in the whole creation more
miserable, more loathsome, than man as he has forgotten his high estate
and plunged himself into degradation. 'What man has made of man,' is
the saddest, most deplorable sight in all the world. Amid the awful
splendour of the winning loveliness of Nature, 'only man is vile.'
That is the terrible {94} verdict which may be pronounced upon him
renouncing his birthright, surrendering himself to the powers which he
was meant to keep in subjection. It is not the verdict to be
pronounced on Man as Man, the child of the highest and the heir of all
the ages. The appeal of Religion, the appeal of Christianity above
all, has continually been, O sons of men, sully not your glorious
ga