that judges man by what he can do, judges him in the seed.
We must see him through some lenses--we must prefigure his
_immortality_. While, then, his _industrial_ value in life must depend
on what he can do, we have here the beginning of a _moral_ value which
bears no relation to his _power_, but to his future destiny.
This view assumes distinctness and intensity, when we add to it the
relationship which subsists between man and his Maker.
This relationship begins in the fact that we are created in the divine
image; that we are connected with God, therefore, not by Government
alone, but by nature.
This initial truth is made radiant with meaning, by the teaching of
Christianity that every human being is dear to God: a teaching which
stands upon that platform, built high above all human deeds and
histories, the advent, incarnation, passion, and death of Christ, as a
Savior of men.
The race is a brotherhood; God is the Father, Love is the law of this
great human commonwealth, and Love knows no servitude. It is that
which gilds with liberty whatever it touches.
One more element to human liberty is contributed by Christianity, in
the solemn development of man's accountability to God, by which
condition hereafter springs from pure character here.
However heavy that saying is, every one of us shall _give an account
of himself_ before God--in it is the life of the race.
You cannot present man as a subject of Divine government, held
responsible for results, compared with which the most momentous
earthly deeds are insignificant, plied with influences accumulating
from eternity, and by powers which though they begin on earth in the
cradle, gentle as a mother's voice singing lullaby, go on upward,
taking every thing as they go, till they reach the whole power of God;
and working out results that outlast time and the sun, and revolve
forever in flaming circuits of disaster, or in sacred circles of
celestial bliss; you cannot present man as the center and subject of
such an august and eternal drama, without giving him something of the
grandeur which resides in God himself, and in the spheres of
immortality!
Who shall trifle with such a creature, full bound upon such an errand
through life, and swelling forth to such a destiny? Clear the place
where he stands?--give him room and help, but no hinderance, as he
equips for eternity!--loosen the bonds of man, for God girds
him!--take off all impediments, for it is his l
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