Sermons: Selected from the Papers of the Late Rev. Clement BailhacheBailhache, Clement
Religion
Sermons: Selected from the Papers of the Late Rev. Clement Bailhache
Bailhache, Clement
Sermons
We are invited to look still further afield. This world, which is made
for us, is not independent or alone. It is in no sense self-sustained.
It is part of a wonderful and incomprehensible whole. Other great
creations concur in its maintenance. The sun enlightens, warms, and
fertilizes it. The moon and the stars exert manifold influences upon
it. The whole host of heaven has been brought into co-ordinate and
helpful relation to it--yes, _it_: the world which exists _for us_!
"When I consider Thy heavens, the work of Thy fingers, the moon and
the stars which Thou hast ordained;" when I consider the manifold
bearings of Thy universe upon man--what _is_ man! What _must_ he be!
In certain aspects, indeed, apparently small; but, by all these
tokens, how great! We do not say that we are the only moral and
spiritual beings in the midst of so many worlds. We do not know, but
we may accept the probability that God has created beings capable of
adoring and loving Him everywhere. But we do say--and science combines
with Scripture to compel us to say--that these worlds have been in
part created for us, just as our world has been in part created for
them. This is clear. The most sceptical of men cannot venture to doubt
it; nor do they. It is only needful that we should carefully observe
in order to become convinced of this marvellous fact.
So much, then, for what nature teaches. The psalmist sought to learn
the lesson, and it is right that we should seek to learn it too.
This first step being taken, another follows. Man is an object of the
manifold agencies of myriads of worlds. He is so _as man_; and the
relative position he holds, intellectually, morally, or socially, to
his fellow men, has nothing to do with the fact. Nature ministers to
the Caffre and the Hottentot as truly as to the man of most advanced
civilization; the only difference being in the use which the two
opposite classes can make of nature. Why, then, should man refuse to
believe that he is an object of solicitous love to that God who
created him, who made him what he is, and who thus crowned him with
glory and honour? Why should he refuse to believe that God loves him
enough to send His Son to die for him, and thus to save him from the
wreck of his being through sin? Especially, why should he refuse to
believe this when he is assured of it by Him who testified that He was
that Son of God--by Jesus, the man _par excellence_, the God-man? Why
should it be doubted that man is an object of interest to angels, who
are said to rejoice over every sinner that repenteth? Why should it be
doubted that God has provided for him a fairer home than this, that
immortality and heaven are the things which God has in reserve for
him? Why should it be doubted that an everlasting salvation has been
provided for him through such a sacrifice as that of Christ? If sun,
moon, and stars have been made for the service of man, why should it
be hard to believe that God, who counts the stars, and calls them all
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