THE Bible says, “God created man in His own image.” The term “image” signifies a picture, a resemblance, a representation, or a likeness. Man was to be the living likeness of his Maker upon our earth. God’s image in man gave him the greatest possible glory. The attributes of the Creator were most beautifully drawn in the intellect and character of the newly-created pair. Even his physical form was radiant with light before sin clouded the picture.
Parker, in writing upon the subject of man’s life, compares it to a noble ship that started well on its first voyage. The wind was fair, as she moved on a calm, sunny sea. A cloud came over the sun; soon flashed the lurid glare of the lightning bolt. The waters were then troubled; the breakers bounded high. Onward came the furious north wind in a mighty, raging tempest. Everything became confusion. All on board expected to go down in mid-sea. What could be done in danger so great? The sails were torn into shreds, the masts were all broken, the timbers unjointed, while the storm continued to lash the ocean into foam. Nothing could be done but to cry to God to stay the storm, and to land the broken vessel in some harbor, where she could again be fitted for service.
The career of man is here aptly portrayed. He was launched upon the beautiful sea of life, in mind and character clearly reflecting the image of his Maker. A cloud came and dimmed the picture, blackening into the darkness of Egypt, till in the sinner’s mind there is but little left of the heavenly likeness. But the picture is being restored, newly touched by the hand of the divine Artist, and will eventually appear with greater beauty than at first.
The Divine Blessing.
At the dawn of creation our parents stood before their Maker in the sum of perfection, to receive their first paternal blessing. “And God blessed them, and God said unto them, Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth.” Gen. 1:28. The blessing made them happy in the possession of life.
They were endowed with power and responsibility of transmitting to their posterity that life which had been breathed into them, and reproducing through it, the divine image. In the legitimate exercise of this function they were most intimately associated with God in the manifestation of life, and in the work of creation; but in the corrupting of this holy relation they became most wretched. Had men never perverted God’s purpose, then each individual added to the human family would have been in His likeness, as was the created pair, and would have been an increase of the accumulating joy, eventually filling the whole earth with gladness.
In God all live, and move, and have their being; for mankind is truly the offspring of God. Acts 17:25-29. In the making of the first pair the Creator bound up the life of every human being. The mystery of creation is seen in the life of every person that comes into the world.
The Value of Life.
Life is to every person the first and all-important consideration. There can be nothing either weighed or estimated apart from it. Life is greater in value than all else. Without life, gold and silver, and diamonds and lands, would never be counted. Even one life, conformed to God’s eternal purpose, is of more real value, when laid by the side of that purpose, than are all the moneyed interests of earth. “Is not the life more than meat, and the body than raiment?”
Man was placed in the world free, and in full possession of all things necessary for his happiness. There was with him no taint of sin, nor shade of sorrow; no seed of death, nor dread of coming trouble. Life was unstained, and not even a cloud was to be seen on its horizon.