Bible. Still we agree with the poet, that "the proper," though not the exclusive "study of mankind is man." But what an inexhaustible and incomprehensible theme is man! "How poor, how rich, how abject, how august, A worm! a god! I tremble at myself, Young's Night Thoughts, Book I. Man in his entire organization and constitution is the ultimate. result of an incalculable series of results, wonderful and mysterious beyond expression. Though last in creation of all the tenants of this earth, he was doubtless the first in conception and design in the bosom of his Creator, who seems to have moulded this whole terraqueous system with an eye single to his comfort and convenience. In one point of view man is the centre of an immense circle of the most curious, complicated, and greatly diversified combinations. The solar, lunar, sidereal, and terrestrial lines and influences, that meet and terminate in him, are innumerable. The three kingdoms of material nature-the mineral, vegetable, and animal, enter into his system, and minister to his physical, intellectual, and moral constitution. Heaven and earth combine their powers, meet, unite, and harmonize in man, and make him not merely a component, but an essential part of the unity and infinity of the universe. In the estimation, not merely of poets, but of philosophers of the most enlarged vision, and of Christians of the most elevated conceptions, the rank, and worth, and dignity of man have never been duly considered nor properly appreciated by himself. In every age of the world patriarchs and sages have enforced the maxim of Solon-"KNOW THYSELF." But who has yet adequately prepared himself for the task? It has been truly said, that the knowledge of man implies the knowledge of all things. He is, indeed, a part of every science, and the whole of some of them. To know man perfectly would be to study all the sciences, read all the histories, and speak all the languages of the world. This is impossible to any individual of the race. In the contracted span of his temporal existence he cannot scale the heavens, he cannot fathom the depths beneath, he cannot develope the manifold arcana of nature. He is but the occupant of a day, the re sident of a speck on the surface of one of the specks that float in illimitable space-itself, too, as a mote in a sunbeam-an atom on the face of an ocean without shores. What, then, is to be done? Sit down, and fold our arms in de. spair, and do nothing because we cannot do every thing? By no means. Much has been learned of man: more may yet be learned. New sciences are opening; new methods of reasoning have been instituted; new experiments have been made, and a deeper sense of the value and importance of this learning has pervaded, and is still pervading all orders in society. And while it is universally acknowledged that man is not to be comprehended by man-not to be fully and perfectly understood in all his nature and relations to the universe, it is as universally conceded that he may acquire a very extensive knowledge of himself, a deep insight into the very arcana of his being, and as practical and salutary an acquaintance with the laws and principles of his intellectual and moral, as of his physical constitu tion. There is, moreover, a most useful species of self-knowledge, the result of enlarged views, of an enlightened comparison, of an accurate and close observation of ourselves and others, perfectly attainable and of indispensable importance to every one that would be wise, useful, and happy. To facilitate your inquiries upon this subject, and to direct our thoughts into a proper channel in forming some estimate of the rank and dignity of man in this creation, we shall briefly advert to his origin, use, and destiny, as opened to us in the word and works of God. Moses does him ample honor in the inspired sketch which he gives us of his sublime origin. He introduces the Deity to our view in the ineffable majesty of an Omnipotent Creator, filling eternity with the awful grandeur of his voice, commanding the elements of universal nature into being. At his first fiat, light, that beautifully mysterious modification of the vital fluid of all material life, is stricken from antecedent darkness, which, while time slept in eternity, and before its birth, spread its sable wings and sat brooding on the immense chaos which had been previously formed as the material for the ancient heavens and earth. The spirit of life first moved on the quiescent and slumbering elements of universal being. A glorious process is commenced and consummated in the style and taste, the beauty and excellence of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness. The temple of nature is reared. Its floor, the luxuriant earth; its ceiling, the starry heavens; its laver of natural regeneration, that splendid bason, the ocean, is filled with water, and salted into perpetual freshness; the solar and planetary lamps in its magnificent dome are lighted up and well supplied with the oil of light for indefinite ages. The earth is richly carpeted with heaven-died verdure, ornamented with an infinite variety of exquisitely beautiful flowers; its groves are planted and filled with the most delicious odors; its lawns and parks are dressed in the most perfect taste and style, while a thousand melodies responsive swell on every breeze from hill to valley, disciplining and preparing themselves for the ear of an anticipated Sovereign, who is expected to bear their gratitude to heaven. Eden, of all the gorgeous East the richest and most luxuriant in ambrosial sweets, in fruits and flowers, is selected as the native spot of man, and the cradle of the human race. There a Paradise, modelled in heavenly skill, planted and beautified after the taste of the infinite source of all beauty and loveliness, is fitted up for the immediate residence of this wonderful favorite, for whose pleasurable abode the earth was created and made. After all this rich and magnificent preparation and pre-arrangement, the sacred historian informs us, that, in the language of profound deliberation, and with a preamble that confers infinite honor and eternal value on humanity, the Creator retires into his own bosom to find a model for man "Let us make man," ," said the Eternal Father, "in OUR IMAGE, after OUR LIKENESS; and let them have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and every reptile that creepeth upon the earth." So "Ged created man in his own image, in the image of God created he him; a male and a female created he them. And God blessed them, and said unto them, Be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth and subdue it, and have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that creepeth on the earth." These are the words of a kind and benignant Father-of one providing for the child of his love, the object of his paternal delight. "With what evidence of truth, with what consistency of beauty, have the words of Solomon, speaking of the then unincarnate wisdom or word of God, been applied to the developments of Eden and its fair Paradise. He represents the Divinity even before his works of old, in the remote depths of eternity, as prospectively rejoicing in the glory of man. "The Lord possessed me," says the unincarnate Wisdom, "in the beginning of his ways, before his works of old. I was set up from everlasting, or ever the earth was. Before the mountains-before the hills-I was by him as one brought up with him-and I was daily his delight, rejoicing always before him, rejoicing in the habitable parts of his earth, and my delights were with the sons of men.". Prov. viii, 22 31. I need not tell you, gentlemen, that when all things were ready for his reception, at the bidding of the Almighty our father's body rose from the earth in all the symmetrical beauty of stately stature, form, and color-a splendid monument of the consummate wisdom, power, and benevolence of the Creator; and stood erect in the presence of God. But this is not half the honor bestowed on him: for soon as his physical and earth-born structure was complete, the breath of life from the embrace of his Creator entered his nostrils; his lungs sympathetically moved; his heart swelled with the impulse of life; the spirit of the Lord inspired him with conscious intelligence; and, opening his eyes, he beheld his God and Father, and "rejoiced with joy unspeakable and full of glory." Earth-born and heaven descended man is now led into the garden of delights, introduced to all its varied bliss, and the way to the tree of life is opened to him, by the fruit of which he was to preserve eternal youth, and enjoy a deathless life. A single prohibition, as a test of loyalty, and as an occa sion of self-denial, was the only restriction under which he was placed, and even that was essential to his happiness; for it removed all uncertainty as to the tenure of his enjoyments, and it was both the source and standard of all his liberties of thought, of speech, and of action. Such is the origin of man. And may we not, gentlemen, hence infer, without the possibility of error, that a being so singularly and so marvellously introduced into existence-created in the very image and likeness of God-gifted with the possession of a world, made so pleasant and delightful for his reception-invested with full dominion over earth, and air, and sea, and all that in them is-endowed with faculties of intelligence and morality adequate to the knowledge and enjoyment of God, the management of himself, and the government of animate and inanimate nature-is a creature of singular, if not of unrivalled eminence and rank in the scale of being, and of a very wonderful and glorious use in the dominions of the Almighty Possessor of heaven and earth. And are we not now naturally led to inquire, if not directly into his future destiny, at least into his use and instrumentality in such a rank and dignity as this? While hypercriticism might repudiate the inquiry, "What is the use of man in the scale of being?" and offer some more elegant substitute for the interrogation; philosophy, which, with all persons of correct thinking, is only another name for right reason, approves the term use, and urges a categorical answer to the question. True philosophy, though it modestly declines to speculate on the origin and destiny of man, as being beyond her precincts, lends her aid in helping us to conceive of the use of man. True philosophy wanders not beyond the milky way; she cannot penetrate beyond the limits of the solar system; nor ean she even know the rank of this earth in the universe: consequently she is unable to discern the rank of its sovereign. The Bible alone must guide all our inquiries upon this topic. Philosophy confesses her impotency in this capital point. She is of much use to man along the journey of life; but she knows nothing either of the beginning or the end of that journey. Be it observed, then, that man is doubtless the final end of the terraqueous creation. All terrestrial beings exist for him. He depends on them; and they all minister to him. Before him, and without him, animated nature existed, and can exist; for he was the last creation of God. Without him, it may again exist; but without it, he could not possibly exist. This, until it is denied, we regard as conclusive proof that man is not a means to any earthly end, or consummation; but that all earthly things have for their use and end the existence and happiness of man. The human family completed-born, educated, and maturedand this frame of earthy nature, stupendous and magnificent though it be, would be means to no wise or rational end discernable by all the reason ever enjoyed by man; and therefore it must give place to another system. But as the final end of one series of things may become the means to some higher and more ultimate end; so man himself, though the final end of all sublunary beings, in reference to other worlds and unearthly beings, as well as to the author of his existence, may be-nay, must be, the means to some very high and glorious end. He is not the end of himself, any more than he is not the means of himself. To ascertain this point as far as practicable, for we do not think it is fully and perfectly comprehensible or within our grasp, we shall look briefly, and indeed we can now look but very superficially, into the human constitution. According to an analogy commensurate with our knowledge of creation, man's use will be found enveloped in his grand differential attributes-in the points, be they few or many, in which he differs from all other creations. These peculiarities fit him for a peculiar purpose; therefore that purpose must be learned from those peculiarities. What, then, are the peculiar endowments of man? Unhesitatingly, gentlemen, you all respond, 'They are the developments of the intellectual and moral nature.' The percipient powers of all creatures below him are gra duated upon the scale of the wants and necessities of man. Those creatures on which man most depends are most highly gifted with sense and docility. Thus he can make the dog, the horse, the elephant, the camel, the ox, and even the ass, do for him what he could not make those animals effect that are designed more for his food and clothing than for their personal services. But |