Creation of man

“ Is there no conceivable reason why an infinitely wise, benevolent, and omnipotent being should have chosen to exercise the direct power of creation in forming the soul of man for an immortal existence, and also to exercise his direct power of creation in so fashioning the body as to fit it with the utmost exactness to be serviceable and subservient to the mind which is to inhabit it for a season? ”

“ Long promised and awaited, the complement of man's creation, or, rather, a true and new creation, bringing to humanity, with love and heavenly pardon, the solution of every question, the answer to every doubt!
During the long series of centuries which separates these two great mysteries, these two great supernatural facts, the creation and the redemption of man, the human race, guided by its own light, has not for a moment ceased to search after divine truths and the secret of its destiny. ”

“ The step, then, by which the earth became, a human habitation, was an immeasurable advance on all that existed before; and therefore there is a question which we are, it seems, irresistibly prompted to ask, Is this the last such step? Is there nothing beyond it? Man is the head of creation, in his present condition; but is that condition the final result and ultimate goal of the progress of creation in the plan of the Creator? ”

“ But each separate step in the program of creation was a separate and distinct act of creation. The creation of the vegetable kingdom, with its innumerable species, was at every step a new act of creative activity, as was the creation of the animal kingdom. And man was as distinctive a creation as anything that preceded him, for, as we have seen, there was created in him that which had not existed in vegetable or animal, the plane of the spiritual, with its inmost receptacle of God to enable him to become the moral image and likeness of his Creator. ”

“ I said deliberately "from the creation of the world," and not "from the creation of mankind," because inanimate creation itself appears to me to bear witness to a purpose, from the first, that this visible world should help its future tenants to imagine things invisible. ”

“ What theology calls original sin, modern philosophy the brute inheritance—the ape, and the goat, and the tiger—is dying out of man. The perfecting of human nature and of human society stands out as the goal of creation. In a sense, all creation waits for the manifestation of the sons of God. ”

“ We hold in subjection the creation; we avail ourselves of the great truths found in the arts and sciences, we navigate the seas, we survey the land, we convey intelligence with lightning speed, we harness steam and make it our servant, we tame the animals and make them do our drudgery and administer to our wants in many ways, yet man alone is not tamed—he is not subject to his Great Creator. ”

“ For what purpose can rank side by side with the existence and development of life, the primary condition of all moral and spiritual existence and action in this world? In the introduction of life was wrapped up all that we value and all that we venerate in the whole creation. The infinite superiority, not in degree only, but in kind, of the living to the lifeless, of a man to a stone, justifies us in believing that the main purpose of the creation that we see was to supply a dwelling-place and a scene of action for living beings. ”

“ BEAUTY AND HARMONY IN DIVERSITY October 28th
The Creator of all is One God.
From this same God all creation sprang into existence, and He is the one goal, towards which everything in nature yearns. This conception was embodied in the words of Christ, when He said, ‘I am the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end’. Man is the sum of Creation, and the Perfect Man is the expression of the complete thought of the Creator—the Word of God. ”

“ Consequently the substances of the spiritual world, being in the constant endeavor to produce the image of the Creator, accomplish their effort according to the degree of the acting substance and the form in which the acting substance operates. Thus the Creator's vital action, through the successive discrete degrees in creation, in the mind of man produces love and wisdom in the human degree; in animals, their instincts; in plants, their life, and in matter, its varied properties. ”

“ What now is man? Alas! some, the Notts and Gliddons, tell us, man was indeed created millions of ages ago, the Lord only knows when, in swarms like bees to suit the zones of the earth,--while other some, the believers in the vestiges of creation, say man is the result of development,--from fire, dust, granite, grass, the creeping thing, bird, fish, four-footed beast, monkey. ”

“ And in the arrangement of these they should place first the cause of the creation of men,—namely, the purpose of the Creator in making man; and then connect with this, as is suitable, the nature of the men so created; not as being second in order, but because we are unable to pass our judgment on both at the same time, although they have the closest natural connection with each other, and are of equal force in reference to the subject before us. ”

“ You must have in you the thought that is creation; life’s spring, and the daring of its unconquered waters—so may you transform the world and people it with gods who know no more the hates and littleness of men. ”

“ This doctrine gives us an infinite fountain from which all things are evolved, and which must therefore contain the promise and potency of substances, qualities, and forms, without any limit; which reveal a Divine personal Creator, distinct from His creation, and yet as intimately connected with every part of it as cause and effect. Who creates man and endows him with faculties capable of knowing and loving the Divine Author of his being, of seeing His love and wisdom in the means He has provided to supply his wants, develop and perfect his faculties, and crown him with joy. ”

“ You can think of this as you please, whether he was created or born, or whether a man, because he is born, is not created. I do not understand the term creation as meaning something suddenly made out of nothing. ”

“ HAPPINESS.
The evidence and fruit and reward of growth as involved in Altruism.
NATURE.
As commonly used, "nature" means creation apart from man. The accepted definition is "creation," and as such includes man and all created things, and also the processes of creation—generation, degeneration and regeneration—as involved in growth. The common use of the word "nature" is a convenient one, and hence let us make use of it as meaning creation other than man. ”

“ It will be for the natural theologians of the coming age to [Pg 48] show the bearing of this wonderful fact on the progress of man towards the just and the solid, and on the being and character of man's Creator,—to establish, on the one hand, against the undue depreciators of intellect and its results, that in certain departments of mind, such as that which deals with the arrangement and development of the scheme of organic being, human thought is not profitlessly revolving in an idle circle, but progressing Godwards, and gradually unlocking the order of creation. ”

“ The genesis of creation in all its components, and the history of mankind, are the successive unfolding and realization of the infinite in a progressive scale. For, in its necessary development, it becomes matter, organism, sense; and in man it acquires intellect with the consciousness of itself. Here commence all the phases of the development of man recorded in history: phases of a progressive civilization, which are but necessary unfoldings and modifications of the infinite ”

“ What a sublime conception and creation! What magnificent means and ends! What must be the vastness and loftiness and goodness of that Mind, which could conceive and execute this stupenduous work: which has brought into existence, and holds in existence,—which created and sustains,—all this complicated machinery of worlds, and which at the same time rules and guides by Its wisdom the affairs of the inhabitants of each and all of them, even to the minutest concern of the humblest individual! For this must be so: He who creates must also sustain and guide, or creation would be in vain ”

“ Man was created in the image of God, say the Scriptures, and these words contain a deep meaning. He alone, of all terrestrial beings, possesses a spark of divine intelligence. He alone has been called to pursue the magnificent work of creation, by giving a new face to a world to which he cannot add so much as an atom. ”

“ Then, the narrative goes on to say that the Creator who made everything that was made had all Life, all Intelligence, all Love within Himself. Of this great power and love He created man in His own image and likeness. Man was given dominion over all living creatures and things. Now take that into your thought, girls! All living things! I firmly believe that the good God who gave us charge of all living things wanted us to watch over and love and use intelligence in the way we governed His creation. ”

“ Having created the world and all that liveth and moveth therein, He [God] ... chose to confer upon man the unique distinction and capacity to know Him and to love Him--a capacity that must needs be regarded as the generating impulse and the primary purpose underlying the whole of creation.... Upon the inmost reality of each and every created thing He hath shed the light of one of His names, and made it a recipient of the glory of one of His attributes. Upon the reality of man, however, He hath focused the radiance of all of His names and attributes, and made it a mirror of His own Self. ”

“ CREATION OR EVOLUTION?
CHAPTER I. Nature and importance of the subject—Is there a relation of Creator and creature between God and man?—Rules of rational belief—Is natural theology a progressive science?
Man finds himself in the universe a conscious and thinking being. He has to account to himself for his own existence. ”

“ This unbounded creation of sun, and moon, and stars, and clouds, and seasons, was not ordained merely to feed and clothe the body, but first and supremely to awaken, nourish, and expand the soul, to be the school of the intellect, the nurse of thought and imagination, the field for the active powers, a revelation of the Creator, and a bond of social union. We were placed in the material creation, not to be its slaves, but to master it, and to make it a minister to our highest powers. It is interesting to observe how much the material world does for the mind. ”

“ Whoever considers his nature and condition, the make of his body and the constitution of his mind, the provision that is furnished for the supply of his animal wants, the objects that are provided for the improvement of his intellectual faculties, and the scope that is afforded for the exercise of his moral affections, must acknowledge that, if the goodness of God be manifestly displayed in the other works of his hands, it shines with peculiar luster in the creation and preservation of man. ”

“ This soul, therefore, became a living principle of intelligence, consciousness, and activity, in man.
The great Creator said, “Let us make man in our image, after our likeness.” Now, as the Divine Being is infinite, he is neither limited by parts, nor definable by passions: therefore he can have no corporeal image after which he formed the body of man. The image and likeness in which he was created must necessarily be intellectual: his soul must have been formed after the nature and perfections of God. The Creator was now producing a spirit, formed after himself. ”

“ Creation Necessitates A Creator.
It is a revealed truth that God created man in His own image and likeness. God, then, is a Divine image and likeness of man—or, in other words, He is a Divine Man, and Person. ”

“ We have seen, thus far, how there came into the thinking of mankind upon the visible universe and its inhabitants the idea of a creation virtually instantaneous and complete, and of a Creator in human form with human attributes, who spoke matter into existence literally by the exercise of his throat and lips, or shaped and placed it with his hands and fingers. ”

“ Moreover, the visible creation has another value, that of its ethical significance. Physical phenomena symbolize the conformity of humanity to its best ideal of conduct. Man may learn to regulate the lawless movements of his soul from the courses of the stars, the noblest of created gods. ”

“ Here we come to the first demand which the doctrine of creation makes on us by way of premises. In order that there may be creation there must be a primary Self-existent Spirit, whose will is supreme. ”

“ What the difference between the part in creation of the Father and the part of the Son may be, who can understand?—but perhaps we may one day come to see into it a little; for I dare hope that, through our willed sonship, we shall come far nearer ourselves to creating. The word creation applied to the loftiest success of human genius, seems to me a mockery of humanity, itself in process of creation. ”

“ Offer to it the lightest suggestion, and there springs forth from that abyss a figure corresponding, or a dozen figures, or a whole procession! The mere delight of creation calls them forth. Could anything be more wonderful? What a strange glimpse it gives us of the possibilities of Creation. ”

“ God chose for Himself the work of creation as the highest delight, and requires the same of man, that he should be the creator of prosperity and the harmonious order of things. ”

“ I know no better symbol of creation than the regularity and causality of the creation of ideas in us, which no will and no mind can regulate and create, for any such arrangement and intention would presuppose the unborn idea. ”

“ Thus creation is the process by which the Eternal Creator works out His own image, His own ideas, in and through that which is formless, that which has no name, which is nothing but possibility,—dead earth, namely, or Matter. ”