"Missionary, what you have said to-day fills my heart, and satisfies my
longings. It is just what I have been expecting to hear about the Great
Spirit. I am glad you have come with this wonderful story; stay as long as
you can." [Footnote: From _By Canoe and Dog-Train_, p. 119.]
Nothing more than the fact that man was made, not like even an angel or
an archangel, but in the image of God, is needed to show how far beyond
and above every creature he was; and, as no creature owed so much to the
Creator, none was responsible to Him in the same way. No one had any right
over him except the One who had made him for Himself, his Creator, without
whom he would not have been.
"The ox knoweth its owner, and the ass his master's crib." (Isa. i. 3.)
God has made the animals faithful and affectionate, and there are many true
and touching stories of the way in which they have attached themselves to
those who have cared for them. A dog will devote itself to its own master,
and even give its life for him; but no mere animal has that within him
which can have to say to God and be in relationship with Him. And how sad
it is to think that the only creature of God who could know Him is the one
who has turned away from Him and listened to the spoiler!
At the beginning God could say of all Creation "_very good_"; though
there is a wonderful beauty still--beauty everywhere if we have eyes to
see it--He cannot say "_very good_" where decay, pain, sorrow, death are
all around; where we grow weak and old, and even while we are young and
strong, the most pleasant things tire us; where hatred and envy, shame and
fear--all the sad feelings brought by sin--exist in the heart of the last
and best of His creatures, to whom His voice and His presence once brought
only joy.
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