December Sixth.
MAN'S SOVEREIGNTY—IN WHAT DOES IT CONSIST?
"Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands: Thou hast put all things under his feet."—Psalm viii. 6.
THE Divine Being, in creating man in His own image, after His likeness, designed him to be the most excellent creature on earth, to exercise a sovereignty over all other creatures, to "have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth." To assert and maintain this dominion, he was endowed with powers which other creatures do not possess. Physically speaking, man is one of the weakest of God's creatures; but the noble powers of mind with which he is pre-eminently endowed, have enabled him to subdue all other creatures. By his power the strongest are overcome; by his ingenuity the most subtle are circumvented, and their energies of body made subservient to his pleasures or to his necessities; for "every kind of beasts, and of birds, and of serpents, and of things in the sea, is tamed and hath been tamed of mankind." (James iii. 7.) In what, then, does the superiority of man consist?
In his ability to receive from God such portions of the Divine love and wisdom as shall lead him to know and love his Creator, and, by such knowledge and love, to become meet for the enjoyments of a higher and more heavenly world than this. This ability the brutes have not; and, therefore, it is impossible to teach them any science, either respecting God or a life after death. Their abilities are confined merely to the
