Man stands on the frontier of two worlds. There is a supernatural sphere, and man's connection with it is his glory, his endowments from it his highest treasures. "Made a little lower than the angels, crowned with glory and honour."
I. What then isthat connection? Can the supernatural world unfold itself before man? The answer is, Most certainly it can. (1) God has laid bare to man the splendid vision by prophecy. Prophecy is God's revelation by word. Wherever any spiritual truth is taught, the wordsthat teach reveal something of God. (2) What prophecy was by word, that miracle was by act a revelation of the supernatural world. Miracles have revealed the nearness and power of the personal God; they have been the seal which He has placed visibly upon some great moral revelation, to mark by an act in nature the reality of a supernatural world. (3) Above all, there was the great revelation the revelation by Himself."God hath in these last days spoken unto us by His Son."
II. Can man take in the vision? Can he respond to the revelation? Certainly he can. Man's apparent activities are limited to the domains of time and sense. The forces by which he conquers, by which he transfigures the temptations of time and sense into the stepping-stones to a higher life, are: (1) That Divine gift which is the power of inward vision. It is given to the soul first as a tendency; it grows if used until it attains the strength of a clear-sighted inward eye. That capacity is faith.(2) Hope,the supernatural virtue which strengthens the soul, not merely to gaze at the beauty of that fair, that unearthly, landscape, but to enter in, and say with holy fear, with humble confidence, "This paradise is mine." (3) Love.To love God is the source of penitence, the crown of joy, the power of union with the supernatural world.
J. Knox Little, Manchester Sermons,p. 41.
I. Consider the exaltation of the humanity in the Divine purpose. It formed the great Divine idea ere the earth was made, and when God dwelt alone in the solitudes of infinite space. The almighty Creator Himself condescended to assume the human nature in union with the Divine in order to exalt that nature, fallen and degraded, to glory and honour.
II. Notice the exaltation of the humanity in the incarnation of the Son of God. "Manifest in the flesh." How magnificent does fallen nature appear, even in its ruins, in thus becoming the very sanctuary and residence of Deity. Christ consecrated infancy, poverty, bereavement, suffering, and death itself, and the grave.
III. Note the exaltation of the humanity in the ascension of Christ. Our human nature occupies the central throne of heaven. "Great is the mystery of godliness, man manifest on the throne of God." It is in glorified human nature that Christ there lives and loves.
IV. Notice the exaltation of the humanity in the day of judgment. "The Father hath given Him authority to execute judgment also, becauseHe is the Son of man." Here, again, it is humanity exalted on the throne of final reckoning the Man Christ Jesus.
V. Once more, contemplate the exaltation of the humanity throughout all eternity. The humanity Christ wore on earth will continue evermore on the throne. The Divine Father, by immutable covenant, invested Him as Mediator with "length of days for ever and ever."
J. R. Macduff, Communion Memories,p. 51.
References: Psalms 8:4; Psalms 8:5. S. A. Brooke, Christ in Modern Life,p. 365.Psalms 8:5. H. Melvill, Penny Pulpit,No. 2273; Expositor,3rd series, vol. v., p. 306.