Seite:Marsh Hallig 1856.djvu/102

102THE HALLIG.

phases indicative of frightful revolutions do astronomers
observe in the heavenly bodies ! What earthquakes,
floods, and volcanic fires ! what periods of drought !
what torrents from the bursting clouds, belong to the
history of the earth ! What a ceaseless warfare among
animals ! how the law of the stronger prevails ! what
plundering and slaughter of the weaker !"
  "And would you," objected Hold, "compare man to
these — man who is made in the image of his Maker ; to
whom He gave the power of using the experience of past
ages for the benefit of the present ? to whom He gave
his holy commandments, which have for their object
not only his well being upon earth, but his eternal sal-
vation ? to whom He has manifested here below the
brightness of his glory, in the person of Jesus Christ —
a glory which is justice and love, power and peace ?"
  "Was not Christ also obliged to suffer, to contend
and die ? and have not new causes of difference sprung
up through His coming ?"
  "And are we therefore to continue forever his mur-
derers by rejecting his teachings, his blessings, and his
promises ? Shall we set him up as our private and
social household Deity, and at the same time worship,
as the God of nations, him who was a murderer from
the beginning ? No ; as certainly as, setting aside
Christ who is above all comparisons, the apostle who
proclaimed the Gospel to all the world, brought
greater blessings to the children of men than all those
who have preceded or followed, so certainly will the
Gospel extend to every hill and valley ; and then first
shall be seen true activity among men, an activity
which expends itself not in fightings, but in love ; then