Man, the Natural Ruler and Worker of the World
By Kate Lindsay
MAN was created to be a ruler, and was given a vast dominion. To “be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the earth” was the original commission given the first pair in Eden. This planet, with all its forces and resources, was put in man’s power to develop his faculties and increase his knowledge of his Creator. The soil, in all its Edenic fertility, was his to cultivate, and was ready to manifest its life-giving activity in fruit, grains, grass, and flowers, to renew man’s energies forever, and to satisfy his love of the beautiful. Everywhere, harmony, and perfection of form and color, soothed the musical ear and satisfied the artistic eye. The heat, light, electricity, and all nature’s force manifestations were ready to serve man, to convey him or his words to the ends of the earth. They were so much in his power that they did only good at his bidding, without their present destructive manifestations. Even to-day they can be made to serve man and do his work, and to carry his words around this planet. God thus meant to teach man and enable him to understand his Creator, also to give him power to rule his kingdom after the same plan that the Almighty rules the universe. Man would, year by year, have learned more of infinite wisdom, power, and goodness throughout all the ages of eternity, always growing more and more capable of using his inheritance for good, always reaching for more and greater results. Man fell because he yielded to appetite, and then began a struggle for mere existence, and a contention of man with his fellows for what he regarded as the good things of earth; that is, the means of gratifying perverted appetites and passions. This led to mental weakness, moral perversions, and physical disease. Man, through his deterioration, lost not only the power to rule the earth, but he also lost all conception of the character of his Maker; and, knowing nothing higher or more desirable in the universe than himself, he turned to man-worship, and even deified his basely perverted, lustful passions. Darkness — dense, moral darkness — covered the earth and the people.11 In these last days God is again giving man some views of what might have been his, and of what will be the future inheritance of the saved. He is also shedding light upon the subject of the need of moral, mental, and physical health, that humanity may know the Creator’s attributes. To understand and use the means which will increase the moral, mental, and physical strength of mankind is the proper foundation on which man may build a stable and ever increasing ability to fulfill the two great precepts on which the law and the prophets are founded. To love the Lord with all the mind, might, and strength, and our neighbor as ourselves, is easy just to the extent that we reflect the character of Christ in our lives. And we can love our neighbor as ourselves when we see him a child of the same Father, and capable also of reflecting his character. If he be already a child of God, we shall love him and do him good because he is our fellow worker, and represents the same truths about the Master. If he is a lost and wandering sheep, we shall faithfully seek him, as does the tender heavenly Shepherd, and shall love him so well that we shall gladly help carry him into the fold. To do our Master’s work well on the earth, we must have sound physical health; for without this we are crippled and unable to work in these last days, when much needs to be done in a short time, and when diseases which weaken and destroy the body abound.