THE DIVINE IMAGE by L. A. Reed

Seventh-day Adventist Publishing Association · Battle Creek, Mich. · Feb 26, 1901

THE DIVINE IMAGE

By L. A. Reed

WE have seen that literature has to do with thought and thinking and the expression of thought; and that Biblical literature has to do with God's thought and His thinking, and His expression of thought.

But the mind of man was originally made in the image of God. And though this image, in many instances, has been almost lost, yet in the minds of men are still the outlines of that image.

Hence literature in general must bear some resemblance in its make-up to Biblical literature, in so far as the author's mind still retains the image of his Creator.

But what are the common elements traceable throughout these two branches of literature? What principles and methods of the human mind are images of the divine mind? Let us attempt an answer to this question.

In all art, in all literature, in fact, in all expression of mind, we find three elements:—

1. A Theme—the thought above all other thoughts expressed, often called the subject.

2. A Plan—an arrangement of the theme, or leading thought. In fiction this is called the plot. One author calls it the massing of the thought, each part in the whole taking its own important place. Another author calls it the proportioning of the thought.

3. The Finish of the Details—the execution, or technique. To some this is the all of art and literature; as if the rubbing and polishing of the thought, as if the dressing out and adorning of the thought, were the all and in all. We are told that the life is “more than meat, and the body than raiment.” Consequently we believe that the thought itself must be more than its dress, and the truth, or theme, more than the language in which it is clothed.

Then in all Biblical literature, if we look deep enough, we shall find these three: (1) a theme; (2) an arrangement of the theme; and (3) details—a proper use of the words, figures, historical allusions, that are at once the means of communication between the divine mind and the human mind; and that will, by the proper agencies, lead the human mind up to a comprehension of the divine thought. L. A. REED.