. . .
Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you . . . But flesh
with the life thereof, which is the blood thereof, shall ye not eat. And
surely your blood of your lives will I require: at the hand of every
beast will I require it, and at the hand of man; at the hand of every
man's brother will I require the life of man. Whoso sheddeth man's
blood, by man shall his blood be shed: for in the image of God made he
man."
This is God's blessing on mankind. This is our charter from God, who
made and rules this earth. This is the end and duty of our mortal life:-
-to be fruitful and multiply and replenish the earth, and subdue it. But
is that all? Is there no hint in this blessing of God of something more
than our mortal life--something beyond our mortal life? Surely there is.
Those words--"in the image of God made He man," must mean, if they mean
anything, that man can, if he will but be a true man, share the eternal
life of God. But I will not speak of that to-day, but rather of a
question about his mortal life in this world, which is this:--What is the
reason why man has a right over the lives of animals? why he may use them
for his food? and at the same time, what is the reason why he has not the
same right over the lives of his fellow-men? why he may not use them for
food?
It is this--that "in the image of God made He man.
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