194 



LETTERS ON TREES. 



to his Creator the relation of a " son," and by delega- 

 tion from Him the rank of a " king ; " and that, as 

 exercising kingly sway over the works of the Divine 

 Hand, which have been put under his feet," he has 

 been crowned Avith glory and honour." True : we 

 see not yet all things put under him," neither do we 

 see him yet thus crowned." But this, as Revelation 

 assures us, is because man has fallen from his first 

 estate. The kingdom that was appointed unto him, 

 and which he held on condition of suit and service to 

 be done, he forfeited by one fatal act of treason. The 

 language of Scripture, therefore, is descriptive, not of 

 what man is actually, but of what he was once, and 

 might still have been. Rather is it descriptive of what 

 man's condition is as restored. For it tells us that 

 fallen man has been redeemed ; that by the interposi- 

 tion of One who for him became man, and because of 

 His exaltation to the throne of the universe, whereon 

 he now sits as Man as well as God — man's Head and 

 Elder brother — man has been taken back into his 

 Royal Father's favour, all things have been again put 

 under him, and his lost kingdom restored to him. 



9. Marvellous as it is, incredible but for the evi- 

 dence on which it rests, such is, in truth, mian's rela- 

 tion to the Creator, such his rank in the scale of 

 creation : — the offspring of God, partaker of the 



rendered " God." " In the beginning God created," &;c.— See Note 

 B, at the end. 



