question, "What is man, that thou art mindful of him? and the Son of
man, that thou visitest him?"

Yet, apart from man's sinfulness, I cannot feel that he is beneath
the regards of the Maker and Monarch of the starry heavens. I can
fancy that an earthly sovereign who, dwelling apart from his people,
is jealous of their intrusion within his palace gates, and sits
enthroned amid an exclusive though brilliant circle of proud and
powerful barons, may neither know nor care about the fortunes of lowly
cottagers; but there could be no greater mistake than out of such a
man's character to weave our conceptions of God, or fancy that because
we are infinitely beneath His rank, we are therefore beneath His
notice. A glance at the meanest of His creatures refutes and rebukes
the unworthy thought. It needs no angels from heaven to inform us that
God cherishes good will to all the creatures of His hand, nor deems
the least of them beneath His kind regards. Look at bird, or
butterfly, or beetle! Observe the lavish beauty that adorns His
creatures, the bounty that supplies their wants, the care taken of
their lives, the happiness, expressed in songs or merry gambols or
mazy dances, which He has poured into their hearts. The whole earth is
full of the glory of God's infinite benignity and good will.
Insignificant as I--a speck on earth, and earth itself but a speck in
creation--seem to myself when, standing below the starry vault, I look
up into the heavens, yet, apart from the thought that I am a sinner, I
cannot say, What is man, that thou art mindful of him? How can I, when
I see Him mindful of the brood that sleep in their rocking nest, of
the moth that flits by my face on muffled wing, of the fox that howls
on the hill, of the owl that hoots to the pale moon from ivy tower or
hollow tree? Are you not of more value than many sparrows? said our
Lord. Fashioned originally after the divine image, with a soul
outweighing in value the rude matter of a thousand worlds, able to
rise on the wings of contemplation above the highest stars and hold
communion with God himself, man, apart from his sinfulness, was every
way worthy of divine good will; that God should be mindful of him.

But we are sinners--sinners by nature as well as practice; polluted;
unholy; so unclean that our emblem is that hideous form which, from
the crown of the head to the soles of the feet, is wounds and bruises
and putrifying sores; and the news that God cherishes