As we look about in the human sea in which we are called to live, there’s a basic question which presses upon us like it has upon every generation. I along with you, am quite aware of the volume of commentary which is going in our society concerning the issues in the midst of which we live. Behind it all, however, there is an occasional rock which sticks up out of the ocean in the form of someone beginning to ask one or another of the real questions of life. One of the most basic of them all is the question, “What is man?” Who is this person whom we have called homo-sapiens and what is his purpose in this world? Applying that to ourselves, we do well to ask, “Who am I?” What am I here to accomplish?” “What is the purpose for which my life ever came to be, anyway?” In the midst of all the talk, these are the basic questions.

Now let us admit that a person never asks these questions if he is an atheist. It’s like the atheist who criticized the boy because he bowed his head to pray before his meal. The boy said, “Sir, don’t you pray?” The atheist said, “No, of course not.” Whereupon the boy responded by saying, “Well my dog doesn’t pray either.” You see, if a man is just a human animal, he never asks the teleological questions of life.

If, however, we are thoughtful human beings with a sense of destiny about us, then we will agree with Le Comte DuNouy who said, “Man is not merely a combination of appetites, instincts, passions and curiosity. Something more is needed to explain great human deeds, virtues, sacrifices, martyrdom. There is an element in the great mystics, the saints, the prophets, whose influence has been felt for centuries, which escapes mere intelligence.”

Thinking along these lines is, at least, a start of understanding how there is something different about the nature of man. No, indeed, man is not an animal who does not pray. He is a human being made in the image of God. He is a spirit and a soul and has an immaterial being which is more lasting and really more real than even his material being. Being an eternal soul, he cannot find happiness until he finds his rest in the God who made him.

May I, therefore, make a most earnest suggestion to each of us. Please do not think of yourself as being a mass of protoplasm, slithering along some recondite conduit of life. Rather, see yourself as a being with an eternal destiny, with a mission that reaches out into the wideness of eternity.

The only way, therefore, that you and I will be satisfied is when we discover that eternal destiny. The way to do it is to be forgiven of sin by coming to know Jesus Christ as personal Savior. The God who made us is willing to save us, keep us and bring us ultimately to His home on high. He promises to do this for us if we will receive His Son, Jesus Christ, as our very own Savior and deliverer from sin.

This all begins, this marvelous destiny, when I know Christ as my personal Savior. Don’t miss taking that wonderful step that leads to life, life in Christ. And do it today. The question then before the house is “What is Man?” He is a person made in the image of God and that image is only beautifully fulfilled when it comes to know Christ as His Savior.