One of the profoundest things which our Lord taught was the infinite value of the individual. "Are not two sparrows sold for a farthing?" He said, And one of mem shall not fall on the ground without your Father Ge. unless your Father wills it). "But th hairs of your head are all_numbere: sparrow's was the cheapest life in the market: but it was not outside God's care. God cares for the sparrow: He cares still more for you. The side of God's infinity which our Lord insists on, is not His omnipotence, omniscience etc, it is the infinity of His care for the individual. God is a Father, which means that He does not, as a mere Ruler or Dictator, deal witl men in groups, but that each man has to Him the distinctiveness, the importance, the whole significance he can have to himself. In God's sight nothing can be given in exchange for the soul of the poorest. most insignificant and imperfect individual in the world, be he brow white, yellow or black. By His care and guidance the frailest person may walk without anxiety amid all the forces that threaten his destruction, not only sure of God's protection, but sure that everything will be used to serve his true welfare.
It has almost become a commonplace of Apologetics that the importance of the individual was first recognized by Christianity. In antiquity the idea that the individual was of inestimable worth was not entertained. The poor were the goods and chattels of the rich. the pawns of the powerful. Most of the ancient civilizations were based on slavery, which refused to recognize as individuals a large section of the members of the State. But in the Bible values are changed, the individual comes to his rights. Even in the Old Testament the mark of a true prophet was to hear God's voice, and not man's, to be true to the individuality God had given him, and not to be an echo of party cries around him. To have that most selfish kind of individuality, which consists in agreeing with the majority of the powers that be, was the mark of the false prophet. In the judgment of Jesus even an unimportant, erring soul is of more value than the whole world. He came that all might live and when, thinking of those who had missed the way, He used the word lost' it became in His mouth boundlessly tender and compassionate and full of the heart of God. The parable of
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.