The Value of a Man
| Published date | 01 November 1938 |
| Date | 01 November 1938 |
| DOI | 10.1177/026455053800300305 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
39
THE VALUE OF A MAN
An Address to the South Western
Summer School
By
THE BISHOP OF EXETER
I F it is true that the real significance of a man’s
all the teaching of Jesus, the supreme worth of each
life is hic creativeness in the lives of others, then
individual.
I cannot imagine any work more significant, more
And if for a moment we just think of the word
valuable to the life of the community, nor one which
&dquo; Lost &dquo; which was in the parable, it is worth while
might bring, more joy in the doing of it, than the
to notice how Our Lord uses the word.
A
man may
work of a probation officer. I take my definition of
be said to be lost as a ship is said to be lost. He
your function from the Home Office circular.
The
is as we say &dquo; on the rocks,&dquo; a complete wreck,
officer is to do everything in his power to make
down and out, hopeless. But it is not thus that
the period of probation a starting point for better
Jesus uses the word. To Jesus men are lost, not as
things.
a ship is lost, but as a sheep is lost.
Not as a wreck,
If you are to do that then the first qualification
gone to the bottom, but as a wanderer who has lost
his
for
way. But though he has lost his way, the way
your work is a profound conviction that better
is still there if he can only find it again. A lost
things are possible.
You must believe in human
sheep implies an anxious shepherd, and here are you
nature, and I thought that perhaps the best thing
the shepherds learning by experience how best you
I might do this morning is to put before you some
may make the way straight and plain.
truths about Man from the Bible. What does the
And if we know our Lord’s own method of deal-
Bible think about Man ?
ing with those men and women who were out of the
I want to remind you of the passage which hap-
way I think you will find that there stand out two
pens to come in to-day’s Gospel, that for the third
principles which I need only just mention, but which
Sunday after...
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