A part from avowed pessimists, most thoughtful people look upon the ultimate sovereignty of man as a consummation to which nature, history, and personal experience all point. Its achievement alone would render the struggles and sacrifices of life intelligible, or worth while. According to the story of Genesis, this end was perceived and declared to be a part of the Divine purpose, so far as fellow-creatures were concerned, at the very dawn of historic life. We read that man was created in the image and likeness of God, to "have dominion over all the earth, and over every creeping thing that creepeth upon the earth." While this concept appealed effectively to the child mind of an immature race, its declaration was surely prophetic of greater things. In Psalm 8, the thought is enlarged and dignified until it approaches that nobler conception of man's natural, because divinely commissioned, sovereignty which gives purpose and explanation to Revelation and to the ethical experiences and aspirations of the race. This was expressed in all its fulness by Jesus when be called his disciples and revealed to them their power and authority, as representatives of Truth, over all evil, and sent them forth to preach the Kingdom (declare this truth), and to heal the sick, assuring them that nothing could by any means hurt them.
The older thought is here retained, but broadened and deepened in that this sovereignty is to be the inheritance of all believers and is to embrace man's entire environment, including all those material laws, forces, and influences which in any way oppose his freedom and his spiritual development as a son of God.
That the disciples apprehended something of the fulness of this privilege and authority is evidenced. St. John witnesses that "as many as received Him, to them gave He power to become the sons of God, even to them that believe on His name," and in the exercise of this power the disciples went forth to repeat the Master's works. For a time the church held definitely to this ideal, and in a certain vague way Christian faith has ever entertained this larger hope, but its fulfilment has long since been relegated to an indefinite future.
