If the value of anything is to be estimated by its price, to what an immeasurable height of worth does it exalt man that God gave His Son to redeem him!—redeeming him not with corruptible things such as silver and gold, but with the precious blood of Christ; as of a lamb without spot or blemish.
So far from cherishing low views of man, I believe that a gem of inestimable value lies concealed beneath the beggar’s rags. A soul is there of divine-like faculties and of priceless worth: and a body also, which, though the seat of appetites that man shares with brutes, and of passions, perhaps, such as burn in the breast of fiends, may become more sacred than any fane built by human hands—a temple of the Holy Ghost.
There is a worth in man no meanness of circumstances, no degradation of character can altogether conceal. He is a jewel, though buried in a heap of corruption; the vilest outcast, possessing powers and affections that need only to be sanctified to ally him with angels, and make publicans and harlots fit for Heaven.—GUTHRIE.