SERMON X. THE IMAGE OF THE EARTHLY AND THE HEAVENLY



Eversley, Easter Day, 1871.

1 Cor. xv. 49. "As we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also
bear the image of the heavenly."

This season of Easter is the most joyful of all the year. It is the most
comfortable time, in the true old sense of that word; for it is the
season which ought to comfort us most--that is, it gives us strength;
strength to live like men, and strength to die like men, when our time
comes. Strength to live like men. Strength to fight against the
temptation which Solomon felt when he said: "I have seen all the works
which are done under the sun, and behold all is vanity and vexation of
spirit. For what has a man of all his labour, and of the vexation of his
heart, wherein he has laboured under the sun? For all his days are
sorrow, and his travail grief. Yea, his heart taketh not rest in the
night. This also is vanity. For that which befalleth the sons of men
befalleth beasts: as the one dieth, so dieth the other: yea, they have
all one breath: so that a man has no pre-eminence over a beast; for all
is vanity. All go to one place: all are of the dust, and all turn to
dust again. Who knoweth the spirit of man that it goeth upward, and the
spirit of the beast that it goeth downward to the earth?" So thought
Solomon in his temptation, and made up his mind that there was nothing
better for a man than that he should eat and drink, and make his soul