Christ.”[1] Upwards with your thoughts and desires! “Seek the things that are above, where Christ is sitting at the right hand of God; mind the things that are above, not the things that are upon the earth.”[2] Why do we grub so long like moles in the mud of this vale of tears? The earth is not our lasting habitation; we have a far happier fatherland, to which we approach as travelling pilgrims nearer and nearer every day, to live there forever. If things go well with us for a time here below let us say to ourselves: after all what is the good of all this? These are not the joys that can content me; unhappy indeed should I be if I had nothing better to expect! And if what the world calls adversity assails us, then let us think: after all, what does it matter? This is not the place where I am to find happiness, and my tears shall not flow very long; the resurrection, the divine life, a blissful immortality which Jesus Christ has won for me by His Passion and death awaits me. With this hope I will console myself in the time of suffering; with this hope I will arm myself against all temptations, that I may never offend my God; with this hope I will daily spur myself on to serve God truly and constantly to the end according to my state and condition, that after my resurrection I may go body and soul " where Christ is sitting on the right hand of God.” Amen.
NINETEENTH SERMON.
ON THE CONSOLATION TO BE DERIVED FROM THE RESURRECTION IN THE TRIALS OF LIFE.
Subject.
Faith and hope in the future resurrection can and should encourage us to overcome all difficulties, and to bear with cheerfulness all trials and voluntary mortifications.—Preached on the first Sunday after Easter.
Text.
Ostendit eis manus et latus.—John xx. 20.
“He showed them His hands, and His side.”
- ↑ Abnegantes impietatem, et sæcularia desideria, sobrie, et juste, et pie vivamus in hoc sæculo, espectantes beatam spem, et adventum gloriæ magni Dei, et salvatoris nostri Jesu Christi.—Tit. ii. 12, 13.
- ↑ Quæ sursum sunt quærite, ubi Christus est in dextera Dei sedens; quæ sursum sunt sapite, non quæ super terram.—Coloss. iii. 1, 2.
