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which is above, there to reign with your Prince for ever, and to dwell together in unity with the angels and the saints.

JOHN HENRY PARKER, OXFORD AND LONDON.

Sermons for the Christian Seasons.

TWENTY-THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

THE RESURRECTION OF CHRIST TO BE ACCOM-
PLISHED IN US.

PHILIPPIANS iii. 20, 21; iv. 1. For our conversation is in heaven; from whence also we look for the Saviour, the Lord Jesus Christ: who shall change our vile body, that it may be fashioned like unto His glorious body, according to the working whereby He is able even to subdue all things unto Himself. Therefore, my brethren dearly beloved and longed for, my joy and crown, so stand fast in the Lord, my dearly beloved.

ALREADY the Church's Services give warning notes of the near approach of Advent, the holy season when we at once commemorate the first coming of our Lord Jesus Christ in great humility, and look forward to that great 'Day of the Lord,' when this same Jesus shall come again in His glorious Majesty to judge both the quick and dead.' Accordingly this day's Epistle contains a clear prophecy of the second coming of Christ, and at the same time bids us rejoice. in the hope of the glory which shall then be revealed.

But in truth every Sunday in the year proclaims aloud that self-same truth which is at this time more especially brought home to us. For every Sunday is kept holy in memory of the Resurrection of our Lord Jesus Christ: on the first day of every week we are glad with holy joy, because the sepulchre in the garden of Joseph of Arimathæa is empty, though none hath borne Him hence who was laid therein; but He hath Himself arisen, and hath gone forth as a bridegroom out of his chamber; and so full of gladness is the news which angels bring, that even we at times can scarce for joy believe that Christ is risen indeed. Blessed is such Sunday joy: it is pure and deep because it is the joy of love; a gladness which draws us forth from ourselves and our own poor hearts, and makes us to rejoice for Him and with Him, in whom alone all true joy is.

Yet not for our Lord alone do we this day rejoice, but for ourselves also in Him: all Scripture proclaims that whatsoever was done by Christ the Head belongs to His members also. When the sun arises on a clear and dewy morning, not only does it light up the heavens its own abode, and give to the skies a brighter happier blue, but upon earth it kindles with its rays the dew

drops on every blade of grass, so that these also shine with living fire, with a glory not their own, yet beauteous to behold, whilst they sparkle and glisten as if diamonds were strewed around us, as though we already beheld in figure that new Jerusalem, whose streets are pure gold, as it were transparent glass, and her foundations are garnished with all manner of precious stones. Surely such a morning as this is no vain shadow of the blessings of Sunday: for so likewise when the true Sun of Righteousness on this blessed morning arose from the grave, He not only by His own glory gave brightness to the heavenly hosts, so that all the sons of God shouted for joy; but upon us also, who are but as the grass of the field, He shed the bright beams of His glory, that we might shine as the stars, He the true Light, we faintly giving back His rays; He enlightening heaven and earth, we, the children of the light, in the midst of a naughty world.

So also one portion of this our Lord's joy, of the brightness which this day's sun pours forth upon us, is the pledge which the resurrection of the body of Christ gives of the future rising of our own bodies.

On this point men were almost in darkness till Jesus Christ came into the world, and brought

life and immortality to light. The ancient nations believed that the spirit of man was immortal; their wise men taught that the soul could never die, but must endure for ever, and that it would live in happiness or misery according as its life here had been. But as to what would become of the body after the soul had left it, they knew nothing: therefore many of them burnt the dead body to ashes, knowing that it must decay, and believing that all its uses were now ended. Yet this was a sad thought, even to those who believed the soul to be immortal. How much we come to love even a house in which we have lived many years: and if we must leave it, and go to a foreign land, we cannot help asking ourselves. "Shall I ever see this my home again? if I return after many years, will strangers possess it? or will it have crumbled to dust ?" And if our bodies be the houses and homes of ourselves, of our immortal spirits, must not this same thought about them come home to us with yet more force? These bodies of ours, fearfully and wonderfully made, are no mere prisons, but our daily companions, our homes which we ever bear about us; the condition and state of the body acting upon and influencing our souls, (even as the cleanliness and tidiness of a man's house do more or less

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