THE

FUTURE GLORY OF THE CHRISTIAN

CONTRASTED WITH

HIS PRESENT FRAILTY.

1 COR. XV. 49.

And as we have borne the image of the earthy, we shall also bear the image of the heavenly.

FEW things more illustrate the excellency of the grace of Christ, than the support which it affords in seasons of affliction. At the very moment when all other resources fail, the religion of the Bible most effectually sustains and comforts the devout Christian. It teaches him to rejoice in tribulation, and to triumph even in death. It leads him, with the Apostle in the chapter from which my text is taken, and which the church appoints as the lesson in her office for the burial of the dead, to view the resurrection of Christ as the assurance of his own, and encourages him to believe, that as he has borne the image of Adam, his frail and earthly father, he shall also bear the image of Christ, his heavenly and glorious Redeemer. Let us

then meditate on the future glories of the saints, as contrasted with their present weak and suffering condition: 'and let us consider these two states in the order in which they naturally occur; noticing,

I. THE PRESENT FRAILTY OF THE CHRIS

TIAN.

II. HIS FUTURE GLORY.

The Christian in this world bears the image of the earthy. By the EARTHY, is here meant Adam, the first parent of our race; The first Adam, as he is called (v. 45) in opposition to Christ, who is The last Adam; the first man, as opposed to Christ the second man; the earthy, as distinguished from Christ the Lord from heaven. He was formed of the dust of the earth. His whole frame, though fearfully and wonderfully made, was created weak and frail, partaking of the nature of the earth from which it was derived. His soul, indeed, was formed after the image of God; and had he continued in his original righteousness, his body would have remained free from disease and death. But instead of this, he fell; and sin entered into the world, and death by sin. His spiritual life

Rom. v. 12.

being lost, his body became rebellious against his reason and conscience, was rendered subject to a thousand diseases, and sunk at last, under the penal stroke of death, into that dust from which it was originally taken. Thus was the first man of the earth earthy. And such are all his descendants. The author and head of our race having fallen, all mankind have inherited his frailty as well as his transgression, and we bear in common with him and with each other that weak and sickly tabernacle to which sin has reduced us.

What the IMAGE of this earthy man especially is, may be gathered from the sacred language of our Apostle. It is sown, he observes, in corruption-in dishonour-in weakness-and a natural body. (v. 42, 43, 44.)

The image then of the first Adam is a corrupt one. Fallen man bears about with him the seeds of corruption and decay. Unnumbered diseases surround him from his earliest youth. The tendency to death must be perpetually opposed, or the body moulders away of itself. Even during life, the severe hand of the surgeon must separate the mortifying member; whilst the slightest accidents bring on a premature corruption which no skill can baffle. Thus man goes to his long home; and, as he descends to the tomb, he is compelled to say to corruption,

Thou art my father; and to the worm, Thou art my mother and my sister".

Nor is this image less dishonourable than corrupt; it is the mark of our fallen state. Disease and death are the punishment of sin, and are therefore our shame as well as our misery. How much ignominy is there in those various sufferings which are the forerunners of the execution to which we are condemned! As a lost criminal under the sentence of his judge, man lives the heir of disgrace and sorrow. Even his dearest relatives, when death has once approached, must be buried out of his sight; and the lifeless clay committed to the earth wastes dishonourably away. Thus " the body of our humiliation" dissolves.

And why should I speak of its weakness? Human imbecility, how obvious, how painful! How little can the strongest frame endure. Extreme heat or cold, excessive fatigue or change, too much or too little food or rest; unusual care or anxiety, expectation or despair, joy or grief, all are sufficient to crush the feeble strength of man that is a worm, and the son of man that is a worm 3. And in the combat with disease and the grave, where is the boasted strength of man? where his former might?

where his power? He faints in the hour of conflict, and falls weak and helpless before the King of Terrors.

Nor can we be surprised at this, when we recollect that he has a mere natural or animal body. The soul indeed is rational and immortal, but the body resembles that of the beasts that perish. In its wants and appetites, its pains and pleasures, its labours and its repose, its renovation and decay, it is an earthly tabernacle, not different materially from that of other animals. And as to the tendencies to sickness and death, men themselves are as the beasts: For that which befalleth the sons of men, befalleth beasts, even one thing befalleth them as the one dieth, so dieth the other, yea, they have all one breath, so that man hath no pre-eminence above a beast; for all is vanity.

:

Thus we are all of the earth earthy. Not only is our body made of the earth, but it is made of it with no considerable change. It is earthy still. The nature of the dust from which we were taken, remains in it. It rises no higher than its original. We represent in every feature the frail image of the first father of our race.

This image then of the earthy all mankind BEAR. It is the garment with which they are clothed. It is the likeness which they

4 Eccles. iii. 18, 19.