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
enjoy good in his labour.

So thought Solomon, in spite of all his wisdom, because he had not heard
the good news of Easter day. And so think many now, who are called wise
men and philosophers; because they, alas! for them, will not believe the
good news of Easter day.

But what says Easter day? Easter day says, Man has pre-eminence over a
beast. The man is redeemed from the death of the beasts by Christ, who
rose on Easter day. Easter day says, Wherever the spirit of the beast
goes, wherever the spirit of the brutal and the wicked man goes, the
spirit of the true Christian goes upward, to Christ, who bought it with
His precious blood. Easter day says, The body may turn to the dust from
which it was taken, but the spirit lives for ever before God, who shall
give it another body, as it shall please Him, as He gives to every seed
its own body. And, therefore, Easter day says, There is something better
for a man than to eat and drink and enjoy himself, for to-morrow he may
die, and all be over; and that something is, to labour not merely for the
meat which perishes with the perishing body, but to labour after the
fruits of the spirit--love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness,
goodness, faith, meekness, temperance. These the life of the body does
not give us; and these the death of the body not take away from us; for
they are spiritual and heavenly, eternal and divine; and he who has them
cannot die for ever. And therefore, we may comfort ourselves in all our
labour, if only we labour at the one useful work on earth, to be good,
and to do good, and to make others good likewise.

True it is, as St. Paul says, that if in this life only we have hope in
Christ we are of all men most miserable. For we do not care to be of the
earth, earthy: we long to be of the heaven, heavenly. We do not care to
spend our time in eating and drinking, mean covetousness, ambition, and
the base pleasures of the flesh: we long after high and noble things,
which we cannot get on earth, or at best only in fragments, and at rare
moments; after the holiness and the blessedness of ourselves