A Sermon for the Harvest

Extract

The Lord God formed man from the slime of the earth, and breathed into his face the breath of life, and man became a living soul. . . . And the Lord God took man and put him into the paradise of pleasure, to dress it and keep it.’—Book of Genesis, c. 1.

The Land ! The very word strikes a chord in the heart of every true Englishman. It brings to mind a vision of life healthy, in harmony with nature, happy. It makes the heart glow with wonder at the fertile goodness and the mysterious beauty of the earth. It leads the soul to faith in God whose perfect Holiness is reflected and made manifest in the harmony, goodness and beauty of nature.

The paradise of pleasure in which grew all manner of trees fair to behold and pleasant to eat; in the midst of which also grew the tree of life, is no legend. It was a Golden Age at the outset of human history when as God told Job : ‘The morning stars praised me together, and all the sons of God made a joyful melody.’ Deep down in the memory of mankind, and therefore in each one of us, is the sense of a holiness that was once our happiness, a holiness that was a harmony between man and the earth which God gave him and between man and the heaven God opened to him, a holiness that was a fulfilment of the Destiny God set us. And if this deep memory has left a glow from the past, surely it has also given a hope for the future, a yearning in us all to regain that health, to re-establish that harmony and to recover that holiness in which alone lies our happiness.