Moses, not Darwin / A sermon preached at St. Mark's, Surbiton, Kingston-on-Thames on Friday, March 31, 1871

Transcribed from the 1871 Rivingtons’ edition by David Price.
A Sermon
Preached at St. Mark’s, Surbiton, Kingston-on-Thames
On Friday , March 31, 1871
BY THE REV. B. G. JOHNS, M.A.
CHAPLAIN OF THE BLIND SCHOOL, SOUTHWARK
London : RIVINGTONS, WATERLOO PLACE
HIGH STREET | TRINITY STREET Oxford Cambridge 1871.
Price One Shilling .
Gen. ii. 7. “ And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground , and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life , and man became a living soul .”
Thus, my brethren, in noble and grand words, noble in their strength and in their simplicity, we are told of the creation of man, as separate and distinct from that of all other creatures. Having formed his bodily frame out of the dust of the earth, the Almighty breathed into him the breath of life, and man became a living soul, in the image of the living God. How far, and with what divine beauty, the heavenly image was then reflected in its earthly type, the splendour and perfection of God’s handiwork, we know not. However noble the glory of man’s appearance, however godlike its outer form, in that day, since then he has fallen from his high estate, and sin and death, which marred the purity of his soul, have left traces of their deadly leaven in his framework of flesh and blood. And yet not utterly debased or ruined it. For, still, the face of many a little child bears stamped upon it the imperishable marks of God’s handiwork, and the beauty, and freshness, and innocence shine out, till we think of the faces of the Blessed before the Throne on high. While all that is fair in the face of woman, and all that is noble and true in that of man, tells only of the same divine source. In a word, the whole living man, the body in its strength, pride, and beauty; the mind, the keen reason, the swift intelligence, the glowing imagination; and the soul, the conscience, and the spirit answering within; lifting man out of himself to the Heaven above him, and enabling him on earth to hold commune as a spirit with the Father of all spirits—each and all witness to the same truth—the breath that is in him, his framework, his whole being are from the breath of God, and therefore he is a living soul, immortal, and for a life beyond this.