In love it might be sent To lead thee to repent; For God delights to save and not to slay. He would our spirits wean From his paternal pity springs. Examine then the past, Art thou yet bound too fast To this low earth, or hast thou loosed its strings? Perhaps thou still dost mourn; Sad day, and sadder night is thine : And check the thought that leads thee to repine. Who entered heaven alone That we might share in love his joys divine. So shall thy grief grow pure, Then of his love secure Peace shall its balm upon thy woes distil; And seeds of bliss thou'lt sow, Which shall hereafter blow Beside the heavenly river calm and still. 125 FOURTH SUNDAY IN LENT. Morning Lesson, Genesis xliii. Epistle, Galatians iv. 21. Evening Lesson, Gen. xlv. Gospel, St. John vi. 1. COLLECT. GRANT, we beseech Thee, Almighty God, that we, who for our evil deeds do worthily deserve to be punished, by the comfort of Thy grace may merci fully be relieved; through our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. This Sunday bears the name of the Sunday of refreshment as well as that of Mid-Lent, and probably for this reason. Having, it is charitably presumed, humbled ourselves by lowly and deep repentance, and in truth and sincerity put away from us our evil deeds, the Church now permits us to pray for that relief and consolation which God, who has promised to dwell with the contrite heart, may vouchsafe to give. Accordingly in the Collect, while we confess that we deserve punishment only at His hands, we venture to implore the comfort of His grace, the hope of His pardon and mercy. The Epistle, in unison with this petition, withdraws our contemplation from our earthly abode of trouble and sorrow, to fix them on our heavenly inheritance, the City of God, Jerusalem that is above; while it sets forth in a lively manner the superior blessings we enjoy in the freedom of the Gospel covenant as compared with the restraint of the Mosaic ritual. The Gospel, harmonizing with the Epistle, cheers us by the relation of the miraculous multiplication of food in the wilderness, and encourages us to look to that Saviour in faith and trust, who is able not only to supply us with "the meat that perisheth," but with that spiritual sustenance which shall nourish our souls into everlasting life. The Proper Lessons are of the same cheering nature. In the affecting history of Joseph, and in his joyful restoration to his sorrowing father, who had for so many years mourned him as dead, we are taught to carry our views from the type to the antitype-from the wise governor of Egypt, to Him who reigns Lord of lords, and King of kings in heaven, to the blessings of that government which embraces a whole world, and to that blissful reunion of friends in a land where no famine, no separation shall ever be known. GENESIS xlv. 3. I am Joseph, doth my father yet live? "Is then the old man living, The man of whom ye spake ? (Cease heart thy fond misgiving, Why beat as like to break ?) Inform me how he fareth, Speak, have ye left him well? His age-say how he beareth The years he now must tell. “His hair must now be hoary, His eye, so bright, be dim; Recalls he but my story? How well I picture him. How oft when slumber sealeth Day's care in sweet repose, Before my fancy stealeth, One whom my bosom knows : "And oft I beg his blessing, Oft press his rev'rend cheek; Oft wake whilst still caressing That holy form and meek: And then the large tear stealeth, My slumber quite departeth- "Oft, too, when high is sounded By scenes unknown to fame : "By every bliss surrounded, My father still I crave; O'er lands my thoughts have bounded Though to be near his grave: Then of his welfare tell me, Again say how he looks; Our home-still near it dwell ye? Suspense love never brooks." So others too have spoken, Who Joseph's fate have shared; Who willing, or heart broken, Have distant climates dared. |