All our weakness fully sharing, Tears, no doubt, our Saviour shed; Heed we then lest reckless daring We in joy to sin be led; But let thought of those first tears Let us not, the truth o'erlooking Mirth display he would disown. Peace the angels are proclaiming, Peace the earth re-echoes wide. Nature's self her freedom claiming, Waits in hope a happier tide. Pledge that bondage is o'erpast, Pledge that Hell has wrought its last. SUNDAY AFTER CHRISTMAS DAY. Morning Lesson, Isaiah xxxvii. Evening Lesson, Isaiah xxxviii. Epistle, Galatians iv. 1. COLLECT. ALMIGHTY GOD, who hast given us Thy only begotten Son to take our nature upon him, and as at this time to be born of a pure Virgin; Grant that we being regenerate, and made Thy children by adoption and grace, may daily be renewed by Thy Holy Spirit; through the same our Lord Jesus Christ, who liveth and reigneth with Thee and the same Spirit, ever one God, world without end, Amen. The Church, prolonging the festivity of this holy season, repeats on this Sunday, the Collect for Christmas Day; thereby imploring the perpetual blessings and benefits of our Saviour's birth. The Epistle enlarges on these, fixing our contemplation on the love of God, the Father, who for our sake and for our salvation, sent His blessed and co-eternal Son to take our nature upon him, that we, through Him, might become his adopted children, and sealed with his Spirit, be made heirs with him of glory. The Gospel communicates the glad tidings of our Redeemer's miraculous birth; nor can we be too careful in preserving in our mind the great truth, that whilst he was man of the nature of his mother, he was very God, a Saviour; who is no other than the Lord Jehovah, manifested in the flesh, that he might destroy his enemy and ours, the devil, and, according to his promise, "save his people from their sins;" or, in other words, from the punishment due to them. In the Morning Lesson we may behold the triumphs of our Almighty Captain over sin and Satan, shadowed out in the deliverance of his people, the Jews, from the proud and blasphemous threats of Sennacherib,-while, in the miraculous recovery of Hezekiah from apparently mortal sickness, we are taught to look to Him who has healed us of a still more fatal malady-the sickness of sin; and so prepares us to join in the praises and thanksgivings of the holy monarch. ISAIAH XXXviii. 1. "Thus saith the Lord, set thy house in order; for thou shalt die, and not live." IF then the spangled skies the heavens are telling Look on the face of Nature widely lying, Bound fast by Winter's hand, and cheerless now; So late with verdure clad, while soft gales sighing, Shook dewy fragrance o'er her flowery brow. No feathery songster glad his soft notes trilling, Fills the light air with sounds of joy and love; Nor gentle showers from fleecy clouds distilling, Spread the gay smile on earth that glows above. The year has found its grave, and cold is sleeping But in her ample bosom safe reposing, Nature, the latent blossom kindly hides; Till the glad voice of Spring each germ disclosing, Awakes new charms, and clothes the mountain's sides. Shall man, this lesson in his folly slighting, No wiser grow for all his Maker's care? Shall Nature's voice or Holy Spirit's writing Less powerful prove than the false world's poor snare ? Himself a child of earth for ever owning, Shall He as if immortal dare to live? Shall age itself beneath its burthen groaning, Alas! we talk, we think of others dying, And blame the folly which so plain appears; We buy and build; with fruitless care tormenting View on what fragile grounds our hopes we base. But pause, and hear the awful voice appealing "Set now thy house in order," lest death sealing, Almighty goodness grants thee now the seeing But who shall tell before another's fleeing What awful change may in thy state be wrought! So live thou that in death when thou art sinking, |