1 KINGS Xvii. 5. "So he went and did according to the word of the Lord, for he went and dwelt by the brook Cherith, that is before Jordan." WHAT though thy duty calls thee far, O'er foaming seas or burning sands. Remember Cherith's sacred brook, God ne'er his servants yet forsook, No: weak in faith and faint of heart, He bids thee go, whose right thou art, He in the desert spreads a board, Its own appointed duty knows. Go, then, relying on his care, His plighted word, his tender love; He calls thee from each tender tie, Trust, trust him then, and fear no more, A little while withdrawn from men, His purpose answered once again, The public voice thy praise shall swell. GRANT to us, Lord, we beseech Thee, the spirit to think and do always such things as be rightful; that we, who cannot do any thing that is good without Thee, may by Thee be enabled to live acccording to Thy will; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Unable to command either purity of intention or power of execution, our sufficiency is of God; to Him therefore we are taught in this Sunday's comprehensive Collect to supplicate that whereas without his aid we cannot serve him acceptably, we may be enabled by Him to make His will the law of our lives; the blessed effect of such obedience,--our everlasting felicity-being in contemplation. The Epistle teaches us to form correct notions of the Church, both under the Law and the Gospel, and instructs us how to act conformably to its direction under both dispensations. Drawing a parallel between our present state in the world, and that of the Israelites of old in the wilderness, it earnestly warns us of the dangers to which we are exposed, and shews the fallacy of the plea of extraordinary temptation as an excuse for yielding to its strength, since the divine aid is ever at hand if we truly seek it. The Gospel reminds us that we are placed in this life under trust as stewards, who must finally render up an account of their management, in order that they may receive either the condemnation or the approval of their Lord and Judge. It also sets forth to us in a figurative manner the great bounty and goodness of God in the distribution of his gifts; the injustice and unfaithfulness of men in wasting or abusing them, the danger attendant on such perversion of his beneficence, and lastly the best means of preventing these evils, and of retaining those as blessings which were intended to be such. The Proper Lessons, which embrace some striking passages in the life and ministry of the great prophet Elijah, are exceedingly sublime, arresting the attention by their grandeur and importance, and impressing upon us the most profound reverence for Him who alone is "the God," and whose "still small voice" wins us to love Him when the whirlwind and the thunders of His anger might terrify us into nought. These Lessons indeed are not to be exceeded in dignity or beauty. It would be a great disparagement of the Holy Volume to recommend the perusal of any part of it for mere excellence of style, purity of composition, or boldness and magnificence of imagery: but in a professed age of taste like the present,-an age, alas! in which there are readers of cultivated understanding and of critical discernment who have but little religious feeling,—it may not be amiss to draw attention to the Scriptures even on an inferior ground. "The word of God is quick even as a sword to the dividing of the bones and marrow;" and divine grace may make that effectual to salvation which was sought only from motives of curiosity or even of amusement. Nor ought the beauty of the sacred writings to be undervalued by any one, or to create surprise as derogatory to their intrinsic worth and importance. He who gave man the power to clothe his ideas in language to charm his fellow creatures, may well be allowed to clothe his own word in language as far above human composition as His thoughts are above our thoughts; and the devout heart, zealous for His glory, delights in giving Him honor in all things, and in ascribing the superiority due to Him in an inferior respect as in a greater. |