1 KINGS Xxii. 34. And a certain man drew a bow at a venture and smote the King. "How wise or weak," we cry, "the plan!" As failure or success befall; But know, O vain presumptuous man! It is the Lord that ordereth all. The lucky chance, the fatal hap, At random was the arrow cast To fall beneath the zephyr's wing. God's watchful eye fills widest space, His hand directs the fatal blow; Through him the suppliant's prayer finds grace, He warms the friend, or arms the foe. No speed, though swift as lightning's flash, See how the blood from that deep gash So sure destruction shall o'ertake The judgment due to sinners flies. O GOD, who declarest thy Almighty power most chiefly in shewing mercy and pity; mercifully grant unto us such a measure of Thy grace, that we, running the way of Thy commandments, may obtain Thy gracious promises, and be made partakers of Thy heavenly treasure; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Mercy, goodness and power in God, unworthiness and helplessness in ourselves, the inseparable union of faith and practice, form the ground work of every Collect that our Church prescribes for our use. In none, however, is the truth of this observation more fully illustrated than in the present, which is truly one that the penitent would choose for his comfort, one which the more holy aspirant after heavenly joys would delight to breathe in the humility and gratitude of his spirit. Commencing with an acknowledgment that the Almighty power of God is exemplified most clearly in shewing mercy and pity, we beseech Him to grant us such grace to fulfil His commands, that we may obtain His gracious promises and be made partakers of heaven for Christ's sake. The Epistle, in close connexion with the Collect, refreshes us with the recollection of our Lord's resurrection-the sign and seal of our redemption and salvation-encouraging us by the example of the great Apostle, to persevere in our Christian course; to turn the recollection of our former sins into a course of more active obedience for the time to come, and finally to ascribe all change in ourselves, all progress in holiness, to the grace of God. The Gospel, which is the parable of the Publican and the Pharisee, in like spirit, warns us against selfrighteousness, holding out comfort for the penitent, and inculcating most forcibly upon us, the dispositions that will be most likely to render us acceptable with God-trust in Him, and humility and abasement in ourselves. And much indeed do we need such admonition, such encouragement, for in all things we are but too prone to deceive ourselves. penitence is apt to degenerate into slavish fear-our comparative righteousness into presumption: the artful enemy of our souls only shifting his point of attack. But in all seasons our approach to the Deity ought to be marked by one and the same spirit. The proper way, says Stanhope, of a sinner's applying for mercy and grace (and all of us are sinners,) is, not arrogantly to thank God that we are "not as other men are," but, as the purest of churches hath directed Our us, "meekly to acknowledge our vileness, and truly to repent us of our faults.” In the Proper Lesson for the Morning we are led to a spiritual application of the cure of Naaman's leprosy. Sin answers to the loathsome disease in ourselves, which is cleansed alone by the virtue given to the holy sacraments by Christ himself. The Proper Lesson for the Evening, which records the miserable end of the wicked Jezebel, though familiar to our recollection, can never be heard without awe, and a just fear of that divine vengeance against sin, which though it may sleep for a time, will eventually fall in all its terrors upon the head of the offender. P |