Meek as an infant's on the breast, Sobbing betwixt uneasy rest And passion's fretful cry, Smiling midst tears its wrath away. Man only dares rebel. He, he alone disputes the word And oh! foul shame! he coldly slights Acts the arch-traitor's part, And Heaven resigns for Hell. 335 FIFTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Morning Lesson, Jeremiah xxxv. Epistle, Galat. vi. 11. COLLECT. KEEP, we beseech Thee, O Lord, Thy Church with Thy perpetual mercy; and because the frailty of man without Thee cannot but fall, keep us ever by Thy help from all things hurtful, and lead us to all things profitable to our salvation; through Jesus our Lord. Amen. The Autumnal Ember season falling about this time, the Collects for this Sunday and the following are framed with reference to that circumstance, and with great propriety, for on the due dispensing of holy orders, the welfare of the Church and its members in great measure depends. Impressed with a full sense of our infirmities, and of the manifold dangers by which we are surrounded, we pray in the Collect for the divine aid, reposing our hope in all humility in the perpetual mercy of Him who is the divine Head of the Church. And sweet is the spirit of Christian dependence, full of comfort, full of consolation. That desire of independence, of liberty miscalled, which but too generally infects us, was the germ of all the iniquity which has overspread the world. Sprung from the Evil One, and still nourished and encouraged by him, it has ever led to rebellion, to misery and destruction; while the consciousness or hope of the support of a Superior Power has not only imparted energy to our best exertions, but has shed a blissful peace over the soul which has tended alike to virtue and to happiness. The Epistle and Gospel strictly harmonize. We are taught in both to renounce all for His sake who died for us, to live solely to him, putting away all vain-glory on the one hand, all undue solicitude, all worldly desires, on the other, and to make the service of God our first concern and constant aim. The obedience of the house of the Rechabites to the command of their father Jonadab, serving as a reproach to the Israelites, and through them to ourselves, is propounded for our consideration in the Proper Morning Lesson. The Proper Lesson for the Evening is an historical account of one of the most daring instances of impiety on record; but let not surprise or indignation be the only feeling excited by the recital, lest, in a degree at least, we be guilty of a similar offence. All Scripture has been given for our admonition and instruction, and to slight the word of God as it has been transmitted to us, is in effect to imitate the impiety of the Israelitish king, and to destroy on the hearth of our hearts that message which, applied to the holy purposes of repentance and amendment, would have been the means of salvation to us. JEREMIAH Xxxvi. 3. pro It may be that the house of Judah will hear all the evil I pose to do unto them; that they may return every man from his evil way; that I may forgive their iniquity and sin. "SURELY for this will God arise, And storms that rend the midnight skies, The sinner's doom shall seal. No longer sure will vengeance sleep, The punishment the wretch shall reap How often was the warning sent! When did his haughty heart relent? Who marked one contrite tear? Greedy each wicked course he ran To chastise him forbear." But who art thou who thus may dare Condemn the lingering blow? Art thou, O man, than He more pure ? Oh! measure not by thy weak will His ways, proud man, are not thy ways, The God's love, in part, all comprehend, power that heaven and hell can bend, mercy that made man a friend The And brought a Saviour down: But neither heaven, nor hell, nor foe, Nor saint above, nor man below, Provoked each day, each minute, hour, |