Upon our guilty head. Rising up early," lo! he sends The ministers of peace, and blends To life that we be led. Then shame thee, sinner, and forbear To God's forsaken ways. Think, think how He hath spared thee erst, Nor smote till he had tried thee first Weep that thou canst so ill discern And 'gainst thyself in anger burn For such defect in love. Think how each offer thou hast thrown In scorn away, and humbly own Had patience not to thee been shown, Spare, spare thy creatures, gracious Lord, Thy wondrous patience still accord; O Father, Saviour, God adored, Our punishment delay. Help us thy awful threats to fear, Help us with saving grace to hear, Help thou the penitential tearLord, help us to obey. 341 SIXTEENTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY. Morning Lesson, Ezekiel ii. Epistle, Ephesians iii. 13. COLLECT. O LORD, we beseech Thee, let Thy continual pity cleanse and defend Thy Church; and because it cannot continue in safety without Thy succour, preserve it evermore by Thy help and goodness; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. The service for this day may be said to be entirely clerical. Our interest in it, however, is not the less on that account, for (and we can never be too deeply impressed with the truth) the safety and welfare of the Church is that of the individuals who compose it, and the purity of the Church collectively is the individual righteousness of its members. We therefore in fact pray in the Collect for our own improvement and our own benefit when we pray for it. Holy as we acknowledge the Church to be, and fully relying as we ought on the promise of Christ to be with it even to the end, we are yet compelled to own that it is the unceasing pity alone of God that can keep it clean from impurity, and defend it from danger. That in short its very continuance is entirely of His mercy, and this because though its Head be divine, its members are frail and sinful creatures, unstable in all righteousness. In the Epistle the clerical character in one important office attached to it, that of supplication for others, is beautifully though unostentatiously exemplified in that of the great Apostle of the Gentiles himself, whose zeal in this portion of Scripture, is directed to rouse and animate all ranks and orders of Christians to attain that well regulated internal disposition which will enable us to receive the blessings and to comprehend the mysteries of our redemption through the death of Christ. Nor is this the only instruction the portion before us is calculated to impart. We may learn from it to address ourselves to God on all occasions of trouble and anxiety, both on our own account and others'; to consider no cause of God's as hopeless, though it meet with opposition and persecution; and that patience and perseverance in seasons of adversity, are the gift of God. We are also taught how and to whom to pray, (with the lowly posture of devotion, to the Father through our blessed Lord,) and directed in the matter as well as in the manner of our prayers, "We find no instance in sacred history of any holy man that ever sate at his prayers; and this may teach us to avoid that irreverent and indevout practice, which, by our unhappy divisions, hath crept in among us; and to observe the Psalmist's call, to "come and worship, and fall down, and kneel before the Lord our Maker."-Dr. Hole. to the saddest of which must be added thanksgiving. The affecting portion of the Gospel, the raising of the window's son at Nain, redounding as it does to the glory of our Lord and Saviour, strengthens our trust in him, and furnishes matter of consolation and hope to every believer. That Christ was indeed 66 a teacher sent from God," was the confession drawn from the lips of a once prejudiced ruler of the Jews, Nicodemus, by the force of the miracles performed by Him; nor was this without justice and reason, for truly, as it has been beautifully expressed, "Miracles are the broad seal of heaven, which is never set to any commission but what comes from God." Our adversaries are well aware of the importance of this induction, and therefore deny them altogether. Would that they who profess to believe that they were really wrought, would be equally consistent, and so live as such belief and such proofs of divine power, necessarily demand. The Lessons, though addressed to the clergy, afford abundant materials for our own serious meditation and improvement. * Hole. |