Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

and in tongue, but in deed and in truth: it puts powerfully the question, 'Whoso hath this world's good, and seeth his brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love of God in him?"1

'That we may please Thee both in will and deed.' This is a wonderful expression-'to please God.' Crouching in conscious guilt, and trembling in conscious insignificance, dare we think it possible that such a creature can please God? Yes; for the expression is an inspired one: "The Lord taketh pleasure in them that fear Him;' 'walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing;' 'ye have received of us how ye ought to walk and to please God.' 'Before his translation he had this testimony, that he pleased God.' As surely as we can displease Him by breaking His commandments in will or deed, so surely we can please Him in keeping them; and there is no difficulty attaching to the possible idea of giving Him pleasure, which does not equally attach to the acknowledged truth that we can offend and displease Him; yet it is difficult to raise the mind to the grandeur of such a thought; impossible, if we attempt to look upon God otherwise than as He is revealed in Jesus Christ; but in Him, by a voluntary approximation to the range of our conception, He shows us that as He can be touched with a feeling of our infirmities, so He can rejoice in our sanctification; He makes it plain that it is possible for us to give 1 St. John, iii. 17.

pleasure to our Redeemer. 'The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty; He will save; He will rejoice over thee with joy; He will rest in His love; He will joy over thee with singing.'1 What a hope is this; with a motive so sublime, well might the Apostle say, 'The love of Christ constraineth us.'

SECOND SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

O Lord, who never failest to help and govern them whom Thou dost bring up in Thy steadfast fear and love; Keep us, we beseech Thee, under the protection of Thy good providence, and make us to have a perpetual fear and love of Thy holy Name; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

THIS prayer is especially appropriate to those who, in infancy baptized into Jesus Christ, have been brought up in the nurture and admonition of the Lord; brought up by Him through the instrumentality of parents and teachers and pastors. The glad tidings of great joy have not to them, as to a converted heathen, the effect of novelty; they have been brought up in the habitual acknowledgment that God so loved the world, that He gave His only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in Him should not perish, but have everlasting life' this Gospel of 'Zephaniah, iii. 17.

the kingdom they have always known as a historical fact. Now every privilege has its attendant danger, and the fearful danger connected with the blessing of early religious instruction is indifference; that indifference which is the result of passive habit; the danger that the grand truths of Christianity may become to be reckoned by us like those daily gifts of light and air of which we are almost unconscious receptacles instead of grateful recipients. Passive habits as surely wear out their influence as active ones increase and confirm it; if we do not use them, lay hold on them, act on them, we become as deaf to the invitations of the Gospel as the ear becomes to the church going bell when it is not recognized as a summons to prayer; it strikes on the ear unperceived; the most startling announcements, the most appalling threatenings, as well as the sweetest promises, may by habitual disregard lose all meaning, all power to move or influence the affections; the heart may become deaf alike to the trumpet of judgment, and to the golden bells which proclaim that our High Priest ever liveth. It is not true that he has no hope who never had a fear,' but it is true that an indifferent or careless assent is not a living faith; that the absence of all doubt or fear may arise from the absence of all enquiry or anxiety; and therefore it behoves us most earnestly to pray for and to cultivate 'a perpetual fear and love of His Holy Name.'

Irreverence is the most conspicuous evil of the present day, extending from our conduct towards earthly superiors to our conduct towards the Most High God; and to this also an early familiarity with sacred things, if it be not sanctified, has a tendency. It is for those who have been instructed in Christian doctrine, and who come to join themselves afresh to the Lord in a perpetual covenant,' that the chief Pastors of our Church call on the people to pray, 'Fill them, O Lord, with the spirit of Thy holy fear, now and for ever.' 2

THIRD SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY.

O Lord, we beseech Thee mercifully to hear us; and grant that we, to whom Thou hast given a hearty desire to pray, may by Thy mighty aid be defended and comforted in all dangers and adversities; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen.

A HEARTY desire to pray is indeed a gift of God the Holy Ghost, and a gift that needs daily renewing. The reluctance of the unconverted man to prayer is quite natural; for as he does not recognize God as his benefactor or believe that prayer is heard or answered, it must be to him a wearisome ceremony; but it is a fact, no less marvellous than grievous, that even the true 1 Jeremiah, 1. 5. 2 Confirmation Service.

Christian, who believes that God is, and that He is a rewarder of them that diligently seek Him,' yet continues to find prayer his most difficult though most delightful duty; and oftentimes is unable to say with truth that he has even a hearty desire to pray.

This is the language of Coleridge, and many will acknowledge its truth: 'I do not reckon the most solemn faith in God as a real object the most arduous act of the reason and the will; Oh no! it is to pray, to pray as God would have us; this is what at times makes me turn cold to my soul. Believe me, to pray with all your heart and strength, with the reason and with the will; to believe vividly that God will listen to your voice and verily do the thing He pleaseth thereonthis is the last, the greatest achievement of the Christian's warfare upon earth. Teach us to pray, O Lord!'

All the blessings that in all the Christian centuries have been poured upon the earth in answer to the daily offering up by its inhabitants of the Lord's Prayer, are to be traced back to one simple petition, 'Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples."1

[ocr errors]

Almost the last words of a dying pastor were these: Pray much, that you may be taught to pray more.' The hearty desire to pray must find expression in fervent prayer that He will farther teach us how to pray; 'for we know not what we 1 St. Luke, xi. 1.

« AnteriorContinuar »