Seventeenth Sunday after Trinity. FOR GRACE TO DO GOOD WORKS. Lord, we pray Thee that Thy grace may always prevent and follow us, and make us continually to be given to all good works; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. AN N important doctrine underlies the petition of this prayer. It is this. Good works are of value only when God's grace is with us; in other words, good works are the fruits of faith (Jas. ii. 17, 24, 26). We are naturally disinclined to do acts of self-denial and kindness (1 Cor. ii. 14); and when, through a kindly disposition or the fashion of society, they are done before the grace of God has reached the heart, they are not really pleasing in God's sight (Article XIII.; Matt. vii. 18; Rom. viii. 8); and are not, moreover, done from any settled principle, but just as the disposition or occasion may arise. Hence it is that we, who desire to carry out the end for which God really made us (Eph. ii. 10), ask that we may be given to good works; i.e., disposed to do them continually, -literally, ceaselessly, like a never-failing stream. The power to do these good works can spring only from the grace of God (Tit. ii. 11, 12, 14) implanted in us by the Holy Spirit; and so we ask that His grace may always prevent us-not hinder, but go before (Exod. xxxiii. 14, 15) -to lead the way in those good actions which shall please God. But this is not enough; the grace may go before to show the way, but we, alas! may lag behind and not follow up what we are taught is right; we ask, therefore, that it may follow us too, as a guard to bring up the rear (Isa. lii. 12; lviii. 8), and make us not only will, but also do, what is right (Phil. ii. 13; see also 1 Thess. ii. 13; Heb. xiii. 21). O Lord, I look to Thee, To Thee lift up my heart: In heaven I would Thy glory see; Grace, to prevent my sin, My passions to subdue, My heart to change, my soul to win, Grace, every hour to bend My stubborn will to Thine, Grace, that I ever may Walk humbly with my God, And choose the self-renouncing way The lowly Jesus trod. Hymns for the Church on Earth, No. 245. Eighteenth Sunday after Trinity. FOR GRACE TO RESIST TEMPTATION. Lord, we beseech Thee, grant Thy people grace to withstand the temptations of the world, the flesh, and the devil, and with pure hearts and minds to follow Thee the only God; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. GO OD'S people are not free from promised to renounce the world, the those temptations to For, though we have flesh, and the devil, this renunciation is a life-long thing, and is hindered by many falls, and we need to ask for grace by which to accomplish it. To find out what the world is, we must look to our station in life, and see what are the temptations which, in our intercourse with our fellow-creatures, are calculated to draw us away from the service of God, and that is our world, which is at enmity with God (1 John v. 19; ii. 15; Jas. iv. 4). The flesh is the evil within us,-a traitor in the camp. Our hearts and passions suggest evil (Matt. xv. 18, 19; Gal. v. 17), and those suggestions must be resisted. The devil is the bitter personal enemy of our Lord (1 John iii. 8) and of all good (1 Pet. v. 8; 2 Cor. iv. 4; 2 Tim. ii. 26), and so we need to cry (Matt. vi. 13, Revised Version). We ask for grace to withstand these temptations but we do not stop here, we pray further for pure hearts and minds, and this for two reasons— First, the very temptations, though resisted, may sometimes leave a blot on the heart and memory. We want this to be effaced, and to have our minds as pure after the temptation as before; nay, further We long that our resisting of the temptation and our consequent obedience of God's commands may be the means of making us even purer (1 Pet. i. 22). And thus, serving no false gods, such as pleasure, ambition, or lust, we shall follow the only true God, until, at last, with hearts perfectly pure, we shall see Him (Matt. v. 8). What shall we ask of God in prayer? Whatever good we want; When, harassed by ten thousand foes, Our helplessness we feel, O give the weary soul repose, The wounded spirit heal. When dire temptations gather round, With storm or calm, in Thee be found As age advances, may we grow To holiness above. Hymns for the Church on Earth, No. 321. Nineteenth Sunday after Trinity. FOR THE DIRECTION OF THE SPIRIT. O God, forasmuch as without Thee we are not able to please Thee; mercifully grant, that Thy Holy Spirit may in all things direct and rule our hearts; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. WHAT HAT a grand and encouraging thought that we, sinful creatures, should be enabled and allowed to do anything pleasing to God! And though without Him. we cannot do it (John xv. 5; Heb. xi. 6), yet it is a great privilege and holy duty to try and do it in all things (see First after Trinity, p. 70),-in our work, our families, our religious exercises, in fact in every relation of life. But we can only do this in the strength that He gives us. And so we ask Him to give us the power,-which He does by giving His Holy Spirit. And thus we learn the great truth that the presence of God is vouchsafed to us now, in the person of the Holy Ghost. He is very God; and when He is with us, God is with us (1 John iii. 24). We ask that the Holy Ghost may direct us (2 Thess. iii. 5). He is sent to teach us what is right (John xiv. 26; xvi. 13; see also Isa. xxx. 21); but this is not enough, we may know what we should do, and yet not do it (Luke xii. 47). It is one thing for Him to order, it is another for us to obey, and so we ask Him to rule us. Just to take us under His management and make us go aright (Ps. cxliii 10; Col. iii. 15). When He comes to our hearts, He comes To reign, and with no partial sway; And the seat of this direction and rule is to be our hearts. The Spirit worketh by love. He loves us, and, touching our hearts, He makes us love Him; and, loving Him, we shall long to please Him by bringing forth His fruits (1 Thess. iv. 1-3; Gal. v. 22, 23). Holy Ghost, with light Divine, Holy Ghost, with power Divine, Holy Ghost, with joy Divine, Cheer this saddened heart of mine; Bid my many woes depart, Heal my wounded, bleeding heart. Holy Spirit, all Divine, Dwell within this heart of mine; Andrew Reed, 1817. |