THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY Collect. O Lord, we beseech Thee, absolve Thy people from their offenses; that through Thy bountiful goodness we may be delivered from the bands of those sins, which by our frailty we have committed. Grant this, O heavenly Father, for Jesus Christ's sake, our blessed Lord and Saviour. AMEN. Epistle. Col. i. 3. Gospel. St. Matt. ix. 18. The Sunday of Absolution. We pray God to absolve, to loosen the bands, to break down the power of inbred sin, and let the captive wholly free; and so make us "meet to be partakers of the inheritors of the saints in light." Are we meet? The difference of one angle from another is a difference of direction. Now, is our departure right, are we turned to the Sun of Righteousness? If not, the further on we go, the wider will be our distance from Him who is our light and life. God calls us to be a part of the harmony of His universe, that we who have passed out of the stream of mere animal life may become a part of the แ "moral cosmic force," as some modern philosophers call it. I often wonder what good it does THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY 177 to give scientific paraphrases of catholic truth. Some minds, perhaps, which have been thrown out of the old formulas, return with intenser conviction to the modern phrasing. William II says, "I place myself, my empire, and people beneath the sign of the Cross, as of old the only doctrine which means continual progression.” What the Emperor calls continual progression others name "Projected efficiency "; both are the working of "moral cosmic force," a force which Christians prefer to call God's Will. That Will is not carried out by earthly gain and justified by earthly rewards; but it is maintained through evil report and apparent defeat; lower demands being constantly set aside, in order that the evolution of righteousness may go on. When man fails to uphold God's ideal for the race, he sins. To slip back on the upward road is sin. How easily we find excuse for our frailty, in circumstances, some infelicity of temperament, some one, or something-anything but acknowledge our own weakness, or recreant will. When we feel the pressure of the bands of sins which our frailty has allowed us to commit, how we enter into the feelings of the sick woman who said within herself, "If I may but touch the hem of His garment"! Ah! those words are weakened by talking about them; but ever remain embalmed in the hearts of those who have indeed drawn near, and been healed. 178 THE TWENTY-FOURTH SUNDAY In the Epistle is given a picture of the New Life after we have been raised from the death of sin, as the little maid was raised by our Lord's gracious hand. A life of activity, of increasing knowledge, of fruitfulness in every good work; strengthened by God's might, patient, long-suffering, glad this is the only life meet to be lived by us, as we journey to the light, where the Saints have entered before us into their inheritance. THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY AFTER TRINITY Collect. Stir up, we beseech Thee, O Lord, the wills of Thy faithful people; that they, plenteously bringing forth the fruit of good works, may by Thee be plenteously rewarded; through Jesus Christ our Lord. ΑΜΕΝ. Epistle. Jer. xxiii. 5. The Lord our Righteousness! Wonderful prophecy-foreshadowing our Lord's first coming; ineffable Name-which we must plead, when at His second coming to judge the world we stand before Him. We seek to judge the past, on this the last Sunday of the Church's year, placing our lives beside the One Life, the life of Him who came to our world from the bosom of the Father, to show us humanity at its highest. In former dispensations men were taught by precept, by ritual, by prophets, jurists and institutions. Now men are to be made righteous by devotion to the Lord our Righteousness. He unmasks all hollow ceremonial, upholds all right observance; He sharply rebukes the misuse of precepts as instruments of the hardness of heart that would shut out the mercy of God. All the 180 evils of institutional religion are rebuked by His perfect life. Following Him we are saved. Living in Him, the animal in us can become truly spiritualized. Nourished by Him, as the branch by the vine, we not only have life, but abundant life. THE TWENTY-FIFTH SUNDAY The Vine is the most full and expressive of all the figures by which we try to define the relationship of our Lord to us. Some are more tender, as the Bridegroom, and the Good Shepherd; some express His understanding of us, as Friend, and Elder Brother; others suggest the conflict; Captain of our Salvation, and Leader; we also feel Him to be our King who governs, our Lord who provides and directs. These can scarcely be called figures, they so closely express facts. They are of that high order of symbol, where words approach most nearly to immaterial relations. But the Vine is ever a mystical figure; suggestive of vital communion with the Love that passeth knowledge, by which we receive abundant life; the foliage, the blossom, and the fruit. We must have the will so to abide. As we prepare our hearts to meet Him, as we open the new year of discipleship, the Church bids us go down to the very springs of conscious life and "stir up our wills." Not only the heart, warmly affectionate, but forgetful; not only the mind which can see the way but is helpless to enter into it; but the will is the point of departure from the lower life, it is the spring of conduct. |