15 any such wickedness as this is among you. If thou shalt hear say in one of thy cities, which the LORD thy God hath given thee to dwell there, saying, Certain men, the children of Belial, are gone out from among you, and have withdrawn the inhabitants of their city, saying, Let us go and serve other gods, which ye have not known; then shalt thou enquire, and make search, and ask diligently; and, behold, if it be truth, and the thing certain, that such abomination is wrought among you; thou 15 Death was the appointed penalty shalt surely smite the inhaof idolatry; death, too, executed bitants of that city with the summarily-the peculiar severity in edge of the sword, destroy- this case, both of the punishment and ing it utterly, and all that is the mode of inflicting it being adapted to a peculiar dispensation. therein, and the cattle thereof, with the edge of the sword. And thou shalt gather all the spoil of it into the midst of the street thereof, and shalt burn with fire the city, and all the spoil thereof every whit, for the LORD thy God and it shall be an heap for ever; it shall not be built again. 17 Wouldst thou live in the favour " And there shall cleave of God? O keep his commandments nought of the cursed thing always! He will then be thy friend. to thine hand that the LORD may turn from the fierceness of his anger, and shew thee mercy, and have compassion upon thee, and multiply thee, as he hath sworn unto thy fathers; when thou shalt hearken to the voice of the LORD thy God, to keep all his commandments which I command thee this day, to do that which is right in the eyes of the LORD thy God. Whit Sunday. MORNING. DEUTERONOMY xvi. to ver. 18. 2 OBSERVE the month of Abib, and keep the passover unto the LORD thy God; for in the month of Abib the LORD thy God brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. Thou shalt therefore sacrifice the passover unto the LORD thy God, of the flock and the herd, in the place which the LORD shall choose to place his name there. Thou shalt eat no leavened bread with it; seven days shalt thou eat unlea 2 Blessed be Christ, my passover, sacrificed for me! and blessed be the house of the Lord, wherein I partake thereof, in the place which the Lord doth choose to place his name there in the courts of the Lord's house, even in the midst of thee, O Jerusalem! 3 Sincere repentance is, to me, the bread of affliction. O God! sanctify it. vened bread therewith, even the bread of affliction; for thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt in haste: that thou mayest remember the day when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all the days of thy life. And there shall be We are thus taught that a due observance of order in our religious services both as to time and place, is conformable with the divine will. May God bless our observance of it. no leavened bread seen with thee in all thy coast seven days; neither shall there any thing of the flesh, which thou sacrificedst the first day at even, remain all night until the morning. Thou mayest not sacrifice the passover within any of thy gates, which the LORD thy God giveth thee: " but at the place which the LORD thy God shall choose to place his name in, there thou shalt sacrifice the passover at even, at the going down of the sun, at the season that thou camest forth out of Egypt. And thou shalt roast and eat it in the place which the LORD thy God shall choose: and thou shalt turn in the morning, and go unto thy tents. Six days thou shalt eat unleavened bread and on the seventh day shall be a solemn assembly to the LORD thy God thou shalt do no work therein. Seven weeks shalt thou number unto thee: begin to number the seven weeks from such time as thou beginnest to put the sickle to the corn. And thou shalt keep the feast of weeks unto the LORD thy God with a tribute of a freewill offering of thine hand, which thou shalt give unto the LORD thy God, according as the LORD thy God hath blessed thee: "and thou shalt rejoice before the LORD thy God, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Le joy. vite that is within thy gates, 12 : 11 Religious services are intended to be a delight. True piety ever rejoices in the strength of its salvation. Her ways are ways of plea santness. The wicked may have mirth; but only the righteous know Your own heart testifies this. and the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are among you, in the place which the LORD thy God hath chosen to place his name there. 12 It is wise to double present rest And thou shalt remember that thou wast a bondman in Egypt and thou shalt observe and do these statutes. Thou shalt observe the feast of tabernacles seven days, after that thou hast gathered in thy corn and thy wine and thou shalt rejoice in thy feast, thou, and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite, the stranger, and the fatherless, and the widow, that are within and enjoyment, by contrasting them with past disquiet and sorrow. Even the joys of heaven will be brightened by the remembrance of past trials. thy gates. Seven days shalt thou keep a solemn feast unto the LORD thy God in the place which the LORD shall choose: because the LORD thy God shall bless thee in all thine increase, and in all the works of thine hands, therefore thou shalt surely rejoice. Three times in a year shall all thy males appear before the LORD thy God in the place which he shall choose; in the feast of unleavened bread, and in the feast of weeks, and in the feast of tabernacles: and they shall not appear before the LORD empty: every man shall give as he is able, according to the blessing of the LORD thy God which he hath given thee. EVENING. ISAIAH XI. ' AND there shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a Branch shall grow out of his roots: 2 and the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit 1 Jesus Christ was descended from David, the son of Jesse. 2 This was fulfilled when the Spirit descended upon our Saviour at his baptism. After that ordinance, He went forth to do the will of his Father, in the Spirit, and with the power here foretold. Jesus, whilst he graciously vouchsafes his righteousness to the poor in spirit and the meek of the earth, will signally punish the wicked. of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; and shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears: * but with righteousness shall he judge the poor, and reprove with equity for the meek of the earth: and he shall smite the earth with the rod of his mouth, and with the breath of his lips shall he slay the wicked. And righteousness shall be the girdle of his loins, and faithfulness the girdle of his reins. 6 The wolf also shall dwell with the lamb, and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the young lion and the fatling together; and a little child shall lead them. And the cow and the bear shall feed; their young ones shall lie down together: and the lion shall eat straw like the ox. By the Gospel, the passions of men, fierce by nature as the wild beasts of the forest, are tamed. The angry become gentle, the envious contented, the revengeful forgiving; simple, fearlessness. All is changed. the proud put on humility, and the 7 The heart, formerly seeking only spiritual things. Man no longer lives carnal things, rejoices to feed on by bread alone, but by every word which proceedeth out of the mouth of God. He careth now for his soul. 8 And the sucking child shall play on the hole of the asp, and the weaned child shall put his hand on the cockatrice' den. They shall not hurt nor destroy in all my holy mountain: for the earth shall be full of the knowledge of the LORD, as the waters cover the sea. 10 And in that day there shall be a root of Jesse, which shall stand for an ensign of the people; to it shall the Gentiles seek : and his rest shall be glorious. 10 Christ is the root; we are the branches. O let me abide in the root, lest I wither and die! Let me also be patient under trouble; looking to that glorious rest, which remaineth to the people of God. And it shall come to pass in that day, that the LORD shall set his hand again the second time to recover the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria, and from Egypt, and from Pathros, and from Cush, and from Elam, and from Shinar, and from Hamath, and from the islands of the sea. And he shall set up an ensign for the nations, and shall assemble the outcasts of Israel, and gather together the dispersed of Judah from the four corners of the earth. 13 The envy also of Ephraim shall depart, and the adversaries of Judah shall be cut off: Ephraim shall not envy Judah, and Judah shall not vex Ephraim. But they shall fly upon the shoulders of the Philistines toward the west; they shall spoil them of the east together: they shall lay their hand upon Edom and Moab; and the children of Ammon shall obey them. And the LORD shall utterly destroy the tongue of the Egyptian sea; and with his mighty wind shall he shake his hand over the river, and shall smite it in the seven streams, and make men go over dryshod. 16 And there shall be an highway for the remnant of his people, which shall be left, from Assyria; like as it was to Israel in the day that he came up out of the land of Egypt. 13 They who were at enmity, shall live in concord-one in Christ: one faith, one Lord, one Baptism, one God and Father of all. How blessed is unity, in a nation, in a church, in a family! no envying-no vexingno contention-no strife of tongues! Each seeketh peace, and ensueth it. 16 Such are and will be the accumulated blessings of the kingdom of our God and of his Christ-the way to heaven, open to all believers. Trinity Sunday. MORNING. GENESIS i. 'In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. * And the earth was without form and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firma 1 God created the universe, the whole visible world. 2 As the Holy Spirit, the third Person in the blessed Trinity, was engaged in creating the natural world; how easy is faith in Him as engaged in the new creation; the spiritual world-"the Holy Ghost, the Lord and Giver of life !" bears up the clouds as a column bears up a building, and divides the clouds, which are the waters above, from seas and lakes and rivers, The firmament is the air, which which are the waters under the firmament. ment from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good. And God said, Let the earth bring forth grass, the herb yielding seed, and the fruit tree yielding fruit after his kind, whose seed is in itself, upon the earth: and it was SO. 12 And the earth brought forth grass, and herb yielding seed after his kind, and the tree yielding fruit, whose seed was in itself, after his kind: and God saw that it was good. And the evening and the morning were the third day. God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and years: and let them be for lights in the firmament of the heaven to give light upon the earth and it was so. And God made two great lights; the perpetual miracle is the propagation 12 How passing wonder! what a of plants from their seed! How shall I dare to question the mysteries of grace, when reason stands confounded at the mysteries of nature! And |