TRINITY SUNDAY

Collect. Almighty and everlasting God, who hast given unto us Thy servants grace, by the confession of a true faith, to acknowledge the glory of the eternal Trinity, and in the power of the Divine Majesty to worship the Unity; we beseech Thee that Thou wouldst keep us steadfast in this faith, and evermore defend us from all adversities, who livest and reigneth one God, world without end. AMEN.

Epistle. Rev. iv. 1.

Gospel. St. John iii. 1.

The faith of the blessed Trinity. It holds in it my acceptance of the meaning of man's destiny, and his mode of fulfilling it. This great dogma is a very compendium of the Faith. We are baptized into it, married by it, buried in its words; it stands to us for our whole profession. In it is bound up our relation to a loving Creator, a compassionate Saviour, and the Spirit of Truth, our guide and Comforter.

Trinity is the essence of Christianity. No wonder that it has been so guarded. It is not a metaphysical apprehension; but an humble, simple faith, that of the martyrs, "by no subtleties beguiled." In the acknowledgment of the Trinity, and in the worship of the Unity St. Peter Martyr commended his heroic soul in death, writ

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ing the opening sentences of the Creed in his blood in the dust.

The Scriptures are not the substance of revelation, but the divinely guarded history of revelation. In them, by implication, the Trinity is everywhere taught. But as it required the vision at Joppa to make St. Peter understand the call to the Gentiles, so it seemed to take the opposition of human reason for three hundred years to draw forth from out the heart of the Church the full recognition of this fundamental doctrine.

Would that we continually made the sign of the cross on our soul, in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost! Surely then we would grow into the fuller knowledge of this great Mystery-hidden in light, manifested to the slowly growing power of correspondence in Christ's Church.

One God. Yes. "My Father is greater than I," said Jesus. The "Son of Man" must ever be a limited revelation of the "Great I Am," the Essence of Being. And yet He reveals Himself to us in time and space in the person of Christ, and pervades the souls of mankind by the indwelling Spirit; to whom as One and yet Three all created things do offer worship and praise everlasting.

Almighty and most merciful Father, Thou hast given us another Lord's Day; for all its lessons, for the privileges of prayer and praise

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we give Thee thanks. Forgive us when we have been irreverent, careless and indifferent. If we have slighted Thy gift-day, neglected it or suffered it to be occupied with inferior pleasures; look upon us in mercy and forgive.

Draw us closer to Thyself and into deeper knowledge of Thy love. Bathe our souls continually in the ineffable light of Thy presence, O Father, Son and Holy Spirit, so that we may never seek by any system of man's philosophy to wander away from that blessed mystery.

Before we go to our rest we commit ourselves to Thy care. Grant us refreshing sleep, that we may awake with bodies fitted to do heartily whatsoever Thou shalt appoint. And in the common task, the daily work, give us to walk before Thee with a perfect heart all the days of our life.

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Collect. O God, the strength of all those who put their

strength in Thee; mercifully accept our prayers:

and because, through the weakness of our mortal nature, we can do no good thing without Thee, grant us the help of Thy grace, that in keeping Thy commandments we may please Thee, both in will and deed; through Jesus Christ our Lord. ΑΜΕΝ.

Epistle. 1 St. John iv. 7.

Gospel. St. Luke xvi. 19.

We enter now the season set apart for the study of the teachings of Christ. Precedence is given, following the order our Lord established, to "the first and great commandment," love to God and to our neighbour.

God alone is the strength of those whom He calls to obey Him in all the work of life. We cannot by nature obey commands with willing heart which are not welcome to us. So we need to recognize His love, and thereby to trust in Him; in all His orderings for us, in all the conditions of our earthly lot, as well as in the hard duties which lie along pleasant paths.

We know in whom we have believed; and loving Him, trusting Him, we find that "perfect love casteth out fear." We can't be pessimists. For those things which by reason of the weakness

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of our mortal nature we cannot do of ourselves, we believe will be done by divine grace in us. "Perfect the cup as planned, let age approve of youth, and death complete the same." The Divine Potter will accomplish His ends by means whose cycle we may not measure.

This confidence in God's love will make us willing to do hard things: it will not make hard things easy, no, but it will make us content, often eager to do them. The condition of Lazarus in the body was most grievous, but we know that his faith never wavered through all, because after his hard trials, we find him in Abraham's bosom, Abraham, "the Father of the Faithful."

And what of Dives on the other side of "the great gulf fixed" between earthly and spiritual success? Earthly success need not be of the purple and fine linen. It may be intellectual success; the statesman's success, or any other that is destitute of eternal qualities. It perishes as success when this mortal state is over: for only what we have acquired in the spiritual life can go with us into the next world. The turning away from the highest ideals and the highest pleasures of life, that is the great failure! There is no harm in oxen or fields or wife; the fatal loss is when they keep us from the Great Supper. There is no harm in purple and fine linen if we share them continually, knowing with deep conviction that such things are the chances of the hour, and love for our brother, though he be a beggar at the gate, is the true riches.