13 b Britius, Bp.

21 c

23 e S. Clement......... Bel & Dra.

25 g Catharine, Vir....

26 A

27 b

28 c

29 d

PROPER LESSONS

TO BE READ AT

MORNING AND EVENING PRAYER

ON THE

SUNDAYS THROUGHOUT THE YEAR.

3

The first Sunday in Advent.

MORNING. ISAIAH i.

Iaiak began to prophesy B.C. 760, and he prophesied for 60 years. THE vision of Isaiah the son of Amoz, which he saw concerning Judah and Jerusalem in the days of Uzziah, Jotham, Ahaz, and Hezekiah, kings of Judah. 'Hear, O heavens, and give ear, O earth for the LORD hath spoken, I have nourished and brought up children, against me. The ox knoweth his owner, and the ass his master's crib: but Israel doth not know, my people doth not consider. Ah sinful nation, a people laden with iniquity, a seed of evildoers, children that are corrupters: they have forsaken the LORD, they have provoked they are gone away backward. 5 God afflicts us, nationally and inWhy should ye be stricken dividually, for our good, to bring us any more? ye will revolt to repentance.

2 Well may the heavens and the earth be thus appealed to! They, in their courses, obey the word of Him who created them. Shall man disobey?

and they have rebelled

3 Men, more senseless and more ungrateful than the beasts which perish, rebel against their Creator's will.

↑ Filial disobedience is aggravated, when viewed as a base return for all a parent's care and anxiety in our nurture and bringing up. So sin is aggravated, when viewed as an offence against a heavenly Father, who freely giveth us all things. the Holy One of Israel unto anger,

more and more: the whole head is sick, and the whole heart

6

faint. From the sole of the

foot even unto the head there is no soundness in it; but

Under this figurative language is described the disordered state of the Jewish Church *.

wounds, and bruises, and putrifying sores: they have not been closed, neither bound up, neither mollified with ointment. Your country is desolate, your cities are burned with fire: your land, strangers devour it in your presence, and it is desolate, as overthrown by strangers. And the daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, as a besieged city. Except the LORD of hosts had left unto us a very small remnant, we should have been as Sodom, and we should have

been like unto Gomorrah.

8 Jerusalem-the Church-is captive and desolate, solitary and forsaken, unprotected and afraid. The affliction of the Church is the saddest affliction for any people.

10 The wickedness of God's people was like that of Sodom and Gomorrah.

10 Hear the word of the LORD, ye rulers of Sodom; give ear unto the law of our God, ye people of Gomorrah. To what purpose is the multitude of your sacrifices unto me? saith the LORD: I am full of the burnt offerings of rams, and the fat of fed beasts; and I delight not in the blood of bullocks, or of lambs, or of he-goats.

13 The solemn meeting of impenitent and unholy worshippers is iniquity. Hypocrisy deepens sin.

13 When ye come to appear before me, who hath required this at your hand, to tread my courts? Bring no more vain oblations; incense is an abomination unto me; the new moons and sabbaths, the calling of assemblies, I cannot away with; it is iniquity, even the solemn meeting. Your new moons and your appointed feasts my soul hateth: they are a trouble unto me; I am weary to bear them. 15 And when ye spread forth your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you: yea, when ye make many prayers,

full of blood.

I

15 Though faith without works be dead, yet the mere outward observance of religion can never compensate for want of purity of heart.

will not hear: your hands are 16 Let me, in this my hour of worship, bring a clean heart and a right

mind.

16 Wash you, make you clean; put away the evil of your doings from before mine eyes; cease to do evil; learn to do well; seek judgment, relieve the oppressed, judge the fatherless, plead for the widow. Come now,

18

and let us reason together, saith the LORD though your

:

18 Blessed truth! None must despair. The blood of Christ cleanseth from all sin. God allows that plea.

* The first sin was described as a wound, Gen. iii. 15. Hence unchecked sin is too justly compared to a spreading ulcer.