fcibrarp of Che Cheoiocjicai $$mimxy PRINCETON • NEW JERSEY PRESENTED BY Rev. James^M. Moffett BV 85 .H86 1881 Huntington, F. D. 1819-1904 Helps to a holy Lent HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. BISHOP OF CENTRAL NEW YORK, 4 NEW YORK: E. P. DUTTON & COMPANY, CHURCH PUBLISHERS, 713 BROADWAY, 1881. Entered, according to Act of Congress, in the year 1872, by E. P. DUTTON & CO., In the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington. INTRODUCTORY NOTE, It has been thought by several friends that a little work like that which follows would be ac- ceptable, and of some use. The plan is very simple, and will be recognized at a glance. For each of the days, from Ash-Wednesday to Easter Even, a few thoughts are offered, such as might not otherwise come to mind, to assist the spirit- ual exercises of this sacred season, both by giving a special theme and perhaps increased freshness to private devotion, and by connecting the closet with ordinary life. To those who are familiar with the principles and history of Church-worship it will hardly be necessary to say that each daily portion, includ- ing something of Holy Scripture, meditation, hymn, and prayer, bears an analogy to our litur- gical appointments, and is a kind of faint reflection in miniature of the order of Divine Service. iv INTRODUCTORY NOTE. In order to meet as many personal tastes and shades of sentiment as possible, variety lias been consulted as respects style and subjects, due regard being had to truth of doctrine. A con- siderable part of the pages is original. Most of the Collects are taken from English sources, though many of them are traceable to a more Eastern origin. Among the names of foreign authors from whose writings extracts have been made are those of Yaughan and Newman, Liddon and Robertson, Pusey and Isaac Williams, Avrillon and Schaufner, Krummacher and Stopford Brooke, Goulburn and Eaber, Ken and Keble, Bonar and Dora Green well. The book has been prepared with interest. It is sent out without pretension, and with the hope that, being received into friendly hands, it may make some hearts stronger and some lives more like the life of our Lord. F. D. H. Syracuse, Feast of the Conversion of St. Paul. HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. ^0l)~fcDebnes&a». Set your affection on things above, not on things on the earth. For ye are dead, and your life is hid with Christ in God. That thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto thy Father which is in secret: and thy Father, which seeth in secret, shall reward thee openly. To appoint unto them that mourn in Zion, to give unto them beauty for ashes, the oil of joy for mourning, the gar- ment of praise for the spirit of heaviness ; that they might be called trees of righteousness, the planting of the Lord, that He might be glorified. We are not to look on this appointment of a penitential season as an arrangement of our own. It is rather a sacred part of that divinely ordained system of spiritual ministries by which the Lord quickens the consciences and trains the holy life of His children. Traces of such a solemnity of forty days 5 continuance are found all along through the 6 HELPS TO A HOLT LENT. earlier and later ages of Eevelation. We know that it was the discipline of prophets, the reveren- tial school of saints who lived wonderfully near to God. Entering once more upon it we have not to contrive a scheme of self-improvement without the guidance of the Spirit and the Bride. He who hallowed Lent by the Great Fast on the thresh- old of His mediatorial work for sinful souls passes into this still retirement with us. All these coming days and nights He will be our witness and our companion. The sincerity or formality of our special observances w T ill be known to Him. Our self-denials He will share. The vows we make will be recorded in His book of remembrance. As the Gospel for last Sunday told us, " Jesus of Naz- areth passeth by." The cry of our blindness and our weakness will not need to travel far to reach His ear, nor will He ever rebuke it, either for its ignorance or its importunity. It is with Him we are to w r alk all the way going up to Jerusalem. There is one kind of suffering which we are not simply to accept and bear ; we are to ordain the pain for ourselves, to go after it, to pray that it may be made keener than it is. This is penitence. If we do not know what that sorrow is, we are so ASH-WEDNESDAY. 7 much farther from true peace. It is because we have been living only on the surface of life, un- mindful of its deeper realities, not seeing its grander glories. Both Christ and His forerunner, when they began to preach the Gospel of the Kingdom to the world, uttered one sharp, piercing call: " Kepent ! " They did not always go into minute specifications of every shade of siu, for they knew that they had for a witness a conscience in every breast, each heart knowing its own plague. They knew that there is always one comprehensive iniquity lodged farther in and spreading wider than any particular offence, — the sin of separation from God. In order to hate that the more heartily we must see it as it is, think about it, study its nature and workings, disentangle its sophistries and delusions, and appreciate the wretched comfort it gives to the adversary. Ashes must be sprinkled first before the ugliness in us can be changed to spiritual beauty. How significant the image is ! Ashes are what is left when the fire is burnt out. They are bitter ; worse than tasteless. They are pale. They are the sign of humiliation. ~No gar- ment of praise can be put on till this spirit of heaviness has first wrapped its sackcloth about us. 8 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. Coming once more to the beginning of this gra- cious period we ought, firct of all, to put away all superficial thoughts and all flippant conventional language about it. Do not trust to vague general intentions; — in the observance they will come to nothing, leaving only ashes in your mouth. Have a plan which you are not ashamed to own, and which you will probably be able to carry steadily through. So far as all arrangements of time and place and household are at your command, without wronging or disobliging others, make them yield to that plan. It is of less importance just what form your self-denial takes, than that it take some distinct form which you can define and present to your own mind. See that the Cross is really laid on somewhere. Nothing that you cut off from self-gratification for your Saviour's sake will you ever regret or wish to take back. Choose out, if you can, the weakest point. There is appetite in its several importunities ; there is the passion for dress ; there is idleness ; there is the sin of evil speaking, in fact, all the foul brood of the trans- gressions of the tongue ; there is bad temper ; there is the lack of courage in manifesting your Christian convictions and bearing open witness; ASH-WEDNESDAY. tf there is the hurrying or forgetfulness of prayers ; there is too little intercession ; there is idolatry of the objects of human love ; there is pride ; there is the self-seeking or self-pleading that creeps even into your works of charity. Sprinkle the ashes where the moral deformity or disorder is most cunningly concealed, that the flesh of the inner man may come again like the flesh of a little child. Dismiss at once from the mind, and keep out of it, any notion that your sacrifices or repentances are to be reckoned to you as merits, or can furnish any ground for your justification. They are meant to bring your soul into that repentant, lowly, and teachable frame, where He who alone justifieth can set His healing and redeeming power more faith- fully at work. They cleanse the vision ; they open the door ; they drive the tempter away, inviting in that heavenly Guest who stands now and knocks with patient solicitation, and who, once bidden by a sorrowing and self-renouncing faith to come in, abideth ever. Once more the solemn season calls A holy fast to keep ; And now within the sacred walls Let priest and people weep. 10 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. But not in tears and fast alone Let penitence appear ; By holier life and love be shown That penitence sincere. POUR into our hearts, O Lord, we beseech Thee, the grace of penitence, prayer, and lowliness, that, mortifying the flesh and living by the Spirit, and always meditating on heavenly things, we may think meanly of ourselves, and ever find our rest and glory in Thee alone, who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God, world without end. Amen. SxxQt And Moses was there with the Lord forty days and forty nights. And it came to pass when he came down from Mount Sinai with the two tables of testimony in his hand, that Moses wist not that his face shone. And as they came down from the mountain, he charged them that they should tell no man what things they had seen till the Son of Man were risen from the dead. And when He came to His disciples, He saw a great multitude about them, and the Scribes questioning with them ; and straightway all the people when they beheld Him were greatly amazed, and running to Him, saluted Him. Faith, if it hath not works, is dead, being alone. If the way of faith and prayer runs from society to solitude, we mnst remember that the way of charitable work runs back from seclusion to society. In the perfect life of the Son of God this alterna- tion is constant between seclusion and service, still- ness and activity. We learn from it the law of our own religious growth. Precious as the periods of refreshment are, they are after all but temporary. FIRST MONDAY. 25 They are intervals of useful labor, not substitutes for it. Separation from men may possibly be sought for, owing to morbid moods, and it may create them. Like other means of grace, religious retirement has its peculiar temptations, — pride, un- healthy introspection, indolence, disparagement of other men. Accordingly, the real value of going apart into solitary places must be tested by the spirit with which we return from them into the ordinary engagements of our households and the world. Lents, holy days, communions, special hours of unwonted elevation, must all be tried by that practical criterion. They are scattered along the Christian's road, Elims in his desert, banqueting- houses upon his march, to make the common time more sacred, the required work better done. The Church herself has to take her turn in lonely spots, sometimes in humiliation, persecution, and pov- erty; and it is in order that the Bride may be brought back to the Bridegroom more faithful in her love, more abundant in her sacrifice. " There- fore, behold, I will allure her and bring her into the wilderness and speak comfortably unto her. And I will give her her vineyards from thence, 26 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. the Yalley of Achor for a door of hope, and she shall sing there as in the days of her youth." Most of our time must be spent in the vineyards where we dig and prune. All rest is for the sake of that toil. The Sabbath is for man ; the forty days are ordained to touch all days with a new sanctity. Our closets open from the places where men come and go. Something in our very prayers will be wrong unless we pass from them into the daily ministrations and drudgeries with more patience, more self-surrender, a kindlier forbearance with the infirmities of those around us, and a heartier effort to yield our interests to theirs for the Re- deemer's sake. Our very rests will be unrefresh- ing without Him, and He only makes the retire- ment sacred, and society safe. Come, labor on : Who dares stand idle on the harvest plain, While all around him waves the golden grain, And every servant hears the Master say : " Go work to-day ? " Come, labor on : No time for rest, till glows the western sky While the long shadows o'er our pathway lie, And a glad sound comes with the setting sun : " Servants, well done ! " FIEST MONDAY. 27 OLORD Jesus Christ, who hast declared that when we have done all that is commanded us, we are still unprofitable servants ; give us grace so to fix our eyes on Thy most pure and holy life, that we may know our own impurity and sin, and seek in all humility to be conformed unto Thy will, Who livest and reignest with the Father and the Holy Ghost one God, world without end. Amen. # n fix&t ©ucs&ctg, Be careful for nothing ; but in everything by prayer and supplication with thanksgiving let your requests be made known unto God. There is many a Christian who reaches nothing more than this (nay, who aims at nothing more), that devotion shall have its little hour in the day, and business its long hours ; and great is his complacency if the business hours are not allowed to trench upon the hour of devotion. I am not saying anything against stated periods of devotion ; they are abso- lutely essential, and it is only too certain that, in the absence of stated periods, the spirit of devotion would evaporate altogether. But I am saying that the soul will never taste a full satisfaction until it has learned more or less to mix devotion with work. The soul must not leave God for an instant if it is to be perfectly joyous and contented. Let it take but a step away from Him, and it is at once in a FIRST TUESDAY. 29 region of excitement and unrest, and so far forth, of danger. Remember that the New Testament teaching makes unbroken communion with God obligatory upon us. It names no seasons for prayer, or rather it names every season. "Pray without ceasing." My friend, I do not ask whether you have completely acquired the habit of inter- penetrating your daily employments with the spirit of devotion (that is the case with none of us, least of all, probably, with the present writer) ; but are you placing this before you as your standard, and sincerely trying to reach it % Ejaculatory prayer is the great means of reaching it. Do you ever use ejaculatory prayer ? Do you ever lift up your heart to God in the midst of your work, pray- ing Him to shield you from temptation, to bless you in what you are doing, and, at all events, not to let you wander very far from His side ? Do not say it is impossible ; for to this and no lower standard you are called, both by the constitution of your nature and by the precept, " Pray without ceasing ; " and, oy the grace of God, all things which He com- mands are possible. You will say, perhaps, " I try to keep my mind continually in the right track ; but, alas ! it is thrown off its balance a thousand 30 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. times a day by having to do things in a hurry and against time ; by a warm conversation ; by a piece of interesting news ; by domestic worries and cares ; by little rubs of the temper." So it is most truly. The mind wants steadying and setting right many times a day. It resembles a compass placed on a rickety table ; the least stir of the table makes the needle swing around and point untrue. Let it settle, then, till it points aright. Be perfectly silent for a few moments, thinking of Jesus ; there is an almost Divine force in silence. Drop the thing that wor- ries, that excites, that interests, that thwarts you ; let it fall like a sediment to the bottom, until the soul is no longer turbid ; and say secretly : " Grant, I beseech Thee, merciful Lord, to Thy faithful ser- vant pardon and peace ; that I may be cleansed from all my sins, and serve Thee with a quiet mind" The crowd of cares, the weightiest cross, Seem trifles less than light ; Earth looks so little and so low, When faith shines full and bright. OLORD of pity, who wiliest naught but good, leave me not to walk in mine own will ; but overrule me to act at all times according to Thy will, which is always good. And have mercy on Thy creatures, and on me a great sinner ; through Jesus Christ our Saviour. Amen. 8ttonb fcDe&nes&ctB. (oH-' Let us humble ourselves therefore under the mighty hand of God, that He may exalt us in due time. Without humility religious progress is impossible. Pride is the destruction of the principle of progress ; it whispers to us continually that we are all that could be desired, or it points our attention to high positions and ambitious efforts beyond the scope of other men. Yet the true growth of the soul is not to be measured by our attempting many extraor- dinary duties, but by our power of doing simple duties well; and humility, when it reigns in the soul, carries this principle into practice. It bids us hallow our work, especially whatever may be to us hard or distasteful work, by doing it as a matter of principle. It bids us, when on our knees, use sim- ple prayers. We do well to retain the very prayers which we used as children, however we may add to 32 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. them ; and to throw our whole soul into each sepa- rate clause and word. It enriches common acts of neighborly and social kindness with that intensity of moral effort which is due to every act of which the deepest moving power is the love of God. Without humility, no soul that has turned to God and is learning to serve Him is for a moment safe. The whole life of the living soul is the work of Divine grace ; and while pride claims merit for self, and therefore goes before a fall, humility con- fesses, day by day, " By the grace of God I am what I am." The higher you climb the mountain side, the more fatal must be your fall, if you do fall : if you would look over the giddy precipice without risk, you must first stoop to lay firm hold on the rock of humility. For humility is the condition and guarantee of grace; and, as St. Augustine says, there is no reason, apart from the grace of God, why the highest saint should not be the worst of criminals. Thy breast to beat, thy clothes to rend, God asketh not of Thee ; Thy stubborn soul He bids thee bend In true humility. SECOND WEDNESDAY. 33 let us then, with heartfelt grief, Draw nearer unto God, And pray that He will grant relief, Will stay the lifted rod. GRANT, we beseech Thee, Lord, the true fruit of repent- ance to those who have wandered out of the way through sin, that they may obtain pardon for their offences, and be restored cleansed to Thy Holy Church ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen 8 0££Otti> Ctjttrs&ag. Jesus answered and said unto her, Woman, great is thy faith, be it unto thee even as thou wilt. And this is the confidence that we have in Him, that, if we ask anything according to His will, He heareth us. Pray modestly as to the things of this life ; ear- nestly for what may be helps to your salvation ; intensely for salvation itself, that you may forever behold God, love God. Cleanse your heart now : for " the pure in heart shall see God." Be alone with God, that your soul may be free to speak to Him, and to hear Him. But be alone in your inmost hearts, shutting out busy, anxious thoughts, that they throng not in with the prayers, and cloud not the sight and thought of God. Practise in life whatever thou prayest for, and God will give it thee more abundantly. SECOND THURSDAY. 35 Bear patiently and humbly all daily crosses, con- tradictions, rebukes, and whatsoever is against thine own will. They will conform thee to the mind of God, be channels of grace which will cleanse thy soul for vet further grace. Deny thyself things earthly, if thou wouldest taste the sweetness of things heavenly. Above all things, persevere in prayer. Many begin well ; many hold on for a time well ; many pray well from time to time ; some, alas ! can even work themselves up from time to time to think they pray well, and to feel what they pray ; many begin again and again well. Few persevere ; for few they be who find the straight gate and narrow way which leadeth unto life. If thou hast begun, pray that thou mayest pray better. If thou hast failed, pray to begin again, and to persevere. All who pray to persevere gain what they pray for. None who so prayed has perished. Wo need as much the Cross we bear, As air we breathe, as light we see, — It draws us to Thy side in prayer, It binds us to our strength in Thee. 36 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. ALMIGHTY God, help Thou our weakness, and because we can neither perform nor even pray for what is right of our selves as oi ourselves, arouse by Thy Holy Spirit in our hearts groanings of prayer which cannot be uttered, that by Thy loving kindness there may be given unto us both the will to ask and the power to accomplish what is well pleasing unto Thee ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Second iri&ag. After that He pouretli water into a bason, and began to wash the disciples' feet, and to wipe them with the towel wherewith He was girded. Then cometh He to Simon Peter : and Peter saith unto Him, Lord, dost Thou wash my feet ? Jesus an- swered and said unto Him, What I do thou knowest not now ; but thou shalt know hereafter. Peter saith unto Him, Thou shalt never wash my feet. Jesus answered him, If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me. Simon Peter saith unto Him, Lord, not my feet only, but also my hands and my head. Jesus saith to him, He that is washed needethnot save to wash his feet, but is clean every whit. " Thou shalt never wash my feet," said the mis- taken disciple. But listen to the Saviour's reply : " If I wash thee not, thou hast no part with Me." What an important declaration is this ! You per- ceive how the more profound and mystic meaning of our Lord's act shines forth in these words, — namely, as having reference to the blood of atone- ment, to forgiveness, justification, and purification from sin. How much lies concealed in this passage, 38 HELPS TO A HOLT LENT. and how every syllable has its profound signifi- cation ! "If 1 wash thee not." Yes, Thon, Lord Jesus, must do it ; for who ever purified himself from sin? "If I do not wash thee. 1 " Yes, Thou must wash us ; for teaching, instructing, and setting us an example is not 'sufficient. " If I wash thee not." Certainly, what does it avail me if Peter or Paul is cleansed, and I remain defiled ? I must be forgiven, and feel that I am absolved; and it re- mains eternally true, that he who is not washed in the blood of Christ has no part with Him, nor in the blessings of His kingdom. What is wont to happen in the progress of the life of faith ? Unguarded moments occur, in which the man again sins in one way or other. He in- cautiously thinks, speaks, or does that which is improper, and is again guilty of unfaithfulness, although against his will ; for only the devil and his seed sin wilfully : while he that is born of God, saith the Apostle, cannot sin. The man's walk is polluted ; his feet, with which he comes in contact with the earth, are defiled. "What is now to be done ? First, beware of despondency, by which we only prepare a feast for Satan. Next, withdraw not from the presence of the Lord, as if his heart SECOND FRIDAY. 30 were closed against us. Thirdly, think not that it is necessary to make a fresh beginning of a religious life. The seed of the new birth remains within us ; and the child of the family of God is not suddenly turned out of doors, like a servant or a stranger. "He that is washed," says our Lord, "is clean every whit : and ye are clean, but not all." Who does not now understand this speech I Its meaning is. He that is become a partaker of the blood of sprinkling, and of the baptism of the Spirit — that is, of the twofold grace of absolution from the guilt of sin and of regeneration to newness of life — is, as regards the inmost germ of his being, a thoroughly now man, who has eternally renounced sin, and whose inmost love, desire, and intention are direct- ed to God and things Divine. Where such a one, from weakness, is overtaken by a fault, he has no need of an entirely new transformation, but only of a cleansing. He must let his feet be washed. Let this be duly considered by those who are in a state of grace, and let them resist the infernal accuser, lest he gain an advantage over them by his boundless accusations. Hold up the blood of the Lamb as a shield against him, and do not sutler your courage and confidence to be shaken. 4:0 HELPS TO A HOLT LENT. When penitence has wept in vain Over some foul dark spot, One only stream, a stream of blood, Can wash away the blot. 'Tis Jesus' blood that washes white, His Hand that brings relief, His heart that's touched with all our joys, And feeleth for our grief. A THOU who seest everything! I have sinned against Thee in thought, word, and deed. Blot out the hand- writing of my trespasses, and write my name in the Book of Life. And have mercy on Thy creatures, and on me a great sinner ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. Seconb Sahtrbag. Ye see your calling. Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light. See then that ye walk circumspectly, not as fools but as wise, redeeming the time, because the days are evil. Added time and added light make men worse unless they make them better. Old sinners are wickeder than young, and the world grows older. It is in the power of these last times, if they will, to sin more guiltily, and to scoff more blasphemous- ly, than any earlier and less instructed century could. Each period, till the Lord comes again, de- mands a more circumspect obedience, and only sinks to a deeper disgrace if it is hollow in its pro- fessions or worldly in its life. You say you have no responsibility for these vast streams of sin. Is that true? The weakest and youngest among us is answerable for a single life, to see that it is outwardly circumspect, and 42 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. inwardly grafted into the life of the Son of God. These currents of evil are made up, every drop, of single lives. Let yours be right before God, — then your family, your acquaintances, all that you will have to answer for at the Judgment, will feel it, and be the better for it. That is what St. Paul means. That holy life of yours will go so far to redeem the time, and He who died to redeem both you and the world will accept you as one of His own. We come, then, to the question, what ought the degree of a Christian's consecration to be in the world nowadays, and in a community like this where we live % How distinct ought the stamp of our Christian calling to be ? How far ought the Christian man and the Christian woman and the Christian youth to be set apart, and stand alone ? There is but one answer, provided we seek the answer in the Word of God, where only we can find one in which we can safely rest. The form of the ordinary occupations of the holy man and the worldly man will not generally be very unlike, because the necessities of an outward livelihood are much the same, and it is not meant that, in this life, God's people and the world's should be out- wardly separated ; that separation is to come here- SECOND SATURDAY. 43 after. But at this point their common life and their resemblance end. In the secret affections that prompt his spirit and govern his plans, his business, his amusements, his use of property and his tongue, the disciple of Christ is to show himself called by a distinct and peculiar calling. He is to stand so apart, in all these respects, that every observer of him is to take knowledge that he not only has bee?i with Jesus, but that, there being two armies always, he belongs now to the one and not to the other. Every year, as the confirmation season comes round, one and another of those that are invited to make their confession of Christ before men excuse themselves. Iso excuse is so com- mon as this : " I wish I were a true Christian ; I hope some time or other to be one, and a consistent one ; but I do not want to be another of those that I see too often, who say that they renounce this world for Christ, but alter nothing in their frivolity, or their passion for pleasure, dress, and gain, and with whom the only movement that distinguishes them from the most thoughtless is when they go, once a month, to take the Communion." Too great a work is on our hands, too solemn responsibilities are pressing, too great and glorious a Leader is look- 44 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. ing at us and calling us, for this wretched trifling, which makes the Church look like the market and the ball-room, only ten times worse, for the incon- sistency of its professions and the hollowness of its prayers. I say to you, as an English layman says : " If your life were but a fever-fit, the mad- ness of a night, whose follies were all to be forgot- ten in the dawn, it might matter little how you fretted away the sickly hours ; what toys you snatched at, or let fall ; what visions you followed with the deceived eyes of your frenzy. Dance if you will on the floor of hospital wards ; knit the straw into what crowns please you ; gather the dust of it for treasure, clutching at the black motes in the air with your dying hands." But the delirium of thousands that live and die along these streets is a thousand times sadder than that, because the brain still keeps its accountability, and judgment is to come. Oh, you who bear the name of Christians, baptized and " chosen " to represent your Lord before men, gird up the loins of your mind. It will cost self-denial. It will bring on you the wonder, the criticism, the sarcasm, perhaps, of your social set. What then ? For fifteen centuries Christendom has handed down with admiration SECOND SATURDAY. 45 the brave word of one of the Church's true priests, — " Athanasius against the world ! " Why should we have to go back so far to find our saints, when there is the same opportunity, the same duty, for every disciple to stand against the social threat and flattery that are all the world to him? The girded loins, the sober mind, the unworldly walk — and the solitude of spirit if need be — shall we not cheerfully meet them, and resolutely take them up, for that glory that is to be revealed ? 'Tis not for man to trifle : life is brief, And sin is here : Our age is but the falling of a leaf, A dropping tear. We have no time to sport the hours away : We must be working while 'tis called to-day. O day of time, how dark ! sky and earth, How dull your hue ! O day of Christ, how bright ! O sky and earth Made fair and new ! Come, better Eden, with thy fresher green ; Come, brighter Salem, gladden all the scene. A GOD, who art of purer eyes than to behold iniquity, mer- cifully grant unto us such a sense of sin that we may receive cleansing, and such cleansing that we may be made pure in heart, and may see Thee for evermore ; through our Saviour Jesus Christ. Amen. 0£con5 0un5og. Make me a clean heart, O God, and renew a right spirit within me. Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God. In contending against sensual sins, the main stress must be laid on the principle of exclusion, — the absolute keeping away of bad suggestions and imagery from the mind. Once in, the stain has struck on a substance so sensitive that, if not quite indelible, it is still terribly tenacious and terribly prolific of sorrow. It is here, with begin- nings, that we all have chiefly to do, in ourselves and our children. Here, peculiarly, the battle is secret and invisible. ITot much can be said, and so the more must be done by prayer and instan- taneous self-command, expelling the first contami- nation, and crying : c; Cleanse Thou me from secret faults." In respect to many sins, self-examinatioo SECOND SUNDAY. 47 may be safe and even necessary ; but there are others where it is scarcely wholesome or profitable. Simple prevention, avoidance, the shutting of the eyes and ears, and pressing on to known duty, are the best security. It does not help much to go back and trace the ways of temptation. The wise man was right : " Avoid it ; pass not by it ; turn from it and pass away." "Lead us not into temptation." One wrong companionship in child- hood, one unprincipled servant or schoolmate, one Mephistophiles using the advantages of superior station or intellect, may spread a curse through the whole hidden history of fourscore years. Xext to bad companionship is a bad literature. The degen- eracy of the public modesty, in the reading allowed without stint to the young, is a direct contradiction to both the profession and the fact of a progressive civilization. Books that are the products of a thoroughly unchristian social life, in both Europe and America, not only furnish the continual reading matter of the reckless and abandoned, but they stock the circulating libraries, and lie on the tables of the best-bred families, within reach of young persons from whose 'bodies and physical health every breath of outward malaria is warded off with incessant 48 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. vigilance and at every cost. The harm falls just where the liability to harm is greatest, — on the springs of thought, imagination, emotion, where no direct effort can meet it or detect its inroads. Best of all the protections against these impuri- ties, however, after the prayer that entreats, in all the varying utterances of an intense devotion — " Create in me a clean heart, O God " — is inces- sant Christian occupation, with abstinence from those personal luxuries, idlenesses, and pamperings of the body, which are the preparations and provo- catives of temptation. To turn swiftly and vigor- ously to some generous and righteous errand for the Master with a temperate and well-governed body, under a healthful regimen, and sometimes, perhaps, to make the body bear voluntary penal- ties for its errors, so as thereby to remind and regu- late the soul, but at any rate to keep the thoughts and energies preoccupied, is the true mode of preserving Christian purity, and even of restoring it after it has been lost. We must not fail to lift up our eyes toward the Seat of Mercy. "What are these which are ar- rayed in white robes ? These are they which have washed their robes and made them white in SECOND SUNDAY. 49 the Blood of the Lamb. Therefore are they before the throne of God," serving Him face to face and heart to heart with the glorious angels that never sinned, seeing God. There is Love, Redemption, Forgiveness, and at last, the Beatific Vision, even for sinful hearts like ours. A poet of few poems has written these verses, embodying the encouraging thought that, though the unfallen spirits excel in power and might, there is yet a singular blessedness belonging to those children of the Redemption who have known, after the wretchedness of impurity, the relief of repentance, and the rest of reconciliation : Earth has one joy unknown in heaven, — The new-born peace of sin forgiven. Tears of such pure and deep delight, Ye angels ! never dimmed your sight ! Ye saw, of old, on Chaos rise The beauteous pillars of the skies : Ye know where morn exulting springs And evening folds her drooping wings. Bright heralds of the Eternal Will, Abroad His errands ye fulfil, Or, throned in floods of beaming day Symphonious in His presence play ; §0 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. While I amid your choirs shall shine, And all your knowledge will be mine, Ye on your harps must lean to hear One secret chord that mine will bear. CLEANSE us, Lord, from our secret faults, and mercifully absolve "us from our presumptuous sins, that we may re- ceive Thy holy things with a pure mind ; through Christ our Lord. Amen. Setonb iHon&ctg. h 1 meditate on all Thy works ; I muse on the work of Thy hands. O how love I Thy law ! it is my meditation all the day. Mary kept all these things, and pondered them in her heart. Meditation is partly passive, partly an active state. Whoever lias pondered long over a plan which he is anxions to accomplish, without at first distinctly seeing the way, knows what meditation is. The subject presents itself in leisure moments spontaneously; but then all this sets the mind at work, — contriving, imagining, rejecting, modify- ing. He knows what it is who has ever earnestly and sincerely loved one living human being. The image of his friend rises unbidden by day and night ; stands before his soul in the street and in the field ; comes athwart his every thought, and mixes its presence with his every plan. So far all 52 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. is passive. But besides this he plans and contrives for that other's happiness; tries to devise what would give pleasure; examines his own conduct and conversation, to avoid that which can by any possibility give pain. This is meditation. So, too, is meditation on religious truth carried on. If it first be loved, it will recur spontaneously to the heart. Meditation is done in silence. By it we renounce our narrow individuality, and ex- patiate into that which is infinite. Only in the sacredness of inward silence does the soul truly meet the secret, hiding God. The strength of re- solve, which afterward shapes life and mixes itself with action, is the fruit of those sacred, solitary moments. There is a Divine depth in silence. We meet God alone. Have we never felt how a human presence, if frivolous, in such moments frivolizes the soul, and how impossible it is to come in contact with any thoughts that are sub- lime, or drink in one inspiration from heaven, without degrading it, even though surrounded by all that would naturally suggest tender and awful feelings, when such are by ? It is not the number of books you read; nor the variety of sermons which you hear ; nor the amount of religious con- SECOND MONDAY. 53 versation in which you mix : but it is the frequency and the earnestness with which you meditate on these things, till the truth which may be in them becomes your own, and part of your own being, that ensures your spiritual growth. The thought of God, the thought of Thee, Who liest in my heart, And yet beyond imagined space Outstretched and present art, — The thought of Thee, above, below, Around me and within, Is more to me than health and wealth, Or love of kith and kin. BE favorable to us, Lord ! and increase in our hearts the feelings of piety, and devotion with which Thou hast inspired us ; and for fear that the inconstancy and cowardice so natural to us may chill our fervor, mercifully grant us the aid we need to conquer all that is in opposition to our love for Thee, and to serve Thee with all the fidelity we owe Thee, never relaxing in our duty to Thee. We beg this through the merits and mediations of Jesus Christ Thy Son our Lord, Amen. y (p _ — Let the wicked forsake his way, and the unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return unto the Lord, and He will have mercy upon him ; and to our God, for He will abundantly pardon. Except ye repent, ye shall all likewise perish. Very seriously, very severely, does our Lord Jesus Christ deal with the sins of His people. He suffers no man to make light of sin. If His Word, if conscience, if the Spirit's striving, suffices not, then a sterner discipline begins to chasten, — pain and loss and shame and punishment ; perhaps at last a blighted name, ruined prospects, deposition from service, deprivation of usefulness, — anything rather than that the soul should be lost ; anything rather than that the man should sleep the sleep of death. These things are the reproofs of Christ : As many as I love, He says, I rebuke and chasten. Gospel regrets are reparations too. But language is sometimes used as to the conse- SECOND TUESDAY. 55 quences of sin, which seems calculated rather to depress than to stimulate the energies of true re- pentance. A young man is told, for example, that the consequences of one evil thought are essentially interminable ; that each particular word carries an influence with it never to be checked and nowhere to be bounded ; that the smallest omission of duty, much more the smallest act of transgression, not only has in it a condemning sentence, but also exer- cises (whatever he may be afterward) an absolutely illimitable and everlasting force. And there is a truth in such representations. The consequences of sin are incalculable. The transgressor himself has no power to say to his own evil : Thus far shalt thou go, and no further. The thing done or the thing left undone — the word spoken or the thought cherished — is out of his hand : he cannot revoke and he cannot regulate it. This is true. But such representations, left alone, can but make man reck- less. I have more faith in the opposite truth. The long suffering of Jesus Christ not only reproves but will in part repair also : as with every tempta- tion God will also make a way to escape, so (in some sense) beside every sin He sets a repentance and a reDaration. 56 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. I know not, on this side the grave, the spot from which repentance, naj, from which reparation, is excluded. Repentance is reparation. The man who, far on in life's journey, has sinned and fallen, makes reparation toward man if he repents toward God. The servant of God, who has been ensnared of evil, — who has even brought shame upon his name, and reproach upon his Church, — yet even he, if he returns and repents ; even he, if he walks humbly and mournfully for his remaining days be- fore God ; even he, if he accepts with unmurmur- ing submission that sentence of comparative use- lessness which is the worst part of sin, and is willing to stoop to humble work, and to be but a hewer of wood and drawer of water for that tabernacle in which perhaps once he stood a priest ministering ; even he, if he comes back — it is no imaginary pict- ure — just to die amongst his people, making no secret of his grief and of his repentance, and read- ily offering up the remnant of a shortened life upon the sacrifice and service of a penitent restitution ; even that man has upon him the mark of forgive- ness, is clad again with the white garments of a second absolution, and when he goes hence, to be no more seen of the sinful, shall enter, washed and SECOND TUESDAY. 57 justified, within the innermost veil, to be forever a king and a priest in that sanctuary where sin is not. That in me first Jesus Christ might show forth all longsuffering ! l S J A broken heart, God, iny King, Is all the sacrifice we bring : Thou, God of grace, wilt not despise A broken heart in sacrifice. OGOD of compassion, God of pity, God who, according to the multitude of Thy great mercies, washest away the sins of the penitent, and by the grace of remission doest away the guilt of past offences ; look graciously upon Thy servants, and hearken unto them entreating for the forgiveness of all their sins ; through our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen. n q — {jlflf Then saitli He unto them, My soul is exceeding sorrow- ful, even unto death : tarry ye here, and watch with Me. And He went a little farther, and fell on His face, and prayed, say- ing, O my Father, if it be possible, let this cup pass from Me : nevertheless not as I will, but as Thou wilt. And He went away again the second time, and prayed, saying, my Father, if this cup may not pass away from Me, except I drink it, Thy will be done. And He left them, and went away again, and prayed the third time, saying the same words. There is very often some one special darling evil thing aronnd which the will is found to wind and fasten itself with passionate clinging. It does not say aloud, but it would if it were frank, " This I cannot give up ; this I must have." Of course the object is different with each of us ; but the sin is the same. It caunot be safe to live with such a reservation as that. That soul offends in the one point, but breaks the unity of the whole law, and this THIRD WEDNESDAY. 59 makes it " guilty ©f all." It is setting up an idol in our hearts ; and then we may be sure God sets Him- self, not in any arbitrary way, not in jealousy of our joy, but in the very love wherewith He loves us, and that He may give us all heaven at last, to take the idol out. "We yield, unwillingly perhaps, at first, though in that case the pain will only be so much the greater. But by all means, at any rate, by ways that we had not known, by dealings that perplex and confound us, He begins to loosen the fatal fascination and take it away. The Infinite, who sees us thus Mould His transcendent form in clay, Shatters the idol into dust, And we, alas ! must weep and pray. But first, in His tenderness, He always calls to us by voices of prophets, by mercies, sermons, prophe- cies, providences, — " Give Me thine heart." It is not to be concealed that, in this final surrender, as in all the others, from the first glowing hour of a new-born affection for the Lord, the heart led the way toward the foot of the Cross. But the will, too, bears a part, consenting and helping, as it were, by solemn purposes and exertions, to bend itself to 60 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. the will of God, with renunciation and submission. Only, it must be remembered, here comes in that new and really supernatural gift of the Spirit of God, which makes this act of the will different from every other. ~No man can tell exactly where the line runs that divides man's part from God's in spiritual renewing and growth. But this we know, for God and our hearts both tell it to us, that " God worketh in us both to will and to do," and yet it is not till we both " will " and " do," that the blessed work is done. Perhaps the truth is best expressed by saying that we will to lean ourselves on God, and be thus upheld. A traveller of no great strength undertakes to climb Mount Washington. He comes presently to the end of his power and his breath, and sinks down exhausted ; but he does not de- spair. A stronger friend comes to his side, but instead of stirring him up and compelling him to a fruitless struggle, or urging him on, offers to let him lean on his arm. Here is a new opportunity for the exercise of the traveller's will. He is not passive; he wills to lean and be helped, and at the same time he wills to use all the power he has. And so he comes to the top, with nothing above him but the heavens. THIRD WEDNESDAY. 61 The submission that makes no merit of its cross ; that does not venture to choose one lighter than the Lord lays on us ; that does not seek the ability to bear it in the delirium of pleasure, or the drugs of the world, or the deadening influence of time and change ; that does not compare your cross with those borne by others, or ask an explanation of it till the day break and the shadows nee away, but bears it all with a child's love for His sake who did not impose it till He had borne all the might and sharpness of all the world's crosses together, — this is the victory. The earth has no fatal fear and no insupportable sorrow in it after you have come to this ; you are free in a boundless liberty, strong in immortal strength, and at peace in a peace too deep for the understanding to explain, or any sufferings to disturb. Full many a throb of grief and pain Thy frail and erring child must know ; But not one prayer is breathed in vain, Nor does one tear unheeded flow. Thy various messengers employ ; Thy purposes of love fulfil ; And 'mid the wreck of human joy, Let kneeling faith adore Thy will. 62 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. OMOST merciful Lord, who healest the inward man by out- ward afflictions, and by troubles in this world dost pre- pare us for eternal joys in the world to come ; by that cup of sorrow which Thou drankest for us, and by that weary path which Thou troddest, grant that we may willingly drink of Thy cup, and cheerfully follow Thee along the road where Thou hast gone before ; who with the Father and the Holy Ghost reignest one God, world without end. Amen. a* Mary liatli chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her. O tarry thou the Lord's leisure ; be strong, and He shall com- fort thine heart ; and put thou thy trust in the Lord. Let us excite each other to seek that good part which shall not be taken away from us. Let us labor to be really in earnest, and to view things in the way in which God views them. Then it will be but a little thing to give up the world ; but an easy thing to reconcile the mind to what at first it shrinks from. Let us turn our mind heavenward; let us set our thoughts on things above, and in His own time God will set our affections there also. All will in time become natural to us, which at present we do but own to be good and true. We shall covet what at present we do but admire. Let the time past suffice us to have followed our own will ; let us desire to form part of that glorious company of Apostles and Prophets, of whom we read in Script- 64 HELPS TO A HOLY LENT. lire. Let us cast in our lot with them, and desire to be gathered about their feet. Let us beg of God to employ us ; let us try to obtain a spirit of perfect self-surrender to Him, and an indifference to one thing above another in this world, so that we may be ready to follow His call whenever it comes to us. Thus shall we best employ ourselves till His voice is heard, patiently preparing for it by meditation, and by looking for Him to perfect what, we trust, His own grace has begun in us. There are many persons who proceed a little way in religion, and then stop short. God keep us from choking the good seed, which else would come to perfection ! Let us exercise ourselves in those good works which both reverse the evil that is past, and lay up a good foundation for us in the world to come. He liveth long who liveth well ! All other life is short and vain ; He liveth longest who can tell Of living most for heavenly gain. He liveth long who liveth well 1 All else is being flung away ; He liveth longest who can tell Of true things truly done each day. THIRD THURSDAY. 65 OLORD Jesus Christ, who hast said, My Father worketh hitherto, and I work ; grant us, we beseech Thee, such zeal in Thy service, that we may never be weary in well doing, but may labor steadfastly unto the end through Thy mercy. Amen. 5