r- ..^ ..> ,^C4.C /^t»*»*^^^ ni^.r^L yI^.cj^u 'Jhx^ tr^u -Ty."/-. ^ iuUQ>uti., fli^^L^^/c £^ -~kJJlo^fr..^l~ /iJjZIL '...^^i^ /a./fe/A/-^ cy^^^C ^^>//^ jt^/i^^^A ^. y^ir^^/- r/^t:p^'^^fMrz A Church Memorial or THK VISIT OF THE Royal Agricultural Society TO NOR IVICH, CONSISTING OF TWO SERMONS PREACHED IN NORWICH CATHEDRAL on the Sunday ^vith which the week commenced, and the following Sunday ; the Form of Special Service used on the days of the week at 8 A.M. each morning ; and the short Addresses delivered in the course of the Special Services. BV EDWARD MEYRICK GOULBURN, D.C.L., D.D., DEAN OF NORWICH. That our garners may l)c full and plenteous with all manner of store : that cmr sheep may bring forth thousands and ten thousands in our streets. That our oxen may be strong to labour, that there be no decay : no leading into captivity, and no complaining in our streets. Happy are the people that are in such a case : yea, blessed are the people who have the Lord for their God. Psalm c.xliv. 13. 14. 15 IContron : HATCHARDS, PICCADILLY. iflortoich : HP:NRY W. STACY, IIAY^klARKET. To THE Honourable and Right Reverend THE LORD BISHOP OF NORWICH WHO GAVE TO THE Special Services of "the Show Week" HELD IN Norwich Cathedral the sanction of his presence this Memorial is inscribed with veneRx^tion for his office and affection for his person. (fautcutfi. p. Preface . . . . . . v Opening Sermon in the Cathedral . . i Form of Special Service used during the WEEK at 8 A.M. . . . • ^7 Short Addresses delivered in the course of THE Special Services . . .20 Concluding Sermon in the Cathedral . $} , UIUC . PREFACE. Bur few words are required to explain this slight publication. A visit of the Royal Agricultural Society to any provincial city, for the purpose of holding their Exhibition in the immediate neighbourhood, is always an event which attracts hundreds of visitors ; and if Royal Personages (as was the case at Norwich last week) show their interest in the Exhibition by opening it, and giving constant attendance at it, their presence adds immensely to the attractiveness of the spectacle, and the hundreds are turned into thousands. Feeling that our City must necessarily be full of visitors from all parts of England on an occasion so interesting and auspicious, the Dean and Chapter of Norwich thought it well to provide short Special Services in the Cathedral for each day of " the Show week," with the object, 1st ; of specially seeking the Blessing of Almighty God upon the harvest of tlic present year ; vi Preface. 2dly; of speakins* one or two words each day, on subjects more or less con- nected with Ag-riculture, which mig^ht be edifying- to those attending the proposed Special Services ; 3dly ; of soothing and solemnising the minds both of our own fellow-citizens and strangers, during a week which would necessarily be one of excitement, sight- seeing, and innocent pleasuring ; 4thly ; of accommodating such persons as might wish to be present at a serv'ice in the Cathedral, and hear the Norwich Choir sing, but yet who might not have time enough at their disposal to attend the regular Morning and Evening Office at lO a.m. and 5 p.m. Accordingly a short Form of Special Service, with appropriate Psalms and Lessons, was drawn up, which began punctually at 8 each morning, and terminated one or two minutes before 8.30. This Form will be found on Pp. 17, 18, 19. After the lesson an Address of about five minutes was given every morning. These short Sermons are re-pro- duced, as nearly as I can recall what I said in them, on Pp. 20 to 32. To these notices of the week-day Special Services I have prefixed the Sermon, which at our Bishop's recjuest I Preface. vii preached on the preceding;- Sunday (July ii), and have also suffixed the Sermon of the succeeding Sunday, dealing with topics of the same character, of which all minds were full. It is hoped that the publication may be interest- ing as a memorial of the Royal Agricultural Society's Visit to a provincial city, and of the way in which the visit was recognised, and attempted to be turned to account, in the Mother Church of the Diocese, though it should be added that at Norwich the Cathedral was not alone in yielding this recognition. At St. Lawrence's Church certainly, and probably at other of the numerous Parochial Churches, Special Services were held during the week of the Exhibition, and were, I trust, well attended, and made the means of doing much 'j"ood. E. AI. G. Dea7iery, A^oriuic/i^ Julyiid, 1 886. / • ^ Opening Sermon in the Cathedral, delivered July 11th, 1886 (Third Sunday after Trinity). ^t Motors of glsiicultuit, as sibtit in ^olg Scripture. Gen. iii. 17, 18, 19. 17. And unto Adam He said. Because thou hast hearkened unto the voice of thy wife, and HAST EATEN OF THE TREE, OF WHICH I COMMANDED THEE, SAYING, ThOU SHALT NOT EAT OF IT : CURSED IS THE GROUND FOR THY SAKE ; IN SORROW SHALT THOU EAT of IT ALL THE DAYS OF THY LIFE ; 18. Thorns also and thistles shall it bring FORTH TO THEE ; AND THOU SHALT EAT THE HERB OF THE FIELD ; 19. In the SWEAT of thy FACE SHALT THOU EAT BREAD, TILL THOU RETURN UNTO THE GROUND. fO-DAY the Exhibition of the Royal Agricultural ^^^ Society is being opened with a religious service by the Bishop of the Diocese. It will be appropriate to the solemnity which is proceeding elsewhere, and it may under God's blessing be interesting and instructive, to consider the history of Agriculture as it is given us in the Bible, — a history which, as I hope to show, extends from the very beginning to the end of all things. The History of Agriculture I.' — Aiul first we arc given to understand that, old as sin is, Agriculture is older still, since it was practised before the fall of man. Agriculture was Adam's occupation in Paradise; for "the Lord God," we arc told, "took the *' man, and put him into the garden of Eden to dress it and " to keep it."^ The occupations and employments of men in a state of highly wrought civilisation, such as mankind has reached at present, are legion ; the principle of the division of labour has brought in various industries, not professions and trades only, but those manifold lesser and lower industries, which are either ancillary to professions and trades, or which contribute, if not to the support, yet to the accommodations and conveniences of human life. But originally there was but one form of human work, — Agriculture, — out of which all the later forms were developed, just as originally there was but one form of Government — the Patriarchal, — out of wbich all its more complicated forms,— kingdoms, oligarchies, republics — took their rise. And this primitive form of work was, as I have said, Paradisaical ; it existed before the entrance of sin had marred God's fair universe, and before suffering and death had thrown a dark cloud over man's condition. The lesson we learn from this first Chapter of the history of Agriculture is the very important one, that healthy occupation of some kind or other, occupation attended with useful results, so far from being a draw- back to enjoyment, is essential to man's happiness in virtue of the original constitution of his nature, — a fundamental truth this of the earliest Scripture, but echoed back articulately by later ones ; " For thou shalt " eat the labours of thine hands : well is thee, and "happy shalt thou be;"- "This we commanded you, that » Gen. ii. 15. ^ pg^ cxxviii. 2. P.B. F. as given in Holy Scripture. " if any would not work, neither should he eat ;"^ ''V^^q " command and exhort them hy our Lord Jesus Christ, " that with quietness they work, and eat their own ** bread."2 — And we may surmise also, — it is a reasonable inference surely from the fact of man's having had work assigned to him in the garden of Eden, — that the future state of blessedness, which is reserved for God's people, is not to be conceived of as a state of pure contemplation, but rather as furnishing some sphere of activity in which God may be served, though the service will be inter- penetrated, more than is here possible, by the spirit of adoration, — that in short it will be the state of angels, w^ho, while they always stand before God in worship, and continually realise His Presence, yet "with twain" of their wings do "fly"^ on His errands, as the Angel Gabriel did at the Annunciation.* II. — The next Chapter in the history of Agriculture, and the Chapter of the fullest import and significance, is the passage which I have read as my text. Adam had transgressed the single precept under which he was laid, a precept which had reference to the fruits of the earth. On the usual principle of the Divine administration, he is to be punished in the same subject-matter in which he had sinned. A curse is pronounced, not upon himself, but upon the ground for his sake, the effect of which curse should be that the earth, \\hich hitherto had yielded spontaneously every tree that was pleasant to the sight and good for food, would now, if left to itself, without the bestowal on it of human toil, bring forth harmful or at least useless produce. Thenceforth if man would not bestow labour upon the soil, he must degrade, ^ 2 Thess. iii. 10. 2 2 Thess. iii. 12. ' See Isaiah vi. 2. * See St. Luke i. 2G. The lliatory of Agt icuUnre as to his food, to the level of the beasts that perish, eating {^rass like the ox, and roots like the swine, as did king Nebuchadnezzar in the time of his lunacy,^— a great and humiliating fall indeed from his Paradise condition, when the delicious fruits of trees good for food were his daily fare. But if he would have some nobler livelihood than this, it must be by cultivation of the grain crops, which would demand not only ingenuity and invention, but labour and toil, both of man and beast ; it was only ** in the sweat of his face " that he could *' eat bread ;" whereas in the garden of Eden Agriculture had consisted in the light and easy work of pruning, restraining the too luxuriant growths of the fertile soil, transporting the water of the river to those parts of the ground where it was needed, and generally keeping the garden in a sightly and orderly condition. The " bread to strengthen " man's heart " could only be enjoyed on the condition of its being, as it is called in Ps. cxxvii., "the bread of *' sorrows " or ** carefulness ;"^ it would not come but by ploughing, harrowing, sowing, gathering, grinding, and this with uncertainty as to whether the sunshine, rain, temperature necessary to a prolific harvest would accompany the required agricultural processes. AVe glance, in passing, at the first appearance of what may be called the two departments of Agriculture, the work of pasturage and the work of tillage, which were practised by the sons of our first parents respect- ively, — '* Abel," we read, " was a keeper of sheep, but ** Cain was a tiller of the ground."^ I call pasturage, no less than tillage, a department of Agriculture; first because the cattle themselves, who yield milk and meat ^ See Dan. iv. 25, 32, 03. ' r. 2. " sorrows," A. V. ; *• toil," Jl. V. : " carefulness," P.B. V. ' Gcq. iv. 2. as Cnn. viii. '2J, 8 The History of Agriculture *' wine f/iat makotli glad the heart of maD,"^— a good gift of God, and nothing to be refused, because the perversity of man leads him to misuse it and converts into a banc what was given as a boon, (for is it not a law that the best and most precious things become by corruption the worst, as love, which is the noblest of sentiments, is corrupted into lust, which is the basest ?) " And Noah ** began to he an husbandman, and he planted a vineyard.''^ It was the cultivation of the vine, the noblest of fruit trees, and which yields the most generous liquor, that we read of as the earliest effort of Agriculture after the flood, and which was thus the token that the extraordinary curse, which had hitherto clogged and impeded Agriculture was removed, and the earth restored to its normal fertility. AVc must not however so understand the words, ** 1 will not again curse the ground any more for man's ** sake," as if they implied more than that the earth itself should not again have penal sterility inflicted upon it. Throughout the whole history of Israel, as we see from the Law and the Prophets, one of God's habitual chastise- ments for his people's sin was to withhold those rains, and dews, and suns, which are the necessary conditions of large crops, or to blight the crop by insects or other natural agencies, when it promised well, and had nearly come to maturity. One passage must sufiice, as a speci- men of very many, scattered up and down over the Old Testament; "Thou shalt carry much seed out into the " field, and shalt gather but little in ; for the locust shall " consume it. Thou shalt plant vineyards, and dress t/um, *• but shalt neither drink of the wine, nor gather the grapes; *' for the worms shall eat them. Thou shalt have olive *' trees throughout all thy coasts, but thou shalt not anoint ' See Pa. civ. 13. ' Gen. ix. 20. as given in Ilohj Scripture. 9 *' f/ff/se/f with the oil; for thino olive shall cast hisfruit.^'^ AVhile the earth itself should be what it had been since the fall in point of productive power, favourable seasons, the conditions of its fertility, should still be in God's hand, to grant or to withhold, as He might see necessary in the moral discipline of His people. VI. — And now wc approach that era of Grace, when He who was to redeem " us from the curse of the law, being *'made a curse for us,"^ appeared upon earth in fashion as a man, took flesh into union with His Divine Personality, and dwelt among us. He was to be the Second Man who should re-constitute and restore the ruined family ; the Man of whom Adam was but a figure.^ In His private life, before He entered upon His ministry. He was an artisan ; and it is certainly not a little remarkable that one of the earliest Christian Fathers (Justin, who lived not later than the middle of the second Century) records as a fact well known in his time that our Lord manu- factured agricultural implements, ploughs and yokes of oxen, " symbolizing hereby righteousness,'' says Justin, (for what is righteousness but submission to the yoke of God's precepts and dispensations ?) " and inculcating an " industrious life."^ But what glimpses of Him in the great work which He came to do upon earth, do the Holy {Scriptures themselves give us, which carry us back in thought to the curse pronounced upon the first man in Paradise ? It was in a garden that our ruin was incurred ; it was also in a garden, — the garden of Gethsemane, — 1 Deut.xxviii. 38, 39, 40. - Sec Gal.iii. 13. =' See Kom. v. H. ^Toi^TCt ^ap ra tiktovlkci epya elpya^ ero tv avOpto-noi^^ wu, aporpa kciI ^i^a' eta rovrwv kciI tu T>/«r ?lKaloarl^)]*^• avfjil^oXa ci(d(Thioi' kuI «€/>7>/ \_^ *-^^py'/] l^^ov. Lialogus cum 2Vypho)ie, § 88. 10 Ihc llidonj of AyvicuUiirc that it was repaired. " In the sweat of thy face thou *' shalt oat hrcad," — this had heen the penalty upon the first man's transgression. How did tlio *' second man, the " Lord from heaven,"^ endure, and in enduring exhaust that curse and annihihitc it ? See Him prostrate in the garden, offering " up prayers and supplications with " strong crying and tears unto him that was able to save ** him from death."^ With what intensity of emotion those prayers are offered up, those tears are shed, let the phtcnomenon recorded by St. Luke attest ; and being " in an agony he prayed more earnestly: and his sweat " was as it were great drops of blood falling down to the " ground."^ Here is " the sweat of thy face," experienced by the Second ^lan in His tillage of the moral earth, whereby it should be made to bring forth the fruits of the Spirit ; but according to that which is written of I Tim, " This is he that came by water and blood, even .lesus ** Christ; not by water only, but by water and blood,"* there is more than water in this sweat, there is blood mixed with water, and both blood and water raining down upon the earth from His sacred brow, when He fell on His face and prayed, — a truly sanctifying Baptism, from which one might well believe that the earth would emerge regenerate, and with renovated powers. For let us bear in mind that it is the earth's curse which He is bearing, the curse drawn down indeed by Adam's sin, yet inflicted, not on Adam, but on the place of His abode, — " Cursed is the ground for thy sake." And lo ! we find another clear intimation of this in wdiat followed the agony and the apprehension; "And the soldiers " platted a crown of thorns, and put it on his head."^ ^ See 1 Cor. xv. 47. ' See Hcb. v. 7. ' St. Luke xxii. 41. M John v. 0. '' St. John xix. 2. us (jiveii in Holy Scriptia'c. 11 God, how dost Thou in Thy marvellous Providence direct the steps of men, while their own heart deviseth their way ; how canst Thou hring Thine own significance even out of words said, and deeds done, in defiance and contempt of Thee, out of Caiaphas's cynical heartless policy a precious and glorious prophecy,^ — out of the brutal mockery of these soldiers a divine intimation that thy Son is at present the Curse-hearer of the Earth, the Victim who is submitting himself to the penalty drawn down by Adam's transgression. For the sentence had run thus ; " Thorns also and thistles shall it bring *' forth to thee." And here is Christ, when about to bear " our sins in his own body on the tree,"^ crowned with thorns, the symbol of the earth's curse, the token that by reason of man's sin the soil had degenerated from its Paradise condition, and would spontaneously bring forth only useless or harmful produce. VII. — No wis there any thing in Holy Scripture, which leads us to surmise that in another system of Nature, which is in God's good time to supersede the present one, the Earth, in virtue of the precious blood-drops of the Second Adam, will be restored to its Paradisaical condi- tion, and become what it was in productive powers before man fell ? There is. Let us turn to the third Chapter of the second Epistle of St. Peter, wherein it is predicted that in " the day of the Lord " *' the earth and " the works that are therein shall be burned up."^ Taken by itself this might seem to imply that the earth will be destroyed, since things which are burned up arc made away with, and practically annihilated. Put a further study of the Chapter serves to correct this impression. For the Apostle, having described the great conflagration, ' See St. John xi. 49 to 53. =^ See 1 Pet. ii. 21. ' v. 10. 12 The llistonj of Agriculture Nvlilch shall dissolve the present system of Nature, distinctly looks forward to the existence of an earth in the future system, and grounds his anticipations on foregone Prophecy; " Xevertheless we," says he, ** according to his promise, look for new heavens and a new " earth, wherein dwelleth righteousness."^ This is ob- viously a reference to Isaiah Ixv. and Ixvi. where we read, " Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth : and the ** former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind,"^ and again, " The new heavens and the new earth, which " I will make, shall remain before me, saith the Lord."^ Nor is it possible, I venture to think, to suppose that the new heavens and the new earth are not to be taken as a literal firmament or a literal soil, but merely as a general phrase for a new system of the universe. The passage in the Book of the Revelation, in which the inspired seer beholds in vision the fulfilment of Isaiah's prophecy seems to discourage this view, even if it docs not make it absolutely untenable ; " xVnd I saw a new heaven and a " new earth : for the first heaven and the first earth were " passed away ; and there was no more sea."'* There being no more sea in the glorified universe is a feature which almost seems to require a literal understanding of the words heaven and earth. Now, supposing this literal view of the meaning to be the true one, let it not be thought that the earth, which is to be, will be in such sense a new creation, as to have no connexion with the earth which now is. For St. Peter places side by side the destruction of the earth by the waters of the deluge with its destruction by fire at the last day ; "By the word of God ** the heavens were of old, and the earth standing out of ' c. 13. -Ixv. 17. Mxvi. 22. * Kev. xxi. 1. as (jivcn in Holy Scripture. 13 '' the water and in the water " (R.Y. *' an earth compacted " out of water and amidst water") : AVherehy the " world " that then was, being overflowed with water, perished : *'13ut the heavens and the earth which are now, by the " same word are kept in store, reserved unto fire against " the day of judgment."^ Its Baptism of uritcr did not desiroT/ the earth, which emerged from it purified, and re- lieved,' as we have seen, from that extraordinary curse, which had rendered labour so toilsome in the days before the flood. Why may we not suppose that, when it has passed through its Baptism o^Jire, it will emerge a regene- rated earth, fit to be the great domain of the " second man, '' the Lord from heaven," who will reign over it surrounded by His Saints,— an earth endowed with forces and fertilities, with beauty and brightness, of which we can at present form no conception ; and in which possibly, (for we must speak modestly and hesitatingly, and never dogmatize, on subjects so difficult as Unfulfilled Prophecy,) those words of the Evangelical Prophet will find a literal fulfilment, *' Instead of the thorn shall come up the fir-tree, and " instead of the brier shall come up the myrtle tree."^ The earth's curse, drawn down by the first man, and the symbol of which the Second Man wore around his brow, when about to suff'er, shall be removed in that day by the virtue of His Agony and Bloody Sweat, of His Cross and Passion. We have now passed in review the Scriptural history of Agriculture from its beginning to its close. And the truth, which it brings under our notice and emphasizes, is the close connexion, which by God's ordinance and appointment has subsisted ever since the time of the Fall * 2 Pet. ill. 5, G, 7. ' Isaiah Iv. 13. 14 The nU lory of Agricu Uu re between the moral conduct of man and the productiveness of the Earth which is the place of man's abode. It has been pointed out that, while the earth is secured from an extraordinary curse, such as the sins of the Antediluvians called down upon it in the days of Lamech, by the promise made to Noah after the flood, still God holds in His own hands the keys of rain and sunshine, which are necessary to unlock the earth's storehouse, and make her yield her treasures for the sustenance and comfort of man. And this being the case, must we not attribute the recent series of very indifferent harvests, exactly coinciding as they did with the fall in the price of English agricultural produce in consequence of the importation of large quantities of foreign grain, — must we not attribute it to the cause indi- cated by the prophet Jeremiah, when similar casualties befell the Jews of his day ; " This people hath a revolting " and a rebellious heart ; they are revolted and gone. " Neither say they in their heart. Let us now fear the Lord " our God, that giveth rain, both the former and the latter, " in his season : he reserveth unto us the appointed weeks " of the harvest. Your iniquities have turned away these " things, and your sins have withholden good things from " you."^ Is it not a meet recompense for the abounding infidelity, which has recently been making its ravages among all classes in this country, that God should make us feel Ilis hand blighting and crippling our Agriculture, if so be we may discern and humble ourselves under it ? Perhaps you will allege that, evil as some of the features of our time may be, there is much religion abroad, much apparent earnestness and even uprightness of moral conduct, and that all that is lacking is only orthodoxy. Ah I but how fundamental, how vital, how penetrating > Jer. v. 23, 24, 25. as given in Holy Scripture. 15 into the pith and marrow of Religion, is the orthodoxy tliat is lacking ! What our thinkers and cultivated men arc yearning for in all directions, what they are striving to create and propagate, is a religion without a God — a reliijion which shall retain the moral restraints of Christianity, while it cuts them off from their vitalizing principle, the recognition of a Personal Object of worship, a speaking God, a seeing God, a hearing God, or, as the Scripture with ^vonderful force and vividness designates llim, *' the living God." Perhaps it is not too much to say that now for a long time past all religious error has been working more or less in this direction and with this tendency, to eliminate God from the religious systems of mankind, — very like eliminating the sun from the system of the universe. Does not God do well under these circumstances to make His Hand felt in Nature, and particularly in those districts of Nature which most affect human life and human comfort ? If in our speculations we are inclined to renounce the fear of the Lord our God, is it not a merciful dispensation that lie should touch us in our means of subsistence, and make us know practically that for the prosperity of our Agriculture from first to last, from the sprouting of the seed to the garnering of the harvest, for every gleam of sunshine, for every shower of rain, for the shooting of every herb of pasturage, for the increase of cattle " strong to labour,"^ we are dependent upon the operation of a Hand, which is too dexterous ever to err, too loving ever to inflict unnecessary pain. Lord, if in the wise ordering of Thy Providence it is decreed that in these latter times antichrists should abound, that "evil men and seducers" should " wax worse 1 See Ps. cxHv. 14. 16 The Ilidory of Agriculture. *' and worse, deceiving, and being deceived,"^ and tliat Infidelity should still spread, under the permitted influence of Satan, until it finds its climax in the great Antichrist, who shall offer Himself instead of Christ for the worship of the faithful, and shall come nigh to deceive the very elect, let not the little flock, who are true to Thee in the ground of their heart, smart under Thy mighty hand, without humbling themselves under it. Pour on them " the spirit of grace and of supplications,"^ that with weeping, fasting, and praying, they may intercede with Thee, not for themselves alone, but the Church and the world, true Daniels " in the desolations " of Jerusalem " confessing the sins of the spiritual Israel, and " presenting their supplications before the Lord their "God."* for "the city of the living God, the heavcniij " Jerusalem,"^ and answered, as he was answered, if not by an angel visible to the eye, yet by a message of comfort and encouragement to the heart, which shall " lift uj) the " hands which hang down and the feeble knees."^ ^ See 2 Tim. iii. 13. ' See Zech. xii. 10. =» See Dan. ix. 2, 20. " See Heb. xii. 22. ^ See Hob. xii. 12. FORM OF SPECIAL SERVICE USED DURING THE WEEK OF THE VISIT OF THE ROYAL AGRICULTURAL SOCIETY, JULYlith, iith, i/^tk, iSth, idth, ^ i-jth, 1886. 1. Sentence of Holy Scripture. Thou madest him to have dominion over the works of thy hands; thou hast put all things under his feet; All sheep and oxen, yea, and the beasts of the field ; The fowl of the air, and the fish of the sea, and whatsoever passeth through the paths of the seas. Psalm viii. 6, 7, 8. 2. General Confession. 3. Absolution. 4. The Lord's Prayer, and following Versicles. 5. Psalms. {One each day). viii. ; Ixv. ; civ. ; cxliv. ; cxlvii. ; cxlviii. 6. Lessons. {^One each daj). Genesis i. 24 to end; Isaiah i. 2 to 10; Jeremiah viii. 4 to 10; Jonah iii. ; St. Matthew vi. 24 to end; St. John X. I to 17. 18 Form of Special Service, 7. Anthems. {One each day). (i) The Lord is loving. (496 in Anthem Book). Psalm cxlv. Full. 9. The Lord is loving unto every man : and His mercy is over all His \vorks. 10. All Thy works praise Thee, O Lord : and Thy saints give thanks unto Thee. 1 1 . They show the glory of Thy kingdom : and talk of Thy power. 12. That Thy power, Thy glory, and the mightiness of Thy kingdom : might be known unto men. 13. Thy kingdom is an everlasting kingdom. Garrett. (2) Thou visitest the earth. (520 in Anthem Book). Psalm I XV. Full. 9, 12. Thou visitest the earth, and blessest it: Thou crownest the year with Thy goodness. Greene. (3) O PRAISE the Lord. (436 in Anthem Book). Psalm cxlvii. Full. I. O praise the Lord, for it is a good thing to sing praises unto our God : yea, a joyful and pleasant thing it is to be thankful. 5. Great is our Lord, and great is His power: yea, and His wisdom is infinite. Weldon. (4) From all that dwell. (302 in Anthem Book). Version of Psalm cxvii. Full. From all that dwell below the skies Let the Creator's praise arise ; Let the Redeemer's name be sung Through every land, by every tongue. Eternal are Thy mercies. Lord, Eternal truth attends Thy word ; Thy praise shall sound from shore to shore, Till suns shall rise and set no more. Walmisley Form of Sjxcial Service. 11) (5) Great is the Lord. (320 in Anthem Book). Psalm cxlv. Full. 3. Great is the Lord, and marvellous, worthy to be praised : there is no end of His greatness. 4. One generation shall praise Thy works unto another : and declare Thy power. Amen. W. Hayes. (6) O LOVE THE Lord. (430 in Anthem Book.) Psalm xxxi. Full. 26. O love the Lord, all ye His saints : for the Lord preserveth them that are faithful, and plenteously rewardeth the proud doer. 27. Be strong, and He shall establish your heart : all ye that put your trust in the Lord. Sullivan. 8. Prayers. Let us pray. ( 1 ) That it may please thee to give and preserve to our use the kindly fruits of the earth, so as in due time we may enjoy them : We beseech Thee to hear its, good Lord. (2) Collect of the Day (Third Sunday after Trinity). (3) Collect for Grace. (O Lord, our heavenly Father, (S:c.) (4) O God, merciful Father, increase the fruits of the earth by thy heavenly benediction ; and grant that we, receiving thy bountiful liberality, may use the same to thy glory, the relief of those that are needy, and our own comfort ; through Jesus Christ our Lord. Ajncn. {From the Second Prayer in the time of Dearth and Famine). (5) The General Thanksgiving. (6) A Prayer of St. Chrysostom. (7) The Grace of our Lord Jfsus Christ, &c. ADDRKSSES GIVEN TX THE COURSE OE THE SPECIAL SERVICE, Monday y July 12th. Lesson : Gen. i. 24 to cud. Y. 26. " And God said, Let us make man in our *' image, after our likeness." — In what did the image of God, impressed upon man at his creation, hut not impressed on the inferior animals created on the same day with him, consist ? Principally, I suppose, in his endowment with the intellectual and moral faculties. As to the former of these, how wonderful in its capacity is the intellect of man ! Consider merely the fact that man, as to his hodily frame a mere worm of earth,^ as to his bodily life the creature of a day, is yet able to calculate the distance from one fixed star to another. In virtue of this intel- lectual faculty, too, man is in a certain sense a creator, and thus bears God's image. Do we not speak of a great poem, like ^Milton's '* Paradise Lost," of a great piece of music, like Handel's *' Messiah," of a great painting, like one of Paffaellc's ^ladonnas, as a creation ? Yet great as the intellectual faculty is, and much as it ennobles man, far greater and far more ennobling is the moral faculty. I mean by the moral faculty, the conscience which apprehends God, and the will which chooses God, and cleaves to Ilim and to His will out of love. Apart from this moral faculty, which was closely united with the intellectual in man's original ^ See Job XXV. 6. Man made in the imafje of God. 21 creation, it is impossible for man to hold communion with his Creator, and so to be ennobled in the truest and highest sense. Apart from it, man may be brilliant, but lie cannot be godlike ; — nay, in the suppression or misdirection of the moral faculty he may set himself against God, and thus against his own nobility, blessedness, and rest. It was a great saying of the late Kobert Montgomery's, that " Satan is intellect without *' God." let us cultivate that moral wisdom which (as distinct from discovery and science) is declared in Job xxviii. to be man's true sphere ; " And unto man " he said. Behold, the fear of the Lord, that is wisdom ; " and to depart from evil is understanding."^ That moral wisdom lies at the root of our communion with God ; and communion with God, through the mediation of His Son, and under the influence of Ilis Spirit, is the highest point of dignity to which man can attain. Of those in the enjoyment of this communion it may reasonably and truly be said, *' Ye arc gods ; and all of " you are children of the most High." (Ps. Ixxxii. ; St. John X. 34). Tuesday y Jahj 13///. Lesson : Isaiah i. 2 to 10, V. 3. '' Tlie ox knoweth his owner, and the ass *' his master's crib : hut Israel doth not know, my people *' doth not consider." — Instinct never goes astray, never misleads the creatures endowed with it. Keason went astray at the Fall, and has often since misdirected the human creature. Hence we find man reproved in Holy Scripture by the example of the beasts that perish ; these ' V. 28. 22 Ilcasoii contracted icith Inatinct Leasts are appealed to as putting men to shame. " The ox " knoweth his owner," recognises hy dumh signs the man to wliom he belongs, " and the ass his master's crib," — the place at Avhich he is fed, and the hand that feeds him ; but reason lags behind instinct in the recognition of the Heavenly Owner, and of the benefits and blessings, which He pours upon His creatures ; " Israel doth not '* know, my people doth not consider." This verse implies that man is God's property and belongs to Him, as " the ox " to his " owner." And how indefeasible and indisputable is God's claim to this ownership ! What gives man a claim to he the owner of the ox is merely that he has paid down for the purchase of the creature a sum of money. But God's first and fundamental claim upon us arises from His being our Creator, from His having fashioned and moulded the clay of which we are made, and breathed into it the breath of life.^ What an absolute property do we conceive a man to have in his own productions, the artist in his picture, the poet in his poem, the musician in the strain which he has com- posed! — Xor is this God's only or strongest claim to ownership of us. He hath bought us back from the dominion which the devil had usurped over us, " not •' with corruptible things, as silver and gold, but with the ** precious blood of Christ, as of a lamb without blemish *' and without spot,"- — as if an artist were to pay a heavy ransom to recover a picture, upon which he had spent much pains and skill, but of which he had been robbed. It is on this second and stronger claim, arising from redemption, that the Apostle builds his exhortation to us to glorify God ; — " Ye are not your own ; for ye are *' bought with a price : therefore glorify God in * See Gen. ii. 7 ; Ts. cxxxix. 1.3, IG. '1 IVtcr i. 18, I'J. in its recognition of persons. 23 "your body, and in your spirit, which are God's. "^ As to the benefits by which God seeks to establish a claim upon our gratitude and acknowledgment, (corresponding to the master's kind and humane treatment of his ass), these are vividly represented in figurative language by the Prophet Hosea r " I drew *' them with cords of a man, w^ith bands of love : **and I was to them as they that take off" \_Ararg. lift up] " the yoke on their jaws, and I laid meat unto them." Our heavenly Master relieves us of the yoke of the Law, by enabling us to believe in Christ's having met all its demands on our behalf, and of the yoke of sin, by the effectual working of His Spirit, and He substitutes for those galling yokes the " easy yoke and light burden " of Christ's precepts and dispensations, — easy and Hght because borne in the strength of love, — and lays before us the heavenly food of the Word and Sacraments, thus making provision for all the necessities of our souls. This again is a third claim upon our allegiance to Ilim, over and above those of Creation and .Redemption, Wednesday, July 14///. Lesso>' : Jer. viii. 4 to 10. " Vv. 7, 8. *' Yea, the stork in the heavens ** knoweth her appointed times ; and the turtle and the " crane and the swallow observe the time of their coming ; "but my people know not the judgment of the Lord. *' How do ye say. We are wise, and the law of the Lord ''is with us?"— Our yesterday's text brought before us the contrast of Reason with Instinct in its recognition of > 1 Cor. vi. 19, 20. ' Ch. xi. 4. 24 Reason contrasted with Instinct persons and places. To-day's brings before us a similar contrast in respect of the recognition of times and seasons. The birds' of passage seem to desert us at the approach of winter ; but their migration ouly lasts for a time ; the warm breath of spi'ing, the tree bursting into blossom, the purling stream, the turf enamelled with flowers, woo them back again in their season. ** But my " people know not the judgment of the Lord." llow then can they claim to be " wise," having not so much wisdom as is exhibited by the fowls of the air ? — By the "judgment of the Lord" is meant God's way and method of dealing with His people. And the particular way and method here alluded to is His plan of allowing to each one of us *' a day of grace," during which gracious and attractive invitations arc made to us, analogous to the warm breath of spring, which woos back the migratory birds. First, the Saviour's own call, oftbring an easy yoke and light burden in exchange for the galling yoke of the law and sin ; " Come unto me, " all 1/e that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give *' you rest. Take my yoke upon you,"^ &c. Then the Holy Spirit's whisper in the conscience, seconding the Saviour's invitation from without, and the call made by the ministers of the Church, God's ambassadors, designed to turn God's TFo;y/ into His Voice, and to give it a living and operative energy ; " The Spirit and the bride say, Come."- And then again for individual Christians there are divers Providential dealings, according to the infinite variety of their circumstances and needs, each of which may be called a "judgment of the Lord," — for one a bereavement, for another loss of health, for a third poverty, for a fourth a cup running over with mercies, ^ St Matt. xi. 28, 29, 30. - llcv. xxii. 17. ill its recognition of times. 25 each of these dispensations having a special significance to the individual who is dealt with by it. But remember that just as the warm spring weather, which woos back the birds of passage, has its close, and passes at length through the maturity of summer, and the decadence of autumn, into the rigours of winter, so it is also with the day of grace, — like all days, it comes to an end. Therefore " seek ye the Lord while he may *' be found, call ye upon him while he is near : Let the " wicked forsake his way, and " (something beyond that, for there may be sin in the thoughts and intentions of the heart, when there is none in the conduct) " the *' unrighteous man his thoughts : and let him return " unto the Lord, and he will have mercy upon him ;" (here is the warm breath of the spiritual spring, wooing the wandering soul back again to God), *' and to our *' God, for he will abundantly pardon."^ Behold, now " is the accepted time ; behold, now is the day of " salvation.''^ Tliiirsday, July 15///. Lesson : Jonah iii. y. IL *SVnd should not I spare Nineveh, that " great city, wherein are more than sixscore thousand " persons that cannot discern between their right hand *' their left hand ; and also much cattle ?" — That God cares for the lower animals might be inferred from llis commendinc: them to man fur imitation (as we have seen that Ifc does), in their obedience to the lower law of instinct. But here He gives * Isaiah Iv. G, 7. ^2 Cor. vi. 2. 26 God's love for the lower creatures. expression to His care for tliein with His own moutli. Jonah had not hihourcd for the gourd nor made it grow, hut God had laboured for Nineveh, to rear up there gradually the structure of a great civilisation. AYhat pains does God take with the works of llis hands, to make them beautiful and useful ! AVhat pains docs lie bestow in painting the lily and the rose ; and if inanimate nature is so exquisitely elaborated by Him, what pains must we not suppose that He bestosvs upon the higher forms of life, the animal and the rational ! It is touchingly intimated in to-day's text that the care, which God bestows upon His lower works, — the irrational ones, and those which, though endowed with reason, have not yet the use of it, — binds them, in their helplessness and dependence, about His heart, and moves Him to compassionate them. " Should not I spare xSineveh, " wherein are " — not great buildings only, but thousands of infants and thousands of cattle ? God's care for the inferior animals, in making provision for their wants, and responding to their inarticulate cries for help, is brought before us in many passages of Holy Scripture. Thus ; " God remembered Noah, and every living thing, " and all the cattle that mis with him in the ark ;"^ "lie causeth the grass to grow for the cattle;"- *'His ** tender mercies are over all his works ;"^ " He givcth to *' the beast his food, and to the young ravens which cry,"^ (their cry of hunger is accounted a prayer in the ears of their Creator). There is however a text which seems to deny God's care for the inferior animals, and which therefore requires explanation here. St. Paul iu 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10, in advocating and enjoining the support of Christian ^ Gun. viii. 1. - Ts. civ. 14. ■^ Ts. cxlv. \). * Ps. cxlvii. 1'. GoiVs love for the lower creatures. 27 ministers by those to whom they minister, says *'It is " written in the law of Moses, Thou shalt not muzzle " the mouth of the ox that treadetli out the corn. Loth " God take care for oxen ? Or saith he it altogether for "oursakes? For our sakes no doubt this is written." *'The Church may not so expound one place of Scripture, *' that it be repugnant to another ;"^ so that we must find some mode of reconciling these apparently con- tradictory statements. The Apostle then by no means denies that God has a regard for the cattle ; but only asserts that in a particular precept of his holy Word, the Holy Spirit must be taken to have a higher aim than merely securing the interests of the inferior creatures. He teaches us to see a great principle underlying that particular precept of the Mosaic law, — the principle of remunerating equitably all who serve us, not only the dumb animal which toils in the furrow, but the servant who waits upon us, and the minister who " labours in the word and doctrine."- The precept does indeed secure a provision for the ox, and was intended so to do ; but certainly it looks beyond the ox, and was meant to go deeper, and it demands compensation for any of our fellow-men who labour in our service. The moral lesson is that, if God cares so tenderly for animals, we too should care for them. " A righteous " man regardeth the life of his beast,"^ — in the Hebrew original it is, '' knoiceth the life of his beast," — throws himself into the creature's life by consideration of its necessities and feelings, and deals with it in sympathy, from a realisation of its wants. There is no sin so execrable as cruelty to animals. ^See the Twentieth Article. - See 1 Tim. v. 17. '' Trov. xii. 10. 28 The use made of the Works of Nature in the Friday, July IGfh. Lesson : St. Matoiew vi. 24 to end. Vv. 2G, 28. ''Behold the fowls of the air." " Consider the lilies of the field." — Our Lord was in the habit of taking texts for His sermons from subjects which fell under Tlis eye at the time. As He is delivering His great Sermon on the Mount from a pleasant knoll which overlooked the sea of Galilee, He casts His eyes upwards, and sees the birds dartincr to and fro in the clear blue skv, and draws from them the lesson that we should cast all our care for food upon God, who to us is our heavenly Father, to them only their Creator. Then, casting His eyes down- wards to the earth. He sees the green sward around Him, on which the multitude were seated, tufted with lilies ; and gathering a tuft of these, and holding them up before the people, He admonishes them to take no anxious thought for raiment, as the flowers, those " stars " which in earth's firmament do shine,"^ were thus gorgeously apparelled by their Creator, though they give no toil in the manufacture of raiment. Our Lord here takes His text, then, from the works of Nature, both animate and inanimate, — that is, from the works of His own hands ; for by Tlim, *' who is the " image of the invisible God, the firstborn of every *' creature, were all things created, that are in heaven, *' and that are in earth."- In the Book of Job, too, which we are now reading through in the daily course of Lessons, we find God commending to the Patriarch Job the works of Ilis hands, and drawing instruction for Job out of those works. But how ' Longfellow's roeuis. ^ Col. i. \d, IG. Old and New Testmnenh respectively. 29 strangely contrasted are the works chosen to enforce the lesson which was to be taught to the patriarch, and that which the disciples were to learn ! In the one case the animals selected for the purpose of the Divine argument are among the strongest and most terrible with which we are acquainted, — the unicorn* (buffalo, or wild ox) ; the war-horse, " swallowing the ground with fierceness and " rage,"^ the behemoth^ (or the hippopotamus) wallowing with lazy bulk in the fens, the leviathan"* (or crocodile) invincible by human weapons, while the inanimate works selected to enforce the argument are all of the sublimer order, the sea,^ the snow,^ the hail,^ the rain,^ the stars,^ the lightning,*^ the clouds.^* "Whereas in the other case, the works selected are the fowls and the flowers, — works which can inspire no dismay, and can only attract by their beauty and gracefulness. The difference of the works appealed to is to be sought in the difference of the lessons to be enforced. Job is to be thoroughly humbled, and brought to a confession of his weakness, ignorance, and sinfulness ; and therefore the chief works of Divine Power, — all that is sublime, strong, terrible, irresistible in God's creation is to be marshalled before his eyes. But the disciples of our Lord, who sat around II im on the mount, were humble folks, toil-worn, and care-worn, who needed heart's ease, such as only trust in God's fatherly care and Providence can give. They needed to be consoled, not terrified ; and for them therefore He draws His lessons from the birds of the air, and the flowers with which the turf is enamelled. And the lesson He draws is this ; " Man has only room in his 1 See Job xxxix. 9, &c. ^ ^.^. 19, 94. =* Ch. xl. 15, &c. * Ch. xli. 1, (Sec. ' Ch. xxxviii. 8, &c. ' Ch. xxxviii. 22. ' Ihid. ' vv. 25, 26, 28. ' v. 31, &c. '' v. 35. '' v. 37. 30 The snsceptibiliti/ of spiritual men to sin. *' heart for one solicitude, and that is the solicitude " expressed in the question, ' What must I do to he " * saved ' ?^ God's glory and man's salvation arc " interests which can tolerate no rivals in your minds. " As for other solicitudes, throw them on your heavenly " Father in assured faith that He will provide." I have thus opened a vein of thought which I hope to pursue further on Sunday Morning \_Scc concluding Sermon on the 18th] ; and meanwhile, ''Lord, make these faithless hearts of ours *' Such lessons learn from birds and flowers, " Make them from self to cease, " Leave all things to a Father's will, ** And taste, before Him lying still, " Ev'n in affliction peace. "^ Satiirdcnjj July V7th. Lesson : St. Johx x. 1 to 17. Y. 14. *a am the good shepherd."~Thc Shepherd character and functions of Messiah were foretold by Psalmists and Prophets long before the Good Shepherd appeared on earth, and claimed to hold the character and fulfil the functions. A most touching plea for the fulfilment of these functions to a stray sheep is to be found in the last verse of Psalm cxix. ; ** I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek *' thy servant ; for I do not forget thy commandments." In the connexion in which they stand, these words surprise us. For what a holy and spiritual man was the writer of the hundred and nineteenth Psalm ! IIow is his delight in God's law constantly transpiring throughout the Psalm, ^ See Acts xvi. 30. - " Hymns Ancient and Modern." 186. The susceptihility of spiritual 7nen to sin. 31 how irrepressible is the fervour Avitli which he embraces that law ! {v. 107. " My soul hath kept thy testimonies; " and I love them exceedingly ;" i\ 159. " Consider " how I love thy precepts ;" v. 143. ** Thy command- "ments are my delights ;" v. 20. *' My soul breaketh " for the longing that it hath unto thy judgments at all *' times ;" v. 72. *' The law of thy mouth is better unto *'me than thousands of gold and silver.") Never did this holy man (Ezra probably) retire to rest without meditation on God's law ; *' Mine eyes prevent the night " watches, that I might meditate in thy word." (r. 148). And yet the culminating devotional utterance of the Psalm is a confession of sin, and of his impotence to return to God of himself, without the preventing grace of the Good Shepherd, who must go forth in quest of him ; — " I have gone astray like a lost sheep ; seek thy servant." Some commentators have felt so strongly the apparent inconsistency of the last verse with all that has preceded, that they have supposed the " going astray " referred to not to be a moral going astray at all. They have taken the allusion to be merely to the dispersion of Israel in the captivities, that is, to the punishment of their sin, and not to the sin itself ; and the Psalmist, where he says " I," and *' thy servant," is, according to these expositors, to be understood not as speaking in his own person, but in that of his nation. But what a wretchedly jejune and meagre exposition is this ! It need not indeed be denied that there may be in the words an under- current of reference to the circumstance of the dispersion of Israel (we should never so tie up a passage of Holy Scripture, rich and full as it is, to one meaning as to deny to it any other) ; but surely the difficulty of regarding the passage as applicable chiefly to the f32 The susceptibility of spiritual men to sin. individual soul, and to the going astray of sin, vanishes as soon as we come to examine the pha^nomena of the spiritual life. For who docs not know that the more holy and spiritually-minded a man becomes, the more strongly developed is his susceptibility to sin, so that what common Christians regard as a molehill of sin he regards as a mountain, beneath whose weight he lies oppressed ? It is not that he is unmindful or unobservant of God's law ; far from it ; (the last clause of the verse forbids us to suppose that the petitioner is living in sin ; for he says, " I do not forget thy commandments"), but that being spiritually-minded he feels the taint in his nature, and the infection of all his thoughts and feelings by it, more acutely than others do. This is a common feature of all religious biographies ; the subject of the biography expresses himself in his private devotions and journals almost as if he were conscious of having com- mitted the worst crimes. It is only the experience of the Apostle repeating itself; "I delight in the law of God " after the inward man : But I see another law in my " members, warring against the law of my mind, and " bringing me into captivity to the law of sin which is " in my members. wretched man that I am !"^ And as for the individuality of this confession and supplication, even if the Psalmist does speak as a representative of Israel, can wo cut off this or any other devotional utterance of the Psalms from o. personal reference? — *' /who have lost my way, I am that sheep astray ; " Save me, Christ Jesu, from peril of hell, ** And in the cleansing flood of Thine own precious blood •* Wash me, that cleansed I may worship thee well."^ ^ Rom. vii. 22, 23, 24. ^ Translation (slightly altered) of an ancient Latin Hymn, found in *' Neale on the Psalms," in he. CoNCLiDiNG Sermon in the Cathedral, delivered July 18th, 1886 (Fourth Sunday apter Trinity). €f)t xm maire of tijtmovk^ of i^atuie m tijt ©Itr ana ^tb) Ct^tamentis rt^ptrtibtly* Job xxxviii., xxxix., xl., xli. and xlii. to v. 7, with St- Matt. vi. 28, 29, 30. And why take ye thought for raiment ? Consider the lilies of the field, how they grow ; they toil not, neither do they spin : And yet I SAY UNTO YOU, ThAT EVEN SoLOMON IN ALL HIS GLORY WAS NOT ARRAYED LIKE ONE OF THESE. WhEREFORE, IF God SO clothe the grass of the field, which TO-DAY IS, AND TO-MORROW IS CAST INTO THE OVEN, shall he not much more clothe you, ye of litixe FAITH ? •^^jVTXnAT is the moral and spiritual use, which the 'ii 'mm^'mm^mm >;„V '!r»< t*^. ';r:.':i.'i;V i ^I^B. '^5v!;i;Vv.&i?