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body and one spirit." And in that Christian Temple the worshippers so speak "as one, to make one sound to be heard in praising and thanking the Lord,"—the "Holy, Holy, Holy Lord God of Sabaoth;"—that "the house is filled with a cloud," the special presence of the Great Author of peace and Lover of Concord, "the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, our only Saviour, the Prince of peace[1]." And when we recollect the deep and earnest tones of Christ's last solemn prayer before He suffered, that the Church might be one in itself and in Him through the faith which He had given it; and when again we remember, that the sentence of His judgment-seat, when He shall come the second time in His glory, will be grounded on the relation between Himself as the Head of the Church, and His brethren as its members,—a relation so close, that what has been done unto them, He considers as done unto Him; and what has been denied to them, as denied to Him; (St. Matth. xxv.) we shall surely return with a feeling of deeper humiliation to the Church's Advent Prayer, that we may have "grace to cast off the works of darkness, and to put on the armour of light;" that so, when "He shall come again in His glorious Majesty to judge the quick and the dead," those Holy Scriptures, which were given to His Church for our learning, may not rise up in judgment against us for our neglect of that new and great commandment, the observance of which was to be the distinctive characteristic of His disciples.
3. But fresh privileges and responsibilities are brought before us in the services of the Third Sunday in Advent. For we have in the Church not merely "Holy Scriptures written for our learning," but Ministers of Christ and Stewards of the mysteries of God," sent to prepare and make ready the way for His second coming, that we may then be found an acceptable people in His sight. We might have been left to derive from Scripture by our own unaided efforts its rich and glorious contents "for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction in righteousness;" but our merciful Father has dealt otherwise with His Church under each dispensation. For the Baptist, who heralded Christ at His coming, though "more than a prophet," was but the successor of a "goodly company," whom God had raised up from time to time
- ↑ Prayer for Unity.
