ADVENT ii
In the services of the Second Sunday we have the first
great privilege of the Church brought before us, viz. that in the Church
we have preserved to us those Holy Scriptures, in which is set before us
"the blessed hope of everlasting life." "The promises made to the fathers"
have now been fulfilled; and as they "through patience and comfort of the
Scriptures" had "hope" of CHRIST’S first coming, and through Him of life
and immortality, so we, having the same sure word of prophecy, may look
onward to the day of the Church’s final redemption, and, anticipating that
coming of CHRIST’S kingdom for which we daily pray, and that " life everlasting,"
in which we daily profess our belief, may " abound in hope through the
power of the HOLY GHOST." Meanwhile the influence which Holy Scripture
is intended to have upon the Christian Church, is strikingly put before
us in the context of the Epistle. St. Paul has been enforcing the duty
of mutual forbearance by the argument of CHRIST’S example; "for even CHRIST
pleased not Himself....Now the GOD of patience and consolation grant you
to be like-minded one towards another, according to CHRIST JESUS; that
ye may with one mind and one mouth glorify GOD, even the Father of our
LORD JESUS CHRIST. Wherefore receive ye one another, as CHRIST also received
us, to the glory of GOD." The faith of the Holy Catholic Church, grounded
upon GOD’S "Holy Word," is the bond of unity; a link which so binds together
the congregation of the faithful every where, that there is but "one 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." And when we think of 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 then again
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. Matt. 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.
