Patience With Others and Peace in Christ

O LORD GOD! Who between good and evil hast established an eternal warfare; Who between light and darkness hast put a great gulf; between God and the devil hast put true enmity and hate,—show us how by Thy goodness the Apostles did work among the most sinful, let in light among the darkness, run the race of truth amongst the nations. They did show us how hard it was to walk amidst evil and be untouched; how hard it was to be true amidst iniquity; not to be servile to the strong, tyrants to the weak.

We do find it hard to tolerate our brethren, to walk among their follies, to bear with the dull; the healthy look down on the sick, the strong on the weak, the wise despise the foolish. But when He came, Thy dearest First-begotten, He did choose the darkest and the vilest, the most foolish and sinful, that to them He might bring eternal Life. Show us how Thou didst bring the best, in Thy love, among the worst; how that the Gospel came as a physician, to seek the weak and search for the sinful.

Show us Thy marvellous glory that goes to seek the straying sheep that wanders from God, and may this thing comfort each one of us. For if the holy were only to visit the holy, if only into loving hearts the Holy Ghost should come, by that sweet Spirit we should never be visited. If never into houses but where God is served, Christ came, Christ to us would seldom come.

O Lord! we remember with great joy how He sat at meat with one that had done wrong; spoke kind words to the erring woman, had His feet anointed by one who had been a sinner; and we give Thee thanks that He did comfort the sinful, sit with the sad, and preach pardon and forgiveness to those whose hearts were heavy.

We remember that Christ came to the sinning. We have sinned. O Lord God! teach us to get hope from our folly; because we have erred we have a claim on the Good Shepherd. And let us turn to Him, and know that voice, and lay hold of that love. Let us hear the Gospel that declared that no more sacrifices and burnt offerings are needed for our salvation. The last priest has done his work, the last sacrifice has been offered. Let us learn, O Lord! that man can do nothing for the sins of the past. The Lamb that taketh away the sins of the world hath taken away ours also Henceforth it is not by the outward work, but by the inward grace; not by pilgrimages to holy shrines, but by the doing of Thy great Will; not by a religion whose rites are costly and burdensome, but by each man laying hold of the Life that Christ brought, he shall lift himself up to be a true prophet, priest, and king unto God.

If we are tempted to think those holy promises of sweet forgiveness are too great for us, let us remember that to doubt that great Love, which before we loved Him, could send His Son as the greatest and most glorious Sacrifice for our sake, is to lack Faith; that there is nothing more beautiful than this,—that lacking faith in ourselves, we should have faith in Christ.

Then, Lord God! having received these things let them make us glad, lifting from us all the awful anxiety as to whether the sacrifice has been rightly offered, the beast rightly chosen, the temple rightly entered. We have now no temple to go up to; no unblemished ram to choose; no anointed priest to go in before us. All that is gone; and we turn, not to the vain repetition of ceremonies to fill our life, but to Thee; to be taught that it is not by wearily dwelling on the words of Christian doctrine, but by greatly loving the doctrine of Christ; not by saying we have faith in Christ, but by striving to let the Christian faith be embodied forth in us, that we are to live.

Then fill us, O Lord, with the unbounded peace that can grow in evil places, and flourish in darkest days. Like the lamp to the feet of the Jew of old, it shall be to us a solace and a safety.

Have mercy upon us, Lord God! Forgive all our faults. If at times we do look back to the old Sodom, forgive us, we are but dust. If we forget Thee, we are but weak. And help us the more diligently to do good, to keep our hearts from evil, our hands from sin; and whatever our joys, Thine shall be the gladness and the glory, through Jesus Christ our Lord.—AMEN.