308. Monday after Eighth Sunday after Trinity.
Lord, guide us on the right way
to the life everlasting. Amen.
Matthew 7, 12-14. Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets. Enter ye in at the strait gate: for wide is the gate, and broad is the way, that leadeth to destruction, and many there be which go in thereat: Because strait is the gate, and narrow is the way, which leadeth unto life; and few there be that find it.
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Our own will must die, our flesh and blood be mortified. First they must receive their mortal hurt in our regeneration; and thereafter they must every day be nailed more firmly to the cross. For the unbridled thoughts of our self-conceit are wholly opposed to the truth, and the carnal desire of our willfulness is directly contrary to charity. Your own opinion of yourself is a flat contradiction of the word of God; and your own will is the exact reverse of the holy will of God. You think that there is no God; or that, if there be one, he is either careless, and winks at everything; or cruel, and thirsts for our blood. You think concerning yourself that you are righteous, if you only do your best; and you imagine that salvation is sensual enjoyment. Your delight is in the earthly things, and your will is selfishness and evil inclinations. Such thoughts are lies, and such a will is sin; therefore the old man must die, and both thoughts and will become new. The teaching of the word concerning the living, holy, just, and yet unutterably loving and merciful God; concerning your sin and unrighteousness; concerning the grace of God in Christ, and justification by faith; concerning the mystery of the new birth, and the work of the Spirit in the sanctification of the faithful; — in short, the truth in Christ, must be apprehended by you in such a way that you accept it with willing heart, and hold it fast in life and death, knowing in your soul that it is more sure than all things else. And that to which your carnal mind is an entire stranger must become true in you, and govern your life and conduct; this namely, to love God above all things, and your neighbor as yourself. To know one’s self as wicked and lost; to bend thought and will in submission to the word of God; to receive mercy for everything, and to believe without seeing; to lose righteousness and piety and life, in order to become righteous and have life and salvation in Christ; to know nothing and have nothing of one’s self, but to have all things in Jesus; — this is the strait gate which few find. And in daily repentance to live of God’s grace alone; to deny one’s own will, and joyfully practice charity for his sake, in spite of the resistance of the flesh; always to mortify one’s willfulness, and patiently follow the Lord, and carry the cross; — this is the narrow way which few find. Do you follow this way, dear reader? God himself works in us both to will and to do; and thus the impossible becomes possible by his grace. — Or do you walk with the many on the broad way to destruction? Do it no more! Quit the broad way now, for Jesus’ sake!
Lord God, thou who hast opened to us the gate of life in thy Son, our Lord Jesus; lead us through this gate, that he may become to us the way, the truth, and the life. Amen.*
Onward therefore, pilgrim brothers!
Onward, with the cross our aid!
Bear its shame and fight its battle,
Till we rest beneath its shade!
Soon shall come the great awaking,
Soon, the rending of the tomb,
Then, the scattering of all shadows,
And the end of toil and gloom.
* Here the head of the family says a short morning or evening prayer in his own words, and closes with the Lord’s Prayer and the Benediction. This is to be done every day. If the stanzas are not sung, they may be read in their proper place before the impromptu petition and the Lord’s Prayer.