441. Thursday after Twenty-fourth Sunday after Trinity.
Lord, make thy face
to shine upon thy servant,
and save me by thy mercy. Amen.
2 Corinthians 4, 7-18. But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God, and not of us. We are troubled on every side, yet not distressed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; cast down, but not destroyed; always bearing about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our body. For we which live are alway delivered unto death for Jesus’ sake, that the life also of Jesus might be made manifest in our mortal flesh. So then death worketh in us, but life in you. We having the same spirit of faith, according as it is written, I believed, and therefore have I spoken; we also believe, and therefore speak; knowing that he which raised up the Lord Jesus, shall raise up us also by Jesus, and shall present us with you. For all things are for your sakes, that the abundant grace might, through the thanksgiving of many, redound to the glory of God. For which cause we faint not; but though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day. For our light affliction, which is but for a moment, worketh for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory; while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen: for the things which are seen are temporal; but the things which are not seen are eternal.
❦
Did we look at the things which are seen, we were of all men most miserable; but we have another treasure: Christ in us, and we in him; eternal glory and salvation. For which cause we faint not. — When you suffer bodily pain, or the world oppresses you, or you are troubled with doubt and with gloomy thoughts; when you are cast down and feel nothing but death in mind and members, and yet believe, and pray, and confess Christ; then this is his life in you, and then God deals with you as with all his children, in order that his power may not be set at nought by your pride and self-confidence. Then Jesus is made manifest in you, and his name is glorified. You impart good things to other believers, and receive new treasures of them in return; and prayers and thanksgiving ascend constantly to God. Even this would be well worth the afflictions which we suffer; how much more, then, must it be true of eternal glory! What do all suffering and death amount to as compared with this glory? Note the grand words of the apostle: Our affliction is “but for a moment,” while the glory is “eternal”; our affliction is “light” as compared with the “far more exceeding weight of glory.” Affliction is necessary; but therefore our dear God has disposed matters for us in such a good way that out of the brief and light affliction proceeds and is prepared for us an eternal and exceeding great glory. Now we die; but we shall come forth glorified in mind and soul and body, and live with God in the heavenly Jerusalem. “There shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain; for the former things are passed away.” — Keep this steadily before your eyes, dear friend; live more than heretofore in hope; think more than heretofore on the last things; look every day more constantly forward to the consummation and the life eternal. — Give us this mercy, faithful God. Make us to rejoice in hope, be patient in tribulation, continue instant in prayer; and let us unto the end be among thy saints, who are renewed after Christ from day to day. Make us to see the things of heaven with ever greater clearness, that we may never tire of following him under the cross the little while we are yet to continue our earthly pilgrimage. O that this my poor earthen vessel might become ever more full of thy strength, Lord Jesus; in order that I might bless and glorify thee without ceasing, and stand at last among the number of the saved, to the eternal praise of thy name and thy blood. This we pray of our innermost heart. Amen.*
And when thy awful voice commands
This body to decay,
And life, in its last lingering sands,
Is ebbing fast away,
Then, though it be in accents weak,
And faint and tremblingly,
O give me strength in death to speak,
“My Savior died for me.”
[suggested tune: St. Matthew, listen here]
* 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.