Priest: (Standing before the icon of Christ) Almighty Lord, You have created all things in wisdom. In Your inexpressible providence and great goodness You have brought us to these saving days, for the cleansing of our souls and bodies, for control of our passions, in the hope of the Resurrection. After the forty days You delivered into the hands of Your servant Moses the tablets of the law in characters divinely traced. Enable us also, O benevolent One, to fight the good fight, to complete the course of the fast, to keep the faith inviolate, to crush underfoot the heads of unseen tempters, to emerge victors over sin and to come, without reproach, to the worship of Your Holy Resurrection. For blessed and glorified is Your most honorable and majestic name, of the Father, the Son and the Holy Spirit, now and forevermore.
Elevation Worship For The Honor Torrent
The remembrance of the struggles and faith of those who, with much heroic and noble labor, laid the foundations of this Diocese, come freshly home to us at each annual meeting, to enkindle and develop our Diocesan interest. Loving the Church as the Divine instrumentality for the elevation of humanity, we must love that Diocesan unity of it wherein God has placed us, to unitedly labor for its extension. May He, the Master-sign of Whose Presence is the charity that believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things, and Who makes men to be of one mind in an house, guard and guide our deliberations, and intensify our union as Churchmen, as members of this Diocese and of a common Household of Faith. No other of our Diocesan Clergy have been granted their release; but of those of my own order, it has pleased God to summon hence the Rt. Rev. W. J. Kip, Bishop of California, the Rt. Rev. Phillips Brooks, Bishop of Massachusetts, and the Rt. Rev. W. H. Bissell, Bishop of Vermont. One of these was nearer to me than the others, because we were Presbyters for years in the same town, ministering in adjoining Parishes, and meeting in friendly intercourse, and our elevation to the Episcopate fell somewhat near together. Most attractive of all the preachers in our communion, Phillips Brooks drew men, not by great gifts of scholarship or theological learning, but by the nobility of his nature and broad sympathy for humanity. His torrent-laden sentences were filled with inspirations of hope, which made despondent and sin-weakened hearts revive. It was especially given to him to teach afresh that primary truth of revelation, that all mankind are by creation God's children, and that He is the common Father of us all. His prevailing theme was the ennobling tie that binds the creature to the Creator, and makes us, as St. Paul declares, God's offspring. He saw this paternal love of God for all mankind illuminating the life of Christ, and his own life became illuminated by it. At a time when New England, indeed a large part of the country, was passing through a transition period, and the dark age of Puritan bigotry was passing away; when a revolt had begun against the narrowness of Calvin's cruel logic, and the mist of the Unitarian uncertainty was found to be unsatisfactory, God raised up one to prepare for a return to the Church's deeper, better balanced wisdom and higher sanctity. He did this by teaching the elementary truths of God's immanence in nature, our filial relation as creatures, to Him, and His paternal, pathetic, invigorating love to every one of us. There is no tie, not of father and child, husband and wife, deeper, dearer, or truer than that of Creator and creature--save one. The closer tie and nearer relation is that which binds the Christian to the God-Man, Christ Jesus. Out of this union rises the spiritual organism of the Church. Of it and its theology Dr. Brooks had only an imperfect conception. He little understood the saying of St. Cyprian, "that the Episcopate is one," and only as any individual Bishop voiced the mind of the solidarity are his theological utterances of value. He rightly loved character more than doctrine, but his ideal of Christian character was not that of the Saints. His work was preparatory, a St. John Baptist work, and it was blessed. It has laid the foundation for an advance in theological education of our countrymen to the deeper truth, that what God is to the creation, that the God-Man, Christ Jesus, is to the new creation which is his Church, and which is, through a conquering struggle with sin and death, being evolved out of it. Grasp once the truth of the immanence of God in creation, and that He is everywhere present in it by His power, and it is easy to realize that Jesus Christ is the Midst of the new creation; that He is everywhere present in it, and manifests Himself in the sacraments of His grace.
And afterward Moses and Aaron came. That this signifies the Divine law and the doctrine thence derived, is evident from the representation of Moses, as being the Lord as to the Divine law (see n. 6752); and from the representation of Aaron, as being the doctrine of good and truth (n. 6998). By the Divine law which Moses represents is meant the Word such as it is in its internal sense, thus such as it is in the heavens; but by doctrine is meant the Word such as it is in its literal sense, thus as it is on the earth; how much these differ, can be seen from what has been thus far unfolded in respect to the internal sense of the Word. Take as an illustration the ten commandments, which specifically are called the "Law." The literal sense of these is that parents are to be honored, that murder is not to be committed, nor adultery, nor theft, and so on; but the internal sense is that the Lord is to be worshiped; that hatred must not be felt; that truth must not be falsified; and that we must not claim for ourselves that which belongs to the Lord. So are these four commandments of the Decalogue understood in heaven, and the rest also in their own way. For in the heavens they know no other Father than the Lord; therefore by that parents are to be honored, they understand that the Lord is to be worshiped: neither do they know in the heavens what killing is, for they live to eternity; but instead of killing they understand feeling hatred, and injuring the spiritual life of anyone; neither do they know in the heavens what it is to commit adultery, and therefore instead thereof they perceive that which corresponds, namely, not to falsify truth; and instead of stealing they perceive not to take anything away from the Lord, and claim it to themselves, as for instance good and truth. [2] Such is this law, and the whole Word too, in the heavens; thus such it is in the internal sense; nay, it is still deeper, for most things that are thought and said in the heavens do not fall into words of human speech, because in the heavens is a spiritual world and not a natural; and the things of the spiritual world transcend those of the natural world, as immaterial things transcend those which are material. Yet as material things correspond to immaterial, the latter can be set forth by means of material things, thus by natural speech, but not by spiritual speech. For spiritual speech is not a speech of material words, but of spiritual words, which are ideas modified into words in the spiritual aura, and represented by variegations of heavenly light, which light in itself is nothing but Divine intelligence and wisdom proceeding from the Lord. From all this it can be seen what is meant in its genuine sense by the Divine law which Moses represents, and what by the doctrine thence derived, which Aaron represents.
That they may hold a feast to Me in the wilderness. That this signifies that from a glad mind they may worship the Lord in the obscurity of faith in which they are, is evident from the signification of "holding a feast," as being worship from a glad mind (of which presently), that it is the Lord to whom they were to hold the feast, and who is here meant by "Me," or by "Jehovah," may be seen above, n. 7091; and from the signification of a "wilderness," as being the obscurity of faith (n. 2708, 7055). (That they who are of the spiritual church are relatively in obscurity of faith, see n. 2708, 2715, 2716, 2718, 2831, 2849, 2935, 2937, 3241, 3246, 3833, 6289, 6500, 6945.) [2] The reason why "holding a feast" signifies worship from a glad mind, is that the feast was to be held at a way of three days from Egypt, thus in a state of no infestation by falsities, that is, in a state of liberty; for he who is being liberated from falsities and from the distress in which he then is, from a glad mind gives thanks to God; thus "holds a feast." Moreover, the feasts which were instituted with that people, and which were three every year, are likewise said to have been instituted in memory of their liberation from slavery in Egypt; that is, in the spiritual sense, in memory of liberation from infestation by falsities, through the Lord's coming into the world. Therefore it was also commanded that on those occasions they should be glad, as is manifest in Moses in regard to the feast of tabernacles: In the feast of tabernacles, they shall take on the first day the fruit of the tree of honor, spathes 7093-1 of palm-trees, and a branch of a dense tree, and willows of the torrent; and ye shall be glad before Jehovah your God seven days (Lev. 23:40); [3] by "the fruit of the tree of honor, spathes of palm-trees, a branch of a dense tree, and willows of the torrent," is signified joy from good and truth from man's inmost to his external. The good of love, which is inmost, is signified by the "fruit of the tree of honor;" the good of faith by the "spathes of palm trees;" the truth of memory-knowledge, by the "branch of a dense tree;" and sensuous truth, which is most external, by the "willows of the torrent." These things could not have been ordered to be taken without a reason from the spiritual world, which reason cannot possibly appear to anyone except from the internal sense. [4] That they were to be glad in the feast of weeks is also evident in Moses: Thou shalt make the feast of weeks to Jehovah thy God, and thou shalt be glad before Jehovah thy God, thou and thy son, and thy daughter, and thy manservant, and thy maidservant, and the Levite who is in thy gates (Deut. 16:10-11); by these words also, in the internal sense, is signified gladness from good and truth from the inmost to the external. [5] That there was to be gladness in the feasts, and thus that "to hold a feast" is to worship from a glad mind, is also plain from the following passages. In Isaiah: Ye shall have a song as in the nights when a feast is hallowed (Isa. 30:29). In Nahum: Behold upon the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings, that publisheth peace! Keep thy feasts, O Judah, render thy vows; for Belial shall no longer pass through thee; he is wholly cut off (Nah. 1:15). In Zechariah: The fasts shall be to the house of Judah for joy and for gladness, and for good feasts; only love ye truth and peace (Zech. 8:19). In Hosea: I will cause all her joy to cease, her feast, her new moon (Hos. 2:11). And in Amos: I will turn your feasts into mourning, and all your songs into a lament (Amos 8:10). [6] That "to hold a feast" denotes worship from a glad mind, because they had been liberated from servitude in Egypt, that is, in the spiritual sense, because they had been liberated from infestation by falsities, is manifest from the feast of the passover. This was commanded to be celebrated yearly on the day when they went forth out of Egypt, and this on account of the liberation of the sons of Israel from servitude, that is, on account of the liberation of those who are of the spiritual church from falsities, thus from damnation; and as the Lord liberated them by His coming, and lifted them up with Him into heaven when He rose again, therefore this was also done at the passover. This is likewise signified by the Lord's words in John: Now is the judgment of this world, now shall the prince of this world be cast out. And I, if I be lifted up from the earth, will draw all unto Me (John 12:31-32).
2ff7e9595c
Comments