Sunday, March 15, 2009

Matchless majesty

May your sabbath be joyful, restful, and a time of "matchless majesty." William Phillips Tilden's Leaflet for the Third Sunday in Lent:

"THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT" (Scripture)

BE ye therefore followers of God, as dear children. . . .
For ye were sometimes darkness, but now are ye light in the Lord: walk as children of light: . . .
Speaking to yourselves in psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, singing and making melody in your heart to the Lord;
Giving thanks always for all things unto God and the Father in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ.
For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.
Let all bitterness, and wrath, and anger, and clamor, and evil speaking, be put away from you, with all malice:
And be ye kind one to another, tender hearted, forgiving one another, even as God for Christ's sake hath forgiven you.
Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man, unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ.
II Cor. iv. Ephesians Iv. v.
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THE THIRD SUNDAY IN LENT (Tilden's Meditation)

Make melody in your heart to the Lord." Power to do this comes when all the keys of our nature are touched by a sacred purpose that brings out the tones, — light, thankful, kindly, tender, loving, all uniting into one grand anthem of a noble life. There is melody in a life of service.
"Till we all come in the unity of the faith, and of the knowledge of the Son of God, unto a perfect man." Humanity must rise by growth, from centre to circumference, from within to without, like the cedars of Lebanon and our own oaks and pines. The call summons us to a perfect manhood, a Christ- like manhood. Perfect loyalty, which is a glad, perfect obedience, lifts us to the mountain peaks of virtue nearest heaven. Here duties spring into privileges. Here the years grow fuller of Christ-helpfulness, "till we all come unto the measure of the stature of the fullness of Christ." Even the spiritual stature of The Master ? Then would the whole world be redeemed.
Look at the man, Christ Jesus, as Paul calls him! Look at the Son of Man as he calls himself! Look at the matchless majesty of the Son of God, as he was by virtue of his life!
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Walk in the light! so shalt thou know
That fellowship of love
His spirit only can bestow
Who reigns in light above

Walk in the light! and thou shall find
Thy heart made truly his.
Who dwells in cloudless light enshrined
In whom no darkness is.

Walk in the light! and thou shalt own
Thy darkness passed away;
Because that light hath on thee shone
In which is perfect day.

Walk in the light! and e'en the tomb
No fearful shade shall wear;
Glory shall chase away its gloom,
For Christ hath conquered there.

Walk in the light! and thine shall be
A path, though thorny, bright;
For God, by grace, shall dwell in thee,
And god himself is light.

Bernard Barton


Blessings

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