8). The Coming, 1. We have received with the utmost gratification the letters of your Fraternity, which have reached us somewhat late by the hands of Donatus and Quodvultdeus, our most reverend brethren and fellow-bishops, and also Victor the deacon with Agilegius the notary. It constitutes the response of the Church to the divine demands of prophecy, and, in a less degree, of law; or, rather, it expresses those emotions and aspirations of the universal heart which lie deeper than any formal demand. Hear my prayer, O God; and hide not Thyself from my petition. The proposals of that Covenant include its promises and its duties. 5, 6. The former are made and fulfilled by its glorious Originator; the latter are enjoined and obligatory on man. OURSELVES. 3. What sunshine of the soul we should enjoy! For he who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is compelled by the same necessity to exhibit the highest things. Instead he is patient with you, not wanting anyone to perish, but everyone to come to repentance." What we may comprehend as seeing a slow response is due to God not listening to us, we are not taking time to be patient. Do the Moral Virtues pertain to the Contemplative Life? "Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the Kingdom of Heaven." Rom. 15. ad probam IV. 8). --The Life and Writings of St. Hilary of Poitiers. That of welcoming the Divine searching (vers. Psalm 138:8 says "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me." Notice the word PERFECT. GOD ACCURATELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY KNOWS ALL THAT MAN KNOWS OF HIMSELF. Verse 18: And Jesus will rescue me from every evil dead. And here let us look upon the bright as well as the dark side of this subject. But if that knowledge whereby man knows himself is mysterious, then certainly that whereby God knows him is far more so. And though we thought that we had suffered loss from the tardiness of their coming, yet we find gain from their more abundant charity; seeing that from this delay in point Saint Gregory the Greatthe Epistles of Saint Gregory the GreatThe Coming Revival"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?"--PS. The word, "me," in the text, cannot be appropriated by any man, unless he, in some respects, resembles the character of David, who penned this psalm. . 23, 24). But if that knowledge whereby man knows himself is mysterious, then certainly that whereby God knows him is far more so. We do not agree with Momus, neither are we of his mind who desired to have a window in his breast that all men might see his heart. 18 " Ep., cxxx. 19-22). But yet there is another, not less powerful than any, which deserves special mention. 2. 13-18). "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. We become unconscious of everything by long use. Hoyt, D. D.)God's knowledge of manW. He prophesies that the kings of the earth shall praise God7. The simple question, then, which meets us is, Wilt thou know thyself here, and now, that thou mayest accept and feel God's pity; or wilt thou keep within the screen, and not know thyself until beyond the grave, and then feel God's judicial wrath? "The Lord will perfect that which concerns me: Your mercy, O Lord, endures forever: forsake not the works of Your own hands." Psalm 138:8. In a sermon preached before the Virginia Company in 1610 William Crashaw advanced a range of arguments to justify the Virginia enterprise. Does the Contemplative Life consist solely in the Contemplation of God, or in the Consideration St. : The fact that God is always present and knows every minute trifle in our lives, and that His unerring judgment will assuredly take count of every detail of our character and our conduct, neither exaggerating nor omitting, but applying absolute justice; this truth is one of those which lose force from their very universality. He will revive us."--HOS. vi. His omnipotence (vers. But yet there is another, not less powerful than any, which deserves special mention. David praises God for the truth of his word4. The duties of that Covenant are God's law; and the demands of the law are all made John CunninghamThe Ordinance of Covenanting, Introduction. He learnt his theology, as we shall see, from Eastern authorities, and was not content to carry on and develop the traditional teaching of the West; and the disciple St. He does not come back in a quarter of an hour and say, "Have you my money safe? Those who live much in a court acquire courtly manners. We cannot live long with men without catching something of their manner, of their mode of thought, of their character, of their government of themselves. Hoyt, D. D.)God's knowledge of manW. Those who are always hearing pure and high principles set forth as the guides of life learn to value and to know them even faster than they can learn to live by them. Thomas AquinasOn Prayer and The Contemplative LifeEpistle Xlvii. I. For he who is required by the necessity of his position to speak the highest things is compelled by the same necessity to exhibit the highest things. But if that knowledge whereby man knows himself is mysterious, then certainly that whereby God knows him is far more so. For the Lord is good and His love is eternal, and His faithfulness endures to all generations." (Ps. 18, 19. Is the Contemplative Life wholly confined to the Intellect, or does the Will enter into it? 17, 18).2. That of adoring and constantly thoughtful reverence (vers. 2. Conclusion . S. Augustine, Of the Perfection of Human Righteousness, viii. the regular habit of reading the Bible at a fixed time, the occasional reminders of ourselves that God is looking on, these are our chief means of learning to remember His presence. While the majority of the sermons listed below are "mine," several of them are sermons worked up by my dad, Frank Higginbotham, who preached over 60 years, and others were developed from seeds planted by various preachers I've heard throughout my lifetime. "Though I walk in the midst of trouble, Thou wilt revive me: Thy right hand shall save me."--PS. The Lord will bear with you and forbear. 12), while the devil was exulting against us;--then God, in His loving-kindness, not willing man made in His own image to perish, said, Whom shall I send, and who will go?' v. 14), the earth was cursed, Hades was opened, Paradise shut, Heaven offended, man, lastly, corrupted and brutalised (cf. They are ever before David as an object of adoring wonder, not by day only, but by night; not merely in the watches of the night, but even in his sleep. Justice, in this reference, is out of the question. [2105] And these without all controversy we take to be humble. xviii. God has made us so. He professes his confidence in GodDictionary of Bible ThemesPsalm 138:86708predestination8125guidance, promise8441goalsPsalm 138:7-81265hand of GodLibraryFaith in PerfectionIn the opening, I must remark that this is not the heritage of all mankind. Then up comes another fear. There is, therefore, nothing wrong in our forgetting that we are in the presence of God any more than there is anything foolish in our forgetting that we need air to breathe or light to see by, or that if we fall we may hurt ourselves: just in the same way as we very often, and quite rightly, forget that we are in the company of men who will take notice of our faults. S. Thomas, On the Beatific Vision, I., xii. Thomas AquinasOn Prayer and The Contemplative LifeEpistle Xlvii. But there are other reasons for the comparative neglect into which he has fallen. The faith of that Centurion He on this account chiefly praised, and said St. God is really at work on our behalf. The daily prayer in the closet, the endeavour to keep the attention fixed when praying with others, either in our regular services or in family worship. For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. So that whenever we are on the point of doing or saying anything cowardly, or mean, or false, or impure, or proud, or conceited, or unkind, the remembrance that God is looking on shall instantly flash across us and help us to beat down our enemy. He may be an uncommonly thoughtful person, and little of what is done within his soul may escape his notice; nay, we will make the extreme supposition that he arrests every thought as it rises, and looks at it; that he analyzes every sentiment as it swells his heart; that he scrutinizes every purpose as it determines his will; even if he should have such a thorough and profound self-knowledge as this, God knows him equally profoundly and equally thoroughly. He has suffered thus, partly from a certain obscurity in his style of writing, partly from the difficulty of the thoughts which he attempted to convey. He compasseth man's path, and his lying down, and is acquainted with all his ways. For whereas man sinned, and is fallen, and by his fall all things are in confusion: death prevailed from Adam to Moses (cf. GOD ACCURATELY AND EXHAUSTIVELY KNOWS ALL THAT MAN MIGHT, BUT DOES NOT, KNOW OF HIMSELF. TRY TO LEARN HIS SECRET. Before the Searcher of hearts all mankind must appeal to mere and sovereign mercy. THE UNCHANGING FOUNDATION OF ASSURANCE. It is the speech of the soul face to face with God. Struck by this view of God's omniscience as embracing the beginning, the unfolding and the completion of all things, the singer bursts out into a recognition of its value. The greater any man's nearness to God, the more intense is his abhorrence of the impiety which disowns or despises the living God. The Lord's invitation to follow him is individual and personal, and it is compelling. lxxxv. He must be prepared for the Kingdom that has been prepared for him Saint Bernard of ClairvauxSome Letters of Saint Bernard, Abbot of ClairvauxThat the Ruler Should be Always Chief in Action. 18 " Ep., cxxx. xlix. It did not look very likely, but since such was the Eternal purpose, there was no keeping the son of Jesse out of the throne. Nothing can escape Jehovah's eye, for He is behind and before, i.e. If we had such a window we should pray for shutters, and should keep them closed.God omniscientWeekly Pulpit. And though we thought that we had suffered loss from the tardiness of their coming, yet we find gain from their more abundant charity; seeing that from this delay in point Saint Gregory the Greatthe Epistles of Saint Gregory the GreatThe Coming Revival"Wilt Thou not revive us again: that Thy people may rejoice in Thee?"--PS. The worst has been seen, and that too by the holiest of beings, and yet eternal glory is offered to us! Put in your all with Him and leave it there. His omnipresence. Like the air we breathe, like the light we see, it involves a mystery that no man has ever solved. Though the transgressor is ignorant of much of his sin, because, at the time of its commission, he sins blindly as well as wilfully, and unreflectingly as well as freely; and though the transgressor has forgotten much of that small amount of sin, of which he was conscious, and by which he was pained, at the time of its perpetration; though, on the side of man, the powers of self-inspection and memory have accomplished so little towards this preservation of man's sin, yet God knows it all, and remembers it all. If we had such a window we should pray for shutters, and should keep them closed.God omniscientWeekly Pulpit. 17, 18).2. 1. From the just we learn justice; from the charitable we catch an infection of charity; from the generous we receive the instinct of generosity. When David said the lord will perfect that which concerns him, David wasn't saying how I wish the lord perfect that which concerns me.