God created me. He is my Lord. I belong to Him.
I belong entirely to God
It is my duty to use the intelligence He gave me to seek to know Him. It is my duty to love Him with the heart that He gave me. It is my duty to thank and praise Him. I owe Him my obedience.
“Now therefore our God we give thanks to thee, and we praise thy glorious name.” (1 Paralipomenon (1 Chronicles) 29:13]
“Truly, there is nothing more right and proper, O my God, but that I should be uninterruptedly intent on thanking and glorifying Thee by submission to Thy divine will.” Let the motives of all our thoughts, our words and our deeds be, ”For the greater glory of God!”
God is all the world to us.
Yes God wants us to glorify Him but he also desires our eternal salvation. He tells us, “Serve me and you will receive a magnificent reward.”
“the word of the Lord came to Abram by a vision, saying: Fear not, Abram, I am thy protector, and thy reward exceeding great.” (gen 15v1)
But even in this life God rewards those that devote themselves to His service. He comes to them and reigns in their hearts. He comes to them with that peace which is beyond all understanding. He defends them against their enemies ; He graciously hears their prayers and grants their petitions. His Providence watches over them like a mother watches over the child which is the sole object of her love.
You know that your happiness can only be achieved in God so why to you waste so much time in chasing after the things of this world that glitter for a short time then are gone.
“Oh my Lord and my God I beg you to sever me from the things of this world and teach me to love only you.”
Not only our fellow men, but all things existing: animals, plants, our talents, the man-made stuff of this world that gives us such pleasure; are but so many means for the attainment of our end, that is instruments to be employed in the service of God.
We must always regard the “creatures” as a means and help to find God, as soon as we make them the object of our affections, and, in a manner, permit them to take God’s place we are employing a kind of idolatry, for in this case they occupy our thoughts, ensnare us, take possession of our heart; all our affections are concentrated on them.
St Bernard tells us that “All created things were given us for our salvation and welfare, and contribute towards it in various ways. Some are for the preservation of our life and strength, others for our instruction, others again for recreation, and still others for our improvement.”
Use Return Fear
There are of course those things that we cannot live without: such as food, clothing, a roof over our heads and so we do our best to be content with what is necessary and always be grateful to God as we use these things.
These created things are saying to you, ‘Use, return, fear! Use the benefit which I confer on you ; return thanks to Him from Whom and for Whom you receive me ; fear the account which you must render for the manner in which you used me”
“Thou hast created us for thee O God, and our heart remains unsatisfied until it rests in Thee.” (St. Augustine. ) God, and God alone is our end. ‘My God and my All! ‘ (St. Francis.)
Therefore, seek God alone. Make use of the visible creation around you for this purpose. Thereby you not only fulfill your duty towards God, but also use His creation according to His will. “No one can serve two masters,”
PRAYER OF THE CHURCH.
O God, the Protector of them that hope in Thee, without Whom nothing is strong, nothing holy: multiply Thy mercy upon us, that, guided and directed by Thee, we may so pass through things temporal, as not to lose the eternal. Through Christ, Our Lord. Amen.
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Spiritual Reading.
During First Day.Our Duty towards God.
In the Old Testament we read that such was the thoughtless ingratitude of the Jewish people that it was found necessary, again and again, to remind them of the relations they bore to God ; how He was their Creator and their Father, they His creatures and His children. And don’t we also, need to be reminded of the same! Hence the psalmist says, ‘He made us, and not we ourselves.” (Ps. XCIX. 3.) Yet, how often do we find ourselves acting as independent beings ; as if we had come here of ourselves, and could live by our own effort”? But, says the inspired writer, ”And how could any thing endure, if thou wouldst not? or be preserved, if not called by thee. But thou sparest all: because they are thine, O Lord, who lovest souls. ‘ (Wisd. XI. 26.)
It is by God’s power that we live. If He with- drew His hand for a moment, we should fall away and be nothing again. His Providence is always engaged about us, saving us in a thousand ways and keeping us in all our dangers.
But there is a relation more endearing still: God is our Father. He wishes us to remember this: ”Thus therefore shall you pray: Our Father, Who art in heaven.’^ (Mat. VI. 9.) Thus is the question answered, “What is God to us !” He is our Creator and our Father. God is everything to us ; He is our first beginning and our last end. All that we have and all that we hope for is from Him. And lest His majesty should strike us dumb with fear, and hinder our free converse with Him, He stoops down and tells the inspired writer to ask us, “Is not He thy father, that hath possessed thee, and made thee, and created thee ?” (Deuter. XXXII. 6.)
Oh, love and honour your Father, Who is in heaven, lest the complaint of His Holy Spirit apply to you, “If I, then, be a Father, where is my honour. And if I be a master, where is my fear?” (mlalach. I. 6.) There are masters in this world, and their servants dare not approach them in any other capacity than that of servants whose duty is trembling obedience. Our Lord and Master,Whose will is obeyed in heaven. Who rules on earth and is feared in hell, wishes us to approach Him, and to call Him what He really is,OurFather. What a privilege!
If God be our Creator, then we are His creatures if He be our Father, then we are His children. We are His creatures, the work of His hands: ^’Thy hands have made me and fashioned me.” (JobX.8.) We are not only made by His hands, but we are still, even now, in His hands ; and to show us our duty as creatures. He asks, ^ ‘Shall the clay boast against him that fashioned it?” (Isai. XLV. 9.) Yes, even as the inanimate clay is shaped, now in one way and now in another, as it is destined now to one use, now to another, even so should our free will be pliant to the will of God so much so, that we have nothing else to do. So
thought the prophetJonas. When asked who he was, whence he came and whither he was going, he answered, ”I am a Hebrew, and I fear the Lord, the God of heaven.” (Jon. I. 9.) To fear God, and to fear him with a filial fear is our duty. With a filial fear, for we must never forget that we are His children. Oh, what a happiness to be called, and to be, a child of God! You may be l)00r, looked down upon, cast off by the great ones of this world, but you are not cast off by God. In the greatest poverty, in the lowest degradation He acknowledges you as His own. !N’ay more, your poverty is of itself a title to His special favour, for
has He not said, ‘ ‘Blessed are the poor in spirit, for theirs is the kingdom of heaven ? ” (3Iatth.V.3.) But if we enjoy the privilege of children, we must not forget the duties which such a privilege involves. A child must love and obey his father. Let not your Heavenly Father inquire of you complainingly, “If, then, I be a Father, where is my honour?” (Malach. I. 6.)
But besides being God’s creatures, His children, we are His by another title : He has redeemed us. We had forfeited our rights as children, the title He had given us to a heavenly heritage, and the Son of God came to undo the work of sin. Oh what a history of love and suffering is contained in this simple statement! ”What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visits him?” (Ps. VIII. 5.) What is man, that God should annihilate Himself for him, taking the form of a servant? What is man, that God should love him to the end, even to the extreme of dying for him.
We are, then, God’s creatures, the work of His hands. His property. We are His children, His redeemed children, ”bought with a great price.” (I. Cor. VI. 20.) It follows then, as a clear consequence, that we should love And serve Him, that we should live for Him, “in holiness and justice before Him, all our days.” (Luke I.75.)
Our duty towards God, then, is : first, to know Him ; that is, to learn of Him, to learn what He has revealed, what He wishes us to know about A child must love and obey his father. Let not your Heavenly Father inquire of you complainingly, ‘^If, then, I be a Father, where is my honour?” (Malach. I. 6.)
But besides being God’s creatures, His children, we are His by another title : He has redeemed us. We had forfeited our rights as children, the title He had given us to a heavenly heritage, and the Son of God came to undo the work of sin. Oh what a history of love and suffering is contained in this simple statement! ”What is man, that Thou art mindful of him, or the son of man, that Thou visits him?” (Ps. VIII. 5.) What is man, that God should annihilate Himself for him, taking the form of a servant? What is man, that God should love him to the end, even to the extreme of dying for him.
We are, then, God’s creatures, the work of His hands. His property. We are His children, His redeemed children, ”bought with a great price.” (I. Cor. VI. 20.) It follows then, as a clear con- sequence, that we should love And serve Him, that we should live for Him, “in holiness and justice before Him, all our days.” (LukeI.75.)
Our duty towards God, then, is : first, to know Him ; that is, to learn of Him, to learn what He has revealed, what He wishes us to know about
Afternoon Conference. Y.On Self-Knowledge.
Strange as it may seem, a great many people go through life with no effort to obtain a correct know- ledge of themselves. They are contented with general and vague impressions concerning their state, and if they have more than this, it is merely such accidental information as the events of life force upon them. ‘Now, whoever would arrive at perfection, must thoroughly know himself, and only he knows himself, who has a clear and distinct insight into the state of his soul, so as to be well aware of the particular passions which most endanger his salvation, and fully convinced of the various faults and imperfections which reign within him. Such self-knowledge is justly regarded as the first requisite for a true conversion, because it shows us our secret faults. That we have such is a fact which we are all ready to confess in general terms, though few like calmly and practically to own it when reduced to particulars.
The most ready method of convincing ourselves of the existence in us of faults unknown to our- selves, is to consider how plainly we see the faults of others. At first sight, there is, of course, no reason for supposing that we differ materially from those around us ; and if we see sins in them which they do not see, it is a presumption that they have own discoveries about ourselves, which it would surprise us to hear. For instance : How apt is an angry man to fancy that he has the command of himself ! The very charge of being angry, if brought against him, will anger him more ; and in the height of his discomfiture he will profess himself able to reason and judge with clearness and im- partiality. Now, it may be his turn another day, for what we know, to witness the same failing in us ; or, if we are not naturally inclined to violent passion, still at least we may be subject to other sins, equally unknown to ourselves, and equally known to him as his anger was to us. But let us say, for the sake of argument, that no human being sees in us sins of which we are not aware ourselves why should man’s accidental knowledge of us limit the extent of our imperfections? If all the world speak well of us, ‘after all there is a Judge Who searches the hearts : He knows our real state.
Have we earnestly besought Him to teach us the knowledge of our own hearts? If we have not, that very omission is a presumption against us. Though our praise were throughout the Church, we may be sure He sees sins without number in us, of which we have no idea. If a man sees so much evil in human nature, what must God see? Not acts alone of sin does He set down against us daily, but thoughts of the heart too. The stirrings of pride and vanity, covetousness, impurity, discontent, resentment, succeed each other through the day in momentary emotions, and are known to Him. We know them not, but how much does it concern us to know Them.
This consideration is suggested by the first view of the subject. Now reflect upon the actual dis- closures of our hidden weakness, which accidents
occasion. Peter followed Christ boldly, and suspected not his own heart till it betrayed him in the hour of temptation, and led him to deny his Lord. The warning to be deduced from this is, never to think we have a due knowledge of ourselves till we have been exposed to various kinds of temptation, and tried on every side. Integrity on one side of our character is no voucher for integrity on another. We cannot tell how we should act if brought under temptations different from those we have hitherto experienced. This thought should keep us humble. We are sinners, but we do not know how great. He alone knows Who died for our sins.
Thus much, then, we cannot but allow, that we do not know ourselves in those respects in which we have not been tried. But farther than this: what if we do not know ourselves even where we have been tried and found faithful? It is a re- markable circumstance, which has often been observed, that if we look to some of the most eminent saints of Scripture, we shall find their
recorded errors in those parts of their duty, in which each had had most trial, and generally showed obedience most perfect. Faithful Abraham, through want of faith, denied his wife.
Moses, the meekest of men, was excluded from the land of promise for a passionate word.Solomon was seduced to bow down to idols. Barnabas, again, the ”son of consolation”, had a sharp contention with Paul. — If, then, men who knew themselves better than we doubtless know our- selves, had so many hidden infirmities about them,, even in those parts of their character which were most free from blame, what are we to think of our- selves? And if our very virtues be defiled with imperfection, what must be the unknown multi- plied circumstances of evil which aggravate the guilt of our sins’? This is a third presumption against us.
Think of this too : No one begins to examine himself, and to pray to know himself, but he finds within him an abundance of faults, which before were either entirely, or almost entirely unknown to him. That this is so, we learn from the written lives of good men, and our own experience of others. And hence it is that the best men are ever the most humble, for, having a higher standard of excellence in their minds than others have, and knowing themselves better, they see somewhat of the breadth and depth of their own sinful nature, and are shocked and frightened at themselves. The generality of men cannot understand this ; and if at times the habitual self-condemnation of religious men breaks out into words, they think it arises from affectation, or from a strange, distempered state of mind, or from accidental melancholy or disquiet. Whereas the confession of a good man against himself is really a witness against all thoughtless persons who hear it, and a call on them to examine their own hearts. Doubtless, the more we examine ourselves, the more imperfect and ignorant shall we find ourselves to be.
Still, the full manifestation of our secret faults is reserved for another world. And at the last day, who can tell the affright and horror of a man who lived to himself on earth, indulging his own evil will, following his own chance notions of truth and falsehood, shunning the cross and the reproach of Christ, when his eyes are at length opened before the throne of God ! It is a serious question, then, for us to entertain, whether we are not now living a life of self-deceit, and thinking far more comfortably of our spiritual state than we have a right to do.
Self-knowledge does not come as a matter of course. It implies an effort and a work. As well may we suppose that the knowledge of the languages comes by nature, as that acquaintance with our own heart is natural. The very effort of steadily reflecting is itself painful to many; not to speak of the difficulties of reflecting correctly. To ask ourselves why we do this or that, to take account of the principles which govern us ; to see whether we act for conscience’ sake or from some lower inducement is painful to us. We are busy, and what leisure time we have we readily devote to a less severe and wearisome employment.
And then comes in our self-love. We hope the best. This saves us the trouble of examining. Self-love answers for our safety. We think it sufficient caution to allow for certain possible un- known faults at the utmost, and to take them into the reckoning when we balance our account with our conscience : whereas, if the truth were known to us, we should find we had nothing but debts, and those greater than we can conceive, and ever increasing.
And. this favourable judgment of ourselves will especially prevail if we have the misfortune to have uninterrupted health and high spirits. Health of body and mind is a great blessing, if we can bear it ; but unless chastened by watchings and fasting (II. Cor. XI. 27.), it will commonly seduce a man into the notion that he is much better than he really is. When a man’s spirits are high he is pleased with everything, and with himself especially. He can act with vigour and promptness, and lie mistakes this mere constitutional energy for spiritual strength. He is cheerful and contented, and he mistakes this for spiritual peace. In short, he is in a dream, from which nothing could have saved him except deep humility, and nothing will ordinarily rouse him except sharp affliction.
Next ,we must consider the force of habit. Con- science at first warns us against sin ; but if we disregard it, it soon ceases to upbraid us ; and thus sins once known become secret sins. It seems then, and this is a startling reflection, that the more guilty we are, the less we know it; for the oftener we sin, the less we are distressed at it. Do we not, on reflection, recollect instances in our experiences of ourselves, of gradually forgetting things to be wrong, which once shocked us? such is the force of habit. By it, for instance, we Jive in self-indulgent habits, eat and drink more than is right much less do we think of simplicity of manners and abstinence as religious duties. So again, the duty of stated private prayer. Xt first it is omitted with compunction, but soon with indifference. But it is not less a sin, because we do not feel it to be such. Habit has made it a secret sin.
To the force of habit must be added that of custom. Every age has its wrong ways ; and these have such influences that even good men are unconsciously misled by them. The most religious persons, unless they are specially watchful, will feel the sway of the fashion of their age, and suffer from it. Yet their ignorance of the mischief does not change the nature of their sin ; sin it is still, only custom makes it a secret sin.
These remarks may impress upon us the difficulty of knowing ourselves aright, and the consequent danger to which we are exposed of speaking peace to our souls when there is no peace. Without self-knowledge we have no root in ourselves personally ; we may endure for a time, but under temptation or affliction our virtue will not last. To think of these things and to be alarmed is the first step towards safety. To be at ease is to be unsafe.
We must know what the evil of a sin is hereafter, if we do not learn it here.
God give us the grace to choose the pain of present repentance, before the wrath to come.
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