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Article PROVINCIAL ← Page 10 of 36 →
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Provincial
Chester , and incumhent of St . Maurice . The choral service was most efficiently performed under the direction of Bro . Snary , a member of the choir of t ^ e minster , we believe . Boyce ! s anthem , "I have surely huilt Thee an house io dwell in , '' was most effective . The Bev . Bro . George Bayniond Portal , P . Prov . G . S . W ^ , Qxon , who undertook the duties of Prov . Grand Chaplain , at the request of the Prov . G . M . ( Bro Haverfield , the Prov . GL Chapi ^ being uiiable to attend ) , ascended the pulpit , and delivered , in his accustomed energetic manner , a discourse from St . Matthew
xxii . 35-40 : — " Then one of them , which was a lawyer , asked Him a question , tempting Him , . and * saying Master , which is the great commandment in the law ? Jesus said unto him , Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and and with all thy soul , and with all thy , mind : this is the first and great commandment . And the second is like unto it , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyselt On these two co mmaiidments hau The Bev . Brother said : — " Amid all the wide fields which both art and nature
open out for our investigation , nothing , perhaps , affords a more varied subj eat for observation , than 4 oes the difference which exists in the characters of men . We caimot fail tp have noiaced it ourselves . And as this is true of those larger classes of good and & ad , iuio w ^ may be roughly divided , so it is no less true if we look into the difi ^ i ^ nt yices and vktues wjbich are the prevailing habit of the individuals of wiich they are composed . ^ Every ouan hashis iavourrte vke - ^ -what - Scripture . calls his Resetting ; sin ,--ras most men have their favourite
virtues , The man mho most prides himself upon his honesty , will not unfrequently be sordid and ungenerous ; while the liberal-hearted and open-handed are often the slaves of their own passions and evil inclinations . Nothing is more common , than ^ to see men set up som e one virtue as their guiding star , of which they never lose sight ; while they seem to think little of falling away in other directions from the straight path . It is wonderful how inconsistent we all are . in this respecthow impossible it is to make a man ' s excellence upou one point any sure ground
of confidence that he will not be found wanting in another . And so we have associations of persons who are pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drinksdoubtless a most excellent resolve , but hardly more important than total abstinence from lying or dishonesty . Now our blessed Lord , in the passage ^ before us , shows us how to avoid this danger , to which we are so prone , of exalting certain virtues or vices at the expense of the rest . He shows us the foundation upon which our superstructure of conduct must be built up , if it is ever to be perfect
in all its parts and honourable to the builder . Though the lawyer , whose question drew forth the answer before us , hoped to entrap our Lord into an unguarded reply , it might have been asked by many a one honestly desirous of framing his conduct aright—who felt that to keep all the commandments of God was a hard task , and accordingly was anxious to know which he should first aim at obeying , so as to please God the most . Gur Lord , in reply , gives us the key to the observance , not of one commandment , hut of all . The whole of the requirements contained in Holy Scripture are comprised , He says , in this—the love of God ,
and the love of our neighbour . Now this , my Brethren , may seem to be a very small and easy matter ; and we may scarcely be able to understand , at first sight , how it is that , if we fulfil these two , we fulfil all God ' s commandments ; and yet so it is . The perfect love of God involves the entire submission of our whole will and heart to Him ; and that we think of nothing so perseveringly—long for nothing so constantly- —as how to please Him . We no longer know what it is to nave a will or wish of our own . Ail we think of is , what would He have us do ? And so as regards our neighbour ; it is clear that if , in place of thinking first and
chiefly of ourselves and our own interests , we think chiefly , in all our dealings with others , of how we can do them good- —how we would wish them to act towards us under similar circumstances , , there will be no room or opportunity for the breach of any of those commandments which concern our conduct towards our fellow- * nan . Now , then , my Brethren , having seen what is the perfect standard which God requires us to set before ourselves , as distinguished from the partial and imperfect one which most men are so a < pt to adopt , let us each one Mk our own conscience how far have we acted up to this : and let us see how
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Provincial
Chester , and incumhent of St . Maurice . The choral service was most efficiently performed under the direction of Bro . Snary , a member of the choir of t ^ e minster , we believe . Boyce ! s anthem , "I have surely huilt Thee an house io dwell in , '' was most effective . The Bev . Bro . George Bayniond Portal , P . Prov . G . S . W ^ , Qxon , who undertook the duties of Prov . Grand Chaplain , at the request of the Prov . G . M . ( Bro Haverfield , the Prov . GL Chapi ^ being uiiable to attend ) , ascended the pulpit , and delivered , in his accustomed energetic manner , a discourse from St . Matthew
xxii . 35-40 : — " Then one of them , which was a lawyer , asked Him a question , tempting Him , . and * saying Master , which is the great commandment in the law ? Jesus said unto him , Thou shalt love the Lord thy God with all thy heart , and and with all thy soul , and with all thy , mind : this is the first and great commandment . And the second is like unto it , Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyselt On these two co mmaiidments hau The Bev . Brother said : — " Amid all the wide fields which both art and nature
open out for our investigation , nothing , perhaps , affords a more varied subj eat for observation , than 4 oes the difference which exists in the characters of men . We caimot fail tp have noiaced it ourselves . And as this is true of those larger classes of good and & ad , iuio w ^ may be roughly divided , so it is no less true if we look into the difi ^ i ^ nt yices and vktues wjbich are the prevailing habit of the individuals of wiich they are composed . ^ Every ouan hashis iavourrte vke - ^ -what - Scripture . calls his Resetting ; sin ,--ras most men have their favourite
virtues , The man mho most prides himself upon his honesty , will not unfrequently be sordid and ungenerous ; while the liberal-hearted and open-handed are often the slaves of their own passions and evil inclinations . Nothing is more common , than ^ to see men set up som e one virtue as their guiding star , of which they never lose sight ; while they seem to think little of falling away in other directions from the straight path . It is wonderful how inconsistent we all are . in this respecthow impossible it is to make a man ' s excellence upou one point any sure ground
of confidence that he will not be found wanting in another . And so we have associations of persons who are pledged to total abstinence from intoxicating drinksdoubtless a most excellent resolve , but hardly more important than total abstinence from lying or dishonesty . Now our blessed Lord , in the passage ^ before us , shows us how to avoid this danger , to which we are so prone , of exalting certain virtues or vices at the expense of the rest . He shows us the foundation upon which our superstructure of conduct must be built up , if it is ever to be perfect
in all its parts and honourable to the builder . Though the lawyer , whose question drew forth the answer before us , hoped to entrap our Lord into an unguarded reply , it might have been asked by many a one honestly desirous of framing his conduct aright—who felt that to keep all the commandments of God was a hard task , and accordingly was anxious to know which he should first aim at obeying , so as to please God the most . Gur Lord , in reply , gives us the key to the observance , not of one commandment , hut of all . The whole of the requirements contained in Holy Scripture are comprised , He says , in this—the love of God ,
and the love of our neighbour . Now this , my Brethren , may seem to be a very small and easy matter ; and we may scarcely be able to understand , at first sight , how it is that , if we fulfil these two , we fulfil all God ' s commandments ; and yet so it is . The perfect love of God involves the entire submission of our whole will and heart to Him ; and that we think of nothing so perseveringly—long for nothing so constantly- —as how to please Him . We no longer know what it is to nave a will or wish of our own . Ail we think of is , what would He have us do ? And so as regards our neighbour ; it is clear that if , in place of thinking first and
chiefly of ourselves and our own interests , we think chiefly , in all our dealings with others , of how we can do them good- —how we would wish them to act towards us under similar circumstances , , there will be no room or opportunity for the breach of any of those commandments which concern our conduct towards our fellow- * nan . Now , then , my Brethren , having seen what is the perfect standard which God requires us to set before ourselves , as distinguished from the partial and imperfect one which most men are so a < pt to adopt , let us each one Mk our own conscience how far have we acted up to this : and let us see how