June 19
Daily Gleanings of the Saintly LifeWednesday of the Fourth Week after Easter
Live according to God in the Spirit. 1 S. PETER iv. 6.
THE one chief lesson which the Church would inculcate on us this week, I think, is this, that if we would live in the Spirit, would wait and pray for and seek His guidance, it will bring us more and more to the love of Christ, as revealed to us so fully in the Gospels. There we read of Him; we hear Him, as it were, and see Him; He is manifested to us as the Son of Man, our Example, our Advocate, the Sacrifice for us. In His parables, in His miracles of mercy, and His daily life, we have Him, as it were, before us; it is to the love of Him, and obedience to Him, to His likeness, the Holy Spirit must conform our unruly wills and affections. The Spirit is One with the Incarnate Son of God. The unity of the Godhead, the Three Persons in One God, is not a barren truth, the devout consideration of it promotes unity in us. Our Lord's prayer for Christians to the Father is, "that they may be one, as We are one." All love, all harmony, all union, worthy of the name, is in the knowledge of the Three Persons and One God.
O Thou, Who hidden art in Thine own light, Blessed, for ever blessed Trinity, We Thy great Name confess, And trembling seek to know!
O Father, holiest of most holy Thou! Thou God of very God, eternal Son! And Thou, in chain of love, Great Spirit, binding all!
The Father doth Himself behold entire, From Him the offspring is coeval born; And from both, in life-giving love, God doth Himself proceed.