Trinity Sunday. CREATOR, Saviour, strengthening Guide, Help us each hour, with steadier eye The blessed Angels look and long Eternal One, Almighty Trine! By all the grace Thy heavens still hide, "And one cried unto another, and said, Holy, holy, holy, is the Lord of hosts!"-Is. vi. 3. EVERY Lord's day is a day of rest, but this, perhaps, more than all. It commemorates, not an act of God, however gracious and glorious, but His own unspeakable perfections and adorable mysteriousness. It is a day especially sacred to peace. Our Lord left His peace with us when He went "Peace I leave with you; My peace I give away: unto you; not as the world giveth, give I unto you;" and He said He would send them a Comforter, Who should give them peace. Last week we commemorated that Comforter's coming; and to-day we commemorate in an especial way His great gift, in that great doctrine which is its emblem and its means. "These things have I spoken unto you, that in Me ye might have peace; in the world ye shall have tribulation" (John xvi. 33). Christ here says, that instead of this world's troubles, He gives His disciples peace; and accordingly, in to-day's Collect, we pray that we may be kept in the faith of the Eternal Trinity in Unity, and be "defended from all adversities;" for in keeping that faith we are kept from trouble. Hence, too, in the blessing which Moses told the priests to pronounce over the children of Israel, God's name is put upon them, and that three times, in order to bless and keep them, to make His face shine on them, to give them peace. And hence, again, in our own solemn form of blessing, with which we end our public service, we impart to the people "the peace of God, which passeth all understanding," and "the blessing of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost." God is the God of peace, and in giving us peace He does but give Himself, He does but manifest Himself to us; for His Presence is peace. Hence our Lord, in the same discourse in which C C He promised His disciples peace, promised also that "He would come and manifest Himself unto them," that "He and His Father would come to them, and make Their abode with them" (John xiv. 21, 23). Peace is His everlasting state; in this world of space and time He has wrought and acted; but from everlasting it was not so. For six days He wrought, and then He rested according to that rest which was His eternal state; yet not so rested as not in one sense to work hitherto, in mercy and in judgment towards that world which He had created. And more especially, when He sent His onlybegotten Son into the world, and that most gracious and all-pitiful Son, our Lord, condescended to come to us, both He and His Father wrought with a mighty hand; and They vouchsafed the Holy Ghost the Comforter, and He also wrought wonderfully, and works hitherto. Certainly the whole economy of redemption is a series of great and continued works; but still they all tend to rest and peace, as at the first. They began out of rest, and they end in rest. They end in that eternal state out of which they began. For the last six months we have been tracing the history of redemption in our sacred services. First, we commemorated the approach of Christ, in the weeks of Advent; then His birth, of the blessed Mary, at Christmas; then His circumcision; His manifestation to the wise men; His baptism and beginning of miracles; His presentation in the temple; His fasting and temptation in the wilderness, in Lent; His agony in the garden; His betrayal; His mocking and scourging; His Cross and Passion; His Burial; His Resurrection; His forty days' converse with His disciples after it; then His Ascension; and lastly, the coming of the Holy Ghost in His place to remain with the Church unto the end,-unto the end of the world; for so long is the Almighty Comforter to remain with us. And thus, in commemorating the Spirit's gracious office during the past week, we were brought, in our series of representations, to the end of all things; and now what is left but to commemorate what will follow after the end?the return of the everlasting reign of God, the infinite peace and blissful perfection of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Ghost. He, then, is the subject of this day's celebration, the God of love, of holiness, of blessedness; in Whose Presence is fulness of joy and pleasures for evermore; Who is what He ever was, and has brought us sinners to that which He ever was. He blesses us by making us partakers of Himself, through the Son, by the Spirit; and He so works in His temporal dispensations that He may bring us to that which is eternal. And hence in Scripture the promises of eternity and security go together; for where time is not, there change also is away. "The eternal God is thy refuge," says Moses, before his death, and "underneath are the everlasting arms: and He shall thrust out the enemy from before thee; and shall say, Destroy them. Israel then shall dwell in safety alone." And again, "Thou wilt keep him in perfect peace, whose mind is stayed on Thee, because he trusteth in Thee. Trust ye in the Lord for ever; for in the Lord Jehovah is everlasting strength." And again, "Thus saith the High and Lofty One that inhabiteth eternity. ... I dwell in the high and holy place, with him also that is of a contrite and humble spirit, to revive the spirit of the humble, and to revive the heart of the contrite ones. I create the fruit of the lips; peace, peace to him that is far off, and to him that is near" (Deut. xxxiii. 27, 28; Is. xxvi. 3, 4; lvii. 15, 19). And, in like manner, our Lord and Saviour is prophesied of as being the "Everlasting Father, the Prince of Peace." And again, speaking more especially of what He has done for us, "The work of righteousness shall be peace; and the effect of righteousness, quietness and assurance for ever” (Is. ix. 6; xxxii. 17). As, then, we have for many weeks commemorated the economy by which righteousness was restored to us, which took place in time, so from this day forth do we bring before our minds the infinite perfections of Almighty God, and our hope hereafter of seeing and enjoying them. Hitherto we have celebrated His great works; henceforth we magnify Himself. For twenty-five weeks we represent in figure what is to be hereafter. We enter into our rest, by entering in with Him, Who, having wrought and suffered, has opened the kingdom of heaven to all believers. For half a year we stand still, as if occupied only in adoring Him, and with the Seraphim in the text, crying, "Holy, holy, holy," continually. All God's providences, all God's dealings with us, all His judgments, mercies, warnings, deliver |