00:22Let us pray.
00:50Let us pray.
00:54And through your mercy be introduced as an adopted son into the heavenly inheritance.
01:31Let us pray.
01:38Let us pray.
01:49Let us pray.
02:01Let us pray.
02:10Let us pray.
02:15Let us pray.
02:18Praise, honour and glory be to you, O Christ, who when bowed down by the weight of your
02:23cross at length reached the place of punishment, where, quite exhausted, they offered you wine
02:31mingled with gall.
02:34May you extinguish in me all gluttonous and carnal desire, giving me grace never to consent
02:41to any impure or unlawful pleasure.
02:45But may I take my food in moderation to the glory of your name and may hunger and thirst
02:50after you alone, and find no pleasure or gladness except in you.
02:58Praise, honour and glory be to you, O Christ, who was stripped before the gaze of all people
03:03on Mount Calvary, and the soreness of your wounds being increased by the removal of your clothing.
03:11You did not refuse to undergo, for my sake, the most dreadful pain.
03:17Grant that I may love the spirit of poverty and never be disturbed by want or scarcity.
03:24Give me grace to bear patiently any difficulties or troubles in this life for the glory of your
03:30name.
03:31Strip my heart of every vain fancy and affection, and grant me a holy intent with pious desires,
03:40renewing within me daily a most pure love for yourself.
03:46Praise, honour and glory be to you, O Christ, who gave himself up to be extended naked upon
03:52the wood of the cross and the joints of your most holy limbs to be wrenched apart, most cruelly
03:59nailed and fastened thereto.
04:03Then for my sake you suffered your most delicate hands and feet to be most deeply wounded.
04:11Grant, O Lord, that I might remember with a faithful and grateful heart this your unspeakable
04:18charity, when you did of your own accord stretch out your hands to be bored and your feet to
04:24be pierced through.
04:26O Lord, enlarge and extend my heart by a perfect love of you, pierce it and fix it to yourself
04:34with the nail of your sweetest love, and shut up within yourself alone all my senses, all
04:40my thoughts and all my affections, Amen.
04:48O Lord, open our lips, and our mouths shall sing your praise.
04:59O be joyful in the Lord, holy land, serve the Lord with gladness, and come in all his
05:12presence with a song.
05:16Be sure that the Lord is in the Lord of the Lord, he is God.
05:46Be thankful unto him and speak to the Lord of his name.
05:55For the Lord is gracious, his mercy is everlasting,
06:04and his truth endureth from generation to generation.
06:17Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost,
06:29as it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be world without end.
06:46Amen.
06:59Amen.
07:08Amen.
07:10Amen.
07:15Amen.
07:41Amen.
07:44Amen.
07:55Amen.
07:57Amen.
07:57Amen.
07:58Amen.
07:58Amen.
07:59Amen.
12:49The Marriage of Christ is the mystery of the Church and it belongs to the initiated.
12:56To those who stand in the outer circle of thought it is a word and a fable.
13:01To those who are within it, it is the simplest and grandest of all possible realities.
13:10Firstly, consider how this union, of which all marriage is the intended allegory,
13:16actually takes place between him and us.
13:21The first mover is, as it ought to be, the Lord Jesus Christ.
13:26The wife does not seek her husband, but the husband seeks his wife.
13:32Gradually, by his own sweet constraints and the outgoings of his spirit to us, we learn to love him.
13:40And then come the betrothal of a heart made willing, the moving of holy desires and of sacred union.
13:48And then the contract, that indissoluble contract which is between Christ and the believer, strong as admiral.
13:59Secondly, we should note the conditions of the union.
14:03In the presence of witnesses, the covenant of marriage must be ratified.
14:10And so here, angels and the church look on, when Christ, before the whole universe,
14:16confesses you and you will confess to be his forever.
14:24And you, on your part, must confess him before your brother Christian,
14:28before the world, before angels and before all them.
14:33The mutual confession is the basis of the stipulation.
14:42Thirdly, it must be with common consent.
14:46Free as the wind was his choice of you,
14:49absolute and explicit must be your surrender to him.
14:53No compulsion, no outside circumstance,
14:57no secondary motive will avail.
14:59It must be your own independent, unbiased will,
15:03the full accord of your whole heart.
15:06It is a compact of perfect affection,
15:09absolute duty and untiring allegiance.
15:14The soul of all attachment to you is Christ.
15:18It is a relation of the most exquisite fondness,
15:22but it is a relation of the most unqualified obedience.
15:29Our Lord's parable has fulfilled itself again and again over history
15:33and will fulfill itself as long as foolish and rebellious people
15:37continue to exist on earth.
15:40This is one of the laws of the kingdom of heaven.
15:43It must be so,
15:44for it arises by necessity out of the character of Christ,
15:49the King of heaven.
15:51Infinite bounty and generosity.
15:54But if that bounty be despised and insulted or still more,
15:59if it be outraged by the wanton tyranny or cruelty,
16:03then for the benefit of the rest of mankind,
16:07awful severity.
16:10So it is and so it must be,
16:12simply because God is good.
16:17The King in the parable was very angry,
16:20as indeed he had the right to be.
16:24Let us lay that to heart and tremble,
16:27from the very worst of us all to the very best of us all.
16:31There is anger in God,
16:33there is indignation in God.
16:36An awful thought and yet a blessed thought.
16:40Under God's anger or indeed under God's love,
16:44we must be,
16:45whether we will or not.
16:47We cannot flee from his presence.
16:49We cannot go from his spirit.
16:52If we are loving,
16:54and so rise up to heaven,
16:56God is there in love.
16:57If we are cruel and wrathful,
16:59and so go down to heaven,
17:01God is there also in wrath.
17:04With the clean he will be clean.
17:07With the froward he will be froward.
17:10On us and us alone it depends
17:13on whether we shall live under God's anger,
17:15or live under God's love.
17:23We pride ourselves on our superior light
17:25and our improved civilisation,
17:28and look down upon the old Roman Catholic missionaries
17:31who converted our forefathers
17:33from heathendom in the Middle Ages.
17:37These men often made mistakes,
17:40and often worse than mistakes,
17:42for they were but men.
17:44But if they had not had a deep and sound belief
17:46that they were in the kingdom of God,
17:48the kingdom of heaven,
17:50and that they and all men
17:51must obey the laws of the kingdom of heaven,
17:54and that the first law of it
17:55was that wrongdoing would be punished,
17:58and rightdoing rewarded
17:59in this life every day,
18:03and all day long,
18:06as sure as Christ the living Lord
18:07reigned in righteousness over the earth.
18:11If they had not believed that
18:13and acted upon it,
18:14we would probably still be heathen
18:16to this very day.
18:19Let us lay this to our hearts
18:21with seriousness and godly fear,
18:24for so we shall look up
18:25with reverence and yet with hope
18:27to Christ the ascended King,
18:29to whom all power is given
18:31on heaven and in earth.
18:37Jesus gave us the parable
18:39of the wedding feast
18:40to illustrate the coming
18:42of the kingdom of heaven.
18:44It was something that was long
18:46in the planning
18:46as anyone who has ever
18:48organised a wedding can understand.
18:51In this case, though,
18:52it had just been planned,
18:54it had been planned
18:55since the expulsion
18:56from the Garden of Eden.
18:59Just as a father
19:00who has a daughter
19:01knows that one day
19:02he will have a wedding
19:03to provide for,
19:05God knows that one day
19:06his children will be coming home
19:08from their exile on earth.
19:11As the father
19:12has no knowledge
19:13until nearer the time
19:15of the date and the place,
19:16so we have no idea
19:18of the time either,
19:19of the time
19:20of the coming
19:21of the kingdom of heaven,
19:23of God's banquet,
19:24the banquet that Isaiah
19:26told us of.
19:29God had started
19:30by calling the children
19:31of Israel, the Jews,
19:33but they had strayed
19:34and no longer cared much
19:35for his ways.
19:38Those who continued
19:39to express an interest
19:40in God
19:41tended to do so
19:42in perverse
19:43and disobedient ways,
19:45believing they worshipped
19:47and pleased him
19:47through their worship
19:48of idols created
19:49for that purpose.
19:51We can refer to
19:521 Kings 12, 28
19:53for an example.
19:56Even though this was
19:57in flagrant disobedience
19:58of the law,
20:00Deuteronomy 12,
20:03so God opened up
20:04the possibility
20:05of salvation
20:06to the world
20:06at large,
20:07not to the select
20:08invitees,
20:09but to the ordinary
20:10people in the streets.
20:14We have been called
20:16to the wedding feast,
20:18but are we going?
20:20Surely we have
20:21somewhere else to go,
20:22some other commitment.
20:25Do we not have
20:26our own idols
20:27that we worship?
20:28A business to run?
20:30A young wife
20:31and children, perhaps?
20:34Perhaps we ought
20:35to decline
20:36our Lord's
20:37gracious invitation
20:38and suggest
20:39he invite
20:40someone else
20:40in our place.
20:46Let us pray.
20:50O God,
20:51whose never-failing
20:52providence
20:52orders all things,
20:54both in heaven
20:54and on earth,
20:56we humbly
20:57beseech you
20:58to put away
20:59from us
20:59all hurtful things
21:01and to give us
21:02those things
21:03which are profitable
21:04for us.
21:06Through Jesus Christ,
21:07our Lord.
21:09Amen.
21:14May the Lord
21:15bless us
21:16and keep us
21:17from all evil,
21:19bringing us
21:19to everlasting life.
21:22Amen.
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