Penitential Prayer. August 27.
Faith in God it is which has made the fifty-first Psalm the model of all true penitence for evermore. Penitential prayers in all ages have too often wanted faith in God, and therefore have been too often prayers to avert punishment. This, this—the model of all true penitent prayers—is that of a man who is to be punished, and is content to take his punishment, knowing that he deserves it, and far more besides.
Sermons on David. 1866.
A Real Presence. August 28.
Believe the Holy Communion is the sign of Christ’s perpetual presence; that when you kneel to receive the bread and wine, Christ is as near you—spiritually, indeed, and invisibly, but really and truly as near you as those who are kneeling by your side.
And if it be so with Christ, then is it so with those who are Christ’s, with those whom we love. . . . Surely, like Christ, they may come and go even now, though unseen. Like Christ they may breathe upon our restless hearts and say, “Peace be unto you,” and not in vain. For what they did for us when they were on earth they can more fully do now that they are in heaven.
All Saints’ Day Sermons. 1862.
A Living God. August 29.
Man would never have even dreamed of a Living God had not that Living God been a reality, who did not leave the creature to find his Creator, but stooped from heaven, at the very beginning of our race, to find His creature.
Sermons on David. 1866.