Simple, honest, excellent men! raised up by Providence for wonderful ends by wonderful means! Your lives, unadorned as they are, and comprehended in a few plain words, are yet alone among the lives of men; alone, in the varieties and contrasts of their fortunes; alone, in the multitude and importance of their consequences. We should be senseless, if we did not perceive the influence which you have exerted on the character and opinions of mankind. We should be thankless, if we did not acknowledge the benefits of that influence, and bless God that we live to know and feel them. And we humbly pray to God, the universal Father, the Source of all excellence and truth, that our fidelity to our common Master may be like yours; that our perseverance in executing his commands may be like yours; and that like yours may be our courage and constancy, if we should ever be called on to sacrifice comfort, worldly consideration, or life itself, to duty, conscience, and faith. COLLECTS AND HYMNS. SAINT ANDREW'S DAY. NOVEMBER 30. COLLECT. Almighty God, who didst give such grace unto thy holy, apostle Saint Andrew, that he readily obeyed the calling of thy Son Jesus Christ, and followed him without delay; grant unto us all, that we, being called by thy holy word, may forthwith give up ourselves obediently to fulfil thy holy commandments, through the same Jesus Christ our Lord. Amen. HYMN. Who leads the glorious company, First on the roll of duty see The holy ANDREW stand. He first the promised Saviour sought And whom he found, to others taught, And he, among the first, the call "Fisher of men," by night, by day, His ready toils he set ; Nor scrupled he to yield his breath, And die, with willing mind, the death. And now his name with service meet, And bids the Church prepare to greet BP. MANT. SAINT THOMAS'S DAY. DECEMBER 21. COLLECT. Almighty and everlasting God, who for the more confirmation of the faith didst suffer thy holy apostle Thomas to be doubtful in thy Son's resurrection; grant us so perfectly, and without all doubt to believe in thy Son Jesus Christ, that our faith in thy sight may never be reproved. Hear us, O Lord, through the same Jesus Christ, in whose name we ascribe unto thee all honor and glory, now and for evermore. Amen. HYMN. I hear the glorious Sufferer tell, Attempts his triumphs in a song; "How has the serpent lost his sting, and where 's thy victory, death?" |